My neck is doing well, at least. Not quite back to drawing full-time, and there are still good days and bad, but all in all it’s healing, even if it’s going slower than I would like. I will say that doing daily yoga stretching and exercise is helping a great deal.

Also, in the spirit of full disclosure, I should mention that in addition to doing illustration work as it comes in, I’m also going to be dividing my time this summer on a side-project with Batman Strikes writer Russell Lissau called STRANGER, that will be appearing in an upcoming issue of Omega Comics Presents. It’s a cute story of a girl who goes to school in space, so think Star Trek meets Miyazaki. It’s my first foray into all-ages comics, and I’m really excited to have a chance to try some new things with it.

Don’t worry, I’ll post some preview stuff here as I can. However, if you don’t hear from me, it’s not because I’m dead. I just don’t like to constantly post to the world that nothing big is happening at the moment (yes, I think that must be in violation of one of the basic rules of the social internet these days, but that’s just how it goes). I will share when there is something worth sharing.

Again, thank you guys so much for your patience!

In the original layout, I had another panel in between the top two showing Kate lunging at JT and grabbing for the gun, while pulling back for the punch. But it ended up being way too awkward. I think this turned out better. She is fast, after all.

Not entirely sure about the accuracy of the arm lock she puts him in, but I think the gun to the head probably negates any possibility of a struggle.

* Military insult – “Clearing barrel,” in reference to a woman, means “whore.”

Mike is so angry he’s slipping into Cantonese here. As mentioned offhand previously, he spent some formative years on the streets of Hong Kong, despite his non-Asian heritage. Yes, there is big story there. I’ll get around to telling it someday.

Big thanks to 林泰延 (Lin Taiyan – better known to you all as ChineseWolf here on the site) and friends, for help in translating the Cantonese dialogue bits.

Here’s a quick translation [Cantonese bits in brackets]:


MIKE: You [backwoods, uneducated jack-ass ], you were supposed to keep a low profile, not start growing pot for some [cartel ]!

MIKE: Fuck Chicago, Tippit! You got a [goddammed ] PLANTATION right out in the open! You put The Plan in danger for the sake of a quick buck! Anybody else know about this? Blue? Higgy?


backwoods：鄉下佬: villagers (insulting)
uneducated jack-ass：蠢材: fool, idiot
cartel: 集團：group corporation
goddamned：死人頭: dead man’s head

Thanks again, 林泰延! You’ve been a great help! Hope you like how the final came out, here. Please thank your friends again for the help with this translation!

Had fun giving JT’s place a revisit for these pull-back shots. I was never entirely happy with the introduction of his place back on Page 46.

As for my health, things are looking good. However, the remedy seems to mean more moving and less sitting, so I still can’t pull long stints at the drawing desk. Still pacing myself, but I’m seeing (or rather, feeling) big improvements. Exercise, stretching and taking regular breaks definitely seem to be doing the trick.

The next scene is the big one, so I’ll be breaking it into bite-sized chunks again. First bit will probably go up in a couple of weeks. I’ll give you a heads up when to expect it.

The Congress Hotel on the south side of the Loop is a famous landmark. You drive right past it if you come into the city via I-290. It’s pretty posh. Xiang clearly has some budget to throw at his investigation if he can afford a suite, here. The Michigan Ave. location would help ensure difficulty of surveillance, assuming the suite is facing the lake (no nearby tall buildings for anyone to monitor his room nearby.)

I totally improvised JT’s security setup here. He’s obviously got the entire property wired up and and cameras hidden everywhere, feeding into his bunker. Now you know why.

The “Wanted by the FBI” poster is roughly based on the real thing. Even though I mocked the whole thing up in Photoshop, I still went to the trouble of inking and lettering it by hand to make it look consistent with the rest of the artwork on the page.

I toyed with some texture effects to give JT’s screen views a pixelized, zoomed in on a monitor look, but I ended up rejecting them because they just muddied the image. Hopefully the iconography for the windows and buttons does the work to scream “Computer Screen!”

And now, the conclusion to “War Stories”. It clocks in at seven pages, a bit longer than the first part.

While I’d hoped to get this one finished and posted in January, I’m just happy that I’ve been able to work on it and complete it. Still working on getting my posture up to snuff. I’ve had to rig up some interesting widgets in the studio to help keep me sitting up straight. I ended up inking this entire scene by taping the pages to a scrap sheet of melamine-coated shelving, which I could prop up in my lap or on my drawing desk to minimize the amount of leaning over I needed to do in order to draw without aggravating anything in my neck and back. Also, I often use my iPad to look at reference material while inking, so I set it up on a music stand to make it easier to see without looking down too much.

My new drawing board.

As you can see in the photo, I’m not above printing out references on paper, either. In this case, I was letting the artwork of Goseki Kojima from “Lone Wolf and Cub” to influence my execution of the forest backgrounds on Page 103. A bonus feature of the drawing board is that I can stick pieces of paper under the taped-down page and have them close at hand so I don’t have to look far to see what I need. It worked out very, very well.

Anyway, enough ado! Go read “War Stories – Part Two”!

Yes, that is exactly what you think it is.