The artist is IN! I am currently available for commission work of just about any variety (artistically speaking). Pencil drawings, ink, di...
As a longtime fan of the character, I'm looking forward to the new Batman movie (in spite of the fact that I think the new mask is the worst in the modern crop of movies, and I thought the color palette for Batman Begins was all wrong). I'm for any movie that kills one of its lead actors....Game of Death, Twilight Zone, The Crow...if an actor's willing to die for his art, I'm willing to plunk down my dough to watch him do it.
I was thinking about the character the other day, and realized that in all the writeups the movie Batmen get....Adam West, Michael Keaton, etc. ...nobody ever seems to mention the original movie Batman, Lewis Wilson. That could have something to do with the fact that there were none of the recognizable Rogue's Gallery villains in there. Or maybe it could have something to do with the fact that the costume they used for the Dark Knight in that incarnation looked like it was bought at a dollar store clearance sale. Really, Adam West's featurless physique was bad enough, but was this really the best they could do at the time? Batman is supposed to be a brooding figure of mystery who inspires fear in the hearts of evildoers. Can you imagine being afraid of this goofy sonofagun? So now matter how bad Dark Knight might turn out to be, remember...it could always be worse.
Here's a sketch I did a long time ago. I titled this one "French Class" because it was done in a university French class. I'm an inveterate doodler, and seem to pay better attention to a speaker when my hands are busy with pen and paper. So if you're ever talking to me and think I'm not paying attention because I'm drawing, relax...it probably means I'm deeply focussed on what you're saying!
Father's Day's coming up, for anyone who cares about that sort of thing...the time of year when your family ignores your request not to spend money and buys you things that you neither want nor need, nor could ever possibly use, all in the name responding to overwhelming advertising. Nevertheless, if nothing else, it's a good opportunity to lie in to the point of being ridiculous and then grab a nap in the middle of the afternoon without needing an excuse.
So, in the spirit of the sleep deprived everywhere, Happy Father's Day!
This is a very quick, very rough portrait sketch of artist Dina Babbitt based on a photo found via Google. Ms. Babbitt was a prisoner of Auschwitz during WWII who helped herself and her mother survive largely through her art. While at the camp, she was assigned by Josef Mengele to paint portraits of some of the gypsy prisoners, apparently because he did not think the film stock at the time captured their coloration correctly. She came to his notice by painting a mural of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the children's barracks, and fittingly, later went on to marry Art Babbitt, the chief animator on that Disney film.
At present, her gypsy paintings are kept in the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum. She has requested that they be returned to her for a number of very personal reasons, not least of which that she feels that the subjects they portray need to be finally freed from Auschwitz. Her requests have been denied to date on the basis that the paintings are an essential piece of the history of the place.
There is currently a petition circulating to have her paintings returned to her. Anyone interested can read about and get instructions to digitally sign the petition via this page at The Comics Reporter.
I've just finished listening to an interview with Ms. Babbitt on CBC Radio's "The Current". Considering a recent discussion I've entered at the Bruno the Bandit forums, it seemed especially relevant. Listening to her speak was fascinating, not only because of her singular experience, but also because of the dignity with which she presented herself. She strikes me as a very self-actualized person with a strong appreciation of her own existence, which I suppose would follow logically from the events of her life. Considering that we live in a time when everything from spilled coffee to a parking ticket becomes the cause for a lawsuit, a public inquiry, or indignant demands for justice, I was surprised at how undemanding and sincere Ms. Babbitt sounded in the face of the true injustices she has endured. In that, I think she may be a model for understanding the quality of individual existence and questioning why we assign value to the things we do and own.
For anyone interested, the interview with Ms. Babbitt will apparently be archived at www.cbc.ca/thecurrent. I strongly recommend giving it a listen.
Just a reminder for anyone who's interested that my old webcomic, "The Journals of Simon Pariah" is still up over at Comic Genesis. I would have thought that they'd have taken this down by now, considering that it's been a couple of years since I've updated, but I just checked, and it's still there. In addition to 8 original Simon Pariah online comics, there's also a bunch of other things I've written and drawn. Some of it is rough stuff, but it's amusing to browse around the site for a bit.
How do you spell Fun? I can tell you how not to spell it...P.N.E.U.M.O.N.I.A. I've just had the two most unproductive weeks of my life, weeks in which I couldn't get it together enough to read a book, let along write or draw anything. One of my lungs is still trying to eject itself from my body, and I've burst the blood vessels in one eye from coughing (no joke! I look like a rough draft of Harvey Dent), but I'm finally putting myself back together, which means back to work.
