Raygun-o-gram

Zombie Bomb!

2010-02-17T10:44:00.000-08:00

So, I've been gone a real long time... damn... but I've been working my ass off on this new book ZOMBIE BOMB! It's a comic anthology featuring tons of talent, telling zombie stories they way they see them! We'll be premiering the first Volume of Zombie Bomb! At the Boston Comic Con in April! Hope to see you there!

Man, it's been a while

2009-11-06T06:07:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone... reporting from H1N1 Central here... the fam and I are just getting over the swine flu... got tons to report and little time to report it. Long story short, I'm close to finalizing a deal for Johnny to come back at you (in Color!) and I've been workin' on a Zombie Anthology book for Terminal Press... you can see more here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zombie-Bomb-Comic-Anthology/151064240675?ref=ts

Hope all is well out there!

Sgt.Werewolf

2009-04-07T05:31:00.000-07:00

So, again, long time between posts. I've been tryin' to figure out what my next big project is, and I've got it now! I'm working on a book called Sgt. Werewolf w/ my good friend Mark "Stinky" Fioravante! It's going to be a Horror WWII book filled w/ all kinds of good stuff. You might remember 'Sarge' from that one panel of Johnny Raygun he was in... you know, if you read trash like that ;-)

Anyway, this isn't anything more than me playing w/ the character... Sgt. Werewolf vs some Nazi Zombies!

Stuff and Things

2009-03-06T06:50:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a while, been super busy... here's the stuff that's goin' down in my world right now.

1. My wife Melissa's going back to school!!! Woo hoo! She's going for Message Therapy, and homework has been awesome (my back feels great!).
2. I'm starting to put together Alex's school Year Book... got a month to do that... better get started!
3. Starting work on a project w/ my good friend Anthony Schaivino, on his comic Sergeant Zero! You can check out some other Sgt.Zero stuff at

I'm sure there's other stuff, but just overall busy right now!

Sequentials!

2009-01-25T11:02:00.000-08:00

So, I'm gearing up to go to NYC Comic Con in a couple weeks... guess that's why I haven't posted much lately (that and a million Star Wars Sketch Cards)Anyway, so I figured I'd do something I haven't done in a long time... submission pages! Last time I did this was in like 1998, after that I was just too busy w/ Johnny to focus on submissions, but I figured what the heck, let's try one more time.

Here's 3 of the 5 pages I'm working on. Love Dr.Strange and the Demon, so I put em' both together in one comic! Woo Hoo!!!

Where all the cool kids hang!!!!

2008-10-22T11:53:00.000-07:00

Where are you going to be Nov 16th? WHAT?!?!? Not in Portsmouth NH?!?! Think again kid... if you're not in Portsmouth at the Jetpack Comics Comic Book Show, you're retarded, and your mother sleeps w/ dead people.

Love from the Greengo!

2008-09-24T05:55:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you guys have seen the internet sensation Greengo... I loves him! Here's a taste...

Plight of the South American Monkey Dogs

2008-07-30T13:12:00.000-07:00

Projects and Stuff

2008-07-08T19:42:00.000-07:00

So, as you guys know, I've got a million projects on my plate. Just wanted to give you an update as to what's going on with them. These are in no order...

1. Johnny / Dragon team up... it's almost done!!!! That's all I'm going to say... seriously, very close!!!

2. God's Hand : Don't think I've really talked about this much, it's a project I'm writing and my good buddy Adam Miller is illustrating.

3. Posters/T-shirts : I'm workin' with the guys at Cinema Suicide on a bunch of cool sci-fi/horror posters/shirts.... almost done w/ the first one.

4. The Truely Gruesome Tales of Simon Grimsdike : I'm about to start on this one, I've got a great rough draft of the first story arch!

5. Day of Monsters: Close friends of mine know that I've been workin' on this concept for a long time, even had a little Hollywood attention about it back in 2004. Now I'm writing it and the very talented Evan Quiring is doing the art for it!

6. Last but not least, a concept I came up with in High School : Global Intercourse : I'm workin' with a fellow Dragon Fan, Mr. Mark Welser to bring this to life! And here's a little preview pin-up he did.

Ya Say you want a Johnny Raygun Toy hu?

2008-06-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

Well, here's your chance... I've had a deal w/ Shocker Toys for a couple years now, and they're putting up a poll on which Indy Comic Character you'd like to see in the next line... IF you want a Raygun toy, vote Johnny in 08! If you want one of the other toys, by all means, vote for them... I mean, come on... the Moth is on the list!!!

Here's the link! You'll probably have to register... bla!

http://shockertoys.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2787

Wizard World Philly!

2008-06-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, just reporting on my wonderful travels to a land I like to call Ben Franklinville (Philadelphia PA). I have no pictures cause I suck, but I know a bunch of the guys I hung out w/ have picts from our awesome-tastic adventure! Please check new links on the left, I suck at updating, but I've known all these guys for a couple years, and for the first time really got a chance to hang out and get to know them a little better. I had a great time with all of them and can't wait to see them in Baltimore.

So, outside of hangin' w/ Rev, Julie, Pat, Dave, and Scott, I got to hang w/ my good friends Jeff and Krynn (I'm sure that's got to be spelled wrong, and I'll figure that out and fix it), and my table partner Shawn McManus! AND got to spend some time w/ my favorite comic guys from Jetpack comics, Ralph, Art, Matt, and Rubin!

If you guys haven't had a chance to go to a con w/ the Jetpack guys, you really don't know what you're missing... I mean, if you've never been put down for having a bit of a weight problem, or had the pleasure of sharing a bed w/ a gassy Ralph, let me tell you, it's well worth the $120.

Anyway, back to my 8-5, and sketch cards, but it was a pretty cool break.

Scott, Pat, Dave, Rev, and Julie, I miss you all already!

Go Get It!!!

2008-05-21T06:06:00.000-07:00

Today the Perhapanauts #2 comes out, w/ a nifty little back cover done by local (if you're in New Hampshire) boys, Ken McFarlane, Matt Talbot, and Me! Run out and buy 2 or 3 of them! It's a great book!

Marvel 3-In-1!

2008-05-19T09:39:00.001-07:00

So, there's not a lot I like more than doing covers... here's one for a Friend's Girlfriend. Love it when I get to play around w/ stuff like this.

So, I'm going to the Philly Con, just sent out my paper work (I know, I'm a little late) but it's all set now, and I should (if everything goes as planned) have a new sketch book, Monsters, Monkeys and Mechanical Things Vol.2!

More Stuff

2008-05-05T09:12:00.001-07:00

So, in addition to the cards, I've been slowly working on a couple commissions, and got a scan of an old commission.... here ya go! OH! And I had THE BEST FCBD ever! Chased Ed McGuinness around in a Skrull mask, did tons of sketches, hung out w/ friends, so much fun! Ralph is the best FCBD putter onner ever!

DONE!!!

2008-05-03T05:13:00.000-07:00

Well, all done w/ the 1000 Marvel Masterpiece II cards! Woo Hoo! It was a very long weekend, but between Friday @ 9PM (of last week) and Monday at 3AM (of this week) I slept about 10 hours, did and did 400 cards, that's 44 hours... that's just over 9 cards per hour... which isn't really that good, but there were a couple times I fell asleep over my art board. Anyway, if you'd like to check out ALL the cards, please take a look here : Here!

Thanks again for all your support, I'd also like to thank my Wife and Kids who didn't see me for a week or two.

OH! And don't forget it's FCBD! Go to your local comic store and support them!

I'll be at the best comic store in the entire world : Jetpack Comics, along w/ a bunch of other awesome people!

Massive Update!

2008-04-22T05:25:00.000-07:00

How's it going everyone... well, I'm still poundin' away at the cards, haven't updated in a while, cause I'm a little behind on the 1000 cards. Here's a preview of some of the other approved cards. And at this point, I'm knocking out about 50 cards a night!

OH! And don't forget to go to J e tpack Comics for FCBD!!!

Marvel's First Family

2008-04-14T14:50:00.001-07:00

It's no secret folks, I love the Fantastic Four! Love everything about them! So, here's my first pass at their cards... there will be more to come!

X-Men!

2008-04-02T09:29:00.000-07:00

Here's the next batch of cards... sorry it's been so long, took a while to get approval, new guy approving the cards I guess.

Warpath is my fav card I've done so far... don't know why, but I really like it.

My dream come true!

2008-02-29T17:07:00.000-08:00

Most kids dream about growing up and becoming Bankers, or Car Salesmen, but not me, I chose to dream about growing up to be a comic book artist, more specifically, a Marvel Comics Comic book artist! Well, that hasn't quite happened, but, I'm fortunate enough to be doing 1000 Marvel Masterpiece II cards for Upper Deck. Here's a sample...

More to come as they're approved!

The Truely Gruesome Tales of Simon Grimsdike

2008-02-09T06:46:00.000-08:00

I love horror movies, not slasher films, but good horror movies, Monsters, the Occult, stuff like that. Anyway, I've always wanted to do Dr.Strange, I've got tons of stories in my head for him, but nobody's askin' me to do Dr.Strange, so I figured if I can't do Dr.Strange, I'm going to do my own book w/ some of the Strange Ideas. And that's where Simon Grimsdike comes in. For some of you that read Johnny, that name might sound familiar. In one of the issues we had Dirk Squarejaw talking to a character named Dr.Grimsdike. He was going to be my Dr.Strange in the Johnnyverse (that's right, the Johnnyverse... where Johnny Raygun lives :-P ) Then the Venture Bros came on, and the character design I had for Dr.Grimsdike was pretty much the same as their Dr. Morpheus. So I was pretty bummed about that, but I knew my Grimsdike story was pretty far away in Johnny, so what the heck, let's use the name on this new project.

