Comic Book Follies

Update: Just for fun, I've published this book on Scribd. Now you can download the issue in pdf format from this page.

OK, to make up for my tardiness last week, I've got a full comic book for you this week.
Back in the mid-90's, I developed a character named DeathMask that I fully intended to turn into a limited series of comic books. At the time, in the wake of the launch of Image Comics, there was a glut of characters named "Death--" this and "Blood--" that, but this was meant to be a bit different from the rest. The catch to this character was that he wasn't a superhero, nor even an antihero, but a flat out serial killer who chose the concept of the superhero as a stage and rationale for his behaviour, sort of an ironic counterpoint to the trend that comics was taking at that time.
The concept was born in, of all places, an anthropology class at University. The course was on war, genocide and violent behaviour, and was taught by Elliot Leyton, who remains one of favorite teachers and authors. Dr. Leyton is a world-renowned criminal profiler who has had a huge influence on the way we perceive serial and mass murderers. As part of the course, he taught his book "Hunting Humans" and the excellent "Aesthetics of Murder" by Joel Black. Studying these texts got me to thinking about the possibility of a serial murderer who acted out his fantasies using comic books as his template, and DeathMask was the result.
Despite its apparently simple beginning, seen below, if developed the book would have gone on to explore Dr. Leyton's theories of the formation of the serial murderer's psychology, as well as the cultural impact of violent comics books and other media, and would have attempted to depict a realistic view of this deviant behavior as opposed to the glorified villains seen in films such as "Silence of the Lambs" and "Halloween" (fun they may be...accurate they are not).
I was pretty determined to make this book happen, and ended up submitting it to several publishers, all of whom rushed forward to roundly reject me. I think my biggest mistake was submitting it to Fantagraphics, thinking they might catch up on the literary aspect of it, only to have Gary Groth suggest to me that I might want to actually read a few of their books before submitting to them again. My greatest hope was for Caliber Press, but unfortunately, they folded up soon after I sent this.
Looking back at it now, I can see how amateurish the art was. I haven't exactly taken comics by storm since then, but I can see that I have learned a few things that I should have known before attempting a project of this scale. Even so, the story is still dear to me, and the book remains one of my favorite projects. In addition to this first issue, I've done two ashcan prequels, several pages of book two, and a ton of concept sketches. Maybe one day if I can ever drum up interest, I'll try tackling this again from a more mature point of view. Until then, here's the complete first issue for you to enjoy.

Days of Pork and Snuffles....

I really did mean to have some drawings to post today, but I've been behind the eightball all week, largely as a result of having to spend last weekend dealing with four kids, two cats, a dog, a hurricane and the resulting power outage, some amateur lumberjacking, and a wayward pig. I shit you not. Then of course, there's the cold that came about as a result of it all, which means that not only am I behind on my current project, but I had to miss a day's work at the office as well...which always puts me behind there too.
Anyway, there's a long weekend coming up, which will hopefully let me catch up on some of my art chores and let me find something entertaining to post in the coming week. Meantime, I can only offer this by way of explanation....

I HAZ LOLCAT!

I'm in ur internetz...


...participatin' in ur memes.

Skeletons In My Closet

This piece is a recent design done to be stencilled onto shirts for a pool team. Each of the players on the team had a different "bone" nickname, and the figures are loose caricatures of team members.

The Return of Paladin Freelance!

Just a technical note of interest....I've retaken ownership of my own domain, www.paladinfreelance.com. I had let it lapse when I discontinued "The Journals of Simon Pariah", but now it's mine again. For now, the domain will redirect you here, but I am tossing around website ideas, so who knows? In the meantime, it's an easier domain to remember than my blogspot address.

Welcome...Now Go Away

Today I'm going to send you somewhere else. Specificially, I'm going to send you over to the blog of Manuel Marino. Manuel has an interesting idea for a blog...he's getting people from various creative fields to write him short essays about their art. Each post is by a different author from a different artistic field. Recently, I've accepted his invitation to write a short piece on comics for him, and it's online as of today, along with a little illustration I did to accompany the piece. Go read it, and while you're there, check out some of the other informative and entertaining pieces he's posted.

