Business As UnUsual - Now with more bacon!!

Yet another Business As UnUsual strip

First of the Sunday strips. I debated for a long time whether or not to color the Sunday strips. I went with black and white because it's faster. Who knows, if it's ever successful enough to have a printed version I'll color them.

Another Business As Unusual again

WARNING:  mature themed content! Please prescreen in you have any ideas of letting your children read this strip. Thank you for your attention.

I started a Tumblr blog for Business As UnUsual, which you can find here.

I'll post another week's worth or so here on my main blog but after that these will only be posted on the Tumblr blog. I'm going to try and make a real go at this thing and the only way for me to be able to accurately track stats on the strip is if it's only viewable in one location. So please head over and follow along if you like it. 

Also, as this strip clearly demonstrates, the strip, while it may look like a typical, kid friendly strip, is not. Well, most of the time it is, but every once in awhile my screwy sense of humor needs to go mature places. So that's that.

Another Business As Unusual

Just one more for the moment.

A few more BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL strips

I figured I better put up a few more so you can at least get a vague hint as to what the strip will be like. Comments welcomed!

Business As UnUsual

Like most Americans, I grew up on some great comic strips. Peanuts, Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes. I've always had a great love for well done strips but only thought about trying one out about a year or so ago (plus or minus six months). Once I put my mind to it I came up with my idea almost immediately. I started filling up a notebook with my ideas and worked up a few sample strips. I've got enough written ideas to go for about six months and can come up with more ideas very easily, especially since it's so close to my own life. I can't promise that I'll get these out with any regularity right now, but I'm curious to see what people think of my idea and its execution. So here they are to introduce themselves: Art and Abby Normal.

Glade TRC3263827

Well here it is: the last ship I've had to design for INSURRECTION. Designing stuff has been one of the best parts about drawing the story. Concept designers have a great job, but I like mine better. Visual storytelling allows me to wear many different hats: director, actor, cinematographer, editor, concept designer, etc...

I made this in Google Sketchup. Anyone who uses the program will immediately notice how shoddy my work is. :-) I do okay with sketchup but what I'm learning is that the more you preplan, the easier your job will be once you're in the program. My problem is that I usually start working in sketchup with only a rough sketch or vague idea to go on, hence all the patchwork and makeshift techniques. Still, I don't worry too much since all the stuff I do there is only as a guide for my drawings.

I know this sounds like sucking up, but serious thanks to Google for creating this program! For comic book artists it is the best thing since sliced bread (and by sliced bread I mean Photoshop).

By the way, if anyone recognizes the number I used as the registration ID I'll be impressed.

First submission for PLANET PULP!

I was recently invited to join in on the fun over at PLANET PULP, which is way way cool because it's one of my favorite websites/blogs. They celebrate all the fun, silly stuff I grew up loving. So this month's subject matter is G.I. Joe. The first thought that came to me was... well, I don't want to spoil the strip, so read it and you'll know.  :-)  And then be sure to visit PLANET PULP and see all the other great stuff that's there to see. If you're like me, make sure you've got some free time.

A few commissions

Just what the title says. I've got more to do but I have to get INSURRECTION off my plate first. For anyone who's actually reading it, I apologize for being so slow but I'm trying to do my best, especially with this giant climactic battle. Anyway, hopefully these will be found to your liking in the meantime.

I've got some really great things lined up for the near future, by the by. Can't wait to share as I'm really exciting about it all.

First up is Black Cat.

Next is Wolvie (as I call him). I've never really been able to draw a Wolverine that I'm happy with. This one is about as close as I've gotten. I won't give up though; someday I'll get him. I really like John Buscema's and Marc Silvestri's take on the character but I think Barry Windsor-Smith's take in Weapon X is my favorite version of ol' Logan.

Rogue, from the early nineties. With the big hair.

And the White Queen. This is some strange fantasy version of her; clearly not any existing version. I just sort of made it up as I went along. It's probably my favorite of the bunch though.

The commissions are all done 11x14 inches on 500 series Strathmore bristol board and inked with Japanese brush pens. The White Queen has a little bit of Photoshop silliness thrown on in the background.

While I'm at it, here are a couple of sketches I did. These are smaller, 5x7 inches. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a huge fan of the CLONE WARS animated television show. I actually like the show better than most of the films (not the first two - episodes IV and V, but the rest). It's so much fun and isn't bogged down by all the family history. Anyway, here's Asajj Ventress and Anakin. I would LOVE to draw a CLONE WARS comic book, so if anyone knows the editors at Dark Horse...

