Here be Dag-rons

So Josh, what have you been doing with your time? Oh, you know. Reading A Dance With Dragons. Playing Dragon Age: Origins. Watching the movie Dragonslayer. I, um... I might have a problem... Yet where others might easily recoil at this parody of a life I have somehow shambled my way into, me, I choose to embrace it! Dragons are awesome, man. You cannot argue with this.

In other news, Rob Clough put up a nice review of Werewolf IV and Werepups, along with a bunch of other snazzy CCS anthologies, over on his blog. Kind words from Rob, and very much appreciated, as always. It's encouraging to hear him mention his interest in Darcy, my werewolf hunter character, too. She has been a central part of what I've been working on for the last little bit. Some of you regular blog readers know what I'm talking about. More on that down the line.

Flip It, Flop It, Davey Crockett

More backing board sketching! The lady in the top left is copied from Steve Morris's extremely impressive book "Blessed Thistle," and the rest are copied from some random Phaidon photo collection. Whatever gets the juices flowing, right?

Some Things I'm In (Figuratively and Literally)

A couple quick things I've got/am going to have work in that I wanted to post about. First off is "Lies Grown-Ups Told Me," an anthology that the ever-lovely Nomi Kane, Jen Vaughn and Caitlin M. are putting together about the improbable things we are led to believe as children. I've got a two-pager in it called "Pancake Prevarication," about breakfasts and false expectations. I'll likely make another post as a reminder when it gets closer to release, but it looks like it's already shaping up to be a pretty serious anthology. So be sure to check it out when it debuts at SPX in September!

Secondly, I wanted to point out that "Panel to Panel: Exploring Words and Pictures" by John Rovnak is now available to order! I've mentioned this publication here a couple times before, as it's what my Public Domain Superhero drawings from awhile back were originally done for. Well now this 274 page monster is finally available for purchase, so you can hold it in your very own grubby little hands! In addition to illustrations by myself and a handful of other talented cartoonists, it features interviews with the likes of Alan Moore, Jim Woodring, Jaime Hernandez and Glen Danzig, among others, so definitely worth checking out if you have the cash.

Also, in real life news, I recently moved apartments! Which might account in part for the lack of updates as of late. You can see a brief photo-tour of my new set-up so far over on my tumblr. It's nice having a place all to myself, and having a room dedicated solely to drawing in. So yeah, that's kinda neat! We'll see how all that effects my productivity in the months to come.

Cardboard Sketches

I've been busy with many things lately, and have had less time to blog than I'd like. And I've realized that there's a lot of drawing that I do that I often don't get around to putting online, and maybe should? So in place of anything of actual substance to report, here are some random doodles done on comic backing boards while at my "day job."

One more on my flickr. The sketches on the latter page here are mostly inspired by a book of paintings by artist Lucian Freud. His portraits are such an amazing mix of the beautiful and the grotesque, it really gets my juices flowing in interesting ways.

I wanted to point out as well a recent series of interviews that the Comics Journal podcast did with some Center for Cartoon Studies alumn. I've been mentioning CCS a lot over the past few blog posts, mainly because I've been putting up comics from that period, but also because going there was a fairly significant experience for me. And I feel like these interviews - particularly the parts with Melissa Mendes, who was in my class, and Joe Lambert, who was part of the community while I was around - paint a fairly accurate picture of what being there was like. So, you know, consider giving it a listen. And consider checking out Joe and Melissa's blogs as well, because both of them just happen to be ridiculously talented people.

Ophestios, 1890

And after a brief break, we're back again with another addition to the still-growing comics section (which I'm already starting to consider trimming down a little bit. We'll see, we'll see). I realize that all of the comics I've added so far have been on the slightly lengthier side. Well let me tell ya, this one is the worst of the bunch. Good thing it's also probably the one I'm most proud of.

"Ophestios" is the comic I produced at the end of my first year at the Center for Cartoon Studies. I had a lot on my mind at the time, principally some ambitious thoughts on "comics as literature" coupled with a mild obsession with the works and philosophy of Bertolt Brecht. Suddenly, I wanted to do a "period piece." And I wanted it to have substance to it, and I wanted it to feel like all that great, depressing Russian and German literature that I'd learned to love in undergrad, oh so long ago. This was the result.

This story was originally intended as the start of a much larger piece, which I eventually set aside, but I think it still functions fairly well on its own. The Comics Journal's Rob Clough had some very nice things to say about it upon its initial release, as did Rich Kreiner more recently. Reading the reviews now makes me almost regret having decided to put this project on hold. But oh well. I'm convinced that the project I'm working on right now, in place of this, is pretty swank too. And there's still quite a few ideas behind the world of "Ophestios" that I still like, so maybe I'll return to it someday.

In the meanwhile, there are hard copies of the book still available for purchase through I Know Joe Kimpel, or through me when I appear at conventions. I wasn't sure if I had much of a desire to pump out another print run once this current batch runs out though, so I thought maybe a second life online might be the best way to keep the piece alive. At the end of the day, it's a story that I still like quite a bit. And hey, maybe you will too. (Be warned though, the comic contains both adult language and situations. Potentially NSFW)

Werewolf 4

So just some quick news! Volume four of the Werewolf Anthology premiered at MeCAF this past weekend, and I've got an eight page story in it! I posted a couple of in-process photos of me working on this over on my tumblr recently, and there's a preview of the finished pages over on the Werewolf blog, so check those out if you want a bit of a sneak peek.

The book should be available shortly through the Werewolf Anthology site now that MeCAF is through, so keep a look out! My story aside, there's a ton of awesome people in this anthology, it's definitely worth a read. And look out as well for Were-Pups, the kid-friendly sister book to this volume of the anthology! How can you say no to that Nick Patten cover? Kids need werewolf comics too, y'know!

Sketchdump!

Sketchdump sketchdump sketchdump!







Way more on my flickr. So go check it out!