A Christmas Carol warm up: Marley's Ghost

 "Tiny Tim" Hamilton chose today's warm-up topic as "A Christmas Carol". Here's my entry:

Speaking of Tim, it initially surprised me that, given his artistic proclivities, he did not choose to draw ol' Jacob Marley here himself. Seemed right up Tim's alley, subject-wise. About 30 seconds into drawing all those chains I realized why Hambone passed.

So Tim Hamilton thinks he's going to get me to draw the "Incomparable Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band", huh?

Tim "I'm messed up on Ook sauce 24/7" Hamilton chose today's warm up topic, and if he thinks I'm going to draw a freaking marching band as a warm up, that gent is sorely, sorely mistaken.

I say thee nay, Hamilton!

warm up-- Happy Birthday, Joe!

Today is the birthday of Hypothetical Islander and former contributor to Drawbridge,  Joe "The Towering" Infurnari, so to celebrate I drew this picture of him with one of the characters from his upcoming First Second Graphic Novel, Mush! Sled Dogs with Issues, which will be in stores this time next year.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOE!

warm up- Strange Tales

Today issue #3 of Marvels "indie" anthology Strange Tales hits comic stands, this time featuring stories by frequent Drawbridger Tim Hamilton and some guy who I sit next to at the studio, Dean Haspiel. Tim's story features Machine Man and Morbius the Living Vampire, showcasing his love for both artificial life and the undead ; Dean's features Woodgod and the Thing, in a testament to his ongoing passion for both brawny shirtless guys and ungulates. I drew all 4 characters going at at it, Brooklyn style. Check it out now, at comic shops everywhere.

Warm up: 3D Bee

One of the mainstays of Studio Hypothetical Island has been cartoonist Jason Little, whose new book "Motel Art Improvement Service" hits comic shops and bookstores starting tomorrow or thereabouts.

In order to celebrate this occasion, I drew Jason's main character, Bee, in 3D, reflecting an ongoing obsession of Mr. Little's. She's donning a surgical glove in a reference to a scene in the book-- let me just say it relates to the comeuppance for the book's main villain, a comeuppance that dwarfs all comeuppances that have ever befallen all the villains in all the books that have ever been written before. It's that good.

In the meantime, please check out Motel Art Improvement Service.

warm up: in High School

Ah, high school... The above is an approximation of my standard high school uniform: black Beatle boots, Black jeans (worn to the point of grey), black turtleneck (t-shirt in the summer), and topped off by a ridiculous bouffant of long curly brown hair... ah, high school me, I'd punch you.

warm up: John Lennon

Today is the 30th anniversary of the assassination of John Lennon.  We didn't want to be morose, so the topic at  Drawbridge was the Beatles in general, but I still wanted to celebrate John Lennon the man.

Spent a little bit more time drawing this than I should have, but I had the idea and said, hell, better go with it.

Warm up - Guerilla Warrior

Over at the DB Tim Hamilton chose the topic today, so expect madness. Somehow he got the topic "How to break into comics rule #9 Draw Gorilla warriors" from this article by Tucker Stone and Michel Fiffe. Don't look for reason-- just enjoy the pretty monkeys.

No idea why this scan is so blurry in the middle, and I'm too tired to rescan it so here we go. Also didn't feel like drawing a  gun, so I gave him a banana. Seemed fitting.

Warm-up: Civilization, and Civilization's End

Sitting in a coffee shop just now with my girlfriend. I remark "Today's topic for Drawbridge is Civilization. What do I draw for that?"

She: "When I think civilization, I think its collapse", thoughtfully sips her coffee, "What about drawing a Roman vomitorium?"

Well, as it turns out the idea of a vomitorium being a room in an ancient Roman house dedicated to allowing revelers to puke and then continue binging is not true. Actual vomitoriums were passageways in ancient Roman amphitheaters and such, and were not used for people to puke in, but rather to abruptly fill and empty said spaces, hence, presumably, the term vomit. Still , however I arrived at it, it's hard to think of an image that better embodies the rise and fall of civilizations than the Colosseum of Rome, so here ya go.

warm up: what the heck are jeggings?

