Silence And I

There might be a bit of a gap between posts after this one. I will be moving the blog over to a Wordpress template this weekend (with the majority (read "all") of the heavy lifting being done by my cousin, Avi). This is being done due to the new Blogger policy of no longer allowing the FTP option of publishing.

So, until the switch is complete, radio silence is expected.

See you soon, though!

Jason

Perfect Love... Gone Wrong

Page 3 of the 4 page Cloak & Dagger Marvel sample.

I've worked and reworked that 3rd panel far too many times. In fact, I was working on that panel while in Chicago. I had to run down to the local Jewel Osco at roughly 10 PM to buy a pencil, a pencil sharpener and some invisible tape so I could do a quick fix on the left hand figure before showing it to CB on the Sunday of the show. I've reworked it again, since getting home from the con. It's not perfect but it's soooo much better than it was before.

More con recap on Monday. I promise.

Symphony No. 9 in D minor

This is page 2 of the 4 page Marvel sample I showed to a few people. There are supposed to be images in the monitors/holoscreens but I ran out of time to draw the scenes that Stuart had asked for. They were to be shots of destruction and death as a result of superhero battles. It was Cloak's very own "A Clockwork Orange" moment.

Sorry Charlie

I know. This was supposed to be part II of my C2E2 wrap up. What can I say. I suck at writing real copy. But, for all the interested, I'll be posting pages of my latest Marvel sample that I showed around at C2E2 until I can get the recap post written. This page is the first of 4 pages I did from the recent Cloak & Dagger one shot.

That makes up for my tardiness, yes?

The Power Cosmic 2000, Part 1

My C2E2 trip to Chicago was over a week ago and I'm still trying to get a post up about the show. Sad, eh?

The short of it is the con went well for me. I got to meet new people, visit with people I knew already, buy cheap comic trades and get some invaluable reviews of my Marvel sample.

The long of it...? Well, it goes a little something like this...

Thursday afternoon, I flew into O'Hare without any problems... other than trying to figure out how to get downtown to my hotel without it costing $28+. I was already on the hook for $25 cab rides to and from my house to the Vancouver airport so paying more for cab rides was not the option I was looking for. Along came the Chicago Transit Authority and their Blue Line train. $2.25 to go downtown. Sold! Just make sure you have exact change, though.

The train ride was pretty cool. I got to see different parts of South Chicago from the safety of a moving train. The stations were kinda dodgy and I felt like I was being cased as an easy victim (middle class white dude with suitcase looking for maps trying to figure out where to go) but I managed to find my hotel without incident.

It was on the walk to the hotel I wished I had a camera. This was surprising as I've never had that urge when in other US cities. Maybe it's because the city is so old, unlike the western coast cities I usually go to...? Anyway, the architecture and the city planning were very cool to look at. Very inspiring to a guy that likes to draw stuff like that.

I was to meet Michael May, Grant Gould and Uko Smith in the hotel lobby around 4PM. It was 3:45PM when I got there so asked the clerk to tell them I was in the hotel diner/bar having a drink. Time passed slowly as I waiting for their arrival. I ordered some food and another drink, all the while Top Gun was playing on the TV overhead. I broke out the brush pens and paper and did a few drawings (see the 2 images in this post and the image from the previous post):

It was around 6PM that Michael and Grant got to the hotel. We went up to the room to wait for Uko. He arrived shortly after that and we headed out for dinner to a pizza place just around the corner from the hotel. It was my first real Chicago deep dish pizza. It was... fine. 'Nuff Said. Early night to bed as I was exhausted from having no sleep the night before. I was literally working on my Marvel sample pages 15 minutes before calling for my cab to the airport at 4AM. Anyways...

Friday morning, Michael and I arrived at the con around noon, as we didn't have to be there early to set up a table like Uko and Grant. I like the feeling of not having to set up, actually. I get to come and go whenever I like. It was cool of Grant let us use his table as home base, though. Carrying all my stuff around the con is a drag, so having a place to drop it off at is very cool. A tip o'my hat to you, Mr Gould!

