A change is a come'n!

You might have noticed some of the changes to our site. I know, they’re not big changes but changes none the less! My buddy jay was nice enough (as well as smart enough) to set it up so that we can add some changes ourselves without it taking an act of God.
First thing that is better is the NEWS page. We are now trying to keep that up to date as well as post as many events as we can that we think you may like to attend.

Second, we have added new character to the BLOG posts. I don’t know why but this is one of my favorite additions. It’s the little things isn’t it? So now the new posts have a range of about 13 different characters as opposed to 2. Again, this doesn’t change anything but since I am a man that works off of visuals …this totally makes me happy!

Third, we added new banners to the home page that will “randomly” change per visit…or if you just keep hitting refresh. Yeah, so! Who cares if that’s how I do it? I like to see the different banners! We posted several pictures from Berona’s War II: Fight for Amity. This will give you a nice little look into the next book. Plus we couldn’t really keep the add up that we had before because we are, for the most part, not selling the first edition anymore…sorry guys.

Another small improvement is the MEDIA page. We have the Zombie video as well as the original Promo video. Our plan for this page is to have it so once you click on this page it will give you options for videos as well as wallpapers and maybe some avatars. As far as the PROJECTS page goes, we have something special up our sleeve for this one that we will try to get to as soon as we can!

-Jesse

WOO-WHOOO!

Our Preview Book is out!!! And though I'm sure there will be those out there who can’t wait to bash on our story (there always are), we are getting a lot of really good reviews! This is a SMILING point for us! We couldn’t be happier about all of the kind words that people have to say.

http://nerdiest-kids.com/between-the-panels-beronas-war-preview-book/

http://www.brokenfrontier.com/reviews/p/detail/beronas-war-preview-book

http://dantaylorblog.com/?tag=jesse-labbe

http://graphicpolicy.com/2010/05/17/review-berona’s-war-preview-book/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

http://www.previewsworld.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=6&s=221&ai=94024&ssd=

http://www.suvudu.com/2010/05/take-a-side-in-beronas-hundred-year-war.html

http://popculturenetwork.com/article.php?story=20100419123259401

Also, tomorrow Anthony, Cooper and I will be at Heroes and Dreams (Flowood, MS) for the signing of the book. It is the first time that we will all be in the same time at once, so if you’re in the area from 1-5pm swing on by to pick up your signed copy as well!

-Jesse

Your Epidermis Is Showing!

Back around the beginning of April, Anthony and I were discussing the anatomy (see April 9th post) of our characters. I wanted to be able to get all the dynamic poses out of the Cropones as I possibly could. I didn’t want to change the appearance of my characters but I did want to better understand them. This seems like a “no-brainer” but it did cause me a bit more trouble then I had intended. I know, I know…if I am the one who designed them, than should I not be the one to best understand them??? Well that would seem to be the obvious answer but as it turned out I had been drawing these guys to the point that I could do it with my eyes closed HOWEVER, I never really understood WHAT I was actually drawing. I was very aware of the exterior design but what lied beneath the Cropone fur was a mystery. So after a couple of days of drawing nothing but the frame of the character….I began to see what it was I needed to see while designing them.
-Jesse

Free Comic Book Day!

Well the FCB Day has come and gone! I am happy to say that we had a good time and saw a lot of new faces. We got set up early at Heroes and Dreams Comic shop and started sketching immediately.

As expected, we quickly sold almost all of our “Premature Lunch Box” books. By the end of the day we only had a couple of books left. We were able to walk away from the table each with our own book. We are still deciding if we are going to produce anymore of these books.

It’s said that every time you turn a page, baby Jesus cries.

In Ele-Alta, there was stone. In Croponia, there was wood. This is what makes Amity so valuable. It’s where the green meets the grey! It contained wood, bone and stone. Most soldiers who fought in Amity bare this of badge of honor. Amity was the perfect find.
So we were happy to see that quite a few of the “Amity necklaces” found new homes.
So to everyone who showed up and showed some love…thank you! As always we enjoyed it and look forward to next year. Also, our Berona’s War: Preview Guide comes out on the 12th…so we will be at Heroes again the following Saturday to do signings. It will be Anthony, Cooper and I. The book is only around $3, so be sure to pick one up!

-Jesse

Slayers and Shaman

Finally! We finished up two more stories blocking our paths of Book II completion. Anthony’s slayer story: Devotion and my shaman story: Denial. The shaman story (both written by Cooper) took me a bit longer than planned because my game plan kinda fell apart and began to take new directions after I started working on it. We wanted both stories to have somewhat the same feel to them and share a “darker” theme. We originally wanted them to have a Mignola feel, so we made sure to have lots of blacks and plenty of negative space. Anthony wanted to use several smaller panels over a larger image while I wanted more of a promotional poster look to mine.

I think we both ended up where we wanted. Devotion is a four page story consisting of larger drawings covered by smaller panels and Denial is a four page story being told through four different “movie style” posters, each representing the words on that particular page. And as always we each worked on our own rough layouts with our own characters and then passed them off for the other to do his character. Anthony draws all of the Ele-Alta and I all of the Cropones. My story wasn’t so bad for Anthony because I only had one page where our characters interact BUT as for Anthony’s story he had quite a few panels where he needed Cropones added. One of which is a HUGE group of zombie Cropones engaged in battle with a slayer…not something that particularly makes me glow with excitement.

I wanted to share a page from each story for your viewing satisfaction…enjoy.

-Jesse

SUNDAY DRIVE!!!

Destination…Success

“The War” is the final story that is needed to complete the written part of Book II: Fight for Amity. It is turning out to be one of the tougher stories of the book because essentially it is also (in a since) our first comic. Thought Book II is composed of a bunch of short stories, The War is the same length as a comic (25-30 pages) so we are treating it as such…also we have hopes of actually putting out a comic or two (depending on the success of the first two books) so this could be good practice for finding the look we want for those books.
ANYWAY, Cooper is having some of the same problems I have come across when it comes to doing these stories…It can always be BETTER! After Anthony and I gave him our outline to The War, he immediately began to sink his teeth into it but after awhile he knew he could do better. After he made it better, it excited him enough to, once again, make it BETTER! But in doing so, he came across some problems in the story and needed to break through them.

The office with removable T-tops

That’s where THE SUNDAY DRIVE comes in. What better office then the 300zx? I dare to say there is one….no, no there is not! We jumped into the car and hit the road. Before too long we began to work our way through the story as well as work our way to other states…ooops.
We found ourselves entering Louisiana and started looking for somewhere to eat. The GPS was NO HELP AT ALL!!! At one point it actually said, “left in 1.5 miles. Take next right in 5…..where the hell are you?” I kid you not, it told us it had to call a friend and it would get back to us.

What did this thing just say???

We finally found a nice place to eat and later walked to a spot by the Mississippi River, with a good cup-of-joe and worked our way through the rest of the story. It made for a pretty good day.

Apparently everything closes on Sunday in this here Ghost Town. (Cooper)

-Jesse

More Bookmarks...

With free comic book day right around the corner and our preview book “most likely” missing its release date (making me a disgruntled artist) I figured I might as well try to get something new for the event. I started small with the always easy Bookmarks! I gathered some of the art from Book II as well as from other projects (posters, games and such) and laid them out for a presentable little spot saver! Here is just a little look at the start of the project.
-Jesse