ZED MERCURY: PSYCHOPOMP

FROM THE DRAWING BOARD - 001

noreply@blogger.com (Zed Mercury) — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 02:38:00 +0000

The Author

Hey Creeps,
Boyd here. The monkey that draws this stuff. To tide you over for the Eostre festivus until our next comic page update next week, I'm going to show you a few pages from my sketchbooks, and shed a little light on my process.
Billy and I have been working on the characters and story of Zed for about three years now. It's been an incredible challenge to me as an artist and I've filled a few boxes of sketchbooks with the rather large cast of characters, human and not so human... So from time to time I'll be doing updates like this. Hopefully you find it interesting.
Today I thought I would concentrate on one of the main supporting characters of the series-- Charon, boatman of the dead. Charon is the captain of the bone-ship 'The Angry Annie' and is Zed's pirate partner in crime, one might say sidekick, but don't tell him I said that. He likes to drink and fight and if you are from Melbourne you might just see a slight resemblance to a certain local weirdo. I won't name names though.

So unless you've been living under a rock for a thousand years you would know that Charon is the famed boatman of the dead of Greek myth. Charon has had many different guises throughout the ages, but we decided to give him a slightly more distinctive look than an 'naked old man with an oar' from Dante's and countless other renditions. Note the copper coin in his left eye socket.

'The Angry Annie', Charon's bone-ship, for ferrying the newborn dead across the Spiral Sea to the mainland was really fun to design. I love drawing weird vehicles and there are PLENTY of weird vehicles in Zed Mercury. Here are some development sketches of the Angry Annie.

And the design we eventually went with:

When drawing a comic page my process is slightly different compared to other artists. After I get the script I usually thumbnail out the whole story roughly. I then do studies of all the different actions of characters, different options for 'camera' angles, background studies and such. I then scan it all in and arrange everything into Photoshop compositions. This allows me a lot of freedom with choosing certain sketches and coupling them with others, shuffling things around and exploring what works best for the page and the story. Billy and I usually agonize over these digital files until we are happy, then comes the fun bit. I print the Photoshop comps out, then on the light-box trace the whole thing onto a nice new piece of water-colour bleed-proof paper. Then I ink it (more on this process later). So it's a slightly different process to most comic artists but I find it to be quicker than drawing the same page over and over. Works for me. Here are the inks for page 2:

Then it gets scanned, cleaned up, coloured and lettered in Photoshop.
Please contact us with any questions you have about the comic, the characters or anything you'd like to see me talk about. We are nice people. Really.
~BOYD

noreply@blogger.com (Zed Mercury) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 05:51:00 +0000

ZED MERCURY: Psychopomp ISSUE ZERRO begins!

The Author

"Greetings humans!

Today is the big day you fiends! Above you can find the link to the first two pages of the first issue of ZED MERCURY: PSYCHOPOMP!

Each week two new pages will be uploaded so make sure you keep checking back for ya weekly fix!

Don't forget to subscribe to the site for updates and news. You can even buy your very own T-shirt with my name on it now that I'm a bonafide comic book hero.

If you enjoy what you read here please be sure to let the boys know what you think and they'll be back in a week with the next two pages!

Till next time, keep breathing ya weirdos!"

- FATHER ZED

Psychopomp

THE ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE UNDERWORLD - 001

noreply@blogger.com (Zed Mercury) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:53:00 +0000

THE GEOGRAPHY OF ARCHERONTIA; DEATH'S HEAD ISLE + THE SURROUNDING AREAS

Part One

- Scribed by Blackmurk the Mystic - 1696 A.D

INTRODUCTION

It was known to the Ancients as the UNDERWORLD. It has been called HADES, PURGATORY, SHEOL and DUAT - it is neither Heaven nor Hell but a crossroads, THE FIVE HIGHWAYS between reality and the realms of reward and punishment...

Today, it is known as ARCHERONTIA - THE DEATH'S HEAD ISLE.

Before the beginning of time, the realm of THE UNDERWORLD was a gaping black void. From the chaos of creation, TARTARUS (The Pit), the third primordial god, was formed and thrown into this dark realm. The physical manifestation of TARTARUS in this place of absolute nothingness was like an infection or cancer. The tumour grew and spread and from TARTARUS, the lifeless island and the sea of blood and the surrounding areas were born...

0. EREBUS - THE DEEP DARKNESS

When a soul first arrives in the underworld they awake to complete and utter darkness. This in-between realm is a primordial place and the soul will retain the appearance of his or her former self for the time being as they carry the baggage of their former lives (literally) to their new destination. THE UNDERWORLD proper is reached by following the strange whistling sound the soul will undoubtably

hear. After some walking the soul should notice a faint gold glimmering in the distant and the smell of seaweed and cigar smoke. Eventually out of the shadows will appear CHARON, the ferryman of the dead and one of only a few of the chosen gods who can enter EREBUS - the realm between realms.

1. DREAD TARTARUS - THE PIT

If one were to enter the mouth of the small island of TARTARUS they would be faced with the wet, dripping smell of decay, the inner walls writhe and contract like a throat. Deep within the bowels of TARTARUS lie thousands of souls deemed too sinful to pass on to ELYSIUM. Here lay THE TITANS, THE CYCLOPES and of course SATAN.

