For those with Cintiqs

When I was at SDCC. I talked to the guys at WACOM on what's best to use to clean the screens.
Well here it's is. PANCRO lens cleaner. They said use this with a micro-fiber cloth. I just got my stuff. tried it out.....LIKE NEW!!!!! This is good. Highly recommended.

Kirby Sketching

I wonder if he's sketching someone describing the Hulk and if the sketch was shown and it was a Kirby Hulk. Probably not.

Amazing Chimp Footage

Very clever way to grab the attention of zoo chimpanzees

Well 2 days later

Well It's taken me several days to move my studio around. It's still a mess and I have figures all over the place. 100 pounds of crap in a 3 pound bag. It's going to take me the rest of the week to get it squared away (hopefully). Tomorrow is dentist day.....two extractions, ugh. Insurance runs out on Wed but I got cut loose on Friday. UI has been filed so I need to start the look for something new. I feel better than I did in 2008. And I'm more focused. Con made me do a lot of serious thinking. Time will tell.

The Frog Princess

 

 

The Frog Princess

Ellis, since we are the same age, I'm hoping you can share this memory with me.  When I was very young I saw this cartoon on a local children's program, and it made such a huge impression on me I've never forgotten it.  Today I did some internet detective work and re-discovered it.  This cartoon was made by a Russian animation studio, Soyuzmultfilm, that was set up to be their version of Disney.  Another of their cartoons was the basis of The Space Explorers which I remember from the same show.  I never knew this cartoon was in color.  I'm quite excited to have finally identified it after all these years as the memory has been haunting me for decades.  Have you ever seen this?  It's an absolutely beautiful production of a classic Russian Fairy Tale.  If you watch it, try to imagine how one would feel about it as a five-year-old.

My Day

Good day today. Lots of weather.

Day after.
Went to a library and hung out and did another page of the script, thumbnail style.

Geekwire story about WT Studios

News story about the establishment of the WildTangent Studio.

Zbrush Doodle

Playing around with some hard-surface modeling techniques in Zbrush. Using the Slice Brushes + Group Loops and Panel Loops features. Pretty fast and intuitive way of working once you grok it.

First Page of a Seven Page Strip

Demon floating in a Dr Strange-ish void.

Odd light pulls him to it,

absorbs him when he gets too close.

Do People Honestly See Any Resemblance?

Clark Kent maybe...

 

SuperScott at Comic-Con

Superman here looks a lot like Scott Benefiel! Maybe he had a hand in this MAD cover?!

For Comic Con 2014

Jeff and I talked about it and we figured we would have next years TAG gathering to be held at the Hilton tower on the south end of the Convention Center. It would be a perfect place. It has a good restaurant at the Fox Grill and Odyssey Bar. We can all gather out on the outside lounge and bring friends etc. We don't have to travel far from the Convention and those who can't make it to the Con can park at Old Town or the Q and take the trolley in. Very convenient.

If you must....................

Putting Jimmy Back In The Pic....

Four shots to the wind!

Although we members of the "Entourage" were bitterly disappointed about Jeff not taking home an Eisner, we all had a heckuva time. Thank you, Jeff!

The immortal Tom Moon gifted me a pass and we spent Friday stalking the hall floor, seeing the people and books we wanted to see (Rick Geary! William Stout! Stuart Ng! Scott Benefiel!) (tho' there were still plenty of people I missed--not enuff time). Went over my budget by about 100%, but hey, some great stuff I've been wanting for a while.

Of course the best part by far was seeing old friends and fellow TAGsters. Tom, Tom Carroll, Jimmy, Scott and the World Famous Jeff Ranjo. Also Jeff Remmer! (should I mention the inverse good of NOT running into people I did not want to see??)

And the inverse of that means the worst part was all those great friends we DIDN'T see--Schmitty of course, but also the Beautiful and Much-Missed Beata (on vacation?!), Dok, Ben and John Tighe, etc. I did meet Peter Csanadi in person, and original TAGster Eric Shanower (also a nominee for (multiple) Eisner Awards)--way cool!

But after all is said and done, how can you call it a Con without Ellis Goodson?

Dude! You were much missed! Not just by me. Everyone we met lamented yr absence. Much talk of air mailing you out here in time for Comics Fest (which Peter was pimpin' in a great way)!

Ahhh! Better.

Rat Pack, Comic Con Style

The dudes at Comic Con, presumably just before or after the Eisner Awards.  I can't take credit for the Rat Pack comment... That's all Jeff.  I wish I was there with yous guys... I guess Twitter is the next best thing.
Jeff didn't win, but it sounds like the guys had a great time anyway.  See you all at ECCC!

Beata. Hope you are going to ComicCon and PRing Comic Fest

You should be on a panel

Sold this on Ebay-Vectorman sketches

Fellow is a big fan of Vectorman.

