Sketchy is as Sketchy Does

Something crapped out for 4chan. And I'm still not used to this "coloring line" business. It does look much better in thumbnail size though.

Shameless Plug #11

An unexpected package landed on my doorstep and found that it contained some comp copies of World of Warcraft Book 1.

It's a compilation of the first seven issues, in which I did some inking on issues 5 and 7. Better yet, it's a hardcover with one of those matte finish cover jackets (yeah, the ones that scratch easily :P). Inside extras is an interview with Walt Simonson and Ludo Lullabi, and a short Prologue. Neat!

PS: Wonder if there will be a softcover too? Royalties anyone? :P

Fallcon Comes and Goes

The last con of the season for me, Fallcon has come and gone. A two hour trip up to Madison, then Jeff drives the rest of the way for 4 more up to Minneapolis. Along the way we took a little stop at a "scenic" rest stop off of I-94 near Black River Falls. It has a lookout view of forested area which would probably look spectacular when the leaves change. Unfortunately we were too early for that.

The guys that put together Fallcon are great, and I can't thank them enough for inviting us. Not only did they treat us to a steak barbecue again, but one of the organizers, Mike got married to his girlfriend Lisa with all his friends, relatives, and convention guests in attendance. It was a short but sweet ceremony, with a few comic-related jokes thrown in to make it memorable. Friends Cory and Amy Carani also came up from Madison for their first Fallcon experience, and we all hung out in Artist Alley like old times. Shoulda taken more pics of everything, rats...

Commissions for me were kind of slow this year, probably due to the downturn in the economy, but the ones I got, I enjoyed doing. First was a Rogue piece done for the charity auction there. Being the first, I had a hard time getting things to look the way I wanted, I must have redrawn the face like 15 times. So out of practice. I also got to draw a Playboy Bunny (which reminds me I have to make my all Bunny superheroine sketchbook) and Betty Rubble in my own style, I always like the challenge. Since I didn't have that many new commissions to do, I had time to Make Some Magic For Johnny, and finish up his piece that's been laying around since San Diego. Now I just have to mail the darn thing.

After the convention and before hitting the road, we went to Outback and had dinner with a bunch of the local creators and some of the other out-of-town guests. I sat next to Gordon Purcell and Dwayne McDuffie and had discussions about JLA, the ol' days at Marvel and DC, Ed Benes, and Star Trek. Total geek stuff and a great time, of course 2 for 1 Happy Hour helps too. :) After that Jeff drove back down to Madison (with our Tasty Pies from Baker's Square) and I did a redeye drive back home just because I love avoiding traffic. I got back round 2:30am and went to bed round 4ish.

Totally blowing through the day recovering, watching an ineffectual Congress trying to skewer the CEO of Leman Bros., having pie for breakfast, immediatly followed by lasana for lunch, and the obligatory food coma, I got a call from Sarah at Wildstorm for some more WoW work. It must be the book that will not die, because I got to do the inks for the Cover (squee!) over Ludo Lullabi (squee!) with some Busty Woman front and center (Squee Squee!) So Issue 12 will have 9 pages of inks and the cover done by me. Nice work when you can get it. :)

Back to Sketchin'

*Sigh* Where does the time go? Looks like it's been just about a month since I've drawn anything in my sketchbook, and it freakin' shows!!! :( Here's a couple pages of "Bleh" and "Big Ol' Darn Heads.

WoW Inking

First page is done for some more emergency WoW Comic work. This one's for Issue 12 and not as dire (but still pretty, considering printing times) as my first work on issue 5. Ludo Lullabi, the original penciller has moved on to another WoW project and Jon Buran has taken over. I'm not sure how they keep getting behind on the book, but I know from experience that approvals for licensed properties can sometimes be a real PITA. I'm not complaining though, keeps things interesting. :)

4 more pages to go, getting in the way of my Rock Band 2 progress... "...tangellled up in bluuuuue...." :P

Shameless Plug #9 &10

Another couple of Cartoon Network stories came out. CN Block Party #48 has a Powerpuff Girls 4-Pager entitled "Too Close for Comfort," written by John Rozum. And CN Action Pack #29 has the 6 Page "Samurai Mack" story written by Jim Alexander.

