No Wonder It's Taking So Long...

I've been going through the thumbnail layouts for Two Generals, making the changes that have come up in the last six months' research, and generally getting it polished up so that I can finally start drawing for real. I've laughed out loud a few times, though, at what I'm sometimes working with. Here's just one example:


And this is just one page out of, you know, 130. Yikes!

"Three Thieves: Tower of Treasure" Finished!

The first book in my all-ages fantasy series Three Thieves was delivered to the fine folks at Kids Can Press last Friday. It's my first colour graphic novel, and I'm very happy with how it turned out (though I discovered that colouring 112 pages takes much longer than anticipated...I appreciate what colourists in the comics biz do a lot more now).


The book doesn't hit store shelves until fall 2010, but I'll be posting art here throughout the year, just so people don't forget it's on the way. In the meantime, I'll be back to work on Two Generals, and getting started on Three Thieves Book Two!

Design Edge Canada Cover

Check your local newsstand for the upcoming July/August issue of Design Edge Canada, which sports an environmental-themed cover by yours truly:

More Finished Pages from "Three Thieves: Tower of Treasure"

Still plugging away at colouring and lettering the book. Here's a scene I kind of like, on account of its "night" lighting:

It's Free Comic Book Day!

Today is Free Comic Book Day across North America...so what are you doing here when you could be at a comic book shop near you, checking out the amazing diversity of work being done in this exciting medium and picking up free loot?

Here, at last, is the full-page strip I did for this year's Comics Festival! You should still go pick up the book, though, because it's got a lot of other great stuff in it, too. And it's FREE!

"Tower of Treasure" Nearing Completion

I haven't been posting much lately, the reason being that I'm ears-deep in colouring and lettering the first book in my all-ages fantasy series for Kids Can Press. She's almost finished!

I'll be posting lots of finished art eventually, but for now here's just a taste:

Comics Festival 2009 Announced

Every second year, those lovely and talented men-about-town Chris Butcher and Chip Zdarsky put together a free anthology of Canadian comics talent called Comics Festival, which serves as a tie-in to both the bi-annual Toronto Comic Arts Festival, as well as the Free Comic Book Day event across North America.

I've always been invited to participate in past editions, but have never been able to thanks to some deadline or another. The theme of this year's anthology, though, is comics for kids--so it seemed the perfect year to contribute by using the characters from next year's Three Thieves. As an added bonus, it's being printed in colour for the first time.

This is an original one-page story, not simply an excerpt from the book. So you'll want to snap up a copy or two when it goes on sale at comic shops everywhere on May 2nd (which is Free Comic Book Day, of course). If not, there will certainly be plenty of copies floating around at TCAF the following weekend. Again, it's FREE, so there's really no excuse not to, dammit.

Still not convinced? The book also contains a 10-page story by French cartoonist Emmanuel Guibert, as well as more one-pagers by Kate Beaton, Willow Dawson, Ray Fawkes, Faith Erin-Hicks, Eric Kim, Steven Charles Manale, Ryan North, Steve Rolston, Kean Soo, Tara Tallan, and more. Go get one for your kids, your neices and nephews, the paperboy, the kid down the street...and yourself.

From the Vault: The Crimson Avenger!

I don't spend much time trying to hit up Marvel and DC Comics for work. Not only is the current state of superhero comics so depressing that I'd rather not be part of it, but at heart I'm an indie guy. Given the choice (which, thankfully, I do have) I'd rather be doing my own stuff.

A few years back, though, my buddy and former collaborator J. Torres began working together on a pitch for DC reviving the Golden Age character The Crimson Avenger. They didn't bite--in fact, once J. told them the concept, they immediately told us, "no revamps of classic characters, no 'cartoony' art." So that was about that. But I still like these sketches that I did of the character, both in costume and out, and came across them recently while digging through some old files. So here they are, a brief glimpse of what might have been if DC Comics wasn't so rabidly anti-cartooning.

New "Two Generals" Research

Just as I was finally making some headway with Two Generals art, a new bombshell landed.

Though I have no reservations in saying that this is going to be one of the most thoroughly-researched graphic novels ever published anywhere in the world, a big gap in my knowledge was always centred around my grandfather's friend Jack Chrysler. I've never known that much about the man himself, aside from what's written in my grandfather's diary (the starting point for my research, and the genesis of the idea for the book). He's mentioned briefly in some of the books I've read on the battle of Buron, but for the purposes of telling the story I'd simply had to invent a personality for him based on those two meagre resources. Attempts to track down his family or learn anything else about him always proved fruitless.

