It’s finally here! The first chapter of our seven chapter high-school yaoi comic Tough is now finished!

This will serve as the master post for Tough: Chapter One. Here is where readers should leave comments about what they thought about the comic and it’s also where I’ll be sharing the first 16 preview pages with you!

What’s this first chapter about?

Tough starts with 15-year-old Filipino-American Mike Castro being dragged into a fag bashing by a bunch of older, wilder boys. Mike knows it’s wrong and tries to stop it, but that just makes things worse; the older boys turn on him, forcing him to either beat the cute gay boy they’ve cornered or face the same fate. Can Mike figure out a way to save this guy and himself? And could this really be the start of a romance?! Read Tough: Chapter One to find out!

How do I read this comic?

This is another free download for Yaoi 911 News & Downloads subscribers. Subscribers to our mailing list get sent links to our free comics and this is the latest one. So if you want to read more, just sign up — a link will be sent right to you!

(You can also find and download Tough: Chapter One at our new store. If you’re a subscriber and haven’t gotten the Yaoi 911 News & Downloads email yet, you can create a new account at our store using your subscriber email address, Add To Cart a free comic and when you Checkout, you’ll be able to download it for free. It’s fast and easy — try it! Tough: Chapter One at The Yaoi 911 Store. )

Where can I talk about it?

Right here! The comments section’s of this post is the place to let me and other readers know what you thought. (And please do — you’re the whole reason we’re making these comics. And we love encouragement. )

What about spoilers?

So that folks are able to talk about the work without worrying about spoiling the story for others, I’ve added a new feature to the blog comments: spoiler protection! It works like this. Put the spoiler text into your comment between bracketed “spoiler” tags like this

to end up with this:

So, when does Chapter Two come out?

Chapter One is where we meet our heroes (and villains) and set things up. Chapter Two deals with the aftermath of what happens and it’s where the yaoi really gets cooking. If you want more kissing — and I know you do — I promise, you won’t have to wait long. The next chapter delivers the goods.

Chapter Two is already completely finished and will be sent out to subscribers on May 1, 2010.

Please tell me what you thought!

So that’s what you need to know about our latest comic. I really do hope you like the beginning of our story. Please take a moment and let me know what you thought!

Preview Pages

Tough: Chapter One is written by Alex Woolfson. Pencils by Vitto. Colors by Vincent Lee.
© 2010 Alex Woolfson. All Rights Reserved.

Want to download the entire comic? Well, it’s easy! Just fill out the form on the Free Comics page and the link will be sent right to you!

Enjoy reading articles like these? Don’t miss out! Get Yaoi 911™ blog posts emailed right to you — for free!

Learn More!

• Curious about the first comic we finished (and that we’re also giving away for free)? Then read all about our boys and sorcery story, “A Shot in the Dark”!
• Wondering why the heck I’m making a yaoi book? Check out Why This Gay Man Is Creating Yaoi!
• Want to read about other creators’ yaoi? Take a look at our in-depth Yaoi Reviews!
• Interested in creating your own manga? Start with How to Write a Full Comic Book Script and How to Find the Perfect Yaoi Artist for your Graphic Novel!

]]> http://www.yaoi911.com/yaoi-comic-tough-is-ready-for-download/feed/ 20 http://www.yaoi911.com/yaoi-art-painted-cover-art-for-tough/ http://www.yaoi911.com/yaoi-art-painted-cover-art-for-tough/#comments Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:05:39 +0000 Alex Woolfson http://www.yaoi911.com/?p=1032 Tough (it gets its title from this first chapter). Well, our artist Winona Nelson has just finished painting the cover art for the book and here it is!]]>

So, things are coming together nicely for the release of our next free comic, the 35 page High School romance-and-rescue story, “Tough”.

And now I have something very exciting to show you. As I’ve mentioned before, “Tough” is the first chapter in a two volume, seven chapter graphic novel also called Tough (it gets its title from this first chapter). We’ve been working hard on it and it should be ready for download shortly. Well, in the meantime, our artist Winona Nelson has just finished painting the cover art for the book and here it is! (Click on it for a larger view.)

Now, I asked Winona to create an image with our heroes combining the themes of “romance” and “danger” with the specific plot elements of the first chapter and I think she did a fantastic job. Totally nailed it.

