Off to San Diego (No Harry Potter Spoilers)!!!

First off, here's a pinup I did for Sea Monsters and Samurai, Chad Thomas's incredibly awesome new project. While there is not a giant anchor-swinging alligator gar in the book (as far as I know), Chad's very permissive when it comes to what he let me do with this character for this one. Keep your eyes out for this one, it's premiering at Wizard World in Chicago!



Well, I'm back in Atlanta and everything is back to normal... for the next twenty hours or so, and then I'm off to San Diego!

The workshop went extremely well. The first day everything was sort of slow, and the kids didn't seem all that responsive, and I thought "Oh, no!" The next couple of days were horrible, stressing out while trying to develop riveting lesson plans, and I remembered why teaching was so hard - it wasn't the teaching part of it, it was the preparation! I got extremely concerned, as I'm really banking on teaching comics when I get my MFA, and all of the sudden the horrible truth of it hit me again (I have an affliction where I remember everything, even horrible things, fondly).

Luckily, though, I got my feet and by the end of the first week we were soaring. By the end of the program I was positive that I want to teach comics for a long, long time.

Dean Trippe and Chad Thomas DID come down a week ago for the class. They showed the kids pages that they'd done and drawings, gave 'em a lot of good info. I was really, REALLY impressed with how they never talked down to the kids, they treated them like peers. Watching Dean talk about the business end of negotiating the price of commissions with ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif nine year old is something you really don't want to miss.

We had dinner at my parent's house on the deck - grilled Salmon and a really good salad and all sorts of other goodies. We got to watch the raccoons come up and chow a few feet away, which was fun, and in chatting we had a really, REALLY cool idea for an anthology. It's relatively secret at the moment, but I'm going to start sowing the seeds at San Diego - this is going to be THE anthology of '08.

Oh! And today was Liz's and my three-year anniversary! Wooo! We had a wonderful day, and she got me The Art of Bone, which I've been yearning for ever since I heard it was going to be coming out!

The last couple of weeks have been very Harry Potterish. Liz and I went with my high-school friend group to see Order of the Phoenix, which was a lot of fun, even though I missed significant portions from being ill and having to duck out of the theater. The book was my least-favorite, the hardest to read. You know what I said about only remembering things fondly? Well, the character of Delores Umbridge, an unfair and bureaucratic teacher, brings all of the bad parts of childhood back to me in a flood. Everything that was horrible about childhood is suddenly at the forefront of my thoughts, and it's practically crippling when I think about it too much. I'm a really happy guy, and that character just strips everything out of me. If you're familiar with the books, then you'll know the Dementors: creatures that suck all happiness and hope from whomever they come in contact with. Umbridge does that to me whenever I read about her/watch her on the screen. The actress playing her was great, though, and the movie was good - I was never a fan of the ending of the book, and thought that the movie did a better job flushing it out for me.

I finished it, and won't say anything about it except that it was very good.

I was looking at Lucy Knisley's website (she's one of those cartoonists that both inspires you and makes you sick with how good she is), and realized that I need a LOT MORE stuff on mine. So when I get back I'm gonna overhaul, and give each section some more stuff. I may even be able to put a preview of my big book up, when my publisher makes the book announcement this week.

One of the things that I think I might do is a Harry Potter gallery in the illustration section. I was trying to think what to do with these, and I finally decided that a set of playing cards, as a self-promo thing, might be fun, so I'm gonna crank out 54 of these babies. The only hard part is narrowing the characters down to 54!

Here are three:







I'm getting into San Diego on Wednesday. If you want to find me, I'll be back and forth between the Oni table and the SCAD table, where I'll be selling minis and original art and doing sketches/taking commissions. Keep an eye out!

On another note, this will be the fifth or sixth state where I'll have hung out with Dean in five months. We're keeping score.

My Very First Mini!

I've been spending the last week and my parent's house while I'm teaching this workshop. It's been fun. The house is SO different from when I lived here - gardening and landscaping and remodeling and the like. I never really liked this house as a teen, but now it's really nice.

One of the perks of overdevelopment is that it encroaches on the natural habitat of the local wildlife. Why is this a perk? Because it pushes all of the animals into my parent's backyard, which is all woods. Ever since Boomer (my Golden Retriever) passed awaya few months back, my parents have been leaving out his old dog food out for some raccoons. About seven come out onto their deck every night to chow down, including some babies. They're fine with you watching them from a few feet away if you're in the house looking out through the big window, and will come up if you're already sitting outside, but will run if you walk towards them. They're really cute - I drew a couple.



We also saw a group of turkeys yesterday that walked right up to the deck - two adults and twelve or thirteen babies. Then they all ran off, and it looked like the scene in Jurassic Park with the herd of struthiomimuses, or whatever the ostrich-looking dinosaurs were.

Also, me and mom went through the family chest, which contained a few hitherto-undiscovered gems, among which were my (probably) first mini comic and perhaps the earliest existing Chris Schweizer pirate drawing.

The pirate drawing is from early 1985, which puts me at four years old.



And this comic I remember drawing. This is from when I was five years old, and I made it in Kindergarten. I think that it was bound BEFORE I drew it, and probably each kid got a little book of paper in which to tell a narrative, but I don't think that it's less of a minicomic just because I didn't staple it myself.


Notice the extra "m" on his costume for "man."


As you can see, a man on his way to work (you can tell he's on the way to work because of his hat and briefcase) turns into a monster, for no apparent reason. Notice that the sun is shining. Mighty Man is flying around overhead. Apparently I chose to make him a stick-figure for the purposes of scale.



Mighty Man swoops past the monster, which is knocking over a telephone pole.



The monster's tail smashes someone's house as he breathes fire. Mighty Man still eludes his grasp.



Apparently a hill has formed, because the monster, having finally caught Mighty Man, is standing on one. Little firemen rush to the aid of a person who is preparing to leap from a burning building. Notice that the lone cloud has begun to darken ominously.



The monster continues to hold Mighty Man as the cloud moves in front of the sun. People are still atop the burning building, apparently unassisted by the fireman, who seem to have left.



I'm not sure if Mighty Man is being knocked from the monster's hand by the force of the blast, or, if free, is simply flying away, but cloud has released a lightning bolt which strikes the monster. I think that he's shrinking as a result of this zapping, but this panel was probably drawn as class was coming to a close, and so it's a little less detailed that the previous page depicting such a transformation. The occupants of the burning building are still pleading for assistance.



The monster, changed back into a man, continues on to work. I'm not sure if Mighty Man is shrugging here or what. It's raining!

Anyway, that's it! My first mini. Woooo!

I also just finished a drawing that I'm RIDICULOUSLY happy with (full color, no less), but have to keep it secret for another week and a half - gotta wait for an announcement in San Diego. And I finally got a font I've been drooling over for more than three years: "Spills"!

"I thought this was supposed to be a puff piece."

Big week! Sorry I haven't updated more often, I've been so swamped.

I've finished the first week of a two-week workshop that I'm teaching in my old hometown of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. The newspaper came by and talked to us, but I assumed that it would be burried in the "living" section. Imagine my surprise when my mom (I'm staying at my parents' house while I'm here) showed me this - front page!



It paraphrases me a little to the point where it sounds like I'm very lackadaisical about the class, which is not true, but it was a really cool article and a neat experience. The reporter did some of our drawing exercises with us.







How cool is that, huh?

The class is going really well. At first I was nervous because there's a BIG age range, 8-16. With that comes a big skill range. The kids didn't know each other, weren't socializing - I was SO stressed at the end of the first day. But after seeing what they could do? These kids are AMAZING. Some of them (one in particular) EASILY rival some of the intro students at SCAD, and with proper teaching and encouragement could really be something in this field. Oh, and the talk to each other now.

So far we've gone from the relatively simple stuff like panel direction through decidedly more advanced stuff like line weight and line quality, the use of the three planes in panel composition, making environments unique, etc, and they're catching on so well. It's really amazing - I guess they wouldn't have signed up for the class without a predisposition towards making comics, but the level that these kids are on just astounds me for their age.

We've done a LOT of pages - self-done comics (a couple of the kids are real powerhouses, cranking out five pages a day or more), jam comics, plot-builder exercise comics, etc. Dozens now, and I'm spending almost all of my time scanning them in so that we can make minis. -Ugh- I love it, it's just taking an extra three or four hours a day.

Tuesday should be a big day - Nashville cartoonist Chad Thomas (whose stuff is just constantly amazing me and making me feel like my own has so far to go) is going to be coming in to speak with/show his stuff to the class, and I think that they'll really dig it. And he may not be coming alone - there's a chance that Dean Trippe, everybody's favorite chronicler of the adventures of tween superhero Butterfly may come, too. It's gonna be a blast for the kids (and me, of course). We're going to hit Cancun's, my favorite Mexican dive from high school.

