Blue Moon Blog

Len with “Big Mike”, awaiting the bride.

I didn’t end up taking many photos at the recent Minnesota comic book convention, but at least snagged a few from the off-the-wall and poignant wedding that took place that Saturday night after the first day of the show. It was held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds main grandstand. My long-time pal, writer and professor Len Strazewski officiated, having overseen a good handful of weddings over the years, and I’m sure this one was the most…different.

Folks and family were encouraged to dress in costume (some already decked out from the show), and the “flower girl” role was filled by our own Terrance Griep (alias wrestler Tommy “The Spider-Baby” Saturday).

Father Len, Big Mike, and Spider-Baby Flower Girl

Leaving the show Sunday, my buddy, Alex Grecian’s son, Graham gave us a Spider-Graham pose!

We’re lucky to have built our house several years ago on a nice lot, half-wooded, half-open. Up here in Minnesota, one had better pay attention as the temps begin to drop: blink and you’ll miss Fall. The trees go from green to fall colors to off the tree in about a week. Peak time for Fall colors is about three days. I’ve learned to take it all in given the short time allowed. It’s a little chilly, but it looks awful nice in our backyard this time of year. This is pretty much the view from my studio window.

Continuing to get in the mood for Halloween, these three pieces complete the set of Pixilated Monster postcards I published in 1992.

The Muckety-Mucks are some of my favorites from the postcard set, having been developed in my sketchbooks in the mid-’80s. Glancing at the date, I’m reminded I produced this piece for the 2nd annual Halloween mini-comic (same as for Mummy Gumbo). I’ve a couple scripts written for Mucks children’s book, but it never fully developed, and it would have to wait now anyways, getting in line behind a few other projects. I’ll try and dig out some of those early Mucks sketches and post ‘em here before the Big Scary Day.

Similar to the Screamin’ Meemies (posted yesterday) these guys are all shook up, riffing off another old term. “Heebies Jeebies” is the name of one of Louis Armstrong’s earliest hits, and a historic and superb jazz recording to boot.

Easily the most violent of the ten cards, I was able to cut loose and get gross with these Zombies. Eew.

Rounding out the set are three cards I’ve posted previously on this blog: Funrunts, Husks and Space Waster. I’ve a few of these sets left, I think, and may make them available at our Blue Moon Shop here at this very site.

As Halloween is nigh upon us, it seems the perfect time to finally display the rest of the series of Pixilated Monster Postcards I published as a set in 1992.

I still like how this Mummy Gumbo piece stands out. Because of the dance poses (especially on the lower right — Tequila!), it puts me in mind of Pee-Wee Hermann, who’s Saturday morning show was still on the air at the time. All brush on this one, which was actually done in 1987 for a mini-comic collection and served as the catalyst for the eventual postcard set.

About half of these monsters are visual depictions of fun terms, in this case quite literal. This was done with a crow quill on craft-tint paper.

Here’s another group of creatures with a name taken from a recognizable term. Many of these monsters were cooked up in my sketchbook, sometimes trying to find the right look for a certain predetermined term, other times I applied a name afterwards. This one looks too busy to me now, but certainly conveys lotsa manic energy.

A spiky vampire of some kind, done with a combination of brush (figure) and crow quill (background and border).

Check back in tomorrow for the balance of the set.

A straightforward rendition of Obama, done directly with my trusty Pentel Brush Pen.

A variety of approaches in pencil: slightly distorted & serious; exaggerated caricature; rock star.

Some late-night Obama sketching from earlier this year, done with a green ball point pen I had on hand.

It’s been fun doing these campaign sketches; I haven’t posted about this material since February, and April when I did a campaign illustration for Scholastic.  I’ve got maybe one more day in me.

Resuming my campaign ’08 sketching after yesterday’s cheery Cubs post.

Tomorrow: Obama doodles.

Well, this is not the Cubs illustration I thought I’d be drawing next. I had something else in mind, more like my last Cubs post.

But they blew it again, in classic horrendous fashion, perhaps reaching new depths, beyond any suck or choke in their history. What I present above signifies not only how the team performed, but the point of despair to which they’ve brought every Cub fan on the planet.

I’ve come now to believe no Cubs team will ever win a World Series again. As the first pitch approached for their first playoff game, I went from excited to nervous. And while watching before the game began, the crowd at Wrigley was eerily silent. It felt like all of Cubdom was holding its collective breath. And then the Cubs played just like that…again. Cubs players can say they don’t pay attention to or believe in curses, but when it comes down to it, there’s a tremendous pressure that I’m not sure any Cubs team will ever overcome. Many said all year “It’s Gonna Happen.” I’ve got news for them: It’s never gonna happen.

Sure, hope springs eternal, and maybe I’ll sing a different tune come April, but if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go cheer myself up and watch the DOW.

More tomorrow.

I’ll have a couple new Bedbugs tees available at the Minnesota FallCon this weekend, like so:

You can also preview pages of the PROOF short story that looks now to appear in issue 16. Issue 12 was just released, marking the first anniversary of the on-time, monthly comic by Alex Grecian and Riley Rossmo. Meet the fabulous Mr. Grecian at the con, and grab the trade paperback which collects the first five issues, so you can catch up and hop aboard as a regular reader.

See you there!