FanExpo Sketch

Here's a little sketch I did at FanExpo. Got to go recuperate.

Disney Buys Marvel Comics

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I don't usually post business stories on this blog but this one's a doozy and pretty significant to everyone who loves comics and animation.Disney has begun the process of purchasing Marvel Comics.You can read more about it here.Above is a painting by the great Disney comics artist Floyd Gottfredson.

FanExpo Day Two

Another crazy day at the FanExpo went by. I had another great time and got a bunch of great books signed by the artist/writers.Above is Jeff Lemire, creator of the new comic The Nobody for Vertigo, which I got the signed.The night ended at a big birthday party for cartoonist Steve Menale which was a lot of fun. I sat around and listened to some of my favorite artists talk about the world of comics and cartooning. I'll try and post more tonight as I'm posting this from the road.

Blind Willie McTell

FanExpo Day One

I had a pretty full, hectic day of running around,networking and getting books signed. Before I went to the FanExpo I got distracted by the sights and sounds of a busker festival happening on a blocked off street.Stilts,acrobats,robotic accordion players and a gigantic steampunk bicycle.The second picture is of a panel I attended on webcomics. On the panel was Cameron Stewart, Andy Belanger, Ramon Perez, Brian McLachlan and Karl Kerschl. It was incredibly informative and a lot of fun. Below are the Immonens! Kathryn and Stuart Immonen

• are two of Canada's very best comic book creative people. The do lots of amazing stuff but the work they collaborated on Moving Pictures, a Nazi Germany era story about art theft, is one of the best comics I've read. Wonderful stuff. Also, Kathryn brought two Tove Jansson books to show me. Did I mention they are awesome?

Finally, a couple of goons from the Empire.

FanExpo

Here'salittle sketch book doodle. I'll be spending much of the weekend at FanExpo here in Toronto. Please come down if you're in the area.Also coming up fast is Dragon*Con in Atlanta which I hear Mike Mignola will be at....

Cartoonists Take Over Toronto

Last night I got invited along for a night on the town with some of Canada's very best cartoonists. Along with the usual guys we had Jay Stephens, J Bone and Darwyn Cooke out last night. Jay is the two time Emmy winning cartoonist responsible for such classics as Tutenstein and The Land Of Nod. J Bone is the incredible artistic talent behind comics like Super Friends and The Brave And The Bold. And Darwyn is one of Canada's best known and highly regarded comics writers and artists. He's the Eisner Award winning artist behind books like The New Frontier, Catwoman and The Spirit. It was a really fun night rambling around the city with all these guys from the Canadian comics community.They are all in town for thew Toronto Fan Expo which everyone in town should go to...

Harry Making A Map

It's raining here today in Toronto and my scanner's still broken. I'm going to take the dog for a walk and listen to Bluegrass. The more I work on Harry and Silvio the more Bluegrass I listen too...

Cloud Castle

A panel from Harry and Silvio.

Little My

A little Moleskine sketch of Little My, a character from Tove Jansson's Moomomtrolls one of my very favorite writer/artists.

Post Script: Animator Elliot Cowan sent me this link of Jansson art I'd never seen before this morning and it totally blew me away. Thanks Elliot!

P.P.S. Writer Kathryn Immonen was kind enough to send me this really cool link to a Tove Jansson site. Check out the little Moomin in the still life...

The One And Only David Petersen.

One of the absolutely best things about living in Toronto is the opportunity to meet people whose work I really admire. I hope I never get too used to it because it's a big thrill for me. Yesterday I got to meet David Petersen and his wife Julie and they were so nice and so forthcoming and generous with their thoughts and ideas about comics. I came out of that signing feeling like I got a mini lesson on comics and creator owned properties.

The shop talk was great too. I was surprised and relieved to discover that David uses a technical pen for his work. I had recently begun using one and was a bit embarrassed because I thought I ought to be using a dipping, crow quill type pen. I was totally surprised to see the original size of his work, so small! Yet still so detailed. Beautiful black and white pieces.

Amazing people and David is a big inspiration to me so I'm so grateful to have had this opportunity.

Where I found Harry And Silvio

I was working on something for someone else and I was bored. This was a couple of years ago, 2007 I think. I needed to draw something to save me from going nuts. I was reading a lot of George Herriman's Krazy Kat (one of the best comics ever created) and Edward Lear's nonsense poetry and listening to a lot of folk music from the southern States. So when I decided to do something to keep my sanity while doing this project it was like Harry and Silvio were waiting for me. I didn't know who they were at first, I didn't know the were cloud cartographers but I did know I loved they way they looked and I sensed a lot of personality in them. I started a comic but didn't write anything, I just made it up as I went along. I used a rule at the beginning: just draw,draw,draw and don't worry about how it looked. I did the first few strips this way but as I discovered more about these guys and their world and I found more characters in their world I started to slow down and take this nonsense more seriously. Funny how the silliest thing I've done is also the most personal. The above page is from the strip Harry and Silvio and the Girl in The Purple Boat.

