Haunted Fire Studio

Progress Shot 8

2009-12-06T00:24:00.002-06:00

Double screen action!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-28T21:46:00.001-05:00

Here's something I did in about 30 minutes. I've been working up this looser style so that I might be able to create more than two or three drawings a year. It's very freeing.

Anywhoo, I couldn't let the Halloween season slip by without at least one horror illustration. Hope everyone has a good one!

Pumpkin Kids T-shirt on Woot

2009-10-17T23:44:00.004-05:00

I have a halloween themed shirt in competition on Shirt.woot.com.

If you've ever purchased anything on Woot.com before you can vote on it, and if I win, they make a t-shirt out of it. That would be cool.

Progress Shot 7

2009-09-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

Progress Shot 6

2009-09-14T08:00:00.001-05:00

Progress Shot 5

2009-09-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

Progress Shot 4

2009-08-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

Progress Shot 3

2009-08-25T08:00:00.001-05:00

Progress Shot 2

2009-08-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

Progress Shot 1

2009-08-11T00:34:00.003-05:00

I’m going to try to post more clipped shots of what I’m working on again... I’m aiming for a new clip every Monday. Here’s one of them.

This is from a pitch I recently finished with Dave Justus. Maybe one day it will be on the shelves.

Wish us luck!!

Working away...

2009-06-05T14:11:00.001-05:00

I've been crazy busy with both personal and comic stuff.

I've been churning out work at a much higher rate this week and feel like I've got my "art groove" back (I was feeling a lot of frustration that I was not as good or as fast as I should be).

Projects are finally getting done and my life is getting sorted out.

Hopefully I'll have some stuff to share soon.

Ryan Cody is the Man

2009-04-08T22:42:00.002-05:00

Ryan Cody set up a "jazz style" challenge to get different artists to ink a sketch of his.

Here is my shot:

Care to try yours? Go to the Sketchjam blog to give it a go.

Drawing at Midnight...

2009-04-08T00:17:00.000-05:00

Sketchin' with my feet up, and the iTunes on shuffle.

Feels right.

My New Computer Desk

2009-04-02T21:31:00.000-05:00

I'm testing out posting to my blog from my email! It's pretty neat!

Just for fun, here's pic of my current workstation. This is my third
rolling computer desk. They usually last about a year before the
wheels break off from the weight of my tower, but I think I got a
winner this time. Five wheels baby!!!

Paper Toys, Hellboys and Crappy Cats

2009-04-02T16:10:00.001-05:00

I've been running around a bit crazy lately and am trying to get a bit more focused.

Here are some things online you can do to waste time like me!

I noticed a crap ton of DIY paper toy sites are cropping up. Here are some good ones:

Cubee Craft
Marshall Alexander
Ravens Blight
Happy Mag Pie

Also Dark Horse has put all the Hellboy Graphic Novel epilogues online for free.

And if you have not "played" Crappy Cat yet, you are TOTALLY missing out on one of the most visually interesting things on the web.

Last, but not least, watch this super short interview of a Canadian comic shop owner from the 70's.

Enjoy yourselves!

Mummy Grrl

2009-02-19T22:29:00.000-06:00

Taking a short break from sequentials, I gotta lot of projects going on and I just wanted to do something to get my head back in the game.

The End of Indie Comics?

2009-01-22T09:49:00.007-06:00

If you have not heard the news, Diamond Distributors, the largest comics distributor in all the land, has raised their benchmark cut off from $1500 to $2500 to cut the lowest selling books from their monthly ordering catalog (Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse, I am told, are brokered and do not have these rules applied to them).

"...in 2008 and prior, purchase order benchmark at Diamond cost – so our cost of goods – has been at a guideline of $1,500 of our cost. We’re raising that to $2,500 at our cost. So when someone brings a new product to us, we look at previous sales on that same series, or with a like artist, or on a like product, and evaluate if we think the new product will hit that benchmark. If we think we can, then we’ll list them. If we think it will be less than that benchmark, then we’ll have a conversation with the publisher what they’re going to do to help sell the product – get a sales and marketing/promotional campaign together or other means to help drive consumer interest to the retailers" -Bill Shanes of Diamond

What this means is that in order to have Diamond carry your independant $4 comic, comic shops have to order around 1550 copies of it, or around 2067 of a $3 comic. To put this in perspective, my comics normally sell around 3000... that's not bragging, that's barely over the benchmark, but it does safely clear it. I am still a relative unknown in the field but I have always worked on spin-offs or titles with a pre-existing fanbase to guarantee exposure, if I was to release a new, untested title would I see the same numbers?

Maybe... maybe not.... that's not the real problem for me.

When you sell around 3000 books, you barely cover the cost of printing them. The publisher has made little to no money, the creative team has made little to no money, the distributor has made a small sum and hopefully the comic store has made some money. This sad formula is what was already pushing me to look toward online publishing so this change does not really effect me all that much. I prefer to work within the established companies and established genres and build a small following that way.

The people who will be affected are the true trailblazers, the guys who print and distribute 22 black and white pages of abstract art, deep soul searching or oddball stuff like nazi weinerdogs fighting robot pickles. Most of the time this stuff is crap, (I'd say 50% of all comics in general are crap... I'm a glass is half full kinda guy) but there are the few bright and shiny diamonds that may be cut down by the cruel wheel of big business.

Hopefully this will be more of a blessing than a curse. The smaller stuff can boost the few remaining smaller distributors inventory with more exclusive titles, fly by night publishers and creators who release shoddy products will have to concentrate more on building a brand and an audience in advance, and $5 bimonthly double issues and webcomics will become more prevalent.

Comics will have to work harder to break out.

