Up In a Tree

A couple recent Virginia Living pieces today...the first accompanied the story of Lorraine French Brown, who in 1935 climbed and perched for days in a stately maple tree, to prevent it's being cut down to widen the streets of the town if Woodstock, VA (her efforts paid off; a judge soon issued an injunction to save the tree).

The other tells the story of the aptly-named Assateague Island on the eastern coast of Virginia. Thanks to an article in Playboy Magazine, nudists once flocked to this area in droves...that is, until 1985, when a bunch of Baptist prigs in the nearby town of Chincoteague led a successful effort to ban public nudity and impose a $1000 fine and a year in the slammer for offenders. That's progress for ya.

Sketch Cards

I got some free little sketch cards at Heroes Con this year, and doodled up a few of 'em just to do a little inking warmup a few weeks back. Added a little color with some Copic markers I bought on a lark awhile ago. They're fun to work with; I'm anxious to mess with 'em a little more!

Hello Kitty Craft

My cover for the band Kitty Craft's record "Hello Kitty Craft". Space girls and giant robots...what's not to love?

New Comics Day - Project: Telstar

Another comic from the vaults today...my story from the long out-of-print Project: Telstar from AdHouse Books, an astounding anthology if ever there was one. The theme was space and robots, and the talent sandwiched between those two gorgeous Dave Cooper covers (remember when he did comics? Yeah, me too. *sigh*) was truly a thing to behold.

My strip was actually a collaboration with a few of my pals, with as many of us contributing as there were pages in the story. It was written by Bill Burg and Galen Showman, I handled the art, and Eric Gordon helped out with the color. 

Looking back, I'm still pretty happy with how it looks, a little looser and less labored than the rest of the comics I was doing at the time, mid-2003 or so. Not to say there aren't some cringeworthy moments...especially Allison's face at the bottom of page 3. UGH! 

This was the first of three books I'd work on at AdHouse (followed by the CHEESE! sketchbook with Jay Geldhof and the superhero-centric sequel to Telstar, Project: Superior), all of which completely sold out! I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'...

Threshold

More wedding stuff today, this one some art that I created for a wedding invitation.

Before You Know It

The Small Press Expo, better known as SPX, is a scant six weeks away...Yikes! It'll be here before I know it. I have a little project in the works that I hope to complete before then...a mini-comic called Diamonds are a Girl's Worst Enemy, featuring the same characters that appeared in That's Just Super, which came out in 2005. There's words this time, and a little bigger format, probably 5.5 square or so, so it's been a little more work than I intended (as is usually the case). I'm gonna have to hustle, but I think I can do it!

Also, my pal J. Chris Campbell (with whom I'll be splitting a booth at SPX) and I have decided to try and post every day for the month of August in preparation for the show. Nothing like making more work for yourself! Today, it's a quick, pencilled panel from the new book. Enjoy!

Planet of Wine