Tundra Ghost Three, Antlers

Another train sketch. I remember the train was swaying back and forth as I did the antlers. Done with ballpoint.

Goodbye Friend

Goodbye friend. You will be missed.  Anyone walking by would have thought it was a celebration. Which is exactly what it was.

Tundra Ghost Two, The Bear Boy

Here's another train sketch I did of tundra ghosts. I did lots of sketching on the train. I used the time to do some exploring with pencil and pen I don't usually have time for. It got frustrating at times when the train rocked so much I couldn't control the line but that's part of the whole thing, train sketches should include wonky lines.

Currently moving my studio to the farthest, most isolated part of the house. I need to work without distraction.

Returned To Hogtown

Finally back in Toronto. I was beginning to feel quite transient toward the end there. I'm suffering from a bit of Holiday burnout and am trying to get things back to normal. I need to jump right back into work but I'm still catching up on sleep. I'd be sleeping right now if I could. I drew and read lots in Halifax and the train. The biggest shift in reading is rediscovering good, old fashioned adventure stories. Long my favorite kind of stories I've not picked one up in ages and discovered some new ones on the trip. R.M. Ballantyne's The coral Island being the biggest revelation.

There were some down points to the Holiday. The biggest being a friend in Toronto passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. I still can't believe it. But it was wonderful to see family and friends after a long absence. It left me feeling conflicted. As much as I like Toronto I've come to realize it will never feel like home. I've developed a theory that it has to do with water. Living by the ocean or by a river is great but a lake just sits there, it isn't alive in the same way as moving water is. I think I miss living waters.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the season in whatever way is your favorite. Here is my annual Christmas drawing, this year it's Doppo and something weird behind him. It means well. I'm am snuggled happily in a bungalow thrust out into the Atlantic ocean as northwester's rage outside. I have a pile of books, wine and my family so all is good.

Floating Tundra Ghost

I spent much of the train trip meeting denizens of the frozen tundra in preparation for a book I'll do some day, doppo, and had a lot of fun exploring. There are a number of other creatures but I'm in Nova Scotia and don't have a scanner so I'm stuck posting whatever photographs best....

Somewhere Near The Ocean

After an excessively long train ride from Toronto to Halifax I'm back home for a week. There was something magical about falling asleep to gray, featureless buildings in Uper Canada and waking up to the above two scenes. I get so excited on the train when the Gaspe opens up more and more to reveal the vast ocean.

The family is staying with my Mom here in Sackville, just outside of Halifax. Only a week, not long enough! And I had to bring work on top of that. Ah well.

The train ride itself was great. I listened to the Hobbit audiobook, the whole thing, on the way down. It makes the trip seem more epic. And I drew monsters.

The above pictures are from the trip. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and finally the familiar Halifax dockyard at night as the train wobbled into the station. Julie and I love coming back and keep trying o find a way to live here part time. It may take years to manage but we'll figure it out.

Fourteen Comics To Buy for Kids

Not a lot of preamble required here but I will say all of these books are amazing. They are beautiful, moving, challenging and some of the very best comics being published today. In no order whatsoever.

1- Polo And The Magic Flute by Regis Faller

2-The Mourning Star by Kazimir Strzepek

3- Nausicca Of The Valley Of The Wind by Hayao Miyazaki

4-Saturn Apartments by Hisae Iwaka

5- Frankie Pickle by Eric Wight

6-The Clouds Above by Jordan Crane

7- Larry Marder's Beanword by Larry Marder

8-Two Generals by Scott Chantler

9-Growing up Enchanted by Jack Briglio and Alexander Serra

10- Owly by Andy Runton

11- Yotsuba&! by Kiyohiko Azuma

12- The Unsinkable Walker Bean by Aaron Renier

13- Twin Spica by Kou Yginuma

14- Far arden by Kevin Cannon

Christmas Drawing Progress

Every Christmas I like to do a special Holiday drawing for the blog and this is this years. Some of it, anyway. It's Doppo the arctic fox decorating a lone tree in the Canadian tundra. I'll post the completed piece on Christmas Eve. If I can find a computer. I'll be spending Christmas in Nova Scotia and will be relying on libraries for Internet access. Which is fine but I'll be a bit cut off.

The trip there should be an adventure in itself as I'm taking the bus, almost two days of traveling. I like adventure but hate leaving the house so I'm conflicted. I have one post planned which I've scheduled for tomorrow; my "best comics to buy kids for Christmas" post. So keep an eye out for that.

And if you can find it you should buy my Christmas picture book, A Forest For Christmas.

I'll try to stay on Twitter so if you follow me you can keep me company. If you don't already follow me you can find me here.

White Inking

I'm currently going through the first ten pages of Maddy Kettle and inking over some of the India ink in white. I've always done this, most pages are quite extensively redone in white. they don't look finished until this stage is complete.

I'll be all finished this today after which I'll scan the pages and send them off. And the day after tomorrow I'll be heading off to Nova Scotia for a week.

Book Review: Little Orphan Annie

I had only read Little Orphan Annie in bits and pieces before this and reading a couple of years of continuous story is a real revelation. I had read it previously as a sort of light, episodic comedy but in this form it reads more like a mid century literary adventure story with highly political themes and an engrossing story focused on well written, sympathetic characters.

The art is wonderful and holds up well, more than half a century later. It looks fresh and dynamic.

The one drawback of the comic is the wordiness. Every panel is packed with dialogue some of it really annoying. The characters talk in long monologues and Annie's accent is overly cute and a bit cloying.

But over all it's brilliant and compelling

At Amazon.