I don't think this is the best thing that could have ever happened to comics, Diamond is clearly putting its business before the industry, but I do think comics will be better because of it.

At least I hope so...

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-01-11T11:35:00.003-06:00

Today is my Birthday and my wife made me the most awesome birthday cupcakes based on my favorite superhero.

Check out her baking blog for more, She is doing some really neat stuff.

New Comic Picks for 1-7-09

2009-01-06T10:31:00.001-06:00

Periodicals

Archibald Chases the Dragon (One-Shot)

Dead of Night Featuring Werewolf By Night #1 (of 4)

Hexed #1 (of 4)

Shrapnel #1 (of 5)

Graphic Novels

Rasl Volume 1: The Drift

Him & Her's Smuggling Vacation

Classics Illustrated Deluxe #3: Frankenstein (Classics Illustrated Deluxe Graphic Novels)

Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation

The Walking Dead, Vol. 9: Here We Remain (v. 9)

Tales Of The Batman: Tim Sale

The V.C.s

Ipods, Real Superheroes, and the death of VHS

2009-01-02T13:31:00.009-06:00

Happy New Year Everybody!

Here's hoping this economy starts turning around now.

On The Web

Anybody get an iphone for Christmas and now have an old ipod you don't know what to do with? Here are 10 ways to give the old music player a new life as well as some cool comic book related apps for your new iphone. Ya spoiled jerk.

-

...Now that you've got enough gadgets to fill a utility belt, why not go the full nine yards, dress up in a crime fighting outfit, take to the streets and join the "reals".

"Behind the counter, the cashier giggles as Master Legend orders a beer. "Master Legend thanks you," he says, reaching out a gauntleted hand for the beer. When we go upstairs to the small dining room, the young couple at a nearby table stop eating and eye us nervously. Master Legend gestures wildly as he shows me the scar from the time he was shot while saving an old lady being mugged. "They got me here," he says. "But it was small-caliber. Not enough to take down a superhero!"

...

"This is more than bravado, say veterans. It may help as evidence after a Real has been arrested or even committed to a mental health hospital for evaluation. That happened to Mr Invisible’s equally short-lived predecessor, Black Owl, who last summer had to be sprung from a psychiatric ward by his teenage daughter who told doctors: “Dad forgot for a moment, when faced with police, just for a moment, that he did not have real superpowers. He could not just fly away.”

-

Sound kinda geeky, or nerdy, or maybe even dorky? Well, so is the President-Elect... But which one is he? A nerd, a geek or a dork?

"A geek is someone who has the knowledge of the geeky type stuff and has social graces," Blum said. "A nerd is someone who has the knowledge but not the social graces and a dork is someone who has neither."

Thanks for sorting that out for us Blum.

-

Speaking of Geeky... VHS is officially dead. The last major VHS retailer retires the format.

"It's dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt. I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I'm done. Anything left in warehouse we'll just give away or throw away."

2009 will officially start the process of me bugging my kid with "I remember when".

New Comic Picks for 12/30/08

2008-12-30T11:20:00.000-06:00

Graphic Novels

The Spirit Archives, Volume 26 HC

Extreme Finales

Supermarket

Spider-Man: Blue Premiere HC

Blake & Mortimer Vol. 5: The Strange Encounter (Blake & Mortimer)

Modesty Blaise: The Lady Killers

Treats for Tummy Monsters!

2008-12-18T13:28:00.003-06:00

Marlena has started a new blog, so that she can post about her new adventures in cupcaking and the bakery arts, called Treats for Tummy Monsters. She may still post here every once in a while to talk about her comic coloring, but for the full 411 on her personal thoughts and extreme danger baking you should check out her new blog. I drew a little cooking monster for it.

This will probably be my last update post before the holidays so let me take a time out to wish everyone a merry wintertime diety festival.

To celebrate here are some Christmasy-styled links!

This year, the internet seems to ablaze with Krampus, the German anti-Santa. In the States, a naughty child gets a lump of coal or nothing at all... in Bavaria, naughty children get the crap beat out of them with a switch by a horned demon... There are variations on this theme as there are several variations of Santa, but Krampus is a pretty interesting figure... and scary as hell!

To celebrate Nate Bellegarde has been drawing portraits of the lovable fear mongerer to the tune of "the Twelve Days of Christmas"

If we do ever adapt Krampus in the states, my child will have nothing to fear as he will be rocketing away from the glowy-eyed beast on this Millenium Falcon Sled

Don't get cocky kid.

New Comics for 12-17-08

2008-12-17T09:26:00.002-06:00

Periodicals:

Wormwood Gentleman Corpse Down Pub (One Shot)

Graphic Novels:

The Boys: Definitive Ed HC

Dead, She Said

The Compleat Cannon

Asterix Omnibus 2: Includes Asterix the Gladiator #4, Asterix and the Banquet #5, Asterix and Cleopatra #6 (Asterix (Orion Hardcover)) (v. 2)

Brush with Passion: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens

My Brother and Star Wars

2008-12-11T14:21:00.014-06:00

My brother has been doing creature concepts and background designs for the computer game Star Wars: The Old Republic. They posted some of his droid designs on the site and I couldn't be prouder.

How weird is it that we both get to contribute and add to franchises, that we loved as kids. The fact that my little brother is helping create characters and locals that will forever be Star Wars canon, BLOWS MY MIND.

Other things that blow my mind is the price of this freaking rad, ultra detailed x-wing model. WOOF!

If I had that much dough to spend, I'd save it up and buy something from the actual movie (search for Star Wars).

Okay so maybe there's a minor price difference there... but still... WOOF!

New Comics for 12/10/08

2008-12-09T13:37:00.002-06:00

Stuff that looked interesting to me:

Periodicals:

Graphic Novels: