Progress Report: Hades: The Wealthy One-- thumbnails!

A lot of times I'll double post my sketches here and at my other blog, My Online Sketchbook, but this is just for guys. Hera: The Goddess and her Glory is in the can, all wrapped up, and (as you can tell from all the character sketches I've been posting) I'm currently hard at work on Hades: The Wealthy One. Writing a graphic novel like Hades is a tricky business-- in addition to all the words, there's all the pictures as well. Each panel has to work, each page, it's a lot to keep track of.

These are some "thumbnail sketches" (I guess they're called thumbnails because they're so small-- in real life each of these drawings are only a couple of inches high) which are essentially, very rough layouts of how the finished pages of Hades will eventually look. You'll notice, as I am both the writer and illustrator of Olympians, I actually kind of do both at the same time-- there are small snippets of dialogue and writing in the margins, and sometimes, in the drawings themselves.

Enjoy this sneak peek look at Hades. I'm sure that some of you sharp-eyed mythophiles will be able to tell exactly what is going on.

Sketchbook Sneak Peek: The Dread Queen Persephone, and Hekate

A few more character sketches for all of you from Olympians Book 4, Hades: The Wealthy One. First up is this sketch of Demeter's lovely daughter Kore, after her transformation into the Dread Queen of Hades, Persephone.


And nextly, someone who has ended up being one of my favorite characters in the book, Hekate, goddess of the Crossroads. She becomes Demeter's loyal companion as she searches for her daughter after Kore's abduction. It's a subtle little craziness in her face that is the thing I like about her so much.

Sketchbook Sneak Peek: A couple of old men

Here are a few doodles of a couple of gentlemen you might run into in the afterlife. On the top is Kharon, ferryman for the River Styx. I have to admit, it was pretty tough to not just copy the skeletal design of him from the classic "Clash of the Titans" (not the new version-- that was the worst movie I saw all year-- maybe in several years). Beneath Kharon is Tantalos, who you would only run into if you had been very, very naughty in life. Tantalos is being punished eternally in Tartaros. He stands beneath grape vines that pull up whenever he reaches for them, and in a pool of water that recedes whenever he stoops for a drink. I imagine he's gotten pretty hungry and thirsty over the millennia. This poor dude is where we get the word "tantalizing" from.

Sketchbook Sneak Peek: It's Hot as Hades Today!

In honor of the old saying and the fact that the temperature has been in triple digits here in NYC, I thought I'd share this double page spread from my sketchbook, with doodles of an armored Hades, a thoughtful Demeter, and a drawing from behind of a certain demigod who may have been surprised to find himself in the Underworld.