Wednesday, August 27, 2008

SQUEEZE that Rocket Juice!



As promised, here are the first two pages of Space Ninja Monkey Face. I'm really pleased with these so far (page 2 still needs some work) and I was surprised to see that drawing these pages was not at all like pulling teeth. I'm trying to focus on the basic shapes and composition of a page before actually committing to the details (in fact, I've been trying to do that for the last couple years) and it seems like it's starting to pay off.

And it may be tons more work, but I'm going to do all of the lettering by hand for this one, though there is the risk of the pages looking a little more sloppy. But I really like the look of hand lettering (especially after seeing work by James Stokoe and Sheldon Vella) and I really want to train on how to make it better. If anyone has any tips, I would love them. The tips, not the person. Well, both.

And now I get to sit back and watch Cognoman work his magic:) I'll post a finished page as soon as I've got one.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Tron-foolery




An update at long last. I've been busy working on a few projects lately, though I'm not able to show all of it at the moment. But here's a glimpse of what I've been up to.

Last weekend, VA had a 5 Year retrospective panel at ConVersion. That's right, August marks the 5 year anniversary of Vicious Ambitious. Exciting stuff!

There weren't a lot of people there sadly, but there was jokes, chocolate cake, videos and it's not everyday I get to wear red booty shorts while shaking my goodies to Eye of the Tiger. Anyways, this TronNick pic was for the free poster giveaway at the event. We still have a bunch left so we'll probably be giving them away at the next con in October.

After that we have two pics for the upcoming Alcohol Issue of Beatroute. It was fun to get to do something new for the Beatroute crew aside from a CD review and while I only sorta like the Horny Toad pic, I'm quite pleased with the Bouncer one. Plus, there's a chick in it that actually...gasp...looks like a woman! I've been working hard at improving my rendering of the female form and it is slowly but surely paying off.

In other news, I'm working on pages of my Rocket Juice story and will scan them very soon to give you a peek at the pencils before Ink Wizard CogNoman works them over. I was trying to do this comic very quick and simple, but the first page already has more background's than ever. I'm very excited to show it off, and will post some pages soon.

This morning, I also finished the first script for a secret project I'm working on which will see the light of day sometime in the winter, I'm hoping. It's going to be tons of fun and I'll keep updating as work progresses. It's not a comic, but it is about comics.

And I think that's it for now. I'm going to finish the layouts for Holiday Men very soon and am eager to start drawing in September. Realistically, I think we'll start up again in October.

Oh, you should check out Tropical Thunder too. It's hilarious! Oh, and read some books by Stephen King's boy, Joe Hill. Heart Shaped Box was freaking great! And his short stories are wonderful.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Crack That Whip!






It has indeed been a while since the last update and I just couldn't bring myself to go to bed before posting one. Thanks for gentle nudging, guys.

First and foremost, I must direct your attention to the fifth issue of superstar artist Fiona Staples' Wildstorm series HAWKSMOOR. Not only does it continue the awesome tale of Jack in San Francisco, but Fiona was nice enough to sneak in the logo for everyone's favorite indie comic studio with a name that rhymes: Vicious Ambitious! Thanks, Fiona! And congrats on wrapping up the book. (She drew the shit out of it!)(...that's a good thing.)

Next up is a peek at a pic I'm working on of Man Crush #24: Racer X from Speed Racer. I just saw the movie last night and my god wow. (insert horrible mental image of eyeballs ejaculating here) What a visual feast. And I couldn't stop grinning every time Matthew Fox was on screen. He's just so badass! So awesome! Anyways, I'm hoping to get this pic all inked up sometime soon...

Then we have Gary, the soon to be star of my Rocket Juice story, SPACE NINJA MONKEY FACE. Did I mention it'll be inked by none other than Cognoman!?! Of course I have. I'm just really excited.

And lastly, my #1 favorite superhero of all time (at the moment): Daredevil. I drew this at a party. Not my usual time and place to decide to do some drawing, but sometimes you get the itch and you just can't help but scratch it.

Exciting news: I'm working on some full color comic strips for an ad agency and it's turning out to be a lot of fun. Will post when finished. And what of Holiday Men? Still working on layouts. Sorry Foley.