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Showing posts with label wolf's head. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wolf's head. Show all posts

Wolf's Head Issue 15 on Kindle


Teaser image for Wolf's Head issue 15 on Kindle
First, the elevator pitch: “Lauren Greene has left Alaska in an old VW Bus, headed for Detroit with her dog Sankó and the young artificial intelligence they’ve befriended. Hoping that her return to Michigan will finally secure the AI’s safety, Lauren is shocked to discover that she’s being tailed. Mustering up her courage, Lauren challenges the ‘tailers,’ only to uncover a far greater danger to both her and the AI.”

This issue can be found at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09GHFZTB8; as always, if you’re living somewhere aside from the United States, simply change the domain to reflect where you live. For example, I’m in Canada, so I just need to replace the “dot com” with “dot ca”; in other words, the link becomes https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09GHFZTB8! Easy!

I truly love issues like this. Why? Well, last issue resolved a lot of the action and intrigue that Lauren Greene was experiencing in the mysterious town called Flat City in Alaska. This issue picks up some time later and spins the story in a different — and hopefully fun! — direction. Not out of the blue or out of character or anything like that, but taking the logic of the previous issues and continuing to build both the world and the characters. That’s something I find incredibly rewarding… and damn exciting, too!

My feeling is that if I’m excited, that will be something that the reader will pick up on, too. I hope so, anyway! Doing the research on this issue was also a great deal of fun; while I know a number of people from the north, I have never been to Alaska myself. To do it properly takes some research and adds, I think, a certain “verisimilitude” to the story. I actually learned a few things, which is part of the fun of doing research.

One of the inspirations of this issue is the just unbelievable artwork of Hasui Kawase (川瀬 巴水, born May 18, 1883 and died November 7, 1957). If you’re not familiar with him, Wikimedia Commons has a decent collection of his artwork online. Take a peek and I think that you, too, will be blown away. See if you can spot his influence in this issue of WOLF’S HEAD — it shouldn’t be hard!

Wolf's Head Issue 14 on Kindle


Teaser image for Wolf's Head issue 14 on Kindle
Teaser image for the third story arc of Wolf's Head on Kindle
This is a big one! With this issue, we close the book on the third story arc of WOLF’S HEAD. That actually kinda blows my mind; when I was initially brainstorming the series, I had no idea it would ever get this far. Nor did I have any of this fully planned out. One of the wonders of episodic storytelling is just this: seeing where and how the story takes you. And often being delighted in the unexpected directions it goes!

This issue also features some special guest stars! Chuck Freight (of course!), but also Maggie Vraic, Fang Ting Him, and the effusive Foolbert Bong! What?! YES! I had a blast writing and drawing them and I dearly hope you enjoy getting to know them, too!

This issue also marks the end of the third story arc in WOLF’S HEAD, which is pretty remarkable from where I sit. It is amazing to think back to that very first issue and compare where Lauren, Sankō, and the AI are now to where they were back then. It is one of the things I love the most about comics; that notion of real change, of issues building on what came before, and leading into new directions. I won’t lie; it’s a lot of work and often very challenging to do, but it is truly rewarding. I hope feel the same way, too!

As always, here’s the pitch: “During an attempt to rescue a group of people who disappeared into an abandoned gold mine, Lauren Greene broke her arm… and still couldn’t find them at all. Lauren is now faced with pain, bills, and the pesky fact that the people she was looking for are still lost. If there’s any hope of finding them, Lauren has to learn to ask for help. But trusting others is the one thing that is not easy for her. With time running out, will Lauren enter the mine alone? Or can she get over her issues, find a team to go back into the mine, and face danger… together?”

And, of course, here are the usual links:

And don’t forget that the series page can be found at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MTGCS49; and you can just change the “dot com” part of the url with your specific top-level domain. In Germany, changing the “dot com” to “dot de” means that the series can be found at https://www.amazon.de/dp/B08MTGCS49. See? Easy!

Lastly, issues 11 through 14 of WOLF’S HEAD form the third story arc of the series! Loads of great characters, tons of real change, boatloads of drama, a great deal of fun… plus, as always, a little bit of heartache, too. If you love the series and know someone who likes great comics, please consider sharing that love along!

Learning By Failing - Colour Theory and Comics


I made a mistake.



Definitely. A mistake. And it wasn’t just a small mistake, either. It was a pretty big mistake and one that took some doing to correct. Mistakes are like that sometimes. While one can learn and grow from making them, it can still be a frustrating and discouraging process to fix them.



See? That’s easy enough to write, but it’s surprisingly hard to explain. Harder still is the fact that I’ve actually made a lot of mistakes. Not the kinds of mistakes that hurt anyone (well, except perhaps myself), but certainly the kinds of mistakes that can be hard to recover from.



In the case of ongoing comic book series WOLF’S HEAD, my main mistake was in misunderstanding a key point about colour and colour theory. Since I didn’t realize I had made a mistake, it ramified; the same mistake wound up being repeated throughout the first fourteen issues (!) of the periodical version of WOLF’S HEAD. Not a single issue or two, but throughout all of those issues.  



Yeah. Can you imagine my frustration? 



So what exactly was the nature of my mistake? Well, it’s tricky to explain, but I’ll give it my best shot. Throughout the first fourteen issues of WOLF’S HEAD, I had used a “cell-shaded” approach to colouring. The idea was to use simple shadows to add nuance to the colouring process. “Simple” being the operative word. I wanted WOLF’S HEAD to have fairly simple colouring. Why? Well, I love black and white inks. I really do, and I busted my ass to become a strong enough inker that my work would look nice and crisp in pure black and white. I prefer colours to support the inking and not “fight it.” I don’t want colours that fight — maybe a better word might be “obstruct” — my inks. To do that and do it effectively meant that I had to do quite a bit of research to fully understand colour as it applies to comics. And I had to build a palette that would work within that key restriction. 



Now, to continue to explain this requires a quick side-step into printing technology. I’ll keep this as simple as I can, especially because chatting about printing technology tends to make an audience’s eyes glaze over. And I’m no exception to that! So, as quickly as I can, here goes: full-colour printing typically uses what are called CMYK inks, used in some colour printing. That’s Cyan (“C”), Magenta (“M”), Yellow (“Y”), and Black (“K”). Theoretically, each of those four colours can have a maximum concentration of 100%.

Example of CMYK Colour by Von Allan

Take Cyan, for example. You can have a very “soft” colour made with only 10% Cyan. You can also have a very “strong” colour made with 100% Cyan. The same is true for all four of the colours that make up the CMYK colour model. All four of these colours (the “CMYK”) can be mixed together, up to a maximum of 100% each. That obviously means that the maximum amount of ink that could be used through this mixing process is, you guessed it, 400% (the maximum of 100% for each of the “CMYK” colours equals 400%).

Here’s the key caveat: while that is true within certain printing applications and even digitally (inside a graphics program like Adobe Photoshop), in reality it very much depends on what colours and in what percentages the actual physical printer is capable of printing. In my case, I was restricted to a total ink mix of 240%. Not 400%. 240%. I can use any colour percentages I want, just as long as the total colour combination does not exceed 240%.



As a result, this means I can’t have a colour mix of, for example, 75% C + 75% M + 100% Y. Why? Because the total ink required to use that colour mix adds up to 250%. And 250% is 10% over my maximum restriction of 240%.



