Wanted Damned or Alive!

Last week I posted a peek at some layouts to The Marquis and the Midwife~ page 26 of the layouts opens on a poster warning the townspeople about the "Marquis Devil". I originally showed the Ministry of Inquisition's depiction of the "Marquis Devil" in chapter 3 of Danse Macabre, but for the wanted poster the drawing became more fanciful and fleshed out. Here are the design sketches for what the Ministry believes the Marquis looks like.

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Another wonderful surprise last week was finding this drawing in my inbox from Jorge Fornés, who sent me this great cliffhanger of the Marquis fighting a devil over the rooftops of Venisalle! More of his cool brushwork and energetic style can be found on his blog that would work as a caption for this drawing!

AAAAHHHHHRGGG!!

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Francesco Francavilla is a drawing machine! He's constantly producing crazy amounts of cool art whether it's Zorro, his creation the Black Beetle or his weekly Pulp Sunday pinups (and tons more)! It was a great surprise to find this Marquis birthday card in my inbox on Friday!

The Art of Francesco Francavilla

The Marquis and the Layouts

When laying out the larger Marquis stories I work without a script at first, just some story beats written down and then I start roughing out the page thumbnails as the story plays out in my head (image on the left shows 4 page roughs to Chapter 1). After I have the whole story initially worked out, I like to go back and tighten up the page layouts and rework the pacing ( 2 pages on the right). Some things will get moved around a bit~ shown above, what I thought would be page 12-13 in Chapt. 1 ended up as the beginning pages to Chapt 2 in the final layouts. Once the second pass of layouts are done I'll write a rough draft of the script and go onto pencilling it all out~

This is similar to how I tackle the layouts with a writer doing the hard work like on B.P.R.D, I usually do quick thumbnails when I read the script and then more detailed ones to run by the editor. And as a side note, the scribbles around the pages on the left were some first ideas for the Midwife's "coat of arms" that her children scrawl around the town.

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Worse than any ice cream headache, only Tom Fowler would know of Vol's sweet tooth!~ Tom has a great style full of life and character and don't forget to check out those cool monster designs at his blog! Great stuff!

Tom Fowler's Portfolio and Blarg!

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Troy Nixey (artist on Jenny Finn, Trout and now directing the remake of "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark") is one of those artists you want to see draw monsters and tentacles~ he did this pinup of the Marquis encountering something dark and fleshy for one of the single issues of Hell's Courtesan but a mixup saw it left out of the printed book.

Troy Nixey

The Marquis and Abe at the Vault of Midnight!

I'll be at the Vault of Midnight comic store in Ann Arbor, Michigan this month for a B.P.R.D.: The Black Goddess tpb and The Marquis: Inferno book signing (but will be happy to sign any other comics I've done too). The gang at Vault of Midnight will also have copies of the event poster on hand (free with purchase of either book) along with some other promos and surprises courtesy of Dark Horse comics! If you're in the area, please stop by the store to say hello!

November 28th, 6-8pm

Vault of Midnight