tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63321768871205185072024-02-19T06:24:15.732-05:00George O'Connor's Online SketchbookNews, sketches, artwork, rants, manifestos from author, cartoonist and illustrator George O'ConnorGeorge O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.comBlogger426125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-62137902930707639422015-10-14T13:42:00.000-04:002015-10-14T13:42:09.072-04:00Sneak Peek-- Apollo!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
Just arrived home from lunch to find this nice surprise on my doorstep.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjucT2dV3J96BaMTSBhKbSsHyC9OK-F-wCgtqO_HBNTL63aAcIM1ed4AbmZcDf0DS9o5vff5BYSVUZW3KDFdR1wnGMiFQtEpRWiLPwip_ICr5gDb1qDwsbYPNvZRwr1c-FYoaMXzO8_sKXX/s1600/Photo+on+10-14-15+at+1.27+PM+%25232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjucT2dV3J96BaMTSBhKbSsHyC9OK-F-wCgtqO_HBNTL63aAcIM1ed4AbmZcDf0DS9o5vff5BYSVUZW3KDFdR1wnGMiFQtEpRWiLPwip_ICr5gDb1qDwsbYPNvZRwr1c-FYoaMXzO8_sKXX/s320/Photo+on+10-14-15+at+1.27+PM+%25232.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-32607642189085513782015-01-27T00:46:00.001-05:002015-01-27T00:46:25.413-05:00ARES ARISE! Guest artist posts!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgawbjzvPbtgGANsclyWC0BTUnBL2JbMFL5NNlKFAwOiC6bpqnxy09rdF6ooK5kAnBHDGx5DJ1jf2zD3GH3OBO7kEkSi0PwrIFz5zd60SVihBFbJn2EfureOiOQ3n3zIPNC_6PDejHHqbvf/s1600/Ares-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgawbjzvPbtgGANsclyWC0BTUnBL2JbMFL5NNlKFAwOiC6bpqnxy09rdF6ooK5kAnBHDGx5DJ1jf2zD3GH3OBO7kEkSi0PwrIFz5zd60SVihBFbJn2EfureOiOQ3n3zIPNC_6PDejHHqbvf/s1600/Ares-cover.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
To commemorate the release of volume seven of <i>Olympians</i>, <i>Ares: Bringer of War</i>, I wanted to host a celebration of the oft-maligned god of war and asked a whole slew of my comics pals to contribute their own interpretations of him. Check my <a href="http://olympiansrule.blogspot.com/">olympiansrule blog</a> everyday for a brand new artistic vision featuring the murderous Greek god of battle frenzy by a bevy of the greatest cartooning talents in the world. Here's a list of whom to look for:<br />
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Tuesday, January 27<sup>th</sup>:
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Wednesday January 28<sup>th</sup>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://hamilton-tim.pair.com/CUTBLEED/">Tim Hamilton</a></div>
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Thursday, January 29<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://comicsaregreat.com/author/jerzydrozd">Jerzy Drozd</a></div>
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Friday, January 30<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://reillybrown.tumblr.com/">Reilly Brown</a></div>
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Saturday, January 31<sup>st</sup>: <a href="http://lelandpurvis.com/">Leland Purvis</a></div>
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Sunday, February 1<sup>st</sup>: <a href="http://petarvee.tumblr.com/">Peter Violini</a></div>
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Monday, February 2<sup>nd</sup>: <a href="http://deanhaspiel.com/">Dean Haspiel</a></div>
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Tuesday, February 3<sup>rd</sup>: <a href="http://littlewhitebird.com/">Ellen Lindner</a></div>
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Wednesday, February 4<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://michelfiffe.com/">Michel Fiffe</a></div>
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Thursday, February 5<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://www.danicanovgorodoff.com/">Danica Novgorodoff</a></div>
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Friday, February 6<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://nathanschreiberportfolio.tumblr.com/">Nathan Schreiber</a></div>
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Saturday, February 7<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://simonfraser.net/">Simon Fraser</a></div>
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Sunday, February 8<sup>th</sup>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://robin.megaten.net/">Robin Ha</a></div>
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Monday, February 9<sup>th</sup>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.kharupt.com/">Khary Randolph</a></div>
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Tuesday, February 10<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://www.andresvera.com/">Andres Vera Martinez</a></div>
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Wednesday, February 11<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://www.gregorybenton.com/">Greg Benton</a></div>
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Thursday, February 12<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://www.nickbruel.com/">Nick Bruel</a></div>
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Friday, February 13<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://jasonchin.net/">Jason Chin</a></div>
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Saturday February 14<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://joanreilly.com/">Joan Reilly</a></div>
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Sunday, February 15<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://www.jamesmith.org/">James Smith</a></div>
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Monday, February 16<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://abadzone.tumblr.com/">Nick Abadzis</a></div>
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Tuesday, February 17<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://www.illoz.com/kleinart/">David Klein</a></div>
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Wednesday, February 18<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://chickenopolis.com/">Sara Varon</a></div>
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Thursday, February 19<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://www.beecomix.com/">Jason Little</a></div>
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Friday, February 20<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://swinginmeatcomics.blog.com/">Christa Cassano</a></div>
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Saturday, February 21<sup>st</sup>: <a href="http://www.lara-antal.com/">Lara Antal</a></div>
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Sunday February 22<sup>nd</sup>: <a href="http://www.dougolsen.com/">Douglas Einar Olsen</a></div>
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Monday February 23<sup>rd</sup>: <a href="http://pulseart.tumblr.com/">Evan Petersen</a></div>
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Tuesday, February 24<sup>th</sup>: <a href="http://maggiescarlettbreen.tumblr.com/">Maggie Scarlett Breen</a></div>
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Wednesday, February 25th: <a href="http://ihearthorwitz.tumblr.com/">Michael Horwitz</a></div>
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Thursday, February 26<sup>th</sup>:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://66thousandmilesperhour.com/michaelwordpress/">Mike Cavallaro</a></div>
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Friday, February 27th: <a href="http://nickbertozzi.com/">Nick Bertozzi </a></div>
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George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-2139355195094813692015-01-27T00:09:00.002-05:002015-01-27T00:09:44.652-05:00My new book ARES: BRINGER OF WAR comes out today!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Well, what are you waiting for? Go get it!George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-42123056910654649192015-01-24T19:25:00.001-05:002015-01-24T19:25:09.652-05:00ARES EVENTS!The seventh volume of my Olympians series, Ares: Bringer of War drops this Tuesday, January 27th. Here's a partial list of places you'll be able to see me:<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">George O’Connor</span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ares </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Book Events</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thursday, January 29<sup>th</sup></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Water Street
Bookstore</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 5:00pm</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 125
Water Street / Exeter, NH 03833</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Talk
and signing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Odyssey
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 4:00pm</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 9
College Street / South Hadley, MA 01075</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 2:00pm</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 279
Harvard Street / Brookline, MA 02446</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wednesday, February 4<sup>th</sup></span></b>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Event</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Big Planet College
Park</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 5:00 –
8:00pm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 7315
Baltimore Ave / College Park, MD 20740</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Signing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thursday, February 5<sup>th</sup></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Event</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Takoma Park
Library</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 7:30pm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 101
Philadelphia Avenue / Takoma Park, MD 20912</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Talk
and signing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Friday, February 6<sup>th</sup> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Event</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Community
Bookstore</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 4:00pm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 143 7<sup>th</sup>
Avenue / Brooklyn, NY 11215</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Talk
and signing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Saturday, February 7<sup>th</sup></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Event</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Greenlight
Bookstore</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 11:00am</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 686
Fulton Street / Brooklyn, NY 11217</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Storytime!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Monday, February 9<sup>th</sup></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Event</span></b>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Watchung Booksellers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 4:00 –
5:00pm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 54
Fairfield Street / Montclair, NJ 07042</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Chat
and signing at the store.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Wednesday, February 11<sup>th</sup></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Event</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Kinokuniya</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 6:00pm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 1073
Avenue of the Americans / New York, NY 10018</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Kids
workshop and signing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the first
kids workshop they’re doing!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sunday, February 15<sup>th</sup> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Event</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">WORD Drawing
Workshop</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 2:30pm –
3:30pm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 123
Newark Avenue / Jersey city, NJ 07302</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Workshop
and signing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tuesday, February 17<sup>th</sup></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Event</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Boulevard Books</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 1pm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 7518
13<sup>th</sup> Avenue / Brooklyn, NY 11228</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Graphic
novel workshop with kids at the store!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Saturday, February 28<sup>th</sup> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Event</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Books of Wonder</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 1:00pm –
3:00pm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 18
West 18<sup>th</sup> Street / New York, NY 10011</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Author
panel and signing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sunday, March 1<sup>st</sup> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Event</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bank Street
Bookstore</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 1:00 –
2:00pm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: Corner
of 107<sup>th</sup> Street and Broadway / New York, NY 10025</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Special
guest in the Fractured Fables puppet show featuring the Greek myths, followed
by a signing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Event</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">powerHouse on 8<sup>th</sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 4:00 –
5:00pm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 1111 8<sup>th</sup>
Avenue / Brooklyn, NY 11215</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Talk
and signing!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Friday, March 6<sup>th</sup></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #e36c0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: accent6; mso-themeshade: 191;">Event</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Voracious Reader</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Time: 6:00pm</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Location: 1997
Palmer Ave / Larchmont, NY 10530</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Details: Talk
and signing, plus meeting with the ‘Uncommon Corps of Ravenous Readers,’ the
middle-grade book club.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-89339625390705779812014-11-26T11:25:00.000-05:002014-11-26T11:25:04.097-05:00Luncheon on the Grass, Olympians style<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0p0k426GxmZvE_9-JZ_ivs7IGjlY9MemW6_jsBdFbE-WYxgYNBPDQRs1qs1xBc13A5fYffFJdS4J7j-0uAXy4XJ3lYNa97oQ6-S7A8Fi2Ak6aHc9pTw7xl6Dujy-QGt2s2fmHaWJgfEs/s1600/luncheononthegrass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0p0k426GxmZvE_9-JZ_ivs7IGjlY9MemW6_jsBdFbE-WYxgYNBPDQRs1qs1xBc13A5fYffFJdS4J7j-0uAXy4XJ3lYNa97oQ6-S7A8Fi2Ak6aHc9pTw7xl6Dujy-QGt2s2fmHaWJgfEs/s1600/luncheononthegrass.jpg" height="205" width="320" /></a></div>
I was pretty happy with this panel from the upcoming Apollo: The Brilliant God so I thought I'd share. If it looks familiar, its composition is based on the famous painting <span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px;"><i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_D%C3%A9jeuner_sur_l%E2%80%99herbe">Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe</a></i></span>, by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard_Manet">Edouard Manet</a>, who in turn lifted the composition from a drawing by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael">Raphael</a> (not the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_(Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles)">turtle</a>).<br />
<h3 class="r" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">
</h3>
