Recent Art aka Wizards and Barbarians and Troll Slayers Oh My

I have been a little lax posting art, so here goes a “dump” of some recent work. Mainly squeezed in when I had the time between other projects, but these are quite a bit of fun so I thought I’d share. Before I do, though, I wanted to add this: the world is obviously very dark right now, but there is one really great piece of news: Prabir Purkayastha, founder of NewsClick, was recently released from a prison! As Peoples Dispatch noted last month, “The Indian Supreme Court ordered the immediate release of author and journalist Prabir Purkayastha on Wednesday, May 15 terming his arrest by the Delhi Police in October last year, illegal.” While Purkayastha is not out of the woods yet, this is a significant positive step. I, for one, am very pleased. I’ve learned a lot from Purkayastha and NewsClick. Here are some recent comments from him, too.

Onwards to art!

Modern Wizard

I have long had a love affair of wizards and magic users. Dr. Strange, Gandalf, and whatnot. Long beards and pointy hats are preferred, but are not required. Hell, Bill from WIZARDS FOR HIRE — CHEAP! certainly fits that description, but his wizardly companion Butch sure as hell does not.

Speaking of wizards, if you want to read my hands down favourite version, read THE FACE IN THE FROST by John Bellairs. I’ve even read (and own!) his sadly incomplete sequel titled THE DOLPHIN CROSS that was included in the New England Science Fiction Association’s anthology MAGIC MIRRORS. John Bellairs died far far too young and I suspect many people know him mainly due to his young adult oriented series’ featuring characters like Lewis Barnavelt (and Rose Rita Pottinger!), Anthony Monday, and Johnny Dixon, but THE FACE IN THE FROST and THE DOLPHIN CROSS are amazing. That is not meant to take anything away from Bellairs’ other writing; I really love his prose and his YA books are really great with a dark gothic creepy vibe that runs through them.

Of course, for comics you can’t beat Steve Ditko and Stan Lee’s early Doctor Strange stories serialized in STRANGE TALES. I have a few of those in print but mostly in reprint form (like DOCTOR STRANGE CLASSICS and ESSENTIAL DOCTOR STRANGE).

Modern Barbarian

Barbarians are a character type I’ve not had much of an opportunity to draw. Which is a shame because barbarians are such a blast to draw. One of the great things about them is how they “cut through” the crap. There is no angst, no melodrama, no feelings, no nothing. Just violence and often murder, usually in the most over the top way possible. The great (and sadly missing) “Joesky” once built a great reaction table for when you want to know what a barbarian is thinking: roll percentile dice. There is a 1% chance that the barbarian will be “okay for now.” The other 99%? HATE. Yup! And if you want a modern version, look up the Cartoon Network’s pilot for KORGOTH OF BARBARIA (here's one on DailyMotion). Korgoth is pitch perfect, voiced by Diedrich Bader.

Dwarf Troll Slayer

As some of you know, I love fantasy dwarfs. Hell, I love sci-fi dwarfs. I just love dwarfs. I tend to like my dwarfs a little more crazy than so called “vanilla” dwarfs in a lot of high fantasy. This guy is a great example. He’s technically a Troll Slayer, a more crazy than normal type of dwarf. As Chris Hogan once noted in his terrific gaming supplement SMALL BUT VICIOUS DOG, a Troll Slayer is “a kamikaze no pants dwarf with a big orange mohawk, prison tats, a two handed axe and a burning desire to ragequit life as violently as possible.” Yes. Yes! YES!

Given the “no pants” status of this fella, I put a censored version up for all to see. For those who want to see the uncensored versions, simply click on the image below and it will open up the (glorious?) uncensored version!

Process Work

I also decided to include some “process” work, mainly because I don’t often do that and I kinda thought, “well, why not?” So here are pencils and inks of the various pieces. As always, you can click on most of these to make them bigger (and, with the Troll Slayer, see the uncensored versions, too). You’ll see some subtle differences, especially between the inks and colours; even when I ink “by hand,” I’ll still do a little bit of digital work to finish the piece off. You’ll spot that if you look!

I really had a lot of fun doing these! I hope you enjoy them, too!

