Mark of the Griffin on ComiXology

Comic Series: Mark of the Griffin

When evil cannot be punished enough by the laws of man, they will receive the Mark of the Griffin. Before he was marked, Marcus Griffin thought he could change the world with a gun. He was wrong. Drew Spence creates a graphic web series that follows the adventures of a vigilante turned special agent. One man cannot change the world. But a man can change himself and, if given the proper training and tools, make a difference.

1st Mark of the Griffin #1

1st Failure of an Angry Man with a Gun
It’s a fast-forward and flashback to the earliest days of Marcus, the Mark, Griffin. Before the Mask, there was the rag and the gun. One man sets out to change the world- one house rush at a time. This story was originally created as episode -1 and is now presented here as the opening chapter of the Mark of the Griffin comic series. Thank you for your support.

Available on comiXology in digital format

Force Six, The Annihilators Kat and Mouse

Kat and Mouse The complete Adventure

Force Six agent LunStar-G is sent to a party under cover as the journalist Nina Vanetta Noir. She’s there to cover a story and uncover a plodding plot device. It’s a decisive deep dive and a dashing dab of divisive deceit as our darling dame is left dangling with a dangerous double-cross dilemma. Kat and Mouse The Complete Adventure combines Force Six Season IV episodes 32 and 33. 74 pages deluxe format, full color. Artful arc by Drew Spence

We are The Dynamic Universe. We create graphic comics. They sit between traditional strips and a 3-D style of photorealistic drama. Enjoy the science-fantasy action adventure with terrific tints, great graphics and compelling story-telling. Read the comic and enjoy the soundtrack. Story and art by Drew Spence.

Available on comiXology in digital format

Daz Studio start up Course Part I Saturday July 18 2020

DETAILS

Start: PART I Saturday July 18 @ 8:00 pm BST

PART II Saturday July 25 @ 8:00 pm BST

3:00 PM EST (New York, East Coast)

each part runs approx hour and a half

Cost: Free (introductory course) – $67 (Full course + Material)

This course explores the learning of DAZ Studio for new users, with the objective of visual storytelling.

If you’ve had a story in your head for years (perhaps decades) and have always wanted to illustrate it, you may have considered using DAZ Studio.

This virtual studio has everything at your disposal to illustrate your characters – in any scene you can imagine. With tens of thousands of supporting assets, there’s an unlimited set of possibilities to create your visual stories.

But there is a learning curve to go through. Have you had these types of questions when beginning to learn with DAZ Studio?

• Where do I start?
• How do I create dynamic poses for storytelling?
• How do I apply clothing and props?
• How to avoid the most common 3D artistic mistakes?
• How do I use my virtual camera effectively?
• How can I improve lighting in a scene?
• What render settings should I use?
• How do you organise so many assets?

Drew Spence has logged hundreds of hours using DAZ Studio to illustrate volumes of comics, including “Force Six The Annihilators”.  All of the questions above and more were experienced by him during his DAZ Studio learning journey.

In this two part webinar series, Drew provides his insights and learning journey in overcoming the most frequent hurdles in using DAZ Studio for storytelling. Save time and money by utilising a more efficient workflow and getting more out of your DAZ store purchases.

This course explores the learning of DAZ Studio, looking through the lens of an artist that tells dynamic stories.

In this webinar class you will learn:-

• The beginning of Drew’s journey with DAZ Studio
• Drew’s first struggles with DAZ Studio : only know what you need to know
• Drew’s first (disastrous) renders and what he’s learned since
• Winning with the virtual camera
• Lighting tips and shortcuts
• Render settings that work
• Creating a learning diary
• Posing – Drew’s two greatest mistakes to learn from.
• Applying clothing
• Characters interacting with props
• Scene optimisation tips
• Mindset : Overcoming the artist’s hurdle of perfectionism

Who is this Course for?

• Digital artists who are just getting started with DAZ Studio or who are in their first year of learning.
• Illustrators wanting to learn DAZ Studio for visual storytelling

You can find other series that Drew Spence has created with Digital Art Live for purchase in the Daz Store. https://www.daz3d.com/digital-art-live You can take classes, watch tutorials and attend webinars and much more https://digitalartlive.com/events/

Force Six, The Annihilators #35

35 Road Rage Blues

Memories return and the Fire starts to burn! Force Six member Ace Cavalier finds himself lost in her house of horrible horrors. Can the man with a forgotten yesterday and a hopeless tomorrow find his way back?

