Bannertastic

Aloha, folks! So I posted some of the banner ideas I had a little while ago, and here are the final versions I went with:

Pretty awesome, huh? And here's a picture what they look like to scale.

In case you were wondering where I got them printed from, I used www.banners.com. Really nice people to work with, very fast turn around time, and great quality. I highly recommend them.

Summer Cons

Yo! So here are the cons that I'll be at this summer.

Anime Mid Atlantic (June 15-17): I may end up dropping by and saying aloha one day. Hopefully I'll see you there!

Heroes Con (June 22-24): Maybe have a table. I'll find out closer to the convention.

Anime Iowa (July 27-29): Guest, and I'll be running a few panels as well as a portfolio critique.

I'm also looking into a few other appearances, and I've also been invited to a few art shows on the East Coast. I'll share more info when details come. Hope to catch you guys at any of these shows!

B2 Flats

Aloha again! So I finished the flats for Blond's banner, and I'm going to take a short break from it for a while. But until I get back to it, here are the 2 banners next to each other!

Blue Flats

Got a ways to go, but here's the inks and flats for Blue. Text and shading to come. By the way, the final versions will be 24"x77".

Displays

Aloha! So since I'll be doing a few new conventions over the summer (Heroes Con and Anime Iowa), it's about time that I update my display banner. I think I'm about 5 years overdue for a new banner actually, so I'm wicked excited about making new ones.

So instead of doing a horizontal banner like I used to, I'm going vertical, since I found that my display usually gets blocked if there's somebody at my table. And instead of buying a single, large display to go behind me, I'm going with two narrow ones and attaching a sign in the middle to connect them.

After doing a few thumbnails for both banners, here's a mockup of what they'll look like! Now to just ink and color these guys.

Punned!

Aloha, dudes! So I've been working on a fun project titled the Steel Society for a few months now. It's my first big venture away from nautical-themed comics.

Without spoiling too much, it is a graphic novel about a young man named Evan who joins a secret guild of actors who have all portrayed the same role of James Bond-esque international super-spy, Drake Steele throughout the last 50 years. Evan finds himself struggling to live up to the expectations that his role comes with, while at the same time trying to make his take on the character memorable and unique. After radical changes are made to the series’ integrity following the mysterious death of its creator, the society find themselves having to fight (quite literally) to maintain the acting quality that they’ve been upholding for decades.

So here's a sample scene from the story. Since it'll have lots of James Bond tropes, you'll discover puns, double-entendres, and witty one-liners throughout the book. So enjoy multiple puns for the same scene! Come up with your own if you'd like.

I'm planning on coloring this as well. Keep an eye out for that sometime. I'll avoid ending this with a pun. You're welcome.

Landlocked in Iowa

Dude! So I just got asked by Anime Iowa to be their guest of honor for 2012! I'm pretty honored by this, as well as wicked excited. Mainly because of all of their guests of honor, I'm one of the only web cartoonists to earn that title. Every year they have a lot of talented voice actors like Greg and Chris Ayers, Kyle Herbert, and Chuck Huber to name a few. Steve Bennet's been a guest there since their first year, but he's not a web cartoonist. Still, I'm stoked for this!

I really hope I get a chance to do some promotional work for the con. If I do, I'll make sure to share it here.

Also, I really hope that Kyle Herbert returns this year. He voices the announcer for Dragon Ball Z, and recorded an awesome voicemail message for me a few years back.

Sunkist VS. ???

So I just submitted my character design to the *cue fanfare* Iron Pen Showdown!

Up to 20 artists submit a character of their original design to fight against another cartoon. Every artist is randomly paired with another artist/cartoon duo and forced to fight to the death battle in a comic. Cartoonist A draws their character beating Cartoonist B's character in a fight, and B will draw his guy kicking A's ass in a comic too. After a couple of weeks, both comics get posted. After a week of voting (by other competitors and the public, so I'll be calling for your help when this happens), the winner moves onto the next round!

So I submitted a dude from my comic, Sunkist. He's not much of a fighter, but more of a really-laid back beach bum. How's he going to fight, you ask? Through charm, wit, and cunning. And with the help of his gnarly little guinea pig, Ripcurl, he'll defeat my first rival for sure.

I'll get my first opponent soon. Pretty stoked!

And here's the picture I whipped up for the competition.

Fluke '12

Aloha! Fluke was a blast, and thanks to everybody who dropped by and said hi. I prepared a cool little Cap'n Brad mini comic and placed them inside of little bottles, and the final version came out better than I could have hoped for. Here's the cover to the mini, and I'll post up more pics once I receive them:

13 Island Shack

Hey dudes! So I've been working on some cool stuff for Blue and Blond recently. Mostly thumbnails, but I wanted to share a particular one with you.

So usually Blue and Blond are traveling around the world, and I thought it would be cool to have their own home base. So I've been building a really cool island with great surfing spots, fishing spots, hidden coves, and other places for B&B to explore during their down time.

For now, here's the surf shack they'll stay in:

Second Wave is what I'm calling the relaunch of Blue and Blond, since the first book was called First Wave. I'll put more fun stuff up this week about the island.

Avast! Thumbnails be afloat!

And here we go, the thumbnails for the final 4 pages of the Cap'n Brad storyline. Such a fun character to draw! While the story does have an end, I'm definitely keeping the option open to do more with Brad and his crew. Especially the big dude from pages 3 and 8. He's a blast to draw.

Ahoy! More pages be ready!

Aloha, dudes and dudettes! So the Cap'n Brad storyline is coming along nicely. I've made some changes to pages 4, 5 and 6, and feel that they're ready to show now. I've actually reworked the colors on these pages 3 times now. And I just recently got some great advice on these pages (especially for page 5, my favorite) from a local senior illustrator, so I'll revisit them when I get the chance. For now though, I'd like to just finish pages 7-10 so I can be prepared for Fluke.

 

I'll have the thumbnails for the final pages up soon!

Yarrrr!

Aloha, again! One of Blue and Blond's most popular characters has been Cap'n Brad and his Scurvy Grog. I never really explored him as a character though, and so I finally gave him his own storyline. Overall the thing will be 10 pages, and will give us a different look at Brad as a character.

Here's the first 3 pages of the story. You'll get to enjoy the story when it gets posted up on Blue and Blond or you can find me at Fluke this month, in Athens!

Aloha, world!

Aloha, dudes and dudettes! Been working hard on getting the relaunch of Blue and Blond going. Have a lot of new and fun story lines, and the art's looking better than ever. Here's a look at the new look:

I'm calling the relaunch Blue and Blond: Second Wave. So far about 24 pages are complete and I'm looking to start updating again when I get about 32 finished. I'll have thumbnails up pretty soon for one of the early stories that I'll be posting.

I'm pretty stoked, guys!