Blue Moon Blog

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.

After having worked with Scholastic to develop materials for their program with SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), they called us again to work on a program for the U.S. Census Bureau.

Using a combo of comics and illustration, we created what was utilized in pamphlets and brochures and online PDF guides for teachers, parents and students. These pieces helped communicate the census process, to make sure people made sure they were counted.

To view a few sample worksheets, visit our Prime Projects section of our Gallery.

As my childrens book, Night of the Bedbugs is now in stores, we’re just about ready to launch an expanded Bedbugs web site. In preparation, I did this illustration for the Bedbugs Booster Club. It’s, y’know…for kids.

From the site, you can click the Bedbugs Facebook icon to become a fan and learn the latest news, get a chance to win a special Bebdugs prize package, which includes a piece of original Bedbugs art. Order the book online, or go to your local Borders or Barnes & Noble to pick up a copy. The Bedbugs bandwagon is just pulling out, folks. Climb aboard - we’re just getting started.

I did this cartoon fox mascot for a construction company some years back. Their last name and company name was Fox, so they knew what animal they wanted to use; a natural. Because the character would most times appear very small in printed logos, business cards and brochures, we stuck with very simple and flat color.

I never got the chance, but it would’ve been fun to do a series of poses of this Fox at work and in action.

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.

Just before going to print, the publisher and I decided to change the cover for my forthcoming book, Night of the Bedbugs. As much as I like the cover we used for solicitation, instead of being suggestive, subtle and graphic, we thought it best to be more overt to give readers a better idea of the story inside.

Pre-order now from our Blue Moon Amazon Store, or purchase at your local comic shop for its December release, and in late March at Borders or other fine bookstores. Ask for it by name (or refer to the ISBN# 978-1-60706-145-8).

To keep up on the latest Bedbugs news and print out game and activity pages for your kids, become a fan at the Facebook Bedbugs page.

Having seen UFO in concert ten days back, I’ve been listening to their music, old and new and am in a real UFO/Michael Schenker phase. Reading again my recent post about seeing them live, I realize I can’t truly call my interest in the group and Schenker an obsession, not when compared to how attentive and devoted my brothers’ have been as fans and with their tribute band they’ve had going now over a decade. An MST article at their site is worth a read, from a few years ago now, covering the distinction between a “cover band” and a “tribute band.”

This interest all started over thirty years ago when my older brother, Karl, the guitarist brought UFO and Schenker into the house. We were such Schenker fans, I drew up two different tee shirts. We printed plenty and sold them at our high school. I recall spending some hours drawing up the art for the shirts, up in my bedroom, listening to their live album, Strangers in the Night over and over again ’til the art was done. I worked in pencil, making sure the lines were dark and clean so it’d print and be screen printed onto the tees nicely.

I was about 15 years old when I drew these shirts. I couldn’t find the original shirt, in which Schenker was depicted with scraggly hair covering his face, but I prefer this second shirt where he’s sporting a new haircut and lotsa leather. This shirt doesn’t fit me anymore.  = - )

Another political cartoon. Love her or not, she’s having an effect on the public debate, probably even more so than when in office, bypassing traditional media.

Some data and a similar take at the link at techpresident.com.

So, after Microsoft decided on a format change from an 8-page comic book to a semi-animated video, I had to rethink the storytelling and change gears. Either format was fine with me; I just had to disregard the comic page layouts I had already begun to formulate in my head and think instead how to tell the story in a fixed widescreen format, with zooms, pans, fades and simple movements and effects.

Instead, then, of doing comic book page layouts of varying panel sizes and shapes, I needed to do a series of what amounted to 35-40 “shooting storyboards” to figure and convey the action frame by frame. These were drawn quickly and small, 2″ x 3″, taking maybe 3-10 minutes each, depending on the degree of complexity. They’re not much to look at, they’re supposed to be just enough to form the plan to tell the story, a guide for effects and movements, and figure shot compositions. Below is a sampling of the boards alongside the finished color shots.

The story begins with the four heroes meeting at their…meeting place, Justice League of America-style:

Nova (kinda like Charlie did with his Angels) speaks to them via intercom, informing them of the situation and and their task. Then, my fave, Affinity affords her mates a glimpse into the Dark World of the Workers they’re to aid:

The Workers’ World is filled with shadow and devoid of color, as they toil away chained to their desks at their desktops, limited and hampered in their prison-like workplace:

Affinity peers into that Gray World and transports herself and her colorful clan there to perform their task:

But despite their best efforts, the evil force, Pernicious fights back and begins to drain color and energy from the heroes!

Harmony turns on her charm, spreading enthusiasm and sweet color to the workers, freeing them from their sorry state:

The above shots of Harmony leaving her feet we determined to be superfluous, slowing down the action. I’d hoped to see her lower into frame from above, but that action was cut from the final video.

Harmony and the heroes celebrate before returning to their headquarters for kudos from Nova.

In the end, I lost only a few effects and motions I’d planned and hoped to see, and was pleased the animator added effects I hadn’t thought of or expected. To view the video for the rest of the story, visit the GXS Facebook page. And now in benediction, Harmony wishes you peace and happiness:

While planning their new sales tool, GSX, Microsoft wanted to add some energy and pizazz by utilizing the superhero genre. Initially, they intended to use the comic book format to help get the point across, create interest and enthusiasm within their sales force. So, when I began designing the four heroes, a comic book it was to be.

With some superhero illustration projects I’ve had over the years, clients sometimes lean towards a silly, campy and retro tone, which is fine - it can be fun. Many seem to want to emulate the Batman TV show. Y’know, it comics - it’s for kids! I’ve drawn a Pizza-Man, who wore a hairnet and glasses. Also, heroes who aren’t too muscular or curvy, or even in superhero costumes. In this case, Microsoft wanted something cool and edgy.

I was on the right track right off the bat with the two heroines, Affinity and Harmony. Affinity has a punk-ish look, with something of a mohawk and lots of leather. I was asked to try leggings instead of the semi-loose leather pants, change out the boots, and then add skirt with chains. Her tattoo was later dropped. Though I think she ended up with kind of a Desperately-Seeking-Susan look, she turned out well, my favorite of the four to draw.

Harmony was to be meditative and calming, so I went with a clean and straightforward super-heroine outfit, borrowing some french curves from the yin/yang symbol. She was good to go from the start.

My initial designs for the two male heroes, PI and Alt leaned towards a sci-fi look, more clean and streamlined, evoking the new Battlestar Galactica. But to their credit, the folks at Microsoft yearned for something less “Star Trek” and more “Watchmen.” So it was back to the drawing board for the males. Alt wasn’t too big a change, I just added a leather jacket and made his outfit mostly black, darkening his overall look. He became a bit more serious and cocky, rather than too smiley and friendly.

For PI, a complete overhaul was required. He became a more shadowy, detective-like character in a long overcoat and fedora, more like the Watchmen’s Rorschach, Will Eisner’s Spirit, or DC Comics’ Phantom Stranger.

I also designed an Average Joe worker, then named Simon, patterned a bit after “Jim” from The Office. His role decreased as the script was developed, but I used him in the final art when depicting workers in the story.

About halfway through the character design process, the client changed gears and decided to do a semi-animated video instead. That was fine with me. More about that part of the creative process tomorrow, including some storyboards and some of my favorite shots from the video…