The Great Unknown 1 Cover – original pencils – Duran
I drew this cover in homage of the great silent Surrealist film Un Chien Andalou. Upon the film’s original release it was considered a scandal – punk rock before the world had ever heard the term; a rebellion of artistic proportions. It was also made completely outside any sort of national film system, it was independent and borne from the sincere need to express the feelings of explosive freedom which resided in fresh young minds.
Here we see the infamous razor replaced with the artist’s tool; the pencil. Is our man drawing the figure or will the figure meet the same fate as the character in the film? The ambiguity is what’s intriguing to me and what I consider to be the real import of the piece; expectation should be subverted. We are floating in the unknown, and even though it is a sly wink to the past, it is also a fierce leap into the unknown future as well.
Seen here in my original, un-edited pencils it is obvious to see where Hardstein came in and fixed up all my slop. He inked and colored the final cover version for me and I’d say it is a damn good thing he did.
J.D.D.
A Twelve Minute Revolution in Just Reading p1 – Hupke and Tang
I knew the comic had a page limit, so I wanted to make sure to start off with a bang. Literally. I wanted some impact to grab the reader’s attention and have that adrenaline carry them through the comic. This first page came out great and had a lot of Vince’s style, with the exaggerated blood and impact of the shot. It really sold the action well. Vince did an excellent job here and the symmetry with the final page is spot on. Enjoy!
Darren
@darrenhupke
Pg. 2 from GODDAMMIT! By Hardstein
This is the second page of my story, GODDAMMIT!, in which an atheist college physics professor dies, only to find that God and the afterlife are real–and also out to kill him (or at least beat him half to double-death) It’s a bit ridiculous to kill off your main character on page 2, but ridiculousness is most certainly the name of the game.. The method of his death was something I came up with before the rest of the story fell into place. I remember taking a college physics course about a decade ago, and the professor giving a lecture about projectile dynamics that was something like the one Todd Gamut is giving here. As he discussed bullets raining down into people’s houses on New Year’s Eve from reckless firearm discharges, I can recall thinking how ironic it would be if a bullet came through the ceiling at that very moment. The panel layout is probably a bit too clever for its own good.
Hardstein
To learn more about Small Batch Comics, please see the below links.
http://smallbatchcomics.com/2012/04/16/press-release-2/
http://smallbatchcomics.com/submissions/
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