In the deep waters

Hey everyone, welcome back to this week's installment of The Switch production blog! Thanks to Robb (two b's, dammit!) for filling in last week and curse me for missing the week before. I was heavily snowed in under deadline on a Black Panther project.

It's been a weird week in the comic book industry with the dismissal of a longtime DC Editor for sexual harassment/assault. The reason I bring it up here is because I'm pretty sure Tom has harassed almost all of the Switch backers, as well as the entire state of Minnesota and country of Vietnam, in one way or another. In case he gets arrested or murdered in the near future, there might be a little bit more of a delay while we figure it out and get the book finished. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail, after all.

I'm kidding, of course. Tom is actually a prince of a gentleman, especially with all various models he works with. He's kind of the anti-Terry Richardson if you know your fashion photographers. But the real reason I bring up sexual harassment/abuse this week is because it's a theme that actually plays a role in Electricia's story. There's an element of abuse of power in her relationship with Lover Boy; not that Electricia hasn't done plenty of heinous things herself over the years but the unhealthy dynamic between those two is an underlying factor in her desire to change her life for the better.

It's funny. Much like how Putin is much bigger news today than when I chose him as a villain in the book, the theme of sexual abuse of power has also exploded. All we have left is for Ronald Reagan to return from the dead and fight crime and we'll have hit the hat trick of prognostication. Truly, ahead of our time.

As for the actual production update, Tom and Robb this week informed our publishing partners at Dynamite that they're working on the last 10 pages of colors and should be wrapped by Thanksgiving. I'm cautious about giving out a date when the book will be finished because every time I do, I'm proven wrong. But I'm optimistic that we're swimming in the very deep waters on this and just about to drag it to shore.

Anyway, enough rambling. Here's some preview art this week, all out of context with stupid captions to throw you off even further...

"What did you do the floor with your claws, you stupid cat?"

"YAAAAAGH! WTF is going on here?!"

(That one might actually be the real dialogue from the book)

"Staring contest! Don't blink!"

"Putin love nothing more than pussy."

That's it for this week, guys. Thanks for all your support, patience, and kindness as we work to wrap this beast up once and for all. See you next time!

Hello Switches, Switchers...er, supporters of The Switch!

It’s me, Robb Miller the colorist, just checking in with the Friday blog update.

The end of production is very much in sight as I wrap up coloring the final pages and they are placed in the final layout and then word balloons, sound effects and everything else is added in!

I know I wasn’t initially an artist working on The Switch in the beginning but I do appreciate the patience of fans of this big graphic novel!

I know firsthand what it's like to back a project that doesn't come out on time. I have backed several crowd-sourced campaigns (including this one) and have had varying experiences with each. I have been waiting a long time for a camera band for my iWatch and still haven’t gotten it. Soon I will be like Dick Tracy! Supposedly the new bluetooth being added and ability to work with Series 3 iWatch is part of the delay.

I got my Hi*Fi Coloring for Comics book and a reward was having my name in the book (apparently not my last name though.) The Hi*Fi book was helpful in expanding my skills and helping me get the coloring job on The Switch!

I am currently working my way through my Andy Smith’s How to Draw SUPERHEROES Sketchbook! When I can’t think what to practice drawing, this guides me along!

I am excited to get Bart Sears’ DRAWING POWERFUL HEROES: Brutes and Babes! at some point. Remember the tutorials in Wizard Magazine?

There are several books from artists/creators geared to educate and entertain! I love to back people trying to do their own thing outside of a corporate umbrella but ironically, things sometimes take longer to produce outside of that corporate umbrella. Nothing is as simple as it first seems.

When I finally get my CMRA iWatch band, I know if will be top of the line and better than what I initially gave my support to. As one of only two people that have read the entire script for The Switch, I know all of you that supported it will feel the same. We're all so excited to finally be able to announce that the book is done.

Here are some black and white to color examples from the book.

If I told you what Dr. Hate was saying here, you'd hate me for ruining it!

I do have a last name, you know!

Call her Miss Jackson if you're Nasty.

"Your hair looks a little static-y today, Lover Boy!"

"Aren't our costumes supposes to be white? Shit!"

Keith will be back next week with another update. Thanks everyone!

