Desert Island Fred

Here's another of the sketches I salvaged in my studio clearout. I like putting Fred the Clown on a desert island. I figure he lives in a world where gag cartoon scenarios are something that happens to everyone.

More Fezzery

Working on a new Fez 3-pager for Aces Weekly.

Fozzie With Bandaged Ear

A couple of Fozzie Bear drawings I stumbled across while tidying up. The first one must predate my working on the Muppet Show comics, because I don't think I would have drawn Fozzie like that later on. The second one... well, I'm not sure quite what I was thinking there. I'm thinking it must have been intended for someone at a convention, because I wouldn't have signed it otherwise. Most odd.

Found Under a Rock

I spent today tidying my studio while I wait for the go-ahead on a couple of things. It needed it - it was looking like a hobo camp. The only thing missing was a pile of burning tyres.

Anyway, under the tottering piles of detritus I found several sketches I'd forgotten I ever did, so I'll put those up here over the next few days. Here's the first.

Also: The Fez is now available on ComiXology, if that's your preferred delivery method. (And it's even had a couple of nice reviews!)

A Little Background...

More animation background jiggery-pokery. I think I'm getting it now.

More of this please

I'm constantly dismayed that all people want me to do is more Thor the Mighty Avenger or Muppets, and all I want to do is stuff like this.

Work In Progress

Here's a test background for the animation thing, half-done. I want to get the process worked out before  I get the go-ahead so I can turn the job around quickly when the time comes.

Also: I wrote a few words for the Moment of Cerebus website, which you can read here.

Hatching

I'm quite pleased with the crosshatching here...

So I'm doing a little animation job...

I've never done anything in the animation field bigger than an occasional animated GIF file, so this is new territory for me, but a friend of mine does some work for the BBC and a job came up he thought my style would be a good fit for, so I'm going to be designing/storyboarding/supplying main drawings for an opening title sequence for a kids' show (assuming the producer signs off on it once he's seen my samples). Here are a few of the rough drawings...

More Christmas Carol

Here's a drawing I did for the CBLDF's annual San Diego Comic Con Art Auction. It'll also be used on a sketch card. Back to the Dickens!

Kim Thompson

I just heard about the death of Kim Thompson. I don't know what to say, really, except how sorry I am. He was extremely kind to me over the years in so many small ways. Comics are better now than they used to be, at least in part because he helped to make them so.

When I was first trying to break into comics, I prepared some funny animal samples with the intention of submitting them to Critters, which Kim used to edit. I got cold feet before I submitted them, and it was a couple more years before I sent anything else to Fantagraphics. I did eventually get to meet Kim, after Fantagraphics had published a couple of comics I'd drawn. He was kind enough to move out of his own bedroom when I visited Seattle in 1990 so I would have somewhere to sleep, which I thought then, and think now, was above and beyond the call of duty for any publisher. Later, when I would buy books from Fantagraphics at conventions, Kim would usually let me walk away with a freebie. He was always kind to me, and that will be my lasting impression of him.

Let's make some good comics for Kim. It's what he would have wanted.

Bulldog Drummond

Maybe more of a spaniel, actually.

Art Bomb

Karloff Boots

This is another favourite convention sketch which I usually trot out two or three times per show. There must be dozens of variations of this gag out there.

Troll

Sketchballs

Doctor 'Oo

Work in progress.

Comixology

So a nice fella from Comixology sent me an e-mail asking if I'd be interested in submitting the Fez minicomic to them for sale on their platform. I did point out that it was just a minicomic, but this didn't seem to faze them, so submit it I did. And it was accepted! So now I'm just waiting to find out when it goes live.

I love minicomics. To me, they are the most perfect form of comics - comics in their most refined state. They are a formal embodiment of comics' most attractive feature: comics, unlike film or theatre or even music, require no collaboration, no real financial resources to make happen. One person can do it all. With minicomics, that person is not only producing the work, but more often than not printing, assembling and stapling the things as well. If comics are the people's artform, minicomics are its most accessible manifestation.

So if it's a digital minicomic, is it still a minicomic? Who knows? I don't know if I'm that bothered about the label, to be honest. If I'm concerned about anything, it's that being sold as a proper comic alongside a lot of slickly-produced material might give readers unrealistic expectations. The nice thing about putting a physical minicomic into somebody's hands is that the format has a kind of in-built humility to it. It says, "Don't expect Maus here. This is just a bit of fun." I hope that, even without those visual cues, Comixology's customers will approach this throwaway, trifling bit of fluff in the right spirit.

All this is irrelevant to you, the Hotel Fred reader, of course. Simply by reading this, you have all the context you'll ever need - and a DRM-free version of the comic if you want it, to boot.

Anyway. All of this gives me an excuse to share these graphics I created for Comixology...

I shall keep you posted about my digital adventures.

Abigail and Friends

Some character roughs for a thing I'm working on around the edges of my paid gigs.

Before I Leave Derry...

One last Derry-related sketch. I copied this from a placard in the town and did a final version in my hotel later - it's the crest of the city. I particularly liked the bored skeleton. Every town should have a bored skeleton.

Couple of things

So I've already plugged this on the Twitters, but it's worth drawing your attention to the new Fez minicomic, mentioned here in the days coming up to the 2D Festival. I've made a digital version which you can buy for one pound - it comes in both CBZ and PDF formats, both included in one handy ZIP file, twelve pages with black-and-white interiors and colour covers. I've been surprised and delighted by the reaction. Which, you know, is only going to encourage me to do more...

(If you need more Fez after absorbing that, there's the three-pager I did for Aces Weekly which is in full colour. I'm working on a new colour short for Aces right now, whenever I can spare an hour or two.)

The other thing I wanted to mention is that my missing artwork has been recovered! Apparently it was packed in such a way that it wasn't obvious (something like a "hidden compartment" is what I've been told) when it was sent to the person in London I was supposed to collect it from, and the box was nearly recycled before someone spotted it. But a nick-of-time rescue was made and all's well that ends well. I'm looking forward to laying my hands on it in a few days. My thanks to everyone who expressed concern, spread the word and looked out for the stuff, I really appreciate it.

Last Batch from 2D!

And this is the last of them. Fewer sketches on Sunday than on Saturday because I had a plane to catch.  What a great show - my thanks again to everyone involved.

2D Part 5: In Which Pooh and Piglet Fall Down a Mine Shaft

More sketches from the 2D Festival in Derry last weekend.

(I was tabling with Nicholas Gurewitch but he was hardly ever there. so I was sketching his characters as well)

2D: The Search for Spock

More 2D Festival sketches.

That last one was done after the first day ended - someone asked me for a Popeye-and-Bluto right at the end of the day as the doors were closing, so I rattled off the headshots above - but I felt bad about doing such a lousy sketch, so I did a proper one to give to him the next day. Unfortunately, I didn't see him - so if that was you, let me know and I'll send it to you!

2D: The Adventure Continues

More sketches from Derry's 2D Festival. There are three almost-identical Joker pictures because there was a line of kids and for a while there each one wanted the same thing the guy in front had asked for. I asked if they wanted a different pose and got a "no" every time!