Cover to AWOL'd volume 2

I've finally inked all the pages to AWOL'd volume 2! Now I have to worry about the boring but necessary stage: Post-production...greyscaling, word balloons, book layout designs...
If you observe the subtleness of the characters' eye direction carefully, you may get an idea of what each character will be up to in the second volume. It's like looking at a Soprano promo poster before a new season airs.

The Revolution is now!

Thought I'd post a few penciled pages from the climactic Dance Dance the Revolution scene, as I enter the homestretch. Been listening to a lot more Prince these days. Not sure how it will affect my drawings. Also, I figured out a few final script details that were still causing problems. Good times.

Manga Jams from Teen Anime Club

Most of you guys who know me would know I work for the Mississauga Library, conducting programs and all other fun stuff. One of the things I'm proud of is establishing the MLS* Teen Anime Club (or M-TAC for short) which is a growing after-school program where teens can discuss Otaku culture, play video games, and screen new Anime titles. Manga Jams has become one of our popular activities where one person draws a panel and passes it on to whomever to continue the story.

You can check out some of the Manga Jams from our last meeting here:
http://mlsteenotakuclub.blogspot.com/2009/06/manga-jams-june-12th-edition.html

You can find lots of wackiness in these pages, hahaha!

Reading Comics

Photo of Alan Moore courtesy of acb.

Question time: has anyone in SketchKrieg! read their comic books live before? And if so, what approach(es) did you take? What worked well? What failed miserably?

I've got a couple of 'reading' opportunities coming up (including the Taddle Creek comic issue launch party on Friday night), and I'm trying to step up my live performance game. Working in book publishing, I've been to my fair share of readings, but whenever I tend a comic book event, it's more likely a discussion of the creation of the work or interview. Straight readings are pretty rare.

That said, I've done comic book 'readings' before, usually paired with a projection of the images. And at this point, I'm probably better at using Powerpoint than I am with a pencil or brush. Not too worried about the readings, but I'd love to hear if anyone else has comic performance experience.

Interview on rgbFilter

The kind folks from rgbFilter interviewed the SK gang at TCAF. Check it out!

J'Adore les Bande Desinees!

I just came back from a 9-day vacation in France and one of the things I like to grab when I'm anywhere in Europe is a graphic novel (or bande desinee, in French). The Europeans really know how to draw out a comic! There's lots of commitment and discipline in their penciling, inking, and colouring, which is something I aspire to have someday. Some of comics are still coloured traditionally with gouache and watercolours. Every panel, every drawing is so tight and well-referenced. Every character drawing is loyal to their design and the backgrounds are well-detailed. Overall, so confidently done!






One European comic artist I admire is Italian cartoonist Milo Manara, who has done a lot of erotic comic art. But check out this video and be amazed. No pencils required!


Now I got enough fuel to get back to working on AWOL'd volume 2.

TCAF on Video

A video made by Vepo Studios and Open Book Toronto about the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. They interviewed me (for some reason), alongside Bryan Lee O'Malley, the Tamakis cousins, Chris Butcher and others.

TCAF 2009

Thanks for everyone who came by our table.
Thanks to everyone at TCAF and their volunteers who made it special.
Thanks for checking out the picture below.

Postcards from the edge

Since I failed so hard to get the actual book done in time for TCAF, I decided to make a postcard. It's like 1/120th of the book:



Though I fear I may have made it too hasty. I hope it looks all right.

Poster Girl

Here's an image I did for my printing company that I recently started up (www.GuerillaPrinting.ca). The image was for a contest that just ended in April. The version we used was the image that's seen above. Check out the original (below) before it got all half toned ...

These are a couple of digital sketches i did just for fun. These were slightly inspired by the works of Rion Vernon and, although I'm nowhere near his level and these look nothing like his work, Ashley Wood. They can be found in the "Medicine Artwork" book which will be available at TCAF (May 9 and 10). 

Also, I am no longer the newbie member of Sketchkreig. I would like to welcome Kieran Casey McCarthy to the fold! The next generation of Sketchkreig begins now (and the inevitable revolution can't be far behind either) so congrats to the new parents of a potentially new illustrator!

I'm still alive ...

A post to demonstrate that (a) I'm alive, and (b) working on Quarter-Life Crisis as hard as I can. Also to congratulate Tyrone and Alana on the exciting news -- I'm sure we're all disappointed the name 'Logan' was not more carefully considered, but I was so delighted to read the news on Facebook this morning.

So, some images from new sections of Quarter-Life Crisis. A couple pages from a flashback scene, both in original thumbnail (and crudely scripted form) and in penciled form. Then thumbnail sketches and final pencils of a scene of our protagonists staking out a Shoppers Drug Mart in the pouring rain.(I've actually been working a lot on getting a new website up and ready before TCAF.)










Unfortunately, as I get close to finishing pencils on the entire first book, I realize I need to add a couple scenes. Namely, one between Harper and Sonja ... one that involves the robot 1895s. (Otherwise, they only make one appearance in the first book.)





