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!

Superman's Gots the Troubles

This is a silly comic that I started it at D&D last night.

I love Superman. And I'm actually pretty excited for this new movie, though I think the costume is kind of needlessly complicated. But hey! Good storytelling can cover a multitude of sins.

Roadkill Dinner

The other day the girls were driving back from town. They had taken the “back way” along a series of country roads that wind through woods and between farms, and when they were about halfway home they saw the car in front of them strike a wild turkey. The bird was just clipped, not run over, but its neck snapped as it fell, killing it instantly.

One thing just sorta lead to another.

It was a beautiful bird. A female, probably a yearling. (my sketch above does not do it justice at all). Anna brought it home to show Angelica, who had stayed home with me, and they were thinking of using some of the wing feathers for quills. But I mean come on! How often does a whole turkey fall into your lap? So yeah ...roadkill dinner.

Dressing it was no different than a big chicken, and the meat was beautiful. Anna cooked it the same way Carla, our neighbor in Italy, would cook fagiano -the pheasants her brother would bring home from hunting. Slow cooked all day in a wine sauce and served with pureed potatoes.

It was pretty great.

Letting Go

Earlier this week the girls went into town to run errands and to buy some chicken feed. They came back with more than just chicken feed. They came back with more chickens to feed. So five new chicks are living in the shed, under the heat lamp, until they are ready to join the little flock. And I can't complain. Not only are they fun to sketch, but someday, months from now, they'll start converting our kitchen scraps into eggs.

Robot Comic #28

Three cheers for unexpected guests! Negative three cheers for guests that fly away in your head.

And here is a little extra picture that I made as a surprise for someone (you should know who you are by now!):

Happy Wednesday! This comic is in my Etsy Shop.

NEWSPAPER FORMAT is HERE!

Robot Comic #27

Hey, Little Robot found his transformation! Don't grow up too fast Little Robot!

Etsy Shop.

NEWSPAPER FORMAT is HERE!

Little Goat Story 1

Today I have a guest artist filling in for me. Her name is Angelica. She's 10, draws comics, and loves plants and animals. This is a comic she started the other night about a little goat that jumps out of a truck. You can click on the image below to look at a larger, easier to read version:

Here's another of Angelica's recent pictures:

Angelica will be traveling with me to the Kids Read Comics Celebration '13 this June 22nd and 23rd in Ann Arbor! I'll post more about that event as it approaches.

EDIT: SOMETHING I FORGOT TO MENTION: A big THANK YOU to everyone who has ordered commissions and purchased art from the Etsy Shop! I like these things to have good homes. I'll be sending orders out very soon.

Robot Comic #26

I don't think he'd seen a transforming robot before, poor guy.

This one's up in the ol' Etsy Shop.

NEWSPAPER FORMAT is HERE!

Robot Comic #25

He’s back!

And a happy Easter to all.

Last week I finished and sent in all the art for Julia’s House, my picture book. This was the first time I’ve sent an entire book’s worth of original art through the mail, and I found myself unexpectedly anxious about leaving the package in the hands of the nice UPS lady.

The Zita books were sent in digitally, you see, so I always had backup files on my computer. The art for Julia’s House was a series of watercolor illustrations that were too big for my scanner to handle.

I was so anxious the pictures that when I got home from the UPS office I called and had them hold the package while I considered getting bus tickets and delivering the art myself. Fun as it could have been, I couldn’t make an out-of-town trip this week.

So off they go.

Now I’m cleaning up my little studio/office while I’m between big projects, and I’ve started putting a bunch of original art up for sale in my House Hatke Etsy Shop. There’s plenty to look at over there, including today’s Robot Comic, and a few other Robot Comics that had never made it over to the shop.

I also have a few signed-and-drawn-in copies of Zita the Spacegirl and Legends of Zita which you can find here, AND I’ve significantly lowered the price for character commissions -just for this week. Take a look.

And for those of you who love sketchbook pages, here’s how today’s comic looked in my moleskine:

As tradition dictates: GO GO ROBOT NEWSPAPER FORMAT!