(And I especially like the fact that there are layers of meaning to it — at first you see the kissing, and then you see the dangerous shadows and then you see that one of the boys himself (Mike) is also carrying a bat!)

IMHO, it’s intriguing and beautiful, just like a book cover should be… (I’m of course biased, but if I saw a book on the shelf in a bookstore with Winona’s art on it, I’d definitely pick it up and give it a look!)

Having this artwork finished also marks the first time we have an actual item for sale. (Woo hoo!) If you like this painting, you can get a very high-quality print (poster) made of it over at Imagekind. (A perfect way to show off your love of yaoi and style up your crib!)

While there are more flashy sites out there, the thing I like about Imagekind is that in addition to having the best quality paper and printing in the business, they also have very high quality framing. (I’ve bought four prints from them framed, and Imagekind’s framing was superior to what I got here in San Francisco for my other prints.) So, even though I have this art up with other places for sale, Imagekind is the printer I’d recommend if you’d like a really beautiful, very high-quality print for your wall (and especially if you’d like it nicely framed). In addition, they offer a 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee — which also earns my respect.

And another nice thing about Imagekind is that you have the option of getting a “greeting card” of the print where you can actually resize the art — and thus focus directly in on the boys kissing. For just $4.99, greeting cards are the easiest, most affordable way to own this art.

EDIT: And now, due to popular demand, we’ve created a version of the art with just the kissing — for those who want to focus on the romance without any distractions. You can find that image here:

If mousepads, mugs and postcards are more your thing, we also have a Zazzle store. And Zazzle goes out of their way to make things easy to find and buy on their site with all the bells and whistles an independent creator like me could want. Just check out their crazy flash panel:

You can pretty much get anything you can think of made into a product with your art at Zazzle. Personally, I want the skateboard!

Anyway, that’s the latest on the Yaoi 911 comics front. I hope you like what you see. If you have a moment, please let me know in the comments what you think of Winona’s work!

Hey! Wondering what happens in this story? No problem — we’ll be giving away this comic for free! (When it’s done, that is!) Want to make sure you get the free download links to this comic when it’s finished? Well, it’s easy! Just fill out the form on the Free Comics page and the link will be sent right to you!

Enjoy reading articles like these? Don’t miss out! Get Yaoi 911™ blog posts emailed right to you — for free!

Learn More!

• Curious about the first comic we finished (and that we’re also giving away for free)? Then read all about our boys and sorcery story, “A Shot in the Dark”!
• Wondering why the heck I’m making a yaoi book? Check out Why This Gay Man Is Creating Yaoi!
• Want to read about other creators’ yaoi? Take a look at our in-depth Yaoi Reviews!
• Interested in creating your own manga? Start with How to Write a Full Comic Book Script and How to Find the Perfect Yaoi Artist for your Graphic Novel!

Howdy

I’ve gotten several requests for this, so I’ve decided to make my “tweets” public for anyone who might be interested. My Twitter username is “alexwoolfson“. And in the spirit of fellow self-publisher and all-around cool guy Wil Wheaton, I’m letting you know here what to expect from me on Twitter.

(Oh, and what is Twitter, you ask? Well, it’s one of those online things you actually have to try out to truly appreciate — I dragged my feet on joining my friends on it for over a year because I just didn’t get the point — but here is a pretty good introduction. You should also read that Wil Wheaton post, too, just to get a very experienced perspective. Basically, Twitter users write short 140 character messages that are broadcast to anyone who “follows” you. These “tweets” are, in theory, answering the question “What are you doing?” but are really used for anything you want to share with your friends and the world.)

I don’t tweet a lot about yaoi

For me, Twitter is mostly a quick way for me to share what I’m thinking about or find cool in a given moment to my friends (and you, Dear Reader, I certainly think of as a friend!) Whereas, I try to stay completely on-topic on this blog, Twitter is a chance for me to share and comment about all the other things that turn me on. I do tweet the milestones with our comics (such as receiving new art I’m excited about), but mostly I’m commenting about media I’m enjoying (usually sci-fi TV or movies), making comics in general, writing in general, social media in general, marketing ideas for book publishers, cool tech toys and sometimes just how I’m feeling. It’s like tiny samples of my mind shouted out to the universe two or three times a day.

