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Stuff

“Curses! Foiled Again”, “Nico”, & The Phoenix

“Curses! Foiled Again”, the sequel to “Foiled” by Jane Yolen and I, is set to be released on January 8th, 2013 by First Second Books. A bunch of very good advance reviews are already in from Kirkus, Booklist, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal and Voya, and the book’s been awarded a 2012 Junior Library Guild Selection. That all adds up to a great beginning for the New Year. Check out the reviews on the “Foiled” page, HERE.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on a few things, including a project at Aaron Augenblick animation studios here in Brooklyn, where I was able to learn quite a bit of Flash, spent some time working on a Cintiq tablet, and met a bunch of very awesome animators and cartoonists. Meanwhile, I’m still plugging away at Decelerate Blue, my current graphic novel with author Adam Rapp for First Second Books, making my way through the pencils, a little slower than I’d like, but getting good results, I think. Also, just finished writing, penciling, inking and (hand!) lettering a new Nico Bravo story for The Phoenix Weekly Comic Magazine in the U.K.

The Phoenix is a British weekly anthology comic magazine for kids with contributions from cartoonists like Nick Abadzis, Patrice Aggs, John Aggs, Gary Northfield, and many others, including myself. The comics themselves are beautifully produced, funny, silly, sometimes even educational, and (stunningly) are all creator-owned! I can’t think of another comics magazine that’s even remotely similar. I don’t normally rave about something I’m actually contributing to, but every so often you get the opportunity to participate in something that you know is special and unique, and almost too good to be true. The Phoenix is one of these.

This week, The Phoenix launched their iPad app and are offering a pretty amazing introductory subscription rate — six months of weekly comics for £9.99 (UK) / $13.99 (US) if you place your order during the first week of the app’s launch.

It’s a great way to introduce yourself and some lucky young comics fan to the variety, fun, and quality The Phoenix has to offer.

The link to the iTunes app is:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/phoenix-weekly-story-comic/id583824799?mt=8

You’ll get the whole first book of CORA’S BREAKFAST by Nick Abadzis and future episodes of NICO BRAVO by me, plus many other stories by top-notch British cartoonists. Please lend your support by sharing the link, especially with parents of kids who are into comics.

Now on Tumblr

I have a new Tumblr blog HERE.

This WordPress blog will continue as usual, too.

New Stuff!

I’ve been lax … some new stuff out and coming out that I ought to make mention of here.

First off, “Nico Bravo & the Celestial Supply Shop” is finally out in the world in The Phoenix Weekly Story Comic magazine #34, where the Norse god Odin is planning some sort of surprise for Jupiter’s birthday, but it might not be the good kind of surprise. Can Nico figure it all out before it’s too late?

Nico’s next appearance will be in The Phoenix #43 — a super scary Halloween issue — when Vulcan’s Supply Shop gets an unwelcome visitor in “The Dream Catcher”.

Next, Capstone continues its “DC Super Heroes” series with “The Man of Steel: Parasite’s Feeding Frenzy” and “The Dark Knight: The Joker Virus”, both written by Scott Peterson and illustrated by me. Very fun stuff for the kids in the DC animated style.

And, I’ve been working on something with a writer named Tom Barham. It’s taken me forever to put together the artwork for this project in between other work, but I’ve finally crossed a finishline with it. Sorry, no details, or titles or anything like that at this time, but here’s an image, more news eventually.

Advance copies of “Curses! Foiled Again”, the sequel to “Foiled” by Jane Yolen and I, have arrived! Gina Gagliano does a nice write up at the First Second Books blog with some photos, which I’ve stolen …

“Curses!” will be out this winter 2012-2013.

New York Comic Con is around the corner and once again I’ve partnered with Shirt For A Cure to produce this exclusive design for sale at the Con featuring Savior 28 and The Daring Disciple. All proceeds go to support SFAC’s efforts to help underprivileged women afford the high cost of cancer treatment and medicine.

Kick The Boot

Adam Rapp’s manuscript for “DECELERATE BLUE” places much importance on author Kent VanGough’s now-out-of-print classic “KICK THE BOOT”, an eerily prescient warning against speed-up, surveillance, and the surrendering of civil liberties. Tracking down a copy for myself was no easy task, as the book is literally banned, but painstaking persistence has finally rewarded this anxious reader with his very own copy.

Looking forward to delving into this (in)famous text …

Simplify, simplify, simplify

The problem with having to come up with a different approach to each new project is having to come up with a different approach to each new project. In the case of DECELERATE BLUE, looking for an line art style that can keep up with the story and evolve along with it. At the beginning, searching for something that portrays the characters’s coldly efficient lifestyles. From thumbs to final pencils, trying to exclude as much as possible. Just necessary lines and solid black or white areas.

Page 1 preliminary thumbnail sketch:

DECELERATE thumbnail pg 001

Rough pencils:

DECELERATE pencil rough 001

Final pencils:

DECELERATE pencils 001

Page 2 preliminary thumbnail sketch:

DECELERATE thumbs 002

Rough pencils:

DECELERATE rough pencils 002

Final pencils:

DECELERATE pencils 002

More Decelerate Blue concept art

Just a few days after the last bit of concept art, Mark Siegel encouraged me to keep pushing the visual style for DECELERATE BLUE. I continued with some of the ideas from the first sketch, while trying to take things up a notch. Used more lost lines (but still not enough…), and tried to hint at the narrative, with the circuit board shapes morphing into the more organic human heart and veins. Tried to develop characters a little more. I like a lot of this, but it’s not perfect.

DB First Conceptual sketch

More from DECELERATE BLUE, my graphic novel in-progress with writer Adam Rapp for First Second Books. Here’s my first stab at some concept art showing Angela, the main character, and the Mega Mall, and a few of the supporting characters from the two ideological sides of the conflict. This was mostly done for my own purposes, just trying to visualize designs and graphic motifs, and to start bouncing ideas off editor Mark Siegel. Not sure where the idea to do the upside down / mirror image thing came from, but I went with it since it’s all about playing around right now.

Better than comics!

This past Easter, Lisa cooked up a feast for about 20 guests that included lamb, roast chicken, mushroom tart, homemade pasta, and various desserts. I contributed these vegetarian meatballs and something I’ve been threatening to make for years — bread! Continue reading →

DECELERATE BLUE

Over the winter I completed the artwork for CURSES! FOILED AGAIN, written by Jane Yolen, for First Second Books. It’s a sequel to our previous volume, FOILED, but the groundwork for my next graphic novel was laid a while back during a lull in the production of CURSES when I signed on to illustrate DECELERATE BLUE, a harrowing portrait of acceleration run-rampant by playwright Adam Rapp.

Continue reading →

Under The Moons of Mars event giveaway

This Wednesday, February 22nd, 7 – 9 pm at PowerHouse Arena in DUMBO, Brooklyn, the other contributors and I will be signing our new anthology, “Under The Moons of Mars” from Simon & Schuster Books, celebrating the 100th birthday of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “John Carter of Mars” series. I’ll be giving away signed copies of this print with each “Mars” book purchase to the first 20 guests.

Hope to see you there!