What a day I had Saturday! Everything seemed to be about 6 degrees off center. First there was the Hughes Net Router problems, then the thick clouds blocking my satellite reception. So I finally got everything updated on the sites and had to rush out to finish mowing the yard which I started Friday afternoon. Actually 3 yards, ours, the vacant house next door, and my wife’s Grandmother’s old yard. She passed on a few weeks ago. All these are in our extended family out in the country where we live, so it’s up to my Father-in-law and I to keep them up. Unfortunately he has had to work overtime all week covering for someone on vacation. My oldest son use to help out but he’s off at college now. My younger son is not yet old enough to do much mowing, but he’s learning. I’ve got the mowing down to a tight routine and usually it’s not hard at all and goes off on schedule, about a 4 hour job tops, but not the past two weeks. All the rain we’ve had  from the storms in the Gulf has the grass growing like crazy! Then of course I ran out of gas and had to go pawn the TV to buy 5 gallons. Just kidding about pawning the TV, but to fill my 5 gallon can it cost $21.00! I wasn’t that long ago that it only cost me 6 or 7 bucks! So after wasting an hour getting gas I got back and got the mowing done, all except the trimming around the edges. 6 hours mowing! Geeze!

Today, I have a couple small outside jobs to do but for the most part, I work on web sites!

Above is a nice panel from today’s Humants # 2 update. The Herald and Man Ark converse on plans for the Humants to pool their resources as a team. The best lines of the script actually are in the last panel but I didn’t want to show that here and ruin the joke.

In Project: New Man # 3, New Man leaps into action, literally. A cool shot of the Moriah Building. This building was inspired by an actual skyscrapper in Birmingham, Alabama. I almost got arrested getting reference photos for this. Those guys in the Bellsouth Building were pretty ticked off that I got all the way up to the top floor without a security pass! It’s amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it and watch for opportnities.

Click the images for today’s web comics updates.

Check out Sunday’s posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! CUTomorrow!

I just made inventory of our original artwork Sunday. Here’s what we have left from our stock of stories and art:

Project: New Man #3: We are on page 18 of this 32 page issue.

Project: New Man #4: We have pages 1-8 to start this issue. We will have 23 more NEW story pages plus the covers. These pages will conclude The Haunted Man story line originally plotted 16 years ago! It will feature the story by Freazie White, Jr. and myself with art by me, Mark Poe.

This will wrap up the New Man stories unless there is demand for more or we have an idea for a new story that will fit the New Man mythos. It also gives us 128 pages if we want to do a Project: New Man Trade Paperback of these stories. So we are not closing any doors here, all options are open and on the table.

Now for the Humant’s report.

Humants # 2: We on page 28 of 32 pages so we’re about to wrap this one up.

Humants # 3: We have everything we need here for 32 pages plus covers inside and out. All I have to do is a little production work.

Humants # 4: We have everything we need here for 32 pages plus covers inside and out. All I have to do is a little production work.

Humants # 5: We have 20 pages of story on this one. We need 12 more NEW pages plus the back cover.

Humants # 6: We may need to do some NEW page for this issue to tie up loose ends.

With that we will wrap up the Humants stories unless you demand more or we have an idea for a new Humants story. The total page count for the Humants title will be about 198 pages which will make for a great Humants Trade Paperback! So, again, we are not closing any doors here, all options are open and on the table.

All totaled, with our previous issues already in our web archives, this will give us over 300 pages of Legacy Comics online! That’s not counting a back-up features like Bearcat. Nor does it take tally of most of the pin-up art we’ve included in this blog! Neither does it count any of our Small Press work. That doesn’t include the work from Dimension Graphics we posted about the other day. With all that we’ll be over 400 pages on this site. WOW! I really did not realize we had done so much comic book related art!

After all this we will begin our new titles starting with Epoch 2012 A.D.

A couple of great panels from today’s Humants # 2 update. Here’s a good example of why a young lady should never take a shortcut through a dark ally. Fortunately for Janeta Rodebud, Omnispawn is one of the good guys!

In Project: New Man # 3, So who or what does New Man see as he makes his way through the smoke and debris of the  Moriah Building.  I’ll give you some clues: it’s shiny, big and mean! Ah, heck, just click the image and head on over to Project: New Man and find out!

Click the images for today’s web comics updates.

Check out Monday’s posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! CUTomorrow!

In Humants # 2 we started something we wanted to be a regular feature. It was the Legacy Communications Page which naturally was inspired by those Stan Lee Bullpen Bulletins of the 60’s and 70’s. We patterned a lot of the layout and the overall tone after several of the better Bullpen Bulletins we found going through our collection. We had a great time doing it and everyone at the conventions who came up to our tables seemed to get a reall kick out of it. Freazie and I had a great time putting it all together!

A new chapter begins today in Project: New Man # 3.  Cyber-Tech isn’t gunning for New Man. No, he’s got a beef with the Thunder Hawks. In this chapter we see a little character development of Jonathan Thunderstorm, Thomas Jeffry McBride, and Percival Patton Parker. Christopher Torres makes his penciling debut!

