So I'm a little late to the game on this news (I was on vacation at the time), but Popgun 3 won the Eisner award for best anthology!



It's great to be a part of such a talented group of people. Some of the stories in the Popgun series have been among my favourite short comic stories. It is very surreal to be included among them. It's also very surreal to learn that Thomas Jane presented the award (something I'm sure my wife will enjoy). We've been enjoying his television series "Hung" quite a bit.

Congratulations to the editors, Mark Andrew Smith and D.J. Kirkbride, and all the creators who helped make Popgun great. If you like, you can even read my short story, "The Last Voyage" online, lettered by Thomas Mauer.

Labels: comics, Eisner Awards, Popgun, The Last Voyage

This picture has been a bit of a personal failure of mine. It has sat dormant on my drafting table for far longer than I'd care to admit. The problem I believe is that it represents the truest example of the style I've always strived to achieve, and completing it was downright intimidating.

The pencils for this picture I've posted here before, and while I did enjoy those, I always intended this piece to be inked. Another challenge with this was that it was the first picture I tried inking with a light table. I chose all the wrong paper, so that seeing the underlying pencil was a muddied mess. There was a lot of flipping back to the original pencil to see just what I was trying to ink.

All of that aside, I've walked away from this picture with quite a few lessons learned, and hope to stay prolific in the coming months. Next on my plate will be coloring this piece, and cursing out each and every little twig and branch along the way. Enjoy!

Labels: brush pen, giant monsters, pen and ink, Tree Spirit

I've decided to post my published comic stories online. I would like to continue to create short comic stories as time permits, and post them here. Perhaps when I have enough of them, I can scrounge together a limited print run or something. At any rate, here they are:

"The Spirits & The Woods", originally published in Fablewood Volume 1.


"The Last Voyage", lettered by Thomas Mauer and originally published in Popgun Volume 3 from Image Comics.

Labels: Fablewood, Popgun, The Last Voyage, The Spirits and The Woods, webcomics

After reading Sean Gordon Murphy's journal entry, this was the first picture that came to mind. The biggest thing I've struggled with, and something I think all artists do, is not getting the pictures I see in my head out on paper. The visual shorthand seems to be then to try and emulate another style (in an effort to at least get some sort of analog to what you're picturing). Lord knows I've done my fair share of riffing on other artists.

I think I am entirely guilty of trying to smash myself into some sort of house style, with middling success. In the past few years, I have felt more confident in my art, but I think I still get very complacent and not willing to try new things. This can make things pretty stale. Going forward, I think I just have to draw the creatures out of my head. Hopefully everything else will fall into place. If not? Well, simply drawing really should be the point anyhow...

Labels: Cave Troll, ink, Photoshop

As promised, here's my guest strip for PC Weenies. Krishna's a great guy, and has been championing webcomics for far longer than most. You should definitely check out his site. Full of solid cartooning and humour.

I chose Facebook as the topic, as I think all the privacy issues that have come to light should force people to really examine what they're willing to share online. I had a Facebook account myself, but found all the reasons I didn't want to join in the first place to be true, and regretted it shortly after. Their privacy woes were the final straw in my closing my account.

This was done with traditional inks, with Photoshop colors. I try to push myself with each piece of art I create, and with this one the idea was perspective. It's a simple concept on paper, but I think a lot of artists (myself included) tend to over think it. Hopefully you enjoy!

Labels: Facebook, failbook, giant robots, ink, Photoshop, webcomics