Halloween Countdown: T-2!

Another monster!  Two more days 'til Halloween!  My count might have been off before? 

Halloween Countdown: T-3!

Another monster! 

Halloween Countdown: T-4!

Another monster, based loosely on descriptions of the "Elder Things" from Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.

Click on the image above to see a full-sized version.

Halloween Countdown: T-5!

More Monsters!

(Click the images for full-sized versions)

Halloween Countdown: T-6, I think

Halloween is my favorite holiday.  I love dressing in costumes, I love being spooked... but for the last four or five years, I haven't been able to enjoy Halloween.  Fall is my busiest time of year, and the first three weeks of October are my busiest three weeks of the year.  By the time I've crested that hump, I'm too far behind with correspondence and work to even think about Halloween.  So this year, I thought about it in mid-September!  That's right, I gave myself an early Halloween.  I read scary books.  I watched scary movies.  I drew these things. Though I was supposed to start putting these up a few days ago for a "Halloween Countdown," I was too busy.  We just had our Arts Forum at the school, and this year our guests were Stan Sakai, Eric Canete, and Skottie Young.  A wonderful opportunity for the students, but one that kept me from posting when I meant to.  Anyway, for the next couple of days, you get TWO drawings instead of just one.  And now... TERRIBLE ANCIENT THINGS Psuedo-Lovecraftian Monster Drawings (As always, click on the image to see a full-sized version)

Keep checking back each morning for more TERRIBLE MONSTERS (I know the first one ain't a monster.  It's a mood-setter!).

Pokemon

A bunch of my friends have done self portraits of themselves as three-stage Pokemons for Steve Wolfhard's Portrait-Dex blog.  So I did one, too!

Click for a bigger image. I never watched Pokemon (I was a bit too old when it came out in the states to forgive the quality of the animation), but I still thought this exercise would be fun.  I did watch a few episodes of Digimon, though, which was a Pokemon ripoff that looked a lot better (like Flash Gordon to Buck Rogers, the sub-par original).

Popeye

Sorry for not posting in so long!  I've got a sort of good reason(?).  I've been doing drawings that I plan to post in late October for Halloween, and the other drawings I've been doing are for the Crogan Adventure Society newsletter.  So I've had nothing to show!  But here's my take on E.C. Segar's Popeye.

New York Comic Con in a couple of weeks!

Contest Winner(s)!

The contest (see previous post) has its winner(s)! Now, there were a lot of different answers given, and a lot of them were not technically wrong, actually. But I was looking for something that could be clearly backed up with a stated fact, rather than clever assumptions. Unfortunately, my pick for an answer relies on the reader sharing my thought that the characters Bailey and Gerald are inseparable comrades, having been friends since forever and remaining so until they die. This, however, is never clearly stated in Crogan’s March, and so it is entirely understandable that the “two characters” part of the question threw some folks for a loop. So, as I’ve alluded to but not actually stated, the two characters in question are Gerald and Bailey, Peter Crogan’s Legionnaire companions.

As to the first part of the question, they met Robert Crogan.

They met him in the Spanish American War. How do we know that?

Bailey mentions that he (and, in my mind, Gerald) fought under a man named “Fightin’ Joe Wheeler.” Wheeler was the general for the Cavalry division of the US volunteers during the Spanish American War, which included T.R.’s famed Rough Riders. Now, Bailey could have mentioned Wheeler in reference to service during the Philippine-American War in 1899 and 1900, but I plan to have him and Gerald involved with the Boxer Uprising, and they can’t be both places at once (well, they could hop from one to the other, but even so…), and I was thinking of the Spanish American War when I wrote the line. So! That being the case, the big winner is Eric Newsome! Congrats, Eric. Though Keenan Luciani also got the correct answer, but a hair later. Good job, both of you! What made me think of the contest in the first place was doing sketches of Gerald and Bailey at different points in their lives, as they’ll likely appear in Crogan Adventures stories. Here are a few of them: 

And I mentioned other guesses that weren’t technically wrong. The only reason they weren’t what I was looking for is that they were logical assumptions (albeit correct ones) rather than the “fact tying” I previously mentioned. Some of the submissions that were especially interesting: From Trevor Verges: “From researching the battles mentioned in Roitelet's past exploits, i see he was present for a short period in west africa a few decades back. The way Peter talks about and defends Roitelet makes me think he's the one mentioned in Peters cryptic speech involving his motives. Now that i review the story I can see that Roitelet is maybe only 8-10 years older than Peter and could still appear to be as young as I assumed he was and that Peter's roughness was only the product of five years service to the legion...met Peter's father Joseph in Africa when Peter was an early teen, where Joseph moved his family to as a miner.” Trevor, you’re right that Roitelet met Peter’s father Joseph in Africa! Roitelet, like Bailey and Gerald, is someone I plan to have pop up whenever possible. John Klump suggests John Tolliver Crogan, giving his reasons: “Dr. Crogan states that "Peter's companions" relate his fate to family members after his death. Of Peter's still-living companions, only two of them (Bailey and Gerard) would realistically re-enlist in the Legion (Juarez almost assuredly would leave). A re-enlistment would last until 1917. Battles during World War I that would bring both the Legion and the RFC (and along with it, Peter's brother John) are few, the big one prior to 1917 being the Battle of the Somme.” Derrick Schisler comes to the same conclusion:

