Wandering Koala 1:Insomnia black & white preview

Wandering Koala #1: Insomnia NOW on Sale!

No one can sleep at Alexia’s bed ‘n breakfast (which isn’t good for business). But what can she do? Located in the country far from neighbors, it sports the most comfortable beds her budget could buy. Then a knock just before midnight brings a stranger with a rather unorthodox solution.

Will the guests finally enjoy a good night’s rest, or merely trade one problem for another?

Wandering Koala issue 1 is an all-ages, weird mystery pulp adventure comic book. Fans of Will Eisner’s The Spirit, The Real Ghostbusters, Paul Pope, Golgo13, Dylan Dog, Hellboy, classic Felix the Cat, Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, Aeon Flux, and classic comics should love it!

Preview and Buy >>

Wandering Koala 1: Insomnia preview

Wandering Koala #1: Insomnia NOW on Sale!

No one can sleep at Alexia’s bed ‘n breakfast (which isn’t good for business). But what can she do? Located in the country far from neighbors, it sports the most comfortable beds her budget could buy. Then a knock just before midnight brings a stranger with a rather unorthodox solution.

Will the guests finally enjoy a good night’s rest, or merely trade one problem for another?

Wandering Koala issue 1 is an all-ages, weird mystery pulp adventure comic book. Fans of Will Eisner’s The Spirit, The Real Ghostbusters, Paul Pope, Golgo13, Dylan Dog, Hellboy, classic Felix the Cat, Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, Aeon Flux, and classic comics should love it!

Preview and Buy >>

 

Wandering Koala 1: Insomnia is NOW ON SALE!

 

 

 

No one can sleep at Alexia’s bed ‘n breakfast (which isn’t good for business).

But what can she do? Located in the country far from neighbors, it sports the most comfortable beds her budget could buy.
Then a knock just before midnight brings a stranger with a rather unorthodox solution.

Will the guests finally enjoy a good night’s rest, or merely trade one problem for another?

Wandering Koala issue 1 is an all-ages, weird mystery pulp adventure comic book. Fans of Will Eisner’s The Spirit, The Real Ghostbusters, Paul Pope, Golgo13, Dylan Dog, Hellboy, classic Felix the Cat, Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack, Aeon Flux, and classic comics should love it!

BUY NOW: https://www.amazon.com//dp/B0BDWNJRSG

 

 

Wandering Koala rides The Wild Turkey (colored)

A colored version of the the engraved style drawing. I'm not sure if I like it better with or without color.

Character Sketch: Wandering Koala ready for his dance lesson

Our favorite Silent Wanderer ^TM is getting ready for his dance lesson. This was inked with a Tombow Soft Brush Pen and colored in Adobe Photoshop CC. The background was created in Photoshop.

If at first you don't succeed...

So I had originally created a different cover for my latest graphic novel, and while it was good, it just didn't speak to me or feel like the story. But I didn't know what else to do, so I published it.

Then while working on the Adult Coloring Book version of the story (yes, there will be a Wandering Koala Adult Coloring Book for you to color all by your lonesome very soon), I decided to do something else for the cover so it looked like its own animal. I ended up liking this cover so much, that I decided to change the color eBook version as well. I'm much happier with how it turned out.

What do you think?

This was inked with a Prismacolor brush-tipped pen and colored in Adobe Photoshop.

The latest adventure of the Wandering Koala is now available as an Amazon exclusive.

Pulp Illustration: Wandering Koala tackles Shark Lizard

I am a huge fan of Pulps from the 30s and 40s. They show the raw energy of writers and artists who are full of ideas that haven't been worn down by years of experience. There is something fresh about them. In our day, eComics, eBooks, and blogs serve a similar roll with wannabe professions throwing their ideas out there for the world to see. Most are rough and could use a polish, but polish tends to tone down some of the freshness and fun and uniqueness. Pulps, both modern and old, serve as great inspiration for myself and many others.

The image above was drawn with my Combo brush style (a thin Zebra disposable brush pen and Japanese brush pen), then colored in Corel Painter. I love how it turned out! The colors are much more muted than I usually use, but they work in this situation.

Let me know what you think.

Halloween 2015: Wandering Koala in the clutches of Witch Hazel

Yesterday I posted the black & white line work of my latest illustration. Today I present it in glorious color.

