And in other news ...

... it would seem that a significant amount of awesomeness has been bubbling and brewing around some of my fellow comics creators, whilst I've been AWOL...

Average Joe artist Kelvin Chan has been featured in this month's issue of ImagineFX which should now be bought by anyone and everyone who reads this blog (yes, all three of you. That sounds like a joke but it's not :D

He walks a fine line between pure genius and possibly mentally deranged, but Cy Dethan, author of such mind-fucks as Cancertown and upcoming The Indifference Engine is being interviewed next week on an episode of Comic Book Outsiders. I will post deets when I get them!

Creative Director for Insomnia and Letterer extroadinaire Nic Wilkinson was also recently interviewed on Comic Racks where I believe she discusses a topic very close to my own heart - Rock Band! And because no blog post is complete without mentioning it at least six times - Rock Band Rock Band Rock Band Rock Band Rock Band.

Well, podcasts seem to be the theme for the week, so just to continue it would seem that Cancertown artist Stephen Downey and author of Kronos City, Andrew Croskery were recently interviewed on Sunnyside Comics, a comics podcast from Belfast Ireland. And as if that wasn't enough, Stephen also has an 8 page story featured in Bob Heske's upcoming 2012: Final Prayer Anthology, written by Bob Heske himself. Which I personally can not wait to read.

Closer to home, a short 6-page comic I worked on with the duo of awesomeness Shamere Borg and Xander Bennett has also been selected to take part in Bob Heske's 2012 Anthology. Yay!

Phew! That was a lot of info in a short amount of time!

Monster Mash

And here's another piece I did while away, 'commissioned' by my good friend Xander Bennett

For those who can't aptly decipher my scrawled inks, it's the ultimate RockBand configuration according to Xander. Godzilla, Mechagodzilla, King Ghidora, and Mothra. But in black and white. I hope to have a coloured version up by the end of the week. Hopefully in a style similar to this perhaps.

Speaking of ConceptArt.org, I also now have a gallery there, which can be found here.

Lacking Substance? The Filler You Ordered is Below.

Well I've finally returned home, leaving the warmth and sun of California for the stormy winter weather of Perth, and about a three-week backlog of work and emails to catch up on.

To counteract the fact that I'm a) a tad busy and b) mostly lazy, I decided that instead of giving you the blog post of awesomeness you so rightly deserve, I'd fake it and just post up sketches... of nothing in particular.

So below... sketches I did whilst away... with more to come.

We will return to our regular programming shortly.

I actually survived the Con. Thank god.

Should anyone so desire to know how, there's a brief write-up I did which can be read here on the Insomnia blog.

I will be returning home from LA this weekend and shall post up art from the last two weeks then. Yay.

Ok! So San Diego is finally upon us!! Huzzah.

I'm heading down tomorrow from LA, and am looking forward to spending a large chunk of Thursday afternoon exploring the Indie booths and Artists' Alley. I've also FINALLY thrown together a *rough* schedule of panels I'm hoping to attend over Friday and Saturday (an event in itself).

Friday and Saturday's programme for me will be as follows:

FRIDAY

11-12 - How-to with Chuk Wojtkiewicz: pencilled for DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, now lead concept

artist at Blur Studios here in LA.

12-1 - Masterclass with Mike Mignola: Expressionistic Atmoshperes

2.30-3.30 - Focus Features: 9 (Steve Acker, Tim Burton, Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly)

6.30-7.30 - Entertainment Weekly: James Cameron and Peter Jackson

SATURDAY

10-11 - How to Get a Job in Video Games

12-1 - Masterclass with Dave Gibbons: The Heroic Figure

1-2 - Masterclass with Jeff Smith: The Art of the Panel

2-3 - Drawing Lessons From Great Masters: Classic principles from great artists of early

20th Century comics and illustration.

4-5 - Paramount: Iron Man 2 (Robert Downey Jr. Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett

Johanssen, Mickey Rourke, Jon Favreau and Samuel L. Blackson.

6-7 - Digital Colour Styles and FX with Brian Miller

Sweet, right? A number of these involve bringing a sketchbook, so hopefully I'll have some sketches and samples to report back with next week!!!

See ya then!

New Comic Pages!

Not much time for new stuff this week with my trip to LA and the big San Diego Comic-Con looming, but I have got a couple of pages from the latest comic I'm colouring for Insomnia Publications.

The comic in question goes by the name of Average Joe, and believe me when I say there's nothing 'average' about it (pfft, someone was going to use that somewhere, it might as well have been me).

Unlike my lame jokes it rests on the completely unlame and awesome-to-the-max end of the spectrum. Written by the extremely talented Thomas Romeo and made manifest in the beautiful artwork of Mr Kelvin Chan, it's sure to bring about an end to third world hunger as we know it. Or at the very least, satiate the desire for a highly entertaining and massively addictive read.

Robot Pirates 2: Pilgrimage to Mecca-no

And some further developments with the Robot Pirates...

We've gone with a slightly more anthropomorphized design, and I've tried to make them look a lot more 'pieced together' from scrap metal and bits of junk. They're looking cooler, but could do with a bit more saturation looking at them now online.

Man, it confirms just how completely non-mechanically minded I am. I have NO IDEA how bolts and washers and wingnuts and doodahs and thingymajibs could possibly go together to construct a robot.

I blame it on my Meccano-deprived childhood. And Barbie. She is the Plastic Prophet of Evil. And Skipper is her acolyte.