It’s personal, baby

Now, I do my absolute best to make sure everything I write on this blog will have value to a lot of people and especially yaoi fans. I spend a lot of time on my posts here and think very hard about what I’m going to post about before hitting that Publish button. But for me, Twitter is best when it’s uncensored personal sharing — when I don’t spend a lot of time trying to make a tweet perfect or even really thinking about it much at all. If it’s on my mind, it’s sent out on Twitter.

This means that my signal-to-noise ratio on Twitter is going to be a lot lower than it is here. And what you’ll read about through my Twitter account is more about me, personally, than it is about yaoi or any of the other topics on this blog. If reading stuff like that appeals to you, definitely check me out on Twitter. If not, my feelings won’t be hurt — in fact, I’d totally understand. Stick with the blog.

(Oh, and you probably shouldn’t follow my tweets on your phone. I tweet at all hours, even very early in the morning. Save your sanity and save my Tweets for your Twitter homepage or your computer. )

I do read all of my @alexwoolfson replies

And if things aren’t too crazy, I will definitely respond back. I do read every one of those @alexwoolfson replies and your thoughts and interest in me and my work are much appreciated. In fact, the comments I have received on this blog and through that Feedback button (down in the lower right of every blog page) have really been awesome support and make all the hard work worthwhile. You, Dear Reader, are why I am making these comics — and your thoughts and opinions matter a lot to me. If I’m swamped with writing a script or notes for our artists, it might take me a bit to get back — but I will absolutely try my best!

So, why follow Alex on Twitter?

To recap, you should follow me:

• if you want to know more about me personally
• if you want to see sneak previews of Yaoi 911 art
• if you’d want to learn about writing, how to make comics, marketing your art/writing, smart ways to use social media (like Twitter and Facebook) or how to successfully publish your own work
• if you’d want to see videos and other topics that just tickle the geek in me
• if you like my sense of humor
• if you’d actually care what I’d have to say about sci-fi and fantasy TV shows and movies

Still undecided? You can see some of my most current tweets over in the sidebar on the right. And you can follow me (and/or read even more of my tweets) over at my Twitter page.

See you there!

So, we’ve been hard at work on our High School Boys Love story Tough — the pencils for all 35 pages of Chapter One are now complete, our colorist Jesse Heagy is hard at work coloring those penciled pages and I’ve just finished lettering those pages. Which means I can now show you some pages with words! My words! Oh, happy day.

I’ll be posting soon a bit about what the lettering process is like — lettering being the stage where you add in all the word balloons and sound effects — but while I’m working on that post, I just couldn’t wait to share what some of the writing is like with you — at least for the first 12 pages. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy what you read!

But first a caveat — this is lettering over pencils — this isn’t the finished artwork (which will be in full-color), thus it is also not the finished lettering. The pages will, of course, look much more polished once the coloring is complete and I’ll be adding color and other visual effects as well to the sound effects. Please understand, this is still a “work-in-progress.”

But I think Vitto’s pencils are absolutely strong enough to stand on their own — and hopefully, the addition of the lettering will help you get a feel for what to expect when Chapter One is finished. In the comments, please let me know what you think!

(Oh, and to give you the full heads-up, in these pages, there’s strong language, the threat of violence and bad boys doing and saying bad things. But maybe that’s just how you like it. Yeah, baby, yeah!)

Click on one of the thumbnails below to activate our Lightbox viewer. Use your keyboard’s arrow keys to move to the next or previous pages. Click anywhere outside the image to close the Lightbox.

Hey! Wondering what happens next? No problem — we’re giving away this comic for free! Want to make sure you get the free download links to this comic when it’s finished? Well, it’s easy! Just fill out the form on the Free Comics page and the link will be sent right to you!

Enjoy reading articles like these? Don’t miss out! Get Yaoi 911™ blog posts emailed right to you — for free!

Learn More!

