Updates!

I know it's been a while since I've had anything I could post about here. I just finished one freelance job and now I have to wrap up some cards featuring Moonstone Publishing characters. I spent the holiday break catching up on some reading and television. Invincible Vol.11 was good, Ottley's art always continues to impress me. I also picked up Inside Straight, a Wild Cards novel that came out last year. Through the first 100 pages I still have some reservations, but it's starting to pick up. I loved the Wild Cards novels when I was a teenager so I though I would give it a try. I also got caught up on this season of Sons of Anarchy and it didn't disappoint, I absolutely love this show. Shame this season is starting to wind down. Also watched season 3 of The Tudors, and I'm sad to say it did disappoint. Only 8 episodes and nothing to keep me glued to the screen. I don't know if I've just grown tired of it, or if the writing switched up this year. Maybe they'll rebound next year. My WOLVERINE cover that I did for the Hero Initiative is up for bid on eBay right now and would make a good gift for a Wolverine fan this Christmas and especially considering the wonderful cause it would be supporting. Check it out here and please pass it along to any interested parties. Here are a couple sneak peeks at my 3 favorite card so far this set.

King's Hollow

This is the first page of my King's Hollow short that was published in Popgun Vol.3. You can check out the rest of the pages here - Page 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08. I think I may have mentioned the genesis of the character Nissa the Fairy Hunter before, but she basically started out as a sketch of a goth type girl that I thought I could sell a lot of books of. Because the kids like goth type girls who kick ass. It quickly became my tribute to the fantasy genre that I loved as a kid and still enjoy somewhat today. Nissa is on a quest to kill her grandfather, the King of Fairies, for his failure to save her Mother. The story takes place in the first half of the 20th century around the edges of WW2. The first appearance of Nissa took place in the short story Hollow, which you can order here for cover price, or if you want a personalized copy and a sketch you can paypal $20 (shipping included in the US) to super75press(at)gmail(dot)com. In that story she goes searching for any info on the King's Hollow and ends up in a fight with ogres, elves, etc. She meets Emir the elf at the end of the story and he agrees to take her to the Hollow. King's Hollow is the follow up that takes Emir and Nissa to retrieve a mysterious box from the Trader, while on their way to her Grandfather's home. King's Hollow also introduces us to Cara Fantasma, the masked adventurer. At the urging of the editors of Popgun I did a Cara Fantasma short story for Popgun Vol.4 but after asking me to do it (and to rush it) to meet their deadline, they decided not to publish it.

There are so many politics that go into a large anthology like Popgun and while I was happy to have a story in issue #3, I will not be pursuing it anymore. I'm not saying I won't contribute to it in the future, but I will not be going out of my way to pitch stories to them. On the positive front though, it looks like I may be continuing the King's Hollow short stories, probably in Mysterious Adventure Magazine, if they'll have me, and if I ever get the time to work on them.

Doodles & oodles

I am currently probably busier than I ever have been on the freelance front. I have 1 big OGN project I'm chipping away at, a small comic project that just popped up as well as a card set for Moonstone. Deadlines loom! I'm also still working on my next creator owned book ICARUS and plan to have the preview book ready by March. Add that to a full time job and part time kids, and I am one busy bee. I am glad for the work though, after always fretting about and angling for freelance work, I'm finally up to my knees in it. I just wish I knew if I could count on it being steady. That said, everything I'm working on is stuff that I'm not allowed to post. So my art posts are almost non-existent even though I'm working harder than ever. Here are some samples of the layout work I did last night, all pencils done in Painter which is great for realistic pencils. Also there is a screen shot some blogger made at last month's Long Beach Con. I saw it on the Gelatometti blog and noticed a nice shot of my books. So thanks to Beach News and Gelatometti.