#1 Done and Dusted!

Phew! Sometime last week I finished work on Outcasts of Jupiter. I loved every bit of working on Outcasts and I'm so glad my brother and I got the chance to realize our dream.The digital comics will be sent out to our dear Kickstarter backers quite soon. We've sent it to a select few for proof reading and general editing, but I must say I'm a very relieved man at the moment. The next few months will be the journey to see it printed and that's another level of excitement. I'll post a few process pages here and there in the interim. Of course, till then you can see even more news related to the project here.

Le Trou de Rat

The Outcasts of Jupiter Kickstarter has been both draining and highly exhilarating to run, but lo! I have managed to complete another page for you wary traveller. Sit a while and enjoy another slice of this tale we're trying to release upon the world.

Shobo and I also got interviewed by Chris Sains over at Capeless Crusader. Check it out!

Outcasts of Jupiter; Page previews!

Here is a small preview of the first two pages of Outcasts of Jupiter. The Kickstarter has been up for a week now and we're making steady progress. It's not a trivial whim when a long held dream is fulfilled. There are some wonderful people out there making it happen.

Outcasts of Jupiter Kickstarter!

Hey everybody! We launched our Kickstarter today for our very exciting science fiction comic, Outcasts of Jupiter. Shobo, Funlola and I couldn't be more excited!

Outcasts of Jupiter is a new, scifi adventure comic written by Shobo Coker and drawn by Shofela Coker. Our story takes place on Earth, in 3125, in the fictional City of Seven Faces, a visually and culturally rich cliff side city in our version of Morocco. The exotic City of Seven Faces is a mysterious place, full of strange secrets, slavers, gangsters and wanted criminals.

You can visit the Kickstarter here!

Outcasts of Jupiter

My brother and I have been fervently working on a comic project for the last several months and we've decided this week to officially announce plans for an exciting Kickstarter for it! The campaign will be going up within the week so please keep your eyes peeled. For now, here is the cover, a little taste of adventure. Do you believe in adventure?

Denarii is coming

To Kickstarter

Coker CoOp

Here's visual development for a short comic my brother and I are working on for the new year. It's a tale from the Jonahverse. Layouts and more visual development work for it are done and I'm so excited to start work on it. We've set up a site that will serve as a news hub for all things Jonah related. There will be lots of goodies coming to the site in the future so keep an eye out. We're CokerCoOp. Which includes Funlola (my sister), Shobo (brother) and I.
For now though, Christmas with the family. Happy holidays everyone!

Update: If you'd like to view a process blog post of this image head over to this link. I detail thoughts on color and decision making from the sketch phase to the final image.

Isaak

Here's the rest of Isaak the Cossack.

Roaches!

Found this gem tonight. From the last days working at Robomodo.

Process

A little while ago, a certain someone accused me of not being comfortable showing the 'ugly' side of my work; my process. Sigh, he may have been right, so today here's SIX AMAZING EASY STEPS it took to do this Jupiter Jonah poster. Now you can do it too.

Eko Atlantic city rises

A few months ago I shared some visual development work I did for an animated TV show my brother and I were working on called Ekologue. I thought I'd share some more.  These were mood pieces intended to capture the energy/spirit of the show. Slice of life type of stuff in the slums, dwarfed by the towering city in the distance.
With the recent completion of Eko Atlantic City's land reclamation off the shore of Victoria Island, Lagos I thought it might be timely to show this.

Ekologue

A couple years ago Shobo and I decided to pitch an animated TV show to an African TV network. The working title was Ekologue with the story set in the near future of Lagos, Nigeria and the currently under construction, Eko city. We had plot outlines, a show bible, character breakdowns, and quite a bit of visual development completed. The pitch ended up being a success, but for now the project has been shelved for various reasons. I thought I'd share some of the visual development that resulted from the project. Ekologue promised to cover a good breadth of the Nigerian human perspective and best of all, a look at how Lagosians would spin sci-fi tropes in their own unique way.
I finished a few more pieces illustrating set pieces that gave you a better idea of the world these characters lived in, but some other time maybe. Enjoy.

Argonautica

Last month I worked with the Chatterbox Audio Theater again to produce this illustration for their audio theater broadcast, Argonautica. As usual it was a pleasure working with them. You can listen to the excellent broadcast here.

