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PEN MAN ON COMIXOLOGY!

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Yep, Pen Man is finally making it’s way to Comixology. Not that anyone asked for it, but it’s going there. And there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.

PEN MAN ON COMIXOLOGY!

The series has been organized into volumes by story arcs. I’ve currently got five volumes up there and there are a bunch more submitted that haven’t been released. Hopefully, sometime early next year the first fifty issues will be available. Each volume also includes some new covers, new artwork, origin shorts, and character power rankings. So that’s a lot of crap in one place for less than a dollar.



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FIFTY ISSUES DONE!

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Pen50_Poster

FIfTY ISSUES ARE DONE!

I did it.

Why?

I have no idea.

In honor of the occasion I put together an image of the first fifty covers. Then I had it printed up. Then I had it framed. Then I hung it on the wall of my office.

It was a hell of a lot of work.

Seriously.

Probably too much.

I should at least be proud of the time it took.

Or depressed by it?

Shit…

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SCRAPPED PAGE

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Because Pen Man is a 100% free time endeavor, I don’t actually “write” scripts for each issue. I usually have a basic idea of where I want to go with the story, and draw a little bit every night when I crawl into bed. Eventually I get around to scanning the image and coloring it. Finally, when that’s all done, I “write” the actual issue.

It’s a weird way of doing things.

Probably not the best way.

I also don’t care.

I don’t plan on changing things anytime soon.

Anyway, because of the way I put these things together, sometimes a page or two gets dropped. The image below was originally supposed to appear in Issue 16. While I was “writing” it though, it just seemed out of place. I had planned it to be part of the section where Earth God is telling the story of what happened when Heaven exploded and things started going wacko, but in the end it just seemed like he was babbling on far too long.

Heaven blew up. Lots of “gods” were killed. Stuff was on fire. Cool. Now shut up about it.

Steven
IS16_PG17

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ISSUE THIRTEEN!

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Heaven_PM

Issue thirteen is here! 

I have the next three issues illustrated and colored, but I’m still working on plugging the text into issue fifteen. When it’s all said and done, I’m actually pretty happy with this arc. It finally offers up some answers on the origins of Heaven, and the Gods, and a bunch of other stuff I’ve only hinted at in the stuff leading up to this. Plus, as the name Ragnarok suggests, it really is the end of a huge part of the series.

Basically, a lot of stuff dies.

And I get to draw a lot of blood.

Nothing wrong with drawing a lot of blood.

Steven

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ISSUE NINE AND TWO ORIGIN SHORTS!

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Just for the hell of it, I uploaded the remainder of issue nine today. All at once. Because, why not? Now the entire thing (all twenty-four pages) can be read HERE

I also uploaded a couple short origin stories. The first is for another member of the Mattney family and can be found HERE

The second is for one of my personal favorite characters, Grass Man, and can be found here HERE

Or you could, you know…just use the Archives link at the top of the page? Youlazybastards.

Issue 10 will be starting next Tuesday and it’s a pretty decent little arch. Thor has arrived. He’s pissed. And he’s ready to blow some shit up.

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ISSUE EIGHT, TAPASTIC, AND OTHER NEWS

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OldCover

 

Issue eight is done and Folder Man has arrived.

Yeah, I know…

Pen Man. Folder Man. It is what it is.

Actually, when I first gave Mike his powers (way back when) in issue #2 of the original series, he was given the unfortunate name “Pen Man’s Friend.” Yep, that was his superhero name. You can see, in the amazing cover above that there’s even a little PMF logo on his costume.

When you take into consideration a name like Pen Man’s friend, Folder Man is actually a pretty gigantic step up.

Gotta love that high-five they’re giving each other as well. Right?

Issue #9 is starting next week and it is by far my favorite of this new series.

In other site news, you might have noticed that I’ve been slowly updating the Characters tab with new bios, artwork, information, and some cool little power level thingys. I’ve always wanted to do those. I’ll continue to update those as more characters get introduced.

Lastly, if anyone out there uses the Tapastic app, I’ve uploaded the first seven issues as well as the Origins shorts, and everything can be read there. It’s a pretty decent little app that makes reading an entire issue a breeze, and allows you to subscribe to updates. You can find me, and all Pen Man related stuff HERE. Or just download the app and search for my name, or Pen Man, and you’ll find me. It’s only been up there a couple days, but I’m planning on adding two pages a week, the same as I do on the site.

And that’s about it, I guess.

If you were standing beside me, I’d offer up an awkward Pen Man/Pen Man’s Friend high five.

And you’d never speak to me again.

Steven

 

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ISSUE SEVEN AND MATT MATTNEY!

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Issue seven is finally here.

I actually sort of like this one. I sort of like everything from this point on.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the first six issues. They are what they are. There’s some cool stuff, some not so cool stuff, and a few things that I probably shouldn’t have drawn. The first six were actually drawn six or seven years ago, before I took a little hiatus to dig into writing a proper book. That proper book transformed into seven proper books and I forgot about Pen Man for quite a while. Everything from this point on was made more recently. It looks a little different. It reads a little different. And most of all it has a sense of direction the first six issues didn’t. Believe it or not, I actually have a plan.

