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09-06-2010
September will be a blackout month. I will tell you about it all in October, but the sad truth is, I will not be updating this, or any other site this month.
May the weeks be kind to you.
08-28-2010
Some days you have to do everything twice.
There are also days when you have to do things thirty-six times. Maybe this doesn't happen to you very often. It happens more often when you have to worry about pulling editions of prints. Please remember, pulling the edition is supposed to be part of the fun of the exercise.
I actually do enjoy pulling editions. I had more technical difficulties today than I care for, but the job is done now. I would ordinarily make celebratory remarks at this juncture, but the aforementioned technical difficulties may require I pull the entire edition again. Double the enjoyment!
Hopefully I will be able to salvage things after the prints are done drying.
Since we are considering doubles this week, please enjoy the following two images. They are details from a drawing project I though I had finished a few weeks ago, but have since decided I need to part of it over.
Perhaps next week I'll be able to show you something I am not in the process of redoing.
08-21-2010
Perhaps you were hoping for more images from my book project this week? I'm afraid I have to disappoint you. You will have to make do with three new images in the gallery. I hope that will be ok with you. They are actually all prints from last year, but I was hoping you would enjoy them anyway.
This week has progressed in something akin to slow motion. I suppose it is a result of simply being busy. Sometimes full employment results in a quick time slip and then it's Christmas again. Sometimes full employmen just makes time crawl.
Most of my efforts have been concerned with such things as planning for the new Rohnert Park facility for Megamoth Studio, framing for some juried shows and trying to get materials together for proper bookbinding action. Well, those are the fun parts. The lion's portion of the rest of my time was spent in pitched battle against the time-gobbler. Maybe it's not so much a battle against as an effort to ride. I will consider this.
I am still reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. It is still delightful.
I have recently renewed my commitment to western comics. It's not much of a commitment, but it does mean I have been buying some comic books again. So far the only superhero book I have brought home is the first issue of the Dark Horse reboot of Dr. Solar. Sadly, it is terrible. The story isn't great. It isn't necessarily bad either, being a more or less standard superhero plot, but the art murders it. I'm not certain if it is inked poser layouts or computer traced photo refs, but whatever technique it is, it really fails.
Much more to my liking are The Eternal Conflicts of the Cosmic Warrior #1 by Paul Grist and Buzzard by Eric Powell. Grist's offering is beautifully drawn. It has a major problem, namely that this is the only issue in existence and the story, while very promising, is not fulfilling at this point. Powell's Buzzard is also drawn well. I could have done without Billy the Kid's Old Timey Oddities in the back of the book, but the story about Buzzard is good enough I plan to pickup the rest next week.
To all the comic book artists out there: draw with your hands. It's just better.
08-14-2010
Scott Pilgrim vs The World was good. There were a few things that felt a little bit rushed or a bit muddled, but surprisingly few, considering the length of the original narrative. The visual effects and sound track were delightfully amusing, especially for a comic book and video game geek such as myself. I enjoyed the comic book of Scott Pilgrim, and then I enjoyed the movie. Maybe it's just the Airbender trauma speaking, but it seems like good movie adaptations of an IP I am a fan of from a different medium are rare and to be much celebrated.
So I'm celebrating.
Today I celebrated by spending all day in the studio, which is an event that is also rare and to be celebrated. By way of celebration, I bring you the first page of a book of drawings I've been working on:
I'm rather fond of it.
I'm still deciding whether the book format is worth pursuing again, once the current batch is completed, but I'm stuck pretty well in it now.
Until next week...
08-07-2010
July is dead! Long live August!
The day job keeps me busy all year round so August is no longer the last bastion of Summer buffering me from the onset of the school year. After so many years of of school (I made it halfway through the twentieth grade) I find August still feels like the twilight of a time of magical freedom.
It probably helps that twilight lasts so long here in Sonoma County in August.
I have finally had a chance to read through some of my booty from San Diego Comic Con. The books from Archaia are all pretty entertaining, though they do suffer a bit from errors in production. As distracting as a typo or poorly cleaned word bubble may be, everything generally holds up well.
Robotika and Okko are both decent adventure comics with nice melee action. Robotika has the more potent story-telling at the moment with a nice post-apocalyptic/mystic martial arts sort of feeling. If I were forced to make broad mash-up comparisons, I would say it is sort of a Mad Max meets Dune, but that will probably give you the wrong idea. The story telling in Okko does not flow as smoothly, but it gets points with me for being based in magical Japanese folklore. I will probably purchase the next installments of both books.
The premise of Hybrid Bastard was very amusing. It is about the children of Zeus and various inanimate objects he copulated with when he was on a curse induced bender. Unfortunately, the story didn't really go anywhere meaningful once the premise had been established.
The Killer is about as gritty as it sounds. If you enjoy stories about cold-blooded professional assassins, this is a good book for you.
I have not found the time to read the Fraggle Rock comic yet. It's important to have something to look forward to.
In all honesty, my favorite comic book acquisition of the month of July was not from Comic Con, but from Evan Dahm of Rice Boy fame. I order the first volume of Order of Tales from him and it's a beautiful book. Nice printing, and the Order of Tales is very high on my list for fantasy story telling. If you haven't read it yet, I recommend you go to his site and begin now.
Make sure you check out the gallery today. There are two new pieces on display. A print finished just last Saturday and a personal favorite from a few years ago.
And, of course, there is some drawing action for the news page. Wouldn't want it to feel neglected, after all.