Once again, my plate is full for about the next month, so anything new will have to wait at least that long. The sketch request line is still open, but will understandably be running at a slow pace for a while as I try to catch up and recuperate.
Meantime, here's an old sketch that I think fairly accurately describes how I feel...
Here's a sample from a coloring job I recently completed for a book titled "Stormchasers". This was a fun page to do, just because I got to pull out my Hajime Sorayama references and have some fun with gradients and metal textures.
The pencils are by Jay Dee Rosario and the inks by Bobit Nacila. The book will be published as a digital download soon, and I'll post a link here when it's available.
I submit that as of 12:20 Atlantic Time, 12 May, 2008, I am the first comic book artist to have his name sent to the moon (feel free to challenge this assertion in the comments). This was done by submitting my name to be included on a list of names to be carried aboard the Lunar Reconaissance Orbiter, to be launched before the end of 2008.
NASA, through the Goddard Space Centre, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the Planetary Society, is offering the opportunity to submit your name to be included on the list. If you want, you can have your name included here and find out more about the LRO Project here.
This is real science fiction coolness, guys...the kind of really cool thing that the Internet could be used for, instead of ads for Viagra and upskirt shots of Emma Watson, so treat it with respect and don't do a Bart Simpson on the site, please and thank you.
The hot idea on the street today is "Draw Yourself as a Teen", a meme started by Davario at his LiveJournal blog. Never one to pass up a good idea, or an opportunity to talk about myself, here's my contribution to this net sweeping phenomenon....with slight apologies to Alex Ross and Vin Diesel.
Headbanger? Me? You'd better believe it. I won't tell you when this was, but if you look close, you can probably figure it out from the context.
In case you're wondering, the numbers in the background are the tab to the the opening riffs of Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast".
UPDATE: Another facet of this challenge seems to be that artists are comparing their teen selves to their current selves. In the spirit of that, here's my somewhat subjective interpretation of what that old-school rocker looks like today:
Don't forget that this Saturday, May 3, is Free Comic Book Day! Run, don't walk, to your nearest comic retailer and grab some good reading material, and maybe discover a new favorite. Or rediscover an old one.
If you're in the Halifax area, the best place for comics on ANY day is Strange Adventures. Not only do they have an incredible variety of books, games and paraphernalia throughout their store, but they also have the friendliest and most personable staff I've seen in any shop...No pretentious Simpson's comic book guys here, but interesting folks who'll gladly help you waste your time and money in a mind-broadening way.
I'm finding that the ol' blog is looking a little too cluttered these days, so it's time to simplify a bit while I rethink the basic design. I don't think I'll break anything TOO seriously, but if anyone suddenly has problems with this page, please drop me a line.
This week, I've been working on some web banners for Derek Pegritz, author of "City of Pillars", one of the freshest stories set in the Lovecraft mythos that I've read in quite a while. From the information I've been given, "City of Pillars" is only the beginning, and he has a much larger tapesty of work planned for this projects. What he's published so far is very much worth reading, and what he intends to publish is worth watching for.
Derek found my work through my recent post "Things Go Wrong At Guantanamo", which was inspired by his work, and has asked me to create some art for his website redesign. Naturally, being the Lovecraft acolyte that I am, there was no way I could refuse. Not all of his banners will be my work, but keep an eye on his site and you will see my work there. Meantime, here's a teaser of one of the images I've completed for this project.
The source for this image is a photograph by deep sea diver Jim Lyle, used with permission. Jim is an excellent photographer; check out an impressive collection of his work at Scuba Diving Magazine.
Here's another recent piece, a test page completed for a job audition for Tom Stilwell's book "Honor Brigade" #5. The character is "The Suit" and the artist is Brad Bowers. Shiny.
Thanks to Tom, Brad and Spinner Rack Comics for letting me repost their art here.
Here's a piece completed recently for Scott Story's Johnny Saturn pinup book. If it gets published, you'll see the final work in greyscale. However, the original was completed in color, and I'm rather proud of the finished product. You can see the other entries for the book at Scott's Myspace page.
I won't try to hide that this piece was inspired by Alex Ross...that much is obvious. I've just finished reading "Mythology" and am more impressed than ever by the artist and his work. I can't take too much credit for the background; that's courtesy of NASA.
One of the motivators behind my plan for my never realized website "Doodulz" was a collection of caricatures that I did in my university days. I think at some point, I had aspirations of being an "underground" cartoonist, judging from the obviously Crumb-inspired nature of some of these drawings. Each was based on something I either saw or experienced while attending classes at Memorial University of Newfoundland in the 90's. After all this time, I still find them charming, and hope you will as well.
