Three Trees Studios NEWS

WE'VE MOVED!

2009-04-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

www.threetreesstudios.com/blog

That's the address for our new site. You'll find much more content there! Be sure to change your bookmarks to the new address.

For those of you following us on RSS, you'll want to switch to this feed: http://threetreesstudios.com/blog/feed/

See you over there!

The NEW RookCity.com!

2009-04-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

Some of you might have noticed the new little Rook City button on the right sidebar. Maybe you even clicked on it. Well, if you did, you noticed that there is a whole new site up for that webcomic. That was basically all I worked on over spring break. The entire site is much more streamlined now with a heck of a lot more content....

Not only can you still read the 50+ pages of Rook City that were up on the old site, but you can also read the second Rebuker story online for the first time. In addition, there is tons of info on all of the main characters, sketches, pin-ups, fan art, and even a suggested soundtrack. You can also download some free wallpapers and bookmarks!

Anyway, I hope you take the chance to check it out and let us know what you think. In the coming weeks, all of our comics are going to be revamped in this way... with many more pages for you to read for free! Rook City will also resume soon with regular updates.

Stay tuned, folks.

Planet Comicon 2009

2009-03-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Whew... another great con. "We'll never forget this one." That's what I said many times this weekend. Matt, Laura, and I drove up in the rain Saturday morning, despite the predictions that KC was in for a snowstorm later that day. We got setup, and things were pretty slow for the first hour. But after that we were plenty busy talking to people, selling books and prints, giving away bookmarks, and doing sketches for everyone who bought something. Everyone was worried about the turnout, but the con was pretty full most of the day, even as the snow started to fall outside.

We were lucky enough to get to sit by Matt Hawkins and Kyle Strahm, two local comics guys I knew from the Comic Creators Network. Below you can see Matt, along with a sketch of him that someone requested I draw when they bought a book.

Matt was there selling a new book collection of paper toys that he and others designed called Urban Paper. You should give it a look. Check out the awesomeness below (the close-up shows the one he designed)!

Kyle Strahm was cool enough to do a Rebuker sketch for me in his style. Definitely the freakiest version of any of my characters anyone has done. I love it!

And our buddy (and fellow Joplin Sketcher) Randy Rustin was there kickin' out some crazy watercolors...

Of course, there were a ton of great costumes there. I think Laura's favorite part of the con is getting pictures of all of them.

The snow starting falling really hard. Apparently even Cobra Commander had to call and get a ride...

The craziest part of the trip for us was leaving the con and trying to find a gas station, some food, and our hotel. Even though we were on a main road, the snow was still piled up about 6-8 inches. We eventually got to our hotel, only to be thwarted by the tiny hill of the parking lot. Much pushing and shoveling ensued, and we were rescued by a well-timed snowplow. We collapsed and dried out in our hotel room, and Matt and I finished up some sketches that people were coming back for the next day.
Sunday was warmer and sunny... the roads were no problem. We arrived back at the con well rested, only to find it was even busier! This was weird since usually Sunday is dead compared to Saturday. A very good kind of weird.

I think our favorite part of the whole con was meeting so many of you there. The response to our books was really great... everyone seemed to find something that appealed to them. Here's some of the awesome people who bought our stuff...

This lady teaches teaches middle school Social Studies, and her favorite character is Wonder Woman. So of course she requested a sketch of Wonder Woman teaching Social Studies. I think she liked it.

And hey, even Ash likes our books! How cool is that?

Here's a closer of view of some sketches we did...

By Seth:

By Matt:

So, once again this was a great con. We sold way more books than we had at any other event. We took 300 bookmarks with us and came back with none. This will definitely be a yearly tradition for us.

If you were there and stopped by... we really appreciate your support and encouragement. And we hope you stick around!

P.S. A few of you never came back for your requested sketch. If you can email me your name and what you requested, I'll snail mail those to you.

Headin' to KC

2009-03-27T17:54:00.000-07:00

Well, we will be at Planet Comicon in Kansas City tomorrow and Sunday. If you're anywhere near there, we hope you brave the snow and make it out to it. It's a dang fun show, and we'd love to see you there!

Check back here for con photos in a few days...

Splattering ink with friends

2009-03-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

If you haven't checked out Stefan Bucher's The Daily Monster, you need to. It's a creativity exercise where he splatters some ink, blows it around with compressed air, and turns into something interesting. We enjoyed making a mess with this on Saturday's Sketch Night. We had our biggest turnout so far, and everyone cranked out some crazy, fun stuff... check it out.

Hurley Con Wrap-up

2009-03-08T20:01:00.001-07:00

Yesterday's Hurley Con was even more fun than last year. And last year was pretty dang fun. This year there was twice as much floor space and more than double the attendees. It's turning into a really great con, especially considering the size of Joplin. All four of us were there. Above you can see (left to right) Matt Meyers, Elton Gahr, Dusty Roberts (in the back), and me.

This was Matt's first ever time selling his stuff at a con, and he did great! His book, Decaying Death, was our best-selling book of the day. Not bad for your first book, huh?

In total, we had three new books to show off. Matt had his Sketchings #2, as well as the previously mentioned book. And all four of us worked on the new Random Ink #2, which was also our very first full-color comic. It sold well, and people really seemed to dig the cover.

We also had four posters to sell and ton of bookmarks that we gave away. Traffic was steady pretty much all day. A big "thank you" to all of you that stopped by! Some of you even mentioned this blog.

We did a ton of sketches all day long, since they were free with any purchase. Below you can see Matt sketching the villain from the upcoming Decaying Death #2. This is one of the best parts of the convention... getting these quick little assignments from people. Everything from our characters to Iron Man to an eyeball to a robotic elephant trapped in a water bottle. One of my students challenged me with that last one, believe it or not.
Overall, it felt like we took some big steps forward this year. More books, more stuff, better presentation, and more creators. We had a blast and the day seemed to fly by. Afterward, we got to hang out with some of the other local comics guys, and we talked about trying to do some more stuff together.

Don't worry... online previews of all these new books I mentioned are on their way. Stay tuned.

Next up... Kansas City Planet Comicon!

The cons are coming!

2009-02-26T20:35:00.000-08:00

We are barely a week away from our first convention of the year... Joplin's own HURLEYCON. We're getting everything together for our table there. Elton, Matt, Dusty, and I will all be there this time, along with seven total comics for you to check out. If you're within driving distance, you should definitely try to make it. It's free admission, and it has literally doubled in size from last year. Come by and say hi! If you mention this blog, you can even get a free sketch...

Speaking of that con, I wanted to thank Jason Hurley for mentioning me and my Cartoon Studio at the high school when he was interviewed recently on a podcast (at about the 3/4 mark). That was cool of him.

We also wanted to let you know that we'll be attending Planet Comicon in Kansas City once again this year (March 28-29). This is the biggest show in the area, and a ton of great artists will be there. We're looking forward to having a great time up there!

Sketch night hobos

2009-02-23T23:00:00.000-08:00

Fresh sketches are up over on the Joplin Sketch Night blog. This time we were inspired by John Hodgman's list of 800 hobo names...

Check it out, if you dare.

A couple more sketches

2009-02-06T23:50:00.000-08:00

Matt came over a couple days ago, and we drew each other's characters. Above is his take on Dimitri from the Vlad Squad. He said he wants to draw the other members, and I'm gonna hold him to that.

And below is my version of Monty, the main character from his new book, Decaying Death.

Fresh sketches

2009-02-02T21:39:00.000-08:00

A new batch of sketches is up over on the JOPLIN SKETCH NIGHT BLOG. Check it out, if you dare.

Vote for Amber!

2009-01-21T23:08:00.000-08:00

Hey, our friend (and fellow Joplin sketcher) Amber Stone has a comic in the current ZUDA competition. It's called "Love the Dango" and it's pretty great! Loose, fun, cute and creepy all rolled into one.

You definitely should check it out, if you haven't already. And make sure you register and vote for her... she has the chance of winning a year-long contract with DC Comics. How great is that?

(The contest is up at the end of the month, so make sure you give it a look before then.)

Hurley Con and great expectations.

2009-01-10T19:31:00.001-08:00

Last year's con was very good... this year should be even better! Elton, Dusty, Matt, and I will definitely be there. We'll have seven books to sell (four more than last year) and some other goodies. Our fellow Joplin sketcher Amber will be there, as well. More info on the convention can be found here at the Hurley's Heroes site. If you're anywhere near Joplin on March 7th, you should come. I mean, c'mon... it's free!

I usually don't like talking about stuff we're working on until it's actually done, but I wanted to let you all know that we're really on the verge of some exciting things here. We're about to release three new books in print (which include work from Dusty and Matt for the first time). Our website is about to get a drastic overhaul and streamlining. We're going to put much, much more content up for you to enjoy for free. I'm working on one submission for Zuda Comics right now, and Elton and I are already planning another one, too.

Stick around... 2009 is going to be pretty dang cool!

Watch some lyrics!

2009-01-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

Some of you might remember the Illustrated Lyrics I was posting here a year or two ago. Some of you might have even won the original art by being the first one to guess the artist and title of a particular one. Anyway, I recently made a video that puts those images with the music that inspired them. These were a blast to work on, and I'll have to do some more eventually. Check it out, and let me know what you think!

Illustrated Lyrics from Seth Wolfshorndl on Vimeo.

Superpowered kids

2008-12-29T22:15:00.000-08:00

Just realized I never posted these... I did these last year for my nieces and nephew, while visiting them back home in Montana. Gannon (above) wanted Wolverine's claws, Reed Richards' stretchiness, Ghost Rider's chain, and the Flash's speed. And a jet pack, of course!

Kendra here wanted to be a combination of Invisible Woman, Elektra, and Storm. Pretty lethal combo there, I think...

And Brittany loves the Jaina Solo character from the newer Star Wars books, so now she finally gets to wield a lightsaber.

November Sketch Night

2008-12-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

Pencils by Seth, inks by Matt:

Pencils by Matt, inks by Seth:

Well, there were only three of us at the last sketch night. Matt suggested that we draw some fantasy creatures, so I drew the most powerful mythical being of all... the Jackelope.

But the low turnout actually worked out, because it gave Elton and I time to help Matt scan in the last images for his new (and first!) comic... Decaying Death. I just finished editing it tonight, so it is completely done. We'll post some more details soon, but in the meantime here's a preview image...

Zombified!

2008-11-08T21:39:00.000-08:00

Over at the Joplin Sketch Night blog, you can see the results of our last sketch night, where we drew each as zombies. The results are enjoyably disturbing...

Joplin Sketch Night and such

2008-10-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

Well, I told you all I might be a bit absent with school starting. I didn't think it would take this long to post something, though. This first quarter has been incredibly busy for me, but I think things are starting to settle down. I'm actually getting some time to work on my art again. So we'll see what happens with that...

Anyway, we started a blog for our little Joplin Sketch Night gathering that we do once a month. We'll be putting up all of our stuff from those nights on that site, so check it out!

Sketches Ahoy.

2008-08-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that oh-so-magical time of the year... that's right... school starts Monday. It's already started for Dusty. We'll both be teaching high school art now, which is quite cool. I'm at the high school full-time, instead of half-middle school/half-high school. And I'm going to be tackling some new classes I haven't had before, so I will be pretty busy the next couple of months. But I'll still be throwing some new stuff up here, don't worry.

This crazy creature came out of a sketch night with Dusty earlier this summer. Just havin' fun with a brush pen. Don't even try to make sense out of the words... inside joke.

No more WOWIO.

2008-08-10T23:21:00.000-07:00

Just so you all know... we will not be using WOWIO, at least for now. They are under new ownership and have restructured how the downloading of comics works. It is no longer as simple as it used to be... find a book, download it for free. Not everything is free now.

Anyway, I won't bore you with the details, but we will not be using them for the immediate future. We may eventually, as things stabilize over there.

Thank you to the many of you that downloaded a copy under the old WOWIO! Your support is very appreciated! We are looking into new ways for you all to read these books online... stay tuned.

Monster Jam!

2008-08-06T23:44:00.000-07:00

Good things come from sketch nights. Dusty came over last week for one, and we came up with a really groovy new drawing challenge. Basically, one guy draws the basic form and layout of a creature, and then we pass it back and forth, taking turns drawing limbs, heads, and details. Then one guy inks it to sort of tie it all together. We call it a Monster Jam (or Monster Jelly, as Dusty prefers). It's amazingly fun, and the creatures look a lot more cohesive than I thought they would.

The dragon above was initially roughed-out by Dusty. I drew the head, an arm, and the tail; Dusty drew an arm, leg, and lots of body details. I had a blast inking it... I'm a big fan of drawing wrinkles and cracks, so I really savored this one. We both agree it's the best dragon either one of us have ever made.

The other creature we made is a little more original... the Aqua Yeti. I did the rough plan, the claw, and legs, while Dusty did the head, tentacle arm, and body. He inked it and really went nuts on the details, as usual.

We both agree it's the best aqua yeti either one of us have ever made.

We got together again last night and both did a Hellboy drawing. Here's mine...

If you've seen Hellboy II (terrific movie!), then you'll really understand this one!

Sketch Night Numero Dos

2008-07-31T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well, the second Joplin sketch night is in the book. We had a couple less this time due to scheduling issues, but we still managed to crank out a lot cool artwork. As usual, it all gets swapped around with different people inking and coloring each others' work, and at the end of the night it all gets divvied up. Here's the stuff I ended up with...

The first one up there was penciled by Randy and painted/inked by Amber, I believe.

This one was penciled by Matt and inked by me. It is the main character from Matt's upcoming book. This was fun to ink, because Matt and I share a love of bold lines.

The zombie was penciled by me and painted/inked by Randy. It turned out like a zombified Rebuker (accidentally, I think).

The rest of these were penciled by Randy and inked by me. Randy puts us all to shame on these sketch nights. While the rest of us finish a half-dozen drawings or so, Randy ends up with a inch-thick PILE of drawings by the end of the night! His pencils are extremely loose and fun to ink over with brush pens.

That last one I actually finished the day after. I seem to have indoctrinated my daughter with my love of Spider-Man. She watched part of the movies with me this summer and really liked it when he was swinging around. Anyway, all day today she was carrying this sketch around like a cherished toy.

Now if only I can make her a 49ers fan...

Back in town...

2008-07-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been out of town for a good chunk of July. First a trip to see family in California and then a week-long art teacher workshop in Kansas City. Both were lots of fun, but I'm feeling a bit out of the loop artistically now. Ah well, I'm sure some drawin' will cure that. Above is a sketch I did while in KC, from photo-reference. I'm feeling more and more comfortable with brush pens now.

This is Scott Morse's Magic Pickle, from a graphic novel I just got. It's a great, fun read! Superheroic produce... ya gotta love it. This was really quick and easy to draw.

One of the comics I'm picking up every month right now is the Perhapanauts, by Todd Dezago and Craig Rousseau. It's about a group of paranormal adventurers that include a bigfoot, a ghost, a psychic, a mothman, an interdimensional guy, and THIS guy... Choopie (the chupacabra). It reads like a really light hearted Hellboy.

And here are a couple more drawings from our last sketch night. This one was penciled by Amber and inked by Matt. Inspired by our resident dachshund, of course.
And this one was penciled by Amber and inked by me. Hopefully we can do a bunch more of these on Tuesday when we have our second Joplin sketch night!

