First-Look Friday--Pg. 46

After reading a part of a prophecy in the Tovernboak, Velma comes to one of the most important realizations here. It's actually one that will change the course of the entire book. Of course, I'm not telling you what it is. You'll just have to find out when the book is finished.

Note the staircase from Velma's office. It made a guest appearance in a blog entry last spring:

  Velma dragged me down the right passageway behind the choir and stopped abruptly at at a black iron gate. It was the gilded entrance to a dark spiral staircase. Velma swung open the gate and darted down into the shadows. 

  "How do you not kill yourself going down these things?" I was cautiously placing my left foot onto the first stair.

  "I count them. You know how many years I've been doing this? Close the gate behind you."

  I did as I was told. "No flashlight? Nothing?" I had never been to her office before and I was brimming with anticipation for the opportunity. I just knew it would be a treasure trove of historical artifacts.

  "Quit the whining, fancy pants. Just count! There are 28 steps." She was already at the bottom jingling keys.

  "Well I don't know which step I'm on now." I honestly didn't get very far. "Now I have to go back up and start all over."

  "By the sounds of it, you're on 8." I heard a key click into the lock and then a slow turn was made. It sounded like she was unlocking a massive bank vault.

  In my mind I counted from 8 and once I labored to 27 I took one more step and cautiously felt for another, but there was only floor. She was spot-on. The very second my foot made contact she flung open the door and light quickly spilled out onto the staircase. "You couldn't have done that sooner?"
  "I wanted you to know how right I was," Velma said smugly. 

First-Look Friday--Pg. 45

Velma's a gal who loves her books especially the one she's looking at on this page. It's called the Tovernboak which is an important document handed down from the Dutch New Amsterdam era of the city. It's the primer Velma needs to solve one of New York's greatest mysteries (That's all I'm going to say on that). When I told Courtney the page Velma was looking at was in 17th century Low Dutch, she just rolled her eyes and wondered why she ever got involved with my historical shenanigans.

In other news, Courtney has set to work inking the last 18 pages of the book and  I just recently started doing Photoshop work on the pages she's inked. Basically where getting to the "almost done" phase of The Wonder City. Wooohooo!!!

Last but not least, we had a knod in the Kickstarter blog yesterday. Thanks to them and to all our backers for the continued support. You're the best!

http://blog.kickstarter.com/post/2071730953/love-at-first-sight 

First-Look Black Friday--Pg. 44

Velma doing some research in her swank office. For all you history nerds, take note of the Castello Plan map (c.1660) on her wall in the first panel. Courtney's attention to detail is amazing.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

First-Look Friday--Pg. 43

Page 42 is still in production. It's a really cool page, but not ready for a preview, so hang tight.

Velma's office in the basement of St. John the Divine is one of my favorite settings in The Wonder City. It's sort of my idea of a dream office and I think Courtney's done a great job with it so far.

Poor Velma is not happy on this page. You'll find out why soon enough.

Behind the Scenes Sketches

Some of Courtney's practice sketches for page 41.

First-Look Friday--Pg. 41

JR here: Every Friday we're going to let you preview a page in progress. This week's page is 41.

 

Courtney is currently in the process of inking the last two chapters of our first volume. This page here is hot off her drafting table. In the next couple of days (fingers crossed) I'll begin to clean these guys up in Photoshop. I'll go into a little more detail about that when I start.

Here we see Velma returning to St. John the Divine where she is based as the cathedral's archivist. She also  freelances as a gal Friday for one of New York City's oldest secret societies which plunges her into the action of this first book. 

 

For Posterity

As Justin previously wrote, we were recently very lucky to speak on a NY Comic Con panel with the awesome folks from Kickstarter, and some very inspiring project creators: Jamie Tanner (Aviary) and James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot (Indie Game The Movie). It was a great experience and very cool to hear questions from audience members plotting out their own Kickstarter projects. Lo and behold JR emailed me a link to a video of the panel (which the thought of watching all the way through causes a butterfly riot in my stomach) made by Mary Nichols (DJ Fusion).

My parents assure me we both look professional and neither of us have weird hair.

In comic drawing news, we are getting so close to beginning some photoshop work on two completed channels, I could cry golden tears of joy! I love the part where I can drag my laptop to the coffee house and pretend I'm a freelance something-or-other. I'm also starting inking on the last couple chapters, so we'll have several new characters to introduce soon!