Grizzly & The Bear Patrol #15

Happy hump day! I spent most of last night finishing up the lettering of this issue. I really wanted to get this done before Halloween. I'm still working on making the characters' faces more distinct (thanks champdaddy for the constructive criticism), but time was getting away from me.

Anyway, the rest of the issue is behind the spoiler cut to save space on everyone's pages. There are also some issue notes at the bottom (contains spoilers).

Enjoy!

• I had planned to have the proposal in the comic book some time back, after getting some feedback from readers who thought it would be a great idea. With the recent SCOTUS decision making gay marriage legal essentially in several states, the timing of this issue seemed perfect. I love it.



• Antonio is technically the first person to die in my comic. I always wanted to keep the comic book light-hearted, but I wanted to show that there are folks who go their entire lives in the closet and it's a terrible regret I'm sure. When he panics at the thought of being discovered by the others, I can relate as I am sure many of us can when we were first coming out.



• I brought back the Monolith character back as a supporting character Moses Hughes, who will a part-time bartender at the "On the Growl" bar. With Grizzly and Center often off fighting villains, there has to be a constant presence at the bar. And I have considered bringing back Moses as Monolith in the future.



• In this issue we also get to meet Tony, the partner to Red Beard. I've mentioned him in past issues, but actually drew him in this round. He'll probably become a regular supporting character.



• Some folks may look at that last page and think I got the coloring wrong, but it was done that way on purpose. If you'll notice, whenever Colour Cub glows, he has minimal shading, unlike the other characters. As he's radiating light, I always figure it's hard for shadows to appear. On page 23, Grizzly is shaded heavily because of Colour Cub's glow. When they embraced, I wanted his aura to surround Grizzly too, effectively removing the shading from him too. When I did the initial coloring of the page, I liked it so much I didn't want to try to put the shading in and came up with this way to keep the colors bright. I also switched his aura from yellow to white. Purity and all that. Yeah, I'm kinda mushy that way.



• You might notice that the lettering of the issue is a bit smaller than before. Typically comic books have around 8 pt. lettering and I've been using 10 pt. With the change to the actual comic book size, the smaller font size actually fits better. This is the first time I tried it.



• I struggled with a cover for this one. I had one completely pencilled out, but it looked too familiar to other covers I'd seen before, so I changed it.



• I already have the next issue brewing in my mind. I need to take a little break though, for holidays and for having a bit of social life. Working on the comic can be pretty absorbing at times, as it flies when I'm having fun.

Questions, comments and criticisms? Please let me know. :)