Stupid Scanner

I was going to post something totally different today but my scanner keeps saying it's not attached when it obviously is so instead here's an homage to the great Maurice Sendak.A Moleskine doodle.

Happy Second Blogaversary!!

Wow! Two years doing a blog now! It's become an integral part of my art production, encouraging to make more art, to challenge myself and to seek out other artists who blog to learn from them and enjoy their work.Thanks to everyone for visiting and commenting.As part of a burgeoning tradition I'm re-posting the first image I posted.

Number 40

Another Moleskine sketch. The goldfish robot tank is something that's been popping up in my work a lot lately.

Silvio And A Dinosaur From Moleskine

I don't know what's going on here. All these new images keep bubbling up in the Harry and Silvio universe. And all the images are really mysterious.

Maddy Kettle Moleskine Sketch

Here's a Moleskine sketch of Maddy Kettle from the world of Harry & Silvio. Maddy is a twelve your cowgirl with a purple boat that flies and she battles goblins. She uses her purple boat to help Harry & Silvio travel to distant clouds for their map making.

Maddy Kettle And Ratcopter

A Harry and Silvio sketch....I'll post a proper scan later on.

Moleskine Ball Monster

I'm actually not sure what to say about this.....

Moleskine Portrait

Here's another Moleskine sketch. I'm pretty happy with this one.

Buy This Magazine!!

The new issue of Illo just came out and it features an amazing cover featuer on Michael Cho, one of the best artists in Canada today. Beautiful stuff and a supoer cool guy. Check it out. There is also an article on another one of my favorites James Gurney.

Hiding In A Barrel ( Moleskine 2 redone )

Here I've continued to play with and change this watercolour. I have gone back and forth between Photoshop and ArtRage.

New Toys!!

Here are the new toys I got this week.

Some Sights From Toronto From The Superman Club To The Beguiling

I spent a full day in the city yesterday ( I was lost for a large portion of it...) and had a great time. At the top is weekly cartoonist meeting called the Superman Club. Today there was a visiting cartoonist from way down south Danielle Corsetto who does the wonderful webcomic Girls with Slingshots . After that I headed down to Magic Pony with Steve Manale . Steve's been working on the Scott Pilgrim movie starring Michael Cera and putting in crazy hours. After Magic Pony I got lost for a couple of hours. The next picture is the Four Seasons performing arts center which is home to much of the cities opera and ballet. Then it's a sidewalk market in Little Korea which is wonderful, these fruit and vegetable markets go on and on down the street and I can't recognize a single fruit or vegetable. Next is the Art Gallery of Ontario which I still haven't been to this summer. And finally is a party thrown by The Beguiling comic shop to welcome Mike Drake to the store. This was really fun. The Beguiling people are fantastic.

Another Unpublished Harry & Silvio From A Story Tentatively Titled "The Cloud Cave"

First panel in the book I hope to one day make my opus.

Unpublished Harry & Silvio Panel

Something from a future Harry And Silvio tale involving robots and witches.

iPod Odds And Ends

To be honest I post things on weekends I wouldn't post any other day. Especially Sundays. This is because I get less visitors so I don't feel a need to put something up that represents my work in a definitive way. I can post images that are experiments or failures or just uncharacteristic. I look forward to Sundays for this reason. Here are some noodles things I've done on the iPod, a little more abstract or looser than usual.

Harry & Silvio Character Noodles

It seems as though no matter what else I'm doing I always find myself sketching Harry and Silvio related stuff. I think it's the ultimate place where all the weird stuff that goes through my head settles. In a strange way it's a deeply meaningful project. Strange because it's mostly nonsense. Tellingly it's one of the few things I've been able to easily finish. The top one is me trying to make a scientist character for the world.Still not sure what he or she will look like. I was thinking of something like one of Nathan Jurevicius' characters. The next two pages I'm exploring two characters. One is called the Wind Witch ( a name I'm not crazy about) and the other is a robot. And finally I've been toying with the idea of having my character Bera the One Headed Troll be part of the Harry And Silvio universe. The more I think about it the more it makes sense. I'd rather write about one big world than a bunch of little ones.

Moleskine 3 iPod bElly

Another Moleskin sketch. I think it has to do with my life...

iPod Touch Sketch : Girl Too

Here's another sketch I did on the iPod with the Brushes app. I'm starting to get comfortable with this tool and the work is starting to reflect my style and open up new creative paths.

Moleskine 2

Another moleskine sketch. I plan on playing with this photoshop later.

Benjamin Lacomb

Related to the last post...Here's a book I bought at Librairie Pantout. It's called Genealogie d'une Sorciere by Benjamin Lacomb. I bought the Collectors edition which is a gorgeous two books in a slip case. This is a beautiful book, Benjamin's one of my favorite artists working today and more people in North America really need to hear about him. These books are worth every penny, they are so lushly illustrated and beautifully produced.