Do I Draw Comics?

Please follow along for the latest and greatest from yours truly. I’ve been fairly busy in the past months working my new job at Dark Horse. As consuming as that is, I am squeezing in time here and there for various art projects.

I’ve been asked this a few times. To be asked this question is not a great feeling considering my complete passion.  It has caused me to question my commitment to the medium that I have dedicated my life to. I will be the first to admit that I haven’t been as productive as I could be. No excuses. So, in case you were curious, here are a few of the projects that I’ve been working on for the past few months.

 Cover Pitch 1.

Cover Pitch 2.

These are covers that I drew for the Steven Universe comics put out by Boom! Studios. Unfortunately you won’t see these on the shelves. CN and Boom! Studios decided to go with an art style that directly reflects the TV show. No harm, no foul. I got paid for these.

Rough pitches

A part of me does think that they might have used them for a variant of some kind if they were good enough. Nope. Not gonna go down that slide. Keepin’ it positive ya’ll. It was really fun to do legitimate cover work though. Not to mention the sick check for a single image. I will be pitching more in the future.

Moving on, Comic Book Resources finally did post that group interview I participated in as part of the Regular Show Annual. The interview is really fun to read as it bounces back and forth between all of the artists’ and writers’ answers. Unfortunately, I did not get my hands on a copy of this annual issue. Maybe someday in a long box far, far away…

Read the interview here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=53670

My story Sky Kicks that I wrote but didn’t draw, turned out really great! As a cartoonist, myself, I did have to get over my knee jerk “I wouldn’t have drawn it that way…” thoughts. Once I took a few deep breaths, I really started to like it. There are some things about the comic that are much better than I could have done.

Let’s see, what else. I was announced as one of the artists on the Cartoon Network property Uncle Grandpa books, also put out by Boom!. I didn’t know about the announcement until the day of, so I was surprised like the rest of you. I mean, I knew that I pitched some stories, but I didn’t realize it’s like a regular gig. Kinda’ cool.

Read the announcement here: http://comicbook.com/blog/2014/07/10/boom-studios-announces-uncle-grandpa-comic-launching-in-october/

This is a current promo cover for the series.

The concept of the Uncle Grandpa comic books is to be like Mad Magazine, with short one page gags and parodies, etc. This is my saving grace, in that I don’t quite connect with the television show that much, but I love Mad Mag. I’m really excited to be a part of this book!

This is a supporting character in one of my stories. He is based on an amazing human being that I used to work with at Blick Art Materials in Portland.

Here's some concept art for my stories. 

I’ve got three shorts lined up for Uncle Grandpa and am working on more pitches. More to come on the Unky-G tip for sure!

Lately, I’m having a bit of trouble finding time to draw. The best I can do right now is to wake up at 6am and draw for and hour or two before I have to go off to work at Dark Horse. I’m finding that drawing after I get home from a full day isn’t happening. I might have to start blocking out some time in the evenings though depending on how crazy the Uncle Grandpa deadlines get. We’ll see.

Well I think that’s it for this post.