Age of Bronze: John Dallaire

Showing posts with label John Dallaire. Show all posts

Friday, July 31, 2026

Mental Secrets of Odysseus

Age of Bronze colorist John Dallaire created another in his series of advertisements parodying old comic book ads. For more humorous material from John, see his website here, The Off Register.

To celebrate, I'm discounting orders of the first three color books in the Age of Bronze graphic novel series--A Thousand Ships, Sacrifice, and Betrayal Part One. For a limited time, get all three books for the low price of $45 (plus shipping). And I'll autograph each one! Click here to get this exclusive deal at the Hungry Tiger Press webstore.

Tuesday, June 30, 2026

The Insult That Made a Man Out of Menelaus

Age of Bronze colorist John Dallaire created this super parody ad for Age of Bronze, based on the archetypal vintage comic book ad "The Insult That Made a Man Out of 'Mac.' "

This Age of Bronze ad is in celebration of a new discount deal. Get the first three Age of Bronze books in color for one low price. And they'll be autographed by the cartoonist, me. Click here for that.

And if you don't know the original Charles Atlas ad John's parody is based on, solve that cultural deprivation right now. Here's a link to click.

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Betrayal Part One, the Full Color Edition

Continuing the color version of Age of Bronze!

The Trojan War continues in the acclaimed graphic novel series by Eric Shanower, published by Image Comics.

Book 3, titled Betrayal Part One, is now for sale at the Age of Bronze website. John Dallaire's subtle and appropriate coloring brings new life to the betrayal of Philoktetes, one of the Achaean kings in the battle against Troy. This volume also presents the peace embassy of Menelaus, Odysseus, and Palamedes to King Priam of Troy. Akamas expects to find Aithra in Troy, but a surprise awaits him instead. Troilus agonizes over Cressida. Achilles confronts Tennes, ruler of Tenedos, and thus seals his own fate.

All orders of Betrayal Part One in the Hungry Tiger webstore will be signed by cartoonist Eric Shanower. Order at this link.

Click here for a 6-page sample in full color.

Thursday, August 12, 2021

More Betrayal in Color

John Dallaire is still coloring Age of Bronze: Betrayal Part One. Here's another sample page of finished color, the scene where Philoktetes's foot is pierced by one of his arrows.

Looks great, doesn't it?

Monday, April 26, 2021

Betrayal in Color

John Dallaire, the Age of Bronze colorist, has been working hard coloring my black-and-white artwork for Age of Bronze: Betrayal Part One. The battle scenes, the crowd scenes, the embroidery on the Trojan costumes--it's all got to be colored. John follows the first two Age of Bronze volumes with the same quality work on the next volume.

I've approved a decent number of pages so far. And the book's getting to a state in which I'm approving pages at a faster pace. It's still not ready to be put on a publication schedule yet, but we'll get there eventually. And I'll let you know here when that time comes.

Until then, however, here's a sneak peek at a finished page of Betrayal Part One in color:

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

The Color of Sacrifice

It's here at last!

As just published by Image Comics, Age of Bronze Book 2: SACRIFICE shines forth in full color, thanks to the restrained and steady hand of John Dallaire, colorist. Newly colored artwork enhances Helen's arrival at Troy, the accidental battle at Mysia, the regrouping of the Achaean army, the sacrifice of Iphigenia, and more.

You can buy a copy of Sacrifice by clicking here.

Working with John on coloring Age of Bronze is quite an experience. My drawings are extremely detailed and he spends the time to color each bead in a necklace and each stripe on a tunic. John assigns a unique skin tone and a unique hair color to each character. We're both sticklers for consistency, and unless there's a specific story reason for a character's color to change, all these colors need to be carried through hundreds of pages.

As the creator of Age of Bronze, I have final say on John's color work. Pages generally go through several color versions before I okay a final version ready for publication. Part of my task is to catch lapses in John's consistency. Turnabout is fair play, and while John's coloring my work, he catches lapses in my consistency, mistakes I've made in the black-and-white artwork. These usually consist of missing costume details. Occasionally John fills in easy and obvious corrections, but sometimes I need to add elements—such as armbands and straps, things like that—which I originally forgot. Disappearing sandals and wristbands have been particularly annoying.

Some backgrounds are so complicated or obscured by foreground figures or word balloons that when I look at John's colored version I can tell he had no idea what I'd intended in my artwork. Usually these instances are easy to fix, but sometimes even I have no idea what I originally intended. Fortunately I saved photocopies of my penciled artwork, and I can often look at those to figure out confusing backgrounds. But it's annoying when I realize that I originally drew something in pencil, then mistakenly inked it differently than what I'd intended. Those mistakes are often the cause of confusion in John's coloring. Depending on the specific circumstances of each of these instances, I ask John to revise the color as seems most appropriate.

Of course, most readers won't notice these things. And they shouldn't. Readers should be following the story. All the details and all the color are there to support the story, to bring it to life, to transport the reader to the long-ago world of the Trojan War, to keep the spell of the drama going from first page to last. I hope this new color version of Sacrifice will do that for you.

To whet your appetite, below is a six-page excerpt from Age of Bronze Book 2: SACRIFICE. Click on each page to see it larger.