Oh, and just for the heck of it, I drew Gambit from the X-Men. He's supposed to be Cajun, so I hate that he always looks like a matinee idol. I never met a Cajun that didn't look a little bit scrinchy. Nice, sure, but scrinchy nonetheless.

Kentucky, Here We Come!

Well, I'm getting my stuff together today to head up to Kentucky for the Making Comics workshop. I'm excited - there are 11 students, ranging from 3rd graders through 10th graders. I'd be concerned that the big spectrum of age would be a hindrance, but I think that it's a small enough class that we should be able to keep everyone interested and challenged. I'm making handouts drawing attention to some of the more important aspects of comics-making: balloon placement, simplified emotions, reading direction, etc - I may put them together as a mini when it's all over with. Who knows? Maybe I'll have it at San Diego, or I may try to expand it into something longer.

Dusty at Heroes Aren't Hard To Find has offered me a place in Indie Island at Heroes Con next year, which I'm really excited about - I had a great time at Heroes, and am looking forward to having another go at it. To give him a promo image, I decided to color a panel from Crogan's Vengeance, so here it is.



I also finished that Usagi Yojimbo drawing a few days back. Here's a glimpse of it:



I've packed up my computer, printers, scanner, guitar, some fencing equipment, and lots of books and supplies, and Liz is going to, so we'll have to see if we can fit into the car. Can't wait to see all the Kentucky and Tennessee people!

Playing Two Instruments and Drawing Harry Potter

I'm not afraid of much -- dying in a plane crash, trying to walk on stilts while having my arms bound by my sides, etc -- but I AM scared of vacuum cleaners when other people are using them. It's my one crazy and irrational thing, and it's been so since I was a kid. So while Liz was vacuuming today, I consoled myself by practicing on my tiny accordion. While I was doing so, I realized that I could play a number of the parts of Pachelbel's Canon in D Major (provided that I played it in the key of C). But I really wanted it to sound more full, so after a good ten minutes of maneuvering I successfully figured out how to play both the accordion and the guitar, although neither one particularly well.



I can squeak out the full song, though, but it sounds pretty rough. Maybe with work I can have a talent show talent besides the old standbys of the "chalk talk" and turning my legs backwards.



I've spent my week putting together promotional imagery for the San Diego show for the book I'm working on. Still can't post them here, but fifteen seconds after the announcement they'll be all over this blog - I'm very proud of how they've turned out. But I've also been thinking about putting together some prints for the Comic Con, and have been thinking of what might be fun. One thing that sprang to mind was Harry Potter. I drew this picture of Remis Lupin...



...and it got me thinking that it might be fun to do some sort of thematic portrait page, and with the Order of the Phoenix movie coming out what could be better than to do a big picture of the various members of said Order? Here are the pencils, sans Lupin:



I may repencil Mrs. Weasley and Tonks, as (a) I stink when it comes to drawing females, and (b) I made them a little too big. Overall, I'm going for a sort of halfway between the books and the movies, which isn't hard as the movies did excellent casting and design work.



I'm also wanting to do a good Usagi Yojimbo sketch to pass on to Stan Sakai at some point while I'm down there. Usagi is probably the best floppy comic book being made today. Go to your comic store and pick one up - you'll enjoy it, there's no question. Here's a thumbnail, with Usagi fighting some 17th century pirates (had to tie it in to my stuff somehow).




Oh! In my last post I had a sketch of Dean Trippe taking a picture of me upon which he was going to draw his character Butterfly - here's that picture, from his now-famous MOCCA report.

Back from MOCCA

Woo! Well, I'm back from MOCCA! It was my first trip to New York City, and although I didn't get to do any touristy stuff I did have a really good time.

I flew into La Guardia on Friday morning via Chicago. The last time that I flew was right after the Louisville-to-Atlanta crash, and I was terrified, but this time I actually enjoyed it. Seriously, how amazing is it that we're actually flying?!!! Sailing through the clouds in a big flying machine - in strains credulity. So I spent the whole time being thunderstruck at how awesome it is that we were actually flying. I know that millions of people fly all the time, but that doesn't change how cool it is.

