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So, today, I took it back to an actual ‘sketch’. I did this on the bus trip to work this morning. I’m not sure why, or if it means anything, really. Just Ben Grimm in his boxers with some coffee (or cocoa, if you prefer) and a newspaper. I liked the idea of Ben wearing x-men themed underwear. I don’t really know why.

So, things are still happening at a crazy pace here around the press. Not only are we still ratcheting up for our first San Diego Comicon as exhibitors, it just occured to me that my birthday is NEXT WEEK. Crazy. So, expect something big here about that. I think someone is gonna be happy about that.

Anyway, not much else to report right now. See ya next time!

Hola peeps!

Welcome back. Not much new to share since last time. MY work was featured on an awesome tumblr blog called “Distracted By Star Wars” today which is AWESOME. (Seriously – go check it out. I’ll wait. Are you back? Good.)

Today’s ‘Sketch’ is another brainworm poster that came out right after I finished my SW recruitment posters. This one is inspired by that other “Star” series, Star Trek. I grew up on ST re-runs as a kid and when ST:TNG started, we watched it every week. (I still maintain that my dad was a closet nerd) So, it didn’t surprise me much when this image kind of issued forth from my gray matter. I wanted this to be in the recruitment vein, but felt that the overt “Military” vibe of the 2 SW images didn’t jibe with the mission of Star Fleet, which I always saw as more of a humanitarian/scientific service (like the peace corp or WPA). So, I went with a more WP-influenced style for it. This one is also available as a poster in the store and at etsy.

Hola!

Well, after a trip that I’m calling a ‘comedy of errors and fail’ (including a 26-hour layover in Denver b/c of snow the first day of the trip), I lived through the harrowing ordeal of my visit to the midwest for Planet comicon and family visits, and have returned to the sanity of the Pacific Northwest. I apologize for the absence of the sketch blogs recently. ECCC and trip planning took up all of my time before I left. But I’m back.

So, not much to say about Planet Comicon. The fans were great and I got to meet and hang out with some cool local people. Also, Clayton Crain‘s table was next to ours. He was super cool, and he bought a hat from Ashlie (we couldn’t get a pic of him wearing it, tho… LOL). I don’t know if it’ll go on our list of ‘must-do shows’ tho. Oh well.

So, the sketch! Well, today’s sketch is something that has been playing around in my brain for the past year or so and I sketched up this morning on my bus ride to work: SPIDER-KID! Everyone remembers as a kid tying towels and pillowcases around your neck and jumping off couches and boxes pretending to be superman. Well, this is kinda my version of that memory. I’ve always been a Spidey fan. I used to throw yarn around pretending it was webbing, too. It was awesome. I may do some more ‘kid super heroes’ in the future. Who would you like to see as a kid? Who did YOU dress up as when you were young?

In unrelated news, I was interviewed (along with good friends Daniel and Rebecca) by the fine folks at the Seattle Geekly podcast at Emerald City. You should go check that out, for sure. I’ll be putting that in the press page for future reference, as well.

Monday I posted a He-Man pic. In the blog I went on and on about how he-man should look more bad-ass. Well, that got me to thinking: What bout Skeletor? Skeletor in the cartoons/comics/toys always looked like a hulked out smurf to me. He basically wore the same thing as HM, but he was blue and had a skull face (mask?). Buh. I’ve always hated his design and never understood why anyone would be afraid of this guy.

So today, I took it upon myself to do a quick sketch of what I think Skeletor should look like. Gone is the “Barbarian Smurf” motif of yesteryear. To me, Skeletor should be scary. He should be the thing that Eternian Parents use to scare their kids at night. The dude’s supposed to be a sorceror, let’s play that up. The tattered robes, the staff, the chain made from animal bones, the snake skull cloak pin all say “mystical scary dude” to me. I also think that the dude should be thin. Like skeleton thin. I think that in the western world especially, it’s scary when you look at someone and can see their bones through their skin. Like it reminds us of our own mortality. That should be Skeletor all over. His name is Skulletor, after all.

Agree? Disagree? Do it in the comments!

On a related note – If you’re an artist that like to draw with pen, you owe it to yoursef to check out the Pentel Stylo Sketch pen. I drew this with one of these and it was awesome. Variable line widths, easy to control and it flows smooth like buttah. Do it, you’ll thank me later.

I had this done on Friday, Honest. I just forgot to post it up. Sorry!

This is my version of He-Man. I always thought that He-Man looked a little too much like a wuss. Maybe that’s why Skeletor was always giving him trouble? If He-Man had looked like a proper badass, maybe Skeletor would have behaved himself.

In an unrelated turn of events, the Seattle Geekly  Podcast did a feature on our line of Valentine’s Greeting Cards! Click the link to check them out!

What’s new? Just finished with my cards for Rittenhouse Archives’ Wolverine: Origins card set. Whew! The most cards I’ve ever done on one set and ALL IN COLOR! Crazy! Now, I get to start on my base cards for the upcoming Legends and Lore card set from Sadlittles.com. Got one design down, just gotta throw it in the computer, and then do the next 4 (burly men in loincloths, anyone?). Then, I’ll get started on commissions I owe people. Got a few outstanding, but I should be able to whack them out – just gotta do it!

I’m going to try to make some updates to my site here in the next few weeks leading up to Emerald City Comicon. Mostly in the store section. Keep your eyes peeled!

So, welcome to the first post of Monkey Business, the blog about me and Monkey Minion Press, my illustration and design company. So let’s get busy!

Lots of new developments in the MMP world. But let’s start off with a little history first: Remember last year when I was helping Steve Rude with some photoshop coloring touch-up work? Well if you don’t, I just reminded you. Basically, what it was was that Steve was touching up the 20-some year old colors of his Nexus comic series for inclusion into the definitive printed verion of the stories in the Nexus Archives books from Dark Horse Comics. My job was to use photoshop to make the changes he needed made to the artwork. This included recoloring characters, pages and panels, making the effects more prominent, moving, deleting and rearranging word balloons, and so on, so forth.

So, why do I bring this up? Well, mainly because that gig has pretty much led directly to my new gig: doing color touch ups on Invincible for the new animated comic series coming out from MTV Mobile and GAIN Limited. Check this action out! (I would have embedded it, but apparently blogger can’t embed flash vids.:() This is super huge for me because I am a HUGE FAN of Invincible. I’ve been reading the series since issue #9 when Ryan Ottley started drawing it. I’m really excited about it. AHH!

Also, I’ll be doing sketch cards for the upcoming Marvel Masterpieces 3 set coming out of Upper Deck. I’m doing 75 cards, and hopefully I’ll get to do most of them in color. Gonna be sweet!

What else? Oh yeah! Since moving to PDX, we have hooked up with a great group of artists here and have been showing my work around, and I have a show of my artwork set up in September at a small gallery here in town. And of course, I found an artwalk to participate in, the Alberta Arts District Last Thursdays! I’ll be set up in front of This Place Blows a really cool little Glass Blowing Studio and Shop (This is also where my show will be in September).

So, I think that’s enough for now. Check back soon, because I hope to have more news!