Weekend round-up

Halloween was fun I suppose, 2 of my kids refused to wear their costumes, so I was a bit bothered by that, but whatever, all ended well. I penciled 2 more pages and did up the cover to the Hurricane Kids book and got that sent off to the colorist, hashed out some stuff on another project, so creatively it was good. Watched Gone Baby Gone and was pleasantly surprised and emotionally moved by it, it was a good movie. Last night I watched 300 again, so this sketch came out of that, a cool-down after the real work.

Finally

Universal plans film adaptation of 'Villains' comic

My publisher, Co-Creator and Writer Adam and myself have been working on this for at least 18 months. Several things delayed the process but I'm glad it's finally happening. I'm very proud of the work Adam, Russ and I did on the book. An option by no means guarantees a movie, btu you can't have one without the other, so it's the first step.

Vote!

If you are a registered voter I urge you to vote. Not because I honestly believe in the system, or the fact that the electoral college is completely dated and useless, but because I want to believe my vote makes a difference. I really do. The first problem we have is that in today's day and age, a majority vote count is possible and would be more effective. Electoral votes, superdelegates, etc., all that crap could be done away with. The second problem is the way we vote, different states have different machines, in Arizona we have this ridiculous make a line form that seems could easily be loaded into a machine that is calibrated wrong and therefore ending up reading the vote wrong.



The electoral process needs a makeover in the worst way, it's painfully obvious. However, we must deal with the system in place so we do it. Go vote. Vote for who you honestly believe will do the best job. I'm not going to say who I voted for, but most people who know me will know who it is, and I'm proud of my candidate and my vote, even if I'm not sure I think it will really make a difference.

I love Zip-a-tone

Here is a low-res sample of how the final 24-hr book will look.

24 Hour Comics Day - Video

Shawn at Spazdog put together this little video, we have some more footage that may be put together into something else at some point as well.

24 Hour Comics Day - Recap

I woke up, just about noon cuz I knew that I had to be at Spazdog soon......
Something like that. After dropping my boys off with their grandparents, I headed to Spazdog comics where the event was happening. You can do a 24hr comics day anywhere, but it's much more fun and enjoyable with others around. I've done several events with Shawn at Spazdog, so I pretty much knew I was going to be treated excellently while there. I got in with about 10 minutes to spare and found out I was only the second one there so I started to worry that most people would not show up, but thankfully they were all running just a tad late. My friend Daniel was the last to arrive and had to set up his G5 as he does all his work digitally, so we officially started with I think 7 or 8 people at about 12:20 or so.

I felt really good the whole time and started out pretty strong realizing I could keep the quality I wanted and still finish the pages in under an hour. That pace was good as it let me have time to stretch my legs and snack, etc. I was penciling, inking and lettering even though I knew I would re-letter the pages digitally later. Freehand lettering and typography are 2 of my weakest points. I had a breakdown of "beats" in which I knew where story transitions needed to go, but I did not have a script or firm story planned outside of the first 2 pages.

The group we were with was pretty good, and at times became very sociable, unfortunately, because I knew I wanted to finish the project I often did not engage or seem sociable to everyone. Even when I was interacting I often did with my face buried in a page, so I apologize if I seemed rude in any way. Over the course of the night we lost most people as they packed it in and left, so by sun up, there were 3 of us remaining and Shawn asleep on his couch.

Glenn is a computer programmer from Tucson who created a pretty popular computer game in the early 80's called Rouge. He was the only other person to finish the full 24 pages. His story was very funny and reminded me of an early 80's children's book. We both finished early, a little after 10 am.
Daniel Davis rocks the world with his Steamcrow site and his goal was to pad his Monster Commute webcomic with future strips. He also proved to be both entertainment and mentor to many of the artists in attendance. He never fails to impress me with his infinite patience and generosity with his time when it comes to helping others and spreading his knowledge. He also helped keep the mood jovial throughout the night, he's a class act and a real grapple in his own right.

