...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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
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
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....
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.
In '98 i did a few months on the crew of Fakk2 in preproduction. Just posting a gallery of my old animation work i dug up this stuff, really enjoyed this, not so keen on the film that was made but had a great time doing this work. Thought i'd share a few of them here.
Messing around. It's important to remeber play time while i keep looking for work, as an old doodle reminded me the other day when we crossed paths by the river.
Cleanead up a bit this would be a cool T-shirt i think.
I wounder what the best site for that kind of deal is these days?
K wrapps up soon, i'm doing roughs on 10 now. Don't know what the numbers are on it but it's been seen all over the pace in QC. I sould take a cammera around and shoot some of the displays the publisher had for it. Pretty good coveage it looks like.
it's been muggy here when it's not wet. Life has been doing that evolving thing a lot lately. New friendships, old affairs put to a close - don't have the energy to explain what should be obvious anymore to some, working out what's not for myself all over again. Cue 80's pop song.
Need to read up on some friends for WOTS, on a panel with them. Want to get Jeff Lemire's newest book, looks good - and re-read the Essex County Trilogy. Also bone up on the work of Willow Dawson & Evan Munday who i know but have only read a bit of work from.
Last week of July, going to go watch fire works tonight.
Hope the slump in GN sales brakes by the time RevolveR comes out - have't been talking about it yet but the release date has been pushed back a bit, syncs up now with a cool festival so that's a good thing but going to keep mum till the ink drys.
Also K is coming along, i hope to be able to wrap the art of it this month.
Some appearance to mention in September: I'm a guest at The Montreal Comic Con September 19th-20th. They have a new site for the convention and seems like a some new staff running things, look forward to seeing how that goes.
Episode 2 of (k) is on the shelf in 4 days and counting, you can the seconds even on the home page here.
I got my own copies Monday and it looks pretty good, not totally keen on the font that was picked for the final lettering, but in the end not being functionally bilingual really it was simpler to let the publisher do it.
Saw them first in print at the post office the other day as i picked up my own box a week late after recovering from the festival.
It was stacked over with the magazines and smokes in its own little box. Later that day postering with a friend on my day off we past some giant ones for our series plastered on a large stretch of constructions sidings on Parc ave. That was fun, the art for book one holds up pretty good blown up huge like that. I'll have to go back to get a snap shot of that to send to Sophie. For a gig that started off pretty badly it's coming out well for now. Ultimately required a degree of divestment on my part but so it goes sometimes. Having spent the last few hours noodling on some more DL pages, i'm thinking about the sketches i did for 4, trying to get into finishing them & wondering where the text for 5 & 6 are...
Something from the monster, made a nice dent in Dream Life over the last three days.
Also while i was at TCAF i missed the launch for episode 1, but i'm told it went well. The site for K went live, there's a vid intro by Sophie the lovely author of the book posted, and there also this one from page for the series on the publishers main site here. And i noticed the first issue can be read as a PDF to, you can find that here.
Posted this on P&P and then relized i should put it here... And a day of rest - geeeeezzzzz, man, came back from TCAF the hard way, had to get a cover and BD done for Monday, and almost, but not quite made it. lettering on the BD is temporary, the publisher is going to use their font once they do final edit.
Last week : TCAF was pretty awesome, though i have some mightily cranky notions about the building we were in - not a fan of the architecture, looks good on camera but where i was sitting, it was not a very human feeling space too me, never was a big fan of that one - i sat right under where this was taken from.
But a lot of people loved it and I'm told the library is ecstatic about the festival and provides the space happily which is not how the last place treated them so that's great for Peter and Christopher! Probably will grow on me, i just really loved the old Vic building we were in, had great feeling about it.
Saturday was insane! I mean packed! wow.
No one seemed to know were the ac controls were + i had been up pretty late Friday night being social as well as hulling 525 magazines clear across town and back again on foot [transit] Friday afternoon/evening to get to the Seth reading.
I had also chosen to wear something semi formal involving a jacket. = i was wrecked after day one.
Susi diner saved me and had a good time at Chips launch. His new book looks really sweet, hope to actually read a comic soon, it's in the short stack.
Day two was more mellow, and cool enough i didn't think about taking off my sweater, which it looks like i should have - this was all nice till later on when it was clear the sales were going to be slow.
Despite repeated attempts i was unable to crack the boredom by starting a rubber band war with Craig A. Taillefer, who just gave me funny looks. yes, that look exactly. Brian Evinou & Liz Baillie were grate neighbors, Brian did a lot of drawing. If i hadn't been so burnt out both days i might have felt bad about not being into it!
Last minute scramble to spend money in the last half hour left me with a small profit i spent on mothers day dinner. I bet folks with brand new books to sell did well. Also moved I'd say about 450 of 525 copies of the free Sequential magazine which were well received for sure. Got a short list of people who want to be in the next one if there is one.
The After Party Sunday night was nice, and i had a good time hanging out with Eric Kim & Co. Monday. Met a whole bunch of cool people on this trip in fact.
Had a few days off to see family, and got some sketching done. Missed my buss, took 12 hours to get home in all and crashed hard.
If you've read it already, send the link to friends you think will enjoy it with our blessings! And don't forget to drop by the local shop to let them know you want Sword of My Mouth #1. Knit a reminder around your finger so you don't forget!
And if this is the first you've heard ofTherefore Repent! or you've been trying to decide if you wanted to spend the cash, please do check it out!
Maybe if you like it, buy copy for your library? With the lovely blue ink!
