The Not-So-Regular Musings of Philip Moy

ConSketches from SpringCon 2011

2011-05-25T09:58:00.005-05:00

Got out to SpringCon for the first time since they flipped the FallCon days in Minneapolis, MN. Always exciting when the Tornado Sirens go off.

ConSketch Update: Planet Comicon 2011

2011-05-25T09:47:00.005-05:00

Don't mind me, just catching up posting some sketches from earlier this year done at Planet Comicon in Kansas City, KS.

Shameless Plug #oh damn I forgot.

2011-05-04T14:07:00.002-05:00

Anyhoo, My bro and I have dropped by to visit our Old Friends at the Legion of Superheroes in Adventure Comics #526 out today! It's an 8 page back up story starring XS and what the heck she's doing now Post Crisis. Many thanks to Brian and Paul for giving us such a treat. Buy it Nao~!

Bunny Quorra!

2011-03-10T01:02:00.004-06:00

More messing around with the Cintiq. An inset of a larger pic in which I tried to put some tone on it, but it looked really half-assed, so I took it out. I also messed up by inking on the Sketch layer.

But Fun!

Practicing Digital Inks

2011-02-22T00:04:00.006-06:00

Got my new Cintiq, dreading the day the credit card bill comes in. But in the meantime, I'm working with Manga Studio EX4 and attempting to import my traditional inking style into the computer. Some good, some not so good. :/

Spectacular Spider-Man 214 & 215

2011-02-17T02:51:00.003-06:00

Got a couple of comp copies from Panini Press in the UK so I can finally see the final product of my inks and John Royle's pencils on Spidey! Wish I could have gotten around to inking John's Covers, bonus for them being a pull out poster inside the mag. :P

Thanks to Pat Bishop for sending them out to me.

Happy New Year! (or: Another Year's Gone By Already??)

2011-01-05T16:16:00.004-06:00

Greetings Programs! Liked the new Tron film, not without it's flaws but still a nice sequel to the original. Olivia Wilde as Quorra was good to see she was more integral to the plot than just being eyecandy. Good time.

Another year has come and gone, let's hope I can get off my gaming rear end (but, but... merits and shards are delicious!) and get something done... >:( In the meantime I've been fairly steadily inking for Marvel UK on their Spectacular Spiderman book. I finished work on that Dr. Strange 2 parter and inked up a Spiderman/Spidergirl team up afterwards. I also inked up a Luke Cage/Iron Fist cover for I'd assume is Marvel Heroes UK. Love it when they don't tell me what it's for. :P

So enjoy some Artwork, and hope everyone has a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Spidey UK!

2010-11-09T00:12:00.004-06:00

Enjoy this page for a Spiderman/Dr. Strange story I'm currently inking for Panini Comics. A couple more pages to do, then onto Part 2. Fantastic pencils by John Royle.

Too skinny or tall to Post on Facebook... :P

2010-10-22T10:57:00.002-05:00

Pulled before publication in fear of death threats and Fatwas... how far is this going to go?

Looking Back, One Cannot Help But Laugh

2010-10-03T23:30:00.003-05:00

Still going through China pics and getting over Jetlag. But I was able to finish inking this in the meantime... ;)

Ding! Dazzler's Done!

2010-09-08T16:54:00.003-05:00

And now a trip back to the Dark Side... ;P

Back on da Horse--Again.

2010-09-05T17:12:00.001-05:00

yay! finally got another commish done (pesky CoH Badges :P). Unfortunately, this sliver is the only safe bit I can show... :) Onto a *safe* Disco Dazzler! Really gotta get that other site up and running. :P

12" Cintiq

2010-08-16T15:45:00.002-05:00

Testing out my Cousin Ray's Cintiq. Fairly warm in the lap, the only way to turn it. Might have to go for the bigger one.

Ooh, City of Heroes: Going Rogue is out. *scurries away*

(work in progress)

San Diego Bound!

2010-07-20T01:19:00.003-05:00

Well time just flies when you're having fun or if you're just slackin'. :P San Diego is upon me and I'm in the midst of packing. Jeff and I will have our Artist Alley spaces at BB-05 and BB-06. Looks a bit different from last year, they divided the rows so there are some butted up against the far wall. Hopefully our spots aren't there, bad traffic flow, IMO. Space is tight so I'll be unfortunately skipping on the back issues.

I was also stalled out on my Bunny Book, so hopefully I'll get that done for next year. But I have some sketchbooks still from previous years, and some more Original Art and PPG Covers I'm good to let go.

But anyhoo, back to packing. Sees you there! :)

PS: I really want one of those Tron Legacy/Olivia Wilde Banners they have up on the lightposts... wonder how hard it is to climb a lamp post? *yummy!*

2010-06-19T11:32:00.002-05:00

Don't make me use mah stuff on you, baby! Uh Huh, Thank you very much! Another CoH comish.

2010-06-13T16:36:00.003-05:00

Sigh, still catching up on commissions. One of the tamer ones I have to do. Mosaics make it more interesting than it is. ;P

2010-06-09T21:35:00.001-05:00

Ding! Fries are Done! Meh, such a long way to go still. :P

Marvel Heroes Wolverine Cover Inks

2010-06-05T08:55:00.004-05:00

Inks for the Marvel Heroes cover featuring Wolverine done. I guess the X-Men story I inked before will be appearing in Marvel Heroes #23 in the UK. I hope they send me out some copies.

Slow Train Runnin'

2010-06-03T15:12:00.006-05:00

Sigh, I hate stalling out, but I have again. Anyhoo, here's some stuff that I've been working on lately. I have some commissions to catch up on and a little bit of inking work for Panini over John Royle. Enjoy! :)

Bunny Update

2010-04-24T15:30:00.002-05:00

Work goes slow but pencils are coming along... might have to make another pic of an aftermath... a sech-say aftermath... :P

Mew.

2010-04-20T10:20:00.002-05:00

Mew mew mew mew mew mew, mew mew mew mew. Mew mew mew, mew mew mew mew mew?

Mew.

Post C2E2

2010-04-19T09:16:00.009-05:00

Monday Morning and recovering from C2E2. It was a blast, albeit, a bit expensive to have the con so close to Downtown Chicago, but Man, what a view. Setup on Thursday was extra nice, being sunny and 80. The rest of the weekend was also sunny, but a bit on the nippy side. That's Chicago for you. ;)

I kept some friends company who went to the Kick Ass premiere at River East. They didn't have tickets, just wanted autographs (which they got, though they look more like squiggles to me. :P) from Aaron Johnson and Chloe Moretz. Fun and interesting to hang out though. Ate out at P.J. Craig's after and drew on the butcher paper while waiting for mah Chicken Pot Pie(!).

The con itself was good for a first time, I hope they continue and put pressure on WW. Getting down from Downtown Chicago to McCormick place was a bit of a hassle on Friday with the morning rush, but Saturday and Sunday was easier getting the shuttle and moving on the roads. Even though I only live about 50 minutes away, I don't get into Chicago nearly enough as I'd like to. I love taking pics of the buildings. Though I think I need a new camera, one that takes better long exposures for night shots. But a Big Thank You to the C2E2 staff for putting me on their list for Artist Alley. :)

On to Sketches! I had a fun time doing these, Jesse Quick (though I did have an idea for "Flashing," maybe have to do that later. ;) ) Did some Magic for Johnny in the form of an Anime Schoolgirl, a PPG sketch for John Metych's (Sniper and Rook) son, and a nice Animated Batgirl. There's one other commish, but that's NSFW, and I didn't get a pic of the Stick Figure I drew for some guy's sketchbook theme. A lot of free quickie sketches went out to Kids on Kids Sunday.

