Abraham Lincoln: Space Commando

In honor of the upcoming presidential elections (or rather, in honor that they're finally going to be over with I should say,) I figured I'd post up my take on one of our country's greatest presidents. So here he is, Abraham Lincoln: Space Commando! Hopefully I'll get the chance to do a comic of this some day (or a cartoon would be even better.) I'll be posting more colored art on here more regularly now that I have a new (well, somewhat used) computer in my little work station and have been practicing coloring more.

Anyway, I also went back and edited the "Granny" post from a while back with the colored version my brother did before the summer.

Battle On!

I like to do warm up sketches to loosen things up a bit and take off any pressure of working on a page. So, since I was sick of doing the same old superhero stuff, I decided I should sketch something of the non-cape variety from comics.

Back in high school I was a big fan of Joe Madureira's Battle Chasers comic, and since, to my surprise, I never even once attempted to draw a character from that comic I figured I'd take a stab at it. I figured the sketch turned out alright so I'd do a clean copy of it and color it (because I needed the practice.)

Looking back at those comics for character reference for this image, I was surprised by how well those comics hold up even today (especially those last 2 issues which look pretty great.) They were pretty fun reads too, it's just too bad there's not really anything coming out in the fantasy genre nowadays.

King of the Unknown Short Comic

With the upcoming release of Muscles and Fights vol. 3 "Muscliest & Fightiest" at this years Fallcon, I figured I would share my previous Muscles and Fights comic entry for those that may have missed it.

It involves some trouble in the south (in a trailer park no less) between the King and a redneck Skunkape and has a rather odd ending to it. Enjoy!

Also, for more information on all things Muscles and Fights be sure to check out my links section at the side of the page. Also, while you're checking out the links, feel free to click on some of the newly added links like Mark Rickett's side splitting, twice weekly comic strip, MOOSE MOUNTAIN. "MOOSE MOUNTAIN revolves around Ranger Todd, a nature loving do-gooder, and the wildlife that resides at Moose Mountain National Park. There's a brooding, love-sick blackfly, a New Jersey squirrel family relocated to the park by the wildlife witness protection program, a self-centered, passive aggressive black bear, and a moose whose four husbands were all killed in tragic car crashes. Most of the strips are set in the park, which, in many ways, resembles Maine's Acadia National Park, but sometimes the action takes place in the coastal resort town of Bar Harbor where Todd reluctantly shares his house with a beaver named Orson.
New strips (and more) every Tuesday and Thursday."

Also, check out the link to Alberto Rios' (A.K.A. Ponbiki) blog. Alberto is an amazing artist that I've known for a while now, and every time I see what his newest project is I'm just blown away by the imaginative things he comes up with. His latest sketchbook is no exception, so swing by his blog and see if you can snag a copy.

Granny

One of the things I like to do is just draw different types of people in my sketchbook for practice. I came up with this granny that I thought looked decent enough, so I penciled a clean version of her and thought I'd post it up here. Watch out, she's a tough cookie.

Pumpkin Decal

To pick up some extra cash I've been designing some motorcycle decals for a few people my brother works with. The style is not done in my usual one (which is very animated and with minimal, if any, line weights) so I figured I would post one of them here for those that may be interested. Colors by my bro Michael Roanhaus.

Also, over the weekend I went to the Wizard World Chicago comic con, this year purely as a spectator and not stuck behind a table for three days (I feel your pain my artist brethren.) And while years of going to these things has left me pretty burned out, I still managed to have an okay time and pick up some cool stuff and talk to some friends I don't see too often. Still, I think most of the enjoyment from the con came from not having to sit behind a table for three days.

Grand Theft Artwork

I'm going to change gears for a minute here and rather than posting artwork (which I usually only get around to doing like, what, once every 3 months) I'm going to post about something that will directly effect every artist should it come to pass. What I'm talking about is the "Orphan Works" bill that our government is trying to sneak into law.

This bill first came to my attention after I read an article by Mark Simon on AWN's website (check it out here: http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=3605&page=1 )
Basically, if passed it would require all pieces of artwork to be registered or else it would become an "Orphan Work" and would be up for grabs for anyone to own or even register themselves. It is a truly evil bill with some big supporters behind it (including non other than Bill Gates.)

I'm not really sure what I can do about it, but if anyone has any ideas or wants to get something going to stop it, please contact me and I will help out in anyway possible. Nothing pisses me off more than someone trying to make money off of someone else's hard work.

Hulk Smash!!!

Wow, I really need to update this blog more. Anyway, when I'm not busy working on projects I've been trying to get a handle on photoshop more (with my brother helping me out when I don't know what I'm doing.) So I figured I'd try my hand at coloring something for practice and thought this old Hulk illustration I did some time back would do the trick. I'm still trying to find my own coloring style, I don't want to do anything too fancy that could kill the linework I put down or anything that has that plastic look to it. Basically, I just want to color in a simple style that has a traditional animation look to it.

Anyway, I'll keep practicing when time allows but I've included both the linework sans colors so you can get the before and after effect.