The REAL story of the Easter Bunny

You may remember this post from last year, where I told of the family legend of the Easter Bunny. Here's a quick retelling:

One Easter Eve, long ago, one of my uncles witnessed a tall skinny creature lurking in the den of the house. It was the Easter Bunny—he had a purple diamond at the center of his forehead. It looked around, and then suddenly, a beam of purple light shot out of the diamond, filling the Easter baskets one by one with candy and treats. ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! And then it disappeared into the night.

My dad told me this story when I was a kid—explaining that my uncle had once told it to him. As you can imagine, it basically scared the hell out of me (but in a good way). It definitely kept me in bed until daybreak (compare to bolting out of bed at 1 or 2 AM on Christmas), because I wanted nothing to do with this rabbit. Imagine, not a jolly old man, not a short little bunny, but a creature lurking around in your home.

Well, I caught a glimpse of the Easter Bunny last night.



It turns out, they come in multiples—a species of creatures that disperse over Planet Earth on Easter Eve.



*thump*



*thu-DUMP*



hssssssssssssss!



This one is getting ready to power up the crystal.
I wouldn't get in the way of the beam if I were you.



Are there any children scurrying about?


So, now you know.



Next Easter, be sure to watch over your little ones...

Greetings

Heeby Jeeby Comix #2

I updated my comics store yesterday and wanted to let you know that Heeby Jeeby Comix #2 is now available to purchase online via PayPal. This means you can order directly through me, and I can personalize your book with a doodle and such.



Visit my purchase site or click the "buy now" button.

Heeby Jeeby Comix #2 is the second installment of comics created by four bizarre cartoonists: Dan Moynihan, David DeGrand, Chris Houghton, and Bob Flynn. This latest offering includes a new batch of Halloween stories and an assortment of weird, twisted, and funny comics for all ages.

32 Pages | Full Color

heebyjeebycomix.blogspot.com

Of course, copies of Heeby Jeeby Comix #1 are still available—so if you don't have either issue now is your chance to get both, and save on shipping.

Thanks!

Candy Coral & Grandma's Cookies

SpongeBob Comics #2 has landed in a comics shop near you! The cover art is reason enough to pick up the second issue—with this killer Rat Fink inspired illustration by Brian Smith, colored by Mark Martin.

By the almighty powers of Neptune, I somehow have 2 comics in this issue. One made the back cover, and the other is a 2-pager.




Below is the sketch I drew to pitch "Grandma's Cookies".



From there, I did a more refined drawing in Flash. I thought it would be easier because I could move things around—really work it out digitally without having to do a ton of erasing or redraw.



This comic kicked my butt. It was a tough exercise in creating flow (literally, a path) through an illustration.

Once I figured out the drawing (I would consider this the pencils stage), I then inked over it in Flash for a tighter finish.





Finally, color.




"Candy Coral" started out as a one-pager.



But my fearless editor, Chris Duffy, wanted me to expand it to 2 pages so we could open up the tongue section. A great call, on his part.

I made a bunch of drawings for the 4-panel montage where SpongeBob and Patrick get all twisted and tied up. These are a few that we dropped, or further refined.



I particularly like the one where they are tripping on their own tongues (above), but I'm glad we replaced it with the super-stretched tongue knot. I try to keep it loose even when I'm sketching in Flash. This is what I like to call "scrawl"—where I draw fast and quick to pack as much energy as possible. The challenge is to retain that life in the final inks.



I had fun drawing all the various poses and expressions for the comic, but this is probably my favorite.



Here are the final colors. United Plankton Pictures adds all the dialogue, lettering, and sound effects with Comicraft fonts.





I finished reading the full issue last night. There are a lot of fun comics in this one, by artists & writers including James Kochalka, Andy Rementer, R. Sikoryak, Derek Drymon, Gregg Schigiel, Jacob Chabot, Robert Leighton, Molly Dolben, Scott Roberts, and Rick Neilsen. Well worth $2.99 and supporting your local comics shop.

If you're lucky, you still may be able to find copies of issue #1 (also amazing), which included my GlowSponge comic.

Thanks for reading!

Got my comics hat on!

See you at MoCCA Festival this weekend!

Table B21. Heeby Jeebys, prints, and more!

See you at MoCCA!

We already announced it over at the Heeby Jeeby Comix blog, but I'm reposting over here (with new photos!).

We'll be officially debuting Heeby Jeeby Comix #2 at MoCCA Festival 2011 this Saturday in New York City. You can be the first to get a copy of our latest 32-page full color print edition, chock-full of all new weird and bizarre comics.

Look for Dan Moynihan and I (in monster form) at Table #B21



We'll have plenty of copies of both issues on hand, assorted prints, and much more. So be sure to stop by and say hello. We'll even sign and doodle in your book! The festival runs Saturday and Sunday (April 9-10) from 11am-6pm at the Lexington Avenue Armory, 68 Lexington Ave (Between 25th &26th Streets) in New York City.

More info and ticket prices at the MoCCA Festival website.

Handrail

For today's "What the Doodle?" on Creative Juices.