From the Vault WEEK- Exit 6 1989 Part 6

Wake up, Keith, WAKE UP!

What teenaged boy sleeps all day and doesn't wake up until the sun goes down? This idea is something I must have pulled from "The Lost Boys."

And, unlike the published Exit 6 series, Keith actually has a friend. I must have gotten darker as I hit my twenties and took everything away from Keit. But, when I did these pages, I was still nice enough to give Keith a buddy named Brian.

Of course, later in the story, I'd turn him into an evil vampire and have the two fight, but that's a whole other thing.

From the Vault WEEK- Exit 6 1989 Part 5

Keith's thoughts about his dreams continue.

New Header

Oh, and if you haven't noticed, I've added a new header to the blog. I've had the idea for months now but have never had the time to pull it off. So, while watching Survivor last night I sat down and built the template for the new blog header.

My plan, now that the template is in place, is to change the header's look from month to month. This month, being a holiday packed month, features Mr. Mucho, doing his best to play Santa. I figured a blue tinted background would work well for this chilly month but, don't fear, the original colors will be back come January.

Building this new header also solved a problem I've had for a long time. Since I started this blog, because of the way I placed my art into the header, its had a title like "img.scrn.text.seantiffany.jpg blah blah blah". It was a pain in the ass and because of the way I set it up I didn't know how to fix it.

But, with the new art the official title is now "Sean Tiffany Art and Illustration"

So, feel free to tell your friends.

And have a great December!

From the Vault WEEK- Exit 6 1989 Part 4

See, I told you it was just a dream. Phew! No need to get too scared.

Another odd storytelling choice I made on this page is on the last panel. I actually had Keith break the panel plane and grab onto the bottom of the panel. What an odd decision to make for no reason at all.

Ah well, it was still about six months before I'd go to art school so I'll forgive my old self this quirky choice.

I was experimenting and learning. And, hopefully, I've gotten better since these pages.

From the Vault WEEK- Exit 6 1989 Part 3

Ah, the eternal struggle between good and evil. Unfortunately, I didn't have the tools yet in my arsenal to make sure the reader knew this was a dream sequence. But, don't worry. I spell it out to you (literally) on the next page that, yes, this is a dream.

All the skills weren't quite there yet (backgrounds, who needs backgrounds?) but I was trying. And I was doing my own thing.

And I was having fun.

From the Vault WEEK- Exit 6 1989 Part 2

Putting information about the cast of characters on the inside front cover of a comic book was something else I picked up from the Japanese manga books I was reading at the time. It served as an easy way to get to know the characters as well as a great way to recap the previous story.

And, it's within this old, inside front cover where we can see how different the original Exit 6 idea was at the time.

The original story focused more on Keith's life than it did Courtney's. In fact, at this time, Courtney wasn't even around. It was a girl named Pam. Keith had a friend, named Brian, and even, gasp, a father who looked like a cross between a rat and a mole. Of course, this guy, so eloquently named The Count, was a vampire and Keith's vampiric powers came from him.

From what I remember, Keith was going through some changes. His vampire powers were coming into full bloom as he grew older. His father, The Count, came back to reclaim Keith. The Count sent in Stephanie, one of his vampires, to seduce him. When Keith couldn't be turned to the dark side, I'm sure because of something Pam did, Stephanie turned her attention towards Keith's best friend Brian. She turned him into a vampire so I'm sure, at some point in the book, there would be an epic vampire battle between two old friends.

Phew...talk about a different story than the one that saw print ten years later.

Tomorrow we'll start looking at the pages I started doing for this project. It's a trip!

From the Vault WEEK- Exit 6 1989

The first actual issue of the self published comic book EXIT 6 was published in 1998. Before that I had used the characters from the book in many a class assignment when I was at the Joe Kubert school in the early nineties.

So, I was pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of pages under the bed in Maine that pre-dated even those college assignments. These must have been done in my senior year of high school. I remember I conceived the idea and the characters in the early years of 1989. Who knew that I was so ambitious that, in just the few short months after, that I would have an initial storyline in place and a few pages under my belt?

Exit 6, at the time, was simply called "Keith Howard: Vampire." Not too flashy or original but, you know, you got the point of what the book was about right off the bat.

At the time, I was reading a lot, and really loving, the few manga books that Viz Comics was putting out in the late 80's. Unlike today where your neighborhood Borders or Barnes and Noble has whole shelves devoted to the Japanese comic book art form in the 80's I think I only had three or four titles to choose from. Two of these books that captured my imagination were Area 88 and Xenon: The Heavy Metal Warrior. Using those books as inspiration, these pages have a lot of gray wash and a bit of zip-a-tone on them to mimic the work I was seeing in those books.

Another funny thing to note is that I was sharing the writing credit with my brother, Josh. I'm not sure how much we really collaborated on these pages or what ideas he and I knocked around. But, it was fun to create with my brother who, at the time and probably still is, a HUGE horror fan. Who better to work on a book about a vampire with?

So, over the next few days I'll show you some of these old pages. Up tomorrow will be the inside front cover of the book, featuring the characters from the story. And, if you think you know the story of Keith Howard and Exit 6, then you're in for a surprise. This original story is totally different.

Have a great day!