When you're done there, you might want to check out this site...found via Boing Boing this morning, it's got a lot of rare and early Bill Watterson art. You can see the early elements of Calvin & Hobbes style in his university work, and it's clear that even then, Watterson was an insanely talented cartoonist. There's also a whole lot of C&H sketches for your viewing pleasure.

When you're done with that, you can come back here if you want and tell me if you think my short piece on comics was dead on the money or dead in the water.

For Barrett's Private Ears!

I've just finished the last page in my Bruno the Bandit story, "Bluenose Barrett, Privateer", and it feels good to be done. Not that I didn't enjoy the process, but this seemed to be the project that did not want to be born, as I ran into more problems, technical and otherwise, finishing this story, than any other project I've worked on to date.
Still, it's done and if you've been following, I hope you've enjoyed it. Below are some of the original sketches I did while planning the story; just preliminary roughs to lay done some of the character designs.
First there's Bruno himself...this apocryphal story takes place a lot earlier in his bandit career, so I knew I wanted him looking younger than he's normally drawn, but with features still recognizable compared to the way Ian McDonald draws them...


Next, there's Fiona, Bruno's sidekick. In continuity terms, she shouldn't have been in this story, but I figured if Ian can put her in Brunotots, then I could find a way to squeeze her into my tale...
Oddly, I find her harder to draw than Bruno. I can't quite wrap my head around the way Ian draws her back legs.


Next there's the pirates themselves. A lot of the visuals of the story depended on drawing Barrett's pirates in various activities. While a lot of figures appeard in the story, here's a couple that didn't get in...





And finally, there's Barrett himself. I was looking for the typical pirate look, but just about as mean as the day is long. In the story, he has a wooden leg, a glass eye and a hook for a hand, and if that doesn't make a man ornery, I don't know what would. I think a number of characters in my memory found there way into this one, including the pirate from "Blackbeard's Ghost" and maybe a bit of Hagrid...


And that's a wrap on that story. I'll be hip deep in my next project for a while, but I'm sure I'll be able to dig something fun out of my files to share. Keep an eye out to see what I come up with.

Vvroommm....

Looks like there's a lot of visitors coming here after reading my strips at Bruno the Bandit. Welcome, or welcome back as the case may be. I'm going to be putting up some rough sketches from "Bluenose Barrett, Privateer" later in the week, so be sure to check back. Meantime, here's a piece I'm working on just for fun. It started as a rough sketch after seeing a documentary on Big Daddy Roth, but I'm thinking that with a bit of tweaking, I could turn this into a T-shirt design, or some other sellable product. Suggestions?

Yarrr....

Yes, I know it's too late for Talk Like a Pirate Day, and everyone's done with Pirates of the Carribbean by now. Still, pirates are always fun. That's why my next project to see the light of day will be a pirate story, "Bluenose Barrett, Privateer", over at Ian McDonald's "Bruno the Bandit" webomic. This is a 9 page story that will be starting. as far as I know, on Monday and running over the next two weeks. Here's a small sample of the art:



Don't forget to drop by and read the story.

It Never Rains But It Pours...

Busy, busy, busy!
I'm just finishing work on one project (more about which in the coming week), when another big...excuse me...Big! one lands in my lap. How big is it? It's so big, I can't tell you about it. Yet.
However, for yet another month it looks like I'm not going to be able to fill any new commissions. Once I finish the one I'm currently working on, I'll be caught up, which is nice since I hate to leave anyone hanging. But anything new is going to have to wait at least a month before I can get to it. Still, as always, first come first served, so if you want a sketch done, get your request in early.

Meanwhile, I'll still be posting at least weekly with work from my archives, and you'll be seeing new work from me online at another site very soon.
Here's an old piece that I still enjoy. I've noticed that jungle girls are getting a bit of a resurgence lately, what with the reincarnation of Shanna and Sheena and Frank Cho's cleverly named book, "Jungle Girl". So, this is probably an appropriate time to post this one...



