Calamity Jack: Week Zero

Here we are, the FINAL WEEK of Calamity Jack. All of the artwork is due Monday March 1st. Am I close to finish? Not as close as I'd like to be. 

The publisher, Bloomsbury, already has half of the book. They are prepping the pages, making them into printing "mechanicals" as you read this.

Unfortunately, I have the other half, and there is still a ton of work to do. In times like this, it is wise to have a gallon Zip-loc bag of candy.

I usually implement a "No Snack Rule" when I'm working at my desk. A good rule for illustrators who don't want to die young. But on the last week of a job the size of Calamity Jack, I gotta have some sugar. Here we have Peanut M&Ms, regular M&Ms, Black Twizzlers, and tiny Snickers bars. By next Monday morning, my stomach will look exactly like this photo. And hopefully, Bloomsbury will have ALL of Calamity Jack.

Rapunzel wins a Cybil Award!

(Not Actual Award)

(Actual Cybil Award--or, at least, the award I gave myself.

Look at that great lil' tractor!)

I learned over the weekend that Rapunzel's Revenge won a Cybil Award For Best Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novel. The Cybils are awarded by the children's publishing blogosphere. Thank you bloggers!

The judges said, “What made this book stand out to the judges was that it takes a well-known story and does something recognizable, but unique, creating an adventure which readers of both sexes can enjoy. Those readers will get swept up in the rawness of the emotions presented. The art is bright and leaps from the pages, but the images don’t overshadow the story or mask weaknesses in the plot. The story and images carried the weight equally, were well-paced, engaging, and generally solid.”

Nominated by Elizabeth.

See the full list of 2009 Cybil books here.

And see Shannon and Dean Hale's acceptance speech (wanton defacement of a Rapunzel's Revenge page) here. ;)

3 Steps and Color Holds

Here's a panel I posted a few months ago. Remember this one? Well, it's been through the coloring process and is now finished.I'm using one special effect here. It's called a "Color Hold." This is where the color of the actual line drawing changes. The lines on the buildings below are a gray/blue color instead of solid black. This makes them look far away, adds some atmospheric perspective. I don't use color holds very often, maybe 12-15 times in the entire book. I used a yellow color hold on the fire in the coyote sequence of Rapunzel's Revenge. 

I now have less than 16 days to finish this book! Yikes! Happy Friday the 13th and Valentine's Day!

A Building Cameo

No this isn't an example of an Ugly Jack--this one's okay, a little long in the chin maybe. This is a panel featuring a special cameo appearance by a building. Recognize it? If you do, you must live near me--this is the historic Provo Library. I did at least 75% of the drawings for CALAMITY JACK (and RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE) in a study carrel on the top floor of this building. That's a lot of long hours at the library. So this panel is to say "Thank you library, you may house snoring homeless people, and have short hours on weekends, but you are far, far cheaper than renting an office."

Twenty days left on the CALAMITY JACK marathon. It'll be tight, but the book WILL be finished by the end of this month!

Some Jacks are more handsome than others

CALAMITY JACK has 144 pages. Minus the title, copyright and front material, that leaves 140. And this time out, I actually mis-numbered a page, so there's one less. So that's 139. Each page has on average 8 panels, that's 1,152 panels. Jack appears in 2/3rds of those panels. Meaning in the book, I have drawn and colored Jack 768 times.

When you draw a character that many times, you are bound to draw an ugly one here and there. We've all seen a few ugly Rapunzels in the pages of Rapunzel's Revenge.

But every once in a while, you get a really nice one.

Look at this handsome Jack.

I'll make sure to post the next really ugly Jack I come across.

Oh by the way, Rapunzel's Revenge made the ALA "Notable Children's Book" list this year--and we're the ONLY graphic novel to make it! Pretty sweet! Rapunzel also made the YALSA "Great Graphic Novel for Teens" list. Great news!

The Great Wall

So I occasionally have to take breaks from the CALAMITY JACK forced-coloring-death-march. For things like sleeping, going to the bathroom, not eating, I can do that while I color. And every once in a while, I have to take a break to be a Dad and help my son do his homework. 

He had to do a poster about the building of the Great Wall of China. So we spent the morning building this:

Yeah, we went a little overboard. I remember being in school and seeing the kids whose projects showed WAAAY too much parental involvement. And now I know what it feels like to be on the other side.

Yellowbelly and Brick Obama

Two fun images for you:

Thanks to The Brothers Brick (my favorite LEGO blog) for the link. This is the wallpaper on my laptop. I was visiting Westside Elementary School on friday, doing my illustration presentation, and all the kids cheered when this popped up before my Powerpoint loaded.

And some more fan art, this time from super fan, Max Hale! Here's Yellowbelly and Plum!

Hey! Why'd it post upside down? Oh well, it's kinda fun that way. Max is Shannon and Dean's little boy, and he once recited the entire text of Yellowbelly to me verbatim--that is a super fan!

Thanks Max! And thanks to Shannon for the link.

Still crushing out Calamity Jack pages around the clock! 

The final step, and another sneak peek at CALAMITY JACK

Here are a couple of panels from CALAMITY JACK, the forthcoming sequel to RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE. What you are seeing is the color mapped panel on the left, then the final color on the right.

We talked about the color map process a few months back, and the color mappers have done a fantastic job mapping out each page. I now have the task of changing the maps to the final color scheme, then adding highlights, shadows, a little texture and dynamic lighting.

Click on the image for a better view. 

I've been doing this "Final Step" full time for the past few weeks, and I'll be doing it for a few more weeks. On a good day, I can do three pages. I once did four. 

Actually, the real "Final Step" will be adding the lettering and sound effect lettering to the colored images. Well, on second thought, the "Final Step" will be the publisher formatting the pages for printing. On third thought--the "Final Step" on a book like this is cashing a royalty check. In that case, RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE isn't finished yet...;)

There are a lot of final steps.