If Ella didn't have her baby, she'd go crazy from the loneliness. But she might still go crazy from the guilt, because the baby isn't quite right. The world was simpler before the righteous floated away into the sky, and magic started working.
A stand-alone six-issue story continuing on from acclaimed graphic novel Therefore Repent! Sword of My Mouth moves the focus from Chicago, under siege by angels with machine guns, to the urban prairie of Detroit, where a different kind of struggle is faced.
Folks in the D have banded together to turn land with burned out crackhouses into farming tracts, and seem to be on a road to self-sufficiency... until Famine rides into town. This six-issue story arc will be written by creator Jim Munroe ("a pop culture provocateur" - Austin Chronicle) and drawn by Shannon Gerard.
Behind on doing some writing, but I've been eying the first 6 acts of Thieves Cant. Thinking about the few interesting directions to take, think I'm going to spend a night watching some high caper Royal Crown affair type of flair,
Rebuilt a home for
The rise and fall of it all over here.
There's a trailer! And art! And the script and more! Will be adding some other stuff too in the futture. Planning to have this one done in 2010.
In the mean time it is one of the projects coming back with RevolveR, Along with the fist 60 pages of Dream Life.
Also: rebuilt more of my webpire, Sequential, and CHO! are sporting new hair cuts and I'm thinking about adding funny pages to Sequential some how...
Catching up on neglected house cleaning as well. The studio is a wreck right now, i'm purging stuff, been selling off some art. If your interested in owning an original certified Salgood Sam - one of my drawing that is and not the pen name - have a look see here, and drop me a line.
And last; some recent work to ponder and i hope stimulate your brain cells and tickle your pocket books ;)
I take both privet and commercial commissions. Contact me to inquire. If you have a problem with flicker or want a clean page to look at use this my dedicated illustration site here.
Inking some Dream Life, and other things. The winter hibernation urge has set in, Pigging out on Italian Corn Bread and Coffee and trying to be productive.
If your thinking about affordable Christmas gifts, may i suggest a proven treat?
Modern Post Biblical adventure stories always thrill; Therefore Repent! by Jim Monroe and myself has earned itself small hills of praise for being and engaging page turner.
And why am i talking up my last grafic novel? Is it that i might want to suggest that you get that special comics freindly friend a copy of our book for Christmas?
Yep, might be. I mean, it's a post rapture grafic novel, what more slightly blasphemous gift could you give your hip and culturally savvy sweet someone?
Hah! i should have been a copy writer! har! i kill myself.
OK. I just watched How To Lose Friends And Alienate People and now I'm channeling the main character! He he!
But seriously; it's also because i wanted an excuse to post a link here too for the big news!
If your one of the many who've asked me if there will be a sequel to Therefore Repent, and aren't already way ahead of me because you regular the NMK blog, then put your eye's on this sweetness!
A: Yes there will be and no i won't be drawing it but don't you worry none, it's in very good hands. :D Go see for yourself, check out the sample pages they posted.
Expozine has evolved into the biggest zine fair in Canada now, it's been amazing to watch; I've attended every year so far.
This year I have lots of books. Not as many copies of Therefore Repent as I'd have liked it looks like, just 10!
Ordered more but unless they show up Friday I think they got held up with thanksgiving in the US.
That kind of sucks because i can probably sell 3 times as many as I have. But what you going to do?
I will have other books though, lots of RevolveR's, a few copies of Comic Boot Tattoo, Sea of Red, old jam zines and some other older books i've done. Also going to bring a long box of old books from my personal collection, stuff i'd like to start divesting myself off. Also, i had some cool new 1" pins I had made up too, hear they come out well, going to pick them up tomorrow!
The books are above, bellow is the art from the pins! See you at the show! Drop by and say hi if you read the blogs. :)
The 9th Rendez-vous international de la BD was lovely, Paul and friends go out of their way to make the guests feel welcomed. Also met some very cool people, made a few new friends. I've posted photos from the trip here.
In Toronto I got some work done , roughs for Work, and started on a new Bread and Butter project that's proving to be off to a fun start. Will talk more about that later but for now you can see the art here>>.
I had a short interview with Dalson Chen of The Windsor Star, that ran the week before BookFest Windsor here. Came out well I think. Made me laugh when he asked about graphic novels, there was a national post article just before on the same theme that made me roll my eyes.
BookFest Windsor was a pleasure for the most part, including the funny social drama around the final night's party, but I'm getting the impression this goes with the small book festival circuit a bit. Booze + Writers and Poets + Travel? :)
I have a few photos and stuff to post from that shortly.
Also spent a great and somewhat inebriated Halloween with my old friend George, roaming about the town checking out costumes and snapping shots. I made a bit of a video of that here.
Revolution on the Planet of the Apes on Hype Space.
This is old, but i just found it. This is Ty Templeton, artist writer and editor extraordinaire, and our boss for Revolution on the Planet of the Apes.
He appeared on Space to hype the books when they came out, and they used a lot of my art from #1 for this. The publisher has been having second thoughts about doing a collection, if your someone who would like to see the Revolution on the Planet of the Apes books collected, like i would, write Mr. Comics and tell them about it for me please?
Been inking, and writing, and doing a lot of walking still.
Up side to the insanity of visiting Toronto is all the exercise, reminds me to keep it going at home. With the always present list of things to do when your freelance, it easy to forget to get off your ass sometimes.