Other Links

• Overview of my Comics: http://www.vonallan.com/p/comics.html

• Wolf’s Head (My Ongoing Comic Book Series): https://wolfs-head.vonallan.com/

• Von Allan Studio Shop Page: http://www.vonallan.com/p/von-allan-studio-shop.html

• RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Von_Allan_Homepage

• Mailing List Sign-Up: https://vonallan.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f6d06612e90503db886a31a24&id=7642c19478

Some of the more observant among you might have noticed a small change on this ol’ site. What is it? Well, for those of you visiting Von Allan Studio on a desktop or laptop computer, you might have spotted a new area of the website called “Pirate Von.” What the heck is that? Well, as much as I’ve given away many of my comics in the past, these have almost always been in the form of webcomics. You can easily find them on this site, but not all collated in the same place. The Pirate Von section corrects that! And it corrects it with gusto, because I’ve enabled easy reading in .cbz format, as well as a few other formats, too.

In conjunction with the Internet Archive, I’ve uploaded my comics to their site. One of the really lovely things about doing so is that it allows for automatic converting into various additional formats. PDF is the big one; creating PDFs on my end can be a smidgen fussy. While I’d like to present more options in that format directly created by me, the reality is that it’s fussy enough to be an obstacle to doing so (as the saying goes, there’s only so much time in the day). If you really like PDF, then the Internet Archive has you covered. Personally, I prefer .cbz, but there is definitely not a right answer for these “format wars.” Just the right answer for you, and that’s what the Internet Archive provides in spades.

Right now three of my collections¹ have been uploaded and are ready to go. You can go to the “Pirate Von” subsection and find all the links, or just visit the Internet Archive (right here) and download directly in the format you choose. The Internet Archive also provides torrenting options, so there are not only multiple format options but also multiple download options, too.

What prompted this move? Well, a number of things. First and foremost, Amazon’s decision to absolutely destroy ComiXology was a big one. I won’t bore you with the details, but suffice to say that while ComiXology was never particularly indy-friendly (in my not so humble opinion), incorporating (engulfing?!) ComiXology into the Kindle platform made independent comics basically disappear. In my own experience, even trying to search for my own comics on Amazon was an exercise in futility; you had to have the exact title as well as the exact name of the indy creator(s) to really turn anything up. I gave it the old college try, but enough was enough. I’ve now discontinued sales on all of my titles that I had “over there.” You can now have them for free. And for those who did spend some hard earned money on my work, then you still have them. My decision to discontinue those titles on Amazon does not in any way, shape, or form effect those purchases. And hell, you can even download those free versions for even more reading options, too.

What about WOLF’S HEAD? Well, having just finished the script for issue 19 (!), my plan is to start rolling the series over to the “Pirate Von” section, too. And discontinuing them on Amazon, as I discussed above. That process will be starting in the near future, so watch the “Pirate Von” section for that roll-out. And when they become available for free, I’ll be discontinuing them over on Amazon, too.

2024 Update: This has now happened! WOLF’S HEAD is rolling out!

Are there any drawbacks to losing Amazon? Well, the only one is the panel-by-panel view. However, that’s a small loss. Why? First, because creating the panel-by-panel version — something that ComiXology used to do for free, I might add — added far more work for me. Uncompensated work, I might add. And it was pretty fussy work, with very little ability to get any feedback from Amazon directly about any potential questions or even resolutions to pesky problems. The latter point was particularly annoying. I uploaded the last issue of WOLF’S HEAD, issue 18, in October. Someone complained about some issue with the panel-by-panel view and I received an automatic email from Amazon detailing that. I responded, made some tweaks, and waited to hear back from them. I have been waiting to hear back ever since! What… the… hell?! Three months just to determine if the problems have been resolved to their satisfaction? Screw that.

And honestly, you don’t need the panel-by-panel view. Why? Because there are free apps that will do it for you. For example, Fabio Bezzi’s Comic Trim app creates the panel-by-panel view automatically. I bought his app and I find that it works extremely well. It is ideal for reading comics on a cell phone, webtoon-style.

Lastly, for those of you who worry that giving away my comics hurts me, by eliminating a method of financial support, don’t. First, print copies of my work are out there and easy to find. Yup, even on Amazon. Alternatively, if you want to toss a few dollars my way, you can easily use PayPal to do that (I’m at PayPal.Me/vonallan).

And while folks buying my work means a great deal to me, sharing the love is always important. If you like my work, then sharing my comics has just become so much easier. Just download them and send them to whoever you’d like. Or pass them the “Pirate Von” link (https://www.vonallan.com/p/pirate-von.html) and they can download my comics in whatever format they want to. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

So that’s that. Free comics, no restrictions. Period. Anywhere in the world. Download ‘em, read ‘em, share ‘em.

