Words (Between The Lines Of Age)

No zombies in this panel but I really liked the way I drew this so I'm going to show it. I even left some room for words!

Of These, Hope

Here's another panel progression look at a zombie panel I just inked. I love seeing where the image started and ended, visually. It's about the process.

In art school, I was way more interested in the process of drawing than I was in the final outcome. It made for many many messy pictures that seemed to have no real "value" other than giving me the experience of making marks on a surface. For some strange reason, when I started drawing comics, that love of markmaking seemed to get pushed aside. I blame it on the fact that I was inking tight pencils and didn't want to lose whatever I had drawn in pencil. I am glad to see that I am taking more chances with my marks. My hope is that I continue to show more and more of the drawing process in my comic work and make the pages

That's What They Say

There's a cool little interview with the 2 dudes responsible for putting the Zombie Bomb! anthology together. Go check out what Rich Woodall and Adam Miller have to say about the project!

But not before checking out a page from "Not At The End", the first part of a story Anthony and I are serializing in the anthology, of course.

Art by me, the rest by Anthony.

Victim Of Changes

Here's a panel progression example. The left is my pencil rough and the right is the inked panel. There will always be slight changes to the original rough drawing when you ink it. Case in point, as this panel was inked, I came to the realization that I needed to make the zombie's shirt black and leave the woman's jacket white so that the blacks were distributed better. I think this new spotting of black puts more emphasis on the woman, visually, than giving her the black coat.

Uncontrollable Urge

I wanted to share this drawing of a kilted zombie before I start throwing the "fog" all over the page which will end up cover some/all of him. This little guy happened as I inked a basic form of a figure I had penciled. The kilt was a last moment thing. But, it reinforces my urge to do a comic that has a kilted main character in it.

One day.... soon.

Suspended In Gaffa

Another inked panel from the Zombie Bomb! story. I've been using this trick of having only partial panel borders to help give panels a little extra interest, visually. Basically, I only draw the panel borders where the characters/background elements touch the panel border and I leave the rest of the panel out. I think it helps give the panel a sense of "suspended time", making the panel read for a slightly longer story beat. That make any sense...?

Anyway, the pages are looking good and I can't wait to for everyone to see the final product.

The Morning Fog

Inking has started on the second installment of "Not At the End", mine and Anthony's contribution to the Zombie Bomb! anthology series. I'm going to like inking this as it has lots of fog in it, which means I get to draw stuff that will then be obliterated when I dry-brush white over it all! That might have sounded sarcastic but, believe it or not, it was said with all sincerity. I've never drawn much fog so this is a great opportunity to learn how.

The above image is the first panel of the new NAtE chapter.

Blame It On The Rain

I lost a week of posting/drawing/life due to my back going out on me. I blame the hotel bed in Seattle and the fact that I was walking the convention floor for 2 days with a bag of heavy trades/comics hung around my neck. The Emerald City Comic Con was excellent, despite all that, though. I got to hang out with some very cool people, chat comics with some very cool creators and buy some amazing books at very cool prices. I spent some time at the Pop Goes the Icon table with PGtI's head guru, PJ Perez. We gave away 2 pages of my original art. I had an awesome time.

Now that the week of crippling back pain has (mostly) subsided, I'm starting to ink the 2nd part of the Anthony Schiavino penned Zombie Bomb! story, "Not At The End". This is going to be so good. The image above is a panel from that story.

Going To California

That's it, folks! I'm walking out the door for ECCC! Makes sure you drop by the Pop Goes The Icon booth Saturday, if you can. I would love to meet you all!

There Goes My Gun

Obviously no one has told this guy that it's dangerous to go pointing guns at things!

I'll be heading to Seattle for the Emerald City Comic Con on Friday! Come see me if you happen to be at the show on Saturday 'round 2PM. I'll be at the Pop Goes The Icon table! Oh yeah, and enter to win some original art while you're there, too! Details...? Click here!

