What Am I Up Too?

Current workload...

-Pencils on Gargoyles #8.
-Editing Teddy Scares #4.
-Educational cartoons for a couple of Masters programs.
-Dino Duck.
-Go Go Gorilla celebrates Ape's 5 year anniversary card.
-Comicpalooza designs and storylines.
-Project DeepWolf.

Current workload

What am I up to?

-Drawing Gargoyles #7.
-Writing New Adventures of Gulliver #2 (formerly Lilliputians... may still be Lilliputians) and Misery Falls (tentative title, pending approval).
-Lettering Gargoyles #6.
-Editing Teddy Scares Volume 3.

Full time freelance since February 2007. YAY!!!

Long Time Coming...

January 2007.
Forgot I even had this blog thing.

What am I working on right now?

-Finishing up Gargoyles #3.
-Editing/Lettering Teddy Scares #1
-Lettering White Picket Fences
-Character designs for a new Go-Go Gorilla story for Free Comic Book Day

No more time in the day for anything else. My wife is a lovely, patient woman.

Work it out...

What am I doing with my *free* time right this moment?
Drawing a 10 page, GO-GO GORILLA story.
Doing some logo design for MIRACLE FORCE.
Lettering AXEL N ALEX.
Writing LILLIPUTIANS.
Creating a website for A DIFFERENT PACE and SULLENGREY.

No wonder my wife has forgotten my name.

It's Been A While...

But I may be getting a wild hair to do this Blog thing again. We'll see.

For now, I'll direct interested parties to a recent 3 column stint I did at Broken Frontier.

Column #1
Column #2
Column #3

Enjoy. Talk soon.

It's not personal.

My company, Ape Entertainment, has been enjoying a string of successes over the past few weeks. A lot of hard work has been starting to pay off and people are starting to notice our work. Newspaper coverage, TV coverage, magazine and web coverage- you name it. We are delivering in spades for those people who have put their faith in us.

Then you get days like today. When other projects that you've spent months of time and energy working on and developing relationships for suddenly go *poof* and disappear like a whisp of smoke on the wind. Not once, not twice, but three times in one day.

It's difficult not to take things personally when people aren't convinced of your vision. Aren't convinced that you know what you're doing or that you are building something real and formidable. But, I'm learning not to. There's so many skeletons along the path of success in the comic field. The chances that Ape Entertainment will succeed where so many other companies have failed seems less than likely on the surface.

I know different. I know the dedication of the people in this company. I know the artistic and literary intelligence, the marketing intelligence, the business acumen of the Ape Crew. I know, at some point in the near future, more people will start believing.

Until then, I'm building a thick skin and acquiring a ton of experience. I tell myself to take satisfaction in knowing that the things that don't come to fruition aren't because of mishandling or ill feelings.

And I'm not taking it personal.

The New Book...

Testing my blogabilities here for a moment. If I'm lucky you should see an image of the preliminary cover to my new work- A DIFFERENT PACE.
A DIFFERENT PACE is a 96 page sci-fi graphic novel written by myself, pencilled by art demon Tetsu Liew, inked by Vincent Ramirez and Terry Flippo. And isn't that a lovely cover by the talented Leanne Buckley?

You can order this book at your local comic shoppe in December.

Scott Shaw!

Had a really nice conversation with Scott Shaw! today (the exclamation mark is obligatory).

Mr. Shaw! is the co-creator (along with Roy Thomas) of CAPTAIN CARROT and his AMAZING ZOO CREW! (again, obligatory)- in every sense CCAHAZC! was one of the defining books in my comic collecting addiction. The book only ran for 20 issues (and a 3 issue special some time later) but what a magical 20 issues for a kid like me.

Most everything I learned about comics, I learned reading CCAHAZC! For example- I learned that comics come out on a monthly basis. I learned that comics have a numbering system that enables you to track which issues you have and which you need and puts the books in a chronological reading order. I learned that specific people did specific jobs on the book.

Mostly though, I just had a really good time reading and re-reading those books. I re-visited the first 13 issues of CCAHAZC! and, I'm happy to report, they hold up pretty well.

Mr. Shaw! told me he was a little embarassed by the amount of text he found himself writing into some of those old issues, "I half expected to start seeing the characters drawn hunched-over to fit in all the dialogue." But I say, that was and is part of the charm.

It's an amazing thing to meet one of your childhood idols. Even more amazing when said idol is one of the 'good' guys. Mr. Shaw! is definitely one of those.

Didn't want to forget this one.

Checking in...

Thought I'd ad my inane comments to the Infocalypse.

Move along. Nothing here to see. Yet.