So I’ve been posting concept art to the Japanese arch a little sporadically and I do have more coming up. My general problem with concept art is making the time to do it as I’m usually working and drawing other material so much that at the end of the day I’m a bit tired, and don’t usually have the energy to draw up at the end of the day. Usually I have the character and designs in my head but have to draw them up in order to have something to consistently refer to when doing the final drawing in the comics. So the only way to really do concept art is to usually work on the them on a day off when I got nothing else going on. Anyway, here’s actually a gallery of what you can look forward to seeing the upcoming japanese story arch.
Yes, it’s getting a little on the horrific side. This is a flashback page from chapter 19, depicting the horrific event from Whitechapel murder cases, the murder of Martha Tabram. Historically Tabram is actually greatly debated as to whether or not she really was the first victim of Jack the Ripper given that her muder was much less severe than the that of the other murder victims. It is however generally accepted on a great degree that was the first despite not being considered one of the canonical five victims. When writing the Whitechapel arch, the biggest challenge was working with historical facts and getting them to work around the story I wanted to tell.
In the case of Tabram, the idea of her horrific slaughter was quite difficult as it seemed no “regular” criminal would commit such an act, just some lunatic. As I did not want to make Victor, the arch’s main villain, a very simplistic type of villain, I decided to add a method to his madness. As Victor was essentially a young artist looking for attention, the idea of him committing a crazed murdering frenzy essentially wrote itself out, with him purposely making mess so as draw a crowd. It’s essentially in the end what every artist would want.
Designing Tabram herself wasn’t too hard and was mostly taken from illustrations. There aren’t too many pictures of Tabram, but she appears to be depicted as a somewhat bloated individual with a thick neck. One such illustration shows an image of man discovering her bloody body, eyes open and laying on her back. That was essentially the influence for the middle panel on the page below.
To read more of the chapter, click the page below to link to the actual chapter 19.
Meet Miki, who is the sister of Toshiro who was just uploaded to the website a few days ago. Like her brother, Miki will be making her debut in the next Kalwa chapter. This was kinda of work in the dark as I have not done a single character sketch of her since starting this modern comic. I have always had her idea in mind because there were old sketches of her in the old comic pages of Kalwa that I had drawn in high school. So this was kinda a work in the dark with only that old knowledge in my head. I did do several tweaks along the way, and she actually looks pretty unrecognizable compared to her old design. I think she actually looks a little less like a Tomboy compared to her old design. As a reminder, the script for chapter 23 has been submitted to my co-writer. The actual chapter should start debuting either by the end of this month or the beginning of next month. But don’t forget to check back for more updates as they come along.
Finished character sketch of Toshiro Sato, a major character that will debuting in the upcoming Feudal Japan arch. Not only will he be a major character in the next arch, he is actually set to become a major character in the remainder of overall Kalwa story. Toshiro is the son of Hideyoshi Sato, a powerful swordsman who fled his own village during the Japanese Fedudal Era. Hideyoshi started his own village where he trains runways in the art of weapons, in attempt to give them the means to survive in the dangerous world outside of noble rule. Toshiro serves not only as his sone, but assistant in training these runways and is a powerful warrior when it comes to swords. He also has a cute little sister named Miki who will also be getting colored portrait as well.
A character sketch of a new character who will be debuting in the next Kalwa chapter. Toshiro is the son of the legendary warrior Hideyoshi Sato, who will the combat teacher of Kalwa and Zack. Not only will he be a major character in the next arch but the entire Kalwa story as a whole. There will be a colored version coming soon as well.
Yeah so I brought this picture out last year. But I still think it’s quite relevant for this year too. I wanted to wish all the followers of this site a happy Thanksgiving and I wanted to express my own thanks to all the wonderful people who follow this site.
Without giving out any particular numbers, I’ve noticed some steady traffic to this site this year as well as an increase in followers. And I do want to say that ever since I started this comic I’ve learned first and foremost how difficult it is to reach anyone in this vast and difficult ocean we call the web. So I am very grateful and very thankful for all the people who have given their support to this site as well as the Green Raptor site in general. Whether it’s a comment, like or just a silent follow, I appreciate all the support you all give. So from me to you, thank you, have a happy Thanksgiving and remember to give thanks for what you have and not what you don’t, especially in this very difficult and nearly over year of 2020.
Kalwa if she appeared in Stoneworld from Dr. Stone. For those who saw my 1st Studio Tour post, you probably read that Dr. Stone has rocketed it’s way to my favorite anime, just short of Digimon which really only sits at the top due to nostalgia (so objectively Dr. Stone is really number 1). And after seeing a number of costumes from the show (mainly Kohaku) I really wanted to draw Kalwa in one of the outfits. Also this was the first of a series in which Kalwa would appear in various outfits as though she lived in that anime world.
Insert from chapter 15, featuring the horrific death of Kalwa’s first enemy Orestes who has officially become a victim of his own venom. While Orestes was sorta a throw away and rather simple character in the first chapter, this chapter saw a dramatic change for the character being a more obsessed and much darker character. When illustrating this page I wanted to draw Orestes as a vengeful person to the very end and showing a sense of madness, indicated by all the shadows around his eyes. And of course one thing worth noting is I was also trying to illustrate a full body shutdown on him as the poison takes its effect, one such hint is in the first panel where his hand is flapping behind him. Also his clear miss of Kalwa is supposed to indicated that his legs and other body parts are shutting down as well. I like to think of this page as illustrating a desperate and rather sick man giving into madness during his last moments of life.
To read the rest of the chapter of which this page is attached to, click the image below!
An early page from chapter 10 which illustrates a bit of tensions between Kalwa and her mother. I should confess that shortly after I moved to my current house shortly around the time this chapter began, though that really has nothing to do with the tension between Kalwa and her mother. Actually the conflict was a little inspired by a few tensions my mother had with her mom. Don’t know if it was as hostel as seen in the comic, but that was a source. This also was kinda a plot I opened up without a real idea of where it was headed, but I can promise that you will see this going in a direction in chapter 23!
Click the page to read the rest of chapter 10 below.
An adventurous manga series about a teenage girl and her time traveling cell phone 