Hey There!
I hope you’re all having a good week! Exciting news! The cover art is here for Concrete Arcanum, the urban fantasy anthology that my story, Olive and the Ogre, will appear in. Scroll down to see it! And as always, feel free to check out my video update and/or continue reading.
So here it is…the cover art for Concrete Arcanum! It’s by Nathan Lueth, who’s also editing the anthology. Doesn’t it just look so cool!?
I’m genuinely thrilled to be a part of this anthology, which will feature stories from so many really talented and impressive creators. The Kickstarter campaign for the anthology will launch on September 12. If you want to be notified when it goes live, you can sign up by clicking here.
In more Olive news, Sara Setna, the fantastic artist I’m working with on the project, has started sharing her pencils with me and they’re so good! I think when I was talking about Sara’s character designs I mentioned how much I love her characters’ expressive faces, and that’s even more the case with the pencils. Her page layouts are great, too. Take a look at her work on her Instagram and her ArtStation page.
Exciting things are happening with No Spell Lasts Forever, too! Aimee Hawley is continuing to work on the next group of thumbnails and then pencils. I’ve really loved all of her work so far and I can’t wait to see her next pages. I’m also continuing to work on the lettering for the pages that are finalized, and I’ll be sure to share more lettered pages here as I get them done. To check out more of Aimee’s awesome work, take a look at her Instagram and her website.
Speaking of lettering, I had an impactful experience reading Talon this week (SPOILERS AHEAD). I’m finishing up the first volume, by James Tynion IV, Guillem March, and Miguel Sepulveda. If you haven’t read it, the main character is Calvin Rose, a former member of the Court of Owls who escapes…but his Court-related drama continues. After he dies (he gets killed by Bane), they bring him back as a Talon.
For their dialogue, the Talons are given black balloons with white lettering. And when Calvin speaks for the first time after being transformed into a Talon, his dialogue is in that style, whereas before, it had always been the standard white balloons with black lettering. That detail hit me right in the feels! The new lettering really drove home the reality of the fact that Calvin was now fully a Talon himself — he had been transformed by the people who had ruined his life into something he never wanted to be. To see him speaking with the same kind of dialogue as the very people who tortured his loved ones and tried to use him to do their bidding — I’m not crying, you’re crying! It was a really interesting example of the power of lettering and the impact it can have on the way we experience a story. So major kudos to Dezi Sienty, Taylor Esposito, and Sal Cipriano, the letterers of the series!
And one more thing I wanted to mention. The Doctor Strange giveaway I’m a part of is down to its last couple of days! Just click here to share your email with the participating urban fantasy indie comics creators and you’ll be entered to win $300 of Doctor Strange merch!
Well, I think that’s it for me this week! As always, I’d love to connect with you on Instagram, @sarahcookewriter and @nospellcomic.
Have a great day!
Best,
Sarah