Today's Drawbridge topic, chosen by Mr. Tim Hamilton, is "Jeggings" and as so often happens when Tim chooses a topic, I scratch my head and go to the internets to see what the heck he's talking about.

According to Wikipedia, Steven Ameling, fashion critic, stated that while jeggings are acceptable careerwear, the blending of the word 'jeans' with the word 'leggings' is, "...an abomination."

Me, I see these "jeggings" as the inevitable and unsightly conclusion of the current skinny jeans trend. Anyone who has ever ferried between Williamsburg and Manhattan knows that the L Train serves as a rolling runway for the fashionably hip, so, hence my drawing.

Warm up: Alpha Flight

Studiomate and fellow Drawbridger Reilly Brown had a hand last week (alongside writer Jim McCann) in resurrecting the cult-favorite Canadian Marvel superteam Alpha Flight last week, so today we're all honoring this feat by drawing, you guessed it, Alpha Flight. Each member of Alpha Flight has died, oh, about 7 million times before, but I have a feeling this time their return will stick.

I drew Puck, one of the only members of Alpha Flight not to return from the dead in Reilly's one-shot. Ah, Puck... As a Canadian superteam, almost all of the members of Alpha Flight embodied some stereotypical concept of Canada. It was lead by Guardian, a guy in a Maple leaf suit, there was an Eskimo goddess, a Native American Medicine man, a Sasquatch, and so on. And then there was Puck. A dwarf who dressed up as a hockey puck. Because Canadians love hockey.

Oh, Puck. I have a theory that Alpha Flight creator John Byrne had wanted to use Canadian superhero Wolverine in his Alpha Flight book and was denied by Marvels' editors, so he went and created a character who was even shorter, hairier, uglier and Canadianer than Wolverine to take his place. Slap a big "P" on his torso and it's done!

Do yourself a favor and check out Reilly's Alpha Flight one-shot. It's very good, and for better or worse, is 100% Puck free.

The Sailor Twain/ Journey into Mohawk Country Connection; kinda like The French Connection, but with less car chases

Broke out my Mohawk Country tee for the occasion

So are you reading Sailor Twain by Mark Siegel yet? Mark Siegel, in addition to being a ridiculously talented cartoonist and illustrator, is the Editorial Director of First Second, the publishing house that puts out my graphic novels. Sailor Twain, or The Mermaid in The Hudson is his online comic being updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Recently Mark held a Sailor Twain Meet-up in the Flatiron building, a wine-tasting party for the new Sailor Twain wine(!).

Here's Mark showing off a model of the steamship Lorelei from Sailor Twain

The booze in question.

Everyone who attended was given a small bottle like the one's pictured below. Once opened, there was a message inside, as befits a bottle.

That's mine, third row, second from the right.

Each of the messages was a "Hudson River Artifact", a tantalizing clue to the mystery of Sailor Twain and, one would presume, the Mermaid of the Hudson River. You can read the messages that people received on the Sailor Twain Facebook Page.

My friend Joe Infurnari got a message in his bottle that was particularly interesting to me. Here's a scan of the text here:

It reads: ‎"To a sympathetic ear,

Harmen van den Bogaert met a sorry end, I've heard from later arrivals. We are both victims of the river, yet his end is still not so sorry as mine. I have been here since 19639 and have no hope of any rescue.

-- Captain Dick van Leeuwen,
(scribed by Ned Blum)"

The Harmen van den Bogaert mentioned above is the gentlemen whose actual real-world journal serves as the text for my graphic novel "Journey into Mohawk Country", published by First Second. The real life Harmen did indeed meet a sorry end, read all about it here.

When worlds collide

Pretty awesome, huh? I'm pretty gosh darned psyched that Mr. van den Bogaert has made an appearance in the world of Sailor Twain (and I hope he makes an actual in-comic cameo at some point as well). I just had to share it with all of you.

The warm up topic today was "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving", which apparently used to air on this Friday before Turkey Day.

Mum! Dad! Don't Touch it! It's Evil!

