Behind the Curtain

I always think that it's interesting to see the colored artwork without any line art. I think that most people assume that coloring comics is a lot like putting colors to a coloring book.

It's true.

But there are different degrees of how well a person can color. In the hands of a good "colorist" (not that I'm referring to myself as one!) pages can look darn right painterly.

And Heeeeere's...

...the cover!

The Beginning is the End...

Is it that time already?

Page 2

I should really be reading some book for school tonight. I'm leading a book study in the morning.

F*** it.

Page 3

Here ya go!

Oops!

Missed a night. Here's a double dose of goodness.

Eagerly awaiting...

the the return of the wife. Tomorrow night.

Don't wait up.

Page 7

For your consumption.

Page 8

Page 8

Mr. Mom Day 2

Pretty dang proud of myself.

Witnessed Little P's first swimming lesson (I'd give him C-) took the boys to lunch, grocery shopped, came home and cooked dinner, loaded the dishwasher started a load of laundry, bathed Little P and put both boys to sleep before 8:00. Let's see how long that lasts.

Depressing, thinking that I only did about half of that list by my lonesome.

T-5 days until the Missus comes home.

I'll get by witha little from my. . .

FAMILY!

Wife is gone for six days. SIX DAYS!

Got both boys ready for church with the fam. Big D didn't nap like he should have, but Little P was a drawing machine. After lunch, the fam came over and helped move Big D's crib upstairs. Gonna try to break him of feeding during the night while mom's away.

Parents (and brother) are keeping Little P overnight so that's a HUGE help.

Wish me luck.

Page 11

Here's page 11.

Parker got a new bike today. Remind me to tell you how it went.

I can't go into detail today and maybe the next few days.

The wifey-poo is going out of town so I'm more than likely going to be exhausted.

Page 12

Page 12

Knock yourself out.

Page 13

For your viewing pleasure.

Page 14

Here it is.

Page 15 and sweet relief!

Sorry for not posting anything "wordy" recently. This blog is the last hurdle of the day before I hop in bed. Quantity wins over quality here, folks. Last night, any spare words I had rattling around my head went elsewhere.

Last night I committed a comic book idea I've had in my head for about ten years to typing. During those ten years, I've collected books, articles, sketches, scraps of paper, anything that I thought could one day be used to flesh-out this concept. But I have never really committed anything to "paper."

Until last night.

I sat down at the computer last night and the whole thing (well, most of the big picture stuff) exploded from my finger tips. I typed 2500 words and went to bed @ 12:30. I was tired at 9:30. I just couldn't stop. That's one gigantic mind-dump out of the way. The good thing about mind-dumps is that once the dust settles, as it has today, my mind is free to flesh out more details and plot developments without fear of losing/forgetting something else.

Speaking of plot developments, my shoulder is just sore today. Thankfully, I still have a total range of motion. This plot thread should tie itself up pretty soon. No rotator-cuff surgery for me.

Yet.

Page 16

REALLY hurt my left shoulder today throwing the Frisbee with Joe and P.

Funny thing is, I wasn't using my left arm at all.

I'll keep you posted if this plot development goes anywhere. Stay Tuned.

Here's page 16.

Page 17

Enjoy.

Losing Steam?

Yup.

Page 18.

Losing Steam?

Nah. Just got a headache. Here's page 19.

Page 20

Sorry folks. Gotta color tonight.

Hmmm...

Little P just woke up from. . .

(drum roll please)

... A FIVE HOUR NAP!

This from the guy who gave up napping two years ago.

Damn! He was tired! Definitely "took it easy" today.

Poor guy thinks it's 7:30 am instead of 7:30 pm.

Against Doctor's Orders...

Little P woke up with a fever this morning. I slept on his floor last night. He wet the bed and curled up on the ground next to me. He sleeps like a dog; he HAS to be touching you with some part of his body. Last night, it was his toes. I was shocked by how hot they were. That freaked me out a little. I know that personally, my toes are the first extremity to freeze at night. Aren't the toes and fingers and nose the first to get frost bitten? Anyway, Toro and I woke up in a pretty good mood (I was just relieved he didn't die under my watch!) Then he crashed on the couch for another hour and a half! He and ma went to the doctor. Standard Doctor's appt: Just viral. It'll run it's course. Take it easy. Don't go back to camp until he's been fever free for 24 hours. That'll be $15.

So we took the boys out on a play date to Zoinks and Chick-fil-a.

When we tucked in Little P he was in a good mood.

And Hot.

Probably won't go to camp tomorrow.

When the doctor says "take it easy" it really means "do absolutely nothing!"

It's been one of those days...

Little P was home from Camp all day.

It's a good thing too. He's been riding a fever roller-coaster since this morning. We just put our boys to sleep, but I think I'm going to head upstairs and sleep on the floor. Here's hoping we're not BOTH quarantined tomorrow.

