A quick update, and long overdue.

Here is a quick update to prove I am working on 'Solo Flight', the first Captain Spectre novella length comic. This is just a rough unfinished piece of a panel. Remember I wasn't going to show alot from now on in it's full form, since I don't want to spoil anything about the plot or lack of plots. As I have said many a time, I am not a writer ... I just pretend to be one on the web. Ha.

Anyway to keep all you Loyal Legionnaires up to date with things, I seem to be dealing with this new drug they are giving me for the nerve problems I am having in my arms and hands. They are working on the nerve part but have seemed to let the arthritis part slip thru their fingers. So am still dealing with that too, with these people it seems to be one problem at a time, and that isn't helping with my production at all. This nerve med is making me sleep, which is something I don't really normally do a lot of. Also it is making me be really lax in my production. Making it very hard to do what I feel I need to do. It is an odd thing and I do need to have another talk with these people. I appreciate them wanting to cure it all long term, but when I don't do my work, sometimes I don't know if the cure or the pain is worse.

So stay tuned Legionnaires to the slow updates, I will try to produce more and update more, and the adventures of the sick artist that is trying to just hold a pencil and push it around.....!

thanks....

Mucking around....

Well here are the rough pencils for the Mucker cover. Not very exciting is it?

I had a problem with making an exciting cover for this book. I have read the list of contributor illustrations and if all the artists contribute then the excitement is all in the book. So I thought I would go with a tone or mood piece for the cover. Also I was requested to have Billy, Babs, and the pony Brazos on the cover. Well they only appear for a split second together in the book. So actually illustrating a scene from the book was totally out from the beginning. Which poses a problem in itself.

Billy, the Mucker, tries to make good thru out the book for the love he has for Barbara Harding. He fights his inner demons of violence and isolation. Barbara tames those feelings and makes him want to be a better man. A man like she would want. Hence the shirtless Billy ready to fight at the drop of a hat, and Babs beside him gently pushing his hand down.

I sure hope it works on that level. I try, what can I say.

Also the costuming in this piece was difficult. Burroughs, usually descriptive as hell, in this book left out alot of visual information. Babs is mentioned about half way thru the Return of the Mucker as wearing 'riding togs'.....ok then her clothing is never mentioned again. So in Mexico around the turn of the century riding togs I took as a rough shirt, riding breeches, and added the scarf around her neck as some color, and to offset the fact I didn't show the full figure.

Now comes the tough decision: how to finish the piece. Digitally or traditionally.

The pros and cons are with digital there is no original to sell. I thought I would ink the pencils to sell them to offset the fact there wouldn't be a finished painting. Also with my lack of painting the last few years, at least traditionally, there are the screw ups which will happen. I don't really have the time to screw up on this and start over.

So I have to ponder what to do next. Any thoughts, Legionnaires?

Yet another Mucker....

Still trying to nail down the image of the Mucker, Billy Byrne. This one a bit more 'fleshed out'. Or maybe more normal in structure. Also Barbara looking a bit more to Billy as her protector. Also I need to work on the design of the cover, but all in good time.

Enter the Mucker...

As many of you Loyal Legionnaires know, I have been invited to be the Artist Guest of Honor at the Burroughs Bibliophiles con this year. It isn't until August but to go along with the honor is the duty of producing a cover for the new edition of Edgar Rice Burroughs - the Mucker.

For those that aren't familiar with the story....it is a pure adventure/romance yarn. Not the usual fantastic genres of Burroughs, like Tarzan or John Carter of Mars.

Anyway in the production of the book cover, which by the way will be also illustrated by many different Burroughs artists inside. I don't know for sure who's illustrations will be in the book until a later date as they are organizing it.

But as a starting place of course I am re-reading the book, which is a combo of both Mucker books. Also I am trying to pin down the look of the two major characters that will be on the cover, also the Brazos pony will be there too - it was requested by the organizer. But first is the Mucker himself - Billy Byrne. A tough guy from Chicago, who frankly is a jack-ass thru most of the story. But he is changed by his meeting with Barbara Harding, a woman from the rich part of town.

So this is the beginning of the process of feeling out the characters, how to visually represent them and their personalities, and then moving to a design.

So in place of updates to the strip for a bit, you Loyal Legionnaires will have to put up with this. After all it is the first time I will be able to take advantage of a real Guest of Honor status. So please bear with me as I want to do a good job on it and be worthy of the invitation.

Also, Legionnaires, please vote on the poll at the right of the page here. I am ready to start on the stand alone comic and have developed several storylines, but I want you to be a part of the selection. So Vote!

So many irons in the fire....

Believe me Loyal Legionnaires, I am not falling down on production of the Captain Spectre strip. But, I do have many, many irons in the fire - sort of speak. Fallcon, the great Minnesota comic convention, is rushing toward me. I always contribute to the three charity auctions that they have there. Just feel like I should pay back something for such a great con and a great time. I also always try to come up with something that Nick, the organizer of the con, wants to bid on. Sometimes I hit one, and sometimes I don't. Last year I pencilled a Doc Savage piece and Joe Rubenstein inked it. So this morning I had this idea of a golden age Superman borrowing bombs from an airfield to do a little foreign policy mission. So I just had to rough it out before I lost the idea. As I scanned it I noticed his forward leg is a bit too short, but I will fix that later. Just wanted to show it off a bit, mainly for the idea, and to make sure I got it down. I will need to do two more pieces at least in the next few weeks for the auctions. So I will be showing those here too.