So, I'm responsible for today's Drawbridge topic of "Don't touch it, it's evil" and as my subject, I chose to portray the embodiment of evil himself as played by David Warner in the classic film "Time Bandits". The line "Don't touch it, it's evil" is of course, from that film: it's what the protagonist yells to his parents right before they are about touch a concentrated lump of pure evil. They promptly do anyway and explode.

Time Bandits was and is one of my favorite films of all time. As a kid, I use to endlessly draw and redraw the final battle sequence between Evil and the various armies from different time periods. This is my first time drawing him since I've become an adult :)

Incidentally, still on the road with no scanner, just my camera phone and a laptop. I'm pretty pleased with what I was able to pull off, considering.

Athena Made SLJ's Best Books of 2010 List!

The staff at the School Library Journal just released their list of the best fiction books of 2010 and my book about everyone's favorite Grey-Eyed Goddess was on it! Check out the rest of the list here!

I pity the foo's

Courtesy of the warped mind of Tim Hamilton, today's warm up topic was "Mr.T versus Harry Potter".

Apologies for the terrible quality-- I'm on the road with no scanner, so this is a cell phone picture. Just as well, because Mr.T vs Harry Potter is a pretty weird topic, yo.

I'll be sure to draw tomorrow's in pen to increase the contrast, and hopefully we'll have a less insane post topic.

warm up: The Mighty Arm of DOOM!

Today at Drawbridge we're drawing what Nate would like to see, the Nate in question being Nate Cosby, former editor at Marvel Comics who had a hand in editing nearly every worthwhile thing to come out of the House of Ideas in recent years. And what Nate wanted to see was... an arm.

I decided to draw the mighty iron-clad gauntlet of that despot of Latveria, the diabolical Dr. Doom, at the exact moment he gets his fondest wish, wrapping his steely fingers around the neck of his accursed rival and making ready to go all Martian Popper Thing on Richard's accursed head. RICHARDS!!!

Warm up: Zombies, New Yorker style

Today's topic on Drawbridge was "New Yorker Comic". I watched Walking Dead last night so I came up with this:

So, what are you in the mood for tonight? I was thinking maybe a little Mexican...

The end result is maybe more Far Side than New Yorker, but whatever. Gary Larson rules.




Incidentally, this is not my first stab at doing some New Yorker style cartoons. In fact, a few years back, one of my cartoons even won a New Yorker contest on the Leonard Lopate show. Check that one out here, as well as a couple of other cartoons I did.

Warm up : Mohawk

Today's warm up topic was "man eater".

I've had the interesting experience recently of rereading a book of my own, Journey into Mohawk Country, after having not read it for years. It's a strange experience, that, revisiting your own work after a long time away. I found I still liked it, and what's more, that I desired to draw something again in that style. Hence, today's drawing.

By about now, you're probably wondering why, with the topic of "man eater" I drew a picture of a Mohawk warrior. Well, history lesson time: The name Mohawk isn't even a Mohawk word. In fact, the people we call the Mohawk don't even have an "m" in their language. Mohawk is a Dutch derivation of an Algonquin word (the Algonquin were one language group of the Native Americans; the Mohawk belonged to the Iroquois) meaning "man eater" or "eater of flesh". Why? Well, the Kahnawake (that's one spelling of what the Mohawk call themselves; it means "people of the flint") did engage in a little bit of ritual cannibalization. A Mohawk brave might eat a small sliver of flesh from a worthy fallen foe, or even a tortured captive. It had the twofold effect of granting some of the vanquished enemy's power to the eater of the flesh, and it's hard to imagine a more effective act of psychological warfare than actually eating a part of your opponent. It's part of the reason why the Mohawk were such a dominant military presence in what would become the northeastern United States for so many years.

Warm-Up: Conan the O'Brarian

In honor of his return to television last night, today's Drawbridge was everyone's favorite ex Tonigt Show host, Conan O'Brien. Here's mine:

Yeah, I know, it's pretty obvious, but eh, what you gonna do? Sue me!

warm up: Atari and the Blade Runner Curse

Today's warm up topic was "Atari".