It was time to hit the con floor!

Check out the next installment, tomorrow !

Me and Brent Schoonover chatting about... tune in tomorrow to find out!

Keep Yourself Alive

This sketch was done in the hotel bar while waiting for my C2E2 roommates to show up. I'll be writing more about my Chicago experience this weekend but I thought I'd better put something up here so you all would know I'm still alive!

The Goin' Get Tough From The Getgo

I'm working my way towards the last page of my Cloak & Dagger sample pencils. I'm feeling pretty good about them. The last page is going to be tough to finish as I have to almost completely redesign it. After doing the previous pages it has become apparent that the last page just isn't up to the others, in terms of layout design.

I need to put it into high gear if I want to have all 5 pages ready for my 4:30 AM departure, on Thursday! Wish me luck!

My Old School

Things are coming down to the wire. I'm working my ass off trying to get my Marvel sample pages ready for C2E2 (I leave for Chicago on Thursday!). I'm about halfway through them and I think they are decent. I'm sure once I pull them out at the show I'll see tons of things I'll want to fix. But, for now, they seem to be working out nicely.

The image above is of 2 panels from my Cloak & Dagger sample.

Sample And Hold

It's not much to look at but this is another rough panel for the Cloak & Dagger sample.

I think I've decided to focus on just the penciling of the pages. If I have time (ha), I'll try and do a inked page to take with me as an example of how it would look if I did the pages my usual way (inking directly from roughs). I won't hold my breath on that one, though.

Thanks for all the input yesterday, folks!

All Over The World

My process is all over the map on these Cloak & Dagger sample pages. Seriously. It's a mix of traditional pencils and digital "pencils". The digital pencils are looking a lot like inks... not sure what to do now. Pencil the pages or digitally ink the pages. It's turning out to be almost the same amount of work, in terms of drawing time.

The above image shows the rough pencil drawing and a tighter digital drawing. Not quite tight enough on the hand and bodies to be considered "finished" but the face is pretty much ready to go straight to print. I'm just not sure if I should finish it up in the computer or with a regular pencil...? C2E2 is coming up fast and I need to make a decision.

Just A Job To Do

The rough layouts for my Marvel sample pages are done. Now it's time to tighten them up into properly penciled pages. Tight pencils weren't exactly what I was thinking of taking with me to C2E2. I was planning on just showing inked pages done from the rough layouts but I've decided to pencil the pages as though I was going for a penciling job, instead.

I *may* have time to ink one of the pages to show as an example of what the pages would look like if I inked them. That is time dependent, though.

Everything Is Broken

I've shifted gears a bit and have begun working on some Marvel sample pages. My plan is to have at least 5 pages of pencils ready to show C.B. Cebulski at C2E2, which is a brand new convention happening in Chicago in less than 2 weeks. I was going to work from a Spider-Man Team Up script that C.B. had given me but I had the good fortune of getting writer/editor Stuart Moore to let me use one of his scripts, instead. The script I'm working from now is the Cloak & Dagger one shot that just came out called, "The Broken Church". So far, the roughs are looking good. Let's hope the final penciled pages turn out solid!

Proud Mary

Today's drawing is courtesy of Stewart Copland. He is 4 1/2 years old and this is his first drawing of Spider-Man. Stewart and I are very proud of this drawing.

This post was co-written with Stewart.

Kickapoo

So, I haven't mentioned this but Trickster is coming out very shorty! I'll let the words of the anthology's editor and contributor Matt Dembicki fill you in on the particulars...

'Trickster' to debut at SPACE

The 232-page, full-color anthology Trickster that I've worked on for the past four years will debut at the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo April 24-25 in Columbus, Ohio. The book features trickster stories from more than 20 Native American storytellers illustrated by some of today's most dynamic indie comics artists! (You can also pre-order copies here at Amazon.com.)

Needless to say, I'm very excited to be a part of this book and hope you all will give it a chance!

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!