• Curious about the first comic we finished (and that we’re also giving away for free)? Then read all about our boys and sorcery story, “A Shot in the Dark”!
• Wondering why the heck I’m making a yaoi book? Check out Why This Gay Man Is Creating Yaoi!
• Want to read about other creators’ yaoi? Take a look at our in-depth Yaoi Reviews!
• Interested in creating your own manga? Start with How to Write a Full Comic Book Script and How to Find the Perfect Yaoi Artist for your Graphic Novel!

So, last month I showed you the character designs for the first chapter of our high school boys love action-romance Tough. Well, our work is coming along quite well and I now can show your the first 12 penciled pages! (The “pencils” being the fourth stage of creating a comic after creating the script, the character designs and the thumbnails.)

This first chapter, eponymously called “Tough”, introduces our characters and is about some bad boys, some bad choices and the impact that one out-of-control night has on the lives of everyone involved.

Our story starts with 15-year-old Filipino-American Mike Castro being dragged along by his friend, Larry, on a trash-can kicking spree with some older, wilder boys from their school. Mike knows these older boys are looking for trouble, but his loyalty to his friend encourages him to play along. It’s only after they take him and Larry around the corner from a Gay Youth Group Center and hand each of them a baseball bat that he realizes exactly how much trouble he’s gotten himself into.

Here are the first 12 pages — just penciled for now by our skilled penciler Vitto, with no word balloons added yet. Just click on the first one to activate our LightBox viewer. (Once the viewer is activated, you can use your arrow keys to go to each next page and the ESC key to quit.)

I hope you enjoyed looking at these pencils. We’re right now working hard on getting them colored and I’ll post some of those colored pages up here as soon as we’re finished. (And, as I said last time, the first chapters of this series will be available free to Yaoi 911™ News and Downloads subscribers. Look for the first chapter of Tough to be ready for download in the first quarter of 2009.)

We had a lot of fun making these pages. Please let me know what you think in the comments!

Want to make sure you get the free download links to this comic when it’s ready? Well, it’s easy! Just fill out the form on the Free Comic page and the links will be sent right to you!

Enjoy reading articles like these? Don’t miss out! Get Yaoi 911™ blog posts emailed right to you — for free!

Learn More!

• Curious about the first comic we finished (and that we’re giving away for free)? Then read all about our boys and sorcery story, “A Shot in the Dark”!
• Wondering why the heck I’m making a yaoi book? Check out Why This Gay Man Is Creating Yaoi!
• Want to read about other creators’ yaoi? Take a look at our in-depth Yaoi Reviews!
• Interested in creating your own manga? Start with How to Write a Full Comic Book Script and How to Find the Perfect Yaoi Artist for your Graphic Novel!

So, Winona and I are hard at work finishing up our 90-page yaoi sci-fi comic, “Artifice” . We’re about halfway through all the inks and things are going great.

But the problem with a 90-page comic — particularly when you’re perfectionists like Winona and I are — is that it takes a good long while to finish and have something to show. I just know you’re going to love it when we’re done — it’s got the sweet, it’s got the sexy, it’s got the smart — but for the moment, you kinda got to take my word for it. And it’s driving me a bit batty that for the time being, I can only show you previews — previews without any of my brilliant dialogue, mind you! Oh, the humanity!

So, in the meantime, while we’re finishing “Artifice” and the 70-page full-color yaoi comic “Quest”, I’ve decided to work on another book written with smaller, individual chapters so I can share finished work with you on a more regular schedule. That book is called Tough — it consists of seven chapters over two volumes — and I’ll be giving out the first volume for free to the subscribers of our Yaoi 911™ News and Downloads list.

The first chapter of the yaoi series Tough, shockingly called “Tough”, is about some bad boys, some bad choices and the impact that one out-of-control night has on the lives of everyone involved. It introduces our characters — both the heroes and the villains — and sets the stage for our action-romance. And to start giving you an idea what it’s about, I’m going to share with you some of the character designs our skilled penciler Vitto has come up with. (At this point, we’re almost complete with the Thumbnail Stage of this first chapter — once we have some Finished Pencils to show, I’ll post some of them up here as well…)

Mike

Our story starts with 15-year-old Filipino-American Mike Castro being dragged along by his friend, Larry, on a trash-can kicking spree with some older, wilder boys from their school.

