it's been one week...

...since my last post.

... clearly have barenaked ladies on the brain (and by that, i mean the BAND)... been HARD at work on the cobbler's monster, only 14 pages to go! WOOHOOO!

and since they've got the first 3 pages posted over at the image comics blog, i figure i can post one of those pages here...

mmmm, tastes like a hot dog.

been listening to stephen king's cell on audiobook (thanks a bunch, todd!) while putting in late nights... can't wait to hear how it ends (gonna haveta do more audiobooks while working... got the latest neil gaiman here waiting to go after the cell)...

todd and i have been talking a lot lately about the next 'haps series (and plan to start the next covers as soon as i get done with this project) ... the more we talk, the more excited we get... gonna make the first series seem boring in comparison, i tells ya!

and head over to todd's blog as he's gonna start posting some more of the pin-ups we were lucky enough to get for the 'haps trade FIRST BLOOD (shameless plug... order yours from your local comic shop in this week's previews catalog)

i'm sure i'll have more to post next week when i finally get through this deadline...

-c (can't wait to see what outrageousnes happens tonight on 24... and how they leave us hangin' 'til next week)

music i'm listening to as i type this .... arctic monkeys - whatever people say i am, that's what i'm not

workin'...

... practically non-stop to get through the cobbler's monster deadline to get the book out in time for san diego! (29 pages to go before the end of the month equals 2 pages a day and no sleep)...

in the meantime, up top there should be another tellos commission i had done a while back for somebody from the baltimore convention (easily one of my favorite cons... which i won't be at this year, since i'll be at a good friend's wedding... but i WILL be heading down to heroescon in charlotte and out to san diego )... but blogger's acting all woogie. i'll try to post it later...

been fliiping through a lot of french albums for inspiration and motivation lately, stuff like "belladone" and "ring circus" ... beautiful stuff! (and of course, anything by claire wendling is da bee's knees!)

back to work for me! (gotta get a few panels done before i get sucked into 24!)


-c


music i'm listening to as i type this... you can play these songs with chords - death cab for cutie

rockin' the suburbs!

so, trish and i had a night out on tuedsay and saw ben folds and his band in providence at lupo's (which moved a few years back to the strand... which, trish reminded me, is where we saw the reverend horton heat and the toadies on what was almost kinda sorta our first date 'lo those many years ago)...
a great show all around with a full 2 hour set (but standing around for 3+ hours in a jam packed sold out club made us realize why we don't go to shows too often anymore)...

got a LOT of pages left to get through to meet our deadline on cobbler's monster, but i'm confident we'll hit our deadline (wayne's been doing great stuff and giulia's colors are AMAZING!) looks like the image preview book will be available in philly and charlotte (i'll find out if they'll hit stores as well...)...

looking forward to getting back to the 'haps and commissions after this book (and hopefully the next book with beckett as well.... i enjoy working on the less than mainstream stuff after so many years of superheroes... although i'm getting the itch to do a 'hero book again - too bad almost every editor i've worked with at dc has moved on to hopefully greener pastures..)

got in david william's frickin' sweet pin-up for the 'haps trade and should be getting more any day... (i'll post it next week)

after seeing 'ringo's sweet scarlet witch on his site, i figured i'd post this one i did a while back but never got on the site...

back to work.

-c

what i'm listening to as i type this - itunes originals - barenaked ladies

random stuff...

...found this image on the web and found it particularly amusing... and goes a good way to explain why i think all star batman and robin is one of the worst books of the year (or, as todd so optimistically thinks, one of the biggest pranks)...

...next wave looks absolutely fantastic, but man, that writing is so condescending towards comics (oooh, point out the ridiculousness of a giant lizard wearing purple pants.... ugh. it's a COMIC BOOK.) haven't read all that much warren ellis stuff, so maybe i'm just not in with the "hip" crowd on this one... at least it's damn pretty!

... reading stephen king's latest column in entertainment weekly describes how i feel about tv exactly (his list of favorite shows this season includes veronica mars, lost, the shield, sopranos, battlestar galactica... and of course, 24)

...found out that beckett and image are putting together a preview book for "the cobbler's monster" with the first 12 pages and other panels from the rest of the book...

... approved the cover design for the 'haps trade yesterday!

i'm sure there's more, but i gotta get back to drawing.

-c

music i'm listening to as i type this entry - the full-custom gospel sounds of the reverend horton heat

back in new england!

so, we just got back from a week long visit with the in-laws in florida... had a chance to see the sox lose a spring training game, go to the beach with trish and johnny, get back into a book i started reading over a year ago (sock by penn jillette... defintely an interesting read so far), and even have a night out to see "v for vendetta" ( i clearly fall into the " i barely remember reading the series and have no problem with any changes that were made for the sake of a more coherent movie, because despite the rantings of john byrne, sometimes changes can and should be made in translating comics into other media because clearly they were writing to the strengths of the comic episodic medium and not a movie which might be made in twenty years" ... which is odd, because i really loathe all the changes in last summer's blockbuster batman begins...so go figure)...

did manage to get more pages done for the beckett project (and what the heck, why not check out the pic above for another concept piece... )... moving along nicely with this and wayne's doing some great stuff (different from our "slick" stuff on ronin hood)...

besides that, i'm glad to be home. (and make my weekly trek to the local comic shop and see what's new... did pick up nextwave 3, so i'll read it and let ya know how i feel about it, rich... besides the fact it looks amazing )

-c

what i'm listening to as i type this ... doublewide and live - southern culture on the skids

