It's All Coming Back To Me Now...

Firstly, 10-Gallon hats off to Andrew Pepoy for saving my ass and penciling pages 13-22 of Jack Of FABLES #9. For some reason...issue #10 is lurking in my memory as not-so-fun a ride, too. But I drew the whole thing...(didn't I?) I'll recall why when I find and post the pencils. Note that it has NOTHING to do with the marvelous creative team on the book!
So here's Breakdown (1-22) and Pencils for 9 (the pencils I did at least; 1-12).
I'll comment as I load...

Let's see (above), yes...another frightening coagulation of ink and tears,scrapes and stabs that will become something that will pass for comics! By The Hammer Of THOR, BEHOLD (below)!
A page! Wrought from the rarest ass-vapors of Hell's Lemurs! Astounding!
(whoa! Jack's hair is out of CONTROL!)

I do like the "Tumbling Dice" device that I drew for the title-pad (no that's not what it's really called).Below, Page 2 Panel 4 has one of my favorite "walk-throughs" of mundy-fodder; the mook dancing with LL...can't you just smell the patchouli reek?

The background for this and the next page is, of course, clover. But the brain I decided would be funnier on a bed of parsley.As brilliant as the breakdowns were for pages 4 and 5...

Shelly felt that I could make them even more brilliant, or even purdy (yeah,as if).

I generally think that if a panel is weak in the breakdowns, that I can pull off a winner by the time I get to the actual page. Editorial expects the same of me. But Panel 4 of Page 3 continued in weakness from breakdown stage through to final pencils. I think that this was a case of my trying to be clever with my comfort in selecting high, forced perspectives for some panels. What I believed would clarify a crowded image only ended up making it more confusing. Learn this lesson!


This was fun...
There's a reflexive comfort to drawing consumer goods and settings; twenty years in advertising. I refrained from lettering the products Jodie is buying even though I do enjoy suchs distractions. But then Andrew would have been tasked with lettering when he inked.



Forgive me, I'm still having some "plastic" issues with Jack...the price of my rubbery expressions. Panel 5 is waving a red flag; I believe that the jaw-line was altered in the inks (I can't say that I blame move, his jaw is quite heavy here). Sigh.

LOL, the middle tier of Page 8 makes me happy.

Over the course of the next few issues of JoF, you'll notice that my breaks will become a little more "comp" or developed. The closer that I can get to the right feeling for the page in the breaks, the fewer mind-grapes that get exhausted across the empty page. The problem arises in approximating that "special" energy and "english" that thumbnails seem to express so well. Compare Page 9 Panel 1 in the breaks to the corresponding Panel and Page that's fully penciled; the break seems to capture Jack's zeal better as a controlled scribble. I swear I'm gonna just bitch-out a book of continuity that's all thumbnails *gets down on knee, arms flailing to heaven, head back* I Swear This, By The HAMMER of THOR!

Page 9 Panel 4; Yes, this was covered with spit because of the sound effects I was making while drawing it.

Pris Page; yo, is that chick like ALWAYS strapped? That's Hot.

I took some liberty with the first panel of Page 11; revealing my ideas for some of the GB procedure for on-site retrieval,cataloging and sterilization. There are notes on the breaks for this page that explain. Bill and Matt may chose to employ this in the future or not. Of course, I may be just creating more work for myself and Bucky by giving the Wordsmiths reason to request a view of the warehoused fable-swag somewhere in the Revise facility.


This page says it all; CAPYBARAS!
Everything beyond this page Andrew penciled. Cursing me the whole way. Ah, comics.





H.E.