MoCCA Thoughts (A Month Later)

It's been a month since the MoCCA Comic Art Festival, and I have yet to put up anything publicly about the weekend. I guess it's taken awhile to process, and only now I have something really to say about it. Be forewarned, some of my observations may verge on cynical/depressive, but I think it's somewhat healthy to acknowledge some cons along with the pros of the convention.

Financially, the show was a disaster. I didn't come close to making back my table, let alone the money that I invested in producing books and swag for the show. But overall, I had a good time. It was my first chance to spend some quality time in New York since moving to the East coast, and I got to meet a few artists whose work I really admire. And I passed out a lot of promo cards for my webcomic and website, so hopefully this garnered some readership and will have some returns down the road.

And yet, I still have no idea what people look for when attending a convention. My tablemate had a small mini-comic about a cat that she was selling for $2, and she made a killing. People would come up, look at it, and literally become giddy right at the table because it was about a cat, and they had a cat, and they could relate to it. I'm not knocking it, it was a great comic and it deserved to be picked up by as many people as possible. But the lesson I took away was that you have to have something, whether a character or concept, that is simple enough for people to pick up and get immediately. That comic that you've been slaving over for months (or years) probably isn't going to cut it, and people are most likely going to stay away from long winded series unless they can get into it with a stand alone story. At the end of the day, people are still fanboys or fangirls. They may not be looking for Spider-Man or Iron Man material, but they still want something that they are familiar with.

Probably the best advice I got was from David Malki!, he of Wondermark fame. First, he said that you should become really good at what you're making. Master it, keep at it, and it will eventually find its audience. Second, he said to wait before producing books or merchandise until people start asking for them. This way, you'll have some chance at selling your product, and you won't be stuck with an enormous bill. I honest to god wish I had heard this before the convention, because sure enough, I had a collection of my webcomic and t-shirts at my table, and the majority of them are now sitting in boxes in my apartment. Granted, I'll have this stuff for future conventions, but there's no guarantee I'll sell them there either. Sadly, it's now sort of expected that you have merchandise along with a webcomic, even before the comic itself has had enough time to gestate. In any case, David's advice was enormously helpful, and while our chat was brief, I'm glad I approached him and asked for his advice.

My one regret is not approaching more cartoonists at the convention, some of whom I had met years before. Granted, being an exhibitor at these things can sometimes prevent this, but in some ways I still feel isolated within the comics world, and sometimes I feel even more so after conventions. More and more I realize that I need to nurture the relationships I have within the larger comics community. I can't expect friendships and professional relationships to form overnight, especially when I'm only seeing these people maybe once or twice a year, if I'm fortunate enough, and so I need to take advantage of the opportunities as much as possible.

So, there you have it, my thoughts on MoCCA. Some good, some bad. Onto to the next one...

Oh, and Kate Beaton is awesome. She makes comics about history. READ THEM. Hark! A Vagrant

More 'Lost' Commissions

Jack in the Hatch

The Smoke Monster/Man in Black


Charlie and Desmond in the Looking Glass

Another 'Lost' Commission - Two Lockes

This 'Lost' commission requested by a friend offered me a unique challenge: showing two versions of John Locke together, one the actual person that we knew for 5 seasons, and his current incarnation as the Smoke Monster/Man in Black. Since we haven't actually seen the two Lockes side-by-side, I decided to go with a more symbolic route, kind of a battle for the soul of John Locke. It also gave me a chance to use two elements that were essential to the character of Locke, his handicap and his suitcase of knives.

And credit must be given where credit is due. The idea for the smoke-from-the eyes came from artist Jared Stumpenhorst. I first saw his 'Lost' illustrations at io9, and I thought this particular feature was inspiring, and would be appropriate for this illustration. I don't know if this would be considered sheer stealing, or perhaps a little creative borrowing. I hope it's the latter. Either way, please check out his work, it's really quite excellent: Jared Stumpenhorst-io9

'Lost' Sketch Commissions

Recently, I've been doing some 'Lost' sketches for friends in commemoration of the final season that is quickly reaching its conclusion (May 23! Holy Smoke Monster!). I've been happy to oblige since I've been meaning to tackle the variety of characters that the show offers, and these first three have provided some unique opportunities and challenges.

Neil, aka 'Frogurt,'
aka the guy that gets shot with a flaming arrow in Season 5
(Don't know who Neil is? Don't worry, neither did I. Thank the internet for Lostpedia!)

Desmond and Daniel Faraday
from Season 5

Ben Linus
from Season 2
(At first, I was thinking of drawing Ben turning the wheel at the end of Season 4, but instead I went with his debut in Season 2, where he was a captive in the Hatch.)

There will most likely be more of these in the weeks ahead. This project has kind of bumped the 'Lost' kid comics from my plate, but I may get one or two more of those out before the end of the season. If only I could make time...