Well, what happens if I use more than 240%? Simple. The printer will have to adjust any colour found to be over 240%, bringing that colour mix back to being within 240%. Colours out of the printable range are called “out of gamut” colours. The trick with these “out of gamut” colours is that I can’t control the transition back to within 240%. It’s often made automatically by software used by the printer. In the rare cases it’s not, then often the print-ready file (the file that the printer will actually use to print the book) will be rejected. Either way, “out of gamut” colours are to be avoided.



As a result, I had to build my colour palette with that 240% restriction in mind. And honestly, it’s not too much of a restriction. I’ve always preferred using so-called “restricted” colour palettes, mainly because I don’t need an endless amount of colour. I really don’t. I just need to have enough variety of colour to enhance my storytelling. At the end of the day, that’s my goal: stronger storytelling. Colouring is simply one of the “tools in the toolbox” that allows me to do just that. Building a palette from scratch allows me to keep my ink limit of 240% and avoid any and all “out of gamut” colours.

So, with all of that said, what was the problem? Well, the clue is in the colour mix. Remember that 240% limit? My black lineart (the actual black and white inked art) is built out of what are known as “Rich Blacks.” All that means is that rather than build the black lineart out of exclusively 100% K (so-called “Flat Black”), the black lineart is actually built out of a mix of colours. While there is no hard and fast rule (well, save for that 240% maximum), I happen to use the following colour combination: 60% “C”, 40% “M”, 40% “Y”, and 100% Black “K.”

That colour mix creates a very nice “Rich Black” that is really quite lovely.

Example of 100% Flat Black Colour by Von Allan

Example of 240% Rich Black Colour by Von Allan

Ready for my mistake? Recall that I said I used “cell-shading” to build up simple shades and shadows on both characters and backgrounds. Well, some of those shades came very close to that “Rich Black.” I might use a shadow of 90% “C,” 73% “M,” and 73% “Y.” That gives a final ink mix of 236%, only 4% off from my 240% total ink limit and thus my 240% “Rich Black.”



Uh-oh.



Why “uh-oh?” By bringing some shades and shadows that close to the value of my actual lineart, these shades and shadows risked obscuring my lineart. As a result, in scenes that used these very dark colours (also known as “low key” colours), they caused my lineart to almost disappear. That crisp lineart that I wanted wouldn’t look so crisp. In fact, it tended to almost “blend” with the colour.



Oh no!

Inking and colour mix by Von Allan

Worse, I didn’t realize it right away. I never even thought about it. Eventually, I had begun to realize the problem around issue 11 of the periodical series, but I couldn’t quite frame the problem in my head. I was unsatisfied with how my colours looked, but I couldn’t explain why. I also wasn’t sure what to do about it. I was nervous about making a significant colour change while the series was ongoing, so I played for time — continuing to create and distribute new issues of WOLF’S HEAD — while I researched what had happened and tried to figure out exactly how to fix it.



The answer wasn’t easy to come by and I actually came across it by accident. In fact, it was two different experiences that led to the eventual solution.



The first was while I was doing some research on bande dessinée, that wonderful phrase for French-language comics. Specifically, I was reading Ann Miller’s READING BANDE DESSINÉE, where she makes the following point:



“By now, the crude drawing style of the early albums had given way to the elegance of the ligne claire, or ‘clear line’, the graphic style which eschews shading, gradation of colours, and hatching in favour of clear outlines, flat colours, and geometrical precision. It also implies narrative legibility. Hergé defines it as follows: ‘You try to eliminate everything that is graphically incidental, to stylize as much as possible […] in fact, the ligne claire isn’t just a matter of drawing, it also refers to the script and the narrative technique’ (Peeters 1990: 204). Bruno Lecigne has argued that the ideological efficacy of the ligne claire lies not in what is chosen for depiction, but in the idea that the world is legible (Lecigne 1983: 40).” (Miller, Ann, READING BANDE DESSINÉE (Bristol: Intellect Books, 2007) 18).


You would be forgiven if you’re thinking that it was the lack of shading that stood out to me. It wasn’t! Rather, it was the notion of ‘narrative legibility’ and the corresponding idea that the ‘world is legible’ that caught my imagination. Why did that excite me? Because it fit perfectly with what I’ve long been trying to do with my own writing! I strongly believe that readers shouldn’t have to “decode” or otherwise deconstruct the story in front of them. It’s not their job to decipher the “grammar” of comics. That’s my job and I need to do it in the clearest and most concise way possible. No reader left behind.



More could be written on this subject — quite a bit more — but, for now, I want to focus on how Miller’s words played through my mind. I wasn’t as swayed by the lack of hatching or the use of flat colour and whatnot, mainly because I have seen examples of ligne claire that doesn’t do this. As one small example, the cover of the English edition of Hergé’s DESTINATION MOON immediately comes to mine.

In fact, the notion that the philosophy of ligne claire doesn’t only apply to lineart was also a shock to me. What I realized is that ligne claire preserves the integrity of the lineart by ensuring that strong colour (i.e.: low key colour) is never so strong to challenge the lineart. To bring it back to the language of colour percentages, it simply meant that none of my “darkest” colours could ever have an ink mix that was too close to 240%! That 236% I mentioned a few paragraphs ago? That was right out, as was any other colour that came too close to 240%. Even 210% might be a problem.



I quickly came to realize that this posed a significant challenge. Why? Well, the main protagonist of WOLF’S HEAD is Lauren Greene, along with various supporting characters (like her mom Patty). Since both Lauren and Patty are black, the colour combination I typically used for their skin tones was fairly strong. Lauren, for example, is based on a default mix of 31% “C,” 60% “M,” and 60% “Y.” While that’s only a total of 151%, well-within my 240% ink limit, that was also unshaded. When I added shades or shadows to Lauren’s skin tones, that typically was a mix of 55% “C,” 85% “M,” and 85% “Y.” That’s a total of 225% and thus very close to my 240% maximum. In other words, those shades and shadows were far too close to my “Rich Blacks” lineart. Far too close. 



When I reviewed the original print collections of WOLF’S HEAD, I could see the problem — now that I was finally aware of it!



What to do?



Thinking on the problem and trying to brainstorm solutions eventually led me to the second part of the solution. As with most artists, I look at the printed works of others, mainly to keep myself apprised of what’s going on — broadly — with the medium. I found a reference to an American comic book series that I had missed when it was first serialized. This was the comic titled CONVERGENCE, published by DC Comics in 2015. In particular, I was looking at one of the spin-off titles, specifically CONVERGENCE: SHAZAM, with art by Evan “Doc” Shaner and colours by Jordie Bellaire. It was Bellaire’s colours, over the wonderfully “open” lineart by Shaner, that really stopped me. Bellaire’s colours were beautiful; and better, from my point of view, they were missing much of the “special effects” that I find tends to so often overwhelm the lineart in corporate comics. Also absent, however, was the cell-shaded approach to shades and shadows that I had been using in my own work. In addition, Bellaire used a beautiful “texture” effect to add a bit more nuance to her colours.



In fact, this latter point (the “texture”) led me to another thought that I wasn’t expecting. So many reprint collections of comics — those from the Golden Age right up to the beginning of the so-called “Modern Age” — tended to print the new collections on better quality paper. Gone were the old newsprint days! For those who wanted their collections on higher quality and/or archival paper, these reprints were just what the doctor ordered.



However… 



These reprints were often also recoloured, sometimes using the original colourists as a base-line and sometimes creating brand new colours, to facilitate reprinting these old titles for the new digital colouring age. Newsprint, despite its restrictions, gave older printed titles a “grain” or a “texture” that worked with the colour printing technology of the time. Taken together, the colours and the newsprint would often, I’d argue, create a synthesis that was stronger than the sum of its parts. With the modern recoloured reprints, often on glossy paper, that “grain” or “texture” was eliminated. The glossy paper simply doesn’t have it. The resulting reprint colours, even when they are close to the originals, lacked a certain something. It’s hard to put into words exactly what that absence is, but part of it was reprinted colour combined with glossy paper was too bright and often too garish.



