SPOILER ALERT: You might want to make sure you’ve read your copies of Volume 4 & 5 before reading these pages.
OK, you've been WARNED :)
With just a few simple words, Mac makes a huge confession that changes everything, and there are a few choices in the storytelling that shape and give texture to the moment. Just like on the previous page, we’re shooting from the back seat, separating us from the character—he’s alone with his choices, just like he’s alone in his scenic space. Second, the admission takes place in two panels. That is meant to give a sense of a before and an after to this important moment, and to add a sense of timing to his confession. Lastly, the first drawing gives us something to compare the second drawing to. Because these two panels differ only in his small attitude change, we can see how contained his gestures are. If we only had the second panel, we would still understand what’s happening, but there would be a lot less definition to the moment, and we would experience it differently.
Meanwhile, WONDERCON STARTS TOMORROW! Come visit us at the booth if you’re in town!
Palomino Preview Page + Commentary - PART 3
13 days ago
– Mon, Mar 23, 2026 at 09:46:03 AM
Hey all, leading up to Palomino Volume 6 going live, and still exclusive to our previous backers, here is the next preview page with commentary.
The last one generated an awesome convo with GOAT Karl Kesel on balloon placement, and led me to a better solution on how to handle some off-panel dialog. So keep the comments and questions coming, I love them!
SPOILER ALERT---DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF YOU HAVEN'T READ PALOMINO 1-5 YET!
OKAY, you've been warned--
In visual storytelling, point of view is everything. A shot can either be subjective–placing the reader inside a character’s head space and experiencing a moment with the character–or objective–when the reader is one or more steps removed from the character. In an objective shot, the audience is dissociated from the characters, either to let them have their own emotional space, or in extreme cases, to have–in what Hitchcock used to call “the eye god’’, meaning a shot that gives the audience a wide lay of the land of what is happening.
Here, this falls under the first category–giving the character their emotional space. In a car, which is a confined and intimate space, one way to remove the audience from the conversation while staying in the moment is to shoot from the back seat. That’s what’s happening in the first two panels. Then, with the third one, we snap back to a subjective shot from Mac’s side, as Liz glances back at him and puts him on the spot with her loaded question.
Till next time!
S
Preview page + commentary PART 2
18 days ago
– Wed, Mar 18, 2026 at 08:54:59 AM
Hey all, since the response has been positive, here is the next preview page with commentary!
When coloring a scene I try to achieve a sense of cohesion, so that it feels like everything in the image exists under the same light, in the same space, in the same color environment.
Towards that goal, I start with a base color for the scene. A Wash that will be under everything. That wash could include gradients with large value ranges, or it could be very uniform–which is the case here for a dark night scene in an enclosed space with no dominant directional light source.
The way to organize colors is often described as “the 80%-10%-5% rule”. The idea is that 80% of the image is roughly the same color, the 10% is a second cluster of color, and the final 5% is the most unique element–and typically that’s where the focus of the panel is. So once I have my base color, I will start refining the image by blending darker or lighter versions of that color to build up the environment. Then, as I dial in the characters, I will start blending in more “local colors”. For instance, Liz’s signature red hoodie. However, the hoodie sits in this blue environment, so you don’t want it to be “red–red”, or it would abstract out. It just needs to be “a little redder than the blue”.
There you have it!
As always, questions or comments welcome!
More soon!
UPDATE!!! Thanks to Karl Kesel's very astute comment on balloon placement in the first panel, here's an updated version where Mac's off-screen balloon has be move to the next panel. It's so much clearer and doesn't clutter her moment in the first panel! Thank you Karl for pointing it out!
S
PALOMINO VOL 6 PAGE-PREVIEWS + COMMENTARY!
25 days ago
– Wed, Mar 11, 2026 at 09:00:45 PM
Dear reader!
As we ramp up to the campaign launch for our 6th and final Palomino Volume, we thought it would be fun to offer an exclusive to our previous backers! We will be sharing the first scene of the new book page by page, with commentary from yours truly!
SPOILER ALERT: You might want to make sure you’ve read your copies of Volume 4 & 5 before reading these pages.
