Snowy Days, Podcasts and Watercolors

Note: This is the LAST CALL for the Memory Dragon game! I’m going to close down the shop late tomorrow or early Friday and start putting together the orders so that I can get them out in time for Christmas. So if you were hoping to nab a copy you can still CLICK HERE TO ORDER.

And now back to our regularly scheduled blog post:

The Hatke Family has been snowed in to our little farmhouse since Sunday. The girls have enjoyed days of snowmen and sledding and snowball fights (and hot chocolate and movies). I’ve enjoyed those things too, and I’ve also taken the opportunity to catch up on some freelance work and commissions. Here are some ink-and-watercolor seed packet designs I worked on for a friend:

And here is a Christmas card design another friend commissioned. This one was fun to put together:

Finally, yesterday I had the opportunity to have a fun Skype conversation with the fantastic Jerzy Drozd for his Comics Are Great podcast. We talked about writing heroes, depicting the guileless good guy, the recent Superman movie and much more. Here’s a link to the show:

COMICS ARE GREAT EPISODE 92.

Talking About Graphic Novels

I forgot yesterday that I do, in fact, have a little bit of art to share.

One of the commissions I worked on recently was a banner design for a new graphic novel reviewing blog called Graphic Novels My Kid Loves. Have a look:

Here's a slightly closer look:

And speaking of people who review and talk about graphic novels: with Zita the Spacegirl on the Black Eyed Susan Award list I've had the opportunity lately to talk to some great Maryland librarians. This includes Matthew Winner who interviewed me last night for his Busy Librarian Podcast. If you visit Matthew's site you'll see that his most recent episode features my friend Zack Giallongo talking about his Barbarians Vs. Zombies book, Broxo.

The episode we recorded last night should be up sometime in the future (you know, that place of hover cars and robot uprisings).

A Random Robot (and Holly Black!)

Only one person chose a “random robot” commission. The robot builders in my imagination seem to like designing robots with stumpy little legs. This poor guy has to ride on another robot and point where he wants to go:

Anyway...

Last night my friend Bill convinced me to come out of hiding and ride with him to the Baltimore County Library to see Holly Black. It was well worth it. Not only was it a pleasure to listen to her speak about vampires and writing, but I learned about The White Cat, a wild fairytale that had somehow avoided my notice until now.

And I picked up a copy of her new book, The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.

Korra!

Just another little commission for a Monday. Today it's Korra, from The Legend of Korra.

My comics compatriot, Dave Roman (look at his wikipedia page!) has told me, in no uncertain terms, that we are not really friends until I've watched Avatar: the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. I'm working toward fixing this problem in my life.

Zita 3? A Little Update

Commissions week continues! But first:

When is Zita 3 coming out?!?

I get a lot of emails asking about this. I should probably thank everyone for being so interested, and for waiting so patiently to find out what happens to Zita, Mouse and the gang. When I ended the last book on a cliffhanger I never expected more than a year to go by between books, but that's how things turn out sometimes. And I do have a little bit of news:

The book is finished, proofed, and has been sent off to the printer. There will be an official book announcement, somewhere on the internet, in the next month. The announcement will include such things as: The full title! The release date! The cover! (the cover turned out really well) And maybe even a link for pre-orders!

So stay tuned...

In the meantime here are some of the recent Zita-themed commissions:

And here's just a little snippet of art from the cover of Zita 3:

Dick and Babs

Leaving behind the Marvel Universe now we wander into the world of DC superheroes and find a couple members of the Bat-Family: Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon:

I was particularly excited to draw up a version of Dick Grayson/Nightwing/Robin the Boy Wonder (the first) because he's easily my favorite character in the whole DC cannon. I mean, he's a circus acrobat! Trained by Batman! C'mon!

So here we have a very casual Nightwing, leaning up against an old Haly's Circus sign. I always figured that if I were writing the character he would be very casual about the whole superhero thing. Not really bother with a mask and only really protect his civilian identity for Bruce Wayne's sake. He'd be a sort of hero's hero, a crimefighter's crimefighter. The series would see Batman's protege traveling the world, working with a different DC hero in every episode, using his particular expertise to help them with problems they can't solve on their own.

. . .well.

