This is a snapshot of my final layouts from page 1 of the new series. I draw my thumbnails at around 1/3 of the size of a full comic page and then scale them up to full size and add text. Once the series has launched I’ll show you the full set of thumbnails for episode 1 and talk you through my working process, but doing so now would give away too much of the story! Sorry.

A new adventure calls for a new logo. I liked the old logo but it took up an awful lot of room on a page and was a little hard to read. I also didn’t like that the Troy part of the title was so small. When I talk with my editor and fellow artists and writers I always refer to my series simply as "Troy" and readers have also adopted this abbreviation. I thought the new logo should reflect this with Troy dominating the composition. As you can see, the new logo is also more compact, allowing more room for action and adventure!

The new series features bounty hunters a lot! This guy is the lead bad guy, a vicious bounty hunter called Granvil. Eagle eyed readers might find him and the rest of his crew in a previous episode of Troy, perhaps during the Creation Stone saga? This should also give you a clue as to who else may be starring in the new series!

I never actually got around to posting this on Twitter yet, but I thought it was funny how long I obsessed over this intergalactic policeman. He features in just 4 panels of the first episode of Princess of Paragon and that’s it. Over the whole course of my 13 week run we never see him again, yet he went through a number of revisions before I settled on the final design.

The first panel is from my thumbnails and I just felt he looked too much like an ordinary policeman, not alien enough and certainly not cool enough. The second panel was along the right lines, but his suit was a bit nondescript and too curvy. The final design is a little more heavy duty and my policeman finally looked like he could take on a group of good for nothing bounty hunters.

In reality I never should have taken so long over a minor character like this when there’s deadlines to meet, but sometimes you’ve just got to take the time to get these things right.

The final image for this blog post gives a bit of a snapshot of my working process. Here I’m inking over my pencils, completely digitally in Sketchbook Pro on a Wacom Cintiq. And as you can see, Blip has had better days. Poor Blip.

I hope to be on here again with more behind the scenes snippets, both before and during the Princess of Paragon series. So until next time, Phoenixers!

Troy Trailblazer: And the Princess of Paragon begins in issue 73 of The Phoenix!

Psychic Science!

Mendeleev's periodic table predicted later developments in science.  We know he was able to predict the existence of the elements Gallium, Gemanium and Scandium before they were discovered, but it took 44 more years before scientists could actually understand why his table works.  

Mendeleev knew that atoms existed, but had no idea at all about their structure.  We now know that atoms have a nucleus at the centre made up of protons and neutrons, surrounded by one or more shells of electrons, which spin around the nucleus like planets around the sun.  

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The bigger the nucleus, the more electrons it can attract.  But each shell can only have a certain number of electrons in it.  The first shell can have only two.  That's why the periodic table has only two elements on the first row, Hydrogen and Helium.  The next shell can hold up to 8 electrons, and the next row of the table has 8 elements.  See the pattern…?

The number of electrons in the outer shell determines how the element reacts.  If it has only one, it's very easy for the electron to get detatched and interact with other elements, which is why the group on the left tend to explode all the time.

If the outer shell is full, then the electrons are very stable.  They don't detatch, but stay glued to one another, and can't interact with other elements at all.  That's the group on the right – called the Noble gases.  

All the groups in between tend to have similar properties, based on how many electrons they have in their outer rings.

The largest element ever created, the massive Ununoctium, has a whopping 118 electrons in 7 fully-packed rings.  Only a few atoms have ever existed, created in labs in 2002, and it doesn't even have a name yet – Ununoctium is just a temporary name while scientists try to make enough of it to be sure they're not just seeing things!

Mendelevium

Mendeleev is one of only a handful of people to have a periodic element named after him!  The highly radioactive element was created in a lab in 1955 by bombarding Einsteinium (no prizes for guessing who that's named after) with radioactive particles.  It lasts for only a few days, has only ever been made in tiny quantities, and has no known uses.  Still, better than nothing…

Science Fiction

Not content with just studying science, Mendeleev also read science fiction.  In fact, he died while listening to a recording of Jules Verne's science fiction story Journey to the North Pole.  Now that's commitment!

Crazy Poets

Ada’s mother’s terror of poetry maybe wasn’t as nutty as it sounds! Her father, Lord Byron, probably had bipolar disorder, a mental illness, so when she talked about being afraid of Ada inheriting his “poetical tendencies” – it’s possible this is what she meant.

Computer Manufacture

Today, there are two full working versions of Babbage’s Difference Engine, one at the Computer History Museum in California, and the other at the London Science Museum. 

There are also several amateur projects to recreate the engine, including one made entirely from Lego. 

 But no-one has been able to build the much more complicated Difference Engine, yet. There is a project underway to build the thing in computer 3D, and then use that to build the real engine.  Which would allow us to see if it really worked, and even test the programs Ada Lovelace wrote for it. That’s a long time to wait to debug your code…

Historical Connection

Charles and Ada’s work, despite being very similar to modern computers in many respects, had no influence on later scientists.  With one exception.  The first computers were similar in scope to the Difference Engine – they were designed to calculate one thing: the trajectory of missiles.  But computer genius Alan Turing had read Ada’s notes, and he was the first person to realise that you could build a computer that could be programmed to perform any task.

Corpse Talk with Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace was published in The Phoenix issue 70.

There were … DEEP BREATH … comic-making masterclasses, drawing activities, convention tables, games, a wheel of awesomeness, comic pizza, Phoenix ice cream, storytelling, dirty great comic bombs, the navy, giant comics on walls, glittering bowler hats, burgers, crows, feather hunts, a name the festival competition, vikings, pirates, a wall of awesomeness, t-shirts galore, badges, stickers, dinosaur costumes, harmonicas, overly-excited Phoenix team members, and more awesomeness than you could shake a proverbial stick at! PHEW…

Sarah McIntyre's workshop in full swing!

Amongst the plethora of comic creators, one of the most exciting parts of the festival was the attendance of two young comic makers who rocked up to the festival to show off their creations. Zoom Rockman creator of The Zoom was out in full force at the festival showing off his marvellous comic, and indeed so successful was his outing that we have it on good authority he sold every last issue he had!

Zoom Rockman

The utterly superb Jordan Vigay was the second young comic producer to grace the festival with his presence. Jordan is the sole creator of The Red Crow, which is now in its third issue. (Sarah McIntyre has a small interview with Jordan so run on over HERE to get the low down). The Phoenix met Jordan at Thought Bubble, back in November 2012, and we were so impressed by what we can only describe as, his SHEER GENIUS, that we’re sure Jordan is destined for great things in the future.

Jordan Vigay

A HUGE thank you to both Jordan and Zoom, it was a pleasure to have you at the festival and The Phoenix doffs its metaphorical feathery hat to you both.

Zoom and Jordan weren’t the only ones to exhibit their creative flair on Saturday though. The festival was awash with all kinds of amazing, fantastic and magnificent illustrations from children all of ages.  

Some fun at the "Wheel of Awesomeness"

Fired-up by brilliant comic workshops from Neill Cameron, Sarah McIntyre, Adam Murphy, The Etherington Brothers, and Tom Plant, the festival going children got stuck in, and like crazed comic-making machines, spent hours producing an incredible variety of wonderful and wacky drawings. 

Young comic-creators!

The festival even had a GIANT COMICS JAM, outside in the courtyard. Curated by the Pirates of Pangaea co-creator Neill Cameron, this MAHOOSIVE comic drawing saw lots of contributions from artists of all shapes and sizes. Check out Neill’s blog for a blow-by-blow account of the comics jam. Lashings of awesome sauce guaranteed!

Jordan Vigay adding his part to the giant comic.

Jamie Littler, creator of Cogg & Sprokit doodling on a giant scale.

Adam Murphy, of Corpse Talk adding the finishing touches!

The Phoenix has never been so excited and we would like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who attended and helped to make the day such brilliant fun! Long may the festival continue – and next time we'll be back bigger and better than before!

This is the place to be if you want to learn the fine art of comic story telling. We’ll have amazing guides appearing here all the time. Guides that will teach you how to draw, how to tell stories and ultimately how to be… a COMICS MASTER!

Every week you can come here to download the latest Art Monkey lessons and How-to-Draw features, plus some exciting special guests will be showing their faces, too! 

For now, why not check out the Archive? There's already tons of fantastic stuff for you to check out!