From Pencils to Inks (Tom)

Every once in a long while on one of my various social networks (usually Instagram), I'll post a before/after of some the Switch work from my pencils to the finished inks. I've gotten comments remarking on how "loose" my pencils are.  Do I always work that way? Nowadays, I'd say yes for the most part. But it didn't use to be that way.  At the beginning of my career, I'd pencil so anally/tightly (perhaps a poor choice of words LOL) that you may as well just do a "straight to colors" copy of it before it goes to print.  With that method, the inking stage not only became incredibly boring (essentially you're replicating the drawing, line-for-line, twice), but the art lost some of its dynamics and stiffened up by the end of the inking stage. In other words, it lost whatever energy and looseness it once had during the pencil stage.

In the middle of my career, I remember working alongside my pal Doug Mahnke during a crazy deadline.  Sometimes he'd come over and we'd pull late nights on literally several pages at a time.  Sometimes he'd be inking right on top of his loose pencils, and I was telling myself, "This is why I need to always get better drawing!"  One particular deadline during Green Lantern, I actually was helping him finish some of his layouts as we'd pull an all-nighter.  We'd swap pages, and I'd do some black spotting, some contouring, then swap and he'd do some detailing, etc.  Talk about having your back against the wall and being thrown into the wild!

Contrast that to today: I'm a better and more confident artist, and in turn I'm much more relaxed than my younger self.  I'll rough in just enough to layout the page, and then do necessary guidelines.  I'll draw just enough information so I'm not guessing too much--but largely my inking stage is the drawing stage.  It not only saves me time, but it also saves my sanity and keeps things non-redundant.  The bonus is that I feel this process keeps more life and energy into my lines than my previous method of drawing by carving out pencil lines tight enough to make grooves into the paper.

Enjoy these before/afters from The Switch, heading to you this winter :)

Crom, Nagengast, and half of Vladimir Putin

Lover Boy losing his sh*t

Lover Boy again, he can't seem to keep his saliva in his mouth huh?

The Switch

In contrast to the above examples, this is fairly tight (for me)

Preview follow up

Hey everyone, it's Friday so that can only mean one thing: there's an 87% chance the Switch production blog is going to be updated before the weekend hits. And seeing as you're reading this, clearly we fell within the point spread this week.

We were very happy with the enthusiastic responses we received for the 20 page preview over the past week. You guys are the best, most supportive group and we're so glad you enjoyed the appetizer as much as you did! We've been working on this stuff in more-or-less a vacuum for so long, it's gratifying to get that extra encouragement.

IF for any reason you weren't able to access the link or download the preview, please email me at keithchampagne@gmail.com and I'll make sure we iron out whatever kinks are preventing you from seeing it.

Tom emailed me a bunch of snippets to share this week so without further ado, here's the weekly preview art, presented all out of context with captions that generally have nothing to do with anything that's really going on...

Bartender subtly eavesdrops on Jenn and Jodi. Electricia promptly kills him.

Jodi reeeeeaaaallly loves her Arnold Palmer

Jenn notices Jodi got a nose job

Lover Boy realizes he forgot to wear deodorant

Putin shows that world leaders don't manscape their pits

The Truth wins the local "Whatchoo talkin' bout, Willis?!" Gary Coleman lookalike competition.

And that about wraps it up for this week. Again, please contact me if you didn't have any luck with the preview. We'll be back next week where I'm sure Tom will give an extensive update on where he's at with the artwork.

Thanks to all!
Keith

20-page SWITCH PREVIEW to be available to backers!!!!

You read that right-- Keith, Robb, Bill and I have prepared a 20-page pdf. preview for Dynamite's solicits...so we figured "Why not let our patient and trusty backers to get a first peek, anyway?"  :)  So expect an email/update any day now on where you can download it.  We're both nervous and excited to see what you'll think.

Since the book is still awaiting final colors and letters, I thought for this update I'd let you guys in on some sneak peeks at the Switch Behind the Scenes movie project that all backers will also receive:

Keith working away in St. Louis last year....

And "switching' shifts as I work and Keith sleeps.  

Talk to you guys next week!

Reward art, sneak peeks and something new!