I think I was a little too obsessed with muscular detail when I drew this, and if I were to do it over, I'd probably go for some softer lines and less shading, but overall, I think it stands up as a decent little drawing.

...And We're Back!

After too long a break, I'm back at it. I've been working constantly, of course, but just haven't had time to update the blog. That, of course, is both good and bad. Good in that I've been busy with projects, bad in that it's hard to line up new projects if I'm not out there selling myself.
Speaking of new projects, here's a sample from one I've just completed. This is a page from a book titled "Deathmatch UK", written by Paul Holmes, with art by Nicolas Colacitti and Rodrigo Mavica. The book is currently being submitted to publishers, and if it gets picked up, I've got a pretty good shot at being the regular colorist. Keep your fingers crossed.


I'm working on another small project that will be available online in a couple of weeks, so watch for that as well.
This coming weekend, I'm going to be attending the "Word on the Street" book festival in Halifax. It's an annual book fair held in the city that always delivers some nice new discoveries in local literature. Plus, my favorite comic shop, Strange Adventures, always hosts an impressive display there. This year, their exhibitors will include Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone of "The Spirit"...the best non-Eisner treatment of the character possible...Seth of "Clyde Fans" and "Vinyl Cafe" fame, Marvel-zombie and jaw-dropping artist Steve McNiven, "Thieves & Kings" creative genius Mark Oakley, and Eisner award winner Hope Larson. So, it should be a good opportunity to meet some people and snag a few signed books. If you're in the area, I strongly recommend attending and checking out what folks in these parts have to offer.

Enter Sandman

Currently, I'm reading, and quite enjoying, the 90's Vertigo series "Sandman Mystery Theatre". I especially like the pulp-themed covers with their clever photographic work. I also enjoy reading a reimagining of an older superhero that does not depend heavily on the Moore/Miller style of reconstruction. Matt Wagner did some first-rate writing on this series, and it's quite a change from his work on Grendel and Mage, which shows his range. I've enjoyed Guy Davis's work since I first picked up Saint Germaine from Caliber, and I'm proud of the recent acquisition of a signed Baker Street hardcover. His work in SMT is a little tighter than it is in most other things I've read by him, but he's still got that loose line and distinct sense of form that bucks the typical comic book esthetic. Good reading all the way around, and highly recommended.



And on that noir note, I'm off for two weeks vacation in atmospheric Newfoundland as nature, proving that it lacks any sense of irony, is about to batter the eastern seaboard with Hurricane Dean. See you in September...and pleasant dreams.

Tellos Creator Passes Away

This is not the sort of thing I normally post here, but I thought it would be appropriate:

Found, with much surprise, on Drawn!:

Mike Wieringo has passed away

This is the sort of news that comes at you out of the blue and snaps your head around. Wieringo was one of those artists I never followed, but who always caught my eye with his work. He had a clear set of influences, yet managed to turn those into a distinct style all his own. His work was bright, fun and enjoyable, exemplary of some of the best things comics can be.
And he was only 5 years older than me.

I always thought of Wieringo as part of the "new breed" of comics artists....that generation of creators post-Byrne, Perez, etc. who were building on the work of their predecessors the way that group built on the work of Kirby and Lee. And, like most young talents, you see them as being damn-near immortal, or at least as having a good, long run ahead of them.
As an artist when you read something like this, it makes you wonder if you're doing as much with your own work as you could or should be. It makes you think about all those excuses you make for not getting down to that drawing table. And while it's probably not going to turn you into an instant workhorse, it does at least serve as a reminder that you're not going to be here forever.

So get to work.

All Booked Up, Uh Huh Huh....

Between vacation time and ongoing projects, I'm happy to say that I'm going to be booked up for the remainder of August. I'll still take sketch requests (hey, that Donate button ain't broken, pal!), but any requests received from this point forward will not be completed until September. But hey...keep those projects coming! As long as you keep payin', I'll keep dancin' to your tune!

