Happy Birthday Rich

Yes, I'm still in love with Let the Right One In. Opening December 19th, Calgarians!

Let the Right One In

It might be my favorite movie of the year.

Let The Right One In

With all the hubbub about that Mormon vampire romance movie thing that opened this weekend, I was exceptionally grateful when Roger Ebert's tepid review turned my attentions instead to Let the Right One In, a different vampire movie making the rounds. His review was enthusiastic, and I was looking for a way to reward myself for all my hard work this week... So, there you go.

Click here for the trailer in Quicktime.

It's a really spectacular movie... Brilliantly shot, delicately acted, and very faithful to vampire legends. Plus, since it's a foreign film, you get all the lovely things that a Hollywood movie just can't provide: the people look like real people, the special effects eschew spectacle for mood, and the plot is foreshadowed without beating you over the head with every plot point.

It's one of the best movies of the year. It's also the best vampire movie I've ever seen. I can't believe I didn't know it existed 36 hours ago.

Proof #17

Hey,

Sorry, been out of town for two weeks.

The solicitations for Proof #17 are out, and a guest artist is handling the main story. Is it me? Yes, it's me.


PROOF #17

story ALEX GRECIAN
art RILEY ROSSMO & KELLY TINDALL

"BORDERLANDS"
The Chupacabra's journey from Mexico to Minnesota is finally revealed in a special stand-alone story. Plus, Colonel Dachshund receives a gift from an unexpected visitor.

FEBRUARY 25 - 32 PAGES - FC - $3.50

Pre-order your copies now!

Archie Snow is taking the month off, obviously. "The Liar" finishes in Proof #16.

I hate this

Commissions

Been busy with drawings for 'me public', as Popeye would say.

First up, my dear friend Nick had a birthday this week. He's been obsessing over the amazing Totoro forest project book that the fine folks at Pixar have been hustling, so I figured he could use a totoro of his own.


I was asked by Steve Gettis to participate in his amazing author project, where comic artists interpret their favorite authors or literary characters. What an amazing series of drawings... From legends like Will Eisner and Alex Toth to disreputable characters like Riley Rossmo and Fiona Staples. It was an honor to be asked, and an honor to be the first to draw Mervyn Peake.

Now, go read Gormenghast! It's fucking brilliant!

Lastly, but certainly not leastly, came a long-overdue Grendel commission. I felt inspired and added some red ink to the drawing. One wants a hint of color, as Nathan Lane reminded us in The Birdcage.

Proof/Screamland crossover

It's not so much a 'preview' as much as it is 'the whole damn thing', but "There's No Business" is up at Comic Book Resources.

Click here for the story.

Harold Sipe and Hector Casanova's wonderful Screamland is coming out in trade paperback, and Alex and Riley invited them to do a story for Proof #13 to help them hustle it. (The issue already has a guest appearance by Image mainstay The Savage Dragon.) Alex asked me to color the story, and I am proud of how it turned out. It was my first experience with working with textures, and the first time I have colored another artist's story. I cannot say enough nice things about Hector, he was a joy to work with.

I ended up coloring another ten or so pages of the main Proof story, "Thunderbirds Are Go!", which has got to be the weirdest crossover I have ever read. And the last page is a doozy.

This is a Souvenir: Songs from Spearmint & Shirley Lee

Hooray! The Spearmint anthology is coming out! I have a story in this. (And it's coming out sooner than I Saw You, which I also have some work in.)

Richard Starkings and I adapted "It Won't Be Long Now", (a song by the UK pop band Spearmint) into a short comic and it came out pretty well, so I would suggest pre-ordering this book and telling all of your co-workers and loved ones and calling in to your local comic-book shops and roadside attractions and pornography stores and informing them that, yes, the Spearmint anthology This Is A Souvenir: The Songs of Spearmint & Shirley Lee is coming out in January. (Just in time for Rod Stewart's birthday! And mine.)

The Baltimore wrap-up

Here's my Official Baltimore Blog Wrap-Up over on MySpace.

Only a week late, with no pictures. *sigh* I suck at this. Back to the old ballgame.

Baltimore Venom

When I was at the Baltimore Comic Con (which was the greatest con of all time) last weekend (god it's been a week already) I did a ton of commissions and sketches. They have finally started showing up online, and here's one of my favorites; a ten-minute sketch of Venom drawn at Lucy's Pub in downtown Baltimore.

Really wish I had a bigger brush with me, for all the blacks.

Elephantmen

Some sketches I did for giggles... Playing with color, monkeying with tones.

These are characters from Elephantmen, by Richard Starkings and Moritat. Richard and I are working on a story for an anthology to be published next year through Image.

Stink

I'm doing a new mini-comic for the Baltimore Comic Con. I'm pretty happy to have this down on paper...I've been gestating this idea, like a wasps' egg on a tarantula, for months now.

I'm doing the whole thing on life-size 8.5" x 11" sheets, with no computer involved. No computer, no rulers. It's been fun.

I have no idea how I'm going to offer it, though. Do you want one?

Coyote

I've been very, very, very busy with a lot of comics work this past few weeks, but I still found time to do this sketch. I wanted to play with colors a bit more than I have in the past. The cleverest amongst you can probably suss out what this is about.

Proof #11 is out

Dag yo, I forgot to mention that Proof #11 came out today, with part two of "The Liar". (An Archie Snow Serialized Adventure!) Written and drawn by little old me.

Go buy it, tell me what you think.

Toronto Fan Expo

Hey hey,

I was in Toronto at the Fan Expo, kicking it with awesome folks like Russ Hironaka, Tim Sale, Scott Chantler, and Cameron Stewart. It was a particular thrill to meet Darwyn "My Portfolio is Worth More Than Your Kidneys" Cooke and new friends like Michael Cho, Stuart & Katherine Immonen, Wes Craig, and Jason Armstrong.

Anyway, here's two sketches I did this weekend for my new pal Jared:

The unnamed mouse/werewolf from Squeak!, my upcoming book with Alex Grecian:



And here's a Captain Jack Sparrow for Jared's Jack-themed sketchbook:



Quite tense to be sharing space in a sketchbook with Tim Sale, Adam Hughes, Jason Latour, Scott Morse, Cameron Stewart, and many many others... But the drawing looks okay, now that I look at it again. Thanks for the scans, Jared!

Thomas Alan Waits

I don't know how this managed to make it in with all the scanning for work I've been doing lately, but here it is. Hopefully I'll be able to show off some of the real work at some point... Too many comics with too many spoilers.

Shadowy figures

Some quick sketches from old noir films and posters. I really hate working just in pencil, I prefer sketching in ink. (Which I did last night, while watching the Canadians bite it at The Olympics.)

Good news everyone!

I sold my first book.

It's called Squeak!, and it will be written by Alex Grecian and drawn by myself. It's coming out from AiT/Planet Lar sometime in the near future. I'll post more when I'm not totally buried under work (hopefully never?).

Guy, girl

A couple of sketchbook drawings that I did just before I moved out here. I really like this permanent ink pen, I can't remember its name but everyone uses it.

I think the girl was out at the airport... But why was I out at the airport?


The guy is Riley, at Sketchpub.

Gladiator sandals

I bought new sandals last week.

I don't like to shop so I wanted something durable. We went to a shop here in Montreal called Replay, and I found some excellent gladiator-looking sandals that are comfortable. They look pretty cool, which is not something I'm accustomed to wearing.

I don't draw real things

I need to go draw some trees or something, seriously.

The Cheetah

I've been thinking about Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Catwoman: When in Rome miniseries from a couple of years back. One of the villains was The Cheetah, an idiotic gimmick villain in a cheetah costume. Tim drew her as an extremely artificial-looking creature... prehensile tail, unnatural patterning, lumpy body, and Joker-like protruding jaw. I liked that, and I haven't drawn a female monster in a while, so there you go.

Proof #10

Nearly finished my untitled backup story (with Alex Grecian) for Proof #10. Here's a spoiler-free image of gameskeeper Wayne Russet doing some Jack Bauer-y action stuff. The book will be out at the end of July.

Downtown train

Old Montreal

Promo sketch

Girls girls girls

Nothing better than hanging out in Quebec with a pretty girl on a Saturday.

Happy birthday, Bill

A quick birthday card for my buddy Bill.

Taste the harsher justice

A Lobster Johnson commission I just this very second finished.

Commissions

I'm taking commissions. I've wrestled with this for a while, but Proof is humming pretty well and people have started asking about Archie Snow, so I figure it's time. If you are interested in a commission, email me at kelly at kellytindall dot com and we can talk about what you want and what it is going to cost.

Here are some recent commissions:

Archie Snow


Mary Marvel


Usagi Yojimbo


In other news, I'm working on a new Archie Snow story, "The Liar", which will hopefully start in Proof #10 or #11, and I am working on an as-yet-untitled in-Proof-continuity backup for Proof #10. It stars Wayne, the Lodge groundskeeper, and it's sick and weird.

Thanks again, blog. See ya.

Quick Proof drawing. Parts of it I like, parts I do not.



Ciao blog.

This is a variety of characters from the excellent comic book Proof, which I work on sometimes. The book is by writer Alex Grecian and artist Riley Rossmo; mighty and strong human beings, if ever there were.

The characters depicted are as follows: Autumn Song, Elvis Chestnut, Ginger Brown, Wayne the groundskeeper, and Leander Wight.







See you around, blog.

Good morning, I hope you slept well.

I slept well. Lots of dreams.

Here's an editorial illustration I did for fun. It probably won't make any sense if you aren't familiar with The Magnetic Fields, but that's okay.