It turns out that stripping out one part of the technology from that era (in this case, the newsprint paper) wound up hurting the colours. At least that’s my conclusion and argument.



When I saw Bellaire’s colours on CONVERGENCE: SHAZAM, I realized that she had resolved this “grain” or “texture” problem. Her colours, both on screen and in the printed comics, were nuanced and beautiful. And they didn’t suffer for being printed on relatively glossy paper, because the very texture she used “insulated” her colours from the excessive effect of the glossy paper.

Colour and Colour Texture Comparison by Von Allan

I also realized that Bellaire had — probably intentionally — resolved my cell-shaded issues. How so? Bellaire basically didn’t worry about them as she coloured over Shaner’s lineart. It sounds a little silly, I think, but I realized that I didn’t have to worry about them, either. That realization was a lifeline, because it meant that I now had a new method of approaching my own colouring. I could stop worrying about cell-shading at all. I could emphasize texture as well as colour and work within the ligne claire philosophy of colour to ensure that my lineart remained as clear and clean as possible, even if I continued to use hatching and other inking effects then many “pure” ligne claire practitioners prefer not to use.



With these new “tools,” I set about to test them with my own artwork and style. It was a relatively slow process, partially because I was still working on new issues of WOLF’S HEAD throughout this period, but also because the only way to test it was to recolour actual artwork that I’ve done to see the result. Well, it was slightly trickier than that because I also had to see how a printer would actually handle this new colouring process. I went back to some older short stories that I had written and illustrated back in 2015 and 2016 and recoloured them with this new approach. Once they were complete, I was able to publish the stories in a new publication titled STORIES! 2015 TO 2019, a short 36-page collection that clearly showed that the new process worked. And worked very well.



The next step was to recolour some short stories that I was quite fond of, but that were coloured using my now “old” cell-shaded style. These stories starred two cantankerous wizards — a human and a dog — and their adventures were originally published in the print collection WIZARDS FOR HIRE — CHEAP! I was hesitant to do recolour them, but I know I needed to see what would happen. Test, test, and again test!

Colour comparison featuring Bill from The Cowardly Clerics of Rigel V by Von Allan

I was thrilled with the result! I don’t think any of these stories have ever looked better. Dropping the cell-shaded look was the key component of that, allowing my lineart to shine in a way that I had never experienced before. And there was nothing lost with this new colouring approach, either. I had worried that I was overlooking something; that the cell-shaded approach gave my art a certain “something” that I might not be aware of; losing it might damage my stories in ways that I might not be aware of. That proved to not be the case and was an immense relief. Further, adding the “texture” gave my colours a certain je ne sais quoi that they didn’t have before but still worked extremely well with my lineart, my inking.



In fact, these recolouring experiments has led to an upcoming collected edition containing all of these short stories in a new hardcover edition titled LOVE, LAUGHTER, AND LOSS: A COMICS COLLECTION.



With these experiments and tests successfully resolved, I set about the big challenge: recolouring all fourteen issues of WOLF’S HEAD to reflect this new colouring approach. It was a great deal of work, but as I did the work, I became happier and happier. Lineart that was previously “hidden” by my cell-shaded colours suddenly was clear and crisp, exactly as I had intended it. The “texture” didn’t obfuscate or conflict with either my lineart or my colours. And the simplified colours, inspired by ligne claire, were beautiful in their own right. In fact, most of my underlying colour remained exactly the same. The difference was primarily oriented around that pesky cell-shaded approach. Eliminating that made my colours sing. And, together with my lineart, the colours were stronger than they ever were before.



Was it easy? Nope, though probably not as hard as I expected. Did I learn as I went? You bet! Do I regret not hitting on this methodology earlier? Yeah. Yeah, I do, but as the old saying goes, “we learn by doing.” The only way I could truly know what the result would be was to test. While that testing process was slower than I might otherwise like, it was well-worth the time it took.



Here, of course, is probably the key question: am I happy with the result? Oh, absolutely I am. I really am. 



One of the most amazing things about art — here I use the word broadly, meaning both writing and visual art — is that the learning never stops. It’s part of what makes art so exciting. And yup, it’s also what makes it pretty frustrating from time to time. It’s always a battle: learning, growing, failing, and learning and growing again. There are false starts, blind alleys, and mistakes; that’s part and parcel of the entire process. We learn by doing, by trying, by failing. The challenge is to never quit. To never stop learning and to never stop growing. To be part of the world and to be open to it. Sometimes we grow by learning, sometimes we grow by failing



I’ve made a lot of mistakes; the point is to not let mistakes define me. That’s sometimes a challenge — sometimes a big challenge — but it’s also part of the fun.  



And never forget: making art, regardless of one’s skill level and experience, is a great deal of fun.

Colour comparison featuring Patty from Wolf's Head by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 13 on Kindle


Teaser image for Wolf's Head issue 13 on Kindle
This issue is slightly bitter sweet. Why? Well, on the one hand I’m extremely proud of how it turned out. It’s a terrific issue, featuring some fairly terrifying elements and (if I do say so myself) some neat storytelling twists. However, it’s also the last issue that will be collected into trade paperback format. As many of you know, the way WOLF’S HEAD was serialized in print was a bit of a problem. The idea was simple; collected two digital issues into one approximately 60-page book, give it an ISBN, and get it into bookstores (probably a stretch), online retailers like Amazon (much easier), as well as Diamond so the series would get into comic book stores. It was that last point that proved such a massive headache and I’m still not sure why. I’ve written a much longer piece that goes into some of the “ins and outs” of this situation, but suffice to say it was (and is) pretty discouraging.

However, with a negative often comes a positive. In this case, there are two. First, the digital series will certainly continue! Awesome! Secondly, I’ll be moving the series into hardcover format very shortly. The first WOLF’S HEAD hardcover will collect the first six digital issues — the first story arc — and be about 170 pages in length. Other hardcovers will follow that. This means that readers will get a beautiful hardbound graphic novel!

What about this issue? Here’s the quick pitch: “While hiding in Alaska with her rescued Artificial Intelligence and dog, Lauren Greene has been pulled into a desperate search for a group of locals who’ve disappeared into an abandoned government complex. With no help from the police — and afraid that asking anyone else for assistance would risk revealing the AI to the people hunting it — Lauren chooses to return to the mysterious complex and search alone, despite the mysteries and terror she knows await her there.”

This issue can be found at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FWD2Z8W; if you’re living somewhere aside from the United States, all you need to do is change the domain to reflect where you live. If you live in Germany, just replace the “dot com” with “dot de”; in other words, the link becomes https://www.amazon.de/dp/B09FWD2Z8W! The same idea works for the series page. On Amazon.com, it’s https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MTGCS49. In Germany, it would be https://www.amazon.de/dp/B08MTGCS49.

Making A Splash: Von Allan's Wolf's Head


One of my favourite old-school blogs is Diversions of the Groovy Kind, run by "The Groovy Agent" himself Lloyd Smith. And one of the funner things that Smith does are the "Making A Splash" series of comic book posts. For the uninitiated, these are splash pages of comics, typically by the same artist or from different artists working on the same title. Seriously, go check those out! They are awesome!