As I said sometimes too many irons in the fire....game animation, a commission piece I owe a Loyal Legionnaire for doing me a great favor, the virus project, and of course continuing the Captain Spectre strip.

The Terror Hound from Planet X

I, of late, have been trying to design some creatures for various things. One mainly for the Captain Spectre strip. Don't worry he won't show up very soon. It is along way off. So I guess it really isn't a sneak peek. Just more of a development kind of thing. So I thought I would try a six legged type of creature. Creature design is an art unto itself. And I haven't ever done much of it. Guess I am better at robots and machinery and the like. I do need to work on my creatures more. So tonight I thought I would tackle one, mainly since I am not feeling up to par. But that is another story I don't plan to bore you with. Since hopefully you come here to see art, and take part in the process of creation - especially things to do with Captain Spectre. So without further ado - I present the Terror Hound of Planet X!!!

I kind of feel like a new age Milton Caniff...

As I read more of Milton Caniff's life, I of course learn that he worked as an illustrator for the press. Back in those days not all stories received the luxury of a camera. So editors used to get ahold of the art dept. which at the time contained artists!! What a concept. Anyway they used to come up with art for fires, trials, and of course the eventual filler space in the newspapers.

'Milton started this way' was all I kept saying in my mind as I sit on those church pew type very un-ergonomic govt. benches at the back of the courtroom.

Even though I can't discuss any of the trial I thought I would post a couple of the sketches just to give you a taste. I have been zapping out four or five of these a day so of course the quality isn't great.

Sometimes I even have to lay one out, and put it aside til the people get back into almost the positions they were in. And of course from the back people aren't very interesting, and I see alot of backs of heads. You may not think this is much of a problem but on any given day there are at least four guys in the room with shaved heads.....it must be some kind of tribal law thing going on now a days.

Myrna Loy Pastel Drawing

Well you may question why I did this. I do have a reason why I am spending a little time doing a pastel drawing of the great actress Myrna Loy. Well the reason is - Monday morning I am headed to the Federal courthouse in Omaha to do the courtroom sketches for a trial. The station is sending a camera crew also but they aren't allowed in the courtroom. So it up to me to document the trial for the show we are working on about it. (More on that show later.)

So as kind of a warm up, try out or something I figure I should test the waters. It has been awhile since I have tried anything like this courtroom drawing. I did it a couple of times before but that has been years and years.

Also I wanted a bit different look for the sketches. Most of courtroom sketches seem to be full blown pastel type drawings. The show this is a part of is the 'Murder House' show I did a couple of years ago. It had a 50's horror comic look, and the second show 'Profiler' is taking a more 60's Suspense Theater look, so I wanted the courtroom drawings to have a more hard line look to them. Also it helps with my speed to have a solid line down to color inside the lines. Ha. I never was much good with color alone. So with the sharpie lines I get a more graphic look.

At least I hope it all works out like that. I have to do 3 a day and have them done by 3PM so they can get on the 5 o'clock news in Omaha.

Anyway I tried to capture a bit of Myrna Loy's look. I don't think her forehead was the right height, but I do think it looks a bit like her. Probably good enough for courtroom sketching.

Warm Ups, high contrast

Some days as most of you know, the ideas just don't come very easy. When that happens sometimes I try something a bit different. A different style, A different tool, A different paper...anything to break the pattern. Well seems as though tonight was one of those nights. So I just kind of let it flow. I didn't feel like working on my animations for the virus game, I am ahead by five weeks on the Captain Spectre strip, I am still not ready to start the stand alone Captain Spectre comic - so here are a couple of doodles to help wake the brain up.

Tarzan Inks...

Well it has been a hell of a week for sure. I am still picking up branches, limbs, and all sorts of parts of trees. But at least it was a productive Friday evening after getting home. Here are the inks to the Tarzan piece I posted a few days ago. I actually inked the Tarzan figure Thursday night mostly, and finished it off today. I felt I needed to get this one out of my system first. I hope you enjoy it. This is entirely inked with a brush and is on 11x17 bristol.

The Burroughs Sketchbook project begins...

As posted a bit earlier, I have been invited to be the guest of honor at the Burroughs Dum-Dum next year in Chicago sponsored by the "Muckers", the groups of Burroughs fans in and around Chicago. I have also thought of how to maximize my visit. In other words to help spread the word about my work. So I thought I would make a project and produce some works based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' fantastic range of works. From Tarzan's Africa, to John Carter's Mars, to Carson Napier's Venus, and all points inbetween and beyond. I don't know how many I will be able to create before I go, but I thought I would stretch my creative legs a bit. Especially since I think in my whole life I have only done one or two Mars drawings. I was always a bigger fan of the Tarzan adventures.

Also to make these works affordable I thought I would put them together in a Burroughs sketchbook type of thing. Mostly it will all be in black and white, since I am more interested in that form recently. I might compile it with all my other Burroughs works from the other books I have illustrated. But mainly I wanted to produce new works.

So it begins....here is a pencilled piece I had an idea for the other day and had a bit of free time to pencil it out a bit. I will be inking it sometime soon so I will post that version soon. Kind of a progress thing to post here too.

Of course don't worry Loyal Legionnaires, I will not take anything away from the strip to do this, it is of course above and beyond the ending of Chapter 4 and the stand alone comic adventure. So no worries Legionnaires.