If anything, I have one regret: I should have done this a long time ago.

Other Links

• Overview of my Comics: http://www.vonallan.com/p/comics.html

• Wolf’s Head (My Ongoing Comic Book Series): https://wolfs-head.vonallan.com/

• Von Allan Studio Shop Page: http://www.vonallan.com/p/von-allan-studio-shop.html

• RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Von_Allan_Homepage

• Mailing List Sign-Up: https://vonallan.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f6d06612e90503db886a31a24&id=7642c19478

1 These include WIZARDS FOR HIRE — CHEAP!, STORIES! 2015 TO 2019, and SHEBA THE GREAT!

What? Free Comics by Von Allan? Yes!

UPDATE! While the Amazon deal described below has expired, I have decided to start making my comics freely available to all. Please visit https://www.vonallan.com/p/pirate-von.html for more information and download links!

For a limited time, eight of my comics formatted for Amazon’s Kindle are available for free! These are free anywhere in the world (well, at least those places that have access to Kindle). If you have been on the fence of trying my comics, this is a great way to give them a try. And, if you know people who might like my comics but have never tried them, please pass this along. Sharing is caring and all that and, of course, one can’t beat free.

The titles in question are as follows:

WIZARDS FOR HIRE — CHEAP!

STORIES! 2015 TO 2019

And the first six issues of my ongoing series WOLF’S HEAD. Oh, and please do not forget this: since the first six issues are available for free, buying the entire series in digital format (17 issues!) is now about $12.00 US cheaper than normal. In addition to that, these first six issues also make up the first collected hardcover volume, so if you’d like to try the series out but felt that the hardcover was too pricey, this is a great to “dip a toe in the water.”

I’ll put the links to both Amazon.com and Amazon.ca below. For those of you visiting from other parts of the world, please note that all you need to do is replace the “dot com” or “dot ca” with your own regional domain and you’ll be taken to that Amazon site. For example, if you are in Spain and use Amazon.es, all you need to do is replace the “dot com” part of the link (for example, my author page at https://www.amazon.com/Von-Allan/e/B002BM77EM/) with “dot es” (https://www.amazon.es/Von-Allan/e/B002BM77EM/). And voila! There’s my author page for Amazon Spain!

With that out of the way, here we go!

Amazon.com

WIZARDS FOR HIRE — CHEAP! — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089QXBYY9

STORIES! 2015 TO 2019 — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089QX5LJC

WOLF’S HEAD Issue 1 — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089V1DVY7

WOLF’S HEAD Issue 2 — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089V7356R

WOLF’S HEAD Issue 3 — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089VJYMT2

WOLF’S HEAD Issue 4 — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089X8Q7WN

WOLF’S HEAD Issue 5 — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089XFBPFL

WOLF’S HEAD Issue 6 — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089XSTJKC

WOLF’S HEAD Entire Series (Issues 1 through 17, with issues 1 through 6 free) — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MTGCS49

Amazon.ca (Canada)

WIZARDS FOR HIRE — CHEAP! — https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B089QXBYY9

STORIES! 2015 TO 2019 — https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B089QX5LJC

WOLF’S HEAD Issue 1 — https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B089V1DVY7

WOLF’S HEAD Issue 2 — https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B089V7356R

WOLF’S HEAD Issue 3 — https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B089VJYMT2

WOLF’S HEAD Issue 4 — https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B089X8Q7WN

WOLF’S HEAD Issue 5 — https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B089XFBPFL

WOLF’S HEAD Issue 6 — https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B089XSTJKC

WOLF’S HEAD Entire Series (Issues 1 through 17, with issues 1 through 6 free) — https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08MTGCS49

Teaser Images

Here are some teaser images for all eight comics!

Other Links

• Overview of my Comics: http://www.vonallan.com/p/comics.html

• Wolf’s Head (My Ongoing Comic Book Series): https://wolfs-head.vonallan.com/

• Von Allan Studio Shop Page: http://www.vonallan.com/p/von-allan-studio-shop.html

• RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Von_Allan_Homepage

• Mailing List Sign-Up: https://vonallan.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f6d06612e90503db886a31a24&id=7642c19478

Love, Laughter, and Loss Wraparound Cover

I've been meaning to post this for a little while. While the front cover of my latest hardcover LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS: A COMICS COLLECTION is readily "discoverable" online (and, of course, on this very website), the wraparound cover isn't. Let's remedy that!

