Launch in 24
The Kickstarter for Stealth Hammer #4 Is Coming
Hello, everyone!
I know that many people in the U.S. are facing, or are about to face, a major snowstorm. This seemed like a great time to send some reading material in this latest newsletter to help occupy your time. :-)
We are just 24 hours away from the launch of the Kickstarter for Stealth Hammer #4!! We’re all very excited as I’m sure you are as well!
If you haven’t selected to be notified about the campaign and are worried you might forget, you can click the button below and choose “Notify On Launch.” You then will receive an email alert when the campaign goes live:
We have some wonderful things in store for you with this campaign. Throughout the campaign we’ll be sending you special behind-the-scenes updates on art, interviews, and more!
As a special treat before our launch, I wanted to share some of the communication that happens between creators.
Our incredible artist, Joel Jackson, was working on the first page for the new issue. This page will be going to our amazing colorist, Heather Breckel. Here is what page one looks like in black and white inks with some color accents highlighted.
As you can see, Joel puts A LOT of detail into a page. When I was looking for an artist to work with on Stealth Hammer, I wanted someone who could draw in a cartoon style, but could do so with a lot of detail because I knew there would be a need for call-outs and hints to things in the backgrounds (and really all over!). Joel fit that request and then some.
Looking at this page at a glance, it may look chaotic and tough to make out what everything is supposed to be. A little of that is intentional because this is Dr. Everett’s lab after the explosion and his Lab-Bytes are working to repair the room.
Joel knows best what he drew and he wanted to support Heather’s efforts by identifying things for her. To do this, Joel kindly created a copy of the image with color keys to help differentiate areas:
Now the image should look a little easier on the eyes, and I’m sure you can identify things a bit more. Joel provided for Heather a color coding with references to past issues so she would know how to match up colors from past comics for consistency. I will spare you all of the references, but I’m sure here you can see that the neon green are the Lab-Bytes and the pink in the background are our characters like Dr. Everett, Kyle, and the pup, Hana.
Joel did an astounding job providing this additional assistance for Heather, because once she puts the colors in and they line up with what you know to be true for these characters and this room, it will be an incredible page to look at fully colored.
The assistance doesn’t stop there. Joel also knew when he drew this that the Lab-Bytes were making some progress in fixing things and following a structured pattern in their repair. So he provided the below image as well to illustrate his angled perspective on what should be shiny and fixed and what should be dingy and still in the process of being repaired.
He also provided some extra details on the separate panel in the bottom right so that it would not get lost in everything else. He jotted some quicks notes as well to describe what is occurring in the scene.
I absolutely love that he gave their dog, Hana, a vest and hover cart to maneuver in the cleaning process. This is a great example of collaboration as well. Joel receives a lot of guidance from me on what is happening in a story, and there are many times I am specific about what I’m going for in a scene and what needs to happen. There are other times where Joel draws something into a scene because it works well from a creative standpoint. It makes sense that an inventor with a smart pup would have created a hover cart device for her to use. Then I see this creation and start thinking of story elements now that it exists in this world. You better believe the hover cart is going to make an appearance again in the future. I don’t know when or where, but it will be coming back again.
The Lab-Bytes themselves became characters because Joel drew them when he did the cover for Stealth Hammer #1. He told me that he thought Dr. Everett would probably need help in his projects and in just keeping everything organized. I told Joel that I loved that, and to run with it. He definitely ran with it because, as you know, on the cover of Stealth Hammer #1 he drew EIGHT robots.
I saw all of these new toys and immediately started working on what each of their names would be, what their group name would be, what their personalities would be like, and most important for a robot, what their purpose/function was. Below is a section from an art book we did for the first Stealth Hammer Kickstarter. It shows all of the names and functions I gave to each one.
And if you read Stealth Hammer #2 and #3, you saw the Lab-Bytes become key elements in the story. They are back again in issue #4, and play an important role in the story once again.
All of this because Joel decided to draw some robots.
So you can see that there is a lot of collaboration and assistance provided back and forth on each comic. I hope you enjoyed seeing more of the behind-the-scenes in the creation of this world. And I hope you’ll support the new issue when it launches tomorrow (1/25/26) at 7:00pm EST.
Have a great night! Stay safe and stay warm! And always remember…That’s not how this story ends…
Ryan Drost