About 6-7 months ago I was going to work w/a friend on a horror story, figured it'd be the perfect time to use some of those Dr.Strange Ideas... well, we couldn't agree on a direction for the book, so he took his ideas, and I took mine, and we went our separate ways. Problem is I was jazzed about this again. I really really wanted to do this book now. So, I contacted my ol' writtin' pal Matt Talbot and we started bangin' our heads together on a story.

We've come up with some really cool things, enough stories that we could run for 15-20 issues just on what we have now. So... I don't know when I'm going to be done with this book, but it's the next project I'm working on (after I finish ALL the other projects I'm currently working on). I'm pretty excited, there's going to be some shocking stuff in there, some stuff that people aren't going to like, and if you're a fan of the "comedy" in Johnny, well, sorry guys, it's not going to be in this book. I really want to branch out and not be held to one style.

Anyway, hope you like the preview... nothin's in stone right now, the name, title of the book, all that.

Killer Victorian Robot!

2008-01-18T09:28:00.000-08:00

Big killer kick ass Victorian robot! That's right folks, that's what it is, and it's one of two that I need to illustrate! This is all for my good friend Tom's new blog. Once I get the 2nd robot and the design done I'll throw out a link.

More Pulpy Goodness!

2008-01-06T05:45:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago I posted an illustration from the upcoming Episodes from the Zero Hour book. A story that centered on Rex Rockwell, Weird Game Hunter. Well today, I'm happy to say we've got a cover!!! I finished the cover yesterday, and sent it over to Anthony. He popped it into the cover template, and BANG! We've got a cover! Hope you guys like it. I've got a couple more illustrations to do for the book, but you'll have to buy the book to see those :-)

For President I'm Backing...

2007-12-29T07:53:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most of you have been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting to hear who I'm going to get behind for President in 08!?!?! Well, I've made up my mind, but before I just blurt it out, let me tell you a little about me. I've voted Democrat in the last 2 elections. I generally agree w/ most of what the Dem's views are, Pro Choice, Gay Rights, ect. So over the last couple months I've been looking at all the candidates, cause I'm a free thinker! I'm not some sheep that just votes Democrat because I "generally" agree with them. I believe that Rep or Dem you have to believe in the candidate, and not just their records, but them as a person. Do they have the qualities I'm looking for in a leader, can I trust them to make a decision based on the information available or are they going to make up information to justify their actions? *cough* George Bush *cough* So I looked over everyone, and I researched their opinons on issues that mattered to me AND issues that don't really matter to me. And I believe I've found the one person that can lead this country through the biggest world wide mess we've ever been in.

And that person is... Senator John McCain.

I don't agree w/ him on all the issues, but I trust him. McCain has on many occasions gone against the popular Republican vote, he stands firm on issues he believes in and if I like it or now, we'll need a President who is a strong Military leader. Senator McCain opposed the initial plan laid out for Iraq, he didn't oppose the war, but the plan laid out by the Bush administration. The man is a war hero, he knows what it's like to be in the Military first hand, so we know he's not going to send our brave men and women into harms way unless it is necessary.

So for me it's a hard choice to make, he's going to be more conservative than I'd like on some issues, but in the end I believe he has the countries best interest (not his own) at heart. I can't say that about all the other candidates.

Done!!! And other news!

2007-12-26T06:59:00.000-08:00

10:30 last night I finished the last of the 800 LotR cards!!!! I'm so excited to be done!!! 800 cards in a month was crazy. At the end I wanted to shoot myself... how many times can you draw a Dwarf?!?!?!
So I've got about a month before I start my next set of Sketch Cards... this is the one I've been waiting for! I'm so excited!
Did you ever have a dream as a kid? Ever dream of doing something, or going somewhere and it took you 20 years of hopes and failures and work to get there? Well I've had a ton of rejections from a ton of places. And I'll be the first to admit, I'm not ready for the big dance... it's true, I don't have to lie to myself, I'm ok for indy work, but come on, not close to being able or at the skill level I need to be to work for one of the big two. It's a fact and I'm ok w/ that.
That being said, my dream has been since I was 12 years old, to draw for Marvel Comics. That's all I ever wanted. I wanted to tell stories about the characters I grew up loving. Now I feel a great disconnect w/ most of those characters... the X-Men. I loved them, couldn't get enough of them, I bought every comic that had an X on it (and there where a lot of them in the mid to late 80s). I pick up an issue every once in a while and it's just not the same. The art's usually great, but it's not the same as it once was for me. BUT I still enjoy the FF and Thor, so Marvel's not a complete loss to me.
Anyway, the big news is I've kinda reached my dream... Later in January I'll be working on the Upper Deck set of Marvel Sketch Cards! I know it's not the same, but it may be the closest thing I ever do to working for Marvel, so I'm going to give it my all.
1000 Sketch Cards!!! I'm going to do as many of my favorite characters as I can, I've even been planning out some puzzle cards and something I'm guessing has been done before, but I haven't seen it... a story set of cards... so each card would be a panel from a story, and I'd be doing short 6-8 card stories. I don't know how those will turn out, but should be fun.
So, here's what I need from you guys (you know, the 3 of you that read this blog) I need you to start making a list of characters you'd like to see! I love the obscure Marvel characters, but don't claim to know them all, so if you know of some character that you thought was a total loser or goofy or whatever, post his name (and a link to what he / she looks like) and I'll put em in w/ the set!

Been a while....

2007-12-19T12:31:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone! First off, I want to wish everyone a merry/happy/joyous whatever it is you celebrate!

So, it's been a while since I've posted, been super busy, raised all the money I needed for the house (thanks to everyone who helped out!!!)... and in doing so, I stumbled into sketch cards, and got hired by Topps Trading Cards to do 800 Lord of the Rings cards!

I've been having a blast w/ them! Anyway, that's why I've been out of the loop for a while, have to have all 800 done by Christmas. After that's done, I'm going to buckle down and finish all the projects I've started... the pulp stuff, the Johnny/Dragon stuff, and a couple commissions! See you guys in the new year!

Sketch Cards!!!!

2007-11-13T16:56:00.000-08:00

So from what I understand, these Sketch Cards are the next big thing... so like everything else Craig Rousseau does, I follow!!! (he's my hero ya know!) Anyway, Craig sent a couple of his sketch cards a couple months ago, and I thought they were pretty cool, so I went to buy some sketch card blanks, and found out that they're like a buck a card! Screw that, I printed my own cards! Cheep, like $.50 a sheet! So, I printed a bunch of blanks up, and did these... first is my fun sheet that I'm sure nobody is going to want... I'm going to do the entire history of the FF starting with Fantastic Four #1! This is an uncut sheet.... Then I just started doing any character that popped into my head!

Workin' Workin' Workin'!

2007-11-11T13:39:00.000-08:00

So, Here's three of the commissions I did this weekend.

1st one is Red Line a character created (and commissioned by Jonathan Faraci.

2nd one is U Go Girl (and Doop) Commissioned by my good friend Louie

3rd a Human Torch (and Namor) commission from my art rep's site : http://serendipityartsales.net/

First Lady and possible future President

2007-11-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

So, my wife Melis was invited to go to a Hillary Clinton rally/meeting thing yesterday. She brought the kids, listened to Hillary give her speach, then got to chat with her a bit. Pretty cool stuff, even if you don't like her, it's pretty cool. Anyway, my wife got a couple picts, of Hillary on stage, and this one of Mrs. Clinton and the kids!

We made sure to tell the kids, they don't have to like who Mommy and Daddy are voting for (cause we don't know yet anyway), but it's important to listen to all points of view and figure out for yourself what you believe in.... but I did tell them if they ever vote for a Bush I'll never talk to them again... I haven't talked to my Parents in years. :-)

Zatana

2007-11-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

OMG, I suck at drawing women.... that face... holy crap! I look at this chick, and all I can think is she needs a bag over her head! Oh well, gotta just keep tryin'.

Vampirella

2007-11-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hottest Space Vampire around! I'm super broke, and have to raise $2000 in the next month (don't ask, it's really cause I'm stupid) So I'm doing a bunch of stuff to put up on e-bay or sell at Sunday's Con in Boston.

Anyway, if you're interested in a commission or anything, contact me!!!

If you'd like to bid on this click here

M.O.D.O.K.

2007-11-03T05:58:00.000-07:00

I love me some M.O.D.O.K. that's really all I have to say, he's a great fun character to draw. This is just one of those things that I started and worked on a little at a time til' it was done.

Smash Girl Pg 9

2007-10-24T05:51:00.002-07:00

Smash Girl Pg 8

2007-10-24T05:51:00.001-07:00

Smash Girl Page 7

2007-10-24T05:49:00.000-07:00

Smash Girl Pg 6

2007-10-21T06:33:00.001-07:00

Smash Girl Pg 5

2007-10-21T06:31:00.001-07:00

Smash Girl Pg 4

2007-10-21T06:29:00.000-07:00

Rasputin

2007-10-18T10:53:00.001-07:00

Wow, 2 posts in one day...