Desk Doodles!

A few quick sketches from my blotter to finish off the week. I'd love to get time to color more of these, but there always seems to be something else demanding my time RIGHT NOW! Hmmm....maybe it's time for a sick day.

First up, a sketch sort of inspired by those creepy psychic kids in Akira...

Next, a sketch done while listening to Patrice on the Keith and the Girl podcast. I'm not into gossip, but she's just enjoyable to hear.



For something a bit different, there's this frosty lady...



A couple of larger pieces next. First, this CARniverous vehicle a la Big Daddy Roth...


And finally, there's this. Spongebob Batpants? Batbob Spongepants? A desperate cry for more sleep? You decide.




That's it. I'm off for a wet and wild weekend. Which unfortunately means flume rides and bumper boats with my kids, not semi-disrobed floozies and beer funnels. Oh well; ya takes what ya can get.

And We Have a Winnah!

I'm pleased to announce that the winner of the Bruno art contest is Robin Reed. Robin is a writer and cartoonist herself; you can find her work at Barstow Productions. Robin not only entered the contest, but took a stab at naming the characters in the drawing, getting nearly every one of them...and making me realize that there's one or two that I can't even name any more.

Congratulations, Robin. And thanks to everyone else who entered. Keep an eye on things here, as I've been thinking it might be fun to do other contests here. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to send them to me.

One Day to Go!

Just a reminder that you've only got one day left to enter the draw for an original Bruno the Bandit drawing. Tomorrow midnight is the deadline for entries, and a winner will be announced the following morning.
This contest got off to a slow start, but it's picked up speed in the last few days. Like any contest, you can't win if you don't play, so fire off those emails and get your name in the hat!

The Virtue of Elfishness

Here's another recent commission piece; probably the most interesting subject to date. The person who requested it wanted a portrait of Sananda Maitreya (formerly known as Terence Trent D'Arby) drawn as an elf in the style of Barry "Elflord" Blair. Fortunately, the subject has features that lend well to such adaptation. I'm not sure that I could have done as well if they'd wanted, say, Jean Reno or Robert de Niro. Just a reminder that if you want your own favorite celebrity rendered as a mythical creature, or any other subject, just click the link to your right to send me a $10 donation and put my meagre talents at your disposal.
Also, a reminder that the Bruno the Bandit art giveaway contest is still open; to qualify to win a free piece of art (see previous post), you only have to send me an email to be entered for a draw at month end.

Unicorns...Who Doesn't Love Unicorns?

Here's another recent sketch. I experimented a bit with textures on this and had a bit of fun with drybrush. The lady turned out a bit more elfin than I would have liked, but otherwise I'm pleased with it.

1 of 100!

Here's a piece I completed recently for the 100 Artists Project. This is a project set up to collect various art pieces into a volume to benefit the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Hero Initiative. The project is a two stage one, stage one being a mail-in of single page drawings to be collected, and stage two being a sketchbook that's being mailed around the world to 100 artists. So far, I've gotten in on the mailer part of it, but I don't know if the sketchbook will make its way around to me. If you want to learn more about the project, or maybe get in on it yourself, or just see some work from the other participants, visit them at The 100 Artists Project.



Just for reference, this piece is based on an old Charles Biro cover for "Crime Does Not Pay. The logos on the walls are from the CBLDF, Creative Commons, and my own "No Small Minds" emblem.

Time for a Contest!