The THREE HECATONCHIRES or the one hundred arms giants, guard the prisoners of TARTARUS and are ruled over by THE PIT's monstrous pet - TYPHON....

To be continued...

- BLACKMURK

Scribe

ZED MERCURY Merch!!! T-Shirt, Hoodies, IPhone Covers, and more!

noreply@blogger.com (Zed Mercury) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:26:00 +0000

Each design is available in a range of colours and sizes!!!

ORDER YOURS TODAY!

ZED MERCURY: Psychopomp TEASER 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Zed Mercury) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:03:00 +0000

THE TRUTH - 003

noreply@blogger.com (Zed Mercury) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:30:00 +0000

THE TRUTH ACCORDING TO ZED MERCURY - 003

The Author

"Greetings humans!

The boys have told me to plug another one of their 'ideas'. Apparently there will be a set of seven promotional prints available soon, the idea being that each image introduces you to one of the main characters in the book. What a novel idea!

They are calling it the 'TAROT SERIES'. I don't know if it will help you divine the future or talk to demons or anything like that but they are pretty to look at I guess.

The prints will be available to purchase at the ZED MERCURY ONLINE STORE, which will be launching soon.

In the meantime, here's a preview of the first of the seven prints.

ZED MERCURY: PSYCHOPOMP

THE TAROT SERIES

MAY 2012

Till next time, keep breathing ya weirdos!"

- FATHER ZED

Psychopomp

THE TRUTH - 002

noreply@blogger.com (Zed Mercury) — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 04:18:00 +0000

THE TRUTH ACCORDING TO ZED MERCURY - 002

The Author

"Greetings humans!

Your pal Zed here with some more news from the traps. There is a lot of excited gibbering happening at the Weird Love HQ this week as Hysteria and Boyd finish up the boring pre-release stuff.

That's right kids, we have a release date! The squeals of excitement make me sick. ZED MERCURY: Psychopomp finally begins on April 2nd, 2012 and will kick off with the first two pages of the preview issue.

The high faulting literary types call it a prelude but it's basically a ten page sampler introducing you to your glorious hero and the evil bastards always trying to bring him down.

ISSUE ZERRO - 'STEALING CANDY' will be continue every Monday and Friday for four weeks, then the ONGOING SERIES starts.

They tell me sometime this week you can expect more exciting news regarding a set of prints to celebrate the launch of this friggin' thing, The Illustrated Guide to the Underworld and how you can get your hands on your very own ZED MERCURY: Psychopomp T-Shirts! That's right, you could be wearing my beautiful mug all about town. Won't everyone be impressed?

ZED MERCURY: PSYCHOPOMP

Issue Zerro - 'STEALING CANDY'

Begins April 2nd.

Till next time, keep breathing ya weirdos!"

- FATHER ZED

Psychopomp

THE TRUTH - 001

noreply@blogger.com (Zed Mercury) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:42:00 +0000

THE TRUTH ACCORDING TO ZED MERCURY - 001

The Author

"Ladies and gentlemen, freaks, creeps and weirdos,

WELCOME TO HELL!

I'm Zed Mercury, rogue psychopomp and scourge of the Spiral Seas. I'm a pirate, I'm a thief and I'm old friends with the Devil.

I've been blackmailed into hosting this god forsaken site by these two degenerate flesh sacks - Billy Hysteria and Steve Boyd.

These two assholes have harassed me for the last three years. They jumped me at my favorite piss hole and wouldn't stop buying me drinks until I got so shit-faced that I eventually agreed to sell them the rights to my life story.

This is why I hate you humans. You're a bunch of sneaky fuckers aren't ya?

Hysteria and Boyd tried to tell me all about their little picture book and how it was all a metaphor for something and a genre exercise in blah blah blah. They listed a bunch of these other artists that had influenced their work. I couldn't give two shits about all that as long as I don't come across like a moron and they don't run off to Norway with my royalties.

So anyway, it's gonna be a comic and the story is mainly about me and how I quit being a Psychopomp

for the Underworld, became a pirate and a mercenary and ended up accidently helping some slack jawed humans in the so called 'real world'.

Oh yeah, I also killed a whole bunch of monsters, kicked a drug habit and destabilized the reigning police state of Hell. So, you know, no big deal. I'm just a hero and all.

This comic adaptation of my adventures begins at the end of March with the launch of a ten page preview issue that primes you for the ongoing series later this year.

It's called Issue Zerro: STEALING CANDY. Keep your sweaty eyeballs peeled and subscribe to the site so you're not in the dark when all your loser friends started talking about how awesome I am.

That's it. That's my big sell. If Hysteria and Boyd don't like it they can write all this shit themselves.

Keep checking back for more updates, an upcoming release schedule and an Illustrated Guide to the Underworld by one of my creepy mates - Blackmurk the Mystic.

Till next time, keep breathing ya weirdos!"

- FATHER ZED

Psychopomp

ZED MERCURY: Psychopomp begins in 2012.

noreply@blogger.com (Zed Mercury) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:50:00 +0000