House of Odd

Posted onMarch 17, 2012April 4, 20186 Comments

This week I started on inks for chapters 3-4 of Small Shen, and also finished my short story for our Bento Comics Peter Pan anthology (which I’ll talk about in a few weeks). I’m also going to Adelaide Comic-Con as a guest om the 30th March – 1st April, but this post is entirely dedicated to what’s happening next week, which is…

This is the third Odd Thomas book I’ve done, titled “House of Odd” and it’s coming out next Tuesday on the 20th March, 2012 (I posted some art from this a while back). This book was drawn in 2011, and like the other two books, In Odd We Trust and the #1 New York Times seller Odd Is On Our Side, it focuses on the adventures of psychic fry-cook Odd Thomas, star of Dean Koontz‘s best-selling prose novel series of the same name. This book is adapted from a script by Dean and Landry Q. Walker, and I thank the both of them for their fine work!

NB.I also got to thank Lala of Review Carnival, and Allen of Jazma Online for their interviews of me! Lala’s is a general interview, whereas Allen’s deals specifically with House of Odd!

For North American Readers: You can buy it here off Amazon.com
For International Readers: You can buy it here off BookDepository.com, which has free international shipping.

What’s the Story?
The story of House of Odd once again has Odd and Stormy trying to solve a supernatural disturbance, but this time it’s a disturbance with a difference! It occurs at the site of a supposedly haunted house, which has just been bought and renovated by Nedra Nolan, a friend of Ozzie Boone. Ozzie recommended Odd to Nedra as the resident ghost-busters of Pico Mundo, but Nedra isn’t impressed – she’s an ex-Hollywood producer who instead hires her own (and therefore competing) band of ghostbusters to figure the house out. However, neither Odd nor the ghostbusters are prepared for what will actually happen in the house…

Odd Thomas is a psychic fry-cook who can see dead people, who lives in the Californian town of Pico Mundo. Accompanied by his ass-kicking, gun-toting girlfriend Stormy, he often tries to help the forlorn spirits he encounters by finding their murderers. This involves getting into a fair bit of danger. Luckily, Odd has many (living) friends, many of them quite odd themselves, who help him in his quest. It’s a rather charming, off-beat take on the supernatural, with moments of action and suspense, as Odd finds himslf the target of some truly nasty people as he tries to uncover their nefarious deeds.

Here I Show Off Some…
I’ve got to end this with a picture of something Dean sent me for my work… signed, numbered, first-edition copies of the first 4 Odd Thomas prose novels!! It was so kind of Dean to make this generous gesture, so in return I sent him back some original pages from House of Odd. Mind you, I’ve never owned any first edition books before, and had no idea that they were so big. They’re beautifully-printed, leather-bound and the size of a Britannica volume. Here’s some pictures to share with the Internet. No doubt this is worth a lot!!

The red book is “Brother Odd”. It has the prettiest cover design!!

The lightening bolt one is “Odd Hours”. The green one is “Odd Thomas”, the silver “Forever Odd”, and the other red one is “Brother Odd”.

The inside covers of these first-edition books are beautifully illustrated, as are the chapter openings. In “Brother Odd”, all the text on the pages were in the shape of a church window. I thought it was a real nice touch!

There’s only 300 of each of these in th world!! (Well, 500 of “Odd Thomas”, 300 of the rest)

This was actually sent to me in December 2011, but I thought I’d save it until “House of Odd” came out to show the world. So here it is!!

Small Shen: Some Art

Posted onNovember 17, 2011September 30, 201327 Comments

Well, I’ve been crocheting a lot of cool amigurumi toys lately, which I’ll show in the next few weeks, but I also finished pencils for chapter 1 (of 9) of Small Shen, my collaboration with author Kylie Chan. This is a Chinese Fantasy story and is a prequel to her White Tiger series, and people who are familiar with what I like to draw best will probably know that I’m in my element here.

I’m sure you’re all wondering what Small Shen is about, so here are a few sample pages from chapter 1. Some are inked/toned and others are still in pencils, but you can probably get a good idea of how the art will turn out from these samples. Since Small Shen won’t be out (from Harper Collins) until Christmas 2012, I’ll probably show more later on next year.

Amazon.com Widgets

NB. And yes, if you know your Chinese mythology, I can tell you that “Gold” and “Jade” are references to the demi-semi-gods “Golden Boy” and “Jade Girl”. The story’s written by Kylie though, so if you want to know more about how she uses these characters, I suggest you read White Tiger, which is the first actual book in the series.

Pages 1 – 3

Pages 15 – 17

House of Odd Art

Posted onJuly 21, 2011September 30, 20133 Comments

The last part of Odd Thomas 3 has finally been approved, and I can now work towards finishing the book! 40 pages left to ink before the end!

I realise I haven’t posted some art up for a while, so this week I’m posting up page 24 of “House of Odd”, the third Odd Thomas book. To give people an idea of how the art is adapted from the script, and the progression of the art from pencils to the final pages, I’ve put it here in stages.

The first stage is ofcourse the script, which in this case is written by someone else (with me acting as the illustrator only). This may be a good example of how to write a script.

