~ a short account of endeavors ~

digital painting for Dream Life

2010-03-06T22:59:00.003-05:00

enjoying the coloring i'm doing for Dream Life right now, here's a peek at tonight's work.

More Tainted Love Reviews and Popgun 4

2010-03-06T03:12:00.001-05:00

Couple more reviews in for my last wfh job, not too bad!

Dueling Review: Ghostbusters Tainted Love

By: Robot Overlord | February 21st, 2010 -

Ghostbusters' Winston Zeddemore:

I'm Ready to Believe Him

By Karaoke Fanboy | February 23rd, 2010

Also reviced my copy of Popgun 4 in the mail, nice glossy brick.

Lot of comics to absorb in there, will write about it later when i do, haven't really had the chance yet.

The Launch party notice was listed on Boing Boing, Found an early review of it here, and D.J. has a press round up posted here.

gots' ya' comics right here...

2010-03-03T04:11:00.003-05:00

Psst,

hey buddy...

So I've been wanting to add comics to Sequential.spiltink.org for a while, and was wondering how to go about it.

Then i realized, hey, i draw comics! duh. Been working on a graphic novel called Dream Life for the last while, and it's been begging for a better site.

To be honest I've been reluctant to use Sequential to promote my own work, feel a bit funny about it. But it increasingly seems the best way to continue doing both, and truthfully it was while working out how to get my own work out there that i realized there was a need for something like it in the first place, so of course i should be using it.

Over the last 6 months I've been trying to remind myself of that. I've Just added a new area to the site, a WordPress webcomics page, hosted at sequential.spiltink.org/comics [rss] - for now the main attraction is Dream Life. I had been publishing it on Live Journal but it's needed a new easier to read/follow site for a while.

For the last week there's been a new post each day, after page 9 I'll have new updates every Wednesday.

I want to expand from there, eventually to be a fully online version of RevolveR. I'm still working out how Wordpress works, when i get it sorted I'll be adding an index for other stories of my own....

But if you draw comics, then consider this -

Sequential is looking for creators to publish on site.

If you're interested contact me about publishing your comics on sequential.spiltink.org/comics Directly. Ongoing and short stories are both welcomed submissions. I want to leave the subject open on subject matter for the moment, but looking for good story telling and consistent work and i do plan to be picky. It would be great to have s traditional style strip to post right on the main Sequential blog too! Canadiana is very welcomed. Cheers - max.

drsketchy - the final countdown w Steam!

2010-02-21T04:42:00.002-05:00

Been meaning to go to a Dr, Sketchy session for a long time now.

Keep missing them. Was late to this one, missed the first hour, but finally made it today.

Really need to go do more live drawing in general. Getting stiff. Had a hard time getting into it, but at the end was in the swing.

Trying out some new Pentel brush pens, same tip as my pocket brush but these have refillable reservoirs rather than cartridges, put wash water in one and pure India ink in the other. works OK, need to work on my technique though.

----------------------

SEA OF RED SLIPCASE COLLECTION

2010-02-18T17:19:00.001-05:00

Nice. Only 1000 copies, so get you're orders in now me hearties.

Story RICK REMENDER & KIERON DWYER

Art KIERON DWYER, SALGOOD SAM & PAUL HARMON

Cover PAUL HARMON

MAY 10 - $39.99 - LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES

The year is 1533. Deckhand, Marco Esperanza's shipping vessel is sunk in the dead of night leaving him, the sole survivor, left adrift in the Red Sea. His prayers are answered when a strange ship impossibly cuts through the night fog saving him a watery grave. However, his elation soon turns to horror when he discovers he has been brought aboard the dread pirate ship, The Black Galleon. There is more to Captain Lesser Blackthroat and his evil crew than mere piracy, these men are damned -- these men are vampire.

The year is 2004. Since being turned undead by Blackthroat, Marco has spent the past 400 years tied to the bow of a sunken vessel, clinging to unlife in the dark, briny, deep. His confinement at the bottom of the sea ends when film director Joel Cameron's submarine discovers him while location scouting. Hungry to film a live vampire battle, Cameron agrees to aid Marco in seeking out the eternal monsters responsible his fate that he might have his revenge.