When Freazie and I had the idea to put this web site together we really did not recall at the time just how much work we had amassed with Legacy Comics. Not to mention all the other comics work we had done. We thought we would put up the 3 issues we had published previously and move one. But we realized the stories in those early books were not concluded, so it seemed only fair to put out the unpublished issues as well, if we could find them! We look at this as the foundation for what’s to come. We may push back the release of our new title: Epoch 2012 A.D. a week or two to tie up some loose ends on the Humants and Project: New Man titles that were not taken care of before. That’s also why we are not putting out Mega Tales yet. But it’s all coming, so bear with us and we’ll get it all online for you.

Click the images for today’s web comics updates.

Check out Tuesday’s posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! CUTomorrow!

I had a freak accident yesterday, unfortunately gaining super-powers was not the end result. Somehow while taking out the garbage, I pushed the bag down into the can which really already had too much in it. When I did, something punctured the bag and sliced my left thumb. I thought it may have been some broken glass, but my wife could not recall any glass in the garbage. So maybe it was the lid from one of the dog food cans. I don’t know but I got a deep cut out of it, probably enough to require some stitches. It was difficult to get it to stop bleeding. But I’ve got some of those Bandaids that pull a wound together so I should be fine. Even though it’s my left hand, and I’m right handed, I’m finding I have trouble typing and doing a lot of things that I normally do. It feels better today and hasn’t bled again since last night. So the moral of this story is, be careful with garbage. It’s more dangerous than you might think!

In Humants # 2 shows page 2 of the Legacy Communications Page with an ad for Humants # 3 showing the original cover. After solicited orders from the distributors were low, I started looking around at other books on sale at  the time and thought maybe if we changed the cover and the logo it might stand out a bit better. Didn’t help that much. The orders were not much higher when we resolicited. You will see the original cover in Issue #3.

Project: New Man # 3.  Cyber-Tech comes face to face with the Thunder Hawks. We showcase the talents of Christopher Torres who penciled this and the next chapter. Chris did an awesome job and we would have asked him to do a lot more penciling had Legacy Continued. If memory serves me he might have also done some backgrounds on Humants # 3 or 4. Can’t remember which.

Click the images for today’s web comics updates.

Check out Wednesday’s posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! CUTomorrow!

Welcome to Monday’s Daily Mega Comics Group Updates! We’re glad you could stop by.

How was your weekend? I actually got a little more rest but I got a lot of work done too. I got some Project: New Man #4 pages penciled, worked on my comics collection, got a little more done on my son’s club house, and watched a little football while I was working. By the way, the Crimson Tide did roll all over Tennessee and that was a joy to watch! I even got to watch some of the World Series. Looks like the Phillies could wrap it up in game 5. I did not have to do any yard work! YAY! The fall is here and the lawn is not growing much. I really don’t mind mowing, I just wish it didn’t take so much time to do. I also had to put a couple new tires on the Chevy Blazer, which is the vehicle I drive most of the time. That did not take too long either. I got two nights sleep of 7 hours or more. When I can sleep a little extra on the weekend it helps me get through the week when I usually get 6 hours or less per night Monday through Friday. But in another month my schedule should be easier as a lot of projects will be completed.

Okay, time to do the comics update!

Project New Man # 4:

The work on the new pages continue. I thought I would let you in on the process a bit by showing you pencils from the pages this week and then next week we’ll get back to our regular story line.

I appreciate your patience in all this. I just have had far too much going on and I did not prepare enough ahead of time to get the new pages done by the deadline. I’m still new to this web comics gig.

One thing that caught me a little off guard was how rusty at drawing comic pages I was. I have been drawing clip art and art for t-shirt designs for the past 23 years so I did not anticipate having a problem getting back into the comic book groove, but I did. It was not your typical artist block because I knew what to draw but it was the “how to draw it” that was throwing me for a loop. I wanted to continue in the same style I drew pages 7-10, but that was work I had done 16 years previously! As with most artists my style had evolved and going back, it seems, is not so easy. Page 11 may not be exactly as it would have been had I continued the pencils after page 10 back in 1992 but I think I came close. Actually by page 13 I became a lot more comfortable with it.

As I did with the October 17th Update, I’ll give you a little background on how this process works. I penciled rough thumbnail sketches of each page first and then sent these to Freazie for scripting with my story notes. While he was scripting, and he has most of the script on the remainder of this issue complete now, I started the full size pencil pages. I have a Comics Page Set-up Template in my computer I can open up in Adobe Illustrator which I print out on 11 x 17 copy paper. This is just a regular sheet of 20 lb bond copy paper, something I started drawing clip art and t-shirt art on 10-15 years ago instead of using bristol or some heavier more expensive paper stock. It has my borders and panel guides indicated. I print out my thumbnail sketch enlarged to 11 x 17 and put this on a light box. With my comic page blank over it I trace off in non-photo blue pencil the outline of the sketch I did previously. Then I take my blue line tracing to the drawing board and with a regular #2 graphite pencil go to work filling in the panels. I can pencil 2-3 pages a day in an 8 hour period if uninterrupted. I have done as many as 6 in one day but I really have to be on a creative roll to do that! It’s not something I’ve done very often. Usually I start out slow and the first page does not come together as fast as the next two. I seem to speed up the more I do on a given day.