I did take a couple of commishs to do at home, just to do a better inking job on it with mah pro tools. And I did get another Bunny pic mostly pencilled out, this one of Ms. Marvel to compliment the one I have in mind for Rogue. I'll post those when I get them done, or should I?? Noone would buy the book then. :P

Anyhoo, back at home and had a great time at C2E2! :)

Marvel Heroes

2010-04-14T08:28:00.005-05:00

New work (maybe some semi regular work) comes in the form of inking over one of my favorite pencilers John Royle. This is a cover for UK's Marvel Heroes mag, I'm not sure what issue number. Still being done old school, traditional inks over blueline. Still not ready to jump to the Cintiq.

C2E2 is coming around Chicago this weekend, I hope we get a good turnout being it's the first one. The room we're in faces the Lake, so at least we'll have some nice calming scenery to look at. I hear it might rain, that's too bad because it'd be really nice for congoers to take a break outside. :)

I've also gotten word that Jeff and I will not be Guests this year at Anime Central, though we'll pop our heads in to spend some bucks and talk to the Con peeps about next year. Sorry to the regular fans that normally get us to do some fun sketches at Acen, I am accepting Mail Order commissions for those who don't want to miss out.

ThoughtCrime Hits the UK

2010-04-06T22:06:00.004-05:00

A friend sent this article to me, thought I'd share. Scary thought to possibly be put in jail for drawing something... :/

Article from The Register

So, technically, I can be Arrested and Jailed for drawing or owning Image 1, but not for Image 2. What's the deal with that?? (PS, if you're in the UK, might be good not to Save Image 1 ;-) )

Post Planet Comicon and Other Stuff!

2010-04-06T18:37:00.008-05:00

Well, I hope everyone had a happy Easter Weekend (I know I'm up a couple bucks from playing Pool. mmm Money from friends is Deleecious! ;P) I also watched Sherlock Holmes and came away with thinking it a pretty darn good flick. A bit CGI-looking in parts, but lots of nice textures for old London, and a different take on the Holmes character.

Planet Comicon came and went and turned out to be one of the best times I've had at a con. Many thanks to Chris and Sidne for having us out again. Talking to many artists at the show, it turns out that I should be buying a Cintiq, but I'm not sure I'm ready to take the jump (financially or workwise). One fact being that creating digital art, there are no originals to sell. I asked Phil Noto how much he wanted for his Batgirl/Roxy Rocket cover. He shook his head and said sadly, "All digital, man." FFFUUUUUUUUUU.... :P Aw well... But anyhoo, the con was a lot of fun, had some interesting commissions to do as you see below.

Right after Planet Comicon I got sick, a sore throat which turned into congestion which still lingers but slowly getting back to full speed. So I just finished another commission, this one being Lara Croft, ahem kinda Busty. ;)
Professional work has dried up for a couple months now, I'll have to find out what's going on with the Johnny DC books and if there's something there. If not, I'm going to have to hunt down some new editors that still like traditional inks. :/ In the meantime, I still got a couple commissions to do, and I still have a lot of pieces to do for my Bunnies of Steel Book. If anyone has a character they want as a Playboy Bunny, drop me a line. ;) Here's the 2 that I got done so far. Enjoy!

Bunny Book Begins!

2010-03-22T18:19:00.003-05:00

Well finally getting some hard drawing done for hopefully a sketchbook for SanDiego. If I'm really determined (HA!) maybe C2E2. I got a short list of Women for my Bunnies of Steel book, I'll have to see what else tickles my fancy and if I got the time. Messing around with the new HTPC PVR ain't doing me any favors. XD

Looking at the piece now I'm not too happy with the tail, more Tribble than Cottontail... I'll have to work on that. This next weekend Jeff and I will be heading out to Planet Comiccon in Kansas City! Hope to see some of you there!

How Time Flies

2010-02-22T18:57:00.003-06:00

New Year and even Chinese New Year has past since my last posting, sorry all. Still trying to muddle through the inks on a special independent project then hopefully some new work. Getting distracted by the new Star Trek Online game can be blamed, but at least a bit of the excessive playing has made my Space Bar Thumb sore enough that I'm laying off it right now. :P I would say that even though I enjoy flying around in an Original TOS Enterprise, there really isn't much the way for Multiplayer action in STO. I've been labeling it a Massively Instanced Single Player Online Game (or MISPOG).

So Convention Season is quickly approaching and I've got a couple lined up for shore: San Diego is always a must and Crazy trying to get hotel rooms, and Planet Comic-Con in Kansas City. I'm still trying to get in touch with the Anime Central crew to be a Guest again, always a good time; but the people who run Fallcon in Minneapolis has changed their schedule around so their 2-day show which is normally in Sept/Oct, is now on the same weekend as Acen. If Acen falls through I guess it would be Fallcon in May. Both shows have treated us great in the past and it's unfortunate when con dates conflict. :(

Other con stuff that's happening is C2E2 which is the New York Comic-Con's big debut in Chicago at McCormick Place. Hope it has a good turnout and will give Wizard some competition. :P Anyhoo, the con needed some artist info and artwork for their site and Artist Alley Placeholders, so I did some original art for an idea that I have for a banner (if I ever get around to doing and paying for one. :P) Enjoy! :)

Peeking Before X-Mas!

2009-12-03T22:11:00.005-06:00

Here's a little sneak peek at the X-Mas Card I'm getting around to doing this year. I really only do them if I have an idea that I like, so they're few and far between (this being the 2nd :P). Again, it's the PPG, darn them, they keep dragging me back... XD I suppose next year I could just do a sexy babe in a Santa suit... :/

The full size of the original art is 11x17, heh almost like doing covers again. My monitor for Photoshop is not calibrated correctly so the reds and some of the other colors aren't coming out as vibrant as when I'm looking at it in PS. Not sure how to correct that or if I'll have problems when it comes to printing them. The inside of the card will be quite wordy and I'm not sure I'll have enough gumption to have a little beaten up Mojo in there... We'll See...

[edit] Weird, now that I look at it online, the colors are closer to what they are in PS... darnit.

A little Inspiration

2009-11-17T20:50:00.004-06:00

Farting around a couple weeks ago and inspired a bit by Michael Ryan's Rogue he drew for me at San Diego, I put together this little 9x12 of Ms. Marvel. Also inspired/referenced from my 4chan/Girls folder (putting the pron to good use...finally :P) Must...Do...More...

but that pesky new Blu-Ray Player and Star Trek sets call to me... XD

Tragedy at Fort Hood, TX

2009-11-05T17:25:00.003-06:00

My condolences and best wishes to the fallen, wounded, and their families at the recent attack/shooting spree at Fort Hood, in Killeen, TX. Only this summer were my brother Jeff and I were invited there for Animix. Though it was hotter than heck there, the people I met made it one fun convention to be at.

May your grief and mourning be transformed into Justice.

Fallcon 2009

2009-10-13T10:50:00.006-05:00

Last convention of the year is done for me, Fallcon in Minneapolis, MN. As usual, the promoters and staff treated us like Kings, did some sketching for them, and gabbed over wine and beer after a great steak dinner that they put on for all the guests and volunteers. Big hardy thanks to them for having us out for another year. Here are some sketches done for the con staff (2nd was actually my only full commission I had for the con)...