I really like how this one turned out! And it looks great as a physical copy, too! For more photos of the actual graphic novel as well as links to all of the stories contained in this volume, please visit https://www.vonallan.com/2021/05/Love-Laughter-Loss-Comics-Collection-by-Von-Allan.html

Oh, and I should add that Frank Plowright over at The Slings and Arrows Graphic Novel Guide did a fantastic review of the graphic novel. It's up at https://theslingsandarrows.com/love-laughter-and-loss-a-comic-collection/

Love, Laughter, and Loss—A Comics Collection now available in Hardcover

This has been a long-time coming, but I’m very pleased to announce the publication of my latest comics collection! And, for the first time, this is a premium hardcover! Titled LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS: A COMICS COLLECTION, this edition features nine short stories in full colour. The printing and colour fidelity are top-notch; in fact, I don’t think my work has ever looked this beautiful.

These stories have appeared in print before, mainly in two separate periodical collections that are now out of print. The first periodical was titled WIZARDS FOR HIRE — CHEAP! while the second periodical was titled STORIES! 2015 TO 2019. While I was very happy to see these two editions published, keeping saddle-stitched editions in print was, frankly, a pain. Publishing LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS is a much better way of keeping them in print. On top of it, many of these stories were recoloured for this new hardcover. And that means a number of these stories have never looked this good before. Am I happy with it? Oh yes!

All of these stories have also been released on this very website in webcomic form. In other words, there’s no need at all to guess on what’s included in the collection. All of these stories can be found at https://www.vonallan.com/p/comics.html — and you can navigate from there to find each individual story. The stories included in this hardcover collection are as follows (with links to make direct navigation even easier):

• The Cowardly Clerics of Rigel V;
  
  
• Total Party Kill;
  
  
• The Planet With No Beer;
  
  
• The Two Magic-Users;
  
  
• The Street;
  
  
• Bubbles!;
  
  
• Bushido Bob;
  
  
• When I Find You Again, It Will Be In Mountains…, and;
  
  
• I Was Afraid For My Life…
  

I just want to reiterate how pleased I am with this edition. I was actually pretty nervous about it; I’ve never printed a hardcover before and there were a few logistical issues that I ran into that slowed production as I took my time ensuring the best quality control possible. I was holding my breath when the physical proof copy arrived and I was pretty nervous when I “unboxed” it. My fears were misplaced; everything turned out beautifully.

If you love comics, especially independent/small press comics, I think you’ll fall in love with this edition. I know I have — and that’s saying something!

Links to Purchase

LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS: A COMICS COLLECTION is still “propagating” out there, but here are some initial purchasing links that I know of for sure. More will be added as they appear.

• Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1989885160;
  
  
• Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1989885160;
  
  
• Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1989885160;
  
  
• Amazon.de: https://www.amazon.de/dp/1989885160;
  
  
• Amazon.fr: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/1989885160;
  
  
• Barnes & Noble: https://bit.ly/3fkS3Ca;
  
  
• IndieBound: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781989885161
  
  
• Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/books/love-laughter-and-loss-a-comics-collection/9781989885161
   
• Bookfinder: https://bit.ly/2Rn9nhT.

Photos of the Graphic Novel!

Les lâches clercs de Rigel V

Ce qui suit est une expérience. Je suis un écrivain et un artiste de langue anglaise, ce qui m'irrite au plus haut point, d'autant plus que beaucoup de membres de ma famille sont originaires de la province canadienne du Québec et parlent couramment le français et l'anglais. Malheureusement, je suis unilingue anglais. Ce qui suit est une tentative de traduction d'une de mes bandes dessinées en français. Comme je ne parle pas français, j'ai dû utiliser des outils en ligne pour m'aider (principalement deepl.com et bonpatron.com). J'espère que la traduction est satisfaisante, mais n'hésitez pas à me faire savoir si je me suis trompé.

Maintenant que tout cela est réglé, c'est parti !

ComiXology Release - "Wizards for Hire - Cheap!"

I'm very pleased to announce that WIZARDS FOR HIRE - CHEAP! is now available on Kindle using the following link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089QXBYY9/

One of the things I really love about the Kindle is their "panel by panel" guided view. It makes reading comics on a small device (such as a cell phone or a small tablet) really easy and intuitive - and fun!