So last night after I was done w/ Smash Girl I wanted to paint (cause my painting skills suck) I'm doing this short story for an anthology book that follows a sword through time. I wrote one story that's been illustrated by another artist (you can see it here : http://www.comicspace.com/chadhurd/comics....p;comic_id=7856
) And I'm illustrating one about Rasputin... so I figured I'd play w/ painting the Mad Monk.

It's not great, but again, I don't have the time to spend on it, so this is just a rough... 2 hours.

Smash Girl Pg 3

2007-10-18T05:10:00.000-07:00

Here's the 3rd page of the story, hopefully we're makin' the it pretty easy to follow from page to page, that's really one of the challenges of doing this is making it as fluid as possible with our two styles. This page took 1.5 hours, pen and ink on a 11x17 board. It was a quick one, and I'm not happy about the center pict of SG, I messed up, and when you're going strait to ink on the board, there's no looking back. Anyway, when I say it only took 1.5 hours, that doesn't include the time I spent thinking about what I wanted to happen... I did that periodically through the day, say on a bathroom break at work or whatever. It's amazing how productive you can be sitting in the bathroom for 8 minutes.

Smash Girl Page 2

2007-10-17T08:04:00.001-07:00

Here's AJ's first page... and what he had to say about it : "so, i set myself about 2.5 hours to complete this...from conception to completion. sadly not only could i not complete this at the level i wanted, but it took me an additional hour. sadly, i don't think it shows. but, that what this whole this is about, right? to get better...and i'm hopefully going to be alot better when we finish this." I think he's being a bit hard on himself. I dig it... more tomorrow!

Blogger is all messed up so just check out the link...

Smash Girl

2007-10-15T05:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I don't waste enough of my time not working on things I should, that my good friend AJ and I have started a nightly sequentials challenge. Here's the deal, AJ came up with this character Smash Girl, and we are going to tell her story... one page at a time. What happens is, I started this story by drawing page one. Tomorrow night AJ will write and draw page 2, Wed is my night again to write and draw page 3. We aren't working from a script, it's a total experiment in storytelling and problem solving. On this page I set up that the character can take a great deal of punishment from a laser, that she's been in this program training for 3 year, and this is her first mission. AJ has to take that information and continue the story... hope you guys stick around to see how it goes... now this page took me 2.5 hours. I have a feeling that ALL the pages aren't going to look this good, some nights I'll only have a half hour or so to do it, but I guess we'll see when Friday comes around how nice they're lookin'.

ZOMBIES!!!

2007-10-08T09:44:00.000-07:00

I went to a Dusk til' Dawn Zombie movie marathon this weekend!!! 12 hours of awesome at the Somerville Theater in Boston! http://scifi.vintagelinux.com/node/6

It's a movie marathon that spawned from the 24 hour Boston Sci-Fi marathon that I've been attending for the last 6 (I think) years.

Anyway, this was the line up.

1. Shaun of the Dead : Awesome movie, if you haven't seen it, run out and rent it!!!

2. Brain Dead (or in America) Dead Alive : One of Peter Jackson's first movies, so good... one word Lawnmower (or is that 2 words I just crammed into one?)

3. 28 Days Later : They aren't truly zombies, cause they're not undead, BUT, they kinda act like zombies, and it's a hell of a flick!

4. 28 Weeks Later : Well, ya can't just play the first one?!?!

5. Zombi 2 (or Zombie in the US): An Italian Zombie flick w/ (and I crap you not) Mia Farrow's sister Tisa Farrow. Not that I want to give anything away, but it's a classic bad zombie movie, you wouldn't believe they gave this guy money to do more movies, but they did... anyway, the best part... zombie fighting a shark... awesome!

And last, but not least
6. Fido : A lovely story about a boy and his pet Zombie in the 1950s... I have a feeling this is going to be one of those movies that becomes a cult classic.... It was the only one I hadn't seen out of all the movies, and I really enjoyed it. Light Zombie Fun!

2007-10-02T08:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak preview of the opening splash page for Rex Rockwell, Weird Game Hunter featured in Episodes from the Zero Hour! Volume Three. Written by Jason Butkowski

We did it!... and I wanna tell you about this guy I love.

2007-09-29T17:56:00.000-07:00

That's right folks! The Red Sox Clinched the AL East Division last night! I was so excited to see all of their hard work this year pay off. In first place since day one... it was getting close, but we did it!

Here's a confession: I'm in love with a man. What? I'm in love with a man... a man named Mike. Does that make me gay? Am I gay for Mike Lowell? You betcha. Look at the guy... he's handsome, kicks all kinds a butt on the field, has well trimmed facial hair! Man, he's awesome! Anyway, Mike is My MVP of this year, for no other reason than he's awesome.

Daily Sketch (kinda) part 3

2007-09-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, it's been a while since I've posted... had a comic show in Baltimore to do, then when I got back I was sick for 2 weeks... now I'm back, and AJ and I are rocking! BUT We're stopping the daily sketch thing and starting an new nightly project. Can't tell you much about it at this point, but it's going to blow your mind!

Now, on w/ the Show!!!

Mrs.Marvel (for some reason AJ's Mrs. Marvel isn't available any more)

The Sub Mariner!

Red Sonja!

The Mighty Thor

Moonstar

The Vulture

Black Cat

The Hulk!

The Phantom (this and Hulk were right before I went to Baltimore...that's why they suck)

Wolverine!

She Hulk

Bizzaro!

The Flash

Zatanna

The Huntress

Darkseid!

Power Girl

Baron Zemo!

Daily Sketch Week 2

2007-08-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

And here's the 2nd weeks worth.

Movie Scene

Captain America

Old Man

Jimmy Olsen Cover Mock Up

The Rhino!

Ras'al Ghul

If you want to follow all the action live check this link out every day! : Daily Sketch Fun!

Daily Sketch

2007-08-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

So for a while I was doing this daily sketch thing w/ my buddy AJ. He lives in California, works in animation, I live in New Hampshire, work in Web design.... but we both love drawing, and we both need someone to push us a little sometimes. SO we figured we'd do a daily sketch... one of us would pick a character, then we both draw the character, then it's the others turn to pick.

This lasted a while the first time we did it, then I bought a house, he went on to do the next X-Men cartoon (coming soon I think) and we had to stop. Now we're both free again and we're starting it up again... here are the 3 sketches so far this week. I'll try to make one post a week w/ all the sketches. (both his and mine... he's way better than I am, so please, be kind)

The first 3 are Flash Gordon, Batgirl, and the Gunslinger (He hasn't done his yet, but I'll post it when he's done.

My Office

2007-08-18T19:06:00.000-07:00

So, for the longest time I've worked out of my living room. I had a really nice office (complete w/ Bathroom, and Bed) when I lived in Maryland 8 years ago. But up until we bought our house, I've been working out of my living room. This causes a lot of problems. Mostly stacks and stacks of comics, paper, pencils pens, ink, paint, all in the living room. I kept it (pretty much) contained to a 5 foot by 5 foot space... but when I put in the spinner rack, my wife knew it was time to find a bigger living area. :-)

So now I've got my own office, it's about a 18x30 foot space. I only photographed half of the room, but the other half looks about the same, only it's got 18 boxes of comics (so nothing you haven't seen before). Anyway, I'm excited about my office, I love it... cable, a couch to snooze / read on, my desk filled w/ crap, but the think I love most about my room is that I can put all my posters and comics on the walls. That is so much fun!

2007-08-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

It's been about 36 hours now since I got an e-mail from Craig Rousseau w/ the Subject line "Ringo".

When I first saw Mike's work, I was 16 and working at a little comic book shop in the mall. I've always been a Marvel fan, but for some reason this book caught my eye. It was the flash, but it was the flash like I'd never seen him. He was a little more round, a little thicker, and he had some kick ass running boots on! His feet were huge! It was so cool... and it had cool treds on the boots, the kind that if the Flash stopped real quick he'd rip a hole in the ground! It had a Kirby meets Anime feel about it, crazy stuff, I loved it!

As time went on, he was off to Robin, and I followed, and I followed him to any and every book he went to. Always amazing, always super cool feet :-)

A little later I learned a good friend of mine Rob Stull was inking Mike on Spider-Man, boy was I excited, a friend of mine inking Ringo! Can't get much better than that, I love Rob's inks, so crisp and clean, I have to say, he's always been my favorite over Mike.

Mike's run on Spiderman had him teamed up with another friend of mine (although not at the time) Todd Dezago. They told some of my favorite Spider-Man tales. My all time fav was the 3 issues that Dr.Strange appeared in. I love how Mike drew Dr.Strange, huge mustache!

Then came what I'm guessing is Mike's favorite project Tellos. Every issue had love in it, Mike and Todd pulled out all the stops for this one, it wasn't your normal everyday comic, it was fun and packed with adventure and all the other cool things (including big feet!) you came to expect from the team of Ringo and Dezago.

Needless to say, I followed Mike's career to every book he went to , Superman, FF, Spidey/FF, everything. I ate it up.

