comic

When do you update?
A new comic page should arrive every Monday. If I’m going to be late with a new page I will try to keep you guys up to date via social media. So be sure to follow me there.

How long will the story be?
I can’t really give you an exact page number, but the first book is fully planned from start to end. I figure it will take me at least two to three years to complete. However, I have plans for at least two more books after this one. So settle in, it’s going to be a decent journey.

What kind of story is this?
DARKBORN is an urban fantasy that follows an ordinary teenage girl who just happens to come from a long lineage of monster hunters. She has to navigate a world with creepy things lurking in the dark, school life, and a hunter council all while trying to find her lost parents. A lot of my inspiration came from many modern urban fantasy stories, but I think mine is a little more lighthearted. Hopefully it’s something you will enjoy.

Where did you get your ideas?
DARKBORN is really a mix of a lot of my favorite urban fantasy stories and my own ideas. I’ve read several modern urban fantasy novels and comics over the years, which helped foster ideas. I started with a fairly basic concept of a monster hunter in training. I then took some concepts I liked from stories I’ve read and tossed in some ideas from other sources. As I developed the story I had a lot of questions I needed to answer. As they say, “necessity breeds invention.” I built my own mythology and lore as I went to explain and establish why things were the way they were. That in itself opened up doors for even more ideas. It was really a fun process even if it caused a lot of head-scratching at times. I really like taking a normal, modern day, setting and twisting it with fantasy concepts. I love the idea of a normal person dealing with rather extreme situations and mysterious things in our world hidden from plain sight. Much of that was what influenced the story ideas.

How long have you been working on the story?
I’ve spent the last several years working on various story ideas. DARKBORN started off as a rather simple idea and quickly grew. I think after working on so many other stories I sort of learned what I liked and didn’t like. It was pretty much a process of elimination by the time I got to DARKBORN. I pulled together many new and past ideas as the DARKBORN story grew and it just started to steamroll. That’s not to say it was easy. Once the basics were laid out I spent a few months hammering away at the details. I’m certainly not an expert when it comes to creating stories. Despite reading many books on the topic, it really is a craft that takes a lot of time. DARKBORN is currently my most developed story.

art

How long does it take to make a page?
It really depends on the content of the page. Some with a lot of characters and/or background work can take a few days, but generally four to five hours to draw and ink a page and then six to eight hours to color and letter it.

How long have you been drawing?
As you often hear, I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. I’m pretty much self-taught via trial and error and the occasional tutorial or book. I didn’t really start to draw seriously until around middle school. I loved superhero comics around that time and I actually did my first commission work around then as well. When I was in high school I was eager to draw my own comics for a living. I eventually created a couple online comics, TOKYO HIGH published on Modern Tales and XAMRA on WirePop. Besides comics I have also drawn various commissions and random pin-ups. I also do a little 3D modeling on the side.

What do you use to draw?
I draw completely digitally. I use a Wacom Cintiq 12wx and I draw, color, and letter DARKBORN with Manga Studio (aka Clip Studio Paint). I also use Photoshop for various things like some special effects and designs for the website.

Do you accept commissions?
You can look at my commissions information here: Commissions

Send me your questions at georgepanella (at) gmail.com or on tumblr.
If you’d like to know more about me you can visit my personal website.