Zita and the Happy Frogs

Here’s a recent commission piece I made. It’s Zita, One and Strong Strong discovering some large Frog Creatures. Frogs are fun to draw:

On Monday the girls and I all packed into our battered minivan and went on a day trip to visit the Guthrie Memorial Library in Hanover, PA. I gave a little talk about comics, signed some books and we all ate some pizza. On the way back we stopped for ice cream at a place called Tropical Treats -a 1950's style drive-up with car hops and everything, next to a field of dreams wheat. Then, on the way back home, we visited historic Gettysburg.

It was the most all-American day I could have imagined. Somewhere I think John Mellencamp was smiling.

REMEMBER: This weekend I’ll be in Ann Arbor for the Kids Read Comics Celebration!

The Bread Wife, Part 4

Here it is! The last, and longest section of The Bread Wife. For anyone who hasn't been following the story, here are links to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

And there you have it! Thanks to everyone who read along with this little serialized short story experiment, and I hope you enjoyed following along. Feel free to post thoughts and reflections in the comments section below! I plan to make a free printable pdf version available here soon.

A final short note: The bakery in this story, as well as the baker and his daughter, are loosely inspired by a little bakery in Pontremoli called "Forno Tarantola" (yeah, I'm pretty sure that's "Tarantula Bakery") which is run by a very tough, lovely baker girl named Chiara. Chiara is not only a baker, but a power lifter. Somehow it all just fits.

Finally, my own "bread wife" (pictured below, and also very tough). Anna bakes several loaves a week. Some we eat and some goes out in trade for milk or produce. It's all pretty wonderful and inspiring and ...aromatic.

The Bread Wife, Part 3

Oh the poor miller! If you look closely at the illustration of the smoke pouring out of the oven you’ll see that I added a bottle of wine, a bouquet of flowers and a “welcome” card. He really thought this was going to go well...

And now the time has come to talk about Kiki’s Delivery Service: the coming-of-age story of a thirteen year old witch who starts a broomstick-flying delivery service, and one of my Really Big Artistic Influences.

KDS is not only my favorite Studio Ghibli film, it’s one of my favorite movies ever. It’s beautifully animated (the studio apparently nearly went bankrupt making it), charming from start to finish, and it takes place in the 1980s, but in a fictional universe where no World Wars have occurred.

But the real reason I love it best of all is because Kiki and Tombo remind me so much of Anna and me. It’s basically the story of Ben and Anna, and I mean, like, barely metaphorically.

Here's the movie poster. What could be better than this?

Do YOU have a favorite bakery movie?

The Bread Wife, Part 2

For those who missed part one of this short tale, click here. And now let’s pick up where we left off. At only 3 pages, this will be the shortest of our four parts:

There are several sources of inspiration for this little mini-story. A couple people have already mentioned the legendary movie, Kiki’s Delivery Service, but that’s a topic for another post. Today I want to mention how much I love old mills.

The millers mill, as seen in the first illustration (in part 1), is based off the Burwell-Morgan Mill in the little town of Millwood, Virginia. It’s a beautiful stone mill building that was restored through the help of a twice-yearly art show. (I participated one year, though I failed to sell even one painting). It’s a magical place, and wonderful for sketching. The most amazing thing of all is to go into the mill and look at the enormous wheel and complicated, interconnecting gears. All the parts are made of wood and leather. A machine like that, run by water, is incredibly powerful and unsettlingly quiet. It demands respect.

The Burwell-Morgan Mill still grinds grain on weekends. My wife, Anna, has taken wheat there for grinding. It's not just a great homeschool adventure, but a good way to get stone ground flour.

If you look closely at the illustration of the miller mixing the dough, you’ll see I went ahead and gave him the family name of Clarke. Because the Burwell-Morgan mill is in Clarke county and because just recently I found this:

Which sure seems to fit our story.

The Bread Wife, Part 1

This is an experiment.

I’ve been scribbling and doodling a short story in my notebook lately, based on an idea that’s been kicking around upstairs for over a year now. It’s called “The Bread Wife” and I’m going to post it here on the blog in four parts.

I’m not sure if this is the best way to present a story like this. It might be obnoxious to read a story this length broken into little four or five page snippets. Or maybe it’ll work great. I guess we’re going to find out. Feel free to post feedback in the comments.

Now I could ramble on about how this story probably needs more editing that I had time to give it, or about how I’m not sure if I should be drawing the characters or leaving them up to your imaginations (I finally chose to draw them), but instead let’s just jump right in.

Here’s part 1 of The Bread Wife:

Rogue and Gambit

I made this little commission for a very special seamstress. I don’t do barters very often, but she’s been wanting a picture of her two favorite mutants for awhile now and I had been searching for a gypsy corset for Anna. So we worked out a trade.

Here’s Anna wearing the (fantastic) results:

And an action shot!:

By the way, I posted this image to my Tumblr yesterday and within a couple hours it became the most shared of all my tumblr pictures. Those X-Men! So popular on tumblr, it’s ...UNCANNY! I took some minor liberties with one of Rogue's more current costumes, giving her open patches on her shoulders in place of X-logos. I figured anyone who sneaks up to grab her by the shoulders deserves to get their powers drained. Gambit, who's always had a problematic outfit, I decided to keep casual.

Lost in Translations (and Space!)

Today the UPS truck dropped off a pretty cool package. Well, the package wasn't that cool. It was a pretty standard yellow envelope. But the contents... ah! Inside the envelope were a few copies of the Hebrew translation of Zita the Spacegirl!

Unlike the Italian translation, I can't make heads or tails of this one. But it looks nice, and it's read right-to-left, which was a surprise. I worked with the translator, the wonderful Dana Zaibert, a little bit via email and she was really intent on getting the humor, in particular, to translate. Here's another look at the book:

Also you can wear it on your head JUST AS EASILY AS THE ENGLISH VERSION, no matter what your native language is.

Hair Loss Solution

I have a bit of a bald spot on my crown and this bothers me sometimes.

See, I know we can’t all be David Tennant, and even fewer of us can be Jason Statham (to say nothing of the inimitable Patrick Stewart). Sadly, as we get older, some of us guys are destined to fall into the odd in between ground -the uncanny valley of hair. And what should we do? Common sense tells us to gracefully accept the loss, and to get a modest close cropped cut. The world, on the other hand, promises solutions to every problem of aging. There are drugs and elective procedures and herbal extracts and special shampoos. The head spins.

So after careful deliberation I have decided to try one of the world’s solutions. It’s not a spray or a special shampoo, but something bolder.

I’ve purchased a hairpiece.

But I’m not 100% sure about how it looks, so I’m reaching out to you, dear readers. Please click on the link below to see a picture of me in my new hairpiece. Take a good look and then leave a comment to let me know if it looks natural or not. It’s possible that you won’t be able to tell I’m wearing anything at all!

CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO.

Hawkeye and Hawkguy

The above is a picture of me and my cool dad from over the weekend (and that’s my niece, Grace, in the background). You can click here for a larger version.

My family was involved in the SCA for several years when i was growing up. During those years I was too young to be allowed to participate in the fighting, so we got into archery. We took part in some of the smaller SCA competitions, and we practiced by setting up hay bale targets at my grandpa’s farm.

When my dad retired last week, his office presented him with a gorgeous longbow and I’ve been looking forward to shooting with him. So this weekend I rented a little car and made a little surprise visit to Lafayette, Indiana.

Totally. Worth. It.

Oh, and the title of this post is a little reference to the recurring Hawkeye/Hawkguy joke in the current Matt Fraction/David Aja Hawkeye comics.

Buyin’ Sellin’ and Makin’

Hello. I am selling this cool leather jerkin on ebay (click the link or image to go to the ebay listing):

It’s an excellent medieval/fantasy/renfair type piece from Ravenswood Leather, and is in pretty great condition. This is the little “reward” I got for myself years ago when I signed up for the first Zita the Spacegirl book. Unfortunately it just never fit well. It’s a large and I’m a medium, so it’s always been a little too roomy in the chest. It’s a unique pice though, because I had them add a hood to one of their existing non-hooded designs.