Legion End

Well, LSH #20 pencils are finally done. The last page has a little anniversary blurb at the bottom and was scripted to fit as many Legionnaires in there as I could. I was thinking of doing members from all the eras, but time and some laziness got in the way of doing all that research. So you're stuck with the animated style for the end. :P It was some fun stuff to draw, but I still can't keep a schedule for a regular book. Mehbeh some miniseries or oneshots? ;)

Now it's on to inking the Samurai Jack pencils I've had lying around for a few weeks.

Olympic Memories

Okay, the Olympics have come and gone. A brilliant Opening ceremony, watched Phelps win and win again, watched Alicia blow it for the US team feeling sorry for herself, some nice volleyball, beach and indoor, and watched Shawn get her Gold on Beam. More lurking on 4chan, but I just had to caption this pic when I saw it. Censored for kiddies.

I'm hoping sometime NBC or some other company will release the Opening ceremony in it's entirety. Maybe with an option to cut out the commentary too.

Legion Half Full

Legion continues on, getting through it as fast as I can while juggling 2 other assignments. Feast or Famine as they say, and for some reason all the jobs come in at the same time that I had to turn down 3 other jobs.

Page 10 was fun cause I got to do all sorts of styles. A bit of a challenge, and a bit of tracing too. It's nice to flex the art muscles once in a while. Don't ask me what's going on in the page... I just try to draw purty piktures.

Shameless Plug #8

Super Friends #5

Another issue based on the Mattel toy line. Big torsos! Tiny Beefy Legs! This one has everyone turning into simians of some sort or another. I was supposed to ink the full issue, but I had some other work to do and unfortunately had to give the other half away. Mike DeCarlo did a fabulous job on the other half.

Buy it... you know, for kids. :P

Legion Page One, Take 2

Okay, I admit that the first try at Page One was kinda bugging me throughout the weekend, and apparently my editor thought it was crap too. :P

So here's another stab at it, also including headshots for Roll Call, since apparently a lot of the time in stories, writers don't always say who is who in the context of the story. The little joke with Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad was an added touch by the writer of the story.

More prominent sexy Dream Girl works for me, too bad I'm not inking myself on this to guarantee I get the page back. :(

Legion Page One

Nuff said.

Well, maybe not all said. I didn't have a ref for Dream Girl from any other angle than her right side, so I had to extrapolate. I was thinking of fitting the traditional heads for Roll Call in, but didn't think I had the room.

I'll be interesting if I can get the style down. I just noticed all the girls' forearms are thicker than their upper arms. Weird.

Back Ta Work, You!

Yup, back from SDCC. It was a blast, still getting too big IMO. I'll see if I can post some pics up to Photobucket or something when I find a bit more time. We saw the Star Trek Exhibition at the San Diego Air and Space Museum, it was geeky fun. Got a really good pic out of it (Thanks Kathleen!).

So the first half of the week was me recovering from the con, and I was finally able to get the rest of the Samurai Jack story pencilled up (2 pages included). I did the page layouts first then finished it off, which seemed to go faster. I might have to try that on the LSH story too. But I couldn't resist pencilling up the title right away for the first page. It's Dream Girl, so it's gotta be Sex-say! ;-) Enjoy!

Gittin' Bizzzay!

Just finished the little thumbnails for the Samurai Jack 4pager. A lot of action, a lot of cutting of robots that I gotta say I pretty much cheated on by not showing the whole thing. Then again, Jack is supposed to be hidden till Page 4. Revel in it's scribbly glory!

The kid, who's the narrator of this tale I was thinking of making some sort of fishboy, but I'm not sure if that's really going to work. Plus, I'd have to make everyone fishpeople then. Maybe I'll make em catpeople, that'll get me in with the Furries...uh, wait. Scratch that...

Artist Alley San Diego

San Diego has us listed in the Artist Alley at EE08 and EE09, which in the picture should be about where the red box is, I think. The PDF I took it from wasn't too clear. Cya there!

I'm currently mulling over the LSH ref pack I got for the issue I'm penciling. It looks like they changed the designs abit from the first season, so I'm not sure what we're using.

Queue "Doomsday Machine" Music

Yes, Doomsday is approaching. That pesky lil' con called SDCC, and I continue to get stuff ready for it. I put a batch of last year's Sketchbook (The Good, The Bod, and the Undies) together; just have to cut the ends off. I'll probably do another batch tomorrow.

