Urban Animal #3

Story and Art by John Amor

Joe continues to struggle with his curse as Frye and Phoebe search for him after the incident at the University of Prizetown. Meanwhile, dark plans to control the young changeling’s fate go into motion.

I quite doubt it’ll be the most thematically unified thing I’ve ever shared with people, but eh… what’re you gonna do?

Here, people, is the mock cover to the second issue of Urban Animal.  I’ve been drawing it on and off for the past couple of weeks, and today I was blessed with a three-hour window to just slap some color on it.

I had come up with various plays for the layout of this thing — from showing the main character in mid-transformation, to a dinosaur doing an Abbey Road crossing — but I decided to just go with my gut and hint at a key moment within the issue.  I was initially conflicted about whether to make the rex snout bloody or not, but the deep red color turned out to be a nice point of interest.

When in doubt, go for the gross out.

Earlier this year, manly men Rey Siasar and Tom Perez from Big Ape Design approached me and asked if I had any material I wanted to develop into actual titles, and I jumped at the chance to resurrect Joe and hopefully finish the story.  I’ve been redoing  the dialogue since June, on and off, as my other projects remain top priority, but issue number one looks like it may very well be ready for the Cebu Comicon this September 25th.  The book will still have the same art from all those years ago, with touch-ups here and there, but with an all-new script, so as to update the jokes and shit.

Simply retitled THE URBAN ANIMAL, my pop-culture mash-up description for it would be The Catcher in the Rye meets The Incredible Hulk.  With some Archie thrown in.  It’s a 4-issue black-and-white original graphic novel that’s literally just been waiting almost ten years to get published — a fun little romp I can’t wait to violate you people with.  Give me money for it.

Two weeks to go before the pledge period ends, so if you’d like to see this scene played out, I highly recommend heading over to Kickstarter and backing the project.

Back this Project.

As with the year prior, 2009 saw me taking on more indies as a promise to myself to build a semblance of discipline for the grind, as well as take as many shots as I humanly could.  Learning how many chambers my pistol’s got, as it were.  How much I learn and retain remains a work in progress.  That said, DAMN that was a busy year.

JENNY STRANGE is on hold as Justin and I scout for a colorist.  SOVENA RED got shopped around and may yet continue with Scholastic.  Taking Christmas breather from game design gig as suits prepare second ongoing contract.  Might shelf it or bow out if other ongoing book projects begin to pick up steam.  Speaking of which…

JUDAH trudges on in healthy machine gun spurts.  I am convinced Will is trying to see how much more he can shock me with every five-page set.

HARBINGER WAR concept art is steadily taking shape as Jad and I have poured over Moebius, Frazetta, and Ash Wood art books to see how much writing we can get done with just visuals.  If that didn’t make sense, trust us… it will.

PLUCK scripts are beginning to pour in just as I do concept sketches for characters who may or may not be little more than cannon fodder.  Yes, Gabe is keeping it THAT close to his chest since he knows I’ll reveal just about anything if I’m not careful.  The Brothers White and myself  look forward to pissing on D&D tropes on ZUDA next year!

1888 is in retool mode as Wolfgang and I are streamlining that beast of a book into a prestige-format monster and I gotta say… just because artists need to read scripts and put pencil to paper before anyone else gets to see anything, doesn’t mean all the twistedness only comes from him.  Damn it, WP.

And 2010 will see me dipping my toes into new properties CLOSETWORLD — a planned webcomic much akin to Little Nemo, with Matt Yocum; and GEEK GODS — a contemporary fantasy combining sword and sorcery with the familiar charm of Archie, with Wade Alan Steele.

There’s a couple of other exciting things I really want to share but can’t yet, but suffice it to say that the ol’ work journal is thankfully going to be regularly updated for the next few months at least.  It seems like a ton of work… and it’s certainly not a walk in the park.  But I always take the Zen of Glengarry Glen Ross with me, and it helps to simplify what would otherwise very easily cause me to burst into flames.  It’s the closest I’ll get to a mantra when trying to simply get things done — A — B — C.

Always Be Closing, Baldwin said.  And as far as I’m concerned, it keeps you focused enough to not look back as you try to keep moving forward in a narrow and tricky road.

Always, all ways, be closing.

Gleep gloop, 2010.  Gleep motherfucking gloop.