News

It’s been a long, gold, dark, damp, sulky, depressive winter. Last autumn I had all these fantasies of spending a nice quiet winter holed up in my studio, making all kinds of art. December was pretty much a wash, what with trying to visit two families and friends and relatives over the holidays. January and February were pretty okay, production-wise, but it was a fight every night to get myself to the drafting table. One more chapter of this book, I’d say. Just another fifteen minutes of teevee. Anything to avoid the work.
The story was constipated, unfinished. I hadn’t heard back from one of my critical advisors. The art was unsatisfying, as I’d come to a long boring sequence of talking heads that needed to be made interesting. The weather was gloomy and dreadful; cold and snotty and rainy. It was pretty hard to get motivated. And then I got sick.
With the advent of spring, things have been looking up. As the sun has returned, so has my energy and enthusiasm. I had a very productive weekend: finished painting two difficult pages, did a ton of visual research, thumbnailed three pages and got two pages three-quarters pencilled, including a difficult scene I’d been putting off drawing for ages. It felt good to find a groove again, and I needed a quiet weekend in to just get stuff done. Still a lot lot lot of work to be done. Carla used to say: It’s like eating a whale. Just keep chewing.
Munch.

Scott McCloud is awesome. Well, you knew that, already. But, yikes, is he awesome.
Paul and I hauled out to Ypsi on Monday to hear him talk at EMU, my alma mater. See, the thing about Eastern is that they somehow manage to land some of the most devoted, caring, intelligent professors you could ever hope to meet. Enter Richard Rubenfeld.
I had Richard for a Modern Art History class, twelve years ago (good God, I feels old!). He’s quite possibly the only person who could have convinced me at that point that modern art was worth a damn. I’m still too much of a linear thinker to truly appreciate abstract art, but Richard instilled in me a genuine understanding of what modern art meant, something I never had before. I am still very thankful that he helped pry open my relatively closed mind. He’s the kind of professor that everyone remembers positively, long after they leave college.
In the years since I’ve graduated, Richard’s gone far, far out of his way to encourage me, and has contributed several very kind statements about my work to the press. He’s also managed to pull together some of the most awesome art shows ever held at EMU. The first comic show, he got Art Speigelman to come, the most recent one he got Marie Severin, Len Wein, Al Feldstein and Dave Coverly, and now he managed to land Scott McCloud for seven weeks to teach classes at EMU and lecture. Oh, how I wish I could take those classes — the chance to learn with one of comicdom’s true visionaries.
Scott’s lecture was hilarious; I’d never heard him speak before, and boy, what a treat. He put my lousy powerpoint presentation to shame with a fast-paced, quick-witted slideshow that ran concurrently with his talk, emphasizing rather than re-stating what he was saying. Afterwards we rounded up all the Detroit area artists who came and headed over to Abe’s Coney Island for some eats. We made jam comics and ate gyros until all of us west-staters had to trek home. What a great time! Thanks, Richard, for making truly awesome things happen at Eastern. Thanks, Scott, for being one of those truly awesome things.

I can’t seem to find it on their website, but it appears that there’s going to be a rather nice, lengthy article on me, Colleen Doran, Layla Lawlor and Laurenn McCubbin in the Ypsilanti Courier. Lemme know if it comes out! I’m on the other side of the state and can’t get a paper copy easily.

Hey, everyone. By now I’m sure anyone reading this page is wondering where the heck the next book is. Well, I know I said it might have been done sometime in 2006, but it’s looking like there’s no way that’s going to happen short of a miracle or a lost job (*knocks wood furiously*). By the end of next week I should have 70 pages completed in what I hope will be a 180-200 page book. Yes, I know I’m barely halfway (tell your old man to try dragging Walton and Denier up and down the court for 48 minutes!) but that’s what you get when you’re working 40 hours a week and producing fully painted pages.
Actually, recently I’ve been making rather dramatic headway, relatively speaking. In the last four weeks I’ve put down about eight pages. That’s quite a lot for me, and I’m pleased with the direction the book’s going. Lots of progress, scriptwise and imagewise, and the new pages are some of the best I’ve ever done. Slow going, but good going.
Eventually, I’m going to write a long-overdue series of columns for Jen Contino over on The Pulse. When that happens, she’ll get exclusive images of the pages for a week or two, and then I’ll start running the pages here as a minicomic.
Until then, keep needling me. The only way I keep at it is knowing that people want to see it.