A Christmas Drawing

Here's the pencils for a ink drawing I'm doing for Christmas. This is just a small part of it. It's Doppo the Snow Fox, another character that won't leave me alone...

I'm leaving for Nova Scotia in a few days so between work I'm tweaking playlists, organizing books to read and all the important things one does when traveling.

And I got mentioned in this excellent post on the Forbidden Planet blog...

First Ten Pages Of My Comic

Here's a pile of Maddy Kettle pages. The first ten, in fact, which I'll be sending out to Top shelf in a few days after I clean it up and letter it. I think these pages will serve as some sort of preview. I'm not sure how, though, so watch this space for details. I'm very happy with these pages and the rapidograph pen I used on them but I'm thinking of changing papers. I used what is basically a single ply Mayfair or Bristol board type paper and I found it too thin. I don't think it affected my art at all but I was aware of how thin the paper was while I drew with the pen, which has a pretty sharp point.

So now I'll be putting aside Maddy Kettle to complete a comic for Tor.com, which should be done by mid January. This will be a tough year. In order to get Maddy Kettle done I'll need to work long hours for several months but I'm sure I can do it. I'm more worried about money during that time but Julie is working and we seem to be doing OK.

Also, I leave for Halifax in a few days to visit my mom for Christmas. I'll be taking a bus there so I'm currently loading up on books, audiobooks and music...

Gommli

This is a wandering spirit of the Canadian north. I drew it in bed last night.

Handel's Messiah

 

Julie, Henry and myself went to a production of Handel's Messiah tonight, one that was especially for children.  It was really wonderful. Also, I got that really really cool picture of Henry on the bottom, here.

Deer Tick : Easy

This is a band I've recently discovered and they have been really inspiring when working on Maddy Kettle.

Doppo The Snow Fox

 

I've been so bogged down with projects right now I've neglected any other drawings. I've missed several life drawing classes and my sketchbook is sitting unused on a pile of books. So I took some time last night to do some sketching, inspired by the Moomintrolls. Even though this looks nothing like the Moomintrolls. Doppo is a character who was initially meant for the Maddy Kettle books but I'm considering doing a book just for him some time in the future. I've always wanted to do a silly, quiet children's story where not much happens but what does happen is interesting.. If that makes sense. I'm thinking Doppo is an Arctic Fox, or Snow Fox, who lives in a little brick house in the Canadian tundra. Te stories would be about him and his neighbors, snow giants, ghosts and other things with out names. I'll keep sketching and writing while I wok on other stuff.

Dustcloud Gap

After making great progress on the first twelve pages of Maddy Kettle things ground to a halt when daycare called to tell me Henry had a fever yesterday. This also explains the lack of blog post yesterday. Ah well. Back on track today. I also got the go ahead on another project. That one should be finished up mid January.

The Never Ending Page

Boy, sometimes pages seem to go on forever. I've been inking this one for five days! That's a long time for me. It reminds me of high school when I would spend days and days on a single panel, lost in the lines. I still need to add stars in the background here. This is just one panel, not the whole thing.

Lake Ontario, First Snowfall

I was totally surprised to wake up to all this snow this morning (as it wasn't in the forecast). It was great to show it to Henry who, at two, probably doesn't remember the snow from last year. Big flakes are still drifting down from the sky and off the roofs and trees. These pictures are kind of deceiving, as we live in the city but happily we're on the outskirts and some things have yet to be paved. It's so strange to look across this lake the size of a sea and know that New York is out there somewhere as well as Niagara Falls. Living here takes the edge off the frequent homesickness I get.

Currently I'm midway through the first twelve pages of Maggy Kettle, which will, I think, serve as a preview. I am just about to put on an audiobook (the Old Curiosity Shop by Dickens) and shut out the world to work on it.

(special thanks to J Torres for editing this post and correcting its lack of realistic expectations....)

Doppo The Cloud Fox

A character that won't be in the first Maddy Kettle book....

Purple Subway

A very quick subway sketch coloured in Photoshop. No one was staring at me, I made this one up.

I'm having a different day today as I have Henry, 2 years old, all day. We're planning a trip downtown by train which will be really exciting for him. I'm also letting my wife, Julie have a full work day.  This is probably a good idea as my hands are sore from drawing Maddy Kettle, though I hate to be away from it. I plan on taking Henry to a comic shop and maybe the  Tim Burton exhibition, if his energy is containable.

Ralph!

I have so many characters in the Maddy Kettle world, it's already well populated in minicomics, notes and sketches. Many haven't made it into the first book but this guy did, Ralph. Ralph actually became, to my surprise, pretty central to the story and will be an ongoing character in the series. He's a dimwitted spadefoot toad with lots of magic.Part of my excitement about this series right now is finding out how all these characters will fit into the book and what new characters will show up.

Monstrous Creatures

Here are the inks for a book cover I did last year that just came out called Monstrous Creatures by the brilliant Jeff Vandermeer. You can learn more about it and see the final, colour cover over at Jeff's blog. And you can pre-order it here.

A Little Abstract

I've mentioned this before, that I was taught in art school that every square inch of your work should be interesting or beautiful or something ( I've lost the actual words ). I find I get a lot of pleasure out of creating abstract areas on the page, areas that don't work as empty spaces but away from the center of interest. In the opening to Maddy Kettle Maddy is on a train and I've been rendering the loops and curls of train smoke. The smoke finally gives way to something else as the story moves to a flashback. This was unplanned in both the script and the thumbnails and happened pretty organically in the inking process. My point being that even the most abstract areas of a comic can move the narrative forward in elegant ways.