He knows these older boys are looking for trouble, but his loyalty to his friend encourages him to play along. It’s only after they take him and Larry around the corner from a Gay Youth Group Center and hand each of them a baseball bat that he realizes exactly how much trouble he’s gotten himself into.

Kevin

Kevin is the darkly brilliant leader of the wild boys — and the mastermind behind their planned attack of a gay kid. Rich, handsome and so very bored, he can manipulate anyone into doing anything — and nothing would give him greater pleasure than to get a good boy like Mike Castro to do a very bad thing.

And doesn’t he just look like a yaoi villain?

Bruce

Bruce is Kevin’s second-in-command, best friend and partner-in-crime. Out of all the boys, he has the greatest hate for homosexuals — and the greatest desire to take their little game to the most deadly extreme.

Strong, angry and brutal, he values loyalty over everything else. If Kevin gives an order, he expects you to follow it, no matter what.

Chuck

Chuck is the most friendly and jocular of the wild boys and the one most willing to cut Mike some slack. He assures Mike that what they’re planning on doing to this gay kid is “just a laugh”, implying that no one is really going to get hurt.

But if everything is just a laugh to Chuck, how much is he really going to care if things get out of hand?

Larry

Larry is Mike’s best friend and the only other boy he really knows in this gang. Larry has always dreamed of being able to run with a cooler, older crowd and, by being invited along on this night’s adventure, those dreams are finally coming true.

Mike knows how important it is to Larry to be able to impress these older boys, but when Larry is handed a bat and smiles, Mike is forced to decide exactly how far he is willing to go to support his best friend in his pursuit of being cool — and consider what will happen to both of them if he doesn’t.

Rob

Rob is the target of Kevin’s plan — the fag he wants to bash. Kevin doesn’t know him — Rob’s just a member of the town’s Gay Youth Group who decided to take a short-cut home. Happy to have had a great night with his friends, Rob rounds a corner of the street with a smile on his face and finds his life changed forever.

Smart, funny, stylish and cool under pressure, Rob has always been able to handle whatever life has thrown at him. But now he faces five sneering teenagers with bats. There is no way he is going to talk his way out of this kind of trouble — and if he tries to fight all of them, he’ll surely be killed. Sometimes life just sucks that way.

“Chapter 1: Tough” Coming Soon

Will Kevin and his crew follow through on their plans to beat up a fag? Is what they’re doing “just a laugh” or something much more dangerous? Will Mike be forced to join in on this fag bashing? And if he does, it’ll be five guys with baseball bats against one unarmed dude — what are the chances that Rob will even survive? And how can this possibly be the start of a romance?

The first chapters of this series will be available free to Yaoi 911™ News and Downloads subscribers. Look for the first chapter of Tough to be ready for download in the first quarter of 2009.

Want to make sure you get the free download links to this comic when it’s ready? Well, it’s easy! Just fill out the form on the Free Comic page and the links will be sent right to you!

Enjoy reading articles like these? Don’t miss out! Get Yaoi 911™ blog posts emailed right to you — for free!

Learn More!

• Curious about the first comic we finished (and that we’re giving away for free)? Then read all about our boys and sorcery story, “A Shot in the Dark”!
• Wondering why the heck I’m making a yaoi book? Check out Why This Gay Man Is Creating Yaoi!
• Want to read about other creators’ yaoi? Take a look at our in-depth Yaoi Reviews!
• Interested in creating your own manga? Start with How to Write a Full Comic Book Script and How to Find the Perfect Yaoi Artist for your Graphic Novel!

Hoping to see more guys in their underwear from Yaoi 911™? Then wait no longer! The pencils for the second comic — the 90-page sci-fi action-romance “Artifice” from our upcoming book Yaoi 911™: Firsts — are finally complete. So we can now give everyone a taste of what’s to come — something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time!

(Oh, and I should say that one of these preview pages is even without the underwear — so read no further unless you are over 18, please!)

First off, a description of what this comic is about:

It was supposed to be a routine search-and-kill mission but Deacon, a prototype android assassin, has failed spectacularly — not only did he disobey orders, letting a 19-year-old business liability named Jeff survive, he attacked and killed those who were sent to help him. Now, the brilliant and uncompromising robopsychologist Clarice Maven has been summoned by the Corporation to determine why.

