The last entry

Hey everybody, welcome to the very last installment of The Switch production blog! It's bittersweet but don't think of it as a goodbye. Think of it as a "THANK GOD THESE MORONS ARE FINALLY DONE."

So yeah, now that we're no longer in production, this blog will get mothballed. Future messages about The Switch will revert back to the official Kickstarter updates so keep an eye on your inboxes. You never know when you'll hear from us (spoiler alert: you'll be getting one next week).

I thought I'd unveil one last full page of art in this final blog entry and show the world our final likeness reward, that of backer Tony Vaccaro. To the best of my knowledge, we only had Tony's profile pic from his Kickstarter ID to work with but I think Tom captured him pretty well, casting him in the role of Bigfoot below. Welcome to the world of The Switch, Tony, and thanks for your support!

We've got two other likeness rewards also represented on this page that you guys have seen before, Matt Deangelis/Transient and Mackenzie True as The Truth. They join the ghost of Ronald Reagan and the mysterious warrior, Aequitas, to round out the roster of our team of heroes, The Brigade.

And on that note, I'm going to wrap up this blog entry. On behalf of Tom and Robb, we can only say that we're excited the book will finally be getting into your hands. Hugs to all of you and you'll be seeing us pop up in your email very, very soon!

Signing off,

Keith

Cameo shout-outs to backers/supporters

As we finalize the post-production of The Switch, I thought it'd be a good/fun time to show some cameos of some of our supporters who either backed out Kickstarter, or supported in person at one of our many appearances by purchasing Switch prints.  This is aside from the major reward levels where certain backers actually became more relevant characters in the storyline.

Of course, the best time to draw real-life people is when there are crowd scenes (there are a few in this book), and I have to come up with many different faces and looks (pro tip for you aspiring artists out there:  DON'T draw the same cookie-cutter face patterns over and over if you want a convincing scene!). I have two things to rely on here: my early training as a caricature artist (helps differentiate features better--highly recommended for ALL budding comic artists), and a slew of friends/supporters!  The reference is there, now it's just getting an appropriate likeness.  So here are a few shout-outs...and congrats to all for your comic book debut!

Thanks Lennea and Jeremy for your support!

Thanks, Kelly, for your support!

Umm....1990s mullet Mark McGwire?  Thanks for all those home runs I guess!

Shout out to PhoBolsa's Lan and Yevato "Old Boy"!

Shout out to Kyle Le

Hey everybody, we're back at it again for another thrilling week of The Switch production blog! I'm handling the blog duties again this week as I'm not really sure where in the world Tom might be right now. I know he was in Thailand because he sent me pics dressed as a ladyboy. I wish I could share them because he looks BEAUTIFUL but I had to swear not to share them...oh, screw it. Tom will be angry but here's our boy putting the bang in Bangkok. 

Anyway, back to The Switch. We're there, guys. Hard to believe but the last pages are being colored, Bill is plowing through the lettering as I type this and we should be less than two weeks away from sending it to the printer. We really can't wait to announce that it's finally done and off to print. As much as The Switch has been a labor of love for all of us, the lateness of the project has been a constant weight on our shoulders. It'll be a huge sigh of relief for all of us, creators and backers and our publishing partners at Dynamite, to get it out there.

So as the book drags itself over the finish line, I've started drawing my share of the headsketches that everyone is getting. I've also started rounding up our guest artists to finish their reward sketches and begun work on the credit/thank you page where each of you will find your name in the back of the book. Just crossing t's and dotting I's, making sure nothing is forgotten.

Anyway, enough rambling. Here's some preview art with fake captions again this week and then something really special. I'm unveiling a two-page spread that Tom and Robb did an amazing job on. Hope you dig it too.

"Give me back my space-binky, dammit!"

"Nom nom nom, Interstellar teething!"

Is it a battle scene or a visual representation of trying to get this book done?

Anyway, that's it for this week. Thanks as always for the support and patience. See you guys next week!

Keith

Blogging once more

Hey everybody, it's blog time again. Thanks to Tom for handling this little slice of digital communication for the last few weeks. I didn't even ask him to, he just took it upon himself to become a blogging machine. You'll probably be stuck with me for the next several installments, I believe Tom has some kind of Vietnamese engagement ceremony this weekend. I'm not sure exactly what it entails but I've been told it's "grueling." I'm also pretty sure, knowing Tom, it will involve a donkey in some way, shape or form. 