Find out in Episode 35: Road Rage Blues as the Remember to Forget You story concludes.
Cut and Crafted by Drew Spence.

Available on comiXology in digital format

Force Six, The Annihilators #34

Force Six new episode 34 Alpha Male Red

The Force Six agent Fire Destiny will discover his Alpha status as he tangles with a twisted temptress and finds trouble when he’s entangled in a terrible triangle.
Join us for the start of the Remember to Forget You story arc starring Force Six member Fire Destiny as Ace Cavalier. It’s episode 34: Alpha Male Red

Available on comiXology in digital format

Force Six Season III Review by Nextframez

Force Six, The Annihilators Season III Review

by Walid Djidjeh, Nextframez Comic Media Reviews

Force Six, The Annihilators” is a comic series written and illustrated by Drew Spence. Oh boy …where do Istart? reviewing and reading this comic series was quite the ride but I’m glad to say it was an enjoyable one. As a fan of unusual comics and stories I felt welcomed.

So, to start off, what is “Force Six, The Annihilators” ? To put it simply, it’s a sci-fi comic series mixed with some science fantasy and drama about an unusual squad of superheroes trying to do good in their world. Yeah, pretty sure that doesn’t do it justice as it is much more than just that.

This review revolves around the 3rd season of the series, going in fresh without having read the first couple of seasons made me experience it exactly like a new reader jumping in would.

The Force Six , The Annihilators Season III Includes :

First Arc:  Wheels & Cogs

Second Arc : The Misused Muse

Third Arc: Challenge Of The Champions

Fourth Arc : Crash and Burn: Speed Kills

First Impressions :

After reading through the comic, I felt as if I had to write down quite a few first impressions and decided to do so with the ones I deem to be the most important as that may be useful to know for readers who are thinking about joining the ride.

Here Goes:

-I liked the inclusion of a dedicated page at the start that gives you just what you need in order to go forward without getting lost or overwhelmed.

-I liked the fact that there is another dedicated page revolving around the main characters , giving you a brief “Bio” which helped in making them feel familiar enough to me and not like “complete strangers” ,it also gave me this thirst of knowledge to get to know more about them along with this “mysterious” feel to it, I would also assume that to those who have been following the series since the start it feels like a nod of respect & acknowledgement.

-At first, I wasn’t quite sure of how “good” the art style & the illustrations can get, but oh was I glad that I was wrong about that.

-While I initially thought that the “Acronyms” (Abbreviations) were a bit overused, I’ve come to welcome them and see them as something that makes it unique & scratches a certain itch for me being a tech nerd.

-To me personally, the characters can sometimes feel emotionless as I don’t feel like their faces portray what they’re feeling from time to time. Yeah, it’s not always the case, but it happened enough times for me to acknowledge that it’s there.

Characters:

So..First up,Characters :

Readers would be happy to know that despite the characters being literally “Out of this world”, they still seem relatable and believable enough given the setting the series has.

The characters are diverse enough with many features, personalities and abilities setting them apart from each other, making them feel completely unique. Season III uses the latter in a great way offering variety from one arc to another.

“The Series has some really well fleshed out characters …with tons of interesting backstories. ”

The characters’ designs were for the most part spot on for me, the “force six” team itself is handled really well , I suppose the only issues I had with that were mostly during the first arc of this season (“Wheels and cogs”) where some characters felt “bland” at times, luckily , that did not remain to be the case as I kept going from one arc to the next , the characters kept getting more interesting and better and better as a whole which felt quite satisfying to see.

The Universe it’s set in (The “Annihilator Universe” as it is called in the series) feels vast with tons of opportunities for the “Force Six” team to explore , it basically opens up the door for an unlimited supply of fresh adventures which is always a good thing. My only concern is if is the universe is “too big” for its own good, for even if much of it is left unexplored in my opinion , it starts to seem less and less believable to exist even given its sci-fi setting, yet that is obviously still not the case , the series introduces new stuff all the time from one arc to another keeping it fresh ,but it still feels like it hasn’t reached its full potential just yet ,however, it certainly feels as if the series is going uphill from where it’s at all the time.

Art Style & Illustrations:

Next up, the art style & how good are the illustrations:

It is no surprise that when it comes to comics ,most people choose what to read based on the cover art & how well the illustrations & the art style look overall , because that is what you’re going to be exposed to the most. In short, how good the illustrations are can easily “make or break” a comic for readers.