Of course, it’s a yaoi story so perhaps you can guess at least one potential reason he let the boy live. But there is much more than meets the eye in this corporate-ruled dystopian future where every motive is suspect and everyone has dark secrets. With Deacon at her absolute mercy, Dr. Maven will not rest until she has all the answers — and has made sure that this malfunctioning robot will never fail the Corporation ever again!

A Work In Progress

So, there are several stages in making a full-color comic: character designs, thumbnails, pencils, inks, coloring and then, finally, lettering. But it’s at the pencils stage that you can really begin to get a feel for what the final comic will look like — and, in my humble opinion, artist Winona Nelson has done an amazing job with the pencils for “Artifice”.

They’ll, of course, be refined a great deal before the linework is finished, but by sharing a few right now, I can begin to give you an idea of what to expect from the final, full-color and super-sized comic.

On the surface, the story is about solving a mystery — what exactly happened on the renegade colony of Da Vinci 4 that caused this corporate killing machine to disobey orders and turn against his masters? But finding out the answer to that question is far from simple: because Deacon is so advanced, they can’t simply download the information from his CPU — subtler tools are required. Thus, they have brought in the brilliant Dr. Maven, a psychologist specializing in artificial intelligence, to probe the defiant android’s subconscious and, ideally, convince him to come clean so they can fix him.

(Click on the image for a larger, clearer preview. You can then scroll through the images using your arrow keys. Hit ESC to quit.)

Dr. Maven begins with a simple debriefing:

Robopsychologist Dr. Clarice Maven begins debriefing Deacon

But, of course, even the subtle tool of psychotherapy can occasionally get a little intense:

Of course, even the subtle tool of psychotherapy can occasionally get a little intense...

And sometimes even very intense!

...and sometimes even *very* intense!

Now, one of the big questions she needs to answer is why, out of the over one hundred colonists on Da Vinci 4 he did kill, did Deacon choose to let this particular boy live?

She knows, at first, he was working to complete his mission on budget and on schedule:

Dr. Maven knows that, at first, Deacon was working to complete his mission on budget and on schedule...

But somehow this boy got to him, made him change his mind:

...but somehow this boy got to him...

...made him change his mind...

And soon Deacon was acting well outside the parameters of his programming:

...and soon Deacon was acting well outside the parameters of his programming.

...

...

...

Of course there’s a lot more to this story than just answering that question.

More action…

More action...

…and a lot more romance:

...and more romance.

But I don’t want to give away the whole store…

(Unless, of course, you’re a Yaoi 911™ News subscriber, in which case you already got emailed the link to a bunch of pages that were just too gosh darn spicy to be put up here on our public blog… Hope you’re enjoying them!)

I do hope this gives you a sense of the fun that’s in store once this comic is complete — it’s going to be a good one, I promise. And as always, please leave your feedback in the comments below — we’d love to hear what you think!

Oh, and what if you want to see the extra spicy pages, too? Well, it’s easy! Just fill out the form on the Free Comic page and the link will be sent right to you!

Enjoy reading articles like these? Don’t miss out! Get Yaoi 911™ emailed right to you!

Learn More!

• Curious about the first comic we finished for this book (and that we’re giving away for free)? Then read all about our boys and sorcery story, “A Shot in the Dark”!
• Wondering why the heck I’m making a yaoi book? Check out Why This Gay Man Is Creating Yaoi!
• Want to read about other creators’ yaoi? Take a look at our in-depth Yaoi Reviews!
• Interested in creating your own manga? Start with How to Write a Full Comic Book Script and How to Find the Perfect Yaoi Artist for your Graphic Novel!

Sadly, not the actual book that we are in -- Amazon doesn't offer it...

So late last year, I was chatting with my buddy and colleague, Tommy Roddy — he’s the creator of Pride High, a series of comics about gay teen superheroes in high school… (C’mon, y’know you’re curious — click it! ) — and he turned me on to this guide that comes out once a year which offers readers excerpts from a bunch of gay comics. It’s created by the folks at Prism Comics and serves as a kind of a who’s who and what’s what for the gays in both mainstream and independent Western comics.

