Thanks to DC Comics/Vertigo for their kind permission to preview this page of original art from the upcoming Gone to Amerikay graphic novel.
Written by Eisner nominated author Derek McCulloch, and drawn by Herself, this 140 page original graphic novel will premiere in 2012. Our colorist will be Jose Villarubia.
For those who always ask, no, you are not looking at pencil art here. These are my final inks, and all art is drawn by hand.
This story, a multi-generational tale of Irish immigration, will have taken two years to complete. I have two months of work left. There have been some terrible shake-ups at Vertigo, but thanks to all for standing by us and helping us to bring this book home.
With two months to go, I shouldn’t be thinking I’m in home port, really.
And our soundtrack today is courtesy The Clancy Brothers, recorded at an event for President John F. Kennedy, 1963: “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye”. The emcee is Robert Preston of “The Music Man”.
This appears to be public domain. I could be wrong.
It’s lovely! The woman’s face is so expressive!
This looks wonderful! I can’t wait to see the whole thing!
Wait,wait,wait…..
But it will be worth it!
Colleen, three questions, if you please…
First, how did you score the incredibly talented and overly busy Jose Villarubia?
Second,do you still have the “No Irish Need Apply” sign in your studio that you wrote about (mumble mumble) years ago?
Finally, if you’re posting Irish music, do you know Horslips?
We scored Jose because he is afraid of me.
I still have the sign and it precipitated the most dopey column I ever wrote in my comic. Precipitated by some dude who was being obnoxiously provocative; goading me on and I fell for it. When will I ever learn NOT TO TAKE THE BAIT?
I do know Horslips, and I can’t believe anyone else does!
I’m partial to “King of the Fairies”. Rock on, you Celtic Gods.
And of course I have to add that that’s the clip for page 46.
Coolness! I’ll have to wait but looking forward to seeing this.
Wow. This is absolutely stunning. The detail is amazing. Can’t wait to see the whole thing! I’m sure it will be gorgeous in full-color, but it works beautifully in black and white as well.
So excited! Thanks for the sneak-peak!
Those inks are stunning!
No wonder it’s taking so long to complete it.
If it were cartoony, it would certainly go a lot faster, LOL! But I prefer this drawing approach for this project.
When people complain how long it takes me to put a book out, well, I’m working on five GN’s at a time. That’s almost 1000 pages of pencils and inks. Years of work, folks.
The shakeups at Vertigo put this book back a year, so I dropped another project into the schedule, and did the entire Barry Lyga GN from start to finish while GTA was on back burner.
All these books are going to be coming out over a two-year period, so it will look like I just did them all at once! The Barry Lyga GN will be out in November 2011, and we should be announcing the start of another pretty soon. I hope to have some firm info on Stealth Tribes, soon.
You go your whole life hoping for the career I have right now, let me tell ya.
You worked for it, you deserve it – so enjoy, work is good!
But seriously, I can tell you have put a lot into this work and I can’t wait to see the final product. I am sure it will look great in color but I would be happy with black and white.
It’s a sad truth that it takes years of dedication, sacrifice and hard work to become an overnight success. And, frankly, no one deserves it more than Colleen.
That’s really sweet! Thank you!
I like the details in all the rigging of the ship.
The ones that criticize your “slowness” when it comes to lengthy GNs need to have some of that outrage – rather than apathy – when it comes to monthly comics coming out sporadically.
Personally, I’ll wait for a quality work like this than some of the nonsense coming out nowadays.
I don’t think it’s possible to do work like this on a monthly schedule without a creative team and lots of shortcuts.
I produce the equivalent of a penciled and inked book every six weeks. For example, the Barry Lyga GN is 108 pages…about 5.5 issues of a comic. I drew it – and portions of other work – in about 8 months, start to finish. About 18 pages a month.
But since I work on original GN’s people only see one book at a time. And it takes a year from completion to get a GN on the stands.
So if I do 1000 pages of pencils and inks in 4 years, what people see in the end is five books. The equivalent of over 40 comics. But drawn to this level of finish.
I also worked on conceptual work for TV shows, illustrations, etc. Hundreds of trading cards.
That’s not a slacker work ethic.
I did have a sharp downturn in my work output a few year’s back, but that was an anomaly. Very sick. What can you do.