I've only met Mike maybe twice... the first time probably doesn't count, cause I just stood at his crowded table and watched him draw. I just stood there, I didn't want to bother him, I didn't have any money, and I always felt like a dork hanging around the guys I've grown up on... I just turn into a Chris Farley in an elevator w/ Paul McCartney... "Remember that time you drew Dr.Strange in Sensational Spider-Man? Awesome..." so instead of making an idiot of myself, I elected to just watch. Mike at one point looked up and I just smiled and he smiled and went back to drawing. The 2nd time was almost as bad, I came to the table he was sharing with Craig and Todd and knowing Craig very well, but not yet knowing Todd or Mike, I again watched as Mike happily drew for his fans. At one point again, he looked up and asked if I needed anything (I must have looked like a stalker) I just shook my head and asked if he knew when Craig would be back... I don't remember exactly what he said, but before he finished I transformed into Chris Farley... "I just wanted to tell you, I LOVED your Spider-Man issues w/ Dr.Strange!" he smiled and we chatted for a brief moment, then I told him I didn't want to keep him and let him get back to drawing.

Outside of that there was maybe an e-mail or two, a couple posts on his blog, and that's about all the interaction I had w/ Mike. I went to his blog at least twice a week, always interested in what he was going to post. I saw his interaction with fans on the Image boards... and was always amazed when he'd just pop up in the middle of some thread... here you have some random topic... a tv show, a favorite artist or comic or something that you'd see on a million boards, and there would be Mike. And I'd sit back and think to myself, holy crap, here's a superstar, a guy I've followed for the last 10 + years and he's posting on the same thread I am!

About a week or two ago, Craig e-mailed me asking if I'd got my tickets for the Red Sox game in Baltimore during the Baltimore Comic Con... he told me where he was sitting and I quickly bought my tickets. He said he had 4 tickets, so I got nosy, and asked who else was going... "Oh, you know, Me, Todd, Todd's girl, and Ringo" Holy crap! I couldn't believe it, I was going to go to a baseball game w/ Craig Rousseau, Todd Dezago, and Mike Wieringo! The Mike Wieringo! One of my heroes, a guy I kinda identified with after hearing him talk about how he wasn't sure how he fit into comics w/ his cartoony style. A comic book LEGEND!

I warned Craig that I might geek out, but I'd try to contain myself. Craig assured me that Mike was just one of the guys. I was so excited, called my Mom, my Grandma, talked about it endlessly to my Wife and kids.. and even though they didn't really understand my excitement, they were excited for me.

So yesterday around 8am, I get this e-mail from Craig entitled "Ringo" and Craig writes something like "Crap... I still can't believe this" and I'm thinkin' oh man, Mike can't make the game, he made other plans or something... and I continue to read... and I can't believe what I'm reading.

I let out a pretty loud "Oh My God..." teared up and re-read the e-mail, thinking I must have mis-read the e-mail.

I hardly knew Mike, but I felt like I did after our brief encounters and reading his blog every week. I do know his friends, Craig and Todd. I know they are beside themselves. My heart goes out to them.

I cried on and off yesterday, for a man I never really got to know... that's how much Mike touched people. He was a pretty awesome guy, and from what I've read in the past 2 days from fans and friends alike he was one of the best people you'd care to meet.

A friend of mine sent this to me last night and I thought it really said what I'd been thinking

"I keep expecting to wake up and find I've just been having a really weird dream. Mike turned in monthly work that always looked amazing. He worked so steadily and with such consistancy that it was easy to take him for granted. I can't think of a single time I was disappointed with his work. He easily had another twenty years of monthly work ahead of him. The artform has lost a hell of a lot with his passing. A hell of a lot. He was right up there with Romita SR and JR as my personal favorite Spiderman artists. I have the Spiderman Fantastic Four mini he did with Jeff Parker and I had held off on reading it until all four issues were out.

So many guys now can't do monthly books and the top guys now can't do a book without some of it looking substandard with messed up perspectives or inconsistant anotomy. They have to cut corners to turn something in four months late. As a fan I am literally dumbfounded and heartbroken I can only imagine what his peers, collaborators and family must be going through.

God can be a real douchebag sometimes."

I've mentioned one of the Beatles in this post, Paul. I was a kid when Lennon was shot, I've grown to appreciate the Beatles, and I look back and think of what the world lost with John. I'm pretty sure the comic book world just lost our John Lennon.

Big Hugs go out to Mike's family and Friends.... We'll miss you, but never forget you Mike.

Double Danger Tales Cover

2007-08-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is folks, my first real honest to God done on canvas by hand w/ real paint painting. The next one will be better I swear! I learned a lot from this.... hopefully the next one looks better.

Alex's Room pt 2

2007-07-16T19:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, well, we're almost done!!! So, here's the new picts... Hulk's pretty much done, got little touch ups to do, but still have a lot of little windows to paint for the city.

Alex's Room

2007-07-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

So, some of you know, I'm child free for a month (actually for the last 2 weeks, got 11 more days til' they get home). So my wife and I thought it'd be a great time to start painting the kids rooms. We wanted to start with Alex's room, since it was going to take the longest. So here's a little step by step of what we've done so far.

1. Stripped the Wall paper.
When we moved in to our new house we knew his room was going to be a problem. The walls were covered in a gross wallpaper, with rips and holes in it. It was a dull grey (who knows what color it used to be) and it smelled of smoke. Stripping the wall paper off the wall has been the longest part of the entire process. It took about 5 or 6 days of on and off work. Once the wall paper came off, it's like it separated from a thin layer of sticky paper... so we had to get that off, just to find that the room was not made of drywall, it had wood panels... woo hoo! (that was sarcastic, if you couldn't tell) Once the wall was stripped, Melis did all the patching where the panels met... that's the pinkish stripes on the wall.

2. Optimus Prime!
Next came the priming of the wall... mostly my job as Melis finished the patching. We finished it (2 or 3 coats) with 3 gallons of paint. We've still got some trim work to do, to cover up the ugly green, but the big stuff is done. We must have bought 20 brushes and 10 rollers, ended up just using one roller, but we're ready if we ever have a painting party.

3. Light Show!
Sorry Wyman, no puppets. After I did a quick sketch of the Hulk, I put it into my fancy futuristic light device that magically projects images from my mind onto the wall! It's kinda hard to see in this pict.

4. Drawin's what I do!
So while my fancy light thing was projecting images from my mind onto the wall, I grabbed a sharpie and traced the outline of the Hulk onto the nicely primed white wall. Man, it was cool to draw on the wall! Now I want to draw on all of our walls!

5. Welcome to the City!
After I sketched the Hulk out, I masked out the city scape. The idea is that the entire room is looking out on a silhouette of a city, and the Hulks runnin' around lookin' for something to smash! I figure that'll teach the boy a little geography and I'm sure at night, he'll be mighty afraid of the green guy runnin' after him :-)

6. Paintin' time!
Now comes the fun part, I just got done putting the first coat of green paint on the Hulk, I say it's fun, cause it's the part I'm pretty sure I'm going to screw up. That's it for now, I'm going to be painting all week, so I'll try to update as I go.

Double Danger Tales Cover

2007-07-09T16:51:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd show some of the process I'm going through w/ my first real painting... usually I do all my painting on the computer, but I figured what the heck, I'll just go for it, and learn as I go... so, first is the thumbnail I worked out with a quick sketch and text layout.

Then I started the painting... I really suck at painting, and I'm really not patient when it comes to learning things, I usually just jump in and see what works, painting was no different... things I've learned... 1. I don't need to paint on canvas. That's for fancy people who think they're painters, apparently you can paint on anything if you know what you're doing, I don't. 2. mixing acrylic paints dries fast :-) It does, trust me... I had a bunch of flesh tone, um... now I just have a flesh colored rubber thing sitting on my desk. 3. I need to work out my layout a bit more before painting, after I started, I realized I could make the Black Bat a lot bigger... Oh well, that's what Photoshop's for. I'll post the final illustration when I'm done. Hopefully I don't screw it up to much!

The Black Bat

2007-07-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

So along w/ Dr.Satan, the Black Bat is going to be in the new pulp novel I'm illustrating, here's the first Black Bat illustration.

My two dads.

2007-06-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

Before you go any further, this is not my normal post... deals w/ adult themes and is very serious. Just savin' you some time Wyman :-) But I will most likely ramble and end up w/ something funny...

So, I grew up w/ 2 dads. My parents split when I was, heck, I don't even remember really must have been like 7... 8 maybe? Maybe 10, I have no idea. My mom soon after re-married, and I had 2 dads. Having two father figures for a kid is pretty weird. You have two different ways of handling situations, you have two ways of discipline, in my case, two religious teachings (not far off, both Christians, just different approaches to it.) It's just weird, and it's hard for a kid to deal w/ two dads, ya love em' both, ya love em' different, and you don't want to disappoint either of them. They teach you all kinds of stuff, hunting, fishing, riding bikes, digging holes, fixing cars, balancing checkbooks, all kinds of stuff.

So Dad #1, my biological Father, Steve, Steve Woodall, born and raised in California. Up and moved to Denver when I was 2(?) then followed my Grandparents to Arkansas when I was 3(maybe 4) This is to the best of my recollection. He's a mechanic. And to say he's a mechanic is a bit misleading or understating what he does. When most people think of a mechanic they think of the guy who changes out their oil at Jiffy Lube. That's not my dad. My dad loves cars, more than just cars, automobiles.... engines, air planes, anything that can be propelled, started, or driven, he loves. He loves mechanical things, all of em'. I remember as a kid, he had model kits all the time, so, he's in his late 20s early 30s building model kits. And not just using the parts from the box, no, that would be too easy. He'd buy 2 or 3 model kits and customize the model. That Cobra Mustang needed a bigger engine, so he'd just build one. He'd cut out the top of the hood to make room for the blower. That's what he did, on the large and small level, he'd create and modify cars. If something didn't work right in the car, or he could think of a way it could be done better, he'd build it.

