Ready for RASL to start back up? Here is a preview of the first six pages… You can click on each page and then use the magnifying glass to enlarge them.

Be sure to pick up RASL #4 on Wednesday April 29th at your local comic book shop, or in our online store!

Great news! Diamond Comic Distributors has just confirmed that RASL# 2 will be in stores tomorrow, June 18, one week earlier than we thought. Thanks to Jog – The Blog for tipping me off.

Don’t forget that RASL is for mature readers. I’m actually printing that on the book this time because at the last few events I’ve attended (BONE & BEYOND at the Wexner Center, and Book Expo America) a lot of parents and librarians were picking up copies of RASL for their kids. I thought I’d done enough interviews over the last year to spread the word about the more grown-up noir aspects of this title, but maybe not.

Anyway, I’m glad #2 is here. It’s 32 pages of comics… and here is a preview of the first three pages to wet your appetite. You can click on the images to view them larger.

Here is a quick peek at a few of my favorite panels from Bone Volume 8. Jeff and I have not finalized the colors for this book yet, and I'm looking forward to getting through that process soon.

If you aren't familiar with how we color these books, I start by completing each book, and then Jeff and I go through each page and make adjustments. Sometimes we change tiny details that many people won't even notice, and sometimes we change nearly everything on a given set of pages. It's a difficult stage for me, because sometimes my brain has been hard-wired to see the colors I've chosen for a scene, so when we change them I freak out! Ha, ha. It's also the best part of the process, because Jeff and I discover some great color ideas, and I feel like the story clicks into place. I have a little break from having finished the first pass to working with Jeff on the final pages, so that helps with giving me some distance from the art. Jeff is never disappointed with my colors or anything like that, but there's still a little "artist pride" that stings when thinking about having to change stuff. Ultimately I love it, because it's one of those things that really pushes me in my creative life. This book is set for release this summer, and I will be starting on the last volume of Bone soon!

Here's the cover of Walt Kelly's Our Gang 3. I'm enjoying these Fantagraphics reprints. First of all, I hadn't read that many Our Gang stories before this (they haven't been reprinted since the 1940s), and beginning with the issues in this collection, you can really see Walt Kelly putting his imprint on the charcters – - which is making it more fun from a design standpoint. These new gang members, Red and "2-by2," along with Janet, Buckwheat & Froggy are very modern and their adventures more interesting. Color by Steve Hamaker.

Above is the sketch I showed to Gary Groth and Jacob Covey, and below is the final cover with logos. 

If you'd like to see the drawing board pages about the first two Our Gang volumes, click here.

A bunch of Steve's buddies have talked him into making a How To video about coloring. You have to see the animated opening put together by Flight artist Bannister. The first video Steve made about coloring on the Cintiq (for a Shazam Monster Egg) has been viewed over 28,000 times! The YouTube video is here, but you should check out Steve's blog where he has posted a few of his on-line strips called Still Dead about zombies in the work place (this is a snippet of one of them).