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.