The Art Of Joshua Nelson: The Tengu Joins The Cast...

The effort to give my comic book's story the same punch I feel I can provide with my art has been drastically changing my format and adding to my cast of characters... And that's good, I'm glad I'm not 40 pages in and figuring this out. Nonetheless, fitting 5-6 origins/backstories into a "this all happens in about 8-10 hours" narrative tying all of those together and pacing/cutting scenes right is a challenging task, even for a well-read comics chap like myself...

The Apparition will still appear and be an integral part of the story but this isn't all his show anymore. The more I developed an origin for Solar Son the more I wanted him to have a bigger piece of the page. The same is true with Bloodshaft, I can't just have a mindless product of the 90s bashing around for no reason. Sure, it'll be fun for drawing some brawls but I'm gonna need a reason or associate for him. So, be on the lookout for a more traditional "evil genius" or "dimension-hopping mastermind". As well, I'm also working hard to bring the female lead to life. I haven't been too wild about the costumes I've sketched so far, but I'll get there.

Which leads to this here Tengu redesign. As I delved further into getting the Apparition's personality down, I found that he was a better as a comics geek brought into a fantastic world with just a bit of fantastic ability (no more than say, Batman) and forced to use his comics smarts to rise to his superpowered peers' level. All of this, while still brandishing angst and immaturity on a semi-regular basis. The Tengu, on the other hand, needed to be incorruptible, but with a seasoned strength of character and discipline. I want him to be that serious stoic samurai warrior who takes on all worthy opponents and hungers only to be the best, and in this case, because he is a Tengu, a spiritual and physical guardian of the forests that surround my comic book world's vast urban ghost town of forgotten heroes...

I wanted to retain some elements from my initial drawing of the character from 2008, but also desired a sleekness outside of his mask and gloves... I'm regularly being exposed to and trying to overcome my artistic limits in the arena of mental 3D modeling though and that profile view of the mask is the proof...

Here are the original line drawings...

A snappy little ballpoint sketch of The Tengu from this summer...

Here's what I initially put together for a cover corner box. I may use it down the line, but I'm happy with the one I have on the website marquee right now...