and another review of ASP as a publisher with a nice Robotika write-up:
Monday, January 29, 2007
JPKComics and PopCultureShock reviews
A very nice review by of the hardcover collection by Jonathan Kuehlein (scroll down to January 15th reviews):
JPK Comics
and another review of ASP as a publisher with a nice Robotika write-up:
PopCultureShock
and another review of ASP as a publisher with a nice Robotika write-up:
Page 1
This is page one of the first issue in the new mini series. I wanted to do something to pay tribute to Robert Altman and thus I am starting out with 3 panels (that I feel go together compositionally) and even though they appear totally unrelated, fit into each other like puzzle's pieces as the story progresses.
The captions are taken from a speech by one of the main characters from the middle of the book and I think fits in nicely with the images.
Script is by David Moran.
The captions are taken from a speech by one of the main characters from the middle of the book and I think fits in nicely with the images.
Script is by David Moran.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Robotika Hardcover Review
Monday, Robotika hardcover got reviewed over at Loadpoet.com and I wanted to share the write-up:
Guy LeCharles Gonzalez
I have also just completed my first pin-up for a Dark Horse book (!) called "Samurai: Heaven & Earth". I wanted to design the illustration keeping the title of the book in mind. The woman represent "heaven" and thus is placed in a vertical shaft of light and the graveyard/shrines represent "earth". My hope is that the woman's face is the focal point and her robes lead the eye down to the sword, across the samurai's back and down into the ground. Then the eye comes across from left to right and goes up the shaft of light back-up to the face.
I have also just completed my first pin-up for a Dark Horse book (!) called "Samurai: Heaven & Earth". I wanted to design the illustration keeping the title of the book in mind. The woman represent "heaven" and thus is placed in a vertical shaft of light and the graveyard/shrines represent "earth". My hope is that the woman's face is the focal point and her robes lead the eye down to the sword, across the samurai's back and down into the ground. Then the eye comes across from left to right and goes up the shaft of light back-up to the face.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Best Of 2006...the rest :)
It is so cool that Robotika got mentioned in the wrap-up of the year over at Comic BooK Resource website. ASP got nominated for the Best Publisher of comics and I got the "The Nuke Laloosh Award" (by the way it is very much an honor for me to be associated with anything that relates to "Bull Durham"!).
ComicBookResources
Also I wanteded to share a Robotika piece recently completed by Mahmud Asrar:
Also I wanteded to share a Robotika piece recently completed by Mahmud Asrar:
Thursday, January 04, 2007
How cool is that?!
I was very pleased to learn that Leif Jones, a friend of many years and an awesome artist, will be illustrating an issue of a comic book published by Zenescope Entertainment based on David Fincher's SE7EN.
Leif's issue will be part of a seven issue series, each issue being devoted to one of the deadly sins (with each issue done by a different creative team), and although it covers the same events as the movie, the comics will show the events from John Doe's point of view. The issue Leif will be illustrating is the sixth and most tantalizing: ENVY.
The writer on that issue is David Mack, who is known as the creator of Kabuki and who recently did a successful run on Marvel's Daredevil.
I am very excited about seeing how Leif is going to approach this project and as a fan of his artwork I can't wait to see a full book of Mr. Jone's "goodness". I know I will be checking Leif's blog (and so should everybody) frequently for any updates he might post.
Leif's issue will be part of a seven issue series, each issue being devoted to one of the deadly sins (with each issue done by a different creative team), and although it covers the same events as the movie, the comics will show the events from John Doe's point of view. The issue Leif will be illustrating is the sixth and most tantalizing: ENVY.
The writer on that issue is David Mack, who is known as the creator of Kabuki and who recently did a successful run on Marvel's Daredevil.
I am very excited about seeing how Leif is going to approach this project and as a fan of his artwork I can't wait to see a full book of Mr. Jone's "goodness". I know I will be checking Leif's blog (and so should everybody) frequently for any updates he might post.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Norman Felchle, Brian Churilla and Mahmud Asrar
I have always dreamed of being an editor. Not the kind of an editor who worries about the deadlines, or about what will sell and what won't sell, but the kind of an editor who matches up cool stories to talented artists with awesome comics being the result.
