The gig is almost up as the Injun rushes Elijah Holman- with a meat cleaver only a few feet from chopping our protagonist apart at the seams, and his 1850’s single action revolvers can’t lock on to this one man killing machine with time and bullets running out, and just as it is all coming to an end for our hero… The Injun loses his head and  left hand, and an unlikely ally appears, The Chinaman- Xi Chou Long.  Realizing that he’s been set up to die in a double cross, and his enemy was an honorable one, he decides to save Elijah’s life and team  up to fight for their lives.

Now, I did diverge from David’s script here, but as I have been doing the work on the pages, this made more sense than Chinaman just fighting Elijah with the Banditos.  Of course, that’s my .02 cents on the story at this point… The readers will tell us if it works when it’s all done! 

From an art point of view- I loved these three panels, lots of action, movement and emotion, and lets get down to it, a really cool decapitation!

Elijah Holman puts a bullet in Xi Chou Long’s right elbow after the Chinaman missed a killing strike, however a handmade dagger is thrown at both of the putting a halt to their showdown outside the destroyed whorehouse of San Quentin, California!  It’s the rising tide of drama at UGLI Studios true believers as we keep up a steady march to get Ugli Studios Presents #2 in your hands!

Elijah Holman goes at it up close with the Chinaman on page 7 of the “Painted Ladies of San Quentin”… Tried some alternate angles to really show the Chinaman getting up close with his sword and pole arm which would negate the advantage of Elijah’s handguns, until using a close up, we see Elijah (perhaps) getting the drop on his would-be assassin!

So this is page 6 of “Painted Ladies of San Quentin”- and it’s on.  A full splash page that I give credit to Aaron Kuder of Marvel fame for telling me at NYCC 2012- “get the hands in the foreground, up close” and he showed me a cover he did from Avengers for me to think on- see attached photo.  Keeping this in mind, I did three elements- a horse, jumping “Chinaman” with weapons, and Elijah’s revolver shooting and missing in the foreground. All three are in motion in a triangular pattern on the page, with the ground on an angle.  I’m pleased with all three elements, and the motion and action (whoa Chinaman jumping off the horse!!) the hand close up brings it all to a sense of immediate action which makes the whole splash page work- thanks for the tip Aaron!

As an aside- I did this on a scrap of paper in my niece’s 3rd grade class on 11/26/12 in a child’s chair and desk in the back of her art class while I sat in while we were in Florida for Thanksgiving.  I had no references, and did it in 90 minutes, and as my UGLI Studios collaborator and friend Brian Allen said- “I love the expression on the horse.  He’s like F This!”

Aaron Kuder’s art at NYCC…