Blue Moon Blog

I’ve long been a fan of Don Simpson’s Megaton Man, indeed since his debut in 1984. So I was pleased as punch when he and newly appointed President of the CBLDF (Comic Book Legal Defense Fund), Larry Marder asked me to color a four-page story Don had done for the upcoming annual issue of Liberty Comics.

Don considers himself retired from the comic book scene, focusing on teaching and working towards his MA in history of art and architecture and PhD. Still, when called upon to raise funds and defend the First Amendment, Don rose to the challenge and hasn’t missed a beat. Indeed, not only is this piece his first and longest in years, it’s also his best. It’s like he never took the time off. So it was a pleasure for my wife, Mary and I to color away on his array of Bizarre Heroes, and contribute to the cause ourselves.

Here’s a sneak peek panel from one of many great stories by big name creators:

This panel also features fan faves Yarn Man, Rubber Brother and X-Ray Boy.

CBLDF Liberty Annual 2010, edited by Larry Marder with stories from various creators and covers by Jim Lee and Darick Robertson, arrives in stores on October 6, 2010 for $4.99.

My pal, Mark Flora, for whom I’ve done album illustrations, and who played guitar and more for the most recent Bedbugs trailer, has assembled a new band, The Holy Rocka Rollaz! Over this past weekend, the band was out and about at a local car show, spreading the word and passing out CD samplers, which featured my art on the cover, in total Ratfink/Dragster mode.

The band provided me tons of good photo reference for the vibe and likenesses. There’s still some tweaking and finessing I’ll do on the art, as well as the type treatment, but this was good to go for their purposes early on as Mark and his gang lay the groundwork to set up gigs. The Holy Rocka Rollaz are a band that loves and pays tribute to early American rock ‘n’ roll, probably playing car shows, gigs events and even weddings by the Fall.

For your curiosity, I’m including here my initial and only sketch/pencil, done digitally, directly on the screen/computer. I printed it in blue and inked with a brush, scanning and coloring in Photoshop. I’ll post updates about the band here at the blog, as well as the updated art when it’s completed.

This topic was kicked off by NPR, then picked up by blogger Ann Althouse. Everyone’s gonna have their own take on it, depending on personal musical tastes and preferences, and whether a great track can lead off an otherwise mediocre album. The Beatles’ Revolver is pretty much my favorite album, and Taxman is a great opening track, but it didn’t make the cut for my top twelve, as I’m looking for more: a particular superb track that sets the tone and theme for an album, or perhaps kicks off a great career for an artist or band. So here are my faves, some well known, some far less so.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice - Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

The wonderful tune to open a classic album, the opening song perfectly encapsulating Brian Wilson’s naive, innocent and optimistic state of mind in his mid-twenties. The album explores the themes and ideas most important to Wilson at the time: how to find his place in the world; break out on his own; personally and creatively. He’s a musical prodigy, yet has been stunted emotionally, damaged by his father, his growth delayed. The album becomes bittersweet as it closes, and more mature, as one can sense his entry into adulthood. And there’s no going back. In hindsight, Wouldn’t It Be Nice becomes bittersweet itself, because of the loss of innocence (also lamented in J.D. Salinger’s novel, Catcher in the Rye), and it just about breaks your heart hearing it and knowing how life went for him not long after.

Hello There - Cheap Trick - In Color

I find this to be a classic rock tune, a superb opener for an album, show, playlist or party. Sure, they had released an album previous to this, and Surrender was on the following album, but to me, Cheap Trick announced themselves as major players with this song and this album. I love that they kept it so short; it’s an intro, really. I love the double guitar lead that finishes it.

Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water

To open their final album, the folkster duo gives us a hymn (released about the same time as McCartney’s Let It Be) that soars. Like The Beatles last, Abbey Road, which opens with Here Comes the Sun, the second side starts with their last and ultimate folk song, a story of survival and persistence, The Boxer. What begins as a simple folk tune with guitar and voice, it builds with additional and effective instrumentation to become a bombastic epic, and one can really feel the triumph of the narrator.

We Will Rock You/(We Are the Champions) - Queen - News of the World

It’s tough to beat the one-two punch of the opening of Queen’s second best album (following Night At the Opera). Sure, both anthems have been overplayed and have become nearly cliches, but We Will Rock You bursts with energy from the opening insistent beats and claps, Mercury’s rough vocal and Brian May’s astounding solo.

I Will Follow - U2 - Boy

Not their best album, but still one of their best songs, and that’s saying something for a band with such a long and storied career. I Will Follow is quite an intro for the band, as these teens declared themselves to the world, with the Edge’s distinctive guitar sound, Mullen’s pounding beat, Clayton’s pulsing bass and Bono’s dramatic vocals. With their first song an album called Boy, these young men had already come of age.

Welcome to the Working Week - Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True

Another startling entrance for an artist, as Elvis Costello emerges fully formed, in your face and fighting for the blue collar worker, though offering little comfort. With the backing vocals ooh-ing and aah-ing behind Costello’s first lines, he kicks it into high gear and doesn’t let up as the song clocks in at 1:23. He and the band keep up the pace and quality for the rest, in one of the greatest introductions in rock history.

American Music - The Violent Femmes - Why Do Birds Sing?

Accompanied by a guitar strumming simple chords, pastor’s son Gordon Gano whines to us the question whether we like American music, challenging us to answer in the affirmative as the drummer and band kick it into gear. This semi-punk trio takes us for a ride on this opening song, speeding up in a furious flurry ’til it stops on a dime. The rest of the album is heartbreaking, snarky, joyous, silly, sophomoric, primal, vengeful and literate, leaving one to answer that sure, “I like American music (We like all kinds of music!)”, but can’t for our lives figure why birds sing.

The Blues Walk/Here I Am - Lyle Lovett and His Large Band

After the sprightly Blues Walk sets the stage, it then all goes quiet as the spotlight hits on Lyle Lovett who introduces himself, stating simply, “Hello, I’m the guy who sits next to you and reads the newspaper over your shoulder/ Wait - don’t turn the page/ I’m not finished/ Life is so uncertain.” Here he is indeed. The rest of the song/album is funny, quirky, gender and genre-bending, and contains an array of great bluesy tunes jilted lovers and aching ballads of lovers still together.

I Feel Young Today - Peter Himmelman - Gematria

A personal favorite, Himmelman kicks off his solo career with a rhythmic opening track that gets the heart pumping and a person ready to take on the day/life. It begins simply with a syncopated guitar pattern, but soon builds to a crescendo with grunts & groans, soaring and screamed vocals, drum bursts and echos, and more. It hard not to listen to this without feeling energized and ready to roll.

Just One of Those Things - Blossom Dearie - Give Him the Ooh-La-La

Opening with a smoldering whisper of a slapping, bouncy upright bass, Blossom Dearie brings a new sound to an old standard. One of the most distinctive voices in pop and jazz history, Ms. Dearie breezes through a tune of rapture and regret in just over two minutes. Accompanied by that bass only for the first minute, the band joins in for the second half, until Blossom and the bass dwindle and fade off. A superb start to her best album, for the Verve label, recorded in 1957.

Let the Day Begin - The Call - Let the Day Begin

An epic, exuberant, compassionate call to all, a rocker predating U2’s Beautiful Day by more than a decade. Michael Been & company lift us up, every one: babies, preachers, dreamers, teachers, doctors, soldiers, the lonely and the homeless in a song that is actually narrated by God, with blessings from above. The Call is one of my favorite bands, and they seem to open every one of their albums in strong fashion.

Don’t Wake Me - Toby Lightman - Bird On a Wire

A rousing opener to one of three of Lightman’s great albums. It kicks off with an a capella gospel intro before jumping into a funky/soulful exploration about indecision of a relationship. Toby’s incredible pipes hold it all together. I strongly recommend you pick up everything she’s done.

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I couldn’t help but include these two more:

I Saw Her Standing There - The Beatles - Please Please Me

Their first album, which included their two previously released singles and B-sides. But ten more tracks were recorded in a rigorous nearly ten hour session - incredible. Much of the album seems dated now, due to early efforts that weren’t their best and some forgettable covers. But it also includes the immortal first-take of Twist & Shout, Love Me Do, Please Please Me & Do You Want to Know A Secret. And the album kicks off with what is still one of the greatest rock tunes ever. What a debut!

Beyond Belief - Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom

Another Elvis Costello song & album - had to. Beyond Belief is an evolving, free-form, explosive tune that opens a fantastic album, one of Costello’s best. It’s one of my all-time favorite songs and one of my favorite album covers ever.

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Now, what are yours?

Roger Miller was a one of a kind American singer/songwriter, defying genre. Though he’s best known for his big 1965 hit, King of the Road, and is usually classified as a country artist, he wrote perceptive and poignant ballads and love songs, signature nonsensical and improvisational honky-tonk tunes, and later in his career also wrote the award-winning score Big River, the musical adaptation of Huck Finn.

I was taken with his music as a child listening constantly to my Dad’s album, Roger Miller: Golden Hits. King of the Road has a great groove, with hip finger-snappin’ and lyrics that paint a picture and tell a story. His other tunes were playful and jaunty, skirting the edge of but avoiding novelty or out-and-out childrens music. One of my faves as a kid was his silly My Uncle Used to Love Me But She Died (which I thought was on the Golden Hits album, but must’ve been the B-side of King of the Road). His energetic and distinctive songs are delivered with a vocal style unmatched, peppered with a bevy of yodels, raspberries, pops, laughs, falsetto flourishes and a honky-tonk scat all his own.

Revisiting his catalog as an adult, I found his tunes retained their charm and wear well. If I winnow down a playlist to what I consider his best, twenty-five tunes clock in under fifty minutes, most songs about two minutes or less. When reading that he was sometimes frustrated when he tried he couldn’t sound like those artists he admired, understanding eventually he could only sound and write like himself. I’m reminded of Maurice Ravel telling George Gershwin when the latter asked to study with the former, Ravel replied, “Why be a second rate Ravel when you’re already a first-rate Gershwin?”

It’s been said he was trying for a Bobby Darin vibe with King of the Road. What’s ironic is that he inspired many other artists like Mac Davis and others, some of his tunes covered in the ’90s, becoming #1 hits again. You can’t go wrong starting with the Golden Hits collection, but if you want to dig deeper, the posthumous four-disc King of the Road: The Genius of Roger Miller contains tons more.

I’m tardy in posting this strip we did last August for Kid’s Zone magazine. This one focused on doing good deeds for those in need, so the star, Joey and his pals get together to raise money.

They get some good advice from someone who may look a tad familiar, though for the final art they had me add a top hat.

And here’s a sneak peek at the layout for page 2 (of 3). At this point I still worked the old-fashioned way, scribbling with a marker with a board on my lap. My process has since changed, which I’ll be sharing soon on this blog.

Read the whole comic (and those done previously) in our Prime Projects section, or at my Facebook page.

This past Sunday we shot the video for the first Bedbugs trailer, a live music performance of a song I wrote to accompany Night of the Bedbugs, my children’s book due soon from Silverline Books.

With the help of the Bedbugs Backup Singers, we rehearsed and did six takes of the Bedbugs Boogie, a rollicking, bluesy call-and-response number. All the girls did a great job learning the tune and their parts both vocal and choreographed.

My pal, Mitch loaned us the perfect tripod. We taped sheets with large print of the lyrics and direction on an easel which was set on a table next to the tripod. The girls also taped a lyric sheet on my back so they could refer to that for cues. Noisemakers were placed on the floor and in pockets, at the ready for the rousing finale.

Though we were all exhausted afterward, we had a blast and enjoyed watching the footage and bloopers. Now it’s time to decide on a take to use, add titles and credits, then we’ll make it available for viewing on YouTube, Facebook and many online venues.

Night of the Bedbugs is currently available for pre-order at amazon.com and at your local comic book shop sometime in December. It’s also for pre-order sale at many online bookstores, like Borders, Barnes & Noble and Books-a-Million, and will be in fine bookstores late March 2010.

I’m having a blast with this fairy tale comic book story, collaborating with my old pal, gadfly, raconteur, man-about-town and writer, Professor Len Strazewski. Here’s a preview panel in rough layout form, from a story that is one of many in a Fairy Tale Anthology book. More details as I’m able to share.

In this case so far, I’ve been working all digital, drawing right on my Cintiq screen, then doing the final lettering right away in Adobe Illustrator. I probably won’t ink digitally, but will more likely instead blow up pages, printing the roughs/pencils in blue and inking traditionally with a brush. Then it’ll be back to the computer for coloring.

Around this time last year, I was asked to design a cartoon beaver character mascot for a sign company. I don’t think the company ever got off the ground, but I was indeed paid for my work, and can share some preparatory sketches and the final Beaver art. The web designer and I had many potential names for him, but I don’t think we settled on one.

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, sometimes with initial designs, concepts and layouts, I like to stay loose and just doodle, sometimes outside on the deck, sometimes while watching TV with a sketch board or book on my lap. That way I don’t worry too much about drawing the perfect character or illustration right off and stiffen up.

And once that part of the process is finished, I’ll whittle away what I don’t like, and try and coalesce and tighten to a few options for clients from which to choose:

In this case, we’d started with the idea of the beaver holding a sign or incorporating him into the logo. And just for grins, I threw in a fourth option that I liked stylistically, but figured the client wouldn’t go for.
Turns out I was wrong, and the extra beaver was the one chosen!

Then I inked up the selected beaver with my trusty brush and my wife and I colored up the final illustration at the top of this post.

And if it ever turns out he makes his official appearance, I’ll provide a link, etc.

I’m currently working on character designs and layouts for a new funny Fairy Tale anthology book, teaming again with writer and long-time pal Len Strazewski. More on the project and our part in it when the time is right. In the meantime, here are a few preliminary character sketches for the story.