Anyway, I reached out to them, one thing led to another and now there’s an excerpt from “A Shot in the Dark” in the current issue! Just picked it up from my Local Comic Book Store twenty minutes ago and everything. How cool is that!

Of course, there’s also a bunch of other gay comics in there (including an excerpt from “Roulette” by yaoi creator Tina Anderson) — so if you like the guy-on-guy action (and can handle a little girl-on-girl action) it’s definitely worth a look.

You can read more about it here:

Prism Comics: Your LGBT Guide to Comics 2008 in Comic Shops Now!

Oh, and if you’re a Prism reader who’s looking to read the complete, full-color version of “A Shot in the Dark”, just fill out the form on the Free Comic page — a download link will be emailed to you right away.

(UPDATE: THERE’S A NEW, MORE USER-FRIENDLY WAY TO GET THE COMIC THAN REGISTERING. SEE BELOW OR JUST FILL OUT THE FORM OVER ON THE FREE COMIC PAGE.)

So let me tell you, we’ve been awful busy lately putting together the book — super busy, crazy busy, so busy, in fact, that I haven’t had a chance to mention yet that the first story in the book. “A Shot in the Dark,” is completely finished and ready for public consumption. Well, all that is going to change right now. I’ll be posting its final pages up here (like I’ve done with its in-production pages ) sometime soon, but in the meantime, I’d like to give out a preview PDF of this complete full-color yaoi comic to those readers who’ve registered their email address with this blog. Just as a special treat.

Now, like I said, I’m going to post it up here anyway — so if you’re squeamish about registering, don’t sweat it, you’ll be able to read it here soon enough — but I promised to offer special promotions to registered members and until I have something to sell, giving members first dibs at a free yaoi comic seems like a nice way to say “thank you.”

UPDATE (8/5/07): So I’ve now sent out the download link to all registered members of this blog. I had to use a new email address — yaoi911@gmail.com at gmail — because my web provider has a very strict anti-spam policy and wouldn’t let me send out more than a few emails at a time. This, I suppose, is a good thing — and I support them in their anti-spamming goals. And it got me thinking that sending emails out to my registered users probably isn’t the best policy.

Even though I’d like to be able to communicate (and give free comics!) to the community of Registered Members, seeing as we are living in the Age of Spam, the last thing I want to do is send email to folks who don’t want it. Instead, if you want the link to the comic, you should sign up for the Announce List which you can see over there in the right sidebar (“Send me a free full color yaoi comic!”). (Or, alternatively, just fill out the form on the Free Comic page — it’s the same thing.)

Using an announce list, I can be absolutely certain that everyone I send an email to — be it with a link to a free comic or a special members-only discount on the ones for sale — honestly will want to get one from me. Living and learning here, friends…

So, to make this clear: If you want the comic, you should click on Free Comic and fill out the form there. Kay?

I hope you enjoy the comic. And I’d sure love to hear what you think about it. Please use the comments section of this post to let us know!

Jeff, an inconvenient orphan...

UPDATE: The pencils for this comic can now be see at Yaoi Art: “Artifice Pencils” and there the underwear comes off!

Hey, everyone! The first book of the Yaoi 911™ action-yaoi series (which I’m pretty sure I’m going to call “Firsts”) is well under way. And the first story in the book — “A Shot in the Dark,” which you’ve been watching us create on this blog — is finally completely colored and lettered and you can now download the entire comic for free. But there are, of course, more stories in this graphic novel and I’d like to begin previewing them here as well, starting with “Artifice,” a comic with art created from start to finish by “A Shot in the Dark” inker and colorist Winona Nelson.

“Artifice” is a scif-fi story featuring an android assassin, Deacon, who fails to eliminate his target, a 19-year-old human refugee named Jeff, on a routine search-and-kill mission. Robopsychologist Clarice Maven is brought in by the Corporation that owns Deacon to determine why. This being a yaoi story, I’m pretty sure you can guess at least one potential reason he let the boy live , but there is much more than meets the eye in this corporate-ruled dystopian future where everyone has dark secrets and their own agenda. And the brilliant and formidable Dr. Maven will not rest until she has all the answers — and has made sure that Deacon will never fail the Corporation ever again!

