Blue Funnies

O Human Star: Coming Soon!

2012-01-30T10:46:00.000-05:00

Big announcement time, you guys. For many months now, I’ve been working on a personal comic project dear to my heart, O Human Star. I’d posted sketches pertaining to it from time to time on this blog and on Tumblr, but the comic proper wasn’t quite ready. Well next week, Monday February 6, O Human Star will launch!

9 pages the first week, and then 2 pages every other week. I hope you guys will drop by and check it out. Here’s the gist of it:

Alastair Sterling was the inventor who sparked the robot revolution. And because of his sudden death, he didn’t see any of it.

Until he wakes up 16 years later in an advanced robotic body - and finds a world utterly unlike the one he left behind - a world where robots live alongside their human neighbors and coexist in their cities. A world he helped create.

Al seeks out his old research partner Brendan to find out if he is responsible for Al’s unexpected resurrection, but his return raises far more questions for both of them. Like how much of the men’s past should stay in the past…

Schoolchildren stay at home (yeah) and all the banks will close (yeah)

Pop culture!

2012-01-26T11:48:00.000-05:00

I've been working behind the scenes on a bunch of projects, including the next chapter of The Accidental Candidate and my webcomic, which is getting close to launch! I'll make an announcement about that soon. In the meantime, I'll hope you'll indulge me when I post some drawings of pop culture things that have been on my mind lately.

I originally mentioned this bizarro dream of mine on Twitter, and the idea of a skinny punk Rooney Mara in a Trader Joe's Hawaiian shirt wouldn't leave me alone. So I just made a pretty picture of it.

Drew a Dib, which my Tumblr followers seemed to enjoy very much.

And after watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood while I worked and getting to that... scene... I drew a Tucker.
I've been experimenting with colors and shading a lot the past week or so, and some experiments turned out better than others. I'd been working on more realistic lighting on skin and faces, too - I worked for quite a while on a sketch that I posted to Tumblr and hate now, so I won't post it here. Oh well.

Another big announcement next week, so keep your eyes peeled!

Losing you, losing you, losing you

The Accidental Candidate is live!

2012-01-18T09:46:00.000-05:00

Today is the launch day for my newest comic collaboration with David Axe and Corey Hutchins: The Accidental Candidate. This serialized nonfiction graphic novel is the story of Alvin Greene, an enigmatic, awkward man who unexpectedly won South Carolina's Democratic nomination for the Senate in 2010 and how he becomes a piece of a larger picture in modern American politics.

I'm really, really proud of the work I've been able to do with this book and it's cool to see my art improving every month as I continue to work work work! Plus it's been a great experience working with David Axe - he's a war correspondent who's scripted other graphic novels like War Is Boring, and he synchronizing this launch with me while he's overseas in Afghanistan.

The Accidental Candidate will update with a chapter or two each month. Give it a read!

Instrumental

So this is the new year...

2012-01-09T16:09:00.000-05:00

...and I have some updates to do. What have I done since Christmastime? Uh... I dug out my family's copies of all the Bone paperbacks...

I went back to work and have started documenting some of the people coming into the yogurt store...

And... sketching! Working on projects and same old stuff. It's looking to be a bang-up new year ahead of me.

Let's make believe that we are wealthy for just this once

Happy Wassail!

2011-12-22T22:44:00.000-05:00

Not much to post here until after Christmas except this. Happy holidays to one and all. Enjoy your candy canes, hot cocoa, and wassail... in cans.

Then severe financial penalties to you

Sundry sketches

2011-12-15T19:19:00.000-05:00

Probably my favorite non-work thing I did this week was this Al sketch with a color scheme that I realize I cribbed heavily from Jemma Salume. I still love how this turned out, but check out Jemma's art, too, it's fantastic.

But there's also a color sketch I did of some lady -

Some sketches from a manga series my coworker lent me this week -

And some sketches for a surprisingly detailed story idea that came from a dream I had. I seem to have a lot of those! I wrote a pitch for fun, if you're interested.

He corrido, he trepado, conquistado esa ciudad

So much to do

2011-12-08T15:29:00.000-05:00

So much stuff to doooooo

I've been watching a lot of Shin Chan and MST3K as background noise for all my work. So here's a Manos: The Hands of Fate doodle.

More O Human Star doodles. I've gotten a lot of pages of my webcomic done so it'll be ready to debut early next year. I'm so excited!

And my Smut Peddler story's done, too! I like how it turned out a lot. A lot. The whole book's gonna be spectacular.

Instrumental

I guess I should update this blog, huh.

2011-11-28T23:34:00.000-05:00

AUGH, sorry guys. Work, and all that. I tend to update my Tumblr a bit more often than this, so next time this happens, feel free to mosey over there.
Stuff! Smut Peddler stuff! (All safe for work) The lady with the awesome mohawk in Picture 1 is EK Weaver's Darby.

And some other stuff. A Luther wallpaper I made over Thanksgiving break...

A (NSFW) drawing where I fiddle with textures, and a doodle of Mursu, my favorite teenage mermaid.

You know what's going on in that Bermuda Triangle?

Odds and Ends

2011-11-16T18:47:00.000-05:00

I'm working on a lot of stuff right now, but sadly there's not a lot of stuff I can show to you right now. I can show you a little illustrated guide I made to the various noises that come out of my obese black cat.

I found a book at work that was full of cave paintings, which reminded me of these books I read as a kid called the Magic Tree House series. These two kids had a treehouse full of books that could transport them through time and space, and one of my favorite books took them to the Ice Age. They took shelter in a cave and met a bizarre man/animal/manimal who is actually based on a cave painting figure known as "The Sorceror."

And finally, I can give you one glimpse of what I've been working on. It's a bit of a page I've been working on for O Human Star! I'm aiming to start uploading pages in February!

It's all about progression

MIX 2011 Report

2011-11-07T23:11:00.001-05:00

Just flew back in from MIX 2011 in Minneapolis a few hours ago, and whipped together a little report of the con/weekend. With special cameos by Annie Koyama, Dustin Harbin, Spike Trotman, and Anthony Clark.

Other nice people I met/saw again: Hannah Blumenreich, Jeremy Sorese, Sarah Glidden,Jim Rugg, Sam Hiti, Diana Nock, and the other Smut Peddler people! And thanks to my friends for putting me up! If MIX happens net year, I'm tabling. For sure.

Also, were you guys aware that Minneapolis is the most beautiful city in the world? I sure forgot.

Like it's cold... wintertime.

New short comic: Oh, Maker

2011-11-04T04:33:00.000-04:00

While I'm off in Minnesota for the weekend, I have a special treat for you. Here's a short full-color comic I finished a couple months ago. Consider it a teaser for my upcoming webcomic.
And, as with my earlier effort, this has an audio companion. Queue it up and join me, won't you?

As I've been working on putting this whole OHS thing together, the biggest challenge has been to explain a story that has unconventional character dynamics, to say the least. But then Nathan and I started listening to Janelle Monáe's album The ArchAndroid while we worked, and this song stuck out to me.
Because it seemed to basically be about my guys. It was eerie.
So yeah, this became a challenge to introduce some of my characters with some lyrics and a few pithy images. I hope I did okay.

The lock of grey hair that she gave to him

Commission Time!

2011-11-03T22:21:00.000-04:00

I’ve never tried accepting commissions before, but with the holidays around the corner I could use a little extra dough to buy presents for my beautiful family. Also, to buy luxuries like shoes and food.

I’ve got a range of commission options for you to choose from, including digital options (I will email you a high-res file of your commission) and physically mailing you a piece of original artwork. You can check out my art all over my Tumblr and blog, meanwhile I’ve broken down the prices after the jump.

DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION (BUST): $15 This is a basic sketch, chest and up, of a character of your choosing. It will likely not be full color, but I may throw in a splash.

DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION (FULL BODY): $20 This is a full drawing of a character, probably with minimal color as well.

ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATION (7x10, B/W): $40 This would be a physical piece, done in pen and ink, that I would mail to you. Don’t forget to include your address on the Paypal order page, or contact me separately about it!

ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATION (7x10, Color): $60 Same as above, but I will get all fancy with the watercolors. Here are some watercolors I did on the road earlier this year.

I can accept credit card orders through Paypal. On the right hand bars of both my Tumblr and my blog you can find “Commission” buttons with a text bar for you to specify what you’d like drawn.

I’ll likely be doing these through December, and will try and make the turnaround as quick as possible. Thanks for your support, guys - I have a special treat in store for you tomorrow.

