June the 29th marks the launch of newcomer publisher Funnel Cloud 9´s brand new title GENIE.
Written by Jim Keplinger (Shadowhawk), pencilled and inked by me, colored by Kevin Volo with letters by Ray Dillon and cover by David Michael Beck,GENIE follows the adventures of a boy who finds a genie and is granted three wishes.
"Three wishes. Three chances to change anything about yourself or even change the world itself. Legend has it that a Djinn would grant all that power to any person that freed them, but it's just a myth... just a story. Or is it? "Genie" brings the legend to life and shows you what really happens when you set a Djinn free."
I must confess that Genie scared me at first.
When I first received Kep!´s script and read the words "think Braveheart in the sand", my Muse jumped on her seat.
The thought of going back to the days of drawing with the help of heavy picture reference had me staring the ceiling above my drawing station for a while; scimitars, camels, turbans, Baghdad streets, female victorian attire... it sounded just like homework.
OMG, It was homework.
I haven´t drawn using heavy picture reference in ages.
Sure I reach for a photo everytime I´m not sure how a P90 looks like or how many catapults there are aboard an aircraft carrier but if there´s one thing I learned over the years is that resorting to too much of it takes away from the most important aspect of comicbook making: the fun of it.
So I engaged the auto-pilot and started researching.
Encyclopedias, the internet, the History chanel, anything I could get my hands on.
Work, work, work.
I knew I was doing it the hard/wrong way and had to do a 90 degree turn fast.
So, I made my wish. I sat back, looked up and uttered the magic words:
"I wanna have FUN!"
I looked left, I looked right, and on a shelf, buried in dust, there it was the old Lawrence of Arabia VHS tape starring Peter O´toole.
There are films I never get tired of watching.
Groundhog Day, Shall We Dansu, The Incredibles... I can watch them all day, over and over and over again.
Lawrence of Arabia is one of them, watching it always feels like the first time.
Halfway through and I had already been swallowed by its universe.
I was there walking alongside Xanda through the bazars or battling Shakar´s armies in a forgotten oasis. Words like falafel and pomegranate were now familiar.
Drawing Xanda, Farris and Shakar now felt natural, I could actually picture them in my head arguing or trading jokes.
By the time Jeffery releases her, I had already fallen in love with Xanda.
I have a riot over the fact that the girl simply cannot sit still for a moment, she hovers, she twirls, she´s fluidity incarnate, an angel with the smile of a trickster.
I often catch myself giggling over the back and forth between the two of them as I draw some pannels, there is literally magic betwen them.
I find myself filling Jeffery´s room with all the toys and the cool posters I wish I had when I was his age or rooting for them when they face hardship.
I did get my wish.
But if I´m not mistaken, I believe I have two more.
My second is easy:
"I wish this book does well."
The Third one?
I think I´ll keep it a secret. ;)