I also want to add a scene hinting at the sinister projects going on at the Rogers Centre, but haven't thought of a good way to do that and maintain the book's perspective. The book is entirely from Harper's perspective. There's not a scene in it that doesn't include him, and he narrates the entire thing. I don't really want to show a scene with the Rogers that he would have no access to ... It's a bit of a stumbling block for me at this point.






These last-minute additions also make me wonder what sort of extras (if any) I should include in the final printed book. Any requests? Sketches? Maps? Pin-ups? A mix-tape listing (a la AWOL'd or Scud before it)? I'm taking suggestions now.

Know your enemy: Comic Sans

A very insightful article about the font we love to hate: Comic Sans

I found this article from a friend's Facebook page. Did you know that Comic Sans was inspired from the graphic novels Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen? Funny that I don't see the resemblance. But I do cringe knowing it's the one thing in common between porn ads and child daycare brochures *shudder*.

Leeves, GIJoe, and SK bookmarks! Oh my!

I can finally check a few things off my list! A while ago I had the pleasure of drawing a GIJoe comic for the upcoming Canadian GIJoe Convention. It will be included in their convention exclusive toy box set, but you can view the 7-page comic in this month's Joecanuck newsletter here! It was awesome drawing some of the stuff I grew up with like the Armadillo tank (one of the first GIJoe vehicles I owned) and other vehicles you can find in the scrapyard page. As a GIJoe fan since I was three and a half, I hope to do more work like this in the future.



TCAF is only three weeks away and I won't have AWOL'd volume 2 ready by then (still need to work on 32 more pages). But for any followers waiting, I've prepared a 20-page supplementary comic of Leeves' origins. For those that really know me, the story was inspired by my experience with a certain individual. 'Nuff said! Hahaha...



Also, I've prepared some freebies for those visiting the Sketchkrieg tables at the TCAF, Fan Expo, and Word on the Street this year. Sketchkrieg bookmarks!


Now I need to get back to work on AWOL'd volume 2! It's the last thing I need to do before I can fully enjoy the summer.

Frank Miller is the worst, Part One

I'm taking a bit of time off from posting my own work to critique some comics I've been reading. I borrowed a friend's copy of All-Star Batman and Robin, and it is shamefully bad. It's almost an art form, how bad it is. Yet I continue reading to see how much worse it can get. It's a train wreck my eyes can't avoid. And the worst part about it is that it sold millions! Way more copies of a comic book than all of us combined will ever sell.

It also further demonstrates my ongoing theory that Frank Miller is one of the worst comic book writers of all time. (At least, within those that are highly regarded.)



I'm not sure what offends me most about the book. Is it the complete wrong characterization of Batman and Robin? (Why bother using the characters if they act nothing like them? Batman laughing maniacally? Beating kids? Mocking Superman?) Wrong characterization of everyone? The pervasive and casual misogyny? (Vicki Vale is just so excited to be on a date with Bruce Wayne! Wonder Woman, since she's a strong woman, obviously has to hate men.)

Not even.



It's the little things:

Horrible attempts to be hip

Did Robin actually say something 'blows chunks'? Um ... thanks, Wayne. I also like how the twelve-year-old's point of reference for 'tough guy voice' is Clint Eastwood.

That Batman does no detective work

He's the world's greatest detective! Do some snooping, take some fingerprints, use the computer, for God's sake. But no ... just relentless beatings.



The immense waste of time

Did I just read an entire issue detailing how Black Canary finally got fed up with the sexual harassment at her job and fought back? An entire issue? Any writer-illustrator team worth their salt could have told that tale in two pages, max. And I think it was the fifth issue and Batman and Robin were still flying around in that stupid car. Is there a story here?

There's just too much to criticize. Did anyone like this?

TCAFing

It's been a looooong while since I've posted, so here I am trying to get the ball rolling again. (with old art, no less!)
As some of you may know, I do a sporadically updated KISSING CHAOS webcomic as part of the Transmission-X crew. They are printing up a newspaper like comic thing for this year's TCAF, and here's what's going to be on my page.

This was originally two episodes from my webcomic... now it's one print page. It was hard to pick two pages (the max we could fit on the broadsheet page we are using for the TX comic), and I thought these two episodes were contained enough to tell a somewhat of a story, and leave the reader wanting more!

ADC

Great font making tool

Font Generator - http://www.yourfonts.com

This is an amazingly simple way to make fonts from your own handwriting. Perfect for the comic artist. All you do is print, fill out the template, scan it in and their online program does the rest. I had a font of my handwriting in less than 10 minutes.

It says they'll be charging a small fee soon, so play with it while it lasts!

- Alana

Here is the original pencil drawing of the cover image below.

This is the cover for my upcoming Medicine artwork book. The conception of this book came about when i realized i didn't have enough time to finish Medicine book 3 by summer of this year. But i still wanted to have something new that was connected to the series to show. At first, i thought of doing a short preview book showcasing some of the first chapter from book 3 but i decided i didn't want any of if to be shown in hard copy until the actual book comes out. Then i thought of doing a small black and white sketch book but decided that i wanted to do something different. So I wanted to show off, in FULL-COLOUR, the talents of my fellow sheridan grads and their interpretations of my characters. As well, i could now have, in print, full-colour images of all the illustrations i did myself of these characters, some of which have never been seen before. On top of all that, I've always wanted to do a flashback story of how some of the characters met each other but never found the right time to do it within the flow of the series, so this artwork book gave me an opportunity to do just that. It will be coming out in early May just in time for TCAF. It will be 50 full-colour pages for 12 Canuck bucks. I really tried to keep the price tag at 10 dollars but colour printing was way more expensive than i had thought. Hope to see everyone at TCAF.