George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-15921084298201671662014-10-09T11:59:00.000-04:002014-10-09T11:59:11.554-04:00Olympians available as an e-book!<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">All 6 volumes of OLYMPIANS are available as e-books now. I made a comic about it.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguIBtKVugyB90DW_VGPm0erM3WPHSibCE-sFRFmrzzCBDzxlDwKitJV_65SaQB5sxx5P-IKCe_1Ji1HWW1MKCzCzEhUWdW8XXi2s1zagTAjitMwbUblTasjmY-nDAmoWPmiP0V0yU6YFg8/s1600/e-reader+Olympians.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguIBtKVugyB90DW_VGPm0erM3WPHSibCE-sFRFmrzzCBDzxlDwKitJV_65SaQB5sxx5P-IKCe_1Ji1HWW1MKCzCzEhUWdW8XXi2s1zagTAjitMwbUblTasjmY-nDAmoWPmiP0V0yU6YFg8/s1600/e-reader+Olympians.jpg" height="640" width="460" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ares has dropped over $50 on extensions this week alone.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/@GeorgetheMighty"><img alt="Follow @GeorgetheMighty on Twitter" src="http://twitter-badges.s3.amazonaws.com/follow_me-a.png" /></a>George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-62300051544388852312014-10-08T10:56:00.002-04:002014-10-08T10:56:51.813-04:00NEW YORK COMIC CON: Where I'll be<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/RNA/RNA_NewYorkComicCon_V2/images/2014/nycc-logo-hi-res.jpg?v=635198925226515217" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/RNA/RNA_NewYorkComicCon_V2/images/2014/nycc-logo-hi-res.jpg?v=635198925226515217" height="139" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Ah, New York Comic Con, that wonderful time of year when a young person's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of cosplay, crushing crowds and who would win in a fight, Superman or Goku. I'll be attending (though not tabling) and below is a schedule of my public events.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Friday – October 10th</b><br />
<br />
<b>Panel</b><br />
Create Your Own Monster – with Andrew Arnold, George O’Connor, and Ben Hatke<br />
<i>Time</i>: 10:30am – 11:30am<br />
<i>Location</i>: Family HQ – 1C03<br />
<i>Description</i>: Three authors enter...and with your help, they’ll each create a monster who embodies everything that you think monsters should be! Which will be best? It’s up to you!<br />
<i>Moderator</i>: Jack Baur ( so prepare your <i>24</i> jokes in advance)<br />
<br />
<b>Signing</b><br />
with Andrew Arnold, George O’Connor<br />
<i>Time</i>: 12:00pm – 1:00pm<br />
<i>Location</i>: The FirstSecond Booth-- 2237<br />
<br />
<b>Saturday - October 11th</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Recovering from crowds, sitting at home, rocking back and forth</b><br />
<i>Time:</i> anytime after 11 AM, when George finally wakes up<br />
<i>Location</i>: His apartment<br />
<i>Description</i>: George O'Connor does what the title suggests; there may also be some light weeping.<br />
<i>Moderator</i>: Birdy the cat will stare silently at him from the corner, waiting to be fed.<br />
<br />
<b>Sunday – October 12th</b><br />
<br />
<b>Panel</b><br />
Build Your Own Adventure- with Zack Giallongo, Ben Hatke, Matt London, Frank Cammuso, Scott Campbell and George O’Connor<br />
<i>Time</i>: 3:15 – 4:00pm<br />
<i>Location</i>: 1A01<br />
<i>Description</i>: In this interactive panel perfect for kids and families, top-tier graphic novel and comic<br />
authors and illustrators will work with the audience to write and illustrate an original adventure story! It will be an exciting ride, great for aspiring writers and artists. Featuring George O’Connor (Olympians), Matt London (The 8th Continent), Zack Giallongo (The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Macbeth), Frank Cammuso (The Misadventures of Salem Hyde), Scott Campbell (Hug Machine), Ben Hatke (Julia's House for Lost Creatures).<br />
<i>Moderator</i>: George O'Connor, so expect chaos.<br />
<br />
<b>Post-Panel Signing </b><br />
with Zack Giallongo, Ben Hatke, and George O’Connor<br />
<i>Time</i>: 4:15 – 5:00pm<br />
<i>Location</i>: Autographing Area, Table 19George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-39423476376211342732014-10-07T03:00:00.000-04:002014-10-07T08:14:01.659-04:00Olympians Boxed Set-- Countdown! Megapost Number 7- IT'S OUT TODAY!!!<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
On October 7th, -- why that's today! --the new boxed set of the first 6 <i>Olympians</i> books has officially been released! That's all six volumes of <i>Olympians</i>, and a poster, all in one handy-dandy box! For the past six days I've posted a behind-the-scenes look at the making of each of the six Olympians books, and today I'll share a little about the making of the poster, the slipcase, and even some future peeks at what's coming down the pike for <i>Olympians</i>.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcpPlubwj_Vi-ehe7iMF7K9WW2CHacC34CYuAB7tgRlLmaXFKbipqfnEk-xDrEB1v42QQcI998cmH3n1K0Iw2O85fM3gueni6dovKiax-LEVtqO7fgG5rvLRSB4YprIYFHFQCUXk2t1Wz/s1600/OlympiansBoxedSet-300rgb-550x793.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcpPlubwj_Vi-ehe7iMF7K9WW2CHacC34CYuAB7tgRlLmaXFKbipqfnEk-xDrEB1v42QQcI998cmH3n1K0Iw2O85fM3gueni6dovKiax-LEVtqO7fgG5rvLRSB4YprIYFHFQCUXk2t1Wz/s1600/OlympiansBoxedSet-300rgb-550x793.jpg" height="320" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">What are you sitting there for? Go out and get yours!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Whew, it's been a long strange trip doing these books-- I won't lie, it gives me an immense swell of satisfaction to see them all assembled together in a giant brick of <i>Olympian-</i>y goodness on my shelf. I honestly don't recall exactly when the idea of creating a boxed set of <i>Olympians</i> first came up-- I know I was not pushing for it, and I have a vague recollection of thinking it wouldn't actually materialize (the world of publishing is rife with those sort of heartbreaks), but one day I had a meeting with editorial at the Daily Bugle (Flatiron) building and I was told the boxed set was a go, and they wanted to do a poster to go with it.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganvgdSVn8qsyxlno7YLZPzYEgIXzwdNkbq3qkxVb3meosZQWuoNHm18kkbLnwzW82xaJ8W99SFlePNZJmCYnBRofkY9k2UjGX4HdWOWd6fxUdJzZcCjCsT2-X2c4C4C_f4VUHCj5uB8tZ/s1600/hera-a-day11.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEganvgdSVn8qsyxlno7YLZPzYEgIXzwdNkbq3qkxVb3meosZQWuoNHm18kkbLnwzW82xaJ8W99SFlePNZJmCYnBRofkY9k2UjGX4HdWOWd6fxUdJzZcCjCsT2-X2c4C4C_f4VUHCj5uB8tZ/s1600/hera-a-day11.jpg" height="194" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
A poster for <i>Olympians</i> was something I wanted for a very long time. I had previously assembled some mock-ups that never got made, but before I get into that, I want to talk about the trickiness of drawing large group assemblies. Above is the earliest sketch I could find of a group shot of the Olympians, from a project I was working on before <i>Olympians</i> that eventually fed into, in many ways, <i>Olympians</i>. Maybe I'll write a post about that early project one day...</div>
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2-D2xDEq0RCWmnbIODPGU-4jg9fnbpiCmmNjy8uJcbqMYTQt1i7rfouenU8mt_zm44lIveyxtvep1N6IPFB8OZU8Iee-PjDnMKTTxg7A3cU4G_iTmzMHeyHXc1FKuDRKeSapmggWP7IgJ/s1600/earlyposterrough.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2-D2xDEq0RCWmnbIODPGU-4jg9fnbpiCmmNjy8uJcbqMYTQt1i7rfouenU8mt_zm44lIveyxtvep1N6IPFB8OZU8Iee-PjDnMKTTxg7A3cU4G_iTmzMHeyHXc1FKuDRKeSapmggWP7IgJ/s1600/earlyposterrough.jpg" height="320" width="192" /></a></div>
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Above is a sketch for the assembled Olympian family as seen on page 66 of <i>Zeus: King of the Gods</i>. This was from the revised dummy for <i>Zeus</i> (notice that its in pencil rather than the fancy ink of the rest of that dummy), but I always intended for it to double as an <i>Olympians</i> poster.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-hD17KjWlwDOonb0QPtBsazicIk27tEapfKLhO8sqi5vLj0ki2qNlVtwu1jaZwSEDFZZulT0ZpNGCkRL-dpQf7gCwvmwwO22C980qvQM6bHTcrmjpnykryggGmEUIk3xeDcn79ODKnYhe/s1600/familyportrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-hD17KjWlwDOonb0QPtBsazicIk27tEapfKLhO8sqi5vLj0ki2qNlVtwu1jaZwSEDFZZulT0ZpNGCkRL-dpQf7gCwvmwwO22C980qvQM6bHTcrmjpnykryggGmEUIk3xeDcn79ODKnYhe/s1600/familyportrait.jpg" height="293" width="320" /></a></div>
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Here's the finished panel as it appeared in Zeus: King of the Gods. There are elements of the coloring I'm not wild about, and some of the characters are a little off-model (I hadn't fully worked out everyone yet-- I'm looking at you, Aphrodite), but all in all I really liked the composition. All of the future poster pieces are derived from this posing and iconography.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfJmHrEPwDXB87K1V_H_6JPq0cyE_GpdVuTDBx9Rr3XaDG1Y1F1M7dktD054r-zmSP9BK-SZvtyD3nLKBfGlUig0i6Ywkp0SnX_GEqiMD3AaOxqf-cgdjlnsa7HN0oYUNlBAbW95E8wKND/s1600/OLYMPIANS_revisedrbg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfJmHrEPwDXB87K1V_H_6JPq0cyE_GpdVuTDBx9Rr3XaDG1Y1F1M7dktD054r-zmSP9BK-SZvtyD3nLKBfGlUig0i6Ywkp0SnX_GEqiMD3AaOxqf-cgdjlnsa7HN0oYUNlBAbW95E8wKND/s1600/OLYMPIANS_revisedrbg.jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wish this had been made...</td></tr>
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This is a mock-up and tagline I put together for the series. First Second never committed to publishing this poster (in part because I mention twelve books, and who knew if the series would last that long), but it was used in a few places on-line and such. The poster that comes with the boxed set sports an alternate iteration of the tagline here, "Not your average family."</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgni0cfrrYvLz2d-mN2IJbEBfZLaCjjD8mxlux5PHo-hlJGzt_AHJZTlR5ug5Oeo36i44M_J94UMMJmohdHSzvAIWLUooCl2oSf4Tnoh4fBtr5SWZ_Kj3ju0_icOukD7kxowhd7i4Tb3cBZ/s1600/olympiansheadercolorsmaller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgni0cfrrYvLz2d-mN2IJbEBfZLaCjjD8mxlux5PHo-hlJGzt_AHJZTlR5ug5Oeo36i44M_J94UMMJmohdHSzvAIWLUooCl2oSf4Tnoh4fBtr5SWZ_Kj3ju0_icOukD7kxowhd7i4Tb3cBZ/s1600/olympiansheadercolorsmaller.jpg" height="262" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There's about 7 million of these cards out there. If you have one, it's worth, like, one plugged nickel.</td></tr>
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You've seen this piece before-- just pan up, it's the header to this site. I created this piece, heavily based on the page from <i>Zeus: King of the Gods</i>, for a postcard that I distribute at personal appearances and for this website. The family is growing a bit here, with the addition of Persephone and Hebe, and even a tiny little piece of Heracles' shoulder.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJh0BIZIQTJznoft7ukkppdCm4WHxDXuaBWecRp4YACjC6WTe3WAcP6dpgDIU9K51C9uQ1lUDzUi09b56Oei2iE4cMtuNvXUFcAO-9d6N0Onihxg9UBT4I5UKOzBxo9IoA2i0_E3_vyp_/s1600/olympians+poster+rough+2+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIJh0BIZIQTJznoft7ukkppdCm4WHxDXuaBWecRp4YACjC6WTe3WAcP6dpgDIU9K51C9uQ1lUDzUi09b56Oei2iE4cMtuNvXUFcAO-9d6N0Onihxg9UBT4I5UKOzBxo9IoA2i0_E3_vyp_/s1600/olympians+poster+rough+2+(1).jpg" height="231" width="320" /></a></div>
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Pretty much immediately after it was decided to make a poster for the boxed set, we knew it would be an expansion of the previous 'poster' pieces. Above is the rough sketch mock-up of the cover <i>and</i> the slipcase for the boxed set-- I would use the same piece for both, and designed it so that the composition worked as both a flat poster and a three-dimensional slipcase. If you look above, you can see my notations for where the cover and slipcase measured up to the original art. The family has expanded by leaps and bounds, but it is easy to see the compositional elements of that first poster.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCDYCWXp435ew-8iSmfM-8SP2EnVI3RMi-1v3MjB9mJhXyCMbqCYjxjDbBew0qBrWgaGZpLs0tJeBx9q6wAq_q51g96teWDYik1VNgv3-w4-zN_hYh5_qYKDhg0O8ocFYASzxyKi4hPLRm/s1600/Olympians+Poster+pencils+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCDYCWXp435ew-8iSmfM-8SP2EnVI3RMi-1v3MjB9mJhXyCMbqCYjxjDbBew0qBrWgaGZpLs0tJeBx9q6wAq_q51g96teWDYik1VNgv3-w4-zN_hYh5_qYKDhg0O8ocFYASzxyKi4hPLRm/s1600/Olympians+Poster+pencils+small.jpg" height="175" width="320" /></a></div>
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Finished pencils.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh898MkwUGDkBmVg0D9RouFFzL2jvc6M1IXh6RaXMWXQIXw-qiVNBVzwUrmHeYK0slHJZaFa-HKhD4V-xQ4_t5KDMQMM85k_SFX_vd3aq7whWRhGmUYfbkFBbLZNgkaZMqWT8OU_oR41x4X/s1600/Olympians+Poster+black+and+white+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh898MkwUGDkBmVg0D9RouFFzL2jvc6M1IXh6RaXMWXQIXw-qiVNBVzwUrmHeYK0slHJZaFa-HKhD4V-xQ4_t5KDMQMM85k_SFX_vd3aq7whWRhGmUYfbkFBbLZNgkaZMqWT8OU_oR41x4X/s1600/Olympians+Poster+black+and+white+small.jpg" height="178" width="320" /></a></div>
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Finished inks.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhav7ZJNWF0pLb5Hg1N0mylAexpiKIDVXTtVe9L82ncn45C-4UFNMZ_8MFnDlya5VO8qicEWuyOIG_-RVhNDqVeClMDKyI9Emt7KRKDRrcUnTWyggmpz5AX6BGygikf_gmburGnv8RWkZkh/s1600/Olympians+Poster+color+small2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhav7ZJNWF0pLb5Hg1N0mylAexpiKIDVXTtVe9L82ncn45C-4UFNMZ_8MFnDlya5VO8qicEWuyOIG_-RVhNDqVeClMDKyI9Emt7KRKDRrcUnTWyggmpz5AX6BGygikf_gmburGnv8RWkZkh/s1600/Olympians+Poster+color+small2.jpg" height="178" width="320" /></a></div>
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And finished colors.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOCKagT_86wAGrUDChJweKQUGQp8NQsxxP1vmsdCqLElZWXENdaBlWrnQr13YriBNfohmTGmgLc_zQvAOaZfiQnZdTOwUG9Zk93oW6v7i2YY4tsyk_8PshxmRWBdCaXEDzub-3_MNxVoqa/s1600/ultimate+Olympians+family+tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOCKagT_86wAGrUDChJweKQUGQp8NQsxxP1vmsdCqLElZWXENdaBlWrnQr13YriBNfohmTGmgLc_zQvAOaZfiQnZdTOwUG9Zk93oW6v7i2YY4tsyk_8PshxmRWBdCaXEDzub-3_MNxVoqa/s1600/ultimate+Olympians+family+tree.jpg" height="320" width="236" /></a></div>
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The back of the poster has a new, ultimate family tree that is so detailed that the cartographer we hired to make it reportedly quit. Above is my rough draft of all the new names I wanted added, for some poor person at First Second (the venerable Colleen Venable) to fashion into a working family tree.</div>
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And that's that! Today the boxed set comes out, commemorating the halfway point of the <i>Olympians</i> series! Thanks everyone for your support!</div>
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And now a few peeks at the future...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikqIxVahhWJq3unZpGJSa0Mgq7lAJri1zwd4WnmgjyImVqGzLLtC8r43UOBJ0_kZDirSn_RwxxOqMjiZYdjeFuIBPlf2oO9O0bMHesIF1LoS8rp3D7bIglvNLpsZBOrhcwR70_FCoZJP_o/s1600/Ares+cover+sketch+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikqIxVahhWJq3unZpGJSa0Mgq7lAJri1zwd4WnmgjyImVqGzLLtC8r43UOBJ0_kZDirSn_RwxxOqMjiZYdjeFuIBPlf2oO9O0bMHesIF1LoS8rp3D7bIglvNLpsZBOrhcwR70_FCoZJP_o/s1600/Ares+cover+sketch+3.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCaEO20md_f56n18cAoV6F77s5kU04rdgYYGHUiC8Z_btoefSRrgewM9pagZEWXPiPWV2BgqL4TGrLgDFEncH__tC8AxJ7-KP_zP0F2IbP80-z8Dky3Z5AMPOFhIBGjhir-7zR-iWNbRci/s1600/Ares+cover+sketch+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCaEO20md_f56n18cAoV6F77s5kU04rdgYYGHUiC8Z_btoefSRrgewM9pagZEWXPiPWV2BgqL4TGrLgDFEncH__tC8AxJ7-KP_zP0F2IbP80-z8Dky3Z5AMPOFhIBGjhir-7zR-iWNbRci/s1600/Ares+cover+sketch+5.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GczlXgqQOEw6iRxo8zotQ50UzgZurMoscFHYGge_PBECv2j54m4OattYg1uS8B7iHvlQRBVqqyXIO9hLqTsGuFXX3akLHXmUNq0i1rMIzZ6xnxApNXDDy2B1heqK0v-xiF6XFtDdEH4H/s1600/Ares+cover+sketch+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9GczlXgqQOEw6iRxo8zotQ50UzgZurMoscFHYGge_PBECv2j54m4OattYg1uS8B7iHvlQRBVqqyXIO9hLqTsGuFXX3akLHXmUNq0i1rMIzZ6xnxApNXDDy2B1heqK0v-xiF6XFtDdEH4H/s1600/Ares+cover+sketch+6.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></div>
The three pictures above are sketches for the <i>Ares: Bringer of War</i> cover (my original title-- <i>Ares: God of War</i> :)). The final cover was recently revealed on Mr Schu's blog <a href="http://mrschureads.blogspot.com/2014/05/ares-bringer-of-war-olympians-cover.html">HERE</a>, but you can see what might have been above.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSSTEdl6H93HPtNCgZIky2_XETbs3cg97J42RivmQNgess0DEzcZUjJ3bptRF2KiQfDgON-XStSYehuruN7ZvaTO2ujW3nvpYBTTg_-ZraWBocPfHoMU9I4f-s0InVwp1I1TT5gq1eGXGH/s1600/Ares+takes+the+field.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSSTEdl6H93HPtNCgZIky2_XETbs3cg97J42RivmQNgess0DEzcZUjJ3bptRF2KiQfDgON-XStSYehuruN7ZvaTO2ujW3nvpYBTTg_-ZraWBocPfHoMU9I4f-s0InVwp1I1TT5gq1eGXGH/s1600/Ares+takes+the+field.jpg" height="245" width="320" /></a></div>
