Flying Fortress pages!

Please, let me crawl out from under this giant rock and post some artwork! It may have been a little while since my last post...

Page drop

More doodles.

Test panel for a page im working on for Flying Fortress

Sketching doodles and such

Farting around in my sketch book and suddenly the vulture appeared.

Issue #5 Cover

It's late, I'm ready for bed. Here are the pencil and inks for the cover art of issue #5. Enjoy!

Planet Comicon 2013!

The table info is in and the map has been released. Make sure to stop by my table. I'll be under the Flying Fortress banner this year. It's the one with the giant B-17 falling out of the sky, you can't miss it. (also it's pictured to the left). I'll have tons of stuff for sale this year. New books and prints. I'll also have a ton of original art for sale both Flying Fortress pages and random sketches and drawings from the year.

Along with Flying Fortress, I'll be unveiling my new book "Thumbson and Mort" I recently had a tiny successful Kickstarter and was able to get my 24 hour comic from 2012 printed into a full sized comic book, complete with fan art and sketches. It's the first in a new side project that will have it's HQ at www.ThubmsonAndMort.com All sales made go to making sure these two fools get a good home with some proper hosting.

I'll also have books by the co-creator of Flying Fortress, Mr. Andy Moore. He's just printed a 15 year anthology of his comic strip Don't Panic and he'll have that at the table for all to enjoy. It's over 200 pages of full unadulterated madness. I urge you to check that book out too!

Hey look at that, I was able to write more than once sentence... I think this deserves a little celebration. Not sure how, but for now I'll just eat a little more Easter candy.

Back on the Horse

Just picking up where I left off a few weeks ago. I've been juggling two and a half projects. At sometimes, three... sometimes. It's the only way I want it from now on, I think. Anyways, It's 0330 and I should get some snoozin' in.

FREE Sketch Card Offer!

It's that time of year again. I'm opening up my FREE sketch card offer for Planet Comicon 2013. Don't know about this offer? Well, let me tell you!

In short, you can sign up, in advance of the show on April 6-7, and get a FREE sketch card just for showing up at my table. Follow this link (or click the one on the right) and read all about how to do just that. It's fairly simple all it takes is a comment on that page and you're in. There are only 30 spots, so space is limited. You'll want to get in on this offer as soon as possible!

When Bears attack

It's slow going but issue #5 is well underway. What you are seeing here is a four page preview from the issue which is currently on hiatus. We've turned out attention to an 8 page mini telling some of what happens to Bell directly after the events at the start of issue #4. The first page from that preview can be seen here. So without further ado...

Hope you enjoy!

We Have Liftoff.

Boy these plane analogies come easy when referring to a comic based around planes, don't they? I'm sure I'll run out of them sooner or later. For now, though, the puns stay. What you see below you is the finished pencils of page 1 for the upcoming issue of said comic. Flying Fortress production, after months of time in the hanger, is finally in the air again. This particular beauty clocked in around 10 hours. Those hours were split over three different evenings thanks to my day job of making sure my 2 year old son gets proper rearing.

I must say. I'm really, REALLY freaking happy with how this page turned out. I spent several weeks prior to this really doing the basics. Exercises and fundamentals. It was boring as all hell, but it sure helped. I'm miles away from my destination but this makes it feel a whole lot closer. Look out world, I just stepped my game up!

OK, True believers, it's time to hit the drawing board some more. Enjoy your stay, but be sure to lock-up when you leave.

Ghost - Modern Warfare

Doing a little Christmas drawing. This one is for my 10yr old Nephew. He's a huge CoD fan so I hope he'll enjoy it. We'll find out in 4 weeks.

Wizard World Austin 2012 Recap

In short, Wizard World Austin, or Austin Comic Con, (however you want to put it) was a blast. Tons of people stopped by the table when they could have stopped somewhere else. For that, I am grateful. In terms of Flying Fortress, it was a huge success. We were 2 books short of completely selling out for the weekend. Above are the commission drawings I did while manning the table all weekend. Thanks to everyone for coming out!

