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 overdid 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.

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.

Delayed from yesterday. Sorry again.

Dave, Chief Thunder and Kamikaze board one of the Fortress Foundation’s VTOL* Air Cars and head out for the abandoned Nuclear Facility where Tom has pinpointed Bearcat’s presence. At this point they can only assume that Fawn and Nick will be held in the same location as Emanuel.

The Fortress Foundation, a private sector, non-profit, philanthropic organization dedicated to public defense and scientific research is headquartered in the Moriah Building in New Harbour, a part of the Five Lakes Megalopolis. The Moriah Building consists of one large tower and 2 smaller towers to either side. The smaller towers each have helipads located on the roofs of the structures. Hangars for the Air Cars are located beneath the helipads accessible by sliding roof panels.

The news for today is there won’t be Project: New Man #4 updates tomorrow or Friday, BUT Humants # 3 will update as planned both days. We’ll get back to the 5 day a week for Project: New Man #4 Monday and of course Humants # 3 as well. The reason is simple. We’ve gotten a little behind in several areas and since we are doing new pages now in Project: New Man #4 it has altered the amount of work we have to do daily considerably! So something had to give! MCG started in June, and really went off in a different direction than planned. We have posted 121 pages of PNM comics! Since then 1 site has turned into 3 with plans for 2 more and we are still expanding! So hopefully if we take a little break on one strip right now we can avoid any interruptions in the future.  This is a good place to take a break oln New Man’s atory since this is the last poage of Chapter 10.I had hoped we could slow it all down just enough with taking weekends off to compensate but I really would have needed to have started that about a month earlier than I did for it to have had the desired success. So please bear with us a little longer.

In related news, Freazie and I have seriously been talking about continuing Project: New Man past issue 4, after a little hiatus. And if PNM goes on, could Humants be far behind. But it’s not final yet and there are some technical aspects that have to fall in place for us to do it, so stay tuned for updates.

Nothing like demolishing a piece of exercise equipment to ease tensions, I always say. But during all this exercise Dave, Chief Thunder and Kamikaze worked out some things regarding the mystery of Ebenezer Baal. Dave, still haunted by his own dark past, especially at times of stress, has doubts if he really is a New Man or if he’s just a more powerful version of the old Killer Kane. Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, Tom brings news of latching onto one of Bearcat’s GPS Signals so now it’s time for some action!

Dave, Chief Thunder and Kamikaze are figuring it out. They are very close to realizing just who Ebenezer Baal really is. And if they figure out who he is that might lead them to where he is. Or maybe Tom will locate one of Bearcat’s GPS homing signal devices. It’s one thing if one lacks the power to help, but very frustrating when one has the power to do something but lacks the means to accomplish it.

I had a great time when I originally drew these pages and I’ve been having fun inking them. I was trying to mimic Jim Lee, who was mimicking Art Adams, two of my favorite artists. I hope to be able to keep it up to finish this final chapter of The Haunted Man. Relax, we still have 24 more pages in this issue.

So what’s in store for Project: New Man after that? Well, what do you think? Should we continue the series? Right now the plan is to shelve the title for now, and maybe pick it up later. We will still have it online in the archives so anyone will still be able to read it even after the new material stops. Freazie and I still have some stories to tell of New Man, the Thunder Hawks, Fawn, Nick, Bearcat and the rest. We want to do a couple other books we have in mind first then, who knows? If Mega Maniacs are all in favor of it we’ll start Project: New Man #5. But we’ll wait and see, and like I said we still got time to think about it with 24 more pages in this issue.

See? Here he is! We didn’t lose him! Actually he’s been out waiting in a gas line to fill up the Fortress Foundation SUV for the past few hours. Had to pay $3.35 per gallon for gas and the full tank totaled nearly 70 bucks! Now he’s short of cash for his lunch plans at Burger King! And, boy, is he ticked! no wait, that was me. Sorry got a little confused.

This page was originally drawn out in 1992 but inked just this week! I did the work, by the way. Freazie gave us a brand spanking new script to boot so the following pages are not only never before published but most of it is new material. So for those of you tired of hearing about the early nineties here’s something from 2008. Hmmm… I wonder how much gas was back in ’92?

Okay, so New Man has found out that Nick and Fawn have been abducted by Ebenezer Baal, who has Bearcat locked up somewhere also and he doesn’t know where they could be. To say the least he’s a bit frustrated! So what do you do when you need to work off some steam and think outloud a bit? Well, Dave Davison goes to the gym!

A dog barks a couple doors down, a cat hisses at him and runs off.  A lawnmower in the distance shuts off as the evening mowing is concluded. Street lights are coming on as the sun peeks out one last time before passing slowly over the horizon. The sound of stereos and TV’s playing faintly at nearby neighbors can be heard. Kids finish playing in the street nearby as a mom calls them to dinner. Just an average evening in the ‘berbs of Municiple City. Nick and Fawn arrive at her house, in this tranquil little setting. The chitchat of two old friends meanders about.

What could the new discovery in Dave’s DNA, which Fawn’s cryptically refers to, be? The guy has been transformed into a near perfect human specimen and obtained the ability to harness a Unified Field putting the forces of Gravity, Electricity and Magnetism at his disposal. What more could there be? We’ll soon see, I suppose.

Ah, notice how uncomfortable Fawn is at the mention of Dave and her in the context of a relationship between them. Where could that be going?

Yes, everything is just completely normal, peaceful and quite until Fawn opens the door from her garage to the kitchen to find surprise guests!

Don’t you hate when that happens? I know I do!

And lest you think we have forgotten whose book this really is, New Man makes the scene tomorrow!

Nick and Fawn are still in route to her home. We get treated to some nice talking head shots by Christopher Torres on this page as Nick and Fawn chat.

Nick chastises Fawn a bit for starving herself in order to pay for the new gizmo she has purchased. he also gets onto her for working too much. She was suppose to be on vacation this week, but she keeps doing research on Project: New Man. The lady definitely seems to be a workaholic doesn’t she. I can relate!

Chapter 9 begins today in The Haunted Man saga. Nick and Fawn are in route to her home to see some new scientific gizmo she has acquired.

Nick’s relationship to Fawn is that of a mentor and student or probably more accurately, father and daughter. We never got the chance to delve into the characters past very far so we don’t know Fawn’s real father or perhaps absence thereof as is the case in a lot of kid’s upbringing theses days. It should also be noted, Nick is a father figure to more than just Fawn. His nickname, Saint Nick, is for more than just his appearance. He is a very kindly old gentleman. Perhaps one day we’ll delve into these character’s family background. It’s always interesting to know what shaped the character of the story’s cast.

As for now, the quite drive and joyful camaraderie of two good friends is about to end. Their characters are about to be tested as never before! Stay tuned this week to see what happens!

So who is Ebeneezer Baal? Figured it out yet? There are some clues on this very page just as we’ve dropped here and there throughout The Haunted Man storyline. He is a character which has appeared before in our continuity. I’m sure you have figured it out but for those who may still be piecing it together we’ll wait until page 19 to reveal his name to the world at large.

Now here’s another interesting little continuity tidbit: Baal mentions E.D.G.E. If you have read today’s Humants update already you heard my spiel about how that group plays a major role in the Legacy Universe. Now we find out Baal is tied into to them as well! You may recall E.D.G.E. from New man’s origin in PNM #2. Hah! Now, there’s a major clue for you!