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A rough sketch for a double-paged spread from <i>Ares: Bringer of War</i>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Sz9vM3pQJVoJCSU7UQ5Ul6JVhgFca1bJ3Q8efsZuHJqdsL8jAuWw5wKl4aOH8H6wvdyhDnx__I9pTkcbp8u_fRNijGFz3_VbPi8mfbIr2H-nICifKEC10MUCvRdjMWqL60gInE7s6uDE/s1600/Ares+page+04-05+color+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4Sz9vM3pQJVoJCSU7UQ5Ul6JVhgFca1bJ3Q8efsZuHJqdsL8jAuWw5wKl4aOH8H6wvdyhDnx__I9pTkcbp8u_fRNijGFz3_VbPi8mfbIr2H-nICifKEC10MUCvRdjMWqL60gInE7s6uDE/s1600/Ares+page+04-05+color+small.jpg" height="210" width="320" /></a></div>
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And the final spread.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9pJQaoZMmqMwJlB6koQeS_CbphreMl5WxWL8YZImw-mp1riPU_4DkghST6-9J7llLoiudQJN5HPYzYnh9Q0zXXtxPoGNvx5A4isomBaKE82qylufihx5kQmjCUIqbPiEyWmftQLxExS9w/s1600/Ares+page+52-53+color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9pJQaoZMmqMwJlB6koQeS_CbphreMl5WxWL8YZImw-mp1riPU_4DkghST6-9J7llLoiudQJN5HPYzYnh9Q0zXXtxPoGNvx5A4isomBaKE82qylufihx5kQmjCUIqbPiEyWmftQLxExS9w/s1600/Ares+page+52-53+color.jpg" height="197" width="320" /></a></div>
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My favorite part of Ares is when the gods who supported the Trojans face off against the gods who supported the Greeks. I literally waited years to draw this. <i><a href="http://us.macmillan.com/ares/georgeoconnor">Ares: Bringer of War </a></i>comes out in January.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLleTKi8MpOf2Jo2qRTIObLleowx5CZLSIXnjUMBjQSIUTAgcUcGf-yg8XDnV3CUBfJHbB20CT4j3EqiURJ-YTyPj3ubVLGGMV-ZI2aAt3FG4aBafJxVCiyN3K2uBggcKiDd-QyWCeRROF/s1600/Apollo+cover+sketch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLleTKi8MpOf2Jo2qRTIObLleowx5CZLSIXnjUMBjQSIUTAgcUcGf-yg8XDnV3CUBfJHbB20CT4j3EqiURJ-YTyPj3ubVLGGMV-ZI2aAt3FG4aBafJxVCiyN3K2uBggcKiDd-QyWCeRROF/s1600/Apollo+cover+sketch.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></div>
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I'm working on Apollo's book right now. I'm planning on calling it <i>Apollo: The Brilliant God</i>, let's see if that one goes through the process unchanged ;). Here's the cover sketch for that one.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsfIJDD0noVfm1fjdx0cXZQjxhVQH8EMULmkCsqBstPAlfnmIa2ntyNyS2TE8JI4vbaiKnWL55CsVSGwWxwnOFLiC00dRHhEUfXhqT1kYSXNQ_xQCM0-d15B5-8ttrRkHh9CX9yWDk5ywS/s1600/Apollo+page-05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsfIJDD0noVfm1fjdx0cXZQjxhVQH8EMULmkCsqBstPAlfnmIa2ntyNyS2TE8JI4vbaiKnWL55CsVSGwWxwnOFLiC00dRHhEUfXhqT1kYSXNQ_xQCM0-d15B5-8ttrRkHh9CX9yWDk5ywS/s1600/Apollo+page-05.jpg" height="320" width="247" /></a></div>
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And this is some of the dummy of the interior.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'd be very curious if anyone can name them from their attributes.</td></tr>
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This is the first finished piece of artwork for Apollo-- the pin up of the Muses, who narrate the book.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhINpvZekXydKcKsj5QN5Fooq3pG1alFEIbwOr81eRCDq1fngQep_2FvJ54ynoU7YJfpmP4xeNzf-vUvOiaW-fLPsCQNuOsRPhC4o-PvCukkXE3ZVAUMI3Es5goAZ1eABORcAS0oKH88iVZ/s1600/future+covers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhINpvZekXydKcKsj5QN5Fooq3pG1alFEIbwOr81eRCDq1fngQep_2FvJ54ynoU7YJfpmP4xeNzf-vUvOiaW-fLPsCQNuOsRPhC4o-PvCukkXE3ZVAUMI3Es5goAZ1eABORcAS0oKH88iVZ/s1600/future+covers.jpg" height="320" width="194" /></a></div>
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A glimpse at some potential future covers, mixed in with a few older ones.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMPLBLFfa5xJ_UYo7I1LaTEpo62eigjwF9wyS7d8skz7fTWFFmbz5ZpTOli3F77nPiT4NBOlP5UA4tCwoASsuzbAlDq9BXpogrcGC0ZenLDFawRhyapanj1WisGO7-zJ0ndgUDz7UlPrDq/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-10-06+at+10.34.12+PM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMPLBLFfa5xJ_UYo7I1LaTEpo62eigjwF9wyS7d8skz7fTWFFmbz5ZpTOli3F77nPiT4NBOlP5UA4tCwoASsuzbAlDq9BXpogrcGC0ZenLDFawRhyapanj1WisGO7-zJ0ndgUDz7UlPrDq/s1600/Screen+shot+2014-10-06+at+10.34.12+PM.jpg" height="185" width="320" /></a></div>
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Finally, this is a screen shot of part of the spreadsheet I made way back in the day while I crafted the blueprint for the entirety of the Olympians series. It's worth a closer look-- you can see what made it in, what didn't, original subtitles, even the original intended order of the publishing. Some of what is coming has been redacted to protect the surprise.</div>
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George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-6864100344009802682014-10-06T11:23:00.002-04:002014-10-06T11:23:48.210-04:00Olympians Boxed Set-- Countdown! Megapost Number 6- APHRODITE: GODDESS OF LOVE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
On October 7th, TOMORROW! -the new boxed set of the first 6 <i>Olympians</i> books is officially released! That's six volumes, and a poster, so for each day leading up to the 7th I'll release a post detailing sketches, anecdotes, alternate drawings-- whatever I can find, really, for one of the books in the series. Today, I'll be covering the sixth book in the series, <i>Aphrodite: Goddess of Love.</i></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcpPlubwj_Vi-ehe7iMF7K9WW2CHacC34CYuAB7tgRlLmaXFKbipqfnEk-xDrEB1v42QQcI998cmH3n1K0Iw2O85fM3gueni6dovKiax-LEVtqO7fgG5rvLRSB4YprIYFHFQCUXk2t1Wz/s1600/OlympiansBoxedSet-300rgb-550x793.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcpPlubwj_Vi-ehe7iMF7K9WW2CHacC34CYuAB7tgRlLmaXFKbipqfnEk-xDrEB1v42QQcI998cmH3n1K0Iw2O85fM3gueni6dovKiax-LEVtqO7fgG5rvLRSB4YprIYFHFQCUXk2t1Wz/s1600/OlympiansBoxedSet-300rgb-550x793.jpg" height="320" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Almost there!</td></tr>
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My first proposed title for Aphrodite's book was <i>Aphrodite: The Power of Love</i>, until me editor Neal Porter wisely pointed out that it put him in the mind of that old Huey Lewis and the News song, of course ruining that title for all time for me. Thank goodness he did, but for those of you keeping score at home, that's four title my publisher, and two titles me.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTaHY6TdNLB33yUwonH9kcmbmiv-PYhiGAlGVs3B2MAJ2lrF7tPzMKVhVD3l-WbivAjl7f3lYV4TFzg2EcKVa5Pihggyx512FgqeAzEQPUorKvSj07kaSs1ZnNjEuKGvj-SUx376yU37Zj/s1600/aphrodite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTaHY6TdNLB33yUwonH9kcmbmiv-PYhiGAlGVs3B2MAJ2lrF7tPzMKVhVD3l-WbivAjl7f3lYV4TFzg2EcKVa5Pihggyx512FgqeAzEQPUorKvSj07kaSs1ZnNjEuKGvj-SUx376yU37Zj/s1600/aphrodite.jpg" height="320" width="246" /></a></div>
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Here's my original sketch for the cover to <i>Aphrodite: Goddess of Love</i>. Note how much older Eros is here than how he appears in the final book. At this stage I was intending to include an abbreviated version of the story of Eros and Psyche, and so Eros needed to function as a romantic lead. I had to jettison that idea as it simply didn't fit, either space-wise or thematically. Maybe someday...</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcT0bDVk4oQTaYJCAPrMEYDnaUy8zwLSoErNZFRzhgRB1tyH2TrMbcOTu6_kUojw4oi0QOUdNnRXUO_PmUbkk-13NuPtV9zA8TwjGzMrM2DunCRv4k9WcASiFyj8OG-t7N79J1VtGiJqVc/s1600/Aphroditeinks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcT0bDVk4oQTaYJCAPrMEYDnaUy8zwLSoErNZFRzhgRB1tyH2TrMbcOTu6_kUojw4oi0QOUdNnRXUO_PmUbkk-13NuPtV9zA8TwjGzMrM2DunCRv4k9WcASiFyj8OG-t7N79J1VtGiJqVc/s1600/Aphroditeinks.jpg" height="320" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fun fact: Comic artist Simon Fraser now owns this original</td></tr>
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Above is the completed inks for the first cover of Aphrodite. Eros has swung to the opposite end of the age spectrum-- now he's practically and infant. But in First Second headquarters, this cover caused a bit of a stir-- some people in editorial thought that Aphrodite was too sexy and looked like a bimbo, and others, like me, thought her depiction was entirely appropriate. I wrote a long piece for the First Second Blog that you can read <a href="http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/books/aphrodite-a-tale-of-two-and-a-half-covers/">HERE</a> which goes into this whole process in greater detail.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSUPXjQRk7FU9CkMaiulDBq5eDrCCVupZ1ii4Rq_UBlyIhmiXlDfz0ZhtTmp-cyJ4Hzn1y9ymXPOYgS-5-YXL9u29kqnrq-cxuiEVNE8yEz1TUC4V-_P8PZtGWdghe_Nhg4peobfFape8k/s1600/Aphroditeinksaltered.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSUPXjQRk7FU9CkMaiulDBq5eDrCCVupZ1ii4Rq_UBlyIhmiXlDfz0ZhtTmp-cyJ4Hzn1y9ymXPOYgS-5-YXL9u29kqnrq-cxuiEVNE8yEz1TUC4V-_P8PZtGWdghe_Nhg4peobfFape8k/s1600/Aphroditeinksaltered.jpg" height="320" width="238" /></a></div>
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After a lot of back and forth, I altered the cover to match the more 'formidable, dread goddess' aspect that some elements of editorial envisioned her as. As is often the case, this cover was drawn well in advance of the rest of the book so that the cover could be included on the back of <i>Poseidon: Earth Shaker, </i>so they had actually not yet read my take on Aphrodite. Aphrodite might be a dread goddess, with the power to uproot your world, but she would never look the part-- she would smile and beam and you would love her with all your heart as she destroyed you. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVg0AtCl01a8PeMnSDKO9FJBL5SPcOwbZnk4lyH3aiJjkglf41pGXVjjwxZHcJcCWPyGRmKl1LE6xf0uLnXqN8vSbMHLawICnH7pMlB08fkQ50DogiF8WRUL42NsTT4q10elOI7zOJZ2YW/s1600/Aphroditecovercolor2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVg0AtCl01a8PeMnSDKO9FJBL5SPcOwbZnk4lyH3aiJjkglf41pGXVjjwxZHcJcCWPyGRmKl1LE6xf0uLnXqN8vSbMHLawICnH7pMlB08fkQ50DogiF8WRUL42NsTT4q10elOI7zOJZ2YW/s1600/Aphroditecovercolor2.jpg" height="320" width="238" /></a></div>
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This is the new 'final' version that appears on the back of early printings of Poseidon. Interestingly, looking at it now, her altered pose is more reminiscent of the original sketch than my original inked drawing. But I was not happy with this version. She was too angry...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkmou-_TFLvaHmfkBdJbLRdMEuHksTbkSLmSn7_ybBemm-rHpQF51oB6IWOQ7ZQGXfKFol6yg_6JyikxkOdQO7Q8fk6TbYCIU0Uv6uNzbPJtZqVayace22U8bViweN8T9wDZM87Mj4oa4J/s1600/Aphroditenewcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkmou-_TFLvaHmfkBdJbLRdMEuHksTbkSLmSn7_ybBemm-rHpQF51oB6IWOQ7ZQGXfKFol6yg_6JyikxkOdQO7Q8fk6TbYCIU0Uv6uNzbPJtZqVayace22U8bViweN8T9wDZM87Mj4oa4J/s1600/Aphroditenewcover.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></div>
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Finally, after completing the book, I redrew the cover to reflect my understanding of Aphrodite upon the completion of <i>Aphrodite: Goddess of Love. </i>Eros is now at an age somewhere in between the two previous depictions, Hermes, Hephaistos, and Ares have been replaced by the Charites, and Aphrodite herself in the more friendly presence in the finished book.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih9QsnkLuE1ItmADJcpPdWPbDzRDSUeeRic-mfPE46aSpm2YytBrkUjXRo94lQeeetpgpvh9U8TRNTcDjiB6wYxdFbsb2aLynMY5wDLNQ0NuPNPROcq6DT3X4BZ0W2ddSVqmNMNe-cOpDh/s1600/Aphrodite-12-13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih9QsnkLuE1ItmADJcpPdWPbDzRDSUeeRic-mfPE46aSpm2YytBrkUjXRo94lQeeetpgpvh9U8TRNTcDjiB6wYxdFbsb2aLynMY5wDLNQ0NuPNPROcq6DT3X4BZ0W2ddSVqmNMNe-cOpDh/s1600/Aphrodite-12-13.jpg" height="249" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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Above is a page of roughs from the dummy for <i style="text-align: center;">Aphrodite: Goddess of Love. </i><span style="text-align: center;">Compare and contrast this to the dummy for <i>Zeus: King of the Gods.</i></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin5MvX_FuSp1nY1iZf4x7HMtcgmDi9LEyuXo11dEVXouKX0jcbn2ZpibOBZWDJyFvF8s66fVJmSdCD90nn-DDIdz5kI4aUW6HwWD3L46XajQhRo9qIf98ZtwkaSxr2NE5ctJkC6ptq8sle/s1600/earlyAphrodite2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin5MvX_FuSp1nY1iZf4x7HMtcgmDi9LEyuXo11dEVXouKX0jcbn2ZpibOBZWDJyFvF8s66fVJmSdCD90nn-DDIdz5kI4aUW6HwWD3L46XajQhRo9qIf98ZtwkaSxr2NE5ctJkC6ptq8sle/s1600/earlyAphrodite2.jpg" height="268" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That ghostly Hera looks annoyed/</td></tr>
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Very early Aphrodite design sketche. I always knew I wanted to give her an Eastern, Indian feel, and that influence was more pronounced here.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbrzp652wCav0I41eaf8-BsG4xhZk4YleBdb1rD1rlpdZ65TATHn-mENmkaumW6FdY7jUWm8rFjBQr9CQUst10WcTJstakgZ2whmy6kkORsMdAIyZG5PoOsmKpLfqRz7KvZAJ41bvnFUG_/s1600/earlyaphrodite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbrzp652wCav0I41eaf8-BsG4xhZk4YleBdb1rD1rlpdZ65TATHn-mENmkaumW6FdY7jUWm8rFjBQr9CQUst10WcTJstakgZ2whmy6kkORsMdAIyZG5PoOsmKpLfqRz7KvZAJ41bvnFUG_/s1600/earlyaphrodite.jpg" height="320" width="136" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I was practicing writing my name, apparently.</td></tr>
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Another very early Aphrodite sketch.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitYsKjtW7oY_ChRDGzlLAJi0LYWt3aSmOkOxdafqLetVQg7I6Db64uZb_ufB33SYOHGNxFWu4mfG7ieZFoSKZKxBM4F0O51oZUloublikdJsazHu0XO_7xiBvpTDKe89u0-0t3HglceoAK/s1600/judgement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitYsKjtW7oY_ChRDGzlLAJi0LYWt3aSmOkOxdafqLetVQg7I6Db64uZb_ufB33SYOHGNxFWu4mfG7ieZFoSKZKxBM4F0O51oZUloublikdJsazHu0XO_7xiBvpTDKe89u0-0t3HglceoAK/s1600/judgement.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a></div>
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A super early visualization on the Judgement of Paris sequence of <i>Aphrodite: Goddess of Love. </i> I've always had a problem with that myth, depicting as it does the three most powerful goddesses in a very unflattering and sexist manner. I spent a lot of time thinking of how to portray that story in a way that paid service to the strong character of the goddesses.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOyW7b135cxKY4Vtx5rYam8ysDN8Y7etIaWcTHg_kI9kao26Z36-vtDCtFuLZiCvChm4BwBGY6pCHrNN_XPvNCNwjhBBCmoe0Mf9hXu_CW9EU6ZFB0JTPMZPPoaoEcjJFvGDc5n80flKuv/s1600/risqueaphrodite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOyW7b135cxKY4Vtx5rYam8ysDN8Y7etIaWcTHg_kI9kao26Z36-vtDCtFuLZiCvChm4BwBGY6pCHrNN_XPvNCNwjhBBCmoe0Mf9hXu_CW9EU6ZFB0JTPMZPPoaoEcjJFvGDc5n80flKuv/s1600/risqueaphrodite.jpg" height="320" width="207" /></a></div>
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A very early and risque (apologies) sketch of Aphrodite emerging from the sea at Cypress. </div>
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Early sketch of my favorite character in <i>Aphrodite: Goddess of Love, </i>Eris.</div>
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This was a piece I drew for my studio's sketchblog at about the time I was working on <i>Hera: The Goddess and her Glory</i>. The day's topic was 'apple', so I drew the moment that all three goddesses reached simultaneously for the Apple of Discord. I ended up using almost this exact composition for a panel in <i>Aphrodite: Goddess of Love.</i></div>
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I drew this piece, <i>Chocolate Aphrodite</i>, for a charity auction. It sold for $75. I bet you thought I was going to say 7 billion, didn't you?</div>
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That's it for the goddess of love. Check back tomorrow, FOR THE RELEASE OF THE OLYMPIANS BOXED SET, a look at the making of the poster, and some sneak peeks at future books.</div>
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George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-5805276830164982382014-10-05T11:41:00.000-04:002014-10-05T11:41:16.943-04:00Olympians Boxed Set-- Countdown! Megapost Number 5- POSEIDON: EARTH SHAKEROn October 7th, the new boxed set of the first 6 <i>Olympians</i> books is officially released.<br />
That's six volumes, and a poster, so for each day leading up to the 7th I'll release a post detailing sketches, anecdotes, alternate drawings-- whatever I can find, really, for one of the books in the series. Today, I'll be covering the fifth book in the series, <i>Poseidon: Earth Shaker.</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcpPlubwj_Vi-ehe7iMF7K9WW2CHacC34CYuAB7tgRlLmaXFKbipqfnEk-xDrEB1v42QQcI998cmH3n1K0Iw2O85fM3gueni6dovKiax-LEVtqO7fgG5rvLRSB4YprIYFHFQCUXk2t1Wz/s1600/OlympiansBoxedSet-300rgb-550x793.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcpPlubwj_Vi-ehe7iMF7K9WW2CHacC34CYuAB7tgRlLmaXFKbipqfnEk-xDrEB1v42QQcI998cmH3n1K0Iw2O85fM3gueni6dovKiax-LEVtqO7fgG5rvLRSB4YprIYFHFQCUXk2t1Wz/s1600/OlympiansBoxedSet-300rgb-550x793.jpg" height="320" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look! A box set!</td></tr>
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Today's installment is about the moody god of the sea, Poseidon. For a long time, <i>Poseidon: Earth Shaker</i> held the record for being the most difficult volume of <i>Olympians</i> to create. It's since been surpassed by the upcoming <i>Ares: Bringer of War</i> in terms of difficulty to draw, and the upcoming <i>Apollo: The Brilliant God</i> in terms of writing, but for an all-around tough experience <i>Poseidon</i> rules supreme. The book was rewritten by me three times before I even showed it to the folks at First Second.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYiiTC68HtSM97Ulmq1Q5RB-9jbzfVe_nmjSW4sqwKqhYmcguiKzclzDTfSx3K3u4IF2W38XwXfDs2imU64gjT3ZgwMn2Fz0THenl6AG47zbcKAbCpLGAHgjaaHu199WD8DjHTbZsMPeu7/s1600/poseidontheearthshaker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYiiTC68HtSM97Ulmq1Q5RB-9jbzfVe_nmjSW4sqwKqhYmcguiKzclzDTfSx3K3u4IF2W38XwXfDs2imU64gjT3ZgwMn2Fz0THenl6AG47zbcKAbCpLGAHgjaaHu199WD8DjHTbZsMPeu7/s1600/poseidontheearthshaker.jpg" height="320" width="260" /></a></div>
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Poseidon is a tricky god; he appears in numerous myths, but almost never as the main character. His temperament is all over the place, so I decided to write <i>Poseidon: Earth Shaker</i> from the point of view (and in the voice) of Poseidon himself.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPZZSbhcjLJijFZQ4joPG_J1of5uMAMQuqKbthapdCcp_2Bg_Z-vIZLP8a0xlJ_9X94SyY-6yLr7rdYXfvYXuKzui7jJBSvc3MnMiDTfMr96kxmuPOleb7FJ1mtSF34wl4FIc5xpTPqSsE/s1600/poseidoncovers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPZZSbhcjLJijFZQ4joPG_J1of5uMAMQuqKbthapdCcp_2Bg_Z-vIZLP8a0xlJ_9X94SyY-6yLr7rdYXfvYXuKzui7jJBSvc3MnMiDTfMr96kxmuPOleb7FJ1mtSF34wl4FIc5xpTPqSsE/s1600/poseidoncovers.jpg" height="169" width="320" /></a></div>
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Incidentally, check it out-- these early sketches have the subtitle Earth-Shaker on them already. If you've been following along, you've seen how my proposed subtitle tends to get changed by editorial. <i>Poseidon</i> is the second (with <i>Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess</i> being the first) of my books to not have a subtitle swap. You can also see I arrived at the more-or-less final cover design rather quickly.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwTPRhs2dctEbQ_y_nn34ZT6JR1HuNhiviG2TmLBrUOeSjvs_YttWnw-Q8sDFRruQM8bF97ac0eI9WnP08RC7rxPEes23w44RW31K14j5VhOW_Qe3785W46uLxolanSePE4Gmq99ZynDlw/s1600/poseidoncoverb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwTPRhs2dctEbQ_y_nn34ZT6JR1HuNhiviG2TmLBrUOeSjvs_YttWnw-Q8sDFRruQM8bF97ac0eI9WnP08RC7rxPEes23w44RW31K14j5VhOW_Qe3785W46uLxolanSePE4Gmq99ZynDlw/s1600/poseidoncoverb.jpg" height="320" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">sad Minotaur is sad.</td></tr>
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This is interesting-- I didn't even recall this. Above is the original black and white art I produced for the cover of Poseidon: Earth Shaker. However, upon a closer look I see it's a completely different drawing than the final cover. Some elements, like Polyphemos and the ruptured ground, are very similar, but the Minotaur is completely different, and the figure of Poseidon is kinda awkward.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3L7dM04PRu6o_ZVwXIorNTfCc78EcGWGVTd1YKPDwHsW9LvUM4V2aFyq8w-xCtXusnE3OmsvFjMJlg_opt1hVRRO2BWPHqkYgUc9zjvn9_be0ImcI-sCYMy5V3QUVb7K0HOkwkEssXCN2/s1600/poseidoncover2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3L7dM04PRu6o_ZVwXIorNTfCc78EcGWGVTd1YKPDwHsW9LvUM4V2aFyq8w-xCtXusnE3OmsvFjMJlg_opt1hVRRO2BWPHqkYgUc9zjvn9_be0ImcI-sCYMy5V3QUVb7K0HOkwkEssXCN2/s1600/poseidoncover2.jpg" height="320" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">scary Minotaur is scary.</td></tr>
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Here's the final, actual cover, with Poseidon's anatomy fixed, and the Minotaur looking suitably intimidating.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVE6zhTgLOymLWBY3ZmbimsQ4iuDmCa53OjmxlDw6QmWBrJ0gHuAI7XaHxHtNHhpg-GPc1tUmCMxX2OMUpoq7Fi4tfaEQTbKFLH-KQzBhFb-ypaOaRtp77yD6bCeUNWaJDuOvWpqtGXmMT/s1600/101.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVE6zhTgLOymLWBY3ZmbimsQ4iuDmCa53OjmxlDw6QmWBrJ0gHuAI7XaHxHtNHhpg-GPc1tUmCMxX2OMUpoq7Fi4tfaEQTbKFLH-KQzBhFb-ypaOaRtp77yD6bCeUNWaJDuOvWpqtGXmMT/s1600/101.jpg" height="320" width="197" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You know it's Poseidon 'cause it says so.</td></tr>
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Sketchbook doodle of Poseidon made while I was assembling ideas for this book.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYqK4hRKpaQR3irjr72bO6QQSQusgliGJOR1PlboNzByTSNqASBSEu5c6VtDleGC1oo-T8g2AfSRYDHSEQfaVWVVCoDYE6Mqb530beAJ8wRn35CNn-aEud10nSf836XY1A-8BtdxozsJzo/s1600/079.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYqK4hRKpaQR3irjr72bO6QQSQusgliGJOR1PlboNzByTSNqASBSEu5c6VtDleGC1oo-T8g2AfSRYDHSEQfaVWVVCoDYE6Mqb530beAJ8wRn35CNn-aEud10nSf836XY1A-8BtdxozsJzo/s1600/079.jpg" height="320" width="205" /></a></div>
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A really gruesome early sketch of Polyphemos, and Odysseus lashed to his mast as he listens to the Sirens, a scene in early drafts of <i>Poseidon</i> that got cut.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMlyZzOhTbh7kXP5m1QBw5hNHy2Qe_GtDvZrg3SvgE38T-bAtMkod2XCOHG6-SXDVYLJYUgXu1y0Y0YpGMFRwQ-z_e-2zc4VOnyvc8uVv6qpGeJY1V2PQfndt9aJCSMIB5qlF3Rwb9czV7/s1600/minotaurandtheseus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMlyZzOhTbh7kXP5m1QBw5hNHy2Qe_GtDvZrg3SvgE38T-bAtMkod2XCOHG6-SXDVYLJYUgXu1y0Y0YpGMFRwQ-z_e-2zc4VOnyvc8uVv6qpGeJY1V2PQfndt9aJCSMIB5qlF3Rwb9czV7/s1600/minotaurandtheseus.jpg" height="320" width="182" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdiRgVOXCuzfoqqvUPRyWHb2mxgehjuNlEwcRJm9OxhqTDCklswzOTU623ayTryFHDzKeIbE3FIbhzTc9q3HHzcpTQjSUI5ZtVj0vj7zUt9UW9sddTt7hWwNDc13y9-BQpULiziyC6EA68/s1600/102.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdiRgVOXCuzfoqqvUPRyWHb2mxgehjuNlEwcRJm9OxhqTDCklswzOTU623ayTryFHDzKeIbE3FIbhzTc9q3HHzcpTQjSUI5ZtVj0vj7zUt9UW9sddTt7hWwNDc13y9-BQpULiziyC6EA68/s1600/102.jpg" height="320" width="207" /></a></div>
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Couple of shots of the Minotaur, my favorite monster from childhood. The hardest cuts I had to make in this book were of the battle between Theseus and the Minotaur. I originally had an enormous battle choreographed which I distilled down to a few key scenes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVX20J2JynBaCh2VHAfo_-0sWWK3dAIIwwQqhsCH5CARF6VGA-dOMqCk61aqdvoPABTOUNRffHvIEdUBWvFMUsTZjIWB-FfN3Npzx6vP38gIfHhJPF9vKfe1BiAUsuJXHVtE6NzH-zZqhA/s1600/brahminpage4color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVX20J2JynBaCh2VHAfo_-0sWWK3dAIIwwQqhsCH5CARF6VGA-dOMqCk61aqdvoPABTOUNRffHvIEdUBWvFMUsTZjIWB-FfN3Npzx6vP38gIfHhJPF9vKfe1BiAUsuJXHVtE6NzH-zZqhA/s1600/brahminpage4color.jpg" height="320" width="192" /></a></div>
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My behind-the-scenes materials for <i>Poseidon</i> are rather slim, so I'm sharing some ancillary material here. Above is a comic I drew for Shelf Awareness's Book Brahmin blog in promotion for Poseidon. Check out the rest of the comics I drew for them <a href="http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=1947#m19237">HERE</a>.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijA_fcY9tE2XaKtazNKwlAtN3efU64v7g1DASep6C0V8hFSThusM7Z_-Cb3iNbDvAylpx9gXqs_h4h_qao5yQWROomHw-vY2xVdqwFjEjQhD7j61qytCyjGrwrc1hpLP6sNmsNybHm9ASK/s1600/beckyPoseidon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijA_fcY9tE2XaKtazNKwlAtN3efU64v7g1DASep6C0V8hFSThusM7Z_-Cb3iNbDvAylpx9gXqs_h4h_qao5yQWROomHw-vY2xVdqwFjEjQhD7j61qytCyjGrwrc1hpLP6sNmsNybHm9ASK/s1600/beckyPoseidon.jpg" height="320" width="290" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nobody draws a beautiful man better than Becky Cloonan.</td></tr>
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Above is a drawing made by the uber-talented Becky Cloonan while she borrowed my desk one day at the studio. I was working on <i>Poseidon</i> at the time so she drew her own version of my design. It's pretty sweet, you'll agree.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I named my son after the guy who cut off my ex-girlfriend's head!</td></tr>
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A Poseidon pin-up I drew for a certain enormously famous writer of young adult mythology books.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPjnuAhTf9IioJfQ7ZUhoGOu5okx9pOAh1kYJdj43MudEkONedlUf4USqDJ15K_Rlw1SGsH4h9aAIVFsXjyum_VFzKZ2KxBm_4idaVMrUAi5BbcYKIfGdMLfPCaVJqXhou9itds1v0fxtC/s1600/poseidonpostcardcolorlittle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPjnuAhTf9IioJfQ7ZUhoGOu5okx9pOAh1kYJdj43MudEkONedlUf4USqDJ15K_Rlw1SGsH4h9aAIVFsXjyum_VFzKZ2KxBm_4idaVMrUAi5BbcYKIfGdMLfPCaVJqXhou9itds1v0fxtC/s1600/poseidonpostcardcolorlittle.jpg" height="320" width="250" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What are we up to now? If you have an original it's worth 7 billion dollars?</td></tr>
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Color artwork for postcard and poster for<i> Poseidon: Earth-Shaker</i> release party. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrlY8GONrOOwL8uuMmy9pQvyvtpUGkvGESyD67rs2TN-HlXMhwvneXb9cjo9GmUepsHZ4IKZB0oxEUp-VWiIFbZeq39Kdxun5MacQEXT14C7kdq7nFt-nICCDKA1cuiCYESa_uIvjdncvi/s1600/BunchePoseidonphoto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrlY8GONrOOwL8uuMmy9pQvyvtpUGkvGESyD67rs2TN-HlXMhwvneXb9cjo9GmUepsHZ4IKZB0oxEUp-VWiIFbZeq39Kdxun5MacQEXT14C7kdq7nFt-nICCDKA1cuiCYESa_uIvjdncvi/s1600/BunchePoseidonphoto.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo credit Steve Bunche.</td></tr>
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A photo of me performing the true story of why Poseidon hates me, the text version of which will be a future post one day.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk-0y6OzqfXjwtZqzKTgJJYodgXLRpcuEJ8WKaHd5D0XmNVON8C1x57oni7b9p7N8c5fu0my_WMbM5JYry6PUSYtn-4yD07Zo37YBmeXItuoM6kh1_5r8AdCkTfxVMLzEPm8xqbcRCKQqq/s1600/mgid-uma-video-mtv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk-0y6OzqfXjwtZqzKTgJJYodgXLRpcuEJ8WKaHd5D0XmNVON8C1x57oni7b9p7N8c5fu0my_WMbM5JYry6PUSYtn-4yD07Zo37YBmeXItuoM6kh1_5r8AdCkTfxVMLzEPm8xqbcRCKQqq/s1600/mgid-uma-video-mtv.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you watch the videos, please not how weird my hair looks that day.</td></tr>
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A screen capture of one of the video interviews I did with MTV Geek! in promotion of <i>Poseidon</i>. Check out the interviews <a href="http://geek-news.mtv.com/2013/03/25/george-oconnor-poseidon-earth-shaker/">HERE</a>.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY_vuFR_r0ijKMvJWeMrSUYStPi0iGiPu6EFWPWe0or1JJ3aLWwo9sY0BR2deJl6rTOUQt5UXj-jkCTLwXCEhrb7w9oN3u5cqKRqSMPp93ym1itBl-vuQJ1YC7FQI6BTtiMYAJJRijHPuW/s1600/sauroposeidon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY_vuFR_r0ijKMvJWeMrSUYStPi0iGiPu6EFWPWe0or1JJ3aLWwo9sY0BR2deJl6rTOUQt5UXj-jkCTLwXCEhrb7w9oN3u5cqKRqSMPp93ym1itBl-vuQJ1YC7FQI6BTtiMYAJJRijHPuW/s1600/sauroposeidon.jpg" height="320" width="277" /></a></div>
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Finally, a quick doodle I did recently of my favorite new dinosaur, the sauroposeidon, or as it translates, "The Earthquake God Lizard." If I ever create a band, it will be called Earthquake God Lizard. Heck, if I ever have a kid, they'll be named Earthquake God Lizard. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Zvi6mN4ZkStYmKB44k9ZeSXs4I_JRCAWNsEvj-hpl0HW3ufXUqQbCPMpWxUi9_W7jp5CjNxSpuxjB3_mhNofHh3ANRKNRwZWkyrwh8_F6PuckOe-sk1347-4YLog4KPTMlRTYaDg7A_o/s1600/poseidon_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Zvi6mN4ZkStYmKB44k9ZeSXs4I_JRCAWNsEvj-hpl0HW3ufXUqQbCPMpWxUi9_W7jp5CjNxSpuxjB3_mhNofHh3ANRKNRwZWkyrwh8_F6PuckOe-sk1347-4YLog4KPTMlRTYaDg7A_o/s1600/poseidon_cover.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></div>
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That's it for <i>Poseidon: Earth Shaker</i>. Join us tomorrow for a look at <i>Aphrodite: Goddess of Love</i>.</div>
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George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-62772428707546668962014-10-04T12:55:00.002-04:002014-10-04T12:55:41.550-04:00Olympians Boxed Set-- Countdown! Megapost Number 4- HADES: LORD OF THE DEADOn October 7th, the new boxed set of the first 6 <i>Olympians</i> books is officially released.<br />
That's six volumes, and a poster, so for each day leading up to the 7th I'll release a post detailing sketches, anecdotes, alternate drawings-- whatever I can find, really, for one of the books in the series. Today, I'll be covering the fourth book in the series, <i>Hades: Lord of the Dead.</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcpPlubwj_Vi-ehe7iMF7K9WW2CHacC34CYuAB7tgRlLmaXFKbipqfnEk-xDrEB1v42QQcI998cmH3n1K0Iw2O85fM3gueni6dovKiax-LEVtqO7fgG5rvLRSB4YprIYFHFQCUXk2t1Wz/s1600/OlympiansBoxedSet-300rgb-550x793.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcpPlubwj_Vi-ehe7iMF7K9WW2CHacC34CYuAB7tgRlLmaXFKbipqfnEk-xDrEB1v42QQcI998cmH3n1K0Iw2O85fM3gueni6dovKiax-LEVtqO7fgG5rvLRSB4YprIYFHFQCUXk2t1Wz/s1600/OlympiansBoxedSet-300rgb-550x793.jpg" height="320" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
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Today we turn our attention to that misunderstood denizen of the Underworld, Zeus's big brother and gloomy lord of the dead, Hades.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUkH_IarOOgxrll4UTnOghBYNDCf7ppo0ADqcTqNwPNxTcMrfxOZ71hU9iKLSFKsVms1CyNWng0mf1BBPAlPdA2cqWVC3965q59UYSAjGsvtO-AfwYdaFW5DmkJEtv2w0QZ0zAciu_1Cbh/s1600/hades1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUkH_IarOOgxrll4UTnOghBYNDCf7ppo0ADqcTqNwPNxTcMrfxOZ71hU9iKLSFKsVms1CyNWng0mf1BBPAlPdA2cqWVC3965q59UYSAjGsvtO-AfwYdaFW5DmkJEtv2w0QZ0zAciu_1Cbh/s1600/hades1.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a></div>
Above and below we see a couple of early cover concepts for Hades's book. Note the original subtitle-- <i>Hades: The Wealthy One</i>. That was what the book was going to called for a long time, a translation of his familiar epithet, Pluto. In fact, if you have an early enough printing of one of the first three <i>Olympians</i> books, you'll see the original title on the back with the little <i>Olympians</i> covers.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioAeq9VjqQFcT2SPlSi5CwnwGw1HVia02z7ebygcWkfKUwVh9iLnJNW8Tv-8uypojsxTryVike9ekh-KUvwzH2dvH4iOw5Hmf-9t10_lfnE8bFiePqpb0E80-MsWr0IMWNXfRhrntwixtq/s1600/Hadescover2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioAeq9VjqQFcT2SPlSi5CwnwGw1HVia02z7ebygcWkfKUwVh9iLnJNW8Tv-8uypojsxTryVike9ekh-KUvwzH2dvH4iOw5Hmf-9t10_lfnE8bFiePqpb0E80-MsWr0IMWNXfRhrntwixtq/s1600/Hadescover2.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
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As work progressed on <i>Hades</i>, however, my editors felt that the subtitle <i>The Wealthy One</i> was too obscure, and changed the subtitle to the more marketable<i> Lord of the Dead.</i> I was initially bummed about the change, but I've met no shortage of fans who echoed the feelings of my publisher, so I guess they were right. For those of you keeping score at home, that's three books they changed my preferred subtitle on, and only one so far (<i>Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess</i>) I nailed. I am not the most commercial-minded creator out there. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtFl8ixWff9DlCTKuijpK4zBl6FZNt60LzIXKLZ0AOMCsCpTjm5lsrzqwzjVBHEatSPmzdfqct-TDrb6b5VQ1kasVxW9XHxDSA64xa0O4aOvoUvMYkSE5KOYKH9GIYHGZUG57Lcdx5TgIf/s1600/hadescover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtFl8ixWff9DlCTKuijpK4zBl6FZNt60LzIXKLZ0AOMCsCpTjm5lsrzqwzjVBHEatSPmzdfqct-TDrb6b5VQ1kasVxW9XHxDSA64xa0O4aOvoUvMYkSE5KOYKH9GIYHGZUG57Lcdx5TgIf/s1600/hadescover.jpg" height="320" width="242" /></a></div>
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Again, once we established the series look with Zeus, the familiar format established itself. The actual cover for <i>Hades</i> went through a lot of changes. I should also mention, the cover for <i>Hades</i> was done well in advance of the rest of the actual book-- the cover was pictured on the back of <i>Zeus: King of the Gods</i>, the first book in the series. Here is the original okayed rough.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzLg-_BcQ6oQ5FiojPz0gH7CpZA6fBl4vBYi7fUGdMYfNlbkOMEngAex3gPIuohkOHo5dFNO8DJ1f1t_SflfSO0V4vTbcwYxvsKNLtr1lwOUvrKlumd_vY3HrnFku9p4m3Md5FnI4xoLe0/s1600/hadescovercolor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzLg-_BcQ6oQ5FiojPz0gH7CpZA6fBl4vBYi7fUGdMYfNlbkOMEngAex3gPIuohkOHo5dFNO8DJ1f1t_SflfSO0V4vTbcwYxvsKNLtr1lwOUvrKlumd_vY3HrnFku9p4m3Md5FnI4xoLe0/s1600/hadescovercolor.jpg" height="320" width="248" /></a></div>
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And from that I produced the final cover, or what was considered the final cover for awhile. Eventually, editorial director Mark Siegel called me and shared that, upon reflection, the cover wasn't pulling its weight, which was a conclusion I had just reached myself independently. For starters, I included a closeup of Cerberus, the three-headed dog of Hades. However, if you do a close up of a three-headed dog, it looks like a close up of three separate dogs. And that's just the beginning of this cover's problems.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPfVtFbjlaBvV1Q_KhJ2HFQgB7Jp5ql7zVLH7LCWtXbYRNRl4VPz9wUeo2JFgKRWchKR_pZ5wGC1-Izqy21jgRfqsBMDBx0Qzs4vHhEJkZzl_XAnetDyB6eTljN8O1ZSRdjhOGudOGI1Zo/s1600/DSCN0073.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPfVtFbjlaBvV1Q_KhJ2HFQgB7Jp5ql7zVLH7LCWtXbYRNRl4VPz9wUeo2JFgKRWchKR_pZ5wGC1-Izqy21jgRfqsBMDBx0Qzs4vHhEJkZzl_XAnetDyB6eTljN8O1ZSRdjhOGudOGI1Zo/s1600/DSCN0073.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The author wishes to apologize for any unintentional hysterical blindness this photo may cause.</td></tr>
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Added bonus: a photo of me posing as reference for the Lord of the Dead. Strangely my career as a fashion model never took off.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmjrmWApodo31udReohLM4cpr4X_4Qcn_qNi22Cqj3mQY5EGZBKsO28UnYSEE9AtkEQS9ikeE2GqQsOxBgWu5idV6Y9YIJckckxrBngysJ579EA10JiRxjQA81l6RzE8hHV0k7x7GyXmEA/s1600/hadesnewcovercolor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmjrmWApodo31udReohLM4cpr4X_4Qcn_qNi22Cqj3mQY5EGZBKsO28UnYSEE9AtkEQS9ikeE2GqQsOxBgWu5idV6Y9YIJckckxrBngysJ579EA10JiRxjQA81l6RzE8hHV0k7x7GyXmEA/s1600/hadesnewcovercolor.jpg" height="320" width="243" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Behold the spooky Persephone.</td></tr>
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I went back to the drawing board and came back with tis cover, which went on the back of <i>Zeus</i>, <i>Athena</i> and <i>Hera</i>. A lot of eagle-eyed fans have pointed out that Persephone looks really weird here-- as I mentioned, this cover was completed maybe two years before the rest of the book. While working out the story my impression and design of Persephone changed radically.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCa0TOgB3RF1GFfPUGHNzs23WSmnMkl4oGWZAlrpUeY44x47cqBinlapgKj_U1QnKNLwqkyOMcAxqeVfHUAUfg8HH6k_iqBpwJWIDyg7Qh1LREKP_XGvCJReX3YaQe_HDjMgR_PpSBKRaE/s1600/hadespages10-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCa0TOgB3RF1GFfPUGHNzs23WSmnMkl4oGWZAlrpUeY44x47cqBinlapgKj_U1QnKNLwqkyOMcAxqeVfHUAUfg8HH6k_iqBpwJWIDyg7Qh1LREKP_XGvCJReX3YaQe_HDjMgR_PpSBKRaE/s1600/hadespages10-11.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a><br />
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Thumbnails. Notice the steady decline in finish from the thumbnails for <i>Zeus: King of the Gods</i>.</div>
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Sketchbook work figuring out the appearance of Hades.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9YtAy-XZG0VmUc2ReRyx7ufkAPpAYOy63HwY-SPco14dP1umbIYRoRvGHiNHMWC7r0z1pB-ueDNyQ9TVWmc-JxAds6urZvQHm14KILskGPLRTues3fZA_SRLJ4qXps74-7Uj5BWBEyaCB/s1600/demeterandhades.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9YtAy-XZG0VmUc2ReRyx7ufkAPpAYOy63HwY-SPco14dP1umbIYRoRvGHiNHMWC7r0z1pB-ueDNyQ9TVWmc-JxAds6urZvQHm14KILskGPLRTues3fZA_SRLJ4qXps74-7Uj5BWBEyaCB/s1600/demeterandhades.jpg" height="274" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look how jacked that little Hades from behind looks!</td></tr>
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His armor, which he only wears for the abduction scene. I ought to use it again, somewhere/</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNRHFSbDkSczz6Y_4kVZ1ZQjlR0Onhrw2DfpbT7f7CN94tngO41kmV4Wcodjm5SL-XKZ2b-gETRkATVjwfpgC9EEqqb7MLnQOVJkfnX8PcoQuf_Sy27vJXMQhdAODmid8su_e-ugd-a7kH/s1600/demeterblade.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNRHFSbDkSczz6Y_4kVZ1ZQjlR0Onhrw2DfpbT7f7CN94tngO41kmV4Wcodjm5SL-XKZ2b-gETRkATVjwfpgC9EEqqb7MLnQOVJkfnX8PcoQuf_Sy27vJXMQhdAODmid8su_e-ugd-a7kH/s1600/demeterblade.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBR5p3qVZgf81mLN_NBqrvw4fdbnkCjUffiw9CcC5HSESztX5kd9Wch-INWEiwE_0kaZ33P4DQ8E_N_nwBjf0xxgInCtPVbwSQTrWFQEQuaOVR0vIxQMG_MqicdhsAJGwiRR82PPv6Au8b/s1600/demeterangry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBR5p3qVZgf81mLN_NBqrvw4fdbnkCjUffiw9CcC5HSESztX5kd9Wch-INWEiwE_0kaZ33P4DQ8E_N_nwBjf0xxgInCtPVbwSQTrWFQEQuaOVR0vIxQMG_MqicdhsAJGwiRR82PPv6Au8b/s1600/demeterangry.jpg" height="320" width="313" /></a></div>
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Demeter was my favorite character to draw in this story. These two sketchbook doodles found their way almost unchanged into the final book.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy8P-XAGtBb3bJvrO6GJIt_086CK6T6SL8lSUu0MHi95uLQLAsbgycZaCbRVkTEQstucQIHZdSKgFrG1SC_baEMZ3xmUml1cKMqQPyskt_bUzM2gc4NqLAQwEg-ccyTS5e_V7I7swMCNq1/s1600/hekate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy8P-XAGtBb3bJvrO6GJIt_086CK6T6SL8lSUu0MHi95uLQLAsbgycZaCbRVkTEQstucQIHZdSKgFrG1SC_baEMZ3xmUml1cKMqQPyskt_bUzM2gc4NqLAQwEg-ccyTS5e_V7I7swMCNq1/s1600/hekate.jpg" height="320" width="134" /></a></div>
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Sketchbook drawing of Hekate.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWA-xbn3o0c4fBKumpgGmCeji97k8pY3yK-5C8xof9bc_FZxWdJHj34gERm8_AwK3xYVAJxGm6SkXZG9_l5pubD2xXqV1U9GASyEV2rZiSPo3xQWy4Z8F2hhkHmx5siafwlV6yNWkP6hJq/s1600/tantalos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWA-xbn3o0c4fBKumpgGmCeji97k8pY3yK-5C8xof9bc_FZxWdJHj34gERm8_AwK3xYVAJxGm6SkXZG9_l5pubD2xXqV1U9GASyEV2rZiSPo3xQWy4Z8F2hhkHmx5siafwlV6yNWkP6hJq/s1600/tantalos.jpg" height="320" width="217" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcjetDX64GaddIE7GqggcT9IG8G7UOXKAeDKeoSh0jN0l0lzMgHTwH65wJ8KfLc5dV4y_oqfSJTSTGGL1u_n7iv1mxKN3hT5IOm7qgapBSVNSkp33lG7cbzWOpikq7PdI8-aPo1dxEM8F8/s1600/charon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcjetDX64GaddIE7GqggcT9IG8G7UOXKAeDKeoSh0jN0l0lzMgHTwH65wJ8KfLc5dV4y_oqfSJTSTGGL1u_n7iv1mxKN3hT5IOm7qgapBSVNSkp33lG7cbzWOpikq7PdI8-aPo1dxEM8F8/s1600/charon.jpg" height="320" width="217" /></a></div>
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Two infhabitants of the Underworld, Tantalus and Charon. The Underworld is chock-full of old bearded dudes, apparently.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Persephone, bubbeleh, eat a little something!</td></tr>
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As I mentioned earlier, it took me a while to nail the look of Persephone. Above is the earliest drawing of her I could find. I went in some very different directions from here.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj089KN9IpRIhTckcuFv7cCQWuvUNAA6ljJhC-PDQCMZGrw_i144y7wudKNLqz_p1SRc19n8paAvoiN_h-IDz4sVNoBACGSbXa8GP4yFVjLtciDuE7rynW5to_Sycznfg9yXH13LFuu9E2B/s1600/persephone+hair001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj089KN9IpRIhTckcuFv7cCQWuvUNAA6ljJhC-PDQCMZGrw_i144y7wudKNLqz_p1SRc19n8paAvoiN_h-IDz4sVNoBACGSbXa8GP4yFVjLtciDuE7rynW5to_Sycznfg9yXH13LFuu9E2B/s1600/persephone+hair001.jpg" height="320" width="314" /></a></div>
Above and below, figuring out hairstyles for Persephone. Top left of the above you can see the initial design that made its way onto the original cover for <i>Hades</i>; beneath it is something very close to her final design in the actual book.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjke91FQmQ6BdLRlRwXXKstQgGcyVBEIZd0cUIY6NiIfhXzc4wFNxuJe65yULwAbL1UburD7Z3aSdiXS7pFT5B6HADkUz43moOpyqzBaKDySijX9ZanVYlkIgGXdCGPt476aJKLxknrwGXG/s1600/persephonedreadqueen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjke91FQmQ6BdLRlRwXXKstQgGcyVBEIZd0cUIY6NiIfhXzc4wFNxuJe65yULwAbL1UburD7Z3aSdiXS7pFT5B6HADkUz43moOpyqzBaKDySijX9ZanVYlkIgGXdCGPt476aJKLxknrwGXG/s1600/persephonedreadqueen.jpg" height="320" width="207" /></a></div>
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I really like this design; I wish I had worked it into the book.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhD1ygscBc2xA7RlxCVH_tF6RcV3UO8GWVNR31pFnGaSn3NFVYSq_uYUjPeFKtg2qh8xioQ_V6iX0FCEdWTsfY-AJOqduHp_FDtFS7FzVLXDwrPqq3hOIDbYL-xpGE8O9HP5PUIgYauoWD/s1600/dreadqueenpersephone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhD1ygscBc2xA7RlxCVH_tF6RcV3UO8GWVNR31pFnGaSn3NFVYSq_uYUjPeFKtg2qh8xioQ_V6iX0FCEdWTsfY-AJOqduHp_FDtFS7FzVLXDwrPqq3hOIDbYL-xpGE8O9HP5PUIgYauoWD/s1600/dreadqueenpersephone.jpg" height="320" width="141" /></a></div>
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Kore's dress after she transforms into Persephone.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">6 billion easy for one of these posters.</td></tr>
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Original color art for the book release party. Hey, come hang out with a bunch of dead people!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One day I shall do an embittered post about all the awards I didn't win.</td></tr>
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A little comic I drew upon learning that <i>Hades: Lord of the Dead</i> was nominated for a 2013 ReadKiddoRead Kiddos award for best series. I did not win :( . This is the first official appearance of the "Li'l Olympians" style of my characters, who will appear from time to time. As many readers have pointed out, I messed up the season switch here. Persephone stays with her mother in the summer, not winter. I have no excuse for the mess up, and I'm pretty sure that's why I didn't win (not really).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNqa3LzOngkDkXgyG2dwhShyphenhyphenMbd9jY1Iwy4aDASk_No633d9IEAzsS_cAWnzIdKkO9Aq7F7SPV1-qpl-cNr0wq5uB_3afj7vbQwRzmSndK-NZP0pGQlW3X2ZtWpzdM-ie1MP82gssoXmuA/s1600/thalia001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNqa3LzOngkDkXgyG2dwhShyphenhyphenMbd9jY1Iwy4aDASk_No633d9IEAzsS_cAWnzIdKkO9Aq7F7SPV1-qpl-cNr0wq5uB_3afj7vbQwRzmSndK-NZP0pGQlW3X2ZtWpzdM-ie1MP82gssoXmuA/s1600/thalia001.jpg" height="320" width="260" /></a></div>
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A t-shirt design I did about this time for the Thalia Book Club Camp at NYC's Symphony Space. Hermes, Heracles and Demeter get their read-on in an homage to NYC's Grand Central Station.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsJRduMgE5pPDDWxwKC1SUI3tbIyuCurlc0x-MpytpY9cX-E8owEEqVArQJkcRU_RozTG-igKUFLa8MpmK2B-TfbDKwjdzzpxtk0eSTOeL7IAuMrgvFvpbi5gJK2Qhyphenhyphen1LDeBjbmN935ysr/s1600/hadescoverfinal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsJRduMgE5pPDDWxwKC1SUI3tbIyuCurlc0x-MpytpY9cX-E8owEEqVArQJkcRU_RozTG-igKUFLa8MpmK2B-TfbDKwjdzzpxtk0eSTOeL7IAuMrgvFvpbi5gJK2Qhyphenhyphen1LDeBjbmN935ysr/s1600/hadescoverfinal.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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Closing out, here's the final, final cover of <i>Hades: Lord of the Dead</i>, with accurate subtitle and Persephone. Come back tomorrow for a look at <i>Olympians</i> Book 5-- <i>Poseidon: Earth Shaker.</i></div>
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George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-43470680571781061252014-10-03T10:59:00.000-04:002014-10-03T10:59:04.401-04:00Olympians Boxed Set-- Countdown! Megapost Number 3- HERA: THE GODDESS AND HER GLORYIn 7 days, on October 7th, the new boxed set of the first 6 <i>Olympians</i> books is officially released.<br />
That's six volumes, and a poster, so for each day leading up to the 7th I'll release a post detailing sketches, anecdotes, alternate drawings-- whatever I can find, really, for one of the books in the series. Today, I'll be covering the third book in the series, <i>Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory.</i><br />
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Today's installment is a little bit leaner than the rest-- I'm not sure why, but I just don't have as much material for <i>Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory</i> as I do the other books. It's no reflection on the book itself-- in fact, <i>Hera</i> is my favorite volume of Olympians. Maybe because I like it so much I was able to dive in with less prep work/mis-steps.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxDi44ApzbzFAGEfjONvtZXvXMOALEwIVfYH70zm74_Lh3CafHPAWZqtreE6FFRnFBvslmJg1c9_xxnmEN_brGnQj4JSVQ6ZGD-gJXM1t9w0QAX-YVFaM95nXHF9swDIfFAqGdud_yXygf/s1600/hera-a-day44.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxDi44ApzbzFAGEfjONvtZXvXMOALEwIVfYH70zm74_Lh3CafHPAWZqtreE6FFRnFBvslmJg1c9_xxnmEN_brGnQj4JSVQ6ZGD-gJXM1t9w0QAX-YVFaM95nXHF9swDIfFAqGdud_yXygf/s1600/hera-a-day44.jpg" height="320" width="195" /></a></div>
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Above is some cover concepts, harking back to my early idea that each volume would be a close-up headshot of the titular god. I posted some <i>Athena</i> variants on this idea yesterday.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylDyzQE-_OELXKuOx6ZlS9orXAyMGRLLRIglBMcudG73lVpT8Y-ZLP7fDjhi8h5qkt_H0s094ZPITzSetfAriK4uQmPvUumGWCujtuux4A9kZRBVTk1Xr0rJc5g1hRIr9CqtTOrDH1-0J/s1600/Heracover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgylDyzQE-_OELXKuOx6ZlS9orXAyMGRLLRIglBMcudG73lVpT8Y-ZLP7fDjhi8h5qkt_H0s094ZPITzSetfAriK4uQmPvUumGWCujtuux4A9kZRBVTk1Xr0rJc5g1hRIr9CqtTOrDH1-0J/s1600/Heracover.jpg" height="320" width="242" /></a></div>
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But after we decided on the final cover for Zeus we had a template for the series. Here's the thumbnail for <i>Hera's</i> cover. Note the title: I intended this book to be called <i>The Glory of HERA</i>, both as a reference to the goddess herself and a translation of the name of her foil Heracles. Editorial felt strongly that the first word of the book title had to be Hera, to match <i>Zeus: King of the Gods</i> and <i>Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess.</i> After much back and forth we arrived on <i>Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory </i>which said pretty much the same thing.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw3ZoeMhq5ItSWnk5ErSToZJAAcRJU009dYoPV8e-ivTtiHInRkhgTBLCEMIj6EpN245xdLrcqZrMlhmE74eEcKAMAAZN6KJC2akHpR9-uz-yR7sJc6xeoFtZUe0qr9wLCehBkylyRBH9o/s1600/heracoverink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw3ZoeMhq5ItSWnk5ErSToZJAAcRJU009dYoPV8e-ivTtiHInRkhgTBLCEMIj6EpN245xdLrcqZrMlhmE74eEcKAMAAZN6KJC2akHpR9-uz-yR7sJc6xeoFtZUe0qr9wLCehBkylyRBH9o/s1600/heracoverink.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></div>
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Inks for the final cover, one of my favorite in the series. The first </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWC8bmpnCOLAxaAotctZrWXFlSMgAyay3IAB6paMIa6KVyLu_UQ9Qd0qwKWFvqgxqkEROTNPKfkE2SAle5xb8Rd4XDq7o52hfeMXV-hN0Hy58NVyYVRQUdP2u5XkZRKCgrZKAH5E1_reS/s1600/Herathumbnails.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWC8bmpnCOLAxaAotctZrWXFlSMgAyay3IAB6paMIa6KVyLu_UQ9Qd0qwKWFvqgxqkEROTNPKfkE2SAle5xb8Rd4XDq7o52hfeMXV-hN0Hy58NVyYVRQUdP2u5XkZRKCgrZKAH5E1_reS/s1600/Herathumbnails.jpg" height="320" width="203" /></a></div>
