mystery post

Haven't scanned anything new for a bit, so here's a secret surprise from the vault:



What is it? What does it all mean?

patience, grasshoppers. Good things come to those who wait.

Hephaistos

This was a nice little sketch I banged out of the Blacksmith of the Gods. Sometimes these quick little drawings will really capture a certain something that a more finished sketch could miss. Half of this drawing is so gestural it verges on unreadable, but I really like the expression I caught on his face.

Perseus

Of all the heroes of Greek Myth, I don't think any of them got so much of a helping hand as did our man Perseus here. He doesn't do boo without some sort of divine intervention. You have to kill Medusa? Here, take Hermes' winged shoes and sword, and Athena's mirrored shield so you don't have to look at her directly. That's not enough? How about we lend you Hades cap of invisibility, too, so Medusa won't even know you're there. You fly down, all invisible and cut off the monster's head. How's that?

Geez, with all that help, even I could kill a monster. In Grey-Eyed Goddess, I've decided to omit the invisibility helmet 'cause, man, that just ain't fair, but I have let the fact that Perseus gets an inordinate amount of immortal assistance affect my character design of him. Not quite a tower of muscle and sinew, instead he's got a little bit of the laid back surfer vibe going on, like he's a dude who doesn't have to sweat it too much because he's got friends in (very) high places.

Hermes

Aside from Athena herself, the rest of the "second generation" Olympians get their full introductions in Grey-Eyed Goddess. Hermes, the trickster god, was often paired up with Athena as a benefactor to heroes in myth, so it should be no surprise he will feature pretty heavily in Goddess as well.

Athena, again

Another quick sketch of everyone's favorite goddess of wisdom. I probably spent all of three minutes on it. That being said, I really like the way this one came out, especially her feet.

Triceratops

Before I delve deeper into the world of Greek mythology I thought I'd share with you this pretty nifty little drawing I did of a Triceratops. Triceratops are teh awesome.

The words in the upper right corner are the intersection my sister lives at in San Diego, by the way. Say hi if you're in the 'hood.

Athena sketch.

So now that I've wrapped Ball-Peen Hammer, it's on to work on The Olympians. Plans are for the first two volumes, Zeus, King of the Gods and Athena, The Grey-Eyed Goddess to launch the line simultaneously. I've had the story of Zeus, (essentially an origin of the world story) and the characters therein, nailed down for a while now. In Athena, however, I introduce a whole crop of new characters, including the second generation of Olympians, i.e. the children of Zeus.

Athena, of course, will be the driving force of this book, and here is a preview of how she will appear in The Grey-Eyed Goddess. Athena was both the goddess of war and the goddess of weaving. This drawing is all about the hard, sharp lines of her armor and helmet contrasting with the billowing soft folds of her cape and dress.

Ring The Bells! Ring The Bells!

Well, it took a while, but I finally finished Ball-Peen Hammer!! Hooray!

Ball-Peen Hammer is my new graphic novel, written by the talented Mr. Adam Rapp, and due to be published by First Second in Fall 2009. It's a dark, complex story, and I was working on it through some dark and complex real-world times, but I finally wrapped it up a week and change ago.

People will notice that my blog has been all sad and ignored lately, and the reason why is that I was finishing up this 130 page bad boy. Now that I'm done, it's time to start updating this site on a regular basis. I made a bunch of scans today to further that purpose, so enjoy the coming deluge.

I Met The Walrus

I originally saw this on Swiss Miss's blog, so props to her for finding it. A short animated film, using as it's soundtrack an interview a nineteen year old kid made with John Lennon after sneaking into his hotel room in 1969. The visuals are amazing, and the interview is pretty enlightening as well (the kid's question about the Bee Gees is pretty funny , too).

Messin' 'round with a wacom tablet

Like the title says.



Could I have chosen a more yucky line color? That was a mistake-- I'm clicking on the wrong thing all over the place. It's a little trickier than I thought, but I'll get the hang of it. I became inspired after watching the multi-talented Mike Cavallaro use one at the Deep Six studio. Special thanks to Mr. Mariano Recalde for the loan until I can decide whether I can make this thing work well enough to justify buying myself one.

Zombies!

More top secret sketches from my top secret upcoming top secret project. Hint: it gots zombies in it.

Some More Ball-Peenishness

Some more preview pages from Ball-Peen Hammer, written by Adam Rapp. We've already met Welton and Underjohn, rotting away in their basement. Please meet Exley (the woman) and Horlick (the boy), the other two main characters, who are set above it all in a crumbling clock tower. Horlick is a feral child who was subdued by Exley, who spends the rest of the book trying to save him. This is pretty early in their relationship, hence his being tied to a chair.
This scene, and the little stalemate they've got going here, is one of the scenes that made me want to illustrate this book; it gets resolved, quite ingeniously, and finally, by Exley on the following page. Like I said, this book is definitely not going to be for kids so I had to be somewhat selective in what I show here. Nothing violent, just not particularly appropriate for an ostensibly all-ages blog.