Category: Alola Darumaka

Alola, Darumaka is a 4-koma comic about Darumaka and her partner Daven moving to Alola from Unova for school. You can read it here.

Tags: Darumaka, Daven, Leif, Exeggcute

New Tablet Sketches

Jey Pawlik
Sketch page with five head shot doodles on it. The top left corner reads “New tablet get! It does this weird thing on a specific spot on the screen. Samsung had no idea what to do, it happened after an exchange and on the floor models! Boo! Hopefully it’ll sort itself out.” On the right side of the page, there’s a coloured doodle of Darumaka running with her hands up and a big smile on her face. Beside that is a portrait sketch of Lupin looking to the right smiling. Below that is a smaller portrait of Jigen looking flustered. At the bottom of the page shows two original character sketches, the first one is of Sten, coloured, he’s a big muscular man with a thick jaw and eyelashes, he’s got long pink hair pulled back into a bun and he looks concerned. Next to him is another original character, Salvator, who’s not coloured in, and he’s smiling while looking to the right, he’s a skinny man with long black messy hair also pulled back into a bun but his bangs hang over his eyes. He’s wearing fancy jewellery.

This one is from last year and I’d forgotten to post it. I got a new Samsung tablet last August for drawing on the go, so here’s some test doodles with Darumaka, Lupins and two OCs!

I really like the Samsung Galaxy Tabs as an ipad alternative. I use Clipstudio on it and use it as my primary inking device! I had some issues with it in the beginning but those sorted themselves out, it seems like it was a magnet problem so I don’t keep the pen magnetized to the back of the tablet anymore.

Webcomic Day 2024

Jey Pawlik
Promo image, with the Topaz Comics logo at the top in browns and warm gold tones. Under it reads "Queer comics by a queer duo" and the link topazcomics.com below that are four floating heads with comic titles logos above them. The first is Mikael and JP from Dead City, the second is Jey from Gender Slices, the third is Darumaka from Alola Darumaka, and the last is Jigen from our one-shots.

Happy Webcomic Day!

I’ll be posting throughout the day on social media, but for you here’s the big full post.

Want to read some queer comics written and drawn by some queer folks for free?! I’m Jey Pawlik, and with my spouse Max Parker, we’ve got hundreds of pages in our archive, like the post-apocalyptic gay romance Dead City, the nonbinary autobio series Gender Slices, a 4-koma comedy comic about Darumaka and Lupin III fancomics.

Start reading on Topaz Comics!

Or see sketches, thumbnails, and pages 2 months early on Patreon

The Alola Darumaka Process

Comic page split into four quadrants showing the sketch, inks, colours, and halftone effects on an Alola Darumaka page. The comic itself is four panels done in black line art with four shades of dusty pink. Panel one shows Darumaka sitting and doodling on a piece of paper with an Alolan Meowth napping behind her, Darumaka is humming with a little music note beside her. Panel two, Darumaka is still drawing and another Meowth has appeared behind her and is napping. Panel three, Darumaka has her hands up saying "Hey!" as a Meowth lays down in front of her and on her drawing. Panel four, Darumaka still with her hands up looks angrier saying "Gah!" as she is now surrounded by Meowths napping around her, heat lines coming off her body which just gathers more Meowths to her.

Here’s my process for Alola Darumaka using the ScreentonesCast template showing my traditional sketch, digital inks, colours, and halftone effects.

Alola Darumaka updates every Tuesday btw~

Dead City

The book cover "Dead City", drawn with choppy black line art and coloured with greens, blacks and yellows, showing Mikael and JP kneeling next to one another holding their own backpack straps with a dark Toronto skyline behind them as the sun sets. The bottom reads "Michelle Parker and Jey Pawlik"Comic page done in thick black ink and one solid 50% grey tone. Panel one, Mikael is walking over to the couch and JP asks "Are you okay?" and Mikael responds "Yeah?". Panel two, Mikael has sat down on the couch, wine glass in hand. JP asks "Are you drunk?", and Mikael replies "YESS!" Panel three shows a medium close up of JP saying "Isn't that a bad idea with all the zombies around?" Panel four is a close up of Mikael's drunk but smiling face, he says "You didn't mind last time" a bit seductively. Panel five is a similar shot but a close up of JP's face saying "But-- we should still be careful." Panel six pulls out and shows both boys on the couch together. Mikael saying "It's been ages since we saw one and they're all slow and clumsy now." JP says "Now?" Panel seven shows just Mikael from the waist up holding his wine glass saying "Right, you weren't out at the beginning."

Comic page done in thick black ink and one solid 50% grey tone. Panel one, a flashback to Mikael hunkered down in his dark messy apartment as the TV is the only source of light and narration reads “There used to be a lot and they were fast and violent.” Panel two, present day Mikael and he’s happily saying “But since they’re dead they rot, right?”. Panel three, flashback again to Mikael out in a dark warehouse where he’s searching through boxes. Narration reads “One time I was out looking for food” the sentence is left hanging over panel four, which shows a scared Mikael looking over his shoulder and the sound effect “Wok!” above his head.Comic page done in thick black ink and one solid 50% grey tone. Panel one, a continuation of the previous page’s flashback where Mikael is face to face with a zombie who’s decomposing and slowly meanering passed him, not noticing him at all. The narration reads “and one walked right past me! It didn’t have any eyes.” Panel two, back to the present showing Mikael lounging on the couch with JP next to him. JP asks “So the ones now are all rotted?” and Mikael smiles saying “Right!” Panel three, a close up of JP pouring himself a glass of wine on the coffee table in front of the couch while he says “Alright.”

Dead City is a completed post-apocalypse gay romance comic that focuses more on survival and human connection than the zombie aspect of the genre. Written by Max, this was our first comic project that we started in 2013 and finished in 2020! It’s still available to read online, but a newer fancy version was made into a book last year.

https://topazcomics.com/deadcity/welcome

https://topazcomics.com/shop

Lord of the Makas

Jey Pawlik
Long panorama style drawing done in pencil crayons, of the cast of Lord of the Rings as Darumakas. They’re all in profile and walking to the left of the drawing showing each personality of the character.

A square image of a drawing, showing Darumaka as the Eye of Sauron, also done in a traditional colouring style.

Had been working on this one for a little while. I’d drawn the Gandalf right before my wrist issues last year and a lot of my personal drawing had been put on pause. A few months ago I felt good enough to come back to it, since I don’t normally colour art traditionally, it took a while but it’s DONE!

I’m really happy with how this turned out. I’m such a big LOTR fan so I had to do a crossover!

Sketchbook Shoutout – 37

Jey Pawlik
One image with three different black and white inked drawings on it. The first is Goemon as a Japanese style spirit, looking at Fujiko who bears some vampire fangs. The second is Daven lifting Darumaka up to place a star on the top of a Christmas tree. The third is Lupin and Zenigata back to back with their right arms completely extended in front of them pointing their guns at some off screen enemies.

I’d been asked to draw what kind of monsters Goemon and Fujiko would be and I cannot imagine Fujiko as anything other than a vampire.

These requests are available for $10 patrons and $10 kofi commissions