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Some thumbnails for Hera, including the sequence with Zeus and Io, his lover-turned-cow. This sequence was unusual for me in that usually I work both pictures and words simultaneously, bit by bit, until I get a finished comic. With the Io sequence, wherein Hera ruthlessly verbally outwits her outmatched husband, I wrote it as a full script and thumbnailed the accompanying pictures after. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl24RTEdyKNklalBrUwgYTte3jw8y6FN50QgXrb6ALhRNobZ_Xf2E8ySOGkvy8ivqmv5ZomZ6QBpYkSPhTtg31I5d_1lrmWWD1b9Nb76wb3yc5wzZoOwrvvUT5UuuAEMaUJNkVhdIX_eVS/s1600/earlyHeracles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl24RTEdyKNklalBrUwgYTte3jw8y6FN50QgXrb6ALhRNobZ_Xf2E8ySOGkvy8ivqmv5ZomZ6QBpYkSPhTtg31I5d_1lrmWWD1b9Nb76wb3yc5wzZoOwrvvUT5UuuAEMaUJNkVhdIX_eVS/s1600/earlyHeracles.jpg" height="320" width="188" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">His head is so tiny. If he stood up straight he'd look like a giraffe.</td></tr>
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Early design idea for Heracles. I was trying to capture some of his fun-loving attitude.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6KNdccQBGO45EDdNBaW0JKycSOD0gtNp2t5qr2z18V1KigzmYCxip9hqboTEBl4yqdGzK1JNzFo0co9HbBGKzoLE6igVnBCrZCn3oSOnfDwyCvVZtyZJqyuO5bXaZmUm4fdtVJF_0lX1h/s1600/heracles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6KNdccQBGO45EDdNBaW0JKycSOD0gtNp2t5qr2z18V1KigzmYCxip9hqboTEBl4yqdGzK1JNzFo0co9HbBGKzoLE6igVnBCrZCn3oSOnfDwyCvVZtyZJqyuO5bXaZmUm4fdtVJF_0lX1h/s1600/heracles.jpg" height="320" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">He's pretty calm considering that huge snake head.</td></tr>
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But I quickly learned don't mess with a classic. Heracles's appearance and attributes are so well-defined in ancient art all I really had to do was draw him in my style. Instantly recognizable.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju1Os7zh8ONJ5GyvdFgF3NDHiq7W8a8Ab805t7S00dWQPkgl6IVIGLLSrmyeoa7aPXap7OnDyTbUbtHC2Tz3SacwM_uig0H7StXT1rkZfpX_5KVdftOqktfV3-qU5YFUw0YQt8O3zK_M2A/s1600/Hera-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju1Os7zh8ONJ5GyvdFgF3NDHiq7W8a8Ab805t7S00dWQPkgl6IVIGLLSrmyeoa7aPXap7OnDyTbUbtHC2Tz3SacwM_uig0H7StXT1rkZfpX_5KVdftOqktfV3-qU5YFUw0YQt8O3zK_M2A/s1600/Hera-1.jpg" /></a></div>
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I've shared this a zillion times before, but this is like my all-time favorite drawing of Hera. While designing the appearances of the characters for the series she arrived immediately, fully-formed.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVSUyA_DXIVNnekOf8S_4gkjWw_VbRXtI_mFloQPN7MdWA-1fHvTMorv1gJdr4a5-lQS7uk5wlWQJAxlldk6eiJCAvrWSpnM1CdViKRkqcusHu7aQTCjRTyZWxW-0IMhf1eLSB2FWHDgWH/s1600/heramilkyway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVSUyA_DXIVNnekOf8S_4gkjWw_VbRXtI_mFloQPN7MdWA-1fHvTMorv1gJdr4a5-lQS7uk5wlWQJAxlldk6eiJCAvrWSpnM1CdViKRkqcusHu7aQTCjRTyZWxW-0IMhf1eLSB2FWHDgWH/s1600/heramilkyway.jpg" height="320" width="224" /></a></div>
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For a time, some studiomates and I had a daily sketchblog called Drawbridge together. I had missed a few days, so Tim Hamilton came up with the topic "Hera in a space suit" to lure me back. This is what I drew.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDw8JrShqhwG2tYw31d5IC44EXx6JBqPdNegLQF-GRXx8NnOJbpm5Vh5KtWleISbf80yUl-ofasNOe8XsrjKmr522Hy-i122sG6nU4YZ0hz4bklGFJu8Y1r0Pbg4DIek6hxUtnNQ9x4tAs/s1600/lupercalia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDw8JrShqhwG2tYw31d5IC44EXx6JBqPdNegLQF-GRXx8NnOJbpm5Vh5KtWleISbf80yUl-ofasNOe8XsrjKmr522Hy-i122sG6nU4YZ0hz4bklGFJu8Y1r0Pbg4DIek6hxUtnNQ9x4tAs/s1600/lupercalia.jpg" height="320" width="211" /></a></div>
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Another Drawbridge sketch, Zeus and Hera in a happier moment.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-dNL1YPLimSqm2RumCpdEYOTFvvTsXl7EH6onejiqg6PfmUISxQYZ014O_FSUgagTJaTndwqBTdnfpsjDlCOHT58DpOH2azhMUqFvajo8OevukGA7BQMP8ouK2jvzjaJ5sY6VeqruSr0m/s1600/herapostcard1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-dNL1YPLimSqm2RumCpdEYOTFvvTsXl7EH6onejiqg6PfmUISxQYZ014O_FSUgagTJaTndwqBTdnfpsjDlCOHT58DpOH2azhMUqFvajo8OevukGA7BQMP8ouK2jvzjaJ5sY6VeqruSr0m/s1600/herapostcard1.jpg" height="217" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you have this postcard now, let's say it's worth, oh, 5 billion dollars.</td></tr>
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The postcard for the Hera release party at Bergen Street Comics. I love this drawing, if I may so so myself.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwworSj78RzNB4lZK74E9D8srFLd2eu64Lfwrtr7YRpYFCtvMsBdAwMlhVqizclfw2ohHr_7R2q5ORwei0UoT0DF97EmwTYA6j6GmuPv-ipFMcdVvgK1ba6EIKEcEH4pCimMDkoW0OLPQw/s1600/actionheraclescolorcroppedlores.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwworSj78RzNB4lZK74E9D8srFLd2eu64Lfwrtr7YRpYFCtvMsBdAwMlhVqizclfw2ohHr_7R2q5ORwei0UoT0DF97EmwTYA6j6GmuPv-ipFMcdVvgK1ba6EIKEcEH4pCimMDkoW0OLPQw/s1600/actionheraclescolorcroppedlores.jpg" height="320" width="269" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Run, Captain Starnipples! Run!</td></tr>
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Around this time I was contacted to draw the cover for a book by Oxford University Press called <i>Classics and Comics</i>. I drew Heracles in the role of Superman from Action Comics #1.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9hfLCJ3W283dMOikpE6Jgxk_JNzhyiKYlEJemtzoKIvMmNbiHeHZvrLzVxtgqieUQMeMeedaxbPVJd7D36BqDRUxlK_MYh-gS3k-0t0EvhJui8BuKBM7N6wDXeLjuZ2z1p5nUFIhSAkLl/s1600/hera.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9hfLCJ3W283dMOikpE6Jgxk_JNzhyiKYlEJemtzoKIvMmNbiHeHZvrLzVxtgqieUQMeMeedaxbPVJd7D36BqDRUxlK_MYh-gS3k-0t0EvhJui8BuKBM7N6wDXeLjuZ2z1p5nUFIhSAkLl/s1600/hera.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><br />
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And that's that for <i>Hera</i>. Check back tomorrow for <i>Hades: Lord of the Dead</i>.</div>
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George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-53669615526455352702014-10-02T11:42:00.002-04:002014-10-02T11:44:19.607-04:00Olympians Boxed Set-- Countdown! Megapost Number 2- ATHENA: GREY-EYED GODDESSIn 7 days, on October 7th, the new boxed set of the first 6 <i>Olympians</i> books is officially released.<br />
That's six volumes, and a poster, so for each day leading up to the 7th I'll release a post detailing sketches, anecdotes, alternate drawings-- whatever I can find, really, for one of the books in the series. Today, I'll cover the second book in the series, <i>Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess</i><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcpPlubwj_Vi-ehe7iMF7K9WW2CHacC34CYuAB7tgRlLmaXFKbipqfnEk-xDrEB1v42QQcI998cmH3n1K0Iw2O85fM3gueni6dovKiax-LEVtqO7fgG5rvLRSB4YprIYFHFQCUXk2t1Wz/s1600/OlympiansBoxedSet-300rgb-550x793.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcpPlubwj_Vi-ehe7iMF7K9WW2CHacC34CYuAB7tgRlLmaXFKbipqfnEk-xDrEB1v42QQcI998cmH3n1K0Iw2O85fM3gueni6dovKiax-LEVtqO7fgG5rvLRSB4YprIYFHFQCUXk2t1Wz/s1600/OlympiansBoxedSet-300rgb-550x793.jpg" height="320" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
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I always knew that I wanted to follow up <i>Zeus: King of the Gods</i> immediately with a book on Athena, for many reasons. One, it was good to follow up the adventures of the manly king of the gods with some stories of a totally butt-kicking goddess. Two, I wanted to get a story in there about a second generation Olympian right off the bat, and Athena kicked the most butt. And thirdly, lest you think that all my reasoning will boil down to Athena kicking butt, I got to resolve the story of Metis, Athena's mother, which was a major subplot of <i>Zeus: King of the Gods.</i></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5pUgmWuxGQeOLd09vXf8sdjpNYnJOipamn-9lF7ifINCda-guoG_gTSXyfSzjIq-iSgvnL1BQX5hss8iuaNVoFqCh1sWIc5RFr8akr0LDi1b9EPH6UbBA9Jqnifc4-Cd0kHrBFtu8gO2j/s1600/athena1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5pUgmWuxGQeOLd09vXf8sdjpNYnJOipamn-9lF7ifINCda-guoG_gTSXyfSzjIq-iSgvnL1BQX5hss8iuaNVoFqCh1sWIc5RFr8akr0LDi1b9EPH6UbBA9Jqnifc4-Cd0kHrBFtu8gO2j/s1600/athena1.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We should call this book Athena the Cross-eyed Goddess. AmIright?</td></tr>
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Work on <i>Athena</i> began immediately after I finished <i>Zeus</i>, really, concurrently, as I was writing it while still coloring <i>Zeus</i>. We wanted to show potential readers we had a string commitment to this series by releasing the first two volumes right after another. <i>Athena</i> benefitted from this in that a lot of the trying to figure out what the series was going to look like was hashed out on <i>Zeus. </i>That's not to say we still didn't have a lot to work out, as evidenced by the first cover sketch above.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlFEZOG0obnXuwqhKP-NXMTLAjQi7pojop2gzFJAdfSYQJpX_PAso7nVZ0fbe0yj-2cTQ9NA5lua-mpdpZ8HR-17oJfiq7ooo34mAKS-lKivmHmcNucVbn3eceVYdIU9gwTUI2w7uioRYf/s1600/Athenacover2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlFEZOG0obnXuwqhKP-NXMTLAjQi7pojop2gzFJAdfSYQJpX_PAso7nVZ0fbe0yj-2cTQ9NA5lua-mpdpZ8HR-17oJfiq7ooo34mAKS-lKivmHmcNucVbn3eceVYdIU9gwTUI2w7uioRYf/s1600/Athenacover2.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No matter where you stand in the room, her grey eyes follow you.</td></tr>
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That was a not-very-good drawing, so I reworked it to the above. I still think this is a very striking piece, and I'm sorry sometimes we never went this route</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqDd8x5QP-ArhLTfAT4t94BdbJNgdkYJDa1YT_JPoijs7mci4Lpvtrc5xVuKYopz7hVfP8iWKMrOWixZaFFnRMc_kakyQXSrwW8dUZCVn0J_hOM3Ub_kqSj8qyZKr0ku3wVeZJ63pIc0JA/s1600/Athenacover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqDd8x5QP-ArhLTfAT4t94BdbJNgdkYJDa1YT_JPoijs7mci4Lpvtrc5xVuKYopz7hVfP8iWKMrOWixZaFFnRMc_kakyQXSrwW8dUZCVn0J_hOM3Ub_kqSj8qyZKr0ku3wVeZJ63pIc0JA/s1600/Athenacover.jpg" height="320" width="242" /></a></div>
By this point though we had worked out the design for the cover of Zeus, so we felt it important that future volumes in the series match that look to carry a uniform feel. The cover was the first piece of finished artwork I did for athena, as it had to be printed on the back of Zeus (along with the covers of Hera and Hades, tales for another day).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqzAnEHREFjrifowdDso5honz7PHjBKFykK1L3v1mxeUGoBCpLSDKxVUHyhLiYLzZCaPzgY_pIOgtH7dlvhrQz_KzFZ1aYrDklNN5pbUgHSNALFuf3Ekzqqk4PYqOrTM-hfwzBt7yDab3k/s1600/Athenacoverpencils.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqzAnEHREFjrifowdDso5honz7PHjBKFykK1L3v1mxeUGoBCpLSDKxVUHyhLiYLzZCaPzgY_pIOgtH7dlvhrQz_KzFZ1aYrDklNN5pbUgHSNALFuf3Ekzqqk4PYqOrTM-hfwzBt7yDab3k/s1600/Athenacoverpencils.jpg" height="320" width="227" /></a></div>
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Here it is in pencils.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8JZG5V9g7N3HChitlQ0Dff9sDBCr7dyIFgHY7wohHFnUAj9x63TTOoeeQ_EmYeXTx9tytTClJnnfDMmiosNxC8nhoUyRY2SNgzH2iQdgz1YVKV7epNYgAXAK6B6ld0Gtjx1XWRjSWXGJm/s1600/athenacoverink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8JZG5V9g7N3HChitlQ0Dff9sDBCr7dyIFgHY7wohHFnUAj9x63TTOoeeQ_EmYeXTx9tytTClJnnfDMmiosNxC8nhoUyRY2SNgzH2iQdgz1YVKV7epNYgAXAK6B6ld0Gtjx1XWRjSWXGJm/s1600/athenacoverink.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></div>
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and inks.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEismqZfIH6h_nOBh3pArBsuCH7PtGJDfyRgBNqew2z-bNHhjzBF1JhWldNjhXwRSwPlhrLsFWIZBOCqUHzS0ALOcN_w8SBWrJjSymU0899cL1lTsXH3R1Drltv2LVsiSJM52jBsPvCxgQO8/s1600/athenacovercolor3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEismqZfIH6h_nOBh3pArBsuCH7PtGJDfyRgBNqew2z-bNHhjzBF1JhWldNjhXwRSwPlhrLsFWIZBOCqUHzS0ALOcN_w8SBWrJjSymU0899cL1lTsXH3R1Drltv2LVsiSJM52jBsPvCxgQO8/s1600/athenacovercolor3.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pretty.</td></tr>
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and in almost sorta final colors. Remember yesterday how I mentioned I was still figuring out my color sense? When Mark Siegel saw this background color choice, he laughed, and upon seeing my face was like ,"Oh, you're serious about that?"</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKMn56PmOwrSvXgBF2wapFsb3Z4ovgY4ljKQa47oqamPwGMnkEu17y-hCXQouS1CwP1r80Zsh3xXNkpCb-D8WxDUzUDcp59rkA2t-16-jYfywoacuVQ2dwoEeC5CF3ndkLHqt7zSGb3hrx/s1600/Untitled-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKMn56PmOwrSvXgBF2wapFsb3Z4ovgY4ljKQa47oqamPwGMnkEu17y-hCXQouS1CwP1r80Zsh3xXNkpCb-D8WxDUzUDcp59rkA2t-16-jYfywoacuVQ2dwoEeC5CF3ndkLHqt7zSGb3hrx/s1600/Untitled-11.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By the time I got to Poseidon I was basically drawing my dummies with burst sticks on toilet paper. I'm hardly exaggerating.</td></tr>
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I think we've just about covered covers (ha!). Remember yesterday when I showed you the very detailed and sumptuous ink roughs for the dummy of <i>Zeus</i>? Oh what a difference one book makes. Above is an example of the dummy for <i>Athena</i>, detailing my favorite part of the book, her battle against Pallas, the leader of the Gigantes.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoea13d7ePNBpxm5FNR8hCbcsudaW-2_A9xm4XABjdxtm-tj93un1HUALOBvTnE4SAfFGao33xc6n0NMZHRZtLzMz8pDi0kJa08_3R7d-cRue9Pa1V4jd4SwZZttSdNFlYManm-ejt_PMy/s1600/Athenalegs1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoea13d7ePNBpxm5FNR8hCbcsudaW-2_A9xm4XABjdxtm-tj93un1HUALOBvTnE4SAfFGao33xc6n0NMZHRZtLzMz8pDi0kJa08_3R7d-cRue9Pa1V4jd4SwZZttSdNFlYManm-ejt_PMy/s1600/Athenalegs1.jpg" height="320" width="205" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-3xedH84zVdeoja3TSEUSmBoasS4rW0KJ5eB1dLIgWYYiYaDk0ySwT2Zsv3R7vHfr9zvhuRYPb_HPK6Eegk4y0krYtCEauXckoUzpmMOKkI1QrtD3tIGz9p0l3rRnCFG10GGxrx8Q_tvz/s1600/Athenalegs2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-3xedH84zVdeoja3TSEUSmBoasS4rW0KJ5eB1dLIgWYYiYaDk0ySwT2Zsv3R7vHfr9zvhuRYPb_HPK6Eegk4y0krYtCEauXckoUzpmMOKkI1QrtD3tIGz9p0l3rRnCFG10GGxrx8Q_tvz/s1600/Athenalegs2.jpg" height="320" style="cursor: move;" width="176" /></a></div>
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Since we had worked out so much of the details for the series by this point, I don't have as much false-start stuff to show you, so I figured I'd share some sketch work as I developed my take on the characters. Above are two shots of Athena wearing a very short skirt. Initially, I basically had her dressed like a male soldier, not realizing how important the weaving side, and her accompanying long robes, are to her character. Athena would never flash that much skin</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-FLdz4nEU7zBmov9LN5Nu_KUwP7o2dMvZQjUcvh3h6_0_yvN35rHbepxMAdIdVymWsgUkpRMVlmUFacyDUBMIq_2KLRBo-SLCpELt0AD4GetYh5kkQrRMR6HaUk0q7uNIqCoVkXrtlpjB/s1600/surprisedAthena.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-FLdz4nEU7zBmov9LN5Nu_KUwP7o2dMvZQjUcvh3h6_0_yvN35rHbepxMAdIdVymWsgUkpRMVlmUFacyDUBMIq_2KLRBo-SLCpELt0AD4GetYh5kkQrRMR6HaUk0q7uNIqCoVkXrtlpjB/s1600/surprisedAthena.jpg" height="320" width="271" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Too bad she's not looking up.</td></tr>
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I mean, look how scandalized she looks here! The very idea!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKvjOXHuQ0u9kjAgkbqpqLI9vVyHYgrrPKOLOFUbqCiI6YhXaCPH-Qivn66Jx1P5jA1e9aO2rcxEqWuuhYULIOEPK3AmnCe16qprjggU144BEDVFtyb6ztyBYhJ21OClr40qRbSAYlNat/s1600/athena1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWKvjOXHuQ0u9kjAgkbqpqLI9vVyHYgrrPKOLOFUbqCiI6YhXaCPH-Qivn66Jx1P5jA1e9aO2rcxEqWuuhYULIOEPK3AmnCe16qprjggU144BEDVFtyb6ztyBYhJ21OClr40qRbSAYlNat/s1600/athena1.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Athena needs to learn how to iron.</td></tr>
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I maybe overcompensated with the robes by the time I got to this drawing.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzIakDg2YSTgAG7v7f6pWWeQYPgenxrHoZgHzip3B-A8AQSIIL86ffVvhIEq43dm2t_pj3ecKdFEC5FL8nLg3vib-2sWfqWvjZLZQsCWUwuNpR_EaqEFm3BEcSFBne65ehEy_Nb88DylbN/s1600/Medusa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzIakDg2YSTgAG7v7f6pWWeQYPgenxrHoZgHzip3B-A8AQSIIL86ffVvhIEq43dm2t_pj3ecKdFEC5FL8nLg3vib-2sWfqWvjZLZQsCWUwuNpR_EaqEFm3BEcSFBne65ehEy_Nb88DylbN/s1600/Medusa.jpg" height="320" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm leaning towards goofy.</td></tr>