So how are the illustrations in this series (Season 3) ?

Well, I wish it was as simple as saying they’re “Good” or “Bad”, in my opinion, it sometimes can be a hit or miss as the art style’s definitely unusual. The comic definitely doesn’t follow in your usual comic art style’s footsteps …It screams “Unique” at you, it definitely went above and beyond and got to uncharted territories. So, is that good ? is that bad? Well…

“Some readers may like it, others not so much …but you can’t deny, it definitely is UNIQUE.”

In my own personal opinion, some of the illustrations used in some panels straight up wowed me. You can feel the hard work that has been put into these panels, the dedication and everything in between. Every fight is executed almost to a “Perfection” degree. I’ve always had a hard time visualizing the details of a fight, that seemed to happen less & less often with “Force Six” especially the arcs toward the end which is always a good thing in my opinion. For the most part everything is “visible” and not confusing…

If I had tocomment about the illustrations alone as a whole I would say that the first arc is probably my least favorite which kept me on the lookout for a while ,but luckily that didn’t remain to be the case because the second and the fourth one knocked it straight out of the park for me. Of course, some may prefer the first arc over the other ones which would be completely fine. I just find a form of irony in seeing the second arc (“The Misused Muse”), an arc that speaks solely about “Art” having my personal favorite “Art” in the entire series as a whole.

Honestly, I can easily keep writing more paragraphs talking about the art style alone for the rest of the review, but seeing that that won’t be practical, I’ll end it on this note:

“The UNIQUE art style captures the action in ways traditional art cannot.”

while personallythe art style is not always hitting the mark for me, it certainly blew me away when it did hit it. Besides the aforementioned personal favorite of mine, there were more than afew pages from the final arc which were also great examples of showing how good the illustrations can get.

Story:

At last but certainly not least, the “Story” …

I’ll just start off by saying the second arc of this season (“The Misused Muse”) takes the cake for me once more when it comes to the story with the final arc (“Crash and Burn: Speed Kills”) being a close second.

So , how well does it “story” ? I was surprised by how well it does that actually , while sometimes it may feel too simple and straight to the point , it actually does its best to not miss a beat and the story always seems to fall in place towards the end which makes up for a very enjoyable reading experience. There’s always something about seeing everything come together and ending on a high note, and the third season of “Force Six, The Annihilators” certainly delivers when it comes to that.

Each arc adds its own tone and theme to the series, making this a very “diverse” story, aside from it being a sci-fi story about a group of superheroes, it actually has a great deal of sub-genres it tries and succeeds to be throughout its arcs. “Action”? “Drama”? “Mystery Solving”? you get all of that in one package when it comes to “Force Six, The Annihilators”.

While some arcs may feel too “bland”, the series definitely has just the “opposite” of that in some of its other arcs. I feel as if there is definitely room for improvement, but I’m sure that with enough time it’ll get better. How much better? We can only wait and see.

“If you’re a Sci-Fi tech nerd, you’re going to feel right at home. ”

The attention to details is present, I could definitely see that they went all out trying to make sense of every Sci-Fi tech you may come across while reading, explaining it seemed to scratch that itch I have as Sci-Fi fan. A small example would be what I mentioned in my first impressions, those being the “Acronyms”, having an entire page just for those from time to time felt like a great addition along with the occasional “Epilogues” that were present in some of the arcs.

Conclusion:

While the series is definitely far from perfect and it certainly is not going to be winning any awards soon, It is brave enough to try to reinvent the wheel in more than one way. 

I can still clearly see that it hasn’t reached its full potential just yet, but still I would definitely RECOMMEND it to everyone that is interested in the Sci-fi Superhero genre or even those who are into Fantasy and Drama. While reading it, I haven’t felt as if I was wasting my time and found myself genuinely interested and intrigued by the many things it tried to accomplish.

“Force Six, The Annihilators” Season 3 can be purchased through here:https://www.comixology.com/Force-Six-The-Annihilators/comics-series/100447?ref=c2VhcmNoL2luZGV4L2Rlc2t0b3Avc2xpZGVyTGlzdC90b3BSZXN1bHRzU2xpZGVy

Force Six 33 Kat and Mouse

Part II The Imperfect Mouse Trap

Force Six agent LunStar-G was sent under cover as Nina Vanetta Noir- a journalist, to cover a story and uncover a plot device. It’s a decisive and dashing dab of divisive deceit when our darling dame is left dangling with a dangerous dilemma. Dare to read on dear reader. The Kat and Mouse caper concludes in this episode. Draft and dialogue by Drew Spence.