That is, until about two weeks ago, when I got an email from the daughter of Jack's widow. By complete coincidence, her husband had come across a post I made on a British people-search message board about nine months ago asking if anyone had information about her mother, who wrote my grandmother a very nice letter in 1944, shortly after she and Jack were married in England. As it turns out, the daughter (the friendly and knowledgeable Jan Spiers...hi, Jan!) is in possession of all of her mother's photos and letters from the war years, including almost daily letters from Jack when he was fighting alongside my grandfather in France. It's an amazing discovery, both on a professional and personal level. We've recently begun the process of filling in each other's knowledge of events, which has been hugely rewarding.

Of course, this means further delay for a book that was originally supposed to have been finished in mid-December. But at least it's the good kind of delay. A much more complete picture of one of the book's central characters has emerged, and once I've had time to process all of the new information and figure out how to apply it to the book, the end result is going to be better--and more accurate--for it.

Green Lantern Commission

I don't do fan commissions very often, because I rarely have the time...I always figure that if I have time to do a commission, I have time to do another page of whatever book I happen to be working on. I also rarely draw superheroes. So that makes this piece a rarity in at least two ways. But this particular fan really wanted my take on Green Lantern, and was willing to pay handsomely, so who am I to say no? I left him waiting about six months, though, because I'm that busy. Still, I'm happy with the way it turned out, so here it is, for all to see:

Whenever I do stuff in two-colour, people always say it reminds them of my buddy Mike Cho, which I take as a compliment. I just want to state for the record, though, that I was doing two-colour when Mike was in short-pants. Although he's a lot better at it than I am (shhh...don't tell him, though!)

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009, everybody.

It's going to be a strange year for me. I'm going to have absolutely nothing new coming out, book-wise, but I'm going to be working like a dog producing the small mountain of material that will be released in 2010. It's going to seem to fans as if I've dropped off the face of the Earth, when in reality this is certain to be the busiest twelve months of my entire career.

Ah, well. Followers of this blog will be able to keep up to date with what I'm working on, at least, and I promise to update regularly. There's going to be lots to look at, and I may--pending publisher approval--serialize portions of the new books here before they're released, so that 2010 may come early for those of you dedicated enough to check in often.

Until then, let's kick off the new year with another sneak peak at the pencils for Three Thieves: Tower of Treasure. Just for fun.

"Home for the Holidays"

Each Christmas for the last few years, The National Post has invited Canadian comics artists to contribute half- or full-page comic strips built around a holiday theme, and published them in their Christmas Eve edition. In 2005, they asked Darwyn Cooke, Kagan McLeod, and myself.

The theme was "Home for the Holidays". I decided to use it as an opportunity to address something that the media just couldn't get enough of that particular December: the so-called "war on Christmas." I was appalled by the amount of ignorance on BOTH sides of this non-issue (which, thankfully, seems to have died down some since then...what used to be a round-the-clock "war on Christmas" watch in the news media has become just the odd news snippet) and wrote this strip affirming the true value of the holiday as something that's the exclusive domain of neither Christians nor secularists.

Though the drawing is a bit rough in places (it was done in a hurry, like most newspaper work) I'm still very happy with the strip, and it hasn't been seen anywhere for three years now, so here it is, just in time for another Christmas. You can click either image in this post for the bigger version.

And, oh yeah...merry Christmas!

"Three Thieves" Pencils in the Can

It's been a long four months, but 108 pages worth of pencil art for Three Thieves: Tower of Treasure just came off the scanner. Here are some highlights of the swashbuckling action, or at least ones that don't give away any major plot points. As always, you can click on the images for larger versions. Enjoy!

Christmas On Its Way

For illustrators, a sure sign that the holidays are around the corner is the number of Christmas-themed assignments we end up being offered. Here's a recent one, for Leader's Edge Magazine, which allowed me to pay tribute to one of my heroes, Theodor "Dr. Suess" Geisel. It was a full-page illustration for a feature article about employee incentives (like cash!) Enjoy!

New "Northwest Passage" Reviews

Sure, the book has been out for a year and a half and is headed for a second printing, but that doesn't mean it's too late for new reviews of The Annotated Northwest Passage!

First, newspaper arts & entertainment editor John E. Mitchell gives the book a thumbs-up over at The Last Visible Blog.

Second, Don MacPherson gives the book a 10/10 at Eye on Comics. He also comes as close as anyone has yet to appreciating what was meant by the book's title...so give yourself a cigar, Don!

Thanks for the positive (if somewhat delayed) notices, gentlemen!