24HCD 2015: Skytrain and the World of Tomorrow

Another year, another 24 Hour Comic Day at the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beah, CA. I think this is my best one yet.

Christmas 2014 Break Sketchbook

I had a couple weeks off from work and headed back to VA for Christmas 2014. I resolved to draw everyday and keep a record of my travel. The results aren't a coherent story but rather they are more of a random collection of things that I did and saw.

24HCD 2014: Ragnor & the Treasure of Golub

Two weekends ago, it was 24 hour comic day at the Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach.This was the 4th year for me. I came into it with no idea what I was going to draw. My go to character for 90 Minute Comics has been Ragnor lately so it was pretty easy for me to think of a silly story for him. I finished inking all 24 pages around 4 am and then went back to shade with my grey marker. About halfway through my grey marker ran out of juice so I stretched it as far as I could. This year I went home the earliest yet, around 5 am. Every year I go home a little earlier, I'm getting old maybe?

Ragnor is busting outta jail.

Click the thumb to read more.

Scott McCloud at LAAFA

This past weekend I attended Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics Workshop held at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Arts. Scott McCloud worked for Marvel briefly in the 80s but has since then been writing his own graphic novels and webcomics. He’s won an Eisner for his webcomic Zot! but is best known for his non-fiction books Understanding Comics and Making Comics. When I wrote my master’s thesis at Drexel on digital comics I referenced his work pretty heavily so I was excited to hear him talk.

It was a two day workshop that focused on making comics, not really the drawing part, not how to draw but what to draw. How do we present our ideas in a clear and readable fashion? I’m not going to go into detail on the actual content of the course, I’m sure McCloud wouldn’t be too happy if I’m giving away for free the content he makes part of his livelihood from. I will say this, his enthusiasm for the subject was bursting at the seams. He was down to talk comics at any point, on breaks, at lunch (most of the class went out together at a nearby diner), before and after class. He even offered to buy anyone lunch that couldn’t afford to go out. It was nice to be in a class full of people that were stoked about comics and storytelling, I could recommend some of the most obscure comics to people and chances are that they already knew about it.

Scott McCloud critiquing a student's comic.

At the end of the weekend we did an exercise that I am pretty familiar with, one that I happen to do every week. My results:

My word was 'fish.'

The venue for the workshop was interesting, I have heard of Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Arts (LAAFA) for a while now and had this picture of it as a fancy old building. I guess its just the vibe I got from their website. In real life, however, it looks like a strip mall combo of a dentist office and tailor’s store. Its the most unremarkable building from the outside in a rather unremarkable (a little run down) area of Van Nuys. On the inside, however, its actually very atmospheric with high ceilings and (contemporary) master paintings covering the walls.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this workshop to anyone interested in comics or visual storytelling in general.

90MC: answer & cupcake

some of my bros and I get together and make comics in 90 minutes. last night’s random words were: answer & cupcake

90 Minute Comics

Comic: Doctors

Comic: bad barber

When I Dream

About a year ago I had a dream that I made this comic. In my dream, I sat down, wrote, and painted the first page of the comic. When I awoke the next morning I could still picture the comic vividly in my mind and decided that I needed to make the comic in real life. Since then I have been working on it in my free time. It has gone through a couple of revisions, but the first page is pretty much what I dreamed. Since the initial page idea, it grew into a comic about the things we can not control in life.

Buy a Framed Original Page

Around the time that I was finishing When I Dream, a family member was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had already been considering selling some of the original artwork, but this spurred me to use all of the profit from any artwork I sell from this comic to donate to the American Cancer Society. I currently have six of the pages framed and ready to hang. Including the frame, the dimensions of the artwork measure 16.5" x 19" and have a wire on the back.

I have a store for ordering the artwork set up here. Or you can just order it through email. At the moment I can only send the art to the continental United States. Or if you are in Los Angeles I could probably just hand it to you.

If there is a page that you are interested in that is not listed in the store, please email me.

A huge thank you to Nick Avallone and Nyssa Shaw for reading drafts of the comic and providing feedback. Another big thanks to Melissa Cell who patiently posed for several of the panels and lent her web site making skills to the store.

When I Dream was painted with Winsor & Newton Artist's Watercolors and inked with Faber-Castell Artist pens, Staedtler Pigment Liners, and Copic Markers.