He was raised by the ol' "spare the rod, spoil the child"... so there was no rod spared in my house. He was a hell raiser. Loves loud cars, movies, and telling stories. I'm pretty sure I got my imagination from my grandmother and him.... both told me stories constantly. One of my favorite stories he'd tell was when he was a kid (about 5 or so) he and his brother ran away from home. Now my Grandfather, Bill Woodall, was a Baptist Preacher. So, he knew every one in town... well, my dad and his younger brother Mike decided to steal their dad's car and run away. So, Mike worked the peddles and my dad was steering the car. So, they didn't quite make it out of town, when a cop pulled them over. The cop knew who they were, but asked for their drivers licenses, and my dad not being the most PC guy in the 50s, says "We don't have any, we're midgets!" Needless to say, they were in pretty big trouble.

After my parents divorced, and even before then, I'd go to work w/ my dad. I hated it, hated everything about it. Hated the smell, the noise, hated getting all dirty, just hated it. I'd come home filthy, hands all banged up from sandblasting or grinding heads, or whatever. But I did learn a lot. I didn't want to, but I did. I learned the value of hard work, and getting a pay check. For the work I did, I'm sure I was extremely under paid. At 14 I was making $100 a week for about 60 hours of work. We'd get to work at 7, and leave at 7. And this isn't work like a normal person works. Picture hell, now take hell, and subtract the demons, add Fritz Lang's vision of Metropolis w/ giant gears and slave labor, and that's where I was working. It's easily 100 degrees on a "cool" summer day in Arkansas. Inside that place, with all the grinding and welding, and acid tanks, It had to be at least 110-120. But we had fans, fans to push the hot air around us. Where was I... oh yeah, I learned something. I leaned about working hard, and long hours, and not complaining (ha! Not complaining... like I'm doing now) And now when I hear people bitch about their jobs and how hard it is to do whatever their doing, I think back to being 14 and having my hands smashed, and sweating my ass off, and that my dad does that every day of his life, and he loves it. And I think... just be happy you're doing something you love, or even like.... cause it could be worse.

My other Dad, Chris Taylor, total opposite of my biological dad. From a well to do family. Born and raised in Arkansas, went to military school for most if not all of his high school years, went to College, a traditionally educated man. His family has a line of war heroes, his grandfather was good friends with Dwight D. Eisenhower... even taught him how to fly a plane. He died in the first wave of attacks in Pearl Harbor, he was the head of his squadron, one of his men had a faulty plane, so in stead of letting a less experienced pilot take the plane, he took it and went down shortly after.

Chris came into our lives at a really stressful time... I'm sure my brother and I didn't make it easy on him. He's a couple years younger than my mom, and here he was, around 24-26ish... taking a wife and 2 wild kids. I don't know if he knew what he was getting into, but he stuck around, and took on the roll of father to us. We were taken into the Taylor family with open arms. We were introduced to table manors... not saying we didn't have any before Chris came a long, but I'm pretty sure the napkin in the lap would have never crossed our minds before he came along.

Chris took us out of Arkansas. He'd taken a job with Wal-Mart. Now I know, boooo hissss... Evil Wal-Mart.... whatever. It clothed me, and put a roof over my head for almost 15 years, so I won't ever say a bad word about Wal-Mart. Anyway, if you want to get anywhere w/ the company, you've got to move, and take on new positions in new stores across the US. At least that's how I remember it being posed to us. I'm pretty sure they could have stayed in Stuttgart Arkansas for the rest of our lives, but we didn't, we moved to Radcliff KY, right next to Ft.Knox Army Base, then to Lawrenceburg KY, home to Wild Turkey Bourbon, then to Nashua NH , after that, I stopped following my parents, at 18 they gave me the choice, move with us to Virgina maybe, I'm not sure, or stay in NH w/ the job I had at Fruit of the Loom. I chose to stay.

Chris really raised me and taught me a lot. He was a little more lead by example, I did a lot of watching and learning. Even though, I'm not his flesh and blood, I've never doubted his love for me. He treats me as a friend and son. He's given me more than I could ever ask for. And if it weren't for him, I'm pretty sure I'd still be in some town in Arkansas, doing something completely different than what I'm doing now. Maybe just as happy, maybe not.

One thing I know, is these two dads shaped the person I am today, and for that I'll be forever grateful. I only hope I can be as good a dad to my kids as they were/are to me. I miss them both and think of them often, every time I turn on the radio, I can hear my dad (#1) singing along, or I smell steak and think of all the great food dad (#2) made on the grill.

The Shocker!

2007-06-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

No, not that "Shocker" man, diry minds! Anyway, Spidey has the best Rogues Gallery around, I'd match them up against Batman's anytime! The Shocker is someone I've always loved, love his costume, love his "powers" just love him. So my friend Rob and I draw everyday at lunch, one day I don't bring in my comic pages to work on, so he says "draw the shocker" actually he said "drawMoondragon" and I was like.... "no"... actually Rob just reminded me I suggested doing the shocker, and he had nothing to do with it... but it makes for a better story like this. Anyway.... here's the Shocker!

Star Wars turns 30!!!

2007-06-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

Holy crap, it's been that long, 30 years, I realized yesterday that I have no memory of a time before Star Wars. When A New Hope hit the theaters, I was 1.5 years old. I don't remember seeing it, but I know I saw it... my parents got me all the toys, masks, t-shirts (I think that came later, w/ Empire) ect. Ya see, my dad loves movies, loves sci-fi movies, and really loved Star Wars. One of my earliest memories is of him scaring me w/ a Darth Vader mask... picture Barry Gibbs w/ all that hair, towering over a 2 year old w/ a Vader mask... THAT will mess a kid up!

Anyway, so long story short, I grew up w/ Star Wars. I've always loved it, it's been a part of me. I'm constantly quoting it, referencing it, dreaming about it, reading about it, spending money on it, ect....

I love Star Wars, thank you George for creating the best damn thing in the world!

So, I could go on and on and on about Star Wars, but I'll stop here. I did the sketch after seeing some Craig Rousseau's awesome Star Wars sketches!

Black Adam

2007-05-09T19:25:00.000-07:00

I've been on a Marvel Family kick lately... so here's Black Adam... pretty cool character. Anyway, 16 more pages to go on the Johnny/Dragon comic... almost done!

More More More!!!

2007-05-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

Gosh... you people can't get enough!!! I make one post, and you want more! Well, I'll post this, it's an interior illustration for the Dr.Satan Pulp novel I'm illustrating. I've got to fix the face, but outside of that, it's done. Got that nifty duoshade paper (you know, the kind Byrne used on Namor!) Anyway, don't forget FCBD! If you don't come see us, then Craig will be stuck talkin' to me all day :-)

Stuff and Things II or is it III

2007-05-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, well, it's been a while since I've last posted... been busy, got a couple inches of water in our new basement, nothin' worth anything got damaged. Getting back in a grove after taking 2 months off for moving. I'm not producing 3 pages of sequential work again, feels good to be back! While I'm doing sequential work, I like to do warm up sketches and other stuff like update my mom's site : http://www.lakestyleinteriors.com/, working on a prototype of a baby rocker w/ a friend from work, and getting my new comic room set up.

Anyway, enough excuses from me as to why I haven't updated, I know you guys are lookin' for art, right?!?! Well, here's a little Dr.Satan sketch from the upcoming pulp novel I'm illustrating.

Also, if you happen to be in the New Hampshire area this weekend, I'll be at the best comic store in the world!!! Jetpack Comics! In Rochester NH, along w/ Superstars Craig Rousseau, Ed McGuinness & Dexter Vines! I'll be doin' some free head sketches and hoping someone pays me for some full body sketches :-)

MODOK & MODAM

2007-04-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

There is a guy that comes to cons looking for MODOK art, the stranger the better. I love doing wacky commissions... this has to be one of my favs.

Spidey/Venom

2007-03-30T05:27:00.000-07:00

I can't wait for this movie!

In memory of Steve Rogers, Captain America.

2007-03-08T18:24:00.000-08:00

In 1941, before the United States entered the Second World War, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby were at Timely comics fighting the Nazis in the pages of Captain America Comics. They created one of the first of the flag draped characters that aided our fighting forces against the evils of Nazi Germany and the Japanese in the South Pacific. Even though the true evils of the war were not being brought out in the comic, the two young Jewish creators felt the need to bring swift justice to Hitler, and they delivered it with a right cross on the cover of Captain America Comics #1.

Joe and Jack created an icon. Steve Rogers was Captain America. He selflessly fought side by side with our troops, joined and led the Mighty Avengers, became a legend. Yesterday Steve Rogers was killed.

Steve Rogers died. Captain America will live on, but no matter who dons the costume, no one will be able to live up to the man behind the red white and blue uniform. Reading comics is one of the few things a young boy in a small Arkansas town, and growing up as a Marvel Zombie meant I collected almost every comic Marvel put out, including Captain America. I don’t remember much about the character when I started collecting, he was going through a weird period, Steve Rogers wasn’t Captain America, he’d been replaced, and was wearing a Black, Red and White costume.

