The worm has turned

Still in the slow, arduous process of unpacking. Think I'd be a lot better off if I didn't own so many books. Cripes. Angie bought me five new bookcases and they're all almost full and I'm only up to "J" in alphabetization. Ugh.

Had a few minutes though yesterday while Lilah was napping and Angie was over cleaning up at the old place, so I plopped down and sketched this nematodic ruffian. Turm as he's affectionately known is second in the food chain under Markul. In fact he's the boogeyman of the children in The Hollow. Sure he looks weak and unassuming, but when his arms start burrowing through you you might change your mind.

I think the drawing also influenced my reading choice last night. Started rereading 'Earthworm Gods' by Brian Keene. (Released as 'The Conqueror Worm' in paperback for some reason.) Probably my favorite of his books so far. His 'Dead' series was fun at the beginning with 'The Rising', but started becoming too formulaic as they progressed ('City of the Dead' and 'Dead Sea').

Moving sure is a howl

As I'll be MIA for a while with the move and all figured I'd drop one more bit of lycanthropy on everyone. Found this while packing. The first werewolf I did after starting Nowere. Inked entirely with a 102 crowquill. Crazy, kinetic stuff.

See everyone is bit. Take care in the meantime.

One more before the move...

As we close on our house Thursday, work is crazy, Lilah, the Stanley Cup playoffs and life in general blowing up all around us it's been tough to get something down on paper. This charming gentlemen is Markul. He's got a little overbite to deal with along with being a wolfman of sorts. He was sketched during the first two periods of the Flyers/Caps game tonight and Lilah is crying out in her sleep, so I'm cutting this short.

Okay, morning now. Lilah was just having night terrors, which are somewhat normal for kids her age. She's home sick though along with Angie, who was doing her best Exorcist impersonation this morning. Two sick ladies the day before we close on our house and start moving. "Joy," as Stimpy would say.

Well as I started saying last night this hairy gent is the main thorn in our protagonists side in my new story. Not the nicest of people as Elsa will find out. Luckily, she'll have Argus and couple others in her corner when the fur starts to fly.

Friday Ink Teaser

Mafus has the whole inks, which he'll probably post one of these days, but just so's youse know I haven't been totally slack.

Brain dead

Watched the remake of Day of the Dead last night with Mafus. Our hopes and expectations were not high as all the reviews we've read pretty much tore it a new one, plugged said new one back up only to tear it out again. Vegetarian zombies, C.S.I. bullshit and the Power of Grayskull were the highlights of this direct-to-video gem. I think that Michael Flatley did the choreography, too. I've never seen so many zombie leaping through the air with such grace. There was even a Spider-Zombie crawling on ceiling tiles. I crap you not. The one plus to take away from this movie is that if zombies ever start to rise, they are very flammable. Like kindling almost, which is surprising considering they're leaking fluids from every orifice and open wound on their bodies. We threw in some Venture Brothers to cleanse our palettes immediately after.

Speaking of the dead...On a whim at my LCS I picked up Everybody's Dead. Mainly, 'cuz I love me some zombies, but also because the comic's drawn by David Crosland. I've only bought one book with his art in it, but was thoroughly impressed with his cartoony style. I've started to drift away from the realistic stuff as you well know and Crosland's style is another push in that direction. The story isn't anything to sneeze at either. A nice cast of clichés with goofy dialogue and violence. It may not be for everyone, especially since it carries a $3.99 price tag as most IDW comics do. But give it a thumb through if you see it on the racks. Issue 2 came out last week, so we're halfway through I believe.

Back in slight action

Been busy with packing and whatnot. (10 days until we close on the new house. Yoinks!) Haven't had (or made) much time to draw, but accepted an illustration job which kinda lit the fire under my tush. Here's a couple thumbnail sketches that were approved and I've got to blow up and out. Should be fun.

I've watched a couple stinker horror movies and read a few excellent comics, but work is off the hook today and I'll have to elaborate later.

Argus

Opted not to ink Elsa and continue on with sketching out some of the other characters. Decided on Argus here as it's been a while since I've drawn a dog. Argus is actually more than a dog, but I won't spoil anything incase I do actually get off me arse and do this story. Gotta work on those eyes though. A little too Hummel with those peepers.

And speaking of story...had an ephiphany last night about the story. I've had the first issue written for a year or so now, but it just wasn't meshing enough for me. It needed something more that was eluding me. Well not anymore. Looking forward to rewriting the story and getting it told. Stay tuned.

Elsa refined

'Cuz those doodles I posted this morning were bugging me.

New story sketches

Decided to drop my story 'Nowere' for a while as werewolves seem to be making a comeback like zombies recently. Going with a fantasy/horror type story that's actually probably not that scary, especially since I'm going to draw it in a cartoony style. Been reading a lot of Doug TenNapel's stuff this weekend and the first Scott Pilgrim book and they've helped me come to this conclusion: since I started as a cartoony guy and tried to go realistic I think it's time to go back to cartoony. (More evidence was the recent drawing of Choopie, which was fun and a breeze. I then tried Molly and had to give up as I kept trying to draw her realistic. Decided to draw Big and it went fine.) Obviously I've got a ways to go, but it's a lot more fun without that "draw realistic stick" up my bum. Anyway, this is Elsa Brook and the story is called 'The Vale.' More sketches to be posted as they progress. (I don't know what's up with that top left head sketch. Guess she turned into a zombie on that one.) I would've liked to gotten a few more refined sketches done, but I was dealing with two sick little ladies yesterday. Luckily, they're both feeling better today and are at work and daycare.

Top o' the mornin' to ye

I posted this on the 'Haps forums, but figured I'd be a repeat offender on me blog. Crank up the Dropkick Murphys and imbibe a few, everyone.

UPDATE:
As it was pointed out—not everyone is a boy, so that certain someone gets a version of their own.

St. Patty's Prelim

Nothing fancy today. Had brunch at the brewpub and everyone else is napping, so I whipped up a quick Big sketch before I rock some free Dropkick Murphy downloads for Guitar Hero III to get in the spirit of tomorrow. Got an idea to draw Choopie as a leprechaun, which I just might do...

Another Choop

Tried my hand at a full body shot of Choopie. Didn't turn out too bad all things considered and it was fun to use the brush marker for a change. Still adapting to the smaller size sketchbook (for some reason I bought a 5.5 x 8.5 instead of the normal 9 x 12), but I think it'll help with my pages and panels later on.

1st drawing in a new sketchbook

As mentioned in a recent comment: here's a quick little sketch of Choopie. A rather fun character study, if you will. I'll try to do a full figure one tomorrow. Always nice to get a decent sketch down as the first in a fresh sketchbook, too.

Slow Day At Work Bonus:

'Haps inks

Here's an example of how not to ink your friend's work. Completely lost my mojo with this pinup and Mafus'll be posting the pencils (colors, too!) shortly so you can see how bad I mucked it up. (No, I'm not fishing for compliments either.) I started with the old school tools and eventually broke down and went to markers. Just lost my confidence I guess. I dunno. It doesn't suck, but I wanted to do better I guess is what I'm trying to get at.

Rally around the Shamrock

I know it's been awhile and I will have something fancy to post later, but wanted to get the word out on Proposition 3-17. As most anyone who knows me knows I drink Guinness and by drink I mean inhale. This campaign amuses and the way they've presented, from a design standpoint, is excellent. You can sign your name with an e-pen and give your reason for signing. Heck, you can even upload a pic of yourself consuming a pint of the nectar. Here's the link:
http://www.proposition317.com/stpats.html

And here's my reason:

Added bonus from the vaults

You heard me talk about the strip I continued Unbound in...Well, turns out I still have two of them, though the rubber cement for the dialog gave way on the last one. One thing I remember about Strip 3 was that it was late. Real late. The editor called me up that night and said I need it first thing in the morning. This was at 10 o'clock or so that night. So I cheated. I drew one image and broke it into four panels. I'm sure I didn't create that particular cheat, but I sure as poop reveled in it that night.


Talk about a stylistic change, eh? (Also note the illustrious copyright symbol.) It always stung me that I was just hitting my stride with this strip. I just felt the characters and their definition only to be cut down by the section's demise and my own graduation. While I didn't see this being a comic story anymore I definitely saw a strip as its perfect medium. Times have changed now and revisiting this old tale has certainly rekindled a spark to once again bring the story to life. I may not be Penny Arcade or PvP, but I just may start another blog dedicated to Unbound. Yeas or Nays will be counted.

Let's get this over with...

Page 7 is a vertical nightmare. A shadowy bald guy with some skin problems, a woman with a mop on her head and a big-footed freak jumping around. I'm pretty sure wood shatters like glass when you punch it, too.

No wonder Baldy and Mop-Top can't run away with those tiny little legs and is Baldy wearing a glove on his hand? And look what their genes did to their son. He's got teeny-tiny chicken legs. I'm surprised he can even stand up.

What's going on inside this guys mouth? And do his eyes expand when crying? Does he have a computer brain, too? 'Cuz his pupil sure looks like a Mac booting up.
Panel 2 is obviously an homage to Frank Miller. Makes me weepy just looking at it.
Panel 3 just lets you know that good times are gonna keeping on rolling. Thankfully they didn't.

Well, there you have it folks—Unbound. Nine pages of artistic glory smothered in literary gravy. Humble beginnings from a very humbled me.

Now back to our regular program

Lovely Page 5 is where we first get a glimpse of Ritual's castle. Awe-inspiring isn't it? Just makes a shiver run down your spine, doesn't it? Not bloody likely. We also get to see the horrible transformation from man to hunter. Lon Chaney wept with envy after seeing this. Note the tortured border on that panel, too. Very old school Image.

Horrible hair, bocce balls and some weird eye tattoo thing pretty much sums up Ritual. Anyone else notice that our protagonist looks just like Hobgoblin, but with a tail? He also likes crapping on rooftops as seen in panel 3.

A Kubert Interlude

Received assignment two comments yesterday. Not as bad as I thought they'd be, but still it's a little disheartening how easy they make it look with their comments. Kinda have a "Doh!" moment at what I could've (should've) done. Enough of my belly-aching. Enjoy.

Two more pages

Okay here's Page 3 inked by James Terry and probably the best looking page because of that fact. I really love the fourth panel. It was rare that I drew an establishing shot kind of panel back then and James really made it shine.

Page 4 was inked by Ninos Aghakhan and it's all my fault on the hair. I still have problems drawing the stuff. Probably why I went with a bald character in 'The Requital.' How many characters could I cram in that second panel? George Perez I'm not.

You asked for it...

Here are the first two pages of UNBOUND. These are scans of a photocopy, so they look even worse. (If that's possible.) Yes, that's my crappy handwriting as this was well before the days of cheap scanners and printers. An old girlfriend helped with the inks on page one. Just what she did I can't remember, but I'm sure it was minimal enough that I thought I should give her credit back in the day. I'll post more in the coming days. Shortly thereafter I hope to post new versions of them as to redeem myself.

I almost want to give these pages the MST3K treatment...

Happy Heart Day

Decided to steal a page from Heywood's book and post some old art as I haven't done anything creative in a couple days (save draw Angie a Valentine's card, but that's kinda personal to post). This is a pin-up I did of an old comic (Unbound) of mine for the back of a new comic (Requital) of mine. Two other friends and I put together three anthology-type comics in college. I switched stories with the second issue for some unknown reason, but I did keep Unbound going as a strip in the school paper. (I think it ran in four editions before we graduated.) It was a fantasy story that dealt with an evil sorceress and her minions, who turned the wrong peasant into a killing machine. Our protagonist regained his past memories on a assassination mission and then decided to take the fight back to the sorceress. (I'll look up her name later, but I think it's something lame like Ritual.) Anyway, here he is in all his nasty glory. Inked with a 102 crowquill and then splattered with a toothbrush. I don't think I could draw like this again if I tried, but you never know, I might.