PAGE 24

PANEL 1: Having turned away, Nedra walks into the house. Odd and Stormy follow behind her

STORMY: So, Ms. Nolan . . . Ozzie said you think this house is haunted?

NEDRA: These spirits are as spoiled rotten as any movie star.

PANEL 2: Reverse angle from the last panel, so we can see the characters walking towards the camera. In the background, behind them, the front door is now shut.

NEDRA: They think it’s all about them, them, them.

PANEL 3: Odd cocks his head to one side, eyes rolling a bit in frustration and bemusement. Nedra is blissfully unaware of this as she continues to lead them deeper into the mansion.

NEDRA: But it’s really my production.

NEDRA: I told Ozzie that I had no need for amateur ghostbusters like you.

PANEL 4: Stormy’s gaze narrows.

STORMY: Amateurs?

NEDRA: No offense. I’ve called in the professionals!

Next up, are the pencils. You may have noticed that I didn’t follow what was laid out in the panels in the script. This is because I feel that an illustrator’s job in comics is to tell the story as best as it can be told, and if that means not following the script, then so be it.

This isn’t uncommon in comics, since a fair number of artists will have been in situations when they can’t follow a script – mostly because what is described in the panels can’t be depicted in pictorial form. If it happens, it’s not because writers aren’t respected, but because writers aren’t always visual people, and don’t always know if what they’re describing in a panel can actually be drawn.

The inks are next. This part is straight-forward. I use a combination of dip pens (The Zebra G-pen and nikko pen) and Sakura microns to do my inking, and it’s worked for me fine. I find that the look of the art changes depending on the tools you use, but for Odd Thomas, I’ve always stuck with this style of art. Different kinds of stories call for different kinds of art, and Odd Thomas requires art that isn’t stylised or takes artistic lliberties. It’s not that kind of story.

Finally, the tones and dialogue. The tones are done by the wonderful Dee DuPuy, and she uses a program called Deleter ComicWorks, which I then later open up in Photoshop to add the words. And thus, the page is finished and ready for print.

Sister Holmes: Dectective Nun

Posted onMay 21, 2011September 30, 20134 Comments

Hi all, I’m mid-way through inking Odd Thomas 3 (while watching Colbert Nation and making squiggly lines from laughing while inking), and there’s an interview with me up on the Graphic Novel Reporter, by Danica Davidson. Thanks, Danica and GNR.

Today, good news if you’re attending Sakura Con 2011 in Seattle this weekend. The BentoComics people have a table there and at least two anthologies for sale, the first a collection of Sherlock Holmes related stories by many of BentoComics’ contributing artists, including myself.

Update: So popular was this anthology that it sold out completely at Sakura Con on Day 1!

I contributed a 16-page story in the manner of a Sherlock Holmes story, except that it’s about Sister Holmes, Detective Nun. Because I looked it up online, and the only badass nun we had in comics was Warrior Nun Areala, so obviously what we needed was a cool, logical nun who solves baffling mysteries with rational deduction. If you see this anthology at Sakura Con, may the Power of Christ compel you to buy it (and also the second anthology, which I outline below).

Above is the cover (drawn by Myung), and you can read the Sister Holmes story by clicking the cover page below.

: Click to read on Bentocomics.com!

I’m not sure what it was about the “Write a Sherlock Holmes Story” request, that made me want to re-write Sherlock Holmes as a nun. It may be because of all the “re-imaginings” of Sherlock Holmes lately. You have Movie Sherlock, which “re-imagines” Sherlock as a man of action. You have Young Sherlock Holmes, Modern-Day Sherlock Holmes, and Steampunk Sherlock Holmes… all of which amounts to something like a change of scenery. If they’re re-imagining Sherlock Holmes, they’re not re-imagining him enough.

Apart than that, there’s also the wonderful original stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, who I recently re-read with fresh eyes and new appreciation. The first thing that struck me about the Holmes stories is how perfect they are. They are all fairly different, yet formulaic enough for people to be entertained, but not alienated. They are the reason why Sherlock Holmes is one of the most widely recognised literary archetypes in the world, and continues to be. What can I add to something so perfect, so archetypal?

So I subverted it. That’s the only way I felt I could put an interesting spin on it – the stories all have to be good mystery stories, but the bit players are up for some fun. So Sister Holmes is female and a nun, and Father Watson, while not in this story, is extremely impressed by her powers of observation and deduction. The two live in a small chapel in 221 Baker St, two doors down from the Ye Olde London Secret Sisterhood of Cake Decorators. She is no joke, folks.

Queenie Chan Anthology – 2000-2010: Then there’s also this anthology for sale at the Bento table, which is a 150-page book containing a collection of my 10 best short stories drawn over the past decade, 9 of which are available to read on my website. Readers and fans have asked me for a long time where they can buy a collection of my short stories, and now you can, in book form.

: Click to Buy this on Lulu.com!

It’s a print-on-demand book, so you can go to this page at Lulu to order a copy, if you can’t make it to Sakura Con. I’ll do a more detailed post on this on a later date, but for now, I’ll just mention that it’s there and available.

Queenie Chan

OEL Manga, Comics & Everything Else Global

Category: Manga-Comics

House of Odd

Small Shen: Some Art

House of Odd Art

Sister Holmes: Dectective Nun