I collected Cap on and off over the last 20 years, I never stuck with the book, I’d get short runs and drop it. The IDEA of the character has always struck me as being incredible; Steve Rogers was the embodiment of the United States. He was a natural leader who cared about the ideals this country was built on. He was the original Jack Bower, sacrificing himself for the betterment of the country without asking anything in return. Even though I haven’t collected every issue of the comic, Cap has always been one of my favorite characters; I have t-shirts, lunch boxes, toys, I even have a poster of Cap with brown eyebrows… everyone knows Cap’s a blond. I’m going to miss Steve; it’s not going to be the same with someone else behind the shield.

Big Barda

2007-02-26T18:39:00.000-08:00

One of Kirby's greatest female creations, Big Barda is also one of my favorite characters to draw. Her complex costume makes her a challenge to illustrate. I don't think I did it, but she's the ultimate combination of a gentle soul trapped in a warriors body.

I wish my comics weren't packed (oh yeah, we bought a house, and we're moving on March 16th!) or I'd pull out the 2nd best illustrated panel in comic history (IMHO) In one of the issues of Mister Miracle, Kirby drew Barda whipping a chain around.... holy cow! Incredible Power, Unmatched Beauty, Dynamic Layout. It had everything, and that's when I fell in love w/ Barda (sorry Scott Free!)

Anyway, if you're wondering what I conceder the best illustrated comic panel, that has to be Wally Wood's incredible Zipatoned Spirit series. There was a panel where The Spirit is looking out the portal of his rocket ship, out onto the cratered moon, his reflection is in the glass. I don't think I'll ever see anything that compares to that panel.

Parent's moving again

2007-01-30T11:25:00.000-08:00

So since I was 1985 my parents have moved either from one city to another, or one house to another every 2 years. I don't think they've lived in one state for more than 5 years since then. By my estimation (I'm not even sure at this point, they've moved so much) they've moved 18 times in 6 states.

A year an a half ago, they found their "dream home". We're not moving ever again, they made signs, took pictures, all that stuff, of their "last move". Well, needless to say, my nomadic parents are at it again, they are moving to Richmond VA (they lived there in 2000).

So what the heck does this have to do with anything you ask? I come to this blog for comic related info/topics you say. Well, I was in my parents basement this weekend looking through all their stuff. I came across a bunch of pictures, and stuff. In the pictures was a couple framed picts. One of the frames had this picture (see right) in it. I had cut it out, matted it, and framed it. I remember it sitting on top of my dresser at the foot of my bed where I used to draw and read comics.

I used to draw on the backs of Pizza Hut paper, some sort of Pizza offering on one side and blank on the other. All my horrible drawings were done on this paper, I had tons of it, my parents were both managers of Pizza Hut, so they brought it in by the milk crate load (before I knew the "propper" way to store comics, I kept them in the emptied milk crates).

I remember a lot about that summer, the summer of 1987. That was the year I found the X-men, and really fell in love with comic books.

Back to what I started this about. I had cut out and framed that Mutant Registration Act picture. I'd cut it out of a comic, most likely one of my x-men comics. I remember being so excited about comics that I'd often cut out pin-ups, or trace figures from "The Official Guide the Marvel Universe." to making my own Avengers Membership card!

That's right, I was a member of the Avengers! Actually, my good friend Gavin McGraw and I both were convenced we were mutants. So we made Avengers Cards based on our own code names. It's so funny to think about that kind of stuff. How We got so caught up in everything, and treated it almost as if it were real. But I guess when you live in a depressed area of Arkansas, and you've only got one friend, you start to make stuff up to entertain yourself.

That was a long time ago, and when I saw that framed picture in my parent's basement, for a brief instant I was back in my 12 year old body looking at that mutant registration act pict, thinking, "God I hope they don't make me register."

Johnny / Dragon Cover!

2007-01-20T06:03:00.000-08:00

Hey people, just wanted to share w/ you the Johnny / Dragon cover! Here it is in it's half colored state. I'm still lookin' for a colorist, but for now I'm doing everything (and we all know that that just makes this process a little slower) but in the end it'll all be worth it! Anyway, hope you guys like this half finished cover as much as I do! Once I get Matt to put in the Trade Dress and get it fully colored I'll post it again!

Ol' Saint Nick

2007-01-07T19:10:00.000-08:00

Pretty Much absent from Civil War, Nick's always been one of my faves'.
I'd love to see a comic writen by Ed Brubaker... art by... mmmm... that's a tough one. I love Hannibal King's take on Nick... he does awesome people in leather!

Been a while

2007-01-06T09:53:00.000-08:00

It's been a long long time ( a month ) been busy, mostly w/ Day Work stuff, wanted to be deeper into the Dragon Johnny comic, but had to work on my vac on day stuff (don't worry, my job takes good care of me, and I was compensated) Anyway, I should have the cover for Johnny/Dragon fully penciled by the end of the day today. I'll post it when I get it scanned it... I hate scanning.

Anyway, not much to say, Christmas was good for me and my family, (I got a sweet widescreen HDTV, and an X-box 360, not that I have any time to play) Anyway, here's something I did for a daily sketchoff I'm doing against Animation Super Monkey AJ "Hyperjack" Jothikumar we're both out of our minds... now this isn't about how awesome the sketch is (cause it's not) it's all about making sure I get one sketch done a day.... and that being said, I also started a sketchbook New Years Eve... that I'm doing a sketch a day in... my friend Mark Fioravante is helping me by supplying the characters... so I told him, you pick any character, and I have to draw it... Anyway, it's tough to scan from that book... so I'm going to wait.

Dragon/Johnny and stuff

2006-12-06T09:37:00.000-08:00

Here it is... a double page spread from the long awaited, Johnny Raygun / Savage Dragon book. I was so excited to show it off that I only half colored it! So, give a warm welcome to Ken McFarlane, our new inking buddy!

Savage Dragon and stuff

2006-12-02T14:30:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I've updated, just super busy w/ a bunch of Johnny stuff, and a couple other writing projects I'm working on. Just to give you an update on the Johnny Raygun / Savage Dragon one shot, it's still being worked on, we've had a lot of bumps in the road, but we're starting to make some progress w/ a new inker, ol' Magic Matt needed to take some time off from inking, so Kind Hearted Ken McFarlane jumped in and is doing a bang up job. For those of you worried about Ol' matty, don't, he's still writing w/ me, and he's lettering the book, the Beatles haven't broke up, we just added a member to our band, and we should be good to go for con season 07.

Over on the right you can see my homage to Byrne's FF and Superman covers, I've always loved them, and have always looked for the right time/characters to use... and after reading Savage Dragon 130 I knew what I had to do.

And if you guys out there aren't reading The Perhapanauts Second Chances from Dark Horse, shame on you!!! This second story arch from the awesome team of TODD DEZAGO and CRAIG ROUSSEAU is awesome!Buy it so they can make a thousand more issues!!!

Wa Wa We Wa, saw the Borat movie a couple weeks ago... now my buddy I work with (Eric Wyman) and I bug the crap out of every doing our sad impressination of him all day long.... needless to say, I really enjoyed the movie very much.

Ok, that's comics, movies... music, I'm listening to the new Tenacious D album, but not in to it to much. I like a couple songs, but it's not even close to as good as their first album. Also listening to The Hold Steady.

That's about it. Hope everyone's having a good weekend.

Ebay

2006-11-07T20:57:00.000-08:00

I did my first Ebay Comission thing this week, and the winner wanted a Mary Marvel on color paper (and strangely enough, it wasn't Bill!) Anyway, here she is!

Johnny Raygun Toys!!!

2006-11-06T17:47:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Just wanted to tell everyone, a couple weeks ago a toy company contacted me about making Johnny toys, and today, I signed all the paperwork for it.... I don't have any dates or anything yet, but coming soon to a comic store near you... Johnny Raygun Toys from http://shockertoys.com/

We're doing both the 6 inch indy spotlight toys and the smaller SHOCKINIS toys.

Wolvie

2006-10-30T09:46:00.000-08:00

Here's another sketch I did for the con...

Comic Con

2006-10-28T07:18:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, tomorrow I'll be at the Comic Book Show in Nashua NH. So I did a bunch of new sketches... here's one... some of the others happen to by Marvel Boy, and Metamorpho...ok, so Ralph told me to only do hot chicks, and I was like "doesn't anyone like 3rd string characters?" Anyway, one hot chick and a couple losers, just like a comic con.

The Moon Man!!!

2006-10-27T12:26:00.000-07:00

That's right folks, another pulp painted cover. This is my 3rd one this year! I'm having a blast doing these. I've got one more to do, but most likely won't get to it until early next year, gotta focus on getting that Johnny/Dragon crossover done before it kills me! :)

And in the next couple weeks/months, I should have some more exciting Johnny news to tell you!

Invincible Con Sketch

2006-10-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

That's right folks, you ask for a con sketch, this is what you get... at least you do if I like you and you're name is Lou from Geek Boy Press!

New Face of the Yankees?

2006-10-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Man, I hope so, there's nothin' I like more than watching a game with Lou Piniella... especially when Lou is losing... or even better than Lou losing, Lou losing after he's been drinking... it's almost as good as taking the kids to the zoo to watch the monkeys get it on!

