Senses Characters

(click on these guys to see'em bigger)

I have some new character art and designs to share with you! If you follow the blog, you may remember a series of animations I posted about a year ago from a project we developed at FableVision for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science called "Top 10 Traumas on the Trail." If not --> here's a refresher (with plenty of animation to watch). You can currently see that project in a fantastic exhibit at the museum called Expedition Health.

Well, the awesome crew from the museum came back to us with a request for a sequel! (I was of course, ecstatic!... There are few things I love more than combining animation and science). This new series of shorts features the same hiker with a new friend—and this time they're learning about how the makeup of our DNA alters how we perceive various sensations.

I started by revisiting earlier designs of the hiker character, and coming up with a few more. The original, who we call Spikey, is in pink.


We ended up going with (B), but realized we'd need to add ears so they'd be able to, well...hear.

Next, I designed some environments. Below are stills from a few of the opening segments. We start outside at stops along the trail, and then enter into the body to explain the scientific process. These are all painted in ArtRage, which is an app I still highly recommend.





And then it was on to the senses characters. We needed all 5 of them (touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing). I thought it would be most fun to have the characters become the body part that perceives the sense. Here's an early composite sketch.



There's also a bright little character named Poly (short for polymerase, which is an enzyme that reacts with DNA). We think of her as the engineer responsible for reading the blueprint of your genes. Some early sketches of her, below (we went with C):



And last but not least, the Brain.


(like I really needed to design another brain character...YES!)
He's the guy all the senses report to.

*Update: FableVision animator, Hannah O'Neal, asked me to dig up the alternates for the Brain. She inspired version (D) with a doodle she passed over to me. So many brains, so little time.



And here they all are in the final character lineup.



One more image to toss at you: a test that I did to make sure they worked on the background concept (devised to be a cool little factory & command center inside the body).



That's all for now! I like to think of these little sense guys as cute cousins to my weirdo brain character. I'll share a few of the final animations in the near future.

Seduction of the Idiots @ Canteen

A bit of fun news to report: My bud David DeGrand and I are co-curating a comics and cartooning art show for the Canteen Gallery in Ottawa. This is the same gallery that featured my Caucus Race illustration in a group show back in March. I'll post more information as the show nears, but as you can see we have a pretty amazing lineup of cartoonists, including the crew from Heeby Jeeby!

David gets full credit for the show poster and the name, "Seduction of the Idiots" (meant to be a play on the infamous book, Seduction of the Innocent).

For now, pencil in the opening date, August 27th—especially if you'll be in and around Ottawa. It'll run until September 12th.

Where is my mind?

The brain is on the loose over here at Drip! I'm not sure how, but he got into the banner. Which is alright, I guess. If you missed him on Heeby Jeeby, here's his debut comic:




...which has now been dubbed "Brain Freeze." I kind of like "Cubed", too. Especially because I built this comic from a 4x6 square grid (if that sort of thing interests you).


I definitely plan on doing more comics with him, so be on the lookout.

And as a brain BONUS, this fellow just arrived in my inbox.


...who was delivered and drawn by the one and only Trevor Van Meter! WOW! That's one damn fine root beer float. I'm certainly not going to discourage pin-ups and "brain art" like this. The invitation is open!

Trevor has a leg up on me because he actually gives his characters awesome names. You may have heard of his creation, "Crappy Cat."


Hop over to this website to check him out—and PLAY THE GAME (which is hilarious and insanely well-crafted). I mean it. Play it. You can even download a FREE iPhone app featuring Crappy Cat comics. Comics on a phone, you ask? YES.

So, that's your dose of brain for today.

Heeby Jeeby @ Hub Comics July 18th

As the flyer states, Dan and I will be signing copies of Heeby Jeeby Comix #1 at Hub Comics in Somerville, MA on Sunday, July 18th. A week from today! (flyer art by Dan himself)

If you know anyone who lives in the Boston area, please pass the word along. Especially kids! It should be a good time. We'll be drawing and doing collaborative comics as well.

I dropped off a dozen copies of the book last week, making Hub the first retail location to stock Heeby Jeeby Comix!

Here's the official Facebook event for more info.

"Bob Flynn and Dan Moynihan, both formerly of Nickelodeon Magazine, and now of Fablevision, have teamed up to form the wacky, kid-friendly 'Heeby Jeeby Comix.' Heeby Jeeby was a big, sell-out hit at the Maine Comic Arts Festival this year, and is a lot of fun for all ages."