One fist of iron, the other of steel

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T16:30:00.000-04:00

And here are a few doodles from when I learned that Hiromu Arakawa, a cartoonist known for her popular high-drama action-adventure series and a huge influence of mine, had started a new comic, this one about kids at an agricultural high school.

I wrote a little Tumblr post about how Arakawa manages to convey the same interesting, mature, thoughtful messages in both Fullmetal Alchemist and Silver Spoon, despite the genre, scope, and story of the two being completely different. In a way, both stories talk about the power of nature and humans' successful - and unsuccessful - attempts to harness its power. You can see it if you compare the first page of both comics - it's a pretty interesting comparison.

Not to mention Arakawa always enjoys exposing the typical shonen manga tropes and twisting them ever so slightly. It's great for a laugh.

Anyway, happy Halloween, everyone.

They're whispering his name through this disappearing land

In which I keep pretending to be an ARTIST

2011-10-27T10:06:00.000-04:00

More OHS stuff I did as I was drawing some pages for next year's comic (!!!)
First of all, Brendan, you little minx.

I also gave myself an exercise of drawing my characters as realistically as I could.

This was after I did a from-reference exercise based on some great portraits a photographer's been taking of Occupy Wall Street protesters.

Also the new Ghibli movie has an American trailer now did you seeee

The bats have left the bell tower

Cuteness abounds!

2011-10-21T12:53:00.001-04:00

It's Mary Blair's 100th birthday today! She illustrated Golden Books, designed the It's A Small World ride at Disneyland, and raised national cuteness levels back in the 50s. Here's an attempt to copy her inimitable style.

Halloween is also around the corner. wooooooo...

More Tales of Employment...

And some quick 30 Rock doodles.

It was a rocking werewolf zoo at Temple Beth Emmanuel

OktöberFLUKE!

2011-10-14T13:59:00.001-04:00

I'm in Athens, GA for OktöberFLUKE this weekend! So it's time for some reminders/announcements:

ITEM 1: If you were interested in purchasing a copy of Subrosa, I'm offering a special deal to my blog readers, which you can find more about over here.

ITEM 2: For those of you woefully unable to attend, here are the goodies I'm debuting at OktöberFLUKE:

A new minicomic, Rosie's Halloween, that stars everyone's favorite 8-year-old artificial intelligence. I'm selling them for $2 each - if you're interested in ordering some, go to the Subrosa order page and follow the same instructions.

I also have shiny new business cards!

AND POSTCARDS!

With that said, I'd like to move on to ITEM 3: new online things. I'm the middle of finishing two new sites - in the meantime, the links go to placeholder pages, but here's the lowdown as I finish them.

This will be my professional site, with a focus on showing off my work and releasing project-related updates.

And this is what I'm super excited about. Next year I'll be launching a webcomic, O Human Star, and that'll be OHS HQ. I will post more information as the project shapes up, but in the meantime, there you go.

Everybody's so excited!

Halloweeny time!

2011-10-12T21:28:00.000-04:00

Well, sort of. It's Halloweeny-music time. Or at least Halloweeny-music-from-2007 time.

Here's a preview panel from a Halloween mini I'm doing for OktöberFLUKE!

Also, a little birthday present for EK Weaver:

Also: ptchooooo

It's not a real heart, it's not a real heart, it's not a real heart, it is a real artificial heart.

It's October!

2011-10-06T09:49:00.000-04:00

Which means that I'm hard at work on Smut Peddler stuff and that it's coming along well (why no what innuendos what are you talking about). Unfortunately, almost none of it can be posted here, except for a few panels from the pencil stage.

Sorry, that's all for now! Except for a reminder that I will be in Athens, GA on the 15th for OktöberFluke at the Athens Popfest. I will have copies of Subrosa on hand, and other goodies!

Don't tell your right hand, baby, what your left hand do

In which I am a real artist.

2011-09-29T16:25:00.000-04:00

I can create shockingly accurate portraits of real people!

I can fake a charcoal sketch!

And I can whip out this color study in 20 minutes, because that's what was outside!

And then I doodle some nonsense about MST3K's Mike Nelson and that's what get 50 hits on Tumblr.

I'm an ADULLLLLT!

Announcements and extras

2011-09-21T23:25:00.000-04:00

Announcements first!
Number 1: I will be in Athens, GA on October 15th for OktöberFluke, a comics and zine festival grouped with the Athens Popfest. I am not sure what I'll have with me for that, though I will try and bring some goodies with me.
Number 2: I will also be in Minneapolis, MN on November 5th and 6th for the Minneapolis Indie Xpo. It's at the Soap Factory, a gallery I remember from my Walker days, and apparently MIX made quite a splash there last year. I will almost certainly have goodies with me for that. It'll be awesome to be back in the Twin Cities now that I'm a functional adult.

As for extras... have some fanart. I've made plenty of it this past week.
First, some DC stuff. Drawing Amanda Waller is extremely fun.

Next, a quick Kate Kane doodle, to commemorate the history made earlier this week.

I was a little underwhelmed by the piece I did for Tom Siddell's Gunnerkrigg Court, so I drew some of my faves of his, Gamma and Zimmy.

Smut Peddler doodles... (basically SFW)

And... a teaser.

Egypt was troubled by the horrible asp

On Drawbridge again: Locas and Big Barda!

2011-09-13T12:03:00.000-04:00

I'm featured on Drawbridge again with two brand new illustrations! The first one is from this week's theme: drawing Maggie and Hopey from Jaime Hernanadez's Locas. Here's mine:

I also drew a picture of Big Barda, 'cause she's one of my faves.

You also must check out Nathan's entry for Locas week, as it has Maggie riding a unicorn.

With me everything is fine

A quick stop at the Writer's Corner!

2011-09-12T10:49:00.000-04:00

I threw my OHS guys into a thing illustrating a good piece of writing advice.

I'm perpetually disappointed by how a fairly skilled writer like Orson Scott Card can just go so far off the edge. Bluh.
Anyways. More gayness after the jump!

(What you can't see that Brendan is standing on a box : / )

A quick anatomy-from-memory exercise. And for something completely different, here's a lady in a spacesuit!

That's it!

And if I share with you my story

On Smut Peddler

2011-09-09T12:26:00.000-04:00

Welp, I was gonna have to bring this up eventually. If you want to know more about the other anthology my work will be appearing in next year, click past the jump.

Tumblr readers might remember a month or so ago when I posted this image without much comment.

Well, now I'm ready to share these two are the stars of my upcoming 10 page story in the erotic comics anthology Smut Peddler. I'll have plenty more information about this anthology as they get ready to launch in December, but here's what I can tell you guys right now.

Smut Peddler is being overseen by C. Spike Trotman, creator of Templar, Arizona, which you may remember I did a thing for not that long ago. She's a total pro at the whole comics lifestyle.
What's more, there are a lot of serious pros in this anthology - if you're an indie or webcomics fan, chances are you know some of these people. I'll link to them, because they're awesome, but many of them may have NSFW content on their sites, so heads up.
Jess Fink! Erika Moen! Ross Campbell! EK Weaver! (whose work I've similarly gushed over). And I'm gonna be sharing book space with all of them! Sexy book space!

While the anthology is definitely geared towards mature readers, I will not post any explicit excerpts on any of my sites. Pictures of ladies kissing will be as crazy as I get over here. But I thought you guys should know, because I'm excited to work on this thing and this book is going to be incredible.

It's a waste of time if I can't smile easily

Webcomics Wednesday: Homestuck

2011-09-07T18:19:00.003-04:00

Webcomics Wednesdays have slowed a bit as I've gotten bogged down with work again, but I have a treat for you today. Sit yourself down and follow me after the jump, guys, because I'm gonna tell you about one of the few webcomics that could seriously derail your life. I'm referring, of course, to the bizarre internet creature known as Homestuck.

Homestuck, part of Andrew Hussie's MS Paint Adventures, begins as a pretty light, goofy-sounding idea. You start the story looking at a kid in his room - the drawings are pretty simple, and you advance by clicking through a series of text commands - akin to text-based adventure games like Zork.

See, this kid, John, has decided to open a mysterious computer game he received in the mail and play with his 3 online friends. His friends are able to physically manipulate the objects in his house with a cursor, and cause mayhem. At first Homestuck just seems to be making fun of the kind of games 13-year olds would play, making John deal with convoluted instructions and confusing objectives and bizarre game terms such as "prototyping your kernelsprite" and "captchaloguing" items into his "sylladex."
But then the kids create a machine within the game that has a clock on it, steadily counting down to 0:00. And then a meteor hits the John's house. And then his house appears... somewhere else.
And then shit gets weirder.

