More Stuff for September

Episode Eight of Babyhead is now online, with more guest art by Sonic Nova. Today is also Nova's Birthday, so be sure to wish him a happy one on facebook. In other news, I met Jesse Moynihan the other day while I finishing episode seven at a coffee house in Silver Lake. Jesse's Forming is exactly the kind of webcomix I wish I could pull off; head on over to Jesse's site to check out the latest episode of his mystical scifi epic.

New Stuff for September

Episode Seven of Babyhead is now online, featuring art by the one and only Sonic Nova. Nova will also be the featured artist at a Gallery Shindig on September 16th at Mom & Pops Tattoo, and we've created a bootleg tshirt to show our support for the event, with all proceeds to go to Nova (probably to buy extra beer). The Moldy Suitcases will also perform at 4pm.

New Stuff for August

Babyhead #6 is now online; new readers can check out the first episode to read the strip from the beginning. The RSS is also available to keep tabs on upcoming episodes, which might be delayed a bit by the Norma & Margie relaunch (the pic above is a shot from the new version of the cartoon), and by the upcoming Toppohaus facebook page. The latest Babyhead also features production design by Sonic Nova, who's working on both an upcoming art show and his own online comic. In other news, Norma & Margie's audio mastermind Ian Wilson Ross now has a site for his recording and production studio, which you can check out here.

New Stuff for July!

Episode Four of Babyhead is now online! Those of you new to the ongoing series can start with Episode One ; more episodes out soon! In other news, more shirts have been added to Topposhop, and two of my fellow classmates from Meltdown University have also launched webcomics, so be sure to check out Cupcake Meow Meow by Nik Manikatos and Monster Matador by Steven Prince.

More New Stuff for June

Episode Three of Babyhead is now online! In other news, the Topposhop over at Redbubble now features Tshirts and stickers sporting Sonic Nova's illustration of Thea from Red Envelope, and Norma & Margie from the Norma & Margie animated short.

New Stuff for June

Episode Two of Babyhead is now online for you fine folks to check out! I'm still feeling my way through the process, but I'm starting to find a groove, and should be able to get future episodes out more frequently. The ToppoShop is now online as well, where you can find a Tshirt and stickers featuring a Sonic Nova illustration of Hokus Krokus, a character from Norma & Margie. In other news, the ever-rambunctious Nova will be the featured artist at Mom & Pops Tattoo and Piercing's Anniversary Party on Saturday, June 10th. Troy City Comix Issues One and Two are also available for sale here if you can't make it to the party and need some sonic madness.

Street Fighting Man

STREET FIGHTING MAN is a feature-length, character-driven documentary that follows three inner-city men – each a generation apart – as they seek to define their lives in post-industrial Detroit. Deris Solomon is a young single father who wants to leave behind a high-risk life on the streets; Luke Williams is a middle-aged man remodeling a former crack house after being homeless for several years; and James “Jack Rabbit” Jackson is a retired police officer struggling to save his neighborhood from crime after the local police station is dissolved. Through the stories of these men, the film unflinchingly reveals how hard it can be to build a future when everything seems to be crumbling around you.

Twin Goat Complete Recording of New Album

Husband and wife experimental/country/dub/psychedelic duo from Providence, RI. Twin Goat have just completed their fourth album for the RPM challenge, "Where Are The Ghosts?"

Click Here to stream tracks from "Where Are The Ghosts?"

Click Here to check out some of Twin Goat's other records.

Kids Comics LA at Meltdown Comics

Meltdown Comics will be holding Kids Comics L.A., an interactive day of comics, creativity, and family fun on Saturday, December 4th, 2010. Organized with Sam Humphries (CBGB, Fraggle Rock, MySpace Comics) the free event will introduce young readers to comics, and creators who will teach the attendees how to create their own comics.

Creators participating in the event include Ian Brill (Darkwing Duck and Rescue Rangers for BOOM! Kids Comics), David Server and Jackson Lanzing (Penguins of Madagascar for Ape Entertainment), and Chris and Shane Houghton (Reed Gunther).

Artoberfest at MillBilly Art Studio

Sonic Nova, Kriss Bliss, and dozens of other artists will be showing their work at the Artoberfest Art Show at MillBilly Art Studio from 3pm to 1pm this Saturday. Go and check it out. Costumes are encouraged!

Click here to view the facebook invite.


MillBilly Art Studio
395 Pleasant St.
Durfee Mills - Bldg.#11
(across from General Fitness)
Fall River, MA

Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods at Meltdown Comics

About seven years ago I was making ends meet as an assistant in the Videogame division at Twentieth Century Fox. I can't say the position was a nonstop cavalcade of fun, but it did have its moments, especially when it occasionally involved one of my favorite pursuits: Comics. My good friend David Stalker was looking for a writer for a licensed game relaunch, and shared with me his idea of using a comic book writer to remold an intellectual property that was long in the tooth. I had recently come across writer Grant Morrison's website, so I took a shot in the dark and sent an email to the site's webmaster about Morrison potentially writing for the game, hoping that they would forward along my inquiry to him. It turned out that Morrison's manager & girlfriend-now-wife Kristan actually ran the site, and we started talking about the possibility of getting together the next time they were in Los Angeles. After a few months and a dinner that involved a bit too much wine for my bodyweight, Morrison got the gig, and I got an inside look at how a genius writes for a project with a million moving pieces while simultaneously assuaging the proprietal concerns of a vertically integrated media monster. For an aspiring writer like myself at the time, this was priceless.

