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!

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.