Сеоikoniиконихотелско обзавеждане

I had to keep the sketch pretty quick today if I was going to get it done and posted at all. I spent the morning with an electrical contractor here at the house. I’ve been having trouble with my heating and air conditioning unit switching its breaker off during the height of the heat of the day the past few afternoons (and for those of you in the southeast dealing with these 100-plus degree days, you know just how sweltering and oppressive this week has been). As it turns out, my entire wiring setup outside is horribly old and doesn’t meet code. It also contains quite a bit of aluminum wiring– which the contractor tells me is very dangerous and not in use anymore. So I got the great news that it’s going to cost me thousands of dollars to bring everything back up to code…. and not have the danger of causing a fire at any point as well. Ah, the joys of being a homeowner….!

I’ve had several folks inquire about my 2007 sketchbook and whether it would be for sale here on the site. Steven Gettis has set up a store link in the PERSONAL section of the column at the right for selling the sketchbook and prints I’ve produced. So anyone interested in the things offered there, I’ve got a PayPal account set up to handle the sales that way.

OK… have a great weekend, everyone.

This is Entry 412.

Mike

Today’s sketch is a return to the world of TELLOS and the two main characters of that story and realm, KOJ and JAREK. I’ve been doing quite a few sketches of the characters from the book lately as regular visitors to this site know… and that’s for a reason. Todd and I have been hoping to have a BALTIMORE COMICON exclusive…. something… to offer this year for the show. We had been talking about having an original prose story written by Todd with spot illustrations by me– but time is growing so short and there would be so much design work to be done for the story before I could create the illos that I think that’s going to have to be shelved as an idea. My Marvel work makes that close to impossible at this point. So I’m thinking that an exclusive sketchbook that we would offer for sale at the show may be the way we have to go. With that in mind, I worked up today’s sketch of ‘the boys’. We’re also hoping to have copies of the TELLOS COLOSSAL HARDCOVER with us in Baltimore… but I’m beginning to wonder if that will even be a possibility. I’ve been checking the Diamond shipping lists, and I was assuming that the book would be shipping on the 15th since that’s the date offered for availability from AMAZON.COM… but it’s not on Diamond’s list. Perhaps the 22nd will be the date… I hope.

So… plans are still up in the air at this point.

In the mean time… I’ll keep sketching. For now, though– it’s back to work.

This is Entry 411.

Mike

I’ve given quite a bit of thought to the broad strokes of my idea of a displaced Earthman finding himself on the golden ringed planet far from his home. Unfortunately for me, the broad strokes of a story idea is all I usually end up with. It’s the smaller moments– the character moments and construction– that I find myself frozen up about. I’m sure if I actually sat down and started to write some of this stuff out, it would begin to flow from me pretty easily. I recall…. what must be about 5 years ago now…. that Todd and I were discussing possible ideas for another TELLOS story arc. I remember Todd talking about the possibility of introducing a new character– a rebellious young girl who could end up a playing a pivotal role in a new story. She would represent a way of reintroducing our cast and also becoming an important part of the overall story. That was about all Todd had at that moment. I remember saying I would do some character designs and begin to perhaps flesh out some ideas in writing for the beginning of the new story arc. I sat down to my computer and began to write… and before I knew it, I had pages and pages of character descriptions and the outline of the introductions to these characters and how they would impact the beginning of our new story. The writing began to come to me very easily– so easily I was thrilled and quite surprised. Unfortunately, all that writing was on the hard drive of my old computer… my Mac G4 tower… that died a very gruesome death, and I never made backups. Fortunately, Todd and I remember most of the details, so it’s easily recreated for future use.

All that is to say that one day, when I have the time, I’ll sit down and begin to flesh out the story for the man from Earth who finds himself on far away Saturn, embroiled in a struggle for the throne of the greatest kingdom on that distant world. In the mean time, though…. I had a flash of an image of … for now I’ll call him Jesse– having borrowed a flyer, standing on a rocky peak, trying to come to terms with the events that have led him to this point. Just a small moment in what I hope is a big, epic story that will one day come to fruition… but a moment I really wanted to draw.

OK… that’s it for the beginning of another week.

This is Entry 410.

Mike

The end of another week has arrived — and I’ve got nothing much to write about. I did today’s sketch from a vague idea of a female aviator in a steampunk-type of setting. Of course, the steampunk setting is only slightly hinted at because it’s just a sketch and I don’t have as much time to devote to it as I’d like with work looming. I think one of my major problems– as far as actually getting anything done with my own story/comic book ideas– is that I love so many genres and mixtures of genres. I get all these flashes of ideas for stories and characters swirling around and mixing in my head… and never get to actually producing any of them in my free time. I suppose my fear is that I’ll start on something with great enthusiasm and come to realize that I don’t have quite as many ideas and/or fervor for the concept that I began with. It’s that schizophrenic creative insecurity that keeps me frozen in place most of the time. At the very least, I guess, I’ll end up with a bunch of fun sketches that I can collect into sketchbooks or an art book over time.

Whether I actually ever pursue any of these vague ideas into something concrete or not, drawing this stuff is still a lot of fun… and in the end, that’s what it’s all about.

OK… have a great weekend, everyone.

This is Entry 409.

Mike

There was a lot of news about upcoming comics and industry events that came out of COMICON INTERNATIONAL this past weekend. San Diego is usually the place where comic book companies love to announce their publishing plans for the near future (although WIZARD WORLD in Chicago–the next big show of the year– also sees a lot of original news emerge as well), and there’s a lot to digest from all the stuff announced at this past CCI. For me, however, the most interesting announcement was Marvel’s plan to publish AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 3 times per month. As you’ve no doubt heard, both SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN and FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN will be coming to an end with the ONE MORE DAY story line that J. Michael Strazynski and Marvel EIC Joe Quesada are working on to wrap up the titles. This will then lead into the new paradigm for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN coming out thrice monthly with 4 rotating creative teams.

I think this is a great idea from an economic standpoint. Marvel has long had the multiple-title monthly format for SPIDER-MAN– and I’ve been fortunate to be a part of that two different times with the original SENSATIONAL back in the mid-nineties (with my good buddy Todd Dezago) and more recently with FRIENDLY launching a few years back. Those secondary SPIDER-MAN monthlies have always lagged well behind the main AMAZING title in sales, however ….. always. Most SPIDER-MAN fans prefer the original title over any other… and that makes perfect sense. It’s the main title…. the one that really ‘counts’. So, with this plan to publish AMAZING three times monthly, Marvel still has the same amount of product, and they’ll all be under the original title banner, which will more than likely keep the sales from all the creative teams’ books very close to each other. For ME, though, the most exciting part of this news was the fact that Chris Bachalo will be the artist on one of these rotating teams. I’m such a huge Bachalo fan… if I had to make a list of my top 10 favorite modern comics artists, Bachalo would at or near the top of the list. He’s one of those artists who’s work I buy no matter what he’d drawing. Whether I’m interested in the book or not. His moving over to SPIDER-MAN is extra exciting as he’s been working in the X-MEN office with almost all his work at Marvel for so many years– and though I loved his work on those characters, it’s very exciting to see him moving on to try something else. It’s going to be very exciting to see Bachalo’s take on Peter Parker and his supporting cast as well as his wonderfully bizarre rogue’s gallery. I’m absolutely thrilled…!

OK.. I’ve got to get back to work. Have a great day.

This is Entry 408.

Mike