Collaborations are swell

2008-07-05T03:11:00.000-07:00

Pencils by Matt, inks by Seth:

Ditto:

Pencils by Seth, inks by Matt:

Matt was over the other night, so we could scan in some of the pages of his upcoming book. Towards the end of the night (actually early morning) we did a little sketching. It's dang fun to see someone ink your stuff... almost as much fun as inking over theirs.

Upon further review...

2008-06-27T18:41:00.000-07:00

One of the most exciting things as a creator is getting a chance to hear what people who spend a lot of time reviewing comics think of your work. Well, some of those reviews are starting to show up for our newer books, so here ya go...

The fine folks at Pulp Secret included DUEL in their regular comic review video podcast. They had a lot of kind words and really seemed to get what I was going for with that book. Check it out right here (the Duel review starts at the 3:48 mark):

Broken Frontier took a look at both new books (they also reviewed the mini-comic version of Random Ink way-back-when... nice people). Tonya Crawford had a lot of nice things to say about ROOK CITY #1, including

"With a $2.95 price tag for over 32 pages of highly enjoyable comic book stories Rook City comes off as a bargain. Wolfshorndl has crafted an overall strong first outing and will hopefully keep turning out these stories that are sometimes witty, sometimes silly, but always entertaining. This comic is like a trip through the funhouse – a lot of laughs, some good-natured teasing, and at the end anticipation of the next time we get to go for a ride."

Meanwhile, her fellow Broken Frontier reviewer, Richard Pulfer, seemed to enjoy DUEL #1 although he would like to see it develop farther, saying

"The character designs are imaginative, especially in later characters like Cyborg Stan and Triode. Once again, it’s the execution of the battles themselves, seen in the expression of the combatants and their ultimate fate which give the book a disarmingly cinematic feel. While Wolfshorndl’s art is more than sufficient, it might be interesting to see two artists with contrasting styles duel one another in later books."

Funny he should say that, as that is just what we have planned. More on that later...

Over on her Comics Worth Reading site, Johanna Draper Carlson reviewed both ROOK CITY and DUEL. Of the two, she seemed to enjoy DUEL more and really gave me some things to consider.

I really appreciate all these people taking the time to look over our books and spread the word about them! Hopefully, there will be even more to tell you about soon.

The 1st Joplin Area Sketch Night!

2008-06-25T23:23:00.000-07:00

Well, this was pretty dang cool... and something we've been wanting to do for awhile. Last night, a bunch of area artists interested in comics gathered at our house for a sketch night. This was sort of inspired by the CCN group in KC. It was great to get everyone together, as I knew almost everyone there, but many of them had not met. We stayed up until 2am showing each other what we'd been working on, comparing favorite drawing tools, and sketching like crazy. Eventually we started inking/coloring over each others pencil sketches, which produced some crazy cool results.

Anyway, I think this is going to be the start of something really cool. Who knows what kind of collaborations are going to spring out of this? We're going to try to meet every month like this and see what happens.

The Phoenix drawing up top is by Randy Rustin, who is a drawing MACHINE... cranks 'em out like no one's business. This was one he did for Laura (Phoenix is her favorite character). I'm helping him put together a sketchbook of his stuff for print.

This one is a portrait of our dog, Zoe, by the super-talented Amber Stone:

This is one of the guys from Evil Ain't Easy, pencilled by me and inked by Matt:

And the Rebuker, of course, pencilled by me and inked by Brad Shipp (check out his deviantART page here... amazing!)

This is just a small sampling of the art produced last night. Most of it we gave away to each other. Hopefully, this is the first of many of these sketch nights!

Read 'em and weep!

2008-06-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

Last night, we had a little Three Trees sketch session at my house. Elton, Dusty, and Matt all came over. We got to show each other what we were working on, which was cool. All three of those guys are cranking out some great stuff you'll get to see in the coming months! This was the first time all four of us were together, and it was quite awesome.

We decided to make some jam comics, so Elton came up with some story seed words to get us started. We all picked some out of the pile, and then got started on the top third of a page. Then we would pass it to the next guy, draw the middle section, and then pass it again and finish it. I got a lot of grief for taking too long on the first two sections. Dusty was really hardcore... straight to ink, no pencils.

Be warned... these are really loose, quickly-drawn, and crazy!

This one was done (in order) by: me, Dusty, and Matt:

This one was Matt, me, then Dusty:

This one was Dusty, Matt, then me:

Revamping the sketches

2008-06-15T02:34:00.000-07:00

Just so you all know, we've redone how we are organizing our sketches for this site. From now on, we'll be using our deviantART galleries to display our work. For those of you that don't know, deviantART is the largest collection of art and artists on the web. They make it simple for us to display, sort, and even sell our artwork in a really easy, streamlined way. Dusty was the first to sign up, and then he finally kicked my butt and got me to do the same. You should definitely check it out!

We'll still mention new sketches we put up on this blog. For instance, here's a couple of scratchboard pieces I finally scanned in:

DUEL #1 released!

2008-06-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

Here's yet another new issue for your viewing pleasure... DUEL #1!

What is Duel about? Well, two young boys with overactive imaginations are hanging out and drawing one day. When one of them sketches the image of a mighty warrior...the challenge is on. Before long there is an all-out artist's duel raging to see who can create the toughest character. We are soon sucked into the world of their imagination, a world filled with tremendous battles between cybernetic cowboys, secret snake ninjas, huge gelatanous creatures, and much more! Who will emerge victorious? You can preview some of the pages HERE.

This book started out as a 24 Hour Comic (24 pages created in 24 hours) I tried to do at the end of last summer. I tried to come up with something fun and loose that would be a lot of fun to draw. I only got a few hours into it before I failed the 24 Hour challenge (should've remembered I was a new dad), but I liked the idea so much that I wanted to finish it. So here it is!

You can order it now from our Indy Planet store and have an actual print copy for yourself! But, just like Rook City #1, you can download the entire issue for FREE through WOWIO in electronic format. Remember, it's free to sign-up on WOWIO and a great way to support us.

By the way, Random Ink #1 is also now available for free download through WOWIO! For those of you who might now know, this was our first published book. It's an anthology that features some of the Rook City stories along with a wide variety of other tales about everything from blues musicians to martians to time travel. You can check out a PREVIEW, if you want.

This will be our last release for a little while (although several are in the pipeline right now), but it's nice to have three finished comics available. I hope you all at least download some copies, check them out, and let us know what you think!

Rook City bonus stuff!

2008-05-29T23:18:00.000-07:00

This terrific image was done by Brad Heath, one of the regulars on the CCN message board. He downloaded a copy of Rook City and said the Rebuker is his new hero. It's always awesome to see another artist's take on my characters. Brad definitely got the attitude right!

Some of you might have noticed the "Suggested Soundtrack" in the back of Rook City #1. Well, here's a music player that features all of the songs on that soundtrack! And then you can read along with the music. How awesome.

Track 1- Johnny Cash "Folsom Prison Blues" (for the "Bullets and Bedpans" story):
This song seemed to capture some of the Rebuker's attitude as he tries to escape the nursing home. It's easy to imagine his voice sounding an aweful lot like Johnny's (although I doubt the Rebuker does much singing). "I shot a man in Reno... just to watch him die."

Track 2- Smashing Pumpkins "We Only Come Out at Night" (for the "Transformations" story):
This perfectly matches the Vlad Squad, for obvious reasons. The goofy instrumentation and slight creepiness of this track fits the mood we were kind of going for with these characters. I can see the Squad liking this track quite a bit.

Track 3- Miles Davis "So What" (for the "Sleuth" story):
Well, Toby is a big jazz fan. In fact, if you look closely you'll notice there is a Miles Davis poster on the wall of his room in this story. But more than that, the ultra-cool beginning of this song really nails the film noir feeling I wanted to get across in this "mystery".