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Some early design ideas for Medusa. I can't decide if the face on the left is totally goofy or else the most terrifying thing I've ever drawn.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOv0gJ7ffrn9RqfmU32hVQO_fm8UAfHygvmS31xCRVhHjuWRlqESZWejPUyNVy1007RIVH7uKF4natrI4RTanNPdyzRS4g37UtY_nuuuS5l-a1mQdzeAwps-6WXuiQJOsPtMeyO-Dhv5ho/s1600/Pallas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOv0gJ7ffrn9RqfmU32hVQO_fm8UAfHygvmS31xCRVhHjuWRlqESZWejPUyNVy1007RIVH7uKF4natrI4RTanNPdyzRS4g37UtY_nuuuS5l-a1mQdzeAwps-6WXuiQJOsPtMeyO-Dhv5ho/s1600/Pallas.jpg" height="320" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That image of Athena is probably the last thing Pallas ever saw.</td></tr>
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Pallas, the leader of the Gigantes, arrived pretty much full-formed. Going through my sketchbooks he was always a big scaly goat-gorilla monster.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjH5c_ooyd-VQL2HffCK3lVtabx4h5zjUaBHhCqUZpAZW-l4eR6Dq572lG-3MyS7Mgjryh5WhEuI62CVZQBzOjX-qUCXknGupAAos-WT0nLc5lNMEjHsQ5Vt9AcN-1B-lbF6IRQ4fvplAt/s1600/bergen+street+jam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjH5c_ooyd-VQL2HffCK3lVtabx4h5zjUaBHhCqUZpAZW-l4eR6Dq572lG-3MyS7Mgjryh5WhEuI62CVZQBzOjX-qUCXknGupAAos-WT0nLc5lNMEjHsQ5Vt9AcN-1B-lbF6IRQ4fvplAt/s1600/bergen+street+jam.jpg" height="320" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The original is in the Louvre.</td></tr>
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This is a 'jam' piece I did with cartoonists Pascal Dizin, Mike Cavallaro and Leland Purvis. We had a signing together at the wonderful Bergen Street Comics and this is the art we created together for the postcard to promote it. If you have one of those postcards, it's worth approximately <i>4</i> billion dollars now.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3uMQuwumWF3QBOKUDSV0Qo7TEUAJ44Avtc8LRKI-rTsCcs8OD7KmT5tKlVVMJS8bwMx9iWG5mYsnZrhf8K1TD06X6HdbN7sbUWitHpHUEqBLWKKnaarn0oOZFQC_TpnOc9dGUsgMrpCWw/s1600/Athena.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3uMQuwumWF3QBOKUDSV0Qo7TEUAJ44Avtc8LRKI-rTsCcs8OD7KmT5tKlVVMJS8bwMx9iWG5mYsnZrhf8K1TD06X6HdbN7sbUWitHpHUEqBLWKKnaarn0oOZFQC_TpnOc9dGUsgMrpCWw/s1600/Athena.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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That's all folks! Check back tomorrow for <i>Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory</i>.</div>
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<br />George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-91920988336627877822014-10-01T15:43:00.002-04:002014-10-01T15:43:55.368-04:00Olympians Boxed Set-- Countdown! Megapost Number 1- ZEUS: KING OF THE GODSIn 7 days, on October 7th, the new boxed set of the first 6 <i>Olympians</i> books is officially released.<br />
That's six volumes, and a poster, so for each day leading up to the 7th I'll release a post detailing sketches, anecdotes, alternate drawings-- whatever I can find, really, for one of the books in the series. Today, I'll start with the first book, <i>Zeus: King of the Gods</i>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcpPlubwj_Vi-ehe7iMF7K9WW2CHacC34CYuAB7tgRlLmaXFKbipqfnEk-xDrEB1v42QQcI998cmH3n1K0Iw2O85fM3gueni6dovKiax-LEVtqO7fgG5rvLRSB4YprIYFHFQCUXk2t1Wz/s1600/OlympiansBoxedSet-300rgb-550x793.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOcpPlubwj_Vi-ehe7iMF7K9WW2CHacC34CYuAB7tgRlLmaXFKbipqfnEk-xDrEB1v42QQcI998cmH3n1K0Iw2O85fM3gueni6dovKiax-LEVtqO7fgG5rvLRSB4YprIYFHFQCUXk2t1Wz/s1600/OlympiansBoxedSet-300rgb-550x793.jpg" height="320" width="221" /></a></div>
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It all started with a conversation I had with my editor Neal Porter-- he referred to having seen a mutual acquaintance of ours the night before, an mentioned that said individual had been "slobbering like Cerberus." i was delighted by Neal's mythological reference-- I hadn't known he was a fan, and I dropped something equally nerdy back about cyclopes or gorgons or something. Neal fixed me with a look, pulled a book off his shelf, and said "What if you did a book retelling Greek myths, about this size, in comics form?" I raced home and two weeks later I had the first draft of <i>Zeus: Father of the Gods, </i>along with plans for eleven more books.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsZSDx4U1VqFEaRCUKUsLcUMNC8AX_f2dPJNaa0vztduyKUWdjqp2aVSKkL1PonyDt54LcuPQY9Yt_oo8ZDU2_PpAc4WvVGu5JMNBMEDZ6Ry1rAfxG2kcVrw_p952bCJoWr9B6-CLC4QoJ/s1600/zeus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsZSDx4U1VqFEaRCUKUsLcUMNC8AX_f2dPJNaa0vztduyKUWdjqp2aVSKkL1PonyDt54LcuPQY9Yt_oo8ZDU2_PpAc4WvVGu5JMNBMEDZ6Ry1rAfxG2kcVrw_p952bCJoWr9B6-CLC4QoJ/s1600/zeus.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look how good I write backwards</td></tr>
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Yeah, that's right-- <i>Father of the Gods</i>. Somehow, I had gotten it into my head that Americans didn't like books about royalty, so the book wasn't yet <i>King of the Gods</i>. I was wrong about Americans not digging royalty, obviously, and editorial overrode me on the subtitle. You're going to see that happen a lot in this series.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYzKvXCWyjluI8Q1GwrisnDIzSLBZrQtvPok2iPst3WK08HbPFuZsSOS1RMPb2BHwmSP-rkRFvAcqdMDI8FQy4ekohCiBl7dGKnVlWgTOBFmeESr8hweK9kNWwCilq5zpneJsaXrpo_yod/s1600/roughdraft.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYzKvXCWyjluI8Q1GwrisnDIzSLBZrQtvPok2iPst3WK08HbPFuZsSOS1RMPb2BHwmSP-rkRFvAcqdMDI8FQy4ekohCiBl7dGKnVlWgTOBFmeESr8hweK9kNWwCilq5zpneJsaXrpo_yod/s1600/roughdraft.jpg" height="215" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dummy for Zeus:King of the Gods. Zeus's less than stellar first meeting with his father.</td></tr>
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This is a spread from the first draft of Zeus I showed Neal. This really was more of a third draft, as it's actually a fairly tight dummy. My first draft is more like the picture below:</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_1sUREtPIw9W0T3KyxjndOyKZ4F-0ydi5J-GdD1RTVU7NvgmG-KwVjwS2cc7t-RhlVhyphenhyphenCHvduPKht3hc5d_qfLdcAJquUCypniooSu7Ja8r70bAFs3LhfxDANwpFTY4CjLDToYjvuNpym/s1600/zeussketch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_1sUREtPIw9W0T3KyxjndOyKZ4F-0ydi5J-GdD1RTVU7NvgmG-KwVjwS2cc7t-RhlVhyphenhyphenCHvduPKht3hc5d_qfLdcAJquUCypniooSu7Ja8r70bAFs3LhfxDANwpFTY4CjLDToYjvuNpym/s1600/zeussketch.jpg" height="320" width="198" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sketchbook page</td></tr>
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Just a bunch of drawings and scribblings in one of my sketchbooks. I have a fancy name for this part of my process: key scening. I basically try to visualize scenes and bits of dialogue for how I will retell the myths I want to feature. It's a bit scattershot and inefficient but it's the best way I've found to work for me.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1khFiuDQ4zseg1fkLleji5C6-Lx4_pjzmaWdStXuznYWONW7K6ip5lwHHM4Ga0702bnadzisTqZex3TQ0yXMuyEJ5or7MO4pIvbucHM9WcobJQhdaJ7v4TgNYkFoUMKV7hIzqSY_Grmvp/s1600/thumbnails.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1khFiuDQ4zseg1fkLleji5C6-Lx4_pjzmaWdStXuznYWONW7K6ip5lwHHM4Ga0702bnadzisTqZex3TQ0yXMuyEJ5or7MO4pIvbucHM9WcobJQhdaJ7v4TgNYkFoUMKV7hIzqSY_Grmvp/s1600/thumbnails.jpg" height="241" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thumbnails for Zeus.</td></tr>
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Second draft is thumbnails, little tiny sketches of how the dummy pages (and the eventual book) will look. I take a look at my pages and pages of key scenes and assemble them into pleasing compositions that tell a coherent story. This is BY FAR the hardest part of the process, and it's where the story really gels.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEsQJHdlt9jCwLEpw7yBBqEnLl5wxGDfF84PMJFAET3kMpj1GOlba-A8Dbyt1yrnMIc80aBAEB3VlbjRtng_YBa-EnBvQIWMg4wFUyXCk2SQUx45_n8bfNxlpTVtzp7oIIqF3yNWHmODWC/s1600/postcardside2real.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEsQJHdlt9jCwLEpw7yBBqEnLl5wxGDfF84PMJFAET3kMpj1GOlba-A8Dbyt1yrnMIc80aBAEB3VlbjRtng_YBa-EnBvQIWMg4wFUyXCk2SQUx45_n8bfNxlpTVtzp7oIIqF3yNWHmODWC/s1600/postcardside2real.jpg" height="320" width="217" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you have one of these now, it's worth approximately 3 billion dollars</td></tr>
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After the thumbnails, I go to the dummy, but you've already seen that, so instead I'm sharing this rarity. This is a try-out finished page for Olympians that I made up into a postcard that I passed around at conventions in 2008. I was so excited I wanted about this series I wanted to get word out immediately (<i>Zeus</i> wouldn't actually pub for another two years).</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpnazHGm3e9LC75odBPs82rY0Gv1Oyp5-n7DO-Zva2xLXw1gq-whr9GwHQ0tRbkZLZB9fSbjBCK9SHxLZKA5T56p3oyc3j3nkpb8xukGgB0Y-eIn-xfBlO2Uq6Np3fZuL8s8pLHzyCTIIl/s1600/Zeus-page26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpnazHGm3e9LC75odBPs82rY0Gv1Oyp5-n7DO-Zva2xLXw1gq-whr9GwHQ0tRbkZLZB9fSbjBCK9SHxLZKA5T56p3oyc3j3nkpb8xukGgB0Y-eIn-xfBlO2Uq6Np3fZuL8s8pLHzyCTIIl/s1600/Zeus-page26.jpg" height="320" width="227" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">black and white</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Above we have that same spread as it actually appears in <i>Zeus: King of the Gods</i>, or rather a scan of the black and white artwork, with no panel borders (I add those later in Photoshop). Back then I used to use tape to rule off the edges of the artwork, that's why it's so clean-looking. My originals now aren't so neat. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisYRHueY_bXQpR0g1H0tFOBdOyGv3XIzIvjlIq7dk6ISfOASE9gOCARV3Gg-lvLC1ocWa6btyxI8Ll-nfBXFXaKK1eykPe8WSLK-BJYj2qnfPIKBJ44WV_djRyJb_I2pxlSYARfz43gHuE/s1600/Zeus-page26color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisYRHueY_bXQpR0g1H0tFOBdOyGv3XIzIvjlIq7dk6ISfOASE9gOCARV3Gg-lvLC1ocWa6btyxI8Ll-nfBXFXaKK1eykPe8WSLK-BJYj2qnfPIKBJ44WV_djRyJb_I2pxlSYARfz43gHuE/s1600/Zeus-page26color.jpg" height="320" width="227" /></a></div>
The second is the same page with color added in Photoshop. Notice how much my ideas of how to color this scene changed in between that first tryout piece and now. I've learned a lot about color working on these books and my ideas were changing fast. Also notice, if you look at the dummy, how I tweaked the layouts and panel flow. I do that a lot as I work on a book. You constantly notice new and (hopefully) better ways to tell the story.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_Si2gQkdtMq_I9E0GoZ_8A19WiO2VNrizWqrrsh7bfHVjRP19YUAyyY27oI9SixGsdMh4dKEulZue-ckxH4mcumI0iv5APjqEz8RKJQafFHB1SnLyhVnpFZVeh6ZW1o9Em_e5lXYnUyt/s1600/prototype+pitch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_Si2gQkdtMq_I9E0GoZ_8A19WiO2VNrizWqrrsh7bfHVjRP19YUAyyY27oI9SixGsdMh4dKEulZue-ckxH4mcumI0iv5APjqEz8RKJQafFHB1SnLyhVnpFZVeh6ZW1o9Em_e5lXYnUyt/s1600/prototype+pitch.jpg" height="320" width="227" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And if we'd gone this route, I'd probably still be working on the first book.</td></tr>
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Above is the piece of artwork I produced along with my pitch to Neal to sell <i>Olympians</i> as a series. I initially wanted to have <i>Olympians</i> be a painted graphic novel series, but very early on in the development process I was convinced by First Second editorial director Mark Siegel that was an insane idea, it would take me forever to do the artwork for each book, and that it would probably look better in Photoshop anyway. Right on all counts.</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbsy7mA37R5pYfbIujizM2ij_coqAKaQjN_jHdfCatQleZhncuLEbA3sITIHkD_EQEvAllKnaW2mPz2WPHDm3OuzEIH5r45Dhb0hDmRzehVEg64Q-Uih5bKPnYdQgwuLt46Gx4XCGgSwcJ/s1600/zeuscoverideastype.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbsy7mA37R5pYfbIujizM2ij_coqAKaQjN_jHdfCatQleZhncuLEbA3sITIHkD_EQEvAllKnaW2mPz2WPHDm3OuzEIH5r45Dhb0hDmRzehVEg64Q-Uih5bKPnYdQgwuLt46Gx4XCGgSwcJ/s1600/zeuscoverideastype.jpg" height="320" width="227" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Turn around, Zeus! Kronos is behind you!</td></tr>
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Some early cover concepts. I envisioned wraparound covers, initially. Note my early ideas of logo and text. not my strongest work.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcKJyGNoUJdACOrf1V1DAbOMzu7MRTwcIYHj-wSNw2NCg_Sy08gh3llIsVFF4tRAPBqqZeKnJFmYxf8Cy8WI_dDjjhj8kopCXq4dsrra1qouuTZcASzkG7qD_EpdoQWSDa64SzAB7cGRBg/s1600/zeuslogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcKJyGNoUJdACOrf1V1DAbOMzu7MRTwcIYHj-wSNw2NCg_Sy08gh3llIsVFF4tRAPBqqZeKnJFmYxf8Cy8WI_dDjjhj8kopCXq4dsrra1qouuTZcASzkG7qD_EpdoQWSDa64SzAB7cGRBg/s1600/zeuslogo.jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This might work if Zeus was the Hulk</td></tr>
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We had a hard time nailing down the type for the series. At some point Mark suggested I try drawing some three dimensional stone logos for Zeus. These abominations are the result of that attempt. </div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCM7BaEk9SZQdxgbw_ZWs70hC_O9DH8fxKtASuKGdH1ug6aSuhGMrQ-0na-knsWGXFOoUYGxj6wCogV-JHlo_u7AAf1S8D9gjlVvUu6Z0weZevLzzFoFjHI4v_5JYPTLRGEjJfXLoAeTcz/s1600/Zeuscover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCM7BaEk9SZQdxgbw_ZWs70hC_O9DH8fxKtASuKGdH1ug6aSuhGMrQ-0na-knsWGXFOoUYGxj6wCogV-JHlo_u7AAf1S8D9gjlVvUu6Z0weZevLzzFoFjHI4v_5JYPTLRGEjJfXLoAeTcz/s1600/Zeuscover.jpg" height="320" width="242" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">thumbnail</td></tr>
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Suddenly we have this-- a thumbnail for the cover to <i>Zeus</i> (still <i>Father of the Gods </i>here) that nailed the look both for this book, and the series going forward. The composition barely changed,from here until the finish, if at all.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNcT9DN1_tsM68QyI8YV_SlIYegE36QJnniJTDHtlyPmHB5d0TAgYsBQ30N1ywAiXjjTwdOO5CQ3LkL7yaIhrP0FpyfOqdMUlZ0i2wEOQaNyVeXoUd1LWE3_G83gZROGq3FmIOOM5u5E9D/s1600/Zeuscoverpencils2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNcT9DN1_tsM68QyI8YV_SlIYegE36QJnniJTDHtlyPmHB5d0TAgYsBQ30N1ywAiXjjTwdOO5CQ3LkL7yaIhrP0FpyfOqdMUlZ0i2wEOQaNyVeXoUd1LWE3_G83gZROGq3FmIOOM5u5E9D/s1600/Zeuscoverpencils2.jpg" height="320" width="227" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pencils</td></tr>
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From there I penciled it up. Look at the failure that is Kronos's sickle. I 'm not big on erasing.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbq04-uC4DH8oyd2UIox_l7cJ9uWX2W4Wa-sYPlm2Db7lCPU5cczux_5v91RFVhL0Zix73ZvAZhZjZLu_q1xk5I1eiGL-4KwjFXAzNthmp-7xM5opgOIhQ0YxpgKuRAmnJo-rvqi2E76So/s1600/zeuscovercolornewtype.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbq04-uC4DH8oyd2UIox_l7cJ9uWX2W4Wa-sYPlm2Db7lCPU5cczux_5v91RFVhL0Zix73ZvAZhZjZLu_q1xk5I1eiGL-4KwjFXAzNthmp-7xM5opgOIhQ0YxpgKuRAmnJo-rvqi2E76So/s1600/zeuscovercolornewtype.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My eyes! The burning!!</td></tr>
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I really, really, REALLY almost didn't share this with you. I mentioned I was learning a lot about coloring in those days, but man, I had a lot to learn still at this point. When I came across this today I was horrified that I colored this. So were my editors.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtpGF7DNCm5ngkS__6JXoC_CIEpTQT04Y2Agku9Pf-0pkAB84uv3t_NP4D8CjW88FyHlzsGtu2Wv21zFV6UzDA7noGJu9ghw2pb9qvVvF57xsnZ-MGMyJra88FQiJ6JNij8uoGdkxcM0X/s1600/zeuscovercolor2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtpGF7DNCm5ngkS__6JXoC_CIEpTQT04Y2Agku9Pf-0pkAB84uv3t_NP4D8CjW88FyHlzsGtu2Wv21zFV6UzDA7noGJu9ghw2pb9qvVvF57xsnZ-MGMyJra88FQiJ6JNij8uoGdkxcM0X/s1600/zeuscovercolor2.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nowhere to go but up from that last one.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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This was another attempt, and there's another version with a blue Zeus floating around out there on the interwebs, but while better than that first version, they still weren't quite working.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs7OPq7-WNCGd0kNM9_KwaxUbrjt8wjcJnHe_7d6Wpo08dIRmumv4MXFXF8euHnPOkbKuWgBXjXfY0YKPb-9PltSPx2XqV4-B08xAQdw7tulkxVTzq0mt5n7wn1WcQowtWgGBePSPDLZ6K/s1600/Zeus-cover-300rgb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgs7OPq7-WNCGd0kNM9_KwaxUbrjt8wjcJnHe_7d6Wpo08dIRmumv4MXFXF8euHnPOkbKuWgBXjXfY0YKPb-9PltSPx2XqV4-B08xAQdw7tulkxVTzq0mt5n7wn1WcQowtWgGBePSPDLZ6K/s1600/Zeus-cover-300rgb.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At last.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Finally, original series designer Danica Novgorodoff (now a fancy cartoonist in her own right) took my three failed color attempts, combined them together, played with some levels and birthed the cover me know and love now. I remember being upset at the time that Zeus was a blond on the cover, knowing that this book was pretty much the only time he was going to be depicted that way, but now I think it looks great.<br />
