Here are some sketchbook pages from the past couple months. This first page has sketches for Vortex #2, “Hawk” in Future Shock, and just some random drawings:
I really like the cat spaceship shooting lasers from its eyes to the left of the question, “Who made the Vortex?”
On this second page I was mostly brainstorming for Page 18 of Vortex #2 (also the first page of this preview of Vortex #2 (Update 1/13/2017: this link no longer works)):
Whew, it’s been a while since I’ve posted on this blog. I’ve gotten lost in drawing comics and I haven’t had time to put anything here but I’ve met most of my deadlines so I’m going to get back to my regular schedule of Tuesday/Friday blog posts. I’ve got two things to tell y’all about today:
Catch Up Winter Issue, cover by Max Bode.
The Catch Up Winter Issue is for sale. Josh Burggraf and I are the comics editors for this issue of the poetry/comics journal. It has comics by Box Brown, Victor Kerlow, Andrei Molotiu, Jo-Jo Sherrow, and others. You can buy it here.
A Jack Kirby drawing of a Celestial from the Eternals comics.
Robert Boyd, local Houston art critic and former Comics Journal staff member, has written a lengthy blog post discussing Kirby’s impact on art comics, in which he compares Vortex to comics by Jesse Jacobs and Jesse Moynihan. I’m honored to be discussed in such good company.
There’s a five-page preview of Vortex #2 on Squidface & the Meddler, click the screenshot to check it out: (Update 1/13/2017: This preview is no longer up.)
I got a few miscellaneous things to tell y’all about.
First of all, my guest editorship at Novi Magazine continues with a short post about what I’ve been reading lately, The Accidental Space Spy by Øyvind Thorsby and The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers, both of which are highly entertaining, tongue-in-cheek travelogues. Click the Space Spy screenshot to read my post: (Update 1/13/2017: Novi Magazine and this link are now kaput)
Second, Jason Poland drew a Robbie and Bobby comic that’s a hypercastle tribute! I couldn’t be more flattered since Poland is such an awesome webcartoonist. Click the panel to read his comic in its psychedelic entirety:
Finally, I have some photos from Melinda and I’s double comic book release party at Domy back in April, all from my wife Glade’s Instagram account:
Glade, Melinda, and her equally talented bf Aaron Whitaker.
Me and Glade.
Me reading my comics.
I just added Vortex #2 to my online store.
You can buy it individually or in a combo pack with #1 for a discount.
Instead of being Xeroxed, Vortex #1 and #2 were printed digitally in black by the Print Shoppe. Unfortunately, this increase in quality comes with an increase in price. But I think they look great. Look at my buddy Grant, he loves it:
There’s already an advance review of the first two issues of Vortex on the Novi Magazine site because it’s William Cardini takeover week there! Be warned, that review has minor plot spoilers. Check back on Novi throughout the week for more content related to me in some way.
Thanks to everyone who came out on Wednesday! I’ll have a more substantial post about the release party up later.
Once again I’ll be missing MoCCA but my presence will be haunting the tables because I have work debuting in two anthologies. Secret Prison #666 has a jam drawing I did with Keenan Marshall Keller and Future Shock, the full-color sf anthology edited by Josh Burrgraf, has my two-page story “Hawk”. If you’re at MoCCA check ’em out!
Just a reminder y’all, tomorrow night from 7-9pm at Domy Books in Austin is a double comic book release party for my new minicomic Vortex #2 and Melinda Tracy Boyce’s first issue of her quarterly short fiction and autobio comics collection The Melinderly. Click this flyer for more details:
Here’s the cover spread for Vortex #2:
Just like Vortex #1, #2 is 32 pages of black-and-white sf madness.
Just in time for the Vortex #2/The Melinderly #1 double comic release party at Domy Books, Rob Clough has posted a review of Vortex #1 alongside some other sf minis! He analyzes how my “deliberately artificial-looking style of line” changes the feeling he gets from the images. Also, I’m honored to be reviewed in the same post as Ryan Cecil Smith.
Yo y’all, Melinda Tracy Boyce of Gingham Ghost and I are teaming up to do a double comic release party at Domy Books in Austin from 7 to 9pm on Wednesday, April 25th. Here’s the mash-up flyer:
Melinda is releasing the first issue of her quarterly full-color collection of short autobiographical and fiction comics, The Melinderly, while I’m dropping the next issue of Vortex! Here’s the full press release and here’s the Facebook event.
Secret Prison #666 is debuting this April at MoCCA 2012! This issue’s a little different from the previous ones – instead of single-page comics, it’s a bunch of double-page team-ups selected by editor Ian Harker and guest editor Pat Aulisio, the editors of RUB THE BLOOD (speaking of which, RUB THE BLOOD is now available in Yeah Dude Comics online store).
Secret Prison #666 cover by Pat Aulisio.
Pat and Ian paired me up with the bad-ass cartoonist Keenan Marshall Keller. We’re both total texture geeks but Keenan’s way more out there than me and is inspiring me to be grosser and more visceral with my drawings than I usually am. I’m loving what we’ve got brewing for SP#666! You can see what I mean about the similarities and differences in our styles in this drawing he did for the Monster Show at Domy Books:
“Amplified Shaman/Acid Jesus” drawing by Keenan.
Ian and Pat are raising funds to print SP#666 via a Kickstarter campaign.
They’ve already met their funding goal for their initial print run and now they’re trying to meet a secondary goal to get even more copies printed. Prizes include SP#666, RUB THE BLOOD, and an 1/8th page ad drawn by myself.
