New Cover - New step by step.

Plus new podcasts. And new anime.

Hello from Castrum Lusitania, my fortress in northern Portugal. Welcome to another edition of our weekly newsletter.

Man, Project Red is truly picking up steam. Last week I’ve delivered another finished issue and immediately started working on the next script Rick had sent me (between that and the kids, that’s why I couldn’t write our newsletter). We’re already sitting on 76 inked pages and this week I did layouts for 34 more - which I’ve just started penciling. It’s a great feeling to start seeing it all gain volume, even in this early stage. And we have so much story to tell!

On other news, a new cover of mine was revealed this week. And this time, for a brand new series!

Ghost Pepper

Ghost Pepper is a new Skybound series created, written and drawn by Ludo Lullabi. I’ve been a fan of Ludo since he came into the spotlight as the new artist for the relaunch of Joe Mad’s Battle Chasers (an old favorite of mine).

When editor Ben Abernathy invited me to do a cover, I immediately said yes. The book looks very promising, but check for yourself here - you can see the other variant covers and some sensational interior pages.

Ben’s request was for me to highlight a specific moment of the comic he thought could make a good image: when the main character literally rips a robot in half. See Ludo’s page below:

That seemed perfect to me as a starting point to create something striking. My first thought was to place the camera at the front to show the main character’s face. It’s the first issue of an original series, it’s important to give readers a good taste of what’s inside. I angled it so we’d be seeing it all slightly from above in order to assure the main character was not obscured by the robot. And since it was a busy image in terms of movement and action, I deliberately left the background empty to maintain maximum readability and impact from afar - an important quality for a cover. Below you can see the results in my first sketch:

With the sketch immediately approved, penciling it was very straightforward in an image like this. Without background and with a solid sketch beneath, half of the work is done when it comes to figures. Remember, I pencil digitally, so I literally work over the first sketch. In the past, when I was penciling on paper, it meant starting from zero again. I enjoyed it, but I can’t deny this allows me to take much better advantage of work that I’ve already done.

Inks was a particularly satisfactory step since it’s all figure work. It was me, a couple of nibs and nothing else.

After scanning and adjusting the image, I did the usual grey tones to add some drama and mood to the piece. This also gives the colorist a sense of direction when it comes to lighting.

Colors were done by my usual partner Chris O’Halloran, who balanced brilliantly that striking red background with that smooth blue palette for most of the other elements.

All in all, a very pleasant gig.

Recommendations

This week I come with a few recommendations to offer you. First, there’s a new(ish) Image podcast called Let’s Talk Comics. It’s hosted by Jim Viscardi, who interviews many of the Image creators. A few days ago, I listened to Robert Kirkman’s episode and he never fails to leave me fired up about creator owned comics and the industry in general. You can listen to it here and follow the link for the other episodes as well.

Another good listen (this one found randomly on social media) was a deep dive into one of my favorites Quentin Tarantino movies: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. What got my attention was the first line in the episode description, which is one of my favorite quotes from the movie: Don’t cry in front of the Mexicans - an absurd and hilarious line by Brad Pitt to the heartbroken Leonardo DiCaprio. My instincts were right as the lads get into every scene, revealing many production details and behind the scenes that I wasn’t aware of. Find it here.

Finally, there’s a new anime in town. Lazarus is created and directed by Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichirō Watanabe, which is more than enough to warrant my attention (Bebop is one of my most precious references and inspirations). But if you need more, the action sequences were choreographed by the director of John Wick and the music is also sensational. I’ve seen the first two episodes and it’s looking very promising so far.

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Next week I’ll be away for the weekend, so there won’t be a Castrum edition. I’ll see you in two weeks then.

Read comics, enjoy life.

André