From the scketchbook: SHIV

Shiv

Well, that’s the last of the major characters locked-down. The work is coming thick-and-fast from Mack’s mighty pen – we’re up and running and raring to roll out issue one.

(just as soon as I’ve got this alliteration out of my system)

I know we’ve teased the launch out a bit further than even we expected, but we’ve got day-jobs, you know!

Right now, Mack’s doing his usual pencil-snapping and throwing toys out of the cot routine over this sketch, but he always does that when he locks a character. That’s the trouble with being a couple of perfectionists. He’ll get his chance to mock me when I’m tweaking dialogue right up to the last minute of a deadline, panicking over a misplaced comma, or somesuch.

So, here’s Shiv in all her finery. I wonder where she’s hiding her knife?

Coverage

We’re back!

After a much-needed break, it’s all hands on deck, nose to the grindstone and other anachronisms standing-by as we lurch headlong into the new year with the first roughs of the covers.

That’s Jian, Shiv, Jo and The Corsican gracing the fronts of Iss. 1-4.

There’s one character noticeably absent from these covers, and that’s the City of Urbn itself. Mack assures me that she’ll be there in the final versions.

And for more of Shiv, here’s some early costume notes.

Like one of those actors who has to find the right shoes before they can find the character, Mack often works from the outside-in. “Clothes make the man” and all that jazz.

Mack said “Neon Gothic.” I fired back, “Victorian Punk.” Let’s see where that leads us…

Cops & Cars

Y’see – this is what happens when you leave the artist unsupervised. I leave him on his big-rubber-tyre-swing for five minutes and the crazyness takes over.

Cops and cars, he said. Cops and cars.

Mack scares me.

First look: Kassel

Nick-nack Mack Attack!

Just the one piece this week, as our resident art-monkey is heads-down over the first pages of Urbn. So here’s a preview of someone he’s working on for Page 3:

Kassel - barman, boxer, sage. Landlord of the Köwhanga Bar, you’d be wise to make him your first port-of-call when you’re fresh out of the joint.

Kassel - concept art

How to write a comic book

(Don’t get too excited – I’m not going to tell you how to do it. Hell – I’m still trying to figure that part out)

Cast your eyes around T’Interweb and you can find all manner of sites who purport to tell you how you should be writing a comic-book. There are some who are just trying to sell you stuff and others that have the good sense to just say tell a good story and not worry about the rest.

I’m a creature of habit who’s spent far too long writing in screenplay format to get into all this “Panel 1″ business. I’ve always written with the knowledge that it’s the Director and DoP’s job to stage the action and decide the shots. For all my years spent behind the camera (as a Grip in TV) I know I’ve got an eye for a good shot, but I also know that the DoP has a better eye – that’s why I’m pushing him around on the dolly, and not the other way around.

Isn’t it the same with comics? Surely it’s the Artist who decides how the story is told visually. Can you imagine Elektra: Assassin without Sienkiewicz? Can you imagine what went through Frank Miller’s head when he had to do his dialogue re-writes on top of that crazy artwork?

The mind boggles…

First Look: Shiv

Mack is spoiling you this week, as pages tumble out of his sketchbook and onto the site. He’s been scribbling like a furious art-monkey, while battling deadlines at work – an heroic effort!

First up, is the initial character sketch for Shiv – data trafficker, pachinko addict, street kid, survivor. She’s a major player on the streets of Urbn and always seems to be around when Jian gets in trouble.

Shiv - early concept sketch

Next, the very latest in Urbn pret a porter. This season’s must-haves for the denizens of downtown.

URBN street style

And finally, the latest pencils of our ‘hero’, Jian:

Jian headshots

Jo

Full Name: Jo Li Ginet
Age: 29
Origin: City of Antica
Profession: Bounty Hunter
Weapon: Quarterstaff

Born into an ancient, noble house. Schooled in the arts and martial arts. Raised in grandeur and robbed of her inheritance. Her whole life was about the money, until she came to Urbn and found faith.

Called here by a voice on the wind, she finds herself adrift in a sea of strangely familiar faces. Ever restless, she never stops moving for fear of dying.

Since a child, she has had a preternatural ability to find lost things. Now she makes a living hunting that which would rather stay lost. Freelance to the highest bidder, loyal to no one, she scours the city looking for signs of the return of the Great Maker.

Jian

Full name: unknown
Age: unknown
Origin: Unknown
Weapon: sword

Twelve years aboard a prison ship have barely left a mark on his skin, but have left a great many scars on his mind. He returns to the City of Urbn to find that it has hardly changed, but that he is unrecognisable.

He’s certainly not the man he was twelve years ago.

He’s been away for so long that his previous life is only half-remembered – like an incomplete thought – a sentence cut-off mid flow. He feels as if his whole life was lived aboard that flying hulk of a prison ship. All that he’s left with are a few old memories, old haunts and old habits.

He was once a man of great standing and wealth and now he has nothing. He was once the greatest swordsman of his generation, but he hasn’t touched a weapon since he was snatched from the city streets and thrown in gaol.

That’s all about to change.

Aboard the prison ship, the Doctors called him “Sword 94”, but here on the streets of Urbn, he is Jian – and he has unfinished business.

Who’s got a calculator?

For all my love of ongoing serials (and I have all of Chris Clairmont’s X-titles) I’ve always been a fan of mini-series.

Global Frequency was only 12 issues long and it’s what got me back into comics after a break of nearly 10 years. Elektra: Assassin was only 8 issues and it changed the way I thought about comics forever. Blood was 4 and proved that comics are art. Joss Whedon did Those Left Behind in 3. Big Numbers only ran for 2 (a bloody tragedy) and Time² was a one-shot (nobody does crazy better than Chaykin).

So we’ve settled on 4.

There’s only one thing. One page a week, 22 pages an issue, 4 issues…

…if you’re staying, you might as well put the kettle on.