Artist Forum

Finally got to go to the artist forum at Blick Arts in Wheaton this weekend. Kevin Sandstrom, the store's manager, is a fine host and artist and is to be commended for putting the effort into these events. Alex Wald and I drove in and met up with Ray Frenden, Dave and Denise Dorman, and met some new folks. The artists we met were Anna Borowiecka, Peter Mohrbacher, and Ivan from Midway Games. All good artists with some nice work in their portfolios.

Ray has been extolling the merits of Manga Studio for line work using a tablet and Alex and I (thanks to Kevin) are going to check it out. Ray's work is damned impressive in the expressiveness of his line work, so I'm looking forward to trying out the program.

The next Forum is going to be Saturday, June 9th at 6:30 PM and it should be a good one. For more info you can e-mail Kevin at ArtistKMS at AOL. You can add a .com to that for good measure. Except for you damned bots.

Baby Octopus Sketch

Working up some quick sketches for First Fear concept designs and did a marker piece from a cool photo reference. Looks like I'll be working on some big splash pieces for Wizard World. I have three in mind and in the works: a crowded, future Chicago, urban setting; an exposed crashed spaceship trapped in melting arctic ice; and a scene from the past that explains the disappearance of the Incas from the royal estate of Machu Picchu.

First Fear Thumbnail Wrestling

Wisdom teeth be damned, I'm moving full speed ahead now. I'm working out thumbnail sketches to take the script into the visual stage and using PostIt notes to do this. Those of you who think this is left over from my consultant days would be partially correct. I actually started doing this at the law firm, Freeborn & Peters, in the early 80's when I was creating my Ralph the Punk comic on their PostIts and copy machines as a lowly temp. (These were the days before they invented ways to track copy usage with key codes.)

I like the ability to move the sketches around easily as the story telling comes together (or falls apart).

First Fear - Mayan Bloodbath

Finally some news relating to The First Fear comic book. The script has now taken a shape that allows me to start drafting page layouts. Core story elements are falling in place and artwork will begin showing up again in this damn blog.



One sequence that is coming together well (and probably be the first to be seen here) is the Mayan Genocide story arc. It distinctly places our protagonist in a rather bloody light. This one will have it all - blood sacrifice, monsters, alien starships, and jungle temples lit by massive bonfires.

In other exciting news, I will be working with an amazing colorist on these pages. I won't name him just yet, I think we'll let the work do the talking, but I am thrilled at the prospect. His most recent work in the comics field is on an Eisner Award-winning book which should be going to press literally any day now. As soon as I can tell ya more, I will. Shh...