New York Comic Con

I'll be at the New York Comic Con, February 6-8, at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. You can find me along with
studiomates Karl Kerschl and Serge LaPointe at table C1 in Artist's Alley. Floorplan below:



Hope to see you there!

Doodles

Some late night scribbling.

Bub

I have an itch to draw a Wolverine story for some reason.


(I'm at home today so no scanner, forgive the low quality photo)

Marvel writers, please get in touch.

Ghost Rider

For my pal Andy B.

Seaguy 2: Process

I get frequent requests to show the pencils for my artwork and I'm unable to do so for one simple reason - I almost never use pencil. Over time I've gradually moved away from doing pencilled artwork, since I always do my own inks and doing tight pencil drawings seems redundant and time-consuming. Drawing in pen or marker is actually now much more comfortable for me than drawing in pencil.

In the past I did small layouts in pen on regular bond paper, two comic pages per sheet. I found that I would waste a lot of paper though and so recently I've switched to doing my roughs digitally. Below is an example of one of my layout pages, drawn in Photoshop with a Wacom Cintiq tablet:



Once these are complete enough for me (and my editor) to read clearly, I then enlarge them to 11 x 17 standard comic artwork dimensions, turn the black roughs into light blue (done by going into the channels and deleting Magenta, Yellow, and Black) and printing them onto bristol board.

Then comes the tricky, scary, and exciting part - I start inking. Most of the final drawing is done at this stage, I add much more definition and detail to previously vague scribbles. It's risky and I often have to go in and make corrections with white ink but this is happening less and less. It's enormously satisfying for me to work without the safety net of pencil and produce final artwork on the fly. (Long ago I read that Sean Philips worked directly in ink and I was perplexed at how it was even possible - now I know the key to doing it is equal parts practice and confidence). Below is the final page.



Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye begins in April!

Quote Factory

My sister and I didn't always get along well. While growing up in the same house we got a long even less. I'm told it's because we're too similar, but if that's so then we were both jerks and unpleasant to be around as kids. We do get on better now, still disagree about some stuff, but can usually talk about it in a more civil manner. And she has a pretty good sense of humor, which means it's twisted and somewhat morbid. I wish she updated her blog more often, because she's got a great sense of humor. Take the tag line, for instance.

Laughter really is the best medicine; unless you have cancer, then you should get chemo.

Or how about the title of the most recent post:

I will do anything to avoid doing what I actually need to.

I haven't even read the post, but I can tell it's a freaking gold mine.

Seaguy 2: Slaves Of Mickey Eye #1

On sale April 1st, 2009 at all decent comic shops.





SEAGUY: THE SLAVES OF MICKEY EYE #1

Written by Grant Morrison

Art and cover by Cameron Stewart

In 2008 alone, superstar writer Grant Morrison killed Batman, put the entire DC Universe through its FINAL CRISIS and concluded the unanimously beloved ALL-STAR SUPERMAN. But what does a writer who’s written every significant Super Hero do when he can create any Super Hero he wants? The answer, of course, is SEAGUY! Morrison (THE INVISIBLES) rejoins original SEAGUY artist Cameron Stewart (SEVEN SOLDIERS) in an all-new adventure starring the cult-favorite character!
In Seaguy’s cartoon future world, everyone is a Super Hero and no one dies. It’s absolutely perfect...Or is it? In this follow-up to the cult 2004 miniseries, Seaguy resurfaces with a sinister new partner, a hatred of the sea and a rebel restlessness he can’t explain. Why are Doc Hero and his ex-archenemy Silvan Niltoid, the Alien from Planet Earth, whispering strange equations? Why is Death so useless? And can that really be the ghost of Chubby Da Choona mumbling uncanny warnings and dire prophecies of ultimate catastrophe?
When the grotesque powers lurking behind the corporation known as Mickey Eye and the Happy Group attempt to erase Seaguy’s entire existence, can he possibly get it together in time to save a world so far gone it can’t even imagine the horror lying in wait? Find out here in Morrison’s own personal reframing of the Super Hero concept for the 21st century.

On sale April 1 • 1 of 3 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • MATURE READERS

Comic of the Year

The Apocalipstix was named Best Graphic Novel of 2008 at the Quarter Bin!