Ice Cold Root Beer Floats!

Just what you need to beat the heat!
Go read my new comic over at --> Heeby Jeeby!

Spears and brains

With June winding down, I'm getting back into making comics. Here's a page (penciled rough) from a comic I'm working on with Dan Mazur (writing). It's shaping up to be a 10-pager, which is one of the longer comics I've tackled in some time.

And then there is this brain guy.



He's been throwing a fit because all he does is stand in as my Twitter/Facebook/Flickr (etc) avatar. So I'm working him into a comic...or two. If he behaves.

One last thing:

A public service announcement.

My hard drive crashed over the weekend. I put it to bed and it died in its sleep. All my data was wiped out, just like that—ZAP! Fortunately, I had all my artwork backed up on an external drive.

So PLEASE, back up your work. It happens.

Carat (bird)

For this week's What The Doodle?
On FableVision's Creative Juices blog.

Inking.

More from the sketchbook I've been keeping.





These last couple pages are from tonight.




You can see a bunch more from this sketchbook over on Flickr.

Heeby Jeeby Comix #1 available for purchase!

Heeby Jeeby Comix #1 is now available for online purchase through our print-on-demand distributor, ComiXpress.

BUY HERE

or you can click on this fancy graphic I designed.



The book is 32 pages, full color, staple bound, and includes all of the Heeby Jeeby Comix you've seen posted on my blog, alongside plenty of comics and gags by Dan Moynihan, Chris Houghton, and David DeGrand. For more pictures, check back at my unboxing photos.

Let me know if you have any questions while ordering. ComiXpress tells me orders take about a week to process and ship. And you should be able to use PayPal. Also, they ship internationally* for those of you outside the United States.

If you are a retailer interested in stocking Heeby Jeeby Comix #1, ComiXpress offers the book at a base 35% discount with FREE SHIPPING. More info on that here. I believe you just have to create a retailer account.

*UPDATE: They apparently only do Priority Mail 6-10 day shipping for international orders. So I may be handling those myself at a lower/slower shipping rate. Email heebyjeeby (at) jinxthemonkey (dot) com and I can contact you when this is set up (it may be awhile).

*UPDATE 6/6/10: We just cleared it with ComiXpress, and International Shipping at First Class rates (lower/slower) is now available during checkout. Doing a quick estimate: Canada is about $2.77, Europe is a little over $5. For most orders in the US, it's a little over $2 shipping. Hope this helps, and thanks again!

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Finally, to break up all of these Heeby Jeeby updates I've been bombarding you with, here's something I doodled up last night when I was hanging with my bud, Roho. Just the usual rambling inky mess...



Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Thank you! (MeCAF round-up)

I'm back in Boston after a thrilling weekend in Portland, Maine! Tabling at MeCAF was a blast. I met all sorts of wonderful people, and we sold out of the first print run of Heeby Jeeby Comix #1. There were 28 copies sold—I saved one for myself and my parents. The kid turnout was phenomenal! (For the festival as a whole, too). It was the first time I got to see kids reading Heeby Jeeby Comix, and I couldn't be happier with their response. I'd say I sold about half the books directly to kids (with their parents funds and approval). The other half went to my comics peers which I have to say a huge thank you to.

I was manning the table for most of the day (the kids kept coming!), and we were in the lower section so I didn't make it up to the larger room as much as I would've liked to chat it up and buy comics. Apologies if I didn't swing by your table. The comics I did get a chance to sneak out with are phenomenal (two by James Hindle and Joseph Lambert, in particular).

The biggest thank-yous go out to my wife Loren Lee-Flynn (seated beside me in the photo above), Renee Kurilla (who I shared the HeebyJeeby/Zebrafish table with), and Keith Zulawik. Also thanks to Maribeth Bush for taking this photo of the four of us.

Again, thank you to everyone who made it out to support comics this weekend in Portland, Maine. Huge kudos go out to Rick Lowell and his team from Casablanca Comics for organizing and running a near perfect event.

I'll be ordering the next batch shortly, and I'm still collecting a running tally. So if you're interested in a copy, send an email to:
heebyjeeby (at) jinxthemonkey (dot) com . I will file away your request and get back to you when online purchasing is available. Thanks!

See you at MeCAF!

