Melee Comics

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2010-04-28T05:09:00.001-07:00

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The Coolest Thank-you

2010-04-15T17:43:00.000-07:00

I signed a bunch of spiderman issues and with them I did full figure sketches of the eponymous hero to go with the comic as a thank you to those who supported me. In rare cases I get stuff back. This awesome drawing was done by a kid who is already far ahead of some industry professionals in his willingness to incorporate crazy visual non-sequiturs. I like the robot with the exploding head, the equations, the kanji and the phrase "see you next episode."

I love it.

I also Love Science

Here is a wonderfully geeky musical tribute to great ideas, thinkers and phenomena; a tribute to SCIENCE! I think it is the best thing humans ever devised. I wish more people had an appreciation for how fantastic and important it is.

The Poetry of Reality

Thus this is my pick of the post.

Life Imitates Art.

2010-04-01T18:38:00.000-07:00

Periscope studio (where I've worked as a freelancer for the past year and recently been promoted to 'float member' status) started the planned expansion today and before they knock down the wall my friend Rich Ellis did a bit of a fitting artistic ode to our new found destructive zest.

This is extra enjoyable for me because Nathan and I just started a sequence of pages on Tales From The White Pony where one of our characters is knocking down walls. Some of our regular readers evoked Kool aid Man as well. He is everywhere. I can't get away from him. Perhaps spring brings these notions of expanding, smashing free to the forefronts of our minds.

There you are people: my drawings and my life have collided in a mind blowing parallel.

I Do Commissions!

2010-03-31T16:56:00.000-07:00

I just did a 'wolverine' for my friend Clinton down at A Better Cycle Shop (where you should go for all your two wheeled needs here in Portland) and here it is:

If you like what I do on the White Pony comic, or any of the comics you've seen published with my name attached, now would be a good time to get a commission done because I'm starting to get busier and my rates are currently dirt cheap. I like doing them as an exercise. It could be a good investment if I'm able to make anything of myself in the industry and a cool doodle even if I'm a total flop!

50 dollars gets you any singular character you like in any setting
(like the Wolverine shown above)

100 dollars gets you just about any set of characters or small team you like.

For 200 bucks the sky is the limit (including color) outside of obvious abuses like "Draw the entire Marvel Universe Fighting all of the DC Pantheon."

Just send an email to Nathan or I at Melee and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Hero Initiative: Josie Rocks!

2010-02-04T16:56:00.000-08:00

Hello all. Yesterday Jeff Parker asked me to draw a character from the world of Archie Comics as a variant cover for the Hero Initiative. The H.I. is an organization that gives grants to (generally older) cartoonists that are going through rough times. I don't know much about all those archie characters or stories but I love to draw guitars as a result of the enjoyment I get from playing them. I was looking up drawings of Josie and company and they never got the instruments right. My friend Ben Bates suggested that I 'show them how it is done' or something to that effect. Thus I drew this:

Maybe The Pussycats have specific gear and I've gotten it wrong but I think that a flying v looks cool in any circumstance and it would be a nice upgrade for Josie. Val has a sweet Jazz Bass and I drew a nice full kit for Melody. In any case tell your friends about the Hero initiative, this blog and read OUR COMIC if you please

This should be up on the HERO INITIATIVE EBAY AUCTION PAGE at some point and if you like the ladies I rendered or you know a rich guy who does tell them to give big money for it so that some old cartoonist can get surgery for his cataracts.

On another front I'm currently obsessed with this AMAZING REVIEW of Star Wars Episode I: the Phantom Menace. I don't really consider it actual starwars (or any of the subsequent movies.) I consider it to be fan fiction with a ludicrous budget. This reviewer nails it but he also throws in a ridiculous and awful subplot during the review wherein he is cast as a psycho. That part could be eschewed entirely but the rest of it is gold.

More Thumbnails and Reference

2010-02-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

Here are the latest thumbs. One thing I forgot to mention last post is that for certain things in the comic I like to assemble a sheet of reference to use in constructing the images.

In the case of page 97 I wanted some actual wolves while I was drawing the fire wolf.

Here is the final frame. It isn't a direct swipe which would be lame but more borrowing bit from the pictures that lend a bit of believable realism.

PS check out AXE COP if you haven't yet.

