This is an idea I had ages ago and finally decided to commit to paper – a “superhero” who gets his powers by speaking a magic word (“CTHULHU!”) and gaining the traits of a variety of Elder Gods from the Lovecraftian universe. He is not in the least bit similar to, or inspired by, a certain World’s Mightiest Mortal. Nope, not at all…
This is also going to be the basis for a print, which I should have available at the very-soon Spokane ComiCon.
Here’s some of the free sketches I drew for customers at Lightning Comics in Coeur d’Alene, ID on Saturday. I was there with my friends in the Comicsmiths’ Guild for Free Comic Book Day.
The shop had a really good turnout, and we were busy sketching the whole time, almost non-stop. It was great to talk to so many people who had been there for FCBD the past couple of years, and were looking forward to seeing us again.
There was a small write-up in the local paper about the event – the Guild got a mention, and they even included a picture of me sketching for one of the kids who was there. You can read it here: The Coeur d’Alene Press
Also, there’s a new comic up on the In Geekness page, so be sure to check that out too!
I did another journal-type comic a while back – it was fun to do, and got a pretty good reaction from people. I thought I’d try to do some more, so today marks the first of hopefully many. I’m tentatively calling these strips “In Geekness and In Health”, and you’ll find them at the In Geekness link on the main menu.
Not sure, but think I’ll shoot for at least a couple of these a week – I figure it’ll make a good compliment/replacement to real day-to-day blogging and mean some regular comic content on the site.
A few other important reminders/notes:
- I’ll be at Lightning Comics in Coeur d’Alene this Saturday, from 10:30 to 3, drawing free sketches for customers for Free Comic Book Day.
- The Catbeard Indie-GoGo campaign is still going; this is the fundraising/pre-order campaign for the first print collection of the Catbeard webcomic. You can read all about it here: Catbeard Book One is Go!
- I’ll be at the upcoming Spokane ComiCon (May 19), along side my buddy Matt Nelson, the creator of the aforementioned Catbeard.
- And I just got confirmation that I’ll also be at the Jet City Comic Show in September, sharing a spot in Artist Alley with another friend and local artist Josh Montreuil.
It’s here once again – the day that’s Christmas for comic geeks, and also a great chance to introduce comics to new readers and make a new generation of fans.
Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday (May 5), and is a national event that provides retailers a lot of awesome comics, from a variety of publishers, that they can give away for free. All of the comic book stores in the Spokane area will be participating, and I will be at Lightning Comics in Coeur d’Alene on Saturday from 10:30 – 3, drawing free sketches for customers along side my friends in the Comicsmiths’ Guild.
If you’re not local, be sure to check out the FCBD website for a participating retailer in your area, and I hope to see everyone else this weekend!
I know I have a lot of friends who are fans of (good, fun, all-ages) comics, pirates, and cats, and in some cases all 3. If you fall in those categories, I can’t recommend this book enough.
This is the fundraising campaign for my good buddy Matt Nelson‘s first print collection of his webcomic, about the adventures of a pirate cursed with a living cat for a beard. Yes, it really is as awesome as it sounds. 
Just $15 gets you a signed copy of the book, and helps support an independent comic creator (and pretty dang cool guy). There’s also bonuses, like sketches and original comic art, available for additional contributions – you can even be a part of Catbeard’s crew!
The book has a lot of bonus material, beyond the comics that are posted on-line, including a pin-up by yours truly. I’ll be sharing a table with Matt at the upcoming Spokane ComiCon on May 19th – he should have copies of the book, at least a limited run, available for purchase there.
My wife and I went to see the movie John Carter yesterday and it was awesome.
I’ve been a fan of the book series it’s based on since high school, and I’ve always wanted to see a film version made, but honestly never thought it would happen. It’s been attempted many, many times over the years, and in fact could’ve been the first animated feature film, if the first planned production in 1931 had gone forward.