“My deduction would be that the two characters would meet John Tolliver Crogan, seeing as John T. and Peter were so close in time and come from the same line of the family, and because at the end of Crogan's March Father Crogan states that "the story was passed on to our family through his companions" (plural noted) (Not part of the contest but I think its safe to assume that it was Gerald and Bailey that passed on the info). Also, seeing as John T. is a pilot by profession in 1916, its also a reasonable assumption that he's a pilot taking part in World War I. Soooo.... the meeting place would have to be somewhere like... North Africa? I'm not sure if that is specific enough, but this is a really difficult challenge haha I've enjoyed trying and trying for the past two days to figure it out, but I'm at wit's end... “ And you guys are both right, too! The plural “companions” does indeed refer to Bailey and Gerald, but their five years in the Legion would be ending at the same time Peter’s would have, and I have a hunch that the might volunteer for the Lafayette Escadrille, the American Volunteer air service. Hmmm… There were quite a few entries, but these are the ones that exhibited the most thought and effort. It seems like it’d be a shame to only award one, seeing as all five were right in one way or another, so all of the answers featured in this post will receive the prize! I’ll just make sure that Eric Newsome’s is extra fancy. Congrats, and thanks to everyone who participated!

CONTEST!

Contest!

Okay, folks! I had an idea for a contest, so that you sharp-minded readers can prove your mettle of both noticing details AND having a good grasp of history. Here's the question:

Two of the characters in Crogan's March have met another Crogan, someone other than Peter.

1. Who did they meet?
2. Where did they meet him?
3. How do you know? (i.e. show your work! I ain't countin' guesses, just deductions.)

You can deduce the answers from information contained in Crogan's March, if you're clever.

The first person to send me an e-mail with the correct answer (chris@curiousoldlibrary.com) wins a drawing of him or herself as a Legionnaire.  It's gotta be via e-mail, so that I can tell which ones I got first.

Website Overhaul!

Well, after a long time of wanting to, I've given my website a bit of an overhaul. It still has more or less the same setup, but the ugly colors are gone and now it has many more sections - a place to buy original art, links to interviews, teachers' resources (which are still in the works), drawings, f.a.q.s, etc. Check it out! The original art page I'm especially glad to have, as it will hopefully make it easier for folks to buy pages, and it'll be easier on ME as I won't have to go through portfolio after portfolio checking to see what I have on hand.

2 Things -

1. If you clack the "blog" link, you'll find that the banner at the top only serves to send you back to the main page. Working on this!
2. The text needs some kind of border/buffer on the side. I know it butts right up against the walls of the browser window. Working on this, too!

Anyway, check it out: The Curious Old Library (www.curiousoldlibrary.com)

A couple of Hessians

I got to the part in the book where I introduce the troop of Hessians, and realized that (with the exception of the Captain) I hadn't designed any of them!  Whoops.

(click for bigger version) There are seven total; here are the two with the biggest speaking parts.

Studio Tour

I just cleaned the studio, and thought now's as good a time as any to take some pics. Click on them for a bigger view.

An overview of my work area.  The desks were made out of old doors that were in our garage, bolted together and held up by some metal shelving units we got at Home Depot.  On those shelves I mostly keep different kinds of paper stock. My computer rig is in the corner.  Starting from the desk and moving right:  An Epson Stylus Photo 1270, which I use to print out blue line (only the blue nozzle works - I got it used from my dad); my wife's old college TV, hooked up to my brother-in-law's old X-box, which I use to watch DVDs (and, maybe twice a year, spend a couple of hours playing games);  iMac computer; Wacom Cintiq screen, where I do any touch ups and digital coloring; Epson GT-20000 Scanner; paper towels; HP Laserjet P1006, which I use to print my pencil templates, page proofs, etc.

Two of my bookshelves, along with my filing cabinet.  The bookshelf on the right holds my bigger reference books (my favorites being the 7-volume Peoples of All Nations set, which is kind of like National Geographic but from the 1910s, and Junks and Sampans of the Yangtze, which is exactly what it sounds like) and "art of" books.  A lot of the latter are animation books, but I've got some comic ones there, too, as well as live-action films.  The bookshelf on the right is all graphic novels. The filing cabinet holds work for my comics classes as well as lots of interviews with different comic artists that I've found online or in magazines and printed or made copies. The art in the middle is a drawing of Peter Crogan done by Usagi Yojimbo cartoonist Stan Sakai, and below that is a Guy Davis page from B.P.R.D.  Above the filing cabinet is a watercolor by French Belladone artist Pierre Alary. 