The weakened economy had some effect as I didn't have that many commissions to do (guess I might have to rollback prices. :P). But I was able to get some prelim sketches done for an upcoming project, more later if the client wants it known before it's done.

Fantastic Gene Ha and I traded sketches; I drew up one of his friend's RPG characters, and I got another Rogue for my collection. I mentioned to Gene that I like the short hair on Rogue and that for some reason, artists like to put her hood up, covering it. Well, looks like Gene threw in a little joke by having Rogue tauntingly playing with her hood. Good Job, Gene! :)

Since sketch commishs were slow, it opened up the possibilities to sketch some interesting things, this being a quicksketch for a guy who had a stack of Jack Kirby Monsters, and he would get other artists to do their rendition. I like drawing rocks, and have always been fascinated by Easter Island so The Stone Men (of Easter Island) was a natural for me. The girl was no extra charge. :P I also drew up a marker piece for the charity auction, Samurai Jack and Aku of course since it's what I'm currently working on. When I was coloring it I was noticing that something looked odd about Aku, then it dawned on me after a bit that I forgot his beard! Luckily, I wasn't far enough that I couldn't add it in. Back at home I noticed that I left the beard off of Aku again in the approved pages for the SJ story I'm working on. Those were also caught in time. :P

Bewbs!

2009-10-02T13:40:00.002-05:00

A little something to put on a T-Shirt for some charity event a friend is helping out with. I assume it's for breast cancer.

Bump! I need more in mah Post Counts. :P

2009-09-24T20:03:00.002-05:00

Have some Space Girl. :P

Yay! New Post! More Shameless Plugs!

2009-09-24T15:44:00.007-05:00

Yeah, I dropped off the face of the Earth again, wasting more time and procrastinatingly working on an 8-Pager Samurai Jack story that's just waiting for Pencil Approvals now. I am finally on Facebook, but I'm not sure how to make a Fan account to keep my personal friends and friendly fans separate.

I did put up some pics from this year's San Diego Convention there, though I thought I took some better and more pics, but I guess that's all I have. Enjoy what you can. Hopefully you can see them and they're not blocked. :)

LaJolla, CA
San Diego Comic Con
Sketches from SDCC

On Shameless Plug front, A couple of World of Warcraft Trades came out; Book 2 Hardcover which compiles issues #8-14. Book 1 is now in a Softcover TP with a shiny new cover.

Also out is the Cartoon Network Action Pack #41 which has my Samurai Jack "Sanderella" 6-Pager. It was rather wordy with all the narration they had in there, but glad to see they worked it all in around my artwork. ;)

And now, have some more doodles of Lady Scorpia.

Animix 2009: Followup (Non-Gripey)

2009-07-30T19:54:00.005-05:00

Alrighty, now that I have SDCC out of the way, time to catch up on some good thing out of Texas from Animix: Costumes! Gotta give ppl credit for sticking to their guns in the heat. Seems like a lot of the fans and con staff in Killeen, TX knew each other beforehand or from last year, so the whole convention feel was rather friendly. Enjoy the Cosplay pics!

But surely one of the weirdest juxtapositions I've seen at a con takes the prize! :)

Wrap up from SDCC next time. Or maybe something of a Travelogue...

AniMix 2009--All Melty! (sorry, griping post)

2009-07-20T09:59:00.004-05:00

Well, I guess the pic above says it all for this little posting on AniMix. It was HOT! Yes, yes, Texas is hot, and I shouldn't be griping since I'm in an Air Conditioned hallway for our Artist Alley space. That would be true if the AA was AC'd. Supposedly, the AC crapped out on the convention again like it did last year for AniMix's first run. I think the hotel was just too cheap to turn on the AC in the pubic areas, meeting rooms, and hotel hallways, but the bathroom on the first floor was AC'd, go figure. :/

It didn't help matters that many artists, including myself, were positioned in front of huge windows with the sun beating down on their backs. Fortunately, the ConStaff with experience from last year stapled up some bedsheets to diffuse the magnifying effect of the glass. A giant fan was brought in to help, but that was usurped many a time by the Copic marker guy. It came down to getting a fan from the local Wal-Mart to provide a breeze, mind you, a hot breeze. :P I didn't have a thermometer, but I would have to say it was 90 or above in there. Nice and melty.

This is my complaint post ATM, since I'm in a grumpy mood, seeing as our flight out to Dallas was delayed, and we had to reposition ourselves to make it back to Chicago last night, we had to switch to United. Unfortunately our checked luggage didn't switch and is at the airport. They're supposed to be sending it out, but I'll have to keep on that to make sure they do. Gotta repack for the flight to SDCC tomorrow. :P But yes, this is the Griping Post. Some good did come of it, a good beer and steak Saturday night, some good company, found some figures I was looking for, and some nice looking ppl cosplaying. Thanks goes out to Keita for having us out, and hopefully it was a success enough that they can move to a better hotel for the next time.

BTW, the Yoko pic was done for their Auction, hopefully they'll be setting it up on eBay to sell some point in the future, so be generous. ;-)

Whachu Talkin' Bout Willis?!?

2009-07-16T17:48:00.004-05:00

I shall always remember its name as The Sears Tower!!! Nuff Said!
Enjoy an old ad piece I did for college... Ah... Good Times... :)

Back to Back Cons!

2009-07-16T12:56:00.013-05:00

Tomorrow Jeff and I will be heading out to the hot town of Killeen, TX for Animix, an anime convention near Fort Hood. It'll be our first time out there so all my stuff will be new to them! :P

San Diego will be the week after and we'll be shopping around on Preview Night, but will be at our Artist Alley spaces the rest of the time. Jeff and I are at spots EE-07 and EE-08, which might be the same spots we had last year. Nice to have some continuity.

We're relegated to 1/2 a table each again, so I'll probably be leaving the comic book back issues at home, but will have my Original Art, same ol' prints, and will do Sketch Commissions (no color cept for CN stuff.) New for this year is a collection of nekkid Faye Valentines out of my sketchbooks, lovingly laid out in a 40 page book appropriately titled "FayeSketches."

I was hoping to work up some new prints, but procrastinated too long and didn't really get anything down. I did finish an idea for my Joker/Harley print, but will probably just sell off the original. Some things don't work for me, and I'll probably do another later on.

Catfight!

2009-07-02T21:26:00.003-05:00

San Diego is coming up and I'm trying to catch up on stuff for it. I gots nuthin' ready and I'm getting some color commissions out of the way. This one I just finished up featuring Ivy Valentine (Soul Calibur) and Red Monika (Battle Chasers) fighting. I'd show the rest, but it's NSFW. XD But I really liked how the faces and expressions turned out so I thought I'd share.

Samurai Jack: Sanderella

2009-06-26T08:15:00.004-05:00

I finished inking my 4 page Samurai Jack story based on Cinderella. Cept that Jack and The Scotsman are the Stepsisters in the story. I'd post 2 pages, but then that would be Half the story. As it is, the script has tons of narration in it, I hope I left enough room for the letterer to fit it all in. :)

I have a Jack inventory story to do (inventory meaning it's not really scheduled yet, maybe won't even be printed sometimes), but I also got to start gearing up for San Diego. We'll see if I get anything done for that... I hope so, but those pesky video games get in the way... *sigh* sometimes it's just damn inconvenient to have a Quad Core CPU sitting right behind you... ;P

Baby and Babe

2009-06-15T11:06:00.007-05:00

Enjoy the baby pic! Made for a friend's Blues Band (Baby Blues, I think). It'll go on a shirt or whatever else he wants to do with it. :P

And once again I have to get into the swing of drawing girls again, so might as well draw em nekkid. Censored for the kiddies, though I bet if you squint really hard you could imagine you see something...