Needless to say, the experience inspired me to keep up with all things Morrison, and when I read that Meltdown Comics in LA would be screening Patrick Meaney's documentary Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods, I made a beeline down Sunset Boulevard to check it out. The store's gallery where the screening was held was packed, but they squeezed me in after a quick handstamp from the ever-vigilant Chris Rosa.

The documentary is impressive, not just in terms of its production value, but in terms of its structure. Most documentaries are structured to tell a narrative, but GMTWD is actually a polymyth, layered to tell multiple narratives. In addition to the narrative of Morrison's own journey as a writer, the documentary presents the evolution of the superhero in American Comics, and ultimately the arc of the mindset of Morrison's audience and how we view the world, from the decade of potential that was the 90s, to the low of 9/11 to the uncertainty of today. The doc will be available to purchase at Amazon next week, but if you live in LA, you can get it for $15 at Meltdown right now.

Here's the trailer:



Click here to read my other Comics-related articles.

The Science of Iron Man at CalTech

Scientists and Hollywood Special Effects experts gathered at Caltech to discuss the real world science and technical wizardry behind "Iron Man 2" and present extended scenes from the "Iron Man 2" home video release.

Read the article here.

Check out some of my other comics-related posts here.

Go to 24Hour Comics Day at Annex Comics

24Hour Comics Day is the brainchild of comic-book guru Scott McCloud. Originally a challenge to Steve Bissette to write & illustrate a complete comic in twenty-four hours, the concept grew in popularity until it became an annual event across the country.

Annex Comics will be hosting 24 Hour Comics Day on Saturday October 2nd, 2010, beginning at 10:00 am. All local artists are invited to participate; please bring your own art supplies. Sonic Nova will be onsite to answer questions about the craft of creating comics as his illustrates his new comic, Victory Mullet.

If you really want to learn how to make comics, come down to Annex Comics this Saturday.

Click here to go to the invite on Facebook.

Annex Comics
314 Broadway
Newport, RI
(401) 847-4607
http://www.annexcomics.com

Operation Total Chaos!

Over on his Writing Samples page, Tom Gastall has posted the first act of Operation Total Chaos! A master villain schemes to destroy a small town, and there’s only one person who can stand up to him… his babysitter. Check it out!

Paul Pope's Inking Demo at Comic-Con

One of the highlights at SDCC for me was the inking demo that Paul Pope gave for the CBLDF. Pope inked the skull of Yorick from Hamlet for the demo. The process really came together for me when Pope added the shadow of the skull on the fingers of the hand holding it, establishing the relation of the hand and the skull in a 3d space.

Some of my notes from the demo:
-Pope uses Koh-i-norr & Sumi ink, and a ceramic dish to hold the ink when working.
-For Paper, Pope uses Strathmore Hot press 2-ply, or cold press for an "old masters" effect.
-Pope uses a variety of brushes for inking, including Windsor Newton Series 7 & the University Series.
-Fill in large black areas with a small sponge to save time.
-Don't store your brushes in the jar point-down.
-When inking with a caligraphy brush, plant your pinky on the paper to steady your hand.
-He uses Masters Brush Cleaner for cleaning brushes.
-Pope likes to "activate" his brush before use by allowing the ink to soak into the bristles for a few minutes.
-He likes to watch episodes of the Outer Limits for lighting ideas.

Check out some video clips of the demo from around the web:

Paul Pope talks about inking (part 1) from Christine Rhee on Vimeo.

Paul Pope talks about inking (part 2) from Christine Rhee on Vimeo.

Check out some of my other comics-related posts here.

Hokus Krokus Studio

We've moved over to Hokus Krokus Studio to better present what we're up to. Come check us out.

Unicorpse

HK collaborator Ian Wilson Ross wrote the closing track to UNICORPSE, the 48 Hour Film Project Providence fantasy entry by They're Using Tools! Check it out.

Batman by Sonic Nova - Final

Here's the final version of Sonic Nova's Batman. Originally I wanted the coloring to have a modern look, along the lines of Dave Stewart's work on Hellboy. But I soon discovered that it was difficult to apply modeled coloring to this particular drawing. Flat colors were the only thing that seemed to work. I might try coloring a chiaroscuro drawing next time around for better results. There were quite a few phases for this one, but here are the phases that actually mattered:

-original pencil sketch by Sonic Nova
-redrafted pencils to alter the perspective.
-digital inks with Adobe Illustrator.
-graytone drawing in Photoshop to establish values.
-rough colors in Photoshop.
-final colors in Photoshop by Ursula (because I'm slightly color-blind.)

Ethan Banville at The Haha Cafe

Behold! Footage of Hokus Krokus collaborator Ethan Banville at The Haha Cafe in Burbank. The performance was part of Gerry Katzman's popular standup comedy class... nsfw.

Ethan Banville: standup at the Haha Cafe

Author, television writer, and Hokus Krokus favorite Ethan Banville will be performing standup at The Haha Cafe in North Hollywood on Tuesday, December 1st at 7pm. Admission is free.