Announcing AWESOME TALES!

I know I’ve alluded to “Project BOOM!”, my  upcoming superhero-style story, so here’s an announcement;

I’m working on a POD (print on demand) comic book, an anthology of stories written and drawn by me called “AWESOME TALES!”

This will hopefully be issue 1 of many, with one main story as well as backup one-pagers and strips, all by me. Among other things this will be the place to find the adventures of my latest creation, the superhero Horizon the Amazing Man!

This is kind of a huge thing for me. I’ve never done superhero comics before (outside of my sketchbooks), and I’ve never done anything like a non-webcomic comic before. It won’t be available online at all, so if you wanna get it, you’ll have to order it from the service(s) for POD books I’ll have it on.

Anyway, here’s a sketch;

And here are some rough pencils of some pages! The lettering’s not final, but I wrote this in the “classic” Marvel-style (art and wording combined as I went along)

Anyway, the backups are about 95% selected and done, the book’s in order, and the cover is 95% done as well, with the rest to be done digitally. I’m about to finish the last little backup thing, and will then being moving onto lettering and inks on the main story.

I’m stoked on AWESOME TALES! and I hope you guys will be too, when I have more to show I’ll post something.

Comics 2012 or bust.

Facial Expression Studies

One of the things I worked on during my winter “break” was on doing better faces and heads, and I’m hoping that this reflects soon in my work. It’s amazing what bending the line in a shape can do when forming a face and adding a few simple fine lines can add so much expression.

Preorder for the TEAM CUL DE SAC book up now!

Hey everyone!

The pre-order information for the Team Cul De Sac book is up now for you to donate your hard-earned money to and get! Just head on over right here at the Sparking Design site (Chris Sparks’ personal Internet empire), and click away!

The book is scheduled for release in June, I’ll be sure to let you know more as I find out!

Inking

Ty Templeton and Sean Murphy both recently posted blogs about inking, which got me thinking about it. Also, “Project BOOM!” is about to roll into the last few bits before I move into inking the whole thing, though I’ve already started inking the cover. Anyway…

I love inking. It’s arguably the most frustrating and time-consuming part of the process (actually, I take that back because I hand-letter and hand-lettering is really goddamn time-consuming), but at the same time it’s so incredibly rewarding to see a page transform to life when I start inking over my own pencils. A lot of the time, the pencils can be so sparse, that inks make the comic page almost entirely different.

Inking also is a great place for me to experiment when it comes to making my own comics, doing brush-only inks or pen-only, trying out Sharpies for huge swaths of black compared to India ink instead. It’s an art that can dramatically shift the way a page looks from inker to inker, and an artform unto itself that is just as legitimate as something like pencils.

I’m not begrudging, mind you, people who work digitally and basically end up doing the “inks” as they do the “pencils” at the same time, drawing through a tablet like a Wacom, or even someone who uses software like Photoshop to enhance and digitally alter the analog-drawn pencils to look like they’ve literally become the inked version. Everyone does everything differently, and every single approach is just as valid.

Except the way that Twilight comic got lettered. That shit is just fucked.

I’d like to think that inking will remain a skill that people in comics will continue to hone and use and not totally let die. I know hand-lettering’s not totally dying, and I take some small comfort in the fact that my lack of knowledge in tech-savvy versions of certain cartooning skills (digital inking and lettering and post-production) has made me appreciate old-fashioned skills associated with comics.

Sorry, I’m rambling, time to get back to writing and drawing things.

The Year Ahead

Stoked to be back hitting the ground running so to speak.

• THE DOOM ON THE MOORS from me and Stephen Garza is coming along nicely, and is hopefully going to end up being the first chapter of a much larger thing, something I’ve always loved. They always say to do what you love, right? I’m excited about what’s turning into the very exciting adventures of…ahh, almost spoiled it didn’t I??
• OVERWHELMED returns next week, I’m hoping to keep the ball rolling with that weekly, every Tuesday.
• Project: BOOM! is moving along slowly but steadily. I’ve written and drawn about 1/3 of it, and I’m hoping to move onto inks and lettering next week. I will say that it’s not a webcomic, and that I nailed down the cover design before my “Christmas vacation” last month.
• Some non-comic/nonfiction writing is in the works too, I just posted a new interview up at my interview-oriented cartoonist blog Eat The Funny Pages. I’m slowly working on an essay or two for my “academia of comics” blog The Comic Book As The Ideal In Storytelling as well, and trying to rack up some non-comic freelance work on the side. Plus I’m teaching my research & writing class as well.
• Also, don’t forget I still have POD books and original art for sale, commission slots, and am totally free for some writing or drawing if you need any of it, though I have to limit work for others to stuff-for-pay right now, since I do enough for free on my own.