I never had an Atari growing up-- my family was all about the Intelivision. As such, I didn't really have any strong Atari-related feeling to convey with my drawing today.

When I do think of Atari, I pretty much think of the famous "Blade Runner Curse". Atari was one of several then-giant firms (like Pan Am and Cuisinart) that were featured prominently in the giant moving video billboards in the 1982 sci-fi classic "Blade Runner" that shortly thereafter went bankrupt. Even mighty Coca Cola was almost dealt a fatal blow with its disastrous introduction of New Coke about that time. You can read more about this whole curse here if you don't believe me. It's on Wikipedia, so it must be true.

Gonna be in Brooklyn this weekend?

Come by the Brooklyn Lyceum and check out the King Con! It's a great comic show with tons of great guests! Just check out that poster! Hell, even I'm on it!

I'll be manning the Drawbridge table from 11 to 1 on Saturday, and from 3 to 5 on Sunday. I'll even be taking commissions, so if you want an O'Connor original, LIKE THE TYPE YOU SEE ON THIS VERY PAGE, stop on by!

Warm up: Maleficent

Today's topic on Drawbridge was "Sleeping Beauty",  so I decided to draw the big bad from the Disney classic, Maleficent.

I didn't really add much of my own style to this, as the original design is so flawless. In my opinion, she's the greatest of the Disney villains. I know in some circles Sleeping Beauty is considered a flawed film: Its medieval-tapestry-inspired design is too stiff,  it has boring leads, it's too dark (true fact- every shade of paint used in the film was mixed with some black), yadda yadda.

I have my own theory for the criticism against it-- Haters gotta hate.

What the heck is Ook Sauce?

Damned if I know, but if this is where it comes from, no thanks.

Today's Drawbridge topic was inspired by wonderfully weird scribblings of Tim Hamilton, who earlier this year treated us to the continuing saga of Tribe a-boo and their precious Ook Sauce. After viewing his drawings, I'm sure you will agree that Mr. Hamilton is the undisputed master of all things Ookian.

Bottoms up!

Warm up: DeMatteis's Blue and Gold

The topic today at Drawbridge was comics legend J.M. Dematteis.  In a conversation that might have precipitated this day in part, J.M. DeMatteis collaborator Mike Cavallaro and I were talking the other day about the immense impact Giffen and DeMatteis's Justice League had on me-- it remains, probably, my favorite run on any comic to this day.

I knew right away that I wanted to draw the characters who have come to embody that period of the League more than any others, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. Through the writing of DEMatteis and Giffen, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold evolved into the greatest best friend duo in comics. During the heyday of the JLI, the letter pages were always a twitter with rumors of a Blue and Gold spinoff series that never materialized. We finally, years later, finally kind of have it-- DeMatteis has been doing wonderful work on the ongoing Booster Gold series,  costarring the currently deceased Blue Beetle.

Walking Dead

Today on Drawbridge, in anticipation of the upcoming television show, Hallowe'en and my own perverse fascination with Zombies, the topic was "Walking Dead". I had a little bit of extra time to do my warm up sketch this morning, so I got to do a little more detailed sketch than usual.

Which is good, because the walking dead are more impressive in hordes.

Unfortunately, I don't have cable, so I won't be seeing the show, but Happy Hallowe'en everybody!

warm up: O rlly?

Today's topic on Drawbridge was inspired by a piece we read on Robot 6 about Bill O'Reilly using his considerable pulpit to harass an editorial cartoonist with whom he disagreed.

Regardless of your own personal political beliefs (and I'll say this for Mr. O'Reilly-- unlike some of the people with whom he shares a network, I believe he is not a shameless opportunist, and actually believes what he says) that's being a bully. And being a bully ain't cool.

I'll also say this about the man-- he's surprisingly fun to draw.

warm up: Muppet Adventure of the Final Problem

Today on Drawbridge, the topic was "Sherlock Holmes".

So the story goes, feeling constrained by his character's immense popularity, Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle had him meet his end fighting arch nemesis Moriarty atop Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland (of course, eventually, he got better). Here I've recreated the scene with Muppet Sherlock Hemlock standing in for the great detective. Now you know where he disappeared to after those first few seasons of Sesame Street.