And of course the net always calls to be fed. To bad it doesn't take walks and crap itself. Been contemplating getting a dog friend lately.
Didn't get to the big SDCC this year. Had thought I would but changed my mind. Timing was just not suitable - need to get a lot done this month.
But Damn, it would have been cool to have been there for the official big launch of Comic Book Tattoo, Tori Amos's monster anthology book!
The photo here of a panel is by the K-Squared: They have a nice full report posted about the panel at the con, with Amos, Rantz, and 6 of the contributors. And the Tori Amos signing later. And there is a clip of the panel posted here on Flicker by comiquero.com, dug up by Russell Lissau.
There's also some cool shots up on Rantz flicker stream. And K. Star St.Germain posted the first page from what looks like a stunning story here. And i love this shot Sarah Jaffe took of herself with the book. There's a set here of one of the signings. And bellow is Rantz with some folks who posted this on their feed, proud owners of a limited edition. I believe word is everything that went with them to SDCC is gone, all sold out! There's a lot of buz on this thing.
Quite excited to see this thing, been kind of holding out in an act of perverse denial of reward i suppose. :)
I hope my story printed well. Kind of afraid to see how it looks along side some of the other stuff in the previews! ED: New Stuff. 1st Review of the book.
David Mack Josh Hechinger, Matthew Humphreys, Kristyn Ferretti (L) Jonathan Tsuei, Eric Canete Jason Horn, Dean Trippe Sara Ryan, Jonathan Case Rantz A. Hoseley, James Stokoe Tristan Crane, Atticus Wolrab Kako Nikki Cook Drew Bell, Kevin Mellon, Mark Sweeney (C) Jeff Carroll, Mike May Jeremy Haun, Amber Stone (C) Leif Jones Elizabeth Genco, Carla Speed Mcneil, Mark Sweeney (C) Kelly Sue Deconnick, Andy Macdonald,Nick Filardi(C),Kristyn Ferretti(L) Cat Mihos, Andre Szymanowicz, Gabe Bautista(C), Kristyn Ferretti(L) C.B. Cebulksi, Ethan Young, Joey Weltjens & Lee Duhig For Guru Efx (C) Omaha Perez Irma Page, Mark Buckingham Rantz A. Hoseley, Ming Doyle, Mark Sweeney(C), Kristyn Ferretti (L) Mike Maihack John Ney Reiber, Ryan Kelly, Kristyn Ferretti (L) Alice Hunt, Trudy Cooper Jonathan Hickman Matthew S. Armstrong Neil Kleid, Christopher Mitten, Kristyn Ferretti(L) Stephanie Leong, Sonia Leong Peov Kelly Sue Deconnick, Laurenn Mccubbin John Bivens Hope Larson Emma Vieceli, Faye Yong(C) Chris Arrant, Star St.Germain Mike Dringenberg Paul Maybury Jim Bricker, Craig Taillefer Dame Darcy G. Willow Wilson, Steve Sampson Neal Shaffer, Daniel Krall Adisakdi Tantimedh, Ken Meyer Jr. Mark Sable, Salgood Sam Tom Williams James Owen Seth Peck, Daniel Heard Ivan Brandon, Callum Alexander Watt Leah Moore & John Reppion, Pia Guerra, Mark Sweeney, Kristyn Ferretti Jessica Staley, Shane White Ted Mckeever, Chris Chuckry (C) Jimmie Robinson Lea Hernandez Derek Mcculloch, Colleen Doran, Jason Hanley (L)
Mark and I are working on an interview with each other to be posted soon to go with this.
This was a great short story to work on, I'm very happy with how the collaboration with Mark tuned out, very excited about this one.
Comic Book Tattoo is going to be an amazing showcase book, i haven't read the other stories yet, but i've seen lots of the pages here and there - the book looks amazing!
This is the first of three anthologies I'm going to be in between now and December, what a way to kick things off.
a film about the roerich garden project in montreal
Found this on you tube about a project by a local artist i know. Emily Rose Michaud & company built it in the winter. Miss Janet made this excellent 6 min doc about the day Emily and a team of volunteers set it up together over the course of one very cold day. The Garden lived on, you can keep up with their progress here. It's pretty damn cool.
So if you read here often you'll maybe remember in the spring i postponed work on Dream Life a bit to do something exciting that had come up. Over Due to follow that up. I did a short story with Mark Sable [GROUNDED, FEARLESS, HAZED] that rifted of of Tori Amos's song Upside Down, for her latest project - a huge 12" x 12" 480-page comic anthology titled COMIC BOOK TATTOO.
Here's a picture of the Hardcover Edition taken by our Editor extraordinaire, Rantz Hoseley. Some shots of the inside on the other side of this link. The cover art is by Jason Levesque of stuntkid.com.
Soon I'll be able to show you some of my own work, and Mark and i are sloted to do some interviews soon too. Stay tuned!
Trailer for Therefore Repent! a post-rapture graphic novel
So i heard this song recently - Dogs by Michelle Breslin! - i've been planing to do a trailer for Therefore Repent! for a while and this song just fit so perfectly.
Ok, so another more polished how to video on the craft of comics.
This one came from a question i got on Panel and Pixel from Kevin Mellon & Jason Copland. I'm thinking this is fun stuff, so I'm probably going to start making vodcasts part of the regular CH 0 feed.
Been a slow month; with all the spring cleaning, recovering from con flu, and finding a roommate i've not got a lot done on dream life - grumble - nice chunk of the layouts but wanted to have more of the art done by now too. Any who, starting to get going, here's some stuff from the last few nights whittling.
