Hilarity Ensues

Tony Akins Interview @ Gapers Block

2011-10-10T12:33:00.000-05:00

STRIPPED: A Documentarty

2011-09-21T08:33:00.000-05:00

My Work Day Compressed Into Under Four Minutes

2011-09-11T04:05:00.001-05:00

Don't Hug Me I'm Scared from This Is It on Vimeo.

A Portland Spring: the Buffy Trials, Part C,"On the 8's"

2011-09-05T20:06:00.015-05:00

So, where I left off was being in the need for devising (?) a way, a standardized manner, for acquiring a skilled finesse for drawing the principle actors and their characters so I could render them in pen and ink for the Buffy Season 9 series that Dark Horse was about to launch and hopefully when that launch occurred I'd have a nice seat aboard. Yeesh, I hate this layout, but what the fuck ever, we're rolling with the bastard...hang on. Any 'thickie' that took a history class can remember that the grid is very important in translating shit from life to 2d representation; fruits, birds, those funny cantaloupe boobs that Michelangelo put on dudes because he like looking at men and never used a female model so he couldn't draw a babe worth a goddamn, grids are great for breaking down a 3D element in order to convert it onto a flat picture plane.Simple stuff. So first step; make a grid. BOOM. Grid. I chose a 5x5 grid so there would be a full square on the median to place over the focal feature or anchor of each image, this being in all planned aspects, the Nose. Specifically, the tip of the nose. That way, no matter which aspect (lord this is boring shit, but you find this fascinating I'm sure, having not lived it already) ...which aspect the subject presents; full frontal, 3/4 left or right...there's always a box designated to "capture" the entire nose in and ample grids remaining to divide the rest of the features.
The next step was actually watching the show and doing screen grabs of the characters from angles that I thought were important and interesting and that I believed would fare well on the pages of the comics. Here are some of the grabs for Willow. Again, it was important to understand what makes Willow Willow but I also needed information about her in different angles because not every shot will have her looking dead on into camera, right...RIGHT?
These are just a few of the grabs, trust me, there are a shit-ton of them (that is metric, thank you) more.

The next thing that I needed to do was get some feedback from DH on how things were progressing. It was by now the heady, airless heights of the comic book convention season, so everybody was unavailable. So brilliant person that I am, I decided to friend another artist that I heard was rumored to be in the running for a slot on the franchise; Rebekah Isaacs. If this were Public Radio and I was Ira Glass, this is precisely where my underpaid, lackey producer would have you hear the audio of the phone call; the phone ringing several times before being picked up on the other end (EST) and then the inquisitive, breathy and vivid Georgian drawl of a young woman on the other end saying 'Hello?", and then i would say,"Hi! Rebekah Isaacs? I'm Tony Akins!"...
But this blog is certainly not that broadcast is it? Instead, you will read here, not listen to, how I located Rebekah by her Facebook profile and then sending a "friend" request and waited for her answer. She probably doesn't have a breathy Georgian drawl, but it sounds nice, no?
When she responded to my request, we messaged generously and were mutually complimentary as she is a terrific, gifted young talent and I'm Tony Akins. There was the shared excitement of the title in front of us and the commiserating over the solitary nature of our work. The one difference between us was that she had a script in front of her and was moving on her assigned title, "Faith/Angel"..."Fangel", while I was still languishing in 'stand-by for approval' status. Technique for rendering the characters was also discussed and it is a tricky thing, little ones. It was there and then, and here and now that I will explain to you what I explained to Rebekah regarding how I was tackling this issue, and I do apologize to Ms.Isaacs for having this be the venue to reveal what I had hoped to show her in a more exclusive manner. But, hey...no big, right? Yes, R...this is that "On the 8's" thing I was yammering on about. God this IS a long post. The "8's" is simple an eight by eight grid which gave me a place to extract and practice the information that I had isolated from the characters on the 5x5 grid. Simply filling row after row, page after page of the individual features of any character; noses, eyes, lips, ears, constantly like a fleshy, cartilagey, toothy mantra until the features could be recalled almost instantly without having to refer to scrap photos (mostly). Here's Willow 'on the 8's'and Xander, the same...

This method seemed thorough, deliberate and very satisfying which you will see in my next entry where I'll show the practical application of this technique; drawing a character that's recognizable without referring to a photo. This entry will also feature my most horrible misstep in the process of trying to wow my ass onto this title. Hilarity Ensues.

Krazy Kat Stop Motion

2011-09-05T00:51:00.001-05:00

Stop Motion JQ Titles

2011-09-05T00:35:00.000-05:00

Jonny Quest Opening Titles from Roger D. Evans on Vimeo.

A Portland Spring: the Buffy Trials, Part Two

2011-09-04T10:36:00.008-05:00

OK, so it's time to start squirreling away some time on learning how to draw the characters. First thing was to start with some drawings to see how much I sucked...

...ouch

OK, so let's try a little bit of...

...holy hell.

Well, maybe this time...

Hmmm...

OK.

...sigh.

So maybe I need to take another approach to this, cause CLEARLY I'm blowing at capturing the likenesses of the principles. One thing I know is that I'm NOT going to trace or build a morgue of character shots built-up from screen grabs. The only thing to do is to learn everybody's face, every feature, every filtrum, every plucked eyebrow and every nosejob until I can draw them in my sleep.

First, I'll need a system...

BTW, I've received comments that these postings are misleading readers into believing I am in the running for, or actually got this job. Well, I didn't. I'm posting this for postings sake and some entertaining content.

A Portland Spring: the Buffy Trials, Part 1

2011-09-02T15:57:00.019-05:00

If anything that I do is ever buzz-worthy then the buzz this past Spring/Summer was that I had been tapped to contribute to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BVS) franchise as it was being re-marshalled under the Dark Horse banner. IDW had license to a portion of the property for a period of time and when I heard that this far-flung station for the franchise was being recalled to be solely published by Dark Horse I figured that it would be a boon for the franchise and a great opportunity to get on board. Just so you know, I've worked with Dark Horse in the past and have always enjoyed it, and I'm not unfamiliar with the hoops and hurtles of being on a franchised book as my past contributions have been to Star Wars and Aliens; two mighty pillars in the Dark Horse repertoire.

Wow...this is going to be a long flippin' post...

Work-wise, my run on 'Jack of Fables' (Vertigo) was coming to an end and I needed to get some irons in the fire. What this came down to was me emailing Scott Allie over at Dark Horse out of the blue (only we pros can do that sort of thing so laymen beware). I told Scott that I had a pitch for him, he was receptive and so I softly lobbed 'Dread' his way... just a very watered down version. He was very intrigued, but before I could muster the next level of the pitch he asked me what I thought about contributing to Buffy. I said I felt fine about contributing to Buffy, I liked the show, knew the show and it's got nothing to do with superheroes; three in the plus column.

The first request from Scott was a set of sample pages, nothing from a script, he wanted to see how I handled some basic interaction with the "girls"; Buffy, Dawn and Willow. I wasn't going to do anything with action, that's usually the downfall with most samples submitted; the Main Character kicking the ass of the Nemesis...anybody can do that. What you want to see is the girls just hanging. Three page submission; no script; whatever I wanted. As soon as I knew what the first panel was, everything else fell into place.
What Dark Horse liked about my work is the expressiveness that I bring to the characters, and I took this as a hint that there were changes coming in the Season 9 talent line-up. Years in advertising has giving me the ability to make two people sitting around in a kitchen watching coffee cool look interesting. But, in comics you have to have that 'hook', the thing that the reader sees and wants to find out more about. If the girls are sitting around, let's have them sitting on a creepy sarcophagus, but I still wanted the individuality of the each girl to come across in the initial panel...in a clever, subtle way, which I think is communicated well through each of their choices in footwear; Dawn, being a little impractical and inexperienced has slip-ons that she is pulling a pebble from; Buffy, always the bad-ass in boots; and Willow I showed more of her demeanor through her relaxed posture, being at home in a graveyard, cross-legged.

Below is the ORIGINAL panel three for the above page, editorial asked that I refrain from 'nostril' shots.

...basically Buffy is explain to Dawn that the pebble she's just pulled from her shoe is, in fact, the bone of a fingertip.

With only the three pages to build up any suspense I opted to end it with Xander breaking the tension building at the graveside with the sudden delivering of a pizza to the operation and completely spooking the already edgy and distracted girls. Big screams are always funny, right?

Long story short, they loved the pages. Scott was right about what he expected me to deliver as far as scope and setting, and the girls interacted naturally. But I really needed to get my likenesses down in order to get ultimate approval from 20th Century Fox...shit, here we go.

POPTECH! Mixtape VOL.1

2011-09-01T23:42:00.001-05:00

David Sylvian

2011-09-01T18:56:00.000-05:00

M83 "Midnight City"

2011-09-01T18:34:00.001-05:00

Midnight City by M83

IRENE

2011-08-29T22:15:00.000-05:00

Irene NYC from Buffalo Picture House on Vimeo.

Oxford Commas, and just getting the hell on with things

2011-08-29T16:32:00.007-05:00

I've just had my very own Vampire Weekend having put my contribution to House of Mystery #42 to bed (this means into the hands of DC Production and Vertigo Editorial) at dawn today. What I have now is a sense of completion, "Oxford Comma" as an earworm, and one side of my butt won't stop making a fist (Thank you, Dean Venture). Bill Willingham and Matt Sturges co-wrote this issue and Shelly Bond called me in to ride rough (?#) over a five-page segment, pencils and inks...and let me say it was a complete delight.
The issue has been solicited so keep an eye out for it in shops. I'm completely serious about the fun I had with this, and when I say "fun" I mean deliberate action in the mind of discovery new aspects of the creative self...not to get all fuzzy on the topic. I've spent the vast majority of my comic book lives (both of them) looking at my work through the interpretation of others. So it's a treat to get to do my own inking. Also, I've become much more attached to my trusty, vintage (20 years, maybe) Windsor Newton Series 7 Sable, or whatever the hell it is..the labeling has worn off.
How would I ever replace this as I've heard Windsor Newton is in the shitter when it comes to producing Sable brushes now (I'm glaring at you hippies and vegans; I get it, I do, but there has to be some give and take...you start saving all the animals and you wind up with shitty or digital art. Our Culture, our choice) Any ways... I can tell you my inking myself will continue, schedule allowing, and the schedule is getting full I'm happy to say. After 'Jack of Fables' ended in March, it's been a Summer of travel, idleness, nudging 'Dread: The Westchaple Horror' along, and general provocateuring (!?). Suddenly you look up and you've been so engrossed in what you're doing (or not doing) that you've wandered clear of the sidewalk you were just following. Constellations are different, the sky has deepened, it's cooler and you're in the middle of the North American Plains, surrounded by American Bison, and about to make your DCU debut ;~D (more on THAT awesome news later).
Shelly was very complimentary and happy with the deviations I took with the story. I've become adverse to exposition, drawing exactly what the writer has plainly written( "Jack went to the store" and I draw some asshole walking into a store, bleh).
So with this story segment, "The Birth of Spiders" I decided to pad out the writing with some extending panels not asked for in the script. Mind you, Willingham/Sturges scripts are ALWAYS terrific and tight, but sometimes an artist can feel a bit like a rider caught in the stirrups and dragged during a steeplechase. It's nice to take the wheel a little more deliberately.
h.e.

Damn You Facehook!

2011-07-09T22:29:00.001-05:00

Look at my poor neglected blog! Well, I'm putting my foot down...look for new postings appearing here and at my website www.drawtonydraw.com.

That is all.

The StatiCCREEP Exhibition Promo

2010-12-20T22:12:00.002-06:00

height="295" frameborder="0">

href="http://vimeo.com/18028651">StatiCCreep from href="http://vimeo.com/user5505852">Mieke Zuiderweg on href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo.

Beta-tease for DREAD:TWH

2010-07-07T17:42:00.002-05:00

“Time blunts the keenest memory and histories will ignore what cannot be reconciled.
This is how we have come to forget that the first arrival of the Werewolf in the Americas was more an invasion than the affliction that took centuries to creep across the Old World.
The collection of horrors making up this invasion, and those who stood to gain in its success, went largely unnoticed by a native society already deeply pre-occupied and violently divided by a crisis that was literally erupting across their doorsteps and into their homes -the American Civil War.”
“And, as though suffering through the already great privations and predation, the guns, the shelling and the disease weren’t enough to stagger anyone misfortunate enough to be caught in the paths of two great armies bent to mutual destruction, we have to take into account that hard, and I mean very hard on the heels of all the death and of all the ruin…rode the fiend, Jeremy Dyre.”

-Diogenes Wilkens, 1881 Kyoto, Japan

I want to thank all the "beta-readers" that are taking time read the first issue of 'Dread:The Westchapel Horror'. Know that I've picked you because of your Nerd Quotient, your keen sense of story and your unflagging contempt of all convention. Round two will come in short order and then, there comes a calling down of Thunder.
Tony Akins

Bad Movie

2010-06-01T14:33:00.003-05:00

Uhg..I Netflix'd "The Messenger". Couldn't even finish it. But the revelation sequence featuring the young Jeanne D'arc had some interesting images in it...This wasn't one of them- but for some reason my mind wanted to see this happen. Here's a prelim.

Fables TV ad for BBC America

2010-06-01T11:00:00.000-05:00

Captain America For Mark Beatty

2010-05-01T16:16:00.003-05:00

What- a year? Then the year was punctuated by the cruel taunting over the C2E2 weekend as I toted the art around, flirting it within Marks eye/earshot while two rows of conventioneers separated us...
Well, it's scanned now. I'm taking it to him right after I post this. This is still raw because I haven't cleaned up the inks. This is my first Cap. I'll hand the file to Paul Mounts to be colored and Mark has agreed to put a HUGE banner of this in his window as my payment. I'll swap out the Swastika for a red skull as it will be in the view of the general public.

For Your Consideration...

2010-04-29T17:42:00.001-05:00

Julie, George...welcome to my humble blog. Please feel free to trove the older post to find various examples of my work; sketches, concepts and such...
Enjoy!
Tony

Western Wizard

2010-04-23T16:40:00.003-05:00

There's Jonah Hex artwork in my files from twenty years ago...Way back, a few writers wanted to resurrect the character and I made samples for the trials. Just a few pages, mind you...but I come across them from time to time. Old friends.
So I was surprised by the face I was confronted with when I did a new sample when Jimmy Palmiotti recently asked for one. The peaked hat is more like that of a wizard's and the leer seems to be where I like it.

Bigby&Company

2010-04-23T16:27:00.002-05:00

One of the pluses with being on the Fables/Jack of Fables Team is the community of fans gathered around both titles. Cindy McShane was generous enough to commission pieces related to the titles. Here's the first one delivered. Michelle Ho was there (at C2E2 in Chicago this past week) and taped the exchange. Bill Willingham, the recipient, was pleased I think. The piece revisits Bigby Wolf's two-part recounting of his experiences behind enemy lines in WW2. I can't recall the exact issue numbers. More to come!

Paulina

2010-03-25T16:00:00.001-05:00

Paulina, originally uploaded by Tony Akins.

The old station. It's no more. Damn you, Godzilla!

Matt Baker

2010-02-15T18:13:00.003-06:00

Sometimes I make a bit of noise about being a second-gen comic artist, apples do make some noise when they hit the ground, after all. If my father is considered a "pioneer" of color in comics, then I guess that makes Matt Baker the first established African-American comic book artist. I'm totally cool with that. Andrew Pepoy, who possesses a wealth of knowledge, first told me about Baker some months ago, "Consummate Good-girl artist...". This was no lie.
So as I move into this next phase of my professional life in comics, it will be with the added sense of something kindred, in addition to what my father shaped in me. The title to this entry is linked to a short article about Baker, who died young less than two years before my birth.

...you slick Devil!

Dedication

2010-02-15T14:39:00.002-06:00

I recently took time to take a gander at the Fables Crossover TPB and noticed my dedication; "For the debaser, the harbinger and the killer-of-clones. For the meta-wizard, for the statiCCreep and all the shifters of the shapes within and around us... and to the page ever being turned."

I realize now that this is less a dedication and more an incantation in the truest sense.
And so be it. There's never a guarantee of getting far by following in an other's footsteps, you'll simply remain always behind, following. Lost men have discovered amazing things!

Things That Might Have Been...

2010-02-15T13:55:00.006-06:00

Offers roll across my desk, sure. Sometimes my initial reaction to an idea tossed my way is, "Really?"...Generally this reaction is because I'd never in a million years think that I would be a fit for certain things. Other times it's because I may not feel that the title merits any serious consideration. The times I relish are when I'm surprised by an offer and think I'd be able to contribute to a line title, not "change" or "improve", but contribute.
Alas, a recent opportunity to expand my contribution to comics won't happen, despite the ardent advocacy of Jimmy Palmiotti. Oh well. This doesn't mean I'm leaving Jack of Fables. What I'm doing is starting a studio, several artists producing work for hire with yours truly in the lead. This should triple the pages I work on while maintaining quality. Basically it's just fucking time to change my studio dynamic.

At present there are no less than FOUR projects that I'm being considered for...wow.
All seem to be a pretty good fit. A couple are things I'm REALLY excited about, but I have to maintain an even strain and no, you can't ask me about them... I'm looking forward to working with other professional artists, whoever they may be...I'll begin the recruiting process once I find out what lands on my desk over the next few weeks.

This is that "new page" that needs to be turned ever so often in Life. At any rate, I've kept my productivity far too low for the last 10 years and now I'm looking forward to a new period of generating. Cheers to that!

Dance of the Demented!

2010-02-14T12:31:00.003-06:00

Our fiendish friends at Chicago's Wildclaw Theater are having a benefit on Saturday February 20th at the Viaduct Theater. Alex Wald, Dave Dorman and myself will be among the grip of artists on site doing live sketches of burlesque babes from Michelle L'Amours Chicago Starlets in horror-inspired accoutremente. These pieces (the art, not the babes..that I know of) will be up for auction during the frightivities to support the upcoming run of William Peter Blatty's "LEGION", Wildclaw's new production. Follow the linked title of this blog entry for all the details, then SHOW UP! I swear these people know how to throw a good time (and viscera) for the sake of entertainment. I'm thinking about donning a pair of blood-splattered coveralls for effect, no?

Chicago Comics Signing!

2009-07-03T23:58:00.003-05:00

OK, so the file image must be CMYK, or else my retinas are fried. At any rate, Caitlin know the PROPER way to promote me from the wording in the flier. I'm making an appearance and oh by the way, I draw comics.
I'd love to see you there as these things are always more fun with familiars about.
Maybe I can even talk about what's happening in the world of politics.

Where Have You Been?

2009-06-16T02:49:00.002-05:00

Look, the posting has fallen off just a little (ha!). But I'll make up for it shortly. I've been too distracted by that pesky Facebook trend and the amount of work on my desk to effectively blog with notes. But please feel free to explore the excellent links to the right and below. I still go to them myself (I'm not a total asshole).
The Great Fables Crossover is over for me, so I'm presently penciling AND inking Jack of Fables #36. Wasn't it just yesterday that I was penciling Jack #1 and you knew NOTHING about the title!
Fuck those days!
Live in the Now!
Live in the Now and Shut up and DRAW!
h.e.

Jack of Fables#29, Pencils

2009-03-29T15:20:00.011-05:00

Wow...here it is February of 2010 and I'm taking time away from Facebook to update my blog..Shameful. These are pencils from the Book of War arc of Jack of Fables...no breaks apparently. Sorry. Enjoy this fossil record and thanks for you interest!
(Drafts for subsequent issues are poised for publishing)

Pencils and Stuff for Jack of Fables#28!

2008-12-24T03:47:00.020-06:00

Brian Bolland's terrific cover for Jack of Fables #28. I love those boxers! I'm sure I've worn boxers just like that. Seriously; shirt, tie, jacket, boxers.
UNIFORM DESIGN FOR THE TOWER GUARDS
seeing all the designations and rankings of the Golden Bough Librarians in this arc prompted me to finally make an attempt to design distinct looks for different units.

I know, I KNOW! There's an entire Western that hasn't been posted.
Also, House of Mystery #10 happened. (Have I posted that?)

Hey, All! Happy Holidays and Welcome to the Blogger.com commentary for JACK OF FABLES Issue Number Twenty-eight,"The Book of Leadership: The Books of War, Volume One".
The Writers, of course, are Matthew Sturges and Bill Willingham...Jose' Marzan, late of Y The Last Man, did a beautiful job on the inks. This is his first time inking me as Andrew, my regular inker ...I won't say "normal" inker since there's nothing "normal" about him, Andrew Pepoy is off inking Bucky on FABLES.

I read in the Chicago Tribune last week, FABLES is being looked at as a television series on a major network. That's pretty cool.

I always saw FABLES as a cable show myself, like Dexter or Weeds, considering the mature content of the series.
Masterful Todd "The Kerning Fiend" Klein busted out the letters, Danny Vozzo was in charge of colors, the Freakin' Awesome Brian Bolland wowed us with that cover (we've got to get that up here) and Angela "DO IT LIVE!" Rufino kept us all from losing our collective heads.

Here's the break for Page 1.

So, as I understand it, shit goes all Bosnian in this arc. Which is all well and fine considering the topography around the GB Camp; Serbs(Bookburner's hoards) high, besieged townsfolk (Fablekind)low in the valley catching hell. The Serbs were high, right? The Serbs seem to be the high ones...
I clearly have a sense of the camp being nestled in a valley. Bill suggested that way back and who am I to argue?
Russ sort of established a flat plain on the approach to the camp.
But I think the sloping ground, which helps impede any speedy rush past the perimeter fences and the guard towers, also serves as a tricky and dramatic place to have an epic battle.

An epic battle in 3 feet of snow. Saved me from having to draw a lot of feet and legs below the knees for teeming combatants. Plus I find corpse-garnishing more evocative and poignant in snow, "Is...is that a...pancreas?"

I've said it before, nothing beats being the artist on this series. There's a squirrel in pants on the trunk of that tree!
A shirt would have not been as funny.
Just the pants, though? That's hilarious. They're "high-water" pants, too. Because the shit the inmates find themselves in gets really deep!

This is a very "REDS" scene; Revise addressing the gathered forces as they prepare to repel Bookburners' attack.
I kept thinking as I drew this,"I'm gonna kill my inker."
Turns out he was stronger than I thought.
Next time...
Note that the people you see standing next to Revise on the steps of the Main Library are actually established characters.
Those are the other Senior Librarians. We see the Page sisters all the time, but these are the "paper-hangers" that do the boring shit. Important shit, but still boring. I'm sure they love it.
Remember that chart Sam made way back in the Escape arc? That's where we see these guys for the only other time before now. Bill and Matt named them and everything.
I think Walter Chang and Bethany Brown are kickin' it on the side.
I love Jerry Amsterdam, the big guy in the expensive and impractical outdoor gear.
He's going moose-milking...He tracks a bull moose and then presents himself in full view; the moose takes one look and shoots milk from it's nose.

Man, Todd was able to really compress all that dialogue into a neat column on page two. I had expected that the balloon spread would run to horizontal across the two pages and t-bone into the title/credit box. But even that's been put on page two.

You can see the Bookburner's army emerging from the treeline.
They sure are finding a lot of stuff to burn out there. This spread made me anxious; all the Librarians. There's some special-ops guys (Hey, Oppy!) and then some plain old grunt types, like Ted who we see in that winter poncho. Gertrude next to him with a Bagman satchel for deployment.
Fablekind lurking to the back of the crowd to keep from appearing too willing to buy what Revise is laying down...

Here we see where the Editors checked my bad (yet, oh so very good)intentions to have too similar a layout over two sequential pages; Pages 4 and 5 have the large vertical panel with a triple tier to the immediate right. I simply liked the similar rhythm of the layout and the efficacy of the panel sizes. Little neat sizes. Sometimes there's an action written in a panel, and if there's only four panels on the page I feel like I'm wasting space. So I take it upon myself as "the Director" of this paper movie to pad out the scene by adding an extra panel. That's not the case here...I'm flapping my lips. The wider shot, requested by Editorial, at the top of Page 4 came out nice.

Pick your battles, is what I'm saying. Editors who do their job well will ask you for changes and Angela and Shelly ask for a shitload of changes! I'm joking, of course. They rarely ask me for changes.

