I’ve been drawing the protagonists from Todd’s and my TELLOS comic of late– and that’s because I so dearly love those characters. It’s always fun… and renewing, really… to sketch them whenever the mood hits. There are, however, so many interesting and fun characters that were featured in our little foray into creator ownership– allies and enemies… friend and foe. That’s the wonderful thing about what we set up with TELLOS– it’s a colorful world populated by so many terrific characters and races…. and we only really scratched the surface with that first series. One of my favorite moments in the first TELLOS series is when Jarek and company were confronted by the bounty hunters that MALESUR sent after them in issue 3. Todd and I came up with some bizarre and intimidating hunters… and TUNRING was one of my favorite among them. I like his huge stature, his giant club…. and I like, most of all, that RIKK– the smallest of the unlikely heroes in TELLOS– gave him such a hard time. It was perfect and funny and oh so clever on Todd’s part.

So today’s sketch is of the massive TUNRING. In future posts, I’ll revisit some of the other characters from the first series… both good and bad.

This is Entry 402.

Mike

I don’t have a lot to write about today– nothing significant has happened to me in recent days. I did go to see the TRANSFORMERS movie yesterday, and I loved it. It’s not big on story, by any means… .but it’s such a fun, high-action popcorn flick that I was enthralled from start to finish. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more… kinetic… movie than TRANSFORMERS. Michael Bay is, if nothing else, a master at depicting mayhem and peril on a grand scale. And the battles between the AUTOBOTS and the DECEPTICONS in the city in the last third of the film were truly spectacular (although they were at times confusing with all the jaw-dropping destruction going on). I was never the target audience for the original TRANSFORMERS cartoons and toys, as I was too old to get into them– but I have an appreciation for their appeal, I think… and I’d be curious to hear what true fans of the franchise feel about this big-screen depiction of their beloved characters.

I was interviewed by the Doug Zawisza for COMICBLOC,COM a couple of months back…. and that interview is finally posted up on their site. You can read it HERE if you’re so inclined. Doug is a great guy, and I really enjoyed our interactions for this interview. As I said, the interview was done some time back, so you should keep that in mind with some of the answers– such as to Doug’s question about the web site, which has, indeed, since then been redesigned by Steven Gettis.

OK.. that’s it for the start of another week.

This is Entry 401.

Mike

So here we are, at 400 posts.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I decided, what will be 4 years ago next month, to start a blog. I originally just wanted to have a web site to have a web presence like so many fellow comic book pros had at the time and a way to promote myself on the World Wide Web… and as you can see from the archives, the blog portion was somewhat neglected at the start. I didn’t have a clear idea of why I’d want to start one– and what I would do with it once it had begun. It took me a while to think — DUH!– about posting new sketch material to share with anyone who might be interested. As it turned out, people were indeed interested. I was so pleasantly surprised when a few folks would mention to me at shows years back that they enjoyed my blog and were making it a regular stop when I began posting more frequently. I honestly didn’t think that many people would pay attention…. but over the years, that attention has grown and this blog has become important to me in more ways than one. Not only has this little corner of the web become a place for me to share and interact with folks online, but the blog has been– on more than one occasion– cheap therapy/cathartic for me when I’ve been stewing something over in my head. Being able to get thoughts down in type and share them with you folks who provide feedback has been a great thing.

I’ve also always been very interested in becoming financially independent by using the web as a source of income for my art. I haven’t done a lot toward that goal… but this blog has prompted me to cultivate the discipline to post new sketches three times a week (usually… there are, of course, times when I need to reach into the ‘lost art files’ or the like when I’m just too busy or have a ‘block’… but fortunately those times are infrequent) and I can then collect many of those sketches into sketchbooks that I then can sell. It’s my hope to one day create more commerce from the site…. but we’ll see how that plays out in the future.

Bottom line is– I love this site, posting sketches and interacting with you folks. So thank you for helping make it so much fun… and thanks for being here.

Here’s to 400 more….

This IS Entry 400.

Mike

That thread featuring famous ‘DOCTORS’ over on DRAWINGBOARD.ORG. is still going… and I thought I’d work up another sketch to contribute to it. I’m a huge fan of the original CAPTAIN MARVEL created by C.C. Beck. I’ve always loved Beck’s wonderful cartoony style– it’s so very lyrical and charming and made CAPTAIN MARVEL so much fun to look at and to read. So, going through the various contributions to the jam thread, I saw that no one has yet drawn DR. SIVANA — and I thought I’d jump on it before anyone else remembered to sketch him. SIVANA is just one of the CAPTAIN’S wonderfully colorful rogues gallery, which also includes such characters as MISTER MIND and BLACK ADAM. If you’ve never read any of the terrific CAPTAIN MARVEL stuff, you can find many of the DC ARCHIVE Editions over on Amazon.com..

And if you are someone who loves to draw and create art– you should certainly register over at the DRAWING BOARD. I link to it all the time– and it’s a wonderful place for not only professional and highly accomplished artists to share their work, but also a great place for new artists to show their stuff and get helpful and constructive critiques. So for you artists who read this blog and love to show off your work, you might want to consider the DRAWING BOARD.

OK… that’s it for today.

This is Entry 399 (and you know what’s next…!)

Mike

I had a very unproductive weekend. I have this…. thing… that happens every single time I take on a new project. Y’see, whenever I’ve finished a job– whether it’s a mini series or I’m moving on from an ongoing I’ve been drawing– I like to take a week or so to unwind… to decompress. I never realized just how stressful drawing under pressure of publication deadlines could be before I got into this business, and so when I’ve finished with a job, I need to just vegetate in front of the TV or do a lot of reading to ‘cleanse my mental palate’, so to speak. I just need to step away. Unfortunately, that always creates a big problem for me as a result. I’ve always needed to draw almost every day– that is to create a new drawing, whether it’s something finished or just a sketch– to keep loose, fluid and to keep my confidence in my abilities up.

It’s sort of like a vicious cycle with each new project. I have the need to step away after such a long period of time in the pressure cooker of comics production — and yet, by stepping away and not drawing consistently for a week or so, I lose confidence and the belief in my abilities that allow me to produce work in a somewhat timely manner. The result of this is that I get entirely intimidated by the script for my new assignment…. and those doubts and deep seeded fears that I’m completely unsuited for that new job– or worse– that feeling that creative folks (or maybe anyone, for that matter) can get that they’re a fraud and unworthy of the position they’re in…. comes creeping in. I would have thought that after almost 15 years of drawing comics on a somewhat consistent basis (I always have to throw in that qualifier– I’ve never been a true monthly guy. It takes me 6 weeks or more to produce a fully pencilled comic book), that I would have either worked past this situation that hobbles me at the beginning of each new job… or I would have found some way to comfortably prevent or circumvent it. Perhaps that will never happen. I just might have to resign myself to that frustrating fact of life…. or, maybe it’s just something that’s tied up in the work-for-hire world. I’ve never had that problem with anything I’ve drawn for myself. TELLOS never presented me with those feelings. I looked forward to each new day with TELLOS.

So maybe it’s the difference between working for ‘The Man’ and working for myself.

I spent the weekend working on character designs for some of the players in this new project I’m starting… so hopefully though I haven’t done any actual interior page work on the book, that will loosen me up enough to get started.

So– I’m gonna get to it. Have a great start to the work week, folks.

This is Entry 398 (only one more post until 400….)

Mike