Compelling and Sexy

Well, issue three has been sent off to the printers and should be available sometime next week.

In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at the cover:

Out of Sequence

Well this is slightly out of the order of how I would normally post things but I sent issue number 2 off to the printer today so I wanted to post the cover and let everybody know that issue 2 will be available in October.

I hope the colors reproduce this way when it's printed but I'm actually unsure of what the conversion process will do to it.

This week has been a bit ridiculous in terms of what I was trying to do.  Monday I got an email telling me that Docucopies was offering a 15% discount on booklet printing through today and since that is not an insubstantial amount of money saved I felt the need to try and push the book to be ready to print by Friday.  Effectively, that meant that I was going to have to draw, ink, and scan 8 pages, including designing the cover, which would have to be colored.

It was a bit frantic as the deadline closed in but I did manage to do it and at least now I know I can work fast if I need to.

I definitely feel the  need to take a day off after this though.

The back cover.  Look at that bunny monster!  He's so cute!

The print job should be completed and delivered to me by next week, so expect Delirium issue 2 to be on sale in the first week in October.

Delirium Issue 1 is Available for Purchase on Etsy!

It's here!  It's here!  The wait is over and the first issue of Delirium is available for purchase through  my store on Etsy!

Looking at the finished product, I've gotta say that the book looks great!  Docucopies did a incredible job with the printing and I am very happy with how it turned out.

Here's the product description:

Enter a world where angels battle drill wielding mechs piloted by strange bunny-like creatures; a world where hockey masks and chainsaw hands are regular fashion accessories; a world where death and danger lurk around every corner. Enter the world of Delirium.

Delirium is an exciting new monthly comic from Nick Calavera showcasing detailed black and white art and stories focused on the strange and surreal. Issue one features the debut of two original ongoing series: Kingdom of Monsters and G.E.R.L.

Product Details:

Size: 8.5" x 5.5"
Interior: 32 pages of black and white art
Cover: full color cover

* * * * *

The cover price for issue one is $2.50, which I think is a great deal for all of the great art and production values that you're getting.  Supplies are limited, so, make sure to buy your copy now before they're gone as I have no plans to reprint this in the near future.

It's been a fun trip getting this far and I am looking forward to announcing issue two when it's finished.  In the meantime, buy the book and see the story behind all of the disjointed images on this blog!

Last Minute Details

This weekend has been a bit weird as I didn't really draw that much.  I did however spend a lot of time playing around with templates, resizing images and trying to make things fit, along with quickly teaching myself how to convert images to a PDF file since I've never had to do that before.

Rather humorously, this is second most amount of clothing that I've ever drawn on this character.  She is actually relatively covered up.

But yes, things continue to move along.  I did design a logo, along with an illustration for the back of the cover. 

Really, at this point everything is basically done.  Tomorrow I will check all of the files one more time and then there really won't be anything else left to do, except start drawing pages for issue 2.  I can't wait.

Full Color Nightmare!!!

Wow!  So I totally lost track of time while I was working on the cover but this easily took 10 to 12 hours to finish and it’s a good thing I didn’t know it was going to be that time consuming because I probably would have said “Screw it,” and just done a black and white cover.  

I may make some tweaks to this before everything is done but this is more or less the final image for the cover.

 That said, I think the extra effort was worth it and I am really happy with the results.  Assuming that I did the color conversions correctly I think this will look great once it’s printed.

Part of the reason why this took a little longer is because I have a setup where I am working semi-blind as I color.  I currently lack an image editing program which provides a CMYK mode to work in.  So, working in GimpShop, what that means is that as I am working I have to periodically use the Separate+ plug-in to convert the image to CMYK colors and make sure that the palette I’m using is going to reproduce correctly for printing purposes.

It’s a little tedious but not really that bad a system I suppose, and currently if you’re a Gimp or GimpShop user it’s the most reliable way to do color management as, from what I understand, using printer profiles to configure your monitor display is somewhat hit and miss.

Anyway, only a few things left to do: design a logo; do a back cover design; write up a note for the first page and a table of contents.  After that the comic will be ready to ship off to the printers. 

Right now I am planning on using Docucopies.com to handle the printing process.  Unfortunately I missed out on some really good deals they had going on earlier in the month, so I may wait until the end of the month to see if any other promotions occur that could save me a bit of money on the printing costs.

At the moment I anticipate printing 100 copies, which should be more than enough copies to ensure that anybody who is reading this blog and wants a copy can order one.

I will continue posting work in progress as I finish up the loose ends for issue 1.