Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Big City Otto Nominated for Joe Shuster Award

I found out this week that Big City Otto has been nominated for the Dragon Award, the Joe Shuster Award handed out every year for the best in Canadian kids' comics. I'm pretty pleased about this as the comic is in good company. You can see the full list of finalists here.


I have been a bit missing in action lately regarding my blog, but don't for a moment think that means things have stalled. Quite the opposite - I'm now inking and colouring the last 15 pages of Hometown Otto (possibly being renamed Big Top Otto). I thought you might like a snapshot of the book so far:


Oh, really, did you think you would get to see it full size?? Be patient.


And I suppose I should mention that Big City Otto now has its own Facebook Page. I'm told this is important. Honestly, I have no idea why. But here it is.


I have three "Likes" so far because I have yet to lean on my family and friends to go "Like" it. I asked my publisher why they simply couldn't be "me" on Facebook and do this sort of thing, but they said it wouldn't be authentic. I told them "authentic" is what they had - nothing. But now that is no longer true. I am now "authentically" half-heartedly engaged.


I think social media doesn't work so well for the anti-social …


Okay, I guess I should at least show what I was working on today. I really like this page - the half light effect was achieved in Photoshop by putting a 50% transparent grey/purple layer over much of the interior. It's this sort of thing that I love about colouring on the computer - doing something similar on my art board would have been almost impossible for me to puzzle out!

Page 69 of Hometown Otto (possibly to be renamed Big Top Otto).