Pick your battles, seriously...

Bill and Matt, in Panel 2 of Page 6, wanted to have everything come to life as Gary loses it at Revise...Considering that it was just a single panel on a five panel page and I had already drawn 500 or so personnel prior and was about to draw another 500,000 or more for the issue in related battle scenes, I went very, VERY wide for the shot in panel 2.

Here's another change in panel 5 of page 6; I was asked to pull out wider on Jack to give him more of a heroic shot. The whole action where Revise tosses Jack from the top of the stairs was something I added for comic effect. I thought that maybe having the reader see Jack in the act of picking himself up from the pavement as Gary spoke so highly of Jack's exploits to the crowd and having Jack finally come back into shot as the crowd went apeshit...and he being clueless to the applause being for him...we'll change that in the trades.

I'm really regretting the blacks indicated for the shadows of the Guard Towers and fences. Something more in the line of a grey-blue40% would have been better. The weight of the shadows is beating the shit out of the page.
Akins, you're fired!

God I hate that camel. Could there be a more difficult animal to anthropomorph and clothe? OK, a crab maybe. I always feel like I'm drawing Joe Camel and forcing children to smoke. Maybe because as far as I can go back in my previous life as an advertising artist I refused to accept or execute work for tobacco clients. That camel is saying 'tobacco' to me!

Here comes Paul Bunyan's big ax...
...and there it goes!
If film is the medium of compromise, as the Warshawski Brothers put it, that would make comics the medium of casual omission: where do we think the back pockets and signature bandana went on Paul?
Bill is waving at me frantically, "You're not supposed to call attention to the things you screw up! So we can fix it in the trades before anyone notices you're a complete idiot!"

Too late my friend, aha, ha ha...too, too late.

Chicken Little's nurse uniform is indeed PVC. Jealous?
Late in the game is usually when the requests for little changes come in. Panel 4 of Page 11 needed to have Robin in shot just a wee bit more so she could say something...

... I use these opportunities to practice my inking. Which needs a lot of practice.
I think I should really follow through more on color notes. I'm always surprised at Hillary's hair. The two-tone thing is finally getting through, but I see her with green bangs and a bleached head of hair frosted at the tips in hot pink. Really.
The model for Hillary is real. I was on the Brown Line headed to the studio one day and 'boom' Hillary gets on the car I'm riding in. No lie.

Yeah! Here we go! CRIME!
Matt and Bill had Pris slugging the guy in the boxers and gently easing him down on the sofa. Space and time necessitated me having her dropping his ass to the carpet.

Panel 2 on Page 14 was tricky because of the shot and tightness that Angela wanted on Kevin's face plus seeing the danged box and pen...plus, Priscilla simply has a huge rack. I had to cheat her bosom way down. That's nothing sexist, that's just how I built her character.

Love the last panel on Page 15.

I can't believe I got away with this!

Costume change makes everything more interesting, no? I think Gary breaks a record in this issue.

Jack is doing his best George C.Scott doing his best George S. Patton.
I have little extenders on his medal panel, thought maybe those would look a little more like roadside Kiwanis Club medallions than they did.

The guys HAD to have a goat here.

I love Gary clutching Jack's waist here.

More art? Of course there's more art. But you won't see it here in this entry.
There's sketches and concept for crap all sorts of extry! But I'm tired. So look for more when I post for #29.
Thanks for reading the blog and for your comments!
Spread the word!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Hail, Fabledom!
h.e.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T14:46:00.002-06:00

AMERICA: It Had To End Sometime...

2008-10-16T15:40:00.001-05:00

Here's an entry over at Sci-Fi blog io9 featuring Frank Tinsley and other creators who've offered up their visions of the end of the American way of life.

Chicago Tribune Video: SUPERDOGunderdog

2008-10-03T02:53:00.002-05:00

Follow the above link to view the show interviews!

Wildclaw Starts Up The Season

2008-09-29T08:40:00.003-05:00

Charlie Athanas at Wildclaw Theater has invited me to be one of the judges the upcoming battery of performances

WildClaw is putting on Deathscribe: Ten Minutes of Terror Radio Play Festival. Please join us at the Music Box for an evening of short horror stories done radio style with live foley and music by some of the best actors and directors in Chicago.

Event: Deathscribe
Date: Monday, Oct. 6 at 8PM
Place: The Music Box Theater, 3733 N. Southport, Chicago
Cost: $15 in advance, go to the WildClaw website (http://www.wildclawtheatre.com)

What REUTERS Has To Say About The Show...

2008-08-02T20:09:00.001-05:00

The Eve of the Tanios Group Show

2008-07-31T22:03:00.003-05:00

The last day before the show was spent getting things as close to completion as possible. I still have a couple of plexi "boxes" to pick up the morning of the show. These will be how I mount my Moleskine sketchbooks to the wall in my area.
You'll notice the chalkboard in my display area: this is to convey an "in the artist's studio" feel(and to dominate the room, I'm no fool). I used actual photos of my chalkboard from months past as source to recreact the gallery board.
"I looks like math" is what Hye Lim told me. It is, sort of, with light speed equations and habitat plans for malarial zones with settlements along rivers. I wonder how many will get the "DUNE" reference?
Here's some photos from the mad dash:

Alex Wald renders a Japanese Monster in his comment area. My comment area has a pirate flag: my personal banner; the last thing the crew of the Goa Maru saw before they shat themselves while ripping rig off the coast of Madasgascar.

High excitement: interns up the rigging and display men prepping the lightbox films (from Hellblazer:Papa Midnight). Caitlin and Hye Lim were indispensible! They did all the things I needed them to do without my asking them twice and they did it well!
They rocked. Caitlin is from the Co-op Program at The School of the Art Institute and Hye Lim is from Columbia College.

OK,...calm down.

The film for the lightbox is terrific. I bogarted most of the space in the show; I was perfectly willing to surrender ONE SIDE of the light box if Geof Darrow had come aboard :~)
The panels are from a 600dpi direct scan of the printed panel found in the H:PM trade. The dot matrix is sweetly in place, and the black is crisp.

The panels in place in the double-sided lightbox and lit as evening approaches in East Lakevew. Pretty sweet.
"Succeed. Beware.", words scripted by Mat Johnson(DROP,INCOGNEGRO), expresses it best for anyone venturing into the Arts.

I'll post more from tomorrow's opening!
h.e.

More T.C.G. "Wings" Trading Cards!

2008-07-30T22:00:00.004-05:00

More Topps (T.C.G.) cards from the 1950s. The Triton is a fav. And the G.C.A. Model 2.
Who was the art team on this collection? They probably ended up doing cereal boxes in the 60's.

The Diane Tanios Gallery Postcard

2008-07-30T21:01:00.002-05:00

This show happened very quickly and the stack of postcards I have have not been put to good use. Here they are. Pretty cool, huhn?

The Interns

2008-07-30T20:56:00.001-05:00

Hye Lim and Caitlin. Yeah, they're all smiles now...

...But wait until they have to start hanging the Show.

Who's laughing now?
h.e.

T.C.G. "Wings" Trading Cards: Cold War Tensions AND Hard Gum!

2008-07-15T01:11:00.010-05:00

My friend Alex Wald gave me these cards that he had come across some years ago. He thought of me because I'm such a geek about aviation: Military in particular.
I've done a little research and these are part of a set put out by Topps in the
1950's. A total of 200 cards completed the set. Herald Tribune Inc. is credited as a source or sponsor on the back of each card, along with a silouhetted tri-view of a random aircraft from the series to test your "Friend or Foe" reflexes plus a description of the featured craft on the face side of the card. The backs of my cards are marred as some kid decided to paste them to a board around the time that Eisenhowers' prostate started giving him problems. Still the art for these are terrific. There's some vanquished, remote victim shown in each U.S. card, pratically "Beware!...this could be your village". LOL.
Reminds me of model box art from the Czech Repubic (yes, I meant "RePUBIC").
I'll post more as I edit. Maybe those guys at drawn.ca will notice my blog finally (boo-dee-hoo!).

The Diane Tanios Gallery

2008-07-13T15:08:00.005-05:00

I've been invited to participate in a show at The Diane Tanios Gallery in the Lakeview neighborhood. Cool. What's cool especially is that Alex Wald and Gene Ha will also be hanging work for exhibit and sale. So if you're fans and want to see real pages or buy something...or you hate us and want to deface our original art, the show opens August 1st (Yeow!).
They're using a term I've coined in the title: knuckle opera; which I lend to any instance someone is getting their ass kicked in a comic or movie. I think it'll will be a kick-ass show.
Here are some shots of the gallery taken when I visited to see the new paint job.

Here's "my" wall. That's right. I'm filling this WHOLE effing section. From the left there'll be an installation of sorts, then Original pages then a couple of original mixed media pieces: Boom-ballah, yo?

This outdoor lightbox is 4' by 8' on each side!!! As I got into the show first I COMPLETELY bogarted the thing. I've picked a couple of images that will be in the box: a different one on each side. Had Geof Darrow decided to participate in the show, I would have considered letting him have one side of the display. Maybe :~)

Jack of FABLES:Gary Does Denmark;Pencils and (some) Inks

2008-07-11T23:16:00.009-05:00

I've a little free time so let's catch up on the rest of JoF#21. The breaks have been posted, so let's look at the pencils and inks (which I got to do myself for the first time on this series).Notice the inking is a little tentative until I recalled that I really like using a brush (Series 7).
Again, I apologize because the organization the files is very disjointed and I've consumed the better part of the day tracking jpegs attached to emails sent into DC/Vertigo. So bear with me.

Matt's (Sturges) story about The Pathetic Fallecy's ill-fated production of "Hamlet" takes place within the security boundary of The Golden Bough camp BEFORE Jack arrived. So I imagine that those days were filled with such manufactured distraction for the inmates. If you're from the Chicago area and have attended the Ravinia Festival, I imagined a beautiful Summer night, lawn seating and some streaking.

Note here, that this is a different layout from the printed version. Editorial nixxed this layout as too cluttered.

Here's a sample of Alex Wald's color work. He's up for an Eisner this year for Best Colorist: SHAOLIN COWBOY. Alex did this as a sample to land some other work at DC/Vertigo. Great work,no?

This is only the scan of a partly finished spread. Jealous?

H.E.

Paulina Ona Mah Mina

2008-07-10T00:56:00.002-05:00

This is a mysterious photo taken on the now destroyed Paulina Street Station. Where's the camera I took this with? IN MY MIND!!!

Seriously, Who Let This Evil Fuck In?

2008-07-08T15:44:00.002-05:00

Having six pages cut from a report on the impact of climate change on health because his office doesn't feel the science is accurate? IT'S FUCKING SCIENCE! How accurate is your Policy Making, Dick?

"Sex and the City:The Movie"

2008-06-02T00:10:00.004-05:00

...or "How I Went To See The Ultimate Chick-Flick With Six Gay Men And Six Straight Women And Managed To Stay Sane"

Believe me it was tough. But I was a trooper. A Sooper-Trooper. The company was what made the difference. The movie was funny enough and I got the jokes. I like the show...But 2.5 hours really taxxed the hetero wiring.
The audience was a "Sea of Vaginas" as Riley put it. Vaginas really weird Gay men out. I said that if any "rogue wave" should occur during the screening, that the boys should just stand back and let me handle it.
I know...I'm REALLY brave!
h.e.

Jack Candle (Issue#22 Stand-down)

2008-05-30T04:32:00.003-05:00

I'm methodical. Much of the managing of drawing an issue of Jack relies on method;initial script read;re-read notes;breaksdowns (another passive read through, here. Fuck!) Light roughs, tightening...

This keeps me in the "flow" if you can call it that. So when I confront the gap between issues it helps to spin-down for a few hours. Here's the art I made as JoF#22 showed it's heels. Inks will be posted soon.

M and the Zoo 2

2008-05-30T03:38:00.004-05:00

After intimidating a driver whose car CLEARLY was not going to fit into the cubby-hole spot along Cannon drive, we (M, her Echo and myself) slid into gap between Jeep and Chevrolet and proceeded to the Zoo;after no small amount of gloating ("Think you can come from Montana and park here?!...Bitch,please!"). We were really hopped up on Razzles.
Here's M, beaming next to the spot. I completely adore her.