I think we've all sat through lectures like this one...
Coming from a small town as I do, I have an instinctive fear and mistrust of the excessively liberal. It's one thing to keep an open mind, another thing to let your brains fall out...
I can relate to this one even now. Usually by 11 am.
Sadly, I can also relate to this one. Usually between 8 - 10 am.
I think we probably all knew this guy, the skeevy professor or teacher who was always grinning at some joke only he knew, and could usually be caught at least once a day trying to peer down someone's shirt. I swear I had one of these from about Grade 4 on.
And finally, the guy you don't want to be, and certainly don't want to be around. He "knows" it all and is more than happy to share every...single...bit...of...it at the merest indication of interest. This is probably a personification for about a quarter of the internet, those parts of it that are not spamming, trolling or looking for nude pictures of Amy Winehouse.
I've got a few more of these that I'll post once I scan them. Feel free to use any of these on a website if you like, but do me a favor and throw a link back if you do.
When I was still actively updating my webomic, "The Journals of Simon Pariah", I was toying with the idea of doing a sister site called "Doodulz", just because I have folders full of odd little sketches and character drawings that I really can't use anywhere else, but I can't bring myself to throw away. That idea didn't really fly, but it seems that this sketchblog is just as good a place to show off these little oddities.
Starting off, we have a trio of comic book characters that have interested me at one point or another.
First up is Morpheus himself, aka Sandman. This is an easy character to draw, what with chalk white skin, messy hair and a voluminous robe. Like a dream, the character gets amorphous, which conceptual drawings like this one.
Next is that ol' webslinger, Spider-Man. This is one character I can honestly say I hate drawing. I've always suspected that the reason the black costume was developed was because whoever drew the character at the time got sick and tired of trying to figure out all those weblines. Nevertheless, I wanted to play with a Frank Miller-esque effect on the bricks behind him, and so came this....
Finally for now, one of my old favorites, Lobo. I love Giffen's work on this character; it's always cathartic and fun to read, especially when Bisley is on his game, as he was in the original miniseries. I recall one rather Douglas Adams-esque line from that series that states the Czarnian meaning for "Lobo" is "one who devours your entrails and thoroughly enjoys it." Here, the Main Man seems intent on living up to his name...
I've got a lot more of this sort of this...some of it very rough, some of it very weird. I'll be sharing it all, for better or for worse, over the next few weeks.
Found via Boing Boing this morning, the creepiest/funnest/most startling evolution yet of those sprites that follow your cursor.
Click the link and prepare to be...amazed? Amused? Weirded out? I dunno.
Later today: art. I promise.
I'm wandering a bit from the topic of the blog with this one, but I couldn't let this bit of geeky fun pass without sharing it. Cracked online is running an article on "30 Error Messages You Never Want to See". There's some really good ones there, reminiscent of Something Awful's "Photoshop Fridays" back when it was funny. However, this one really got me going:
If you need a chortle, go read the full article.
And if anyone else can tell me what TV show that quote is from, I'll give you a cookie.
Having mostly finished up (for now) the project I've been working on, I find myself with a little spare time, so I'm free once again to do some drawings for interested readers. As always, my email address and Paypal link are there to the left, and the rules are pretty much the same: anything you want in b&w for the minimum price, with anything larger or more complicated (i.e. color) to be negotiated. Now's the time to get your request in for...oh, I don't know...a character design, a custom birthday card drawing, some tattoo flash...a cartoon of Herve Villechaize wearing a taffeta dress while tap dancing to a Gilbert & Sullivan musical. Whatever your deviant imaginations can contrive.
What's "up" is of course my price. With time constraints being what they are, I find that I have to raise my prices a little to make it worth my while to continue to offer custom sketches, hence the $5 increase per page*. Still, I have to say that many of those who bought have been more than generous in donating more than the original $10 asking price, and the extra is very much appreciated. I hope everyone who's bought has found it worth the investment and I look forward to doing many more of these.
*If I've already agreed on the $10 price with you, that still holds true, lucky you. I never change horses midstream
The news today is that one of the last great masters of science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke has passed away at age 90.
Honestly, Clarke is one of those authors permanently on my "must read' list, but whose work I rarely get around to. I've read "2001" a couple of times, as well as "Childhood's End" (my favorite Clarke work to date), and some of his shorter pieces, and heard several of his stories dramatized as radio plays, but I've never really gotten around to the Rama series, "The Ghost of the Grand Banks", or any of his many, many other books. Still, his presence was always felt in his influence on other writers I have read, especially "hard" sci fi writers.