I thought the translation was excellent, even though it was not a straight adaptation of the source material. It actually was based on elements of the first 3 books, with some parts changed and moved around. But the director is a huge fan of the books and did a great job of making an even better story for the screen than the original.
Unfortunately, at this point the film is mostly being called a “flop”, as it cost $300 million to make and only had a $30 million opening weekend. Much of the blame for this poor showing at the box office has been leveled at the management (or lack there-of) of the movie’s marketing, with poorly designed trailers and shaky ideas of the intended audience. This article does a great job of breaking down much of what went wrong: The Inside Story of How John Carter Was Doomed by Its First Trailer
I’ve been thinking about this (probably way more than I should) as I really don’t understand how it can be so difficult to find viewers for an incredibly well made, special effects laden, sci-fi spectacular, especially with what I can only assume is a huge staff of well paid “experts” who are supposed to figure these things out for the studio.
So here’s what I came up with…
The later advertisements tried to play up how much of an influence the books were on other well known sci-fi staples, like Star Wars and Avatar. But they did this in such an obtuse way that it still didn’t explain who this “John Carter” guy was, how he was connected to these other movie properties, or what the movie was even about. They also failed to take advantage of the fact that this year, when the movie is released, marks the 100 year anniversary of the first story’s publication.
I realized the “movie trailer voice-over” was a good idea, it just needed to say the right thing, like:
“From the mind of author Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of the modern fantasy legend Tarzan… comes the original sci-fi action hero – John Carter.
Witness the epic love story of two worlds, 100 years in the making.”
So that’s what I would’ve done. Explain who the title character is, why we should care, and at least a hint of what kind of movie it is. Doesn’t seem too hard to me…
But regardless, the movie is really great. If everyone would ignore the nay-saying of the “critics” and just go see it, maybe Disney will realize that as well.
Over the weekend, the comics community lost one of its true masters – Jean Giraud, aka Moebius.
An amazingly talented artist and storyteller, I first became aware of his work, as did many American comic fans of my age, through the Silver Surfer mini-series he created with Stan Lee, as well as his other work published and re-printed by Marvel Comics. Later in high school I started collecting Heavy Metal magazine, which he co-created and featured some of his seminal work.
It was only in the last few years that I discovered his work was also used for, or was the inspiration for, the design of some of my all-time favorite movies, such as Alien, Tron, Blade Runner, and of course, The Fifth Element.
There has been an outpouring of sympathy and tributes on-line the last couple of days from the comics and artistic community, and as a fellow fan I wanted to pay my respects in some small way as well. So here is my Major Grubert – a creator of worlds, himself created by one of the greatest creators of worlds…
I posted a version of this a while back – it’ a pin-up for my budddy Matt Nelson’s awesome web-comic Catbeard the Pirate. But this is the finished version, as it will appear in the first print Catbeard collection, which Matt is currently putting the finishing touches on.
He doesn’t have a firm release date for it yet, but it should be soon. I know he’s hoping to have it available for the upcoming Spokane ComiCon -I’m sure there will be an update on the Catbeard and Comicsmiths’ Guild sites when things are confirmed.
Recently I did a series of Doctor Who-as-Dinosaurs pics, and I thought I’d see how it’d look if I put them all together into one image. Still needs some tweaking to fix some depth issues, and a background, but it’ll most likely get turned into a print when I’m done.
I just realized I’d somehow neglected to post anything about this yet…
The Stars is a new comic mini-series being put out through indy-publisher Earthbound Comics which I had the opportunity to work on as the letterer. It was written and penciled by Kurt Belcher, inked by Stuart Berryhill and colored by Lisa Sky – an all around awesome collection of creators.
It’s a unique take on super-heroes, showing how costumed heroes are viewed as super-celebrities as much as crime-fighters, set in a world filled with shadowy intrigue and threats both seen and unseen.
The first issue is now available through Indy Planet, as well as directly from Earthbound, and you can also purchase a digital version through Drive-Thru Comics.You can check it out at the links below: