It pains me very much to say this, but chances are I’m not going to be able to put the strip up tonight. I am still diligently working on it, but despite having a week to complete it, I just simply ran short on time.

A few things are contributing to this. One is work as I have several jobs I’m working on right now that need to be done soon, and obviously they take precedence. Two, I am unexpectedly having family come in for a few days tomorrow and the house needs to be cleaned. And three, I’ve had other obligations and duties that made me get a very late start on the strip for this week, meaning at 8pm only one panel is in the rough pencils stage!

I have tried my best to get these up on Monday, even if it’s midnight or shortly after (still Monday on the West Coast!). But this week’s just may be late, and I deeply apologize for this. I really do.

That’s the bad news. The good news is… I may extend the strip! Or rather, I have a continued story from the end of this one in mind. If I do, I will be taking a break from the updates after this one finishes and completing a few strips in advance so I don’t run into this problem again.

But back to this week’s strip, let me ask you all. Would you rather me post this a day or two late, but still this week. Or would you rather me skip this week and post the new strip next Monday, finishing this story the first week of May with the final installment?

Let me know in the comments below, on Facebook, or in an email.

Thanks!

-B

Whew, I have GOT to start getting these done earlier!

Sorry, folks, ran a bit late with it this week as well. I hope it’s worth it.

This week I got to draw all the current Zone 4 co-hosts, including Chimp Detective John! We saw a glimpse of him in the previous comic, but this is the first full appearance of him as such.

Seems like our heroes may be jumping to a quick conclusion, but we’ll have to wait until next week to see how it plays out!

Kind of a short commentary this week, but with next week’s penultimate installment I’ll try to be a little more verbose.

PODCASTS

Last Friday, we did an All-DC episode of Zone 4, check it out!

And tomorrow, the first episode of brand new Zone 4 spinoff  Hall of Toys (H.O.T. for short) debuts!

This week we also record our Walking Dead Season 3 Finale extra!

And then on Friday it’s a brand new episode of Zone 4!

Until then, thanks for reading and thanks for listening!

-B

Zone 4: 4 for 4 kicks off tonight!

Okay, okay, so it’s a little late.  Sorry, folks, very busy day today!

I’m no Andrew Law or Lisa Moore, folks, and this isn’t really my best work, but I think it’s pretty neat. I’m still learning inking and coloring. Maybe I’ll post the pencils sometime and let you see those.

This is part 1 of 4 of course. It’s going to get fun, folks!

The Process (if you care to know):

I sketched out thumbnails on the back of my art board of the layout.

Then I drew out the full size in blue line VERY lightly. Not full layout, just to give myself an idea of where I’d lay down the pencils. Yes, I know it defeats the purpose a bit, but I wanted a placement guide this time.

After the scratchy blue lines, I used a mechanical pencil to draw the panels.

Then I grabbed my trusty light board and another piece of art board and started inking. That took me a LONG time! lol

After I was finally satisfied with the inks, I scanned them in. Now I don’t have an 11″x17″ scanner so I had to scan it in two parts. Luckily we’re talking panels here, not full pages, so I didn’t have to paste them together this time. I just grabbed each panel individually.

Now, ahead of time, I had created a template for the panels in Photoshop. So as I grabbed each panel, I pasted them inside the template, which had a different layer for each panel.

I then used an action to ready the file for flatting. Flatting went pretty smoothly.

After getting the file ready for colors I noticed the blacks weren’t dark enough after, so I copied my blacks layer to strengthen it. I then created another layer for the coloring. Yep, basic stuff here, just one extra layer. Then I just really added some highlights and lowlights and that was it.

Somehow my borders had disappeared, so I copied a clean template on top, erasing the white, and voila!

Then it was to lettering, and finally here!

I hope you all enjoyed it and aren’t too critical of either the art or my time management!

Next week, will we find out what happened to the bacon?! Come back on Monday to find out!

-B

It’s been a while since our last update here, ever since the comic strip wrapped for now. But I have exciting news for you all!

You may or may not be aware that this week the Zone 4 podcast celebrated its 4-year anniversary! Yep, four years of podcasting goodness, segues, bacon and more! And in celebration for that monumental event, I have decided to give you guys a treat right here on the webcomic subsite!

We’re calling it “Zone 4: 4 for 4,” which means 4 web strips for the 4 years we’ve been doing this. And hey, April is the 4th month as well, so it all comes down to 4… Zone 4!

So beginning this Monday and every remaining Monday in April, there will be a new installment of the 4-strip short story written and illustrated by yours truly! And it’s a story I think all our listeners and readers will appreciate.

So look for that to begin this coming Monday, April 8th!

Until then, thanks for reading and thanks for listening!

-B

You can, of course, read the entire webcomic above.

The 8-page short in question is a full-format comic story featuring some of the friends of the podcast as spoof characters of a certain mainstream superhero team. It is comical in nature, but all styles will be considered.

I sadly can not pay for your services, and believe me I wish I could. However, I am willing to trade services if that’s something that would appeal to you. I letter (Image, Arcana, etc.), design logos and of course write.

I can also offer some sort of exposure for your talents on http://www.comicrelated.com, a popular comic news site I co-own. Be it a spotlight, interview, whatever.

All-in-one and individual disciplined artists will be considered.

There’s no tight deadline on this. We are hoping to get the book published this Fall, but beyond that it can be worked on around your other work.

If you are interested, please email me at gonzogoose @ brantfowler.com with the subject “Zone 4 Art Submission.” Serious inquiries only please.

Thanks!

Brant

P.S. Gordon is also still looking for an art team, so email either of us via the contact page if you'd rather.

The final strip in the story.

Sorry for the loss of commentary and comments below. The server crash wiped three weeks of updates, and I don’t have time to add them back right now sadly. But thanks for checking out the comic!

Sorry for the loss of commentary and comments below. The server crash wiped three weeks of updates, and I don’t have time to add them back right now sadly. But thanks for checking out the comic!

Sorry for the loss of commentary and comments below. The server crash wiped three weeks of updates, and I don’t have time to add them back right now sadly. But thanks for checking out the comic!

Notes coming in a bit, busy day. So enjoy the strip, and notes later!

-B

Here you go, the second Zone 4 strip this week as we learn more about our real villain’s true motives!

RINGTAILS IN THE HIZ-OUSE

Yep, our good friends of Ringtail Cafe – Darren, Krista, Jackie and Alecia – make their Zone 4 debut! A big thanks to Andrew for adding them in as they weren’t originally going to fit. He kindly added them at a request from me, and it’s really cool to see them here.

FIRE IS HOT!

Seriously, that’s two strips on Comic Related today involving fire of some sort as a plot point. Pretty cool actually. I’m not sure who I’d be more afraid of, though, the Spell-Demon here, or Faux-Phoenix Force Chad (who’s actually just on fire) over in New Comic Day. Chad already wants to hurt me over a little short I wrote, so I don’t know…

And speaking of fire, I sure hope none of my fellow Kentuckians lit any couches on fire this week. I’m glad the Wildcats won the NCAA championship too, but come on, people!

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, REMEMBER…

Just another quick reminder to tune in to this Friday’s episode of the podcast, which celebrates our 3-Year Anniversary. The actual anniversary was yesterday, April 3rd, so yay us!

Until next week, thanks for reading!

-B