I suppose the good news is that all that work is still out there for me to discover. Meantime, the world at large, not just science fiction, has been enriched by Clarke's vision. Like Heinlein and Asimov, he was one of those writers whose influence extended beyond his genre or his medium towards the shaping of reality. I'm tempted to make some analogy about his being a monolith to a bunch of hairy apes, but I wouldn't want to sell the species that short...yet. Nevertheless, in many ways we're still proving the truth of his statement that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
With this, and Dave Stevens in my last post, this blog is starting to get a little morbid and a lot off topic. If this world can keep from killing off any of my literary or artistic heroes for a week, I'll see about getting some lighter fare up here real soon.
Anyone who reads anything connected with comics knows by now the sad news that artist Dave Stevens died two days ago of leukemia.
There are a lot of comics artists that I like. There are fewer that I consider great. There are a very few that I consider a strong influence. They're the ones whose art would always arrest my eye and force me to linger and admire. The ones who would cause me to buy a book on sight, even if they only did the cover. The ones who I would gladly pay for the privilege of working with.
Dave Stevens was one of those artists. Best known perhaps for his creation The Rocketeer, nearly as much so for being instrumental in the revival of Betty Page fandom, he was also, in my opinion, a driving force behind the modern pulp revival. Growing up as I did in the company of Doc Savage and The Shadow, it was no wonder that his work caught my eye; every line of his work was everything that was good about the golden age of pulp. He was, with Olivia de Bernardinis, the latter 20-th and early 21st Centuries best heir to the idea of "cheesecake", with a sense of form and clarity of line that were second to none.
Like the recently deceased Steve Gerber, I always thought that he did not receive the respect he deserved among comic readers, mostly due to the fickle ways of popularity. As artists with lots of flash and little substance came and went, Dave seemed to be continually refining his own instantly recognizable style, surfacing occiasionally with the odd book or issue, but seen more often in his influence on the work of others.
I don't need to say he'll be missed. The tributes to him I have been reading all day are proof enough of that. Saddest for me is that, as I continue to hone my own craft, I know that he's one of the greats that I'll never get to meet or work with.*
Still, here's my small tribute...a little color job on a very low-rez sample of Dave's work. I don't know if this is kosher to use the piece this way, but frankly, I don't care. This is as close as I'm going to get....
What with Mike Wieringo, Steve Gerber and now Dave Stevens all within the past year, this is happening too often. Just stop it now guys, OK?
*FYI, if anyone's interested, some of the other big names on my "wishlist" are:
-Frank Cho
-Dave Sim
-Brian Bolland
-Bart Sears
None of whom need any help from me, but hey, you gotta dream big, right?
Update: For anyone who's not familiar with Stevens' work, there's a fantastic gallery of his art online at "Golden Age Comic Book Stories". Go check it out, and while you're there, check out the massive gallery of pulp and comic art that this blog's author has collected.
Has anyone else noticed the resurgence of popularity of H.P. Lovecraft's work on the internet lately? Like some elder god rising from the depths, his stories ascend through the chthonic miasma of the digital age, bringing him a popularity he's not enjoyed, I suspect, since the first run of Weird Tales. Whether this is due to the emergence of much of his work into public domain, the culmination of popular works by authors such as Brian Lumley or Neil Gaiman, or some bizarre alignment of the stars, I cannot say, nor dare I predict what ineffable doom it spells for our benighted plane of existence.
He's been celebrated as a dildo cozy on Boing Boing, parodied in a webcomic at the Unspeakable Vault of Doom, celebrated by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, and represented in his many aspects at Ectoplasmosis (whose "Cthulhu Cthursday is must see internet every week). Leave us not forget that the internet almost collectively wet its pants at the possibility that the monster in Cloverfield was going to be Cthulhu. And you know you've really made it to the top when Tori Spelling stars in an adaptation of your work.
Don't get me wrong, I love a good squamous horror as much as the next being; I just wonder why and how it's come about. Time was when only the most hardcore of nerds or horror fans even knew the name of Lovecraft, now he seems to pervade the net like the shadows that haunt fabled Arkham.
So, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I says. I for one would like to welcome our tentacled masters, and here's the proof. Inspired by reading Chapter 2 of Derek Pegritz's "Footnotes to the Human Species", here's my interpretation of how things might play out after dark at a certain well-known prison.....