COLLECTS SEA OF RED, VOL. 1-3

RETAILER WARNING: MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ALL AGES

Previews Interviews and Reviews: GHOSTBUSTERS SPECIAL: TAINTED LOVE

2010-02-17T19:00:00.005-05:00

cool: Newsarama is previewing our book this week, and saying nice things. Always awesome, thanks guys!

Also kind of awesome, we got a good review on Hypergeek, 4 out of 5 stars! Glee!

More kinds of awesome, another Review here by J. Caleb Mozzocco on EVERY DAY IS LIKE WEDNESDAY! AND, he did an interview with Dara on Blog@Newsarama! Nice.

Not as cool: IDW strangely sent out a horrible pdf to use for the preview!
Huh? Rats, they make my hand lettered text look like MUD! Mentioned this to the PR folks at IDW when i saw the pdf myself but....hmmmm...hurrrm...hum.

Well, not to gripe to much or look the gift horse in the tonsils, here's the preview page, but read the one's i posted here below, ok? Images link to lage files on flickr that will open in a new window. Also you can use this full screen slide show, which includes all the other art I've posted from the book so far. These versions of the pages are from before final proof readings so some typo's may be included.

You like?

There was an awful truck accident and problems with customs that's resulting in delays in shipping, but it is on it's way. Ask you're local Brick and Mortar shop about it, or order online.

$3.99 - Diamond Code: DEC09 0906

News on Ghostbusters: Tainted Love

2010-02-15T22:07:00.001-05:00

Crap. We busted our asses to get it done in time but the last people, officials, or weather events in the food chain always have the last say. I was assured it was on time last week, but i just read this from Dara....

Hey guys, Dara here. I just found out the scoop on this book's erratic ship date. Apparently what made it miss the original ship date for the week of Valentine's Day is that it got held up in customs. But here's where the story takes a tragic twist: it is officially hitting stores this week (17th), except for most of the East coast. The truck from Diamond Distributors that had all of IDW's books on it for the East coast stores was involved in a very bad weather-related accident. My understanding is that the driver(s) are in critical condition in the hospital.

So needless to say, it's a very unfortunate event and I hope that everyone involved pulls through and makes a full recovery.

Man, that sucks. Hope the drivers pull through.

Customs on the other hand, I've no love for those guys, give people like little sisters grief all the time. What in the world they held us up for god knows, but nothing new.

Piles of Inking...

2010-02-07T02:01:00.000-05:00

...man, kind of cutting it close for the trip. Getting there though, doing a dragon right now, in a novel pose i think, never seen someone do what we're doing in this scene. Fun.

Can't show you thought, sorry, secret stuff now, save for the big tada.

Took a few moments from some heavy inking work today to play though. Took a stab and composing the cover for one of my two projects for TCAF.

The text i laid-out a while back, didn't know what art i wanted to use though at the time. So been sitting on it for the last two years. After i drew the page, it struck me it would be perfect for the job, need to shade it still for the interior, but might use it like this for the cover.

Want this to be ready for TCAF 2010, thinking probably a small run self published deal for now. Like this, looks handsome and would be easy to get printed well. Going to think on it for a bit but it feels right.

Oh my god, Brendan McCarthy.

2010-02-06T05:53:00.001-05:00

Hit this page - "Brendan McCarthy Talks Spider-Man Fever"

...and had a little geek fit, oh yeah, yes, Brendan McCarthy is drawing two of Steve Ditko's best characters, Spider Man and Dr. Strange in one book.

And i must must must have!

Last years of high school was when i first found out about Brendon's work, it was one of those revelatory encounters. The preview art for this is beautiful. He's perfect for this. So jealous. :)

Tainted Love

2010-02-06T05:00:00.002-05:00

When does Ghostbusters: Tainted Love Come out in comic book shops?

The guys at IDW tell me it should hit the stands on the 10th. That may vary in some Canadian locations but I'm assured it will make it. I'm crossing my fingers and things.

It was made with love, and can be yours just in time to be a gift for that special geek in your life. :) Along with the art here below, you can catch a preview of the book on brokenfrontier.com, and a few words from Dara about his story!

