Six Years

 As I'm rounding up and finishing the guts to the upcoming book Screw Comics! 4, I had a realization. It's taken me six long years, from idea, to pencil-to-paper, to inks, to scans, to greys and finally to the layouts. Clocking in at nearly 100 pages of new art and comics, Screw 4 is my best book yet. But I felt something was lacking. Sandwiched in the middle of the those six years was the very turbulent, disgusting and disturbing Trump administration, who day after day topped their latest atrocity with a new one. Seriously, every day was new shit to be upset about. For four years. And in those four years I felt my own anger and outrage, as well witnessed those around me get fired up, by the various shenanigans stirred up by this raft-of-floating-shit-of-an-administration as they steadily and reliably ran this country into the ground. And yet, there's not a hint of it in the book. While there's certainly themes within the stories that do reflect our society, there was no hint of any specifics going down. Indeed there was so much to be pissed about by the time you finished a cartoon or comic admonishing one atrocity, two more would have popped up.

I guess I recognized this from the beginning and decided to not even try to tackle any of that. There's plenty of other cartoonists and progressive heads out there that can better articulate how I feel, and in a far more timely manner. Still, there was this empty void. I simply don't want to let my readers think that I wasn't paying attention or that I didn't care. I believe as an artist I have a responsibility to address issues I feel super strongly about, to bring attention to grievances and injustices happening to the groups of people I belong to. So as I was compiling the guts of Screw 4 I simply sat down and described the process of making the book amid the chaos and media frenzy that was under way. It became a 4 page intro to the book, and drawing the panels, each representing a year, was not only fun but also puzzling at the same time, as I try to include the more pertinent occurrences of that year. I also tried to include more obscure/pop references such as the mummified monk, or Bong Joon-ho making his Oscars kiss. And certainly the death of the app Vine is a definitive mark on this upcoming generation, stuff like that, as well as personal milestones, like getting me getting married in 2018. Needless to say there were too many shootings to include. Go figure, America.

So here are the years posted in panel by panel, as I shared them on my Insta. 

 

And then to top it off I depict the year 2021 as an giant, engrossing Abadox monster. At first I thought this would come off as pessimistic, but a few days in I had nothing to worry about.

A pretty apt description of the year so far, eh?

Chugging Along

 With things slowing down with the pandemic I've been able to make ample progress on my next book, Screw Comics! 4. The main story is 83 pages long and I've flying thru the post production and grey-toning of the pages at a regular rate, usually a page a day, which is fast for me cuz I find this whole grey-toning rather tedious. But i love the final product so I'm just bearing with it. Fortunately it's almost done. I'm a little more than halfway thru the main story's 4 chapters. So here's a peek of some of my fave panels so far!

Nah, there's no spoilers here! Besides by the time the book's ready you'll have forgotten all about this. 

Yeah, I really love these grey tones! It's a fleshed out, finished effect on the art without having to do the time coloring or paying for color printing. Win win!

The first 3 issues of Screw Comics! are available in the store, both print and digital, links down below!

A Night in the Life...

This really happened to us, one night Ms. Cornpoppy and I were downtown having dinner and drinks at the Dizzy Cactus (now closed and something else), dining al fresco on the patio when this kid walks by on the street, stops and quickly asks us some questions:

It took place before we're married. I managed to sketch it up after that night, but only inked it recently as I've been going thru my stuff selecting pieces for Limp Lungs 3. It's rough but it gets the point across.

More Progress

The end of the summer found me zoning out and chipping away at my latest book, Screw Comics 4. Page-wise I'm in the mid 60s, but I still haven't figured out how to end the damn story. While the characters are culminating for the final showdown with minutes left on the clock, it can still go in any direction; anything can happen, which is so damning. It's almost like the opposite of writer's block, and abundance of different choices of outcomes have me paralyzed. But not to worry, these things always work themselves out for me. A lot of times something will happen in real life that will give me that lightning strike of what to do in my stories. However, never one to sit around and wait for inspiration to strike I'll keep it moving wrapping up and finishing up other parts of the book. So, until then I'll still be chipping away.

Anywayz, peep these progress snaps.

Participated in Skessions this month. One of my friends mentioned something about how people refer to Frankenstein's monster as Frankenstein so I decided to clear up any confusion in my drawing.

Past Grievances

Another book I'll have at Comicpalooza, on the Pulp 21 label...
The original format is to be in color, but it's a finished book in time for a convention so I had to throw down some limited edition single issues with bonus recycled stock paper. A color version will be out when I finished coloring the last 16 pages. Here's the cover with a look at some of the pages.

It's about a woman who time travels back to visit all the epic live music shows in history.

I hand-lettered this first issue will keep on for the rest of series.Unless there are some Comixology terms that require digital letters. I may have heard something like that...but anyways here's Rock in Time.

 

Black & White/ Color comparison

 

Get your copy, edition of 25. Get it here.

