I've got a new book coming out in just a few weeks! Issue 6 of the Actionverse miniseries is on its way and is the wrap up for a wonderful crossover starring Jamal Igle's Molly Danger, Stray by Vito Delsante and Sean Izaakse, Midnight Tiger by Ray-Anthony Height, Virtue from Fracture by Shawn Gabborin and Chad Cicconi, and First Hero from Anthony Ruttgaizer. It was a fun story to work on and I'm glad I got the opportunity. Here's a look at the cover:

 It's in stores on May 18th!

Painting

I've been wanting to paint again for a long time. It's been, well, an embarrassingly long time since I was able to work on a canvas. Years ago my good friend Sunny had posed for me for a series of paintings I had wanted to start, but never got the chance to because my comic work had really picked up.

My schedule opened up a little recently and I decided that now would be a good time to start painting again. I've been working on comics during the day and painting at night. This is Acrylic on Masonite. I wanted to take some baby steps because so much time had passed from my last time slinging paint, and this piece taught me a ton. I can't wait to do more.

A couple of months ago I started a drawing intended as part of an inking lesson for my students. I started the drawing a little too late in the week to have it ready for Sunday's class so, I left it home and re-created the drawing in class and inked it on the spot. The idea with the drawing was to handle it three different ways and then ink it three different ways. The first would be very loose pencils, the second would be very tight pencils, and the third would be in the middle. One drawing would be inked with brush, one with crow-quill, and the third would be a mixture of the two. That at least was the idea. The drawing sat on my board for a period of time as I had other work that required my attention. when a gap opened up I decided to finish the drawing, but just as a single panel. I'd then ink the drawing for my own practice. For a long time I've felt my inks weren't quite up to where I wanted them and this would be a good chance to test myself and see if I could push my abilities a bit further then where they were. Here's the results of this test:

As a drawing I was extremely happy with the composition, figures, lettering, and the inking. Taking my time with this drawing really paid off in the level of quality that I perceive in my work. As I was drawing this I came up with an idea to continue the story of this panel to an entire page. The execution of that page would be handled the same way, with an eye towards maintaining a level of quality. Here are the results of that:

I am quite pleased with the results of this page as well. The composition of each panel is well executed, as well as the composition of the overall page. The level of quality and consistency stays equal throughout, which I am also very pleased with, especially on the last panel, 3/4 of which was completely re-drawn after a good call by my wife who mentioned that something was off with the panel. As I was finishing this page up, an idea for  a short story based around this page came into my head. I'll be working on that and posting pages when they are completed.

A million and a half years ago, when the internet was a young thing barely into its adolescence, I did a web-comic that I would post to my live journal, titled very appropriately, Stumped. Stumped was me having fun with doing single funny (at least to me they were funny, the jury never came back on whether or not they were funny to anyone else) comic strips. It was me learning how to tell a joke using my favorite medium, and on occasion I told them fairly well. I did a grand total of 6 Stumped comic strips, a lofty number back then and I had always planned to go back and do more of them as they were some of the most fun I've had putting pencil to paper and stylus to tablet. Life got in the way of me making any more Stumped comics, at least on a regular basis. My career of comic book artist went from speculative to actual and the free time with which I had in abundance suddenly vanished as I now had people paying me to do what I used to do to get out of doing any real work. 

Skip forward to the current day and age. The internet has left adolescence far behind. Live journal is still there, but the blog has, well, I don't have to tell you do I? In fact if you are still reading this I am completely surprised and flattered. Not so much because it is dull, but because it is far more than 140 characters. As for me, I'm married and careered, and still under deadline and spend a lot of time thinking about that funny strip that I used to do and how much I enjoyed it. This week I was low. I couldn't get my head unscrewed from my rectum and just needed something to make me laugh.  Leafing through an old sketchbook, I came across a page that had eight panels sketched out and found myself giggling. I put the deadlines aside just for a little while and spent time drawing for myself.  I humbly present the results here.

I of course showed it to my wife.  She is a PhD candidate and much smarter than I am, and in her wisdom said I should do more of these. And you know what, that feels right. Like I said she is much smarter than I am.  So expect this to be the first of what is hopefully many more attempts at me being funny, and if you have to blame someone, blame my wife. I'm not guaranteeing any kind of schedule, but I am going to do more of them.  Welcome to Stumped.

 

Web Comic Wednesdays

First off, some of you may have noticed that Tutorial Tuesday did not happen.  That is because yesterday’s workflow got a bit ahead of me.  I’m in the middle of preparing the whole post and should have it up by end of day today, so today becomes a two-fer. 

