ivan-james.com

Mar21

WIZARD WORLD 2011 [*originally posted 8.15.11]

by IvanJ on 03/21/2013 at 12:03 pm

Our first official Comic Con came and went and overall I think it went well! I will admit I was kind of shocked that no publishers were there besides Top Cow. But I guess it’s become more of a toy fair / B list celebrity convention over the years. Seems like C2E2 has become Chicago’s more “legit” COMIC convention.

Anyway, we manged to sell just under 100 copies of the first issue to complete strangers as absolute “nobodies” in the business. For our first time out – I’ll take it… especially when 3 of the big dog comic shops in Chicago agree to stock the issue as well!

I’m just glad we had the deadline to keep us all motivated and actually produce the thing!

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Mar21

THE AWAKENED COLOR PREVIEW PT.1 : REALIZATIONS [*originally posted 07.20.11]

by IvanJ on 03/21/2013 at 12:00 pm

Posted In: The Awakened

I am pleased to announce that we have stayed the course and are on track for having The Awakened issue #1 ready – come Wizard World Chicago! I can’t express how much thanks I owe to all who have been involved – especially because this has soley been a labor love that has been slapped on top of already busy real life schedules. We all have significant others, day jobs, other interests, SUMMER in CHICAGO, and plenty of other awesomeness that we sacrifice and put aside to make The Awakened become a reality rather than another, “creative project that I will eventually get to someday.”

So please come out to the Con if you’re in Chicago August 11th-14th and support Indie Comics! Here’s a 6 page COLOR Preview to whet your appetite!

Note: The 6&13 page previews became the full issue linked above ; ). And yes I never made a formal post about Pt.2. I was too busy coloring.

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Mar21

THE AWAKENED 3 PAGE PREVIEW [*originally posted 3.20.11]

by IvanJ on 03/21/2013 at 11:57 am

Posted In: The Awakened

Wow. Where to start. C2E2 finally came and went – and with it came The Awakened Preview. Huge props goes out to all who were involved! Hope you came out and supported Indie Comics!

Thank you Derek Kirtzic for getting a group of guys together that were all in need of each other. Doing so has made us all stronger in our individual disciplines.www.kiss-studios.com

Thanks goes out to Erik Perez of erikperez.com for drawing up the initial character concept sketches for Gabe and Del. He then turned those over to –

Tim Jensen. This guy. This is the guy I’ve needed for a long time now (pause). His ability to turn my words into the images you see below still blows me away. Words cannot express the amount of thanks I owe him. THANK YOU TIM JENSEN of IAMTOMMYKNUCKLES.COM!!!

And then there was a guy named Monkey Boy (don’t ask). Tim blows me away with his pencil work and then Monkey Boy comes along with the knock out blow when he applies his ink to the pages. I cannot wait to see what he does with the color.

Speaking of color, thanks is also due to Justin Kim of theartofjustinkim.com. I could have never colored the cover without his late night Skype tutorial guidance. Thanks man.

And lastly, a HUGE thank you goes out to my beautiful patient wife - Brenda James. I couldn’t have done any of this without her support and understanding of this creative obsession. Love you babe.

Dude, Ivan – enough with the thank yous… you only have 3 pages posted to a website no one knows about. You didn’t win the Eisner. Get on with the show please.

Oh, right – sorry.Without further ado. May I present, The Awakened Preview. Enjoy. And thanks for coming!

Dude. What I just say?

Alright alright.

And just for doing that, I’ll even throw in the script pages of what you just saw above.

Script Pages:

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Mar21

RANDOMEO #2! [*originally posted 12.01.10]

by IvanJ on 03/21/2013 at 10:31 am

Posted In: The Awakened

Part of me felt guilty about using the same background, and then the other part of me said, “A bus stop is a money location for random people to meet.” I’ve had Caesar in mind from the start (along w/ Jack and Ruby of course). So I decided to let them all meet and see what happens.

I also found a new way to do bubbles instead of being lazy and using the default photoshop ones. It has allowed me more freedom when it comes to following who’s saying what – in what order – in such a limited space.

I think I may try the curved square bubbles next time and see if that buys me more real estate as well. Anyway, Number 2 it is. Enjoy!