Things to Come...

Alright, here we are folks, last blog post of 2012! Blogging it out right down to the wire, apparently. 2012 was a pretty solid year though, hey? Had a lot of fun, did a lot of living, and got a lot of things done behind the scenes.

"But wait a minute," I hear you say. "What's with all this 'behind the scenes' nonsense you keep talking about, ya big phoney. All 2012 long, all I've ever heard from you is 'got a lot going on behind the scenes,' or 'getting a lot of pages done, I just can't share 'em yet'! Well you know what? I'm SICK OF IT! You're all talk, Rosen! ALL TALK!"

To which I respond: "Hey, watch your mouth buddy! That's certainly no way to start a conversation! Comics take a lot of time! Also, your face is dumb!" All of which being said... alright, okay, so maybe you have a point. I'll admit, I've been spending a lot of the past year talking a lot of game. Doing a lot of tell and not a lot of show. Which doesn't really help anyone in the end. But hey, don't you worry! Because that time hasn't been spent doing nothing! And 2013 is looking to be a whole other beast for your pal Josh. No firm dates in place yet, but there'll be something of some sort before the year's through. And it's gonna look a little like this...

Europe Sketches, Part Three

And finally here are the last of my Europe sketches. Hope you all have
enjoyed the previous parts of the series so far. This last one focuses on my sketches from London, Paris, and a couple of different airplanes in between.

I think Paris was probably my favourite part of the trip overall. Above, you can see me livin' it up with some fresh bread, a glass of beer, a bowl of French onion soup and some escargot. Surely this is the best of all possible worlds! Then on the plane ride back we watched "The Lucky One." Which was, you know... horrible...



Overall Europe was a frickin' blast, and I definitely want to return to spend a bit more time at some of the places we visited some day. Because I am a huge nerd, however, I think at the end of the day one of the things I remained most excited about on the trip was the fact that it afforded me a chance to pick up a butt-ton of...



Like seriously, oh man you guys! I grabbed some Moebius, a couple of early collections of Blutch's work, a sketchbook collection of this guy Guillaume Guerse, and the third album of Christoph Blain's Gus and His Gang which hasn't been printed in English yet and is frickin' amazing! *drool* Never have I been so happy
to be bilingual than when walking through a beautiful French comic shop in the middle of Paris. So watch out Europe! I will return one day to raid your stores
of Franco-Belgian comics yet again!!

Europe Sketches, Part Two

Alright, Halloween's over so back to posting those Europe sketches from this past summer! These are more of the sketches I did while in Barcelona. They're primarily from the beach which - aside from all the architecture and the Segrada Familia - was one of my favourite parts of that city. Now that its started to get cold outside, I look at some of these sketches and want to go back IMMEDIATELY. Winter, why are you doing this to me?? Una cervesa, por favor!

Halloween 2012

Oh jeez oh jeez oh jeez! Halloween Halloween HALLOWEEN!



Hey, so do you know it's Halloween in two days? I say this every year, but Halloween is actually my favorite holiday. And I don’t mind repeating it because with each passing year IT CONTINUES TO BE TRUE! Dressing up, black cats, spider webs, the whole deal, it always gets me pumped. And I decided to celebrate things on the blog this year with a bit of a spooky tribute to good old Normy Rockwell.



I included some quick process images as well, just for fun. I don't know if anyone else is interested in this stuff, but process is something I happen to be obsessed with. And I had some scans for this drawing, so I figured why not share. You can see the quick concept sketches I did, trying to get a feel for the Rockwell original. Then comes the initial rough drawing, nice and quick and messy on cheap paper, in order to figure out where things fit. I then lightbox that image and draw over it on bristol to get the much tighter final pencils, and then I ink over that. Sometimes I like the black and white inks better than the final colour version of some drawings. But ya know, so it goes. Click the image to view a larger, more detailed version.

Anyway, blah blah blah, art art art. I hope you guys have a happy Halloween. Eat some candy and jump in some leaves and stay up late and watch a horror movie or something! It's that time of year, ya know. Might as well enjoy it!

Europe Sketches, Part One

Hey internet! How's shakes? I've been up to a whole bunch of stuff lately, the
most exciting of which being that I recently spent a bit of time in Europe this past summer! (In the below picture, imagine the terrifyingly large beer mug represents Europe, and the hapless lad in the plaid shirt represents our beloved protagonist)

I visited London, Barcelona and Paris with my good friend Allison, and it was preeeeetty rad overall. We saw a lot of sights, ate a lot of food, and I managed to fit in a fair bit of sketching while we were out and about. This first batch was all done while in Barcelona, where we spent the majority of our time.



More sketches to come!

Hey, Anyone Else Like Colour?

Angst Man & Updates

Hey all! Here are a couple illustrations I recently did for an animation project pitch a couple friends are putting together. It's the story of "Angst Man," a 90s superhero throwback, and his beleaguered former sidekick with whom he moves in. It's a fun concept, and served as a nice little break from a lot of the other comics stuff I've been busy working on this last little while.





In other news: Its already been some time since, but TCAF was a total blast! It was awesome selling some comics, and seeing and catching up with old friends (and some new ones too!). My buddy Beth - who has been a wayyyy more prolific blogger than I've been as of late - did a kickass write-up about it over here. You can also read a brief interview I did for the Torontoist at the show over here.

Also! Cartoon College is finally out, and has begun screening at festivals! I haven't seen it myself yet, but the people I know who have have had nothing but good things to say about it. Which is pretty exciting stuff! I'll try to keep this blog updated as things continue to develop, but in the meanwhile you can follow it on facebook and see if it's going to be screening anywhere near you!

TCAF 2012

 
Sort of last minute, but I'm going to be at TCAF this Saturday and Sunday! I'll be tabling with Laura Terry and Jon Chad, and will have a mini preview version of "Darcy Cheyne: Werewolf Hunter" for sale. So if you happen to be in Toronto this weekend, come check us out!

Why Does it Always Rain On Me?

Hey Internet, sorry I have been a bad blogger as of late! I've been super busy drawing things, which has left me with a bit less time for updating this old thing than I've had previously. Here's a quick preview of what I've been up to, though! An early spread from the graphic novel I've been working on. Who is that guy chopping up those onions? Who is that mysterious hooded figure breaking into that house? Is something going on? Is there gonna be murder? Only time will tell! (And as always, click to view bigger)

Spring = Sketchbooks!

The Nose That Dripped Blood...

More backing board sketches, except this time with colour. 'Cause why not! Click the image if you want to view it bigger. I'm busy getting over a cold right now, so I don't have too much to report (outside of things gross and mucus-related, natch). For those less interested in news of that nature, however, you can busy yourself by checking out the new trailer for the upcoming Cartoon College documentary! I'm gonna appear in it, and also did a bit of work for it, don'tcha know.

Pancake Prevarication

I realize it's been awhile since I've put a full comic up on ye ol' blog-o-tron, so I figured why not rectify that, even if it is only a two-pager. This comic was originally done for the anthology Lies Grown-Ups Told Me, which is a pretty solid collection of comics if I do say so myself. As always, click the pages to view larger.