Another glimpse of things to come

Another preview of Code Duello. Page 2 of our 13 page story.

A glimpse of things to come

I am illustrating a story my brother wrote called Code Duello for District Comics, an anthology about historical DC stories. Code Duello is about naval hero Stephen Decatur and the war of words he engaged with his former mentor, James Barron. Barron had been kicked out of the Navy years before for not properly preparing his ship for battle and it was taken over by the British, (this was one of the events that served as the catalyst for the War of 1812) and Decatur had served on the jury for his tribunal. Flash forward several years later... Barron demands redress years for the derogatory things that Decatur is now saying about his naval service at parties and events around DC as Barron tries to get reinstated in the Navy. They engage in a letter war, each one becoming more insulting and indignant in their accusations and denials. Eventually Decatur is called out to the field to meet Barron. Both are wounded. Decatur is wounded mortally., shot in the abdomen. He takes the rest of the day to die at his home in DC.


The Decatur House is one of the oldest homes in DC and was the first to be built across the street from the White House. It also has a reputation for being the most haunted. The ghost of Decatur has been claimed by many to have been seen fretting at his bedroom window. Others swear say they have heard the sobbing of a woman in the Decatur house, thought to be the ghost of Decatur's wife. She never knew about the war of words and Barron's challenge to her husband. One morning her husband  slips out of bed before sunrise then returns home before noon with a mortal wound. She spent the rest of the day sobbing on the other side of the wall as Decatur, not wanting her to see him in that state, refused to let her see him before he died. His friends abided by that wish..

Anyway here is a preview of one of the panels from the story.

First up is the thumbnail of Commodore Bainbridge who officiated over the duel. I drew this before I consulted reference material for his likeness.

 

And now the pencils for that panel. I was able to find his offical portrait online. (God bless Google!!!)

 

 And now the panel with inks.

District Comics will be out in summer of 2012 from Fulcrum Press. Hope you enjoyed this preview. Stay tuned because more will come soon.

Preparing for SPX....

I was asked a few questions by Mike Rhode ( along with many other members of DC Conspiracy) about my plans for SPX and I babble something closely resembling English as my answer and Mike reposts my ramblings verbatim. Neat! I wish I had a scan of that sketch I did for Ivan. It sure was something.

SPX!!!!

I will be at SPX this year! A half table went up for sale and I snagged it. I will be one half of W-8 I don't know who the other side is at this point. I don't really have any new comics to promote other than my strip in Magic Bullet and my upcoming work in  District Comics but it will have to do. Hmm. Maybe I could pull an all niter and come up with something by Saturday morning. Who needs sleep? It's SPX!!!!!

Yeah, that's the ticket!

My new business card design using an old piece in a new way.

Practical Ideas

I illustrated this comic/PSA for for R.M. Rhodes about how to improve the public perception of comics in little ways everyday. Though comics have attained a more pseudo-hipster status in some circles of late, the overall public perception of comics is still one of being mostly a puerile  medium. So without further adieu, here are some tips on how to help improve the image of comics to the public at large in simple everyday ways.

Big things are coming!

I was asked to be part of an anthology coming out next year that a friend and comrade from the comics collective DC Conspiracy, which we both belong to, is spearheading. While I cannot divulge any details about the project as of yet, I can reveal that I am collaborating on a story with my brother, Kevin.  

He had written a book almost 20 years ago called We Were Marching On Christmas Day, an overview of the celebration of Christmas during the Civil War and how Thomas Nast's  illustrations of Saint Nick eventually became the model for modern day depictions of Santa Claus.

It has been out of print for a long long time and the hardcover is currently going for a hefty price from some of the dealers on Amazon, but it's coming back into print for a brief print run sometime this year.  

Anyway, Kevin wrote the short story and I adapted it into a comics story for this upcoming project. The final revision on the script was given the green light today and I will begin the thumbnails soon.
I'm very psyched to be collaborating with my brother on a project and look forward to seeing this story in print. Of course more details will come out along the way as I begin to post the preliminary work for this project (along with others I currently have going on too) but all I can say is that the previous project spearheaded by my colleague, and published by the same publisher behind this project, is currently winning lots of awards and has gotten a lot of media coverage.

I suspect this new project will be even bigger considering some of  the names attached to it. But I can say no more as I have already probably said too much. Stay tuned for more details as I am able to provide them.

I'm sitting here looking at these pictures of you.

In addition to being an uber talented illustrator, I have some skills in Photoshop at photo repair. My friend, Nicole gave me a baby picture of her with the intent of preserving it digitally. I received it in pretty rough shape. In fact it was literally in pieces.

Well, I love a challenge. A little work with the clone tool, and some adjustments of the color and saturation levels and the picture is looking as new and crisp as the day it was developed.

You should consider getting your family photos preserved digitally as film degrades over time. If you have any old photos that need restoration or you wish to preserve them digitally,  I'm your man!

The Wedding Present

My girlfriend and I were invited to a wedding in Fredricksburg, Virginia recently, however she had no idea what to get the happy couple. Luckily, her boyfriend is an illustrator/ graphic designer who can create a gift that no one else is sure to bring a duplicate of.  This was done in pen and ink with ink washes for the grey tones. After I finished this piece she had it framed and, Viola! A very special one of a kind wedding present.

Celebridoodles!

About a month and a half ago, I contributed a commissioned original inked drawing in exchange for a donation to the Magic Bullet fundraiser on Kickstarter.com. Magic Bullet is a free semi-annually published comics newspaper  produced by the indie comic creators collective DC Conspiracy, which I am a member of. The commission that came through was for Jon Ganahl who collects sketches of himself by celebrities and other comic artists and posts them online. 

 The drawing I did for him was posted on his Tumblr feed a few weeks back along with sketches by Shaquille O'Neal, Hulk Hogan, Gary Trudeau, and Adam West which you can check out here. I always did keep interesting company.

Is this thing on? (tap tap tap tap tap)

Welcome to my first blog post. for those who don't know me, which I presume will be most of you who come across this blog, well, I draw comics. No, I don't draw for Marvel or DC. I write/draw/ self publish black and white comics that are done more out of a love for the medium than to make bundles of money as there has been little money in it for me to date.

Still here? Good. I have been doing this for several years in pretty solid obscurity since the very first SPX .

  

My intent is to promote my work here posting artwork, sketches, and previews of upcoming comics work along with the occasional musing on comics I am reading or a DVD I am watching that inspires me.

Over the years I have self published more than a dozen comics; seven issues of Skidoo, three issues of my four issue mini series Down and Out On Planet Earth, a one shot comic called Artichoke, and four issues of my first series, The Disciplinarian, in addition to contributing stories and art for anthologies, graphic novels, and comic series such as Magic Bullet, Plastic Farm, Liquid Revolver, and Dr. Dremo.

I hope you stick around and enjoy my art and musings.