Shameless Plug #13 &14

2009-06-13T11:33:00.005-05:00

A couple of titles that I worked on came out in the last few weeks. One is my last issue of World of Warcraft (#19) that I inked another 14 pages on. The other is Cartoon Network Action Pack, which has the long strung out Samurai Jack 8 Pager entitled "The Portal." It may seem longer than it is, maybe only because practically each page is separated by an ad of some sort. But that's the way the biz goes, and I have to thank Sean Ryan, my new editor for using my full name. :) Also, for not covering up my Firefly homage on Page 2 ^_^.

Currently I finished up the pencils for another Samurai Jack 4 pager and waiting for approvals to ink that. I normally don't have any problem with approvals and they rarely have me change things, but maybe they may have some question as to some of Jack's...uh...DRESSES! :3

Time's Flying By! Noooes!!!!1!!

2009-05-30T14:26:00.003-05:00

I've been catching up on some stuff lingering around my desk, a commish leftover from Acen that I finally got around to, Utena and Anthy from the anime Utena. Enjoy!

Thinking about my Bunny Sketchbook I wanted to get out for SDCC, but I probably won't be able to pull it off in time, so maybe I'll have to come up with some prints. Since it's PPG's 10th anniversary, I guess I can put together some new ones (the old ones are ooooold. :P) Maybe get a Yoko print done. And maybe a banner, skip bringing comics, cause we only get half a table now. :(

Other than that, still mulling over my pencils for my latest Samurai Jack 4 pager. He's not really in it that much, plus him and The Scotsman are in drag. It'll make sense once you get the context :P

Terminator: Salvation (Return of the Post Apocalyptic Action Flick)

2009-05-22T19:06:00.004-05:00

I have to say that out of the first three Summer Blockbuster Films of 2009 I've seen, this one I've come away with as the most satisfying so far.

The problem I had with Wolverine was an overtly convoluted plot for an action flick with huge leaps of logic concerning certain effects when you shoot shoot a guy with adamantium bullets. Yes, Wolverine has a complicated backstory, but that film did nothing to make sense of it, just gave it all to us to, I assume, satisfy every fan who liked a given "origin."

Star Trek, for me, didn't feel like the Star Trek Universe. I accept that ST needed to be rebooted, but essentially to throw away 40 years of continuity, I don't accept. The new ST Movies goes on for a new mainstream audience, but it becomes a shallow bit of digital puffery, the characters shadows of their former selves. The only thing nostalgic for me in this film was Pike's Admiral's uniform remincent of Kirk's from ST:TMP.

So why does Terminator: Salvation work for me? Does it have a perfect story? Hell no! It's an action flick! So why do I let it slide when I rant on ST2009? Because it hits that Nostalgic spot. It's a sort of Prequel, but it feels like it's set in the Terminator Universe. We get a longer look into the post-apocalyptic world that we've only seen glimpses of in the first 2 Terminator films. Growing up with films like The Mad Max series, and other direct-to-video B films like Defcon-4, it tugs at the Nostalgia Strings in my brain. I think McG (the director) was probably paying homage, or maybe ripping off those films, but he did it well and wrapped it up in a pretty package.

So I like the setting, check. What also worked for me? The journey Marcus takes, finding Kyle Reese, and I actually liked the support (literally) role the little girl, Star, played. Adorablely cute in her scenes. There was an obvious hostage plot thread they could have gone down ala Newt(Aliens), but I'm glad they didn't do it with her. It's still in there, and that's probably when you have to turn off your brain. :/

Christian Bale as John Conner? I wonder if Bale's gonna be typecast as the mumbling/gravel voice action guy forever more? I don't remember if he spoke this way in Equilibrium or The Prestige, but I guess he's just stuck in his Batman Groove. I do like that we get to see a bit more of John Connor's history that leads up to the Iconic Leader seen at the beginning of T2. If this is going to be a new Trilogy or if they make another one, I hope they'll expand his character from just relying on his Prophecy/Messiah complex, and actually flesh him out as a brilliant tactician. Because if all that he is, the guy following his mama's advice/knowledge about the future, Humanity's a lost cause.

The action scenes were easier to follow than the ones in ST and Wolverine, and much cooler cause it's got Giant Robot Killing Machines. :) Great Cameo to tie it too it's roots, too.

There are several Silence/Bam! moments to make me jump out of my seat, and they were mostly effective without having me question them; unlike the Stealth Subway Train in Underworld (I still have to finish watching that film). The plot twist when revealed throws everything that happened in the first 2/3s of the movie into a big plot convienence hole, and that'd be my biggest gripe about the film. But what ST2009 couldn't overcome for me, T:S does by giving me some devastated futuristic landscapes and Humanity driven to extinction and surviving like rats ala Road Warrior. Ahh... Good Times... :)

Star Dreck 2009 (Purdy much Spoiler Free but Ranty)

2009-05-15T09:24:00.005-05:00

The movie's been bubbling around in my brain since I saw it Monday with Hen Da Ne! guys Andrew and Chris at the Lincolnshire Theater (didn't see it in IMAX due to some unforeseen circumstances), and I gotta say I'm really not angry or rabid at the new film, just kinda Disappointed.

I had some preconceived ideas about what I was going to see, being a JJ Abrams production and all, and it's pretty much what I expected. I know it's getting 99.9% on Rotten Tomatoes, and everyone is getting wet over the movie, but I really don't see how this is a GREAT movie. It's not even a Good movie from a Story/Character standpoint. Yes, it's got great Special Effects (90% of the costs went to extra Lens Flares), but that's really a given in this day and age. Well, Wolverine is an exception with some pretty awful prosetetics on the Blob's neck and some funky de-aging CG on the actor in the end. But since we got nice pretty visuals, can we not expect to have the same for characters and plot?

Without those 2 things, the very foundation of a movie, it's like taking a bite out of a nice juicy apple, only to find a worm in it. Yeah, there may still be good parts that haven't been wormtouched, but the experience as a whole is ruined. Would you take a second bite?

There used to be Summer Blockbusters that had great characters and nice flowing plots: Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders, OT Star Wars, The Mummy, The Incredibles, The Hulk. But all we get are a bunch of Ultraviolets; a string of action sequences that they try to weave a plot into. If that's all you expect from a film, good for you I guess. But when the filmmakers have characters doing things that wouldn't be in character, or meet other characters just for plot convienence, it's a bad thing. Worse if it rips you out of the movie to think to yourself "WTF?? That's just really crappy writing" And that happened a bunch of times in Star Trek, one really big time on Delta Vega.

I'm not expecting to have a perfect film that has no plot holes, or ties up every loose end, but if there are good memorable characters, and I can quote lines of dialogue, It works for me. (the only bad quote I use is "Meesa" from Jar Jar if I want to play Stupid in chat. :P)

So to sum up, Star Trek 2009 didn't float my boat. Very showy (a given), but filled with lots of plot convienences, really no character, no chance for the hero and audience to breath and reflect (even Die Hard and ST:TWOK did that), and No Disintegrations! (c wut i did thar?) :P

Well, there was one disintegration... I realize I didn't talk about the movie much at all, I'll have to see if this thing can do invisotext...

