some roughs...

Brian Miller is going to do another book on comic book color, a follow-up to his book, "HiFi Color for Comics." (If you don't have the first book, you might put it on your list of stuff for Santa to bring.) BID. He's asked me to draw up some stuff, mostly in the various "animated" styles, but not anime as it isn't my "thang," and he has another artist, Dave Bryant, lined up to do it. And Dave is quite good at it. BID again.

Guess I'm a bit "out of it," so it's been a process of knocking the rust off. But instead of beating myself up over it, I bulled ahead, and came up with some rough sketches. Nothing earthshattering, but some things I could develop.

Brian and I are both big Jonny Quest fans, so years ago we came up with our own little character in that vein, and did a comic story with the intent on making it look as much like a '60's cartoon as possible. I've revisited her with this rough, complete with mummies...
He's also a big fan of the "later" Hanna/Barbera stuff('70's, '80's), which is where this one comes from...
I drew some characters in a more Disney-esque vein a few years ago. I liked the '50's motif and wanted to do more with them. The '50's had its own flavor and quirkiness that I enjoy, including '50's sci-fi, so...
And lastly, I loved the superhero craze of the mid '60's and the wild stuff that was done. Here's a rough in a more cartoony style...
Granted, these were all rough sketches. But we'll see what happens.

Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving!

tidbits...

I contemplated the daunting task of finally cleaning out the pig-sty of a studio, which is mine. It seems like all that I started months ago got put on hold while I worked at Worlds of Fun, only now to find that it all seemed to "multiply" in my absense. Ah, well. There are plenty of trash bags.

First up is a drawing on my studio wall. I got it years ago from one of my favorite cartoonists, the late Fred Rhoads. He is one that won't have the "fanfare" a lot get in the "priveleged" circles, or among name-droppers. He worked on "Sad Sack" at Harvey, comics that have almost been forgotten. But I loved them as a kid, and was thrilled he did this piece for me years later.

Secondly, I was forwarded a notice that a KC based company was looking for someone to do "Archie-style line drawings"--something that is right up my alley. Couldn't quite figure out how to get the images through Craigslist as they kept bouncing my e-mails, so I finally settled on sending a jpeg of a commission piece I did for a friend. I may try to send more if I don't hear back from them. "Betty," of course, is copyright 2008 Archie Publications.

I also found a piece I did, and a page I started for a '70's style Marvel horror thing. I might not take much to finish off the pencils of the first page--maybe an afternoon of me getting off my lazy butt and leaving the presence of the "one-eyed god" in the living room. (There really isn't a whole lot on tv anyway.)

This character is a hoot, and it might be fun to do something with her, comics-wise. But only after I get "Pastor Dibble" launched. I may need to add a tail so she looks less like She-Hulk.

Finally, I'd like to put in a plug for Kerry Gammill, who I met years ago, and his online magazine, "Monster Kid." FM may be a fond memory, but those of us who love Uncle Forry are still out there. He had some really neat desktop images, so I used the one from "The Raven" as my current setting.

"Todah!" "Leilah Tov!"

Veterans' Day...

Nothing to post, art-wise. I spent most of the day doing some stuff with the wife. She had Veterans' Day off. There were some neat movies at Best Buy I'm going to have to save my sheckles for. Of note is "The Shuttered Room," which I haven't seen in years and missed on TCM this year. I did pick up "Treasure of Matacombe" from Disney, because it was very inexpensive.

I watched "Fringe" tonight instead of "The Mentalist," which put my wife off--she likes the main guy on "The Mentalist." I find him annoying. If there is one thing I would change about "Fringe," it would be to put some menace to the doctor. The producers have him as irritatingly docile and kooky, but if he's suppose to be a bit of a "Dr. Frankenstein," there needs to be some sense of danger. He needs to be more of a Hannibal Lector, minus the cannibalism, but definitely with the narcissism and nihilism.

NCIS is better than it had been. I didn't like the whole "Frog" storyline the past 2 seasons. Hopefully, this "mole" storyline will play out a bit.

And don't get me started on "Heroes."

Uuuuuuuhhhhhhh.....

Wow! What a time hiccup! A lot has happened since I last posted. I had my 53rd birthday. My thanks to all who wished me well, most particularly Tony Isabella who always remembers to send me a greeting. (Yes, my family did to, but they're supposed to. And long time friends, too.)

Worlds of Fun closed for the year, and we got our operations there "put to bed." It was a tough season for me. Never quite felt in synch.

One of my favorite aunts passed away. My wife and I were in Grand Island, NE for the funeral. We left KC at 70 degrees to be greeted in Nebraska at 40 degrees! Yeeesh! There was "horizontal" snow because of how bad the wind was!

And, of course, the country elected a new president. It will be interesting to see how this event will play out. Hopefully, for the best.

Here's the "last" contest I was going to do at the park, since I got some complaints of others wanting caricatures. Again, I ran out of time and "gas." But hope to get caught up on a lot of things now. Here's the work in progress...

That's all for now.

Be Good!