I'm currently recovering from surgery on my good ol' leg last Friday. A few of you were nice enough to send me well wishes beforehand or check up on me afterwards and your thoughts were very appreciated. Anyway, let's get down to the nitty gritty and talk about Switch...

Right now, I'm happy to say that (unless I'm counting wrong) we're down to the last 4 pages of artwork being colored. Robb has been a godsend in juggling this stuff in between his other work and he's getting through the pages as fast as he can. He's also brought a level of organization to the various files/versions of the pages that has streamlined the process. So if you've got a project, by all means bring Robb aboard. He's the man!

Once the coloring is finished, it should take our letterer Bill roughly two weeks to letter the second half of the book, handle any dialogue revisions or typos needed, and slap the whole thing together and it'll be off to the printer at last. In spite of all the setbacks, I'm always optimistic that things will run smoothly the rest of the way and we'll get this book out the door.

Anyway, here's some preview art with fake captions to carry us through to next week...

 "Who ate my last goddamn donut?!"

"Do you think I eat donuts with a figure like this?"

"The Moss eat the donut. The Moss not the sorry!"

"The moss can count on the fingers how many the donuts the Moss eats!"

Anyway, that's all for this week, my friends. Thanks for all the support and as always, your patience. No one is more anxious to get this project out the door than we are!"

Quick Exclusive Art Drop

This week is a quickie as I (Tom) have been busy tending to engagement matters here in the hot, humid country of Vietnam.  Consequently, this will by my final update for the next couple weeks as I will be doing ceremonial/traditional affairs with the fiancee and family before I head off to Thailand.  Which is why I "stacked" my turns doing consecutive updates (as Keith and I--with the occasional help of colorist Robb Miller--have usually been doing).  Which brings me to this week: Keith just had his (hopefully final surgery) to take care of his nagging broken leg pain.  This week we'll give him the time to heal up some and come off the pain killers, and he'll be back the next couple weeks.  Enjoy these exclusive peeks!

Moss doing...something?

Lover Boy kicking...something?

Interstellar pointing at...something?

Female Switch angry at...something?

An ominous shot of Interstellar up to no good...

More exclusive new art, mid-January edition!

I'm about halfway through my trip here in Vietnam (oh now time flies).  And yes, it's me (Tom) again.  I'm stacking up my blog updates so that hopefully Keith can help me out when I will really need it after a couple weeks for more engagement ceremonies/traditions to my woman here in Vietnam.  Anyway, I'm excited to show some re-tweaked colors from our colorist Robb.  Well, he's the 90% colorist.  By this I mean that Keith and I were originally going to do the bulk of the coloring.  But when we got behind, we enlisted my artist pal Robb Miller to jump in and lend us his skills to help finish the book.  And we couldn't be happier having him join the team.  Similarly, I was originally going to pencil and ink the entire book, but Keith has also been kind enough to contribute inks on some pages here and there.  So it's definitely been a team effort.  Here are some more sneak preview pages before you see the whole thing in print just a few short months:

Electricia is "smoking" hot (get it?)

Little is known and shown about the warrior 

Aequitas

The Switch ready to kick some ass

Jody checking up on Jenn...

The Truth....kneeling in defeat to Lover Boy?

Happy New Year!

We're hoping everyone had a Happy Holidays, and are off to a great start to 2018! This year is a big one for the Switch team as the graphic novel +10 extra pages (from 80-to-90!) is finally seeing print soon. So when that happens, expect a blast of reviews and interviews for the Switch hype train.  At least it drags our names in the spotlight a little while longer!  And speaking of hype, Keith, Robb, and I are booking appearances for the year to help promote the book.  So far I've got Keith locked for a couple Minnesota shows as we love him dearly there for some reason.  But working on a couple other states as well.  If you're a store or show promoter who is interested in having the co-creators of The Switch  (in addition to our extensive Marvel/DC background) as guests, it's not hard to find us online ;)

Prior to the release of the printed book, I (Tom) have been silently debating on whether it'd be a good idea to release one of our rewards early in the form of the penciled PDF (no words, no inks/colors, just pencils).  I'll have to chat with Keith about that possibility, or whether it might "blow the wad" on the storyline too early. We may just have to wait until the release.  Of course, we'll keep you posted.

Finally, your peeks at new art this week:

what last week's peek of Crom ultimately turned into...!

Lover Boy and his unlovable smirk

Komodo...dead?

Our main star Electricia (Jen) in a contemplative mood

A badass look at someone we haven't seen enough of: Omerta