Apropos of nothng much, other than the fact that I went to see Spiderwick with my kids yesterday. It's an OK movie, although darker than you'd think, considering the market. If you're thinking about taking kids to see it, read some reviews first.
This is an FYI that the first volume of drawings from the "100 Artists" project is now up for auction on Ebay. It's got a starting bid of $500, so make sure you've got a few shekels socked away if you're going to bid on it. If, like me, you find the price tag a little too steep, you can still see the drawings contained in the book, including my own contribution, at the 100 Artists Flickr page.
Personally, I think they've set the starting bid a little high, considering the fact that it's been up nearly eight days and hasn't had a bid yet, but I'm hoping there's a few high rollers out there who'll get into a bidding war at the last minute. I'd love to see them make a bundle of money off this and do more of these projects. Considering where the profits will end up, it would be a worthwhile investment for anyone who's got enough cash to jump in the ring.
Found via Metafilter, via Mark Evanier, the news that Steve Gerber has died.
Who now, you may ask?
Only the creator of Howard the Duck, that's who. The foremost writer of Man-Thing. The creator of Sludge (for Malibu Comics). A 40+ year veteran of the medium, working, according to his blog, up to almost the last minute, on Doctor Fate.
Gerber had a spotty history in my mind. He was never a "first-rater" outside of Howard the Duck, not because he wasn't talented, but because he never seemed to receive the respect he deserved in the places where it mattered. Proof positive is the movie version of "Howard the Duck" and the legal battles surrounding ownership of the character. Still, I think he is one of those people who will be remembered as a sincere creator and inspiration in the field. Mark Evanier's keeping Gerber's blog alive for now, so it's a good time to reminisce about some of your favorite comics, and see what he was up to recently.
Goodbye Steve. Thanks for the duck.
Another odd search term that's turned up in my SiteMeter reports recently is "sketches of ears". Some part of my subconscious took that as a signal to do a Wolverton-esque figure drawing, and so I give you:
Ears McGillicutty, the world's most successful paranoid. Blessed with Brobdingnagian lobes, Mr. McGillicutty knows for a fact that people are talking about him behind his back, because he can hear every word. He's not worried, though..he's too busy working too jobs (radar technician and dog whistle tester) so he can keep himself in Q-Tips.
Seeing as how my last sketch took me to the number one spot in Google search for "rat dropping illustrations", let's see if I can match that feat by making myself #1 for "sketches of ears".
Yes, here at Paladin Freelance, we're all about ears and rat droppings.
Update: And just like that, I'm #1 in the search listings. I guess the secret to topping Google's rankings is to specialize in categories that no one will ever search.
Today I'm digging deep into my filing cabinet to bring you some of the oldest artwork of mine that I still own, and one of my first true comic book attempts.
Back sometime in the 1980's, when I was still in high school and living in a small fishing community on the arse end of nowhere, two of the things that kept me within some reasonable bound of sanity were books and comics. I was literally addicted to both, consuming them as fast as I could get my hands on them.
For a brief while at age 15, I studied kung fu with a local instructor, and developed as well a strong fascination with all aspects of martial arts, including Eastern philosophies. For a time, my reading was dedicated to this kind of subject matter, and I discovered many good books and ideas as a result.
One of the books that stood out at the time was "Shike" by Robert Shea (perhaps better known as the co-author of the Illuminatus series with Robert Anton Wilson). In two hefty volumes, this was the story of the "Zinja", a group of Japanese warriors somewhere between ninja and Shaolin monks, and of the Mongol boy Jebu who was raised among them.
Shike stood out for me not only because it played into my fascination for martial arts, but also because it contained elements of high fantasy that engaged my imagination, and more importantly, it was a very well written story. In the years since I left that small community, I have acquired and disposed of thousands of books. Outliving all of them, my first paperbacks of "Shike" still sit amongst the 100 or so books that are displayed on my shelves right now. It's been a while since I read them, but I know that if I were to sit down with them again, I'd find them just as engaging and enjoyable.
At one point just before I left high school, I attempted a comics adaptation of "Shike", partly for the exercise of it, and partly because I considered that if I did a good job, maybe I could use it as a portfolio for approaching the big publishers. For reasons that will shortly become evident, my attempt languished in a drawer for the past 20 years.
