Boston Comic Con begins exactly one month from today, and amongst its many distinguished guests is, Chadhiyana creator, J. M. DeSantis. This is his first convention appearance since debuting Chadhiyana: In the Company of Shadows at the New York Comic Con (October 2013)! (For information on his short hiatus from public appearances, refer to his blog on jmdesantis.com, specifically these two entries: A Word About Conventions and Shows in 2014 & Upcoming Cons & a Happy 4th of July.) So mark your calendars for August 8-10, and don’t miss out on the other appearances he has scheduled for this year.  Read more… ›

Pardon the sensationalist title (as it were). The reason there are no colours on page 43 today is because I am sick…though not of colour. On Tuesday last week (when page 42 posted) I had already begun to experience a bit of dizziness. This was followed by two days of weakness, achiness, stuffiness and a general inability to concentrate. Showing up to work was difficult enough, but drawing a straight line was nearly impossible. By Friday, I was feeling almost normal, and even though most of the page was still unpencilled, I was hopeful. That is until Saturday. Read more… ›

This week we at last hear (or read, rather) Chadhiyana’s first words in the graphic novel. Again, I know it’s a strange choice to not have the title character speak for the first forty one pages of the book (and even be unseen for a long while before that–if not, masked and disguised), but if you read my post from two weeks ago, you’ll see that I intended on creating a desire for Chadhiyana within the reader–with a certain amount of success, I might add. Read more… ›

After introducing a number of new characters (major and minor), Chadhiyana at last reappears in the book. Of course, if you haven’t figured it out yet, she was the female Tal-Ifatiir who fought and unmasked the witch (and herself) in the Prologue. Now she appears definitively in the book, and in just two weeks (following this present, short sequence) she’s finally going to speak! Read more… ›

This week, the character, Ifatir-Wamir finishes his report, which functions as an explanation of the events of the Prologue. Hopefully any of you who were lost at last have an idea of what that was all about. What’s more, in his report to the Tal-Fatiir masters, Ishalaraad and Kalaah ad-Fataar, Ifatir-Wamir mentions a woman who fought against the seemingly living forest “like a firestorm.” Do any of you have an idea who this woman is? Did any of you recognise her in the Prologue? Read more… ›

I’ve noticed a lot of visitors have viewed the last two January posts (All Caught Up…Mostly and A Page Unfinished) over the past two weeks. This was probably in response to the recent uncoloured art I posted for pages 29 and 30. The trouble is, these readers ignored the two most recent posts which addressed said pages specifically. But we’re past that now. Not only am I caught up, but I’ve finally gotten a little ahead.  Read more… ›

I’m not changing the art to black and white. I swear. While my aspirations for finishing last week’s falling-behind-page and completing this week’s page all in a week’s time were noble, it didn’t quite work out as I’d hoped. So, things fell behind again and thus two black and white pages in a row. I’ll finish them soon, to be sure, but I want to move on with coloured art, so I’ll do it as I can. Read more… ›

I was already running severely behind this week when I received a call yesterday that, my friend and journalist, Bill Baker had passed away. It took a lot out of me, and I barely got even the pencils done for page 29 in time for today’s post. That said, it was always Bill’s advice that, no matter what, I post something even if I can’t finish a page for any reason (Bill was very influential in me bringing this graphic novel to the web). So, in honour of him, and at the suggestion of my wonderful girlfriend, I’m going to turn a negative into a positive and do something a little different this week. Read more… ›

I put in some long hours yesterday to make sure that not only was page 24 completed and lettered for today, but that also I was able to re-post page 23 in its completed form. I also increased the size of the text on page 23 as I felt it might read too small for some. I’m not sure what colours you all pictured for the African-like villagers at the bottom of page 23, but blue and red is as I pictured them, once I began deciding on the colours for this scene. And, what’s more, now you get a clearer sense of the colour of the uniforms for that shadowy group from the Prologue. Read more… ›

So begins Chapter I proper, and with it at last dialogue will begin in the graphic novel. I had hoped to post the finished artwork for page 23 today; however, in light of recent events (see last week’s post on this and my main website–jmdesantis.com–for more on that) I was generally unmotivated to do much of anything for quite a few days last week. Thus, at the eleventh hour last night, with the page unfinished, I was forced to make a choice between the lesser of two evils: finish the artwork and post the page unlettered or scan the unfinished art and letter the page. I chose the latter, mainly because I had promised dialogue (at last!) with this new chapter (as was the plan from the start), but also because, though many have complimented me on the artwork in the book thus far, story is still my first consideration. Read more… ›