White Pony Thumbnails!

2010-01-28T10:41:00.000-08:00

Nathan suggested I post some of the original thumbnails I come up with in the process of developing finished pages for our web-comic. Here are the thumbnails along with the originals.

Page 94:

Pages 88 and 89:

Page 95:

And here is a preview of page 96:

If I don't have a clear idea of what I want to draw then I tend to do more elaborate drawings in the planning stage. If I have already done a nice little thumbnail but I'm unsure of the panel order than I occasionally try a quick full page rough like page 94: the first image is just a structure guide to see how it will look laid out. I also sometimes have cause to design a prop and you can see that on 94 as well. I drew a couple of grapple guns and then I drew a model that was similar to what you ended up seeing.

In the case of these recent pages I've been plotting the story and coming up with a rough script that I then send to Nathan for tweaking. I occasionally drop in a bit of dialogue just to drive him nuts as I did on page 95 with "onward to adventure and beyond." He will call me and when I ask him what he thinks of that line I get a whole host of wonderful responses. I love to annoy him with my dialogue and then have him fix it.

I hope you enjoyed this peek into my brain.

As a side note My pick of the post is a charming Web-strip I found called Hell Has Found Me. I discovered a business card sitting on the lunch table, that must have been given to one of the studio members, and I had a look at the URL for myself. HHFM is a nice, light-hearted, Fantasy strip if you like blue-collar Monsters, paintball, talking corpses and other odds and ends found in frequent over-lap with the world of RPGs, fantasy, Comics or any other context where nerds are in great supply.

We only have twenty seconds before this trailer explodes!

2010-01-20T10:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a little something that will make Ben Dewey a very happy man.

Why Darwyn Cook Is Better Than Most Of Us.

2010-01-13T16:52:00.000-08:00

I've recently been paying more attention to the stripped down aesthetics of more crisp styles demonstrated beautifully by Periscope members David Hahn and Jonathan Case. In addition to those two friends of mine I increasingly enjoy like-minded comics artists Alex Toth, Bruce Timm and Darwyn Cooke.

All of these people have the guts and know-how to take complex forms down to efficient abstract line work without losing the nuance. There is also an uncanny enhancement of narrative through the power of their abstraction. When I saw Darwyn Cooke's "new frontier" from DC I knew I had to redraw my Conan pages. I am certain that I can tell that story with more efficiency and power. I want to fuse the lithe line work of Adam Hughes, Olivier Coipel, Terry Dodson, Yanick Paquette and Eric Canete with the streamlined art deco forms chiseled onto the page by the artists I first mentioned.

I've been reinvigorated by the recent hard work, manifesting in success, of my fellow Ben: My friend Ben Bates. He was auditioning for a spot on Archie Comics' Sonic the hedgehog with persistence, patience and passion. He kept doing drawings for them in a manner that could not be ignored. He demonstrated that they would be foolish not to hire him and he got the job. I'm hoping to duplicate his efforts with My Conan work. I'd love to draw that book and I'm gong to keep making pages until I get a shot at it.

Here Are some of my new sketches for the revamped Conan pages. I'm trying to be less stiff and more Darwyn. Though I will say that these ended up being an exercise and I won't be drawing final versions. I talked my new approach over with artist Colleen Coover, who is one of my great teachers, she convinced me to keep making pages and 'never to remake pages.' She told me that you need to keep momentum and take what you've learned and apply it to the next page. One can get stuck in the quicksand of perfectionism really quickly.

The next few Conan Pages should have some of the Darwyn Cooke Spark in them if I can capture the spark of what I've been studying.

The Importance Of A Great Collaborator

2010-01-13T10:19:00.000-08:00

One thing to consider is that doing a webcomic or printed comics work can be a thankless and isolated task. Unlike film, comics doesn't require more than one person and as such it is easy to get into a situation where you make decisions in a strange vacuum. In the best of circumstances a creator can have a partner to bounce ideas off of, review the work and share both the criticism or praise. I like working with Nathan because it we keep each other honest and obligated to produce. I imagine it would be rather easy to let certain projects slide (as I have with my boardgames) if I didn't have a friend and coconspirator to push those things along for our mutual benefit.

In summary, our method is essentially this:

1. get yourself a creative partner you love and respect outside the realm of comics

2. make a point to have regular meetings.