The other reason I’m selling this off is that I need to replace some of my juggling/fire show equipment. You know how it is. A new torch here, a gallon of fuel there. Wire rim spectacles and a powdered wig for an upcoming show... It all adds up.

In the meantime I’ve been working on the cover for Zita 3. It’s a pretty dynamic image so far and I’m hoping to post a little preview of that in the next week or so. Here are some Zita-and-Little-Robot-related commissions to tide us over:

Happy Wednesday.

Whovian? YOUvian.

Another commission:

I first became aware of Doctor Who a handful of years ago when we were living in Italy. We had run out of movies and a pair of British teenagers loaned me some episodes they had burned to dvd. They seemed pretty incredulous when I told them I hadn’t heard of Doctor Who, but they told me not to worry because the new Doctor (David Tennant) was “quite dishy.”

The first episode I watched was “The Impossible Planet” which is one of those episodes where you just plunge right into the adventure at full tilt and I thought “how could I not have known about this?” Then I thought “yeah, I guess he is pretty dishy.” Then I thought “OMG ROSE TYLER!” (though now my favorite companion is Martha Jones).

So I was definitely taken with the TARDIS and the crazy mishmash of ideas that made Doctor Who what is was. I’ve been quite a lot less impressed with the Steven Moffat/ Matt Smith series, which seems too focussed on it’s own mythology instead of looking outward toward new ideas. But those Russel T. Davies/ David Tennant episodes were something special.

So... how many Whovians do I have visiting this blog?

Kids Read Comics

Today, an illustration I made for the Kids Read Comics event coming up this June in Ann Arbor:

How I Use My Local Library

(The image above is a recent Zita commission, made to look a little like the celebrity reading posters you see in libraries).

About once a week, usually on thursday or friday, I pack up my current sketchbook, my current notebook, and my current (old, beat up) computer and spend most of the day working at my local library.

It’s wonderful. I love being surrounded by people I’m not responsible for. I see tutors trying to explain algebra to students who clearly have better things to think about; I see librarians using futuristic gadgets to scan books that are already on the shelf; I see people who are here because it’s clearly their only internet access point; and I see the librarian who my girls say is beautiful like a china doll.

And I see books. Wonderful books.

I also bring home my weekly stack of reading. To this end, one of my favorite sections of the library is the nonfiction new books shelves because this is where you can find a wide range of interesting stuff in a very small space. If you’re looking for lateral thinking, the new books shelf is the place to be. This week alone I brought home:

Heads in Beds, a highly entertaining, kinda foul-mouthed memoir of the hotel industry and how it works.

The Richer Sex A book about how women are earning more, becoming the dominant sex and... I don’t know? I haven’t read much of it. Anna snatched it up PDQ. Now I'm all worried...

I also brought home another history of circumnavigation (a topic I return to with FRIGHTENING frequency) and a new C.S. Lewis biography.

Finally, I try to bring home a couple interesting books for the girls. I peruse the adult sections for those large photo-heavy books on fascinating subjects. (they pick stuff out from the juvenile section on their own). This weeks treasures:

A book of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope: SO. BEAUTiFUL.

A book of microscopic ocean life: SO. CRAZY.

And that’s pretty much how I do the library. How do YOU use this great public resource?

Young Authors Festival

Earlier this week I traveled to Trinity Christian College (near Chicago) to be the guest at their annual “Young Authors Festival.” The young authors were elementary students from surrounding schools, all of whom had written and illustrated their own books for the festival. I played the part of the crusty “old author,” sharing writing and drawing tips with the young creators, answering questions and jumping around a lot (like I do). Meanwhile the college’s improve team acted out some of the kids books. Rousing fun! There’s a nice article about the event here.