My Amazon widget is no more...

Eagle eyed readers of this blog will note that the "My Books" Amazon widget that listed my books that were available on Amazon, with links to buy them there, and which formerly resided on the right hand side of my page, is no more. For some time now it had been unable to retrieve information from Amazon due to some internal restructuring of the online shopping giant, so I deleted it.

My question is, to you savvy types who might see this, can anyone recommend a widget they're aware of that will replace my lost one? I 'd love to have a handy list of my published works and where to buy them, and would love even more not having to create something from scratch. Thanks in advance!

Warm up: Loviathan!

Happy Birthday Mike Cavallaro! Today on Drawbridge we celebrate newly minted sextagenarian Mike Cavallaro and his wonderful Web comic Loviathan.

King Llyr always makes sure that his fingernails and toenails match. It's just one of the many touches that make Llyr one of the most popular boys in all of Atlantis.

warm up: self portrait

The theme today on Drawbridge was self-portrait, and this one's mine. It's actually a bit of a cheat, as it's more of a "cool down" than a "warm up" since I did it so late, but what the heck, right?

warm up: Benjamin Franklin

The topic today on Drawbridge was Ben Franklin. A wild hair entered my brain as I rode the trains this morning and this little strip was the result.

A little backstory to enjoy my strip: Ben Franklin's eldest son, William, was a British loyalist who was exiled to England after the Revolutionary War. He never reconciled with his famous (founding) father.

Everything else is me being silly.

Update! Yesterday's Parademon warm-up Coloured by Simon Fraser

Had to share this...

In comments section on this post on the Drawbridge blog Simon Fraser  suggested that this piece would look better in 'colour' (he's Scottish) and I invited him, or anyone, really, to color it in, because as noted above, I ain't got all day. So Simon colored, it took him 20 minutes, and I'm eating crow. It does look much better, and he even added more substantial Kirby Crackle. In my defense, I wouldn't have colored it so nicely :)

warm up- Parademons!

Today on Drawbridge, we paid homage to the King of Comics Jack Kirby and his wonderful Fourth World Creations.

Surprisingly hard to find some good Kirby reference of Darkseid's footsoldiers, the Parademons, so I kind of cobbled mine together from some toys, the Superman animated series, and my own jumbled memories. Coulda used more Kirby crackle but, Hell, I ain't got all day.

My Cartooning Classes at the Park Slope Y are filling up fast!

I teach two courses on Tuesdays at the Park Slope YMCA Armory, Cartooning (for 8-10 year olds) and Graphic Novels (for 11-17 year olds). A new session starts up in a couple of weeks, sign up now!

Warm up: Trick or Treat

The topic today at Drawbridge, the world's funnest sketch blog, was "Halloween".

Drew this on the subway earlier today. When I got home, I quickly scumbled some color in it, to better catch the mood of the season. Trick or treat, suckas.

warm up: Shell Game

I took a break at the end of last week from posting my warm-ups, but I'm back, baybee! Newlywed Tim Hamilton chose today's topic of the old "shell game" and this was the first thing to pop in my head.

Please view this in tandem with my earlier Life Aquatic piece to get the full-on Mermaid experience, and witness how I'm apparently getting a head start on my dirty old man years.

Big Barda and Mr. Miracle inked by Michel Fiffe

One of the nicest things about working in a big ol' comics studio like I do is the cross-pollenization of ideas. A couple of weeks ago, while having a discussion of inkers we liked and less-than-liked, Michel Fiffe and I hit upon the idea of exchanging a penciled drawing that we would each ink over. For my part, I drew Jack Kirby's Big Barda and her husband, the world's greatest escape artist, Mr. Miracle.

Here's my pencils:

But to see Mr. Fiffe's embellishments ('cause calling them inks don't do them justice) you will have to make the clicky-click here. Here's a partial preview, with color(!) that Fiffe is apparently applying directly to the page. HARDCORE!

warm up: Clawful the Mohel

The topic today at Drawbridge is "Masters of the Universe". Here's mine, featuring my favorite Master.