I've always been a fan of minimalist color schemes. This one is basically orange and green with a bit of yellowish versions of those colors, and yet somehow it appears to be full color. I colored and toned this storybook illustration in Adobe Photoshop CC after drawing it with a Prismacolor Brush Pen, a Tombow Art Brush Pen,  a Japanese Brush Pen from Pentel, and a Sharpie.

I love the shorter stature of the figures, the cutsey look they have, the faux toned shadows, and the minimalist color scheme.

But what do you think?

Before & After - A Great Kick

 

 On the left the original hand drawn artwork inked with a Japanese Brush Pen for the ongoing eSerial at WanderingKoalaTales.blogspot.com.

On the right the finished illustration colored in Corel Painter.

I think they both turned out spectacularly well. What do you think?

It's Finally Here!

The ongoing Wandering Koala Serial has officially begun! 

Each weekday visit WanderingKoalaTales.blogspot.com to read the latest page and see the latest illustration!

Below is the first page of the story:

The sun has finished his day’s work and is heading home somewhere over the horizon. The owl will soon begin its hunt. But it won’t be the only one. Soon I will join it chasing a rodent of my own, only one much more clever who has evaded governments, local law enforcement officers, and even small armies.

But he won’t escape me, the great Thylacine.

I’ve tracked him across several borders to one of the largest republics in the southern hemisphere. Only a few years ago this nation made headlines for its explosive growth and potential to become a major player in global events. But like so much promise, the hype was greater than the reality, and the people are left singing about what could have been.

It’s a perfect location. The eyes of the world have turned away from here, and everyone thinks he’s on the other side of the world thanks to regular “candid photos” going viral on various social media sites. This man knows how to hide, at least from normal eyes.

Unfortunately for him, I’m not the usual anything. Hundreds have said good-bye to this world without even knowing who stamped their passport. Even the majority of my clients have no idea to whom their money went. But there are those who know, and they do their job to connect A to me, discreetly.

---

View all Wandering Koala Stories >>

Buy Wandering Koala Merchandise >>

Sneak Peek: Mistakes

 

This story has taken me a while to finish, because I really wanted to try something different. I've been looking over the past Wandering Koala Tales (and boy has the catalog been growing!) trying to decide what I liked, what I didn't like, and what direction I want to go. I've tried a lot of different genres--novels, comics, graphic novels, short stories, novellas, and anthologies, and a lot of different media and styles exploring the world of the Silent Wanderer.

One important element of the Wandering Koala when I created him and his world was the flexibility to literally do anything I wanted. And while I've had fun doing that, it's probably been kind of schizophrenic for the reader to follow the story told in so many different formats and style and not even in order. And the publishing schedule has been erratic.

With the launch of the first Wandering Koala Digest, I've finally figured out the format that works for the stories I want to tell that both provides the flexibility for the character and the wide range of tales I want to tell but is still easy enough for the reader to follow so he doesn't get lost. And a bimonthly schedule gives me the time to craft quality tales while still providing a regular dose of Wandering Koala action at predictable times.

With the third Digest I think I've finally figured out the art style that I'll stick with for most, if not all, of the tales. I'll admit it isn't the most polished art I've ever created, but polish isn't what I'm looking for. Wandering Koala was inspired by Boys Adventure stories like Hardy Boys, Pulp Fiction like Doc Savage, and adventure comics like The Phantom that were pumped out at a frantic pace by people who had energy and excitement oozing out their pencils and typewriters. The tales were fast and furious and spoke to something visceral inside the reader instead of merely stimulating the intellect (although they certainly did that with the wide range of topics and knowledge the authors possessed and displayed). This art style is a lot more raw and rough and expressionistic. It's supposed to illustrated the mood as much as the scene (and maybe even a little more).

I'm in love with this first page, and I'm excited to release the whole story in February 2014 so you can enjoy it as well. Be sure to leave me a comment and tell me what you think!

Art Philosophy: When Universes Collide

 

One thing that makes the Marvel Universe so much fun is how easily and how often characters in one book will crossover into another. In the DC Universe that's always been a lot more rare. Probably why I enjoyed (and still do) SuperFriends so much.