Since I now have 14 (!) opening splash pages from my ongoing comic WOLF'S HEAD, I thought it would be a great deal of fun to post my own "Making A Splash" series. Here goes!


Quick April 2021 Update: I've recently rethought my approach to colour, especially regarding how it applies to comics. As a result, new editions of WOLF'S HEAD will reflect this new approach. The pages below have been updated to reflect this, but please note that the legacy versions (both in print and digital) will contain my older "cel-shaded" approach to colour. New hardcover (!) versions of WOLF'S HEAD are planned in the not-too-distant future and these will contain the new colours. Caveat emptor and all that.

Wolf's Head Issue 1 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 2 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 3 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 4 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 5 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 6 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 7 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 8 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 9 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 10 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 11 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 12 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 13 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 14 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 15 Page 1 Written and Illustrated by Von Allan

Pencils and Inks for the cover of Wolf's Head 13


One of the things I'm not great at is showing work in progress, especially for my ongoing comics project WOLF'S HEAD. Here is a small effort to change that!

Up first is a cell phone photo of the tight pencils of the cover. In general, for interiors, I don't pencil this tightly. That's mainly because I ink my own work and I prefer to do some of the "drawing" in ink.

The pencils are followed by the inked illustration. This obviously doesn't have the cover logo and whatnot on it, but it's complete aside from that. I used to do all of my inking by hand, using a brush, but I found that the scanning process required a lot of very fussy work. Nowadays I digitally ink, in Manga Studio (now known as Clip Studio Paint), and that completely side-steps all of that pesky scanning and corrections. I do still ink "traditionally" from time to time, but I have to admit I really prefer digitally inking. Faster, cleaner, no scanning, and digital inking has the lovely advantage of "take-backsies" if I screw up. Nice!

And you'll actually notice I did screw up, so the inks also show a few corrections.

Photo of tight pencils of the cover for WOLF'S HEAD issue 13 by Von Allan

Wolf's Head Issue 6 by Von Allan

Wolf's Head in Print and Digital Formats


I just wanted to take a moment and point out that the WOLF'S HEAD mini-site (https://wolfs-head.vonallan.com/) is slowly but surely building out. While I would like to include more content, there is quite a bit there already and more is still to come. So you haven't taken a peek, please do.

I'm currently hard at work on issue 13 (about halfway through illustrating it as I type this). For those who read my previous update on the state of WOLF'S HEAD, not too much has changed. However, one thing I did want to add to it is the great community support I receive here in Vanier (for those who don't know, I live in Ottawa, Ontario and Vanier is a large neighbourhood inside it). The support from Vanier has been wonderful; not just from my neighbours, but from people in the broader community, too. Given the pandemic times we live in, it has been a key part in keeping my spirits up. That spirit or "joie de vivre" is really something to see.

In addition, I also wanted to take a moment and briefly touch on serialized storytelling. While I love the medium of comics in any form, there is something about serialization—the way story after story becomes more than the sum of its parts—that I truly love. One of the great joys I've found in WOLF'S HEAD is exactly that. And that means the story has taken me in directions I wasn't expecting. It also means that it's continued to delight and surprise me as I start writing each issue.

Eventually, WOLF'S HEAD will be collected into hardcover editions—this is something I've wanted to do right from the beginning—that will enable individual issues to be collected into a thematic unit (kinda like what a season of a TV series feels like on DVD or Blu-Ray). I've been very pleased, despite all of the difficulties I've faced, in presenting the series in a serialized format first.

The current storyline has also allowed me to explore horror and that's been something I've been wanting to do for quite some time. Andrea Subissati from RUE MORGUE did a great video that explored a definition of horror that I find pretty useful. And fun! And it's been a great deal of fun to take Lauren, the current star of WOLF'S HEAD, from an action/adventure-style series and move her into a more horror-style tale.

See? That's what I love about serialization. You can do things like that with it. You can play with tone, with theme, with style. And by exploring these things you can also push the characters into different and unexpected directions. And push and explore yourself, too. I find that incredibly exciting. There's no formula. There's no "story engine." There's just questions… and the answers help to shape and form the narrative.

That's fun! That's what good serialization can bring to the table. What happens next? Let's find out together!

Teaser featuring issues 11 and 12 of Wolf's Head on ComiXology and Amazon Kindle

Wolf's Head Issue 6 by Von Allan

The State of WOLF'S HEAD


Teaser image for Wolf's Head on KindleWhew, boy, what a tough couple of months. While there has been some joy (receiving the City of Ottawa grant and being shortlisted for the Peter Honeywell award being the best), for the most part it has been one helluva frustrating slog. I’m going to do my best to outline what the current situation is, mainly to help solidify my own thoughts on what’s gone wrong. Or, to put it another way, what hasn’t?

To put it bluntly, sales are not good. Worse, every attempt I’ve made to mitigate that has failed. What’s discouraging for me is that I clearly have no fan-base. How do I know that? Well, sales (both in print and digital) are the biggest example. Sales are extremely poor and are not getting better. In fact, they are getting progressively worse. In different circumstances, that would be enough to shut the series down. In fact, I have done exactly that in the past (specifically with my previous graphic novel series STARGAZER, ended after two volumes, and with the digital-only series METAL GODS, ended after four issues).

What makes WOLF’S HEAD different from those two? The biggest difference is that WOLF’S HEAD has never reached the Direct Market and, as a result, has been cut off from its largest potential audience: comic book fans. Mixed in with that are the aforementioned awards and grants; these have been especially important in teaching me that WOLF’S HEAD does have merit in certain (local) art circles, but there’s a “circuit break” between that and the larger comics community world-wide.

In fact, one of the biggest examples I could point to in terms of specific my role with in the comics community is the utter lack of media coverage and interest in my work. Not just with WOLF’S HEAD and not just recently; a significant disappointment to me was when the documentary film I’m in (titled I AM STILL YOUR CHILD) received no traction whatsoever with comics media. If the film had been covered, then more people might have been introduced to both me and my work. I had partially launched WOLF’S HEAD with exactly this in mind: maybe my role in the film would help galvanize interest and awareness in the series. Since that didn’t happen, WOLF’S HEAD did not receive the momentum from the film that I hoped it would.



Diamond and the Direct Market

Teaser image of Lauren Greene, the main character from Wolf's Head, on KindleTeaser image of various scenes from Wolf's Head on KindleThis has been difficult for me to place, mainly because getting a direct answer from Diamond Comic Distributors has been so difficult. For those who don’t know, Diamond is the largest distributor of comic books in North America and Great Britain and they also distribute comics and related merchandise throughout the world. Prior to 2020, they were a de facto monopoly in the world of comics; however, with DC Comics breaking from Diamond in early June 2020, the monopoly label is harder to apply. Diamond was also a de facto monopsony; though that, given DC’s departure, is harder to apply, too.

For a small press like Von Allan Studio (that’s me, folks), Diamond plays a critical role in facilitating sales of comics and graphic novels to comic book stores. Fortunately, I have an account in good standing with Diamond; in fact, STARGAZER was distributed into the Direct Market (under Item Numbers NOV101057 and AUG111259) through Diamond a decade ago. Unfortunately, my amazing sales rep departed the company and his replacement has been fairly problematic. This is key: while Diamond never outright rejected WOLF’S HEAD, they’ve never accepted the series, either. In other words, WOLF’S HEAD exists in a sort of limbo for the past few years.

That has been dismaying for a few reasons:
  1. WOLF’S HEAD is a far stronger work than STARGAZER and it remains baffling to me why the latter was accepted for distribution while the former hasn’t been.