Hey everybody, how's it going out there in blog land? Sorry to be a day late and a dollar short. Tom and I had a miscommunication about what art to post this week. I was waiting for him to send me some stuff without realizing that some stuff he had already sent me was what he had intended for use. Unfortunately, I'm pretty dumb and that sometimes gets in the way of my life.

So let's see...what's going on with The Switch this week? As seems to be the running theme, we're inching ever closer to wrapping this thing up and sending it to the printers. We've brought on a production artist (and Switch backer) Bill Tortolini to help get the lettering in order and build out the book design according to Dynamite's specs. The production side of the comic booking process is this sort of weird, simple-yet-complicated language that kind of mystifies me. It's all tiffs and dpi and jpegs and cmyk and templates and Illustrator and Indesign and blah blah blah. None of it is very hard to learn (if I could just get someone to explain it all to me) but we're so late in the game on this project that it would be a disaster to do it all wrong and then have to go back and redo it properly. So the prudent option was enlisting Bill, a very experienced letterer and designer, to come in and make sure everything is correct the first time around. So thanks for stepping in, Bill. You're greatly appreciated.

So here's some art this week. First up are the pencils for an entire page of art from the graphic novel. This art features backer Jodi Levy, who picked up one of the "appear in the comic" rewards and will now be known as The Switch's best friend from high school. Take a bow, Jodi, you're a star!

Next up, a little sneak of a panel from the last third of the book. Could this be The Switch preparing to run the hundred yard dash? I doubt it but if I told you what's really going on, I'd have to kill you!

And below, a quiet moment between Interstellar, Electricia, and Lover Boy. I secretly think that Lover Boy is Tom's favorite character to draw ( with Moss and Dr. Hate in 2nd and 3rd), it's been interesting to see his physical look slightly evolve over the course of production.

And finally, I thought I'd show a sneak peek of a project that Andy Smith and I are going to run on Kickstarter once The Switch officially goes to press. We've been slowly plugging away on this one in whatever free time would allow, getting it ready to launch. The book is called Barbaric and trust me when I tell you it's unlike any barbarian story you've ever seen before. If Conan and Preacher had a baby, it would read a lot like this book.

Colors are by award winning legend Moose Baumann, making his return to comics with us after taking a hiatus from this bullshit industry for a few years. We've VERY lucky to have Moose, as you can see from his work below. 

That's all for today. Thanks again for all your support and PATIENCE. I'm very hopeful of sending out a massive 20 page preview of The Switch this coming week. Fingers crossed all the moving pieces come together in time.

Keith Comes to MN Part Deux

Tom here writing from London, Ontario (I'm here for Forest City Comicon, so sorry for the 1-day late post).  Last week was a fun week for The Switch team.  Keith came into town for the annual Comic Card Show in Bloomington, MN, his second appearance in the state this year (with no signs of stopping--more on that later.)  But this time, he came sans crutches so he's not as gimpy as he was previously.  Unfortunately colorist  Robb Miller couldn't join us this time as he was on vacation.

The show went well as usual, and promoter Kevin Denesen (and son Tommy) put together another well-organized show and showed the guests a good time.  Artists Tim Seeley, Frank Fosco, Dave Wheeler, and Bennett Pisek were also on hand to greet the crowd.

Here are some highlight pictures from last weekend:

On the way to lunch after picking Keith up from the airport

Kevin took us to Crayola Experience at the Mall of America where we acted like children and made our own crayons huhu!

So I made original Switch related merch!  :)

I broke my crayon huhu :(

At Comic Card show, unveiling the exclusive new prints that fans got for FREE

Keith and I working away

fans with the print (signed of course)

Artist buddy Tim Seeley (whom I hadn't seen in over a decade) gifts me this awesome Lost Boys book he wrote!  Thanks, Tim!

Me, Frank Fosco, and Keith

Capping off the night at the hotel bar before sleep

Goodbye, pal!

So it looks like Keith will be back in 2018!  He's already signed on for Comic Card again next fall, and I'm trying to get him here again in May for the annual awesome MSP Comic Con at the MN State Fairground!  At least by then we'll finally have the book to sign huhu.  

Finally, here's a Switch-related sketch I did at the show:

Bye!