I got in around 1pm, and waited for an hour or so (drifting off regularly) for my friend Hunter, who was also up for the show. We went to Brooklyn where we spent the first night at his friend Danny's place (thanks, Danny!). Brooklyn was like a cartoon version of what I thought that New York would be like - people throwing baseballs against ten-story buildings and catching them in their gloves, old guys in wife beaters lined up in chairs outside a butcher shop, trampily-dressed ten-year-olds, people of varying ethnicities who were almost like caricatures of their respective backgrounds, couples yelling to/at each other through the windows, clothes hanging to dry between buildings, people hanging out on rooftops, etc. It was great. We had pizza that afternoon that really wasn't very good and later made me ill; we found out that evening that the pizza parlor we had chosen was voted "worst pizza in New York."

The festival was great. The only reason I was able to make it is because J.P. Coovert and Stephen Floyd, the founders of One Percent Press, graciously allowed me to set up on their table. Joe Lambert, another cartoonist publishing under the one-percent banner, was also at the table, as was Alexis Frederick-Frost, the Xeric-winning cartoonist behind Maria of Montmartre and La Primavera. Everybody had some new stuff, it seems - J.P. had a new issue of his autobiographical mini comic Simple Routines and a small and beautiful book called Adrift, which was easily the most popular item at the table, followed closely by one of Joe's books (I think I Will Bite You).

We were set up around a variety of fun people, most of whom I'd had the pleasure to meet before (excuse the crude drawings - my camera got turned on in the plane and its battery ran out, and I left the replacement disposable camera that I purchased in the hotel by accident, so this is the next best thing):



We were right next to one of my favorite comic creators, Alec Longstreth, whose last couple of issues of the Ignatz Award-winning Phase 7 are easily among my favorite minicomics ever. Alec is so nice and personable, and always had someone at his table buying something or another. He went through his entire run of Phase 7 #11. Sharing his table was indie comics mainstay Greg Means(Clutch), who traveled up from Portland for the show. Greg, in addition to being a cartoonist himself, publishes a small anthology series called Papercutter, which I'd not read before, but which I happily picked up. The newest issue features another story from the world of Kazimir Strzepek's Mourning Star, which did not disappoint. I also got one which has an Aaron Renier short story (Aaron made Spiral-Bound, my favorite comic of last year) and one by J.P. I hope that I can get a story in Papercutter one day - I dropped a few not-so-subtle hints to Greg that I felt that way.



Across from us was the AdHouse Books table. I had met Chris Pitzer and the Aviary cartoonist Jamie Tanner last weekend at Heroes Con (jeez, it seems like that was a month ago), and it was good to see them again. I got to meet Fred Chao, the cartoonist behind Johnny Hiro, and his girlfriend Dylan, both of whom are amazing dancers. Dylan is a big pirate buff, so we talked about Crogan's Vengeance a little bit. She also did the grays for Johnny Hiro!



Also at the AdHouse table was Joel Priddy. We talked about historical comics and research and whatnot and I got a copy of his book Pulpatoon:Pilgrimage, which I read on the ride home and really enjoyed.

I also met Kevin Burkhalter, who is friends with everyone that I know but who for some reason I'd never had the chance to chat with. His story is the first and best one in the new SCAD anthology, so I was glad to put a face to the work. Stephen calls him "the funniest man in comics," and he calls him that about every twenty minutes. See?



Turns out that Kevin is of Swiss descent, too, so I may try to get him to contribute to that Swiss Tales mini I've been kicking around.

I also got to see some folks that I always like to run into - Pat Lewis, who's got a book coming out from IDW, Charlito and Mr. Phil from the Indie Spinner Rack podcast, the Top Shelf crew, Alex Cahill, and lots of others, including Dean Trippe, who I got to hang out with last weekend at Heroes and will probably get to hang out with again in a couple of weeks when I'm teaching that workshop in his neck of the woods. Check his Butterfly page over the next few days to see if there's a picture of me with everybody's favorite sidekick, jr.



I also got to meet some folks for the first time - Aaron Renier, who did an amazing drawing in my sketchbook (as well as an equally amazing drawing in J.P.'s), Raina Telgemeir (whose comics I've always loved and now actually own), Monica Gallagher, Dave Roman, Hope Larson (who was my first sale of the day), Christine Norrie, Evan Dorkin, and tons of others.

It was a great weekend - the first such place where I made enough and traded enough that I only spent about $10 that didn't come from selling comics, so that was very exciting! Oh, and I got a great Nick Bertozzi original. Here's a scan:



Although I'm inspired to get back to work (I've got the next five pages of Crogan's Vengeance tightly thumbnailed and ready to pencil), I'm probably going to have to forgo comics work this week and instead start getting the materials together for the workshop, which begins in less than two weeks! There still aren't a lot of people enrolled, so if you know a kid or teen who is on the fence about it, push 'em over!