3. commit to a schedule and hold your counterpart to it.

4. plan small even if you are thinking big.

5. divide up the tasks necessary for achieving your goals.

6. be willing to let go of your own individual concerns in favor of the bigger picture.

7. decide on projects that you are both excited about.

It is like being in a band. The more people you add the trickier it gets to organize things but the more interesting the artistic interchanges can be. Try solo projects if you are inclined but save the heavy lifting for collaboration.

I'm with Coco

2010-01-13T10:10:00.000-08:00

What NBC is doing to Conan O'Brien is absurd. I don't now, nor have I ever, understood the appeal of the bland simple humor that Jay Leno does. Letterman was screwed out of The Tonight Show 20 years ago, Conan O'Brien is being screwed out of it now and if the show is moved to 12:05 (where it's name will be changed to "The Tomorrow Morning Show") they'll ensure that it's never good again. Johnny Carson is spinning in his grave like a rotisserie chicken.

First Work of the New Year.

2010-01-08T16:19:00.000-08:00

I have a dear friend who loves both Thor and Ghost Rider. He and I have been very close since we were about 3 years old and he is also a close friend of my dear old pal Nathan, with whom I co-created 'tales from the white pony'(amongst other webcomics) and share this blog. We love this guy. For his birthday/Christmas/engagement I thought I might make him a little commission that he could put up on his wall:

This piece took quite a while because I started from a little sketch, did tight pencils, inked it and then painted it by hand. I'm going to send it off to him in a few days framed but you all get to see a scan of it before I do! Below are some of the steps that I took on the path to the finished image.

MY INITIAL ROUGH:

PENCILS:

INKS:

I did some color roughs too but I don't think they are different enough from the final picture to merit inclusion. If you want a commission of this type from me shoot an email to melee comics and we can work out a rate. This one only cost my buddy Ben B 26 years worth of friendship.

Playing Games.

2009-12-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

Hello all out there in the Google-tubes! Those who read this blog know that while Nathan and I make comics, and our main priority is our web comic, There is a semi secret side of the melee mission (mostly forwarded by yours truly.) Games! I love boardgames and while I think the best thing that a human being can do is advance scientific discovery in the top five other spots on that list would be to create a lasting cultural phenomenon that brings joy to each generation that encounters it. Games can sometimes have a transcendent level of fun and excitement that meet that degree of relevance. Each person has a few games that might be included in that rarefied category-that they would share enthusiastically with their family, children and closest friends.

I want to make a game like that. I like videogames too but they are contingent on technology that is always advancing. They also require specialized knowledge and equipment to produce not to mention the amount of money and number of people required to do it in a timely fashion. However, not unlike making comics, when it comes to boardgames a single person with a pencil and paper can make something fun and engaging. Given the right amount of time and consideration of a few essential factors anyone can make a game that can be produced at next to no cost which fires the imagination and promotes social interaction.

The tricky part is a good idea and the balance between unusual/exciting gameplay and keeping it simple enough to draw players with casual interest. I have already written about my wildlife game and now I'll show you a bit of my space game. It is called "Ready, Set... Blast Off! Or RSBO for short. It is a modular board like Zombies!!! or Carcassonne and it features cards and different playable character races of alien life forms all searching for strange technology that can either restore or destroy the universe depending on who gets a hold of it. I won't go into the rules but I will say I've play tested it and I should have a version available for sale at Stumptown 2010.

These are the cards that I doodled out last year. Some of the kids at my old job wanted to assist me.

Some of the spelling in these cards is surely off and the function of a few has changed based on beta testing but I still kind of love the drawings. These remind me of early mornings at my old job with a pen in hand and some sniffling little kid next to me asking tons of questions. I love my new job but I do miss the kids from time to time: perfect test audience!

"To drive your enemy before you and hear the lamentations of the women."

2009-12-09T16:40:00.000-08:00

More Conan, for the people, fresh off my desk. I had a hard time with this page. IT is rough but since I'm penciling for myself to ink it it can be a little ragged.

Those are jars full of gore in case you were wondering.

These were the preliminary sketches that I did. Jeff Parker told me to leave out the kick and just have a good solid beheading so I did and the page was better for it. I did spend most of yesterday redrawing the first two panels and today I drew the pit of goblin men/dwarvlings and the set piece.