Taking a few days to ink, then back to Top Secret project.
Blocky thing takes forever to ink, I'm telling you, Boyo.
Having some interesting conversations with a few writers right now, considering illustration a sort of philosophical picture book, been approached about a couple of comic book ideas that if not too big I might end up doing, and maybe even seeing if I cant think of an interesting animation idea - had a studio contact me about the possibility of talking about developing an idea with them, pretty exciting the more I think about it. Pondering what concepts i've been kicking around might make the leap well, or if I have any new notions that might be worth pitching....hmmm.
Also making small steps towards writing a new Sea of Red project, that i've pretty much decided I'd like to do sooner than I can draw it, so looking into other artists for that maybe.
Been making plans
to tour for Therefore Repent!
It's looking very good for me going to the NYCC, and Paradise, and by hock or crook my first visit to the San Diego Comic Con. Also Windsor/Detroit as well in the next 6 months! Maybe more yet, haven't got a confirmation but might be giving a presentation here in Montreal at the end of the month as well in NDG, hosted by geekmontreal.com
Jim's going to hit the road as well a little bit, stay tuned and i'll have dates and places for all that.
Well, i had wanted to be further along with the book than this by now, but a cool 7 page story came across my desk that i could not pass up - it will be in a very very big, high profile book this summer, just had to do it. But just the same, progress on Dream Life, while slowed a bit the last two weeks, has been very gratifying.
This character and the giant woman who appeared in Charlie's dream just before were inspired by some reading about Pablo Picasso i did a while back, and some of the interpretations of his use of the Minotaur and the Maiden motif in his work.
When John and i first worked on this story together years ago [at the time called 'Nuts'] he came up with the idea of a 'blocky thing' that would torment Charlie at different points though the story, play tricks on him and challenge his assumptions. At the time it was a great but unspecific creature, with no described form. I loved the idea of it, but it was always a shady non specific idea at the time for me.
Later when i dusted off those old bits of story we had worked on together and started re-working it into Dream Life, the blocky thing - while a very cool abstract literary idea, was really hard to give form to as a character for the comic.
I tried a lot of different approaches but none of them ever resonated for me that strongly.
It wasn't till reading about Picasso's minotaurs that I worked it out. I forget who it was who wrote the notes that cinched it for me, but their descriptions of what it stood for was exactly dead on for my interpretation of the Blocky Thing.
Was out for lots of walking today, brunch at a diner then off to exchange the scanner.
After that spent a few hours working on a short story gig that's popped up. It's top secret but very cool! Made a lot of progress visualizing the story and imagining the characters. Going to be a pretty one i think, like what i came up with.
Scanned a few inked pages later when i got the replacement scanner hooked up, posted those are on Flickr.
The hits have slowed a bit, but I'm happy to welcome a bunch of new regular readers to my new Solo project, Dream Life. about 700 of you have visited this site in the last few days, 3800 of you at flickr, and i have a lot of new friends on live journal and flickr.
Thanks to you all! The feed backs has been really positive, very encouraging.
I've had a fallow blog on Live Journal for a few years, but i never found a good use for it, other than cross posting from my home page here.
That's not so great so really i just didn't use it. But as i considered how to distribute my new book online, i thought about how groups i've been admiring such as Act-i-vate and Transmission X have been doing things and hit on making use of the old LJ blog.
Also, if all went as planed, then the IDW edition of Therefore Repent! hit the stands today! Officially yesterday, but most places get new books Wednesdays. But in any case, go check it out! and if they don't have the coolest book of the new year in yet, ask them why the hell not!
Some art without the wash work, I'm feeling like a really good stride if being hit right now with this. Nothing against the last project at all, but it's so nice to be doing something i wrote myself right now. Primarily because of things like this: this was NOT in the script for these two pages, was just going to have a big panorama of the landscape. But the idea hit and i ran with it. No one to check with, i could strike while the irons were hot and it came out lovely, and will add a nice bit of layering to the story with this figure showing up in Charlie's dream here.
He's presenting our post-Rapture graphic novel THEREFORE REPENT! along side new issues of Fred Grisholm's HATESONG, Brian Fukushima's JOBGOBLIN. And Jason Turner & Manien Bothma's True Loves 2!
Then it's back to old Hog town for Word on the streetSunday Sept 30th to present Therefore Repent! He'll be signing books at his table in Fringe Beat as well as giving a presentation called Be Your Own Boss In The World Of Publishing.
And you can also catch him participating in a panel with Willow Dawson and Ray Fawkes called "I Have A Great Idea For A Story, But I Need An Artist!"
And not only is it free to read, it's also free to use: we're licencing the jpg versions of these as remixable under this Creative Commons licence.
So, if you've ever wondered what'd it'd be like to be the writer of a comic book and work with as talented an artist as Salgood Sam, now you can.
Download them from this site, and open the pages up in Photoshop or Gimp to replace my words with more interesting ones.
Colour the pictures.
Use the images as graphics for your non-commercial projects. Send the results to us and we'll put 'em up on the site: even better, we'll send the three most inspiring remixes a free book.
So are you Game? I'd love to see what you can come up with...
I have two more Zines to share with you, this time in CBR format so you'll need to grab the popular CDisplay reader here for those.
First is the second issue of Nisrigion. A lit zine I illustrated, designed and published. It Features both the alternate covers for the issue, and the conclusion to J.F.Sugerman's futurists gonzo dystopian play Drowning. You can catch the first part in Nisrigion one, posted here in PDF form a year ago.