Working on Robotika gave me a chance to do that a little bit. In the first series I was fortunate enough to recruite Leif Jones and Travis Sengaus to do 6 page back-ups and I also was very pleased to offer pin-ups by Frank Cirocco, Jeremy Mohler, Benoit Springer, Norman Felchle, Jim Williams III, Ryan Sook, and Tony Salmons.
Working on the second Robotika series is proving to be an even better experience. In part this is due to the fact that I am now working with David Moran, who is a real writer and who has been delivering excellent scripts. I have already mentioned that Brian Churilla is working on a 6 page back-up called "Once Upon The Time..." and I am now very pleased to announce that Norman Felchle has agreed to illustrate a 6 page Dr. Agon origin story called "Dr. Agon or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Cyber-Robotic Enchancements".
Norman started out working in comics on such titles as "The Griffin", "S.T.A.R Corps", "Legends of the Dark Night" and "Spider-Man". Recently he has been applying his talents designing video games and in fact gained a following for his work on the "Alice" game for Electronic Arts. He has a great Sketchbook available that showcases his abilities and features lots of unpublished design artwork. I am very pleased that Norman has agreed to make a "return" to comics with Robotika and I am very much looking forward to seeing his interpretation of David's script.
I am also working with Mahmud Asrar, a very talented artist from Turkey. I was first introduced to Mahmud's work at Digital Webbing and have been following his postings on his website. Mahmud just recently got signed-up to draw "Dynamo 5", a new series from Image. I hope to be able to feature a few pin-up and maybe a short Robotika back-up story by him in the upcomming Robotika sequel.
Working on Robotika gave me a chance to do that a little bit. In the first series I was fortunate enough to recruite Leif Jones and Travis Sengaus to do 6 page back-ups and I also was very pleased to offer pin-ups by Frank Cirocco, Jeremy Mohler, Benoit Springer, Norman Felchle, Jim Williams III, Ryan Sook, and Tony Salmons.
Working on the second Robotika series is proving to be an even better experience. In part this is due to the fact that I am now working with David Moran, who is a real writer and who has been delivering excellent scripts. I have already mentioned that Brian Churilla is working on a 6 page back-up called "Once Upon The Time..." and I am now very pleased to announce that Norman Felchle has agreed to illustrate a 6 page Dr. Agon origin story called "Dr. Agon or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Cyber-Robotic Enchancements".
Norman started out working in comics on such titles as "The Griffin", "S.T.A.R Corps", "Legends of the Dark Night" and "Spider-Man". Recently he has been applying his talents designing video games and in fact gained a following for his work on the "Alice" game for Electronic Arts. He has a great Sketchbook available that showcases his abilities and features lots of unpublished design artwork. I am very pleased that Norman has agreed to make a "return" to comics with Robotika and I am very much looking forward to seeing his interpretation of David's script.
I am also working with Mahmud Asrar, a very talented artist from Turkey. I was first introduced to Mahmud's work at Digital Webbing and have been following his postings on his website. Mahmud just recently got signed-up to draw "Dynamo 5", a new series from Image. I hope to be able to feature a few pin-up and maybe a short Robotika back-up story by him in the upcomming Robotika sequel.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Hardcover review
Here are some very kind words of support for the hardcover edition from Randy Lander over at his Inside Joke Theater.
Randy Lander
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Library Journal Review (!)
Robotika collection was just reviewed in the Library Journal...and there is no mention of vertical text anywhere to be found! It is a very kind review and I am excited that someone is already wondering what the second series will be like.
The review is in the "Graphic Novel" section and you will need to scroll down a bit to find it:
Library Journal
The review is in the "Graphic Novel" section and you will need to scroll down a bit to find it:
Friday, December 08, 2006
Year-end awards at Pop Thought and new pages
Alex Ness, over at Pop Thought, just paid me a huge compliment by putting my name in the same sentence as Tim Truman's. I have been a fan of Mr. Truman's work ever since I picked up the first issue of his "Scout" series. He was one of the first guys to focus on building a career with creator owned series (Grim Jack, Scout, Killer...) instead of working for the "big two" and I have always respected that (and was always delighted when he tried his hand at Hawkman and Conan). Below is the link for the full article.
