Self Publishing?

One of the challenges any creator owned project faces is publishing. Although we still have some time to really worry about publishing, we have been toying with the idea of creating our own publishing studio. Here are some mock ups of our possible banners for our banner.  It was important to utilize the Sun/Lion graphic which is our logo for Zindan. 

Special Edition NYC Roundup

So this past weekend we made our VERY FIRST comic con appearance as Zindan and it was amaaaaazing! As you may have seen from the posts leading up to special edition weekend we printed out 3000+ prints for promotions  (Huge thanks to absolutecolor.com and tristaroffset). At the con we got a very warm welcome despite showing up an hour and some change late. We quickly got our booth set up and started our hustle. Initially a lot of people were hesitent to take prints as if free didn't really mean free. Eventually people started getting more comfortable and a lot appreciated the fact that we were working hard to win them over. We met some great comic book fans and hope that they will choose to follow our series when our first issue comes out later in august. 

We also met some amazing artists near by: Sean Douglas, Danielle Otrakji, Keyla Valerio. Check them out! 

 

Ok enough talk...here are the pictures: 

 

 

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Our Legal counsel/Sherpa. She was ready to go!

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Special Edition NYC let's go!

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Rep your team!

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Day 1. Hour 1. Minute 1.

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Doing some podcast shoutouts!

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Working the crowd.

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Sean Douglas going in. @doulsea

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This guy is probably one of the most animated artists I've seen. When he creates art it's a performance. At one point he was sharpening pencils with his teeth, testing paints on his skin, painting on the floor.

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And there he is on the floor.

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Very humble dude.

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Clearly he doesn't like being in front of the camera.

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Chris Claremont. E'nuff said.

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Staff trying on some mughal armor.

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Keyla @kthecosmonaut doing some character designs. She's great with female characters.

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Coming together nicely. 

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Starting to look like Tara.

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Done!

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Khaula our editor joins the party.

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Here is a jinn sketch from Danielle. 

The Studio

If you've ever wondered about where the magic happens: 

 

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Adelsos workspace with pages from Zindan in progress. 

Double Page Spread

So we are coming up on pages 8-9 where our story begins to have some serious action sequences. We are going big with a double page spread of a battle. Here is a small sneak peak of Sajads latest rendering: 

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More Characters

Here are some ultra exclusive looks at characters during the design process. We are building a library of our various characters to help keep our artwork consistent (a lot harder than it seems when you have as many characters as we do).

  

 

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3D Panels

So a lot of the story is told through panels and layouts. Here Sajad did something unique and broke the borders to give a "3D" effect of a paper being presented. These thumbnail sketches don't really do it justice but once you see the completed page you will appreciate the effect. 

 

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Alonso hits a home run!

Since this is a new comic book and we are still creating everything from scratch we have had some delays trying to get in the "groove" so to speak. There is a lot of back and forth where we experiment with colors and styles in order to get the exact right look. In terms of colors, we have the challenge of imagining what would be possible with fabrics and dyes from the 1600s. Alonso has done an incredible job bringing color into our imagined world without making these guys look like they are wearing spandex. Check out the colors from the opening splash. Im sure you will agree he did an outstanding job!

Farrah Fawcett Hair

As these guys will tell you, I am a stickler on hair. Sajad has done an incredible job accommodating my OCD about these guys and their hair styles. We call this one Farrah Fawcett or the He-man. Adelso has the challenging task of making that hair look alive. Here is a quick preview as he starts slinging some inks.  

Pages and more Pages

Sajad has been extra busy putting out page and page of pure awesomeness...check out the sneak peak of pages to come:

Layouts

Being as busy as we are, a lot of our work is done through smart phones. Here is an excellent example of that: Sajad's layouts for page 5 made on his smart phone! Amazing! 

Inks continue to flow

Here are more progress pictures of Adelso's Inks for page 3 of issue 1.  Yes, someone does pass on in this page. 

Here come the letters

If you have been watching out website carefully you may have noticed a recent addition to our team: Jessica Jimerson. She has graciously joined our team to help put words to our amazing art! 

Below are some samples of fonts, and narrative bubbles as we were deciding the look for the books. Check it out! 

Friends of Zindan!

We love seeing things like this!  Here are some pictures sent in from the lovely Abbas sisters working on their Zindan puzzle (which they made)!  Looks great!

Close up on the Inking

So as we continue to Ink pages here is a close up of the hard work that Adelso puts into Inking Sajads pencils. As you can see Adelso is beginning to add a lot of depth and texture to the awesome artwork that Sajad is laying down. As it heads to Alonso the final image will be the collaborative effort of three separate artists who each bring their own unique style and experiences into how they portray the image. All around a really fun process to watch. 

Interior Pages are coming Alive!!

Its been a little bit of a slow process getting the interiors rolling as we are still trying to plan out many details in terms of what things will look like.  Despite the delays we have finished the colors for Page 1 and now off to lettering. Here is a sneak peak of the first page for everyone to enjoy! We love feedback so don't hesitate to send us your messages!

India Abroad Coverage

Recently we were approached by Chaya Babu, who is an extremely talented writer from India Abroad, to do a cover story about Zindan. Here are the high resolution scans of the resulting article. I hope you agree that she did an amazing job! Thanks again!

KHAN Has Arrived!

Here is the first full sneak of KHAN "The Man Eater". Khan is one of our most fearsome villains and will be a significant adversary of Zain and Timur. Pencils by Sajad, Inks by Adelso, Colors by Alonso. Stay tuned for more art! 

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