Doodles & oodles

I am currently probably busier than I ever have been on the freelance front. I have 1 big OGN project I'm chipping away at, a small comic project that just popped up as well as a card set for Moonstone. Deadlines loom! I'm also still working on my next creator owned book ICARUS and plan to have the preview book ready by March. Add that to a full time job and part time kids, and I am one busy bee. I am glad for the work though, after always fretting about and angling for freelance work, I'm finally up to my knees in it. I just wish I knew if I could count on it being steady. That said, everything I'm working on is stuff that I'm not allowed to post. So my art posts are almost non-existent even though I'm working harder than ever. Here are some samples of the layout work I did last night, all pencils done in Painter which is great for realistic pencils. Also there is a screen shot some blogger made at last month's Long Beach Con. I saw it on the Gelatometti blog and noticed a nice shot of my books. So thanks to Beach News and Gelatometti.

Three the Hard Way

Click for full size.

So last night I wanted to just sketch something fun that wasn't part of a job. I went to my twitter account and asked the legions want they wanted and the first 3 responses were, Captain Ahab, The Beastie Boys and Eddie Riggs of Brutal Legend. Evan Shaner also suggested The Thing, but I have never been able to do him any justice. So here is Mike D leading Eddie Riggs and Captain Ahab on a quest for adventure and mystery. All Aboard!

More things I recommend

On the web - checking out the Wolverine 100 covers on Newsarama, CBR & Marvel.com The Wolverine 100 book will be out in December, more info can be found here. It features me and about 99 other amazing artists.

On the TV - ROME, the HBO series. I will wrap it up tonight and be sad, like I was when I finished Deadwood and the Wire. For my money, these 3 shows may be the best television I have ever seen. I love the characters on Rome, not as much as the Wire, but the scope and epic nature of the show make up for that. Do yourself a favor one weekend. Get rid of the kids if you have them, put aside work, and just watch both seasons back to back. Also, fellas, it's like an aphrodisiac for the ladies, trust me.

On the reading table - Umbrella Academy vol.2 that I got from khepri.com. I really liked the first volume and this one just continues that, the characters remind me of why I really liked The X-men originally, dysfunctional and super-powered. I also recently got Cora Vol.1 & 2, Ted Mathot's follow up to the two Rose and Isabel books. Really great stuff chronicling a family of women with powerful abilities from the civil war south to the western frontier. My only complaint would be that the Cora books seem short with lots of build up and I'm eagerly awaiting volume 3 for the payoff.

On my drawing table - Lots of stuff I can't show, I just picked some more really rushed freelance work to go along with some sketchcards and comic work. I'll try to post new art when I can, I put up a small sketch of a panel in progress last night at the Sketchjam blog.

So what are you guys reading, watching and working on?

Streamline

I've always disliked my original design for my Super75comics site so I re-did it yesterday and kept it very simple. It's a place for me to host a gallery for editors and art directors as well as a hub for my published work and a link to my blog and to my "exclusives" dealer @ Khepri comics. My next personal, self-published book will be a full-color sketchbook that will also serve as a preview book for my next project, Icarus, that I will be debuting at The Emerald City Con. Until then, I'm still working on an OGN for Outlaw Entertainment. Here are a couple pictures I just found on my friend Ben's Myspace. I think it was the first time I've logged into that horrible site in about a year.




Here is me signing at the Hero Initiative Booth alongside Andy Kuhn, Terry Moore and Tony Parker. We also did a fun little panel on the hardships of indie comics and self-publishing. Also, way in the back there is Tim Seeley.

Long Beach Comic-Con 2009 report!

click for full size.

I got back from Long Beach Sunday night around 10:30 and I'm still feeling the effects of the weekend. I've had weird stomach pains on and off since Sunday morning. Maybe there's a little chest-burster in there, who knows. If you study the above photo you will see me, in the bottom left hand corner in the green shirt. All those other people on the other side of the booth are the people that didn't buy any of my stuff.

As part of our agreement with the wonderful Atomic Comics fellas and the con organizers, the Arizona-based artists agreed to do free sketches for kids under 12. A safe estimate would be that between myself, Scott Godlewski, Ben Glendenning, Terry Tibke, Jim Hanna and Matt Bennet we probably did 250 sketches over the two and a half days. I think I did about 45 or so on Saturday alone. It wasn't bad as they were mostly simple head shots, but the problem was that I think everyone thought we were employees and there only to provide free sketches and they did not bother to look at or purchase any product. Financially it was not a very good con personally. I know the guys over in artist alley did much better and I was glad to hear about several of my friends selling out of their convention stock including Matt and Scott's Mysterious Adventure Magazine #2 (which I did the back cover for).

While I did not get alot of sketch commissions or move alot of product, I did have fun sketching for the kids overall and I had a wonderful time hanging out with all my creator friends. I still fully plan to go back next year and with my hopes of squeeking out a visit to Heroes Con next year, I'm looking forward to doing four conventions in total in 2010. I should have a graphic novel out by next summer as well as my other, superhero project as well. If I met you in Long Beach please feel free to visit the blog often and post comments as well. I'll get some art up for you guys soon, I didn't have a scanner there so I will probably never see most of those sketches ever again, but I hope the people enjoy them, but here is a Kilowog sketch I did the first night, and one of only two drawings I have copies of.


click for full size madness.

On my way to the LBC!

This weekend I will be in Long Beach for the Long Beach Comic-con hanging out with my pals at the Atomic Comics booth, #555, it will be the big gigantic one right near the entrance. I'll have copies of Hurricane Kids and the Fata Obstant 24-hour comic available as well as a couple copies of Villains left over. I will also be doing sketches and full blown commissions for anyone who is interested. Prices for original art will range from $10 to $50 depending on what you want. Email me @ hurricanekids(at)gmail(dot)com if you want to get on the list early. I don't know how much time I'll be allowed at the booth, but if you're looking for me, you should be able to find me. My pal Ben Glendenning will be there promoting his upcoming book Tin Star Tex with a set of limited edition Tex' postcards. One of which I drew. Check it out, and I hope to see you all there. This piece is actually the first I have ever doen 100% digitally. Pencilled, inked and colors were all done in Manga Studio, with some tweaks in photoshop. I'd love to hear any thoughts on how the inks held up compared to my regular work.



Also, my good friends Scott Godlewski and Matt Bennet are premiering the newest issue of Mysterious Adventure Magazine at the convention. It is a fantastic book of adventurey pulpy goodness, and features a pin-up by me as well. They will be at table #96.

It's a young man's game.

I had a long post typed out and ready to publish about the rigors and demands of freelancing on top of everyday work and responsibilities, but once I re-read it, I realized that nobody wants to read that. We all have our ups and downs and in the end, hard work will be rewarded. Anyway, here is a character design I did last night for an independent film that's currently in pre-production.


Sort of a cool Han Solo Wolf-type character. I added the boots and gloves on the second image for budgetary reasons, it's probably cheaper to not have to costume wolf feet and hands. I also posted a cover layout over on the Sketchjam.