And the other is a sketchbook journal titled CscdcC, I'll leave the slightly embarrassing long form for you to read yourself. I've excised some unworthy early attempts to write from this, but most of it's there still.
Wanted an excuse to work with a few new tools, some stuff I'll probably apply to my own site soon, to help tidy it up some.
+Told Bernie a while ago I'd help fix up his old site, and move it to a better host.
Sooo....
The new url is bem.spiltink.org, and while it's still got some stuff to tighten I'm officially launching it today. Drop buy and bug the guy to post some new stuff! :)
Story/Script - Rick Remender Story/Breakdowns. - Kieron Dwyer Art/Color work Book 1 -4 By Salgood Sam Art/Color work Book 5 -13 By Paul Harmon Colors for covers by Tony Moore
"Sea of Red tells the tale of a young sailor turned undead by the crew of a cursed Pirate ship, his century-spanning search for revenge and the tricks that time plays on the mind."
In 2003 I was approached to do two post Apocalypse books [1][2], and i ended up doing one of them. The Writer of the other later came to me about another project after i initially passed on the first project due to timing issues.
When Rick called and told me about Sea of Red it seemed like a great idea and i jumped on enthusiastically. The research for the book was really entertaining. The Black Galleon was based on the amusingly tragic Vasa (or Wasa). Rob Zombie was the blatant choice for Blackthroat - Rob i was told was a friend of Rick's so that was both for laughs but also good casting i say. He's my favorite of the cast.
I had a good time doing the first issue but working on the project ended up being circumstantially a bad scene. See i was also living with my ex, former partner of the 5 years before? Won't get into it but just to say doing violent bloody vampire books is actually a sort of disturbing place to be when your having that kind of situation for more than a few months.
So it pained me to bail but in the end i only did the first 4 books in the series. I like a lot of things about what we did in the book but lost the thread of the story myself and chose to bow out after book 4. The rest of the series was completed admirably by Paul Harmon.
Here's my art for book one.
Before the RED Sea of Red is drawn with ink, brushes, markers, water [for wash], white paint and white out. The rest - gradient fills and red tinting - is done in Photoshop. Bellow is the what the last non digital stage of the art looks like.
Good Words.
"SEA OF RED is a striking piece of entertainment and should find a happy niche in the marketplace. If you like horror, vampires, pirates, or combinations thereof, pick it up and you'll be happy. Grade: A- ": Marc Mason @ moviepoopshoot.com
"While the story of Sea of Red and its characters are quite engaging, however, it was the art that just knocked my socks off -- Intensely detailed characters and backdrops give way at key moments to more expressive, violent and shocking storytelling during the fight sequence, and the whole thing has a look and feel that is just beautiful. Sea of Red is not just a really good pirate comic or a really good vampire comic, or even a really good fusion of two genres. It's just an example of excellent comics storytelling -- 10/10": Randy Lander @ thefourthrail.com
"Sam's art and colors are unlike anything I've seen in the comic medium. -- On the very first page of the book Sam grabs my attention with a great panel featuring a close up on an eye and a fish reflected clearly in the eye -- Sam handles the viscera of battle with the skills of a true professional, not pulling any punches when it comes to the details he puts down on paper. As good as Sam's art is, and it's fantastic, the story is even better... Put down the superhero comic and buy this one instead. You won't be sorry. I guarantee it." : Alex Miller @ SIMPLY REVIEWED
"...a great comic and one of my favorites of the week. Easily a 5 star comic for me. Fantastic art and a story that flows very well from panel to panel. I can see so many story opportunities coming out of this first issue, that it makes me very eager for subsequent issues to come out.": Mark Pressley @ thecomicfanatic.com
Published by Mr Comics Great Script by Ty Templeton & Joe O'Brien. Coloring by Bernie Mireault [1-4] & Art Lyon [5-6] The book was drawn by myself, Tom Fowler, Sam Agro, Gabriel Morrissette, Attila Adorjany, & Denis Rodier. Did i get everyone?
Drawn in 2005, nostalgic fun. Not my best stuff I'm afraid but i like this project quite a bit. You can buy the individual issues from this site, it's a good read! :)
I'm not shitting you, the writers got nominated a few times and everything! I'll dig up the links and add them latter. Until then, here's my art from it sans text. Enjoy.
#1:Script For the last twenty four hours, there have been rumours and unofficial reports that San Diego is in flames, that the governor of California is dead, and that the cause of all this chaos is a talking ape named Caesar. But when the President of the United States announces that the whole thing is a hoax, no one knows what to believe.
#2: Script As the embattled American President struggles to stop Caesar's simian revolution from spreading across the country, pentagon reporter Nora Rhodes decides to go to San Diego to discover the truth behind this ape uprising and why apes everywhere are getting smarter!
Hey you monkeys! Spread the word, Caesar is on the move!
All the Rage, Sunday, September 25 : The Mr. Mister [Ty talks to Blair Marnell about plans for Mr Comics' line up in 2006, and his plans for world Ape conquest]
PULSE does POTA, September 29 : TEMPLETON CREATING ON THE PLANET OF THE APES [Longish interview by Jennifer "Damn, Dirty Apes!" Contino, with the hardest working cartoonist in a bunny suit - funny humans - Ty the guy Templton!]