MoCCA Art Festival! This Weekend! April 10-11!

This up and coming weekend, I'll have a table at the MoCCA Art Festival in New York City! I'll be sharing it with illustrator Ulana Zahajkewycz, who will be selling unique and delightful comics and art. If you're in the New York area, please stop by!

What will I be selling? Here's a rundown:
* 'The Ballad of Toby & Sara: Tracks 1-4'
* 2 'Toby & Sara' B-Sides: Visitors and Creme Brulee
* A sneak preview of the 'The Ballad of Toby & Sara: Meetings and Greetings'
* 'Supernova Lullaby: Every Galaxy has its Problems...' (a collection of the first year of the webcomic, brand new!)
* Buttons!
* T-Shirts!

For more info, please visit: http://www.moccany.com/content/mocca-festival

Hope to see you there!

Lost - Jacob's Cabin

Another 'Lost' comic. I think the next one will feature Jack and Ben...I think...

Lost-The Hatch

So, with the last season of 'Lost' in full swing, there's been a lot of fan art floating in the Inter-webs. I've been doing art based on the series over the past six seasons, but this is my latest contribution, and it's a bit different from my previous attempts. I'm going to try and do more of these in this style before the end of this season, but it depends on whether time permits. Don't worry, I'll come up with something!

Click on the image for a larger version.

The Making of Torex

For a little over a year, I've been working on a webcomic called 'Supernova Lullaby.' The basic premise is to show the everyday problems of another galaxy, centered around a group of friends; the shy and neurotic Froiberg, the scientific genius Ogglethorpe, the overconfident Hurster, and his girlfriend the sweet but feisty Meranda. However, over the course of this time, the series has accrued its fair share of supporting characters, each with their own personality traits and distinct back stories.

One of these is Meranda's ex-boyfriend Torex. Torex has a become a central character in the current storyline 'Alien-kind's Best Friend.' Recently, I felt it necessary to remind the readers of the comic of the connection between Meranda and Torex, and when I linked to the previous comics that he appeared in, I happened upon the realization that his character design is now dramatically different.
Above is the first appearance of both Torex and Meranda, from the fifth installment of 'Supernova.' And below is the second appearance of Torex from the seventh week, where we witness Meranda's break-up with him.
This is how Torex appears now.
This is a pretty dramatic difference, even though several elements are similar. His neck still merges with his head, except his cranium is now wider. His nose is the same, and his hair is still composed of spikes, though they are drastically shorter than before. The most obvious change is the removal of the third eye.

So, what happened? What made me change his design and features? Why didn't I hold true to my previous rendering of the character. I think the following sketch holds a clue:
This was a sketch I drew at the Philadelphia Alternative Comic-Con back in September 2009. At the time, I was just beginning to think about the story for 'Alien-kind's Best Friend,' and I knew Torex was going to play a big part. I also knew that I wasn't terribly happy with Torex's previous design, and so I sought to change it. And this is where it all came together for me. The other thing that caused the change was 8 months, the time from when I first drew the character to the beginning of 'Alien-Kind's Best Friend.' In that span of time, I started thinking about the different kinds of aliens that made up this galaxy, and I wasn't sure how to make Torex's previous rendering fit in.
Am I just trying to let myself off the hook for this? Kind of. Should I have been more faithful to the continuity? Probably. But I think one of the great things about this series (which is still a very young series) is seeing how these characters develop, from both the storytelling and aesthetic aspects. And I think I recognized that I would need to change Torex in order to make him more appealing to draw. As I heard Scott McCloud say one time, if you're going to draw a character over and over, you better like to draw that character.

I hope that's reason enough.

From the universe of 'Supernova Lullaby'

It's been a while since I posted (as always), so I thought I would pull some stuff from the sketchbooks that's been sitting around for a while. All of these come from the universe of 'Supernova Lullaby.' They may all lead to bigger and better things down the road, but for now, they're just sketches (albeit, a bit more elaborate than I am use to).

'The Watcher Zuba-elle announces the conception of Karsi Wipsi the Forsi, Son of Yoh Shaboh, to the Sacred Mother Esmer'ta.'


Preliminary poster for the film '200,00 Parsecs Under the Nebula,' based on the digi-novel by Jobel Vursus.

One of the many terrors of the planet Arkham 9-99
(My personal favorite!)

Sneak Peek: 'The Ballad of Toby & Sara: Meetings & Greetings'

I decided to post some of my in-progress pages for Track 5 of 'The Ballad of Toby & Sara: Meetings & Greetings.' It's been more than a year since I released Tracks 1-4, and while I can give you multiple excuses for the long delay, ultimately, I think it's been beneficial to the comic. It gave me a chance to really think about where the series should go in terms of storytelling, and how the artwork would be integrated with this. If this analogy helps, Tracks 1-4 set the chess board for the story, and Track 5 is where we see the first moves of the characters.