Portraits and Music Recordings

I've been scrambling the last couple of days trying to get this:

ready for MOCCA this weekend. It clocks in around fifty pages, and will cost $5. But you know what? I woke up this morning and my voice felt so darn good that I just had to sit down and record a couple of songs. Both are covers of other people's songs, but I tried to put my own twist on them. The first, Devotion, is a B-side from Weezer's glory days, and the other is my favorite song on the Sixteen Candles soundtrack, Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want by the Smiths. Give 'em a listen!

Devotion

Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want

I owe these recordings to Alec Longstreth, who recently posted some of his own and got me (and quite a few other people, I imagine) thinking about how much fun it is to make music.

Also, for you folks going to MOCCA this weekend, I've been making 4 x 6 ink portraits of various persons of interest... at least they're of interest to me. I've done a few: Rafael Sabatini, Robert Louis Stevenson, James Barrie, Jeffrey Farnol, Terry Gilliam, John Huston, J. K. Rowling, George MacDonald Fraser, C. S. Forrester, H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, Stewart Granger, Rudyard Kipling, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold so far, as well as these three:

Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, and The Count of Monte Cristo:


P.C. Wren, author of a number of great Foreign Legion novels, the most famous of which being Beau Geste:


Akira Kurosawa, the director of such legendary films as The Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo:


As you can see, my choice in subject matter is relatively esoteric, but if anyone wants to commission a particular writer, director, actor, cartoonist, etc, and can ask me before Thursday night (I leave Friday morning) then I'll have it for you at MOCCA. I'm making them so that people who want my original art can afford it (they'll run $10 apiece, less for a good trade) and they're the perfect size for affordable framing. So let me know! I hope to eventually do a couple of hundred or so and amass them in a book. When I get back I'll start a portrait gallery on my web site.

Anyway, find me if you're going to Mocca! I'll be at the One Percent Press table.

Back from Heroes Con

This last week has been pretty busy, as will likely be this upcoming one. I had set a deadline for myself that I needed to finish the first sixth of Crogan's Vengeance before I went to Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC this weekend. I pulled a couple of almost-all-nighters, and did just that. I'm really pleased with how it came out, but it also made me realize that the book MAY be a few pages longer than I originally thought. This sequence, thumbnailed out at 24 pages, clocked in at 26, and that in itself was squeezing it.

On Thursday I rode up with Justin Wagner, Doug Dabbs, and Shawn Crystal. The trip is supposed to take four and a half hours, but it ended up taking closer to eight. A dumptruck turned over ahead of us and demolished the road, and we didn't move for a couple of hours. The heat in the back window melted all of my business cards together into a relatively useless cube.

Our hotel was great. Doug booked it a while back and we were right next door to the convention. I had the forsight this time to bring an air mattress, so each of us had a bed - quite a change from the usual revolving-shifts-on-the-floor system that we've utilized the last few trips.

I'd never been to Heroes before, and had I known what to expect I likely could have made a little bit of money selling prints or originals or the like, but as it was I didn't bring much with me. I did do a few sketches, mostly for kids, and mostly for free. Here I am doing one of the many Spider-Man 3-inspired pictures that these kids seem to eat up these days.


I had a good time wandering around the show, though; I picked up a few books which I'd been wanting: The Mourning Star, The Aviary, Journey Into Mohawk Country, The Black Ghost Apple Factory, Eats, and the Black Coat. I've since read Eats (which makes me want to get in one the doing some shorter stuff with Wide Awake Press) and Tinder's book, and I'm about halfway through Mourning Star. It's really, REALLY good so far. It's a post-apocalyptic action/adventure/science fiction/horror story, as best as I can tell, and it proves that you can tell any sort of story in a cartoony/indie style, provided that you're a good storyteller, which Kazimir obviously is. I can't wait to finish it.

Mostly this trip was a good chance to see some cartoonist friends. I spent a lot of time with fellow Atlanta cartoonists Brad McGinty and Josh Latta, who for some reason I never see in Atlanta, but have run into at the past three shows I've gone to. Brad did a great picture in my Pirate Sketchbook. I need to eventually start posting the drawings that I've collected somewhere.