Venerable comics genius Scott McCloud is going to be speaking at EMU on March 20th. All of you guys should totally go.

Beatrix over at When Fangirls Attack has some very interesting commentary today. Hearing stuff like this from her and Lea and Colleen makes me intensely glad that all my comics experiences have been positive, and even gladder that the group of Cornwhackers I hang out with at most cons is so well-adjusted. Yikes.

So there’s this minor problem with the freeware I’m using to do my left navigation. It’s the last thing to load, so if there’s a bunch of images all together, you’re basically stuck reading that page until all the pictures come up. The front page had a bunch of cool images, but it took for-bloody-ever for the nav to load.
As such, I’ve moved those blog entries to the News Section (Yay, Movable Type!) and you can find them in the News Archives, to your right. The front page/Webcomic blog will now be reserved for just that — webcomics only. I hope to have some new webcomics updates soon… eventually…
I fixed a bunch of other, older, nagging issues — like the nav not working in the webcomics archives, and updating some ancient programming issues over in the Fiery Studios section. I still can’t get the bloody nav to work in the News Archives, but compared to the issues I used to have, it’s relatively minor.
The new book is chugging along; I’ve got quite a bit of work done these last couple days I’ve had off. I’ve been flat-out avoiding the computer in an effort to get actual pencilling and inking done — I did most of the work at the Rocket Star Cafe here in town. (Side note: Everyone should go to the Rocket Star. Right now. Dan and Bill’s coffee shop rocks so hard it’s not even funny.) I’m hoping to get stuff moving along at a faster pace now that the holidays are over. Wisheth me luck!

Many people ask me what I use for reference when I draw Vögelein. Truth is, most of V’s poses in this new book are actually performed by her stunt double: Spiderman.
A friend of mine just located the same model Spidey as the one I own; I like it very much. It’s super-articulated, six inches tall, and easily fits in your pocket or bookbag. I actually spraypainted mine white to avoid being confused by the blue-and-red of his costume; if I were feeling more adventurous, I’d take a file to him and sand down the webs to make him even more anonymous.
Still, he’s very useful. Sometimes, I’ll pose him, snap a picture from a weird angle, then work from the picture.
Love my Spidey, and now you can have one, too.

Not much time to write, but I wanted to let readers know that fellow EMU grad David Peterson has his very own comic out! It’s called Mouse Guard, and is published by Archaia Press, which is the publishing house of Mark Smylie, the ubertalented creator of Artesia. It’s in full-color, too! The art was great when it was black and white, but it’s even purtier in color, and it’s easier to tell the heroes apart.
Mouse Guard even got highlighted as a Staff Pick in this month’s PREVIEWS. Good taste, Filip!
Readers of the Vögelein graphic novel may remember David as the artist who had the wonderful pinup of a smiling Vögelein holding the arm of a grumpy Duskie, surrounded by a swirling field of stars.
David’s heap-big talented, and everyone should order Mouse Guard. Now. I have a page of his art from the first issue framed and hanging in our entranceway.
Yay, Local Artists! Woo!

It’s no secret that I lurve Alphonse Mucha’s work, so when a longtime patron, the ever-kind David Morris, commissioned a Mucha-style Vögelein painting for me, I literally jumped at the chance. Ooo! I actually get paid to do a painting I’ve wanted to do for years! And get to sell prints!
I haven’t got the painting done, but since poor David’s been waiting since May for me to get my sorry carcass moving on the design, I figure he — and by proxy, the rest of you guys — deserve a sneak peek at the inks. Here ya go:

Purty, non? I can’t wait to get it painted. See, David? I really actually did it!