Hey everyone, I wanted to give an update about the progress I’ve made on the book, Salvage Hounds.
Page art is done! I have a few tiny things to revise, but I’m at the stage where I consider it all done! It’s an exciting milestone to hit, not only because I’ve been working on this book for a long, long time (more info below this post if you’re interested), but because it’s always great to see the final product and know that it’s so close to publication.
Here’s a sneak peek at the title page, showcasing the style that I’ve adopted for Salvage Hounds!
So it’s time to crack open the champagne and celebrate, right? Naw, that’s not how this works!
I’m already working on the cover (pencils are done, woot woot!) and in no time I’ll be painting it up in glorious color. Then it’s time to put together the plethora of materials for the book’s back matter. I aim to make the back pages worth pouring over for those interested in more info about the world of Salvage Hounds—character bios, of course, but also detail on the spacesuits, mecha, and ships in the form of design drawings with added notes and specs.
So that’s where I’m at! No ETA on publication just yet (there’s at least one surprise announcement coming before then), but I’m on track to finish Salvage Hounds very soon and I can’t wait for people to read it!
-BMAN
For those interested in how long the book has taken, read on and check out some more of the finished art below, which has all been added to the official Salvage Hounds home page.
I first started thinking about resurrecting Salvage Hounds as a comic (from an unproduced game concept I had put together back in 2000) sometime in late 2018. At the time I was finishing another comic, Soul Chaser Betty: Slumber Party of DOOM! That book went out the door in February of 2019, but it wouldn’t be until the fall of that year that I would have time to start another comic project. I was diving deep into re-writes on a novel that summer, and so it wouldn’t be until August 2019 that I’d find the time to break the story for Hounds and complete the first draft of the script.
And that was just the beginning.
This story required a ton of design work! I’d be working on visualizing the world for months. Characters, spacesuits, mecha, robots, ships, guns, and a myriad other costumes and props had to be sorted out and brought to life before I could even start work on laying out pages. Most of that design work happened between September 2019 and June 2020.
Page art started shortly thereafter, with inks, letters, and greys for all 28 finished by the end of April 2021, nearly a year later.
Why does it take me so long to finish a 28 page book? Well, I’m only able to devote about 10 hours a week to comics and still keep up on other projects—that’s akin to a little over one day of full time work that I can get in on it every week! Sometimes I put in some more hours (as I have in the last few weeks in the home stretch) and sometimes less, when other things are blowing up or pulling my time away. Also, I’m not that fastest artist in the world…
In general, I feel like I have the time to put out one 30-40 page book a year. Salvage Hounds would have taken that amount of time, IF I hadn’t had to design the entire universe first. So that means that a second book shouldn’t take as long to put out…Except that I’m already planning to do a new Betty comic before a second Hounds…
So there you go. A little insight into my work on the book, and probably more info than anyone needs or wants, lol. BUT, I hope you’ll appreciate the time and hard work that went into making this book when it finally comes out!
Thanks for reading, and check back for more Salvage Hounds updates soon!