6,000 pages later, I don't even know if I could begin to tell you what this webcomic is about. What begins as essentially a 21st century twist on Jumanji starts involving complex subplots involving time travel and apocalyptic scenarios, not to mention film noir, puppets, dream worlds, juggalos, desert-wandering vagrants, Nicolas Cage, space pirates, and radioactive dogs.
And then the trolls show up.
Oh, yeah. I should tell you about those guys, huh? What starts off as as a bizarre group of 12 internet trolls who pester the kids online is revealed to be a group of 12 alien kids who are literally trolls, avec horns. Turns out they're veterans of the game the kids are currently playing - and they all have very different agendas when it comes to helping the Earth kids survive against increasingly impossible odds.

They're also incredibly popular subjects for fanart, as I discovered almost immediately.

Homestuck's not even a webcomic, not really, because there are frequent animated interludes and snippets of music and it all serves as illustration for the text message logs of these kids and their ever-growing collection of friends and enemies.
There are so many ways that a complex endeavor like Homestuck could have just tanked and collapsed under its own weight of insane storylines and complex character dynamics. I still don't understand how everything happens in this comic, or why.

But it's absolutely engrossing, and pretty damn fun. And the music is genuinely beautiful. I had to really work to keep myself from going too crazy once I started reading. Two pieces of fanart (and a few hysterical tweets) is all I allowed myself. It's all I'll burden you guys with.
But. If you aren't interested in seeing daylight for a few weeks, I could cough loudly and gesture over here.

There'd be no sun in my sky

In which I tease the enigmatic Secret Project

2011-09-05T09:00:00.000-04:00

I'll be revealing more about Secret Project this week, now that I have free time to work on it again. Stay tuned.

This could lead to excellence, or serious injury

Womanthology colors are done!

2011-09-02T17:07:00.000-04:00

Awright!

Reminder! I will be at the Decatur Book Festival's Experimental Writer's Asylum panel tomorrow, September 3, at 5:00! I'll be talking about Subrosa! Check it out!

Upgrade your gray matter, 'cause one day it may matter

Ughhhhh

2011-08-29T23:01:00.000-04:00

I have lots of deadlines this week, and I got a part time job. Bear with me.

Instrumental

A parting gift

2011-08-21T13:01:00.001-04:00

Look what Nathan drew for me before I left!

"Oh no why did they do that to the Iron Giant he didn't do anything bad." Poor Rosie. That's what I get for admitting that The Iron Giant is one of my favorite movies. I drew one of Nathan's characters as a trade, I should ask him to upload that, too.

Good times. Lots of work to do in the next few weeks now that I'm finished with my Massachusetts job, more info soon.

She uses tangerines

I'm featured on Drawbridge!

2011-08-17T19:27:00.000-04:00

Today Nathan and I worked on some submissions for the site Drawbridge! The current theme is doing a take on a well-known Moebius illustration - and here's mine!

Couldn't peep it with a pair of bifocals

New things. Different things!

2011-08-16T17:57:00.000-04:00

Decided to draw things that weren't middle-aged men or robots.

Mursu's an original character I'd been fiddling with. I think she popped up on that backburner thing I did a while ago. I described her on my Tumblr as a 16-year-old mermaid if that mermaid were Brock Samson.

Nathan and I caught Blade Runner on TV the other night, so I doodled Rachael, too. You gotta love them shoulder pads. I need to keep practicing these painterly sketches.

Riding across the land, kicking up sand

No Webcomics Wednesday today...

2011-08-10T21:19:00.000-04:00

... because I found this picture.

And I do declare it gave me a case of the vapors. Seriously, that is Neil deGrasse Tyson in that picture. The man who killed Pluto. The man who made "spaghettification" the coolest way to die. The coolest astrophysicist alive.

Way to much work to do, so I'll throw up some more doodles. I'll throw up some Womanthology production stuff eventually, I don't know.

And, surprising no one:

Talking trash to the garbage around you

Webcomics Wednesday: Templar, Arizona

2011-08-03T14:24:00.000-04:00

Oh, I've got a fun one for you today.

This is Reagan Mancuso, who works at the neighborhood gun store/pornography emporium in Spike Trotman's hilarious Templar, Arizona. The comic's all about a fictional town in an alternate timeline that's full of crazy people.

Spike is actually coordinating the Secret Project I'm working on along with Womanthology (haven't mentioned it here, yet, but poke around my Tumblr a bit). It's gonna be amazing all around.
Speaking of which, there are still a few days to pledge to Womanthology. Go!

We were kings and queens

Non-comics Wednesday: The Legend of Korra

2011-07-27T10:35:00.000-04:00

No webcomics for my weekly fanart today - the trailer for the Avatar: The Last Airbender spinoff cartoon came out this weekend and oh my god.

People are talking about how the trailer for this thing pretty much won San Diego Comic Con, and can you blame them? Watch this thing.

Everything that was awesome about The Last Airbender (the cartoon, of course, not the M. Night Shyamalan abomination) is cranked up to 11 here. And we get to see how much the world changes in a generation's time. Skyscrapers! Suspension bridges! Men wearing fedoras! But there are still martial arts and giant hybrid animals running around!

And the new Avatar, Korra, looks incredible. She's badass and gorgeous and look at those biceps. I can't wait, guys. This is gonna be amazing.

Instrumental

Webcomics Wednesday: Gunnerkrigg Court

2011-07-20T09:44:00.000-04:00

Here's Antimony Carver from Tom Siddell's regularly excellent Gunnerkrigg Court. It seems like a magical British schoolchildren-themed sort of week. Can't imagine why.

All jokes aside, Gunnerkrigg Court is quite un-Harry Potter-esque but nevertheless a good read. Though I probably should get around to finishing that half-done Harry Potter illustration soon...

I am an introvert, an excavator

Work work work doodles work

2011-07-18T19:16:00.000-04:00

Stuff I did in between bouts of work.

Blue shut up get back to work.

They want to get up in your hair

Webcomics Wednesday: Shadoweyes

2011-07-13T09:09:00.001-04:00

Today's had to be done pretty quickly 'cause of all the work I've been doing lately. But I picked a cute one today, in case you doubted my commitment to Sparkle Motion. Here's Sparkle from Ross Campbell's Shadoweyes!

Back to work! More stuff later this week.

To satisfy my people in Georgia and across the water

Womanthology Kickstarter is up!

2011-07-08T15:16:00.000-04:00

Listen up!
Would you like to see me published? Would you to hold a brand new Blue Delliquanti comic in your hands?
Well, here's your chance! Womanthology is an all-female comics anthology to be published by IDW. Volume 1: Heroic is raising money for printing on Kickstarter right now!

And here's the kicker. As of this posting, Womanthology's page has been up for less than 21 hours and it has already met its $25,000 goal. But the more pledges we receive, the more books we can print, and the more money can be raised for our charity drive as well.
So check it out! I have a 4-page story in Volume 1 with the very sweet Ma'at Crook, and I can't wait to start getting it ready!

We're going to fight the lightning

Webcomics Wednesday: The Meek

2011-07-06T09:28:00.000-04:00

Here you go, ladies and gents.

This week it's Soli from Der-Shing Helmer's The Meek! (Read away, but be advised, there are some boobs from time to time). She's fun to draw, and it was great going through the archive to try and ape Helmer's awesome use of colors. I also found that listening to Cake evokes a Westerny mood quite nicely while drawing.

Updates may be thin for the next few weeks. I may be working full time with another artist on a project with a tight deadline, so I may not have as much nonsense to inundate you with for a while (OH NOES). But there'll be plenty of comics to go around once I'm back.

Stargazers didn't see a thing

Shtuff

2011-07-05T09:34:00.000-04:00

Here are some Tumblr things that haven't popped up here yet.

Another drawing of Al. Al's become the default guy for doodling lately.

An experiment in being more painterly. I have a huge reference file of magazine clippings, so I pulled one out and went at it. Turned out okay, I think.

And some goofy doodle from when we were catching up on Game of Thrones. Peter Dinklage is the best.

News! I've been involved with Womanthology for several weeks at this point, and will be working with the very sweet Ma'at Crook on a comic submission, but I received word that I'll be in another anthology, one that I'm very excited about. Won't tell you much yet, but it's a hoot.

