Oscar Zahn: October Musings and Hollow Shores progress.

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope you’re all having a wonderfully spooky season.

For the last several weeks I've found myself with the rare opportunity to focus solely on Book Two of "The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn" and I wanted to give you an update on it’s progress as well as a few things I’ve been up to.

Newsletter, Patreon and a Tip Button.

You might notice a little bit of a different format with this newsletter. Starting from now, I'm going to split each newsletter into two sections. A free part (the section you're reading now) and a "premium" part that's behind a paywall.

So what's the reason for the change?

Well, to tell you the truth, my newsletter and Patreon is a bit of a mess. My original plan was to move everything from my Patreon to my this newsletter but turns out Patreon is a pretty popular platform and people like using it. Whoops!

I also meant to do two separate newsletters: a free one and a paid one. Unfortunately trying to keep up with one newsletter while balancing making comics and illustration work is already incredibly difficult. Trying to do two is nearly impossible given my free time.

So in an effort to simplify and consolidate, I'm going to write only one newsletter but each "issue" will have a paid section with extra content for those of you who want to support my work.

I also completely understand if subscribing to the premium content is not for you. I'm still going to try and make every newsletter worth reading even if you're not a paid subscriber.

My Patreon members will of course get all my content.

Going Traditional Again… somewhat.

Lately I’ve fallen in love with drawing traditionally again. I usually start my day with some warmup doodles to wake up the brain and hand. It’s messy and often times ugly but there’s a freedom to experiment that I can’t seem to feel when it comes to digital. Also with all this AI nonsense that we are bombarded with, it's nice to just do it the old fashioned way and have a piece of art I can hold in my hands and look at without a screen.

I’ve always skirted with the idea of doing comics traditionally but after a few furtive attempts, the reality of deadlines and revisions always pulls me back to the convenience and speed of digital. Hopefully one day I can figure out a way to do it.

Mantle #2 Kickstarter

My friend and frequent convention table mate, Adam Santangelo, just launched the Kickstarter for Issue Two of his super-hero comic, Mantle. It's a great comic so please check it out and consider supporting a new indie creator.

The Hollow Shores

. As I mentioned previously, Book Two of "The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahnwill comprise of stories: "The Ghost of Witch Lake" (the last of the Webtoon stories and a brand new story called "The Hollow Shores".

"The Hollow Shores" will be the first new Oscar zahn story and it's one I've been dying to tell for years. I'll keep the story close to my chest for now but we'll be delving into Oscar's past and touch on the origins of the Octopus and the story will have more of a cosmic horror slant to it. Here's some designs I've been working on:

I hope you enjoyed this early look at "The Hollow Shores". I'll be going over some of my writing and layouts behind the paywall so please check it out if you're interested. Otherwise have a great Halloween and I'll talk to you soon!