Black Snow redesigned | Black Snow Comics

What’s that metronome I hear, perhaps the end is drawing near, You never hear the shot that takes you down, Out of time, so say goodbye, what is yours, Now is mine, and I dream broken dreams, I make them come true, I make them for you – dedicated to all my fans

Look what I drew this morning. A re-imagining of the Black Snow character design, in what I think is an awesome, gritty update. I’m very happy with the way this one turned out.

I used the same muted color scheme as the last drawing, because I think it’s pretty dead on. This is a pretty different style then usual, and I’m really happy how easily it came to me. What are some of the new things here? For one, it’s the first time we’ve EVER seen Black Snow’s eyes. It really does make a surprising difference in the overall look of the character. Adds a element of realism that simply isn’t there with the white slit eyes. It makes it feel like this is really a guy just wearing a mask. And it allows me to add more detail and expression to his eyes.

Another big difference, a restyling of Black Snow formerly slicked back widow’s peak. I like this messy, wild hair. It makes more sense really, as I don’t picture him as a man who cares about style or hygiene.

Of course a big part of that muted color scheme was to make his costume gray and his hair dark grey, versus the solid black previously used for both. This is actually quite a significant difference, as it allows me to add darker tones for shading and black lines for details and shadows, no longer restricting me to the use of white lines for such things.

Oh, btw, the blood splatter is supposed to be from someone else that he has beaten, not his own wounds.

It is a strange thing to jump from the comedy of I’m Famous! yesterday to this new intense Black Snow today. It required a bit of a different mindset, as I pumped myself up with some intense music and tried to think dark and gritty. It’s been said that artists are really actors performing through their characters on paper, and I subscribe fully to that belief. Your mood and attitude often shines through in your work. And if you’re like me you pose yourself as the characters to act as your own model. So mindset is fairly important to me.

Honestly, I think this single drawing has taken my work to a whole new level. What do you think?

Now I will break your dreams.

Rawr says:

May 15, 2011 at 12:27 AM

Nice one! I think you’ve pulled off a pretty gritty tone for Black Snow there.

gene tipton says:

May 9, 2013 at 2:09 AM

I own Shot in the Dark Comics. We own the name Shot in the Dark Comics and it has been trademarked since 2007. I noticed in my search for our updated website there is a tagline of Shot in the Dark Comics|Black Snow Comics. I hope this is simply a mistake and will be corrected as our company has NO affiliation with yours.

Michael says:

May 9, 2013 at 7:01 AM

Hi Gene,

We’ve actually talked several times before in 2011 when Shot in the Dark Comics was interested in publishing Black Snow: Two Drink Minimum and you were interested in having Alex and I rewrite your script for the comic Brix. Of course ultimately we did not move forward with either project together.

But that is actually all beside the point, as what you are referring to is a search engine result of 3 blog posts from 2011 that were tagged Shot in the Dark Comics. They were tagged as such because they were about our Black Snow relaunch and mentioned the potential deal with your company.

However, tagging a blog post does not imply any kind of affiliation. Much like when I regularly tag posts about Halloween with the name of the holiday it is not implying we own or are affiliated with said holiday.

I take it you are not overly familiar with the way search engines and the internet work. Quite frankly, I can tag my posts whatever I want and I can make pages about whatever I want. If I feel like writing about Marvel, DC or Dark Horse I can. What you are doing is akin to the head of Marvel writing every time someone mentioned their company name and saying “We own that name, you can’t say it.”

When I tagged my blog post I never claimed to own your company name, or have any affiliation, thus there is not actually anything to correct.

I do understand your frustration though. My three blog posts appear to be ranking highly on the first page of Google for the search phrase “Shot in the Dark Comics”. Unfortunately this is because your company has a low web presence and is not search engined optimized. That is actually what I do in my day job when I’m not making comics, help small to mid-sized businesses with their web presence. It is something I could potentially help you with if you are interested.

I hope this clears things up for you, and I wish you all the best.

Leave a Reply to Rawr Cancel reply