But onto the making of this comic! I haven’t discussed this yet, but the very first stage of creating the art for a comic, before even the thumbnail pages, are the character designs. I’ll talk briefly about that process and then show you what the heroes of our story look like, both with and without their pants.

The Ultimate Casting Couch

When working with an artist on a new story, I’ll send her the script and a short document of Character Descriptions which contains notes about the characters as well as a number of supplementary pictures I hope will inspire her to create the look that’s needed. (For example, for Cornelius, the old mage in “A Shot in the Dark,” I wanted a cross between Gandalf and Dumbledore and included representative pictures of both characters from various movies in my Notes.)

While finding the right images is a lot of work (it’s not unusual for me to search through three or four thousand, yes thousand, pictures online before I find the 2 or 3 that really work), it’s also a lot of fun. It’s my chance to “cast” anyone I’d like in the roles of my characters, from famous actors from the past to random people from the street. The goal isn’t, of course, to recreate an exact likeness of any one person — they should all be new characters with their own look, both for artistic and legal reasons — but the ability to capture the essence of a certain character by finding the right pics is very exciting. It’s like having an unlimited casting budget coupled with a time machine at my ready disposal.

Now, I hope you’ll forgive me for being a little coy about which examples I chose for specific characters in “Artifice” — as I’ve said, I want you to think of them as new characters in their own right — but suffice it to say that Winona captured exactly what I was looking for.

So, without further ado, here are the main characters of “Artifice”!

DEACON

Our protagonist, a resourceful and sensitive android soldier, living in a world that views him as nothing more than a tool. Formerly a contented member of a Corporation Kill Team, he failed to complete his last mission and even attacked the Corporate Officers sent to retrieve him.

Why did he bite the hand that created him and what is to be done with a killer robot that won’t follow orders?

Clicking on a thumbnail page will activate our cool Javascript-based Lightbox viewer. Once you have activated the Lightbox, click on the right side of the page for the next page, the left side for the previous page, and the “X” at the bottom-right of the script page to return to this site. (You can also use the keys “N”, “P” and “X” to navigate.)

JEFF

Jeff is the only surviving member of a group of scientific colonists who were killed for knowing too much. Ironic and bitter, having endured numerous hardships throughout his short life, he faced certain death at the hands of a relentless killing machine. Yet Deacon spared his life — why?

DR. MAVEN

Brilliant, insightful and very skilled at what she does, she now faces her biggest challenge — an android with the strategic intelligence of a hundred military commanders who wants to keep the truth about what happened on Da Vinci Four from her at all costs.

Will she outsmart this synthetic killer and learn why things went so wrong on that barren world or has she finally met her match?

SECURITY

Deacon has the strength of ten men and someone has to get him under control if he chooses not to toe the Corporate line. Here are a few members of the Corporate Security Forces who will try to do just that:

But Is It Yaoi?

As you can see, the art style we chose for this comic is more realistic European-style than anything else, but it definitely fits the tone and style of the piece. And as I’ve said all along, my goal is to create stories that will appeal to those who love yaoi for the same reasons I do, not to slavishly follow any particular artistic or thematic convention.

Will there be folks who will cry “It’s not yaoi!”? Maybe. But perhaps there will be others who will be open to shaking up their assumptions a little bit. In these yaoi stories, I’m promising cute guys kissing (and more… ) in character-based romances that’ll be a lot of fun for both women and men. And hopefully, there are at least a few of you out there wouldn’t mind seeing characters looking like Deacon and Jeff getting naked for your reading pleasure.

Let me know what you think!

I hope that you enjoyed this small sample of the art from the second comic in our book. If you do like what you see or find the story content intriguing, please let me know in the comments!

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Psst! Want a free yaoi full-color yaoi comic? Just sign up over at our Free Comic page and we’ll send you the download link!

Learn More!

• Want to learn how to write a script for a graphic novel? Check out How to Write a Full Comic Book Script!
• How about finding an artist so you can turn that script into great art? Start with How to Find the Perfect Yaoi Artist for your Graphic Novel!
• Would you like to see the character designs for our next yaoi book, Tough? Take a look at Yaoi Art: “Tough” Character Designs!
• Just looking for a good book to curl up with? Then click on over to our Yaoi Reviews!