For as long as I can remember, there have been three ways for me to escape my reality; long trips, work, school.

They are, in no particular order, "reading", "creating," and sleeping. "Reading" is pretty self explanitory, and there is a little overlap with "creating." I consider that little overlap "absorbing." So even if I look like I'm watching TV/movies, I'm still being "productive." Well, being a home-body today gave me plenty of time to escape, BUT I COULDN'T! Rain kept me from reading to D-Money, there was no way in hell I could get any drawing done, and the TV was given to our sick little man.

I'm going to put my next escape plan into effect in two minutes. Going to recharge my batteries and see where we are the morning.

Goodnight.

Happy Fourth

And happy fifth! Post that is.

Just got back from our annual Chinese sky-candy at VBC.

The boys had a good time until the festivities began. D-Money is NOT a fan of fireworks.

Yet.

Bobbi and Ah-ya took turns watching him but he was fast asleep. Little P didn't last too long once we got in the van.

It's late. For us. I'm going to bed.

Hope ya'll had a Happy Fourth...

It's all about momentum

Here it is, day four (in a row!) posting on my blog. Not a big acheivement, but a big acheivement for me. Here's hoping I can keep this up. Whenever a streak is broken, I have a really hard time getting back on track. After a three-day weekend, I really dread going back to work. A one week vacation, it's even harder. Summer vacation, forget it. I REALLY don't want to go back to work.

Took Little P to "The Last Air Bender" today. Not great, but not as awful as critics had prepared me for. What struck me most watching the movie was that M. Night Shyamalan used to be the king of decompressed film making. He would take two minutes of story and stretch them out to five. With Air Bender, he compressed ten hours of story into two hours. I scratched my head the hardest as two characters fell in love during a one-sentence voice-over. Damn.

Little P has made me watch the cartoon before, and it is enjoyable. What I like most about Ang (the main protagonist) is that he is very immature. He has an exhuberant sense of awe and wonder and a playful personality. The kid who plays him in the movie (and was found on the internet!) doesn't really have much range. This is the director who used Haily Joel Osmet in the Sixth Sense? This kid was seriously lacking joy as he played brooding "Bruce Lee" through the film. Half of his dialogue was delivered with his back to the camera (Nice try Night!)

Little P liked it, so I liked it. Uncle Jee-Jah (who also came with us and has NOT seen the source material) said it was alright. I took it for what it was: a two-hour trailer for a great cartoon series.

After the movie, we ate and McDonald's, went to Toys R Us and I came home to cut the grass with Big D on my back. This summer, I've been cutting the grass every two weeks. This was the third time "landscaping" in six weeks. I usually wind up putting it off, and cutting the grass about once a season which takes forEVer! I've kept up the momentum.

I'm afraid now, I'm building momentum on not creating comics. This is momentum I'm going to have to flip. Soon.

Page 25. Enjoy!

Third time's a charm...

I'm actually pretty tired tonight, but I MUST forge ahead. I'm currently 3-3 in the posting dept. so I can't stop now.

When I see an artist point out a flaw in a work of art/film, I can't help but see that flaw over and over again. Most times it doesn't bother me. I t actually gives me hope; that these are works of art and not magic. That they are created by human beings who are subject to flaws.

Sometimes I think that it's because an artist doesn't know how to talk about their works, that they'd rather let the work speak for itself. Pointing out a flaw is the easiest thing for them to say and the most obvious thing that they see.

I try my hardest now to point out the bad in my work. I should be my own cheerleader. If I'm not in my own corner why should any one else. Don't make it easy for the critics!

That being said, when I originally drew this page, Lt was being fired out of his tank cannon, traveling from right to left. The intention (waaay back in '03) was for the audience to "read" his face first in the panel. When I colored it in 2010, I felt that it "read" wrong. That the reader's eye is trained to read from left to right. The thought now is that the "momentum" of the drawing will lead the reader into the next page. By doing this simple flip, you'll notice that this is the one panel where his headset is on the wrong side. Oh well.

Slowly Building Momentum...

So here we are: Day Two.
As a reward, here's page 27 of "Codename: Voodoo Chyl'."

What can I say about it?
Years ago, when Bets and I were first married, I retired to my office, the "Sky Room" and started penciling pages for "Keith Roann: Voodoo Chyl'"

July 15, 2003 to be exact. How do I know this?
It was the night a brand new outrageous show debuted: "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."
Very auspicious beginnings indeed!
Actually, I can trace back the origin of "Voodoo Chyl'" a little bit farther than that, but that is another story.

On that July night, I had just finished building a Heuy helicopter model (which i thought looked damn cool considering I build a model once every ten years.)

Unfortunately, very little of that model survived baby #1. Maybe baby #2 will finish the job.

It currently resides in The Lounge.

One day when I am a millionaire, I can archive it properly.