Updated Pulp Cover

2006-10-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

Just an update to that painting I started last month... been super busy w/ my day job running into my night job, here it is in all it's glory. Now I know what you're thinking, man, you did some awesome design for that cover. Well, I can't take any of the credit for that, all the cool design stuff was done by the Extra Dandy Anthony Schiavino!!! The guy's great, does tons of cool design work, makes us cover artist look good :)

Special Shout out to my friend Eric, he sits next to me and hears about all the stuff I'm doing, yet he still reads this blog.)

THIS IS...JEOPARDY!!!

2006-10-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

It's no secret, I love Jeopardy, I can usually hold my own, I don't get all the questions right, maybe not even 50%, BUT I have a general knowledge of most things and every once in a while I watch an episode and get on a streak, and feel good about my knowledge of crap nobody cares about.

SO... last night, when I realized it was "back to school week" and I was playin' against a bunch of kids, I got real excited!

As I watch Jeopardy, I demand silence in the room, one peep can break my concentration, and that's it, I'm out of the zone... not last night.... complete silence for fear of Daddy's wrath!!!

Again, this doesn't happen to much, and maybe it's because I was playin' against a bunch of lisping 10 year olds, but I beat them all!!! Not only did I beat all those kids, I got every question right!!! 100%!!! Not only that, but I mocked them as I did it! "In your face! 4 eyes!" At that point, my wife sent the children from the room, something about setting a bad example... anyway, just wanted to share w/ everyone else, if you really want to feel good about yourself, watch Jeopardy this week.

The Gamma Gal I loved.

2006-09-30T05:53:00.001-07:00

First off I don't like to complain about stuff. It's always seemed to me that complaining really gets you nowhere, it just irritates the people around you, and usually somoene else has problems or complaints that are bigger or more valid than yours. So I try my best not to complain. But I'm at the point where I'm about to drop one of my favorite all time books. She-Hulk. When the new She-Hulk Series started (the first new one, not the current relaunch... um... the one w/ Dan Slott and Juan Bobillo ... the first one w/ Dan Slott and Juan Bobillo.) I loved it (sure I didn't get the first 3 issues because, it's She-Hulk, and based on Marvel's formula at the time, it would be a boring talking heads book that really went nowhere for 4 issues, then there would be a fight (I assume a lot). So I didn't pick it up, it was Matt Talbot of Johnny Raygun fame that turned me on to the book, he raved about it for weeks, so I picked up an issue, and sure enough... AWESOME! Easily one of my favorite all time books! It was funny, and not just a little funny, it's the kind of funny that made me laugh out loud. I loved it, the idea of Jen working for a Lawfirm that had a basement full of comics that they used as reference for cases, the art, the obscure characters they'd toss in there. It had everything I'd been missing from Marvel comics. It was fun, filled with action, and took history into account. All that being said I was super bumbed when the title went on hold for a couple months. So when they relaunched it, I was the first in line to be made fun of by Ralph (local comic store owner... check out his place at http://www.jetpackcomics.com . I don't know what happened, when the book relaunched... it wasn't funny. Maybe that's a bit harsh... it wasn't AS funny. I didn't laugh out loud, it seemed to lose some of it's focus on Jen, and started focusing on some of the 2ndary characters more than She Hulk. I don't usually mind that, but I wanted my ol' Jen back, I wanted the same formula that made me laugh and snicker, write e-mails to my friends, and tell anyone at a con that She-Hulk was the best comic ever! I couldn't do that. I've suffered through the last couple issues, but I'm pretty sure the next issue is going to be my last. Sorry Dan... I don't know what happend, but ya lost me. I was an Ex-Marvel Zombie, then your book gave me hope... and now it's gone.

-Bitchy Rich

Gambit and stuff

2006-09-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, tryin' to get back in the grove of things. G is for Gambit. Not my favorite character, has some pretty bad costume design (what the hell is that around his neck...and pink?) Anyway, watched Heroes, pretty cool, I'm hooked. And Prison Break continues to be awesome! Anyway, not much else to say. Listening to Fashion Zombies by the Aquabats!

More pulp stuff!

2006-09-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

Been super busy w/ day work and working on finishing the Savage Dragon Crossover. Anyway, a friend of mine asked me to do a paint a pulp cover for them... so here's a in progress shot of it. I'll keep posting as I get more done. It's over some one elses pencils, I'm just addin' color and shading. I'm doing this on my laptop, so I haven't adjusted the colors yet... have no idea what they may look like on a real screen.

Elektra and stuff

2006-09-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

I've been way behind on my sketches... after vacation I totally slacked off... I suck.

And I'm mad... why am I mad... because of the price of gas.

"But the price of gas is lower now than it's been in a long time Rich! " True... but ask yourself... WHY? Is it because there's no more turmoil in the middle east? Is it because they fixed the pipe lines in Alaska? OR is it because there's an election coming up and the Republicans need to have a "look what we did, we lowered gas prices" in their back pockets? We'll know soon, cause' I'm betting that after the elections the prices shoot back up to record numbers to make up "lost profits"

Back from Vacation

2006-09-06T16:12:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been back for a week... BUT I've been super busy, it's just been crazy here. Day work is crazy, I'm workin' on a lot of cool icons and stuff right now, so I'm very happy. Night work is cool too! I'm workin' on 2 top secret projects, hopefully after next week I can spill the beans on one of them, and the other , well... it's going to be a while before I can say anything about that one.

It's been a while since I've actually wrote anything more than "this is the sketch I did tonight..." so I'm tryin' t o just fill everyone in on what I'm doin' now. I'm reading the same ol' books... Savage Dragon, Invincible, Walking Dead, Next Wave, and tons of SpiderGirl! Man, that Spider Girl is awesome, if you haven't read it, go out to your local comic shop right now and buy it! It's great old school Marvel goodness! Speaking of Marvel goodness, I just finished Kirby's run on the FF... man, what a ride!

Seems like a bunch of new TV shows are startin' up... I'm tryin' not to get hooked, because I watch enough TV as it is, but I am pretty excited about the new Prison Break, and the Stargate (both of em') . When's 24 start... *psst... not until next year*... crap...

In sports news, the Red Sox are about to make the most awesome come back ever! They're going to win the next 20 out of 23 games! MOCK my words!!! I've got faith, and if they don't do it, oh well, there's always next year.

Music news, I'm listening to Sleater Kinney, Bob Mould, Frank Black, and Robert Earl Keen.

Ok, so you've been lookin' at these pictures over on the right while reading this asking yourself, what the hell is this? Well, the first one is my awesome wife who puts up w/ all my crap, and listens to me wine all the time about not having a Sonic up here in New England. So when I found out I was taking a vacation to NC I thought, "hey, North Carolina is in the South!!! Sonic is in the South!!!" So I went to the sonic website and printed out a roadmap showing every Sonic Location on my route... it was an awesome trip.

Well, that's about it, got to get that Savage Dragon / Johnny Raygun crossover done...

On vacation starting tomorrow!!!

2006-08-17T09:39:00.000-07:00

Alrighty folks, I'm going out of town for a week, so I won't have anyway to scan or post or anything like that, so I just wanted to say "see ya in a week" and that outside of the Venture Brothers, this is my new favorite show... IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lJ_kuYs9Ir8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdDYbdOtnUo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8BCTScJe4A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eYh2x3K3Zs

The Wingless Wizard!!!

2006-08-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

I love me some Fantastic Four! And I love the Frightful Four.

Daily Sketch : The Flash

2006-08-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

Man, I've loved doing these single sketches to warm up with... My inking really sucks, but I guess you have to just keep tryin'...

sketch o' the night

2006-08-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

And here it is... D is for Dragon...
Nuff' Said.

Lance Star is Here!

2006-08-09T16:57:00.000-07:00

The pulp novel I did the illustrations for is availible for purchase! You can find it here : http://www.lulu.com/content/355160

2006-08-07T09:53:00.000-07:00

I almost pissed myself...

Mako

2006-08-04T19:33:00.000-07:00

It's no secret I love the Savage Dragon... here's one of my favorite Dragon Bad Guys... MAKO!!! I'm tryin' to do a warm up sketch before I start my pages every night... this was 45 min... ink, watercolors.

C is for Creeper

2006-08-01T19:01:00.000-07:00

So over at outcaststudios.com we're doing a weekly sketch assignment... following the alphabet... this week... C is for Creeper...

The Baroness

2006-07-25T05:14:00.000-07:00

I know what you're going to say... Damn, you really want to be Craig Rousseau. And I say thee nay! (sorry, I've been reading a lot of Essential Thor) Then I say thee... um, I'd tell you, there are worse people to want to be. Come on, the guy does awesome work, and if you haven't picked up Image/Beckett Comics "The Cobber's Monster", or his creator owned book "the Perhapanauts", you should check them out! Anyway... you will say I stole this technique from Craig... I say again nay!!! When I was doing T-Shirts in Maryland (6 years ago) I was working on a Peanuts line of shirts (yep, I did ol' Block head shirts for a while) and one of the things we did a lot of was color pencil on black board, gave you a cool look and we'd touch it up w/ a little airbrush and photoshop after. Anyway, I did this for years, never thinking "man, this would be cool if I did it w/ superheroes!?!?" AND please dont' get me wrong, I'm not at all trying to steel Craig's thundar (and a mighty thunder it is!!!) he's a friend of mine, and every time I do one of these I feel bad, like I'm tryin' to butt in on what he started (I say all this knowing full well that Craig reads my blog every once in a while).

