What Is Wrong with This Picture?

So I was cleaning today and found this old sketch I did before starting IE. It's undoubtedly ripped off from Milt Caniff... but I like it a lot. I decided to put it up here before putting it in the round file, despite its many flaws.

The perspective is totally whack. If you look at the jaw line and the lips, they are incongruous. The lips appear to be seen from the side, or even top, yet the jaw is clearly from a low perspective. Put your finger over the jaw line and it looks OK.

The eyes are in the middle of her head. If you saw here head on, it would look like a fish. The forehead slope is a little weird, but not terrible.

Don't even ask me what's going on with her ear...

Although I feel as though I'm drawing much better now, what I AM proud of is the leather shine of the mask. I don't always nail it, but I've practiced it enough that I am satisfied with the results when I ink. I like looking at this and the page on my wall (similar mask, from a panel in Invisible Empire 3) and it makes me feel good that I've improved over these 2 and 1/2 years.

Invisible Empire 2 (at long long last!)

Invisible Empire 2 is being printed as we speak! It will be available at the end of March! I'm so excited!!!

messy witness

teaser

click on it to make it bigger

Eye-Shattering NEWS!!!

LOOK FOR THIS FRIGHTENING FELLOW ON THE FORTHCOMING FLOPPY!

Firstly, INVISIBLE EMPIRE #2, the third installment in my series of sequential doodlings and musings, is zipping its way to the printers via Pony Express! I am so excited and nervous... but I think my art has improved a lot thanks to my new job and billions of hours of playing slave to the nib and brush.


SECONDLY... I won something!!! A lottery, to be precise. No, you can't hit me up for a new Mustang, ya chuckle-head! It's the Indie Spinner Rack Awesome 2; AWESOMER!!! lottery! So I'm going to get two glorious pages in the hallowed halls of indie comic artistry. I am even more excited than my book being done and 10 times as nervous!!! Holy balls!

Last, but by NO means least... Tomorrow I'm going to the final day of comic-con for the SOLE PURPOSE of meeting this exceptional artist! Lily Renee Phillips is one of my FAVORITE artists!!! This is a ONCE IN A LIFETIME CHANCE. You don't need a pass to attend the panels! If you want to come, we can coordinate. I am so excited!!! Here's the skinny:


Lily Renee Phillips Spotlight


Lily Renee Phillips was one of the pioneer women cartoonists in the Golden Age of Comics, working primarily for Fiction House publishers. Fleeing Nazi Germany to America as a child, she went on to draw covers and such features as The Lost World, Senorita Rio, and Werewolf Hunters for Planet Comics, Rangers Comics, and Fight Comics. With her then-husband Eric Peters, she also drew covers and interior stories for a number of Abbott & Costello Comics. Phillips talks about her amazing life and career with Heidi MacDonald (The Beat).


Sunday from 1:45 PM - 2:45 PM


So that's all the news for now! Oh, and just to give you a taste of Phillips' art, in case you haven't seen it... ENJOY!!! ;

My Process

This is the first book I've worked on where I put all the pages up on my wall. I thought I'd share them with you (well, a few aren't shown). This has been a bit of an eye-opener as well as a curse. I am able to see how the story flows much better, especially throughout multiple pages, whereas before I thumbed through a folder filled with giant papers. It is sometimes hard to look at. Whenever I'm reading something like Batman Year 100 and I look up from Paul Pope's luscious brushes to my own stilted pen and brush sprawlings, it can be torturous and disheartening. It has pushed me forward in many ways and it has beat me down in others.

One of the most important things it has done is to make me think of comics in a whole new way. As they hang on my wall, like prehistoric wall paintings, they often lull me into a trance and force me to respect my own work. As completion nears; it will be hard to take them down. They will leave a space. An empty space with 28 pin-holes on my wall.

But I will replace them with something better.

It is a rough journey. It is heartbreaking very often. But if you break the heart of your demons first, they will wither and fade.

Although you can't see it now, some of these pages were once blank or merely penciled outlines. This was the stage that was the most daunting, but everything began to fill out, grow and develop like a polaroid, evolving into an alter to something bigger than myself. A humbling and inspiring act. This is art and it needs no justification or apology.

Thanks to everyone that helped inspire me along the way to this point.

LOVE LXVE LOVE LXVE LOVE LXVE LOVE LXVE LOVE LXVE LOVE XOXOXO

Now my soul hath elbow-room

Yes, nothing less than a quote from The Bard to ring in the return. Shakespeare was one righteous dude.


Thank you to the myriad of people that I ranted about elbows to for a solid week. Liz even went to the Met with me as I followed my Toucan Sam-like ability to root out elbows wherever a statue or picture of Hercules might be.

Any way... If you know what this is, great. If you don't, well, like Aaliyah said, "I don't know what to tell ya'."



Hooray for elbows! It's elbows-for-president day!!!

Explicit Explicative

Snakes alive! Inking sure is fun! I think it's my favorite part of making comics... especially since I've been practicing with my brushes.

The "shit" is for how many more pages I have to go!

Hello, Ruby Tuesday

So when I started doing Toppled Idols, it was for three reasons. The first was losing my sketchbook I'd had forever and never wanting that to happen again. Unless this host dies, I'm safe.

But the other two reasons were to get better at drawing and to draw every day.

And when I look at how much of my comic I've done so far, and how it's looking, I think that I'm achieving both those goals. I'm drawing every day, but way more hardcore than before. And I look at the picture above and smile. It's one of my favorites so far.

So enjoy... and you'll have to imagine what he's sayin'! I haven't broken out the Ames guide and I don't want any spoilers!

Kiss, Kiss the Messenger's Lips

While I was drawing today (nearly finishing a page... just a little more whiting out and a little more lettering!!!) I listened to two really awesome interviews.

The first was on Indie Spinner Rack an
interview with Jeff Smith, whose Bone has influenced a generation of artists (ha!). I just got his new book RASL and the art is so beautiful. He's really got the art of comics down.

The second was on Inkstuds; interviewing Dave Sim. Dave Sim is one of the most controversial underground comic-book artists (which is saying a lot), well, at least in the world of underground comics. But say what you will about the guy, he made a 6,000 page story and is still going strong. He's been self-published as long as he's been published and his insight into publishing and working are really great. His new projects are polar opposites and will probably anger a lot of people.... but what's great art if it doesn't stir up some controversy?

Anwyways... just thought I'd spread some love.

On a completely unrelated note, Erykah Badu's album came out. I still don't have it but check out the cover... the artwork is some of the most beautiful I've seen in decades. I hope it comes out on vinyl cuz I'm a snob like that!


LOVE LXVE LOVE LXVE til tomorrow!

The Original Preppie Killer

This is the mock-up for some buttons! Guess what color they are going to be??? Hint: It's my favorite color!

Since some of you might be doing this for the first time as well, I thought I'd go through some steps on here. The text around the top is actually going to fold over and be on the top rim... you know what I'm talkin' about!!!

COVER Field!!!

Here's the cover!!! Of course, it will be silkscreened in duotone and look much more beautiful... BUT HOLY SHIT IT'S DONE!!!

I'm dedicating this post to KP Lawless, you know what for. Congratulations, lady! NOW ROW ME TO THE CLUB!