It’s been a while. Hope you guys have been well. I’ve been hard at work on my graphic novel, and figuring out where to go from here. Freelancing is not for the faint of heart, but I digress. This week, I’m focusing on Noir. A good noir story chills to the bone, and while there are those moments of hope, the darkness of the world creeps in and steals away happiness. Sometimes there is something satisfying about it. This book is no different.
The Book
Paloma
Written, Lettered, and Designed by Evan Carothers
Pencils by Miguel Guzman
Colors by Ishcan Ansori
Edits by Erin Palicki
Main Cover and Illustrations by D.N.S.
Recipe Page: Diego Porto
Publisher: Wolven Press
Paloma opens with something that reminds you of the X-Files or some other extraterrestrial story you’ve seen a thousand times on television. Two agents are chasing something, or someone and trying to catch them before the mysterious Commander finds them. It feels like a race against time.
The book then shifts to a bar called Paloma. A perfect title as it reflects the drink of the bar and the personality of the place. You get a brief glimpse of a loyal group of people doing their usual business with the bar when the owner, Martin is going to grab some grapefruit to make his signature drink. Once outside he hears a noise, and after glancing, you find two kids, what appear to be a brother and sister hiding by the grapefruit tree. Martin, being a good dude, offers the kids inside. At first, they try to hide out. Martin gives them the bits of snacks that exist and then tries to call the police. From there the conversation gets strange. The people who answer are the two agents. They tell Martin to keep the kids there and do not let them escape. Puzzled, Martin tries to comply.
At this point, if you’ve read that kind of story before, you know how this all ends. There is more to the kids than meets the eye, but the story does a wonderful job of giving you the impression of how wonderful the people, Martin and Paloma is. It’s the strength of the story. You know the ride is going to come to an end, but while you’re there, you enjoy it. Credit to Evan Carothers for writing a touching noir story.
Miguel Guzman’s art sells the story. He can draw ordinary scenes like the bar and give that humanity and equally make it so that the monsters, both human and otherwise, really feel like the demons they are. Ishcan Ansori’s colors add to the tension of the race, but also, the stillness of Paloma. I cannot stress enough how enjoyable the art makes the bar.
There are a few other little details that are nice touches to the book. The recipe page at the front allows you to make your drink if you want to. It sounds tasty and the illustration by Diego Porto is a nice touch.
The only thing I wasn’t sold on, was the cover. It’s just not my style, but D.N.S. does a great job of it. It’s just not my cup of tea—nothing against the art at all. If you like that kind of style you will love the cover. If you want to get your hands on the book and goodies, check out the Kickstarter. All in all, I loved the book. Check it out.
The Business
Been in the business of doing a lot of projects since the new year began. I’m working very hard on my novel. It’s in an agent’s hands. No guarantees what’s happening next, but I’m happy I got this far. It’s been the second-biggest project so far this year.
The biggest is my podcast course. I’ve uploaded 6 of the 8 modules and the 7th one is going live sometime after this is out. Adding worksheets and teaching everyone how to create a blooper video and the importance of making small clips for a bunch of marketing. You can check out the course here, and see what else I’m up to.
Finally, I’m working on a graphic novel. Right now you can see me creating the characters for Lights Out on my webpage, newsletter, or Patreon. I’ll be starting to post the story soon. I’ve come a long way as an illustrator. It blew me away to see where I’ve gotten to working on this. I can’t wait to finish the story. Is it a traditional graphic novel? No. I would recommend checking out Thomas Wheeler and Frank Miller’s Cursed for the inspiration for the design.
That will do it for now. Next time I’ll take you to the Dreamlands. Until then…
Stay inspired out there.
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