Straight Outta Compton

Rough penciled splash page for the Zombie Bomb! story. I'll be going straight to ink on all the roughs. No tight penciling for this project. There's going to be a lot of dry-brush and splatter on these pages, too! I'm excited about that!

Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)

Look out!!! Behind you!!! (more zombie scribbles)

Hey! I'll be attending Emerald City Comic Con this coming weekend, mostly as a comic fan. I have a long list of people I want to stop by and see. The show looks to be even better than last year, which is great news because last year's was awesome!

Now, I said *mostly* as a comic fan because I will be there as a creator of comics, too. I'll be doing a little meet and greet at the Pop Goes The Icon table. Not only will I be there to hawk some wares but PGtI and I will also be raffling off the 2 pages I drew for PGtI's premier issue of Omega Comics Presents! That's right... enter to win both pages of original art... for free! All the details are right here!

I'll be mentioning the raffle through out the week and I hope to see you fine people there at the show!

The Show Must Go On

Work on my next Zombie Bomb short story collaboration with Anthony Schiavino has begun. I'm doing the roughs now and will be inking next week. This going to be a show stopper! Well, until part 3 comes along... ha!

Ramblin' Man

Sorry, folks. Just a page of sketches to show. Haven't had any time or energy to whip something up. I'm sick. Again. Great start to 2010, eh?

Going to be putting all my time into drawing the Last Leaf story, for the Digital Webbing anthology. After that, I've got some zombie stuff to do for the 3rd installment of Zombie Bomb.

After that? Hoping to be going into production on a large project with writer and pal, James Powell. I've also been given word that I may be drawing another Perhapanauts Special, this one written by Rich Woodall. It starts Big, one of my favorite characters from the book, so I'm pretty stoked on that!

I'm rambling, now. Time to go take some decongestant and lay down.

Welcome To The Occupation

Last zombie panel I'll post... for a while. I've finished the art for the Dino Caruso zombie short that will in an upcoming Zombie Bomb volume. I'm going to start on the 14 page Digital Webbing "Last Leaf" short story today, so expect to see some character sketches and rough layout type stuff for that project occupying this space for a while.

I think I'll start doing some more super hero ink drawings, too. Those seem to get the kiddies coming to the site.

Wonderin'

The final inks have been added to this panel. The progression is almost complete. All it needs now is someone to add some colour. I wonder who that will be ...?

Ed Is Dead

This is another panel from the Zombie Bomb story I'm doing with Dino Caruso. On the left is my digital rough and on the right is the result of me inking it traditionally (brush, whiteout and ink).

Fun Fun Fun

Here's that last panel but with more lines on it. I'm not sure why I'm tightening this drawing up as much as I am. My plan was to do the tightening during the inking phase. I guess I'm still just having fun figuring out how to use the Cintiq.

Business Time

I feel like I`m starting to get the hang of this Cintiq business.

Here`s an almost complete rough drawing of one of the panels for the Zombie Bomb story I`m working on. I still have to draw in most of the zombie figures... but that stuff tends to be easier to draw.

All drawn on the Cintiq.

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Yesterday saw the beginnings of a new way of making comics, for me. I'm starting to use my new Cintiq tablet for the rough drawing/layout steps. It's a liberating way of working in that I can "erase" my mistakes and resize/move things that I've drawn that aren't quite right. I've barely scratched the surface of what this thing can/will do for me so that I can make comics in a faster and more immediate manner.

For those interested, here is a look at one of the panels for the new Zombie Bomb short story I'm doing with writer Dino Caruso called, Zombie Night In Canada. The top image is the panel I drew with the Cintiq and the second image is the final inked drawing, done over a non-photo printout of the Cintiq sketch, using real life brush and ink. I still don't see me doing "digital inks" on the Cintiq, though. I think traditional inking is still the best way for me to retain the quality of line I'm looking for. Maybe I just haven't found the right digital tool/brush to make my marks with.