Comic's/Graphic novels:"Land of the rising sun" Part2

L.R.S prt2 pg #1  2010

 Land of the rising sun: prt 2

Japan(Kyushu) 1650: The wars waged to unite the lands was at an end
with the the Tokugawa in firm control.
But the peace brought by bloody swords
would not last....for a silent new enemy
would rise.... to challenge the Tokugawa.

This is the basic historical back-drop story for L.R.S,
Kerwin K Williamson's comic story mini-series.
In 3 villages on the island of Kyushu a strange sickness
begins killing all males between the ages of 16-40,
with signs of it spreading throughout the area.
Advised by Shinto priests that the sickness is unnatural 

 Lord Shimazu Mitsuhisa(Satsuma province)dispatches his two best agents, Imisu and Hidesato to investigate.

L.R.S prt 2  pg#2- 2010

Character design for Fujiwara Hidesato

The two soon realize an underground cult is behind the sickness, but this is only a part of  something beyond the both of them. "At various times the bakufu as had to call upon strange and extraordinary individuals to come to it's defense".(Hattori Hanzo)
I wanted to create a story based in reality with  strong elements of magic, science, and dramatic action. A more adult story-line not unlike Blade of the Immortal, Lucifer, Hellboy, or "City of walls".

Even as a kid the world of  feudal Japan was exciting. Something about the Samurai and their shadowy counter-part(The men &women of Iga), the Martial arts philosophy, it struck a cord in me like many others. Before I took up Painting and film photography the comic book medium and illustration was my life. Having grown up reading them and various other kinds of stories,  Macbeth, Bram stokers Dracula, The picture of Dorian gray, I always had the urge to create worlds and characters doing extraordinary things. I suppose it was only a matter of time before I got to it. Having a natural love of history made the research aspect fun, but I tried not to get too deep into it. I started with Basics, drawing as much of their world a possible, deciding the amount of main characters, and then the way the story would be told. After that drawing the characters as much as possible, creating variations on their faces, clothes, etc. When I started all this I had little training in creating comic books, but I was inspired by my good friend Abede Lovelace(www.cityofwalls.com).

So I began constructing what would be the story while beefing up my skills
and doing as much research as possible on comics, writing, laying out of panels, inking, etc. It was hell, but oddly enough "hell doesn't always look like hell, on a good day hell can look alot like L.A", N.Y.C, Tokyo. Dispite training part one had problems, however not in artistic terms, but in spelling mistakes, having to hand write the word balloons, the cover lay-out should have been better. Doing the work of 5 different people by yourself, limited budget, etc. Still it was well received and some money was made, but more importantly readers liked the look of the art, subject matter and the way the story was told. Great feed back to make the second part better. Look for it April 12th everywhere where it can be, "Art is the reason, art is the way".
("Land of the rising sun" and the characters there in are copyright and trademarked 2008. All characters within this publication and the distinct names and likeness thereof are, unless otherwise noted, are the property of Kerwin k Williamson and Studio-Phoenix . None of the content in this publication may be reprinted without the permission of Studio-Phoenix.)

Character design for Momochi Imisu