However, yesterday, "Shike" was brought to mind once again, thanks to that repository of wonderful things, BoingBoing. In one post yesterday, it was announced that Michael Shea, the son of late author Robert Shea (who died of colon cancer in March, 1994), has made "Shike" available to the internet under a Creative Commons licence. This means it's now free to read, copy and distribute. Michael Shea is doing this in hopes of reviving awareness of his father's work, and his generosity is your gain. If you would like to read "Shike" for yourself...and I heartily recommend that you do...the full text can be found at bobshea.net (direct link to the text here). If you do enjoy it, and I think many people will, do yourself a favor and go find some of Robert Shea's other work. I have to be honest and say that I have not read any of his other novels yet, but I will definitely make a point of doing so soon.
Upon learning of this, I emailed Mike and asked if he would have any objection to my posting some of the pages from my early attempt at adapting this story to comics. He happily agreed, and you'll see the result here.
I'll warn you...these pages are very rough. They're the very definition of "warts and all". They're pencil only, as I didn't have access to proper inks at the time, and done on bond paper...which makes it a miracle that they survived at all. What's more, they're not terribly original. Much of the artwork was shamelessly lifted line for line from issues of "Masters of Kung Fu" and "Savage Sword of Conan". So if you think you recognize something by Paul Gulacy, Mike Zeck or Gary Kwapisz, it' because you do.
What it does have going for it is that it is sincere. It was a labor of love at the time to put this together, and I think for all its flaws, it's a pretty good adaptation (if you don't count the lettering...I still can't do hand lettering to save my life). Also, it taught me a lot about the process of putting together a comic book, lessons that are invaluable even now.
Every now and then I think that I'd like to take another crack at this, but so far time has not allowed. Maybe one of these days, I'll get around to it. In the meantime, here's a blast from the past for your amusement. What you have here is the first 1 1/2 chapters of the novel, up to what I thought made a logical breakpoint. For some reason, for chapter two of the comic, I made a jump to chapter 18 of the story. Those pages are not here, but if you would like to see them, I am including a link to a cbz file containing all 16 pages I've drawn. This is perfect for reading in cdisplay or your favorite comic book reader, of you can unzip it and view the images individually.
Enjoy!
Apropos of nearly nothing, and irrelevant to the main subject of this blog, but I saw this at Kottke.org today and thought it was too good to let slip by. This is a quote from Robert A. Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love":
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
Damn straight.
In 2004, I attended a local science fiction/fantasy/comic book convention called Fleetcon. I've done a couple of these and always had a fun time doing sketches for convention goers and generally showing off about art and comics in general. Unfortunately, when I gave up doing Simon Pariah on a regular basis, I also gave up attending Fleetcon, and I don't think these conventions are still held. Every now and the, I miss it. Like this afternoon, when I thought about the piece I did for auction at the 2004 convention. The original was bought by the owner of Strange Adventures comic shop in Halifax, and my scan of the piece has been missing until now. I had run the drawing on my webcomic site for a short time, but took it down shortly afterwards, and couldn't find my saved file. Now, thanks to the power of the Internet Archive, I've recovered the drawing to share with readers.
This was a large piece, 20" x 30" on illustration board. The characters depicted are heroes of the DC Universe past and present, some of whom have not really been seen in stories in the past 50 years. If you think you've got what it takes, try to name them all...I guarantee you'll miss at least one.
Back in the early days of Image Comics, some of the creators ran "fan art" pages in the back of their books. Readers were encouraged to send in their renditions of characters, with the best ones being picked to be printed. As this was in the prehistoric times before email was common, this naturally had to be done via snail mail. Being an ardent buyer of Image at the time, I produced a couple of drawings, but by the time they got where they were going, the books had stopped running those features. Nevertheless, I think the drawings were pretty good, and still hold up now. Here, then, is my take on a couple of favorite Image characters.
First up, Spawn himself. Arguably the most successful Image creation, and certainly Todd McFarlane's best work (while he was still doing it all himself). Spun off to a movie, cartoons and no end of merchandise, the character is proof of the potential that lies in comic books, if there's a good business mind behind the pencils.
Next, naturally, there's Spawn's nemesis, Violator, in Danny DeVito evil clown mode. This guy is just pure fun to draw, as he's somewhere between a leering gargoyle and a bigfoot cartoon. To this day, I have no idea why someone thought John Leguizamo was a good choice to play the character in the movie. Anyone care to enlighten me?
Finally, a couple of WildC.A.T.S. characters, Warblade and Voodoo. This is a series that has been brought to life by some of my favorite creators...creator Jim Lee, artist extraordinaire Travis Charest and so-brillint-I'm-conviced-his-head-is-full-of-stars writer Alan Moore. The 'Cats was the Image series I kept reading long after I had quit all the rest. While it has not reached the marketing potential of Spawn, it seems to have held to a more consistent vision, making it more of an artistic triumph...well, as artistic as you can get with a group of "underwear perverts", anyway.
