Halloween - Jinkies!

Our 2010 Dreamkeepers Halloween illustration! For any who have been waiting, this officially kicks off the 5th annual Dreamkeepers Halloween Fanart contest.

The credit for the idea of a Scooby Doo parody goes entirely to Liz. As soon as we made the connections, this illustration became inevitable; things just matched up too eerily well, from the scruffy Mace to his unintelligible, ravenous sidekick.

It was a ton of fun loading every cliché imaginable onto the monster in the background. As lame as it sounds, once I finished this pic I found myself wishing it was a DVD that I could then play… Also, it made me lust after a Dreamkeepers candy bar. Why? That’s a mystery I can’t solve.

But the Mystery of the Swamp Monster Ghost Pirate etc. etc. is solved, on our Halloween Rules page - because no Scooby adventure is complete until the mask comes off.

http://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/HalloweenRules.htm

Contestants and browsers alike are welcome to attend! The gallery of entries will be unveiled October 31st, Halloween. Until then, feel free to browse through illustrations from years past: http://www.dreamkeeperscomic.com/gallery_halloween.htm

Well, I hope everyone’s in the mood for some cold-blooded October fun, because it’s on the way! In other news, we also have graphic novels back in stock on the site for any who have been waiting - I would advise making any Christmas gift purchases early to ensure we don’t run out again.

V3 Sneak Peek #17: Graphite Milestone

All the pencils for Chapter 7 are finished! Weighing in at 43 pages, it's our heftiest stretch of story to date. Why 43? Because the significance of 42 was too intimidating.

It's a fantastic relief to finally hit a major milestone on the production of this book - it's been long overdue. It's 2010, after all. Volume 2 released in 2008. Why in the hell did it take us this long just to draw the 1st chapter of the next book?

Well, for those of you who don't obsessively read and memorize my every keystroke in this blog, let me refer you to our 'Box 'o Excuses'. For those interested more in results than excuses, feel free to skip past it, we've got some pretty pictures up.

And, voila! I hope you enjoyed the excuses. None of those will be bogging us down now - we're not getting married again for awhile, commissions are of course closed, the website and the second edition downloads are done and staying put, and plus it's more fun to draw than continue fabricating excuses.

So without further ado, here are some samples from Chapter 7!

You may notice that some of these are still lineart, and some are in various stages of coloring. That's thanks to Liz, who has been hard at work blocking in colors the entire time I've been penciling. With such a strong head start on the colors, we're hoping to completely finish Chapter 7 in time for Midwest Furfest this November. It's something to shoot for, anyways.

Currently, I'm getting some Dreamkeepers Halloween art ready for the coming season, as I work on Chapter 8 page thumbnails and gear up for Chapter 7 final shading.

Well, that's it for now! Thanks again to everyone for being patient with us while we've been laying the foundation for global cartoon conquest.

Things to look forward to: A finished Chapter 7 this fall, and of course coming up very soon we'll be posting prizes and rules for the 5th annual Dreamkeepers Halloween Fanart Contest!