Decompressing from Anime Central 2009

2009-05-12T14:27:00.010-05:00

Yo! Finally getting around to putting up the pics and sketches from Acen in Rosemont this last weekend. Had a blast, got alot of multiple character/color commissions which can take alot of time. That means I can't get to as many ppl who would want one. Fortunately (or unfortunately for me) I didn't have to turn away too many ppl since my list was filled by early Saturday. I still have a couple to finish up at home, but it worked out well. I was planning on getting them done Saturday night in the Guest Green Room, but I got distracted by Rock Band. Yes, yes, woe is me. :P So here we got a couple of CoH characters (always fun to do), a swimwear ad featuring Christy, Etna, and Matoko, lastly a PPG sketch featuring MojoBubbles from Los Dos Mojos (might make a good print...hmm). I did do some other sketches, but they're NSFW.

Speaking of PPG, I was amazed at seeing not one set of PPG cosplayers but at least 4 different groups! And one of them a Him (always creepy ;P ). Maybe it's because PPG is back on Boomerang, CN's premium cartoon channel. Also suprising is that I sold more PPG prints and comics at this show than I have in a long time. Perhaps it's because ppl who used to watch the show now have some disposible income of their own and have a bit of nostalgia tugging at the pursestrings, it's welcome nevertheless. Guess I gotta make some new PPG prints. :p

Of course there were some other nice costumes, Elektra and Jessica Rabbit were some, along with a very sexy Haruhi Bunny, and alot of Gurren Lagaan cosplayers (these 3 just happened to be friends with cousin Stephanie attending her first con, ah start the corruption now. :P) Ryan Zanfei of her very own Tasty Peach Studios showed off her loli side and made a killing in Artist Alley selling all sorts of extremely cute prints and stickers. Nice design sense, she'll go far.

All in all, had alot of fun. Bought more than I should have, guess I'll have to hold off on that dining room table I wanna get. But at least I have another couple figures to decorate my studio and collect tons of dust, and I've increased my book collection by a little bit more. :) I did see Star Trek on Monday, I'll have to blog/gripe about that in another post, I'll just say for now that it isn't my Star Trek.

Freee! (and Shameless Plug #12)

2009-04-30T19:25:00.006-05:00

Yay! Finally finished off a Samurai Jack story that I've been putting off for a couple months due to one distraction after another. It was very unprofessional of me, and I should straighten out my priorities. I think it did turn out well enough though and the inks were done in 4 days.

Hopefully I can get more work from DC. More inking work on WoW has dried up though because of a change in art direction, doing the Pencils to Painted Color route. Hope they pull it off though, I'm naturally not a big fan of the style. ;P Russell Lissau, another Chicago Local writing for DC says he's got a couple Batman: Brave and Bold stories in line, one with The Question which peaked my interest. We'll see what goes on with that. I'll most likely hang with him next week at Acen.

What? Acen? Anime Central?? Yes, I finally got word from their Chairperson that Jeff and I do have tables for the Exhibit Hall, so we'll be able to meet peeps and do some sketching. Jeff says though that he'll be dropping down from Madison on Saturday and Sunday. Raven is probably taking them out to see Star Trek.

And for peeps hitting the comic shop, World of Warcraft #18 came out a couple weeks ago. I inked the first 14 pages out of that.

WoW #19 Inks

2009-04-07T21:32:00.003-05:00

Well, World of Warcraft Issue #19 Inks are underway. Here's another craaazy double page spread penciled by Mike Bowden. Gotta love those Abominations with their guts hanging out... ew... :P

Planet Comicon 2009 Day 2

2009-04-04T11:35:00.004-05:00

As promised, the last 3 Sketches I did for peeps at Planet Comicon. 1) Seras from Hellsing, a suprisingly bloodly manga with lotsa limbs being hacked off, ew :P; 2) Witchblade art cover done in pen, I was inspired by Dan Scott (WoW and Magic TCC Painter) and his pen doodling he was doing in the space next to mine; and 3) The PPG style Batgirl for The BatFan! Enjoy!

And now it's off to inking WoW #19. It's another tight deadline, we'll see how many pages I can get this issue.

Planet Comicon 2009

2009-03-29T23:50:00.008-05:00

The time sure goes by fast. The Kansas City con came and went. Nice weather Friday, then with 4 inches of snow that fell late Saturday, only to all melt by Sunday night. Craziness! I hope the snow melts back home as it did in KC.

Jeff and I got to the airport on time, only to find the plane would be an hour an a half late. Also, it sucks to find out that I forgot to close the garage door before I left, only to have a nice neighbor close it for me. I Guess I'll have to meet him sometime to thank him (He's only been living across the street for a couple years. :P)

Anyhoo, the con went well, got to chat/hang with some comic art heavyhitters like Joe Jusko, Michael Golden, Mark Texiera, and Tommy Castillo. I also finally met Cynthia Martin, whom I inked over on some fill-in Blue Beetle issues. She's been in the industry a long time, pencilling Mavel's Star Wars comic back in the 80's. Purdy kewl person and artist, hopefully we'll be able to collaborate on something again in the future and I won't try to run over her pencils to make it look like Cully's art (although she says she didn't mind, how kind ;) ).

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read) Here! Have some pics of Comissions from the first day of the Con (Very Productive Day!) 1. Mary Jane Watson, 2. Serina from Magna Carta, 3. Element Lad, 4. Kinetix, 5. Rogue by me and Storm by Jeff.

I Don't Want To Go On The Cart!!

2009-03-13T08:56:00.004-05:00

*Sigh*, yes it's been a while since I've updated. I hope you all had a marvelous Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Valentine's, and President's Day. Comic work was flooding in nicely and then went away. But I'm currently catching a new wave so I don't know how much I'll be posting still, hence the title of my Blog :P

Anyhoo, I finished up a couple sketch commissions, and a few books came out in the last FIVE months (that long already?). I'll get around to plugging those sometime. I need a darn Gallery space which Blogspot doesn't seem to have. Of course, if I updated my website, I'd have plenty of room...

Updated the Convention List with new dates for Kansas City and San Diego. I still haven't heard back from Anime Central about Guest spots, so I'm not sure what'll going on there ATM.

But enough about the Past and Future! Right here in the present I'm working on some inks over Mike Bowden on World of Warcraft #18. Nice doodle-y stuff to work on, though it takes considerably more time to get through a page compared to Ludo Lullabi's pencils. Enjoy!

Sketchy is as Sketchy Does

2008-10-14T09:46:00.004-05:00

Something crapped out for 4chan. And I'm still not used to this "coloring line" business. It does look much better in thumbnail size though.

Shameless Plug #11

2008-10-07T17:13:00.003-05:00

An unexpected package landed on my doorstep and found that it contained some comp copies of World of Warcraft Book 1.

It's a compilation of the first seven issues, in which I did some inking on issues 5 and 7. Better yet, it's a hardcover with one of those matte finish cover jackets (yeah, the ones that scratch easily :P). Inside extras is an interview with Walt Simonson and Ludo Lullabi, and a short Prologue. Neat!