The Maine Comics Arts Festival (MeCAF) is just a few days away, so I'm in a mad rush to get everything ready. If you don't know much about the festival, here's a blurb and a great poster designed by Jeff Lemire and Brian Wood (both are headlining the event).

The Maine Comics Arts Festival returns to Portland this weekend to celebrate the comic book art form. Over 100 comic writers, artists, publishers and cartoonists will be attending the second annual event on May 23 at Ocean Gateway on Portland's waterfront...The festival is not a typical comic book convention in that there are no stores or dealers set up selling books. Instead, the exhibitors are the creative people behind the comics. The artists will have their own work on display and available for sale. The mix of writers and artists covers a wide spectrum and includes many best-selling and award winning comic creators.

So, if you're in the greater New England area, you almost have no excuse but to make the trek to Portland. I'll be sharing a table with the immensely talented Renee Kurilla—so be sure to look for us both!


I'll have the first edition of Heeby Jeeby Comix in supply (30 copies, to be exact), as well as issues 2-6 of ARGH!, the Spanish comic anthology which I'm a contributor to. Tons of those, infact—keep in mind they are super rare imports!

I also printed up a new sketchbook zine which I'm calling "inkbook." I collected a bunch of brushpen inks and printed a 28-page stapled booklet of drawings. You can view most of the original pages over here on Flickr.





Once again...

MeCAF is Sunday, May 23rd from 10am-5pm.

Admission is a mere $5, and best of all—KIDS UNDER 12 GET IN FOR FREE! There's all sorts of fun panels on Saturday at the Portland Public Library (schedule), but remember the main event is on Sunday.

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to collecting up some mighty fine comix!

Heeby Jeeby Comix #1 (PRINTED!!)

Fresh from the printers, folks! And by a twist of funny timing, the box arrived a day before I got back from a trip to Chicago. So I had to wait a whole day to fly home and see them (today). I opened the box moments ago, and snapped some photos.




Here's a side-by-side with the original cover art.



The inside cover introduces the creators and lists a very special dedication—which you should be able to make out if you click on the photo.



One of many spreads featuring comics by Dan Moynihan.



An especially gross comic by Chris Houghton.



A spread abound with comics by David Degrand.



and here's the first spread of my "Cereal World" comic.

32 pages of comics!

FULL COLOR!


As I mentioned in this earlier post, I'll have the first 30 copies on-hand at the Maine Comics Arts Festival this Sunday (May 23rd). We'll soon have copies available to purchase online. Look for updates here and at Heeby Jeeby Comix.



UPDATE: I'm keeping a running tally of people interested in a printed copy of Heeby Jeeby Comix #1. If you shoot me an email at: heebyjeeby (at) jinxthemonkey (dot) com , I will file away your request and get back to you when online purchasing is available. Thanks!

Heeby Jeeby Comix #1 (cover art)

First of all, apologies for being so absent from the internet as of late—let alone this blog. This has been one crazy-busy-fun month for me, and wrapping up April has meant getting the first issue of Heeby Jeeby Comix ready for press. Over the past week I collected up all the comics from Chris, David, and Dan. We have a 32-page full color book at the printer right now; we're using ComiXpress for starters because (A) they are affordable for color, and (B) they offer print-on-demand. More to come on that.

The guys were kind enough to offer me the cover, but I didn't get around to drawing it up until this past Sunday (my first available window in a long time). I had the concept in mind (creatures reading comics), so I started in Flash by mocking up a quick color study. I knew I wanted to use "heeby jeeby green" throughout. And because we really want this book to appeal to kids, I also knew I wanted a blend cute and weird—not to have it be too bizarre or gross.



Then, it was off the computer to the drawing table.
(I've uploaded these higher res than usual...so go ahead and click on them)



And inked up (below is the raw scan).



I couldn't be more excited to get our first shipment of books, due to arrive just before the Maine Comics Arts Festival (MeCAF) which I am attending on May 22-23. This will be your first opportunity to get your hands on a copy of Heeby Jeeby Comix #1. Because of rush order fees, I could only afford 30 books this time around, but we'll be looking into print-on-demand distribution through ComiXpress (leading to a simple "BUY" button to click on the Heeby Jeeby Comix blog).

If you're local to New England, I highly recommend MeCAF. It is a near perfect comics event—only in its second year. This will be my first year with a table. I'll have tons of ARGH! Comics (imported from Spain) in addition to other goodies. See you there!