Anyway, I hope you all had a good holidays. I did, and now I’m stoked to get 2012 going.

peace out 2011, see you in 2012

Last blog post of 2011, gonna be on an Internet “hiatus” from the blog until next year when comics and writings come back. I’ll still be on Twitter, but that’s probably it.

So it’s been an…interesting…year. It’s probably been my busiest and  most creative, and right now I have a ton of irons in the fire that could turn out really amazing. I’ve been teaching like gangbusters, drinking a lot of coffee, writing whenever I get a minute, I got a dog, and drawing every chance I get.

Here’s hoping that 2012 has more of the same.

Doom Doom DOOM!

Some days, you come home from work and find pages in your email inbox from a horror short you wrote that’s coming along like gangbusters.

The Doom on the Moors is a short horror comic written by myself, and drawn and lettered by the indomitably talented Stephen Garza. Super-stoked at the way that everything Stephen has designed everyone and everything in the story, I feel very lucky he agreed to work on this comic.

I don’t have a release date yet, but it’ll be a web-presence comic (what the kids call a “webcomic”), free for your enjoyment. I’ll be giving you some more information about the comic as soon as I can, but until then, clicking below gives you a little pencils preview. Check it out, and stay tuned.

starting something up…

Why, whatever could this be?

Could this possibly one of the more ambitious things I’ve started these days? Quite possibly…I’m starting a 20-or-so page comic that’s heavy on the “things I’ve never really done before” elements. It’s scary and exciting.

I’m about 10 pages into stage 1. It’s referred to in my notes as “Project BOOM,” because…haha! I’m not telling! I don’t know how it’s going to appear, and in terms of showing off some more I can’t really do that now because I’m having issues with my scanner, but like I said I’m incredibly excited about this. I’m toying with the idea of this comic being a print-exclusive POD with backup comics and some pinups, but I’m not entirely sure. Either way we’ll see.

This particular project feels like something I’ve thought about for a while when it comes to comics, especially when I occasionally compare my earlier work to my current work. You always have to not only work for yourself (create what you want, not what you think will be popular), but you also have to try to push yourself. If I didn’t try to experiment and push myself, I don’t think I’d really consider myself a REAL cartoonist.

Or maybe I’m just talking out my ass. Well, regardless keep checking back about this, Twitter is, as always, the best way to keep up on my stuff.

sketchbook bonanza 2011 pt. one million

Just a few cellphone snaps of some recent pages out of my sketchbook that I’m really proud of, putting a bit more work into them with pencils and then pens & marker. Usually I just go straight to the paper with a pen.

I hope you guys and gals had a great Thanksgiving, and that the winter holiday season ends up being a great one for you.

In semi-related news, OVERWHELMED is still coming along nicely. This past Tuesday’s strip was the last of 2011 and we’ll be starting back up in January 2012. My comic with Stephen Garza‘s slowly but surely coming along as well, and I have a few other comic projects brewing.

Stay posi and stay warm, boyos and girlies.

more digital lettering experiments

Happy post-Thanksgiving! Hope your holiday season start was a good one!

Here’s THE WALL, another one-page comic I did a while back, that I went back and did some digital lettering to replace the physical hand-lettering I originally did for the comic.

I feel like I might manage to get into the swing of digital lettering, though in the end doing hand-lettering will always be my favorite. Anyway, check it out;

I know it doesn’t look that awesome since the word balloon itself is still hand-drawn and uneven, but I still think that it’s not that bad. I just like teaching myself new cartooning skills and learning new ways to make comics. The way I see it also, if you’re not constantly trying to challenge yourself (even in small ways) as you make comics, then you’re not comic-ing to your full potential.

I’m hoping to have some stuff to show soon, so stay tuned!