So, as a compromise, I have updated my ARTWORK section with a few year’s worth of artwork that has been posted here in my blog.

First, behold this epic battle-spread of German Knights VS English Knights. Gasp!

I’ve always drawn, for as long as I can remember, and these drawings here are certainly not my earliest (my toddler-scribbles are probably in a pile, along with those of all my siblings, collected by my Mother and hopefully still at my Dad’s house). These date from that period when I began to take an active interest in drawing, not simply doing it but also thinking about it; consciously trying to get “better” by understanding how other people did it. In my case, this fascination began in 1972, the year that I turned 8 years old.

The previous year, we had just moved to a new town. I often wonder if the period of alienation that followed inspired the escapism of drawing. But it is quite possible that this interest would have happened anyway. I had always loved animation and you can see some attempts to draw famous cartoon characters were there right from the very beginning. Though these few scribbles shown here are of famous DISNEY characters, the cartoons that played most often on TV were by WARNER BROTHERS and they were the ones that made me laugh the hardest and consequently got most of my attention.

I became even more fascinated by cartoons, beyond the fact that they made me laugh. I tried to figure out why the drawings were so good. “How come I can’t draw like that?” I have never understood why the inability to do something “well” was sometimes off-puting to me; leading to the abandonment of certain pursuits (mathematics, sport) whereas, my inability to draw was an obstacle to overcome and explore. Of course, this choice is unique to each individual. Other people (most, in fact) give up drawing to pursue other things.

Seeing this crude page of BIRD drawings (an attempt to draw the Warner Brothers CHICKEN HAWK so obsessed with Foghorn Leghorn) brings back a vivid memory of a frustrating day trying to draw BEAKS… “How do they make the beaks look so good in cartoons?” I still have a scrapbook of images cut from magazines that I would look at, from this period. Single-panel gag-cartoons, pages from Mad magazine and so on… Hilariously, around this time I also compiled a crude “portfolio” (using some left-over wallpaper from the renovation of our new house for the cover) because someone had told me that artists needed a portfolio. These drawings survive mainly because I had kept them in that binder.

A few years later, when my drawings began to improve, I became ashamed of these early scribblings and almost threw them out in a fit of self-consciousness. But I am glad now that I did not. I will post more from later years when I have scanned them.

Not so long ago Ronnie organised a re-union lunch for the story team that had worked on UP, where we were finally introduced to THE GOLDEN BOY. It was a very pleasant afternoon, reconnecting with some people I had not seen in ages and a wonderful way to commemorate the project that is definitely the film I am most proud to have worked on so far.

Later, we posed for several team photos with the golden guest of honour, all of us sporting semi-formal neckties and white shirts, (“HOUSTON CONTROL” style) while standing beneath the Caricature Wall (which is a “who’s who” of story department history).

I spoiled this “serious faces” group shot by smiling. I couldn’t help myself. tee hee

This year, Rhode & I had thought we wouldn’t be able to follow-through with our recent tradition of a COMIC CON BOOTH THEME; whereby we decorate our booth to look like… well, something other than a boring old Comic Con booth. A bit of silliness that we have been indulging ourselves in for the past 4 years or so. Such things, even as cheesy as they are, take TIME to prepare and the fact that we now live on separate coasts made it unlikely this time around. Although we drove to Comic Con on Tuesday morning we had only met each-other (for the first time in months) at dinnertime the evening beforehand. Yet somehow, via communication by phone, text and e-mail, we pulled it off; THE YARD SALE theme. Last minute though it was, this booth display got perhaps our best response ever.

The only drawback of this particular theme was that, hilariously, people actually wanted to buy the JUNK that we had distributed throughout the display, as “props”. “How much for the George Foreman Grill?” “Give you $2 for the Rubik’s Cube…” “Ooh, a Smurf Mug!!”

These booth-theme ideas grew out of a conversation on the drive home from Comic Con 2006 (the first time we ever dressed up; in cheesy BLUE jump-suits, to promote CLOUD BOY) and that conversation continues to this day. I cannot now remember who came up with each idea because, in each case, they grew from one silly suggestion to the next. I do remember that each year, one of us begins to doubt if the idea will work (the line between cheesy/funny and outright stupid/lame is a razor’s edge, my friends) and the other guy becomes the torch-bearer for the idea. The Used Car Salesman theme excited me more than Rhode and he went along with it initially with some reservations (though he said at the end of that show that it was his fun-est ever, till that time). This year, I was the doubter; not that the idea itself was funny but that our execution might not work. But at a certain point, I decided to trust Rhode’s instincts rather than my own, and it worked out just grand.

