~ a short account of endeavors ~

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

Come catch me and Jim at Expozine this weekend!

2009-11-11T17:37:00.004-05:00

~~Hey, i'm going to be~~ ~~there...~~

~~...sell some books, and art i hope - planing to make prints,~~
{well, in the end I missed all but the last half of day two and only managed to film part of that. Just can't be in two places at once. Read on to guess why, and look up to see the short Doc I made of Expozine -least got that much done.}

but also penciling WFH gig, ack! time time time. My collaborator on Therefore Repent! Jim Munroe is on a panel with Peggy Burns, Aaron Costain, and Anna Leventhal. The title is "Printed Matter or Printed Doesn't Matter?" - Moderated by Jeff Miller. Saturday, 3 p.m.
Like to make it but will have to run out from 12 to 3 to attend to some personal business. Sounds interesting, will be there if i can, record it for sequential maybe.

EXPOZINE, November 14 and Sunday, November 15, 2009, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 5035 St-Dominique (Eglise Saint-Enfant Jesus, between St-Joseph and Laurier, near Laurier Metro). [street view links]

This week's Montreal Mirror cover.

2009-10-27T15:57:00.004-04:00

It's election season here in Montreal, as well as Halloween. So, of course....

the Montreal Mirror - Virtual edition of the paper ici.

Hell with all my friends, @ Salon du livre de Montreal & Expozine!

2009-10-20T14:15:00.005-04:00

Was looking for info on something else...

...and found a message from Liliane, sent last year. Not sure i ever got around to posting it, nice little memior inspired she told me from reading Therefore Repent! Made me smile to read it again.

"In the late 70s, there was lots of new religions popping everywhere. They were selling their version of God to anyone who would listen. And mostly try to get the most people to flock to their enlighted gourous. They were recruting in every shopping malls come hell or high water."...

Just confirmed that i'll be at

Salon du livre de Montreal
for the first time this year.

Will be appearing with the author of (k), Sophie Bienvenu, Saturday November the 21st, 10h30 to 12h & Sunday November the 22nd, 13h to 14h30.

I'm just wrapping up final art for the BD on (k) today, going to ink it after i post this.
It'll be good to see Sophie again, not managed to for awhile.

And while book fairs are not typically as fun as the lunch looks to have been - missed that cus' i was in Toronto for TCAF and wasn't notified of the date till the day i was leaving town! Rats. - it will still be nice to have a part in promoting the book in the local book market. Just hope my lack of French skills is not too much of a problem.

I will also be at Expozine the week before!

November 14 and Sunday, November 15, 2009, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

We pack them in at the huge room in the belly of 5035 St-Dominique, Eglise Saint-Enfant Jesus, between St-Joseph and Laurier, a walk from, Laurier Metro on either Laurier or from the St-Joseph side, essentially on super trendy Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Near the home of the old MMCJ's, at Casa del Popolo.

Free admission for that one!

I'll have the whole flee circus out on display, and be doing sketches, drop in and check out the madness of Expozine!

View Larger Map

Last cover for (k)

2009-10-19T19:02:00.007-04:00

Wrapping up work on K and starting a new gig, pleased with this cover, also thinking i really should do some real t-shirt designs, be fun!

This one is supposed to be by the kid who's waring it, Kevin of (k).

It's a collage done of a skull, with a skateboard truck tattooed on it, wheals for eyes, and run through poster edge & the mixers. Didn't want to ink it by hand so it would stand out from my own work on the illustration to some degree, felt truer for the job there. But think i'll print it out to do it anyway! Could be done as a three colour silk screen i think....

Wuzap'

2009-10-06T22:34:00.003-04:00

Plunging away on #12 of K, looking at the last issue next week and looking for the next gig. Been thinking about pitching and talking to some editors about wfh work...

As always keep up with K on it's own sites here & here!

...I've been thinking about characters i'd like to draw if i were doing wfh. need to do some sketching later this week for that. Rocket Racoon and Ghost Rider are at the top of my list for marvel...

Did a set of character sketches for Dream Life last week, for a pitch pack as well.

I'll have a new post on LJ this weekend i think. See you then.

1692 downlaods

2009-09-23T01:00:00.001-04:00

"...fascinatingly unique, with characters that don't end up feeling stale and stereotypical."

It's nice to know people are still discovering my last graphic novel, the life span of books sometimes can be short. Therefore Repent! a post rapture graphic novel sold ok at the convention this past weekend for me, and now has 1692 downlaods on legaltorrents.com We recently got another positive shout out on Front Click, a Creative Commons legal torrents listing blog...

"Indeed, "Therefore Repent!" is one of those things that are too good to be true. It's an awesome graphic novel that has achieved critical and commercial success, yet, it can be read for free! It's good enough to make you want to buy a copy."

It's true, you can read the book for free, and we'd love it if you baught copies for your freinds during the upcoming holidays. See you at word on the street this comic weekend!

Con report birthday cards and ponderings...

2009-09-20T21:37:00.004-04:00

So that was pretty fun, the 2009 Montreal Comic Con was a small fan con, with a proportionately large artist alley [to dealers room]. really good crowd Saturday, Sunday i got there late but the crowd was tepid in comparison too. About a quarter maybe to Saturday's turnout. All in all though good time. Sold lots day one, just enough day two to make showing up worth it. Made a video of the mania on day one....

Also someone at the con told me they knew it was my birthday this past week becuse they saw this, thanks Tom!

I spent some time watching Darwin work on commissions, he's got a really bloody-minded efficient system for rendering.

I've done that general kind of thing before but 10 years ago set off to amuse myself doing more personal work, it's both enticing and daunting t think about getting back into such a regime. But if i want to get things done faster....

been thinking about what to do for $ now that the illustration market is so dead, working some kind of WFH gig is on the table, talking with some of my friends on the inside it seems tempting and really - after part time dish washing for the last 6 months i'm about ready to do anything just to get back to being paid to draw full time.

Dream Life is still going to happen, but i need something stable to back up things. Always did want to draw Rocket Raccoon, maybe that idea for a one off i joked about is worth following up and pitching...