PS: Wonder if there will be a softcover too? Royalties anyone? :P

Fallcon Comes and Goes

2008-10-06T19:25:00.007-05:00

The last con of the season for me, Fallcon has come and gone. A two hour trip up to Madison, then Jeff drives the rest of the way for 4 more up to Minneapolis. Along the way we took a little stop at a "scenic" rest stop off of I-94 near Black River Falls. It has a lookout view of forested area which would probably look spectacular when the leaves change. Unfortunately we were too early for that.

The guys that put together Fallcon are great, and I can't thank them enough for inviting us. Not only did they treat us to a steak barbecue again, but one of the organizers, Mike got married to his girlfriend Lisa with all his friends, relatives, and convention guests in attendance. It was a short but sweet ceremony, with a few comic-related jokes thrown in to make it memorable. Friends Cory and Amy Carani also came up from Madison for their first Fallcon experience, and we all hung out in Artist Alley like old times. Shoulda taken more pics of everything, rats...

Commissions for me were kind of slow this year, probably due to the downturn in the economy, but the ones I got, I enjoyed doing. First was a Rogue piece done for the charity auction there. Being the first, I had a hard time getting things to look the way I wanted, I must have redrawn the face like 15 times. So out of practice. I also got to draw a Playboy Bunny (which reminds me I have to make my all Bunny superheroine sketchbook) and Betty Rubble in my own style, I always like the challenge. Since I didn't have that many new commissions to do, I had time to Make Some Magic For Johnny, and finish up his piece that's been laying around since San Diego. Now I just have to mail the darn thing.

After the convention and before hitting the road, we went to Outback and had dinner with a bunch of the local creators and some of the other out-of-town guests. I sat next to Gordon Purcell and Dwayne McDuffie and had discussions about JLA, the ol' days at Marvel and DC, Ed Benes, and Star Trek. Total geek stuff and a great time, of course 2 for 1 Happy Hour helps too. :) After that Jeff drove back down to Madison (with our Tasty Pies from Baker's Square) and I did a redeye drive back home just because I love avoiding traffic. I got back round 2:30am and went to bed round 4ish.

Totally blowing through the day recovering, watching an ineffectual Congress trying to skewer the CEO of Leman Bros., having pie for breakfast, immediatly followed by lasana for lunch, and the obligatory food coma, I got a call from Sarah at Wildstorm for some more WoW work. It must be the book that will not die, because I got to do the inks for the Cover (squee!) over Ludo Lullabi (squee!) with some Busty Woman front and center (Squee Squee!) So Issue 12 will have 9 pages of inks and the cover done by me. Nice work when you can get it. :)

Back to Sketchin'

2008-09-23T09:27:00.006-05:00

*Sigh* Where does the time go? Looks like it's been just about a month since I've drawn anything in my sketchbook, and it freakin' shows!!! :( Here's a couple pages of "Bleh" and "Big Ol' Darn Heads.

WoW Inking

2008-09-19T12:14:00.003-05:00

First page is done for some more emergency WoW Comic work. This one's for Issue 12 and not as dire (but still pretty, considering printing times) as my first work on issue 5. Ludo Lullabi, the original penciller has moved on to another WoW project and Jon Buran has taken over. I'm not sure how they keep getting behind on the book, but I know from experience that approvals for licensed properties can sometimes be a real PITA. I'm not complaining though, keeps things interesting. :)

4 more pages to go, getting in the way of my Rock Band 2 progress... "...tangellled up in bluuuuue...." :P

Shameless Plug #9 &10

2008-09-10T16:29:00.007-05:00

Another couple of Cartoon Network stories came out. CN Block Party #48 has a Powerpuff Girls 4-Pager entitled "Too Close for Comfort," written by John Rozum. And CN Action Pack #29 has the 6 Page "Samurai Mack" story written by Jim Alexander.

Legion End

2008-09-02T14:27:00.002-05:00

Well, LSH #20 pencils are finally done. The last page has a little anniversary blurb at the bottom and was scripted to fit as many Legionnaires in there as I could. I was thinking of doing members from all the eras, but time and some laziness got in the way of doing all that research. So you're stuck with the animated style for the end. :P It was some fun stuff to draw, but I still can't keep a schedule for a regular book. Mehbeh some miniseries or oneshots? ;)

Now it's on to inking the Samurai Jack pencils I've had lying around for a few weeks.

Olympic Memories

2008-08-28T12:18:00.004-05:00

Okay, the Olympics have come and gone. A brilliant Opening ceremony, watched Phelps win and win again, watched Alicia blow it for the US team feeling sorry for herself, some nice volleyball, beach and indoor, and watched Shawn get her Gold on Beam. More lurking on 4chan, but I just had to caption this pic when I saw it. Censored for kiddies.

I'm hoping sometime NBC or some other company will release the Opening ceremony in it's entirety. Maybe with an option to cut out the commentary too.

Legion Half Full

2008-08-18T10:49:00.004-05:00

Legion continues on, getting through it as fast as I can while juggling 2 other assignments. Feast or Famine as they say, and for some reason all the jobs come in at the same time that I had to turn down 3 other jobs.

Page 10 was fun cause I got to do all sorts of styles. A bit of a challenge, and a bit of tracing too. It's nice to flex the art muscles once in a while. Don't ask me what's going on in the page... I just try to draw purty piktures.

Shameless Plug #8

2008-08-18T10:38:00.004-05:00

Super Friends #5

Another issue based on the Mattel toy line. Big torsos! Tiny Beefy Legs! This one has everyone turning into simians of some sort or another. I was supposed to ink the full issue, but I had some other work to do and unfortunately had to give the other half away. Mike DeCarlo did a fabulous job on the other half.

Buy it... you know, for kids. :P

Legion Page One, Take 2

2008-08-04T15:52:00.002-05:00

Okay, I admit that the first try at Page One was kinda bugging me throughout the weekend, and apparently my editor thought it was crap too. :P

So here's another stab at it, also including headshots for Roll Call, since apparently a lot of the time in stories, writers don't always say who is who in the context of the story. The little joke with Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad was an added touch by the writer of the story.

More prominent sexy Dream Girl works for me, too bad I'm not inking myself on this to guarantee I get the page back. :(

Legion Page One

2008-08-02T01:38:00.006-05:00

Nuff said.

Well, maybe not all said. I didn't have a ref for Dream Girl from any other angle than her right side, so I had to extrapolate. I was thinking of fitting the traditional heads for Roll Call in, but didn't think I had the room.

I'll be interesting if I can get the style down. I just noticed all the girls' forearms are thicker than their upper arms. Weird.

Back Ta Work, You!

2008-08-01T21:39:00.007-05:00

Yup, back from SDCC. It was a blast, still getting too big IMO. I'll see if I can post some pics up to Photobucket or something when I find a bit more time. We saw the Star Trek Exhibition at the San Diego Air and Space Museum, it was geeky fun. Got a really good pic out of it (Thanks Kathleen!).

So the first half of the week was me recovering from the con, and I was finally able to get the rest of the Samurai Jack story pencilled up (2 pages included). I did the page layouts first then finished it off, which seemed to go faster. I might have to try that on the LSH story too. But I couldn't resist pencilling up the title right away for the first page. It's Dream Girl, so it's gotta be Sex-say! ;-) Enjoy!

Gittin' Bizzzay!

2008-07-18T15:05:00.002-05:00

Just finished the little thumbnails for the Samurai Jack 4pager. A lot of action, a lot of cutting of robots that I gotta say I pretty much cheated on by not showing the whole thing. Then again, Jack is supposed to be hidden till Page 4. Revel in it's scribbly glory!