Year-End Awards 2006
Also I just finished penciling a whole batch of new pages and now it is time...to start inking again! I hope to have some fully finished pages to share soon :)
Also I just finished penciling a whole batch of new pages and now it is time...to start inking again! I hope to have some fully finished pages to share soon :)
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Publishers Weekly and Amazon.com
The hardcover Robotika collection is not only listed at Amazon.com, but it also has a great editorial review printed from Publishers Weekly. At the moment it is occupying 280,000 ranking in popularity/sales...I am sure that is a good start.
Robotika at Amazon.com
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Fight!
I was never very good at drawing fight scenes with a bunch of people in them. I like to focus on a little part of a scene and exaggerate that, instead of focusing on everything. However, with the second series I am trying to push myself a bit so I am trying some different things...and it's turning out to be lots of fun. Here is a sketch of the background for one of the panels (Niko will be calmly sitting and eating his lunch in the foreground).
I think this is pretty primative depiction of a bar brawl: there is not much depth to the scene, all the figures are on the same plane, and there is not much interaction between the fighters (everybody is pretty much split up into pairs), but this was fun and I am looking forward to expanding on this idea.
I think this is pretty primative depiction of a bar brawl: there is not much depth to the scene, all the figures are on the same plane, and there is not much interaction between the fighters (everybody is pretty much split up into pairs), but this was fun and I am looking forward to expanding on this idea.
Monday, November 06, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
Working, working, working....
Last week I got a proof copy of the first Robotika collection. Mark and Aki put a lot of thought and work into this project and the result is a beautiful hardcover book that showcases my first mini-series. It is very inspiring for me to think that next year I will be able to add volume 2 to this series!
The work on the addition continues...and continues!
Jason Copland, a fellow artist and an all around nice guy, has a new book out from Silent Devil called "Empty Chambers". I have seen some material from it and I think it is great, everybody should go out and get a copy (or two)!
The work on the addition continues...and continues!
Jason Copland, a fellow artist and an all around nice guy, has a new book out from Silent Devil called "Empty Chambers". I have seen some material from it and I think it is great, everybody should go out and get a copy (or two)!
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Brian Churilla
A few months ago Leif introduced me to Brian Churilla who is a talented young artist. Brian has an awesome style, it is very animated and has a lot of "Pop" to it. When I saw his panel-to-panel pages, I was blown away by his storytelling abilities.
Originally, I planned to do all the Robotika back-ups in the new series by myself, but after seeing his work...I changed my mind. I am very happy to say that Brian will be contributing artwork to a 6 page story written by David Moran titled "Once Upon a Time...". It is a very cool little vignette focusing on The Queen. Here is a sample of good things to come :)
For more of Brian Churilla goodness go to his wesite
Originally, I planned to do all the Robotika back-ups in the new series by myself, but after seeing his work...I changed my mind. I am very happy to say that Brian will be contributing artwork to a 6 page story written by David Moran titled "Once Upon a Time...". It is a very cool little vignette focusing on The Queen. Here is a sample of good things to come :)
For more of Brian Churilla goodness go to his wesite
Remodel
Work on Robotika is progressing right along, but I have also added another project to my commitments...adding a family room to our house. My wife and I started working on it September 18th. Here is what it looked like after one week:
and here is what it looks like now:
and here is what it looks like now:
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Reviews: Robotika #1-4
The review by Randy Lander at:
Comic Pants
by Dave Ferraro
Comics and More (August 8th)
by Brian Cronin
Comics Should be Good
and by Jim Bush
Static Multimedia
by Dave Ferraro
by Brian Cronin
and by Jim Bush
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Robotika Hardcover Edition
I am currently working on the layout for the sketchbook section in the back of the first Robotika collection. I am trying to unearth character designs and sketches that show my thinking process as I was drawing the first mini-series. Here is a sample of one of the pages that I am working on right now:
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