Warwick Davis, what won't you do for a paycheck?

2009-12-09T07:53:00.000-08:00

I just don't know how to feel about this.

This totally ruins the storyline I had for Filmor helping a sparky young girl to befriend and train the finest waterhorse in all the land.

Conan, Crom is your God.

2009-12-08T17:56:00.000-08:00

Hello All. Here is my first page of Conan. I'm doing it for my own enjoyment but I'm trying to apply the lessons I learned on Spiderman 59 to my storytelling and anatomy. A weird side effect of that process seems to be a slimming down of all my figures.I'm sure the pendulum will swing back towards bulk at some point.

The Story is Called "the Ghouls of Gornak" and rest assured there will be ghouls, a pretty lady, cultists, monsters,. I just drew a beheading today and I'm going to try and lay out the temple interior, on the next page, tonight.

The overall plan is to both do a digital and a watercolor version of these pages to work on process a bit. As I stated in the previous post I have a ton of projects going at any given point but I wanted one that I could use to to learn some specific things. I'll be doing the flats, digital painting, lettering and titles. As I finish the versions I'll put them up. Below is one of my sketching sheets that I used to plan and structure the page. I try some panels a bunch of times while others need less exploration to be consistent with what I've already established in my mind.

Keeping Irons In The Fire

2009-12-06T09:55:00.000-08:00

I have been a 'creative' person my whole life and I have learned an essential truth for making that impulse become the thing that sustains me as both a job and a lens through which the world looks more compelling: Keep making whatever it is you make even when you don't feel like it.

I don't mean so say that I'm ever truly unsatisfied by the process of making things but more suggesting that there will be times when 'the muse' isn't filling my heart with the tempest of raw creative fury and that is OK. I love when I'm feeling a flow of positive inventive force but those moments are uncommon. Imagine someone who works as a donut store clerk treating their job that way and it makes my point more clear: "I'm sorry sir I can't get you the bakers dunkin' dozen because I'm not feeling inspired" Even when I had stupid jobs I hated I still got up and did them. Why would I treat something I love like a Sunday crossword?

I've come to view art making with the same basic rule set that I view even unskilled labor. Just because art is especially fun doesn't mean it needs special rules and, in point of fact, suffers if one only does it under rarified circumstances. The thing that makes it better than other, less interesting, jobs is that when you apply the same yeoman-like schedule to making drawings, writing or practicing and instrument, you will see distinct results that can be applied directly in those moments when you are feeling the charge of a divine battery somewhere in your system.

So I design games, Draw a bi-weekly webcomic, do spot illustrations, sketch friends on receipts, aim for big solo projects, draw samples of my favorite characters and work with friends on submissions for publication. I do whatever I can to give myself deadlines and keep my pencil moving across that page.

That pep talk was as much for me as it was for the 6 people who read this blog but I hope it was helpful to you too. I'm going to go draw now.

Nuts and Bolts: Making Photoshop Word Balloons

2009-12-02T22:19:00.000-08:00

Here is a simple tutorial on how to create word balloons in photoshop... and a special friend of Melee Comics drops by to help out.

To see more of Baron Von Chaos, PhD. check out Chaos! PhD and Penguins in Space.

'White Pony How To' part 3

2009-12-01T18:57:00.001-08:00

The final stage of the page making involves using 4 values of cool gray Prismacolor design markers. I use 70, 50, 30 and 10 percent values. usually I do the darkest value and then procede based on how that frames other elements. I do a panel at at time and it usually takes about an hour or under, depending on the nature of the scene, to tone the whole page.

Once I establish the tones and model some of the forms to my satisfaction I go back in and clean up areas that are patchy with the small pens and I use a white signo Gel pen made by uniball to add highlights and pop out forms.

I hope this has been helpful. Now the cast of this little three part miniseries will take a bow:

'White Pony How To' part 2

2009-12-01T16:22:00.000-08:00

The second stage in the drawing of the comic is dropping in the basic line work. I look at my sketchy lines on the page and I begin building the forms with a loose approach. I don't make a huge effort to try and keep things immaculate because I want the comic to feel energetic and fun. I think if it gets too serious it gets boring. It is a rare thing when someone is both demonstrating the utmost technical facility thet have and being tasteful simultaneously. With that in mind I put my ear buds in crank Paul Gilbert's "Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar" and have at it.

A half an hour later it looks like this:

I use two different Faber-Castel Pitt Artist Pens in the S and F varieties. They stand for Fine and Small or something of the type but in my head I call them 'full/fatter' and 'small.' I like to put in the linear elements first and them go back in with the brush pen and spot the black areas.

Next post I'll show the final part of the process and there will be a line up of my accomplices.

'White Pony How To' part 1

2009-12-01T14:46:00.000-08:00

Nathan has started his tip section on what he knows about webcomics so I've decided to do a series of posts that walk you (whoever you are) through a typical page of our webcomic and how it is made from start to finish.

1. Nathan sends me a script or I look at some notes I've scrawled on an envelope as per our phone conversation.

From that I sketch out a series of frames that I size on the page based on importance and relationship to each other. That takes around a half hour or twenty minutes and it looks like this:

After that I use a series of specific pen tools to flesh out the characters but that will be next post. Thanks for reading!

Webcomics - Nuts and Bolts: Advertising Post One

2009-11-27T20:57:00.000-08:00

Let's get one thing straight right away... there is no magic bullet that's going to take you from 10 unique visitors per day to a 1000. I was at a Comic-Con forum where Gabe from Penny Arcade was asked what the best way to get internet traffic was. His response was something along to the lines of "Invent a time machine and start your webcomic in the late 90s." I've heard a number of responses from creators that are along these same lines.

The chances of you ever making your living off your webcomic are just about non-existent. It's not impossible but almost all creators out there today making a living off their comic have been doing it for 10-15 years. The point I'm trying to make is that there are a lot of great reasons to do a webcomic but don't let making money be your reason because you won't put out a good comic and certainly won't make any money.

I'm going to do an entire series on Advertising that should give you a fighting chance to get a few hundred visitors a day for a price that will fit into any budget. Next time I'll talk about creating effective banners that will draw traffic to your site.

Dio Rules / Throw up the horns.

2009-11-27T15:06:00.000-08:00

I got some sad news while researching Ronnie James Dio (yes that is something I do.) He has stomach cancer. I can tell you first hand how terrible that is because it is what killed Father Robert Dewey 9 years ago. I loved my Dad a whole lot and he was a strong man. That said, I am hoping that the raw spirit of Rock that dwells within RJD is intense enough to banish his cancer with a single steel tinged banshee wail!

Rock on good sir knight of ultimate headbangery. Rock on.

In other news I am close to completing my pages for issue 59 of Marvel Adventures Spiderman and I'll post some of the in progress work and steps once I find out if that is legal.

In the mean time check out my Starwars Pencils done for fun.

I wrote a script for myself to do some samples and both revel in my fandom and challenge myself to do some storytelling.

I just crammed as much of my favorite star wars stuff in there as I could. I didn't do any lightsaber stuff but there is always next time.

The apology post

2009-11-18T14:40:00.000-08:00

"Welcome back to the blog!" The writer said to himself. "Sorry I've been away..." he continued... "school's been so difficult, the house burnt down, my cat drowned in a bowl of tomato soup..." the audience's eyes glazed over as they scanned the page for something worth looking at.

Long time No-blog

2009-11-11T22:52:00.000-08:00

Yes... I/we have been away but much has happened since I last checked in. I have had the good fortune to continue on as an assistant at Periscope studio where I've developed real friendships and working relationships with fantastic creative minds; two of which I will talk about right now

I did a project with my buddy Jeff Parker:

An 8 page creator owned project in Issue 28 of... drum roll:

Myspace Darhorse Presents

It is called "Blighter" and we put together the whole thing in three weeks. I worked very hard and I had a great time. Please tell everyone about it and let me know what you think. It is free so you can't lose!

I am also doing a project with my friend Paul Tobin for Marvel: Marvel Adventures Spiderman issue 59. It is challenging and fun while also fulfilling a dram I've had since I was 6 to draw comic books as a job. More info on that as I progress. Here are a few thumbnails. Enioy

Paul gave me a ton of great material to work with: a fight with the Xmen in a creepy mansion, Bullseye, a decked out treehouse, a fight with gangsters, animals... it is all there.