Now that the previously mentioned comicbookresources.com Batman art contest deadline has passed (midnight last night) I thought I’d throw the entire page up. Page was to be penciled and potentially inked, but I always do my work in grayscale before dropping color in, so it appears as such:

You can vote on the contest Here

Steve Broome

Will Eisner’s birthday (94th) is being marked by google, which has put his Spirit character into their homepage logo. Eisner is a huge influence on me, not only for his great compositions within borders but for his frequently imaginative breaking of those borders to create unique layouts. As a result of the google plug, he’s also trending on twitter, making this one of the greatest exposures I’ve seen recently for a comic legend. If any of you happen to be looking for a great book of art there are several Eisner books to look at, I would like to recommend starting with THIS BOOK, ‘Will Eisner’s New York: Life in the Big City’. Having grown up as the son of Jewish immigrants in New York, Eisner gives the city itself a level of characterization that can only come from having lived there. It’s actually a collection of four books, including City People Notebook which was my first purchased Eisner work. Well worth the 20 bucks you can get it for on amazon to see one of the genuises of the medium at work.

In other comics news a bunch of indie comic creators are using twitter and their websites (mine included – look at the banner to the left) to help promote one another’s work. It’s a great example of using social media to try to provide support to colleagues, and it’s called the Indie Comics Alliance. Search for the #NDCA hashtag on twitter and check out what we’re working on. To see our stuff, remember to click on the fiction area and read the first issues of ‘Future Kings’ and ‘The Waiting Room’ for free.

Buy Future Kings for a buck

The first outlet for my new title, ‘Future Kings’, is wowio, an ebook site specializing in graphic novels and comics. You can get the book by clicking here and it includes a detailed preview and story synopsis. This ebook will work on any e-reader you use – if there are any problems please contact me or the wowio folks to get them resolved.

At only $.99 you’re getting great value and content. I’d love to hear from folks who download it – what do you think of the story/art/concept moving forward? Shoot me an email at sbroome@coalminds.com and don’t forget to review it on wowio.

I’m over halfway done with issue #2 and hope to release an issue every 6 weeks (if promoting issue #1 doesn’t hold me up too much). As noted above, the title will also be available not only on Android phones and tablets, but as a web app for those who don’t want to use up drive space. Keep an eye on the blog for updates in the coming weeks.