Sort of.

Mostly.

I’m much more focused on the story I want to tell with the character this time out, and the sort of hero I want him to be. I also have sixteen issues in the can, so you can count on a site update for quite some time. That being said, the site will return to regularly scheduled updates on Tuesday and Thursday. If I’m feeling froggy I’ll drop an extra page here and there as well.

The three issue arc beginning with seven features the debut of Matt Mattney. He’s been mentioned a few times in previous issues and his origin was featured in an Origins Update a few pages ago. I like this character. I created him when I was in sixth grade and debuted in Pen Man #3 (Original Universe)

Want to see the cover? Of course not.

Mattney_old

Pretty spectacular, right?

Of course not.

The character was based on a kid I knew at the time named, as luck would have it, Matt Mattney. I don’t remember Matt being a particularly imposing figure. He was you basic kid and has next to nothing in common with the character, other than his name.

I mean, Matt Mattney?

Come on.

The sixth grade version of Mattney called himself the “Double M Jammer.” I won’t be using that moniker this time around. He also carried around a long stick with a very sharp “M” on top, and threw around bombs in the shape of “M’s” as well. Both of which I gave the ol’ heave-ho as well.

Sometimes the ol’ heave-ho comes in handy.

Steven

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A NEW PAGE EVERY DAY! (UNTIL WE HIT ISSUE SEVEN)

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I’ve decided that pages will be dropping daily, until we hit issue seven.

Why?

I think issue seven is where the book really starts to hit its stride.

It’s not that I think 1-6 are crummy. They’re fine. There are some good moments here and there. I  really like page eleven of issue four, for example. There are some boobs in page twelve of issue four. So that’s…great?

I dunno.

I just want to get to issue seven. I like the villain a lot. I like the story, and I’ve mostly liked everything I’ve put together since then, and the story I’m working on now.

Speaking of the stuff I’m working on now. Here’s the artwork from the cover of issue thirteen.

Why?

Because I dig it.

Stop asking why.

IS13_PG1

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POISON, AND WHY IS PEN MAN DRAWN THE WAY HE’S DRAWN?

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Okay…

Here’s the thing…

The first few issues of the comic have been available for less than a couple weeks, and more than once I’ve been asked the same question, “Why is it drawn like that?”

Usually this one is tossed my by people familiar with my less cartoony work like the stuff I did for the illustrations in Forts, or the insanely detailed pencil stuff I did in college, or well…I guess almost anything else I do.

The answer to why Pen Man looks the way it does is mostly simple: I like it.

Have I done “better” work? Sure.

More “technical” work? Probably.

Work where the human form actually resembles the human form and all the heads don’t have to point to the reader? Of course.

Here’s the deal, Pen Man and pretty much 90% of the characters in the Pen Man world were created when I was twelve. It’s why his name is so stupid. It’s why most of his villains are rip-offs/twists on Marvel and DC characters. It’s also why his head is always pointing at camera.

I was an idiot when I was twelve.

There are quite a few people out there that would probably claim I’m still a bit of an idiot, and I won’t flatly deny that, but these days I’m a different sort of idiot.

The reason I’ve kept the forward heads, and the funky proportions, and I haven’t changed the silly names is because that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Unique, or, weird, or just plain crummy (depending on who you’re talking to and how honest they’re being) it is the Pen Man “style.”

I’m comfortable drawing him this way. It’s nostalgic. It’s easy. I can lay in bed at night without a care in the world and draw something I’ve been drawing since I was twelve, the way I’ve been drawing it since I was twelve, and the way it’s supposed to be drawn.

Have a look at issue two from waaaayyyy back when.

OldCover

Pen Man and Pen Mans Friend (yep, that’s actually what I named him) take on the menace of “Tank  Man.” It’s pretty dynamic stuff. And by dynamic, I mean, hilariously crappy.

I also love it.

This is the way Pen Man looks, and as long as I’m drawing him, it’s the way he’s always going to look.

Don’t mess with the classics, even when the “classics” exist only in your mind.

Speaking of “classics,” next weeks pages will see the debut of a character my little brother created back when we were drawing comics side-by-side and racking up a nearly 300 issue run of our typing paper/stapled along the side, V1 of Novak Comics.

I don’t think my little brother ever really “loved” drawing. I think he liked writing the stories, and more than that, I think he liked just doing something with me. We both did. There was a fairly long period of time when we didn’t live together growing up. I was with living with my mother, he was still with my father. We saw each other from Saturday to Sunday every weekend, and we’d film a movie, or draw some comics, or something equally nerdy.

For the same reason Pen Man looks the way he looks, some of my brothers characters will be popping up over the course of the series.

With that in mind, here’s an original drawing of Poison he did from issue two of a little something called Sloth (Societies Last Option Towards Humanity) back in the day.

PoisonNick

 

The head’s a little weird.

The teeth are weirder.

The costume leaves something to be desired.

It really is perfect.

If you’ve already seen the page I aded this morning, he looks mostly the same.

Because you don’t fuck with the classics.

-Steven