Yeah...It's like this ALL the time.

Ducks. Ducks Fucking. Fucking Ducks. Well, fuck-a-duck.
M ALWAYS gets a great show at the zoo!

So it is officially Summer,even if the weather here is a little unco-operative.
Of course I'm not ready. People are being assholes in traffic. I hate you surly fucks; makes me thankful for -10 windchills sometimes. A plague on your Hearts!
None of that anytime soon, though. I've been too fucking busy to get outside much. I've just put Jack#23 out the door and I'm now experiencing that void that leaves me at a lose of purpose. I'll work on commissions and some other projects that have been back-burnered. Hart your commision goes out this weekend, so you can call off the hounds. Oppy, your piece will get put in the mail. Migs, patient Migs,
there's something extra for you for the long wait.

Hail, Fabledom!

WTF, Akins?!

2008-05-11T14:27:00.001-05:00

That scramble was TOTALLY my fault. Uploading of images was reset to "right" and I missed it. So deal, yo! :~)

WTF, Blogger?!

2008-05-11T14:22:00.001-05:00

Um...sorry about the mishmash below readers. So deal, yo!
I'm not reposting this bitch!

GARY DOES DENMARK(Jack of FABLES#21)

2008-04-30T03:17:00.007-05:00

So Shelly and Angela were awesome enough to let me ink myself on this issue.
This helped keep me busy and vouchering while the script for the next "live" issue of Jack (#22) was being polished.
FYI, my faithful desktop computer has been having ethernet port issues, i.e.-the port is fried, so that's why my blogging has been scarce. I'll begin to make up for that here.
Anyway, my scans for this issue are all over the place, across several compooters and in email that I really, really don't feel like rifling through. So forgive the spotty, incomplete recounting of this issue.
So let's start with the spotty, incomplete recounting of this issue!

The Pathetic Fallacy at the footlights...
despite the purpose of the Golden Boughs camp, I imagine that a night like this could be lovely enough. There was a good deal of research done to nail the period dress. Though the color didn't ring true to the style of the period, the era pegged 1590-1600.

Here's the first pass at the break for the big spread on pages 2-3. Note that the actual page was changed in the end. Shelly and I fired shots across one another's bows over this page; which is healthy. In the end I serve the Culture of Fables, and therefore the Editorial Culture. Plus she had a good point.

Gary as Star and Author of the work got to make a dashing Hamlet, sorta.Glad I didn't go through with the hat!

Mister D got to wear his usual get-up, with original hat, for the first time. The hat was always a bit too much for the pages of the regular comic.
And the revisions begin!!!

Getting to ink this myself, I was excited to have some meaty night-scenes with lots of lighting from below on Paul Bunyan. Ink yourself saves on the amount of penciling across the page me thinks.
Here's the revision for Page 11. Pages 10-11 follow. Sorray...
Told ya.

MONSTER!

Following are some work-up sketches for the issue. Some days or weeks before I had the full script. Note how miscast Alice is as Ophelia; she's in the gowns of a lady of the court. God I'm stupid sometimes. It was pointed out to me by an actress who does a good deal of Shakespeare, that Ophelia is a "lovechild"...Tha's right, a disgusting, fragile hippie of the day. Wicked John, needed no alterations.

Zach Baldus did a terrific job as fill-in cover artist. He needed to know about the detail of Gary's princely necklace. This meant I had to come up with a better idea than the scrapings that were available on the pages. I drew this just for him. Let me share the mo'.

So there it is. Gary Does Denmark. Matt Sturges is brilliant for even attempting such a feat as reworking the Bard, let alone setting it at the GB with so many characters. WTG, Matador!
I'm currently pencilling and inking another fill-in slated for 2009. It will be terrific, trust me!
Hail, Fabledom!

Where's YOUR Head At?

2008-03-18T14:45:00.000-05:00

My head is in the Lovenasium!

On to New Horizons and Growing Body Counts!

2008-02-12T01:49:00.000-06:00

Man, I've been waiting to load this image for some time now. It's a version of the solicitation art for Jack of Fables #22.

It's a sloppy bit of art; I generated the entire thing on a Wacom Tablet, sketch to color, so there's no actual art. The inking is shoddy because I'm not used to the stylus. Oh, well. Next time right?

I really don't know about the "body count" thing. I haven't read the script yet since I'm still finishing JoF#21.
Andrew and I are both happy to be working on a Western-type story for Jack. Head over to Fabletown and follow the link to the solicitation.

Or not...suit yerself 'pard.

The Last of SanDiego!

2008-02-12T00:31:00.000-06:00

I know, I know!!!
It's been a long-ass time coming but here it is!
I think it was Sunday, the last day of the Con.
Later I'd be sitting outside the hotel chilling with Jill and Brian, ogling Rosario Dawson through a plate glass window (baby!)...
But first, Mat and I had to get breakfast.

We set out, blindly, into the city. I was pretty sure we'd stumble across something fairly soon as SD is a second-class sort of town, with a second-class sort of mayor.
Sure enough we found SUN CAFE. It was perfect. I had chicken fried steak. Can't beat that with a second-class mayor!

Here's Matador juicing up.

Well malnourished we high-tailed it back to the Convention Center for our big to-do.
Here's M-man scooting from the Sun. It's really a great place. I think it should have an Honorary Bulfinch Street address. Pay no attention to the reflection in the window.

Panels are bit unnerving. Especially when the Fandom your facing is FABLES Fandom (the best in the world). Usually we saunter in with everyone else and jockey about on stage. But when Mat and I hit the door...the palce was already packed! Holy Fuck!

Seriously, the fans were out in force and cool as marble tombstones. Didn't women do a bit of knitting during the beheadings of the French Revolution?

Hey, there's Oppy (Chris Oppermann) and Adrienne Rappaport (Sequential Tart).

Here's the Panel at it's height. Bill has taken the helmy pulpit thingie and giving as good as he's getting from fans. Shit, this should be in one of those revival tents next time, I swear! Hand fans and dancing with serpents and good old timey stuff.

No?

This image is huge. Click on it and get the FULL EFFECT!!!

After the panel we're back on the DC/Vertigo pad signing signing autographs and talking to friends and fans. Here's Oppy again!

Here's a cute girl Bigby! She has a sword that is very much like as sword Gary has in the issue I'm finishing at present.

This is my second Flycatcher since being on the Fables team.

Cindy McShane sent some awesome cookies to us. They were delicious Cinders! Good sugar high to keep us going. Oppy brought them through...he and Cinders have some "cookie Ho Chi Mihn Trail" thing going.

OK Cinders made a hat for Mat. It's the Capybaras from the Las Vegas Arc. Pretty spiffy, Mat sporting it all gangsta style.

Here's a tighter shot. Yep, capybaras alright.

So what have we learned from this experience?

You can put anything on hats these days. You can smuggle cookies and girls can dress as Bigby Wolf. Yeah, that sums it up for me.

Ha! Look...I'm home.

h.e.

What's Ahead In 2008

2008-02-10T17:16:00.000-06:00

In the words of Professor Farnswoth, "Good News everybody!".
'08 puts me back in the saddle after a multiple issue hiatus from "Jack of Fables". This year will see my contributions to the title on no less than 9 issues. Beginning with JoF#21 "Gary Does Denmark". GDD will be my first credit as both Penciller AND Inker on a single issue of Jack.
It's written by my beloved Matador Sturges; I guarantee that you'll laugh so hard that you will sprain your vagina or scrotum if not in the proper state of relaxation.
I did.
So there's going to be ass-loads of art that will be getting uploaded on the blog again. Hopefully this will please you. There will be commissions posted shortly and new sketches and collaborations.
You can also find me on Myspace.com.
So to kick off this new epoch of awesomeness, here are some promised photos; a first installment of the last of the SDCC pictures...

So, Friday night was the "Fables Family Dinner", I think...Maybe it was Saturday night. Anyway, there was a FFD. It was at Prado, a very nice place out by the Zoo.
Here's the exterior.
I want to see archers and grenadiers and shit.

Here's our arrival. A wedding party (a large one) was in the throes of exuberant occupation of a good portion of the grounds. A bloody, deadly run-in over cabs will ensue later.

Matador Sturges and Bill Willingham...

Striking that pose from "The Untouchables". That's Danny Vozzo's daughter on the right.

Here's Lou L. and Bucky.

Lovely Shelly Bond.

James Jean, yet to be hindered by the multiple awards heaped on him in the coming day...

Danny V., Steve L., Trina Robbins and Andrew P.

Lettering mogul, Todd Klein. Visit his website in my links to the right.

LOL. Look at Bill back there!

Un-ID'd creator along with the "dishy" Tara McPherson and Shelly Bond.

Mmmm, speaking of "dishes"...peach mousse with berry and mango sauces topped with a peppermint stick.

It's weird to see people that I can visit by walking a block from my home, hundreds of miles away in San Diego. Tom from Chicago's GRAHAM CRACKERS COMICS (also seen as "Comic Shop Mike" in JoF) gestures for a potty break. Sorry, Pal.

Later, I jacked this bitch from the wheezing gimp that was driving it without using his hands. Turns out that when he's in heavy traffic you can totally just walk up on his ass.

Um,...ok.

The Pirate Band! These bastards really were great! I just wanted to follow them around the floor. They really need a monkey to complete the act!

Con intern Fox meets ShinChan!

Then she gets "furred" by Sam and Maxx.

I got to hang and watch Cecil Castellucci of Minx shop the floor. Too cute! She's TINY!!! We're at Tara M's booth here.

I've already got that in green, babe.

No lie, this is Harvey Korman's SON! Christopher Korman. Too cool! That werewolf bit in "High Anxiety" always, always kills me!

More to come!!!

Training...

2008-01-29T23:39:00.000-06:00

Brown Line to Francisco Station.
Rain. Sun. Snow. Day and Night. Training to the studio.
Training from the studio.
Watching for the new graffiti by rooftop ass-clowns.
I should put a paintball anti-tagging team together and collect some bounty on their punk-poseur asses. Yeah YOU, blanco nino!
First ice in the river. First bloom on the Acacias in Ravenswood.
Any cat loitering in a window above an alley. Hello.
I'm sorta bored but always have the music to color the thoughts and non-thoughts. Great for blocking the cellphone conversations of angry Serbian women, or the chatter teenagers.
NOTHING blocks out the thoughtwaves of the Kreplar-men and their invisible heater-dogs. God help me! HEY! That's MY threshold you're bargaining with, Missus MacKintosh, thank you very much!

Why?...It's gone so QUIET!

Bad, Bad Baby!!!

2008-01-29T22:51:00.001-06:00

Children are certainly entertaining. I can spend hours watching them tire themselves out in traffic, or never fail to find a tear come to my eye whenever I hear a toddler say to it's 14year old mother, "Dag, I sent your broke ass out for some damn orange soda and you step back up in this muhfucka wif (baby looks at label, can't read it)... "what the fuck is this?"
I'm not a parent of anything.
They should start issuing parenting licenses from the look of things. That's beside the point. Here's an aborted project (Oh! That's where I was going with this! )...This was my idea of a PSA for print. What did I know, I was 18 here... Not too shabby. It's an unusual drawing as it's COMPLETELY devoid of Spaceships, or people in Spaceships, or people getting blown up by Spaceships. Or Spaceships blowing up other Spaceships. It was a theme I had going back in those days. Whacky 70's...

Oh, scary!

WOW! Such detailed notes! No wonder I colored the cobra Brown and Yellow!

Here's what's interesting (to me at least). That address is my first attempt at hurling myself into professional illustration. I still remember the interview. They were like, "Dude, you're like 17." I was like, "Oh, bitches...you gonna pay for that!"
Nah...wasn't anything like that at all.

They did set a tiger with rabies on fire an threw it at me to test my reflexes. They were REALLY good, so they said I was cool...but still too young.

...Fuckers.

Fuck, It's Cold!

2008-01-20T01:42:00.000-06:00

Spine-snapping cold! And I'm not someone who feels the cold as easily as most. This shit is cold...Still I relish it a bit. Better a sub-zero day than one at 105 degrees (oh thank you so very much, God). The thermometer in the Volvo sat right at zero degrees and never varied. I wondered if it went below this to show a negative reading. It has to, it's a Swedish car, there should be some national pride behind having readings that display a dipping into the sub-zero temperatures.
I think of that Paul Newman movie, "Quintet". God that was insufferable. They conveyed cold well in that film, if not a plausible future where the world became frozen and barren.

"Hey, Tony...where's the art man?"
Good question. Ever-ree-thing I'm working on is so damned sensitive that I can't show it. But I will be posting art in earnest in two weeks or so. Do hang on!
It will be worth the wait (that's what she said)! I hope.

NO! No! Bad, Bad Intern!

2008-01-20T01:37:00.000-06:00

Molly exploits her "unofficial" status by scrawling "Roman" graffiti across the studio chalkboard. Heyo!

In-studio Harassment

2008-01-16T01:08:00.001-06:00

You that that scene where John Cusack is explaining how the guys that work at his record shop aren't employed there anymore, but they still show up. I know his pain.

Training Day

2008-01-16T00:48:00.000-06:00

Rockin'Molly B. was good enough to bring back a lot of swag from the Xmas break. These wrestling masks entertain Tony Maldonado and I for a good bit. Head over to Tony's Flikr Page for more (under LONELY RICE CHRONICLES link to the right).
Yes, sometimes I like to wear a tie, wanna fight about it?

Do I EVER SHUT-UP?!

2007-12-24T22:41:00.000-06:00

Adrienne at Sequential Tart pries me out of my shell.

In The Meantime...

2007-11-08T01:02:00.000-06:00

I was going through some past files samples...Like seeing old friends, this is.
If I've published these already, well...sorry.
These are pages from HELLBLAZER:Papa Midnight, a mini I penciled, Dan Green inked and Mat Johnson (Drop, IncogNegro) wrote.

Hope you enjoy these.

My First Ebay Auction!

2007-10-14T11:05:00.000-05:00

After seven days of nail biting (galvanized ten-penny roofing)my first eBay auction went off like a rocket! My first Jack of Fables workbook, "Broken Crown", containing thumbnails, notes and character sketches for issues 11-15. I wanna thank all bidders and of course, the buyer...who may or may not chose to remain anonymous on this blog.

Of course, the real issue of doing this was whether or not I could manage a letting go of such a tidy volume of original work. You know...not a problem! I like the idea of reinforcing the fetish of possessing a bound body of art and sketches.

More of this will happen as I complete Moleskins every 4 months or so (eyes crossed and fingers peeled).

Whoo-Hoo!

Hats off to the Fables/Jack of Fables team for being the TOP sellers at Vertigo!
A BIG doffing and bowing to Moleskine Guru Jim Woodring, cause he is the Master.
Go to his blog and wither before his brilliance!

...a wardrobe study for the Pathetic Fallacy ("Gary...or maybe Kevin.")from "broken crown".
h.e.

...And THEN, There Was A Band Called "A Flock Of SEAGULLS"

2007-10-11T20:15:00.000-05:00

This is wild...Paul Mounts just emailed this over. Back in the mid-1980's we worked together at a studio, The Storyboard Studio. Wow, look at that tennis sweater I'm wearing. During the day I was always trying to score preppy chicks...at night I'd stalk artbabes. Neither would have anything much to do with me. How you like me now, ladies? Lenin DelSol, Doug Heinlein, and the not-dead JJ Stadaema are in this photo.
Paul Mounts has crouched down behind me. Roy Hunt is kicking him. There was loads of kicking in those days. We worked really fucking hard 6-7 days a week. We were princes on North Michigan Avenue. Strange that Paul would send this to me this week...whenever I'm stressing (as I am now), these are the people and the location in time and geography that make up my dreams.
Weird.

Jack of Fables#15, Breakdowns(Unh!)& Pencils

2007-10-03T16:30:00.000-05:00

OK, so I'm a little depressed...This issue, #15, will be the last issue you'll see me on until issue #21. I know, I know.

Let's just pretend that things are proceeding swimmingly. You go...look at the pretty pictures. Go on!

*turns head, bites knuckle to right hand*

Off to a scramble with a scribble is what my Grammie always said (not really, she was a deaf/mute, but could kick like a mule!). This is the first pass at getting the flow for Page #1: it didn't fly...

So I was prodded into doing a revised break, which works a little better. I was on the phone the other day with Alex Ross. He was incredulous when I told him that I submit thumbnails of my pages still. It's just a part of the process that makes the job easier for me in the long run.

LOL...I had to do this one over again, too. Normally Shelly would let me get away with this sort of thing. But she wants to make sure that I'm toeing the line now that I'm under Anglela's Editorship. The revised breakdown is a .tiff, which won't load on this site.

Ah, finally some real continuity. It was a treat having to draw three types of giants for this part of the story. I really wanted to make it seem that Wicked John had put some miles behind him in the course of his adventuring. So I tried to make the environment for each giant different.

Look, I'm just going the throw these up so you can look at what's what. I'm frustrated and bored and don't feel much like writing.

Newcity 2007 Best of Chicago, Redux

2007-09-30T11:42:00.000-05:00

OK, so my ever-expansive, yet oh so fragile, sense of modesty must step aside in order to accommodate those of you who won't follow the title/link in the previous entry... I love you despite your forcing my hand to such brazen chest-thumping.
Here (unbeknown to yours truly and in a deft conspiring that would rival that of the mercurial dealings of ancient Rome's Senators...Whoah, I'm watching way too much "DEADWOOD") is the conclusion that the unfathomably talented and perceptive staff and contributors of Newcity found themselves confronting (yeah, far too much "DEADWOOD"):

"Best local mainstream-comic-book creator

Tony Akins

The “Big Two” companies, Marvel and DC, spent much of the past year fleecing their audiences with over-hyped, convoluted, company-wide crossovers that you need a PhD in Dorkology to follow. That’s why we love us our Vertigo books. One of our favorite titles from the DC imprint is the Eisner-nominated “Jack of Fables,” a spin off from Bill Willingham’s wildly popular “Fables” series. In penciling the adventures of Jack Horner, Tony Akins makes every facial expression count, from a devious eyebrow arch to a calculating smirk. We also love the way he draws Humpty Dumpty and Paul Bunyan, too."

Now, I can pass for holding, at best, a Bachelor's in Dorkology; never felt there was much need for anything beyond what I could put to proper use.

Again, thank you to Newcity. Hail to ALL of Chicago's local creators! Huzzah, VERTIGO! Viva, FABLEDOM!

Newcity 2007 Best of Chicago

2007-09-28T01:07:00.000-05:00

Patrick Brower of Graham Cracker Comics sent me an email that completely wrecked my morning today...I mean, I hadn't even had coffee and I find this looking me square in the face!
Thank you Newcity!

Mike Bell

2007-09-22T18:55:00.001-05:00

These paintings hung in the DvA Gallery; a local gallery/frame shop here in Lincoln Park. The Astro Boy piece is what caught my 35mph attention as I cruised, then re-cruised past the storefront. I've only just managed to stop in at DvA this week to ask about the art, painted by Mike Bell. The Astroboy had sold, but the Mighty Mouse is still available. I'm refitting the studio/lair and this would be a great acquisition, no?

Get A SecondLife! In FABLETOWN?

2007-09-18T21:27:00.000-05:00

There are few things that I miss about working in gaming...OK, maybe there's NOTHING I miss about working in gaming. But I do fondly recall laying out and designing worlds at an isometric (?) perspective. In fact, I do this still for my own enjoyment; using a precut tile template to use as a guide for a building sketch.

Here are a couple of the "idle" ones...

Goofy, I know. But it beats smoking to pass the hours.

Speaking of passing the hours, I'm fascinated by SecondLife. I'm not the only person. Last week I had officially caught up on ALL of my FABLES reading and just like when I was child reading Richard Scarey, I wanted to immerse myself in the geography and environs of the fiction. This means drawing...
At first I believed I was charting uncharted real estate, then I stumbled over Bill's maps of Bullfinch Street and the Farm. Undaunted, I kept on. What I gained from my stubborness was a good fix on what the addresses are on the street. Then based on Bill, Lan and Bucky's art I began to draw isometric elevations of Bullfinch buildings.

Why?

Why not? Besides, I'm waiting for script, so this is "me" time.

Here are the first Bullfinch drawings...

...and here is where the Madness begins.

Why can't WE have a Fables Community in SecondLife?
Where we could become our favorite Fables?
Avatars customized to character, spells, the buildings and places from the series?
There, I've dared to dream it. Who'll dare to Do it?

I'm looking at Bill and he's giving me the thumbs up (OK, so I'm imagining he'll do that).

Jack of Fables#14 Production

2007-09-16T16:30:00.000-05:00

Two gullet-wrenching, scrotum-shriveling JoF art entries in a single day!?

Fablastic!

Again, where some of the pages have gotten to are of little concern to me at this stage; I just need to get these entries up to date! You don't mind, do you? So turn off the Emmy Awards and grab a piping hot mug of lung chutney and relax as I present art to pluck at your rods and cones.

We start, per usual, with the breakdowns for the ish. Again, I've taken to keeping all work at this stage in Moleskine workbooks.

It wasn't until I had progressed to the penciling of Page 2 that I realized this was a very potent image from my dreams. So all you psych-types have at reading into this.

In the script Bill had the Librarians all whispering in hushed tones. At the same time he had asked for them to be kitted out in start* gear. So the note to Angela in the break is to address this point.

Andrew popped an artery when he had to ink all the detail on the Librarians. Poppin' an artery is fine by me. I was really more worried that the sight and effort of these pages would liquify the contents of his bowels explosively, the resulting jet propelling him out of his seat and through a window to his demise. What? It's happened to me before. That's why I wear a helmet when I work. And cheap jeans...

Checking my perspective? Trust me,you'll only be disappointed. Editorial had me add the insert of Gus. This made the page work so much better.

* if you read Neal Stephenson, you know that this is his contraction for "state of the art".

Thanks for rezzin' by!
h.e.

Jack of Fables #'d the Thirteenth!

2007-09-16T12:11:00.001-05:00

Hello, again.
So here's some more art from Jack of FABLES!
Yes, it's sort of another half-assed blog entry, but hell...you LOVE those, right?
Truthfully, sometimes to get a book out on time Creators are called on to make sacrifices by sharing the workload. Jack is fortunate enough to have gads of talented people ready to step in when needed; Russ Braun is one of those talented folks. Russ and I will share some of the upcoming issues for scheduling reasons.
But don't worry (because you look very worried), I've just completed the entirety of JoF#15 and have 6-7 nice scripts lined up and ready to tackle!

Per usual, I'll lead off with breaks for the issue. Oddly, there are breaks to pages that I can't find the actual scanned pencils to. But you love a mystery, don't you...my wittle mystewy marmots.

There's also a patch here. Sometimes a panel will get changed late in the game (after Andrew has already inked it) and I'll come in and re-draw and ink the new patch. I'll even adhere the patch to the page with my own highly adhesive bile, just like Toombs in that X FILES episode, but sexier.

Speaking of sex things; I had the luck to see the "FAMILY GUY LIVE" performance at the Chicago Theater last night. Paul Mounts secured tickets and I got to tag along with he and his son Logan and his friend Ari. It was a BLAST!
If you have a chance to see it, do it!

And now... some of Jack 13.

Man, looking at this you have to be glad that all this costs you is time!
What a half-assed show! I'm a-gonna make up for it to all y'all, no lie.
I've got some shit comin' that'll turn your poo purple!
Sure, laugh now. But when you sitting at a proctologist's office in a paper gown trying to stop the wave-after-wave of Barney earworms...well, you'll either thank me or wish a plague on my heart.

That's all I'm saying.
h.e.

Jack of Fablestone#12

2007-08-31T23:38:00.000-05:00

OK, so it's been a LONG time since I've posted some art. I still have one more installment of SDCC to put up, too.
But you guys really deserve a break after sitting so patiently through the San Diego slideshow. Consider this an intermission of sorts.
Although, what's going to suck, my friends, is that I can't (or won't; you decide...) locate a bunch'o breaks for this issue. So try to make due with my paltry offering from that stage. Also, I may not add any of the witty comments you've all become so dependent on me making. I know it really heightens your viewing/slash reading pleasure.

LOL...I actually typed "slash"! I'm just plain tired.

But. I. Must. Post. Art. For. My. Peeps...ugh!

You know what would be REALLY cool!?
If you posted my witty comments for me! *wink*
I stayed up WAY too late last night plotting and mapping the buildings and shops along Bullfinch Street, between Anderson and Kipling Streets (or is it "Andersen"?). I even have the addresses for each shop and building (Chateau D'If Fencing Academy is 10&1/2 Bullfinch).
Why am I doing this? ARP> Awesome Rogue Project.
Plus I'm about to turn in some long overdue commissions...all while finishing JoF#15.
Anyways, I'll try to make up for this shabby, late posting with some nice concept morsels at the bottom of the post. Hope you like!

One more thing: I've taken to keeping all my breakdowns and sketches in a Moleskine for the sake of having everything Jack-related in one place, rather than individual sheets spread all over the place. This is "Broken Crown", the first JoF Workbook (which has just been filled as of this weekend).

Now, here are the pencils in their entirety. The Matador secured the page with the Bedrock reference for his collection, so don't ask...

See, see? Better than a stick in the eye when you got down here, no?

h.e.

SDCC 2007, Pt. 7: Jane Weidlin and The TonkTank Redemption

2007-08-16T11:57:00.000-05:00

Hi, All. Thanks for hanging in there! So as I recall, we had just had a pre-Eisner dinner, bolted from the restaurant and heeled it over to the award presentation...which are already in progress. SHHHHH!

Bongotone's Bill Morrison is our Master of Ceremonies tonight (this is shot of his image projected on one of the twin Jumbotrons).

We grab our seats. On stage, Bill introduces the talented, fetching,only Go-Go that matters, Jane Weidlin. Ms. Weidlin will be doling out those Eisner trophies. Over the course of the evening quite a few of the Eisner recipients would "accidentally" try to exit the stage in the wrong direction, so that they could have Jane W. direct them in the right direction with tender, hands-on manner.

The Eisner Judges

OK, let's cut to the chase. As you know the Fable/Jack of Fables creative team is a force to be reckoned with. Between the two titles there are a total of 8 nominations for the Eisner; three of the nods for Jack alone.
The evening rolls out well here; Bill, Eisner in hand, gives praise and thanks to the assembled creators ("authors" as he puts it) of "FABLES: 1001 Nights of Snowfall".
Unfortunately, I don't know who the creator is on the far left of the photo, but you'll see James Jean, Shelly Bond, Jill Thompson and Mark Buckingham (with another Eisner).

This year's show was LOOOONG! 3 hours. Jonathan Ross, the "British Jay Leno (only funny)" was co-presenter with Neil Gaiman at the very end of the show. Ross thanked the audience and attendees of the 2007 Eisner Awards and told everyone that tickets for the 2008 Eisner ceremonies were on sale just outside, the sitting for which will begin in one half hour.
This is "The GOON" creator,Eric Powell and someone else doing a bit that k.i.l.l.e.d!

Brian Posehn contributed his mad Klingon language skills to his presentation; he translated all the names of the nominees in his selection of creators into Klingon. I think any names that were actually Klingon, he translated back into an Earth language.

Our Beloved Jill Thompson accepts another award! She gave a shout out to Bill Reinhold and Lenin DelSol for great advice when she was starting out.

James Jean with the first of his Eisners for the night.

As the show went on..and on, I became increasingly worried about the really irresponsible placement of STARGATE:Burbank directly above our table. During the "In Memorium" section of the show, I was anxious that a cross-town bus was going to careen through SG:B and take out even more creators.

Awesome!n I love "Reno911". Here are Thomas Lennon (Lt. Dangle) and Robert Ben Garant (Officer Junior), to present our catagory and shamelessly plug their new film "Balls of Fury".

OK, so we lost to Ed Brubacker's "Criminal". But the guy smokes and can't run very fast carrying all those awards. So this ain't over.

Bill Willingham with this years' haul (for his part, at least).

Bucky, natty in linen, with his Eisner bling.

Our Fabulous Fables Editorial Deity, Shelly Bond with James Jean with his nights' haul.

Here's Jane Weidlin and Andrew Pepoy.

Here's my favorite photo of the show; Thomas Lennon, Brad "Bluebeard" Thomte and Robert Ben Garant. Peas in a Pod.

So, all-of-a-sudden-like, everyone is tossing me their cameras so that I can take photos for them. It's a blur of ducking and weaving with real media photographers for a good spot. But when the dust settles I get these:

Brian Posehn of "The Sarah Silverman Program" with Andrew.

Brian with Yours Truly!

I got to hang a bit with Garant and Lennon outside the show. They're both the nicest guys and only the best should happen for them. "Balls of Fury" is high on my list.

So in the end, Jack didn't walk off with the "Best New Series" Eisner. But hey, of the 8 nominations, the Fables Family took home 6. Which makes us the Monster of the 2007 Show. In fact that number could be higher since Jill won for best Artist/Painter. We rock. And to top it all off...

I got me a lap/armful of Jane Weidlin! Whoo-Hoo!

Guess what? There's STILL MORE to come! Thanks to Budd at Fabletown.com for the clever title for this entry. I try to keep to satirical movie titles, but when he gave me "The TonkTank Redemption" I had to add Jane Weidlin. So I guess this is an homage to the book and not the film. Oh, well.
h.e!

SDCC 2007, Pt. 5: Republished!

2007-08-08T15:12:00.000-05:00

Go! Look!

Technical Difficulties...

2007-08-07T11:49:00.000-05:00

For some reason the images for the last entry,"SDCC 2007, Pt.5" have corrupted (surprised, really?). I'll have to reload and republish this entry. Relax.

SDCC 2007, Pt. 6: Oedipussy

2007-08-05T21:49:00.000-05:00

I follow Bill Willingham and Joey C. as the Fables gaggle skirts the marina on it's way to the Vertigo Panel.

Doctor Venture (or is it "Professor"?) and that really limber Russian assassin that Brock keeps boning. Can't stop, got a panel to make!

Audience members still think that the panel members take the stage graciously; nuh-uh. In truth, it's a barely controlled, ego/status driven bolt for the seat with a working microphone AND water pitcher positioned conveniently nearby. A plus if it's center-stage. To hell with where the handlers place the nameplates; cause that shit gets shifted! Seriously. I mean, who-the-phuck-am-I?... and notice that I'm right on the stage after Karen Berger? Notice the blurring image? That's action, man! I'm sure I'm stepping over a trodden-on Brian K. Vaughan, or a flattened Matt Wagner. It's the quick and the microphone-less! God help anyone of us should we get comfortable and Neil shows! It's mid-echelon creator ass-to-floor, then. For the record; I'd gladly give up my seat for Neil.

Again, a nice opportunity to marry some shots together...*ahem*

The place fills up nicely...

Bill, did you notice this guy with the eye-patch?

The beautiful, intelligent Karen Berger helms the panel. Apparently GRENDL Creator, Matt Wagner (second from right) has made it to a seat unscathed.

Brian K.V. and Pia Guerra receive questions.

Brian Azzarello (against wall, standing), Bill W., the lovely G. Willow Wilson, with Bucky just beyond.

Panel's over. I have to say that even with all the awesomeness gathered in that room, Fables and Jack of Fables received the loudest applause! I'm a lucky, lucky man to hold with such a crew!
Here's some buildings as seen from the Convention stairway.

Outside, Matt and I run into a friend of mine from Chicago; Tom of Graham Cracker Comics in Lincoln Park. Matt is completely underwhelmed until I mention that "this is 'Comic-Shop Mike', man!". THEN the lights go on! Tom served as the inspiration for one of Aubrey's pals in the Vegas arch of Jack of Fables.

Later that evening, Matador and I head down to the restaurant selected for the Eisner Nominees of Vertigo Dinner hosted by Karen Berger.

Letter Jedi, Eisner Magnet Todd Klein and Jack of Fables' inker, Andrew Pepoy arrive.

At the table everyone listens for the specials...

"...Shrimp Polenta, Shrimp Gumbo, Shrimp Platter, Shrimp Ice Cream...."

Gwen and James Jean were RAVENOUS! I mean...That's MY plate! James isn't moving his lips, but I swear that I heard his voice in my head say, "You really want to loose an arm over this pastry? 'Cause, I don't even have to get out of this chair; Gwen can take you like a chocolate-covered communion wafer on Easter Sunday, my friend."

Who the hell let Will Dennis in?

Bucky and Karen Berger.

Steve Leialoha chats with DAVID LLOYD! Why there's not a "SIR" in front of that is beyond me.

Illustrator, Eisner Magnet James Jean and the Matador. Matt sidles up for an interception, "Maybe they'll throw an award at him and he won't notice! You got a Sharpie on you?"

I gave the adorable Gwen Jean a wide berth while she was near the chocolate and armed.

Dinner was splendid. After dashing on the check (K.B's idea), we're now entering the
hall where the Eisner Awards are in progress! What's going to happen? WTFK?

h.e.

SDCC 2007, Pt. 5: The Passion of the Grist (for the Mill)

2007-08-05T20:22:00.002-05:00

Trust me, I've no idea what day this is on the floor. Just roll with it.
These first three shots are an ad-hoc panorama of the DC Pad. The pad is very spacious and an easy place just to "mill" about; the carpet is a deep serene shade of blue and the banners reach up into the high ceiling like jungle canopy (wait, jungle cats live in those right?). A reader of this blog, with the proper software and generous motivation could marry these few images and effect a remarkable facsimile of actually standing amidst the throngs of fans.

Here's Matt Sturges, Co-Writer of 'Jack of Fables', Writer for 'House of Mystery' and soon to take over Bill Willinghams' 'Shadowpact'. And there's Fox; my "little stiletto of sunshine". Come ON!... how cute is she? With her spiked hair and school tie!? This is right after I met her her and already she's one of the gang. Both she and Matt are from Texas. Not 3 hours after I took this photo did I asked her to be my "convention girlfriend". OK, one of my convention girlfriends. But still, she was the MAIN GF!

The room that Matt and I shared. Yes, those are GAP glow-in-the-dark P.J.s; the red/star pattern. Fascinating, I know.

...let's see, view from the room...

Ha! I'm my own paparazzi!

Gah! Not used to the vibrate mode on the cell-phone. Tickles!

I'll be the phuck there! Dag, yo!

A four-goddamned-dollar hotel donut. I had two.

While I jab at Fox, Matt affects the attitude of a man who's had too much success in too short a time in comics.

Next Episode: Karen Berger hosts a dinner for the Vertigo Eisner Nominees!
Come on back!
h.e.

Hahaha, I gotta Pee!

2007-08-05T20:11:00.000-05:00

Can you build a nuclear device using a car tire and a small amount of nuclear material?
Conventional explosives packed into a tire, when detonated would cause enough compressive force on a uranium core to trigger an atomic chain reaction? Please don't let this be possible. Because I rode the elevator up with a guy who was wrestling with a very heavy tire, on his way up to the 39th floor. I was half joking with E. that a device exploded at 300-400 feet off the ground has the desired effect. I told her about Hiroshima (airburst). Not TWO minutes later do I check my email to find my cousin Bill, a physician in Wisconsin had mailed me a poem by a survivor of Hiroshima.
So, if something bad happens in Lincoln Park over the next day or so...AVENGE MY ASS WITH A VENGEANCE!

P.S.
More SDCC coming shortly (I hope)...

astromonster: SDCC OMG! U2? OK!

2007-08-04T23:45:00.000-05:00

astromonster: SDCC OMG! U2? OK!
Here's my friend and "Shaolin Cowboy" color author, Alex Wald's take on SDCC!

SDCC 2007, Pt.4: Explosive Endeavour,The Sequel

2007-08-03T22:03:00.000-05:00

It was a dangerous time to be in this foreign land. A danger compounded ten-fold as I was a spy for the Imperial Chancellor at the request of my Grandfather, Admiral Fogleer of Her Majesty's Royal Flotilla. I was well-educated and a man seasoned in arms and military service. I spoke 7 languages, not including Latin. I had never, in my entire career in the Art of Espionage come so close to failure....But the game was not up yet! Not only had I this important mission to complete, but I had to get home, to my beloved Gwendolyn; the light of my life. Our marriage was to be in the Autumn. No other woman could be so cherished in my heart. She will be my only love.
I had secreted the documents I had stolen and my remaining gold in my codpiece. Indeed, mine is an old-fashioned family; Fogleer codpieces have been handed down for generations; and should I survive this foray into danger, I will ensure the tradition lives on!
The gates of the city were too well guarded to escape and make my crossing through open countryside. The Port at San Tyrone was my only chance. But the port was garrisoned by the formidable She-Pirates of Spain. If I were apprehended by these fierce Sea-Amazons, I am sure, they would show no mercy. Giggiddy!

