Hey all, just wanted to stop by with a quick catch-up post.  I’ve updated the coloring section of the portfolio page with a ton of new work, so feel free to check that out. I’m hard at work on Dracula The Unconquered #2, coming very soon over at draculatheunconquered.com. I’ve also got a Tumblr page that I update frequently with snippets and images of things I’ve working on; I’ll try to be better about posting things here, but for the time being that’s where I’m the most active.

–Steve

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Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to proudly present Dracula the Unconquered #1: Return of the Black Death! A 24-page, full-color digital comic by Chris Sims, Steve Downer and Josh Krach! You can read the first six pages below. Head over to the site to get the full issue for just $1! Available in PDF or CBZ format for your convenience, at http://www.draculatheunconquered.com

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I did it, folks. 24 pages in 22 hours, 8 minutes. One heck of a challenge, and an end product I’m pretty proud of considering the time constraints.

Download it as a PDF here:

 24HCBD_Hat_Trick_sdowner.pdf

Or read it online below!

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I’ll post more details and photos of the event tomorrow, after I’ve had a chance to catch up on the work I missed over the weekend. A huge, huge thanks to the folks at Rooks Comics and Games- they stayed up all night just so three guys could draw. They’re the best comics shop in Montana, no joke.

Thanks also to Comics Alliance for showing my work in their 24 Hour Comics Day rundown! I appreciate the shoutout.

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This is it! This is the book that I’ve been working on all summer. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to present Dracula the Unconquered!

Written by my good buddy Chris Sims (of Comics Alliance and The ISB fame) and letters by Awesome Hospital‘s Josh Krach, Dracula the Unconquered is an all-new, ongoing digital comics series! The first issue, “The Return of the Black Death” debuts October 31st. Each issue will be available for download for the low price of just $1.

There are already some goodies up on the site, including a step-by-step breakdown of the process that went in to designing the cover for the first issue. Check it out!

I’ll be posting sneak peeks of the art a few times a week on Facebook and my Twitter account under the hashtag #DtU, so stay tuned!

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24 Hour Comic Book day, everybody. Scott McCloud’s challenge to comic book artists, gluttons for punishment and deadline junkies.

I’m taking the challenge for the first time this year, and the good folks at Rooks Comics and Games in Bozeman are hosting the event. Stop by if you think you’re up for the challenge, or if you just want to point and laugh.

–Steve

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One of the coolest projects I worked on last year was Sony’s DC Universe Online game. It’s a massive online roleplaying game where you can play as and interact with various DC Comics characters, as well as new characters created for the game. One feature of DC Universe Online is animated cutscenes, shown when you defeat certain characters or complete specific levels of the game. I had the opportunity to work on some of these scenes as a colorist, and now that the game has been released I can share some of the work I did.

The first scene I worked on featured the Joker:

Click for full-size

The main difference from this coloring job and regular comic book work was that in these cutscenes the art is separated into layers for the animators.

Coloring each element of the illustration separately made it tougher to unify the entire image with lighting and color palette, but overall I’m very happy with the way most of the images turned out.

Some more shots from the Joker scene:

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Batman and the Joker.

To make big, you must click!

Background for the above shot.

Surely you know how this works by now.

Last shot from the scene.

Here’s the final animated cutscene, narrated by the awesome Mark Hamill:

I grew up watching the Batman animated series which featured Mark Hamill as the Joker, so it’s pretty amazing to hear that voice narrating something I had a hand in making. It’s times like this I realize how awesome my job is.

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Written by Micah S. Harris, with lines by my good friend Loston Wallace and colors by me.

For more info (and the GORGEOUS covers by Dean Yeagle and the legendary Darwyn Cooke), check out the press release over at CBR:http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=29983

These pages will run in the next issue of Previews magazine, which should be available the last week of December.

The book itself hits shelves in March of 2011.

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Oh hey, look, I made somethin’.

Just a li’l something for a Monday mornin’. Hope you like it.

Making this got me to watch the movie. SO GOOD.

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GL Corps Fact #3772:

Hal Jordan, Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814, hates mornings.

Almost as much as I do.

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