I did finally get around to the last take-home sketch from last SDCC. Bubbles racing the Roadrunner. Sometimes I get annoyed that I just don't have the right shade of color I'm looking for, so I have to wing it and try out different things to kinda make it work. But it's done and I can get on to other things.

I'm definitely not going to get anything new done for the con. I currently have 2 stories on my desk to do: 1) a Samurai Jack 4 pager, and 2) a Legion of Super Heroes (cartoon version) issue to pencil. Yes! That's right doin' some LSH. :p Since I haven't really watched the show, it'll be interesting to see if I can turn it around in the time Harvey wants. I'm expecting some comics and reference this afternoon. All of this is due in mid-August. O_O

Prep for San Diego

Well, San Diego Comic Con is coming up fast. Not sure what I'm going to be able to get done that's new for the con. A sketchbook is out of the question, so last year's will have to do. I'm thinking of bringing out alot more original art and cutting back on the comics. We'll see...

I'm actually catching up on some "take home" sketches from last SDCC. One is of a girl named Louise from Zero no Tsukaima, kind of like a Ah! My Goddess meets Harry Potter. I've never seen the show, but I was given a pic to essentially copy, just taking off her shoe and putting in the windows. Below you can see the inks and then the colors. Hopefully I can get the other late sketch done then on to maybe a new PPG print... Again, all up in the air.

Sam Jack!

Now that I got the stuff that's come out done, here's a page for an upcoming Samurai Jack story to be appearing in some CN comic, sometime. (I'll try to nail the issue and date down).

The story is called Samurai Mack, written by Jim Alexander, and it's 6 pages. Jack is rescued from a frozen death and meets a couple of scientists with a Jack of their own!

Shameless Plug #3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Okay, it's also been a while since I've updated what's been published. I helped out with inking duties on World of Warcraft #5 (5 pages), and #7 (9 pages) over penciller Ludo Lullabi. Nice stuff, tight, but a little sparse, 'cept when he does backgrounds, then there's some gorgeous scenery to work on. Hopefully you won't be able to tell the difference between my work and what Sandra Hope did. :P I am actually credited for inks in WoW #6 but I didn't do anything in that issue. My apologies to the other inker.

More on the kiddie book side, Super Friends #3 is finally out with full issue inks. CN Block Party #45 has a PPG 4 pager (pencils and inks) that was supposed to have another 4 pager following that, but I was way late on the second story (sorry Rachel). Still both stories turned out well, and it's always nice to go back to the Girls once in a while.

An even more recent release (Last Week!! 0_0) is #1 of Myth-Told Tales. It's based on the book series by Robert Aspirin and inspired by the comics drawn by Phil Foglio. The artwork tends to be a bit looser than what I normally do, I was in the mood to break away from my french curves, ruler, and circle templates and do some freehand work. My friend Scott Beaderstadt (Trollords) helped me with page layout chores of which I say, "Thanks!"

Way Late Post Acen Report

Acen was way back in May, so things are a bit fuzzy now, but it was a great time as usual, thanks to the fine people that run Anime Central. Did some sketching as you can see above, alot more naughty sketches than normal, don't know how much of that I can take. :P The most interesting one for me was the Creature from the Black Lagoon commission, I normally don't draw monsters so it was a good challenge. The others are assorted CoH characters, and some naughty pics of Rune Soldier Louie, Gold Digger, and Soul Calibur 3. Naughty Pics somewhat censored, sorry.

This year the con also had a lot more Japanese artists that I've seen in previous years of late. Kenichi Sonoda made a return visit to Chicago, but he was kinda under the weather the first couple days. Also showing up was Susumu Sakurai, a former producer for the translated Raijin Manga Anthology, and big Powerpuff Girl fan. He was instrumental in flying me out to Anime Expo Tokyo back in 2004. Sakurai, and Hiroshi Tada (I think it was), an associate editor at Afternoon (a monthly manga anthology) bought a few PPG and other original pages from me as mementos. Jeff was lucky enough to trade sketches with Mamoru Yokota, an extraordinary artist who just sketches out pretty much anything he wants to without laying it out first. He also sat down and folded up some paper, then cut little sections out of them, unfolded it to reveal a Gundam head. Craaazy!
Mamoru also works in the hentai (adult) game industry, an inspiration to be sure ;p. To twist the knife even more, Jeff got a Yoko (Gurren Lagaan) sketch in trade, one the latests anime series I've enjoyed. Lucky guy!

