Harken's Raiders Character Profiles: Athena and Alfie

The first two characters we meet in issue one of Harken's Raiders aren't people, but they are definitely characters. In the first pages we are introduced to Athena, the plane that the Raiders use on their most dangerous missions, and Alfie, the flight crew's pet bulldog.

When first working on the story with Ron Marz and Darryl Banks, we ran into a challenge. Harken's guys are paratroopers so we needed a way to get them into Nazi occupied territories without getting them killed.

Typically, paratroopers did missions in some type of unarmed cargo plane. They would send out sorties of twenty to forty planes and drop tons of soldiers. Our guys are with the Special Operations Executive, so they needed a way to take a small group on secret missions. From that challenge, Athena was born.

Darryl Banks' design for Athena's nose art

We decided on a modified British AVRO Lancaster MKII bomber. It makes a bit of sense, the Lancaster is a big plane with a crew of seven, it's heavily armed and can travel long distances.

However, I did say modified. First we had to add seats for the team. We couldn't have them standing around in a plane for several hours. Then we had to add jump lights so the pilot can signal the team when they are over the drop site. We also upgraded the guns in the rear and middle with good old American Browning .50 caliber machine guns.

Athena in flight

The biggest modification we made to Athena was to take out her bomb housing and cradle. This did two things for us, it lightened the total weight of the plane and gave us a way to load large cargo on the plane through the bomb bay doors. You know, stuff like reconnaissance equipment, maybe a motorcycle or two, possibly a small horse (ok, no horses), you get the idea.

The team inside Athena with a view of the bomb bay

So, now we have a plane that is faster, more powerful and has bigger guns. Those Nazis won't know what hit 'em.

The next character you meet is the flight crew's mascot, Alfie. Alfie is a 3 year old male English Bulldog who proudly stands vigilant in the cockpit on each mission. Ok, he mostly sleeps and snores. Still, he provides a very valuable service to the crew, he is the official good luck charm. Athena has made it back after every mission that Alfie has been on, so that's worth something.

Alfie in the cockpit

So join us on http://www.Vanbreed.com on January 17th and we will be dropping the first three pages of Harken's Raiders #1 for Free.

See ya in the funny papers,
Allen

Delays and Opportunities

Hi Folks,
The last time I posted, we had just finished promoting the preview for Sword of Freyja. As things tend to go in the indie comic world, projects get delayed due to artist's other commitments. Rather than piece-meal the book we decided to put Freyja on hold for the near term. While this was a disappointment, it was also an opportunity, an opportunity to tell a different story.

I have always been fascinated with World War II, in part, because I served in the 10th Mountain Division, whose roots trace back to World War II.

The time period, was truly unique and I don't think we will ever see that kind of selflessness again.

The luxury of being an independent comic creator is telling whatever story you want. So, a World War II story it is.

Telling a war story is challenging, you have to invest in your characters and give them depth but in the back of your mind you realize this character probably won't make it through the mission. Even though it's war, I don't want a bunch of senseless deaths. To really tell this story, I needed the help of a master story teller. The first person I called was Ron Marz. I pitched the idea to him and he simply replied "You had me at World War II".

Ok, now that I have a partner in crime, I need an artist. The artist couldn't just be anyone. We needed someone with the chops to not only handle the technical difficulty of drawing military equipment but also give life and movement to all our characters. So we turned to the one guy that we knew could pull it off, Ron's Green Lantern running buddy, Darryl Banks.

Now we have writers and artists, we need to round out the team, we need a colorist and letterer. Sometimes when you are doing your own book, it's easy to overlook or go cheap on color and lettering but that is a mistake.

You can have the best art in the world but if the color isn't right, it kills the mood of the story. You can have the greatest script ever but if your lettering is off , the words lose meaning. We needed some extraordinary talents to help us tell our tale, so I reached out to two rising talents in the industry, Dee Cunniffe and Rachel Deering.

The team is complete, the script is written and the art is flowing, so watch out world, here comes Harken's Raiders!

Dallas Comic Show

This past weekend, I was a featured guest at the Dallas Comic Show. This is a fun show, most of the featured guests are comic creators with a handful of media guests and cosplay guest. The big focus of the show is the comics. 

This was my first show as a featured guest. I have exhibited before at cons but this was the first time with my name on the marquee. It was a great time.

A few days ago I posted about my concerns bringing a preview book that only had a portion of the first issue of Sword of Freyja and those pages didn’t have the final colors. Looking back in hindsight, it was the correct decision.

The show gave out a copy to their 150 VIP attendees and because I am completely OCD on things, I noted each interaction with the fans. 

54 people brought their copy to be signed by Matthew Waite (artist), Elizabeth Breitweiser (cover color) and I. We got a lot of great feedback, most of it positive. Even the negative was constructive so I will consider that positive in the long run.

Signing books

One thing I did learn at the show was, I need to work on is my quick pitch for the book. We had several folks who didn't get a VIP copy come up and ask me what the book was about. For the first few, I found myself stammering around trying to explain the plot for the first story arc. 

After doing that three or four times, I finally got it down to a more concise pitch. "The Sword of Freyja is the story of Jenifer Nguyen, who has just recently gotten out of the Army and started her first civilian job. It should have been easy money, going on an archeological dig for the tomb of the Goddess, Freyja but once they find the tomb, things go horribly wrong. Talk about your bad first day on the job."

