Project: Romantic

I recently got my comp copies of the fantastic new Adhouse books anthology, Project: Romantic and I was very impressed. I only have a 2 page story in it, "My Name is Eunice Jung" (which you may have already seen in my blog here), so my contribution is really really small, but its a thrill to see my work in amongst such a talented collection of artists. As I read through the book, I was awed by the sheer diversity of art styles and storytelling approaches. There are some seriously talented comic artists working today and many of them are in this book.

Among my favourite stories in the collection: "Romantic" by Doug Fraser, "Scary Thoughts" by Mike Laughead, "Lovers on a Flying Bed" by Junko Mizuno, "Sweetie 'n Me" by Joel Priddy (a real charmer), "The Romance of the Skies" by Paul Rivoche, "Imitating Life" by José Garibaldi (man, what a draftsman!), "Even Monkeys Know About Love After A Hundred Years" by Randall Christopher (hilarious and touching) and "Kingdom Animalia, Ilustrated" by Josh Cutter (just plain hilarious). Though I have to say, my favourite story here is "Trouble" by T. Edward Bak -- a four page story about teenage crushes, younger brothers, and suburban life all written and drawn in a very understated, honest style.

But don't take my word for it, pick up a copy of Project: Romantic and see for yourself!

Super-Deformed Forever!

Here's another old drawing, this one combining two of my favourite things: 1) drawing big headed people, and 2) Bruce Lee!

Seriously, there was a time when I drew almost everyone super-deformed/bigheaded/3-heads-high! I think it was because it made everyone look so friendly and cartoony. Or maybe it's just because Ihave an gi-normously large head myself. Either way, I still find myself having trouble resisting the urge to make everyone's head just a little bigger in my drawings -- as all my friends will attest!

And it really does make everyone look friendlier! As another example, here's a drawing of everyone's favourite bad-ass mutant, Wolverine, done in my big-headed style. See and judge for yourself...

Hulk Says...

I often leave the TV running in the background when I'm working or doodling. Its a bad habit, and more than a few times I've found myself annoyed by whatever's on (especially daytime TV -- a total wasteland), while at the same time being unwilling to change channels 'cause I'm so immersed in what I'm working on. Then my drawing gets all aggressive and frustrated.

I think I drew this while an episode of "Dr. Phil" was playing in the background, so go figure.

The Third Eye Knows

Here's a really, really old piece -- I drew this one way back in 2000, for an ESP Home-Testing-Kit that I designed with my wife as a fun art project. This illustration served as part of the back cover artwork for it. Someday, I'll have to post to the rest of the art from that, but for now you can see for yourself at how much or how little my work has changed in 6 years.

Sketchbook Heroes

I'm trying to post a little more often to this blog, so here's a few quick super-hero sketches I drew up recently. I've been trying to loosen up by doing more of my drawing in ink and not pencilling as much, so these were actually drawn completely in markers with no pencil drawing at all. I first sketched out the figure in a coloured marker, and then inked over it on a light-box to arrive at the final. All in all, each sketch took about 10-20 minutes of time --a quick doodle break in the middle of the day!

Incidentally, all three heroes (the Black Panther, Captain Victory and Iron-Man) were created by Jack "King" Kirby -- I just find doodling Kirby-designed heroes to be so much fun.

And the Winner Is...

Well, folks, it took a while, and the result was very close, but we finally have a winner for our Write a Caption Contest !

After a lengthy and highly subjective judging process, the three person panel of me, myself and I have chosen Jason Chalker and his witty entry as the winner! I think it was the Planet of the Apes reference that sealed it for me. You can read his genius above and see for yourself.

Jason will be receiving the semi-awesome prize-pack of my recent Max Finder Mystery Collected Casebook children's comic as well as a selection of ultra-rare mini-comics by me.

Congratulations, Jason! And my sincere thanks to everyone who took the time to enter. Clearly, there are some very funny writers among you. This was so much fun -- I think I'll run another contest soon.