You are so magnetic, you pick up all the pins

Subrosa: For Sale

2011-07-02T20:05:00.000-04:00

I realized I hadn't posted a link here, so...

Subrosa is now for sale on Lulu.com. Now you can own a nice shiny paperback of Subrosa, complete with a short essay about what it was like creating this comic. And you're sending money my way, which I always appreciate. But I appreciate any reader who's made their way over here and read my work. You're all my homies.

But I never really thought it would feel this fine

Webcomics Wednesday: Achewood

2011-06-29T13:31:00.000-04:00

This week I've been trying to draw stuff that doesn't come so easy to me, like buildings and cars. But with a WW coming up, what was I to draw? Why, the Volvo of Despair, of course!

Last week I mentioned that by comparing TJ and Amal to Chris Onstad's Achewood, I was giving it the highest of praise. Achewood is pure demented cleverness, which is to be expected from a comic about a bunch of animals creating startup companies and buying bizarre objects endowed with Magical Realism. One of my favorites has always been the story where protagonists Ray and Roast Beef buy Trent Reznor's high school car and embark upon a hysterical anti-joyride in it.

Well, there's also the epic Great Outdoor Fight storyline. Or anytime Roast Beef and Ray die and go to heaven (or hell). Or Sani-Taco.

I hear Achewood might be coming out of its hiatus soon. I hope so - I miss it.

My empire of dirt

Drawing exercises, and a Brendan.

2011-06-27T23:03:00.000-04:00

Here you go.

Broken kneecap, velvet spine

Webcomics Wednesday: TJ and Amal

2011-06-22T04:00:00.002-04:00

Or, "In which I somehow find a way to make my blog even gayer."
But guys, this is no joke. This is not joke time. I'm here to tell you about The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal and how it is the best comic I've found all year. Hands down.
TJ and Amal is basically about two mismatched guys who find themselves taking a cross-country road trip together and strike up a... well. You should read it for yourself. Bear in mind that while most of the comic is safe for work, some of the really important stuff is not. So. Have at it. Meanwhile, I geek out after the jump.

I can't even describe how impressed I am with what creator E.K. Weaver has done with this comic. Well, okay, here's a try. In an effort to sample more LGBTQ comics, I'd been keeping up with a comic blog's Pride Month showcases, and TJ and Amal popped up on my dashboard. Based on the description I was given, I was expecting sexy escapades, or that the probability of sex was at least very high. But by the time I got to that stuff, I had been won over by these sweet, funny, compelling Dorky McDorks and their totally believable friendship. And then they start making out!

If you ever struggle with how to develop unique, believable characters, study how E.K. does it in this comic. She even has an entire chapter that's dialogue-free she's not even trying to keep me from falling in love with her. I'm seriously putting TJ and Amal up there with Achewood. I'm dead serious.

And what's more, right now you can give her money. So you can have a book of this in your hands.

But they've overcome their shyness

Happy Fathers' Day!

2011-06-19T04:00:00.001-04:00

Here are some dads. And comics!

And more!

Still trying to nail down how this damn thing would look.

They're only so strong, love

Another Oracle!

2011-06-15T14:08:00.000-04:00

This Webcomic Wednesday's is Gigidigi's Dream Oracle from Cucumber Quest! (with a little Almond and Cucumber thrown in). I'm a huge fan of her stuff, and the webcomic's a lot of fun.

Trapped in the state of imaginary grace

Batgirl/Oracle

2011-06-11T08:57:00.000-04:00

The announced DC retcon has a lot of people upset because in their effort to simplify their universe down, they're changing a lot of beloved characters more than fans would like. Case in point, Barbara Gordon.

Barbara Gordon is Commissioner Gordon's daughter, and the most famous iteration of Batgirl. But ever since she was paralyzed in Alan Moore's famous story The Killing Joke Barbara's been kicking ass in of a different kind. Since 1989 she's been Oracle, a powerful information broker for Gotham's heroes and a loyal ally of Batman's.
I don't know how I feel about Barbara going back to being Batgirl. Sure, it might be cool for her to be fighting crime again without being confined to a wheelchair, but there really aren't many heroes like Oracle.
My little brother's been replaying Arkham Asylum again, and I had forgotten that Oracle is in the game. You're talking to her all the time. She gives Batman all the information he needs to progress. She's important. Batgirl is significant, and lots of fun, but Oracle is important.

Don't underestimate the things that I will do

Webcomics Wednesdays!

2011-06-08T10:42:00.000-04:00

I've started a bit of a weekly thing on my Tumblr - on top of all of my other content I seem to be churning out lately, every Wednesday I pop out a quick drawing based around a webcomic/internet thing I enjoy. Last week's hasn't made it on here yet, so I'll put 'em both up.

Sera, from Serenity Rose by Aaron Alexovich. Volume 3 starts going up in October and I'm pumped.

And today's... Bottle Woman, from Evan Dahm's Order of Tales! I'd been meaning to reread OoT for a while now - it's excellent.
Anyway. Back to getting a proof copy of Subrosa off to the printers.

Like a lonely lover's charm

In which I discuss OHS, and making comics.

2011-06-06T09:57:00.001-04:00

June is LGBTQ Pride Month, and the excellent Ladies Making Comics blog has decided to run a twice-a-week feature showcasing both queer-identified women who make comics and women of any identity who write comics with queer themes. I got super excited - because I love discovering amazing artists anyway - but I also wanted to talk with some of these creators about their experiences creating comics with queer themes or characters with queer identities.
My in-development project, OHS, has both. I felt like it would be a bit of a cheat for me to submit a comic that doesn't exist outside of a few prep sketches on my blog and text docs on my computer, but I wanted to share my experiences with LMC all the same. So I wrote a brief essay.

Transcript and extra comments after the jump.

Before I get to the transcript proper, I just want to add a few notes. I am by no means saying that there's some extra scary challenge to creating LGBTQ characters. I'm only talking about my own personal experiences creating believable queer-identified people when I myself don't express a queer identity. I'm therefore discussing that great cartoonist's challenge: Writing About Someone Who Is Not You. It wasn't any easier when I was writing about a seven-year-old robot.
I also just want to mention that I'm pretty young. I've written a handful of comics already, but I'm nowhere near a master of my craft. I just like documenting my learning process. But I've learned this much: if you want to make a comic about something and don't know much about it, Look It Up. If you've made something and it doesn't look right or it doesn't ring true, Practice Until It Gets Better.

My name is Blue Delliquanti, and I make comics. Anyone who's been following my updates the past few months have seen a few recurring characters: Al, Brendan, and Sulla.
It's no secret that these three are the focus of a major webcomic idea I've been tinkering with. But developing this project has become more of a challenge than just getting better at drawing faces and hands. Because OHS is the first comic I'll do that really explores LGBTQ themes (it has robots, too, but those are old hat for me!).
Without giving too much away, here's the gist of OHS:
A famous inventor wakes up in a robot body after he's been dead for 16 years. He seeks out his old research (and romantic) partner to find out if he's responsible. Turns out he had been working on a robot in his image, but the robot has decided to... change her image a bit. And they all become a family.
The initial idea came to me in a dream, and I thought - "I can DO something with this!" But... as a cisgender straight (ish) girl, how am I gonna do these concepts and characters justice? There are so many misconceptions about LGBTQ people already without me adding more. God, I really don't want to mess this up.
So for the past few months, I've been reading, writing, and researching nonstop! If I'm gonna make this comic, then I need to understand the people who inhabit it. And I've learned some amazing things! Some of the most groundbreaking scientists, inventors and futurists in recent history have incredible stories to tell. Some with sad endings (Alan Turing!) and some with happy ones (Lynn Conway!)
Now, OHS is nowhere near being done. There's still a lot of work for me to do before most of you will ever see it. But I want to make this. I want it to be heartfelt and sincere. I want you to fall in love with Sulla and Brendan and Al. I sure have.
Thanks for reading.
Blue Delliquanti, June 2011.

The words are written in the dust

The boys are back in town

2011-05-30T03:00:00.001-04:00

(Hold envelope to forehead) Three days.

(Opens envelope and blows in it)
How long after I find my tablet that I go back to drawing dudes making out.

At this point, I don't think it's any secret which of those comic projects I want to make next.
Oh well.

I have been drawing unrelated stuff, but these have been the things making it over to Tumblr, so. Makeouts for everyone!

Won't be long 'til summer comes

Olly Moss is doin' all right for himself.

