Boston & Baltimore Comic Cons 2014 & a New Chadhiyana Edition

Chadhiyana 2nd edition coverThere’s a lot to announce this week concerning Chadhiyana, and even more to come in the coming months. Next month is the Baltimore Comic-Con (September 5-7, 2014), and amongst its many Artist Alley guests will be Chadhiyana creator, J. M. DeSantis. However, even before Baltimore is the Boston Comic Con this weekend (Friday through Sunday). Amongst the highlights of the convention are a panel on which J. M. DeSantis will be speaking (on Friday) and the release of a new edition of Chadhiyana.

This second edition of Chadhiyana (the first comic) features new cover art (by J. M. DeSantis), the new Chadhiyana logo (created by Corey Breen–which is now featured on the site, if you haven’t noticed), and the Prologue of Chadhiyana: In the Company of Shadows, as well as a new afterword by J. M. DeSantis. The reason for including the Prologue of the graphic novel was that the original book was too short (a mere 16 pages), however J. M. DeSantis did not want to include new content which would force previous buyers to re-purchase the same book just for new content. Plus, it would give new buyers an introduction to the graphic novel. What’s more, much of the original book was imperfect–especially the colours as they compared to the original art. Read more… ›

Boston Comic Con 2014 is One Month Away!

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… ›

Sick of Colour

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… ›

And So Our Lady Speaks

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… ›

Chadhiyana Returns

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… ›

The Woman of the Tal-Ifatiir

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… ›

All Caught Up…Ahead Even

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… ›

Even the Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men…

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… ›

Sad News and a Look Behind the Scenes

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… ›

All Caught Up…Mostly

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… ›