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.

warm up: Back in baby's arms

Tim "I'm messed up on Ook sauce" Hamilton came up with the theme "back in baby's arms" for the Drawbridge blog this morning. This is what it inspired me to draw.

One morning you got some burly 26 inch guns, the next morning this. I bet the real salt in the wound was the diaper, though.

Warm up: Robert Mitchum

Mad Scotsman Simon Fraser chose today's warm up topic: Robert Mitchum. Check out his and the rest of the Drawbridge posse's take on Mr. Mitchum here.

Mitchum's a lot harder to capture than you might think. I feel like I did a better job with the right side of his face than the left (my right, not his).

I used his hand tattoos to make a reference to that old Cape Fear episode of the Simpsons, when Sideshow Bob had "Luv" and "Hat" tattooed on his three-fingered paw. Good stuff.