Need some suggestions for new comic project...

Hi folks,

This blog needs more love, so I figured I'd make a post here. As some of you may know, I'm working on a new webcomic idea that involves a main character that resembles, but is not in fact Neil Gaiman. There are also children with various supernatural abilities, and a village that can't be seen from the outside.

Anyway, I'm still working on the style I want to use for this comic, and I think I hit upon something today. This is a quickie pencil sketch I did, and colored in Photoshop Elements. I did some fancy thing with a brush set to "color" mode over the pencil lines to give them a little "pop", and I sort of like how it looks. What do you think? Could I get away with doing a whole comic in this style? (Click on the image below for a bigger version.)

The example, btw, is a gift art I did for my friend Elise, of her novel characters. Just an FYI, not that it has any real bearing on the rest of this post, aside from the fact that these characters will not be in my comic.

Feedback is very welcome!

~
Gypsy-Maria

Meeting Saturday, January 17th

The BHC will be meeting in the Hamline Midway Library tomorrow from noon to 5. Feel free to join us! (Ask the librarians where we're meeting - we've got a new room.)

An average meeting goes something like this:

noon-1:30pm - Members trickle in, sit down to draw, and chat.

1:30pm-2pm - Everyone we know is coming has shown up, so the founding members talk shop - who's going to the next upcoming convention, what we're doing with web stuff, book sales, etc. Someone brings up t-shirt designs, everyone gets excited, and then the subject gets dropped for another month.

2pm - Everyone goes back to art jamming, chatting, and listening to music. Occasionally someone says, "Hey, can I get your opinions on this?" and shows everyone the page or script they're working on. Feedback ensues.

3:14pm - Gerbil starts talking about Pokemon.

3:20pm - The Pokemon conversation shifts into fanfiction.

3:21pm - The terrified newbies slink from the room, sketchbooks clutched to their chests like shields. This will not protect them.

3:40pm - Art jamming and idle chitchat returns to a less brain-searing level. Newbies who remain gain a level in Conversational Constitution.

4:45pm - Half the membership becomes spontaneously hungry for Chinese food.

5pm - We pack up and leave, having gotten in a good stretch of comicking for the day.


I may exaggerate slightly. But you get the gist.

It's a fun time. If you're up for honest, constructive feedback on your work and enjoy a good art jam with somewhat askew geek types, stop by!

First!

The Black Hat Collective is a Twin Cities based group of comic creators. Our principles are as follows:

• Engage in constructive peer critique to improve as artists and writers
  
• Produce the best weird little comics we can
• Consume punch and pie (if punch and pie is not available, copious amounts of Chinese food will suffice)

Our club belongs to MISFITS, the Twin Cities' premier scifi/fantasy/general geekery organization. They run a convention called CONvergence every July, which you should go to. Yes, you. What? You live out of state? Go anyway. I promise there's no snow in Minnesota in July.

Black Hatters have been spotted representing our group's work at FallCon, Anime Detour, KakkoiCon, and other local conventions. In 2007 we published our first anthology of short comics, Day in the Life.

It's shiny, right?

Day in the Life is a themed anthology, filled with stories that combine elements of the everyday and the fantastic: a vampire housewife, a single mother who works as a hired thug, a little girl whose dreams come to life, and more!

You can currently find Day in the Life at The Source Comics and Games, our favorite local comic shop. We'll soon have an Etsy shop up to sell the comic, as well as some other treats down the line.

The Black Hat Collective meets once a month, usually on Saturday afternoons. If you're interested in joining us for an art jam, drop us a line at blackhatcollective@gmail.com.

Welcome to the blog! We'll try and keep it interesting for ya.