Fox yucks it up in the DC Green Room; a merciful oasis when the floor gets too overwhelming.

Oh, great. She's standing right where they'll cross streams!

...built entirely from tissue and lark's bile.

Fox poses with Jedi Master Obi Wan, um...Rodriquez?

Here's Fox with "Hack/Slash", "Loaded Bible" Creator and fellow Chicagoan, Tim Seeley. Is the girl "Hack" or "Slash"? I forgets. This is the Devil's Due booth.

Fox and a..., Badger? Wolverine? Definitely not a Capybara!

The Sci-Fi Channel's alien ship is still a great draw! People don't realize this, but the calming lights lull you into a passive state, then BOOM!...You've been anally probed.

Yishan, Fox and a Templar Knight. These Knight aren't so mighty; you can see all that he has on under his halbert is a Hanes t-shirt!

I'm all for live music! This guy called down the Aboriginal thunder pretty well. Is he carving thees back there? Another musical floor-fav of mine were the roving Pirates: really great stuff. I wanted to sing along, but all I could understand was "RRRRrrr!"

More coming! This is like actually being the phuck there, ain't it?
h.e.

San Diego Comic-Con 2007, Part 3:This Time It's Impersonal

2007-08-03T11:22:00.000-05:00

Back on the Floor at SDCC! It's still the second day I think...Maybe the third? At this point does it matter?

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a HUGE flirt. I like the ladies. Shelly has permanently branded me with the title of Tony "I'm the Biggest Flirt" Akins.
My bark is worse than my bite, trust me. Here are a couple of my "convention girlfriends"; Yishan Li (TokyoPop Artist) and Fox (Ambitious Editrix-to-be).
Remember when you couldn't get a girl near a sci-fi booth? Yes, these are fine times my friends...fine times.

Fox and Yishan Li flank one of Lord Vader's personal bodyguard. Yishan believes the weapon is loaded. She knows a thing or two about loaded; she's a Chinese-national that draws top shelf Manga but LIVES in Scotland! The girl is a contender!

Fox plants one on the apprehensive Undead.

Display dismemberment; always high-larious.

1/12th scale Wardrobe Malfunctions; miniaturized, yet still scandalous!

...Barely Veiled Threats from Women with Bare Midrifs! Ooo, hit me with your best shot, baby! *Ow! Not with the collapsible baton! You crazed twist! Ow! I was speaking metaphorically*

More coming! The Eisner Awards approach!

h.e!

San Diego Comic-Con 2007, Part 2: Curb Your Enthusiams

2007-08-02T22:04:00.000-05:00

As you may remember, we've made our way from the hotel after fortifying ourselves with AIRBORNE! and BACON! to pass into the Convention Center. Below, Bucky and Bill take up positions at the Vertigo table: our assigned MLR* for much of the convention...

Things are quiet. But then Matt's flank is probed by '100 BULLETS' editor, Will Dennis. We're taken off-guard for several critical seconds; just enough time for...

...Fans! Fans In The Wire!!!...OMG where'd they come from? These guys can't handle so many at one time. I'm serious! They wrap around the side of the tapestry and into Eric Powell's floorspace! Bill LOOKS like he's accepting a book to sign from a fan. In reality, he's deflecting a grenade! Holy Moly! I'm outta here! I didn't sign on for this, this...MADNESS! IIYEEEEEeeeeee....

EEEEEEeeeee...Hey, cool! A Tonkbot! But where's your fro?

After steadying my nerves I make my way back the table to find that it's now 'SCARY GODMOTHER', 'MAGIC TRIXIE' creator and artist Jill Thompson manning the table by her lonesome. Ain't she awesome? Meow.

Here, let's get a different view of that "sketch" she's doing. How do girls draw with those things (wonderful as they are) in front of them?
What? That was a purely professional question!

OK, back outside. Wow, this is what you'd expect in SoCAl, no? I believe these palms are all real. I know that LA has some that are not real. I'm lugging it back to the Manchester Grand...

The scale of the place always impresses me; and I'm from Chicago!

You know what would be cool? Filling those with water and having mermaids (fine, and a few mermen) flopping about up there. Those things are HUGE!

More impressive scale and grandeur. This Grand Lobby was added to join the second tower to the first. The former front desk of the original tower (way down there) is now the main spot for post con convening. On nights well into the shank of the con, this cavernous place bustles with folk. I greeted Thomas Jane TWICE in this very place (he was clenching an unlit cigar in his teeth; good prop)

Come on back! The first day hasn't even ended!
h.e.

*Main Line of Resistance

San Diego Comic-Con 2007

2007-08-01T02:22:00.001-05:00

After no little anxiousness about the trip, a few hours of sleep after a record breaking packing, E put me in a cab (she said that she would drive me) for O'Hare Airport. Once there, I found that my 7am flight had been canceled and the only remaining flight THAT DAY was not boarding until 730 pm. Phuck. There's goes my Swag-grab on Preview Night. So I went back home and had a leisurely day of napping and waiting for my later flight.

Back at the airport...ticket and strawberry-banana smoothie in hand!

God...3 and a half hours of this...

Hey, the movie's starting! Hope they've got '30 ROCK' or 'The Office'!

ARRG-Gah!!! Sandra Bulloch!? BLARG!

Korean Guy with a laptop; nice garter action will clear my head after that movie. Meow!

After arrival and cabbing up to the Manchester Grand Hyatt, I met the "the Crew" in the North Tower bar (forever the rally point for all attendees after a day on the convention floor). Bill Willingham, Matt Sturges and Mark Buckingham had already secured a table, a crowd, and generous contribution to both legal occupancy and decible output. Liquor ran like blood in the gutter during a CIA-backed coup! But before things got too out of hand (there'll be plenty of opportunities for crunkeness later...and DRUNKENESS!)it's off to bed, only to rise far too early for my liking; Bill bells the room where Matt and I are staying (just down the hall from the suite he's sharing with his friend Brad Thomte, the Las Vegas Poker Tournament Director)at 8bloodyO'Clock for breakfast...time to shake a leg!

First thing to pass my lips; AIRBOURNE*! Fortifying ones' self against the teeming viral/bacterial output of the massed fandom is a must. A MUST, I say!
(*despite heavy dosing, I still came down with a cold)

Bucky converses far too well at this hour for a man that's just endured a 16 hour flight not ten hours ago. Bill marshals the breakfast orders.

Matt Sturges and Brad Thomte seem to be breathing...barely. Damnit, man! Where's the food!?

What the phuck!? Now he's got a sketchbook in his hands! The man is made of STEEL!
Can nothing stop him!?

Ah! Beautiful SoCal Sun! We're off to the convention floor bright and early. Matt Sturges lets the wind, scented with acacia blossom, play with his dark tresses. A serene moment I will hold in my heart forever...

...because just ahead of us, on this very path, awaits a seething cauldron of Comic Book Culture; fueled by OCD, clinical depression and delusional (yet cute and well-executed) fictional-identity imprinting, comic fans will be relentless in their efforts to shop, trade, seek-out and get sketches from anyone, ANYONE with Sharpie ink on their fingers (just ask Matt).

Hmmm, this reminds my that I have to bone up on my History of The Boxer Rebellion.

Casting one last look back in the direction of sanity, Brad, Bucky and Bill display the stiff upper lip and that rare pedigree of joie de vive that are the crunchy vertebrae of any Comic Creator.
FABLES Fans should note that Brad is indeed the living model for Bluebeard!

Approaching the Jaws of the Beast now! Shhh!

There! That guy there?...He's standing beside the Uvula of the Beast. I swear to God, it waggled and touched my elbow...Eewwwww! (the Uvula, not the guy)

And as our Heroes pass into the cavernous innards of the Convention Center, we must ask ourselves...Where do such Men and Women come from? What mettle they show as they saunter into certain calamity.

Tune in for the continuation of SDCC 2007! Seriously, I've got 200 photos to post...
h.e!

The Summer So Far...

2007-07-22T16:11:00.000-05:00

I gots the pre-San Diego Comic Convention jitters. SO here are a few calming, captured thoughts and memories from the Summer thus far...

Atmospherics: I called this one, "Cloud Wedgie".

Having something to look at when enduring a bout of insomnia: after a third attempt at sleep, I gave up and went to watch the sunrise on the Gold Coast.

Readying for the arrival of our Mutant Overlords. Their intergalactic vehicle can impact right...about...There! Right on top of Wrigley Field. I won't miss it!

Kitten lovin'!

Looking up through an open sun-roof.

Sudden, violent, wonderful napping!

Not having to wait 17 years to live it up.

Rubbing out a good sketch at a signing. Drawing out a good sketch, I mean.

The Ever-bustling Cityscape: I like keeping to the quiet of parallel side streets rather than the noisy, traffic laden avenues. So sometimes when I turn corners I'm confronted with surprises. This crane (nothing new) causes interest in normally unnoticed features in the hood.

Wishing that I had a Cello handy, and being really good at playing.

Hitting the Wine Bar wid dah Ladies!

In the Volvo, tear-assing down the Coast of Chevanston (Chicago/Evanston).

The g's...THE G'S! (grunt)

Dogsitting Dexter: there's no impromptu dog-toy too daunting. Even this Bigby Plushie.

Or no approach to familiarizing with said impromptu toy too inappropriate.

What a good pup!

Atmosphere: a wake, cut by the tower I call home, through a rolling bank of fog off the lake...

I'll see you all in San Diego!
h.e.

If That Hound Kills Another One Of My Chickens...

2007-07-21T15:43:00.000-05:00

About all I can say of Lincoln Park is that I live there. Wicker Park is much more my kind of place; a little dicey around the edges, beaucoup activity, charm, loads of great looking women who seem to appreciate my appreciation of them, and it's a world away from Lincoln Park.
L.P. is fine if you're 20something and a pack-runner, or in your 50's and mega-wealthy (the apartment overlooks the Pritzker's 40 Million dollar mansion-to-be)
That said...in the rarest of instances, like today, there'll be a woman that sets herself at considerable apartness from the caliber of oat-sowing girls that L.P. has an overabundance of. To this young woman I'd like to give thanks; also,thanks to God, thanks to Nature, thanks to the Culture of Fitness. Thanks to the sling-back espadrilles with the 2.5 inch wedge; thanks to the designer, mid-thigh denim skirt. Thanks to being a hard-wired heterosexual. Thanks to the Sun for being just west of it's Noon azimuth, so the light was indirect and gave her well-toned stems such a dazzling outline. Also, many, many thanks to Her as she noticed me and struck this KILLER stance as I got closer (left foot just a bit out front, toe pointed out, hand on hip). That KILLED me!
I had just walked out of Breadsmith on Wells. I had two of their AWESOME large sugar cookies clutched in a bag. When I got home, I found that I had dented both of them.

"Is It OK If The HISTORY Channel Gives Me Wood?"

2007-07-20T20:33:00.000-05:00

Hell yes! But only if it's during "DOGFIGHTS".
To hell with NASCAR, NBA, MLB and ESPN! This is the stuff! The knife's edge of geopolitical meltdown. In 2005, when I saw the first 2 hour pilot (no pun) for this show I was a happy man. Now these guys are topping themselves with famous dogfights recreated in cgi for a second season. I've heard USAF Pilot Parr's description of his incredible tangle with 16 MiG-15s at treetop level before; but seeing it recreated in Lightwave... I hit the ceiling!
MORE, MORE!
Will we see some furballs from other combative nations? India/Pakistan has some spectacular aerial combat history. Will we see Albert Ball's last fight?
Kobayashi's kills over China? Hmmm...

Heh-heh, Hey! Fuck You, America!

