johnnywander

BBR 4KOMA 6

Percy were's your stuff.......

Happy Halloween from Barbarous!

Thank you so much to everyone who came by the stream today!! It was really nice to hang out and chat about leather chaps and my personal bad taste in anime, it was a delight 💖

As mentioned in the stream, I got together a cowboy outfit for Halloween and then our Halloween host had to take a sudden out-of-town trip, so Percy must live out my dreams. Also this felt like a natural progression from "Leeds is a minotaur," of course he'd be a cool biker bull!

HAPPY HALLOWEENNN 🎃

I'm going to stream for a bit!

In about a half hour- maybe around 4:45 PM EST? For an hour or so before I have to run off to make dinner, I'm going to ink our Halloween illustration! Join meeeeee

https://www.twitch.tv/aidosaur

BBR 4KOMA 5

Ah, the slow story arc of getting beer from the local bodega...

Percy's trying so hard, RIP :,)

Drawing night: Shohei Ohtani

Now and then I’ll join a friend’s online “life drawing” (slideshows of still photos) meetup and this week’s theme was Shohei Ohtani! I admittedly haven’t been keeping up with baseball since I quit softball in middle school, to my dad’s great dismay… but this was extremely fun lol

My dad actually called me the other day and berated me for not knowing what team Ohtani plays on… sorry Dad!!!!

Added bonus Rook who’s been lounging in his captain’s chair (my old desk chair he won’t let me throw out), hugging his legs ;__;💖

BBR 4KOMA 4

Sometimes the New York City weirdo empath is real and they inherently understand that the true weirdo is YOU

Chapter 9 / Page 8 pencils

I was so delighted by "THE BOYS ARE FIGHTING" I couldn't help but add it into the thumbnail lol... sneak peek for chapter 9 dialogue, also possibly the only Cerberus appearance in chapter 9?? (but don't quote me on that)

A rare scene hand-off where Ananth and I each thumbnailed half of a page! I plotted out everything in the lobby until the boys started properly fighting lol - Ananth always gets the fight scenes, which is great because I don't like doing them!!!

Also I completely forgot what the wall divider in the lobby looks like, I completely forgot the slats are cross-shaped! I'll fix it later!!!!

Percy in Elden Ring DLC 8

OH NO THE LIVING JARS IN THE SHADOW TREE LANDS ARE.... NOT DOING SO HOT........

BBR 4KOMA 3

PERCY STOP SHARING..... LEEDS BE MORE SYMPATHETIC....

BBR 4KOMA 2

LOL it's been really fun to draw these... there's a really soothing mantra in "OFF-MODEL NO PROBLEM DO IT FASTER IT'S OK IF IT LOOKS BAD"

anyway, leeds is literally a square

Chapter 9 / Page 7 pencils

The boys are hanging out! I think they're gonna be friends! :D :D

This one was thumbnailed by me (Yuko)! A while ago someone asked what the difference between my style of thumbnails and Ananth's is, and I think the core of it is that Ananth's really good at doing pages around a single WOW shot and dense layouts that give more information. I tend to do pages with more negative space, and will do talking scenes with more dynamic layouts, weird angles and cut-aways. But also both of us touch everything at every stage and no page has been thumbnailed by "just" one of us - we're too nitpicky for that lol

OH ALSO!!! Thank you everyone who commented with names for the new 4-Koma comics! They led us down a rabbithole discussion that brought us to a completely different title, but thank you guys, you all really helped!! If you missed it, the title is now BARBAROUS ½ 😂

BBR 4KOMA 1

For a while I've been wanting to do something that takes advantage of this super fast style I made for the Elden Ring comics but that doesn't fit in well with our regular work. Ananth and I have been spitballing the idea of doing some "let's do some quick silly barbarous comics that summarize the plot" and somehow we've gotten a bit of a little stack of these now haha

It's been taking a while for me to finish Chapter 9 so we're talking about sharing these online on the website! I hope you enjoy them, I've been really enjoying working in this loose blobby style!

Also, anyone have any ideas of what to call these aside comics? Most people don't know what a 4-koma comic is 😂

Percy in Elden Ring DLC 7

I took a break from Elden Ring for a while because 1.) I got really stuck on a boss and 2.) I got really really into Balatro (evil poker) for like 3 weeks

ANYWAY I'M BACK!!! I'm here to share my ill-advised game adventures!!!!

Not unlike in comic #3 I've figured out that back-line buffing is where it's at! This is NOT the way you are supposed to play this game however no one is stopping me! The friendly NPCs in this fight defeated this big hippopotamus on the first try after I made them really strong and tanky and did not help fighting at all, you're welcome Freya 🌠

(also yes I definitely reused half of the inks from comic 3 for this one, im here work smarter not harter)

Chapter 9 / Page 6 pencils

AAA we're packing for SPX and I haven't been to a convention in 5 years so I'm scrambling trying to remember what we're supposed to bring! Forgive me if I make this one quick!!