  2. “Limbo” also means that WOLF’S HEAD could be accepted for distribution with Diamond tomorrow… or never.

  3. The specific format of the print versions of WOLF’S HEAD was a result of attempting to meet Diamond’s specifications.

    While I don’t want to stray too far into the weeds here, the basic process works like this: once Diamond has agreed to take on a title for distribution, each issue/volume has to maintain a minimum sales threshold or risk cancellation. That threshold is based on total dollars; so selling 1,000 copies of issue 1 of a $2.99 US series results in a total dollar amount of $2,990.00, but selling 600 copies of issue 1 of a $9.99 US series results in $5,994.00! But that requires a print format that justifies the higher cover price. To do just that, I went with a trade paperback trim size and approximately 60 pages of content per issue for WOLF’S HEAD. I felt that this would give the series the best chance of meeting Diamond’s benchmarks while still giving readers a terrific experience.
Now, if Diamond had formally declined distributing WOLF’S HEAD, then I would have went in a very different direction with the print version of the series. Since I was in “limbo,” however, I decided to go ahead with it, hoping that, as the series progressed, Diamond would get on board and distribute the series. Sadly, that has never happened, leaving me with a print format that I’m not particularly happy with.

I did manage to get a few Canadian stores to pick up the series. But a combination of the pandemic (see below) and bad luck have basically ended that experiment. The store that did the best with the series was Librairie Astro in Montreal. Sadly, they closed in the summer of 2018 and I lost one of my biggest advocates. Strange Adventures in Halifax was carrying the series, but has apparently stopped. I say ‘apparently’ because I’m not exactly sure what happened; I suspect the audience simply never developed for the series.

What format would I be happy with? Well, either a saddle-stitched periodical series (i.e.: ye olde 32 page comic) or, better, a beautifully produced hardcover series that collected each story arc.

As it stands, I suspect the next release of WOLF’S HEAD (issue 7) will be the last with this 60 page format.













Comics Media

Teaser image of Sanko the dog and his best friend. Both star in Wolf's Head on KindleTeaser image featuring the first six cover of Wolf's Head on KindleWithout Diamond distributing the series, gaining media attention for WOLF’S HEAD from “comics media” (for lack of a better phrase) has been problematic. Some of this is understandable; a lot of comics media supports the Direct Market and are very plugged into Diamond’s distribution cycle. WOLF’S HEAD lack of distribution with Diamond falls outside of this purview and, as a result, few media outlets have been interested in discussing the series.

What’s been frustrating to me is that WOLF’S HEAD is broadly distributed. Finding the series is not difficult for either readers or retailers, primarily because WOLF’S HEAD has world-wide distribution through Ingram. This also means that the series is easy to find at online at retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, Waterstones, and so on. However, from the point of view of “comics media,” this isn’t enough. Worse, this lack of distribution from Diamond has also disqualified WOLF’S HEAD from the Joe Shuster Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards (while I’m not positive on this score, I believe that the “Shusters” require distribution through Diamond for eligibility).

More importantly, the lack of media attention has meant that the series is pretty much unknown with the audience I need the most: comic book fans. Especially comic book fans who like independent or alternative comics (or “comix”). It is very hard to grow a series if your key demographic doesn’t know you exist.

Comics Media are also tricky to talk about because there’s a split in what and who receives coverage. More mainstream sites like Comic Book Resources or Bleeding Cool tend to focus on corporate intellectual property. This means titles from Marvel, DC, as well as licensed properties. Sites like The Comics Journal focus on more literary titles. Unfortunately, either due to the lack of distribution from Diamond or other reasons, I’m persona non grata with both. And that’s certainly not for lack of trying on my end.

The knock-on effects of all this is problematic. As a simple example, there is now a great deal of scholarship being conducted on comics with some truly fascinating insights from some remarkable scholars. Unfortunately, comics scholars aren’t, as far as I can tell, aware of my work. Or even aware of me, for that matter. A second example are librarians. Librarians have become key advocates of comics, but I’ve never managed to gain library support for WOLF’S HEAD outside of my own local Public Library. WorldCat certainly illustrates this plainly.

This is disappointing because my work has been in libraries in the past, but without awareness of the series it would be difficult for a librarian to justify the purchase of the series, especially given the times of austerity we’ve been experiencing for the past twelve years.

COVID-19

The pandemic has effected everyone. In the face of the death toll (it boggles my mind that 200,000 people have died in the United States alone and we’re not that far from 1,000,000 dead throughout the world), it’s a bit hard to think of anything else, but there have been knock-on effects for everyone, even those who haven’t directly been hit by the virus itself.

Obviously declining retail sales are a significant example. The effects are more horrifying when you think about food scarcity, layoffs, evictions, and the like. Yes, it could certainly be worse; in fact, I’d argue that one of reasons that COVID-19 has not been as horrific as, say, the 1918-19 Influenza pandemic is that there are still enough social programs by various levels of government to help prevent the situation from spiraling out control. Plus science has a far greater understanding of how pandemics spread than it did back in 1918-19. Still, the official governmental responses has been problematic (really? 200,000 dead in the US?) and we are clearly not out of the woods yet.

Since art tends to be a discretionary purchase, in the face of the global pandemic my print sales have declined. Not that sales were robust before 2020, but the pandemic has destroyed them. While book sales in general slumped when the initial lockdowns occurred, there seems to be some evidence that book sales are now stronger, at least in some markets. Unfortunately, this has not led to any sales growth for WOLF’S HEAD or any of my other backlist, though this is not surprising given what I’ve outlined above.

Digital Comics

Teaser image of Wolf's Head issue 6 on KindleTeaser image of Wolf's Head issue 17 on KindleWhat about digital sales? WOLF’S HEAD is available on both ComiXology and Kindle and released in periodical format (i.e.: approximately 30 pages) for $1.99 US each. This format has not led to strong sales. In fact, sales have been very weak. Kindle is almost a non-starter; while it doesn’t take too much work to format titles for Kindle (using the Kindle Comic Creator software), I’ve only had a handful of sales in this format. My ComiXology sales have been marginally better, but ComiXology (and Kindle, for that matter) really require reader awareness and interest when seeking out titles. What do I mean?

Well, there’s a conundrum with digital discovery that I don’t think has been solved yet. In a ‘brick and mortar’ environment, people can stumble across titles that they might not have known about simply because they are on a shelf, let alone activism from a passionate sales staff. While COVID-19 has obviously effected the ability of people to enter into retail stores of all types, this is still a key element of what makes ‘brick and mortar’ stores so compelling. Wander in, stumble across something interesting, buy it, and try it. With digital comics, it would appear that you really need to know what you’re looking for. I realize that digital does allow some degree of browsing, but (at least from my point of view and experience), this doesn’t seem to work all that well in practice.

As a result, my digital sales have been very poor. What I find interesting about this is that my 2020 experiences with Kindle and ComiXology mirror my 2014 experiences with ComiXology and my series METAL GODS. Things really haven’t changed all that much at all.

Where Things Are At

As disappointing as this has been, the good news is that the comics art grant from the City of Ottawa has helped mitigate some of the damage detailed above. In fact, if it was not for the art grant and the Peter Honeywell award shortlist, I suspect I would cancel WOLF’S HEAD immediately. As it stands, WOLF’S HEAD will continue, at least through the current story arc, and then I’ll revisit in 2021.

Self-publishing is hard. Frankly, I’ve never wanted to do it, not because I’m against self-publishing per se, but because of the immense amount of work involved in doing it. Hell, I already wear all the hats (writing, art, production, etc…). Adding “publisher” to that list is a bridge too far. I badly need a publisher. I badly need an agent, too.

