The Bill Collectors Comic PREVIEW

So among the many projects I've been working on is my eternally "coming soon" comic about a man named Jackknife Jenkins and his loose affiliation of chaotic mercenaries called The Bill Collectors: Someone Must Pay.

Except this time it really is coming. For reals.

I finally just accepted that I wasn't going to do a whole 3D comic and decided to find an artist to work with.

To that end I searched for quite awhile and found Italian artist Leonardo Romanelli to do the art chores. I really liked the stark black and white style and the use of the blacks to build the scene. It fit with exactly how I meant to portray these guys.

A while back I had him draw up a two page script as a proof of concept, and I thought I'd show this here (posted at the bottom).

Initially I was going to color it in, but I wasn't really liking my coloring on it, and hiring the level of colorist I think this project deserves is a bit out of my budget for now.

However, it works out, because again, I actually love the black and white feel of Leonardo's work. I think it works great here for the style.

I figured if black and white is good enough for The Walking Dead comic, then it's good enough for The Bill Collectors.

Besides, The Walking Dead is now being re-printed in color each month as The Walking Dead Deluxe, so if my comic sells and makes a decent return then I can re-invest it in a color version.

Most times, after writing a comic, I would need a penciller, an inker, then a colorist and a letterer to make up the comic. But as Leonardo does all the inking as part of his style I'm coming out ahead there.

Then the only other thing I do is the lettering, and maybe some layout adjustment, which is easy enough for me as I do graphic design and such for a living. So luckily I'm able to absorb some of the costs of this thing.

Even as I write this, Leonardo has just got started on the 36 page debut one-shot comic of The Bill Collectors. My hope is it can come out this year, but I told him not to rush it, so it could be as late as next year before it hits.

Let me know what you think of this, I'd love to get your opinions! Here’s the two page preview below.

-John G.