And so The Haunted Man storyline comes to an end, finally after 16 years in the making! What a way to wrap it all up! After reorganizing all the previous published and unpublished pages we had enough for 9 pages of this 4th issue, so we only had to finish up the other 23 pages! No problem if you can do it full time! But when the writer and artist also have full-time and part time jobs too boot 23 pages can be somewhat of an undertaking!

Freazie White, Jr. and Mark Poe plotted this one on the phone 16 years ago but did not have it down on paper until this year when Mark did breakdowns on letter size paper folded in half to simulate comic book pages only smaller. Once roughed out he scanned the sketches and emailed those to Freazie who started scripting. Freazie emailed the pages as he finished while Mark worked on the art. Mark had to pencil, ink and letter these. The plan was to try to stay with the Image Comics style which Christopher Torres and Mark had begun with in issue 3 and which was carried over in the opening chapters of issue 4. Those pages that were completed 16 years ago. It became apparent there was no way Mark could do 5 pages of complete art and lettering a week with his other commitments as well, so we settled on 3 a week.

Now it’s done. The art is a bit rough in places and we’ll probably touch it up some before we go to press but the story is there. Hope you all enjoyed it.

So where does Project: New Man go from here. Well, tune in Monday for our inside back cover to find out. We’ll wrap up the issue with the color back cover on Wednesday, Christmas Eve!

WOW! Now that’s the way to take care of a super villain! Don’t beat him up just get him to be introspective for a moment so he’s focused on how he really see’s himself and use Quantum Physics to revert him to his former state! When has that ever been done in super-hero comics? I can’t remember once! Notice Dave’s attitude, he has clearly made a leap to a new level not only in his powers but in his though processes. This is truly a new day for…uhh… New Man, eh?

As we approach the end of The Haunted Man storyline we have wrapped up all the lose ends for this storyline. The series, however, still has some unanswered questions and some subplots which have yet to be resolved.

Cyber-Tech has freed himself from the chains of the portable lift and finding his jet pack on the balcony where he had left it when he first attacked the Moriah Building back in Project: New Man # 2. Ignoring the hail of bullets from the Fortress Fighters he clamps the jet pack to his back and ignites the rockets then blasts off. He realizes he screwed up the plans Ebeneezer Baal had established but he is so filled with hate for the Thunder Hawks, particularly Chief Thunder, he refuses to give up. Still damaged from his battle with New Man and not sure he wants anymore of that, he heads off after the Fortress Foundation Aircar containing New Man, Chief Thunder and Kamikaze which only minutes ago lifted off heading for the location Tom Thumb had pinpointed as Baal’s hideout.

I seem to be recapping everything this morning. What’s up with that?

This page marks the close of Chapter 11 of The Haunted Man story line. We’ll take a long weekend for New Man this week and not start the new chapter until Monday. HOWEVER, Humants # 4 page 2 will be up tomorrow as scheduled and this blog will also be updated.

Cyber-Tech is not done yet it seems. His cyber-suit computers have overcome the effects of the jammer which kept him immobile. He could rip into the Fortress Fighters now but he has his focus on getting the Thunder Hawks! Looks like he maybe heading for another showdown with New Man and Chief Thunder. Stay tuned!

The Fortress Fighters have all the fun don’t they? They are the ones that get to clean up after the major battle between New Man and the Thunder Hawks verses Cyber-Tech. Even though he can’t move, Cyber-Tech is fully conscious, and his cyber-suit is busy working on a way to override the jammer Chief Thunder clamped unto it to render him immobile. Using the special special lift cart, no doubt designed by Bearcat, the plan is move him across the carpeted Living Room area of the top floor of the Moriah Building out to the balcony. There a chain/cable dangling down from a hovering crane copter awaits to hook the cyborg up to, so they can then haul him off to a special detention facility. Yeah, that’s the Fortress Fighter’s plan, but Cyber-Tech has other plans!

Hope you enjoyed our little behind the scenes look at how we put together the pencils for each page. It was fun to show you what it’s like to do comics penciling.

Now we are back to the story. Before you start this page you might want to refresh you memory of where we are in the story. Do yourself a favor and click October in the calendar below to go to the thumbnails of all the pages we have posted for Project: New Man #4. You can scroll down and get a quick flashback of what lead us to this new chapter.

Let me help some too: The Fortress Fighters have to clean up the mess after the major battle between New Man and the Thunder Hawks verses Cyber-Tech. The big guy is not unconscious, his cyber-suit is just immobile due to the jammer Chief Thunder clamped unto his exoskeleton. This guy weights a ton or 2, so they have to have a special cart to lift him out to the balcony so a crane copter can haul him off to detention.

These pencils are for page 15. The design of the Fortress Foundation’s Aircar is loosely based on a concept I saw either in Popular Science or Popular Mechanics several years ago. I probably still have the magazine some where but the design in this issue is based on my memory of the images I saw and more so on just the concept.

New Man is looking out the window of the Aircar at the Power Plant which is copied and pasted into the windows from the panel above. Pretty neat, eh?

Monday we’ll start the story up again with Freazie’s script applied to the inked and lettered pages you have been seeing all this week.

Pencils are for page 14. As I go along on penciling these pages I’m really getting back into the groove. See, Freazie, I told you once you get back on that bike it all comes back to you!

Even though I created Cyber-Tech, he is one of my least favorite characters to pencil. Christopher Torres seemed to enjoy doing him and I think was better at it than I am. But this is the last time we see him for a while this issue so that won’t be a problem for another 10 pages or so.

Any questions of comments? All are welcome.

These pencils are for page 13. I had 3 panels at the top of this page which showed an action I wanted to zero in on in the story telling. The drawing of Cyber-Tech is actually the background, the main action is what’s happening with his eyes and the circuit jammer module which was attached to him in issue 3 to render him immobile.

I could have have penciled each panel just as I did on my original breakdowns, but we live in the age of PhotoShop, so to save time and to create a stronger sense of continuity and even motion in these 3 panels I copied and pasted the drawing of Cyber-Tech I drew in panel one to panels 2 and 3. The same thing can be done at the inking stage as well.

Some artists don’t like this, they think every panel should be drawn out as an original. My question is always “Why? What is the purpose of what we are doing, telling a story or doing a piece of art to hang on a wall?” First of all it’s to tell the story and as I wrote yesterday we don’t want the art to become a distraction from the story. We need balance.  I think it would be more distracting to draw Cyber-tech in the same position, as best I could, in each panel because each would be different. To bring the action of the story to the forefront I only wanted to change the key elements. Plus it speeds up production so I can do even more stories if I take advantage of all the tools I have at my disposal!

Any questions of comments? All are welcome.

Last but not least we have Allan Lewis rendition of Cyber-Tech for the Outside Back Cover. As stated yesterday and earlier in the week, we’ll take the weekend off from updating, to get caught up on some of the web site work.

Monday we begin Project: New Man #4! In that issue we’ll wrap up The Haunted Man story line. We’ll learn the identity of Ebeneezer Baal as New Man has to rescue his friends, face the rage once again of the escaped Cyber-Tech and escape a Death Trap like nothing he has ever faced! Will this be the final Showdown for New Man?