September 30 :Diamond [ed:shows solidarity!] and recommends Revolution on the Planet of the Apes #1
Revolution on the Planet of the Apes #1 Recommended by Jim Kuhoric
I am really excited about the launch of MR Comics' new series, Revolution on the Planet of the Apes. Everything I have seen so far - from their brilliant cover images to dazzling interior art - has screamed "this is the real deal!" No super-fancy special effects trying to cover up bad actors pretending to be angst-ridden anti-heroes. No, this is old school, in-your-face "Chuck Heston-approved" Planet of the Apes action! I can hear the haunting soundtrack from the original film in my head looking at these nostalgic images. The story begins in the city of San Diego in the near future, ablaze with the flames of ape rebellion. Caesar is back, and leading the way for the human-run planet to transform into a warlike simian culture. All of the original movie characters are back in two new stories per issue, including Cornelius, Dr. Zaius, Zira, and Taylor. Classic sci-fi fans, join me in breaking out those Apes DVDs and do your best Taylor impression with me - "get your stinking paws off me you damned dirty apes!" But be sure you get your "stinking paws" on this debut issue!
All the Rage, Sunday, October 2 : Stop The Planet of The Apes, I Want To Get Off! [Blair spotlights art for Revolutions posted on Salgood Sam's Blog and gives a big 9 out of ten bananas!]
Comic World News, October 20 : The SEA OF RED and REVOLUTION ON THE PLANET OF THE APES Penciler talks to Michael May [Some more pretty pictures, Salgood says nice stuff about other people & talk about how clever he is, silly human]
At the time that i did this, it was probably the biggest book I've ever been involved with numbers wise. The first issue, where most of the art on this page comes from, had a print run of 200,000 copies!
It was also the largest inking job I'd ever done at 80+ pages. Normally i just draw my own comics, but at the time i needed work and saw a post on the old Engine, and responded.
Did a test and i was in. And though there we a few hiccups in the schedule, when the pace was steady I found that it wasn't hard to do 2 pages a day minimum, & often I was doing 3 to 4. Bit monotonous compared to drawing your own book, Inking. But it was also very educational working with Goran's very refined story telling and construction. Proved a good exercise for my own work when i next drew the Rise and Fall of it all.
The gray is a shadow guide for the colourist
Method: -I'd ink the panels broken up and printed onto 8x10 inch squares of card stock. -I'm not inking the original pencils this way which has the benefit of making it a lot less of a problem when mistakes and accidents happen. -Then I scan the panels in and use the scan of the pencils as a guide to lay them back out in the proper order.
The first 6 pages shown here were done with a larger brush, my own personal preference in general. The rest show work done with Drawing pens and a fine brush [oo] as requested by Goran who wanted a more drafted line. The change over occurred in stages between the 15th & 26th pages on book 1.
Proses: Working out the kinks. The structural aspects of drawing design and layout fascinate me. I have always been easily obsessed by natural patters, man made ones, and the relationships between things and people. Places and spaces. Story telling through immersive spaces
2006 Sea of Red Thumbnails #10
#9
2005 Revolution on the Planet of the Apes
2002 MUTIES : Changeling
layouts/pencils
Script by Karl Bollers Art: Max Douglas Original dimensions : 8" tall by 11" wide
1995 Ghost Rider: Daddy Dearest
thumbs/breakdowns Script: Scott Andrews Art: Max Douglas Original dimensions : 6" tall by 4" wide Finished art can be seen here
Me talking about how space and movement come into my approach to storytelling.
Yes, i spend to much time thinking about this stuff. I know.
Here's a slide show of rough work i post on flicker
At least in the weekly movie serials of Hollywood's Golden Age.
But as America turns away from the threat of the Axis and declares a Cold War on Communism Brenda soon finds both herself and the character she plays being used by politicians to further their own careers while destroying the lives of innocent people.
Among theme Brenda's screenwriter boyfriend, whose career has effectively been ended by the policy Brenda and Wonder Woman have helped to promote.
Can even the so-called Wonder Woman save the man she loves?"
Done entirely with a Brush, the art on this book represents an intentional stylistic echo on my part of 40's comics and the drawing traditions of H.G. Peter's original comic.
Bernie Mireault & I worked closely to choose a color palate for this book that captured the look of early comics, & the first Technicolor films that Brenda Kelly would have been dreaming of being the star of.
In 1995 Joey Cavalieri at Marvel Comics commissioned me and Scott Andrews to do a file issue of Ghost Rider 2099. The complete 22 page story titled 'Daddy Dearest' is available online here at Scott's web site. The thumbnail to the left here is the cover art from that issue. That book came out pretty good, and we were pretty hyped about it getting printed some time that year.
About 6 months latter Joey hired me to do the art chores on another File story for GR2099, great news to me as I really enjoyed drawing the big guy! This issue, titled 'Horrorshow', was scripted by another, not nearly as well know then as now, UK writer. Mr Warren Ellis. What follows on this page is the first 12 pages of that story.
Sadly, both these 2 books remain unpublished, the title having been canceled shortly after the second story was completed and before either of the file stories were needed.
Ironically these two stories, Horrorshow in particular, represent some of the best, tightest work I did at the time in the graphic Sci-Fi style i had been trying to refine at the time.
The pages seen here are still some of my all time personal favorites for the line quality and general consistency of style that was achieved.
Armageddon Blues was the story of two punk girls, Liz and Al.
ARMAGEDDON BLUES
Max Douglas 1990
When I was around 19 I started working on a few book ideas that were directly influenced by Los Bros Hernandez Love and Rockets. This was one of those.