I can't stop! Since I'm posting these, here are a few more CLONE WARS sketches from my 2010 sketchbook:

I could draw this stuff all day. Okay, back to work...

INSURRECTION, Issue 4

I just finished a page tonight that I hope I never have to repeat. 3 words: epic final battle. I've got several more pages of it too, but this one broke the ice. I'll share it later. Meanwhile, here are pages 1 and 2.

INSURRECTION, Issue 3

I just finished the second page of issue 4; it's my favorite page so far of the mini-series. Can't wait to share that one. Meanwhile, here are a few pages from issue 3. Can't show too much as it's not out yet.

INSURRECTION mash-ups

What the hell's a mash-up? I dunno; I thought I heard the term somewhere but I might be making it up. I didn't want to share pages from issue 3 of INSURRECTION and chance spoiling things so instead I made a "mash-up" of my favorite panels. I liked the results so I did the same for issues 1 and 2. I did them as a large wallpaper basically, 2560x1600.

Indy sketch cards

These were as fun to do as anything I've done in recent times. I plan to do many more of them.

INSURRECTION, Issue 2 inks

I've posted this stuff on my DeviantArt page. It gets hard to keep up with all these "social media" sites, hahaha. Oh well. Issue 2 has been out for a bit and I'm just starting on the last page of issue 3 now.

All the pages from issues 1 and 2 have been inked at print size, meaning I print them on 9x12 2 ply bristol board and ink them at the actual size they will be printed. For anyone who doesn't know, most comics are inked larger than they reproduce, usually around 150% of the final size. I inked them small to help with my speed. I tend to put too much detail into larger pages, so working at the final size kept me from doing that.

It worked. The trick, then, was to apply the lessons to larger, normally sized ink pages, done on 11x17 2 ply bristol board. I went back to normal sized inking on issue 3 and I think the lessons have stuck pretty well. I'll share some of those pages in a bit.

I also do a lot of "post" work in Photoshop. I try to plan ahead and know what I'm going to want to do digitally, then ink areas according to what I'm going to do later. For example, I kept the inking on the rocks (on this first page) simple because I knew I planned to add some texture to them digitally. Explosions, planets, textures - these are the kinds of things that I find to be much more time efficient with Photoshop. I can also get textures that would be nearly impossible to get with paper and brushes and/or pens.

More INSURRECTION stuff

I have a few colored pages on my DeviantArt site so I'll put them up here along with a couple of extras.

I finally finished the art for issue 2 and will post a few of those pages soon. I was wiped out for a couple of weeks with a bad cold so the issue is shipping a couple of weeks late. It's worth the wait though. the story gets very interesting in issue 2 and it's got a great ending. If the ending to issue 2 doesn't hook you then nothing will.

Just to be clear: when I talk up the book, I'm not referring to my art, I'm referring to the story. I didn't write it so I'm a fan like everyone else when it comes to this, the only difference being that reading the script is my equivalent to reading the comic. Blake Masters and Michael Alan Nelson have gone a great job of creating a world I find very interesting. I'm a huge sci-fi buff - I grew up reading sci-fi novels - so this is right up my alley. They also do a great job of letting the visuals do the heavy lifting in the book. That is a really nice thing for me and really helps to keep me invested in the story. If you read a lot of comics you'll find that a lot of writers feel the need to have dialogue in almost every panel, backing up or reiterating what is happening visually. Masters and Nelson aren't afraid to have entire pages without a lick of dialogue, which makes me want to ensure I do the visuals justice. It's a brave thing for them to do and I really appreciate it.

Darrin Moore, the colorist on the book, has done a great job. I really love to color my own work so it's hard to let go of these responsibilities. If you're not a top tier artist at Marvel or DC it seems to be a real crapshoot as to what you're going to get color-wise. A lot of colorists get jobs coloring because they know programs like Photoshop or Painter, not because they understand color theory. Darrin has done a great job. His work compliments my work quite well; it never dominates or confuses. Two issue in and I feel totally comfortable about what's going to come back from him. I'd work with him again in a heartbeat and let me tell you, that's a great feeling of relief. I hope, from the pages below, that you'll agree. There are some especially good pages from issue 2 that I can't wait to share.

And finally, I read the script for issue 3 last night and it just gets more and more interesting. Another good ending. The only real shame about this book is that it's only 4 issues.

C2E2: Year 2 in Review

So this was the second year Reed Exhibitions held the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo (C2E2). Last year was okay; it was the first year I ever had a table at a convention. I mostly ran around handing out page samples to different publishers. That paid off so this year I decided to keep my butt planted at my table the whole time. I'm glad I did because it was pretty amazing.

The show sold over twice the amount of tickets than the year before (they sold something like thirty five thousand tickets?). Friday and Saturday were nuts. Just nuts. The floor was swamped with people. Sunday was a little slower but I was ready for a slower pace by then. There was a great vibe to the show and the word of mouth was overwhelmingly positive. I feel confident that the it will just continue to get bigger and better. The staff was great; best I've seen at any show. Hats off to Mike Negin. He was in charge of Artist's Alley and was a constant presence all weekend, always checking to make sure we had everything we needed.

Met lots of interesting people. Stephanie, from Nova Scotia, gave me some great advice about web comics. Got some great advice about podcasting from a group of guys - I can't seem to find the business card they gave me at the moment. Their podcast has everything to do with nerd stuff. Or was it geek stuff? Met a few vets as well. One of them was an even bigger buff about World War II planes and than I am.

Costumes ran the gamut, as usual. Some of them were awesome for all the right reasons and some of them were awesome for all the wrong reasons, hahaha. Either way, they were all great. I commend them all; it takes moxie to dress up like some of them and go out in public. There's a great collection of pictures on Flickr:  http://www.flickr.com/groups/c2e2/  The Monarch's henchmen from The Venture Brothers were my favorites.

Meanwhile, my goal for the show was to try and get a lot of work done (I'm behind on my work due to being sick for a week and a half) but I learned quickly that it was completely unrealistic. There were just too many people and the whole point of being there is to be social. I did do a few sketches that I was pretty happy with and I've got a list of commissions to start on once I get issue 2 of INSURRECTION finished.

I've learned a tremendous amount from these past two years and I'm really looking forward to next year. I'm hoping, actually, to attend another show later this year. Maybe Baltimore. I'll have lots of friends there and everyone seems to really love that show. Emerald Con in Seattle is the other show people really seem to love but it's too close to C2E2 currently.

It looks like there might be some nice opportunities coming out of the show this year as well. More on that if and when any of it becomes a reality. Meanwhile I've got lots of work to do. I don't know how I'm going to finish issue 2 of Insurrection on time but I'm going to try. STRIP MAGAZINE UK, the magazine I'm illustrating RECOVERY INCORPORATED for, is officially hitting the stands in May of this year. I'll be doing the cover for the third issue of the magazine so I'll be squeezing that into my schedule as well.

Back to work (when will I sleep again???)...

More from Issue 1 of INSURRECTION

Just a couple more pages. Gotta keep the work coming or the blog gets to smelling stale, like old cheese.

I'm having a ton of fun working on this book. What? Oh, I hear Recovery Incorporated calling...

INSURRECTION

On top of RECOVERY INCORPORATED I'm now doing a four issue mini-series for BOOM Studios entitled - yeah, you guessed it - INSURRECTION. It's a sci-fi story, which I love, so I'm really excited about the whole thing. I grew up on science ficiton. Star Wars, Star Trek, novels by Larry Nivel, Jerry Pournelle, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Arthur C. Clarke, Heinlein, comics like Akira and Appleseed, etc...

I started out by doing some concept material. Not much, just to get the looks for the main characters down:

Once we got these going I did a refined version so the people doing the covers would know who I was basing each of the characters on:

I like to base characters off of real people if I can; it helps to make each one unique in character. It's so easy, when drawing comics, to just draw one body and head type for males and females. I don't want to fall into that trap so I look to actors or sports figures to help them become individuals. I won't necessarily try to always make the characters in the comic look just like the actors but I'll try to nail down the general idea. Also included here is the uniform idea for one of the two major groups in the story.

Next it gets a little more fun. Ship design. These are for a ship we see briefly in issue 1:

The FTL nacelles are a little too Star Trek like, so they'll be changing, but you get the idea. Last up for the concept stuff is a page from my sketchbook. My editors gave me a hint about something coming up in issue 2 so I did a page full of sketches. Not sure if any of them will make it through the process, but I had fun doing them.

Actually, now that I've read the script for issue 2, I'm pretty sure none of these will make it through. Oh well; maybe they'll still show up later.

Here's pages 1, 3, and 5 of issue 1:

The first issue comes out in March (early March I think). Okay, now back to work...