[Here's the final posted version, which, I'm proud to say, posted on the 20th as promised]

Here are some previews of the next comic that’ll be posted [hopefully] this weekend (08/20/2011). Of course if it’s after this weekend already, and you’re just now seeing these, then they’re more like “behind the scenes” things and not previews — they’re postviews.

Anyway, I finally had an idea for an ongoing comic. As the unfinished comic/finished comic you-just-read implies, this idea is inspired by (and not as implied, “ripped off” from) Stephen King’s the Dark Tower series. This comic popped into my head after I had a firm grip on the idea for the Moose Rider.

The Moose Rider is one of the clearest ideas I have had since I set my brain to the task of thinking one up. I’ve got a solid beginning, multiple ideas for the middle (which can span as long as I have stories to tell — without muddying the mythology) and there’re are significant chunks of the ending in place. I’m not saying it’s any sort of grand epic, but I’m excited about it and it feels like the kind of story I’d like to read.

Here’s the rough sketch:

And here’s the first pass at inking done in Photoshop:

There’re all kinds of wrong things going on with my head in that second panel. I have giant horse teeth in the version I’m working on now — you probably won’t see those.

I was trying to eliminate two applications from my workflow — Manga Studio and Illustrator — but after redoing the above three times, I think I’ll stick with Manga Studio as my drawing program and keep Illustrator as my lettering program; Photoshop will be my coloring app. I like the lines Manga Studio gives me, and I especially like that I can Command-Z my way backwards to I don’t even know how many steps. Illustrator gives me the control over the lettering that my anal retentive personality demands, plus I find it easier to make my dialog balloons.

And to whet your appetite for Moose Rider, here’s a partially inked concept sketch of the Moose Rider…