Trinity has a beautiful little campus. It had been a long time since I’d wandered about a college campus. The weather was beautiful and so, of course, the students were out in droves, enjoying the sunshine. As I was about to leave what did I happen upon but a bunch of young guys building a trebuchet. A TREBUCHET. They were using it to launch gallon jugs of water across the soccer field. I wanted to hug them.

I also enjoyed meeting one of the education professors at the college, professor Bill Boerman-Cornell, a graphic novel lover who uses Zita the Spacegirl in his children’s literature course. A few of his students caught me between presentations to talk about the book and have their copies signed. It was cool. I don’t usually have a lot of college-age fans.

Oh, and Trinity has an awesome mascot. They are the Trolls. There were posters that said things like “Tweet like a TROLL” and shirts that said things like “TROLL BASEBALL” which, you know, just sounds like a fantastic sport.

The Shadow Knows...

But what exactly does he know? I mean really.

I'm happy with the design on this commission, but looking at it now I wish I had gone a little darker on his suit.

Head and Shoulders, Knees and...

I'm working on a post about how I love visiting my local library (let me count the ways), but it looks like that will have to wait for another day. Instead, here's a rough little comic from my notebook:

And here's another commission. I'm going to assume you know these guys.

Shadowcat or Kitty Pryde?

And today we have another X-Man -it's Kitty Pryde and her alien dragon, Lockheed! I fiddled with the costume a little but the biggest liberty I took was making Lockheed a longer, more serpentine dragon.

This was my favorite of all the recent commissions. It was a little hard to mail away.

Canadian Cutlery

Stepping away from the DC Universe, here's a picture of Wolverine. I tried to give him a sort of casual costume. I imagine that this is about as dressed up as the rest of the X-Men could get ol' Logan.

I was inspired to draw this one after seeing Jake Parker's recent (totally rad) Wolverine illustration over on his blog.

Commission Update: All commissions are going out in TODAY'S MAIL. Thanks to everyone who ordered, and thanks for being patient while I got these finished. They turned out great!

Hawk Girl

If Shazam was one of the world’s first superheroes, then Doctor Carrie Hall aka Hawk Girl, was one of the 20th centuries last great costumed adventurers.

Active during the 1930s, Hall became famous not only as a terrible distraction to the (mostly male) undergraduates of the Archeology department of Marshall College, but also as a globe-trotting treasure hunter and “liberator” of rare and valuable historical artifacts. Armed with the “usual tools of the trade" as well as a pair of unique gliding wings, National Geographic dubbed her “Hawk Girl: the Tomb Raider.”

Her wing technology has never been duplicated, leading some to believe that there was more than science involved in her flight.

Hawk Girl disappeared somewhere in Egypt at the eve of the second World War. Her fate remains a mystery.

UPDATE: Our resident Poet, Tom Riley, wrote this sonnet of Shazam: Unmasked Marvel

Shazam

Another entry in my Justice League Project -my re-imagining of Captain Marvel:

Active during the 1940s and 50s, Shazam was one of the worlds first true superheroes. When young Clark Kent goes public as Superman, this is where he gets his inspiration. Shazam (whom the media briefly dubbed “Captain Marvel, though the name didn’t stick), was powerful, colorful and a sort of living embodiment of the optimism of the time.

But very little is known about the man behind the legend.

This is because Billy Batson laid a lot of the groundwork for what it means to be a superhero, and that included a jealously guarded secret identity. As a young boy he was, under mysterious circumstances, granted a magic word that, when spoken, would imbue him with magnificent powers and a preternatural adult body.

Toward the latter half of the 1950s sightings of Shazam became fewer, and then dropped off altogether.

At the time of the forming of the Justice League, William “Billy” Batson is in his 80s and living a bitter, reclusive life in a private estate, along with his sister, Mary. But Batson has been watching the rise of these new Superheroes with great interest, and he thinks, perhaps, when the heroes reach their darkest hour, he may speak his magic word again.

COMMISSION UPDATE: Commissions should start going out next week!