I think it's time to show my appreciation of my readers, especially those of you who have come here by way of "Bruno the Bandit", by giving away some artwork.
Below is a scan of a Frazetta homage I did as a present for Ian McDonald, creator of the afore- and oft- mentioned "Bruno the Bandit" webcomic. There's a color version of this floating around someplace, although I naturally cannot find it when I need it (I have really GOT to organize my files). The color version was done for the possibility of doing this as a Bruno T-shirt, but that never came to fruition (yeah...wassup with that, Ian?). If I can ever find it, I will post that as well.
As a "thank you" to readers, subscribers, and those who have ordered sketches, I am going to give away the original art for this piece to one lucky person. The original is on heavy illustration board, about 10x15, and is a sharp little piece if I do say so myself.
It seems to me I tried to give this one away before by asking readers to identify all the comic characters referenced in the drawing, but nobody was able to name them all. This time, I'm going to make it easier. Just send me your name in an email (paladinfreelance@gmail.com) and you will be entered for a draw for the contest. On 31 July, I will draw a name from a hat...or a fishbowl, or a bucket, or whatever I can find to hold all your names, and post the winner's name on this blog. Email addresses and other contact information will not be sold, rented, loaned, given away, or otherwise maltreated or given the cold shoulder.
So what are you waiting for? Send me an email and get your entry in to win a piece of original Bruno the Bandit art!
(Only one entry per email address, natch!)

Early Promo Material

Back in 2000, when I was still actively working on "The Journals of Simon Pariah", trying to get it distributed by Diamond or picked up by another publisher, I took a trip to the Canadian Comic Book Expo in Toronto. The excuse for this trip was that I was going to promote my book and art to other industry pros. The main reason was that I wanted to buy scads of comics, ogle Stacy Walker and be all fanboyish over Barry Windsor Smith.
To prepare for this trip, I put together a slideshow on disk, showcasing some of my art from Simon Pariah. The pages were put together into an .exe file with Carmina Burana as background music (this was before I completely understood the danger and paranoia of distributing .exe files on disk). Following are the images that were compiled into that early promo piece.



This first image was a non-specific shot of Simon. I also designed a web banner using this image, but it never got used, and now it's lost amongst my files somewhere.



This image is from the as yet unfinished story "Angeline". At the time, I'd only just begun writing the story, but I knew that this scene would occur in a later chapter.



This page is from a story I have not written yet. It's more of a scene I'd like to see...Simon Pariah vs. a whole mess of C.H.U.D.'s.



I have no story behind this one at all; I just wanted a "Challengers of the Unknown" kind of shot to establish that the book was about more than just dark fantasy. The intent is to touch on all genres in some way, eventually.



A variation on the same image. I really do try to avoid straight on vertical compositions when I can; they're easy to draw, but not as interesting to look at in the end.
Interestingly, if this story ever gets written, I don't think Simon will be the main character. I'd like to do a number of stories in which he is only a member of the supporting cast.



A climactic image from the first Simon Pariah story, "God of the Cave". This was a very thinly veiled Conan pastiche, with the intent being that the old genre icons had played themselves out and the narrative torch was being handed to a new generation of characters.



This is a takeoff on a scene from "Anthem". I'd like to get Simon involved in this kind of dystopian story, and now that "Anthem" has passed into public domain, I may be able to do something with this. It's no secret that Ayn Rand's work has been a strong influence on me, and I would love to do a derivative work set in one of the worlds that she created.

Of course, all that assumed that I will get back to Simon Pariah someday. Right now, the site has been dormant for a couple of years. I found that I was putting a lot of time and effort into it, but getting absolutely nothing back, not even comments. People were reading, but I had no idea what they thought of any of the work, and nothing good exists in a vacuum. Maybe if I can get this web marketing thing figured out, I can finally dedicate myself to telling the stories again. It's not that I expect to get rich off the idea, but I'd like to at least know that people are paying attention.

I've been doing a lot more scans from my files, so expect a few more updates this week as soon as I get the entries written.

Thanks to All My Readers!

