Ursula Wilde Production Diary

Shaky, not stirred.

2008-06-18T20:14:00.001-07:00

Another Urusla Wilde team member, Shaky. Enjoy.

Good Golly Miss Holly.

2008-05-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

Wilde Exploration's Holly, drawn by Junbob Kim with colors by Brian Mead.

Wilde Thing!

2008-05-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

We've got the team in color on its way. Starting with Ursula Wilde in her Wilde Exploration jumpsuit. Pencils/Inks by Junbob Kim and Colors by Brian Mead.

Enter Bali!

2008-05-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

Our theology and mythology guru adds deep insight into spiritual matters, often dissecting the fine lines between historical facts and pure myths. One could write him off as a mere bookworm, but such a person would be more than glad Bali was on his side when serious scuffle broke out. A seasoned master of several martial arts, he may speak quietly but carries a big proverbial stick.

Good Golly, Ms. Holly!

2008-05-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

A fellow woman of adventure, Holly will always be around to back her best friend Ursula up in time of need from who-knows-what may lurk in the dark... She's got moxie and got the goods to prove it.

The Shakedown on Shaky

2008-04-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

Steve designed such a fun character in Shaky... and no matter what I did, I wanted to make sure I continue capturing the essence of the exuberant, youthful, slightly sarcastic Shaky. As the youngest and the newest addition to the Wilde Explorations, he has already captured the hearts of some unsuspecting females such as Molly McBride, the editor herself! :D

Final Look for Dante

2008-04-24T13:08:00.000-07:00

Dante is sporting a pilot/engineer jumpsuit, but once he rolls the top down, what he has on underneath should be similar to Steve's original design. I wanted to capture the practical nature of Dante in my approach... my only guess to any means of vanity for him would be his dreads. Let's all hope he doesn't stand too close to a jet engine intake on a experimental plane he designed and built. :)

Inking Ursula's Final Looks

2008-04-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

So after much study of "slight" variation of Ursula's design... I've pretty much landed right back where Steve had started to begin with. I should have known better than to mess with masterful design... If it ain't broke don't fix it... Oh, when will I learn?

Thank you Steve for being patient with me and allowing me to explore.

A Closer Look at Ursula

2008-04-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

Once I had a bit more time on my hand, I took pencil to my sketch book and took some further study on Ursula Wilde character study.

JunBob's First Look at Ursula

2008-04-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me just share with everyone how honored I am of the opportunity that Steve has given me and grateful that the rest of the team has trusted me with such an important task.

Let me start things off by sharing a very quick sketch I did of Ursula right after I accepted the offer. You can probably see how I had begun altering the costume slightly already in my attempt at putting my touch on the design. Of course, as anything on a pendulum I had to swing quite far before settling much closer to Steve's original design in the end...

JunBob Kim to draw Ursula Wilde!

2008-04-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

With Athena Voltaire returning to my schedule, I had to consider how much work I could realistically do on Ursula Wilde. The answer was "not much." Not if I wanted to give this project (which I've grown to love) the attention it deserves.

Enter JunBob Kim. Jun is a friend from the Comic Geek Speak message boards and an amazing artist. His most visible work to date has been the cover to the first issue of Comics Now! magazine—a wonderful piece featuring Nova.

So please welcome Jun as he joins Brian, Molly and myself on this book! I expect that Jun will be posting his character designs over the coming weeks. I think you'll love them as much as we do!

Peace in Our Time: Athena Voltaire Returns!

2008-03-12T04:11:00.000-07:00

(Slightly off-topic, but I'm posting this to all of my blogs because it explains what's been monopolizing my time for the last few weeks)

Paul Daly and I have settled our differences and have resolved to go our separate ways. The bottom line out of all of this is that Athena Voltaire will return!

Coming this Summer, we'll release the trade paperback collection of Flight of the Falcon.

Later this year, I'll be releasing the first of a series of standalone one-shots, graphic novellas, if you will. They'll be somewhere between 48 and 64 pages, perfect bound, and each one will be its own mini-trade. If you're the type who waits for the trade, you won't need to wait. If you're the bagging-and-boarding type, this is what you'll be getting, as well. I'm shooting for a $7–8 price on each volume.

Why the change? With the creator fallout between Paul and me last year, many retailers and readers alike don't know what the hell happened to our favorite aviatrix. If I produce complete done-in-one volumes, on time, I hope to earn back the consumer and retailer confidence we lost when the entire Mu-King miniseries was postponed and then eventually canceled.

The major change is that I'll be writing and drawing the adventures of our favorite aviatrix. Paul will continue to produce his webcomic, Terranauts, but will no longer be involved in Athena Voltaire. Paul's departure has resulted in a "taking his toys with him" scenario, so there will be some story modifications when the first one-shot releases. However, I can say that along with myself, editor Molly McBride and color artists Chad Fidler and Jason Millet are all happy with the tweaks to the comic and we're dying to share it with you.

Watch the skies! AV is back!

More Ursula pencils: a flashback to her parents...

2008-02-26T04:10:00.000-08:00

I can't find the scanned artwork for the page one inks of the Ursula Wilde Free Comic Book Day entry, so I'll preview a page that flashes back to one of Ursula's parents' adventures.