Available on comiXology in digital format

Force Six Season IV Starts

Force Six, The Annihilators #32

Kat and Mouse Part I Party Girl

Housequake. Shut Up Already, Damn
Force Six, The Annihilators is back with Season IV. We took a brief pause to collect praise and pay accounts for all the feedback, comments, requests and compliments. It’s your deep interest that allows this series to grow and expand. As we enter our fourth season, we celebrate the realization of High Ideas. Thank you for your readership and support.

Kat and Mouse Episode 32 Synopsis
It’s a klepto-caper with a Kat-catastrophic Con-conundrum in an amazing maze that mesmerizes the mouse. It’s a simple mission of grab and get ghost until the guest guesses and the gal gets grasped. The Force Six series begins its fourth season with a shifting grifter gift-giving adventure. Played and penned by Drew Spence.

Available on comiXology in digital format

Killer Butterfly Issue 10

KB#10 The Butterfly Effect

Killer Butterfly issue 10 The Butterfly Effect
Wings flap in a quiet field as a bird of prey swoops down on the fearful mouse. Young Kuse Yatsumi faces the fearsome Mishin Miyazaki over the fate of a thief! It’s a day of reckoning for all under the eye of the eagle. Odion Adisa starts his journey to the Eagle Fortress. He goes forward with less that he expected. The Killer Butterfly series continues in issue 10 The Butterfly Affect. 40 Pages, full color. Chopped and cropped by Drew Spence.
The entire first season is available on ComiXology.

Available on comiXology in digital format

We are The Dynamic Universe. We create graphic comics. They sit between traditional strips and a 3-D style of photorealistic drama. Enjoy the science-fantasy action adventure with terrific tints, great graphics and compelling story-telling. Read the comic and enjoy the soundtrack. Story and art by Drew Spence.

Daz Store Visual Story Writing

Visual Story Writing : From Inception to Production

Drew Spence, comic creator shares his experience on story writing for your 3D art using Daz Studio. This two part tutorial set runs for 3 hours and 24 minutes in total.

Every road trip requires a map to prevent the driver getting lost along the way. Similarly the crafting of any well told story for a visual narrative is potentially a long road trip!

On the way you may find some diverting stops and detours. You might even change your mind about the final destination.

But if you are wandering aimlessly without a plan, your passengers (or readers) will eventually get tired, hungry and grumpy. They’ll think again before going on a road trip with you.

Without a proper map there is no answer to the question, “Are we there yet?”

High quality stories tell you plainly when you have arrived at the destination. Don’t leave your passengers guessing about whether you’re getting close.

Stories have deliverable payoff points- just like like the signs along a highway counting down the miles until you’ve reached your destination. They give you a sense of scale and a growing anticipation that the end is nearing.

Part I Creating Your Story from Inception to Production (tutorial 1)

• Nailing down the “Big Idea” and inspiration behind your work as you create a vision worth investing your time and resources and being worthy of reading and supporting.
• Pro Tips and the necessary elements that you should have in place BEFORE you start creating your story.
• Breaking your story into deliverable chunks and creating incentives for support and the emotional investment from your readership.

Part II Caring for your story (tutorial 2)

• Crafting characters and creating a curve. We’ll go beyond the heroes’ journey and focus on the ‘lost art’ of storytelling through images and well, more images.
• We will tackle maintaining a production schedule along with time management and the intersection between inspiration and technical skill.
• We will provide tools to address writer’s block, lulls, dry spells, rough spots and even avoiding dead ends.

Part III Closing out your story, taking breaks and exit points. (tutorial 2)

• We will address buffer zones and creating natural gaps, a hiatus and premature endings.
• We cover the techniques to ramp the entire series towards a satisfying climax.
• We finish with the finale -After the story is done and the open-ended ending.

You can find other series that Drew Spence has created with Digital Art Live for purchase in the Daz Store. https://www.daz3d.com/digital-art-live You can take classes, watch tutorials and attend webinars and much more https://digitalartlive.com/events/

Available on comiXology in digital format