The Book Bin #1

I spend a lot of time at the thrift store. I always have. There are just too many wierdly awesome things there from old childhood toys and creepy ceramic figurines to tacky clothes and old VHS tapes. My parents bought most of my clothes and toys from the thrift store when I was growing up and I guess I just never outgrew it. Aside from clothes, books are one of my absolute favorite things to buy thrifted. You never know what kind of gorgeous or completely off-the-wall vintage book you're going to find there and I've built up a sizable collection over the years with nothing but spare change! It's a resource few artists tap but I highly recommend giving it a shot.

Here are some illustrations from a book I found last month, that I've been meaning to scan and share. The book is "Debbie's Visit to the Countryside" by Gilbert Delahaye, illustrated by Marcel Marlier, 1980. It was so beautifully rendered, I couldn't resist. I have other books I'd like to share in the coming weeks, as well.

Also, when you see a book with a cover as awesome as this one, you DO NOT leave it on the shelf:

I leave you with the final page of "The Superstars of Rock". The caption reads, "Shakin' Stevens - Britain's most exciting rock performer."

Update on the comic: The comic is finished. I did the cover this weekend so now I just have to lay the book out in InDesign tomorrow and see about getting it printed/assembled. I realize I'm cutting it close (APE is less than a week away!) but not to worry, guys. The drawing above is the one I used on the cover. The actual cover looks nothing like that, though... the drawing just looked totally boring on plain white so I fixed it up all parchment-like. I'll post pictures of the book later this week when I get it from the printer.

Here are some old sketchbook pages from September. P.S., I got a new sketchbook (which is actually my old usual sketchbook) so expect to start seeing a lot more sketchbook love in the next couple weeks.



And here are some drawings I did at a restaurant on Friday:

The Need for Speed

So that's my first digital speed paint ever. I could've done worse, I suppose. I got tired of toning the comic and was just about ready to go to bed when I decided to mess around with all the new Photoshop brushes I made or downloaded recently. Since I was coming fresh off the comic, here is yet another Jack piece.

I swear that once I'm finished with the mini-comic I'll start posting stuff that doesn't feature Jack! On the topic of the comic: I just FINALLY finished toning all the pages. I just have to place all the text now and then do a cover. Not to mention, find out exactly how I'm going to get this sucker printed and assembled for APE...

Hella Excerpts

More previews from my upcoming mini-comic, "Hella Days". No text yet, as you can see, and I was careful to choose non-spoiler panels. This comic has been an interesting experiment for me. Normally I would ink this traditionally but I decided to try more of a vector look this time around. It's kinda "vector deluxe"... it's been really difficult for me to try to do something with full grayscale but no rendering. I have a tendency to render the hell out of almost everything. As usual, some of these panels will undergo minor repairs before print but they're pretty much good to go, as is. "Hella Days" will be available at APE (Alternative Press Expo) in San Francisco next month. More information to come on that later.