$3.99 - Diamond Code: DEC09 0906

Also pretty cool, is you can get this book as an App for you're IPhone, Touch, or Pad eventually, just $1.99 for that. My first app, didn't have much with formating it, will have to get my girlfriend to get it so i can see how it reads.

I just read something wrong on wiki...

2010-02-05T07:42:00.004-05:00

...to be fair they we're quoting the ROCK and RULE DVD.

"According to the commentary on the DVD release, the effects for the demon in the movie's final sequence were produced by smearing cow brains over one plane of a slit scan multiplane camera."

Well, that's cute, but quite true i think. I'm getting old but this is not how i remember it. They used photos of cow brains alright, thought that was really cool! But i doubt it was smeared on the Multiplane camera directly. :P hah!

I was around as a little kid at the time at Nelvana, 8 or 9 years old. 10 or 11 maybe by the time that part was being shot. Watching that film get worked on was the highlight of several summers - my mother was on the crew and we didn't have daycare. Remember the crew working on that part in particular, it made an impression.

The demon was drawn on black paper with red and white pastel, or something like. Lot of smudging was involved. Crazy hard work for the artist. I recall they were copying from pencil drawings done by the animators who had worked out the mechanics of it traditionally on a light table. Think it might have been the first time i saw someone make tracing paper by rubbing something [chalk in this case i think] on the back of a page and re-tracing the lines of the drawing. Only way they could get the animation onto the black paper.

But it didn't look intense enough when they were done that. I recall the big debate in the paint department about what to do after the first rushes came in. People who worked on it still talk about that part of the production wide eyed about all the work that went into it. So, that's when the guts came into it.

The pastel art was shot on to full size transparencies, the blacks blacked out solid leaving the demon translucent on the films/cells. Making an overlay layer.

The photos of guts n' brains was shot in a bucket as i recall, poked and sloched to make it unduatle. That footage was terned into large stills and were under the cell art, lit from below on the Multiplane. It was footage of moving guts, so they would have to change the photo of the guts for each new frame shot, far more often than the animated demon's cells had to be changed, making it slow going.

Have a clear memory of the camera guy showing me what he was doing at the time and making eyes about all the work involved with perverse pride. Pretty awesome stuff.

But they loved that machine, maybe something happen when i was not around and i never heard about it. But I kind of suspect they could just shot the bucket of stuff with a regular camera, be a heck of a lot easier, and doubt they'd have gotten that gunk on the machine, it was huge and expensive.

One line of common wisdom...

2010-02-04T21:03:00.001-05:00

...I've seen run true in my own lifetime, is that humans are boom and bust creatures, with a well documented tendency to ignore folly and run after the endless return. Not a revelation. Not everyone all the time or anything, but yeah, as a general thing just about all of us some of the time.

There's a real strong, but kind of late push towards electric renewables these days. But sadly we're far from braking point with Gass just yet. Got some more rev to grind out of those hot old hot rods.

There's also a kind of particular level of crazy fascination that we often associate with greed for things like gold, that inevitably heralds the bust of these booms. And that's what i thought when i saw this.

A rare Ferrari 250 GTO comes to market with a supersize price tag of $20 million dollars, more than a thousand times its original value.

It's a lovely machine without a doubt. not sure i say the same for the trend. A sexy growling herald of autopocalypse she is, all nice and red.

page 4 of 8

2010-01-31T04:45:00.003-05:00

More inking tonight. This is going to be a fun project....

IPad, Will it save comics?

2010-01-27T14:22:00.005-05:00

...Don't know, but it looks pretty good to me. And starting at $499 i might even be able to afford it, dang, didn't see that coming.

The IPad seems like a decent entry in the Tablet category, and yeah, i bet my Dream Life art would look good on it, It's even the exact same dimensions! :)

I'm working on a new Zuda project too, if we're lucky and land the deal, this could be a big boost for it.

I've posted more about it here on Sequential, along with some clips. It's pretty exciting to think about what this might do for print and web based media, i for one am optimistic.

More inking.

2010-01-23T23:53:00.000-05:00

Ok, i just like making film clips. I'd like to make a film sometime. For now, making comics. A friend said they wanted to see what was going on better in response to the other inking clip, so this time i did just double speed. Not quite as exciting to watch but informational. Even for me, editing this noticed a lot of little things i should be paying attention to. Should analyze my technique like this more often.

