Flipping through Texas

I'm in Frisco, Texas this week and starting to really miss my little Hatke Home. I had hoped to post some pictures but, truth be told, I'm still getting used to this Ipad.

 But for now there are a few pictures from Round Rock, Texas courtesy of Librarian Clarissa Grindle. she also caught one of my backflips on video.

 You can see it all here.

Off to Texas

I'm going to Texas! I've been meaning to post about this for awhile but, as usual, I'm only getting to it at the last minute. Several Texas schools have invited me to come and speak about comics, writing and creativity. And so, next week I'll be embarking on a two week ramble through the Lone Star State, visiting schools (and a couple bookstores) near the cities of Dallas and Austin. It's exciting, and a little bit daunting as I've never done a marathon of back-to-back school visits like this before.

And of course it's no coincidence that January is the big month of voting for the Texas Bluebonnet Award (Zita the Spacegirl is in this year's list).

Thankfully my wife's parents are coming to stay while I am away, so my little family will be in good hands.

Panning for Gold

Here's a comic scanned straight from my little Moleskine notebook:

One of my editors once told me that sometimes, to get to the really good stuff, you just have to put a lot of your lesser ideas down on paper. To me that's the importance of sketchbooks and notebooks -that is, making a habit of scribbling and putting your thoughts down. Most of those thoughts and ideas won't really go anywhere. But the point is to keep doing it.

I've kept sketchbooks for years, but it's only been a few months since I added a smaller notebook into the mix (the little, black Moleskine), and it's been a boon. I carry it almost everywhere and I use it to sketch rough comics, sneakily draw people in coffee shops, write thoughts, journal entries, and generally scheme. Here are some pages (I've blurred out a couple silly lists):

You know, I've loved the idea of the battered, illustrated journal/diary ever since seeing Dr. Jones Sr's grail diary in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. How many of us still keep pen and paper diaries, I wonder?

Winter Wandering

I've really been missing summer this year.

Superpowers 2

...and that's why "Journal Comics Ben" looks a little different now. This comic is supposed to be a sort of dramatic presentation of how you feel when you get a haircut you like.

They're all dancing to this song.

Brain Whisperer

I can’t imagine this gag hasn’t been done before, but it’s how I feel today. I want to yell at my brain “Look, I’ll accept even one good idea from you! If you can’t give me that, then you’re fired and I’m just going to watch youtube videos for the rest of my life.” (Brains hate it when you just watch youtube).

One of the tricks of making a living by making creative work is learning to manage your own creativity. Gardening really is a pretty good, if overused, metaphor. You organize, you plant seeds, and you try every day just to keep the weeds out, but you can’t control the weather, and sometimes rabbits are going to get in and eat your metaphorical carrots. Sometimes you get a giant pumpkin, or a bumper crop you never expected.

I think these extra comics I post here, -the robot comics and journal comics and such- are my way of weeding. I tend to post more of them when I’m struggling or stalling out on other projects. It’s a good way to get out of a rut and jump start the creative process.

And what about you, my creative friends? What do you do to get back in the groove?

Superpowers 1

So... my first comic of 2013 is this thing.

This comic was partially inspired by today's view from my office window:

I guess if I really did meet a creepy magic snowman I might choose a different power. Bubble of Forever Summer sounds pretty great but if I choose teleporting I could just go to Brazil. I know it's an age-old question, but what power would you choose dear readers?

New Year, New Stories, New Art

Happy 2013 everybody!

I kind of expected to be living in a post apocalyptic wasteland by now, wearing my cobbled together armor and shooting down from the roof of my Battle Bus at the hordes of monsters spawned from the laboratories of science-gone-wrong. So it's actually pretty great that instead I'm eating christmas cookies and getting ready to start a work new picture book.

Here's a little peek at my desktop from the closing days of old 2012...

This is the dust jacket cover art from The Worm Whisperer by Betty Hicks (and illustrated by me). I think the cover design came out looking pretty great.

I sent out a respectable batch of books this Christmas. This was one of my "more favorater" title page sketches.