Track 4- The Flaming Lips "Waiting for a Superman" (for the "Showtime" story):
Obviously the superhero references in this song match the epic battle between the Captain and Dark Star. And if you want enjoyably cheesy dramatic music, the Flaming Lips are always a good bet. But I also like how the line "Tell everybody waiting for Superman that they should try to hold on as best they can/ He hasn't dropped them, forgot them, or anything/ it's just too heavy for Superman to lift" matches the reveal at the end of this story.

Track 5- John Lee Hooker "I'm Bad Like Jesse James" (for the "Gratuity" story):
This song just has the proper attitude for Rebuker's incident at the diner. John Lee Hooker's ominous voice sets the mood perfectly. He's singing about justice being served, and that's just what the Rebuker dishes up in this story.

Well, anyway, I hope this is entertaining for someone besides me!

ROOK CITY #1 released!

2008-05-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

Finally... here it is! ROOK CITY has finally been collected into print form! It's actually been completed for awhile (as you can tell by our convention posts), but it took awhile to get everything setup for ordering. You can order it now from our Indy Planet store and have an actual print copy for yourself!

But you also have another option! You can download the entire issue for FREE through WOWIO, an e-book company that we will be working with! It's free to join Wowio and free to download books, but each time someone downloads our books we get paid. So, if you like our work and would like to support us, this is a great, free way you can do so!

Anyway... hopefully you've been following our Rook City tales online over the last few years. This issue features the first five stories: In "Bullets & Bedpans", Toby Fox must stop the Rebuker (a 80-year-old vigilante) from devastating his nursing home. "Transformations" shows us the origin of the Vlad Squad, four college kids who think they are vampires. Meanwhile, Toby must solve a mystery involving his professors and an ancient mask in "Sleuth." Rook City's resident superhero, The Captain, battles his arch-rival in "Showtime"...but all is not as it seems.

And finally, the Rebuker reappears and leaves his mark on the locals in "Gratuity." This story has never appeared in other formats, and is available EXCLUSIVELY by downloading or buying a copy of Rook City #1!

This issue also features behind-the-scenes sketches, character info, and pinups. It's 36 pages jam-packed with goodness!

So anyway, it's exciting to finally get this book out there. I hope you all at least download a copy, check it out, and let us know what you think!

More sketchies

2008-05-18T01:26:00.001-07:00

Here are some more sketches I did for some of my students that bought some of our books. It's always fun to take a crack at established characters. I slapped some color on the Iron Man. I was feeling inspired after watching the movie (which I highly recommend to all of you)!

These two were requested by a student who really likes cheese and tacos. A boy after my own heart.

Jam comics!

2008-05-03T19:51:00.000-07:00

Free Comic Book Day was a blast today. Elton and I hung out with fellow local artists Amber Stone and Randy Rustin, sold some books, did some sketches, and gave away a bunch of mini-comics. It was great hanging out with fellow artists and checking out each other's artwork. Hopefully we can make this a yearly tradition here in Joplin!

Maybe the best part of the day was doing some jam comics with Amber and Randy. The way it worked was that we each drew the first row of a one page comic and then passed it on to the next person, who drew the middle part and passed it onto the next person, who drew the end. The results are pretty loose and fun... check 'em out! (Amber and I must have had zombies on the brain, as the two we started feature the undead.)

Created by (in order): me, Randy, and Amber...

By Randy, Amber, and me...

By Amber, me, and Randy...

Free Comic Book Day

2008-04-26T19:49:00.001-07:00

For those of you that don't know, Saturday May 3 is Free Comic Book Day across the country. The day you can walk into any comic book store and demand "Give me my free comics!" Well, as part of the event this year, we will be setup with a table at our local VINTAGE STOCK here in Joplin. We'll be there (along with some other local comics people) selling comics, doing sketches, and giving away some mini-comics. So if you're local... come by and see us!

And now for some new sketches:
This one was for a Beatles sketch challenge. It was inspired by the line "wearing the face that she keeps in the jar by the door... who is it for?" Sorry if it depresses you.

These two I did during Planet Comicon. I like how they turned out... drawin' zombies is dang fun.

You had to be there.

2008-04-24T19:23:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of years, I've been writing down odd sentences that have been said in my high school art classes. Really odd ones. The kind that make you wonder "What was the conversation that led up to that?" Well, here's some of the crazier ones... presented in comic format.

(The really odd thing about this is the lady in the last panel. I drew her and then realized I had just drawn the exact likeness of my sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Coulter. )

Planet Comicon 2008

2008-04-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

These conventions are getting addictive! We had a dang good time up in Kansas City this weekend at Planet Comicon. That's Matt and Elton there behind me. Matt is a new member of Three Trees. He is busy working on his own anthology, which should be completed pretty soon. I think you all are going to love his work!

Anyway, we were able to sell a good amount of books again. I drew a bunch of sketches for people (they were free with any purchase)... everything from our characters to Superboy to fairies to Yoda. Drawing some for a bunch of little kids was the best!

My wife Laura went around and got a ton of great pictures for us. I think she enjoyed her first con.

One of the highlights of the con for all of us was getting to meet other creators. I was able to talk to Eric Powell (The Goon) and discuss exciting things like scanning artwork. There were several KC area creators there that I've corresponded with online and just now got to meet, including Bill Hook, Lee Leslie, Kevin Gritzke, Hector Casanova, Kyle Strahm, and P.R. Sholtz. It was great swapping books with them and seeing what they are up to.

There was also a fellow teacher there, Chris Wilson, who is exploring ways to incorporate comics in the school classroom. He runs a blog on that subject, and he's from Springfield so we'll definitely be keeping in touch. He was very interested in the different ways that I've had my student make comics.

ROOK CITY #1... approved by the Empire!

Kenny Baker AKA R2-D2!

Adam Rebottaro and his girlfriend, Courtney, who had a table next to us. Adam was doing some awesome sketching for people.
Unfortunately, Courtney was later killed by Darth Vader...
Jimmy and Kelli Jarmin, who will be running the Defcon 7 convention in Tulsa. It looks like we'll probably be going to this one, too.

I went to college with Amber Stone. She had some great sketches for sale and is preparing to launch a new webcomic soon that looks very cool.

That about does it. Can't wait for the next con!

SKETCHINGS #1...and another convention!

2008-03-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of our three new books... SKETCHINGS will be a series of collections of some of our better sketches. Some of them probably shouldn't even be called sketches, as they are pretty developed pieces that took quite awhile. But there is also a lot of just quick, fun stuff in there.

This first issue only features my work, but future issues will display the talents of Dusty (and possibly others). Most of the sketches you have seen here on the blog (or on our sketches page), but there are some new ones in there as well. It mainly consists of realistic drawings of real people and looser images of various characters. Several people have asked me if I was going to put some of my extra drawings in print form... so here ya go. It's 32+ sketches all in one book. I hope you all enjoy it. You can order Sketchings #1 from the Indy Planet Store.

If you're in the Kansas City area, another way you can get Sketchings (along with all our other books) is to stop by and see us at Planet Comicon on April 5 and 6! We'll have a table there for the first time. It'll be great to hang out with a bunch of the KC creators that we interact with on message boards with all the time!

Two conventions in under a month... didn't see that coming. They sure are dang fun.

Being productive and Devious!

2008-03-22T00:26:00.000-07:00

There are new images up on my art blog at:

http://ink-xercise.blogspot.com/

In other news I decided to become Devious, check out my Deviant Art page also:

http://noodlephish.deviantart.com/

Both these will be home to new images and are a source of networking, please feel free to comment and connect.

HurleyCon 2008

2008-03-12T20:09:00.000-07:00

Elton and I had a great time at the inaugeral HurleyCon here in Joplin on Sunday. Turnout was really good... which is a great sign since this is the first real con in Joplin for many years. We were busy pretty much the whole time... selling books, talking to conventioners, doing sketches. A lot of my current and former students stopped by, which was great. (I had been spreading con propoganda to them all week.)