The kid, who's the narrator of this tale I was thinking of making some sort of fishboy, but I'm not sure if that's really going to work. Plus, I'd have to make everyone fishpeople then. Maybe I'll make em catpeople, that'll get me in with the Furries...uh, wait. Scratch that...

Artist Alley San Diego

2008-07-18T10:59:00.005-05:00

San Diego has us listed in the Artist Alley at EE08 and EE09, which in the picture should be about where the red box is, I think. The PDF I took it from wasn't too clear. Cya there!

I'm currently mulling over the LSH ref pack I got for the issue I'm penciling. It looks like they changed the designs abit from the first season, so I'm not sure what we're using.

Queue "Doomsday Machine" Music

2008-07-18T00:06:00.006-05:00

Yes, Doomsday is approaching. That pesky lil' con called SDCC, and I continue to get stuff ready for it. I put a batch of last year's Sketchbook (The Good, The Bod, and the Undies) together; just have to cut the ends off. I'll probably do another batch tomorrow.

I did finally get around to the last take-home sketch from last SDCC. Bubbles racing the Roadrunner. Sometimes I get annoyed that I just don't have the right shade of color I'm looking for, so I have to wing it and try out different things to kinda make it work. But it's done and I can get on to other things.

I'm definitely not going to get anything new done for the con. I currently have 2 stories on my desk to do: 1) a Samurai Jack 4 pager, and 2) a Legion of Super Heroes (cartoon version) issue to pencil. Yes! That's right doin' some LSH. :p Since I haven't really watched the show, it'll be interesting to see if I can turn it around in the time Harvey wants. I'm expecting some comics and reference this afternoon. All of this is due in mid-August. O_O

Prep for San Diego

2008-07-16T17:34:00.006-05:00

Well, San Diego Comic Con is coming up fast. Not sure what I'm going to be able to get done that's new for the con. A sketchbook is out of the question, so last year's will have to do. I'm thinking of bringing out alot more original art and cutting back on the comics. We'll see...

I'm actually catching up on some "take home" sketches from last SDCC. One is of a girl named Louise from Zero no Tsukaima, kind of like a Ah! My Goddess meets Harry Potter. I've never seen the show, but I was given a pic to essentially copy, just taking off her shoe and putting in the windows. Below you can see the inks and then the colors. Hopefully I can get the other late sketch done then on to maybe a new PPG print... Again, all up in the air.

Sam Jack!

2008-07-10T21:36:00.004-05:00

Now that I got the stuff that's come out done, here's a page for an upcoming Samurai Jack story to be appearing in some CN comic, sometime. (I'll try to nail the issue and date down).

The story is called Samurai Mack, written by Jim Alexander, and it's 6 pages. Jack is rescued from a frozen death and meets a couple of scientists with a Jack of their own!

Shameless Plug #3, 4, 5, 6, 7

2008-07-10T20:30:00.020-05:00

Okay, it's also been a while since I've updated what's been published. I helped out with inking duties on World of Warcraft #5 (5 pages), and #7 (9 pages) over penciller Ludo Lullabi. Nice stuff, tight, but a little sparse, 'cept when he does backgrounds, then there's some gorgeous scenery to work on. Hopefully you won't be able to tell the difference between my work and what Sandra Hope did. :P I am actually credited for inks in WoW #6 but I didn't do anything in that issue. My apologies to the other inker.

More on the kiddie book side, Super Friends #3 is finally out with full issue inks. CN Block Party #45 has a PPG 4 pager (pencils and inks) that was supposed to have another 4 pager following that, but I was way late on the second story (sorry Rachel). Still both stories turned out well, and it's always nice to go back to the Girls once in a while.

An even more recent release (Last Week!! 0_0) is #1 of Myth-Told Tales. It's based on the book series by Robert Aspirin and inspired by the comics drawn by Phil Foglio. The artwork tends to be a bit looser than what I normally do, I was in the mood to break away from my french curves, ruler, and circle templates and do some freehand work. My friend Scott Beaderstadt (Trollords) helped me with page layout chores of which I say, "Thanks!"

Way Late Post Acen Report

2008-07-04T08:41:00.014-05:00

Acen was way back in May, so things are a bit fuzzy now, but it was a great time as usual, thanks to the fine people that run Anime Central. Did some sketching as you can see above, alot more naughty sketches than normal, don't know how much of that I can take. :P The most interesting one for me was the Creature from the Black Lagoon commission, I normally don't draw monsters so it was a good challenge. The others are assorted CoH characters, and some naughty pics of Rune Soldier Louie, Gold Digger, and Soul Calibur 3. Naughty Pics somewhat censored, sorry.

This year the con also had a lot more Japanese artists that I've seen in previous years of late. Kenichi Sonoda made a return visit to Chicago, but he was kinda under the weather the first couple days. Also showing up was Susumu Sakurai, a former producer for the translated Raijin Manga Anthology, and big Powerpuff Girl fan. He was instrumental in flying me out to Anime Expo Tokyo back in 2004. Sakurai, and Hiroshi Tada (I think it was), an associate editor at Afternoon (a monthly manga anthology) bought a few PPG and other original pages from me as mementos. Jeff was lucky enough to trade sketches with Mamoru Yokota, an extraordinary artist who just sketches out pretty much anything he wants to without laying it out first. He also sat down and folded up some paper, then cut little sections out of them, unfolded it to reveal a Gundam head. Craaazy!
Mamoru also works in the hentai (adult) game industry, an inspiration to be sure ;p. To twist the knife even more, Jeff got a Yoko (Gurren Lagaan) sketch in trade, one the latests anime series I've enjoyed. Lucky guy!

After the con was over, I was invited to join some of the Japanese guests (no Sonoda) for dinner at the Rosemont Hooters, where they proceeded to eat Mass Quantities(!), sampling wings, oysters, and hamburgers. It was really a lot of food. I humbly nibbled on my chicken breast sandwich... Before we left, they got alot of photos with the waitresses and hostesses (really cute), which I thought they normally didn't allow, but you know, those wacky Japanese tourists get away with anything. ;p

We then returned to the hotel for the Dead Dog Party, a get together for the staff to unwind and get toasty. Mamoru did a bucketload of sketches that ppl just grabbed up, and even I was pressed into service, doing some PPG sketches for some of the staff and the Japanese guests. One I did for Hiroshi Tada, said was going up in the lobby of Kodansha. I hope it turned out okay, because I was kinda tipsy at the time when I did it.

So all in all, a really great time. Many thanks to Mike for inviting us. Great seeing Taka and his ukulele again. I'd have more pics of this con, Hooters and the Dead Dog Party, but I found out that my camera didn't work anymore right before the show.

Why? #1

2008-07-02T11:13:00.002-05:00

Why do the loaves of bread I buy always have that one extra slice so I can't make that last sandwich to finish it off? Why??

Fallcon Sketch Cards

2008-07-01T10:05:00.004-05:00

Long Time no See! Yes, yes, I've been laxative in my duties updating even a simple blog, but here goes. I've been working on some semi secret projects of late, one of which I hope I can start posting on. Other than that, playing around too much with those pesky MMORPGs.

First up is a set of Sketch Cards done for the Midwest Comic Book Association to celebrate their 20th Anniversary. The MCBA runs the fabulous Fallcon up in Minneapolis, MN. They treat their guests well and I'm happy to do the little bit of extra work for them with these cards.

