A DISTANT SOIL: The Ascendant Chapter 2 Page 3
I can’t believe I actually drew Etan in what look like fringed bell bottoms.
Thanks so much for coming to my official website to read my work. Your patronage helps finance this series. I am able to continue posting daily through the end of the year, and at least three times a week through next year. I’m hoping to raise enough money to reserve at least six months of full time work for this series beginning later next year.
In the meantime, I am working on two graphic novels for Vertigo, have another book contract I can’t discuss, and am doing some conceptual work.
Check out some of my other books. This is a series called The Book of Lost Souls (click the book pic to order at Amazon) which I worked on at Marvel with J Michael Straczynski. Makes a great Christmas present.
“The destinies of most people are defined early on. Then there are the others – the lost. Those whose numbers aren’t in yet, who could go toward the light or toward the darkness – indeed, who could be tipped one direction or another. And everything starts with the book. That’s what Jonathan is about to discover. When he took a suicide plunge off the London Bridge more than a century ago, the last place he expected to land was on his feet, in the present, standing at the entrance to a tunnel into a world of mysteries beyond his wildest imagination. A world of powers and principalities and, above all, rules that he’d best learn quickly. Or he’ll have to deal with the Dark Man. And what the Dark Man can’t turn, he devours.”
11 Comments
Arlnee
The post doesn’t say what the book is, but I’m wild-guessing “Book of Lost Souls”?
Colleen
Yep, and thanks. Sorry about the formatting issues today, the storm kept knocking us offline and some stuff go corrupted when I tried to load.
mamid
I figured out exactly what ADS is: It is a work of Heart. 🙂
Colleen
That is awfully sweet!
mamid
It’s the truth. 🙂 12hrs+ per page? That’s not a mass market comic or manga. That is dedication and a life’s work of the creator. Every page is a work of art. I spend hours knitting socks, fingerless gloves, hats and more, never mind the time I have spent actually working on a piece, so I know exactly how much you pour of yourself into every mark you make. You’re not making a graphic novel or comic book, you’re making a work of Heart.
Colleen
The art for the new Vertigo GN’s is highly detailed. Yep, it takes about 12 hours per page.
ADS also takes about 12 hours per page. the art is not as highly rendered as the Vertigo GN’s, but I write it and, of course, I letter it by hand.
So 12 hours is about right. A really tough page might take 16.
There are a couple of double pages spread since the new GN’s that took at least five days per spread.
It’s financially taxing to take the much time on those spreads, but I think they are worth it.
I am pretty well paid for the Vertigo work, so per page I can afford the time. Unfortunately, ADS doesn’t earn nearly that much money, so I appreciate it when people come to my website to read my book instead of going to pirate sites.
Alas, Stuart Immonen got burned by pirates this week and has decided to end his webcomic Moving Pictures.
mamid
To your consumer, fan, adorer (is that a word) and more, the work you put into it is worth it.
To your bottom line (after reading the jilted artist pay post) it isn’t. But most mangas are a dime a dozen. ADS… All of your work really, is collectible limited edition prints of mini masterpieces. Only one other comic artist I know is like that imo – George Perez. I don’t go out of my way to collect his stuff.
Jim
I’ve always had the nagging question in the back of my head: Aeren as a crystal cutter –> inspired by/a reference to Anne McCaffrey’s “Crystal Singer” novel?
Colleen
No, not even close. In fact, i just answered this question the other day on another post! LOL!
A Distant Soil predates those novels. Some portions of the comic were in fanzines in the early 1980’s. I’ve never read the McCaffrey books. Some of the pages you are looking at on this website were penciled as early as 1980.
I’m surprised this question came up twice in one week. For years, all anyone asked me is if I had pinched the idea of crystal magic from Marrion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover.
I recall my biggest influence was the first Superman movie (1978) with its crystal palace Fortress of Solitude, and an old issue of National Geographic, as well as New Age books about crystal spirituality which were common at the time.
But never was a McCaffrey fan, and never read those books.
It really seems like an obvious thing to me: if you are going to have a world dependent on crystal-based science/magic, you are going to need people to mine crystals.
Colleen
And almost forgot: the Deryni novels. They also had a crystal- based magic theme.
I absolutely loved those books, and I am sure there was some influence there. I just found a stack of the paperbacks when cleaning out my storage the other day. I can’t believe the first pub date on those was 1970.
I devoured them when I was a kid.
Colleen Doran
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