10 minute exercise

Nothing fancy here. A quick exercise done with a 513 and brush in Joe's loose pencil style. Gonna do another that's more refined brushwork tomorrow.

That sure ain't Clifford

Here's the colored version of our favorite prehistoric Kirby creation. Nothing fancy, but the colors really help the drawing "pop." As I'm at work, I have to wait until tonight to drop in the title and old Marvel header-type stuff. I'll repost when it's complete.

UPDATE: Okay, here's the final cover treatment. Thought about adding a caption, but didn't want to muddle the piece up anymore.

Speaking of Devil...picked up Devil May Cry 4 the other day. Haven't played much so far as I've had social obligations, but I'm enjoying it more than its previous incarnations. I'll review it a little more thoroughly after its completion.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Coin-Op(era)

As I've been dragging my heels the past couple days artistically (guess I'm recharging) I decided to throw in a movie last night. I'd first heard about THE KING OF KONG last year and was intrigued. I love goofy/strange documentaries (AMERICAN MOVIE, CRUMB, etc.) and this one seemed right up my gamer alley. This is the tale of Steve Wiebe and his quest to become the world record holder at DONKEY KONG. This record has been unchanged since it was set back in '82 by Billy Mitchell. Now I'm a big fan of hockey hair, but Billy's luxuriant mane is truly something to behold. He looks like the kinda guy that still has a big bird decal on the hood of his automobile. (Sadly, he doesn't. He drives a mini-van.)

I digress.

Billy still plays competitively and even sponsors other coin-op gamers. (The 82 year-old Q*bert playing woman is boss.) The sad thing is that Billy comes off as a complete arrogant turd. Five minutes into the movie and you're already rooting for Steve to knock this clown off his lofty hotwing-sauce-making perch. I won't spoil the ending, but it's just fascinating the underground and following these type of gamers have. The recordkeeping Twin Galaxies site that has their refs watching hundreds of VHS tapes a day checking out high scores sent in from around the world. Kinda makes me wanna get an old coin-op machine and grow a mullet. (I don't think it'll fly with Angie though. Maybe once we're in the new house...)

That said, if you're looking for a pleasant way to spend an hour and 20 minutes and you're a gamer, this might be up your alley. David vs. Goliath and his "system" at its best.

Devil Inks

For some reason I decided to ink this piece with a brush only. (Border not included in that statement.) Turned out okay I think. Colors to follow hopefully tonight...

Quick Kubert exercise

Nothing fancy, just a quick twenty minute exercise to get in the Kubert frame of mind. There's several others in the Lesson Three plan, so I'll post 'em as I go through them. Basically it's just inking over Mr. Kubert's pencils in the workbook, but it's still fun. I mean, c'mon, it's Joe Effing Kubert. All the line work is done with a 513 quill, which I just picked up yesterday since Plaza only had two 512s in stock. Thinking I might actually have found my new favorite quill. Holds a tighter line than the 512 and carries more ink, so I don't have to dip as much. Brushwork for all the solid areas.

In other news...as there's nothing on TV tonight I called Mafus to see if he wanted to come over around six tonight for a DOLEMITE/MANOS double-feature. Surprisingly, I haven't heard back from the man. Guess he's got something better to watch...

ADDED BONUS:
Decided to do a little more art today as Angie's out house-hunting and Lilah is still napping. Plus, there's a major sporting event today that I forgot about: Rangers vs. Canadiens on NBC. I've dragged my heels on the latest Velocity contest, which is draw anything Kirby created. DEVIL DINO has always held a soft spot in my heart, so I whipped a quick sketch up of 'em and his cohort, Moonboy. All I used was an old brush marker to ink. I'll try to refine and color before Wednesday. (Not holding me breath though.)

EVEN MORE BONUS:
Upon actually reading the DEVIL DINO OMNIBUS last night (as there wasn't anything on TV) I couldn't help but notice that there are several glaring errors with my sketch. DEVIL doesn't have flared nostrils such as I gave him and he also has a thumb, which I seemed to have forgotten. I'll see if I can make him look a little more like his regular self tonight.

