(edit: Please excuse the screentone moiré effect in some of the images)
I'm excited to find out that I've hit over 200 followers on NG! I appreciate all of you who enjoy my work so I wanted to write a brief news post to catch up:
Since around 2021 I've been focused on developing my comic art skills. A lot of this has been from me collaborating with various comic artists and writers and taking feedback.
2024 saw the release of HOTEL STORY, a 120 page graphic novel collaboration between me and Narwhal Books and part 1 of a 2 part story.
While the crowdfund campaign for Part One is now closed, I am currently drawing Part Two and more news will be released about it in the near future.
In-between working on that book, I've also worked on some smaller comic projects as benchmarks tests to see how I can apply what I've learned to my own solo projects:
2022: Key Girl Bug is a 20 page one-shot I made in the span of about a week and a half for a local comic/zine show. It follows a girl with a keytar that has to use her robotics knowledge to keep her grandfather safe.
2023: The Obol is a 48 page haunting horror Americana story, originally made in about a month. This story follows an artifact smuggler involved in a cat-and-mouse chase with a detective aboard a steamboat, all while a deeper mystery unfolds.
Finally, 2024 featured the release of Brutalist Brick [demo tape], an 8-page slice-of-life band story drawn in about 3-4 days (also a re-boot of Key Girl Bug into an idea I could do more with beyond the initial concept.)
I have high hopes for my future work. For one, I have the first chapter completed of a potential long-form comic called Mogao Blues. I have a few preview pages to share here:
While the exact release date for this or what platform I publish has yet to be determined, I look forward to getting more work done on this story as soon as I wrap up HOTEL STORY Part Two. One possibility is that I publish Mogao Blues as a webcomic, which I hope would make it more accessible for others. In edition, I would also like to get more Brutalist Brick stories in the works, but I will need to feel out these other projects.
As for now, art uploads will be slow for a bit, but I am working on stuff, and I hope people will enjoy them I get teh chance to release them.
Thanks for reading!
-Jared