The irony is, as a crab-man, he isn't even kosher.

warm up- That creep can roll...

Today's Drawbridge topic was chosen by the lovely and talented Natalie Kim-- bowling!

Like I suspect a good many, when I hear bowling, I immediately think of that most bowlingest of all films, the Big Lebowski. And when I think of Big Lebowski, I think of John Turturro's amazing turn as the Dude's rival bowler, Jesus Quintana.

Dios mio, man.

warm up: the Frankenhamiltons

In honor of Drawbridge cornerstone Tim "T-Money" Hamilton's getting hitched this past weekend to his lady love MintJeannie Lee, I decreed today's topic on Drawbridge to be "Marriage".

Depicting the newly-minted Hamiltons as the Bride and Monster of Frankenstein says far, far more about me than it does the happy couple. Please join me in raising a glass to them in hopes for a long happy life together.

warm up: #icantbreathe

Someone (I don't recall who) had the idea today for Drawbridge that we grab a top-trending topic from Twitter and do our daily warm up based on that. Well, nobody's done one yet, so I figured it was up to me to get this ball rolling. Perusing the day's tweets, I found #icantbreathe .

I call it "Hello Nurse". It's becoming a bit of a motif for me to draw warm-ups of pretty women smilingly dispatching their victims, as you can see right here. I guess I have a problem.

warm up: Roller Derby Disco Dazzler

Today at Drawbridge, Simon Fraser, who was apparently personally offended by the character's most recent costume design, asked that we redesign the outfit of that errant X-Men, the dynamic Disco Dazzler!

I have little of the affinity for the character that Simon seems to evince for her, but I always kind of dug her 70's design. I took what worked best from that get up (a general sparkliness and roller skates) and took off with it. Around where I live in Brooklyn there are a lot of advertisements for roller derby games, and they contain superheroic illustrations of hot roller derby girls. I liked the intense implied physicality of those illustrations, and roller derby get-up sin general, and brought some of that to my redesign of the former Disco Dazzler. Now, she plays hard, she rolls hard, and she glows hard.

Sharpie sketch, as I'm still on the road. When I return home, I may do a more detailed piece for my own amusement.

warm up: Atlas and the Pleiades

The topic today at Drawbridge, chosen by Mr. Tim Hamilton, was "Pleiades". I went all mythological with this portrait of Atlas and his family.

In Greek Myth, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of Atlas, the Titan who held aloft the sky, and Pleione, a daughter of Oceanus, the Titan of the ocean. They have always been associated with the constellation, and for the most part play very little role in mythology. The exception is Maia, who is the mother of Hermes and the namesake of the month of May. The other six daughters are Taygete, Elektra, Alkyone, Sterope, Kelaino, and Merope. The seven daughters (and their two parents) give their names to the stars that make up the constellation. There are many stories of the seventh Pleiad becoming hidden or invisible-- out of shame for having married a mortal, or in grief over the loss of a child. There is not a consensus on which Pleiad it was that went into hiding, but I pay a nod to that story by having poor Merope partially concealed by her father's arm.

I'm staying at my family's place for a week with no ink and only remedial imaging software, so I banged this out with a sharpie. I'm pleasantly surprised at the result, but man, I got a headache from wicked sharpie fumes.

warm up: Monkey or Why I Hate Chimps

Today at Drawbridge, Deep 6's very own west coast expatriate Leland Purvis chose today's theme, "monkey".

I have a complicated relationship with monkeys, or more specifically, apes. I like bonobos, I'm all about gorillas, and who doesn't love a good orangutan? But chimpanzees? Ick.

Any other large wild animal that you have the misfortune of having a run-in with, you can reasonably expect it to simply kill you. Tiger, bear, alligator-- they have the decency to kill and eat you. A chimp, on the other hand... if it's not eating your face and hands, it's pulling off your genitals and then leaving you alive. They suck.

btw, this is my second "chimp with a skull " piece I've drawn as a warm-up recently. Here's the other.