Now that Chapter 3 of THE THIRSTY has wrapped up (and what a finish, huh?) we'll be taking a look back at MURDER MOON.  Starting next week, chapter one will run in place of THE THIRSTY, giving the artists involved a chance to catch up and myself an opportunity to get some other things done while the artists work ahead.  It ain't all peaches and cream, y'see.  Lots of irons in the fire, and sometimes they get hotter than I'd like 'em to.

Our revisting of MURDER MOON starts here, with the original pencils to the cover of what was going to be issue #1, back when STRANGEWAYS was planned to be a continuing series of minis.  The art for these was done by my friend Steve Lieber, who I think had just finished working up a run of SUPERMAN and perhaps WHITEOUT 2 when I got in touch with him about it.  He went on to a little book called CIVIL WAR.  He's also one of the more underrated storytellers in comics today.  He's also all-too modest, and is one of the nicest guys I know in comics.  I sure hope he doesn't mind me doing this.

'Cause he's a big guy.  I mean he could break me in half.

That said, I truly lucked out to get him on covers, and always felt he got kinda shortchanged since STRANGEWAYS never went out as singles.  Though the cover art for #4 is what made the cover for the OGN, so I guess that makes up for it.

Here's the original pencils.



More after the jump.

Now those are nice.  Though I heard someone once complained because that's an 1872 Colt Revolver and couldn't have existed in 1868 when the story takes place.  I worry more about big picture stuff.

Here's the final inks.



And here's the final piece, which I did have the pleasure of seeing reproduced in PREVIEWS before things went bad.  But this piece never got the play it deserved.



I felt bad having to put a logo on that.  So I ended up doing an inset treatment, mostly because I didn't want my bad type ruining Steve's art.

Next week, MURDER MOON chapter one with commentary.  I'll be encouraging Q/A in this one, but replies might be a bit slow since I'll be on the road and in and out of internet range.

Oh and the winner of the last MURDER MOON giveaway, at least until it starts up again, is Sparrow Morgan from the upper peninsula of Gmail.  Sparrow Morgan, come on down!  Entries from the last batch will carry over until the contest starts up again.  Don't despair!

See you next week!