Let There Be More Light

Here's the fourth page of the Kill All Monsters! pitch. Hell yeah, this stuff was fun to draw. Maybe more soon....?

Lines by my and colours by Scott Keating.

Daydream Believer

I can't believe I've never posted the final finished Kill All Monsters! pages. The book has been sitting with a couple of interested publishers for a while now but no movement has taken place. Sigh.

Line art by me and the amazing colours are by Scott Keating.

Trouble With The Sweet Stuff

Sketching stuff.

After finishing up the Braids of the Gorgon art, I began to wonder what I should focus my attention on. I'm in a weird spot, project wise. I should have a Perhapanauts story coming to me to draw in the near future, and it might be a long one, so I want to make sure I have the time and energy to make that kick ass. And, if either Kill All Monsters! or Braids find a home, I'll need to be able too give them the time they will demand. So starting something big just doesn't make sense. Then it hit me, I should put together some portfolio pages for my upcoming trip to the Emerald City Comic Con. And that's just what I'm going to do.

More drawings on Friday.

Confidence Man

New Year's resolutions aren't something I normally make. Come December 31st, they tend to be reminders of the things that you failed to do that year. But, after reading David Hopkins' and Jason Rodriguez's resolution posts, I felt like it's something that needs to be done this time around. So without further ado, Jason Copland's 2009 New Year Resolutions!

1. Get more comic work published than 2008.
This one is not going to be hard to achieve, actually. 2008 was pretty dismal in the work published category and I already have 2 things I did art for that should see publication. I'd love for one of my co-created projects (Kill All Monsters! and Braids of the Gorgon) to get a green light but the comic book industry doesn't seem to be taking many chances these days. I'm just a little fish in a huge sea of pros looking to land a creator owned gig. Which brings me to resolution #2...

2. More exposure.
This one goes hand in hand with #1. The publication of more of my work will increase my exposure to new comic people. I'm looking to also increase my exposure on the web, too. I've been trying hard to make sure I have new content for this blog 3 times a week. I've been doing that for just over 3 months and I think it is working. I plan on posting more "work in progress" type stuff here and on sites like Digital Webbing, too.

3. Produce more work.
As a few of my friends will attest to, I am very hard on my self, especially when it comes to my comic work. They say every artist is their worst critic. For me, that holds 100% true. I do believe that that critical voice has made me a better artist but I do feel that it has also kept me from producing work at a faster pace. I tend to worry too much about little things that no one else will ever pick up on. At a certain point, I need to let stuff go and just move on to the next panel/page/whatever.

4. Have more confidence in my work.
Confidence in my work is something that I lack, generally. It is always a surprise when I get someone asking to work with me or wanting to buy art. I can't believe that someone actually thinks I do somewhat notable work. I'm naturally self deprecating so it's hard to know when to be proud of something I've done.

5. Finish reading BONE.
I've tried twice to read the huge Bone book that my wife gave me for Christmas last year. I'm currently working through it. I'm just over half way. It's good but I find myself going off and reading other books when I should be hunkering down and finishing it. I guess it's just a little to "light" for my reading tastes. It's wonderfully written and drawn but it has a little too much... cuteness...? I intend on finishing it, though.

6. Lose weight and maintain it.
Yeah, you knew this one was coming. I've lost about 10lbs since the summer and I have about 5lbs more I'd like to shed. Playing more hockey is helping but it all comes down to the snacking. Jackie and I fell off the snacking wagon a few months ago. Time to get back on it, me thinks.

Well, that's about it. Only time will tell if I can achieve one, some or all of these resolutions but getting them down on paper is one step closer, I guess.

High Hopes

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The Kill All Monsters! pitch pages are complete! They have been colored (by Scott Keating) and lettered (by Kel Nuttall) and are now ready to be sent out in the hopes that they'll find a good publisher to call home. Michael and I are so jazzed about the pages that I feel like I just have to share one of them with y'all! So, here's page 1 for your entertainment!

I'll make sure to keep you all posted on any developments that occur during the publisher hunt!

Love Bites

Here's another coloured panel from the all new Kill All Monsters! pitch. Colours by Scott Keating.

One World (Not Three)

I thought I'd give you all a peek of the Kill All Monsters! logo that will be gracing the mock cover of our pitch package. The logo (and lettering) for the pitch was done by that wacky "Mad Alaskan", Kel Nuttall. It's amazing what quality lettering does for a book! Thanks, Kel!

... And Justice For All

I'm back from FallCon. I'll post more about the show soon but I wanted to show you a part of something that was in my inbox when I got home...
Colourist extraordinaire, Scott Keating, has begun to work on the Kill All Monsters! pitch pages and they look amazing! Seriously, if these pages can't get a good publisher to invest in putting this book out, then there is no justice in the world. Sorry about the small image... That's all I've got right now. Once I get the hi-res files, I'll post a bigger image.

New Jack Hustler

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This a character sheet for Jack Dressen, from the Kill All Monsters! pitch. He's a new character that has been thrown into the mix. He pilots the mech that we have jokenly dubbed "Skullinator". I don't know if that name is going to stick but it helps us identify it from the other mechs.

Scream Like A Baby

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As my time on the Kill All Monsters! pitch is coming to a close, I'm starting to work out some bugs in the new style I hope to utilize on the next project, Braids of the Gorgon. It's going to be messier, for sure. But just how much more messier.... that's what I have to figure out. Here's a drawing that is just me trying to find that level of messiness.

Remember When (Side A)

Remember when I said we weren't showing any finished pages from the Kill All Monsters! book? Well, it seems like that sneaky KAM! co-creator Michael May* went ahead and posted a page on his blog today!

Fine! I will, too! Behold page 1 of the new and improved Kill All Monsters!!

you gotta click the image to see it in all its glory!

* Michael isn't really that sneaky
** tip of the hat to my grammar editor, Jackie Copland!

Show Me

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The Kill All Monsters! pages are complete. And, they rock, indeed. There is a 2 page spread in there that is probably my finest work. Ever. But, I can't show it. I can, however, post this quick ink sketch of a giant robot fighting a giant monster!

Your Gold Teeth

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Another inked panel from the Kill All Monsters! pitch pages. My part of the pitch work is almost done. Michael May and I are looking to get the pages coloured and lettered and then the publisher search will be on.

When The Lights Go Out

No, I'll not be making my way down to San Diego for Comic Con International. I opted to spend my convention going money on my trip to Heroes Con, this year. SDCC is not a great con to go to if you're not promoting a recent/upcoming book, as far as I can tell. I will miss getting the chance to sit and chat with some of my comic book creating brethren, though. I *may* go next year but I'll have to make sure I've got a book coming out around SDCC time. And on that note, here's a look at the inked version of the panel from the previous Kill All Monsters! post.

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With My Own Bare Hands

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Here's a penciled panel from the Kill All Monsters! pitch. This is going to be soooo good.

Comin' Under Fire

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Part of a rough drawing for one of the panels in the Kill All Monsters! pages I'm currently working on.

Exactly Where I'm At

Heroes Con was excellent! I got to meet a bunch of people face-to-face that I've only known through the Worldwide Web. The internet is an amazing thing, but getting a chance to talk to fellow comic creators in person is soooo much better.

I had a great time talking to Perhapanauts creators Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau. I'm a huge fan of the 'Nauts, so it was very cool to get a chance to hang with them. Todd has offered me a chance to do a little something for a backup feature for an upcoming issue, which I jumped at in a heartbeat! As a warm up to whatever that something will be, I did a Perhapanauts pin-up (below). I took it down to Heroes and gave it to Todd. He seemed to like it and even thinks it should appear in the 4th issue of the book! Sweet!

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Being a HUGE Guy Davis fan, it was an amazing few minutes when I got the chance to talk shop with him while he drew a very cool Marquis sketch for me... for free! Thanks, Guy!

I also got the chance to talk to some comic creator friends like Kevin Mellon, Dennis Hopeless, Kody Chamberlain, Josh Elder, Dwight L. MacPherson and Charlie Kirchoff (and his lovely wife, Elbonie). All in all, Heroes Con was excellent and I'm very close to saying I'll be back there again next year.

Meanwhile... back at home...
Things are moving on the Kill All Monsters! pitch pages. I had a few days off from drawing, after my trip to Heroes Con, but now I'm all about the giant robots kickin' giant monster butt action!

More soon!

Run (I'm A Natural Disaster)

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I'm working hard on the new Kill All Monsters! pitch pages. Michael and I have decided to hold off on showing any substantial images for the book while we work our way through it. But, for the sake of having something to look at (as this is an artist's blog), I'm posting this look at my process for working out a particular panel. That last image is pretty much ready to ink, although I think I may put something in the foreground to help give the reader a sense of the monster's scale.

(You're a) Strange Animal

More monster sketches to take up even more space on the internet!

Maneater

As work on my Trickster pages continues, I sometimes manage to find time to do some fun drawing, too. Here are a few more monster designs I've done... some of which may find their way into the Kill All Monsters! redo.