This provided enough information to start a conversation without overloading the person with a lot of details that they may not have cared about.

So to summarized, Dallas Comic Show was a great time, the gamble of doing the preview book paid off because we got a lot of great feedback and it gave me an opportunity to practice my book pitch.

So now it's back to finishing the book. We still have to find a interior colorist and finish the last 10 pages of issue number 1. I will try to give you some sneak previews along the way.

See you in the funny books,

Allen

Elizabeth Breitweiser and I in front of the my banner

Matthew Wait and I pitching the book!

Editors are your Friends

I have been chronicling writing our creator owned book, Sword of Freyja. Sharing the things that I have figured out along the way.  Today, I want to talk about getting a story editor.

When you think of an editor, you probably think of the person who manages all the deadlines on the book and makes sure the story/character integrity remains intact but I want to talk about a story editor.

If you are new to writing comics, a story editor can help you avoid some common mistakes that can really sabotage your story. You may have the greatest story in the world, The Iliad meets Star Wars with plot twists that rival The Usual Suspects but if you can't translate it to a series of two dimensional panels on a page, no one will care.

You have to remember writing is more than putting down some snappy dialog, the writer is responsible for setting the scene, pace and page transitions of the story. If you are lucky; you team up with an artist that is also a storyteller and they can help with the scene, pace and transition. If you rely on your artist to clean up your storytelling, you are putting extra work on your artist.  You don't want to do that to the person who is responsible for brilliantly creating 22 pages of magic each month.

I got lucky and the great Ron Marz agreed to edit my stories. Ron is one of the most accomplished storytellers in the industry so I implicitly trust his judgement. One of the best things about working with Ron is, he allows me to still tell my story but he makes sure the script makes sense to the artist and ultimately the reader.

Letting the characters breath is one of my biggest challenges in writing. I have lived with these characters for so long, I know there personalities and back stories. I tend to focus on the big plot point and forget to have the characters react like normal (or in some cases, abnormal) people. If you think about your favorite stories you have read or scene, the thing you like about them is how the characters react to the event and not the event itself (unless it's an alien bursting out of a chest, that's just awesome).

To summarize, if you are a new writer, I highly recommend getting a story editor. If you can't afford one, at least get a friend who is familiar with comics to read your script. One last nugget, take their criticism fairly. If a person agrees to read your script they are trying to help you, so if they tell you that your scene doesn't make sense because you have 14 actions going on in a two shot, you may want to listen to them.

On a final note, if you live in Dallas, come out and see me at Dallas Comic Show in Richardson this weekend. I will have copies of my various books there.

See you in the funny books,
Allen

Three for the Show

Yesterday, I told you a bit about our new book, The Sword of Freyja. Even though issue #1 isn’t complete, I decided to take advantage of an opportunity. Since artist Matthew Waite, cover color artist Elizabeth Breitweiser and I will be at Mark Walter’s Dallas Comic Show on August 6^th & 7^th.  I offered to make a special preview book for all the VIPs ticket holders.

The preview book has the first 6 pages of Sword of Freyja #1 plus another Vanbreed Studios story featuring the work of Ron Marz, Darryl Banks, Terry Austin, Ross Hughes and Troy Peteri. So it will be a pretty cool little keepsake that is exclusive to the show.

This is a bit of a gamble for a couple of reasons. The biggest challenge is; we don’t have an interior colorist yet for the book so we had to do gray scale backgrounds. So while the art is there, it doesn’t come to life the way the work of a good color artist does.

The next challenge, we didn’t have enough time before having to go to print to have Rachel Deering do the lettering, so I picked up that task. I can do an ok job but no one will confuse my work with a pro like Rachel (check out her great work on Amelia Cole sometime).

As I said, this is a gamble. You are always concerned when you don’t put your most polished work out there but the opportunity to get the preview in the hands of a couple hundred people while a big part of the creative team is there was too great to pass up.

I will let you know how it goes. If you are a VIP at Dallas Comic Show and get the book, let me know what you think.

As a little bonus, here is the cover by Matthew and Elizabeth plus a really short print cover I will have the show for sale.

See you in the funny books,

Allen

Here We Go!

So a new blog, huh? Yeah, I want to share my journey as I attempt to write my own comic series. Full disclosure, comics aren’t my day job, I am a Microsoft programmer/architect to pay the bills. Creating comics is more a hobby (as Jim Zub says a very expensive hobby).

Also sharing a little more truth, this isn’t my first comic either, I have written short stories in 8 Percent and Vanbreed Studios Presents (both on Comixology at https://www.comixology.com/Vanbreed-Studios/comics-publisher/2426-0). 

This will be the first time I have tried to do an on-going series. Luckily, I am not going it alone. Matthew Waite (Deadpool, Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers) is doing the line art and Ron Marz (Green Lantern, WitchBlade and a ton more titles) is doing the editing. We also have the talented Rachel Deering doing the lettering.

So, I have pretty much buried the lead, the book is called Sword of Freyja, which ironically enough is about a sword and a Norse Goddess named Freyja. It’s not a Sword and Sorcery book, per se. More of a “what happens when a crazed ego-maniac gets one of the most powerful artifacts in all of history and ruins your life with it” kind of story.

This won’t be a hype page, though if you get hyped about the book I won’t complain. This is more about what I learn about creating a comic and how I work with my team. I will share some script notes and art work along the way to demonstrate some of these points.

So stay tuned.

Allen