Blue Moon Blog

I’ve loved the comics art of Sean Phillips for years, since first seeing his stuff on Hellblazer, a title on which I was astounded hear he didn’t pencil. Still can’t believe it. But after reading his insightful and self deprecating blog, there’s a hint to his creative process. It seems he draws in blue marker a guide from his small thumbnail roughs, from which he goes directly to ink. I love the the idea of streamlining and speeding up the process, but you have to be good enough, as Phillips is, to pull it off. Because of the approach, he’s able achieve a looser, more expressive and energetic dry brush look. Great stuff. And he can paint, too.

I just received in the mail this week his self published (through lulu.com) book, Blow Up, a 400-page collection of sketches, comics panels, paintings and layouts, all enlarged and blown up to see the detail and true nature of what makes his art tick. Probably more for the die-hard fan, it’s well worth picking up. And if you’re among the uninitiated, I’d start with the superb Criminal, hard-boiled modern noir comics written by Ed Brubaker.

After toying with the Bedbugs ABC book (which is pretty much completed, in color), and considering printing costs and the ideal way to roll out the characters, it looks like it’s full steam ahead on the original Night of the Bedbugs children’s book. That was my first plan, and probably still the best way to go. Once I get closer to completion, I’ll be able to announce release dates.

This shot above is one of the first pages I completed, a crucial moment in the story, obviously.

I’ve got Bedbugs on the Brain, as you can see, also obvious around the house, which is full of the Bedbugs music I’m writing. The Bedbugs Lullaby was finished a while back, and I’m currently pounding out on the piano the Bedbugs Boogie.

More news here as it’s fit to print!

We’re working on the sixth poster for the National Kidney Foundation, a campaign we began in the Fall of 2006, as I mentioned in January. We’re pleased we just received word that the campaign will extend further with three more posters, with hopes and plans for beyond.

It’s gratifying that the comics poster series has been well received and is effective, using comics to increase awareness, diagnosis and treatment of Kidney disease. It’s been a pleasure working with Sam, Kieran and Alex at the BryantBrown agency. Here’s to many more!

Click away to view poster #5, just added to our Major Works section.

The last couple Fridays, I spent the afternoon with bunches of kids from K-8th grade for school Career Days, teaching cartooning. My daughter, Laura’s eXtreme Day at middle school was last week, and yesterday was Kid’s College at Emily’s elementary school.

It’s always a blast, as nearly all kids at this age love drawing, and have plenty of ideas and imagination, and most haven’t yet learned ways they shouldn’t draw. I start these sessions with a quick overview that like them, I was always drawing as a kid, and wanted to do it when I grew up. After briefly showing them some of the comics, book and projects I’ve worked on, I get them drawing, and together we come up with various ways to draw the main features of the face: eyes, nose and mouth. It’s a ton of fun to watch them piece these features together at different sizes on a variety of face shapes. Before our session’s done, they’re all character designers, with a start at creating stories for their new characters.

I’ve been doing these sessions since I began my career, at least a few times each year. It’s gratifying to pass on a little of what I’ve learned over the years, and to receive those packets afterwards with all their crazy drawings! See you in the funny pages, kids!

If you like comic books, horror, X-Files, are a conservationist or a Bigfoot enthusiast, you’ll like this first collection of Proof, available any day. I’ve written here before about Proof, as it’s co-created by long-time pal, Alex Grecian. This full-color, low-priced collection (of the first five issues) is a great place to hop on the bandwagon and get up to speed on a series that’s making waves and gaining attention. I just received in the mail the fun and creepy seventh issue, right in the middle of the second story arc, which features and antagonist who likes to hunt and eat dinosaurs…among other things. Eew!

Order Proof:Goatsucker at this link to support this blog, and if you’re quick, you may still qualify for Amazon’s 5% pre-order discount.

I’ve just received the script from Alex for a seven-page Proof back-up story. I started thumbnail layouts last night, and will announce here when this story will appear.

Update (5/9/08): Just got word from Alex the book is delayed for a few weeks due to printing/scheduling issues. That’s the bad news. The good news: there’s more time to pre-order and save 5% on the already-low price if you order through amazon.com. Click the link above to order at our Blue Moon amazon store and they’ll throw us a few shekels.

The comics show Sunday was a lot of fun, if a little chilly. Seems fitting, as the two-day show last October was sweltering and sweaty. Go figure. That’s Minnesota weather for you. I got a good reaction to the Bedbugs ABCs mini-comics, and to Bedbugs in general. Now I’m brimming with ideas and plans for our li’l yellow pals, with an eye towards the to-be-expanded-and-enlarged two-day show this October 4 & 5.

My daughter, Emily joined me and sold out of her homemade Funky Munky Kookies. Friend and superhero artist, Doug Mahnke has the empty cookie bag to prove how fast they went.

Good ol’ Zander Cannon was on hand, as usual, with his similarly-named studio mate, Kevin Cannon (not pictured). Both guys are always so nice to do sketches for my girls — thanks, guys! Zander has the dubious distinction of being a Trollords fan; thanks for the early support, Zander! These two are beginning another graphic novel project, so have three that will be released in 2009. Look for Kevin’s Far Arden, coming out this Friday, and read their Big Time Attic blog, always a treat, including Kevin’s report on this very same show.

I just realized I’ve known MCAD teacher and 11-year Batman inker, Terry Beatty for almost thirty years! Where did the time go, Terry? Mostly spent at the drawing board, I guess. I’ve been a guest to a couple of Terry’s classes and caught up with a couple of his students at the con. Terry’s got a blog, too, and shows off some mean sculptures at Terry’s web site.

Joel “Mojo” Moen was one of the first fans I met after moving up to Minnesota from Chicago fifteen years ago. I’ve always enjoyed chatting it up with Mojo, now for several years as a pro inker himself. He’s currently inking a story penciled by pal and fellow storyboard artist Peter Krause.

Sam Hiti was kicking back near the end of the show. A bold a prolific cartoonist, he’s busy on a 250-page graphic novel. Order his Tiempos Finales and other books or sketches at the Sam Hiti web site.

Many other folks were at the show, but I didn’t have my camera handy for shots of Dan Jurgens, Gordon Purcell, Jeff Limke, Cedric Hohnstadt and others. Maybe this Fall?

Work on these Bedbugs ABCs mini-books is going well. I colored a few more to show here. Up ’til this project, I’ve always drawn the ‘bugs by hand, scanning and coloring digitally. For this series, even though I sometimes do tiny roughs with a pen to serve as a guide, I’m drawing directly in Illustrator. The Bedbugs are so clean, simple and graphic, it’s easy and fast to draw them digitally. For certain elements, the brush tool is working great. I’ve always been worried I’d lose a certain expressiveness with this approach, but I may draw these guys this way from now on.

As my pal, Peter Krause has observed, the Bedbugs are “pure expression.” They’re malleable little amoeba-like smiley faces, but aren’t limited to just smiling. Changing their body shape creates unlimited opportunities to convey emotion, and their little “feelers” don’t hurt, either. What fun I’m having!

Taking a break from production on my children’s book in progress, Night of the Bedbugs, I’m still doing my Bedbugs characters, but instead for an idea for a project that’s now crystalized as a Bedbugs ABC book. For the Minnesota Spring comic show this Sunday, I’m hoping to have a mini-comic or two available. These little chapbooks serve as prototypes or first editions of the work-to-be, perhaps eventually a Bedbugs board book. Anyway, we’ll see how the week goes….

I colored these few to preview here. Of the three above, which mood is closest to yours today?

I’ll have a table and will be available to sign books and do sketches once again at this year’s annual Minneapolis Spring comic book convention, next Sunday, April 27th. Though I haven’t had comic work published within the industry for some time, it’s always nice to chat with fans, old and new alike, and catch up with local talent, most of whom are friends.

I’ll have on hand and will be previewing art from upcoming comics and childrens book projects, so stop on by to say Hi and check it all out.

I swiped a photo of myself (with good ‘ol pal, writer Len Strazewski) from Cedric Hohnstadt’s blog, who wrote about the show last year.

After several years in the comic book industry (at first self publishing, then working for established publishers like DC Comics), I began looking for chances to do comics outside the comics field. With The Adventures in Odyssey Bible, I got my first opportunity. Originally published in 1994, this bible utilized characters from the popular Odyssey series from Focus on the Family, now enjoying over twenty years of audio dramas, CDs, books and cartoon DVDs.

From rough scripts provided, I adapted into comics form eight four-page color story inserts, adding dialogue where necessary, breaking down and laying out the story. Each morality tale features and takes its cue from a verse from the bible. We also provided the cover art, and forty or so black-and-white spot illustrations interspersed throughout the text of the bible.

To begin work on this project, I was provided with a couple animated videos from which to determine character likenesses. Frustratingly, I was finally given model sheets only towards the end of the project. I did small page roughs on 3 x 5 cards, going directly to pencils then in larger 10 x 15 original art, sometimes penciling, inking and lettering more than a page a day. I had to work quickly, so as to keep feeding finished pages to the agency here in Minneapolis to the young guy coloring the pages. I found the coloring of the first story to be a tad too dark, but things improved rapidly after I spent an hour with him talking about coloring in general and how color can be used to aid the storytelling.

During that session, it was the first time I saw my art blown up on a large computer screen, and I was sold. Within a year or two, we invested in a computer set-up of our own, and no longer had to farm out or sub-contract our color work. From then on, we’ve had more control over the work and schedule, and have kept more of the income in studio.

Some sample comic book pages can be viewed in our Major Works section of this site (among work from other projects, so take a gander while there). Now out of print, used copies can still be found at amazon, ebay or half.com, etc.