Palomino Vol. 6, Page 1 & 2
Palomino Volume 6 is absolutely epic, full of action and suspense, but it starts with a radical choice, at least for a comic book: two people in a car talking for an entire scene. In a movie–or a play, for that matter–this wouldn’t be surprising, but in comic book form, it is rarely attempted. In this scene, Liz and Mac end up connecting the dots of the story, setting up the rest of the volume, and processing the emotional weight of everything that’s happened so far. So It’s all about acting, as they cycle through a range of behaviors and emotions that I hope you will find credible and compelling.
I’ve gotten into the habit to start each chapter of Palomino with some sort of splash page that sets the mood and the part of the world we’re in, before cutting into the conversation. Here, we’re late at night on the Pacific Coast Highway. A wall on one side, the ocean on the other. No where else to go.
Color is a fairly recent thing for me, but it's become one of my favorite parts of the process. My previous series Silver was a pop-art-ish revisiting of pulp era adventure strips, and the black and white was meant to create a complete statement. But for Palomino, I always knew that color would play a huge role in bringing this world to life, so I left plenty of room in the inks for it. Finding the level of saturation and monochromaticism that this scene needed took me a few trials to dial in, but it ended up in a place that I really like.
The first panel on page one is a pretty simple design, and it's all about the opposition of the landmass against the openness of the sky and ocean. We’re not only reaching the end of the story, we’re also reaching the end of the land. And without making it an explicit point, I wanted that sentiment to be felt.
Starting on Panel 2, and for the following pages, it’s all about acting. We’re trapped with these two characters who are also trapped in these circumstances and emotions. They too are also reaching the end of their roads, and they have zero Fs left to give.
Let’s not forget that Liz is there under duress, and when we first find her, at the bottom of page 1, she’s slightly angled away from here, clearly signaling she has no intention to play along.
But… curiosity takes over, and on the first page-two panel, she can’t help but respond and engage. She’s put most of the plot together already, but there still are burning questions that she needs answers to. Mac, on the other hand, is looking for something. Maybe not redemption, but at least, understanding. He’s not delusional, though, and he knows that nothing can really justify what he’s done. We can read some version of shame and regret in his behavior. He’s now the one angling away, and his silence–his non-denial–is the least bad option he has to answer Liz’s question.
TO BE CONTINUED!
Do you like this type of commentary? Let me know, and we will continue on our way to the campaign going live!
After twenty years, Morgana returns to England to find King Arthur dying and England invaded by a sorceress of enormous power. Do not miss this awesome new take on Arthurian Legend by our friend Madeleine Holly Rosing, the award-winning author of Boston Metaphysical Society!
Morgana Pendragon just crushed it's 4th stretch goal--only hours left to get in on this awesome epicness!
Talk soon and best!
Stephan
PALOMINO VOL 6: behind the scenes – and convention update!
about 1 month ago
– Tue, Mar 03, 2026 at 11:31:27 AM
Hi Palomino riders,
Here’s a quick update as we ramp up towards the launch of the Palomino Volume 6 (of 6) campaign!
As always, not to bury the lede, CLICK HERE TO PREREGISTER if you haven’t yet! (We really need to maximize pre-regs in order to feel secure about the launch).
PALOMINO VOLUME 6 TRAILER PREVIEW
The campaign will start soon, and we thought it would be fun to let you in on the process of getting it ready. A key part is putting together the campaign trailer--a key aspect of which is picking the music.
So we have two contenders!
The firstversion features a Rumble-inspired piece that conveys the rough-and-tumbleness of Palomino and a sense of danger, as well as tipping its hat to the story’s western roots.
The second version has a dream-like, haunting quality–almost Lynchian vibe–AND predominantly features the pedal steel guitar as a lead instrument–the instrument that Eddie plays in the story, and a tip of the hat to the western country-rock sound of the era.
Let us know which one you think works best!
FIRST SCENE EXCLUSIVE
Leading up to the start of the campaign, we will also release the first scene of the final volume–page by page, with panel-by-panel commentary. MORE INFO ON THAT SOON!
EMERALD CITY COMIC CON!
First con of the year, and always one of the funnest shows on the circuit, ECCCC is happening this week! If you make it to Seattle, come visit the Dark Planet Comics booth (Booth 2204)! And by popular demand and on top of everything else, we are bringing awesome Dark Planet T-shirts not seen since the Before Times!