But while I love to see Superman meet Batman and Wonder Woman and Spider-man team up with DareDevil and Captain America, I'm not sure I'm a big fan of Superman meeting Spider-man. I love both characters, but for different reasons. They each have a different tone and feel that just don't mesh well with each other. And I don't mean just because one is heroic and the other is tortured, but there is a different feel to the Marvel Universe as opposed to the DC Universe. Their universes are just so different, that they don't make sense to me together. Am I alone in this? Even when the same writer and artist team work on the different characters, the work is so different. Take a look at Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman: The Long Halloween and compare it to their Spider-man: Blue or Hulk: Grey--they have totally different vibes.

But there are some characters and universes that make sense to meet. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had a lot of crossovers, and those have made sense. Hellboy has shown up with characters from other companies (including Batman) and it worked. So I guess I'm not against crossovers per se, but I want the crossover to make sense. I want the characters to mesh.

So does Wandering Koala meeting Wonder Woman make sense? I think so, and not just because I created Wandering Koala. I think they work, because Wandering Koala is a pulp-style hero, and pulp heroes seem to have the most flexibility because of the visceral place they come from. Pulp art and pulp fiction is as basic to humanity and human emotion as one can get, and for that reason it makes sense with other characters. Look at Tarzan--he crosses over with everyone in one form or another (KaZar in the Marvel Universe for example) and he works. Hellboy is pulp and works. Spawn in some forms is almost pulp and he made sense crossing over with Batman. The new Arrow series on the CW is a pulp interpretation of Green Arrow, and it works better than any other version of the character.

What do you think of crossovers? Do you enjoy them? Have any ever bothered you?

Archetypes in Art

 

Archetypes are recurrent motifs or images in art or literature. They include the Hero, the Wise Old Man, the Damsel in Distress, the irredeemable Villain, the Magic Animal, etc. Evidences of them can be found in all cultures and all times. Some speculate that they are part of our makeup and that's why we respond to them so readily and why they are not limited to any culture or time period. One of the most famous scholars to study archetypes is Joseph Campbell. His book was a major influence on George Lucas when he wrote Star Wars.

Above is my version of the archetype of the Thief. In this version, he is a masked highwayman on a motorcycle robbing from the good and the innocent. I drew it with a zebra brush pen and colored it in Corel Painter. I really like the greyscale with one color approach, and in this image it almost looks like full color. And it's very appropriate for Halloween.

Let me know what you think!

Page 2 of the Upcoming Wandering Koala Digest

 

In case you are wondering about the technique, I drew the pages with a Staedlter pencil, inked them with a stick (yes a stick) dipped in Sumi ink, and then colored them in Adobe Photoshop.

Wandering Koala Digest 1 will be available in print and all eBook formats on October 16. To stay up to date, why not like the Wandering Koala Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wanderingkoala ?

Book Covers Decoded

The only things more important than a cover when it comes to whether someone will pick up a book are trusted recommendations and whether the person enjoyed the previous book/current author. So a cover is pretty darn important.

Essential elements include an image on the front that not only grabs attention but sells the contents of the book. The attention grabbing is important so it has a chance to sell. And I say sell, because describing or informing the potential reader what's in the book isn't enough--there's too much competition. (Of course, if you have a big name, you can fill half the cover with it and still sell books.)

Once that is taken care of, a compelling block of text telling the reader why his life will be incomplete if he doesn't read this book helps those on the edge. And a few endorsements/testimonies never hurt to add a bandwagon argument to the mix. People are suckers for bandwagon arguments. 

The image above is a combination of digital and traditional illustration techniques (can you identify where I used which?). The color scheme is one I've played with in the past and wanted to try again, but in a more developed way. The first time I felt it was too harsh. I think I've figured it out so it's striking without being overpowering. But that's just my opinion.

Let me know what you think!

Third times the charm

Covers are a tricky thing for me. I know what I love in a cover, but when it comes to create one, I struggle. This is my third attempt at a cover to The Green Bull. I liked the first one I did, but it was radically different from other covers I'd done, and it didn't seem to get a much reaction. So I tried something else, but I wasn't very satisfied with it. So I tried one more time.

This time I finally got the kind of image I want for a Wandering Koala story. It's moody, it's pulpy, and it is a scene from the story that whets one's appetite for the rest.

The story is now available for all eReaders at Smashwords, and is available at most individual stores and will soon be available at all fine retailers.

The Green Bull (a Wandering Koala tale)

Kinghorn never expected to see a murdered co-worker’s body tied to the blade of a windmill he helped have built. He is even more shocked to learn his best friend is the prime suspect!

The case appears open and shut on the surface—but dark secrets never stay buried. Can Kinghorn deal with the truth behind the man he worships and the cause he?s given everything to support? What price will he pay for his loyalty? And what will it cost the city around him? Can even the intervention of the Wandering Koala solve the riddle of the Green Bull?

The Green Bull is a 17,000-word novella with 20 original illustrations and a new essay.

Read a Free Sample ››

Digital Painting the Corel Painter way

It's no secret I love Pulp Art (Doc Savage, The Spider, The Bat, and more) and Boys Adventure Stories (Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, and more). I love the painted covers. I love the black and white pen & ink illustrations inside.

I've always wanted to create books like those. And a few years ago I published my first one. Pick it up if you haven't already. Links to Paperback and eBook versions are at www.WanderingKoala.com. I wrote the boys adventure type story (but for an older, more sophisticated audience), I drew the black and white pen & ink (and brushwork) illustrations for the interiors, and I painted a cover.

Ok, that last part I didn't do--not really.

I tried. I really did. But I just can't paint. So I did the best I could, and it turned out well, but.... I figured I would never have painted covers unless I hired someone to do them, and I really didn't want to do that. It was bad enough hiring an editor for my second novel. He did a great job and gave me numerous insights that have helped my writing tremendously, but I still want my work to be MY work--100% Jeff.

Then the other day I was watching several courses from Lynda.com (great site to learn to use graphics programs--get a subscription if you don't already). I discovered some really cool and amazing things that Corel Painter can do--things I had no idea I had software for. So I put the lessons to use.

Above is my latest work. It took several tries to get it right, but I think it turned out well. It looks like the background from Tarzan. I'm definitely going to try this technique to have a truly painted cover for my next work, The Green Bull (a Wandering Koala tale), and not just a wannabe painted cover.

I can't wait!

Pulp Heroes: Wandering Koala meets Lobster Johnson

This is the final pulp team up (for now) of Wandering Koala with my favorite pulp characters. Lobster Johnson was created by Mike Mignola in the pages of his Hellboy comic book. Initially he was a pulp character in the spirit of The Spider or The Shadow sporting twin guns but with a mysterious background. He eventually appeared in his own mini-series and novel. His second mini-series is currently on sale.

Pulp Heroes: Wandering Koala meets The Phantom, The Ghost Who Walks

This is the third in a series of new pulp fiction team ups. Previous match ups include The Spider and Jak Phoenix.

The Phantom was created by Lee Falk, who also created Mandrake the Magician, and appeared in newspaper comics. The original Phantom was hijacked by pirates and swore an oath that he and his descendants would fight evil. Most stories center around Kit Walker and his girlfriend Diana Palmer.

The Phantom appeared in a movie serial, comic books, a major motion picture, animated cartoons on television with other King Feature Syndicate characters and in his own show as a futuristic version, and mini-series on SciFi. He wears a purple costume and carries guns. Because he didn't actually originate in the pulps, some don't consider him a true pulp hero, but he had the mood, style, and sense of adventure that fits the genre. He is considered by some to be the first costumed character or superhero predating Superman by several years because he had a costume. I still consider Superman to be the first, because it was his introduction that launched the whole genre and spawned so many imitators.

I've liked The Phantom for quite a long time. A guy in a purple suit running around with a dog shouldn't be exciting and enduring, but the character is. Moonstone published an anthology of short stories with illustrations by Ruben Procopio a few years back that was great. I'm currently reading reprints of the old comic strips which are continue to impress me with their draftsmanship and engaging stories. It was while reading those that I got the idea for this series of Pulp Hero team ups.


The illustration was sketched with a 2B Staedtler pencil, penciled with a Papermate Sharpwriter #2 pencil, inked with a brush and sumi ink, and colored in Adobe Photoshop CS. The building was constructed in Google SketchUp and rendered in Corel Painter X.

You can read more adventures of Wandering Koala in his latest adventure Wandering Koala uncovers the Sixth Figure. You can follow The Phantom in pretty much any format you like short of radio dramas.