Colors came out of the scanner fine, except with some weird redish tint coming from the black Copic marker I used. The other exception is Blossom's orange hair and pink tones that got muddled. They're pretty much done now, though I don't know if I want to run out and grab a Glitter Pen to add a little Sparkle (heh, a pun :P).

Shameless Plug #2

2008-04-19T13:24:00.008-05:00

Gen 13 issue 19 came out last week. In it you'll find 8 pages pencilled by Kevin West and inked by me, including some nice cheesecake. Unfortunately poor word balloon placement covers up some of it--pesky dialogue... :-/

That's the cover on the right. I had nothing to do with it.

Planet Comicon Day 2

2008-04-10T12:41:00.006-05:00

Two more pics that were done for the second day of Planet Comicon. I did get a 3rd one done, but Jeff has it on his camera and still has to send it to me. Left is Light Lass from the new Legion of Superheroes book, and on the right is that Lone Wolf and Cub guy (still can't remember his name).

A fun and profitable trip, as every year, Thank you Chris Jackson and Sidne Ward for having us out again. I'm currently inking some hush-hush stuff for Wildstorm, badging in my game I play, and waiting next week for hopefully some more inking work over Super Friends. I still have to finish off my Bleach print, I'll figure it somewhere in there... :P

There is a bit of talk about heading out to Heroes Con in Charlotte NC, and possibly Baltimore Con. I'll post if it becomes definite. Baltimore is nice since it's more comic/artist centric. Good place to get alot of nice sketches by big named artists.

Planet Comicon, Kansas City

2008-04-06T00:20:00.008-05:00

Here's the day's (and night's) haul from today's event. Lotsa fun, sometimes fustrating, had to erase faces many times to get them the way I like. But all n' all, not a bad batch. Top Tier: Shadowwing (Original Character), Shadowcat (done by Jeff) and Majik in a twofer (no twosome, aww. :( ), and Neriel, a character from the new arc in Bleach.

After the con, Jeff and I played in a charity Hold'em event. I was the first LOSER out of all 3 tables (yay me!). But I was followed close behind by Phil Hester, I guess it luck wasn't on the side for anyone named "Phil." At least Beer and Food wuz to be had... :P

Back at the hotel, we got some work done down in the lobby doing a sketch night thing, jawjaggin' with Angel Medina and Sidne Ward for a spell. Two more sketches were done: Spoiler as Robin, and Black Widow; leaving me with one sketch left to do tommorow. Fun time, now bedtime. G'night!

Bleach Beach Work in Progress

2008-04-02T23:35:00.005-05:00

Well, looks like I won't be able to get my Bleach print done for Planet Comicon this weekend. But here it is, in all it's unfinished glory. It's been so long since I've done any real computer coloring so it's all new to me again.

I've been using Photoshop and a kind of scumbling brush to give a different feel than just plain ol' airbrush. A nice, little more naturalistic effect, but more labor intensive. That is, till I get it down pat, then forget everything I learned when I move onto my next color piece.

Uh, you should be looking at the scumbling brushstrokes in the picture on the right. "IGNORE ME!"

More Updates (Boobies!)

2008-03-30T11:08:00.004-05:00

Here's another pic drawn last night. I think i'll get around to inking a blueline of it sometime. But now it's time to try to get my taxes done, that is, after i fill my belly with food!

Update Requested

2008-03-29T20:58:00.007-05:00

So someone requested that I update my blog page, ask and ye shall receive--Boobies! Mwhahahahaaaa! First pic is from the upcoming Issue 19 of Gen 13 from Wildstorm Comics where I got 8 pages to ink over Kevin West. Unfortunately, this was pretty much the only cheesecake out of the lot, lots of explody things happening though.

Next is another page out of my sketchbook. This page actually follows directly after the last sketchpage I put up on this blog. So yes, it's been 2 f***ing months since I've drawn anything (well, cept a little hentai stuff which shall not appear here).

Maybe this will get me up and running to making another sketchbook this year. I'm not sure what to call it though, since my Western Theme Trilogy is already done (A Fistful of Dolls, For A Few Dolls More, and The Good, The Bod, And The Undies.) I could look at other Western titles and pick one of those.

PLUG-O-DA-WEEK
World of Warcraft Comic #5 (Wildstorm): I inked some pages out of that too. Hopefully my stuff blends well with the regular inker's work.

Betta Late Than Neva!

2008-02-19T23:04:00.004-06:00

Okay, so this commission's been lying around since Last Year, but now it's done!
Enjoy Mechaduce in all his colorful glory as he Builds Up to Nova the crap out of something! Now back to work on PPG, another thing that's also late. :(

Snowday! Still Working!

2008-02-06T13:22:00.000-06:00

Well, the crap continues to fall. Jeff and I just booked a room at the Holiday Inn on the Bay for San Diego, coming in July. What a pain in the butt that was. After 2 hours of stops and starts, redoing reservation entries, I was finally able to get confirmation on one.

Anyhoo, while we were doing this, the snow is just piling up outside. Don't think I'll be going to the Chinese New Year dinner my Mom wants to do tonight. :(

Wanna See Video?

But at least it keeps me inside to finish off the final stretch of Super Friends pages I'm behind on. Hoping to get them out Thrusday, so not too late...

Sketchy Sketchin' and Super Friends

2008-01-18T12:03:00.000-06:00

A page from my sketchbook, actually a first for 2008, scary that we're already halfway through January. Where does the time go? Oh yeah, I remember, all sorts of other stuff I'm doing/wasting time on :P

Anywho, I thought I'd take a break from my current inking assignment, Super Friends #3 and get a little bit of drawing in. If you're curious, Super Friends is not the Superfriends, but a new comic based on the line of action figures put out by Mattel. They kind of remind me a little if you made gummi figures of the DC heroes, they'd kinda look like that. The penciller I'm working over is Stewart McKenny.

Caption for Panel 4: Supes: "Uh Diana, you know I'm really not into that sort of thing..."

Farewell, IMF! sob :(

2008-01-17T15:33:00.001-06:00

Bah, I wake up one morning last week only to find that my music video channel that I scour to broaden my now +40 DVDs of videos is gone! Bought out and replaced by some Fine Arts crap called Ovation TV. IMF was a beacon in the fog of US music video channels like MTV and VH1 in that they played videos from around the world, and even some more obscure videos from the States. Yes, the world has also been taken over by Hip Hop, but you could have still found good songs and videos amongst the rabble.

So may you rest in peace IMF, along with The Tube, and the original MTV2. And the music industry wonders why their sales are going down...

Moar PPG!

2007-12-30T17:08:00.000-06:00

I'm back to do another couple 4 pagers for DC. One is called Repeating Robots and has sort of a visual puzzle mixed into it. Thumbnails above. The finished artwork will be much cleaner, natch. ;p

CoH Pencils

2007-12-28T15:11:00.000-06:00

Here's some pencils for a City of Heroes Comission I'm currently working on. He wanted some alterations that aren't available in the game, specificly the boots. When finished it'll be inked with full color using markers.

It's been a while since I've drawn guys... but it's good practice. :P

New Year, New Blog!

2007-12-28T12:02:00.000-06:00

Okay, time to try this blog thing. Since I haven't updated my Official site in ages, being I had to type all the HTML by hand, I figure this would be quicker and easier, many kudos to my brother Jeff who showed me how to use it.

And though it's kinda late, I wish everyone a Happy Holiday and an even Better New Year! More stuff to come, hopefully ;P