For my part, I accomplished exactly what I set out to do, finish a 23 page comic + cover in 24 hours and keep the quality to where I think I could publish it. I did both, and the story actually flowed together pretty well too. The no-sleeping part really wasn't all that bad, I never had a hard time focusing or staying awake, but I do think there are stronger pages and weaker ones, and maybe that has something to do with the time of night I did them. The hardest part was actually trying not to re-use too many standard shots (which I did alot of) and managing the aches in my hand from inking. I'll be posting the line-art pages over at the Sketchjam over the next few weeks but here is the cover + page 1. I will be adding grey-tones to these and re-lettering them prior to publication, which should be under my Super75Press banner in time for the Phoenix Comic-Con.

This was actually the last page drawn, I need to re-draw the girl since her angle is all wrong and the logo will be re-done of course.


Here is an example of how the final panels will look.

I made it

For those of you who do not follow my Twitter posts, I just wanted to follow up that I made it through 24-Hour-Comics day pretty painlessly and had a great time. I'll post a report, with some art, tomorrow. You can read a bit about it on the Spazdog blog as well.

24 Hour Comics Day

So tomorrow I am taking part in 24 Hour Comics day. The name says it all, from noon Saturday until noon Sunday I (along with hundreds, thousands?) of others all over the country (world? Egads!) will be attempting to complete a full 24 page comic in 24 hours. I have wanted to do this for a while, and so I thought this year I would take the plunge. I'm participating at my friend Shawn's comic shop, Spazdog comics, in north Phoenix. Shawn's store gives off a wonderful, laid back atmosphere (I refuse to write "vibe") and it's always a joy to do events there. I think they are expecting 12 or so people total so it will be a great environment. My friend Daniel, the great Steamcrow himself, may be documenting the event and we thought we might put together something for the Phoenix Cactus Comic-Con in January. What's better that trying to draw comics all night? Having me in your face asking you about it! I've got my character picked out, my template pages printed out and I'm ready to go. I cheated a bit and did a page breakdown today, so I have a general idea of what I want.

For example; Pages 1-5 intro, Pages 6-9 establish situation, Pages 10-20 FIGHT!, Pages 20-23 Wrap-up, Page 24 - Cover

So I'll be pencilling, inking and lettering a 24 page book in 24 hours. I know how fast I work, so I don't think the 1-page 1-hour deadline will be hard. Staying awake will be hard. So wish me luck, stop by the shop if you are in the area, and I'll post a report on Monday.

The Dark Knight

I've always loved the darker aspect of Batman, the meaner, grittier Batman. The ass-kicking detective, Miller's Batman. That was until I read Vol.1 of All-Star Batman and Robin last night.This was absolutely terrible, not one likable character in the book other than Alfred the butler. I think, as do other people judging by what I have read, that Miller is writing this book as a joke. Maybe I'm missing the bigger picture here, maybe I'm not smart enough to "get it", but not even Jim Lee can save this for me. After reading it I got nostalgic for the original Dark Knight, so I sketched this. Colors and digital zip-a-tone done in Photoshop.

Page Evolution 2

Here are a few screenshots of how I worked on a page from last year. Ideally I would use this process for every project, but I don't have a large format printer, and I'm not keen on paying money to have the bristol printed out. Anyone wants to donate a 11x17 printer, let me know.

Hurricane Kids blog.

On the The Hurricane Kids blog I've posted about how the creation of page 1 came about, including showing all 3 versions and the reasons I made the changes. It's a good read I think, so please check it out and feel free to leave some comments.

New Sketches

Here is a Punisher sketch I did last night.



Here is a sketch of a character I'm planning on doing a 24-Hour Comic Day book about. The rules of 24HCD say that you should go in with no preconceived ideas or characters, but I think that's crazy, in my case at least, where I focus more on superhero and adventure comics. I'm pretty excited about doing it though and I hope it all works out.

HULK commission

Here is a Hulk commission I did on a blank Marvel Secret Invasion cover. The surface on these is absolutely terrible to work on, much worse than the Hero Initiative covers for some reason. I hope the client is happy, I always worry about that. The original is in black and white, I put some quick digital colors over it for the web.

My HULK cover on eBay

My HULK cover for The Hero Initiative is up for bid on eBay. THE HERO
INITIATIVE has been established to provide monetary assistance to former comic
book creators requiring supplemental health, medical, and quality-of-life
assistance. This really is a great charity and has helped numerous comic
creators who typically do not have health insurance or 401k's when they need it.
I'm very proud to help them in any way I can, but it'll only help if my cover
sells, so if you're interested and can spare the donation, click over to the auction and feel good about what you're doing as well as getting a great piece of original art.