You'll probably notice some new books on the table there with me. There is Rook City #1, which collects the first several stories from that series. Also, we had Sketchings #1, which is a collection of some of my best sketches (most of which you have seen here). And then there is Duel #1, a brand new book I just finished, about two overly competive artistic kids. I will post more on all of these later, including ordering info. It was great to have multiple books to talk to people about this time. People really seemed to dig all of them.

That last picture is of Randy Rustin, a friend of mine who works at the local comic store. He is one of the fastest artists I know and a great guy.

Jason and Nathan Hurley (of Hurley's Heroes) put this all together, and they said that turnout was good enough that they'll probably do this again next year or maybe in 6 months. I'm hoping this con leads to the start of some sort of comics community here in Joplin. There are quite a few of us that love comics, and it'd be nice if we could get together and encourage each other to do more.

Con Men

2008-02-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be awhile before we hit a convention again. But it seems that a pretty cool one is coming to Joplin. Like the poster says, this will be the biggest one Joplin's ever had.

We are going to be there with a table. And we should have four books for sale. That's right... four. More on that later... It'll be fun to hang out, sell some books, do some sketches for people, and meet some more Joplin area artists. Hopefully there's a decent turnout and we can have more of these.

So if you're in the area on March 9, stop by (it's free!) and say hi. We promise to try to be friendly.

Here there be sketches.

2008-01-25T23:34:00.001-08:00

Here are some fairly recent sketches. Kind of all over the place. This first one was just messing around with a brush pen, plus some Photoshop alterations.

These are from photo reference:

This is based on a wood carving on a cork.

Drew these while showing my students the Corpse Bride (great movie):

These were done while waiting around bored at parent-teacher conferences (art teachers don't get a lot of traffic):

Don't mess with the god of thunder.

2008-01-23T13:58:00.001-08:00

Two posts in a week? What's going on here?

Here's something I did for a sketch challenge. Not sure if I'm happy with the values yet, but it was fun.

My drawing arm is fatigued. Not from drawing (unfortunately), but from playing so much Wii Sports. I guess that says something.

A One Page Story

2008-01-19T22:27:00.001-08:00

Here's a one page story I just finished. It was just a simple little idea I got in my head one day, but it turned out to be a bit more complicated to execute. Not sure how easy it is to read, but it was fun to make. I'd like to do more of these one-pagers... see what you can do with limited space.

More stuff should be posted soon, but I don't want to say anything until it's actually up. Although I guess I just did. Oops.

A belated Christmas card.

2007-12-29T21:17:00.000-08:00

I hope everybody had a Merry Christmas.

Inkxercise

2007-12-27T14:02:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-17T22:54:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-03T22:16:00.000-07:00

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?

2007-09-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-11T20:02:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-05-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-05-07T21:03:00.000-07:00

The story continues...

That little Martian guy

2007-04-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

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

New page and sketches

2007-04-24T19:43:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-04-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-07T12:54:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-28T21:01:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-16T16:25:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-08T20:24:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-02T22:41:00.000-08:00

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?

Rook City Remastered

2006-12-28T02:07:00.000-08:00

There's a new illustrated lyric picture up. But it's already been correctly guessed. I really enjoyed this one, as it's from my favorite U2 song. And U2's pretty much my favorite band.

In bigger news... I am finally done with getting Rook City #1 ready to print! I should be sending it to the printer the next couple of days. Once I get the proof copy back and all that jazz, you should be able to order a copy right here. So stay tuned.

In the process of getting all these Rook City stories together, I went ahead and "remastered" the very first tale, "Bullets and Bedpans." That story was originally drawn before I knew anything about Photoshop, so the lettering and gray tones looked completely different from the other Rook City stories. To make everything flow together better, I relettered those pages and added new gray tones. I even touched up my old drawings in a couple spots. I also updated the webcomic version of these pages. You can see the results below. The changes might not seem that big, but I think it will really help with the overall quality of the book. What do YOU think?

A new lyric

2006-12-21T21:26:00.000-08:00

Only a bit late... there's a new illustrated lyric up. There may even be a clue to this one in the picture.

Christmas break has just begun. I'm hoping to get lots of artwork done, yadda yadda... we'll see. It's crazy how time seems to slip away on these breaks. I never feel like I use them as well as I could.

Belated

2006-12-13T20:48:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't post this last week when it went up, but there was a new Illustrated Lyric. Andy Jewett (another Indie Spinner Rack guy) correctly guessed "I am Trying to Break Your Heart" by Wilco. One of my favorite bands.

The next installment will be a week late. The last week of the semester is always crazy at school, so my time for artwork is very limited. But there will be a new one up next Tuesday.

Also, for those of you interested in the progress of our adoption... we've started a blog all about our daughter Grace. We'll be updating everyone there with pictures and news.

Great happenings!

2006-11-27T21:37:00.000-08:00

The fourth lyric in our ongoing contest is up! Check it out, and e-mail us your guess to win original art and other cool stuff!

On a personal note... this Thanksgiving break was particularly awesome for my wife and I. We have been in the process of trying to adopt a child from Taiwan since June. Well, on Thanksgiving day we received the great news that they have a little girl for us! Her name is Grace Savannah, and she was born about two weeks ago. We won't be able to go get her for a few months, but it's awesome just knowing that we have her! I'll keep you updated as more develops.

Anudda one

2006-11-20T20:55:00.000-08:00

Alright... last week's winner was Michael Muranaka, who correctly guessed "Brothers on a Hotel Bed" by Death Cab for Cutie. Man, people have been sending in their entries less than an hour after I post the new artwork. So, if you want to guess this week's lyric... better do it quick!

I'm looking forward to the upcoming five day weekend. Going to try to get lots of comics done. And much football shall be watched.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Another chance to win

2006-11-13T21:12:00.000-08:00

Well, quite a few of you sent in entries for last week's contest. Everyone guessed correctly that it was Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", but Ry Spanos (a fellow Indie Spinner Rack listener)was the first. So he won the original art and a free copy of Random Ink #1.

Here's your chance to try again... another illustrated lyric is up and ready to be guessed. This one's a bit more obscure, but not very old. Have at it!

A CONTEST!

2006-11-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

While Rook City is on hiatus for the next couple of months, we will be running a weekly contest here at Three Trees. Anyone who knows me would tell you that I'm obsessed with music. Well, every Tuesday I will be putting up an illustration of mine that is inspired by a certain song and features lyrics from that song. The first person to correctly guess the artist and song title for that lyric (in an e-mail to us) will win the original art for that illustration and a free copy of Random Ink #1! Cool, huh?

The first illustration is already up. Some of the lyrics I choose will be somewhat obscure, but this one shouldn't be too hard... give it a shot!

Slight pause whilst I adjust my accoutrements

2006-10-30T21:49:00.000-08:00

Some of you will recognize the character in the last panel. It was fun to draw him again.

The Big News: This will be the last Rook City page for a couple of months. The series is going on hiatus until January, which will allow me to finish up a few comics projects. These projects include getting Rook City #1 ready to print, submitting Evil Ain't Easy to some weekly newspapers, and submitting a story for new anthology that I would love to be in. I've been struggling with trying to finish these things and keep Rook City on time, and it just wasn't working. Stopping for a while will not only let me get these things out of the way, but also make sure that Rook City is always on time when it returns.

HOWEVER... even though Rook City will not be updated for the next couple of months, we will still have new content up on our site every week, including our first ever contest! It's sort of a "first come, first served" thing, so make sure you check back here next Tuesday for more details.

Thanks for reading!

The plot thickens

2006-10-24T20:21:00.000-07:00

Page numero ocho is up for the current Rook City story. I hopes ya likes it.

Should have a big announcement next week...

The Force is strong with this one...

2006-10-18T01:40:00.000-07:00

I did another of these digital sketches, it's a fun little excerise. Enjoy Gannon.