Thanks guys!

Dr Sketchy's Life Drawing

This weekend Matt Forsythe and I went to Dr. Sketchy's, a life drawing session that features burlesque dancers as models. Instead of being nude they wear costumes.





Here are some of my drawings from the class. Some 60-second sketches:



2 minutes:



And a couple of longer poses (15 minutes?):



I haven't done life drawing in years so I'm a bit rusty but I plan to make this a regular event.

Girl Fridays

Oh, I Can't Help It.

Dave's colours make me giddy so here's another spread.

Seaguy 2 pages

Here's some pages from the upcoming first issue of Seaguy 2: Slaves of Mickey Eye. Colours by Dave Stewart (no relation).

Batman: The Animated Series Will Return

One of these days. Seriously, I will get back to reviewing Batman: TAS episodes soon. I've just been too busy (by which I mean too lazy) to do any for a while.

I bought an XBox 360 a couple weeks ago, along with Rock Band, Guitar Hero II and Gears of War, so predictably I've been spending all my free time playing that, instead of watching cartoons. In fact, last night Marissa and I played Rock Band for about 4 hours straight. We already had a band setup, no shoes for tuesday (credit that name goes to Scott Kurtz of PvP, sorry for the blatant ripoff, not that he's ever published it, that I know of), with Marissa on vocals and me on guitars.

But Marissa wanted to play guitar last night, so we spent some time on creating a guitarist for her, then she formed a band with my drummer, we thought it would be fun to have another band name with a day in it, so we went with eccentric monday sprites. After we played with that for a while, Marissa created another vocalist and band for the fun of it, and I again had my guitarist join up with wicked wednesday.

After we had exhausted our selves, and heard the same beginning level songs at least 5 times each, we called it quits for the night so Marissa could go to bed. Normally I've been staying up between 2 and 3am, so I planned to play Gears of War for a while, but wimped out instead and was in bed before 1:30am. The point of all this is, that one of these days soon I'll motivate myself to watch and review a Batman episode, if anyone is even waiting for something like that. I may even try to get around to publishing one of the 5 or so toy reviews I have half written.

Yeah, right. And Duke Nukem Forever will be out one of these days soon, too.

In the meantime, I've added the followers widget to my blog, so I can track the one reader I have, although I noticed the list of blogs he's following is longer than the list of toys I want to buy, so I think he just added every blog he'd ever come across to his list. I also started adding the blogs I follow to my reading list, so you can check out other, better toy related blogs. In addition to mine.

Quote for today: Heroes of Our Time

Lost in a dream,
Finally it seems...
Emptiness and everlasting madness.

See the sadness grow,
Watching as we know,
Long before our journey for the world!

Call for us,
The power in all of us!
So far beyond the blackened sky tonight...

Glorious!
Forever more in us!
We are victorious!
And so alive!

We'll all find our sacrifice tomorrow!
Our journey on towards a brighter day...
Silent tears we've left behind, still so far away,
Across the endless sands, through the fields of our despair,
Free for all eternity we stand, yeah!
Rise above the universe tonight...
Starchaser...!

Fly towards the storm!
See the world reborn!
Feel the pain inside the voice of sorrow.

Cross the distant shores,
Find the open door!
Stand alone in judgment for tomorrow!

Years of pain still haunt us all,
We saw the last sunrise
Take me home in freedom for a lifetime...

Pray now for the silence and the last tears will blind!
So glorious, this fire inside, united we stand

And we'll all find our sacrifice tomorrow!
Our journey on towards a brighter day...
Silent tears we've left behind, still so far away,
Across the endless sands, through the fields of our despair,
Free for all eternity we stand, yeah!
Rise above the universe tonight...
Starchaser...!

Free from this world...
Here for the last time...
Oceans collide inside of us all...

Believe who we are!
The phoenix will guide us!
Freedom will rise once again!

Save us tonight, the last hope for all of us!
Light years gone by, we're still holding on!
Save us tonight, a star shines in all of us!
Far beyond our lives, still our glory lives on!