It was also inspired by a number of books I'd read, in terms of tone and pace. In particular I was thinking a lot about Lewis Shiner's Slam [a book I have always thought would be great fun to adapt to comics form].
Armageddon Blues was the story of two punk girls, Liz and Al, who were templated on an assortment of, nice young ladies I knew hanging out in the bars of Kensington in the late 80's in Toronto.
Liz is the one with the big hair and war paint. A bike courier she was meant to be the more emotionally secure, angry 'genXer' of the two. A nice smart girl from a good home [Ha! Says Liz] who was pissed to find not all was fair and light in the real world. For her, aside from her relationship with Al, the plot of the story was to be essentially about her political awakening.
Al is a few years younger, 17 maybe. She's a bit more twisted inside, confused about her sexuality, and with some serious scars from her abusive past. Not at ease with boys or girls, she's infatuated with Liz. She's a whirling dervish, a bomb going off a few times a day.
There was more to all this but after 15 pages I stopped working on this book feeling totally uncertain about my abilities to competently write the story.
Maybe one day I'll find my way back to Liz and Al and tell their story.
"IRELAND - A place of great beauty too frequently shattered by violence. Boys often must become a men before their time. Those close to young Liam Connaughton -- those that should be protecting him -- make unfair, cruel demands on him. Ultimately a truer test of a boys manhood is not his loyalty to duty, it's his loyalty to family and those he loves, but doing the right thing can exact a heavy price."
Published by Marvel Comics inc
Script by Karl Bollers
Art by Salgood Sam
Colours by Bernie Mireault
Letters by a.j.duric
B&W art: Pencil and ink with some limited photoshop manipulation
"...the type of book that will have you flipping through it again and again."
"...sure to be one of this years highly regarded Original Graphic Novels." Victor Schwartzman @ the Guild of Outsider Writers "Unfortunately, I opened the book and looked at the first page....this is the damn problem with this damn book - you're screwed if you read the first page.... ....then have to read the second. And the third..."
"This is a novel about the magic within all of us, about what stops us from realizing we have that magic, and how we can find that magic again and use it."
In the tradition of The Book of Revelations, Therefore Repent! is a dark fantasy tale, but Jim also says he's always been a fan of the kookier parts of the bible ;). Expect healthy doses of magic realism, some demons, taking animals, angels, mummies and ravens made of ash. You can real a preview of the book here on ComicSpace. And all the news posted on the blog about this book is here for your easy reading pleasure!
Saint Sinner Copyright Clive Barker & Marvel Comics inc
Writer: Elaine Lee Art by: Max Douglas Editor: Marc McLaurin
In 93' after working on two issues of Night Breed for Epic [1][2], I was hired on as the artists for a new title, part of the Marvel Razorline [home of the Barkerverse] called Saint Sinner. The Razorline was a set of 4 titles conceived by horror author and film maker Clive Barker, to be marketed I was told in competition with, the then Brand new, Vertigo comics from DC,which had proved there was readership big enough for a line in horror and fantasy books.
For me this project was no small thing at all, at 22 it was the first time someone had asked me to do a monthly title. I had no idea if I was up to the monthly schedule yet, a concern I expressed to Marc a few times.
Suffice to say, it was not the best first try at a monthly book. Bla bla bla. Here's the art. Sorry, this stuff was scanned in around 98 for the web then, so the quality is not so....
An old colour rough for a poster idea, done on my LCII in photoshop.
(f)So, what you think, this look better with the green 'im gona get ya hands? Big improvement eh? Here's a colour rough without the changes for comparison.
Been taking it easy but for me that still means making art most of the time. Made first dent in the rock that is the next project, feeling pretty good about that. So, This is PG 1 of my next book.
This is full bleed art, the book will be 8.5"x10", i think B&W. It was done with Pebeo encre de chine ink, Pelikan White Gouache, and a cheep #2 brush. Kind of sick of pens for a bit right now - what i used mostly to draw the last 154 pages of art. This is slow, but it's were im at right now so...
I was inspired for the this sequence in the book by two sets of photos, one recent pictures taken of the sun, the other of deep sea life around volcanic vents. The set will run for 4 pages contrasting the two settings then move into a dream sequence.
Had fun with a small gig this past week working as a portrait artist at the Jazz fest - free drawings of people attending the shows [the festival paid me for the work] mostly I forgot to take my camera with me, but this one day I was besieged by a gang of kids who monopolized me for the whole 3 hours I was there :)
Enjoyed this, think i'll have to find some way to make it a semi regular summer gig type thing. The 3 or so hours of drawing strangers really helped open me up for work when I go home so I was actually more productive the days I worked the festival than the others.
I have some original pieces of art going up for exhibit and sale this weekend in Oakland @ mamabuzz cafe for the Everything Kitchen Sink show there -- it's a formal send off for the defunct art and culture magazine I contributed to over the last 4 years. Here's the info and links about the show and jpgs of the art.
Everything Kitchen Sink: Opening Reception Friday, July 6th, 6 to 9pm Join us as we say our goodbyes to Kitchen Sink magazine, while honouring the work of the illustrators that have made it beautiful for the last five years.
We will "bring the magazine to life", one last time by painting imagery from the magazines on the walls, providing customers with four fives years worth of reading material, and giving you a glimpse into the mayhem, thought, and inspiration that created Kitchen Sink.