Comic Con 2010 was our best ever, financially speaking. The runaway success of Rhode’s new children’s book, THE HALLOWEEN KID, made books Rhode’s biggest sellers this year. It was the prints that made up for the continuing downward curve in book sales for me (sadly, even the NEW one). Though this trend is a disappointment, I don’t take it personally, as Comic Con itself has been moving further and further away from its roots as a show about Comics. No need to dwell on that issue any further here (enough has been said about it already). My goal is to continue doing books come-what-may, as that is what drew me to these shows in the first place. A few years ago, I drifted away from doing comics, as I followed market forces towards the sales that would pay for the considerable costs of exhibiting. The new strategy is to firstly do a book each year and then use that book as a source for images that can become prints AS WELL. That way, the sales of prints should aid in sales of the books (“like that print? This is the book that it came from!”) or, at the very least, justify their existence as a mine from which to dig up images.

Socialising is always my favourite thing about Comic Con and, as always, I could not spend time with everyone that I wanted to. Wednesday’s PREVIEW NIGHT ended so late that Julia and I ate a tired but happy dinner back at our hotel. Thursday, meeting a crew of old cronies compensated for the slowest service of all time at an Indian place called MASALA. Everything clicked for Friday evening’s dinner at LOU & MICKEY’s. Hilarious conversation and good food culminated in a game where filthy phrases became the basis for creating new cocktails. We even had the Barman mix one to our specifications. The true name of this drink (pictured below) is too filthy to mention in this here G-rated blog but, in honour of its creator, Mr Kirk Thatcher, we gave it the optional name of THATCHER’s DELIGHT for use in polite company.

The hilarity and exhaustion (not to mention the effects of drinking the aforementioned saucy beverage) meant that I was too tired to move from my chair and thus unable to attend the party at the MAVERIX STUDIOS condo; an event that I seem to miss each year. Which was too bad this time around as I had recommended it to OTHER friends who showed up in my absence… But the main thing is everyone had fun. I will definitely be there NEXT time!

Saturday was exhausting. Even knowing ahead of time that it will be busy, it is hard to prepare for the sensory overload that is a Saturday at Comic Con. The combination of crowds and constant traffic at our booth, combined with frequent visits from many friends, meant that my mind was deep-fried by the end of the day. Walking wearily back to my hotel, I was not strong enough to resist the already-formed plan of dinner at OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE; that fake-Aussie eatery. I lodged a few half-hearted complaints but nevertheless climbed into the car that would drive me to the humiliation of Koala Fries, Platypus Burgers Kangaroo Shakes and other such nonsense…. to my surprise, the food was actually tasty (don’t tell any real Australians that I said so or FAIR DINKUM my citizenship will be revoked) and of course the company and conversation was entertaining. Just what I needed.

Sunday, sales at the booth were very good compared to previous years and though this had us in high spirits, we were both very weary, right from the beginning of the day. Lately, Comic Con starts EVERY day at 9AM (whereas the weekdays used to start from 11AM in the old days) meaning now there’s no chance to catch-up on sleep after the long drive down from San Francisco, and the subsequent evenings of fun and revelry. This schedule is cumulatively tiring, even on a healthy body, but especially on poor old Rhode, who had picked up a come-and-go infection that left him looking green by Sunday afternoon.

So we took our time in packing, after the show was over. Many of our friends just roll up a banner and simply walk out the door at the end of a show but the downside of our silly Booth Shenanigans is that it not only takes a while to prepare but ALSO to break down and getting all the stuff into the car (both at the start and the finish) is 3-dimensional TETRIS. Unfortunately, we couldn’t toss the YARD SALE fence-posts because they were needed back in Stockton (that wasn’t merely a prop; it was a genuine NORCAL fence, my friends!) though we did abandon the Astro-turf. The break-down of the booth this time around was the longest ever but we weren’t in any hurry. It was actually our first chance to relax since the show began! Coming back to my hotel to find a desk clerk rocking the good time COMIC CON party attitude in Clark Kent attire (see above) was an amusing end to a good show.

After freshening-up, I hooked-up with the Maverix crew at YAKITORI/YAKYUDORI for a post-con chow-fest; ending this year’s show at the same restaurant where the eating BEGAN the year prior. A huge mob of us invaded the place, and the waiter looked like he’d have an aneurysm when we ordered 4 of everything on 3 separate menus. The best part of Sunday though, was the chance to sleep-in before the long, and eventful drive back to the Bay Area (doing that story justice would take up an entire blog post on its own!)

…ah, SLEEP…. Actually, that still sounds pretty good to me! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

It is a 40 page FULL COLOUR mini-digest sized at 5×7.25 inches, laid out in the LANDSCAPE format. About the size of one of those paperback MANGAS, but turned on its side (and nowhere near as THICK!) 28 of the pages are for a comic story and the balance are a Guest gallery in the back plus sketches of my own. I am pretty proud of this little book. I’ve seen the proof and it has come out very well; KENESS has done a wonderful job on the printing.