Here is a short, very quickly-drawn comic I made last night to say farewell to Summer 2013:

Kid Domino and the Avengers!

Rounding out the Marvel Universe we have a half-pint version of the X-Men character Domino, along with age reduced versions of some Avengers with a grown up Loki:

Now Domino is a character I didn't know a whole lot about (though I do have some old Rob Liefeld X-Force comics). With her mutant probability-altering power (super luck) she's essentially better-designed version of the mutant character Longshot. (Poor Longshot. Why would a character with the superpower of "awesome luck" have such an UNfortunate design that includes three fingered elf hands, a mullet, a glowing eye and a disco outfit?).

She-Hulk!

Keeping things squarely in the Marvel Universe, today's commission is the Sensational She-Hulk:

Jennifer Walters inherited some of the Hulks powers when she recieved an emergency blood transfusion from her cousin, Dr. Bruce Banner. There have been different versions of her powers, and in some stories she is portrayed as a regular person who can "Hulk out" like the original Hulk. But I like the idea that she's just permanently stuck as a super-strong 6.5 foot green lawyer.

Galactus!

And the first commission for the week is Marvel's cosmic super villain GALACTUS:

Commissions are in the mail and should arrive this week! If you have expressly told me that your commission is a surprise gift or Christmas present, don't worry. I won't post it here. Otherwise ...here they come.

Commissions Update: Ready to Send

The recent round of commissions are complete! This crazy, eclectic cast of characters should be in the mail by tomorrow -and some of them will start showing up here by next week.

Commissions Update

For everyone who is waiting on a commission: I am halfway through my list and they should all go out sometime next week. We've got an interesting cast of characters to say the least, and they ought to start showing up on the blog here shortly after I send them out.

In the meantime here is the most positive review of Zita the Spacegirl I've ever read.

That All Happened Very Fast

Commissions are closed.

For now, anyway.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who ordered. We'll have quite an eclectic and fun cast of characters appearing here over the next month or so, including some particular favorites of mine. So stay tuned!

And if you missed out on this round, just keep checking back here. I'm going to try to do another set in November.

Change of Plans

I decided it would be better to do a special fire sale on commission, so...

For a limited time I’m taking single-character commissions for $25!

$25 gets you one of these 3 things:

1. The Superhero of your choice. (Must be a character I can find a reference for! Costumes are subject to fashion tinkering).

2. A “Random Robot.” (these guys’ll fit in with the Little Robot’s universe. So, you know, cute robots).

3. Any character from Zita the Spacegirl. (or a random Zitaverse creature).

Size will be approximately 4.5X6.5 inches, ink and watercolor. These are simple one-character commissions. When checking out in paypal there’s a box for special instructions -please use this to let me know what you’re ordering! I’ll leave this deal open until I feel like I’ve got as much as I can do (probably no more than 15). Allow up to 4 weeks for delivery. Click on the image below to order:

Hopefully we’ll have an interesting collection of characters to post up here!

UPDATE: People seem to be having trouble finding where to put a note in paypal. I'm receiving some orders with notes attached, but most without. If you miss it, just send along an email: ben(at)househatke(dot)com.

Dog Days of Summer

Zita the Spacegirl, the Old and the New

Here's another recent commission piece. This one for a girl named Emma who loves to read. I went ahead and added the "Read" text to this one to make it into another mini library poster:

And now something from the vault. Long, long ago I made some black and white newspaper style Zita strips. Most of them have been lost, but I recently found this one lurking on old internet archives. It's one of a series of three wherein Zita sneaks into the Robot Rally, using a cardboard box as a disguise, and uncovers a sinister plot. I don't usually like to repost my older works, but this one holds up pretty well, I think.

Perhaps more interesting still, here's an old image from the Zita website. You can see how the character has changed:

Friends in Green Stay Mean

This is a little commission piece I did for a dear old friend who I first met at summer adventure camp when I was 16. She wanted a picture of some of her daughter's favorite characters. I love how the Hulk and Cap (and Zita!) are this little girls favorites.

Also, of all the Avengers, it seemed natural that Zita and the Hulk would somehow end up being friends, you know?

Zita and Squidboy

Here are a couple more recent character commissions. They are Zita and some robot friends, and Tim Canny's own comic strip characters, Squidboy and Fred:

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!

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.

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.