Again music is by Michelle Breslin and co. from the last album recorded buy sadoceanspacebear before braking up as a group. You can hear more here.
sadoceanspacebear
sicklittleslinky
moekellogg

...and penciling.

2010-01-22T22:02:00.000-05:00

Another day at the desk. Someone wanted to see the work being done more clearly than you can in the last proses video i made, so this is only sped up a little bit.

Inking, fast as i can....

2010-01-21T03:06:00.002-05:00

Few days ago i saw a post by Cameron, then a gallery of art by some other friends of mine for a course they are teaching in Toronto. All inking stuff.

If you follow this blog you know i just wrapped up a wfh gig, and i'm trying to get in as much work as i can before a week long vacation in Toronto in February. Seeing that other work helped me get kick started inking some Dream Life stuff. Had a good day yesterday getting this done, and i penciled AND inked this tonight in one sitting! In all this page took about 4 hours. Helped it was a simple one mind you but still, like it when once goes that easy.

The music is by Michelle Breslin and co. from the last album recorded buy sadoceanspacebear before braking up as a group. You can hear more here.
sadoceanspacebear
sicklittleslinky
moekellogg

Keepin' the pot a boilin'

2010-01-19T21:11:00.002-05:00

Put this up on Flickr a few days ago, it's open to the changes different venues and opportunities will provide but I'm kind of hopping i can do it just B&W like this. I really love working in this style, and i think this one would suite it well. Can't say too much yet but this is something I'm collaborating with Mark Sable, my co-hort on Upside Down for Comic Book Tattoo.

More to come soon. Juggling doing some pages for a pitch [as seen here] and inking two Dream Life pages, shooting for 5 in all by the end of the week. So far looking good.

TCAF 2010 has started the big wind up, thanks for the heads up Dave. Exciting, and scarry, got a lot i want to get together for that this year!

Research material for future memories

2010-01-15T20:19:00.003-05:00

Last night i found a facebook group that had been started up by former Rochdale members. Hi Larry and Walter! Going to be great for helping collect first hand accounts of the place and time.

Led me to do some digging and there's a few interesting new bits of material online now about this major component of the Story of my parents meeting and life. Been working with the idea of writing and drawing some kind of story about my father and this will be a big part of it. First off are a few entries in the very cool verbal history project murmur - And some really interesting raw bits of video have been posted on you tube by Charasee Press, 4 in all so far.

Fist post of 2010

2010-01-10T19:25:00.003-05:00

Starting a few other new projects this year, web comics fully, & i have some Dream Life pages long awaiting inking. Hoping 2010 is better than the last one, dang '09 sucked.

I wrapped up the Ghostbusters book for IDW, bumpy ride but came out well. It's inspired me to do some work cleaning up my cleaner B&W work, look for that in the web comics i mentioned. Here's the press blurb and Diamond code for Tainted Love, there are two covers but that's not a gag, i asked to do one after they already had commissioned one from Nick. Click here for all my Ghostbusters related posts.

Ghostbusters Holiday Special: Tainted Love
Story: Dara Naraghi - Art: Salgood Sam

Love is in the air-literally!-as Winston befriends an attractive woman with a ghostly problem in her apartment. But trapping the love-struck apparition proves to be more complicated than the Ghostbusters originally thought. Can Winston step up and save the day? Just how far will Peter go to find a date? And do Ray and Egon ever stop to think about girls, or is it always about trans-dimensional ectoplasmic anomolies with those two?

FC - one-shot - 32 pages - $3.99 - Diamond Code: DEC09 0906

Here's page one, the silly gangsters are not really a big part of the story, but Dara thought it would make a fun taster for you all. There's a little more art here.

Working overtime, had to miss the con....

2009-12-06T23:12:00.001-05:00

Was planing to attend the Montreal Comic Con today, but had to skip it in favor of inking for the Ghostbusters book. Blew most of my slack at the start of the gig attending cons and stuff, so it goes.