I’ve wanted to do a full colour comic book for ages but could never make the numbers work; my sales are low and the minimum print order (to get a low cover price) is usually very high. So my conundrum was to either A) go for a high volume/low unit price but be saddled with both a large investment and unsold stock (which I’ve done many times before) or B) spend less money for less volume but have an alienating cover price. Doing this book at the digest size made the full colour option affordable (both for me and my customers).

Part of the breakthrough for me has been finding a wonderful printer, who is both local and patient in answering my many questions as I formulate a plan for a new book. A few months ago, I began talking to KENESS printing, about pricing for a colour book. Based on those discussions I planned a reformatted, expanded and coloured version of an old 10-page SEPHILINA story (originally done for the BABES in SPACE anthology). Though I had a plan and a great quote, I wasn’t sure if I could actually get it all done in time. However, I recently had a HIATUS in my paying work, which gave me some spare time, and a chance to go for it..

My only regret is not making the book a little bigger. I was maxed out in the vertical (for a digest) at 5 inches but I actually could have made the horizontal about an inch wider, and I am not sure now why I did not. If it goes into a reprint I may expand it to 5×8. However, my REAL hope in a reprint would be to do a much bigger, re-formatted PORTRAIT style book. Both pages in any given two-page spread can be stacked two atop one another (ie; to become ONE page) if I ever get enough pages done to justify a big, album style book.

At the beginning of this project, I had roughly half the drawing already done, but even so, the remaining work was quite a bit to do; the half that was already drawn had to be reformatted to the LANDSCAPE format and then coloured, and the OTHER half had to be both drawn and coloured (not to mention written!) and all those fiddly dialog-balloons had to be dealt with… Even with the freedom to work on it full time for a few weeks, I was beginning to feel that I had bitten off more than I could chew, and worried that it would not get done in time for this year’s COMIC CON. But, happily, I made it. It is always fun to do Comic Con but it is an EXTRA satisfaction to do the show with a new book in hand.

So if any of you will be at COMIC CON next week please stop by BOOTH #1329 to visit myself and my old booth-mate RHODE MONTIJO. I will have this NEW BOOK, plus some buttons and prints that I have never sold at Comic Con before. Rhode will ALSO have new product; his charming new children’s book, THE HALLOWEEN KID. Awesome!!

Oh, and a heads-up; one consequence of my recent grind-stone, not to mention the fact that Rhode and I now both live on separate coasts, is that we haven’t been able to wrangle any crazy BOOTH THEME this year. Hopefully the joy in seeing our new product will offset the disappointment in not seeing us dressed as robots this time around? I hope so.

See you there!

Most of the Sephi Pin-ups were done years ago (in a thread on the DRAWING BOARD) but one of them is being worked on now. I asked JULIA to do her take on the character and I REALLY love what she has come up with. Here is a sneak peek:

It is so much fun for me to see other artists do their version of my characters especially when the end-result is so appealling. JULIA is also posting step-by-step progress of her SEPHI PIN-UP on her BLOG so keep an eye on that… OK, back to the grind-stone for me!

Like so many of the illustrations, this one tells a sad fact about the life of elephants. Specifically, the fact that so many males are being shot for their tusks that a form of unnatural selection is creating a population of elephants with stunted tusks or even no tusks at all, simply because males with splendid tusks are often shot before they reproduce. These days it is the males without tusks that get to pass on their genes.

I may have found my new favourite arts festival. It is a tasty blend of Comic Con, Burning Man, a crafts fair and ROBOT WARS all rolled into one. If (like me) you are intrigued by the creativity at Burning Man but would gladly forgo all the nudity, sunburn (and burnouts) then this show might be for you. There are Fabulous bands, home-made robots, indie comics, steam punk machinery buffs and just about every thing creative that you can imagine, all with a focus on the DIY. This fantastic show is only 5 years old and it started here in the Bay Area (at the San Mateo showgrounds) and now there are Maker Faires springing up all over the place; Austin, Detroit, New York and Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Rather than only taking place in one big, air-less barn of a building (like any comics show I have been to) the Maker Faire happens both inside pavilion buildings and outside in the sunshine. There are plenty of crowds but there is also the means to get away from them and sit down outside, have a snack and STILL be immersed in the experience, while all manner of weird and wonderful things pass you by. A girl driving a cup-cake car. A man operating a walking spider vehicle. A giant cardboard robot. A JULES VERNE Penny-Farthing bicycle. A steam-powered jalopy or a parade of punky kids on their souped-up bicycles.

We only went for one of the two days, but could easily have done another day without repeating ourselves. Part of me wants to exhibit at this show next time, but a larger part wants to just go and attend, to take in all the sights rather than be stuck behind a booth. But whatever happens, I will definitely be there NEXT year and so should you!