Onto the real business of today.  It’s Wednesday, which means new web comics!  I went back and forth about what I should talk about today.  I like a lot of different web comics and have spoken about some of them before.  To that end to keep it frosty I’ll be talking about web comics that I haven’t mentioned before. 

First up is Kate Beaton and Hark! A Vagrant.  Kate is a Historian who took her love of history and a whip smart sense of humor and started doing web strips.  The strips have gotten so popular that Drawn and Quarterly put out a collection of them.  Check out the funny here:

                                     Hark! A Vagrant 

 

Next up we’ve got Cleopatra In Spaaaace! by Mike Maihack.  This fun ongoing series is about a teenaged Cleopatra VII who is transported to the future from her home time of 52 BC, and is the center figure of a centuries long war. 

                                 Cleopatra In Spaaaace!

Series creator Mike Maihack has worked on such books as Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, Cow Boy and Comic Book Tattoo.

 

Finally for today we have My Sister The Freak by Dani Jones.  Dani has made a niche for herself working in all ages and children’s publishing and now is turning her fun style to web comics.  My sister the freak is about two sisters who are learning to deal with life and the ups and downs of family.  Did I mention the alien monsters?  Volume 1 is available to read and Dani is currently working on volume 2.

                                 My Sister The Freak

 

And that wraps up this week’s Web Comic Wednesday!  Tune in later today for the postponed Tutorial Tuesday, which is all about inking!  remember if you know a web comic I should be reading, or have a web comic of your own, tell me about it by leaving a comment in the comments section!  Until next time, keep it weird!

Sketch Monday

                                                 

                                I love drawing fish men.  This handsome devil is for a project I'm working on with my buddy Dave.  The tendency when drawing fish men now is to begin to move towards what Guillermo Del Toro did with Abe Sapien.  I mean it is hard not to.  Abe is a great design.  I immediately wanted to do something that moved the design away from that a bit and into something different.  Ray Harryhausen the greatest of all monster makers said if you can draw the creature in repose and make it look believable then you've got a good monster.  With that in mind, I moved the fish man into a seated pose, and saw that what I'm really going for is a more amphibian look.  This totally had an effect on the overall design.  Can't wait to do more on this.  

Check back here next Monday for more sketch goodness, and tune in tomorrow for Tutorial Tuesday!

Web Comics Wednesday

Wednesday is traditionally New Comics Day.  That day where you would run to the comic shop after school, work or during your lunch break and pick up your stuff.  The issues that you had been waiting whole months for.  That used to give me shivers.  Now, I can't make it to the store every Wednesday.  I live in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, and while there is a shop within a reasonable distance of my apartment, work has a tendency to keep me strapped to the drawing board.  When I do get to the shop I notice that my once very large stack of comics has dropped to maybe 2 single issues and more often than not a trade or Original Graphic Novel, kind of like this one:

                                               The Battle Of Blood And Ink
It's a shameless plug, I know :)  But nonetheless, the trend I'm noticing is that I'm picking up less and less single issues in stores.  I find myself looking at more and more webcomics. To that end I wanted to share with you some of the webcomics that I've been reading lately.  Every week on Wednesday I will post up 3 brand new webcomics links that I have been reading.  Oh, and if anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to have them!  So let's begin shall we?

The first web comic is Red's Planet, which I found out about through newsarama.  Red's Planet is about a young orphan whom everyone calls Red much to her chagrin, who after running away from her foster home is kidnapped by aliens and stranded on a strange planet in a crashed starship with a motley crew of interstellar flea-market goers finds herself in a worse situation than her foster home. 
                                                                   
                                                         Red's Planet

Red's Planet was created by Eddie Pittman whose previous work was in animation on films like Mulan and Tarzan. 

The second web comic for today is Escape From Planet Nowhere, which I found through the link's page on Red's Planet.  Personally I've found tons of web comics just by clicking through suggested links.  Escape From Planet Nowhere is about a soldier trapped on an Alien Planet just trying to get off world so he can catch the perfect wave.
                                                     
                                            Escape From Planet Nowhere

Escape From Planet Nowhere was created by Otis Farmpton, best known for the graphic novel Oddly Normal.

The third  web comic for today is also by Otis Frampton (a two-fer!) and is called Song Of Xanthia.  It's a fantasy story about a girl named Min who finds a symbol of great power.  Right now the story clocks in at 13 pages with more on the way.

                                                       Song Of Xanthia

And that wraps it up for Webcomic Wednesday!  Be sure to check back next week for more great webcomics, and remember if you have a webcomic or know of one that I should be reading, send it along.  Also , Sketch Monday will be returning next week, as well as a new feature titled What I'm reading Thursdays.  Until then, keep it weird!