Wow, where'd June go?
It's been a slow month on the ol' sketchblog, but a busy month in every other respect. I've got projects to keep me busy for a while, and sketch requests keep coming in. Time, I think, to send out a big "Thanks!" to everyone who's visited the site in the last couple of months, and especially to those who have donated and requested sketches. You're the folks who keep this blog moving, and your support (whether monetary or commentary) is making it all worthwhile.
Unfortunately, I can't post some of the projects I'm working on right now, at least until they're completed, so I'm going to have to dig back into the archives (i.e. my filing cabinet) for content for a while. I'll try to get some more new work up as soon as possible. Also, my time for doing paid sketches is going to be limited for the rest of the summer, so if you're thinking about getting one done, best do it soon, and be prepared for a little bit of a wait. (Although, I always say that a healthy infusion of cash will help anyone jump to the head of the line. Just so you know.)

Thanks again to everyone. Now, it's back to the drawing board...

Hero of the Day

Here's a link to another "recovered" piece. Back in '99 or '00, I wrote a brief bio of Rush drummer Neil Peart for David Brown's site, "The Daily Objectivist". At the time, it was one of my favorite daily reads, due in no small part to its feature "Hero of the Day". Knowing of Peart's Objectivist background, I thought that this piece was necessary and informative. Time have changed; Peart has gone on to explore other themes in his work, and the Daily Objectivist has gone offline. Thanks to the work of the Internet Archive, you can still find the article, as well as the other great pieces that were written for that column.

Click here to read my first attempt at "real" writing on the 'net.

Skin and Ink

It's funny how some things seem better in hindsight. Art is no exception. When I pulled my tattoo drawings out of my archives, I thought I'd have some great pieces to share, only to discover when it came time to scan them that there were two problems:

1) The art wasn't as great as I remember.
2) Most of it wasn't even my art. I must have been stuck for a dollar at the time, because a lot of the flash I did for this job was clearly hacked from other, better artists....guys likve Boris Vallejo, Patrick Woodroffe, Jim Fitzpatrick...and apparently anyone who's ever been published through Paper Tiger.

That being said, I did manage to cull a few pieces that I recall as being my own designs, and not of intolerably bad quality. These were all done as part of a single job for Studio III Tattoos in St. John's, Newfoundland. I think they're no longer in business, but proprieter Don Pynn was arguably one of the best and cleanest artists operating in the city at that time. He gave me quite a bit of wallspace for the drawings I did for him, and I have since seen some of the pieces in the popular tattoo magazines, so they can't have been TOO bad.
So, whatever I think of them now, I promised tattoos, and you've got tattoos....

1. Unicorns. Who doesn't love unicorns?



2. This has got to be the great trifecta of tattoo art, a skull, a rose and a serpent. If I'd put in a naked chick riding a bald eagle, this one could have had all the memes.



3. I've used this illustration in a number of places over the past two decades. I even still have the first pencil sketch in which it was rendered, way back in 1986. Since that time, it's been used in paintings, in colored pencil art, and to teach my kids about drawing form and shading. Pretty good legs for a single rose, huh?



4. This one started out as something I "tossed off" in Commercial Art class one day using technical pens. The original version has more texture. I find this cute, in a George Petty kind of way...



5. Don wanted me to design something that looked like the "Hot Stuff" devil, and this is what I came up with. For the life of me, I couldn't find any reference for the Hot Stuff character. Where was Google when I needed it?



6. Oh, there's the naked chick. Now I know I have a bald eagle around here somewhere....



7. Well, not a bald eagle, but what tattoo set would be complete without a dragon in there somewhere?



That's it for these. I'm not even going to bother scanning the rest, as they're either too awful or too obviously swiped. Next time...I dunno. I've been thinking of scanning some of my earlier comics stories to share, or some of my non-comics design work. Any suggestions? Comments are welcomed as always.

Fair Lady

I've been tied up with a couple of side projects, so getting the tattoo flash scanned is taking a little longer than expected. Meantime, here's a recent commission sketch done from a photograph sent to me by a reader. I'm admittedly no great portrait artist, but I've done a number of these fantasy-style portraits, and they make the process much more enjoyable.
On another note, a lot of the requests I've received involve characters with wings. I'm not sure why that trend is occurring, but before long I may turn into some kind of expert on birds and bats.