Back on schedule

2006-10-02T23:09:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's Tuesday and a new Rook City page is up. All is as it should be.

Talk about it in our forum. I dare ya.

My son the Jedi.

2006-10-01T01:11:00.000-07:00

This is Gabe , he is 4. He wanted me to draw a picture of him as a Jedi, with a green lightsaber. So now you know what's going on here. I like how it turned out, and he will be taking it to show-and-tell on Friday.

Late Nights

2006-10-01T00:42:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody wanted to repost these images from a couple of days ago with links that
work. Sorry for the trouble.

2006-09-27T19:54:00.000-07:00

The story continues. This page introduces Linus, a character you will see fairly regularly in this here Rook City thing. One of the main things I enjoy about this comic is the chance to make up characters that are contradictions to what you would typically assume. That's, uh, kind of a major theme in Rook City.

On a completely unrelated note, today was the first meeting of the new cartoonist club I'm running at the middle school where I teach. I've been doing afterschool art clubs there for years, typically doing murals and such. But it is hard to gather enough to energy at the end of the day for middle schoolers + paint. So I switched gears this year to something I really love... comics. I wasn't really sure what level of interest I would get in it, but I actually had to turn kids away because I had so many applicants. That's a nice sign. Anyway, I'm looking forward to teaching them how to crank out the comics. Look out, world...

Testy Pirate

2006-09-27T03:28:00.000-07:00

Hello to everyone that looks at this stuff. My name is Dusty for those who don't know. I am testing the blog-image-posty-ness. Anyway thanks for checking us out! Later.

Digital sketches and such

2006-09-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

Here are some more doodles done on Photoshop. Still figuring stuff out, but man it's fun. Hope you like 'em... (Click for larger view) Also, a new Rook City page was posted last week. Just a note... the next page will not be up until next Tuesday. Sorry for the delay! Day job taking priority lately.

"Convention Blues" continues

2006-09-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

The latest Rook City story marches on. I'm really enjoying working on this one. Four pages have been posted so far... remember to check back every Tuesday for a new one. And remember to post your thoughts here or on our forum!

Rook City reviewed

2006-08-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

Hey, Rook City just got a nice review from the fine folks at Independent Propaganda. Check it out! IP is a great new site dedicated to getting the word out about indie comics.

The "Convention Blues" story continues. School is starting around here, so it's back to the life of a teacher for me. However, I am one page ahead on Rook City. Hopefully I can keep it up and maybe even build up a "buffer" of pages someday.

Heh. Not likely.

Massive Rook City story begins

2006-08-08T06:53:00.000-07:00

And by "massive" I mean 20+ pages. That's massive for me.

This story is one I've been wanting to tell for a long time. It's called "Convention Blues" and it will feature nearly every Rook City character you have seen so far... plus a bunch of new ones. It starts with a dream sequence which was dang fun to draw, because I could just cut loose and do whatever. A lot of it was done digitally. (Special thanks to my good friend Fletch for his quality feedback during that process.)

Anyway, I think you all will really enjoy this one. So keep checking back, and don't forget to tell us what you think!

Dean Rankine is groovy

2006-07-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

Check this out! One of my favorite comics artists right now is Dean Rankine. He is the Australian creator of the insanely quirky and enjoyable Holy Cow! Christian Comics (read 'em... you're guaranteed to smile). Well, we recently did a pin-up swap, where we drew each other's characters. Above is his great rendition of Ralph, Gregori, Esmerelda, and Dimitri. Man, it's dang fun seeing someone else's take on your characters! Thanks for doing this, Dean.

Below is my version of his Grossgirl and Boogerboy. This was a lot of fun to make... trying to adapt Dean's kooky characters into my style.

Digital doodling

2006-07-25T09:35:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I joined the ranks of lucky artists who own a Wacom tablet (a device that lets you use a pen instead of a mouse to draw on your computer). I've been having a blast experimenting with it and trying to get a feel for how it works. Here are a few of my sketches I've done with it so far. These are all-digital, no paper or ink involved. (As always, click on an image for a bigger view).

And, of course, it's Tuesday... and that means another page of ROOK CITY!

Last Evil Ain't Easy... for now.

2006-07-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Here is the seventh Evil Ain't Easy strip. This will be the last one for now, as my assignment from the KC Star is over. However, I plan on making more of these. I'm probably going to submit some to other weekly newspapers and see if there is any interest in carrying them. If nothing else, we'll continue to post them on our site as another webcomic.

If you want to let us know what you think of little Dr. Nimbus and his troubles, then head to our FORUM to do so! As always, thanks for checking out our stuff!

And remember... Rook City returns from hiatus this Tuesday!

Back from the mountains

2006-07-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

Well, Laura and I are back from our adventure in Montana. Much fun and rest was had on this trip. I learned a valuable life lesson... when riding in a convertible all day, one should wear sun screen. (My parents rented a convertible to drive through Glacier National Park one day while we were there.)
One of the best parts of the trip was finally checking out a great comics shop in Missoula, Montana... Muse Comics & Games. Man, I wish this place had been in business when I lived up there! Not only are they just a dang cool store with a great selection, but they even help local comics creators print up their mini-comics and sell them. I haven't heard of another store that does that! They also bought a few copies of Random Ink #1 from me. I was also able to find some great books there, like the very scarce Project:Superior hardcover and Matt Madden's 99 Ways to Tell a Story.
I didn't get as much artwork done as I had hoped, but oh well... that's what vacations are for. Relaxing. I did finish the next page of our jam comic we are working on and these couple of sketches you see here. That first mountain one was done on the way to Glacier Park one day. And this last one here was drawn on the flight back home. Bet you can't guess what movie we had just seen...

Holiday and stuff

2006-07-07T00:26:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a good 4th of July. I went to a bbq and watched a few fireworks, but my favorite part of every 4th is at the end of the day when I sit down and read the declaration of independence by myself. It always make me want to pull out my copy of common sense then visit the local bookstore and read up on the founding fathers.

Anyway, now that I’ve bored all the non-Americans I’ll get to my point. While looking through some of my old papers I found the stash of comics we worked on when we were in junior high and High School and I have to say that they are very entertaining, though not always for the same reason they were when we made them.

Since I don't have a scanner handy I can't put up any scans so I figured that one of the top ten lists from the back of one of them would be fun.

So here it is

10. Speedy
9. Brian O’Connor king of the little people
8. Future Boy
7. Cateyes
6. Army Ants
5. The Monster Squad (including members: Oger, Hyde, Guru, Momzie, Schyler and Jo)
4. Grog
3. Blobish
2. Junkman
1 The Artillery(comprised of Crosshairs, Cannon, Buckshot, Colonel Voldank and Brewsky)

And yes those are mostly names of real characters we had created.

A short hiatus...

2006-06-27T01:48:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning we take off for beautiful Montana! Yesssss. For those of you that don't know... Elton, Dusty, and I all grew up in the mountains of northwest Montana. I'm heading up with my wife and my older sister's family. I didn't get to go up there last year, and it about killed me.

The only downside is that this means there will be slight pause in the Rook City updates for a couple of weeks. The next page will be posted Tuesday, July 18 (or possibly sooner). In the meantime, you can check out these new Rook City sketches for some behind-the-scenes info on the series. Thanks for your patience!

Also... I went ahead and posted the next Evil Ain't Easy strip. I've got one more in the bag, and I'll put that up next week sometime, barring technical difficulties.

When next I post, it will be from my mountain homeland!

Forums are swell

2006-06-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

It has finally happened... Three Trees Studios now has its own FORUM! This is the place to go to discuss anything and everything about our webcomics, books, or whatever. We'll even be posting some exclusive content over there. So check it out... you can interact with us and other readers!

OTHER GREAT COMIC FORUMS...