Overall, Track 5 centers on the former archangel Raphael, known to the people he meets as Ray Azzarus. He arrived in Omaha at the end of Track 3, and we discovered the first impressions of his true identity in Track 4. While the mystery surrounding him won't be completely solved in this chapter, the connection between his past and present situation will hopefully be more clear to the reader, and how his presence will prove fateful to both Toby and Sara.

Also, one of the challenges that I faced in this chapter was portraying the ancient city of Nineveh, which plays a part in Raphael's past. I didn't want to treat it as some uber-exotic Oriental land of wonders, but give the city some element of plausibility . I've made every effort in my research to present it with a degree of accuracy, but I've had to take imaginative and artistic liberties in some places. Any suggestions for sources would be helpful, if you have any.

And of course Toby and Sara play a large role in the chapter. I tried to enlarge their respective worlds while not distracting too much from the main narrative force of the story, which is the introduction of Raphael to both Toby and Sara.

So, when will this chapter be complete? I'm aiming to have the next book ready in time for the MoCCA Art Festival in April. When it's ready, I'll let the readers of this blog know, and the finished comic will be posted to my Web site. Stay tuned...

A Couple More X-Men

Finished the colors for two more X-Men sketches that I did some time ago.

Toad and Blob
For these characters, I was going for more of a disaffected youth vibe, hence the lack of any real costumes or uniforms. Just two guys with odd powers that have a chip on their shoulder. Also, I was thinking of Jorge Garcia (Hurley) from 'Lost' as a basis for Blob.

Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde)
When I originally did this drawing, I completely forgot about Lockheed, Kitty's pet alien dragon. I could dodge this and say this is from her 'pre-Lockheed' days, but something tells me that wouldn't cut it.

Some X-Men Drawings

Things have been a little lite around the blog these days. I'm working on stuff, it's just stuff that isn't really intended for this blog. However, I was browsing through my 2009 Illustration folder, and came across a bunch of X-Men drawings I did earlier this year. A few of them had color added to them, and so I finished them up and posted them below.

Cyclops

Phoenix

Magneto
Nightcrawler

These were drawn at a pretty small size, around 4x5 on average, hence the simplicity in design and color. I have drawings ready for other characters like Wolverine, Rogue, and Sabretooth, so I'll have to find some time to finish those up and add them to this collection.

The 'Toby & Sara' crew by Danno Klonowski

Some time ago, comic artist extraordinaire Danno Klonowski made a great drawing of Toby, Sara, Raphael, and Company, and I've been horribly, horribly delayed in posting it.

Danno is simply put one of the most prolific indie creators I know, and you can find more of his work at Staplegenius.com(ics). He writes and draws 'Manly Tales of Cowardice' (a great cross between Indiana Jones-style adventure and Venture Bros.-style humor), draws 'Tommy Chicago,' is a contributor to 'False Witness: The Michele Bachmann Story.' and...the list goes on! Thanks Danno!

(And for those wondering...the next installment of 'Toby & Sara' is on its way. Your patience has been appreciated, and I hope the wait will be worth it! All I can say right now is that it'll be 45 pages, and it will include some fateful meetings between the characters introduced in the previous installments. Keep your eyes peeled...)

A 'Toby & Sara' B-side: Creme Brulee

My longer comic narrative 'The Ballad of Toby & Sara' has taken a back seat due to some recent projects, namely 'Supernova Lullaby.' I wish it wasn't the case, I wish I had the time to work on them side by side, but it just hasn't worked out that way. However, I recently completed a B-side for the story, a comic that takes place a couple years prior to the beginning of the series, and which fills in some of the blanks for the heroine Sara Reynolds. You can read it online for FREE at my website, just click on the image below.
The location of the comic, Delice Bakery in Omaha, Nebraska, actually closed its doors in the Old Market earlier this summer. It was a great place, I remember getting delicious sandwiches there when I worked at a gallery in downtown. I never expected it to close, in many ways it felt like a cornerstone of the neighborhood. So, I guess this comic is a tribute to it, even though that wasn't my intention when I started it...

Summer Projects

It's been somewhat quiet here on the blog since I'm preparing for a cross-country move, but I have quite a few projects to post. Some I started early in the summer, but a couple were surprises that popped up during the summer.

The big one though is a watercolor painting that was commissioned by a friend of mine, and is now in his possession. I was a bit nervous starting this one since I haven't done a lot of work with watercolor, especially at this size, but I found it really enjoyable. After getting feedback from a number of people, I think it may have opened some creative doors for me. Below: 'Henry O'Sullivan's.'
Next, Seth From Somewhere commissioned another travel illustration, this one for the Camino de Santiago in Spain. I think as far as sheer technique goes, there was a lot of development between this one and the previous ones I did for him earlier this year. I'm working more with shadows and highlights, and I think this is giving a lot more depth to my computer illustrations.