With WOLF’S HEAD, it’s hard to know how things will go. My efforts to find a publisher for the series will continue, though that is one helluva slog right now (my jealousy of authors with formal publishing contracts knows no bounds!). For the short term, this means that WOLF’S HEAD will probably be turned into a webcomic.

Webcomics actually terrify me. While once-upon-a-time I did do a webcomic through Girlamatic (THE ROAD TO GOD KNOWS...), that was both a long time ago and with a group of allies. Doing it alone is scary. And WOLF’S HEAD was never designed to be a webcomic; I’m leery of how transitioning the series to that format will work in practice. At the same time, I know that a WOLF’S HEAD webcomic might be the best (only?) chance that the series has to find a real audience.

To paraphrase one of my favourite movies, “art is a cruel mistress, but she is her own reward.” Easier said then done. I don’t like writing and drawing in a vacuum. While I’ve never minded the solitary nature of the craft, my stories are meant to be read. I’ve never wanted to make ‘outsider art’ that few if anyone reads. My goal was never to ‘hermetically seal’ my work from the world at large, either.

It’s not a fun feeling to be where I’m at, struggling to find an audience and struggling to make a living at it. Solutions are difficult to find. And the loss I’ve been feeling is difficult to place. Given the state of the world (not just with COVID-19 but with the wildfires in California and Oregon, the explosion in Beirut, and so on), there’s a lot to be thankful for. There really is. Art and writing bring me a great deal of joy, not to mention the fact that I’ve grown a great deal as an artist.

I’m extremely proud of WOLF’S HEAD, despite the terrible sales and lack of awareness that it even exists. I think it’s some of the best work I’ve ever done. And it’s been a joyful experience, too.

It would just be truly awesome to be able to share that joy with readers.

Wolf's Head Issue 12 on Kindle


Teaser image for Wolf's Head issue 12 on Kindle
This issue was both a great deal of fun and one helluva challenge to write and draw. Why? Well, so far at least, WOLF’S HEAD has had a lot of action, adventure, emotion, and drama. And while there have been terrifying moments (including when Patty, Lauren’s mom, died), there hasn’t been any horror. This issue does. And that’s pretty special.

Wait, why special? Well, one of my convictions about comics — as a medium — is that any type of story can be told. This was, once upon a time, a contentious argument. There were those people in North America who felt that comics told simple stories mainly aimed at young children… and that was the end of it. Case closed. Hah! While obviously a stereotype and not a particularly sophisticated one at that, the past few decades how clearly showed that this is not the case. Comics are a medium and thus can use genre to tell any type of story.

For WOLF’S HEAD, I’ve long wanted to explore horror. And, for me, that means character-based horror. Something that terrifies Lauren, the main character in WOLF’S HEAD, as well as the reader. That is not such an easy thing to do. I debated a lot on how to do this and how to make it work. Plus a lot of research, too. Andrea Subissati over at RUE MORGUE came up with a definition that I quite like: “Horror is any art that aims to recreate an extreme feeling of repugnance and fear by usually—but not always—using elements of violence and/or the supernatural. So how does horror, as an art form, accomplish this recreation of physiological responses and what might that look like? Well, that’s going to be the hardest part to explain to an alien because really that’s the most exciting part of being a horror fan. There are so many ways to do it and content creators are finding new ways to freak us out all the time. That’s part of what makes the genre so rich.”

Did I do a good job? I hope so. As always, you’ll have to tell me!

Oh, the elevator pitch: “Faced with the disappearance of a homeless man named Billy, Lauren Greene correctly guesses that he went inside Alaska’s mysterious and abandoned Safeguard Missile Complex. While searching deep inside the Complex for Billy, Lauren stumbles across an abandoned goldmine… and is confronted by a nightmarish creature that can’t possibly exist.”

This issue can be found on:

City of Ottawa Grant Support


Cover of the City of Ottawa 2022 Grant Funding ReportIn a surprise (well, at least to me!) turn of events, I’ve received a $4,000.00 grant from the City of Ottawa’s Arts Funding Program (the PDF announcement from the City is here). The grant is in support of my ongoing comics project WOLF’S HEAD and represents a significant step in my arts career. Why significant? Well, bear with me here for a sec and I’ll try to explain.

As I’ve struggled to cobble together an arts career, there have been a number of obstacles that I’ve had to overcome. This is not unique to me, unique to Canadian comic artists, unique to visual artists, or unique to the arts in general. Despite certain stereotypes of artists (“heads in the clouds,” blah, blah, blah), it’s quite a tricky career to manage. There is not a lot of support “out there” for artists, either. Most artists I know are forced to manage their careers as best they can and there really isn’t a road map to help along the way. That’s been very true for me. While a lot of words come to mind to describe this — ‘challenging’ being a very good one — it just is what it is. And there is a certain truism to the notion that by the time acknowledgement does come (usually in the form of awards, accolades, and sales), the artist doesn’t need as much support as they once did. That’s definitely not true of me.



Let me say that again: That’s definitely not true of me.



It’s been a fight every step of the way. The first fight was simply to become competent and that might have been the toughest battle of them all. The learning curve, at least for me, has been extremely steep with a lot of false starts and dashed hopes along the way. Then, the next fight is to survive. Truth be told, that’s been tough, too. Being pretty much a fringe artist at the best of times and a true Outsider most of the time meant that building awareness for my work has been a never-ending struggle. Pragmatically speaking, surviving as an artist means generating an income. In my case specifically, that primarily means selling my comics. And that has never been easy.



Wolf's Head Book 1 cover by Von AllanAs some folks know, I really had hopes that I AM STILL YOUR CHILD, the documentary film I’m in, would help build awareness for my art. That really hasn’t happened, at least so far, and the disappointment was hard to place. That doesn’t mean I’m not proud of my role in the film. Far from it! And I still think the film is important for shedding light on parental mental illness, a taboo subject to this day.

That said, as my wife is fond of saying, the film was ‘kindling’ for my arts career and represented a milestone in its own right. While it hasn’t changed awareness of my work in the larger comics community, it has led to growing awareness in the local arts scene. I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have been a finalist for the Peter Honeywell Award without it. And I certainly wouldn’t have won a CBC Trailblazer Award without it, too.



And with today’s announcement of winning a grant from the City of Ottawa, I’m pretty confident saying that it wouldn’t have happened without the film and the other awards. One thing does lead to another. And the grant is important from another point of view; it really does give some much needed financial support for my comics endeavours. As I’ve noted, being an artist is not an easy path and every little bit of financial support helps. When a jury of my peers determined that my application was worthy of financial support, my jaw dropped. And it’s taken a bit of time for me to really get my head around it. I’m both honoured and pleased as punch to receive it. And in these pandemic times we live in, it is one helluva lift.



So yes, Von Allan Studio (that’s me, folks!) gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the City of Ottawa. Boy, do I!



City of Ottawa logo

Wolf's Head Issue 11 on Kindle


Teaser image for Wolf's Head issue 11 on Kindle

Eleven issues? Who would have ‘thunk’ it? Not me! When I was first brainstorming what would become WOLF’S HEAD, I had the first six issues roughly locked down. I had some loose ideas for what could come next, but these weren’t ‘firmed up’ plans. Of course, many of these did find their way into issues 7 through 10. That, however, was that. I had nothing written for what came after those loose plans.

