Comic Relief Podcast

This one is pretty basic, but I still enjoy how it came out. Took a B&W image of Punisher and colored it up.

Punisher B&W:

Punisher colored:

Figured out why Camtasia was tanking; and I may yet be able to save the Nightcrawler video I did. But I did a really quick and dirty coloring of this Spider-Man vs Jack O’ Lantern image and recorded it. (The video is rendering and will be in another post).

So here’s the Black and white:

Here is my color:

I am really disappointed. I figured this was an easy Nightcrawler to color so I captured it with Camtasia to show how I do what I do (not that it’s super great, but in case someone else wanted to try it; or even better, if someone saw it and could provide tips for enhancing my own skills!) Unfortunately, freaking Camtasia tanked when it imported and corrupted the file. So I will hunt down another easy one to do so folks can get an idea of how I do it.

Before and after presented:

And my colored version:

I want to preface this with; we got there, on Saturday, around 4:30pm (maybe closer to 5pm). The Con was open Saturday, until 7pm.

I am not sure why that matters, but I feel like if you’re reading this, you should have the facts.

Now, the previous versions of LA Comic Con (or back then, Komikaze, then later Stan Lee’s Comic Con, to now being called LA Comic Con) – the Con was always happening and alive. Even when we would leave near the tail end of the Con for the day, there were still people bustling about. And usually at the end of the day, all the Cosplayers gathered in the foyer area for photo opportunities with tons of admirers.

The first thing I noticed when I strolled inside for Saturday, the foyer was pretty empty. I was expecting it to be full of Cosplayers and people taking pictures. There were people and there were cosplayers; but not nearly the volume that’s normally there in previous years. Previous years, you’d have to be careful of not stepping across someone’s photo; this year I walked through there with ease, and no issues of stepping in front of photographers.

You’d think, as someone who is definitely an introvert, this would be a plus, right? Well, as Charles and I stepped into the Convention Center itself; even the people in there were sparse. I thought, “Well, this will be kind of nice.”

But it quickly became evident to both of us (I thought it was just me, until Charles said something) – that something felt… off. As we walked around, we came up to where the Ghostbuster car was and I noticed, the food court was closed; the reason became clear because they had food trucks outside – this was a great move. The food trucks provided a much wider variety of food, at better prices, and way better quality.

But as we continued to walk through; there was no… energy? No excitement? No chemistry? I can’t describe it, exactly – but both Charles and I paused and talked about how there was something odd about the Convention. We then noticed there was no Marvel or DC booth, which is odd at a Comic convention. That’s like watching a Star Wars movie without lightsabers or a Star Trek movie where they don’t have the Enterprise or say “Beam me up” at least once. As we walked around, I considered getting another Lightsaber and figured I’d try to hunt down Ultrasabers (only place I get mine), and they weren’t even there. (I am not sure if that has anything to do with a fiasco that happened at Phoenix Comic Con – but they were at this con last year). Some other company was there that sold lightsabers, and while they looked sturdy enough, just didn’t feel like they had the same feel of Ultrasabers.

As we walked around (and we walked the entire con, very quickly, due to what appeared to be low attendance), there was this big row – where the vendors were separated by like 30 feet, and I told Charles, that it felt like I was at a garage sale, more than a comic con. None of the vendors seemed to have any energy or interest in engaging anyone. Everyone was just sitting in their booth. Even when I approached a few booths, none of the people behind the desk engaged me. The actual comic book selection at this year’s con was so absolutely sparse, it was actually a little on the pathetic side.

Had this been my first time to this Con (granted, first time at it being called the “LA Comic Con”), I probably would not return to it next year. Because I remember writing about the 2016 Comickaze thing – and talking about there were so many people inside and outside on the foyer area, that moving was almost impossible. This year, it was a polar opposite, that seemed to go too far to the other extreme. I remember the Stan Lee Comic Con 2017, feeling like the right balance.

I hope that next year, whatever it is that I felt like was off (because, I don’t know if it was just me and Charles who felt this way) – but I hope they fix it, and that next year, there’s the perfect balance of people (fans), cosplayers, vendors – and that the energy level is back. Because this… this felt depressing.

– Tawmis

Corey discovered that Namorita apparently has a special, promotional one-shot series – that neither of us have been able to locate any information on. Corey took to Facebook while I took to Twitter. What’s very cool is that Fabian Nicieza has helped us on our quest to find out more (and I would like a copy – even if it’s a scanned copy – of the book!)

Anyone have any information on this promotional #Namorita one shot? Seems @marvel partnered with @arisefoundation and @MiamiDadePD – and we are looking for a copy of this elusive issue! pic.twitter.com/TVezj1OVxV

— The New Warriors (@New_Warriors) October 12, 2018

Tagging @GlennHerdling who was the editor for Marvel’s custom comics back then… https://t.co/SenBqjR8Pf

— Fabian Nicieza (@FabianNicieza) October 12, 2018

New way of coloring is insanely faster. Did this one in about an hour.

Click on images for a larger size.

The actual cover from Marvel:

My colored version of the black & white image:

The a slight touch up to colors:

While going through my images that I had saved to color, I found an old one I had done of Uncanny X-Men #156 which featured the Starjammers on the cover (anyone who knows me knows how much I love the Starjammers!) I am not sure when I did this one, but it was probably awhile ago, because I see things I would have done differently in the image. But figured it was worth the share.

Click images for a larger view.

The original image I worked with:

After having cleaned up the yellow tinge and colored:

To say I have been infatuated with Deathbird since her first appearance, and more so when she became associated as a part of the Shi’ar, would be an understatement. Found a Black & White image of Ms. Marvel fighting Deathbird (this was a great series, and not just because Deathbird is in it!).

Click images for larger view.

This was the image I worked with:

This was the coloring result:

– Tawmis

While doing the Ka-Zar coloring, I learned a little trick. And these things normally took me quite a bit of time; but applying the trick I learned coloring Ka-Zar, I was able to color this cover of Uncanny X-Men #137 in a little over an hour; which is a huge difference between like several days!

Click the images for full sizes.

This is the black and white image I worked with:

And this was the coloring result:

No way looks super professional, but then, I don’t do this for a living. I just do it to relax my brain. 🙂
– Tawmis

Did a coloring of Ka-Zar #29, I believe this was the first issue of Ka-Zar I had picked up way back in the day, solely because Belasco was featured on the cover, who I had known from Uncanny X-Men #160 (still one of my favorite issues!).

Here is the actual cover (you can click on all the images for a larger size).

This is the image I initially worked with:

After using the Find/Replace color tool, I turned all of the yellow tone to white. And began coloring it:

Using layers, I was able to keep the borders pretty easily, then merge the layer to then recolor the ink strokes:

I will typically color the main focus of the image, then grab the smaller background things to color:

Once I complete the coloring, I use tools to enhance the colors further, darken them if needed, and sharpen them for this: