Frodo Baggins

From Lord of the Rings, my pal Frodo.

Ol' Supes

More marker stuff. Ol' Supes has really let himself go.

"Cursed" Jack Sparrow.

My daughter Kathy and I were re-watching Pirates of the Caribbean. We love Jack Sparrow. Here's my version of Jack in his "cursed" form.

Jack and the Beanstalk.

One of my favorite stories as a kid. I would love to illustrate a children's book based on this story.

Ani-Mashups

This is an idea I had while I was drawing at the Wizard World convention in Chicago. I want to do a series of mashups involving animated characters and comic-book characters. Here's Popeye and Wolverine: ...and Fred Flintstone and Hellboy.

Be Prepared.

Don't worry, he has a merit badge in mad ninja skills.

What's the story?

Okay, this one started with the old guy on the left. Then I drew the old woman and then the family in the middle. I haven't the slightest clue what is happening in this picture. Maybe you have some ideas?

Election Day 2008

Finally, Election Day is here. Let's get this over with.

Hungry Bear.

Awww...ain't he cute? Quick, grab the tranquilizer gun!

The Pack is Back.

After a grueling by-week the Green Bay Packers are back to face the Titans. Cheeseheads unite!

Look who's back in town.

These are two of my favorite people in the world, my mom and dad. They're visiting with me for a week. This picture was taken when I went up to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving in 2003 (hence the vacation-goatee.) I would expect us to get into some sort of trouble at some point during the visit, maybe even rumble with a rival gang. Don't even THINK about knocking that coffee out of mom's hand. "When you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way..."

Happy Halloween 2008!

A two-fer for today. The first is another marker-colored sketch, the second..well, is not.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Ele-Ape

A couple of animals. A little known fact: While elephants like to wear clothing, apes prefer to go commando. Look it up!

Uncle Ernesto

A majority of the artwork you see on my blog is colored digitally. This old fella is a rare exception that I've actually colored in marker (Crayola, to be exact.) I call him Uncle Ernesto. I have no idea why.

Post a day. I'm not kidding.

I seem to have a backlog of ideas and goofy little pictures that I've done. Now is the time to do something that I've always wanted to try: The Daily Post. I'm going to try posting at least once a day. Let's see how long I can keep this going. Go ahead and give me a hard time if I can't make it one week, I'll deserve it.

Here's the first one:

These guys just escaped a science testing lab. Don't mess with them. Trust me.

You call him "Doctor Jones," doll.

I love this guy. He has a DVD out today. Go get it.

Get ready...

Both chapters 1 and 2 of Black Cat Bone will be up on http://www.indyplanet.com very soon. I learned a lot after the first issue, so when I completed the second one, I really wanted to go back and revise the feel of the first one. I wanted it to be more gritty and atmospheric. It wasn't moody enough.

For example, a panel that used to look like this:

...now looks like this.

I'm much happier with the way it looks now. Stay tuned, because they're coming soon!

Black Cat Bone: Flood Water Rising.

Chapter two of Black Cat Bone. Coming sooner than you think!

I'm never alone.

There are several billion of things like this buzzing around in my brain. I have to let them escape sometimes to make room for new ones.

Spaceman.

I'm working on several things that I can't post just yet, but in the meantime, here's something just for fun.

Page 71: Best page in the book.

I just got my copy of Facial Expressions Babies to Teens by Mark Simon. Besides being an excellent resource for artists, it also includes artwork done by some amazing and talented artists including a caricature done by yours truly. Stop by Amazon.com and get your copy today! http://www.amazon.com/Facial-Expressions-Babies-Teens-Reference/dp/0823096157

Here's a color version of my artwork that's featured in the book:

Thank you to Mark Simon for the inclusion. I am deeply honored.

One of the boys.

Based on a conversation I heard the other day.

20 faces.

Just exercisin'.

Dinosaurs are fun to draw.

Maybe this random idea could lead to something. Maybe not. But it cracks my son Alex up, so I thought I'd post it.

Wizard World Chicago 2008: Wrapup.

Wizard World Chicago was a success. I sold some books and learned a lot. It was fun geeking out with great friends and "working" the con.

I have some pics for you. First let me present Chicago. Greatest city skyline ever.

This is Mike "Locoduck" Duron and me at our table. I don't know what's going on, but I'm really handsome in this picture.

Barry Gregory, Thomas Florimonte and Michael McElroy at Ka-Blam. These guys made my stuff look GOOD! Plus you couldn't meet a bunch of nicer guys. Well done, gentlemen!

On Friday, we got a visit from my parents. Mom baked us cookies. I had some left over and needed to get them home safe so I HAD to get this Groo lunchbox.
...er, and these Groo figures

I had an amazing time at the convention. I received very positive feedback about Black Cat Bone issue 1. I'm already laying out Issue 2. Hopefully I can attend at least one more convention this year. Turns out it's just as fun on the other side of the table as it is attending the con as a guest. Plus there's a lot of this walking around....

I love geeky women.

Black Cat Bone: The Blues is Born.

Back in 2005 I started this blog up. One of my first posts was about a story I had been working on called Black Cat Bone. It's about the history and mythology of blues music as told through the life of Kit "Blue-Eye" Baxter, a black cat.

I've never attempted sequential art before and I don't know much more than the average person about comic books and graphic novels. The process of creating something like this was daunting for me. Could I write, draw, ink and color this project all by myself? If I procrastinate long enough, will I ever have to?