Happy Birthday Shobo!

Roughly five years ago, my brother, Shobo drew this gem. Since then Jonah has been through obvious transformations (he got some clothes, heh). A script has been written, a full cast of characters, a universe fleshed out, with a comic set to be put to paper soon. We work on it whenever we can with silly things like day jobs and a small matter of 3,000 miles of geography hindering progress on this project that's become a dream of ours. I drew this as a gift for him. I feel incredibly grateful because like many things in my life, Shobo shared Jupiter Jonah with me. Cheers, Shobo, have a good one.

Cool guys don't look at explosions

I thought I'd end the year with a measure of style and something I wish I could work on more often. I'm constantly thinking of Jonah, but never have the time to properly devote time to the comic because of other obligations.

For me, 2011 has been one of my most frantic years in recent memory. Moving twice to two different cities, once from the horrendously cold/windy, but vibrant city of Chicago, to the rainy, contemplative city of Seattle and then on to California... lots of driving, sigh, but hey the weather is great!

It hasn't been the easiest of years but there were some bright spots. I got to see my little sister graduate from college and for the first time in 6 years I'm currently spending Christmas with my parents. I started working in San Diego and its quite nice so far. I got to go to the San Diego Comic con and met some artists I respect quite a bit, and saw some things in retrospect as a videogame/comic nerd growing up in Nigeria, I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. I read some influential graphic novels this year, like Asterios Polyp, Daytripper, Petrograd, as well as novels this year that strengthened my resolve for the vision of Jupiter Jonah. One of them was Herge's biography. I've always loved Tintin and my brother and I often talk about how we'd like to develop Jonah in that iconic vein. I think it's easier to do something when you know its been done with some measure of laudable success before. Reading about Herge's life, his successes and failures reading about his personal life and work ethic was a small revelation. All in all I'd say it was a decent year.

MAGNA CUM RIVETER

My lovely sis, Funlola, graduated from the Memphis College of Art last weekend. She majored in sculpture (metals) and finished with a magna cum laude. I'm super proud of her. IYAAAABOBOOOOO!

Here's looking at you kid ;)

Ace McD

Did this quick drawing when I first got my hands on the cintiq at work. I wanted to see how repsonsive it was with line work as opposed to a wacom tablet. It didn't disappoint.

Ho Fafhrd!! Hist, Gray Mouser!!

I recently read Mike Mignola, Al Williamson and Howard Chaykin's graphic novel adaptation of Fritz Lieber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser on a trip to Seattle and loved it! The titular characters' relationship with each other and adventures were quite the swashbuckling ride. The storytelling and art were great and the book jarred my early memories of fantasy adventure comic stories of that nature, like Conan and Thud the Barbarian (having strayed from them recently in my comic reading). Anyway, the images above were for a job test I did late last year and had I read Fafhrd at that time it might have helped visually inspire these images, but I think I did a decent job considering I've never drawn Western fantasy before.

Swan sketch

This is a quick digital sketch based on a still from the upcoming movie Black Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky. Aronofsky's work as a director is always impressive, however, his willingness to reach out to worthwhile illustrators to collaborate with him on projects is part of what distinguishes him. He did so with illustration master Kent Williams for The Fountain graphic novel and once again now with the exquisitely striking Black Swan international posters. Hopefully after the film's release we'll get to know more about who designed them, but for now enjoy the simple sketch fueled by my enthusiasm for the film.

Note: The Swan Posters were created by London based design studio, La Boca. Their work is definitely worth a look.

Happy 50th!

That's right! 50 years ago Nigeria got its independence from the British. Its has been a tumultuous 50 years to say the least, but there have been small and formidable triumphs along the way especially in the arts and literature. October 1st is also special because that is the day our titular hero's journey began.

Jupiter Jonah's cast for book 1, The Eye of Oduduwa is more or less complete here from left to right; Denarii, best buddies Blass and Rashidi, Captain Stein, Jonah, Prospero, and Funlola along with the Baron Kookoomba looming hungrily above. Rest assured, work on Jonah is alive and kicking. There is also a variant poster designed by my brother, Shobo for your viewing pleasure on his blog here.

Once again Happy Independence day to every Nigerian out there!