... to be continued?

so, issue 4 of the 'haps came out this week... and we decided to end it on a doozy of a cliffhanger. with any luck, we'll be able to come back and tell more tales of the gang (and even get to tell the story as to why they're called " the PERHAPanauts"...)...

but it all depends on sales, which haven't been great. with any luck, the trade (out this summer) will do well enough to warrant dark horse doing another 4... since we haveta make it count, we're pulling out the stops for our first trade... besides collecting the mini series (which we've gone back into and "george lucased" some colors and effects to be even better), we'll reprint the stories from the ashcan colored just for the trade, along with character bios ... and pin-ups by good friends and guys we idolize... when we start getting'm in, we'll preview a few pieces for your viewing pleasure...

but it all depends on you, our kind, generous, and clearly intelligent readers... so remember, people, the perhapanauts trade makes for great gifts for friends, families, weddings, baby showers, bar mitzvahs and more...

and in case we do get around to the next series, up top that's the cover to issue 7 or so... (we've got other stuff up our sleeves before we get to ... the dover demon... like how the 'haps deal with all them little purple guys)

-c

music i'm listening to as i type this... hank williams III - straight to hell

another tall tale

john henry was a steel drivin' man...


after the first few of these pieces, they became almost more about colors and pattern than the subject...

next post i'll put up another tellos commission i've got here...

did a LOT of work on the house this weekend (big thanks to all the guys who came to help work... all time well deposited in the favor bank, so just lemme know when i can return the favor), but managed to watch "crash" on dvd.... certainly not a bad movie, but i can't imagine it was the BEST movie last year (i would honestly say the 40 year old virgin was a better movie... and a lot less heavy handed)...

battlestar galactica had an amazing season finale (gah! haveta wait til october for more?!) and sopranos returned in fine form...

... and i even managed to get more of the cobbler's monster drawn.

-c

music i'm listening to as i type this .... somebody's miracle - liz phair

change o' pace... pecos bill!

taking a break from work yesterday i was invited to give a talk to umass dartmouth's senior illustration class... (which was a good time and i enjoyed lunch with jean francois allaux, talking shop and the state of art today)
and in getting all my stuff together, i came across pieces from my senior year and figured i'd post an example...

as part of a series of illustrations for a children's book about american tall tales, this was the first one, featuring pecos bill...
(a far cry from the stuff i'm doing for a living these days, these were fun exercises flexing my painting muscles...) ... since i was having fun with it, over the next few years i ended up doing 4 more, and a buncha b/w spot illustration spot go with'm... (when i get around to scannin'm i'll post a few more)... funny that all through college i wasn't sure that i wanted to draw comics (although i read'm and loved'm) and thought i might end up doing "real" illustration... go figure.

anywhoo, back to the cobbler's monster.

-c

music i'm listening to as i type this entry ... american idiot - green day

the cobbler's monster...

(started this as a response to brian's comments for the last entry but realized it's make a fine entry on it's own)

... had to go back and check i didn't spell it wrong (because that sounds like an AWESOME title for a book) but it's actually " the cobbler's monster", which is another project from beckett reinvisioning two somewhat similar stories as one unique vision (this time combining story elements and themes from pinnochio and frankenstein)...

like ronin hood, this one is a straight to trade original graphic novel (weighing in at 109 story pages...) which is scheduled to debut around san diego comic con...

i'll be posting more preview pages in the near future, but this one above is a REALLY early development piece...


and hey, just wanted to thank folks for stopping by and reading this stuff ... and encourage y'all to post comments so i know i'm not wasting my time with this...

... meant to ramble on about all the great tv shows that are on the air right now, but i'll save that for another post...

-c

still not to hip with the html code, so for the time being i'm sticking with this boring template...


music i'm listening to as i type this entry ... bowling for soup goes to the movies

two posts in a row!

okay, so i haven't quit yet, so that's something...

lessee, what to ramble on about...

wrapped up 'haps issue 4 (out in a few weeks... really the best one yet) and most of the work on the 'haps trade a few weeks ago (still coloring the "fiepick" story from the b/w ashcan book)... we've got a great list of folks who're doing pin-ups for the book (woo-hoo! luckily, we were able to get some of our favorite artists and good friends on board) ... we'll post more info about it when it gets closer to publication in august) ...

not sure what'll happen with the 'haps after this series and trade - honestly, it all depends on sales... (so make sure to buy a copy or two this summer!) we'd love to do more (and get to all those stories we hint at in the first four issues)

right now i'm crazy busy with the newest beckett project "the cobbler's monster"... 30 odd pages down, 70 more to go.. wayne and i are trying new things here and i think it's our best collaboration yet...

finally got some commissions done that i had planned to get done right after the baltimore show last fall (but still owe ernie a piece dating back YEARS ... but i'm sure it'll be worth the wait)... here's one above...

work on the house has ground to a slow crawl, what with all the comic work and watching johnny... with any luck we'll get it done by the summer (and i can my studio outta the basement and see daylight again...)...

i'm sure there's more, but i'll save it for the next entry...

-c


what i'm listening to as i type this... more noise and other disturbances - the mighty mighty bosstones

no really, i'm gonna do this...

so, after several false starts, i'm trying my hand one of these fancy pants 'blog things...
not that i have much to say, but you never know, i might wanna rant about something (warren ellis' next wave book, fer instance...) or post a pic or two... (like the one to the left...)
and it's easier than updating the news section of my webpage (as infrequent as that is)...


we'll see.