Fair warning, KOZOR is not for the faint of heart. This nightmare fueled, dark fantasy thrill-ride promises to leave you shocked and wide-eyed. The mind of Korey Barton is a truly horrifying place and he held none of it back in the making of this book.
And made it is.
Made it's been for a couple years now. You just didn't know that because we never published it. KOZOR remained an undiscovered gem to all but us - until, while Korey and I were kicking back on his couch with a cup of joe not too long ago, I said "Dude, why aren't we crowdfunding this book on IndieGoGo?"
The original version of KOZOR was created 100% by Korey. But this remastered edition is somewhat a Barton Bros collaboration. And I gotta tell ya - we're both having loads of fun joining forces on this project. Is there anything cooler than working on a comic book with your bro? We think not!
Here's some sneak peaks at what we've been up to.
Korey started a new page that'll be added to the beginning of KOZOR VOL.1 to help give the story additional context and provide a more compelling set up for our hero! This is the first panel from that page.
Since I'm playing the role of Executive Editor on KOZOR, I gave Korey some feedback on the art to ensure maximum appeal! That feedback involved minor changes to the character's anatomy, movement and positioning within the panel.
Korey took my advice on board, reworked the original panel and voila!
Korey and I are both perfectionists, so we're always sending our work to each other, back and forth, to get a second pair of eyes on it. We're wise enough to know that bouncing art and ideas off of one another is precisely what allows us to produce the very best quality within our comic books. But these were just the first few panels! Korey and I went through the whole page together, scrutinizing every detail until we were both satisfied with how it looked. With our artistic prowess combined we managed to pull off one heck of a lush looking sequence.
Illustrating comic books ain't easy. You're tasked with conjuring up entire scenes purely from your imagination. You've got to comprehend the mechanics of visual perception inside your head first, and somehow use them to build in an engaging and convincing image on the page.
Tweakage is a necessity! In fact one might argue that's all drawing is really about - Being a good problem solver.
As for the existing pages - I went about remastering Page 1 this week. There were a number of adjustments I made to the original before arriving at the definitive rendition. If you've got a keen eye you might be able to spot the subtle differences.
The idea was to enhance what was already there on the page rather than to change it, so that Korey's original vision for the book was preserved.
In other KOZOR news - we enlisted the talented Jimmy Reyes to do up an additional variant cover for the book. Korey and I had this crazy idea that maybe we could add a black and white version of KOZOR to the campaign, which we'd reserve for Jimmy's cover.
Honestly though, Korey and I are a big fan of Jimmy's, and we were excited to see what he could do with the characters. So we gave him full reign on this one.
Jimmy handed us two options to pick from. Korey and I had a chat about it and decided Cover A was the one to shoot for. Then Jimmy went to work!
Jimmy is a true pro. Working with the guy is always such a pleasure. He's quick, communicative and gets the job done at a fair price.
Needless to say, we're both hangin' to see this cover inked.
Well that's about it for this week. I can't believe how much has already happened since we announced KOZOR VOL.1. This ship has sailed and there's no turning back. So stay tuned and be watching.
If you haven't signed up to the Prelaunch page for KOZOR then I don't know what you're waiting for! Click this link now: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/--126368/coming_soon/x/20658139 - pop in your email address and hit the big pink button that says 'sign me up'. If you back the book on day one, you'll get a special VIP reward. We don't know what that'll be yet - but it'll be cool, and more importantly a gift reserved only for our day 1 backers.
-Clayton