2007-07-04T13:17:00.000-05:00

OK, so it's not the most mature behavior to have been sticking my fingers in my ears and going, "La La La La!" for the last 7 years to screen out the deeds of the current Administration. But I have to watch my blood pressure, so exercise, diet and curbing my rage is prescribed.
Of course, just as I let my guard down, some bit of news will reach me. Like yesterday, I heard about George Bush's Presidential move to commute Scooter Libby's sentence. I spent 45 minutes on a power-walk to get over THAT one.
God Bless America (5th best in quality of life on the planet).

The Black Van

2007-06-17T00:04:00.000-05:00

Just came in from a great evening with my friend Steve Wagner of Astropolitan Productions. We caught Satoshi Kon's new feature, "Paprika". Excellent anime.
He also did 'Paranoia Agent' (an OVA series), 'Millennium Actress' and my fav of his, 'Tokyo Godfathers'. The latter two being features.
I'm too full of tequila to draw and too addled by a night of top-notch Anime on the heels of a night seeing a fantastic production of Tom Stoppards, "Arcadia" at the Court Theatre to do anything but post.
So here!
There's a story. I have some "Flight" worthy stories in me if the would just return my calls *pout, arms akimbo*

Schultz Sketchbook

2007-06-16T00:55:00.000-05:00

I schlep a backpack normally; several moleskines, ink, pens and brushes. Books I like to limit to paperbacks because of weight. Lately, I've been keeping volume one and two of the Mark Schultz Sketchbooks close company. Can you blame me? I'll have my hands on number three soon. I pour over them often in admiration. I also have the "Gorrillaz:Rise of the Ogre" which is also, truly awesome. Here's a quick sketch from
the moleskine; a tiny crack at a direct swipe from a Schultz, then a larger "freeform" sketch.

Jack of Fables#14 Solicitation

2007-06-15T10:02:00.000-05:00

Damn!This stuff just APPEARS! It's awesome, too! Another cover by Brian Bolland!
Wonderful,no? Again, I have to say how great it is to be with such great creative company. Of course, I'm as intrigued by what's happening here as you :~)
The guy with the guitar, you may remember, is Wicked John, Jack's doppelganger. There's some vigorous discussion about the nature of his guitar in the Fabletown.com
forum; steel vs. nylon string, etc.
h.e.

Moleskine; Women&Bridges

2007-06-14T12:59:00.000-05:00

While I'm waiting on script from Bill and Matt I'm catching up on some long LONG overdue commission work through Court Gebeau and others. I'm also spending some time with my newly cracked moleskine "Women and Bridges". Yes, I name them so I can keep track of what's what. For instance, all the Jack of Fables work you see at breakdown and concept stages is in the moleskine "Broken Crown". Get it?
Yes, the Jack workbooks will be going up to auction for charities. The first image was a featured SFX in a dream I slogged through a night or two ago. There'll be more from that coming. Below that is a transcription of a couple of noodles from a dragsheet I was using to protect a page from getting smeared by my hand. The noodles ended up becoming too degraded to save so I just redrew them in the moleskine.
h.e.

The Lonely Rice Chronicles

2007-06-14T12:44:00.001-05:00

Since I'm throwing hollas, I have to holla at Tony Maldonado over at 'The Lonely Rice Chronicles'. He may be my oldest link in my list as he's way down there at the bottom.
Like Barry Crain, I always get a kick out of seeing Tony's sketches and noodles. It's also fun to spend time with him; he's a regular visitor at Dovetail (my lair and lab).
Scoot on over to his blog (linked above) and take a look at his art and question your worthiness ( I do...Question my worthiness, not question yours. Why, should I?).

CSI:Fables

2007-06-13T13:09:00.000-05:00

I'm starting the entry off with James Jeans' provocative cover for this issue to take the sting out of what follows...which is nothing short of a gory exhumation and forensic reconstruction of the body of work that I submitted as Issue Ten. As I drew the issue, the Fables Forces had to initiated a tactical "re-arrangement" while on the march and Issue Ten became Issue Nine in order to protect the fast moving flanks of the Fables Juggernaut from enfilade. I love my crew, so it was no biggie.
I say "forensic" because the work and files sorta got lost in the wriggly-wrinkles of my brain, across the desktops and in the zippedy-zot wafers of two computers and suspended my email accounts data column going months back. I've spent over an hour reconstructing the corpse for this entry. Don't get me wrong, this is a pretty awesome corpse! I'm just trying to be clever. Which hurts...
Some of the DNA sequencing is spotty; Pages 9 and 10 are not loadable to this server, so you'll have to take your impression of these missing bits of evidence from the coroner's breaks. OK, you get my point...so don your latex gloves, protective goggles (or your "Sunglasses of Justice")and make sure David Caruso doesn't sidle up next to me during the autopsy(that guy creeps me large).

Begin breaks; you'll notice that until others on the crew noticed and yanked my leash, I was trying to sail Jack with a rougish Van Dyke. Time and degrees of grooming figure into every life. So Jack's chin-whiskers went the way of Anne Coulter's panties at a GOP fundraiser. No lie. But I just pretended that there was radio interference when they said to loose Gary's beard, too.

I don't care how many starts you seem to have, the first page is always anxiety-ridden and awkward. For me at least. It's like I don't know dick about the book from the last issue. Seriously, until Cinders reminded me that I had forgotten to post this issue, I had forgotten about drawing this issue!

Noelle is inspired by a woman I dated a couple of years back. I believe that some women, like C, reach a "critical mass" in scale and beauty and either go bonkers or become super-models. C was the former. We'd get together and by the end of the night I'd wonder why I didn't think bring a shovel and a sack of lime.

As Shelly says, "This is a "hair" book."

This breakdown of of pages 4,5 and 6 are the last of this degree of scratching we'll see. Somewhere between this page and the next, a matter of an hour or less, I picked up a Hunt 513 and started using it to bring something more indelible to this stage of work. And when I say "indelible" I mean "lovely-and-all-wise-editor proof" :~D
Well,damn! He's INKED it! It must be good!

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!"

OK, so does panel 4 (below) read? I wanted Jack to appear to place dramatic emphasis on the dialog here by thrusting his junk into the air.

Here's them new breaks I was yammering about. Shiny, huhn?

Pages 7-8 contain some nice low-angle shots of Lady Lucks', um...demeanor. Advantageous this angle is in showing the contrails of airliners that may or may not be in the favor of her fortune.

Pages 9 and 10 I'll load at a later time. The files were Carusoed, I mean, corrupted .

You know, all those years storyboarding condescending talking waffles, obsequious boxes of tampons, feral dogs fugitive from the Outback selling car wax, spelling bunnies spared from predation and dancing dinnerware that disregard the Sabbath really pay off on this page!
Fuck! Look at those bastards jump!

Yes, that's the coveted iPhone.

Throughout the this arc I tried to present the casino as a real castle whenever and where ever possible.

Hey look! Bonus stuff! These are the attempts to beard-up our scoundrels for this arc.

Well, that's all I've got...keep reading Fables and Jack of Fables! But I don't have to tell you to do that, do I? Trust me, what's coming is so phuct up...It makes the Bush Administration look like Jessica Biel's butt: flawless.
h.e.

I Love Me My Don Cheadle...

2007-06-12T17:28:00.000-05:00

Somehow Barry Crain is as convinced as I am that Don Cheadle is the right guy to play the role of me in the movie about, well...ME!
Hop on over to Barry's Hootennanny (in my links as Barely Sane) and check out his nipple-twisting Conan the Barbarian pages! Ouch!

"You're Totally Fucked"

2007-06-10T22:53:00.000-05:00

I enjoy musical theater...You wanna make somethin' of it? I'll slip into Times Square to catch a show. The last one was "The Drowsy Chaperon" which was really, really great.
Tonight, the cast of "Spring Awakening" performed a medley at the 61st Tony Awards that blew my socks off. Then it took the Tony for "Best Show"! I love well crafted, scored and choreographed nihilism. Fucking go see this show. It's full of Anger, Rock&Roll and Sex. What is there to life that could be more fun?

I Had "Temporal Diaspora", That's It!

2007-06-08T23:55:00.000-05:00

Really? You think it's bad waiting for the comic you most love in the universe (Jack of Fables) to get shipped to you? Just try LIVING with an issue! Don't get me wrong I love doing this for a living. But it does phuck up one's sense of time; panels and pages blurring together into an endless tiling of continuity; referring to previous issues for consistency in wardrobe and props...
So I FORGOT about drawing those 22 pages that made up issue 9...the ACTUAL issue 9, not the blog entry (below) that's really Issue 10! Thank you, Cinders (the Fabletown.com Linkmaster) for calling that to my attention.
Just a reminder, "You Keep What You Kill." is NOT a wedding vow...Not a vow.
Why that's relevent? I'm sure someone will remind me.

It's All Coming Back To Me Now...

2007-06-06T21:54:00.000-05:00

Firstly, 10-Gallon hats off to Andrew Pepoy for saving my ass and penciling pages 13-22 of Jack Of FABLES #9. For some reason...issue #10 is lurking in my memory as not-so-fun a ride, too. But I drew the whole thing...(didn't I?) I'll recall why when I find and post the pencils. Note that it has NOTHING to do with the marvelous creative team on the book!
So here's Breakdown (1-22) and Pencils for 9 (the pencils I did at least; 1-12).
I'll comment as I load...

Let's see (above), yes...another frightening coagulation of ink and tears,scrapes and stabs that will become something that will pass for comics! By The Hammer Of THOR, BEHOLD (below)!
A page! Wrought from the rarest ass-vapors of Hell's Lemurs! Astounding!
(whoa! Jack's hair is out of CONTROL!)

I do like the "Tumbling Dice" device that I drew for the title-pad (no that's not what it's really called).Below, Page 2 Panel 4 has one of my favorite "walk-throughs" of mundy-fodder; the mook dancing with LL...can't you just smell the patchouli reek?

The background for this and the next page is, of course, clover. But the brain I decided would be funnier on a bed of parsley.As brilliant as the breakdowns were for pages 4 and 5...

Shelly felt that I could make them even more brilliant, or even purdy (yeah,as if).

I generally think that if a panel is weak in the breakdowns, that I can pull off a winner by the time I get to the actual page. Editorial expects the same of me. But Panel 4 of Page 3 continued in weakness from breakdown stage through to final pencils. I think that this was a case of my trying to be clever with my comfort in selecting high, forced perspectives for some panels. What I believed would clarify a crowded image only ended up making it more confusing. Learn this lesson!

This was fun...
There's a reflexive comfort to drawing consumer goods and settings; twenty years in advertising. I refrained from lettering the products Jodie is buying even though I do enjoy suchs distractions. But then Andrew would have been tasked with lettering when he inked.

Forgive me, I'm still having some "plastic" issues with Jack...the price of my rubbery expressions. Panel 5 is waving a red flag; I believe that the jaw-line was altered in the inks (I can't say that I blame move, his jaw is quite heavy here). Sigh.

LOL, the middle tier of Page 8 makes me happy.

Over the course of the next few issues of JoF, you'll notice that my breaks will become a little more "comp" or developed. The closer that I can get to the right feeling for the page in the breaks, the fewer mind-grapes that get exhausted across the empty page. The problem arises in approximating that "special" energy and "english" that thumbnails seem to express so well. Compare Page 9 Panel 1 in the breaks to the corresponding Panel and Page that's fully penciled; the break seems to capture Jack's zeal better as a controlled scribble. I swear I'm gonna just bitch-out a book of continuity that's all thumbnails *gets down on knee, arms flailing to heaven, head back* I Swear This, By The HAMMER of THOR!

Page 9 Panel 4; Yes, this was covered with spit because of the sound effects I was making while drawing it.

Pris Page; yo, is that chick like ALWAYS strapped? That's Hot.

I took some liberty with the first panel of Page 11; revealing my ideas for some of the GB procedure for on-site retrieval,cataloging and sterilization. There are notes on the breaks for this page that explain. Bill and Matt may chose to employ this in the future or not. Of course, I may be just creating more work for myself and Bucky by giving the Wordsmiths reason to request a view of the warehoused fable-swag somewhere in the Revise facility.

This page says it all; CAPYBARAS!
Everything beyond this page Andrew penciled. Cursing me the whole way. Ah, comics.

H.E.