I'll post those inks later this week.

Free Comic Book Day Story: Page 1, pencils

2008-02-22T07:05:00.000-08:00

Ape Entertainment has been kind enough to allow us to have an Ursula Wilde story in this year's FCBD offering. This one is a direct lead-in to our first mini-series, The Sorcerer Pope.

Jim Nelson was unable to ink this story, so I handled the inks on it. I'll post those on my next update.

The Last of the Character Designs

2008-02-20T03:27:00.000-08:00

We wrap up with my favorite of the Ursula character designs. I liked this shot so much, that I incorporated it into the last panel of the first issue!

We also look at Bali, the team's mythology and theology expert. I was trying to draw him with long hair that kind of gets swept behind his ears. However, in the early character shots, it looks like a mullet.

There will be no mullets in Ursula Wilde. Repeat: no mullets.

More Designs—Girls, Girls, Girls

2008-02-14T03:31:00.000-08:00

Still refining Ursula's look at this point. She was certainly becoming her own character.

Early on, one of the things that I really wanted to do to set Ursula off from Athena Voltaire, was to give Ursula a female friend/teammate. So we added chemist Holly Pickins to Wilde Explorations. Of all the charter shots of Holly, only the picture with the pigtails stuck (mostly at the urging of Ape Comics' publisher David Hedgecock).

Along with Shaky, Holly provides 90% of the pithy dialogue to the book.

More Designs, More of the Cast

2008-02-12T04:11:00.000-08:00

We continue with the development of Ursula today. This is one of my favorite shots. I think this is when the character actually clicked for me. There may have even been celebratory dancing involved.

Not by me, of course.

Also, we look at Ursula's computer guy, John "Shaky" Alexander. The name is a tip of the hat to my friend, podcaster and Chicago radio guy John "Shaky" Siuntres of the Word Balloon podcast. Physically, like all computer guys in contemporary fiction, the Shaky that is on Ursula's crew is a Seth Green type.

More Ursula Designs, Plus Starting Work on the Supporting Cast

2008-02-09T06:44:00.000-08:00

With all of the elements of Ursula's "work clothes" in place, I started in on defining her face and refining the hairstyle from the previous sketch.

Ursula's still not there yet, but we're getting closer to what would eventually become the final design.

I also started fleshing out the other members of the rest of the ensemble cast. Today's entry is Dante Hibbert, the pilot of the team.

Refining the Character Design

2008-02-07T03:29:00.000-08:00

Last year, after I got back from Comic-Con International in San Diego, I was very fired up to finish up the character design for Ursula. There were still a couple of sticking points from the previous sketches: (1) I still hated every hair style I had come up with for her and (2) a traditional gun belt looked very cumbersome, really taking away from the line of her figure.

This sketchbook page shows those elements finally coming together. Oh, sure, the figure proportions are off and the face looks wonky, but the hair looks contemporary and the gun belt seems non-obtrusive anchored on her hip. I finally had done all of the elements well—just not in the same drawing!

That comes later.

Ursula Wilde; some early concepts

2008-02-05T10:23:00.000-08:00

Last May, when the creative differences with my Athena Voltaire co-creator, Paul Daly, first surfaced, and work on our second mini-series ground to a halt, I started thinking about another project that I could do in place of AV. I looked at everything that I enjoyed about AV: the period setting, a strong female lead, exotic adventures, etc...and started compiling a shopping list of what would make me happy, if the worst case scenario came to fruition and I never worked on AV again.

I opted to not go the period route—both for fear of being pigeon-holed and out of hope that Paul and I could/can resolve things amicably and I'll be able to draw AV again. So that left me with a strong female lead having exotic adventures—probably in a contemporary setting.

Using that as a point-of-departure, I started drawing and playing with names. For about a week, it was going to be Ursula O'Hare, but I dropped that because it was too close to Athena Voltaire. Next up was Ursula Nemo (great for an aquatic adventuress, but not what I was looking for in this instance), followed by Ursula Nero. All were kind of cool, but none exactly set my world on fire.

Returning to the concept, I had decided to make it an ensemble piece, further differentiating it from Athena Voltaire. It would be this Ursula-somebody character leading a team of explorers, like a female Doc Savage.

Then it hit me. Savage. Wild. Or...Wilde. So, by June 1, 2007, we had a working title for the series and a name for the lead character.

...and that's the secret origin of Ursula Wilde. Her name, anyway.

The pencil drawing shown here was my first actual attempt to put a face with the name. The hairstyle is far too coiffed and the gun on the hip looks awkward. I liked the vest idea, though. It's a modified fencing vest, and that provides a plot element to the character's backstory.

The color image was created for a teaser poster I did for last year's San Diego Comic-Con. It's still not on-model, but the hair is starting to look a bit more contemporary. The other elements are just different things that I thought defined the feel of the series. Pencils and inks by me, colors by Jason Millet.

Ready, Set, Go!

2008-02-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

The future begins here. Welcome to the Ursula Wilde Blog. We'll be updating you on the progress of the book as we near our release through Ape Entertainment.

First up, a teaser image. Pencils by Steve Bryant, inks by Jim Nelson, colors by Brian Mead.