Pages are coming out well, nice to get back to a simple inked line. been considering pulling back on dream life to something like that. Was my original plan, to do it B&W. Might be the best one as far as getting it done anytime soon.

can always colour and tone it later if i want to.

Speaking of colour, here's a peek at a colored Ghostbusters page by my man, Bernie Mireault.

Working 'till sun up on Ghostbusters

2009-11-28T07:47:00.001-05:00

I could go for an X-Ray's Burger right about now....

GHOSTBUSTERS : TAINTED LOVE

2009-11-25T00:22:00.014-05:00

It's been a while since i did a WFH deadline driven gig, good to be back at it though i'm a bit rusty with the time management it seems.

Word has been getting out so it's safe for me to post about it, doing a comic for the franchise of another one of my childhood favorites, Ghostbusters!

Re watched the movies of course, that was fun. Unlike many they hold up well today, really great films. Least i think so.

Hope i can do the comic version justice. we're not useing likenesses but i am trying to chanel the feel/type for the orriginal cast. The plot is a punchy fun short story, a valentines, with a hint of horror and cutie for Winston in it! Working with Dara Naraghi for the first time on this, with IDW. It's going a bit slow but the art i think is coming out looking good, eh? A long time collaborator Bernie Mireault is going to be doing colors for the interiours. I also got to go to town doing an alternate cover seen here. spent too long on it but it was worth it. Bellow i'm posting some other rough art and the group shot that got me the gig.

GHOSTBUSTERS HOLIDAY SPECIAL: TAINTED LOVE
Written by Dara Naraghi, art by Salgood Sam.
Covers by Salgood Sam [seen right] and Nick Runge.

Love is in the air - literally! - as Winston befriends an attractive woman with a ghostly problem in her apartment. But trapping the love-struck apparition proves to be more complicated than the Ghostbusters originally thought. Can Winston step up and save the day? Just how far will Peter go to find a date? And do Ray and Egon ever stop to think about girls, or is it always about trans-dimensional ectoplasmic anomolies with those two?

32 pages, $3.99.

Popgun 4

2009-11-19T14:18:00.004-05:00

It was dropped on Bleeding cool, so this is post seepage, but here's the beutiful cover by Ben Templesmith of the next book to have my art in it! Popgun 4!

For those of you with ink on your fingers, Ben has a cool proses post on the creation of this here on his blog.

Popgun 4 is in the December diamond previews.

My story "Honolulu Lorie's" was suposed to be in #3 but along with a whole lot of stuff got bumped back to 4 when they realized they had over sold the seats. Some awkward moments there when i found out and i've been sitting on my hands till now to make sure it was for sure going to be in this one - "cut due to too much goodness" is generally not quite the message editors probably want to send if you like a story. But bygones, all's good now, and i'm excited to see how my baby looks in print and the company it'll be keeping. The Popgun series is damn impressive, very proud to have something in one now.

If you liked that proses post by Ben you'll maybe want to look at this Flickr set for Lorie's, documenting the creation of the art for the story. The script was first written in a bar years ago in the mid 90's on a napkin hanging out with some drunken scumbags and dear friends. Funny because i don't drink but they could never tell they say.

Sadly i can't get to LA for the launch party at Meltdown, but if you're in the area you can keep up with the news about that probably here on DJ's site.

POPGUN is back with another eclectic collection of established fan favorite creators and rising stars coming together for a new edition of the Harvey Award-winning graphic mix tape! From high-octane action to heart-tugging drama to laugh-out-loud comedy, this collection has comics you'll love: over 500 full color pages of them!

popguncomics.com

featuring JOCK, JEFFERY BROWN, ERIK LARSEN, TOM SCIOLI, JM KEN NIIMURA, FRANK STOCKTON, JESSICA FINK, SALGOOD SAM, MATTEO SCALERA, CHRIS MORENO, MARK ANDREW SMITH, DEREK MCCULLOCH, JEREMY TINDER, ELIZABETH GENCO and more!
edited by D.J. KIRKBRIDE, ANTHONY WU & ADAM P. KNAVE
cover BEN TEMPLESMITH
FEBRUARY 10
512 PAGES / FC
$29.99

Expozine 2009 short doc

2009-11-17T02:55:00.003-05:00