The Path: Animated "The Paija"

So, I've got a few pages of the "animated" Path comic done and colored. I'm going to wait until I have at least 10 done before I begin posting on DrunkDuck, though. Don't want to get ahead of myself like with "Superhero B-Team, GO!".

The first story is called "The Paija", and is based on a folk tale from the Ihalmiut people of Canada. The Paija is a demon/devil of sorts, that looks like a grotesquely deformed woman. Yeah, we all see grotesque women every day...but this one only has one leg. Oh...and it's growing out of her VAGINA. Yeah, that was what hooked me, too. The Paija hunts men on winter nights and devours them...much like regular women. Just looking at her, though, kills you instantaneously (I KNOW that I read too much. No one needs to remind me.).

The story opens up with Chance and Ratatosk (The two will be the main focus of the "animated" tales, with the rest of the supporting cast showing up occassionally) hunting the Paija down.

The basic premise of The Path: Animated is that it takes place AFTER the events of The Path's current cycle. But, since I have four different endings written for the current cycle, the ending it follows may not be the one you read at the end of The Path. That way, I'm really not spoiling the ending for anyone...AND I get to do all the little side stories I wanted to work on. Everyone wins!

So, here's a peek at the first page:

No CBC! Denied!

Yeah, so The Path didn't make into the top 50 in the CBC. To be honest, I'm a little shocked and more than a little bummed about that...especially since I had my pitch all planned and it was AWESOME. I was getting calls/IMs from people who had already gotten "the call" and everyone was all, "So, I'll see you there". Yeah...I'll be one of the spectators.

That's cool, who wants to be successful? Certainly not me. This just means I have more time to work on The Path, The Path: Animated, and the crossover with Phineus: Magicial For Hire and The Errant Apprentice. That'll be a lot of fun because it's my first crossover since the "Enerjak" debacle back when I was doing "Antisocial". You can find the pages from that somewhere in my DeviantArt account. Also, Jerry Ahern of Dark Tale Comics took notice of the first few pages of Superhero B-Team, GO! and we're going to team up to do a short 10-page comic called "Still The Greatest American Hero". Which will, obviously, revolve around the cast of The Greatest American Hero...and a cyborg dinosaur. I've always wanted to draw a cyborg dinosaur. I'm rather excited about that.

Well, I'm off. Just in case you haven't started reading it yet, go check out Atlantis Paradise
by my dear (and mildly disturbing at times) friend EvilTwinPixie. This, I command!

The Path "Animated"

So, in addition to the main storyline of The Path, there are about 80-kagillion other stories that I wanted to use Chance, Kat, and the others for...but they just don't fit in the grand scheme of the story. Side stories that would just be fun to do, fun to draw, and would be easier for brand-new readers to jump on and get interested in The Path's "universe". So, since I'm working nights again and have a little more free time because of that, I've started compiling these stories into a notebook and have labelled them "The Path: Animated".


My plan is to start working on these stories as stand-alone shorts that take place in The Path universe, but outside of continuity. Different art style, a little more action, and little more random. The first one is going to be either something I've wanted to do for a while now, but haven't really had the chance: a crossover. (I'll tell you with whom once I get the final "oks" from the creators I want, but it'll be cool. Think magicians for hire and errant knight apprentices...) Or "The Cutty Black Sow", which is a fun story and would fit in with Chance's lousy luck just perfectly.





Here's a sample of what the art'll look like.

Comic Book Challenge Update

So, after floundering about whether or not I was going to enter The Path (mostly because of that whole "If you win, Platinum OWNS it" thing), I calculated the odds of me actually WINNING versus the fact that it would just be awesome to enter and have fun with it and threw caution to the win and put together my Path pitch.

I'll send it in tomorrow, so wish me luck!

The Path goes to WAR!

Ok, maybe not war, per se, but a battle, all it's own.

I've decided to enter The Path in the 2007 Comic Book Challenge. I was faltering as to whether of not I would...but two very hyper and headstrong ladies convinced me that I should.

My problem is: How the CRAP do I sum up The Path in 2 minutes without looking like a complete nutcase?

The answer: I don't. So maybe I should just incorporate that into my pitch. Also, Pix believes I should mention the fact that I grew my beard JUST for the comic. It might push me over the edge as far as the judges are concerned. Either way...it'll be fun times...assuming I get that far.

To close, here's a The Path sticker design:

Rewrites and redraws

So...I rewrote about 120 pages worth of the story for The Path recently. The more I looked at the ending and what led up to it, the more I was dissatisfied. Now it is changed, and I am much happier with how everything goes down. Plus, I realized that it was turning into more of an action comic, and that's not what it is at heart, so things needed to be changed.

The ending is bad-ass. I love it. I've only told one person, and he's not spilling. You'll have to make it all the way through to find out like the rest of the world.

I got interviewed on The Gigcast the other day. You can listen to the interview here.

Freaking Civil War took up so much of my time, updating daily, that I wound up not updating The Path so much...or, like, at all. Thankfully, with Civil War moved to a MWF schedule, I'll be back on The Path like a fat kid on a twinkie.

The Rise of Leng

So, this week I started writing the second cycle of The Path. Yeah, this whole thing's going to be a three cycle deal. The first cycle is what's going on now: The Cthulhu stuff. This'll be going on for a while yet. The second cycle will be The Path: The Rise of Leng. Whereas the current cycle is revolving around some of the more common Lovecraftian horrors (Nyarlathotep, Cthulhu, etc.) and more easily recognized European mythological and folklore references, "The Rise of Leng" will almost ENTIRELY revolve around Lovecraft's "At the Mountain of Madness" and Asian folklore and mythology(which I know little about and have begun researching like a man possessed). As the title suggests, the Plateau of Leng will play a rather large role, as will the creatures, The Old Ones, from "Mountains".

Chance, our current hero, may or may not make it to the second cycle however. I spent last week re-writing the end of the current cycle to lay the groundwork for "The Rise of Leng" and it made me wonder about Chance's survival. I may pull rank and make a decision...or I may leave it up to you, my dear readers. Kind of like when they killed of that annoying Jason Todd Robin.

Anyways, I have some last-minute stuff to do for Wizard World, and tomorrow's page to post, so I'm out of here. Hope to see some of you at Wizard World tomorrow!