Diet. Day2

Not drinking sodas definitely sucks, unsweetened tea and water would not be my first 2 choices of beverages in an ideal world. My legs are a bit sore from the bike rides, 5 miles yesterday, 5 more this morning but it will only get easier, and I managed just fine thanks. I think I might be able to stick with this one. Here is a bit of art, the first page of the new Hurricane Kids book I'm working on. See it full size at The Hurricane Kids blog.



also be sure to check out my daily (almost) art posts at The Daily Sketchjam!

The Hurricane Kids

My creator-owned book The Hurricane Kids which is written and co-created by Grant Alter will be making a comeback in January 2009 with an all new Hurricane Kids Super Spectacular. I've rebooted the blog for it and put up some pin-up art we just received. Check it out, show some love.

Time to make a change.

About 3 and a half years ago, the ex, the boys and I decided to switch to a Vegan diet. I only went Vegetarian and even then, I still ate fish, so I didn't adhere the way they did. I stuck to this diet 100% for about 2 years. No chicken, pork or red meat. During that time I took tremendous pride in my self control to not slip up. While not on that diet anymore, I've decided it's time to get back into that mindset of self-discipline. Starting next week, I will start the first ever diet (for weight loss) in my entire life. Growing up I was a skinny little twig, but eventually, the lack of physical activity, poor eating habits and beer drinking caught up with me.

So the plan is, only Cheerios with 1% milk for breakfast, salads with balsamic dressing for lunch and a normal dinner, plus riding my bike 5 miles at least 4 times a week. I don't expect miracles, but I currently eat crappy for breakfast most days and really bad for lunch almost every day. I'm also cutting out sodas, so that will reduce my calorie intake by about 900 a day. It's all water and unsweetened tea from here on out. I'll keep you all posted as I'm sure you will be following with unimaginable excitement.

Here are a couple new sketches, I'm currently working on The Hurricane Kids special for January 2009 and looking for new freelance opportunities.

Top 5 Dream Jobs - #1

#1 - Writer/Director.

Not a huge shock, someone already called it in the comments (Rory?). I believe that most people who enjoy creating, writing and drawing comics really just enjoy telling stories in a visual medium, which is the same thing as film, only with a much lower budget. I've never gotten past page 15 on any screenplay, and I've never directed, but I like to boss people around. If T.V. shows like Saving Grace can be greenlit and movies like Bangkok Dangerous still get made, then I figure I still have a shot.

Favorite movies of all time... True Romance and The Departed. I'm easy like that. Sorry to be so anticlimactic.

Top 5 Dream Jobs - #2

#2 - Travel Writer/TV Host

Ever since the onslaught of travel shows on channels like Discovery, Travel Channel, National Geographic, etc. I’ve always thought about how that would be the greatest job in the world; global travel on someone else’s dime. The only problem is making a show unique and I’ve found 2 ways to do that. The first is that I travel solo, couch surfing with local artists and writers around the world, documenting my travels that way, each week introducing a new and passionate spirit that I meet. The other way, and one I see as lacking in any current show, would be me traveling the globe with my kids in tow, documenting the reactions to all these places from both my own, and their perspectives. Again, that could be affordable as well; we could stay in hostels, people’s homes, etc. I think the family type show would work well on Discovery Kids or PBS or something. If anyone knows any producers or anybody that could get this rolling, let me know. I’m down.

Top 5 Dream Jobs - #3

#3 - Successful Independent Comics Creator

This one is fairly straight forward. I want to be able to live well off of my own creations. I don't produce nearly enough work right now but a large part of that is due to the fact that I work 40 hours a week (or more) at a day job. Critically my book VILLAINS did very well, but financially, it was a loss for everyone involved. That may change in the future with other media options, but for now, that's the facts. I'm aware of some creators that live off of their books, but I know many more that have to do the same thing I'm doing. I'll have to keep plugging away and produce more work more frequently to get noticed, but it would be a great career to have, I have no doubts about that.