2011-05-28T23:01:00.002-04:00

Remember the artist whose Videogames Classics series I... expanded upon a few years ago? Olly Moss? Well, he just had his first gallery show, and it was wildly successful. This is why.

His show, "Paper Cuts," takes a classic look at the silhouettes of a vast range of popular characters, from film, television, games, and literature. Nearly all of them are recognizable by silhouette alone, with some enhanced by color (Cliff Huxtable's silhouette features a sweater made of colored construction paper), but it's really a great lesson in how memorable and distinct certain characters can be even when only their outline is visible.
But who am I kidding. This is just an excuse to post my favorites. After the jump.

"Aw, nuts."

"The doctor said my nose would stop bleeding if I got my finger out of there!"

"Please insert girder."

"Goodbye, friends! I never thought I'd die like this. But I always really hoped!"

"So he's not perfect. You don't want to end up old and lonely like ZOIDBERG!"

"Oh sure, it looks all glamorous from the outside, but really it's a huge pain in the ass. They send robots into your lab, break everything... and does my insurance policy cover arch-enemies? No."

"She'll go from Nashville to Norway, Bonaire to Zimbabwe..."

"Ah. Ah. Ah!"

"Bang."

"Souls... don't... die."

"Meep meep!"

"Mom and Dad say I should make my life an example of the principles I believe in. But every time I do, they tell me to stop it."

"Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"Even if it means me taking a chubby, I will suck it up!"

"I GOT CHILDRENS ALL OVER TOWN!"

Okay, I'm done, I promise. God, that was fun to look up.

Instrumental

Summertime is tablet time!

2011-05-26T11:59:00.000-04:00

Guess who got reunited with her old tablettttttt

I really do not have much experience at all with tablets, but this summer I'm determined to work with mine more. I really think it'll make some of my work go much faster, which means fewer headaches for me and more updates for you!

This drawing is based on the collective oeuvre of my newest favorite band, Mouth's Cradle!

They're like if nerdcore white rappers performed in a fifties diner and I love them. And two of their albums are completely free online, so you really have no excuse.

You had me filled with esperanza

Leftovers

2011-05-17T04:00:00.001-04:00

Finally done with school. Finally.
I'm gonna be celebrating/traveling around with my family for the next week, so here are some leftovers from my Tumblr that hadn't made it over here yet.

A character age meme. Saw Der-Shing Helmer do it and decided I didn't really need to be studying for Russian Lit.

And... this. Yes I am a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fan shut up shut up.
Time to enjoy some well-earned rest before I return to the States and get back to it.

Did you do your best today?

SUBROSA (pages 65-67)

2011-05-13T04:00:00.012-04:00

THE END.

That's how they made me

SUBROSA (pages 62-64)

2011-05-10T04:00:00.015-04:00

SECOND-TO-LAST UPDATE! In related news, I would have totally worn Rosie's ladybug dress when I was eight.

Yobai ni kame amakudarite

So many combinations so many combinations...

2011-05-06T09:00:00.001-04:00

Gosh, Subrosa's almost done! And my classes are, too! I'm trying to live it up in Switzerland while I can, so this Saturday I'm heading out to Bern with some friends to be part of a protest calling for more rights for LGBTQ parents here in Switzerland. Drew some of my guys to show that Swiss rainbow families have lots of support from the American fictional community.

(I've looked at too much Scott C. and Gigifritter art lately but AUUGH look at Al's adorable grump-face! I should just draw them like this forever!)

Here's a soundtrack for the picture. Have a good weekend!

And dad and dad and kid

SUBROSA (pages 59-61)

2011-05-06T04:00:00.011-04:00

Family's never simple, is it?

Oh, let's go back to the start

SUBROSA (pages 57-58)

2011-05-03T04:00:00.008-04:00

Instrumental

SUBROSA (pages 54-56)

2011-04-29T04:00:00.010-04:00

Well.

That might explain why we don't see much of her around here anymore.

Scattered seeds, buried lives

SUBROSA (pages 52-53)

2011-04-26T04:00:00.014-04:00

Robots are just the nicest people.

People said his brain was infected by devils

The Backburner.

2011-04-24T04:00:00.001-04:00

So I'm trying something a little different today.
Since Subrosa'll be done soon and I'm graduating (oh dear lord) I gotta make sure I have something to work on after work. ...once I find work.
Anyway, some cool Tumblr people have been doing showcases of their characters/upcoming stories. You should check out Gigifritter, Yuko Ota, and Clockworthy, their guys are neat. So I drew the guys that are hanging out in the back of my head.
Click to embiggen!

How many of these ideas will ever actually see the light of day? Who knows. But one of these has been shaping into a serious graphic novel idea the past few months without me realizing. Guess which one!

You were running though fields of hitch-hikers

SUBROSA (pages 49-51)

2011-04-22T04:00:00.020-04:00

Would you always, maybe sometimes, make it easy?

My Morocco travel journal

2011-04-20T12:25:00.000-04:00

Finally got around to finishing the sketchbook I kept while I was traveling around Morocco last month, and it's all uploaded on Flickr now.

Just take my hand, stranger

SUBROSA (pages 47-48)

2011-04-19T04:00:00.023-04:00

Oh, Professor Morris.
For the sake of clarification, Morris is black. His mom is Swiss German and his dad is African American, a combination more likely than you would think. But in any case, that would make having a red-headed kid difficult at best.

Also, in my constant trawling of MST3K episodes, I think I found the perfect song for Morris and Rosie's father/daughter/whatever relationship. Forget John Mayer and listen to this.

Your adrenaline was like wine

SUBROSA (page 44-46)

2011-04-15T04:00:00.019-04:00

Quare id faciam fortasse requiris

SUBROSA (pages 42-43)

2011-04-12T04:00:00.013-04:00

Oh, dear. I'm pretty sure arms don't bend that way.

Very sel - follow it - along

SUBROSA (pages 39-41)

2011-04-08T04:00:00.019-04:00

Panel 3 of page 40 may be my newest favorite drawing of Rosie ever. That, or panel 4.

I gather my thoughts the further and further I go

SUBROSA (pages 37-38)

2011-04-05T04:00:00.018-04:00

Seven year old girls are kind of gross sometimes. I ought to know.

Just to lil' old me

SUBROSA (pages 34-36)

2011-04-01T02:30:00.016-04:00

Oh, geez. Now stuff's happening.
Page 36 is brought to you by every plastinized body exhibit ever shown at your local science museum, because when you see a child's forearm made of nothing but a latticework of red capillaries, that image sticks with you forever.
Incidentally, we just reached the halfway point here. And it's April now, good gracious.

And on Google I only get depressed

The Earth is safe, Gir! Now let's go destroy it.

2011-03-30T04:00:00.013-04:00

Question one: Do you know which cartoon is ten years old today?

Question two: How old do you feel now?
Some of you may remember when I did a little Powerpuff Girls 10th anniversary thing back in '09 - it's a fun thing to look back at old influences once you finally sort of know how to draw.
But the fact that Invader Zim first aired 10 years ago today, March 30, 2001, is nothing short of mindboggling to me. Because while I've always loved cartoons, it wasn't til I was 11 and I started watching this one, that I realized that I wanted to make cartoons for the rest of my life.
I joke with my friends that until I was 11 I wanted to be an astronaut. Or an astronomer. I thought I loved cartoons because I was a kid and that's what kids do. And when a cartoon that starred an alien and a robot and a paranormal investigator came on, I paid attention.
Zim looked like nothing I'd ever seen before. Everything was sharp and pointy and unusual colors, the protagonist wanted to enslave the human race, the episodes had killer science fiction hooks and black humor that had never been seen on Nickelodeon before (or since), and it was just plain weird.
I loved it. I became interested in the people who created the show, which had never happened before, and found out that the creator made alt-comics. I went to the comic store a few blocks from my house looking for stuff he did. The rest is history.

BONUS KOMIX: All about Dib. You other fangirls keep your little green dog - I'm a Dib fan 4 LYFE.

I'm not a rabid fangirl about the show anymore like I was at ages 11-14. But the tenth anniversary of Invader Zim is roughly the tenth anniversary of me knowing exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

PS: Jhonen Vasquez still does comics - he had a great entry in an issue of Marvel Strange Tales recently and you can tell that he's still been improving as a cartoonist and storyteller instead of resting on his reputation of warping a generation of small children. His Tumblr is a lot of fun, and you should check it out. Jhonen, if you ever read this, I owe you a steak dinner or something. You took a impressionable would-be astronaut and turned her into a cartoonist. You monster.

