Indie Comics News Interview

A recent half-hour audio interview I did with Indie Comics News just went live, and covers nearly every aspect of my career. Go have a listen and enjoy.

New Illustration Work

Here's some brand new illustration work, images that I finished just last week for the Rogers Group of Funds Annual Report:

...Sometimes Loving then Killing the Aliens!

Following up yesterday's post, it seems Oni has released my cover for the first issue of Tek Jansen. Now you can see what the book will look like:


This was digitally "painted" over my pencils by comic book super-colourist Dave McCaig, who did a great job. My pencils are below, just to show the process for anybody interested. The interiors won't be painted like this (they're coloured in a sort of Photoshop-y Marvel Comics style by Powers colourist Peter Pantazis) but they have a similar old-timey heroic sci-fi feel. I've tried to capture the vibe of bad comics...hopefully without actually being a bad comic.


Oh, and the Oni site now lists the ship date for #1 as June 20 (same week as The Annotated Northwest Passage, I believe...big week for me.) Not sure how firm that is, but keep your fingers crossed, Colbert fans!

Killing the Aliens, Loving the Aliens...

This has appeared several places online and in print, so it might as well be here, too. It was my audition piece for Tek Jansen.

Everyone who saw this piece loved it--except for Stephen Colbert, who couldn't stand it. Which is understandable, as no one likes a caricature of themselves. So, as I've explained in several interviews lately, this isn't actually what the book is going to look like. The Colbert team wanted something more serious, not as cartoonish and design-heavy. Something that plays it straight, like he does on the show.

Still, I quite like this illustration. I post it here for posterity, and for anyone interested in how the book has developed.

(And no, I don't know when the first issue is finally coming out, so please stop asking me.)

Gone with the Wind in Sixty Seconds

This animated short was the single biggest draw to my old site, so it's about time I put it here as well. Gone with the Wind in Sixty Seconds was my final project in the post-graduate Computer Animation year at Sheridan College. The assignment was to create a 30-second short film...I doubled the running time, and was still the only one in my class to actually finish before the big end-of-year screening. (I saved myself some time by designing 2-D backgrounds into the concept...but then again, I also have two characters, both of whom are on screen for nearly the entire running time, so it kind of came out in the wash.) It was accepted for screening at Siggraph 2003, and by all reports got a big audience response (or so I hear...I wasn't actually in attendance.)

My friend Penny Rolinski (then Taylor) provided the voice of Scarlett, driving in to Oakville from Stratford (twice!) for recording sessions that never started on time and always went longer than expected. It took a lot of takes to really nail it. I played Rhett.

I cringe a bit looking at the animation now. After spending months conceptualizing, writing, storyboarding, designing, modelling, texturing, and rigging--all while learning the software--I was left with only two weeks to plow through a full minute of some pretty complicated character animation. It wasn't what it was in my head (it never is...) but I'm still proud of the idea, the writing, and the direction. And people seem to get a kick out of it, so I've put it on YouTube for the world to enjoy.

So, enjoy.

Messin' Around with Colour

Here, finally, is some new stuff, from a recent pitch for a major book publisher.

My commercial illustration work, as you may have noticed, tends to be two- or three-colour...I don't have a lot of experience going the full-colour route. So the last little while I've been doing a lot of reading on it, experimenting, and studying the people who do it exceptionally well (some of my faves include Herge, Dave Stewart, Tony Moore, and Pierre Alary) and have begun to come up with results I'm pleased with.

Beckett + Schulz = Hilarity!

Another one from the vaults: part of a series of comic strips I did last year for The National Post, celebrating the 100th birthday of playwright Samuel Beckett. The adaptations were written by J. Kelly Nestruck, and drawn in the style of classic strip artists by yours truly.

Hawaiian Dick Art

This piece of uncoloured art from my upcoming run on Hawaiian Dick has already been making the rounds online, so I might as well put it here, too:

No release date is set for the new series yet (I'm juggling it with Tek Jansen, and B. Clay Moore is up to his ears with other writing) but it's going to be a fun book. I'll post updates here from time to time on its progress, and about when it might be hitting store shelves.

Old Illustrations, Part Trois

Continuing my efforts to bring the best of my back stock to the new site. These ones aren't even all that old, really...in fact, one of them is from this year:

From Cottage Life's "Puttering" section.

Part of a large window display for Christmas 2006 at Toronto's The CD-ROM Store. The art was later auctioned off for various charities.

A recent illustration for Design Edge Canada.

Recent Interviews

With the impending release of both Tek Jansen and The Annotated Northwest Passage, I've been asked to give a lot of interviews lately. Here are links to a couple of good ones:

There's Jamie Coville's interview over at The Collector Times.

Then there's a three-part interview at the Stephen Colbert fan site The No-Fact Zone: Part One, Part Two, Part Three.

Dias Como Estos!

I just found this online. It's the cover to the Spanish language edition of Days Like This. While I definitely prefer my original cover design, this is really fun to see. And nice to see the girls again.