It has begun.

I'm going to start putting pages up as I finish them.

6 MONTHS LATER...  I wish I could say that chapter four was done and I'm getting ready to put it online. But that would be lying, as I have yet to even move past the initial sketching of the first page. Yup. That's really all I've got pertaining to the subject. Expect more in another six months.

Alright. Haven't posted anything in three months, but now I'm going to.

Boom. Red. 3D.

Once again via the amazing 3D printing service Shapeways, I've created a statue of Red. This time in full color and 1/10th scale.

Nextly, Chapter 3 is now complete and I'm in the proccess of correcting any little flaws and prepping it for a test printing. Also on the subject of the book (which is really the whole point of this), there is a good chance that some time in the near future, I may possibly put up all of chapter one/ and or 1-3 for free online and just start posting pages as I complete them, with an option of buying a printed copy of each chapter / whole book / e-book. MAYBE. 

I've also sold my first piece of DEAD / Red related art (First below). There is a print of Red the Werewolf Hunter(second below), still for sale at Escape Pod Comics, and I will be putting up two more (last two below) for sale this Sunday (and these two will be signed. On the back.) So if you're in the area stop in and buy things!

So a month or so ago, I stumbled upon Shapeways. They are a 3D printing company that can take a 3D model, and make it into a physical object. As an artist I find this incredible, because now I can create elaborate, detailed, sculptures without ever leaving my computer!. Or I could just make a mini bust of Red. That's fun too. Unfortunatley, it's not the cheapest thing to have stuff 3D printed, so this is only 3.75" tall, and hollow. Now if only I had a 3D printer at home...

The demo for chapter 3 is now up, so prepare for some robot armed goodness ( a few weeks, 12 weeks, same thing). There's about 7-8 pages left to create and chapter 3 will be complete. (Then only two more chapters and book one will be done. woo.) It's going slooooowly. I'm getting a bit bogged down with school / work / other projects / etc. but it's still getting there.

And speaking of other projects, here's a bit of concept art for "Red the Werewolf Hunter"
- A side / off-shoot story that I'll obviously have to do at some point.

So the "updating every week" thing clearly isn't happening. But have no fear! Work on the comic is still progressing at a steady (admittedly slow) rate.

Chapter three is a little over one third complete, and the demo should be available within the next few weeks.  A few new pictures have been added to the gallery. More videos have also been added to the youtube channel.  And... Well that's pretty much it as far as updates go. 

Also! Since I've been asked quite a few times if the comic is available for purchase - my response is not just yet. I'm still working out a few flaws I've been noticing (switching fonts, small errors, etc.). But hopefully, within the next year, it will be available for purchase through an online retailer such as indycomic.

And don't think that using a computer is cheating in any way. Yes it is much faster and more forgiving, but you need just as much skill to be good at it. I'm sure someone who has dedicated years of their time to learning how to use oil paints would dissagree, but everyone is entitled to their own opinions. This is the most modern means of creation, and they should embrace it, not just hold onto their archaic methods. The following video demonstrates the process of  "digital painting" with the most recent portrait of Red that I've created. Is it perfect? Not quite, and I'm sure when I create another It will be even better, but for now, this is where I'm at.

Here it is. The "machine" where I create everything to do with "DEAD". The amazing Wacom Cintiq 21ux is at the center of the display area (sadly it's not the most current Model of Cintiq, but it's still really damn amazing). I use this more than anything when creating pages or any art in general. It's the closest thing to drawing on paper you can get, without all the downfalls that paper provides. I use the Classic style pen, as it is more like an actual pen/pencil than the grip pen the Cintiq comes with.

Above the Cintiq are three more monitors. The center one is a Planar 21.5 inch optical touchscreen. This is one of my more recent purchases, and allows me to work a bit faster, because when drawing, I can just reach up and access any files or programs I need, instead of reaching for the mouse. I don't need to get out of my "drawing position". The side monitors are regular 21inch monitors (for now).  You may be thinking "Do you really need that many monitors?" - Not really. But the ability to have every program I'm using, open on a different screen - usually three or four: Photoshop or Paint Tool Sai, Windows explorer, Pandora, and Indesign or whatever else I'm using - does speed up the creation process. And, most importantly, it looks awesome. The three monitor spread is great for gaming too.

So if you take all that, add in an Epson Stylus1400 Photo printer, an Epson v33 Perfection scanner, a 2TB Fantom Greendrive, a trackball and lighted keyboard, and lots of various cables and other accessories, that's my workstation.

As of October 2nd, the second "test print" of chapter one 
and the first of chapter two have arrived.

I went with Ka-Blam digital printing for both runs.

They're cheap, but as could be expected, you get what you pay for. Page alignment, speed and overall print quality aren't the best with them. But again. They are VERY cheap. The cheapest print on demand company that I've yet to find. This makes them good for a printed proof to let me see if there's anything I missed, as well as readability. They also print at custom sizes, so it's printed at the size it's supposed to be.

For the first print run, I also got a copy from blurb. The quality of their prints is definitely better than Ka-Blam, with no visible banding in areas of solid color, and near perfect page alignment, but the price is considerably higher. Around three times more than Ka-Blam. Not to mention the inflexible pre-set sizes they print at. This makes them (at least in my opinion) impractical for use as a cheap proofing company. But really, they advertise themselves as more of a print-on-demand photography book company. At that they excel.

Blurb has also been my go-to company for producing DEAD in the e-book format. They give (for a limited time) free conversion of books made in their InDesign plugin, into fixed-format e-books. Fixed format means, the page contents stay in the same place on the page, when viewed in an e-reader such as an iPad or Kindle. This is something that is very time consuming and sort of confusing to do manually. So they're good for that too.