So, here she is... the Baroness... her face/hair is horrible, I'm not sure how she's levitating off that wall... um... if you want to see this done right go here : http://www.craigrousseau.com/gallery.html

I love you Craig, and I'm sorry if I at all have offended you w/ this post ...

Cover to upcoming book

2006-07-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

Here's the cover to a book I'm WRITING!!! Yeah, that's right, I'm doing the character designs and writing a book... crazy world we live in... I'll keep you updated when I get an artist and more info.

July Update

2006-07-08T20:13:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone (if anyone reads this thing :)

Well, just finished the pulp illustrations, now I'm on to a top secret project, can't say yet what it is, but I'll keep you posted when I can. In the mean time, rising from the ashes of the PBBZ comes the best comic store you've never been to, the new home of Johnny Raygun.... Jetpack Comics!

Sadness for all FOOPs

2006-06-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

Over my entire comic collecting history, I remember every store I've been to. From the dusty ol' book store in Clarksville Arkansas that my grandparents took me to, to the high end "Another Universe" in Columbia MD. Comic stores come in all shapes and sizes, small, large, some have good backstock, some only get new comics... some only have backstock and never get new comics (that was one of the best stores I went to in Radcliff KY). When you find a comic store that you really enjoy, it becomes a very special place to you... like a 2nd home. You go there every week and you know everyone, they know you, you have knick names for each other, you count them as family. A couple days ago I found out that MY comic store is closing it's doors soon. So, I just wanted to tell a couple stories about my favorite all time Comic Store, The Paperback Bazaar. Six years ago I moved back to NH after living in MD for four years. Of course the first thing I do when I move to a new town is check out the phone book and see where the closest comic store is. It happened that I worked in Portsmouth, and the nearest store was a couple miles away. That store was Jumpgate. It's a nice store, I was greeted by it's owner and his wife, I got a subscription and enjoyed going there. after about a year I had to cut back on how much I was spending on comics because I wanted to go to the SDCC. So I did.... Now when we first moved back, we lived w/ my in-laws in Mass... 3 months later we moved to where we are now in Somersworth NH. I found out that there was another comic store near me.... the PBBZ. Now I'm a pretty loyal guy, when I shop at a store I only shop there, if I see something at another store, I'll go back to my store and ask them to order it for me before I get it somewhere else. So, I didn't shop at the PBBZ... but I did go in and check it out. On my way out I noticed that they had a newsletter... so I picked it up and looked at it when I got home. Pretty cool stuff for a comic shop, they had fan art from customers on the front and articles/reviews by customers and staff on the inside, and it was funny! So I'm saving my money for the comic show in CA... and I keep going to Jumpgate, only something starts to bug me. This is going to sound super petty. I've been going there a year, and the same employee is there every week to give me my comics, yet she still does not know my name. "Rich, come on, you can't expect someone you see for 5 minutes every week for a year to remember your name" That may be true, but it wasn't 5 minutes, I'd spend hours in there. And I didn't go once a week, I'd go 2 or 3 times a week during lunch just to chat. Yet still every week "hi, can I get my sub?" "Um... sure... what's your name?" Drove me nuts. So I remember the cool newsletter at the PBBZ. And I walk in there one day, still not buying anything and I ask this hot lookin' bald guy if anyone can submit artwork? He says sure and tells me to e-mail him a hi-res scan of whatever I'm doing. So I do, and he publishes it! Wow, how cool is that, a little store published my art in a monthly newsletter... the bald guy turned out to be Ralph DiBernardo. And because I did art for the newsletter he gave me some store credit! Wow, free comics, published art, Ralph was funny and cool to hang out with and I'll be damned if he didn't know my name the 2nd time I talked to him!!! So I drop Jumpgate, and start to shop at the PBBZ. Life is good, I submit a couple more drawings, and then I hear about a guy who's going to be putting on a demonstration on how to color comics on the computer. He'd even had a pin up published in The Savage Dragon!!! (one of my all time favorite comics) So I drag my family to the store, and there he is... Matt Talbot! That's right folks, THE Matt Talbot! We talked and instantly hit it off. Soon Matt was inking the illustrations I'd do for the newsletter, soon after that we were working on a comic strip for the newsletter! Not to long after that Matt and I made history with our awesome book Johnny Raygun. After self publishing the first issue, we realized we weren't the brightest guys around... spent $3.75 an issue and sold it for $3.50. Ralph brought this to our attention. He offered to be our publisher if we wanted to continue making comics. So, Ralph, the manager of the comic shop, our close friend offers to publish our book. Now the store is owned by a guy (I'm not kiddin' here) named Jim Morrison. That's right, the lizard king himself. Jim's a great guy, always around to chat w/ the customers. I was lookin' for a little extra cash and Jim was nice enough to let me work at the store. I'd worked at a comic store in High School so I had a little experience running a register and such.... I must have been one of the worst employees Jim's ever hired. But for some reason he put up with it. Thanks Jim... That leads me to all the friends I've met at the comic store. I know I'm going to miss someone, so forgive me in advance. First there's the entire staff... from Matt (number 2) to Sam (of Cliff and Sam fame... check out Johnny Raygun FCBD the Alligatress story) to Greg, Art, Will (who worked for Jumpgate, and when they didn't pay him, he quit, and I told Ralph that I knew a guy who was awesome, and he should hire him...) then there's the customers... we all know eachother.Ken, John, Jason, Dale, Cliff (of Sam and Cliff fame) Brad, the kid who went into seizures all the time, Don Tommy, Seth, Alex... again, I'm sure there are more. I love em' all, I see Jason at Marketbasket, we talk about Green Lantern, I see Dale at Walmart, and we chat about everything. These people aren't just customers, we're all friends. We all share a common bond, we all love comics... and we all shop at the same store. We may not all agree on who's the best artist, or if She Hulk is cool or not, but we all love that no matter where we see each other we can chat about that crap. And it's all because the PBBZ encouraged people to be friends, and they always treated the customer like a friend. And the PBBZ was not contained to just the comic store, they planned trips, and held cons in the area. They organized a very memorable trip to Philly a couple years ago... there were like 12-14 of us in a Van. So that's 12-14 people in the van, all of our luggage for a 3 day trip, and a cooler filled w/ all kinds of snacks and crap. It wasn't to bad on the way there, cramped but not bad. That happened to be the year that some RPG had these huge ass Drop ships that you could buy only at the con for like $100 and immediately sell them on e-bay for $400 or something. So of course on the way back we had 20 Dropships (which are HUGE) and all the crap 12-14 people purchased in the 3 days we were there.The PBBZ also participated in Free Comic Book Day every year, bringing in guests, free comics for everyone, and I'm not just talkin' about 1 comic per customer, I'm talkin' shopping spree's worth of comics, a huge variety for everyone to pick from. And you may not know this, but FCBD is not Free to retailers, sure there's a discount, but they still have to buy all these comics they're just giving to their potential customers in hopes you'll buy something else. So they gave away hundreds of comics, had guests, AND fed everyone! Hotdogs for all!!! Then there was 24 hour comic day.... that's where an artist would sit down and do a 24 page comic in 24 hours. Good stuff. So the PBBZ hosted 24 hour comic day, and 6-8 participants showed up, most finished, and the stories/art were awesome... again, they provided food for us all, all this and they had to staff the store for the hours they would have been closed, so they had an awesome sale at midnight! The store was incredible, filled with imagination, talent, and love. Those guys loved comics, gaming, toys, your mom, everything. I'm going to miss hanging out there, and I'm going to miss all the people involved in the store, both the employees and the customers. In the days since the store's closed I've ran into a lot of the guys I've known from the store, we all look a little lost, but I know that soon we'll find our way. It's not going to be the same, but we'll figure something out.

PS, this had paragraph breaks, but when I copied it into a spell check, it took them all out, and I'm too lazy to fix them... :)

They call him Mr. Sensitive...

2006-06-15T06:36:00.000-07:00

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/14/bush.apology.ap/index.html

Bill is now Lance...

2006-06-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

That's right folks... Bill Barnes is now Lance Star... I'm done w/ 6 of the internal illustrations and just last night I finished the cover.... here it is w/ out all the cool logos and design stuff...

Sandwiches and Chips

2006-06-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

So today I had a Tuna Sandwich...and some Frito chips and as I'm eating them, I started to think... DAMN! This might be the optimal Chip to go w/ this particular sandwich!?!?! So then I started thinking... what are other great Chip / Sandwich combos... here's my fav list.

1. Tuna / Fritos
2. PB&J / Doritos
3. Roast Beef / Doritos
4. Ham / Ruffles
5. Baloney / Ruffles
6. Dagwood / ???? That's hard... how can you choose just one?

Alex Toth

2006-06-10T05:52:00.000-07:00

Haven't blogged in a while... so busy, my head hasn't been all there, and I can think of 20 other excuses...

First off, Alex Toth Died a couple weeks ago... pretty sad stuff.

You may think you don't know who Alex Toth is, but you do... he was part of your childhood even if you didn't know it. He designed a lot of cartoons for Hanna Barbera things like Space Ghost, Johnny Quest, and Superfriends. He'd done comics like Zorro, Sea Hunt, and, one of my personal favorites "Hot Rod Comic stips" I'm not sure the title of the books these appeared in, but I have a big collection of his Hot Rod comic strips... awesome stuff.

He died the way I'd like to die... working at his drawing table at his home, May 27. He was 77.

Like a lot of my heroes, I'd never met Toth, but his work touched me and those that I look up to.