Apocalyptico

As ever, I persist in my efforts to finish this gargantuan task of making a 120-odd page book of Quarter Life Crisis. (A first volume of an envisioned several.) I think this is the most ambitious project I've attempted to date. And so far, I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. While overwhelmed, I am encouraged by positive feedback from Stripmalling and the continued interest from friends and other comic bookers (who all want to know when this stupid book is going to be done!) I've posted some newer pencils below.



I'm finding myself struggling with a few things:

1) When I began the book, I was consciously trying to work more simply (and with less detail) than usual. This was both in order to save myself some time and to try to emulate illustration work I'm more drawn to. (I really love simple clean lines with few details, but in my own work, I get caught up in all the little unnecessary lines.)




2) I'm having difficulty making the call between composing things based on look or based on realism. Since it's all set in real Toronto locations, I don't know whether to alter the real look of an intersection or building for the purposes of storytelling or not. I just realized I placed an elevator in an impossible spot in the OCAD building, but I'm keeping it there, because it looks nicer.




3) My drawings are getting bigger! I make thumbnails and sketches at a certain size, but by the final product, all the figures end up much larger. I can't figure out what I'm doing. Anyone else have this problem?

Anyway, I'm toiling away at this at almost every free moment I have. And also listening to this new Metric song obsessively, as I feel it fits the atmosphere of the Quarter Life Crisis book so well.

Digital Scrapbooking

Hey blogoverse! Long time no type!

I've been busy over here, making my biggest work of art - a baby in my belly! I'm due around May 1st and know the little one will provide a lot of inspiration for my work. Tyrone and I are super excited.

Not only that, I've also been working on getting my Scrapbook design store going. Digital Scrapbooking has a huge following. It's basically like the traditional cut and paste physical scrapping.. but everything is done digitally in photoshop. I make the elements and papers and people purchase my kits to capture their memories. It's fun, and allows me complete creative freedom.

Here are some examples of my kits. To see more visit my store at Scrapbookgraphics.com

Gotta get the work done, son.

This must be the first blog that won't showcase someone's latest work nor demand critique/praise, but is instead just a standard blog about what's going on. Not that there's been drama in our group (ie. Brian wanting to lay the smackdown on Zen if Zen ever mentions the word "Adam Corolla"), but we've got lives between comic conventions.

Since the start of 2009, I've been working like a thoroughbred on the second volume of AWOL'd, pencilling and inking TWO full chapters. I'm surprised and amazed I was able to pull that off and still balance my full-time job. Unfortunately, the book won't be ready for TCAF in May but a backstory comic to Leeves will be out then.

This whole week, I've been excited to work on a full-colour GIJoe mini-comic for the upcoming Canadian GIJoe Convention. If you want any clues on what the comic is about, I suggest you check out their forum. It's gonna be my best comic to date since I've been honing my drawing skills in the past few months. Straight up, if I was asked to draw this out two years ago, it would have been crap.

So basically, I've been busy working on new stuff to put out on our Sketchkrieg! tables. The same goes with the others. Brian should have a full-colour art book based on the Medicine series ready for TCAF and as well as Evan's new post-apocalyptic 120-page graphic novel Quarter-Life Crisis. I'm sure they're gonna share their progress of their books on the blog (looking at you two).

YO JOE, eh!

Here are some artwork I've done for Hasbro-approved exclusive figures being offered at the upcoming Canadian Joe Con.
On the left is an unknown Cobra dude and the other is Back-Stop, the only Canadian in the GIJoe team.

Marvel tryout book page

This is 85% finished pg 2 of 5 from a book given to me years ago. I finally got the courage to pursue it.

NiNja Cat

Hey! Sorry for the lack of posts, I've just been having computer problems ... and I've been busy with work. I recently did work for Nelvana, and it inspired me to do these these Ninja Cat poses. Enjoy.

sneak peek of AWOL'd vol. 2

I know it's been a long while since my last post...but rest assured, I've been busy on the new volume of AWOL'd that should be out this summer.
Here are the last panels of you'll find in the first two chapters of the book. Come up with your own conclusions.

Quarter-Life in Progress

I've been working a lot on the Quarter-Life book, so I thought I'd add some more pages in progress.





Some scenes of the brothers at their OCAD sanctuary.





And a flashback of pre-apocalyptic times, at the Royal Ontario Museum. (The book has a Lost-esque structure with interspersed flashbacks.)

A little sneak peek at one of the pieces I will be including in my full-colour Medicine artbook coming out in May.

Huh?

Something about the web?

Its about self discipline.

Issue 3

Issue #3 preview.

DEAL WITH IT!