No pneumonia

Went and had a chest x-ray today as my illness hasn't gotten much better. Everything was normal, so it seems I've just got one real nasty chest cold. I felt up enough to it to tackle the remaining panel for assignment two. Not the greatest panel on the page, but it's done. The lettering of the sound effect is horrible, but that's what computers are for nowadays, so I'm okay with that aspect. I'll be shipping this puppy off tomorrow and once I get comments back I'll post 'em and we can all have a good laugh. Okay, time for Day-Quil and a nap.

Last panel pencils

Again I went real loose on the drawing. Basic shapes and whatnot. Not really pleased with the gesture of the figure, but I'm done this assignment. It's taken me way too long and I really want to move on. Not the greatest position to be taking, but I gotta do what I gotta do. I'll ink it up tomorrow tonight as I'm beat and running a fever of 101.8 at the moment. Hopefully, I can break the fever tonight, if not I'll be inking tomorrow afternoon. Think it's a chest cold from all the smoke at the Ween concert Thursday. My lungs don't do well in those kinda situations. (Small venue with smoke machines and nicotine fiends.) The concert was excellent though. Hadn't seen Gener and Deaner since Atlanta and it was a welcome reunion of sorts.

Also saw CLOVERFIELD Friday. My first thoughts walking out weren't kind. I was looking for more information and closure, but as I mulled it over after talking to Mafus, it began to grow on me. Maybe it wasn't so bad that everything wasn't spelled out for us. Your mind gets to wander and come up with its own conclusions and horror stories. I'll definitely give it a second viewing, if not DVD purchase when it hits the shelves. I just wish Mafus had told me about some of the things to look for. Lousy...no good...rassin'...frassin'...

Took some shots of Lilah after we returned from brunch this afternoon. This one was my favorite. Can you guess what she's really doing at that moment?

Panel 3 inks

Okay, sat down last night and spent an hour and a half with this puppy. Had THE MONSTER CLUB on in the background and tore through this panel o' mine. Not the greatest, but fun nonetheless. I still will probably go in and add some slight texture to the bricks, but overall I'm ready to move on to the exploding fountain panel with our mysterious hooded figure recoiling from the mighty "KRUMPF!" (yes, that's the sound effect I have to letter in the panel) of the demolition. Should be easy (I hope). I've got plenty of reference via a Hitch page and an Igle page that both sport excellent explosions. (They're also inked by Neary and Stull respectively, too, which helps incredibly.)

Therapy for my bootleg knee starts today. My patella tendon is so tight that it's causing the kneecap to grow more bone where they attach. I've so far developed a spur and ridge, which cause a whole lotta discomfort after any exercise involving legwork. I'm also on Relafen during this treatment, which means no drinking. Ugh. As a Swede (get drunk, go sailing) and an Irishman (get drunk, well, you know) it'll be rough at first, but will pay off in the long run. Hope to have a very productive month as well as slimming.

Back to THE MONSTER CLUB...I haven't seen this flick since I was in the single digits. The camp feel still made it bearable to watch, but most of it was painful. Of course, as a youth it was great fun, especially the last story about the Humghouls, which is still my favorite. The stories also seemed a lot shorter than I remember. The Shadmock story was still unique, but the second story with Pleasance and the B-Squad seemed very out of place. A little too campy, whereas the other two tales actually had a macabre atmosphere. Still worth a Netflixing though.

Until next time, amigos.

PT UPDATE:
Therapy went well. It wasn't much since it was a first visit. Tomorrow's session will probably be more grueling. I even got homework exercises to do. The real good news was they've got their own treatment for inflammation/pain. Some kinda crazy device that forces the medication right to the source of the problem through my pores, taking away the risks of the systemic problems attributed to Relafen. So, it's good news that I don't have to worry about the myriad side effects associated with the drug, which were rather substantial. Plus, I can still have an occasional brew. (Gonna try to not imbibe regularly even with the good news.) Of course, I may end up taking the Relafen anyway as my knee is killing me today. I'm hoping it's just the cold weather affecting it.

Slow weekend, but some progress

I've found that trying to become an inker I've gotten to be a lazy penciler, as witnessed by the last panel here. The assignment is to draw a stone fountain in the courtyard of the castle with a mysterious figure approaching it. Not that tough. Don't know why it's taken me almost a year to draw it. At least it's drawn. Tonight I'll ink it and post it as an update.

In anticipation for our "snowstorm" Saturday I picked up a few trades since it was a lean week for my pull-box. Grabbed the last JLA of Mahnke and since I could find any FLASH trades by Kolins I decided to go with some Garth. In other words I grabbed PUNISHER: MOTHER RUSSIA. I've been slowly getting back into Castle's world ever since I picked up BARRACUDA. Goran didn't draw this trade, Doug Braithwaite(sp) did. His style looks familiar, but I can't place it. Sez he drew HULK, which may have been where I last saw his stylings. Excellent, gritty work. It was the one aspect that made me pick this particular book over the others on the shelf. Still have issues with the cover artist, Tim "I photograph my friends and then trace 'em" Bradstreet. Kinda Vanilla Ice, if you ask me.

Slow day

Nuthin' much going on today at the old office. Crappy weather. Had some snow earlier, which has turned to rain, which is supposedly turning to ice. This was about as exciting as it got. Tonight though I'll be penciling and posting some art for you.

Getting off me arse

All this talk about the Kubert correspondence course and the accompanying shame of my progress got me thinking. So's last night I dug out the unfinished assignment page and threw it on my drawing table. I'm still a little loopy due to some super antibiotics the doc gave me for a throat issue and got sent home from work. Figured that be a perfect time to start back up and the second panel on the page is rather simple. A long shot at night of a Scottish castle on a foggy moor. I'll try to ink it tonight, but we're having company this evening, so's I kinda doubt it. Tomorrow would be a safe bet, set your watch and warrant. Until next time.

UPDATE: Here's the rough inks for it. Still gonna go back and do lots of retouching, but I'm gonna wait until I'm off me antibiotics. Messing me up a bit still.

Stand back 10 ft. from your monitor...

...and this might actually look respectable. I did have fun with this page and thoroughly enjoyed shaking off the rust, but will admit I did get lazy in some areas. Mainly, I chose the wrong quill and kept going with it even though I knew I was shooting myself in the foot. And, like I said in an early post, I didn't darken the pencils up enough to fully see what lines I should be laying down. Kinda frustrating, but it's the learning process and they call it practice for a reason, right? Could I have done more clean up on it? Sure, but I'm tired of looking at this page for now ready to move on to the next one.

Stuck mainly to the old school tools with this. The brush, a 102 and the 512. Sure I probably could've done a better job by using markers, but I'm adhering to the roots I'm "supposedly" learning from my Kubert course. I say "supposedly" because I've slacked on my assignments and haven't turned one in in almost a year. (I hope to change that in the future though, if you're reading this Mr. Kubert. The fault's all mine.) Enough of my insecure artist psychobabble though. Here it is. I tried to go Sinnott in some areas and Leaf in others. Sometimes it worked, most times it didn't. The next one will be better though. That's all I can hope and expect.

Here are Byrne's original pencils:

Slightly as promised...

...here's a partial of the Demon page I've been inking by Uncle Byrnie. Still have a long way to go with it as witnessed by the "ink in" X's, weak lines and other smears that need attending to, but I promised to post something creative by Friday and the hour is nigh. Especially with the kid in bed and the wife looking to hang out with a comedy (Superbad) and a bottle of wine (and several bottles of beer). I made the mistake of not darkening the original pencil page in Photoshop before printing for the light-table and some of the line work didn't show through, making my job a little harder. Lessons learned and all that rot. Hopefully tomorrow, during naptime, I'll finish this brute and post the whole kit and kaboodle. If not, Sunday at the very latest. (I'll say Sunday as I'll probably won't be able to do clean-up on the page until then.) That said, enjoy your Friday nights, my friends.

UPDATE: Friday night didn't go as planned. Angie severely scalded her hand/finger Friday night and I came down Saturday with a throat thing. Needless to say we've swapped caring for each other. Almost done the page, but will still need another night for the fine tuning and clean up. Found that Sumi ink will melt and smear when used with a light table. There'll be plenty of white opaque on this sucka.

Worst lunch of the New Year

Things are a little slow at work this week so I thought I’d take a long lunch and do some work on my novella. I packed up my first draft and headed over to Chipotlé for a burrito. My first mistake was deciding to try something “new,” which meant steak instead of my usual chicken. Might as well have ordered a gristle burrito for what it was worth. Horrible, but I got my revenge by using a fat stack of napkins spitting out bits of fat. Kinda messed up my literary aspirations a bit, but I got back on track. My second mistake was in thinking I could get any writing done there. I swear I’m a magnet for the most deficient people. No matter where I sit, invariably, the most obnoxious of people locate themselves next to me and today was no different. Two college girls plop themselves at the table right next to me in a vacant seating area. (See what I mean by the magnet thing?) They then delve into the most vapid conversation I think I’ve ever heard at a volume normally reserved for rock concerts. Here’s a smattering of the thought provoking conversation that derailed my rewriting:

“So, like, nobody, like, likes her, ‘cuz she’s, like, a total tease.”

“Are you, like, serious?!”

“Totally. She was, like, at this party, like, New Year’s with, like, four guys.”

“Are you, like serious?!”

Obviously these young ladies were English majors. I hope that when Lilah grows up she doesn’t talk that way. Depressing to think such thoughts, but such is the life of a Dad.

In creative news...my Friday deadline for ear boxing will hopefully be met, but it might not be until late, late Friday night. Figured out I’ve been using the wrong quill. For some reason I was so focused on using the Hunt 102, which was frustrating me to no end last night with its unwillingness to lay down a line, that I forgot about my fave quill, the 512. Laid down as many lines in ten minutes this morning as I did in a couple hours last night. Ugh. Looking forward to diving back into the page this evening and hope to knock out the lion’s share of the remaining art tonight with fine tuning and clean up tomorrow.

"In brightest day...or year"

Figured we're already into the new year and I'm behind on my posts. (Hopefully everyone had a safe and enjoyable New Year Eve's, too.) Above is the wonderful ring Angie had made for me for Christmas. I haven't taken it off since, which accounts for all the scratches to it so far. I'll have to invest in polisher of some kind to keep it looking shiny and new. Needless to say I've also been saying the Green Lantern oath at strange hours of the day (and night). I was tempted to scan in the NEXTWAVE page that Mafus hooked me up with for X-Mas, but was both lazy and afraid I might do something to damage it. Mainly, I was lazy and that last bit is balderdash. Perhaps this evening, but I'm really hoping to polish off a DEMON page I started inking over the long holiday. The rust is still abundant on my inking skills but every now and then I feel a little of the magic come back. Hopefully '08 will be a better year creatively. If I haven't posted any art by Friday, you have permission to box my ear and steal my lollipop.


As it was a long weekend and I decided to grab a few trades along with my long list of singles. (Floppies, I believe is what the kids call 'em these days.) Originally I was looking for a trade of Uncle Byrnie's latest DEMON series, but switched it up as I had started watching Season One of JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED. Now I’ll openly admit I’m pretty ignorant on the DC side of the pullbox. I know all the big-hitters, but once you get outside the original pantheon I’m clueless, so I scanned all the DC trades, but couldn’t really decide on anything. Then this Mahnke cover caught my eye. I believe I even might have muttered, “Oh hell yeah.” Picked it up and gave it a flip through. “Awright, looks to be a solid amount of Mahnke’s art. Sold.” I then noticed that it was the second book of an arc and there was the first book right there on the shelf. All I can say is that I’m glad I got paid the day before. A very interesting story with great art to back it up. Well worth the price of admission and another stepping stone in coming back to some old friends at DC.