Here, Warblade rebuts the possibility that his morphing metal claws bear any resemblance to a certain adamantium-laced X-Man:
Maybe one of these days, I'll be fortunate enough to have a book picked up by Image. It would be a fanboy's dream come true to be counted among such a talented group. Meantime, I'm content to mess around in their sandboxes when time allows.
Here's an interesting item that's shown up in my SiteMeter referrals recently...."rat droppng illustrations." I'm not sure if it's of more concern to me that someone took the time to Google that term, or that the term led back to my site. And what kind of universe do I live in where my sketchblog rankis #2 on Google for "rat dropping illustrations". Well here's hoping that after this post, I'll make it to # 1.
And incidentally...why rat dropping "illustrations"? Wouldn't you look for photographs? Prior to today, would anyone really feel the need to turn that into art? And who would want to have such a piece of art, for what purpose?
Ah, internet, you crazy kid, you.
Every now and then I'll take a look at the referrals in Sitemeter to find out who's coming here and how they found me. One thing that occasionally strikes me is the unusual search terms that lead people to this blog. There's some that make sense if you look at them sideways and kind of squint a little, but there's some that I have to think MUST leave the reader disappointed.
In an effort to satisfy some of those wayward souls, and to share with regular readers some of the stranger things that show up in my search results, I've decided to make it a recurring theme to illustrate some of the more unusual search terms that show up in my referrals. I can't promise that the results will always be exactly what was on the searcher's mind, but when you search for things like these, I think you kind of have to take what you can get.
First up, here's to the person who found me by searching "Objectivism Tattoo".
And by the way...if you really want an Objectivist tattoo, let me suggest a gold-colored dollar sign. It's very "Atlas Shrugged".
For those of you who are saying a good Objectivist tattoo would be a boot stomping on a human face...forever: you can go away now, you filthy second-handers.
As an update to my earlier post on "Zen to Done", I thought it would be worthwhile to share with you the news that author Leo Baubata has just declared all content on his blog "Zenhabits" to be in the public domain. This includes his ebook, "Zen to Done". In his own words:
"my writing here at Zen Habits and in the Zen To Done ebook are now in the public domain. I hereby waive all claim of copyright in this work; it may be used or altered in any manner without attribution or notice to the me. Attribution, of course, is appreciated."
So, while you can (and should) still buy a copy of "Zen to Done" from Leo's site, I do still have the ebook myself, and would be willing once again to send a copy to anyone who emails me a request for it. Once again, I would ask that if you receive a copy, you "Pay it Forward" to someone else who would appreciate the book. Also, if you blog or otherwise write for the net, it would be a good idea to review the book or otherwise link back to Leo's blog to help spread the word about his work.
More details about Leo's decision to release copyright on his work can be found here.
Congratulations to the earth for having made yet another revolution around the sun, with warm wishes for many more.
Some of my favorite things from 2007, in no particular order....
-Tom Waits's 3 CD set, "Orphans". One of those musical things that makes you wish you could grab random people, slap headphones on them, and say, "Listen to this!"
-Warren Ellis's "Crooked Little Vein". Mad as arseholes, with more hate than Ambrose Bierce on a tequila bender, but the second best fun you can have between the covers, and the only book in the last ten years that insisted I finish it in one day.
-"Ratatouille" and "Meet the Robinsons". It's probably a sad statement on movies when the best ones were made for kids, but these were two of the most enjoyable films ever, made even better by being able to share them with the family.
-"League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier". Brilliant lunacy from Moore and O'Neill, two people who apparently remember what comics should and could be.
-Podcasts. Escape Pod. Pseudopod. Keith and the Girl. Spider on the Web. Starship Sofa. Hooting Yard. Soccer Girl. The list grows daily. My god, it's full of content.
-Life, libertine and the pursuit of happiness.
What does 2008 hold? I've got some ideas and plans, but short answer is, I don't know. Tell you what, though...I'm going to try to make it interesting.
Every now and then I'll take a look at the details of my SiteMeter reports and check out the links that refer readers to this site...more out of curiosity than anything, since I'm not one of those people who is trying to "monetize" my blog. One thing that struck me as interesting is that a significant number of people come here after doing a Google search for "paladin sketch" or some derivative of that. This is an interesting bit of irony, as despite the name of this blog, there is no sketch of a paladin on this site. Until now.
