Zapman Remasterd Line Art DONE!!!

Greetings 3twins fans,

Today I won't be talking about the game, but rather an old project that has seen a new step toward completion.  Zapman Remastered, all three parts, are completed in the pencil/ink stage!

S. LaDon Ware has been working on in-game art for our upcoming Of Mages & Pages game for the Nintendo Wii U, but prior to that, he was working on the Zapman Remastered line art in his spare time.  Just yesterday I received the last of those pages!  While I would love to devote the next couple weeks to coloring, recording and editing this story so we could release it on our site, we are just all too busy with the game.  However, I will also mention that work has continued on a "lost" story of Hatman, and our goal is that as soon as our game publishes next fall we will resume publishing comics on our site at a regular rate.  It is good that we will have about 7-10 issues backlogged by that time, so we can continue to work on more games and comics at the same time!

Next week, I should have something really big to show you all for the game, but for now, marvel at the beautiful handiwork of S. LaDon Ware!  I've chosen to share with you a panel from the first page of Zapman Remastered part 3. 

Why are Hatman and Indigo weaving through traffic in the Hatmobile?  Will they reach their destination in time?  Tune in this fall, same HAT time same HAT website!

-Jason

Comic layouts

One of my many, many tasks at 3twins is doing the comic layouts. I am not the only one who does this, but part of being the "big cheese" is making sure things get done, and if everyone else is too busy to do something, then I take that "thing" on myself.

Now, I'm not complaining, I actually like doing this, although, it is quite creatively taxing. You see, we write Hatman & Indigo in a script format because we have actors who come in and read the lines. However, since it is a comic book it needs to be layed out as such after the actors have read their lines. I know this is different than say, Marvel Comics, does it. But they don't have actors record audio for the characters, do they?

Anyhow, I take the script and break it down into pages and panels with little descriptions of how I see the panels in my head. Sometimes the artists actually follow those, other times they use them as a guideline. I call this part the "Text Layout".

We have a nifty little program called "Comic Life" its only $30 for the delux version and I highly recommend it for anyone even remotely interested in creating their own comics (there is a version for Mac as well as Windows). It is an incredibly helpful tool for drafting what I call the "Panel Layout".

For the Panel Layout, I put the script with the completed Text Layout on one monitor and Comic Life on another monitor. (I also highly recommend multiple monitors for anyone who would like to work in any type of media, it makes life so much easier, but if you don't like that sort of thing, it's your call. :) ) I read through the "Text Layout" and either choose from the many template layouts that come with "Comic Life", or tweak my own to fit the script. Sometimes, I realize that something won't really work the way I had layed it out in the script, so I tweak it a little bit. After I get the Panel Layout finished, I send it onto the artist who does the really magical part, the art.

I have a lot of these to do, right now, so instead of working on them, I blogged about it. I guess, my stalling is pretty much done and I'd better get to it, huh?

-Jason

The May 3rd Comicon

Yesterday (May 3rd 2009) Andy, Michael (both pictured left) and myself attended the Ash Comics show. As usual we had our comics and cartoons playing on a monitor for the attendants to watch.

This time, however, we were able to bring one of our new artists, Michael Lude, who has done some awesome work for us already (check out Hatman Clause pt 3 and Back to the Beginning for some of his art).

We all had a great time and we are getting ready for the next Ash Comics show, where Michael will be doing caricatures of the attendants!

-Jason

50 for the 50th - Some Tips

Back in 2005 when we first began the process of creating The Adventures of Hatman & Indigo as a comic, I don't think I would have guessed that four years later we'd have 35 issues on-line. But here we are with our 36th issue well on the way.

In a few months we should be ready to publish our 50th Hatman & Indigo comic, and to commemorate this milestone we're going to feature 50 covers for the issue - that's more than all of the covers and variant covers we have on the site right now combined! So understandably, we're looking for a little help from our fans. As mentioned in the last post, we would like people to submit covers to us, and if we like them, we'll use them as part of the 50 covers (read the last post for more details). But for anyone who's never drawn a comic cover before, I'm sure there are a lot of questions about where to start and what it takes to make a good cover.

From the fall of 2006 through the end of 2008, I was the primary Hatman & Indigo artist. If you include Ion Bunny, I've actually drawn 24 comics for 3Twins.net, plus 11 original covers, 9 parody covers, and one variant cover. I'll be the first to admit that the work being done by our new artists is leaps and bounds beyond what I did for 3Twins, but if you look at my earlier work and compare it to my later stuff I think you'll agree that I've come a long away. So I think I can offer some tips for our would-be cover artists.

1) Make it dramatic: Covers are intended to be eye-catching and draw the reader in, so you don't want to put your characters in hum-drum poses. Spice it up a bit with a nice action shot.

2) Fill the frame: In some of my earlier covers I made the mistake of drawing the characters too small and filling a lot of the space with background images. Again, you want the cover to be catchy, so let your characters dominate the page, but...

3) Keep it simple: You don't want there to be too much going on or the drawing will become too cluttered. Pick a focal point and make sure everything else in the drawing is used to enhance that point. If it doesn't add to the piece, take it away!

4) Experiment: If you don't know where to start, just draw the first thing that comes to mind, no matter how weird it seems. My favorite original cover was the cover I did for issue #29 Origin: Remastered. The image is of Hatman wearing a Superman-esque costume, flying over the city. The idea came to me and initially I didn't want to draw it because Hatman can't fly! But I went with it and it worked. The lesson - just draw. It might end up great, it might be terrible, but you'll never really know until you try.

-Steve

Issue 50 cover contest

Depending on exactly how our release schedule works out, our 50th issue of Hatman & Indigo is scheduled to come out this winter (probably somewhere between November and January).

We would like to have 50 unique covers for this, these would be randomly generated at a 2% chance each. Several of our artists from issues past, present and future are working on some, but I'd like to present the option for you, the fans, to submit something as well.

Depending on how many covers we get from our artists will depend on how many of your entries we can display. You will be notified if you get in and we will be looking for things that stand out.

The rules are as follows:

1. The cover must have something to do with Hatman comics

2. No, profanity or vulgarities will be accepted (just remember that we try to keep our website acceptable for families, so aim for a G or PG rating, however, mild cartoon violence akin to what has already appeared in Hatman will be considered)

3. No parody covers will be accepted (we want these to be original)

4. Entries are due by 11:59pm eastern time October 31st 2009 (you may email entries to board@3twins.net or if you wish to use snail mail, please email us for mailing information. Snail mail entries must be postmarked by no later than October 31st 2009)

5. Providing rules 1-4 are followed, feel free to express yourself and be creative, we will not divulge the plot of issue 50 (which, if we did would blow your mind) so any and/or all of our characters are free game. (All Hatman & Indigo character's likenesses and logos are trademarks and copyrights of 3twins.net, LLC, and may only be used for the purpose of this contest.)

6. All submissions become the property of 3twins.net, LLC, however the artist will be credited.

Shortly after the issue is released we will provide a gallery page displaying the 50 different covers.

Any questions can be posted as comments to this blog or if you would rather you can email board@3twins.net.