I'm the one who thumbnailed this one! Meee!

Finally, the boys meet! Also Fortuna is there.

I hope to see you at SPX!!!! See you in Maryland!!!

We'll be at Small Press Expo!

The two of us will be at Small Press Expo September 14th and 15th in Bethesda, MD!!! Table #H7!

We haven't been to a convention since 2019, so we're going to have a bunch of stuff we've never had at a show before, including limited copies of Lucky Penny Color Edition and Pixels of You! We'll also have two new zines, including a very limited run of my Elden Ring comics (which will come with stickers!) and this mysterious 18+ zine that showed up at our house one day, we don't know who made it or where it came from but you can buy it from us if you'd like a copy and are over the age of 18.

We really didn't want to bring 100lbs+ of books in our suitcases to the show so we ordered both of these zines from printers and are having them shipped directly to the hotel! We are putting our faith in the divine and also our very nice printer!!!! Please keep our goofy books in your thoughts.

ALSO

If you're unable to attend the show but want a copy of the 18+ zine, we're planning on setting up a similar online store situation as before where there will be a password-protected shop link that patrons can access. Our new online shop is expected to be back online by the end of September, so hopefully those will be available soon! (Also as a heads up, I'm very sorry but we don't have plans to have a pdf copy of the 18+ zines available online at the moment!)

Chapter 9 / Page 5 pencils

OH lovely, company has arrived! 😊

This page was thumbnailed by me! Yay! It was a bit challenging to get Fortuna in there because I wanted Cameron large and completely centered in frame. She's hanging out in the back!

The figures got a bit messed with after the sketch phase so the features are off-kilter lol.... I got it in the pencils (but I'll probably make Cameron's face a bit less cute in the inks phase, I think I drew his eyes too big)

Right now we've been spending a bunch of time prepping for SPX! My health has been kind of up and down so I'm really hoping the show will go well. If you come to the show and stop by our table and I'm not there, I'm probably lying down somewhere lol. We JUST got our covid vaccines in preparation for the show so hopefully things will go well!

Hey, there's a new covid vaccine, you should get it!!!! You don't want to end up like me!!!!!!

Chapter 9 / Page 4 pencils

Another page thumbnailed by Ananth! Thank you Ananth! I think I thumbnailed the next scene, or at least pieces of it. While we pass these files back and forth we're figuring out what strengths and weaknesses we have in our layouts.

The last page of the flashback! This one's a talky page, so a lot of this will be covered with speech bubbles. Now you will know what's hiding behind all the talk (it's Cameron's chest)

The Page Where Cameron Learns Something About Himself

SPX 2024 Program Guide!

YAYY this has been announced so I'll share my progress with you guys!

I was really honored to be asked to illustrate the cover of this year's Small Press Expo Program Guide, and was specifically requested to draw a dragon! Obviously I could not refuse!!!!!!

This year is the 30th anniversary of the show, so I wanted to do something in the design to celebrate that. Originally the idea was a dragon winding through the covers of 30 books, but once I saw the idea sketched out it looked a bit to library-adjacent and not specific to celebrating comics. The idea expanded into 30 comics panels, which felt a bit more organic and playful while also pushing the concept of "IT'S A COMICS SHOW!"

We were also chatting about the idea of doing a party hat, which was eventually replaced with a crowquill pen and lots of confetti instead. I think it's still playful even without it!

The colors are in-family with the 2024 SPX poster, which is also orange, yellow, and green. I hope they look nice together!

ALSO AS A SMALL PANICKED ASIDE, I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT TO SIGN THE ILLUSTRATION... I sent an updated file to the organizers for the print version but all of the versions online are unsigned lol...... it's fine, it's fine!!!!!

We're going to be at SPX this year, I hope to see you there!

Percy in Elden Ring DLC 6

Between the distraction of launching a video game and continuing health issues, I haven't had as much time as I'd like to play Elden Ring or journal about it lol - unfortunately chronic fatigue makes playing the reaction time game not very fun!

I was really excited to find Milady, the first 'light greatsword' I've come across from the DLC - in large part because I like personifying objects, and I like when a gigantic sword is a girl. :) We're friends now :) :)

FIELDS OF MISTRIA IS OUT!!!

We've talked about this occasionally, Ananth and I have been working on Fields of Mistria since 2019 and it finally was released on Steam in Early Access TODAY!!! 🎉🎉

 If you enjoy farming sims and are interested in seeing writing Ananth worked on and character designs I worked on, this is for you!! Unfortunately this is a PC-only game currently, but it DOES work like a dream on Steamdeck.

It's been amazing to see people finally seeing the work we've been doing with the team for the past 5 years, it's been a really incredible experience. ;__; I'm really proud of what we've done, and I'm excited to bring the game into 1.0!!!

WE'RE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF STEAM AAAA

Some things people have said about the game so far!!!!