Told him about this Blog and how a couple of other people congregate here that worked on the games. The Blue Sky crowd.

Question-

Why is Karl Robillard's name not on Vectorman One or Two?

Wasn't the basic animation system something Karl did with his trusty Amiga?

Red Wax Bust of a Yogi

I finally got that wax finished for that yogi bust. Here's a couple shots.

This will be the second bronze of this sculpture--you can see the original in the background. Strange thing about this one: after a week or so of staring at it,all of my energies focused on fine tuning the features, he began to look like Michael Caine. Oy!

I woulda posted yesterday like I was supposed to, but I was at the foundry.

Comic Con - Local Cartoonist Paul Horn



 I thought it was kind of cool that this local cartoonist made the front page of the business section this morning, and that he talks about his Con experience as a vendor, including his marketing strategy and the money he makes from it.  He also includes a couple of other vendors' stories.  He must be thrilled to have the publicity.  It made me check out his web site and his strip.

 

Pacific Rim

Saw Pacific Rim today with the team.  I enjoyed the movie and had a great time hanging out with the gang offsite. 

Oh, and I did this silly drawing, too.

FROZEN

Jeff Ranjo-Head of Story on FROZEN

Looks great from every thing I've seen.

Ellis as a Werecat

Found this in a sketchbook today. Must have been dreaming of Ellis's great graphic novel project...thinking maybe the lion could be black. Or something.

Anyway, thought the big werecat's expression looked like our favorite OK. resident.

Ellis, are you gonna do that book or what?! 'Cuz it needs to be done!!

Meeting Sketches

The meeting had nothing to do with dinosaurs.

I punched myself in the face

I was caffeinated to the eyeballs with diet coke and coffee.

I was drawing and re-drawing that big hand.

I feinted an angry punching action and connected with my cheekbone.

Good little bruise.

Little less caffeine while drawing.

Just seeing those Magnus covers got me thinking of George Wilson and Gold Key

Got these off Tumblr

Paintings vs the Gold Key covers.

Gold Key used to go without ads and publish the paintings on the back cover without text.

The Comic Book Creator's Cookbook lives again!

This evening I received an email query from P. Craig Russell about whether the Comic Book Creator's Cookbook had ever been published and I said no, then ran down a few points that had weighed against it. I asked him for his opinions about working with overworked comics pros and the publishers so the book could get done and he replied: "I understand the $ issue with generating new artwork. For myself, I would have no problem granting fair use for, say, the banquet scene from The Magic Flute. Surely the various artists must have material of their own to grant use of. Maybe not. Some don't ever do anything beyond the big three.

"How about a combination of pre-existing art and/or photos of the artists in their kitchens? Or at the dinner table? Maybe you only need money for an original cover.

"Since this could be seen as a scholarly work, under fair use couldn't you have a chapter illustrating 'food in comics' which could give you all sorts of images? Perhaps as interludes between recipes so as to keep the images dispersed throughout the book?

"If nothing else is there any way this could be published online? Shame not to have access to all those recipes.

"Good luck."

So he inspired me to sally forth and get the book done so it can be published in some fashion ... maybe not through Square One out of NY, but possibly self published or through on of the online sites. I will dedicate it to Russell and to the late Tony Dezuniga (who donated four recipes!!) And I believe I will go back to using Rick Schmitz's Creeple-inspired cover.   ;-)

Happy 4th everybody!

This is a little promotional image I did the other day for Polar Bowler.  Have a great holiday!  It was pretty fun to do.  Totally Photoshop.
Oh, and I did the PB logo as well.

Artists Alley will again be FREE at SDCF.

The location of SDCF 2013's Artists Alley (indoors vs outdoors) will be decided later this month, after Mike Towry returns from his honeymoon. However, he did want everyone to know that all AA table fees are again being waived.  All you need to do to participate is buy a Fest membership at www.sdcomicfest.org and coordinate a table through me. I recommend you do it soon to ensure a spot.

NOTE: All program contributors (live demo artists, workshop instructors, panelists, etc), as well as current CAPS members will be comp'd in for all 3 days. Let me know if you're interested in becoming a program contributor.

Well the WORD came down.......

JULY 26 will be the last day at my current job. Had hoped for end of August at the earliest but oh well.
There may be a new job/contract in the wings in October and I'll be able to come back but nothing set in stone. Well this will get me back to UI and EBay as well as my own portfolio and website upgrade. Lucky that all I owe is $600 and living expenses now, Lot better than last time. Lots of stuff to get done now.

A Brush with "PEOPLE"

Bought some of these for my Gran on her last visit...she's back with us for the week, so maybe I should get some more? Watched "The Bachelorette" with her last night...don't think our relationship will ever quite be the same.

UPDATE: because Batgirl never gets old....