Right where your head is, before the Big Bang, there was NOTHING there!

SUBROSA (pages 32-33)

2011-03-29T02:30:00.018-04:00

One day, I will learn to draw folds in clothes properly. That day is not this day.

All I want is the moon upon a stick

SUBROSA (pages 29-31)

2011-03-25T05:00:00.011-04:00

Incidentally, the story Professor Morris tells is completely true. Might I suggest this as recommend reading?

Well, it seems like she can be anything

SUBROSA (pages 27-28)

2011-03-22T05:00:00.006-04:00

Welp, back to our regular schedule.

Don't get excited. Here we go!

Back from Morocco

2011-03-21T04:43:00.000-04:00

More here. Back to regular Subrosa updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Instrumental

SUBROSA (pages 24-26)

2011-03-18T05:00:00.018-04:00

Well, that chance meeting won't have any significant repercussions on future events.

Fun fact: The last 10 pages or so were drawn while I was listening to Harry Potter audiobooks (because nothing beats Stephen Fry's soothing voice. Except maybe Morgan Freeman's. Or - oooo - Alan Rickman's). I've noticed looking at each page that I can sort of remember what part of each book I was at when I drew certain things. That tree on page 24, for example, got drawn during that scene in Prisoner of Azkaban when the gang meets Sirius Black for the first time. They say doodling in class helps you better remember information you hear. I'm inclined to believe them now.

I should be back from Morocco tonight, and I'm sure I'll have a bunch of neat pictures for you, so hang tight.
This is Blue's Blogger robot, signing off.

Like a piano made of frozen Windex

SUBROSA (pages 21-23)

2011-03-11T04:00:00.010-05:00

Three new pages this week while I'm away.

Well, hello. Here's someone new.

He got them dark forces in 'im

SUBROSA (pages 18-20)

2011-03-04T02:30:00.003-05:00

I was temporarily stuck on how to design the scientists who only show up once, so the male scientist on the bottom of page 20 may or may not be famous physicist Michio Kaku.

Also, announcement time! I will be in Morocco for the next two weeks, so while I will have a Blogger robot updating pages for you, it will only be once each week, on Fridays, and only 3 pages each week. So you'll be at page 26 by the time I get back, if my math's right.
Sorry about that, but I do need the break from drawing nonstop at my desk to drawing nonstop in a foreign country! Woohoo!

How do you blush so shyly and make it linger?

Dwayne McDuffie Tribute

2011-03-02T11:28:00.001-05:00

Dwayne McDuffie died last month.

This is kind of a big deal to me. McDuffie wrote for this.

But he's probably most well-known for creating this.

If you're of a certain age, you remember Static Shock. It was rad. McDuffie was praised for getting minority comics characters some well deserved attention (and not just the ones who had "Black" as part of their name), but he was just an excellent, excellent comics writer.
I can't embed it, but please watch this awesome scene McDuffie wrote that's from Crisis on Two Earths, which is probably one of his last screen credits ever. It has James Woods as a terrifically deadpan Owlman that wants to blow up everything.
Dwayne McDuffie will be missed.

Instrumental

SUBROSA (pages 16-17)

2011-03-01T02:30:00.000-05:00

Poor toddler Rosie. Is her face on page 17 the funniest thing ever? I think it might be.
This is Hokusai Manga, illustrated by Hokusai - aka the "wave over Mt. Fuji" guy. It's neat.
If any of you are curious about that poster in Morris's office, it is the cover of Goldfrapp's album Felt Mountain. If Subrosa had a soundtrack, the closest thing to it would be this.

Caves of unimaginable sincerity and beauty

Time for another Oscars illustration!

2011-02-26T02:30:00.000-05:00

A few of you might remember that I did an illustration last year to accompany an article about the 10 nominees for the Best Picture Oscar that year and how it meant a bunch of crazy movies could share honor space with the usual suspects. And while I hate the illustration now (seriously, past self? Gradients?) I really liked the idea, especially when we had an equally interesting bunch of films honored this year, too. Sadly, no aliens. But there were two nominated movies with cowboys in them, so I guess that's something.

And look! They actually sort of look like the actors they're supposed to be. I think I like my James Franco and Jennifer Lawrence best.

Now excuse me while I ink another Subrosa page and then collapse.

Below the ground's the only place to be

SUBROSA (pages 13-15)

2011-02-25T02:30:00.002-05:00

More Janice! Janice is fun to draw.

Like real food, but is toy. Not real food, do not eat.

SUBROSA (pages 11-12)

2011-02-22T02:30:00.002-05:00

Next two pages. I'm pretty proud of how panel 2 on page 12 turned out.

You were right about the stars

SUBROSA (pages 8-10)

2011-02-18T08:19:00.001-05:00

Subrosa's up! Take a look.

Same times next week? Have your people call my people.

When you used your medulla oblongata

SUBROSA (pages 6-7)

2011-02-15T04:20:00.000-05:00

Here we go, back to new pages. Remember, two on Tuesdays, three on Fridays.

Go ahead, lose yourself inside this opportunity

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T02:00:00.007-05:00

After I finished the last update, I drew a holiday-related thing. Here you go.

There weren't any cutesy romance-related thing from Subrosa, so I grabbed some dudes from a comic idea I'd been working on in my spare time. I love drawing these guys - they're adorable. Hopefully you'll see them again before too long.
And look! I made it blue!

I'd been using Kuler to help develop palettes for this other project - it's a great tool, especially since I can't color for beans. Give it a whirl!

Leave all your love and your longing behind

SUBROSA (pages 1-5)

2011-02-11T06:30:00.022-05:00

Well, here we go. May I proudly present the first installment of my senior project comic, Subrosa.

The next two pages go up next Tuesday, February 15th, and three pages after that on Friday, February 19th.

And look at all the bugs we've found

Rhythm in Comics (or: More Webcomics I Love)

2011-02-09T08:14:00.001-05:00

Had some time between finalizing the first Subrosa update and posting it, so I thought I would share some more webcomic finds. There's so many amazing artists out there, guys! And what's awesome about comics is that you can lack technical illustration skills and still be a master cartoonist - if you have a sense of rhythm. And if you do have nice illustration skills, well, even better.

So take this strip from Kris Straub's Chainsawsuit , which follows a standard comics rhythm. Set-up, peak, and punchline. It's a very economic standard, so you have to find a way to tell a joke with very little ornamentation, which I think Straub does really well sometimes. This one is special because it makes me laugh every time I read it. Every single time. I printed it out and taped it to my door.

This excerpt from Pictures for Sad Children by John Campbell doesn't follow a standard format, so he gets to do some really interesting things with the arrangements of his panels. I like how he mixes up the standard square panel - with simple figures and terse dialogue - with a taller panel of the plane that you get to linger over a little more.

J.R. Goldberg creates a similar lingering effect here, but to show off the hilarious-looking expressions on her comic doppelganger. This comic in question is also pretty economic in that something happens in every panel to move the joke forward. But panel number 2 serves as a "beat" - like in music or film - a pause to let you take it in and laugh before the comic continues on with the action.

Another recent find is Israeli cartoonist Mysh, who integrates haikus into these really tender 1-page comics about sexuality (if that doesn't clue you in, his Tumblr link is NSFW). But he has a great sense of rhythm and pacing that helps create a sense of intimacy in his comics.

That's it, I think. Now I can close a few browser windows and schedule that Subrosa post. See you on Friday!

We at the hotel - motel - Holiday Inn

Subrosa: a new long-form comic starting this month!

2011-02-04T09:39:00.000-05:00

After the last few weeks of preparations, preparations, preparations, I'm finally ready to announce my next big project - a 67 (probably) page long-form comic named Subrosa.

Subrosa is a science fiction, young adult comic in every way that Meccanica isn't. It's my senior project to complete my undergraduate degree, and it's the longest single thing I've ever done by far. I see it not so much as a test of my college skills, but more of a demonstration that I'm ready to devote the rest of my post-college life making comics. (Woo hoo!)
The way I've been planning it, I expect to upload the first 5 pages on Friday, February 11, both here and on my Tumblr page, which I've tweaked in a way that hopefully works well for reading long-form comics like this. After that, I plan to upload on a Tuesday/Friday weekly schedule - two pages on Tuesdays and three on Fridays.
I'll make another announcement before I start uploading, but mark your calendars!
This is gonna be so awesome.