Scary? A little. Exciting? You bet! That’s one of the great joys in storytelling, regardless of the medium. Letting the story take you in different, unexpected, and weird directions. There is a great deal of fun to be had in that. Not to mention some nervous moments, too. I always feel like I’m juggling raw eggs; not only might they all tumble down on top of me at any moment, but I’ll have literal (ahem… if you’ll excuse the metaphor) egg on my face, too.

I’m very pleased to say, though, that I love how this issue turned out. The first ten issues were set in Detroit, Michigan and I tried very hard to root those issues in place. This issue the story changes focus entirely to Alaska. And that means new situations, new challenges, and new characters. The reasons for the move, hinted at last issue, was something that Lauren decided to do deliberately. Will it work out for her? Time will tell. That’s fun, too! Join me, won’t you?

The quick pitch: “Lauren Greene, her dog Sankō, and the young artificial intelligence she recently befriended have left Detroit and have ventured north to Flat City, Alaska. As Lauren attempts to restart her life, she’s confronted with the frustrations of trying to make ends meet in a tough economy. At the same time, she’s forced to keep a very low profile in order to safe guard the artificial intelligence from the grasp of the people who want it back… at any cost.”

Here are the usual links!

Recent Podcast Interviews with Von Allan


I've recently been a guest on three different podcasts chatting about comics, art, COVID-19, and mental illness. In no particular order, here goes:

I was interviewed by Tim Midura and Kyle Welch on their Pages and Panels Podcast. This is a wide-ranging discussion of comics, my ongoing series WOLF'S HEAD, the situation at Diamond Comic Distributors, the documentary film I AM STILL YOUR CHILD, and on and on! I really enjoyed this one and I think you will, too. The interview can be found at https://pagesandpanels.squarespace.com/blog/2020/6/12/pages-and-panels-vol-2-23-von-allen-and-wolfs-head or downloaded directly as a MP3 right here (just right click to download).

Not to be outdone, I was also interviewed on the Out of the Basement podcast. Out of the Basement is a local podcast from here in Ottawa, but with social distancing due to COVID-19, it was handled remotely. This chat ranges from comics to D&D and was a lot of fun. This interview can be found at https://outofthebasement.ca/pod/ootb/out-of-the-basement-podcast-episode-91/ or downloaded directly as a MP3 here (again, just right click to download).

Lastly, the always lovely Kevin Midbo had me on to chat about the early stages of COVID-19 and how it was effecting folks in my neighbourhood here in Ottawa. Kevin is great and the discussion, while short, was terrific. It can be found at https://www.vancouverislandmentalhealthsociety.org/artist-and-comics-creator-von-allan-on-life-during-covid-19/ or downloaded directly as a MP3 right over here.

Wolf's Head out on Amazon's Kindle!


Hot on the heel's of yesterday's announcement that WIZARDS FOR HIRE - CHEAP! is now available on Amazon's Kindle ebook reader, comes the big news! Hey, how 'bout we let the series star share the news?

A six panel tease featuring Lauren from Wolf's Head to announce the digital release of the series on Amazon's Kindle
Yes, that's right! The first ten issues of WOLF'S HEAD are now available on Kindle! A lot of work went into ensuring the series works on that device and I think the results are pretty terrific. Like WIZARDS FOR HIRE - CHEAP!, the series can be read on larger devices like tablets, but I've also worked hard to make sure that the series fully supports a "panel to panel" view. Looks pretty sharp if I do say so myself.

And don't forget that you can learn more, a lot more, about WOLF'S HEAD by visiting the series' dedicated mini-site over at https://wolfs-head.vonallan.com/.

Wolf's Head Issue 10 on Kindle


Teaser image for Wolf's Head issue 10 on Kindle

This is a very special story! Why? Well, ten issues in, we see Lauren coming face to face with the antagonist that she’s been dealing with for the past number of issues. And this forces her to make a critical decision, one that will play out over the next few issues.

One of my goals since the series started was to deal with racism in a different way than is usually depicted in comics as well as other media. What do I mean? Well, since Frank McRossiter’s introduction way back in issue 1, I wanted him to be racist without directly saying so. In other words, it’s his deeds that make him a racist, not just his words. At the same time, I wanted it to be relatively subtle; Frank doesn’t wear a Klan outfit. He also doesn’t attend racist rallies, write racist screeds, or any of that. But he is racist and that’s influenced how he’s treated Lauren right from the get-go. In some ways he’s the most heinous antagonist that the series has seen so far and his racism played a key role in that. He’s simply unable to see Lauren as the human being she is. And this is despite the fact that she saved his life back in issue 6.

I’ll leave it to you to judge how I did. I will say that coming up the twists and turns in this issue was a great deal of fun! And I think it pays off a number of plots and character points that I had established earlier. As always, that’s part of the fun of creating comics. Establishing little threads and then paying them off later on. I think (hope!) that it rewards careful reading and works on a lot of different levels.

Elevator Pitch: “Lauren Greene, her dog Sankō, and their young Artificial Intelligence (AI) friend are on the run from a bounty killer with a contract to kill Lauren. Hiding at a friend’s place, Lauren gets a phone-call from a potential new ally named Super Bob Sanchez; he has information that will rid Lauren of her villainous pursuers once and for all, put some money in her pockets, and give her a way out of Detroit… if she can trust him. But before Lauren can sort out her next steps, she discovers that an old foe has kidnapped her best friend; he’ll trade that life for Lauren’s. If Lauren refuses, her friend dies. If she accepts, she dies. Faced with an impossible situation, Lauren must make a terrifying and heartbreaking decision before time runs out.”

Here are the usual links:


And don’t forget that the series page can be found at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MTGCS49; and you can just change the “dot com” part of the url with your specific top-level domain. In Canada, changing the “dot com” to “dot ca” means that the series can be found at https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08MTGCS49. See? Easy!

Lastly, issues 7 through 10 of WOLF’S HEAD form one terrific story arc, full of great characters, loads of change, and a lot of fun… plus, as always, a little bit of heartache, too. If you love the series and know someone who likes great comics, please consider sharing that love along!
Teaser image for the first story arc of Wolf's Head on Kindle

Wolf's Head Issue 9 on Kindle


Teaser image for Wolf's Head issue 9 on Kindle

This issue stars a bounty killer! What?! Yes! And is, in some ways, the most action issue of WOLF’S HEAD yet! Action can be tricky to do well; while it’s such a staple of super hero comics, so much of it rings pretty false to me. Why? Well, the classic stereotype goes something like this: hero is minding their own business with ye olde villain decides to act. The hero, often just wandering by, decides to intervene. And lo! A fistfight is the result.

Can this be fun? Sure. Is it fun when it happens over and over again? For me? Nope. Now, the big question is why? I can only give you answer that works for me; as always with art, how one feels about this is pretty unique and can change with both experience and time. I think the problem with the stereotype is that it makes the villain active and not the hero. Often, the hero just wants to be left alone. This is not a recipe for an engaging story, especially if the villain is of the “one-and-done” variety (i.e.: the villain makes one appearance and then disappears, typically to jail or maybe to their seeming death, only to reappear a year or so down the road).

The big problem is that pesky notion of being “active.” We want — or rather, I want — an active hero. A hero that is trying to do something, something that is clear to the reader. When that’s lacking, when the hero just wants to be left alone, there’s a problem. So, in other words, an active hero combines with an active villain, each with clear goals. And one of the stronger resolutions, not always possible in fiction, is when resolving the problem the villain presents also resolves other issues the hero is facing.