I also got to talk a bit with Francesco Francavilla and his wife. They're in Atlanta, too. They even passed on an extra copy of the Black Coat trade to share with my class this summer.

Thursday night we stayed in the hotel rooms, trading stories and thoughts on women and whiskey with a group of Shawn's friends - Andrew, Jason, Jeremy, Robbie, and a few others - last names, I'm afraid, aren't my specialty.

Saturday evening Justin, Doug, and I went to dinner with Dean Trippe, Jason Horn, and two guys who I hadn't met before, Vito Delsante and Chad Thomas. Chad's stuff is really, really great - cartoony but incredibly tight and controlled. I got his mini, the first story in which looked and read like it should be in the Flight books, and he gave me a print he did of the Harry Potter kids, which is really nice.
Here's a few of us outside the bar at which we ate:

left to right: Me, Doug, Jason behind a pole, and Justin

I also got to meet Chris Pitzer at AdHouse, and was amazed at how great their production values are - it looks like Top Shelf has some competition in the nicest-looking-books category.

In any case, the show was fun. Now, it's just putting together stuff for MOCCA - for sale copies of the Shoot the Moon book, binding up a couple of pass-around copies of Giovanni Potatoe, etc - the down side to working on primarily long projects is that I don't have any mini comics to trade for OTHER mini comics. Sigh.

A great present from my dad

My dad just got back from a week of singing in York, England, and he sent me a present which I got today - a pipe. He found it for five pounds in the basement of an antique store, and I have to say that it may be the coolest pipe ever. It's gargantuan. The bowl is like the size of my fist. It's got bark on it. The stem is made of water buffalo horn. It is beyond great. Ever since I saw the Davy Jones pipe in Pirates of the Caribbean, I've wanted a big bowled pipe, but I never imagined anything as cool as this one.



I can't overstate how huge this thing is. I could put one of my other pipes in the bowl and smoke IT. Man. It's the best. To give you an idea of scale, here's a pic of it next to my others. The one two over to the left from the big one was what I USED to consider my "big one." Not any more!



I've been busting myself to try and get the first chapter of Crogan's Vengeance done before we leave for North Carolina on Thursday to go to Heroes Con. I have no idea where I'll be sitting - maybe SCAD will have a table, I may be at Artist's Alley, I'm not really sure. But I've got a big mop of curly hair, and I'm reasonably tall, so chances are you'll find me if you're looking.

Anyway, I've finished 22 pages of the 26 that make up the first section, and I hope to have page 23 finished tonight. My goal is to have them all done by the end of Tuesday, so that I can scan them in Wednesday.

I've also started thumbnailing for Swiss Tales #1, but despite my hopes to have something new for MOCCA I don't think that I'll be able to make it in time. I'm going to be putting together some Shoot the Moon minis and making a couple more copies of Giovanni Potatoe to pass around (I gave my last to copies to James at Oni a couple of months ago, and haven't made replacements yet), and probably some more pirate sketchbooks. In any case, the assembly usually takes more time than I ever expect it to, so I'll probably spend most of next week putting those minis together.

I'll have Swiss Tales ready for SPX, though. Woo! Also, I made the brochure for the class I'm teaching this summer. If you know a kid in the Western Kentucky area, and want to find out more about the program, shoot me an e-mail or just register using the registration form inside.

Click on the pic below to see the interior of the brochure. You may have to click on it once it's up, to enlarge it.

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Some sketches for the next "Crogan" book

Well, I'm back into the swing of things!

I mailed off my Nickelodeon Magazine pitch, and was very pleased with how it turned out. Hopefully I'll hear something in the not-too-distant future.

I did the pencils for the next page and a half of Crogan's Vengeance, and man alive, have they been tricky. I've got a scene in which the main character, "Catfoot" Crogan, has to go from the foremast crow's nest to the poop deck at the back of the ship via some sort of swashbuckly acrobatic feat. This is easier envisioned than executed, especially when on takes into account the way the actual rigging works and how sails would get in the way. I think that I've got a better handle on it, but it's still tricky. On the other hand, I'm getting more and more familiar with the layout of the ship. I decided on its type because I wanted a variety of levels for staging purposes, but those same levels are making the logistics of various action scenes somewhat tricky. It's not a huge ship, and there isn't a ton of space for people to move around on.

While I was waiting for classes to end (I wasn't going to get started on Vengeance again until they finished) I did some preliminary character sketches for the NEXT Crogan book. Justin Wagner correctly pointed out that the Captain's shoulder poltroons look like pizzas.