For those on the fence, please don't forget that you can read all of the stories in WIZARDS FOR HIRE - CHEAP! for free right here on this website, in webcomic format. The links are as follows:

"The Cowardly Clerics of Rigel V" - https://www.vonallan.com/2017/08/short-story-cowardly-clerics-of-rigel-v.html

"Total Party Kill!" - https://www.vonallan.com/2017/08/short-story-total-party-kill.html

"The Planet With No Beer" - https://www.vonallan.com/2017/08/short-story-planet-with-no-beer.html

For the Kindle collection, I also included the bonus short story "The Two Magic-Users" which can be read at https://www.vonallan.com/2019/04/the-two-magic-users.html

All in all I think this is a great package of short stories at a very affordable price! For those looking for a print copy, there is bad news (boo!) and good news (yay!). First, the bad news: the original print edition comic of WIZARDS FOR HIRE - CHEAP! is out of print, though you can still find copies in a few places. Now, the good news: all of these stories plus a number of others are now in a beautiful deluxe hardcover edition titled LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS: A COMICS COLLECTION. More information about this hardcover can be found here or by visiting the studio's shop page. I'm really pleased with this version and a hardcover edition ensures that these stories will be widely available for quite some time!

Short Story - The Street

UPDATE! While you can always read the short story below, I have decided to start making my comics freely available to all for easier digital reading. Please visit https://www.vonallan.com/p/pirate-von.html for more information and download links!

I was recently going through some older stories and came across this one from back around 2015. While I would approach a few things differently now (both in terms of writing and art), it dawned on me that I never coloured it. And since I had a bit of a spare time, I decided to do so!

With that out of the way, here we go!

This story first saw print in the comic book titled STORIES! 2015 TO 2019 back in 2019. Unfortunately, the print edition is out of print (though you might be able to find a copy using Bookfinder). But! This story — as well as a boatload of others — were collected into a beautiful hardcover edition titled LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS: A COMICS COLLECTION. More information about that edition can be found right here.

In addition, there is also a digital comic book version of STORIES! 2015 TO 2019 on Kindle that can be read anywhere in the world. That edition is available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089QX5LJC.

Other Links

• Overview of my Comics: http://www.vonallan.com/p/comics.html

• Wolf’s Head (My Ongoing Comic Book Series): https://wolfs-head.vonallan.com/

• Von Allan Studio Shop Page: http://www.vonallan.com/p/von-allan-studio-shop.html

• RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Von_Allan_Homepage

• Mailing List Sign-Up: https://vonallan.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f6d06612e90503db886a31a24&id=7642c19478

Short Story - The Two Magic-Users

UPDATE! While you can always read the short story below, I have decided to start making my comics freely available to all for easier digital reading. Please visit https://www.vonallan.com/p/pirate-von.html for more information and download links!

This was a fun little story to do. The main idea behind it was a simple one: there have been a number of different "retro-clone" versions of the old B/X ("Basic/Expert") style of dungeon crawling since the publication of the Open Games License. I thought it would be interesting to take some of those differences and contrast them in a story. Specifically, I wanted to contrast the magic-user class presented in LABYRINTH LORD with the one presented in Tom Moldvay's BASIC DUNGEONS & DRAGONS and David Cook and Stephen R. Marsh's EXPERT DUNGEONS & DRAGONS.

It was originally supposed to run as a black and white story in the second issue of UNDERGROUND COMICS, but sadly that project seems to have fallen apart. However! It has seen print as a back-up feature in the 3rd issue of my own ongoing series WOLF'S HEAD.

I also subtly linked the story to the world of Bill and Butch, too!

This story — as well as a boatload of others — were collected into a beautiful hardcover edition titled LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS: A COMICS COLLECTION. More information about that edition can be found right here.

In addition, there is also a digital comic book titled WIZARDS FOR HIRE — CHEAP! on Kindle that can be read anywhere in the world. And it contains this story! This is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089QXBYY9.

Other Links

• Overview of my Comics: http://www.vonallan.com/p/comics.html

• Wolf’s Head (My Ongoing Comic Book Series): https://wolfs-head.vonallan.com/

• Von Allan Studio Shop Page: http://www.vonallan.com/p/von-allan-studio-shop.html

• RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Von_Allan_Homepage

• Mailing List Sign-Up: https://vonallan.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f6d06612e90503db886a31a24&id=7642c19478