Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Hammered in San Diego

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Boom!

Comicon is nearly upon us Hammerheads and Team Hammer is sending our man from Hong Kong as our official emmissary of all things pink and angry.

Look for our boy, Gabe Ostley, at the DC booth and lurking in dark corners throughout the weekend. You can meet Gabe and twist his arm for sketches and whatnot Thursday through Saturday at the Zuda booth from 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM. He'll be handing out exclusive Hammer bookmarks and sloppy wet kisses to one and all, so get him early before the rush.

And just so it doesn't seem all boring 'round here with just a bunch of damned words, here's a brand new Hammer sketch to liven things up:






























Rock on at Comicon, Hammerheads!

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Friday, July 17, 2009

Breakdowns 3: Electric Jamboree

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It's a fabulous furry Friday and time for another edition of Behind the Hammer.

Here's your latest insider peek at the assembly of a single page of the soon to be sixty screen saga!

From layouts:























To pencils:
























To inks:



















And ya'll know by now where to find those crazy colors, right?

Have a tip top weekend, hammerheads!

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Thursday, July 16, 2009

Keepin' it surreal.

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Ceci n'est pas une hammer.


















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Monday, July 13, 2009

Hammerweek Three

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Oh yeah! It's the third week in July, the third week of the Hammered Summer.

Here's a little ol' sketch-a-reeno to kick it off:


































I'll tell you what, hammerheads, our drawing arms is getting mightily tired what with all the daily carnage cranking through Hamtown central, so if any of all ya'll are inspired to do up a Hammerdoodle of your own send it on over to us at the.hammer@comic.com and we'll toss it up on this here blog for all the world to see.

Summer it on up, hammerinos!

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Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Hammer construction

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Hi dee ho!

Here we are again with another behind-the-scenes breakdown of the patented Team Hammer process!

Compare and contrast, Hammerheads!

Layouts:



















Pencils:






















Is "pencils" even the right term for this? What's he up to with that red magic marker? More proof of Gabe's not-quite-rightness.

Inks:

















Rob lays down that noir chiaroscuro vibe.

And of course, the inimitable Steve Steiner pulls it all together with his digital crayons. But you can see Steve's magic touch over at Zuda.

Keep on hammering!

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Friday, July 3, 2009

The Hammer and Friend


Today Calvin met a new friend.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Breaking down The Hammer

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Yes, indeedy! The Big Bunny is up and running daily over at Zuda, and Team Hammer is a hoppin' with excitement!

We're all busy bunnies here at Hamtown headquarters, but we plan to do our darndest to bring you some extra content to satisfy your Calvinist cravings in between the daily (that's right DAILY) updates over at Zuda.

Today we pull back the curtain on the inner machinations of the Hammerheads for a look at the construction of those senses-shattering screens coming at you daily. Did I mention we were updating daily?

Anyhoo, it all starts off with the layouts.


















The more eagle-eyed observers among you may note that Calvin does not appear to be a bunny rabbit in the layouts. Why might this be you ask? Some secret plan? Some hidden agenda?

Perhaps. Or maybe it's just that Gabe is crazier than a shithouse rat.

I'm gonna go with number two.

Onward to the pencil stage.























As you can see from these frenzied scratchings, Gabe is clearly not in his right mind and unwilling or unable to follow even the simplest of instructions. It's sad really.

And so it moves down the line to the sage and esteemed Rob Berry who spills ink on the pages and then wipes off the leftovers with a filthy rag to expose a few white spots.





















He actually gets pretty good results with that technique.


Finally Steve (The Stein Man) Steiner dips into his pocket full of rainbows and scatters psychedelic pixiedust over everything to make it sparkle and shine just so. And then he dirties it all up with his stinking texture filters. STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVE!

You can't see it here, but I'm shaking my fist in impotent fury.

Anyways, we're not showing you Steve's work here because it can be seen in all it's glory at www.zudacomics.com/the_hammer.

And we're really not supposed to post the finished pages anywhere else. Who dares to defy the Zudaluminati? Not us, sunshine.

So there you have it! Check in at Zuda every hour on the hour to see if a new Hammer page is up. And in the meantime, send them lots of feedback about how much you looooove The Hammer and demand that it continue until the end of time itself.

We'll see you there!

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