And we'll all find our sacrifice tomorrow!
Our journey on towards a brighter day...
Silent tears we've left behind, still so far away,
Across the endless sands, through the fields of our despair,
Free for all eternity we stand, yeah!
Rise above the universe tonight...
Starchaser...!

Starchaser...!

Our kingdom come, we stand as one
And we will live for always...
Evermore... 

        -- DragonForce

Lyrics from lyricwiki.org

Remember Kids: Across the endless sands, through the fields of our despair, free for all eternity we stand.

Music to my ears, but maybe not yours.

I've thought about adding a music player to this blog on occasion, but never bothered to look into it. I've been experimenting with lots of music lately, and thought I might as well let you all hear all the shit I've been trying out lately, since I find I enjoy quite a bit of music that earlier in life I wouldn't have thought I would. It's all a pretty far cry from the stuff I usually listen to, like Depeche Mode, Red Flag, New Order and the Cure, and probably stems from the checking out the harder aspects of the Goth Rock styles (thanks to the Cure and Red Flag). Also, from buying an XBox 360, Guitar Hero 2 and Rock Band.

Remember Kids: Pain from the start, all my dreams are ripped apart

Halo 3 2009 Want List

It's been a while since I posted, and since I still haven't been able to get back to watching Batman: The Animated Series (for a variety of reasons, the next good reason will be that I'll be getting Guitar Hero 2 and Rock Band for the XBox 360 tomorrow, who knows when anyone will see me again).

Anyway, I thought I'd throw together a post with the next few Halo3 figures I'm looking to get, since the first wave of 2009 should be hitting soon. The waves announced so far have rejected the Campaign/Multiplayer divisions of the last few series' , instead calling themselves the Equipment Edition, because they come with some sort of larger accessory that can be used during the game.

2009 Wave 1 Equipment Edition

There are quite a few neat looking figures in this wave, but I still stick with my Red & Blue only rule for UNSC troops, so all I have on that front for this wave is the Red EOD and the Blue Hayabusa (which looks to be my favorite of the two, and possibly of everything I have). I think this is the first series that's seen the release of the Security armor, which looks neat, but it's not being released in a color I can buy, so I hope we see it in red and blue before too long.

I'm a little more lax in my Red/Blue rule for Covenant figures, I try to get one of each unique alien, though I've missed a few, and double up on others. Red/Blue Covenant get passes so do have duplicates of somem, so this last wave I'm getting three variants of the same Elite figure, since there's an exclusive Red/silver (still need) and Blue/Yellow (have) version in addition to the standard blue version. And I just realized this whole section is pointless. I was trying to get to the point that the Tan Elite Combat in this upcoming wave is a new armor configuration than the previous Elites, but it's not, so I'm not going to get it, since I already have Red/Blue vevrsions of it.

I might get Master Chief since he'll come with the Rocket Launcher, but I might wait for a Red/Blue Spartan to get it. Additionally, the Red EOD will be re-released in wave 2 of this year, with a different accessory, I think I'll get that one, since the accessory is a red version of the thing that the Blue Hayabusa gets, although if it looks like too many figures in the next wave I'll grab this one. But right now it looks like I only need one figure from this wave.

2009 Wave 2 Equipment Edition

This wave has a bunch of nice figures, but most fall just outside my rules, like the White Hayabusa. When I started with Halo3 I planned to get Red, Blue and White figures, but I dropped the White ones after the first wave, just because I didn't want to dedicate that much money to this line. The White Hayabusa is really nice though, and I'd gladly trade my White Mark VI for one. The generic Marine trooper looks pretty nice too, but chances are very good I'll never buy him.

Wave 2 will also see the release of a Blue EVA Spartan. The Red EVA from 2008 Wave 1 was my favorite figure until 2008 Wave 3's Blue EOD was announced, so I'm looking forward to this one. Oh, and it comes with a rocket launcher, so scratch off Master Chief from the possibles list for 2009 Wave 1. I already mentioned the Red EOD, so I won't do so again.

The final figure from the announced 2009 waves is a new armor configuration for the Elites, the Assault version. The first figure is Silver with some redish-purplish highlights. Since it's new I'll get one, unless a Red or Blue one has been announced by the time arrives.

Remember Kids: There is no overkill, there is only reload and open fire.