Web Comics Challenge, Wrap up!

Are you looking to break into the comic book business??  Back in the day that would mean traveling to potentiality hundreds of comic book conventions all over the country. Interviewing with untold number of editors. Printing out your Zines. Lots of stapling. Legwork GALORE. Get through all that work and you’re still not guaranteed to even get hired on to draw one single panel.

Crash pan to 2010!

Want to break into the comic book business? Create yourself a web comic. Guess what…you’re now officially in the business.

That is the focus of HiFi Coloring Challenge number 22.  Thanks to Max Riffner and his web comic Drunk Elephant Comics, we had a chance to color a series of 4 strips.  The art is amazing and the colored pages we had posted back Are phenomenal!  But I’m going to have to give the WIN here (not that it is a competition) to forum member Steve!.  Lets take a look at his 4 entries.

Day 1

Steve! starts out the week here by setting a great tone for the strip.  Hank (the elephant) is colored perfectly. The pink is exactly how Max has designed it. The colors are bright and saturated which lends a fun, cartoon feel to the book. I would even say that all this is missing to find its place in the sunday funnies is a moire pattern.  I also really like how he rendered the windows.  The hold is perfect and the color variation gives a perfect glass look. My only remark on this is that I feel like the background on panel number 2 would have looked nice with a darker, cooler color. That maybe would have expressed his moment of depression there.

Day 2

Here we have the second strip and it’s another winner for me.  The color choices are light and fun, though somewhat less saturate than day 1. The color choices for Kacy are perfect.  Her cool background colors help express her cold attitude and contrast perfectly with Hanks happier, warmer background.  I also think the way Steve! handled the comic book covers is brilliant.  He’s captured that sort of pulp feel in those covers very well.  If I had to comment on something here…it would be that I think Kacy could have had a little deeper shadow color.  The lighter shadow doesn’t always seem to lend a lot to the image.  A little more contrast there would really push her out into your face.

Day 3

And we’ve come now to Day 3!!  Steve!’s colors continue to impress.  The art work here is fairly straight forward with Hank and Kacy having a bit of a back-and-forth conversation.  This may seem like a simple piece to color…but you’d be surprised.  Because of the nature of a strip like this even a small error will REALLY stand out. So you have to make sure you nail it. And Steve! did.

Day 4

Here we have it. The big finale! Steve finishes the challenge strong here with day 4. He has injected life not only into Kacy…but also into the background.  You get a sense of fun and adventure with the warm orange and yellow green in panels one and two respectively.  Then you see and feel Kacy’s inner turmoil in panel three with that pink to blue gradient.  Great work.  If you twisted my arm I could say that I might cut that hair on the top of Kacy’s head inward as opposed to how Steve! pulls the color across.  That could just be a personal preference.

So there you have it! Challenge number 22 is a huge success. Thanks to everyone who posted artwork. And a huge thanks to Max for not only providing us with the art work but also for taking a few minutes out to speak with up for the last issue of The Tribal Council.

The site tells me that there were many, many people who downloaded the strips but didn’t load them back after coloring them.  I encourage ALL of you to repost your images. The challenge isn’t going to be taken down so don’t think that the challenge is closed.  You’re welcome to get the art, color it and repost it at your leisure.

Stay tuned for next week’s Tribal Counil.  We’ll have a new coloring challenge with a returning artists.  The artwork is breath taking. You’re REALLY going to love it.  See you then!

On a personal note I’d like to take out one quick second to congratulate my wife on graduating from college.  I now officially have to start referring to her as my lovely wife, BSN.  It’s been a long hard road but she’s pushed through  and finally got to walk across that stage in her lovely cap and gown. It’s a major page turning moment in the story of our lives and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share this time with her.  I love you honey!! (not that she reads my column) O_o