-Flight Forum: This was setup by Kazu Kibuishi, who puts together the excellent Flight anthologies. Just a great community of talented and supportive artists there.

-ChristianComics.net Forum: One of the best networking places for Christian comics artists... members run the gamut from "just starting" to professional creators.

-Parable Forum: This forum was started for creators working on the new Christian anthology Parable, but it is also just a great place to interact with some extremely talented artists.

-The Drawing Board: A huge board with tons of designers, comic artists, and other creators. There is almost too much great stuff to take in at this board!

-Kansas City Comix Scene Board: The place for comic people from KC (and surrounding area... I guess we count).

All of these forums are full of amazing artwork. Dusty and I use these as artistic inspiration... just looking at what others are doing for a little while gets you really pumped about drawing.

New Rook City Story

2006-06-21T13:20:00.000-07:00

The new Rook City story started yesterday. It's called "Road Block" and it features the return of the Vlad Squad! This one was written by Elton and me. Elton originally came up with the Vlad Squad idea, and then we developed it together. Same thing with this story. "Transformations" introduced these characters, but we're trying to show you a lot more about them in this tale. This will be a four-parter probably, and then we'll start our first major Rook City story arc (by major I mean over 20 pages).

Here's a Vlad Squad pin-up some of you might not have seen:

And don't forget... a new Evil Ain't Easy strip will be up tomorrow!

S.P.A.C.E.d Out: Part 3!

2006-06-19T00:16:00.000-07:00

Here's even more of the great loot I acquired while at S.P.A.C.E. It's taken me this long to get a chance to read some of these.

Zig Zag by J. Chris Campbell- This guy is just way too creative. Zig Zag is a one-man anthology full of quirky stories of hypochondriac robots, killer store owners, and of course... Attic Bugs. This book is a blast to read! So many styles all done so well.

Owly by Andy Runton- What a great book for anyone to read... kids to adult! The wordless adventures of a loveable owl and his friends. I really love Andy's work with a brush pen- just a really clean, fun style to look at. There's a reason this book is really taking off.

Superior Showcase by Bertozzi, Dawson, and Trippe- A great little anthology of superhero tales by some indie creators. I especially enjoyed Nick Bertozzi's convenience store heroes and Dean Trippe's tale about the sidekick Butterfly (a great webcomic, by the way).

Turtletown by Steve Hamaker- Steve is the incredible artist who has worked on Flight, Bone, and his own series, Fish N Chips. This is a cool book about obedience he illustrated for a pastor. Very well done! He showed us some pages from his story in Flight 3 (coming out June 27) and they looked so great. Cannot wait to get that book!

Fanci-full Friends by Gustav Chompe- A print collection of a highly quirky webcomic. Very original and eccentric stuff... and I really dig it.

Happy Town by Justin Madson- Justin had several collections of his series there, and I only purchased the first of them. I'm really impressed with his very unique style and the size of this series. It includes everything from superheroics to fantasy to sci-fi to slice-of-life... all in one cohesive tale. Ambitious and engaging.

Creature Tech by Doug TenNapel- I picked this up at the Top Shelf table. This is just a crazy fun book about scientists, space eels, ghosts, and surprisingly... faith. This is probably my favorite thing I got at the con. I've got to track down more of Doug's stuff!

The Amazing Cynicalman by Matt Feazell- Dubbed the "King of Mini-comics" by the Indie Spinner Rack guys, Matt has obviously been doing this a long time and has got it down. At his table, if you did a quick sketch of Cynicalman (basically a stick figure), you got a free webcomic. I traded our book for the collected Cynicalman... a very good swap. Lots of simple and yet witty humor!

Probably the most inspiring thing at this show was the chance to see so much great, creative stuff being produced by so many cool people. It really got us excited to work even harder on our stuff. This was Nathan's first con, and he was especially jazzed about it all.

Whew... that's it for our S.P.A.C.E. report. Can't wait to go again!

S.P.A.C.E.d Out: Part 2!

2006-06-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

When we went to the S.P.A.C.E. convention back in May, we traded comics with a bunch of the cool creators from the Kansas City area. These are people we have been corresponding and collaborating with over the last year. KC has a pretty noticeable comics scene... a lot of very talented folks just doing this for the love of it and not afraid to offer encouragement to others doing the same thing. I know they have definitely spurred on my creativity. Check out their site for more info!

Anyway, here's some of the groovy books we got:

- Matt Hawkins: Cowboy Clyde & the Pirates (a hilarious strip that ran in the KC Star a few months ago) and Melvin & Frank Comics #1. Matt has a really well-developed and fun cartoony style that compliments his off-beat humor.

- Rob Schamberger: Rob Schamberger Makes Comix. Rob is one productive guy, and this collects some of his recent stuff, including stories, sketches, and the his "Empty House" series that also ran in the KC Star.

- Duane Cunningham: Band on the Sun. Written with Rob, this is a high-energy tale about a band and their adventures in the last days before Earth is wiped out by an asteroid.

- Shaun Gray: Odd Jobs. This is a fun idea- a strip about gamers but from the perspective of the other characters in the game. Shaun draws it in a clean, simple style that really fits.

- Michelle Arcand: Being Different. This is a pretty dark and yet somehow meaningful tale about kids and how things really work.

-Kyle Strahm: Girl Friday and March of 10,000 Undead Gabors. Kyle's stark black & white artwork is so fun to look at and these stories are a hoot! Gotta love Scottish warriors taking on the undead!

Anyway, you all should check out the sites of these fine creators. Hopefully, they enjoyed Random Ink as much as we enjoyed their books.

Updates

2006-06-09T03:27:00.000-07:00

Just another reminder that there are new Evil Ain't Easy and Rook City pages up. Check 'em out and leave a comment... I dare ya.

We've just started work on a jam comic that all four of us are working on. We're all pretty jazzed about this. Each artist is doing a page and then passing it on to the next guy. Should be pretty crazy and fun. We'll be posting more about it here eventually.

New things

2006-06-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

The second Evil Ain't Easy strip was posted online today. Check it out... and let us know what you think!
We have our first Three Trees Studios swag now available for purchase! That's right... you, too, can be on the cutting edge of fashion with this stylin' t-shirt. It features artwork from Dusty, Nathan, and I on the back and our logo on the front. Check out our store at CafePress for ordering details!

The Absent-Minded Teacher

2006-05-27T20:19:00.000-07:00

Well, school has been out for a whole week now... glorious summer is here! That magical time of sleeping in and getting lots of artwork done (hopefully). I thought I would give you guys a peek into just how weird my brain is. The above image is a collection of notes that I wrote myself during the last school year. You see, I travel between two schools every day and I'm pretty absent-minded... without notes like these I tend to forget a ton of things. These particular notes were the offspring of some serious boredom apparently. Pretty goofy stuff. Hopefully you find them amusing.

(By the way, "ISD" stands for In School Detention. Those are the poor kids who get to do bookwork instead of art projects because they got in trouble.)

Another webcomic for you

2006-05-24T20:41:00.000-07:00

As promised, the first EVIL AIN'T EASY strip is now up for you to see. Click on the image for a bigger view. We'll be updating this one on Thursdays from here on out.

This strip has been a blast to work on so far... it pretty much writes itself! The most challenging thing is the colors. It's just something I don't have that much experience with, since all of our comics have always been good ol' black and white. But I'm getting there. Luckily, my wife Laura is here to help me out. This usually consists of her looking at the colors I have initially chosen, exclaiming "Yuck!", and then suggesting some other hues that don't offend the eye.

IN OTHER NEWS... don't forget there's a new ROOK CITY page up! This one's a bit late (there goes my streak of on-time updates). Blame it on the convention and end-of-the-year teacher stuff. Or just blame me.

Evil Ain't Easy

2006-05-20T22:26:00.000-07:00

This last Thursday, the Kansas City Star started running a new strip of mine in their Previews section. This is a little different than the full Rook City pages I did for them... these are in a strip format and in color. These are going to run weekly through at least May and June. Pretty exciting stuff!

