Kyle The Nihilist Dinosaur

In the course of comic creation, sometimes we are lucky enough to find our creative better half. Keith Callbeck is mine - a seasoned writer, a brilliant idea man and consistently the fall guy for my worst ideas. We have never come up with a comic idea too absurd to create and for that, the world shall suffer.

While working on Misha together, the seeds of Kyle were sown - a regrettable and poorly conceived notion which became a passion project of sorts.

When the advanced dinosaur civilization spots an extinction-level asteroid headed their way, they send their best. It’s just too bad someone on the team is a nihilist….

A misspent youth writing poetry and dreaming of paleontology came in handy for this book

the cover redesign concept

Kyle was traditionally inked and coloured, a long but satisfying process. I’m glad I had a chance to create this way before switching to digital. Although traditional is tediously time-consuming, there is a tactility and timbre that is hard to replicate in digital.

Kyle is also a great example of how comics spans multiple art fields. The comic creator must have a sense of timing, narrative, visual and story structures. We are graphic designers, illustrators, storyboarders, colour theorists and ink aficionados. A well-rounded comic creator can speak to typography, flow through the various adobe programs or their replacements, and often has to master the technicalities of print.

….All this to say, Kyle was the portfolio project responsible for my acceptance into AUArts.

Noyjin