Distinguished Competition

I've been inking a TON of pages the last couple of weeks -- breaking any kind of record I ever had before by inking 30 pages this week for a new book that will be out sometime in 2010. I can't announce the title or publisher or anything about it until they tell me I can. But it can't hurt to show one crazy page out of context for a story I'm not describing!

Also -- 3 Story: The Secret History of Giant Man is available now for pre-order HERE.

In addition to the full length graphic novel I'm doing two short stories that will appear in July and August on Dark Horse's myspace comics page. I've already written them both and inked the first one and started to paint it. Here are a few panels from the first story...this is what my original art looks like before I letter it and clean it up or add the background old-papery effects that I used on Super Spy and parts of 3 Story.

And finally...I did a short comic strip for a friend of mine that does a weekly strip called SubCulture. You can read my contribution here.

TCAF and Jeff Lemire

Just got back from TCAF (Toronto) on Tuesday and had a great time. Met a lot of people. Thanks to everyone that came up and talked to me at the show! Also a BIG thanks to my good friend Jeff Lemire and his wife for letting me stay at their house. I was up against some big deadlines on monday so Jeff and I hit the Beguiling to get some comics and then spent the rest of the day inking pages and filling in blacks. We also did a couple fun experiments -- with me penciling and him inking and me inking his pencils. The images here are my pencils with Jeff's inks. The color images are Jeff's inks and my watercolor. For more of our crazy comics jam definitely check out his blog HERE to see his pencils that I inked...always a fun experiment -- not quite him or me but a crazy mash-up of both of our styles.

TCAF and the Spirit

I'm really excited about going to Toronto this week -- my good buddy Jeff Lemire is going to be there and show me the sites and then I've heard nothing but great stuff about TCAF. If you're up that way, stop by the Top Shelf booth and say 'hey'!

Another busy couple of weeks but I've been throwing things in a folder to add to the ol' blog. I just finished all of the last of the production on 3 Story, finished the back cover art and all of that. Also finished the inks and tones on the first 15 pages of my new-new book that I still can't announce yet so that's been taking up most of my time.

Also -- did an illustration for a French magazine that is doing a tribute to Will Eisner's Spirit (the picture above). First time I've drawn the Spirit -- and still feel like I haven't drawn him. Oh well -- it was fun drawing P'Gell anyway! Oh yeah -- see if you can spot the hidden 'Spirit' in the drawing...