Oooh…ahhhh. The first full-color RUNNERS page!
I did the first story, Bad Goods, in B&W because as a self-publisher, it was cheaper, but that’s not really the main reason. At the time, I was really enjoying a number of manga titles, like Gunsmith Cats and Battle Angel Alita. And then there was of course Bone. So I thought B&W books could look just as good as color in many instances. Plus, at the time, color would have just been one more thing to think about at the production stage. I found grayscale to be much easier to wrap my head around than color theory.
So when I decided to do the new series in color, I was VERY nervous about it. I had never colored anything comic-wise other than the few RUNNERS covers, so I wasn’t sure I could pull it off. As it turns out, I’m really happy with it so far and I’m getting more comfortable with it every day, so that’s a huge relief.
With this particular page, I wanted to go for something a bit mysterious and unsettling. And I always love the look of characters emerging from some sort of fog or mist. Again, as with the cover, a nice full-body shot of the three aliens was in part done so that I’d have reference to work from early on for the rest of the story. But it was mostly done because I just wanted to showcase them as characters right up front.
Well it’s a great start. The colors look sweet. I’m amazed at your ability to draw weird characters, it’s crazy. And to draw the consistently! This looks great though.
I can’t even begin to explain how exicited I am to see this start! I was really excited when you were originally going to go through Archaia, so this has been a long wait. You can thank David Petersen for introducing me to your books. Good luck!
As a role-player who has designed numerous worlds / settings, I find part of the fun is deciding on a particular detail for visual or dramatic reasons and then coming up with a rationale for that detail within the setting. From your art and comments, you seem to do that at least some of the time. It’s this attention to detail that makes an exotic (to the reader) setting also consistent, adding to credibility.
I can’t judge your coloring skills professionally, just as a very pleased reader. I don’t doubt you will continue to improve; you have the drive.
Love, Love, Love IT!
Great stuff! I’d love to see action figures of these guys. 🙂
Oh man, action figures would be sweet. I’m a bit of a collector myself, so if RUNNERS figures ever made it to the market, that would make my day. And in keeping with typical toy business decisions these days, I’d milk it by having regular versions of these characters, followed by convention exclusive snow-dusted variants. 🙂
BTW, in the artwork, I color the yak in three slightly different shades of brown to add some variety. So of course, there’d have to be three figure variants of them as well. And then the snow-dusted variants of the three variants.
atmospheric perspective looks so much better in blue…
Oh, lovely artwork! I can’t wait to get into this book; looks like it will be even better than the last.
Hmm… is the central alien native to this world? With white hair/skin and hooves, he looks well-adapted to snow. The other two don’t look like they could have evolved on the same planet as the beasts, either, but he does.
I like their weapons too; very detailed. Are the weapons those two on the side have modified to account for the race using them, or is there some other reason for the slight difference?
Keen observation on the alien in the middle! Yes, he is of the local race. As for the weapons, there’s no real reason for the differences. I just thought it would make sense that there would be many different models available of the same basic type of gun. So they’re similar in basic style and function, but they have some slight differences due to make and manufacturer.
Wow! For the first 2 panels I was “squinting” to get a better look at the characters, and well rewarded in panel 3.
OH MY GOD THE COLOURS ARE AMAZING