Character design

A concept for one of the rebel fighters in Flying Fortress #5

The Adventures of Thumbson and Mort!

24 pages written, penciled, inked, and lettered in 24 hours.The final nail in the coffin that is 24 Hour Comics Day has been hammered in. It is finished! (with 2 hours left to go)

Read the rest after the Jump!

Soon...

In just a few short hours I'll being my 24 hour comic. I have a character in mind, but that's the only thing I've prepped. I want to do this right, so nothing about the story is being created beforehand. Expect many updates today!

Moving Things Forward

2 updated character designs for issue #5 of Flying Fortress. Outside of doing these (which I'm way behind on) I've been drawing the thumbnail layouts for the book. Those, I'm ahead on and should be finished up by the end of the weekend. I must say it feels great actually getting back in the groove of storytelling. I've spent the last several weeks writing. I've moved Flying Fortress to the front burner for now to try and get it done by the 30th of November, a mighty task. On top of that, issue #1 of Paragon is pretty much wrapped script-wise. I'll probably work on that book while doing the Fortress books.
That's not all I have on my plate either. I came upon some inspiration for a third title. I'm keeping the details close to my chest on this one, but rest assured it will be amazing. Otherwise I wouldn't make it!
We're just a couple weeks away from Wizard World Austin. If you're going, make sure to sign up for a free sketch card an the Flying Fortress website.

What was supposed to be a quick character sketch, turned into a full fledged drawing on both accounts. Oh well, you live and learn.

Wizard World Austin

Austin, I will be in you! Yeah, because that doesn't sound creepy, but it's true. Coming later this month 26th-28th I'll be attending Wizard World Austin with my good friend and co-creator Andy Moore. We'll be sharing the table with Jessi Jordan from The Class. This will be my first time at such a large convention and I could not be more excited. I may be a little scared too, but mostly excited!

We will arrive in full force with copies of our comics and graphic novels. We'll also have new posters and business cards for you to check out. Oh, screw it, here's the two new posters we'll have for sale that weekend and after.

That's not all. I also have some pre-show commission spots open right now. You can order a commission, and get a free sketch card and a free copy of FLYING FORTRESS #1. I have more details on that here on the Flying Fortress website.

Hope to see you at the show!

Restriction and Creativity

Over the past few months I've spent a lot of time pondering whether or not digital drawing is really all it's cracked up to be. I dabbled with it for 2 years on different projects. I've even drawn a complete 22 page issue entirely digital. And I color Flying Fortress digitally 100% of the time. But I think there is a romance with pencil and paper that can never be reproduced. Even if it could be someday, is that really what I want? A reproduction of the real thing?

This idea of me dropping digital has even go so far as to thinking about coloring a comic using water colors instead of Photoshop. If nothing else it would allow me to expand my artistic tool-set in something that is useful outside of comics. Should we as artists just jump in to digital work because it makes it easier? Should we follow the rest of the world just because everything is digital these days? There's something to be said for a fully penciled and inked drawing on Bristol board that you can never experience on a screen. It's a tangible thing that isn't going anywhere. It's not tied behind DRM or only best viewed on a high definition display. If the power goes out you can still hold it and look at it. For that matter, if the power goes out you can still work with traditional tools.

I recently found out that Jack White doesn't allow cell phones at his shows. After digging deeper I learned that he holds some very similar ideas about tech that I've been pondering not a few months prior. Below are a couple videos of him describing it and I think they help sum up what I'm feeling about the subject.

If you'll indulge me in a 'P.S.'

I'm not saying that all technology is bad or if you draw using a Wacom that you aren't a real artist. I'm also not saying that I'll never use it again. I Just think that if you allowed yourself some more restriction that you'd find more creative ways of doing things. That is all!

New things

Working on some new stuff. Here's a new character - Dr. Thomas Keller I've not picked a 'super' name just yet. Look for more very soon!

Kick Ass