Link Fights a Moblin

You'll have to forgive me; I know its a little juvenile to be drawing video game characters, but I've got Zelda on the brain right now. I'm playing through every game in the franchise in preparation for the release of Skyward Sword next month. That is so a valuable use of my time. Shut up.

Needless to say, these characters are owned by Nintendo or whoever.

The Judgement Badger

Here we have the finished inks for an illustration I'm working on to accompany a novella written by my old chum, the talented Joshua Goldfond. The story, entitled The Hunting of the Bubblenuff, concerns Fabian Vermeer, a "crypto-naturalist" tasked with exploring an ancient forest that may or may not be filled with hundreds of mythological creatures, each of a more hilarious and unlikely nature than the last. It's a fantastic piece of satirical fantasy, reminiscent of Douglas Adams and shot through with the sort of wordplay found in Woody Allen's books from the 70's. It's a great read, and I'll be pushing it in this space as soon as it becomes commercially available. In the meantime, I should point out that the above image and the characters mentioned here are the property of Mr. Goldfond (but I'm sure you already realized that).

Tiny Dinosaurs and Turtle Babies

Here we have some prints I've designed. The first two were intended to be produced in runs of 40 each, but I only got about 20. Screen-printing is kind of like laying sea turtle eggs; you never really know how many are going to make it. To carry on the reproductive metaphor, the third design was entirely stillborn, having never made it past the color separation stages (a tedious and inexact process when undertaken by hand).

I learned a lot about screen-printing while designing these. At times, I wanted to abandon the process completely, but the desire to recoup some of the small fortune I spent on supplies spurred me on. I guess I wanted to see what they looked like, too. Despite my frustrations, I'm looking forward to implementing what I've learned on future projects. In the meantime, you can buy these from me at the Alternative Press Expo tomorrow, if you're the sort of person who attends functions like that. If you're not in San Francisco, or you just have better things to do this weekend, you may purchase them from my etsy site when it's done in the next few weeks.

Guy and Kylie's Tiny Dinos, pages 1 & 2

Here are the first two pages from the next issue of Trackrabbit. Eventually, I'd like to redesign my website and serialize this story there, since it seems like that's the only way people read comics anymore. For now, however (because I'm a total luddite with no idea how to accomplish the afore-mentioned redesigning), you'll have to content yourselves with reading it here. I know it starts out slow, but bear with me: subsequent pages will feature not only the dinosaurs alluded to in the title, but at least one explosion as well.

Guy Palmfrond

Here we have a character study of one of the title characters from my next comic, "Guy and Kylie's Tiny Dinos." This title may be subject to change. I'm trying to loosen up, in an effort to incorporate some of my recent influences (Chris Samnee, Darwyn Cooke) and a lifelong love of the "cartoon modern" school, to a debatable degree of success. I mean, I love Mary Blair, but I'm 32 years old: this is probably how I'll draw until I'm dead. This image was inked using a brush and a nifty Rotring calligraphy pen purchased for me by my good friend and respected contemporary, Fred Noland.

Dino-designs

Here are some sketches of the dinosaurs that'll be starring in the next issue of Trackrabbit. I wanted them to look cute, but also a little vacant, so the idea of personifying them would seem utterly absurd. I inked these with technical pens of various sizes, which I'm thinking about using for the whole book. It feels a little like cheating, but eschewing regular trips to the inkwell would probably cut down a lot of production time.

Down on Mission Street

Here's a piece I did for an anthology of comics about my neighborhood, San Francisco's fashionable Mission District. In a move those familiar with my work will note as a drastic stylistic departure, I have stolen the title for this story from a Lloyd Cole song, instead of a Belle and Sebastian song.