There are shadows on the way to the heavens, mm-hm.

Great Voices (or: I Love Speech Bubbles)

2011-01-31T02:30:00.000-05:00

So yes, I made a new comic, and yes it's based on public radio. I am such a nerd.

I love experimenting in the comic medium. I'm not good at it by any means, but I love it. I like when comics makes you think about things differently.
I was listening to NPR at work, and they were having this ongoing series of "50 Great Voices," in which music experts talk about extraordinary singers and what makes their voices memorable. They ran the gamut from Howlin' Wolf to Freddie Mercury, but I'm glad that a few of my favorites, above, made the cut.

Anyway, I also happened to be rereading Asterios Polyp that week (David Mazzucchelli I love youuuu) and I realized that the appearance of every character's speech bubble in that book was unique, even people that have one line in one panel and are never heard from again. I love the idea of sounds having a look or a texture, so I love speech bubbles and I love sound effects. I spent an entire winter's day once trying to figure out how you would write the onomatopoeia for walking on brand-new ultra-fresh snow.*
So I tried it with a few of the singers in the NPR special. It was fun. If you want to try it, too, look through their archive! Even if you don't want to try it, it's hilarious listening to a bunch of white public radio people gush over the significance of Biggie Smalls.

* I decided on "grinch."

Remember when I used to eat sardines for dinner

When do you separate art from artist?

2011-01-24T03:46:00.001-05:00

At one point I was actually at a loss as to what I could post this week. Maybe a recent doodle, maybe some prep sketches from my idea for a comic about gay robots (Sadly, that masterpiece is not my announced upcoming project. But I'll make it happen soon enough).

Then, yesterday, I learned that Doug TenNapel has started a webcomic.

If, like me, you learned this news from io9, and like me, you read the comments on io9, you know how many people despise Doug TenNapel. Oh, they may like his art, and his comics. But they can't stand his personal beliefs.
You may be familiar with this predicament. It may have been when you Ender's Game fans discovered Orson Scott Card's... incendiary opinions about gay marriage. Or maybe it was when you found out that Stephen King wrote Carrie and other early novels in the midst of a cocaine bender. Or when you realized that Walt Disney - eh, you get the idea.

Pictured above: A CONUNDRUM.

When can you separate the art that you love from the artist that you want to slowly sidle away from, whistling? Can you do it at all?

Anyway, Doug TenNapel. Videogame fans may know him as the creator of Earthworm Jim and The Neverhood. Comic readers know him as a prolific graphic novelist, at one point popping out a book-length comic every year. Visitors to his blog know him as an outspoken right-wing Christian, and they know it within thirty seconds.
I owned a copy of his 2005 graphic novel Earthboy Jacobus, and to this day, it's one of my "sweet spot" books - it hit me in just the right place at just the right age. It's far from a perfect book, and something about it seemed... off to me. Unusual. But it's a good book, and after I read it I wanted to read more. So I went to his website.

I'm going to admit something: as a young citizen of the internet, I went on to write TenNapel a very embarrassing email expounding my own personal views on reproductive rights and how they clashed with his. Yes, I was one of those obnoxious 15-year-old internet trolls. I got better.
But I did that in the first place because TenNapel was the first artist I absorbed where I realized that I loved his comics and couldn't stand his persona outside the realm of his comics.It was an uncomfortable feeling, and I felt like that wasn't how it was supposed to be. Lots of people on the io9 thread have talked about how his personal beliefs, which they find distasteful and which keep them from enjoying his works or supporting him financially. I can see where they're coming from. But let me say this.

To TenNapel's credit, I have never seen anything hateful or truly disagreeable in his comics. Are there right-wing and religious themes in there? For sure. Does it bug me when they pop up? Definitely, though I think it's more because he does it in an unsubtle way, and that just bothers me as a storyteller.
But having beliefs that are different from mine means that he creates comics that are different from mine. One of the reasons I like Earthboy Jacobus as much as I do, other than that it's beautifully drawn, is that they have characters who don't think like me. Who have beliefs different than mine. Who live different lives and have different values. And even if my mind wasn't changed at the end of the book, at least I considered a different viewpoint for a little while.

Jacobus is hardly a hardcore right-wing book. But as a pretty liberal person, I realized that how I feel reading Jacobus is probably how a fairly conservative person feels reading... pretty much any Grant Morrison book. Any Alan Moore book. Hell, any Brian Lee O'Malley book.

We all know what that Wallace Wells is up to.

As long as it doesn't express hate or violence towards real people, I think it deserves a pass. TenNapel gets to make his comics about whatever, and I get to make my comic about gay robots.

Anyway, that was an excuse to put up this Earthboy Jacobus thing I drew.
And if you want to read TenNapel's webcomic, here it is. It's called Ratfist. There's only 10 pages, so I'm reserving judgment. Read it, or give him money, or don't. It's up to you.

It really was a pretty good book.

No one is the savior they would like to be

Thank you SO MUCH.

2011-01-17T02:30:00.001-05:00

Guys, I don't even know what to say. Thanks to the magic of the internet, my comic has been viewed nearly 4,500 times. As a quick comparison, my blog's average monthly pageview was only about 2,000 before now. And that's a good month.
I should thank the Radiolab boys for helping spread the word, as well as David Eagleman, who complemented my humble adaptation of the story he wrote. And thanks to Ananth Panagariya, the writing half of Johnny Wander, for mentioning me, too! You may recall I mentioned that comic in an earlier post - this is because I love them to death. Please read them.
As thanks, I'll share with you a quick something I whipped up for the Twitterverse once my comic started trending. You guys deserve it, too.

So with my thanks out there, let me level with you. I've got one semester of school left. I draw and make things as much as I can, but I may not always have something glorious for you week after week.
BUT.
I am in the midst of starting my final thesis project, a comic that will ultimately be three times as long as Metamorphosis. Depending on how my production schedule ends up working out, and based on the amazing feedback I got from you guys, it is very possible that I will start posting pages from that comic, in installments, on this very blog.
I'll give you guys more information about this exciting project as January goes on, but in the meantime...

I'll just say that I'd be on the lookout for this person in the future. More soon!

A train to Train-Wreck Town

Metamorphosis: A 24-page comic for a fresh new year

2011-01-11T02:30:00.006-05:00

So here it is. The project that kept this blog silent for nigh two weeks. Here is my comic adaptation - all 24 pages! - of "Metamorphosis," adapted from a short story by neuroscientist David Eagleman as it was read by actor Jeffrey Tambor for Radiolab's podcast "After Life." If you'd like to listen to the original story on which this was based, follow that last link and jump to about 6:10. Enjoy.

Many thanks to David Eagleman for producing quite a tasty bit of fiction, Radiolab for breathing life into it, Jeffrey Tambor for being a class act as always, and to you. For reading it. Here's to a comicky new year.

Do you wanna die?

I'm not dead!

2011-01-10T15:17:00.001-05:00

But I do have something that I'll be revealing very soon that'll be worth the silent weeks. See, for most of December, I'd been working on a 24-page comic, and I JUST GOT IT DONE. Like, an hour ago.
I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and it'll be coming to a computer near you very soon! Here's a sneak peek.

The only other things I'll say is that devoted listeners of Radiolab will enjoy the comic immensely. And that the title of this post is a little ironic.
That's it! More soon!

Hope I'm not erasing myself

Have yourself a vintage little Christmas

2010-12-28T12:58:00.000-05:00

Yeah, it's a little late, blah blah blah. For me, Christmas goes on until I have to go back to work. (Which is tomorrow.) So until then, bring on the Christmas finds!

At the self-designated "free table" at work, I found a book of Christmas carols that must be from the '40s or '50s, but I honestly have no idea. The only clue I have to its origin is a note on the back tracing it to Elton L. Cook at Cook's Pharmacy in Decatur, GA. No date, no artist credit. Which is too bad, because the illustrations are gorgeous. I uploaded all of the pages here on my Flickr.

Other great stuff I got for Christmas? D&Q's new collection of Doug Wright's Nipper, a '60s Canadian comic I'm in love with, J.H. William's collection of Batwoman, the best superhero story of the decade, Charles Burns' X'ed Out, and Christ Onstad's latest Achewood collection A Home for Scared People. Truly a great bounty to be had.

And I'm chillin' and coolin' just like a snowman

Geekin' out over webcomic faces

2010-12-20T09:25:00.000-05:00

After thinking more about the face in the Mucha painting that so captivated me, I did a look around some of the webcomics I frequent to see what kind of faces and expressions I could find. There's so many spectaculaar artists and comics out there, and this is only scratching the surface.