Thankfully, I was given the opportunity to attend Wizard World Chicago this year. When I saw my name on the list of artists scheduled to appear, I first lost all bowel control, then decided that was the kick in the pants I needed to get this book going.

I only had a few months to do it. I'm not sure what the usual timetable is for a project like this, but for my first time out, it definitely wasn't enough time. Nevertheless, I have completed issue #1 of Black Cat Bone. It's certainly not perfect, and I have the option of going back and changing things indefinitely if I want to. But it's not bad and thanks to Barry and Thomas at Ka-Blam it looks GREAT printed up.

I've learned a lot these past few months. The next issue will be much easier for me. I'm actually looking forward to getting it started. But first, Wizard World!

http://www.wizardworld.com/chicago.html

I'm going to be set up with Michael "Locoduck" Duron. He will be selling some of his awesome stuff too and we've collaborated on a pinup book of geeky favorites. I'll be there all day every day of the convention, so if you're in the area, stop by. I'd be happy to see you.

P.S. An interesting anecdote: In spring of 2008, before I moved to Florida to be a full-time artist I attended my first convention ever, Wizard World Chicago. Here I am 8 years later attending the same exact convention, this time as an artist set up at a table. Coincidentally, Barry and Jenni Gregory were also at the 2000 con in Chicago, although I didn't know them at the time, and Barry will be at Chicago this year as well. Small world indeed.

Blue Monday

I was just taking a break from inking issue one of Black Cat Bone when I got online and found out the news. Blues pioneer Bo Diddley has died in his Archer FL home at the age of 79. Bo was a seminal figure in music history, influencing everyone from Elvis to the Rolling Stones to the Clash. His "Bo Diddley beat" is all over rock and roll, even today.

A sample of his work is "Who Do You Love" (later covered by George Thorogood). The song's lyrics invoke swagger and bravado today's rap "music" can only hope to emulate.

I walk 47 miles of barbed wire,

I use a cobra-snake for a necktie,

I got a brand new house on the roadside,

Made from rattlesnake hide,

I got a brand new chimney made on top,

Made out of a human skull,

Now come on take a walk with me, Arlene,

And tell me, who do you love?

Tombstone hand and a graveyard mine,

Just 22 and I don't mind dying.

I rode around the town, use a rattlesnake whip,

Take it easy Arlene, don't give me no lip,

Who do you love?

Night was dark, but the sky was blue,
Down the alley, the ice-wagon flew,
Heard a bump, and somebody screamed,
You should have heard just what I seen.
Who do you love?

Arlene took me by my hand,
And she said ooowee Bo, you know I understand.
Who do you love?

I'm going back out to the studio now. I think I'll crank up "Can't Judge a Book".

Gig pix: May

Some more recent gig pictures, these from the past few days:

Don't get me wrong, I love the ladies. But when they ask me to make them look pretty it drives me crazy (short drive, I know). This particular subject insisted that she was an angel, but I knew better.

Leroy couldn't wait to get his picture drawn and get some food:This guy kept giving his friends watching two thumbs up.Ron busted up his leg wakeboarding. When I saw him hobble over on his crutches and sit down, I couldn't resist drawing him like this:

I love a metal bikini.

He laughed at the thermal detonator. Jedi mind tricks didn't work on him, boy. So it seemed that ruthless crime lord Jabba the Hutt was indestructible. But he didn't take into account a certain beautiful bit of Rancor food at the other end of his chain. Maybe in time, she would have learned to appreciate him. If only he would have lived that long....

This is a piece from an upcoming collaborative book of pinups. That's about all I want to reveal about it right now, but keep watching this space. May's going to be an action-packed month!

Another pirate....

The current Toon Weekly challenge was to make a pirate. Frequent visitors to this blog know that I went through a pirate phase, if you scroll down you'll see what I mean. But I'm convinced that one cannot draw too many pirates, so here's my entry.

Recent gig pix.

I haven't posted any of my gig stuff in a long time, but I've been taking photos lately. Here's some of my recent work.

The Kramer and Newman Show.

The next Toon Weekly challenge was sitcoms. I decided to spin Kramer and Newman off of Seinfeld. I cheated their heights a bit, made Kramer more tall and gangly and Newman shorter like the sneaky little troll he is. I love these two characters and I think they'd make a real funny show.

Good cop/Bad cop.

The next Toon Weekly challenge was "Good cop/Bad cop". I wanted to go with the old convention of the shoulder angel and devil, as seen primarily in animation. This particular piece is influenced slightly by artists like Scott Wills and Bill Wray, who did a lot of the close-up gross paintings for shows like Ren and Stimpy. If I had the slightest idea how to animate, I think I'd have a lot of fun with this particular sequence.

Got frog milk?

Just when I got completely caught up with the Toon Weekly challenges, I fell behind. I've been feeling the full effects of a really busy spring break this year, and I've just taken on a ton of work for the future. But I love to be busy and I'm learning how to push myself and utilize my time more wisely. So among all the other stuff I have to get done (and before I fall too far behind) I'm going to get caught up once again on the Toon Weekly challenges and hopefully stay that way.

The challenge from a few weeks back was Freaky Hybrids. We were supposed to cross-breed two different animals. I thought of mixing a very small animal with a part from another animal that would be too large and unwieldy for it to be possible in real life. May I present...frogcow!