After the con was over, I was invited to join some of the Japanese guests (no Sonoda) for dinner at the Rosemont Hooters, where they proceeded to eat Mass Quantities(!), sampling wings, oysters, and hamburgers. It was really a lot of food. I humbly nibbled on my chicken breast sandwich... Before we left, they got alot of photos with the waitresses and hostesses (really cute), which I thought they normally didn't allow, but you know, those wacky Japanese tourists get away with anything. ;p

We then returned to the hotel for the Dead Dog Party, a get together for the staff to unwind and get toasty. Mamoru did a bucketload of sketches that ppl just grabbed up, and even I was pressed into service, doing some PPG sketches for some of the staff and the Japanese guests. One I did for Hiroshi Tada, said was going up in the lobby of Kodansha. I hope it turned out okay, because I was kinda tipsy at the time when I did it.

So all in all, a really great time. Many thanks to Mike for inviting us. Great seeing Taka and his ukulele again. I'd have more pics of this con, Hooters and the Dead Dog Party, but I found out that my camera didn't work anymore right before the show.

Why? #1

Why do the loaves of bread I buy always have that one extra slice so I can't make that last sandwich to finish it off? Why??

Fallcon Sketch Cards

Long Time no See! Yes, yes, I've been laxative in my duties updating even a simple blog, but here goes. I've been working on some semi secret projects of late, one of which I hope I can start posting on. Other than that, playing around too much with those pesky MMORPGs.

First up is a set of Sketch Cards done for the Midwest Comic Book Association to celebrate their 20th Anniversary. The MCBA runs the fabulous Fallcon up in Minneapolis, MN. They treat their guests well and I'm happy to do the little bit of extra work for them with these cards.

Colors came out of the scanner fine, except with some weird redish tint coming from the black Copic marker I used. The other exception is Blossom's orange hair and pink tones that got muddled. They're pretty much done now, though I don't know if I want to run out and grab a Glitter Pen to add a little Sparkle (heh, a pun :P).

Shameless Plug #2

Gen 13 issue 19 came out last week. In it you'll find 8 pages pencilled by Kevin West and inked by me, including some nice cheesecake. Unfortunately poor word balloon placement covers up some of it--pesky dialogue... :-/

That's the cover on the right. I had nothing to do with it.

Planet Comicon Day 2

Two more pics that were done for the second day of Planet Comicon. I did get a 3rd one done, but Jeff has it on his camera and still has to send it to me. Left is Light Lass from the new Legion of Superheroes book, and on the right is that Lone Wolf and Cub guy (still can't remember his name).

A fun and profitable trip, as every year, Thank you Chris Jackson and Sidne Ward for having us out again. I'm currently inking some hush-hush stuff for Wildstorm, badging in my game I play, and waiting next week for hopefully some more inking work over Super Friends. I still have to finish off my Bleach print, I'll figure it somewhere in there... :P

There is a bit of talk about heading out to Heroes Con in Charlotte NC, and possibly Baltimore Con. I'll post if it becomes definite. Baltimore is nice since it's more comic/artist centric. Good place to get alot of nice sketches by big named artists.

Planet Comicon, Kansas City

Here's the day's (and night's) haul from today's event. Lotsa fun, sometimes fustrating, had to erase faces many times to get them the way I like. But all n' all, not a bad batch. Top Tier: Shadowwing (Original Character), Shadowcat (done by Jeff) and Majik in a twofer (no twosome, aww. :( ), and Neriel, a character from the new arc in Bleach.

After the con, Jeff and I played in a charity Hold'em event. I was the first LOSER out of all 3 tables (yay me!). But I was followed close behind by Phil Hester, I guess it luck wasn't on the side for anyone named "Phil." At least Beer and Food wuz to be had... :P

Back at the hotel, we got some work done down in the lobby doing a sketch night thing, jawjaggin' with Angel Medina and Sidne Ward for a spell. Two more sketches were done: Spoiler as Robin, and Black Widow; leaving me with one sketch left to do tommorow. Fun time, now bedtime. G'night!