Here’s a little penciling side tip: When penciling pages for comics in graphite it’s nearly impossible not to smudge the pencils while working over them. What happens is is the graphite gets on the side of your hand and is transferred back to the paper. To cut down on this I keep a box of Wet Ones handy so I can wipe my hand periodically always being careful to dry my hand with a Kleenex or paper towel before starting back on the next panel.

Tomorrow and the rest of this week I’ll share a pencil page with you and maybe have some comments as we go. Any questions of comments? All are welcome.

Humants #3:

Here’s the second page of our very first Legacy Letters Page we had ready to go way back in 1992 when we had to cease publication. Not only do we have some interesting fan letters from our 1991-92 publications but we have some fan art as well! These were done by a fellow by the name of Chris Seaman who was at the time publishing his own comic book called Harry Shag. I don’t remember if he showed this to us at an convention or it was something he sent to Freazie. We always got a real kick out of interacting with fans at the conventions. We never knew what we would hear or see next! Everyone was always most supportive and encouraging. One thing about our early publishing I recall is, we had almost no complaints or criticisms. This was amazing to me, but I guess folks saw we were just starting out and had mercy on the obvious warts and gaffs in our work.

We’ll finish out this issue with some pin up pages and a couple of unused covers. Next week Humants # 4 will burst on the scene! Stay tuned!

Click the images for today’s web comics updates.

Check out Monday’s posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! CU2morrow!

Welcome aboard! It’s time for Tuesday’s Daily Mega Comics Group Updates!

Wow! The World Series got suspended! First time it’s ever been delayed this long and they are not sure when it will resume because of all the bad weather. I remember a few delays in the past for maybe 30 minutes. This has been a historic year in so many different areas.

Did you know? Web Comics are supported mainly by advertising and merchandising and also with new web comics through donations. If you like what you see on this site or if you think we have potential please consider a donation through PayPal. It’s fast easy and secure. If you don’t already have a PayPal account it’s also easy to sign up for one and takes only a few minutes. You can then send money anywhere you have an email address. You can find the link in the Left Side Bar right under the Mighty Mega Checklist. If donating is not your bag then maybe you would like to check out some of our advertisers or affiliates located in the Side Bars and on the Project: New Man and Humants main pages. We have some great book offers through Amazon in the Right Side Bar. Soon we’ll have some MCG merchandise to offer you as well so stay tuned! Remember, your support could help out a starving artist near you!

And so with the message for our sponsors out of the way, time to do the comics update!

Humants #3:

Today for page 30 we have a very nice pin-up of that Martial Arts Master Humant known as Sojourner. Freazie White, Jr. did all this one on his own back in 1991 just prior to our big convention tour. Great job, Freazie! We wanted some pin up style art to have on hand at the tables to sell so each of us did a few of various Legacy characters.

Sojourner comes from the middle east. We’ll have a bio on him in the next issue.

Coming up next: we have a special pin-up of The Herald in store for you tomorrow, then a look at Christopher Torres Humants pencils for the cover of #4 and our next issue preview and the color back cover. Next week Humants # 4 will make it’s World Wide Web debut! Stay tuned!

Project New Man # 4:

More pencils for you to see. I started knocking off some of the rust with page 12 and started picking up some speed to boot.

I could have just penciled these last chapters of The Haunted Man in my current style of drawing but I wanted to have as much consistency as possible in that issue. Freazie and I tried to do that in each issue but often fell below expectations.

The original Image Comics style which actually started at Marvel with Art Adams, Jim Lee and Rob Liefield was a hot prospect in the early 90’s. They were actually better when they started, unfortunately as time went on the artists over did the trend they had begun. As on friend of mine said, who had been an art instructor, “There is only so much detail the human eye can pick up”. His point was they were over working the art, which to some extent I believe was true.

Something for artists to keep in mind where comic books and comic strips are concerned is the focus should be on the story telling more so than the art. Sure we want good looking art but not to the point it distracts from the story. All the pros I ever had access to prior to the 1990’s would tell me to strive to achieve a balance. The late, great Alex Toth said over and over, “It’s not what you draw, but what you don’t draw.” I may be paraphrasing slightly but the essence is there. An artist must make use of everything at his disposal including negative space to keep a reader interested. One of the complaints I heard about the Image Style was it would not hold the readers interest. Still, they sold a lot of books, at least early on. But as I eluded to earlier I think they did it better when they started before they got so involved with the detail. Some of their early art was simpler but still rich in detail and easier to follow. One of the best examples of this and most consistent of the Image artists was Eric Larson.

Well, I’m out of time for rambling today. More tomorrow. See ya!

Any questions of comments? All are welcome.

Click the images for today’s web comics updates.

Check out Tuesday’s posts for Project: New Man and Humants’! CU2morrow!