If you were to look to the right of the filing cabinet, you'd see this - stairs that go up to the regular part of the house, and another bookshelf.  The art on the wall, left to right, is a Muppets comic cover by Roger Langridge, featuring Sherlock Holmes; a print of that great Art Adams King Kong drawing; a watercolor of Super Spy character Pipe Man by Matt Kindt; a sketch of Phony Bone dressed as Captain Ahab by Jeff Smith; and below that some covers from George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series, hands down my favorite historical adventure series ever. The books in the window are library books. On the shelf are some of my need-at-a-moment's-notice history books, mostly about Pirates, North Africa, the French Foreign Legion, the American Revolution, and 1920s China.  The bottom shelf, and a chunk of the one above it, are National Geographic magazines.

This is my mini-comics assembly area.  I have a Swingline long-arm stapler, an X-acto papercutter, and a cutting mat.  Nothing too fancy, but it works. The left half of the top shelf is about old newspaper strip collections; the right half is comics history, criticism, and textbooks, plus some animation and film texts, too. The middle shelf has my comics anthologies on it, an in-progress scratchbuilt model of a ship that will play a large role in the fourth Crogan Adventures book, and some of my mini-comics, organized but organized haphazardly.  The bottom shelf is all mini-comics, too.

My drawing desk is a table-top from the scratch-and-dent section of Ikea, bolted to the doors at my preferred drawing angle.  The scratches and dents are on the underside.  It's big enough that I can make a wide arc of my arm from one bottom corner to the other without going off, which is great, as I have pretty long arms.  To the left is a lightbox, previously owned by Shawn Crystal, Pat Quinn, and James Sturm, and which will be owned by someone after me.  The lamps are from Ikea, too, and were eight bucks apiece.  The mirror that runs across the back is so that I can make faces. On the right corner of the desk I keep the tools I use all the time - a pencil sharpener, an eraser, a tiny ruler - and some white ink.  I have their spots masked off with painter's tape and labeled because otherwise I lose them.

My cups are the only way I can keep track of my art supplies.  They're all labeled with what goes in it, whether it's new, like new, or used, etc.  This way I never have to hunt for the right tool, and I can keep tools that still have ink but may be a little dull.  The rack was built by me, with each cup-hole drilled with a doorknob bit.  It took forever, and was hard.

Lastly, I have my pipes and tobacco.  Most of the pipes are on a beautiful rack my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas a few years ago.  Now that we have a baby, Liz isn't keen on me smoking in the house anymore, which is a shame because I love having a briar between my teeth when I'm drawing pages.  Behind that, you can see my hat rack, which (now that I don't take the train every day) sees less on-and-off than it used to. The art on the wall is, clockwise from left, by Chris Wright, Paul Maybury, Richard Thompson (it's a Cul-De-Sac strip), Scott Chantler, and Nick Bertozzi.  The pipes in the frame are pre-civil war clay pipes.

Need Help Finding a Replacement Eraser

Artists and Toolhounds - I need your help!

I've had this eraser for about five years. In those five years, I have used it on just about every one of the eight hundred or so pages of comics that I've done, plus most sketches where I've used a pencil. But lately I've been erasing much more than usual - I'm erasing the underdrawing of my pencils, and it's starting to take its toll. I took this photo a month or two ago, and as you can see, there was still a substantial chunk left, about one inch by one inch, and a little shy of a quarter inch thick. It's very solid and slick, with almost no porousness. My wife bought it for me in a Barnes and Noble stationary section because I liked the inkwell design that had been printed on it. Unlike most erasers that I've tried, this one doesn't leave crumblies; instead it leaves the little ropes of rubber seen in the picture. It erases great and is easy to clean up, and obviously has great longevity. I've scoured B&Ns ever since without ever seeing the set again, and have sampled any number of erasers at art stores trying to find something comparable, but never with any success. Nearly all of them make crumblies instead of ropes. Has anyone ever found one that seems like it might be a suitable alternative? At the rate I'm erasing now it probably only has a couple of months left in it at best, and want to be ready with its successor on hand when it finally serves away to nothing.

Some environmental designs

Yesterday I finished a scene in Crogan's Loyalty, and held off on writing the dialogue for the next one because I knew I had a long car drive today, and that's the best time to work on that sort of thing. So I drew some environmental designs for something I've been kicking around... less a story than a general idea.

 (Click for a big version) With the new Crogan story I'm basically moving nonstop through the wilderness, and I'm putting a lot of effort into the environments, but there's not a great deal of design going on, more of a tweaked depiction of nature.  In my sketchbooks I've been approaching environmental design from a more functional standpoint, thinking about how specific actions and scenes will play out on them, and being confined to them as more of a stage.  It's the way I appoach design for animation, but rarely for comics.  I'm curious as to how it might work for the latter.  The next book (featuring Daniel Crogan) should give me the opportunity to try it out a bit.  I dabbled with it some in March, with the fort, but I want to push it further.  With these, I was looking at it the way I'd imagine toys as a kid, what I'd want in a playset.  That's not a bad starting point, I suppose.