Here's a really good comparison of two expressions in this PVP excerpt. Scott Kurtz is really good at simplifying expressions and figures to a small number of lines, but the way he depicts Jade and Cole above are very different. Jade's features are simplified, but they still roughly match a realistic and attractive face. Cole's cartoony glasses, button nose, and unibrow create a much different effect. Both characters evoke emotion in different ways, but the differences in style still work really well together.

This character's face from Der-Shing Helmer's The Meek has a much different effect, and I think it comes down to the color. The linework here isn't much more complex than on Jade, above, but when you add rich colors instead of simple flats, the mood can be much more somber and atmospheric. And just... goddamit, I love this panel. It's absolutely spectacular.

But you don't have to be a technical virtuoso with tight, controlled lines to get some really great expressions. Tell me you can't look at the last panel of Kate Beaton's strip, above, and not smile. Here, the loose style actually gives the figures a lot of charm.

And despite Chris Onstad's lack of technical skill, he also has a magic ability to come up with some pretty funny and evocative faces on characters with otherwise very limited ranges of expression (See also this well-known Achewood strip).

Evan Dahm's an interesting case in that he very rarely draws human beings, instead coming up with some pretty fantastic creatures. His latest serialized work, Vattu, has been great to follow because he get these great expressions on face that are essentially nothing but eyes and foreheads...

...while Johnny Wander's Yuko Ota conveys some pretty fun expressions using everything but. Interestingly, she and Evan Dahm are also roommates in real life!

And how can I leave out Rebecca Sugar? What I like about her stuff is that when many artists decide to scale down on details, she ramps up, putting a lot of lumps and wrinkles in while still keeping the expression readable. It helps that the expressions are so over-the-top to begin with.

That's all for now. Maybe I'll scan some drawings soon. We'll see.

Hey, you with the pretty face

A painting story. (And why I love Pixar movies)

2010-12-17T16:53:00.000-05:00

While I go on doing prep work for future projects and thoroughly enjoy my holidays, I thought I would tell you a short art story.
Have you ever seen a painting that totally rocked your world? That once you saw it, it changed your life? You don't have to have necessarily seen it when you were young and impressionable, but once you saw it, you couldn't stop thinking about it? Maybe it was when a loan of Renaissance paintings came to town and you got to seen an original Titian up close for the first time. Maybe it was getting to see how thick the oil paint was slathered on a Francis Bacon.
The painting that changed my life was Slovane v pravlasti by Alphonse Mucha.

First, a little background. When people think of Alphonse Mucha, they think of this:

Hot Art Nouveau women shilling cigarettes and dancing on the covers of theatre playbills. Mucha's style is incredibly iconic, especially considering that he didn't limit himself to just creating posters. Over the course of his lifetime, Mucha illustrated books, designed jewelry, and even experimented in early photography. The fact that you could still discern Mucha's flowy, flowery style regardless of medium is pretty impressive.
In the twilight of his years, Mucha undertook the most ambitious project of his life - The Slav Epic. This was a series of dozens of paintings that occupy an entire building in Moravsky Krumlov in the Czech Republic. I went there a couple of years ago.

Look closely at that picture. You see that tiny thing in front of the painting there? That is a guy.
So let's go back to Slovane v pravlasti.

When you are standing in front of this thing, you're about the same size as the two figures on the bottom there. Yeah.
But this painting is moving to me for more than just the sheer enormity of it. The Slav Epic told a story over a sequence of images - the story of the collective Slavic race, Mucha's ancestors. Slovane v pravlasti, or "The Slavs in their Original Homeland," is the first in that series. It depicts the murderous rampage of the Goths, who overran Slavic lands and drove the original inhabitants out. Superimposed over the image are native gods, who seem to be aware of the scene but can't do anything about it. But I was fascinated by the two Slavic youths at my eye level, hiding in terror from the rampaging Goths.

(that is not me, BTW)

Especially the one that looks.
Right.
At you.

Maybe it was the wide eyes with the blue opaque irises. Maybe it was the incredible expression and pose, which seemed like Mucha was channeling the unborn ghost of Frank Frazetta. But I was haunted by that face.
All it takes to sell me on a comic, or a painting, or a movie, is one memorable image. And the most memorable images to me are faces. And the weird thing is, as much as I love happy and goofy faces, I really connect to faces that are sad, scared, or really intense. Maybe because it's harder to do, or at least effectively. The reason I love Pixar movies as much as I do is that they understand this really well, and they have character expressions in there that make you feel.
The face Hopper makes when he intimidates the other grasshoppers into returning to Ant Island.

The face Marlin makes when he sees Nemo floating upside down in a bag.

The face Buzz Lightyear makes when he realizes he's just a toy.

It's the face. Or more accurately, it's the eyes.
Mucha understood this, and this is why I love him. Because he was the first "fine" artist who made me feel the same way as my favorite movies about bugs and robots.
Time to celebrate my 21st birthday. Happy birthday to me.

The bad feeling so bad makes the good so good

Inspirations of the week...

2010-12-01T02:30:00.051-05:00

Don't worry, it won't get too dull here during a Meccanica-free month. Allow me to post pictures of the random stuff that's been inspiring me lately!

From Alexander McQueen's Fall/Winter 2010 collection. It's like if Michelle Obama took a tip from Queen Amidala! I love it!

I found this cover of an old edition of Human Diastrophism, my absolute favorite Gilbert Hernandez story. Even if it wasn't already my favorite, I can't get over the color blocks and the cool inking on the rock guy.

A bag my family sent me from Junkman's Daughter, an awesome hipster garbage store in Atlanta's Little Five Points.

A WWII-era almanac I bought for 5 francs at a market downtown.

Some really gorgeous photography from the Great Depression. Yes, apparently they had color photography!

An ad for Stetson Shoes from 1906. Can't wait for a tablet so I can learn to color like that.

A poster for a 1961 Taiwanese movie about a courageous deer man and his outrageous animal friends.
'NUFF SAID.

You should already be jumping like a jack-in-the-box

Finally! Meccanica #38!

2010-11-29T02:30:00.003-05:00

Well, that's it for a little while, guys. I don't want it to end on this, certainly, but at least it should keep you satisfied for a month. Whenever you feel a little comic-deprived, just come back here and look at Rohan punching Wei in the face.
But don't worry, because I've been working on something awesome for a comics scholarship that I hope to share with you guys real soon. So stay tuned!

It's almost surgical the way you shatter

Help me find this illustrator!

2010-11-24T12:59:00.000-05:00

I babysit a six-year girl here, and not too long ago I took her to a screening at La Lanterna Magica, the monthly film club that a theater in downtown Lugano runs for kids. It sounds like a pretty awesome program, but when I was given their little handout for their monthly show, it knocked my socks off.
I mean, look at this.

Yes, it's Monsters Inc.! (called Monsters & Co. in Italian). And oh, my god, do I love these illustrations.

I've searched every inch of this program for the illustrator's name, but I can't find it anywhere. Not on the website, either, as far as I could tell. That bugs me as an artist on principle, but what bugs me more that I would love to contact this guy, if he lives right in town.

I love this version of Sully - he looks like Marc Anthony, the dog from those Chuck Jones cartoons. These drawings are just so fun and unique-looking, and I would be bummed if the artist didn't get the credit he (or she) deserves. I'm gonna send these to the guys at Drawn!, since they seem to know people who know people. Maybe they can help me out.

(By the way, to my disappointment, my six-year old charge didn't like Monsters Inc. I think she was scared by Randall. Though, in her defense, Steve Buscemi scares me sometimes, too.)

I'm just a punky little eyeball

Meccanica #37

2010-11-22T13:09:00.000-05:00

Here we go, guys, almost done for the year! Hot damn!

We're the enforcers, the sorcerer's orphans

Happy Harry Potter, everyone!

2010-11-17T15:08:00.000-05:00

Before I go off with some buddies to Lucerne to watch Part 1 of Deathly Hallows tomorrow, I thought I'd post some stuff that had been languishing on my desktop.

It wasn't until I was halfway through the second one of these book covers that I realized why this was such a good idea: because someone had already done it before, and excellently, too. Dangit.
So I ended up only doing the covers whose designs were significantly different from the good Mr. Corley's. I don't want to steal his thunder - it's all in good fun. Let's share our Harry Potter love together!

Instrumental