The strip is called EVIL AIN'T EASY and it features Dr. Nimbus. He's a diabolical scientist bent on world domination... unfortunately the mundane annoyances of life keep slowing him down. Along for the ride will be his trusty henchman, Lothar. Click on the sketch above to see a bigger view of these guys.

We'll be putting this up as yet another webcomic on the site very soon. But if you're in the KC area, be sure to pick up a copy of the Thursday edition to see this in print!

S.P.A.C.E.d Out: part 1!

2006-05-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

Whew! We're back from our first convention as exhibitors... S.P.A.C.E. 2006 in Columbus, Ohio. And it was great! Thirteen hours on the road each way, but well worth it! Many adventures were had on the road. Nathan probably knows more about Elton and I than he ever wanted to...

Anyway, we have so much to tell you about this con. In this first part, I'm just going to show some pictures we took and talk about the people and events of the weekend. We all got a TON of incredible books that we want to tell you about, too, but that will have to wait for another post.

Here is us at our table as everyone was finishing setting up behind us (Left to right: Nathan, me, Elton). You can't really see all of our table in this shot, but we had lots of copies of the newly printed Random Ink #1, some of which we actually sold and many more of which we traded to other creators for their books (one of the coolest things about the con). We also had free postcards advertising the Rook City webcomic and Nathan's upcoming book, Alms Rook (which you will hear more about very soon). I had my portfolio there for people to look through, so they could see some stuff not featured in Random Ink yet.

The day started pretty slow, but there was an hour or two there where we had people talking to us about our book pretty constantly. I did sketches for some people who bought it, which was a lot of fun. We passed out a bunch of the postcards... a lot of people seemed pretty interested in it. The pages from the Blind Willie Johnson story in my portfolio caught a lot of people's attention... one guy even recognized him, which was crazy.

We were right next to all the guys from Kansas City. From right to left here you see Rob Schamberger, Shaun Gray, and Michelle Arcand. Not pictured (or easily seen) are Eve Englezos, Joshua E. Moutray, Kyle Strahm, Duane Cunningham, and Matt Hawkins. Duane was the only one I had actually met in person before, so it was great to finally put faces with so many names! To make their table stand out, Rob and Matt swiped a pillow and bedspread from their hotel and made it look like a bed. They're so indie...

This gentleman is Steve Hamaker, and as you can see he was situated directly behind us. One of the coolest people I got to meet at the con... he's the colorist for the Bone books, he's got a story in the next installment of Flight, and his comics are just amazing! It was really great to talk to him about Flight and his stuff. He offered me some advice on coloring, which I desperately need. Very cool guy... check out his site!

Just a shot of the con floor to give you a feel for what it looked like. It was a bit bigger than it appears here. I got to meet two other people who have been on Indie Spinner Rack. One was J.Chris Campbell, whose stuff is just amazingly original and fun. Very fun to talk to. The other was mini-comic legend Matt Feazell, a very nice guy who has obviously been doing this a long time. He's got it down. I also met Andy Runton, the creator of Owly (which I finally was able to purchase). He drew a cool sketch in it for me. I attended a panel discussion on webcomics. Didn't learn to much new info, but it was nice to talk to some other web guys and see what they're doing.

Overall, the atmosphere of this show was so great. Just so much creativity going around... I wish I could have wandered around even more. As it was, I felt bad leaving our table for more than a few short spurts. There was just a really cool vibe at this con. Someone had the brilliant idea of passing around a sketchbook with a cow theme. I think most of the artists there (including Nathan and I) sketched in it... it was crazy how great some of the stuff in there was! Things like that just added to the fun of the experience. I think we succeeded in our goal of getting our stuff out there and making connections. If anything, S.P.A.C.E. just wet our appetites for going to more cons!

Hopefully...

Space

2006-05-15T21:38:00.000-07:00

Well we're back from space and everything went great. We met a lot of interesting people and will be posting pictures, links, and comments about it soon. For now I just want to tell everyone how much we enjoyed it.

Spinning with the Indies

2006-05-06T12:15:00.000-07:00

Like I mentioned on an earlier post, I won a contest on a podcast about independent comics, INDIE SPINNER RACK. This is pretty much the grooviest show about comics out there... Charlito and Mr. Phil are two very kooky and well-read hosts. Anyway, the contest was a "pick your favorite indie book from 2005" kind-of-thing, and I won with my entry about Kabuki: Alchemy. David Mack has got to be my favorite artist and Kabuki my favorite book coming out right now. So, because I won, I got to be on an episode to talk to the guys about Kabuki... which was dang fun! They also were nice enough to talk about Random Ink. You can download the episode and hear for yourself! (My part of the episode goes from 15:20 to 49:00.)

Showtime!

2006-05-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

FINALLY.... Random Ink #1 has been reprinted as a full-size comic with a new color cover! This is pretty dang exciting for us simple folk. We've been making mini-comics since junior high, but this is the first time one of our books has been professionally printed. Cool stuff.

Anyway, this issue contains all of these stories from the mini-comic version:

-"Bullets and Bedpans": The FIRST Rook City tale. What happens when anti-hero vigilantes get old? It ain't pretty...

-"Leaf": The brief adventures of a falling leaf.

-"Dark Was the Night": The sad but true tale of blues legend Blind Willie Johnson.

-"The Last Martian": Episode One. Not everyone is happy about the Mars Rover project...

-"Intervention": In this illustrated prose short story, a desperate man in a ruined future searches for a way to change the past. But will he find it before his own fate catches up to him?

PLUS... this new edition also includes the "Sleuth" Rook City story and new pinup by Dustin Roberts. If you want to order this issue, just click here to go to our online printer, Indy Planet. You can also see more preview pages there.

Well, we finished posting the "Bullets & Bedpans" story last week, and it has been restored to its rightful place in the Rook City archive: first. This week we begin an all-new storyline with "Showtime" starring the Captain and Dark Star. This is definitely our first real superhero tale in this webcomic, but like most things in Rook City, not everything is quite as it appears...

It's been a blast drawing this one so far. I've tried to just cut loose and have fun. It's a nice change of pace after the "Sleuth" story for the Kansas City Star. That story was fun, too, but the constraints of having some sort of ending on each page were challenging. Speaking of the KC Star, though, I have another project in the works with them. More on that later.

Remember, we're always desperate for feedback about our stuff! Please leave comments here, e-mail us, or whatever... Hearing what people think of our work is the best part of all this. Thanks!

S.P.A.C.E. Bound

2006-05-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

Elton, Nathan, and I are busy getting ready for the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (S.P.A.C.E.) in Columbus, Ohio on May 13. This will be our first convention as actual exhibitors... so I'm sure it will be a learning experience. We've been frantically getting all of our stuff together for this. Not expecting to make any money on this trip... just get our stuff out there and make some connections and hopefully some new readers. The cool thing about S.P.A.C.E. is that it is just for indy comics. So, that's what everyone is there to see. We've heard a lot of good things about this con.

Time for a road trip! Mapquest says it's 11 hours each way from Joplin to Columbus. Maybe Elton and I will finally get that next Vlad Squad story written on the way...

Bullets and Bedpans

2006-04-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

The new Rook City story has been running the last couple of weeks. "Bullets and Bedpans" is actually the first Rook City tale. But it's an important part of the overall story, so we're posting it. Once all ten pages have run, I'll put it at the beginning of the archive, so everything is in chronological order. Also, since this is an older story, we're putting up more than one page a week. Four pages are up already!

This is the story that introduced Toby Fox... and the Rebuker. You'll notice it's not quite as polished as the newer stories. I still did zip-a-tone by hand for the grays back then, instead of on Photoshop like now. I think I can draw Toby more consistently the same now, as well.