Featuring work by Nancy Bach, Craig Baxter, Tim Brown, Molly Crabapple, Chris Lane, Laurenn McCubbin, Nicole Neditch, Marie Rich, Salgood Sam, Emma Spertus and David Wilson. In conjunction with Art Murmur.
This was done for Festival, the FCBD giveaway profiling creators participating in TACF this August. The books been out for a bit so i figured it was ok to post it now.
Hey all, hows the spring treating ye-all? Pretty summer like here, steamy!
Just taking a sec to show off a cool action sequence from the last chapter I'm pleased with!
Still got a lot to do but the bulk of it is behind me, a good feeling. Hope to have some proper PR type copy stuff and word on publishing deals and the like, but for now If your keen to you can read the first 40+ pages of the book here on ComicSpace
If you like what you see there Jim and I would love it if you shared the link with a few friends or blog about it.
Hey all, been quite here for a while, i've been busy with the book, had a bit of a crisis with the script but it's all been fixed now.
Can finally say as well; the book will be exactly 150 pages of awesome coolness!
I am very pleased with almost everything about this project, except for that I'm having to go into double time to get the last 40 pages done in time, looking ok, feelin' good. But it's going to be a running pass off for editing and getting this thing off in time for a Launch.
Which by the way, will be a part of the festivities at TCAF in Toronto this August.
We had a strip in Festival, TCAF's Free Comic Book Day Offering this year, and i've been getting a big wave of hits here as of Saturday, so that's pretty cool.
That reminds me, I'm looking for one or two more volunteers for help in editing this book for errors and lettering readability, and also compiling an email list for sending out early preview links for reviewers, building up some buzz hopefully for August.
In either case you'll get to read the book via a privet site before anyone else sees it. If you're interested drop me a line as well.
Been following the story? Read the latest instalments, page 25 to 32, starting here on Comic Space here. To go to the start go here.
Also, got some cool news this week - the segment of the book published on comicspace so far represents the contents of RevovleR2, a small run I did of my personal anthology for Expozine 07. So it turns out RevolveR2 has been nominated for the Expozine Alternative Press Award for best comic this year! Cool beans. I'll be a the big galla this wen, see you there if your in town maybe?
I was already seen as a brushy heavy blacks artist by my peers and superiors even know i only used markers and pens, so it was assumed I was already qualified when they asked me to join the crew, and the fact that the senior designer had asked for me made it all the more attractive despite the fact that i had not ever yet used a brush with any regularity.
Who you know is everything in the arts world and I had spent some of my brakes chatting with this interesting character who sat in a cubical a row over from mine hid away in the back. Goran was a former Yugoslavian soldier who had spent some time in jail for refusing to fight in the post perestroika ethnic civil wars in his region.
He liked to play that dark past up a bit but he wasn't creepy about it, entertaining company and an amazing, fast and talented artist & draftsmen. He had down pat a kind of heavy brushwork that I have always admired.
He was the main designer for Sam and Max, and my job as an inker was to ape his style as closely as I could for the BG inking, so I spent some time watching him work and them just had to go do it.
Fortunately I took to it pretty fast and would have had a great time if not for some crazy office politics on the gig.
It did make a big difference in the feel of my art from then on, I can still see where Goran's example is still directing me to this day in some reaspects, amongst others.
So doing an assessment of my progress on Therefore Repent! last night I worked out that I'm passed the half way point and well on the way to conquering this monster of a task I set out for myself!
Was worried for a few weeks there; feeling like the monster might have been getting the better of me a bit, but no longer.
Feels good.
Also, cant talk about it much yet but I'm happy to hint that a great publisher I've worked with not too long ago is looking good for the US and Direct market edition of the Novel. This means there will be two editions of the book, one from NMK for the Canadian book shop market, particularly the Indy lit scene. And another for our aspirations of wide spread obscurity via the Comics direct market and US book store markets ;)
Also a footnote for future note - Dream life is basically ready to go. soon as I wrap up Repent, I'll be starting to draw that. And it seems likely that you'll be able to read that in about a year or less in a newly re-launched RevolveR - also no details yet but it seems we have ourselves an interested publisher for my personal anthology project too now!
In the mould of Myspace it's a community specific site for comic creators, publishers, retail and readers.
It includes a section for publishing your stories online and mini add banners.
I set up a page there and plan on publishing some old material and portions of my current work for your reading pleasure gratis. I'll be having books published this summer and fall, so I’m planning to use the site to promote that work.
It's pretty cool, free, and includes a time release posting system, allowing you to upload large segments of a story, and leak them out say, daily or weekly? Very easy to use and it's proving to be a very positive community too. Along with bulletin posting to 'friends' and optional public notice board pages; & Gallery Posting threads to let readers follow your stories; there is also a biding system for mini banner add space throughout the site provided by projectwonderful.com as well.
I've found Myspace very useful, but as a visual artist you tend to get a bit lost in with all the bands. The site directly caters to the scenes needs online, and I'm also finding a lot of people are finding me on Comic Space & then following links through to do so on the other as well, consolidating some of the disparate networks of artists on Myspace.
Very effective organic networking. Can't say yet how much it will help but I'm sure it will.
No, I wasn't paid, but I think the site is a great idea being made real by Josh Roberts & co.
SALGOOD
SAM's WORK DIARY | an account of endeavors
and random musings | the web-log of Max Douglas, a
professional cartoonist working and living in Montreal Qc Canada
max at salgoodsam dot com atom feed
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Animation Work done between 1995 and '00
ARMAGEDDON BLUES
(f)