LA Noire

So, where have I been all winter? What have I been working on? Have I been hybernating? Maybe...
Actually I was hibernating, on a certain project for a creative colleague of mine. I took the gig, a 50 something page 2-part comic full of mystery and intrigue, crime, passion, and music. I sat, penciled and inked the first 10 pages and then it just sat on my desk for about a year to be honest. I felt terrible for not getting to it sooner as I wrote and penciled other work, mainly mine. But, sometimes some projects take a back seat to others depending on the frame of mind I'm in. This past January however she gave me a deadline and that lit a fire under my ass. So for two months I was finishing the last 20 pages and putting the book together in time to make it in time for the album debut. And behold, the latest helping from Whitney Mower aka Iva Dawn, True Voodoo!

Cover art (no text)

And there's those snips of some favorite pages without giving it all away. So now go listen to the album:

And of course buy the comic HERE!

January Tan

January was cold. These flicks happened then.

Morning commute. The backstreets when the freeway is fukt.

chocolate covered pretzel frenzy

Even Houston's January 3pm sun couldn't thaw the frozen park fountain that day.

Both sets of comic pages are in my latest comic collabo with Iva Dawn entitled True Voodoo, now on sale.

The calendar at work. In my peripheral above me it looked like a marriage portrait of my grandparents that I remember seeing as a child.

Location x 3

Here's an unpublished Window Unit from seven years ago. It speaks of Arizona when shit was heating up about Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his stance on illegal immigrants. So weird, I thought I threw this up. But it seems only fitting to post this now since Arpaio was in the news once more receiving a Presidential pardon. Bigots enabling bigots.

This is something I actual considered, as a kid, when I really saw this graffiti in my neighborhood.

As I write this I just realized that this comic is similar to other "contraversial comics" I've seen floating around the interweb as of late, comics that lampoon racists in other places. Here's what I'm talking about, and these two comics also deal the Harvey flooding that's been happening here in Houston. I'll have a post on that next.

oOoOoOh Edgy! of course this is translated from French, below.

how the letters originally looked, cuz I love how letters look.

a pulled cartoon, gotta love it!

I love comics and cartoons that walk the edge or are just downright distasteful. Seems these cartoons have been drawing all kinds of criticisms, if not for the depictions of stereotypical racists in other parts of the world, then for the insensitivity to people who lost a lot in the recent flood. Agree with them? Well, not exactly. I do understand they are making broad generalizations of the people that live here, stereotypes, if you will. And while Texas is not certified Nazi-free I'd like to think it's a very small percentage of people here, especially in the Houston metropolitan area where the flooding has hit the hardest. A lotta people don't understand that Houston is a very diverse city, even more so than New York, and for the 2016 elections Harris County went Blue in a deep sea of Red. So, yes, broad generalizations all around. Although, this latter 'toon with the silly secessionist redneck, that seems like it can and, who knows, maybe it actually happened. What makes the news about Texas, our conservative leaders and policies, don't necessarily reflect most of the people that live here in Houston, but it's what other cartoonists go by. It's like what I did with my cartoon above. 

But I dig'em even if they are going for shock value. And people's reactions to them, priceless.  That's what it's all for, the reactions. Roust some people out of their bubble a little bit. Perhaps remind them to find the humor in the direst of situations, if possible.

So, let's continue to make art even if it may come out shocking, insensitive or offensive. Who are we protecting if we don't?

Making Miscreants

Here's what I've been doing all summer: working on the main story to Screw Comics! #4

The name of the story is The Miscreants of Time and it picks up some time after Heavy Duty Judy & the Two PJs in Screw Comics! #3 as well as right after Screw Comics 1 story Smoke & Mirrors. So were gonna have a major collision of wacky characters; Armstrong and Blindside will meet Evil PJ and Dark Judy in a dusty, doomed parallel Earth and somebody's gonna die, I'll tell you that.

Here are some penciled pages. I usually have a broad idea where the story is headed or I'll work from and outline, so I do all my writing in the penciling stage. The drawings are also very rough to also speed things along.

After the story has been read, and re-read and edited and all that, I'll reach a point where I'm ready to lay down some inks and do some permanent damage. I start with the lettering first, then borders, and then main figures.

2 page spread

After this point I erase lines and then fill in all the heavy blacks. Sometimes I'll use an ink well and a brush to do the finishes. After that and the pages are practically ready for post-production. Keep in mind there are 4 chapters to this particular story. I'm up to page 40-something with the writing/penciling part. I'll still haven't written the ending yet, even though I know how it's gonna end. A lotta times I'll have no clue how the execution of the ending is gonna come out so I don't rush it, I give it time, and sure, enough the perfect sequence will present itself and I can give the story a satisfying ending.

I've got a few other stories in the works for Screw Comics! #4, as well as other projects on my desk. Just making the most of Summer time!

Denver trip 4th of July weekend

Luna Bear!