My New Comic: Angels of the Sword

I thought I'd toss a post over here about my new comic, Angels of the Sword. I haven't been using this blog for anything besides posting to other people's blogs, so I figured it would be nice to put one post up that isn't "This Isn't It." Here's a preview of what the art looks like:



Anyway, my long-awaited new music comic, Angels of the Sword, is finally here! This is another very big project for me, and I've been developing it for almost a full year, now. It's based in part on my own life, and because of that, it's been extremely difficult to write, at times. But it's also been cathartic, in that the more of my pain I can throw onto Jax (the main character), the better I feel about myself, and about life, in general. Dealing with these issues--some of which I have kept repressed for decades!--is helping me to heal, in a way that therapists and counselors never could. I'm hoping it will serve a dual purpose, and be entertaining to those of you who enjoyed ShadowFall and my other projects.

The story involves the members of a regionally-successful rock band, and follows their personal trials and victories. The star of the series is Jackson "Jax" Ray, vocalist and lead guitarist for the band, Angels of the Sword. He's 26 years old, a gifted musician, and an emotional firestorm. Troubles jump on him like flies on fresh manure. He's also a child abuse survivor who carries a lifetime of vicious trauma in his heart, and this affects how he deals with his problems. He sometimes reacts in unusual or unexpected ways, and thus occasionally ends up making things even worse.

Jax's dark personality is balanced out by the other core band members, Paul Stern and Mason James. Paul, the rhythm guitarist, is the jokester, the always-happy "normal" guy. Mason, who plays drums, is too laid back to let anything much bother him, the sort of guy who will just leave to solve a problem, if he can. Into this odd mixture comes Kain Truce, the replacement for their old bassist, Sammy Paige. Kain is a naive girl of 22, spoiled, irresponsible, and a little wild. Her arrival will be the emotional equivalent of dropping a block of ice into a vat of boiling oil.

I'm approaching this story much differently than I have any of my other projects, and am working in black and white, instead of greyscale. Everything is inked, and drawn in my usual semi-realistic style, but with the heavy contrast of some of the American comics of the "B&W revival" of the 1980s. I'm working smaller, as well, so I'm able to do the art much faster than I was able to do ShadowFall. This means I'm more likely to be able to keep up the work, without burning out so fast.

I have no set update schedule for Angels, because I'll be releasing it in complete scenes, rather than daily- or tri-weekly updates. However long it takes me to complete a scene will determine the length of time between updates, and this will depend on the length and complexity of the scene in question. Most seem to be 8-12 pages long, with the first one being 12 pages. I think this method of updating will be much more satisfying for readers, and will also make it easier to keep up with what's going on in such a long storyline. I've got the main page set up with a descriptive scenes dropdown list, so that it will be easy to find the beginning of the latest scenes. I urge new readers to sign up for the newsletter, as that will be the most reliable method of finding out when new scenes have been added.

I hope you enjoy the story! Please feel free to give me feedback on any aspect of it, as I want to do my best to keep the quality as high as possible. You can comment in this blog entry, in the shoutbox or blog on my website, in the forums, or send it to me privately, via email. I look forward to sharing more of the story with you! Come by and see me!