I've been using the name "Paladin Freelance" since the late '80's when I first studied commercial art. The name derived partly from the legends of King Charlemagne (France's answer to King Arthur's roundtable), and partly from the old TV series, "Have Gun Will Travel", whose gun-slinging hero, Paladin, remains one of the greatest figures ever to appear on the small screen. The Freelance, of course, came from the fact that I've always wanted to work freelance, to give me greater control over what I draw. I'm aware of the connection to RPG's like "Dungeons & Dragons", but I've never been really into those games, so it's not a strong connection for me, and the Clyde Caldwell / Larry Elmore vision of the paladin never really appealed to me. My idea of the paladin, while no less noble, is a more classical, rougher view of the concept.
So, finally, here's my own vision of a paladin. The figure is based on figures in the statue of Charlemagne and his retainers in Notre Dame Square. The color scheme is made up from whole cloth.
To all who come here from Google looking for a paladin...you're welcome.
Today I bring some readers a freebie courtesy of Leo Baubata, author of "Zen to Done" and the blog "Zen Habits".
It seems that the current incarnation of the self-help books that were so popular in the 80's and 90's is the personal productivity blog. Since some folks have figured out how to make money from blog-writing (mainly through the old business model of selling ad space), and since people always seem to have an interest in learning how to better themselves with as little effort as possible, there are scads of writers out there who are completely missing the irony of having you waste your time reading their blog posts about how not to waste your time.
However, like any idea, there's always a few who stand out. Just as there were some excellent and tremendously useful "self-help" books written by the likes of Dale Carnegie, Mortimer J. Adler and David Allen, there are also some self-help blogs out there that are, in my opinion, worth a visit. So much so, in my case, that I have added their feeds to my Bloglines subscriptions so that I don't miss anything new they might publish.
One of my current favorites is Leo Baubata's Zen Habits, a blog about "simple productivity". The blog describes itself as being about:
"achieving goals, productivity, being organized, GTD, motivation, eliminating debt, saving, getting a flat stomach, eating healthy, simplifying, living frugal, parenting, happiness, and successfully implementing good habits."
In short, it takes a Zen attitude towards achieving life goals, being not about doing more, as much as it is about doing better, and being happier while doing it. For example, recent articles include "A Guide to Living Your Life Consciously", "How Many Hours are in Your Day?" and "Faith in Humanity: How to Bring People Closer and Restore Kindness". For anyone who's looking for a positive view of the world and a few helpful suggestions for personal growth, the blog is definitely worth a read.
Recently, Leo published a post (see "Faith in Humanity, linked above) based around Robert A. Heinlein's idea of "Paying it Forward", in which he gave away copies of his ebook, "Zen to Done"
, to readers who commented on the post. It was done on the condition that each of those readers pay the favor forward by passing on a copy of the book to one other person who would be able to make use of it. As one of the commenters to receive a copy of his book, I thought I could best pay it forward and yet pay back at the same time by getting his permission to pass on copies to a few readers of this blog and help spread the word about his writing.
Thus it is that I have 5 copies of "Zen to Done" in pdf format to distribute to my readers. "Zen to Done" is an application of Occam's Razor to personal productivity systems. In Leo's words:
"Zen To Done takes some of the best aspects of a few popular productivity systems (GTD, Stephen Covey and others) and combines them with the mandate of simplicity. It makes things as simple as possible, and no more."
I have to be honest and say that I have not finished the book yet, but I am enjoying what I've read so far, and am looking forward to finishing it. The thing about a book like this is that I find it best read in chunks that need to be digested for a period rather than in one whole sitting.
If you would like to receive a copy via email, be one of the first five people to either email me (see link at right) or comment on this post (I'm notified of comments by email), and I will send you the book. But be aware...the book comes with the condition that the recipient likewise pay it forward by sending a copy to one other person, to keep the ideas flowing and allow others to benefit from the work.
For everyone else who's interested, there's a link on this page at Zen Habits where you can purchase a copy of the ebook via Paypal. It's not expensive and worth reading, so do yourself and Leo a favor and grab a copy.
Oh...and for anyone who does not know about pay it forward, or might know it only from an episode of Oprah or the Mimi Leder movie, you can find out more about it (and Robert Heinlein) at Wikipedia.
Update: If you want a copy of the book, please make sure you don't comment anonymously, or else send me an email. I need to reply to an address to send you the ebook.
Just for fun, check out this episode of Keith and the Girl to hear Keith Malley tear me a new one for comments I've made on their forum. Look at me, Ma! I'm pissing off Noo Yahkers!
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