This doesn’t mean that the goals have to be external. Often the best struggles are internal to the hero. Yeah, yeah, a hero could be scrounging up money to by a car and are actively trying to solve that problem. It’s often funner — at least to me — when the hero wants something intrinsic to their character; a simple example could be a fear or phobia.

Does this always have to be the case? Of course not. Sometimes the hero really is just minding their own business, perfectly happy, when the villain appears. If that’s always the situation, however, then I’d argue there’s a problem. One of the things I work very hard on with WOLF’S HEAD is to keep Lauren active. It’s a challenge, but man oh man is it ever rewarding when it works well. I think it did here, though you’ll have to let me know what you think!

The ol’ Elevator Pitch: “With the villains who have been pursuing Lauren Greene and the Artificial Intelligence she’s befriended in the hospital after an abortive attempt to steal it, Lauren feels like she has some breathing room to figure out her next steps… but she hasn’t counted on the anger and racism from one of the villains, Frank McRossiter, who has a personal vendetta against her. Unable to kill her himself, McRossiter hires a bounty killer (!) to do the job for him. And when that bounty killer lands in town and shows up at Lauren’s apartment armed with a gun and an electronic magnetic pulse weapon to deal with the AI, things start to go very badly very quickly. Also in this issue: Can Super Bob Sanchez repair ‘Old Bess’ (his truck!) and get back on the road before police find him?”

Here are the usual links:


And don’t forget that the series page can be found at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MTGCS49; and you can just change the “dot com” part of the url with your specific top-level domain. In Canada, change the “dot com” to “dot ca” means that the series can be found at https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08MTGCS49. See? Easy!
Teaser image for Wolf's Head issue 9 on Kindle

Wolf's Head Issue 8 on Kindle


Teaser image for Wolf's Head issue 8 on Kindle

WOLF’S HEAD is the first time in the series that I’ve tried something a little bit different. This issue is a “split” book. What’s that? Well, it’s an issue with two different stories with two different main characters. In this case, Lauren Greene is the star of the first story and Super Bob Sanchez is the star of the second!

“Split” books fascinate me; back in the 1960s, Marvel Comics faced a unique situation. Due to their distribution arrangement with Independent News Co., Marvel could only distribute a certain amount of titles per month. Why? Because Independent New Co. was owned by National Periodical Publications, the company that owned DC Comics. As Stan Lee noted in an interview, Marvel’s output was “eight or 12 books a month, which was all Independent News Distributors would accept from us.” “Split” books were one solution to the problem this distribution restriction represented. By having two stars rather than one, I presume that Marvel hoped they could gain more sales. Eventually, Marvel grew so strong that they could avoid these restrictions. Characters that rubbed shoulders with one another in the “split” books now could star in their very own titles.

I have a soft spot for a lot of the “split” books, though. Primarily STRANGE TALES, but also TALES TO ASTONISH and TALES OF SUSPENSE. Part of the idea with this issue of WOLF’S HEAD was to celebrate these titles. However, I also faced a practical problem that was tricky to solve. With WOLF’S HEAD, I wear all the hats. I knew I needed to introduce Super Bob into the story, but I wanted his story to run separately to Lauren’s. Well, I could have launched a second title. Yikes! Even if I wanted to launch a second title, I simply don’t have enough time to do it. So what to do? One solution was to “cross-cut” their narratives, basically using parallel editing. While I’ve done that before, this was not my preferred solution this time. Trying to brainstorm a solution, I remembered these ol’ “split” books. And that’s the way I decided to go!

Why did I want to dedicate so much space for Super Bob, a character that Lauren hasn’t even met yet? The answer to that, he says cryptically, will become apparent next issue and even more so in issue 10! So stick around; it’s going to be a great deal of fun!

With that out of the way, here’s the ol’ Elevator Pitch: “Lauren Greene is a young Detroit woman whose life is turned upside down after her mom saves a newborn life-form, a kind of Artificial Intelligence (AI), from a secretive corporation that intended to use the powerful baby for war. When her mom dies, Lauren is left alone to figure out what to do with the new life-form… while also trying to make ends meet in her real life. Desperate for help, she has reached out to ex-scientist, Jack Dhillon, who has a very personal hatred for the AI’s creator. Lauren hopes that Dhillon will teach her to work with the AI, but can she convince him to help? This issue also introduces a new character, Super Bob Sanchez, a truck driver who is not (under any circumstance!) a hero.”

Here are the usual links:


And don’t forget that the series page can be found at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MTGCS49; and you can just change the “dot com” part of the url with your specific top-level domain. In the United Kingdom, change the “dot com” to “dot co uk” means that the series can be found at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08MTGCS49. See? Easy!
Teaser image for Wolf's Head on Kindle

Wolf's Head Issue 7 on Kindle


Teaser image for Wolf's Head issue 7 on Kindle

In some ways, this is the most important comic I’ve ever written. Wait? Does something world-shaking happen in it? Actually, no, but it still means it’s probably the most important comic I’ve written. Why? Well, to answer this requires a step back to look at WOLF’S HEAD broadly.

Previous to WOLF’S HEAD, I’ve primarily written either stand-alone graphic novels or stand-alone short stories. In other words, stories of variable length that have a definitive beginning, middle, and end. The closest I had come previous to this was my abortive series METAL GODS; while that series did give me some valuable practical experience, it only lasted four issues. And, critically, I had a lot of it mapped out in advance.

The same was true for the first six issues of WOLF’S HEAD. While I didn’t every single issue written before I started drawing issue one, I did have the overall arc in mind that I wanted to do. After that? Well, I had some loose brainstorming ideas… and not much else. Since issue six also resolved a number of storylines, the sky was the limit with issue seven. I could go in any direction. Did I want to keep the story grounded in Detroit? Or did I want to move it to some other location? With Jeremy Hamilton, the main antagonist over the first six issues, sidelined with horrific injuries, who would be the antagonist going forward? Should their even be one? And what about Lauren, the main protagonist? She had faced the death of her mom, the adoption of her mom’s dog Sankō, and the embracing of the young artificial intelligence that her mom had befriended, but where was she going to go from there?

On top of all that, WOLF’S HEAD is an ongoing series. That’s the key word: ongoing. Where do I go from the end of issue six? Figuring that out took some doing and it challenged me in some unexpected ways. That was both fun and a little scary, but I’m extremely pleased with how it turned out. Why? ‘Cuz I think it builds on what came before in logical ways. Lauren continues to grow and change; she’s not the same character as she was back in issue one. That’s exciting to me. I dearly hope it’s exciting to you, too!

Okay, so here’s the Elevator Pitch: “Lauren Greene has begun working with the young artificial intelligence (AI) she's encountered, but is having a difficult time creating a bond. The AI, similar to a child, either does not understand or simply cannot comprehend everything that Lauren is asking it to do. Frustrated, Lauren realizes that she needs help and begins seeking it out as best she can. At the same time, Lauren realizes that her friends are in danger simply for knowing her and she decides to protect them as best she can… with difficult results.”

Here are the usual links:


And don’t forget that the series page can be found at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MTGCS49; and you can just change the “dot com” part of the url with your specific top-level domain. In Germany, changing the “dot com” to “dot de” means that the series can be found at https://www.amazon.de/dp/B08MTGCS49. See? Easy!

Lastly, the first six issues of WOLF’S HEAD form one helluva story arc, full of fascinating characters, loads of change, and a great deal of fun… plus a little heartache, too. If you love the series and know someone who likes great comics, please consider sharing that love along!
Teaser image for the first story arc of Wolf's Head on Kindle

Wolf's Head by Von Allan

Link to Von Allan's Wolf's Head comic book series

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