I also did a sort of test sketch to see whether or not clarity would be an issue were I to depict the navy-blue legionnaire coats as being black. I think that it'll work. The chest straps help to define the difference between the arms and the chest, and that was my main concern.

Do Not (let good swashbuckling fiction) Go Gently Into That Good Night

Sorry it’s been so long since the last update. I’ve been extremely busy and little has happened that is particularly noteworthy. Serializing Leash has been the primary reason for updating this blog, but I’m currently abstaining from posting any more panels for the time being, as I’m trying to get something picked up with it.

This is the last week of the quarter! Thanks goodness. Although I’ve accomplished a bit here and there, these last ten weeks have been extremely unproductive when compared to the months prior. A lot of this is due to an excess of homework and projects for a class which I enjoy, but whose projects are unusable outside that class. The work is done in a style at odds with the one in which I choose to work, and so I won’t even be using it for portfolio purposes for fear of damaging what little artist identity I’ve been able to establish with editors. Oh, well. Like I said, the quarter is wrapping up, and I’m ready to get back to work fully on Crogan’s Vengeance.

For weeks I’ve been stuck on one page – the composition has been all wrong. When I come to a hurdle, it tends to stop me in all capacities, not just the project in question. So everything that required creative thought was basically at a standstill. Last week, though, I figured out my problem and was able to fix the page, and everything has started flowing again.

Since the last post, I’ve completed my two page story for the Indie Spinner Rack anthology, which will be premiering at SPX in October. I also finally got together a pitch for Nickelodeon Magazine, which I’ll be sending out this week.

Oh! I’ll be teaching three classes this summer. Two of these are two-week workshops on making comics which will be going on in Hopkinsville, Kentucky during the K.I.C.C.S. program, a summer class series aiding in developing skills needed for kids to pursue higher education; the other is an internship in which I’ll be assisting Nolan Woodard with his Intro to Sequential Art class for SCAD.

Hunter Clark, Justin Wagner, Liz, and I went Thursday night to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It was a lot of fun. Sure, there were a few plot points that could’ve been stronger, but I liked it a great deal more than the second film. I approached this one differently, though – it’s not a pirate movie, exactly, it’s a pirate/fantasy movie. Taken as such, it was really enjoyable. The musical score had improved considerably, as well.

In doing research for Crogan’s Vengeance, I’ve been reading as much swashbuckling literature as possible, and have come to a remarkable and troubling discovery. Although I’ve read the few Rafael Sabatini novels available (some from libraries, some from bookstores – most are out of print), and have lamented their fading from the public conciousness (‘cause they’re SO GOOD), I (by a stroke of pure luck) came across the name of Jeffrey Farnol, another 1920s historic adventure novelist whose work is likewise inspiring. And you know what? Not ONE of Farnol’s books are in print in the U.S.!

I know that Swashbuckling fell out of favor in the 1950s, and that character-driven fare became the ideal, but that doesn’t mean that the extraordinary work done by these and countless other authors should be left to fade away. It’s terrific writing! Great stories! Granted, one can still find copies on eBay, but these should be in print. It scares me to think that such great work can be so easily forgotten and ignored. It’s far better than what I’m currently capable of; how does that bode for the perenniality of my stuff?

Hello Editors (and goodbye, old friend)

Page 8 of "Leash."

Well! What a weekend. It was editor's day at SCAD-Savannah, and so Hunter Clark, Justin Wagner, and I all went up to Savannah on Thursday. We got there a little bit late -- there was a panel discussion (the usual sorts of questions: how do I break into the comic business, etc), and we got there close to the end. After it was over James Lucas Jones came over to chat with me and Hunter for a little while, and I finally met Dove McHargue, a Savannah professor who shares my affinity for pirates, the Brandywine illustrators, Alex Toth, and Disney. Everybody's been telling me to meet him for a while now, and now that I have I can tell you that he couldn't be a nicer guy. He publishes a nautically-themed anthology comic called Cannon, which I'd like to contribute to eventually.

Speaking of anthologies, I'm full to the brim. I finally found a comic idea that I'm happy with for the Indie Spinner Rack Anthology, and wrote a rough draft of it. I'll be refining it over the next week or so, and then getting to work with the drawing of it. I've also started plotting my submission to the next SCAD book (the "best" gets a $12,000 scholarship, courtesy of the Cartoonist Society of America), and I haven't even started on my Fluke submission! It's going to be an EXTREMELY busy few weeks.