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That's enough for today, I think. Check back tomorrow for the birth of <i>Athena: Grey Eyed Goddess</i>.<br />
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<br />George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-78177044977939441562014-07-23T11:04:00.000-04:002014-07-23T11:04:30.857-04:00Shadow Hero: The Green TurtleMy publisher <a href="http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/">First Second</a> just put out a new book by the super talented team of <a href="http://geneyang.com/">Gene Yang </a>and <a href="http://sonnyliew.wordpress.com/">Sonny Liew</a> called <i>The Shadow Hero</i>. <i>The Shadow Hero</i> is an examination of the actual golden age superhero character The Green Turtle, believed to be the first Asian American superhero. To celebrate the book's publication, :01 asked me and a <a href="http://comicspire.com/2014/07/14/twenty-seven-artists-draw-the-green-turtle-ahead-of-the-release-of-the-shadow-hero/">whole bunch of other cartoonists</a> to draw our own interpretation of the Green Turtle. Today's my turn.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6mYEJZTPR_acuVJJzZiR3DhwH3yWnkM83mGwKU3iePFndsr8drwvFGc-UkNqyQOdy_HuO_dDYpZoiuPG2sc6tC-JYSVa_Mecj8CUs6Mhk8-7yKIY__uix3jlvlC_qOUPJlcxieK2vrGU/s1600/The+Green+Turtle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6mYEJZTPR_acuVJJzZiR3DhwH3yWnkM83mGwKU3iePFndsr8drwvFGc-UkNqyQOdy_HuO_dDYpZoiuPG2sc6tC-JYSVa_Mecj8CUs6Mhk8-7yKIY__uix3jlvlC_qOUPJlcxieK2vrGU/s1600/The+Green+Turtle.jpg" height="320" width="315" /></a></div>
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It's a really cool real-life story-- originally created by Chinese-American cartoonist Chu Hung for Blazing Comics in 1944, it is believed that the character of the Green Turtle was meant to be Asian, but that the publishers of Blazing Comics balked at the idea, thinking that the largely white comics buying public of the time wouldn't support an asian super heroic protagonist. rather than draw his creation as a caucasian, however, Hing chose to pretty much never show the Green Turtle's face. Most of the time, he has his back turned to the reader, and in the few instances when he's facing front, he invariably has his arm, a shadow, or some random object obscuring his face. Speaking of shadows, he also occasionally has a bizarre turtle faced shadow following him about, as in my illustration above, with no explanation offered as to why. It's weird, fun stuff, and I recommend everyone pick up The Shadow Hero to see what Yang and Liew did with it.George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-21814278326384574302014-07-22T10:33:00.002-04:002014-07-22T10:33:51.475-04:00Teachers! Librarians! Want a poster?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNtCNybLf9VjN4fx7v-PECvbj8lyxrv1v_vZM8TfvrHK6ryfxDQuxP-tbUpP6zd9LpX7k_D6UD46IK8oNutM2uBwp3uINMWAX8hoRF6Rjp38pRciDNodwL6bfqCTOmYABiDAgt-93hlt5u/s1600/Olympians+Poster+color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNtCNybLf9VjN4fx7v-PECvbj8lyxrv1v_vZM8TfvrHK6ryfxDQuxP-tbUpP6zd9LpX7k_D6UD46IK8oNutM2uBwp3uINMWAX8hoRF6Rjp38pRciDNodwL6bfqCTOmYABiDAgt-93hlt5u/s1600/Olympians+Poster+color.jpg" height="355" width="640" /></a><br />
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If you are a teacher, librarian or some other sort of educator, and want a copy of the new Olympians poster for your classroom or library, email me your address by Wednesday, July 23rd at 12 AM Eastern time for a copy. Sorry for the short notice, but you can't beat that ;)George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-21175608447628485142014-07-15T15:00:00.000-04:002014-07-15T15:00:08.649-04:00Olympians Boxed Set!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyuKPl0SZNaw81gW95IAJe6EGt1K2-8B_F9orMCbVlCsucVTd2Ac-oOJAmKIx7O0lQAgQhiR3VSUfMzRB4gem238PoSyFTWdIibMEjllxG7yG6MTxVsOHdbiWxHykd-mmm0Xn-ilm8SDE/s1600/Photo+on+2014-07-15+at+14.55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyuKPl0SZNaw81gW95IAJe6EGt1K2-8B_F9orMCbVlCsucVTd2Ac-oOJAmKIx7O0lQAgQhiR3VSUfMzRB4gem238PoSyFTWdIibMEjllxG7yG6MTxVsOHdbiWxHykd-mmm0Xn-ilm8SDE/s1600/Photo+on+2014-07-15+at+14.55.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4cUAuaKH4o3WmICmvIuVOiXmceH7EZGdfHZMXGwXY0uBxmNRZnT-WY_0ELkm73FbVZ6QtL0FPGhzSuH2TjKqIOzRjX-5Xl2S2UFzcnOJHn-AWqBTrH-85LtyIfvsizJ9D2gV3N6XzNMM/s1600/Photo+on+2014-07-15+at+14.55+%232.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4cUAuaKH4o3WmICmvIuVOiXmceH7EZGdfHZMXGwXY0uBxmNRZnT-WY_0ELkm73FbVZ6QtL0FPGhzSuH2TjKqIOzRjX-5Xl2S2UFzcnOJHn-AWqBTrH-85LtyIfvsizJ9D2gV3N6XzNMM/s1600/Photo+on+2014-07-15+at+14.55+%232.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7QTpkx8XyaDJWqzzEIlS4kaKqUbEpV5w0wtStGpDKKiSQuVDpwR-GkbfnAHlaFgTdMT1GbN30wrclk9hluULMeXM7pTtPsyggnlKf15qyglgAhwZnM9qJe7uUyTi3E6ivORlmknwYrmo/s1600/Photo+on+2014-07-15+at+14.55+%233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7QTpkx8XyaDJWqzzEIlS4kaKqUbEpV5w0wtStGpDKKiSQuVDpwR-GkbfnAHlaFgTdMT1GbN30wrclk9hluULMeXM7pTtPsyggnlKf15qyglgAhwZnM9qJe7uUyTi3E6ivORlmknwYrmo/s1600/Photo+on+2014-07-15+at+14.55+%233.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Just returned home to a strange envelope in my breezeway. Opened it up and, lo and behold, my very own copy of the new Olympians boxed set! Volumes 1-6, plus the poster, in one awesome slipcase. Very exciting!George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-57211434864218399522014-01-16T11:29:00.003-05:002014-01-16T11:29:40.724-05:00Olympians Poster-- the complete process<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
The upcoming Olympians poster is as finished as it's gonna get. I thought you might like to see this step-by-step process of how it was made, from the finish all the way back to the sketch.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdfdur1E5rRoY0Ce9Cu9kHA9MdMMvWle3mk46b6EzicGOke8Hk0XV-PmUXgeHko-4xRXeeonZzu875xLaNNtNlhPKxy7c-9OxV41KfQAM6KG2s9NgdhdJA5E_DVPX7AbXYCTA_UPu7WVBd/s1600/Olympians+Poster+color.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdfdur1E5rRoY0Ce9Cu9kHA9MdMMvWle3mk46b6EzicGOke8Hk0XV-PmUXgeHko-4xRXeeonZzu875xLaNNtNlhPKxy7c-9OxV41KfQAM6KG2s9NgdhdJA5E_DVPX7AbXYCTA_UPu7WVBd/s1600/Olympians+Poster+color.jpg" height="222" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">finished color</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4FEMjJd68davXOnLc4E5BgVW6NW3VuITAUjchcGTXwk2hrmYSpWrHK0q7RhQh9AAMwAEpBrvDuPMFu_52_zZ75girTOd3QGB6Eh46LPsQJkrEvS7vzX_TTYJLKUEHkxw9C1pFJdBWjK6M/s1600/Olympians+Poster+black+and+white+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4FEMjJd68davXOnLc4E5BgVW6NW3VuITAUjchcGTXwk2hrmYSpWrHK0q7RhQh9AAMwAEpBrvDuPMFu_52_zZ75girTOd3QGB6Eh46LPsQJkrEvS7vzX_TTYJLKUEHkxw9C1pFJdBWjK6M/s1600/Olympians+Poster+black+and+white+small.jpg" height="222" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">finished inks</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim4OOzSbeTQts05GDAojUIRjmmbtnV74DBawzE3N9hy1RMTz6ThU_SbyaFY5cS2dTN7KC7-RvdFtgQJe7IPaY1yKf0NnzmtSSabDKR6ZHB1nxUvZZjhAPHkx5jexNlW5Ciwic48h36cdb1/s1600/Olympians+Poster+pencils+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim4OOzSbeTQts05GDAojUIRjmmbtnV74DBawzE3N9hy1RMTz6ThU_SbyaFY5cS2dTN7KC7-RvdFtgQJe7IPaY1yKf0NnzmtSSabDKR6ZHB1nxUvZZjhAPHkx5jexNlW5Ciwic48h36cdb1/s1600/Olympians+Poster+pencils+small.jpg" height="218" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">pencils</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcD0gDbe63lu2iG2O7fSBFUTUb2R_WXIR78dAJR8LKIBP-w_F2DpVVMGGZfBgPprK902G0vBfFlgUPT1k8PsJmIbVsx9qp0iXj47RXs4vhIj74Jxx67SL2IthALNnFoOPaTq836NfZaUdc/s1600/olympians+poster+rough+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcD0gDbe63lu2iG2O7fSBFUTUb2R_WXIR78dAJR8LKIBP-w_F2DpVVMGGZfBgPprK902G0vBfFlgUPT1k8PsJmIbVsx9qp0iXj47RXs4vhIj74Jxx67SL2IthALNnFoOPaTq836NfZaUdc/s1600/olympians+poster+rough+2.jpg" height="288" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">sketch</td></tr>
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<br />George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-71328132572491619282014-01-09T10:43:00.000-05:002014-01-09T10:43:08.885-05:00A Tale of Two-and-a-half Covers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfFv5IeNsWs5zXE2Cgeyun5XUE0_2goVn3wAWi2gHJ-FLTR8vJkDcmONlopOEwPqWrp7SpSS_KwH26kAnHJUG-UxdjoMg9PizPQ6ge2vEXr_sMZHUlvp732sj1bO2oWz1ZtNWCVU3Kj0Lk/s1600/Aphroditecovercolor2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfFv5IeNsWs5zXE2Cgeyun5XUE0_2goVn3wAWi2gHJ-FLTR8vJkDcmONlopOEwPqWrp7SpSS_KwH26kAnHJUG-UxdjoMg9PizPQ6ge2vEXr_sMZHUlvp732sj1bO2oWz1ZtNWCVU3Kj0Lk/s1600/Aphroditecovercolor2.jpg" height="400" width="297" /></a></div>
A lot of eagle-eyed readers have noticed that the cover of <i>Aphrodite: Goddess of Love</i> that appears on the back cover of<i> Poseidon</i> is different than the the cover that appears on the actual book. I wrote a <a href="http://www.firstsecondbooks.com/books/aphrodite-a-tale-of-two-and-a-half-covers/">piece on the :01 blog that details the reason why</a>. It's an interesting glimpse behind the scenes of the creative and editorial processes.George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-38201260777905448632014-01-08T10:09:00.001-05:002014-01-08T10:09:50.280-05:00Odin's Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEjCWBwrFpotcIm03vEiUL2jzArl8LlpC2nLzcYpdgExSzjn8pgDzSRes1kxa5UbbtwHc1Xhf0ogvaLLCgJgr0IIgyRot7eOmh-zwVRrQpT30dHEb5BCWKJYJnqf_-vdIqTJWPZcBVGFg/s1600/Odin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEjCWBwrFpotcIm03vEiUL2jzArl8LlpC2nLzcYpdgExSzjn8pgDzSRes1kxa5UbbtwHc1Xhf0ogvaLLCgJgr0IIgyRot7eOmh-zwVRrQpT30dHEb5BCWKJYJnqf_-vdIqTJWPZcBVGFg/s1600/Odin.jpg" height="400" width="308" /></a></div>
Bringing my week of superheroey days of the week themed drawings to a close we have Marvels' Odin, Thor's dad and supreme god of the Norse pantheon. I've never loved Marvel's version of Odin-- Odin's a crafty, sneaky god, not a huge armored Santa Claus. Still, here he is.George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-80722419936979871442014-01-07T08:04:00.000-05:002014-01-07T08:04:00.154-05:00Tyr's DayAfter a few days exploring the 31st century and stranger places, we're back to Marvel Comics <i>Thor</i> for Tyr's day, or Tuesday as we call it in English. Here's Marvel's version of the Norse god of War, Tyr, recreating the fateful moment where he lost his hand binding the dread wolf Fenrir. Marvel's never really done all that much with Tyr, which is surprising as he's pretty kick-butt, in my opinion.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3MKA9EEzAMFATV-j408jEVFHF9cmY5Rqfdy_kD7oE7uNwNubyh-z8_xU-7JkBf30x6NByTvLOpa-CxJel3jRcswWZX3putjODMy-zKYuLjNeCPT_Cu8bDa2JzzWu6qqF8UNHfypJk6OE/s1600/Tyr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3MKA9EEzAMFATV-j408jEVFHF9cmY5Rqfdy_kD7oE7uNwNubyh-z8_xU-7JkBf30x6NByTvLOpa-CxJel3jRcswWZX3putjODMy-zKYuLjNeCPT_Cu8bDa2JzzWu6qqF8UNHfypJk6OE/s1600/Tyr.jpg" height="400" width="308" /></a></div>
<br />George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-81919901415912316452014-01-06T08:30:00.000-05:002014-01-06T09:39:16.950-05:00Monday Moon Boy! With bonus extra Devil Dinosaur<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGDCRxzmNN0daro0Vlsou7_JL7j5UE71sPMvPPac2awgrV4SPIMKzwHXdvPP2aUygyiKl_BvOTCVgUX0wG2l0Fq9-uPdLxEJsaZlO-e5XR97QSgjrgYCatqYCoT9ZCTuYeYpBGlTMC0s/s1600/moon+boy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAGDCRxzmNN0daro0Vlsou7_JL7j5UE71sPMvPPac2awgrV4SPIMKzwHXdvPP2aUygyiKl_BvOTCVgUX0wG2l0Fq9-uPdLxEJsaZlO-e5XR97QSgjrgYCatqYCoT9ZCTuYeYpBGlTMC0s/s640/moon+boy.jpg" height="640" width="492" /></a></div>
Yeah, that's right! Celebrating Monday with Moon Boy! One of my favorite Jack Kirby creations. And to insure that readers won't think this is a naked teen Wolverine on a bad hair day I included Devil, his pet dinosaur.<br />
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I just recently purchased the nine issues of the original <i>Devil Dinosaur</i>, and it starts off as the greatest concept for a kids comic ever (a young ape boy and his pet intelligent dinosaur) but quickly devolves into a hot mess. Particularly the multi-issue sequence where Moon Boy has been kidnapped by Kirbyesque superaliens who intend to vivisect him, and Devil is left outside to save him. Kirby obviously just drew this story as he went along, not planning <i>anything</i> out in advance, and the sheer amount of <i>dei ex machini</i> he has to employ to let a kinda sorta T-Rex defeat super-advanced aliens from another world is nothing short of stunning. And this goes on for like 3 issues. But man, amazing artwork!George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-82069153302530777022014-01-05T10:38:00.000-05:002014-01-05T10:38:07.562-05:00Sun Boy Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6qjK9uFa5XOp14zdZGv2HaL2mv4_SqLStZQ5c4Pxq_1dSLf9sOAaSsb-ZRV7RKvW7fPSJ30XJ43AnsNKwe7uvxQxbbRN5apzGMnCgSkCDwHPZFwaBKfswpHAaT6aVYrqIa4fjfo9iMSo/s1600/Sun+Boy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6qjK9uFa5XOp14zdZGv2HaL2mv4_SqLStZQ5c4Pxq_1dSLf9sOAaSsb-ZRV7RKvW7fPSJ30XJ43AnsNKwe7uvxQxbbRN5apzGMnCgSkCDwHPZFwaBKfswpHAaT6aVYrqIa4fjfo9iMSo/s400/Sun+Boy.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>
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Working my way through the week! Celebrating Sunday with a drawing of Sun Boy, again from DC's Legion of Superheroes. He was never my favorite Legionnaire, but there's no denying he had a striking costume. </div>
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Check back again tomorrow for Monday's avatar.</div>
<br />George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-79620950266639268252014-01-04T11:19:00.002-05:002014-01-05T10:38:56.247-05:00Saturn Girl's Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigOwrYL3LCSkJbYrws6STj0h5_a67GqzoOsZtEVTqPgZKVYfVpXGcWi56jSNj7wcJxmwrWF3evGuznAfLhZssYOUZ0YU0ILfNAjNjg6_GL3zlPoJL9_UqO3T4ZuI0VBOXbZy11MD7gsJo/s1600/Saturn+Girl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigOwrYL3LCSkJbYrws6STj0h5_a67GqzoOsZtEVTqPgZKVYfVpXGcWi56jSNj7wcJxmwrWF3evGuznAfLhZssYOUZ0YU0ILfNAjNjg6_GL3zlPoJL9_UqO3T4ZuI0VBOXbZy11MD7gsJo/s400/Saturn+Girl.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>
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I initially didn't intend this to be a thing but I guess it is now. On Thursday, I drew <a href="http://geooco.blogspot.com/2014/01/thorsday.html">Marvel Comics's Thor</a>, on Friday <a href="http://geooco.blogspot.com/2014/01/friggas-day.html">his mother, Frigga</a>. So far as I know, Marvel doesn't have Saturn as a character so I jumped ship to DC and drew Saturn Girl of the Legion of Superheroes.</div>
George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332176887120518507.post-4928207713434131282014-01-03T11:38:00.000-05:002014-01-05T10:39:33.362-05:00Frigga's Day<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZZgh60QLbXarNi6a_N5OPfKdgICLuEyVZ8Qat78vYHd1xS8pT_JEEhJJAGpC6ANXAQPzMHl5rJ4aCDiibz2w4DEdwDD71oeCytBKFTQib7mL6BooSyMwiNa2U2-V1f-H6Zemc6dD-1bI/s1600/frigga.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZZgh60QLbXarNi6a_N5OPfKdgICLuEyVZ8Qat78vYHd1xS8pT_JEEhJJAGpC6ANXAQPzMHl5rJ4aCDiibz2w4DEdwDD71oeCytBKFTQib7mL6BooSyMwiNa2U2-V1f-H6Zemc6dD-1bI/s400/frigga.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>
Building off of yesterday's 'marvel'ous post of Thorsday, I'm celebrating friday with the Marvel comics version of Thor's mom, Frigga. I went with the frumpy Simonson-era version as opposed to the smokin' hot Rene Russo movie version.George O'Connorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14372681333796803821noreply@blogger.com2