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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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...

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

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

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!

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!