❤️ Article in The Escapist!
❤️ Article in Siliconera!
❤️ Article in Techraptor!
❤️ We also got some really sweet early reviews from Youtubers: KayDaisy / EliTheGaymer / CozyWithToxi
❤️ We got a shoutout from Can You Pet The Dog lol

If you get the game I hope you like it!!!!!!!!

Animal Fight!!

I did this as a spot illo for [an upcoming project] and I'm pretty pleased with the final design! It came out a bit tattoo-esque, which I think looks cool. I punched up the colors with a really intense color overlay because the representation is supposed to be literary!! It's a metaphor!!!!!

Attached are also the references I used for the pose, I wanted to think about these old-fashioned book illustrations of animal fights in gladiator rings. Unrelated, I know everyone has already talked about this but MAN the google images well sure has been poisoned with machine generated images!!!! It's so annoying finding reference images these days!

Percy in Elden Ring DLC 5

HORSE BETRAYAL

I was surprised to discover these guys are ACTUALLY quite aggressive and WILL sonic spindash you to death if you get near them, I don't know why I was so startled by this happening in the everything wants to kill you game lol

Sorry this is a bit late!!! It was my dad's birthday so I was out of town for a bit and didn't have access to a computer! In extremely more important news, I went to the local goodwill near my folks' place and found a pair of leather biker's chaps for $5.99 USD that somehow fit me perfectly, and now I have to figure out how to style them

how could i resist such a cute face

Chapter 9 / Page 3 pencils

Sharing Chapter 9 / Page 3 progress pencils and the original thumbnail from Ananth! It's pretty obvious, this is a flashback to the first time Chiaki/Percy ever met Fortuna. I love drawing her!

I've been pulled onto other projects lately (which will hopefully be announced within a few months) and ALSO dealing with some more gnarly issues with long covid-- but I'm back on chapter 9 full time now, hopefully I'll be able to make quick progress. :)

Percy in Elden Ring DLC 4

Tall horse!!!! I love tall horse!!!! My new friend Tall Horse will surely never betray me*

*well,

Percy in Elden Ring DLC 3

Having a lot of "I'm just a little guy I'm just a birthday boy" moments while revisiting Elden Ring!! The game has been extremely generous with friendly NPC characters and I'm gonna hang back and cheer them on and and be a back-line buffer as often as I can get away with!!!!

BY THE WAY if you're interested in seeing extremely cool character design and have already played through the beginning of the Elden Ring DLC OR don't care about spoilers, I really recommend watching the way the Divine Dancing Lion was animated. People have picked apart the animation to reveal the way it moves, and it's SO cool to watch! Here's two really short videos: Video 1 / Video 2

Chapter 9 / Page 2 pencils

Chapter 9 is still trucking along! I wanted to share the second page of pencils plus Ananth's thumbnails! You can find the preview for page 1 over here!

Blessings be upon clip studio 3D modelers, I never would have been able to draw an ornate home office in top-down perspective with nearly as much efficiency if I didn't have access to them. The first panel alone probably would have taken me like 3 days to draw lol

This scene is supposed to take place in a time before Cameron got his goofy half-sleeve dragon tattoo, so it's not here - unless we decide he should have it and I'll draw it in later?? who can say~

Percy in Elden Ring DLC 2

OK OK OK I'm unfortunately really enjoying Elden Ring DLC despite being very bad at the game!!

I'm still right at the beginning and running around poking at all the small details. Delightfully, early on there is a little trash mob soldier camp that is a summoning zone for spirits! ALL the enemies in the DLC are super tuned up so the imps are not super effective anymore, but I still want them around because they're funny and my friends. And they're still good at fighting mobs of piddly soliders with sticks, bless them.

Ananth Hirsh and Tess Stone at ALA 2024!

Hi there! Ananth here! I'm posting this on the off-chance there are any librarians who follow us who will be at ALA 2024 in San Deigo! Tess Stone and I will be there promoting our upcoming Random House Graphic book GREATER SECRETS.

Come find us at booth 140! We'll have arcs of GREATER SECRETS to flip through, and we'll be giving away other books from out back catalog! Hope to see you there!

Percy in Elden Ring DLC 1

OH NO unsurprisingly Elden Ring has its hooks in me again U___U

I don't know if I'll be able to do anything like I was able to before since I'm still dealing with Long Covid issues (a full year now!) and I have to be pretty judicious about how I spend my work energy. But these are really fun to draw. ;__;

As always, I am truly horrible at this game and also the DLC is WAY harder than the base game lol. Farewell my friends ~ 🕊🕊

Chapter 9 Visdev: LEEDS

We needed a costume for Leeds for a section of Chapter 9, and of course we wanted to go as hard as we could get away with!!!

Originally the concept was "horse who is also a pilot", then "horse who is also a jockey" to "horse who is also a knight". Basically, any excuse to pair assless chaps with horse blinders. Running around with Leeds in Dragon's Dogma II has made me REALLY want to give Leeds a big fur ruff or cape because it makes his shoulders look enormous, but unfortunately the leather jacket look also made him look like a Devil May Cry character. U__U Maybe next time!