A belated Christmas card.

I hope everybody had a Merry Christmas.

Inkxercise

Started an art blog to force myself to be productive. Now you know.

Here's the link: http://ink-xercise.blogspot.com/

Check in on me and keep me accountable. Thanks.

-Dusty

Drawing Each Other

I've been doing some life drawing with my high schoolers after school. Dusty sat in on our last session and came up with the above sketch of yours truly. He says it makes me look "venerable." I prefer "sage-like." (My students thought "Santa Claus.")

Anyway, here's my take on Dusty and some of my students... Dusty's got a bit of a Stevie Wonder thing going on. It's been great to just spend some time pushing the pencil around on paper.

Halloween pin-up swap

Quite awhile ago, I did a pin-up swap with Bill Hook, one of the Kansas City comic guys. We agreed to draw one of each other's characters. Well, I just got his image and he chose to do the entire Vlad Squad. I really enjoy his take on them... it's always so cool to see another artist's version of your characters. He really gave Gregori (the short one) a classic Peter Lorre look.

In case you're curious, here's the pin-up I did of Bill's character, Gentleman Jack:

What's this? A new post?

Yes... I am alive and well. I know it's been a long time since I've posted. I'll blame school starting back up (still playing catch-up in that area). I should have some more time to commit to comics soon.

My wife and I created this picture at the Simpson movie site. They have a cool little character generator thingie where you can make yourself a Simpsons character. I'm not the biggest Simpsons fan, but it was fun messing around and creating ourselves.

I've actually got quite a bit to post. There is an 8-page story that I completed for an anthology that I might post here. I've been cranking out a quick fun story about two kids dueling with their imaginations. And I've finished a few more pages of that Rook City story, but I want to get a few more done before I start posting those. That way there will be no delays in the story when it starts up again. I'm sure some or all of this stuff will be on here soon.

Thanks for sticking around!

Kyle Strahm's Clockwork Creature

One of the cool artists that I ran into through the Kansas City comic scene is Kyle Strahm. He has been working on his Clockwork Creature story for some time and now it is being put into graphic novel form by Ambrosia Publishing, as well as being serialized online for free. It is the tale of strange creature that is terrorizing a small town and the equally strange "savior" who offers the townsfolk a way of ridding themselves of it.

This is not your typical story as Kyle is using it as a storytelling exercise, spending only a few hours on each page. He really has a lot of fun with this tale... it's anything but predictable. It's full of quirky characters and creatures along with plenty of odd twists and turns. I'm a sucker for stark black and white artwork, and Kyle works very effectively here in that style. I can tell you from experience, it's not nearly as easy as he makes it look here. His rendering of the various backgrounds and the creature itself is particularly amazing. He has a really good grasp of storytelling and pacing, as well, using a variety of visual techniques to clearly break up the action. Not a lot of character development, but it's really not that type of story.

So if you're in the mood for a loose, free-wheeling story full of originality... give it a look. I know I enjoyed the heck out of it.

Wrapping it up

Well, I'll be out of the country for the next couple weeks. Since I won't be able to update, here's the last three pages of this story:



Now that's over, I'd love to hear what you thought of the complete story!

In case you're wondering why I'll be out of the country... well, my wife and I are going to Taiwan to pick up the baby girl we are adopting! If you want to see more about it you can check out the BLOG we have set up about her. We leave Wednesday and get back on June 9. You might not see as much artistic output from me for awhile, as I'll be a new dad! Oh well...

The battle rages on...

Page 6 is up... three pages left! They are all done and in the bag, so you don't have to worry about any delays. Hopefully, I can't get busy on Rook City again very soon...

Hey, one of our readers from Poland, Frapazoid, colored the last page just for fun. Check it out! I really dig how he did the backgrounds.

Schoolhouse comics

The newest page is up. I'm pretty happy with it. Check it out. Maybe leave a comment.

Been very busy with comics lately... only a few of which are mine. Almost all my classes are finishing up their comic book projects. My 8th grade classes always make a comic story this time of the year. We make up the main character together, they make up story ideas and side characters, I put it all together in a script (that's the hard part), and then everyone draws a page of the story. I always try to do a page in each of them. And then there are always the kids that move away in the middle of the project and need their pages finished for them.

My high schoolers also do a comic. They each create a two page story with no dialogue or narration. The results are always varied, but this year I got some of the best results ever from some very talented kids. I'm trying to encourage them to make more comics on their own... showing them how we do ours.

And then there's my afterschool cartoonist club. They made their own little anthology and we're getting it printed up just like our books, color cover and everything. They're gonna freak out when they see the finished product. I hope.

Another Tuesday, another page...

The story continues...

That little Martian guy

A new Last Martian page is up. Page 3 of a nine page story. Let us know what you think!

New page and sketches

Here's a couple more sketches from the Sketch Challenge. I particularly liked making the March Hare. Those of you who know me know why my version had to be drinking coffee instead of tea. We all have our vices.

It's Tuesday, so there is a new LAST MARTIAN page up. Check out the new Mars Rover.

New Last Martian story begins!

As promised, the newest chapter in the Last Martian saga begins today. This time... the Rover fights back. This one will be nine pages long. A new page will be put up every Tuesday.

Check it out, Earthling!

Sketchiness

Hola! This sketch is another one for the CCN Sketch Challenge. It was fun to do some pencil rendering. I colorized it a bit in Photoshop after I used a woodless graphite pencil to draw it. That's right... woodless. I'm hardcore.

I'm working to get some more real content up for your eyeballs. By "content" I mean "stories." But first you'll have to make due with some more sketches. On the Rook City page I've posted just about all the sketches for that series that I have... some old, some new. I'll be putting some more up as I gear up to continue the "Convention Blues" story.

While you're waiting for that you'll be able to enjoy a brand new Last Martian story! This will be his longest tale by far and I'll post the first page on April 17. That's right... I'm giving you a date. Hold me to it.

Sketches for your eyeballs

Yeesh... been awhile since a post here. Sorry about that. Here are some things I've been doing for the CCN Sketch Challenge. Been trying to get better at drawin' on the ol' computer. These first two are characters from Hellboy.



These last few were from one where the challenge was to redesign some of Spider-Man's classic villains. I guess I'm attracted to the ones with animal names. These were done pretty quickly.




I've been working hard on an 8-page comic story. Unfortunately, I can't show it to you yet, as it may be included in an upcoming anthology. Possibly.

Thanks for looking!

Sketches galore

A new lyric is up. Check it out.

Here are some recent and not-so-recent sketches. As always, click for a larger view.

Another moody lyric

This new one is by a band whose lead singer actually hails from Montana. So you know he's cool. I might only do one more of these. They're taking longer than I thought they would, and there's other stuff I want to get done. But don't worry, we'll still have new stuff for you to look at every week... probably a new short comic.

We have a lot of cool stuff in the works here. I will let you know more as it develops.

Thanks for checking out our stuff!

Gollum and lyrics

Another lyric is up! This one is in the form of a comic. See if you can figure it out.

The CCN (Kansas City comic creators) message board is doing its sketch challenge again. The first one involved the Lord of the Rings. Here's a Gollum sketch I did for it. Look grumpy, huh?