Issue 171

Hello!

This newsletter was supposed to go out last week, but on Friday I was at a school visit in Connecticut teaching kids about graphic novels and storytelling. It was an amazing day, with some of the brightest and earnest kids I've ever met at a school visit. Made me excited for their futures, and the fact that they're so open minded to graphic novels! Plus I got to visit with some old east coast friends. Really thankful I got to go on this trip.

Here's 5 things I thought you'd find interesting this weekend.

Enjoy!

LATEST

I do all kinds of things that never end up in the newsletter, so this spot in the header here is just a quick run down of what I've done recently that I didn't want to devote an entire segment to:

• An off brand Kamen Rider: LINK or LINK​
• Young Hellboy: LINK​
• Podcast Episode 155: Sacrificing for Art with KeshArt​
• Patreon Art Post: Coral Garden​
• Patreon Getting A book Deal Series: Part 1 and Part 2​

1) Moonbreaker Concept Art

From the Drawings Unit

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A couple years ago I was brought on early on to do concept art for the recently released game Moonbreaker.

I recently got clearance to share my concept art online so here's a few images of a massive piece I had a ton of fun creating.

I started out doing a couple rounds of character designs, but they moved me on to designing some scenes and world building. This first scene shown here is supposed to be one of the capital cities of the universe and I tried to pack in as much story and detail as I could in there to make it feel like a lived in metropolis. I based it on my many trips to NYC where you have opulence and squalor living on top of each other, and a middle class just trying to get to work without getting in the way of each other.

You can see the rest of my Moonbreaker Concept Art here: LINK​

PATREON: I'm doing a series of posts on getting a book deal. This isn't a case study of a book deal I've landed in the past. This is a week by week, play by play of me currently trying to land a deal with one of the major New York publishers.

I'm sharing my strategies, my email interactions, notes I'm getting from my agent, missteps, and rejections. You see concept art, the gnarly stuff that's discarded, but also the polished stuff I'm sharing with publishers. We are in part 2 this week of a multi-part series that will end when the book get's published!

Sign up now: LINK​

The amount of support on my Patreon ebbs and flows, but always hovers around 125-130 people. I'd like to get that up to 140 this month. If you sign up this month I'll give you any of my digital artbooks of your choice. Just DM after sign up and I'll send you a download link.

You also get a 15% discount in my shop, and at the end of the month some patrons get all my working files to learn from and pick apart. Sign up here: LINK​

2) The unintentional dystopian beauty of oil rigs

From the Office of Oceanic Affairs

As a product of our times I straddle the fence between both needing and hating that I need oil based energy. All that aside, I can appreciate the engineering marvels and utilitarian beauty of these mega structures.

I pulled these images from a fascinating thread on twitter sharing a ton of images of oil rig structures I'd never seen before.

The thread stuck a lively and mostly civil discussion about what is beautiful and whether or not something can be beautiful in spite of its function.

I'll leave that debate to others, for now I'm just so caught up with their designs and how I can apply that to the comics I'm creating.

Read the entire thread here: LINK​

3) On the Book Radar

From the Office of Comics and Books Acquisitions

Here's five books I've recently acquired and/or read that I think should be on your radar:

Dragon Hoops: LINK​

It's fascinating how Yang weaves his own life into the narrative of this book. It's a window into the world of high school basketball, with a history of the sport threaded throughout.

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Frontier: LINK​

THIS BOOK. Hot damn. I don't read French, but the book is gorgeous and delicate, and intense. And I got all of that from looking at each panel. It's a sci-fi masterpiece and I wish my comics could do just a fraction of what this one does. Can't wait for the english translation.

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Superman: Up in the Sky: LINK​

I read this to celebrate Superman's 80the birthday. I was reading a twitter thread of “what superman book would you recommend to someone who hasn’t ever read superman” and this was the one that kept showing up on the list that I hadn’t already read.

It’s a good Superman doing what Superman does book, with all the weird and all the heart.

Joe Death and the Graven Image: LINK​

I'm currently reading this, and just love where the story is going and the art is pretty unconventional but engaging. I'll probably be highlighting Benjamin Schipper in a future newsletter.

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Ryo Yambe Sketch Vol 1: LINK​

I mentioned Ryo in the last newsletter, and since then his book became available! It ships from Japan, and the process is a little convoluted, but the book is a feast for the eyes.

4) The Grungergetic comic art of Vlad Legostaev

From the Illustrators Division

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I've coined a term for this style of art that I see in Legostaev and his contemporaries: Grungergetic.

It's grungy, full of energy, and I love it. I'm always afraid to get a little sloppy with my inks in favor of keeping things tight. But I'd love to loosen up a little like Vlad.

Vlad Legostaev is a Ukrainian based comic artist and one to keep an eye on. I love how he draws the Turtles: LINK​

You can see more of his work here:

Instagram: LINK​

Twitter: LINK (Content warning, lots of grizzly Ukrainian war coverage)

Website: LINK​

5) On Reading

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

In 2009 I shared a table at a Mocca Arts Fest in NYC with 3 other people who were all just starting our careers in comics in the previous years.

A few nights ago I was reading a report on the best selling comics of 2022, and there was a list of authors in order of how many books they sold last year.

One of the people I shared the table with was 7th on the list selling 850,000 books!

Another was 22nd on the list selling 350,000 books!

While completely happy for them and their well deserved success, I was feeling bad and anxious about my much dimmer success in comics the next morning. I was just down on myself for not reaching those heights of achievement. Then I came across a quote by Epictetus in my morning studies:

I thought about that in relation to my current bout of anxiety. A book’s success is wildly out of the creators hands. All the creator has control over is making it as good as he or she can.

Just focus on making something the best you can make it.

That’s the part you can have anxiety over, because that’s the part you control.

That's all for this week. Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope you have a great weekend!

-Jake

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