Today’s strip is a little shout-out to Brian and Alison’s cat Maddy. I thought it would be funny to include her because she has the most enormous eyes I’ve ever seen on a cat. Seriously. We’re talking freakishly big. Anyway, we found a fun way to get her in the strip and I spent a good part of the day making sure I got her fur colored just right. (That, and those damn brick walls in every frickin’ panel.)
So what’s everyone doing for Halloween? The wife and I will be kid-less, so maybe a night out on the town is in order. I might even bust out the DarkRaven costume if we end up going to a costume party.
Later,
-R

Just in time for Halloween, a creepy Snow White! By Jeffrey Thomas.

Hey friends,
I know it’s been about a month since we had a new story page, and I apologize for that. I lost my grandmother two weeks ago and was out of town for about a week, so the page you see now would have went up last week. I still need to fully render the art on this page, but I didn’t want to wait any longer before posting. I’ll get the final rendered page up soon.
Until next week,
-R

The drawing Brian sent me the day he heard I lost my Grandma. What a good guy!

Hey friends,
In case you missed it, we have a guest artist for this week’s episode! My good friend Adam West (not the one you’re thinking of, the other one) offered to help us out with this special page. The strip doesn’t take place in the current “Tales of the DarkRaven” continuity (and really shouldn’t take place in any continuity). This imaginary tale shows what would happen if DarkRaven and the Blue Tit existed in the Marvel Comics universe. Good times.
Hope you enjoy, and we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled story soon.
-Ray
PS. If the page is too small for you to read up, just click on the link below it to show a bigger image.

Hey friends. I didn’t get this week’s script to Brian before his anniversary dinner last night, so the page will be a day late. But I didn’t want our fans to go without anything this Wednesday, so I’m unveiling my coveted picture of Bruce Campbell that I got at the 2009 FanExpo in Toronto.

If you don’t know who this fine gentleman is, he’s a master thespian who has appeared in a number of movies and television series. He’s played a range of characters from Elvis to The King of Thieves. He chopped off his own hand and replaced it with a chain-saw in “Army of Darkness,” and he sang “Hungry Like a Wolf” while playing piano in an Old Spice commercial. 

He’s The Man.

When we took the photo, the sum total of what Bruce said to me was, “Let’s do an action-hero-y pose.” It was like he looked inside of me and knew I was a closet action hero. He just knew. 

Best day ever.

See ya tomorrow.

-R

The Bruce.

Best Cowboy Ever.

The King.

From Hercules and Xena.

The Chin.

Ash from "Army of Darkness"

…and we’re back! Hope you didn’t miss us too much. We apologize for the delay over the last few weeks, but between Brian moving and my trip to Toronto we just needed to take a break from the comic. But we’re back now, and working on guest fill-in pages for those weeks when we can’t get a page out. I just hate the thought of you good people not getting your weekly fix of the ol’ DarkRaven and Blue Tit.

Below are a couple of pics from my trip to the Toronto Fan Expo two weeks ago. I had a blast, although going by myself was a little weird. It did force me to go outside my comfort zone and talk to people that I didn’t know, and I like to think I grew a little bit as a person while I was chatting up complete strangers about Green Lantern comics and Star Wars costumes. Thank you to Louis, Cynthia, and everyone else that I met who made this American feel so welcome.

I’ll post my coveted picture of Bruce Campbell in the A.M. but for now, enjoy these little tidbits.

The view from my hotel window (The CN Tower).

Deadpool, Spiderman, Squirrel Girl and Black Bolt

Domo

The best Soundwave costume I've ever seen...

Just so you know, that's body paint...I love Canada!

The Spoiler, DC Comics Executive Editor Dan Didio, and a Green Lantern Arisia

I'm gonna start the "Wonder Woman Needs Tatts" campaign. Who's with me?

Overall, I hear about 59,000 fans attended the Expo. It was awesome.

Until next week!
-R

Hey friends.

Here’s the deal: Brian is buying a new house next week. This week he and his wife are packing up and getting ready for the move. He’s had zero free time, and has not been able to pencil any new pages. Hence, there is no new comic this week.

We may not have a comic for next week either, because we just don’t know how the move will go. Please accept our humble apologies for the temporary break. We will return, and it will be cool. Promise.

In the meantime, I’m going to the Toronto Fan Expo this weekend and I’ll take lots of pics to post next week. If you’re there, look for the guy in the DarkRaven t-shirt and say ‘hello’.

-R

Zexcellent!

Hello again! Hope this week finds ya doing well. I’m particularly stoked because I purchased my ticket yesterday to Fan Expo Canada 2009! Is anyone out there gonna be in Toronto the weekend of August 28th? ‘Cause I’m gonna need some nerd friends to share the weekend with. (Brian is buying a house, so he can’t join me. Jerk.)

I’ll be there all three days, and I’m staying in the hotel where the convention is, so I fully expect to live up the adult geek high life. It’ll be my first trip to this particular con, but I’m confident that I can not come across as too much of a newbie. Any recommendations to a first-timer?

See ya later!
-R

So that's what's wrong with me...

So I’ve got two things this week to talk about. One is that I’ve now been told that I look like “McSteamy” by two separate people on two separate occasions. I don’t watch Gray’s Anatomy, but I’ll take the compliment, and I’ll try not to let it go to my head. And speaking of keeping myself humble…

The second thing I wanted to share was that I messed up good this week. For awhile now, I had been planning on going to the Toronto FanExpo at the end of August so that we can get some much needed promotion for the webcomic. I’ve really been looking forward to this, but between creating promo items and thinking up ways to network I forgot to actually reserve a table in Artist’s Alley. So I call up the people running the Con and find out that they’re all booked up and have been for a while. I guess planning ahead is not one of my strong suits.

I still have the hotel room booked, and I still plan on going. Except now I’ll be going as a fan and not as a industry professional (and I use those terms loosely). It’ll still be fun, but man I’m kicking myself for letting this opportunity slide by. Next year I won’t make the same mistake.

-R

The twelve-year-old kid in me liked the new movie...

Hello everyone. Brian and I are taking a short break this week from updating. Life has crept up on us and we were unable to get the next page ready. Brian’s buying a new house, and I’m overwhelmed at work, so please forgive us. We’ll update as soon as we can. Have a good week.
-Ray

Hello people! Don’t have much time to post today, so I’ll update the blog later this afternoon. Hope you like the new look I’m sporting these days. Brian is still a little upset that I cut my hair in the first place.
Talk to you soon.

-R