http://bluemoonstudios.com/blog Illustrator and cartoonist Paul Fricke shares his art and thoughts. Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:28:58 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I recently received my copies of the Fractured Fables anthology published by Jim Valentino at Image/Silverline Books. My contribution with Len Strazewski (script) and my wife, Mary (fellow colorist) is a twist on Washington Irving's Rip van Winkle called Pippi van Wrinkles. I'm very pleased by the printing and presentation, ... http://bluemoonstudios.com/blog/index.php/2010/09/fractured-fables-anthology/ This wonderful and desperate Toth panel speaks to me right now for some reason. Anyone else? This frame is from the Soldier's Grave story I featured last Tuesday. I know I promised the whole story today, but that'll have to wait til next week, along with analysis and a couple more ... http://bluemoonstudios.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/toth-tuesday-i-will-not-fail/ Here's a sample/preview page of an evolving project I'm working on right now with writer, Alex Grecian. How it progresses or whether it'll be published is a matter still to be decided and discovered, but it's fun to work on when I've time. Something different style-wise than Bedbugs and for ... http://bluemoonstudios.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/pepper-and-the-snow-leopard/ A couple weeks back I spent some time with some great kids at a Commonbond Housing site called Yorkdale Townhomes in Edina as a guest visitor for their summer program. I shared my story of life as an artist, taught some cartooning - how to create facial features and build/design ... http://bluemoonstudios.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/kids-art-class/ I was lucky to find scans online of a few pages of the black and white original art from Toth's Soldier's Grave. written by Bob Kanigher. It's a stirring little war period piece, featuring old Mullah, who leaves his family to become a soldier, his only chance to earn enough ... http://bluemoonstudios.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/toth-tuesday-chiaroscuro-soldier/ I had a lotta hot fun at the Minneapolis Indie Xpo, doing sketches, chatting with fans, friends and fellow artists, and selling lotsa comics, minis, books, buttons and marbles. I expected the crowd to be 20-something hipsters, of which there were plenty, but a lotta families showed up, too, so ... http://bluemoonstudios.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/mix-2010/ 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 ... http://bluemoonstudios.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/the-return-of-megaton-man/ Browsing again through pages this week of Dear John: The Alex Toth Doodle Book, I came across this quote from Toth: "About original comic book/strip/black and white line art - young or old at examining/enjoy sleuthing-out which lines/dots/jiggles/splats/blobs/streaks/smears/nicks/scrapes/ were accidents - and which were intentional bits of genius-business, done so casually, ... http://bluemoonstudios.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/toth-tuesday-lines-dots-jiggles-splats/ Sorry, I'm way too busy right now to barrage you all with another slew of faces by Toth, but have another little gem to share instead. In the mid-'90s my pal and Trollords partner Scott Beaderstadt and I decided to release a (as it turns out, ill-fated) Trollords Classics collection. It ... http://bluemoonstudios.com/blog/index.php/2010/08/toth-tuesday-death-by-toth/ Last week, artist Ashley Holt and I and others got into a lively debate about Alex Toth's work on his Facebook Wall. He issued the challenge, thus: "I think Alex Toth was an incredibly talented artist, but his page layouts consist mostly of incredibly lazy decisions. All those ... http://bluemoonstudios.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/toth-tuesdays-faces/