Blast from the Past! Really old Olympians sketches found!

I was going through some old watercolor pads the other day and came across this page of really old, proto-Olympian sketches-- I think these actually predate my current concept of the series and date back to an earlier idea that thankfully never got past my drawing board. Some of the characters look pretty close to their eventual Olympians, some do not, and almost all are kind of embarrassing in their crumminess. Can you figure out who's who?

Progress Report: Some almost sorta kinda finished color pages of Hades

So I've been working on coloring the finished black and white artwork for Olympians Book 4, Hades: The I-don't-remember-the-new-subtitle the past few weeks. Last Friday I took a break from that to make an appearance at the Little Red Schoolhouse in NYC; as part of my presentation, I showed the students there a bunch of the almost-finished colored pages from Hades. And since I showed it to them, I figured I should also show them to you, the dedicated readers of this blog.

The above pages are not finished-- there are a lot of subtle gradients, details and color tweaks still to be added-- but there's enough there to give you an idea of what to expect from the final book. How do you like 'em so far?

The Colosseum

Along with a bunch of other comics artists I know, every Monday thru Friday we choose a topic (for example, "dinosaurs" or "Harry Potter" and then we draw a warm-up picture on that topic. I don't normally post these drawings to the Olympiansrule blog because they normally have nothing to do with Olympians, but today the topic was "Civilization" and I drew the famous Colosseum of Ancient Rome. I admit it still doesn't have much to do with Olympians, but I thought you all might still like to see it.

Fan Art Forum! Persephone in living color, with update

It's been awhile since I ran one of these, but that's because it's been awhile since somebody sent me something ;)

Jakob Dailes has previously been featured on this site in a mythophile profile, and runs his own site the Classical Club. Recently, on the BRAND SPANKING NEW OLYMPIANS RULE FORUM Jakob posted the below image of Persephone, drawn by yours truly for Olympians Book 4, Hades, that he had colored in.

So what do you think? To the best of my knowledge, I haven't posted any color versions of what Persephone will look like yet (with the exception of the cover, which has changed A LOT). UPDATED: Here's a link to my finished colors So how close did he come to my version? Some things are the same, a few things are different, but all in all-- pretty darn cool.

BIG NEWS! NEW OLYMPIANS RULE FORUM!! OH MY GODS!!!

Take a look at the top of this page, right under the header and you will notice a new feature. That's right, a forum! Go and click it and take a look!

Outlined in shocking pink so as to make it easier to see

I get a lot of questions and mail in the comments section of this blog; unfortunately, it's been located all over the place, on posts from all different times, and as a result sometimes I don't even get to see it when someone makes a new comment. With the new forum, now there will be an easy way to ask me any question you might desire, and it will all be in one handy location. Please keep posting your comments about a specific post to the comments section of that post, but if you have a general question about, say, who's stronger, Poseidon or Hades, post it in the forum. So stop on by and introduce yourself. I'm looking forward to talking with you all there!

Zeus and Athena made the New York Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading And Sharing

Like the title says, the New York Public Library chose both Zeus: King of the Gods and Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess for its 100 Titles for Reading And Sharing. Give it a look-- I'm honored to be on the same list as the rest of these wonderful creators.