Anyway, back to Thursday. We went to dinner with Shawn Crystal, a colorist named Lee (he does lots of stuff), a writer named Daniel (he does Ghost Rider, I think), and another guy named John - not sure what he does. But they're all really nice guys, and a lot of fun to be around. Lee kept us all in stitches.

We met the editors at a really nice bar for drinks afterwards. It's the sort of place you want (or at least I want) in a bar - lots of wood, a back boothed area, a barman with a large moustache and an apron, etc. I spent most of the time talking to James and Daniel, and we turned in around 1:30 or 2.

The next day we had breakfast with everybody - James, Shawn, Chris Staros, Chris Duffy, Axel Alonso, probably a couple of others -- that early it's tough to remember. For my portfolio review at school I met with Chris Duffy, who is the comics editor at the incredibly indie-comic friendly Nickelodeon Magazine. He was a really nice guy, and very encouraging. I'll be sending some stuff their way as soon as I get this anthology stuff settled.

That afternoon Hunter, Justin and I met up with two of Hunter's friends, Johnny Timmons and Danika, for Pizza at Vinnie Van Go-Gos. After that we went back to the same bar to basically reenact the pervious evening's entertainment, only with a lot more people (this time there were a number of Savannah Professors and grad students). Again, I spent the majority of the night talking with James, as well as quite a few of the Savannah kids. I also met Mike O'Sullivan, who is the editor at Devil's Due and is a SCAD graduate (Justin calls them "SCADuates") himself. He was probably the smiliest guy in the whole place, though he was only there briefly. Chris Duffy never showed up; the next morning he told us he couldn't find his way back to the place.

James, Hunter, Justin and I walked back to the hotel around 2:30 or so, after the bar closed up and bumped us out. The next morning we slept in (til 8:00!) and moseyed down to breakfast, where we ate with Duffy who passed on a lot of Nick magazines for us to paw through. Shawn's wife and kids ate with us, too.

At the end of breakfast, Shawn and his family took off, Justin left to give Duffy and Will Dennis a ride to the airport. Hunter and I stayed to talk out some stuff with James, and when Justin got back we took off for Atlanta.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I didn't have to pay much for drinks (James, a true king of generosity, bought most of them), the weather was nice, the food was good, the company was top-notch... all in all, I couldn't ask for a better, more productive weekend.

A sad note, though - Boomer, our family dog who I got as a Christmas present in 1993, passed away on Saturday. He was the sweetest, nicest, most lovable dog around. He smelled like the river, which wasn't great, but he smiled a lot and was as loyal and friendly as can be. He was ALWAYS carrying around and chewing on large (football-sized) rocks and leaving them in the driveway. After walking from the house to the office with my dad, he went behind the building and lay down for the last time. When they went to find him a little later, he had passed away, a giant rock in his mouth. He was buried with it.



I'll miss him a LOT, but he was very old and I'm grateful that he didn't ever suffer the maladies that affect so many old dogs. He died as happy as any other day of his life, and our family will be truly smaller without him.



Giovanni Potatoe may have found a publisher, which is good news, because I'm out of review copies.

In Savannah

Page 7 of "Leash."

Hunter Clark, Justin Wagner, and I drove down to Savannah yesterday for SCAD's editor's day. We spent most of the evening at a really swanky bar, and had a great time. I got to chat with my publisher, meet some new people, see some old ones, and all in all it was a great time.

I did this sketch of Liz before I left Atlanta:

One-twelfth in!

Page 6 of "Leash."

It may not sound like a big step, but I'm excited - I am 100% finished with the first 12 pages of the 144-page graphic novel that I'm working on. It took a week. If I can keep up this schedule, I'll be done in 3 months, 4-5 if you factor in revisions and tweaks. It may take much longer than that, but once I get a stride I can usually keep it going.

In studio last Wednesday I drew a picture of Hunter, so here it is:


I'm going to be teaching two classes this summer, and assitant teaching a SCAD class. The two on my own are workshop programs that a private school in Tennessee is hosting, on teaching comics. One will be 9-13 year-olds, the other 13 and up. The SCAD class is Introduction to Sequential Art. I'm very excited about both. Alec Longstreth was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to call me with tips and project ideas that he's found to work with kids from his classes with Aaron Renier. There's no way to express how helpful the call was, and I'm sure that it'll make a BIG difference in terms of how much the kids get out of it.