A CONVERSATION WITH TIM FIELDER, CREATOR OF ‘MATTY’S ROCKET’
Taking a quick sec to raise my head up from the Cintiq. I had the pleasure of being interviewed by ROCKETGUT!
ROCKETGUT! is a space, art and culture website by Jason Davis and Porter McDonald. We covered my beginnings in the south and my journey out and back into comics culminating with Dieselfunk Studios.
Enjoy!
Greetings Dieselfunkateers! The Glyph Awards were announced last night and to our humble delight, Matty’s Rocket was awarded 3 Glyph Awards. https://ecbacc.com/2018-glyph-comics-awards-winners/
BEST COVER
BEST FEMALE CHARACTER
STORY OF THE YEAR
I must thank my wonderful Wife, Mel, who has supported me on this journey, my Brothers, and of course as always, my Parents and Kids. Additionally, I want to thank all of the amazing scholars, artists and trusted friends that helped to form what this story is about. This would not have happened if you guys didn’t make it so. As my Friend, Alex Simmons suggested; “…all good things come in threes! I’d like to say THANK YOU to The East Coast Black Age of Comics organization for this prestigious award and a nod of acknowledgement to all of the nominees and winners.
BACK TO WORK!
Greetings Dieselfunkateers! We are back with another entry of The Dieselfunk Dispatch. I needed a little advice. Then I saw Jeff Smith, Creator of Bone…
…Check out the rest HERE..
Seeking Self-Publishing Advice from Jeff Smith in This Week’s Dieselfunk Dispatch
Launching on Juneteenth. HIGH JOHN CONQUEROR
Greetings Dieselfunkateers! ANNOUNCING the newest Dieselfunk Studios Bang UP. A FREE Social Media Graphic Novel…
As stated in earlier posts, Dieselfunk Studios has been doing a from the ground up retooling of our operations. Part of running a company is about doing a constant reassessment of opportunities and reality. What does that mean? Well it means that the tried and true, Matty’s Rocket, will continue and Issue 3 will be available for purchase any day now. However, Matty is not all we’ve got in the arsenal. Next up is HIGH JOHN CONQUEROR.
HIGH JOHN CONQUEROR is a Retro-Afrofuturistic tale by TIm Fielder of Dieselfunk Studios. The concept is loosely based on the African American folk myth of John The Conqueror. Have you ever wanted to see a brother throwing down in a genre mashup like Doc Savage?! Blending the genres of Sword and Soul, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Alternative History and Steampunk/Steamfunk; High John Conqueror is a homage to the works of Charles Saunders (IMARO), Richard Corben (DEN) Robert E Howard (CONAN), Alex Simmons’ (BLACKJACK), George Lucas (STAR WARS), Will Eisner (THE SPIRIT) and many other Pulp Heroes of yesteryear.
Take a Western, Jules Verne, Star Wars and Glory, mix them together and you’ve got HIGH JOHN CONQUEROR!
Further, High John Conqueror is a Social Media Graphic Novel. This is an experiment to see if the present 3-4 Billion users of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter WILL GET INTO A FREE COMIC THAT COMES TO THEM, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. (More on that as we go along!:-)
Additionally, expect to see a more modern delivery of content via our in the works vlog, presently being constructed printing operation and of course, our soon to air Youtube program’ The Dieselfunk Show. Standby for further news and announcements!
BACK TO IT with an AXE to Grind!
Blackjack ON FIRE AND ICE
Greetings Dieselfunkateers! Alex Simmons’ BLACKJACK is back in two upcoming side by side adventures, Blackjack: Trial by Ice & Blackjack: Trial by Fire. My long collaboration, this time in the form of cover art, continues with writers Alex Simmons (Creator of Blackjack) and Chris Ryan (Creator of City of Pain, City of Woe, City of Sin). Blackjack, aka’ man of action Arron Day, is featured in stories that defy the imagination, yet put him within a definable time and place.
This began as an over the phone description by Alex of the basic cover design. But in this case I took it further by wanting to do a double cover. So the sketch was literally done in five minutes.
From a personal point of view, I’ve taken to doing the character as a way of imprinting my take of classic pulp covers while hopefully adding something new. This can often appear in the form of a homage. I’ve always loved the Greg and Tim Hildebrandt cover of Blackjack. I decided this would be my inspirational starting point
I’m not the most accurate of artists. But after spending time with an illustration, I take a break and go back to an image with fresh eyes. This can be repeated over and over again until I end up with an acceptable design. In this case, while the initial idea was fine, the cross handling of Arron’s colt handguns obscured his face.
I tried different poses. Admittedly, this was a fun diversion but I knew the asymmetry would not work for a double cover.
Ultimately, the decision was made to go back to the original idea but have Arron hold the colts side to side allowing the emotion in his face to communicate properly. I preferred this as it took the spirit of the original homage and went in a slightly different direction. I collected reference for lighting and design. Each job is different. The deadline was tight because the stories were being written as I was working. Thusly, the basic composition of Arron dominating the double image yet being off to the side in the split images was the direction. I would fill in the background later. I began with a relatively tight pencil rendering.
Then work proceeded towards doing a tight rendering of Arron. Taking the fire and ice motif would suggest light and shadow. This was further aided by making sure I had ample reference.
At this point Alex and Chris had provided story elements so I could go into filling out the background space. One of the stories takes place at the Olympics with Russian elements. The other story takes place in the snowscapes in Europe. So a google search run was most definitely in the cards. Several hours, photo shoots, and layer blending later I had a finished image.
Standby for more information on these new stories. Very proud to have provided cover art.
Also, It’s been a good long while since I’ve posted an update. Please know that MAJOR CHANGES are afoot in the way and mode that Dieselfunk Studios does business. Standby for further news.
Back to it!
Recent Comments