Phenomena 2 teaser!

A first look into Book 2.

Nov 22, 2022

Hello from Castrum Lusitania, my fortress in northern Portugal. Welcome to another edition of our weekly newsletter, where we’ll explore my current gigs, see exclusive previews, sneak peaks, works in progress, overviews of past works, recommendations and more.

Today we’re going all in into a first look of Phenomena Book 2. Things like this will happen first on this newsletter, so stay tuned for this and more in the future.

A New Place

One thing me and Brian (Michael Bendis) wanted to do on Phenomena Book 2 was, from the start, to bring new characters, new places and new things, while avoiding repeating what we had from Book 1. Not because we didn’t like it, but because full on creativity is what we’re going for in this book. It’s not only part of the creative process as it is part of the story itself. So, more creation is a necessity (and a pleasure), meaning that right from the beginning we wanted to show more of the world of Phenomena.

With that in mind, welcome to Valentia Verona. Old folk say it was called London. Well, not anymore.

Ink on paper, with the grey tones done digitally.

As you can see, this is a finished page from the first sequence of the book. Since then, I’ve pencilled many pages more with action taking place in this location, so we’re going deep into it.

Currently on my desk

Which leads us to my task at hand at the moment: with almost 30 pages pencilled, the next few weeks will be spent inking. Admittedly, my favorite part of the process. With everything laid down in pencil, it’s very freeing to just ink. And the feeling is great, because I get to flesh out all the good bits when all the hard work (perspective, anatomy, etc) has already been done.

I also get to listen and watch freely to my favorite podcasts and TV shows while working, as the computer screen is now free from the necessity of constantly displaying references that come with the penciling stage. I’m currently watching the latest RKG YouTube series. Although the boys can be too hilarious from time to time, forcing me to stop inking to prevent disasters from happening on the paper.

Check a few inking sneak peeks here below for your eyes only:

As you can see, these are not finished. That’s because I usually do a first pass on a few pages with a worn ink nib - good enough for almost everything except the tiny details. Then I’ll pull the ruler and draw most of the straight lines. When that is all in place I pick a new(ish) nib and use to the finer details and wrap each page.

In this specific instant, my old(er) nib is still in good shape, so it allows me to ink almost all of it (in some cases all of it), except when the figures are very small.

What else is going on

Also this week I drew a sketch for an exclusive cover for the French edition of A Righteous Thirst For Vengeance which I’ll be working on soon. It’s great to still be creating new stuff for that book, even when we wrapped the story.

I’ll be drawing another sketch for another book (not mine) and I’m working on a Wolverine commission. All of these you’ll get to see soon.

Recommendations

For those into video games, I can only say good things about God Of War Ragnarok, which I started playing just a few days ago. I’m still not very far into it, but it’s clear already how good this is. (I’ve heavily played and loved the first one, from 2018). I’ll certainly mention it again in the future, because for story junkies like me, this is an amazing creation.

And if you’re looking for a great historical novel, look no further than Essex Dogs, by Dan Jones:

A story about a group of mercenaries in the beginning of the Hundred Years War between England and France, written in exquisite detail by one of the finest medieval storytellers. If you’re unfamiliar with Dan’s work, he’s an historian with many history books and TV shows under his belt. I recommend all of his stuff (particularly his books Templars, Crusaders and Power and Thrones), which he writes with a great flair for characters, despite being straightforward historical books.

Essex Dogs is his first attempt at a fictional novel of a world he knows so well. And he succeeds at it in triumphant fashion.