RORR!

Just in time for Halloween (barely!)...

Go read my newest comic for Heeby Jeeby!

Dan, Chris and David all did comics this week, so be sure to read the whole bunch of them (including the batch from last year!)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pumpkin Carvin' Party 2010

Last night I hosted the 3rd Annual Pumpkin Carvin' Party at my apartment. We had about a dozen friends over to celebrate. This is what October is all about, folks!


Here a a few pre-candle photos; this grinning bunch includes mine on the left and Taryn's on the right.


Renee carved an adorable pumpkin this year! Nice touch with the ears :)


Tami did some crazy work with negative space. Wait until you see this one lit (below).


And then—lights out!


Here's an overhead.


Ryan carved one of the most intricate grins I've ever seen.


Eric used an electric dremel for a mean looking Jack Skellington.


Jack-o-lanterns by Jesse and Sara. Sinister!


Keith did a great tribute to Mignola. Wild on negative shapes.


Tami's, too. It really comes to life!


Here's mine.


Taryn's eyes look ablaze!


Hannah's just cracks me up :)


And a close-up on Renee's heart.

Here's to another great year!
I still have a couple more pumpkins to carve—we'll probably save them until Halloween (one for me; one for my wife, Loren).

Thanks for coming out everyone! And here are pumpkins from previous years (2008, 2009).

Including a few solo pumpkins of mine (1, 2)

BOO.

Inbound #5: The Food Issue

(click image to view larger)

I just got word that Inbound #5 is now available for purchase through the Boston Comics Roundtable. It's a 176-page b&w trade paperback, and also features the 10-page "caveman comic" I co-created with Dan Mazur (process art previously). From the BCR website:

Boston’s comics creators are serving up
a piping hot stack of stories!

Our best and brightest comics artists come together in Inbound #5 to share their reminiscences, fantasies, fears, and love of food. From the deeply personal to the fantastical, this book explores our complex relationship with what we eat.

When did humans first learn to cook? Why are we sometimes attracted to the most repulsive cuisines? Is it possible to turn into the food you eat too much? Inbound #5 takes you from the historical tales of fishwives and cheese-chasing to the beautiful and evocative legends of food handed down from the gods.

I should add that my friend Ellen Crenshaw drew up a fantastic cover! You can see the full illustration over on her blog. And the outstanding layout and design is by (once again) Shelli Paroline, who also has a comic in the book.

If you'd like a copy, it's all yours! Hop on over to the BCR website to buy a book ($12), and help support the Boston comics community. Thank you!

Buy a copy, here --> Inbound #5

UPDATE: For all you locals, you can find a copy at many Boston-area comic shops and locally-owned bookstores, including Million Year Picnic, Harvard Book Store, New England Comics, Brookline Booksmith, Comicazi, Hub Comics, and Comicopia.

Contributors include: E.J. Barnes, Eric Boeker, Jerel Dye, Franklin Einspruch, Patrick Flaherty, Bob Flynn, Joel Christian Gill, Andrew Greenstone, Danny Gonzalez, Raul Gonzalez, Beth Hetland, Erik Heumiller, Allie Kleber, Braden D. Lamb, Cathy Leamy, Jackie Lee, Jesse Lonergan, Dan Mazur, Mar-T Moyer, Line O, David Ortega, Shelli Paroline, Adrian Rodriguez, Roho, Aya Rothwell, Katherine Roy, Adam Syzm, Laura Terry, Jason Viola, Rebecca Viola, Katherine Waddell, Ryan Wheeler, and Andy Wong.

color play

Here are some rough color studies for a side project I'm working on with my friend, Taryn Johnson. We're basically going with my first instincts (top row), but I have a lot of fun exploring other options just messing around in Photoshop, which often spawn other color ideas.

Norman Saunders: Illostribute

Over the summer, illustrator Toby Thane Neighbors asked me if I'd like to participate in a new collaborative blog he'd started called Illostribute. The idea for the site is to pay tribute to famous illustrators and fine artists by "investigation through interpretation." And he's been able to gather up quite the impressive roster artists, including regular contributor Nate Wragg. I missed the first few rounds because I was crazy busy, but was able to carve out some time in September for the current artist, Norman Saunders.

You can see the full post --> here

...which details Saunder's career as one of the most renown pulp fiction illustrators, creating more than 800 covers in his time—and includes well over a dozen outstanding tribute illustrations.

I began my investigation by poring over cover after cover of Saunder's work. There are many great resources, including this one over at PulpArtists.com. After much searching, I settled on the Mars Attacks trading cards he co-created for Topps in 1962—a good online index of those can be found here. This is apparently the set that inspired Tim Burton to make his movie of the same name. I chose the image on the left because it features one of Saunder's trademark women in distress, and of course, because I knew I'd have fun drawing the alien.



Here's the sketch I started with.



Which I then scanned and inked in Flash.



I imported the inks (with transparency) into ArtRage, where I did all of my painting and coloring. Above is an in-process screen shot. As always, I highly recommend this program for digital painting.



And the final rendering, which I imported into Photoshop to design the typography, added texture, and to crop it to match the trading card (see image at the top of the post).

The process of visual investigation was definitely a fun one, though I'd consider it a cover or tribute more than a unique re-interpretation. Still, it was enjoyable to take one of his images and remake it. Plus, I normally work in flat colors, so moving the paint around and rendering the forms was a welcome exploration.

For more on Norman Saunders, there's a great book out by his son David Saunders, published by The Illustrated Press. Shane Glines has great praise for it, too.

Multiples

Here's a little guy I was hammering away at the the other night.