For anyone interested in my original art from FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN– I wanted to give you a heads up that the pencils for the first issue that shipped this week will be up for sale on the MOTHCOMIX.COM site tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. So if you’re at all interested in any of the pages from that issue, get there bright an early at 9 and grab your first choice before someone else nabs it….! So just click on the ‘SALES’ link at the top of the page, and then click on the MOTHCOMIX.COM link from there. Or… if you’re a tad lazy, just click HERE.

This is Entry 152.

Mike

It has been either raining or overcast for about a week now here in the ‘triangle’ area of North Carolina. I’m not complaining, mind you. The region was in the middle of somewhat of a drought period, and we most certainly need the rain. Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill were all in the middle of voluntary water restrictions– and the local officials were contemplating going to MANDATORY restrictions if the rainwater situation hadn’t improved. And here in the ‘burbs of Durham, I’m reliant on a well for my water– so when things get as bone-dry as they had been recently, I start to get a little worried. See, I LIKE being able to take showers and wash my clothes. Even though the city of Durham fleeced me for a ‘Water Assessment fee” to the tune of 3 Grand a few years back (the city and county of Durham are one-in-the-same), they have yet to run water lines up into my neighborhood– although they do so for every NEW housing development that is built in this same area. Just one of the oh-so-many inventive ways that local government can relieve you of your hard earned money without really having to provide any services….! It feels almost like a protection racket at times around here the way Durham finds ways of charging taxes and fees for things they don’t deliver on.

But that’s neither here nor there. I didn’t mean to get into a screed about the petty greed of local governments. I meant to say that though we have desperately needed the rain, and I don’t resent it at all…. when I haven’t seen the sun in a week or more, I tend to get a little melancholy. I’ve always been very affected by the changes of weather and seasons– and dark, damp and dreary weather REALLY brings me down. That’s why I think that no matter how beautiful and hip and happening both Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon are– I don’t think I could ever be happy living in either place. They have just too much rain and mist and overcast weather for me to be happy. I NEED the sun! Not that I get out in it much, thanks to my job…. and I don’t need to do that anymore anyway. I used to be the kind of person who loved to lay outside, baking in the harsh rays of the sun… slowly roasting my skin until I was a nice, deep golden brown. Back in ‘the day’, I would get so dark, you couldn’t see me at night even if I were standing right in front of you unless I smiled and showed you the whites of my teeth. Now that I’m older and wiser, I’m REALLY hoping that behavior doesn’t come back to haunt me later in life with some nice, nasty Melanoma. ANYHOO…. I hope it continues to rain for a while to make sure my well water continues to flow… but I SURE WOULD LOVE to see some sun as well. Just seeing it streaming through the windows with all the little dust motes dancing in it’s glow makes me happy (the sun…. not the dust motes).

OK… I’ve rambled about nothing long enough. For those of you interested– don’t forget that the first issue of FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN drops on the racks tomorrow. Check it out and let me know what you think…..

This is entry 151.

Mike

And so another summer comes to an end, and fall steals in. As I get older, the seasons seem to come and go quicker and quicker…. it seems as though I just woke up from a short summer afternoon cat-nap to discover that the leaves have changed color and the night comes a bit sooner. Fall is my favorite time of year. The light of the autumn months takes on an otherworldly quality. There’s a golden glow to everything– as though the remaining life force in the plants and trees is shining its brightest just before it burns out and lies dormant until the return of spring. And the heat of summer diminishes, giving way to cooler temperatures. This seems to invigorate me. It’s wonderful to once again be able to leave the door to my screened-in porch open, giving Charlie the freedom to come and go as he pleases as he makes his rounds to see what has changed outside since his last patrol only moments before. He also loves to lay in the sun during this time. He enjoys sleeping in that sun– he wasn’t too fond of the heat of summer. I’ve often heard (and witnessed) cats greatly enjoying slowly baking in the summer sun…. but Charlie’s not into that. He seems to prefer the temperatures of fall instead of the inferno of summer (although this past summer season wasn’t nearly as hot as SOME I’ve experienced in my 12 years living in North Carlolina).

But there’s also a melancholy that comes with the changing of seasons. The shadows get longer in fall…. and twilight comes too soon. The most wonderful thing about summer for me is that the daylight lasts until almost 9 p.m. at the height of the season….. as fall encroaches, that time dwindles to 8…. and then by NOW, it’s near dark by 7:30. It was wonderful in the summer to leave the gym at 7 or so and know that there was still almost two hours of light left in the day…. now, the sun is already hidden by the time I walk out the gym door. And the thought is always in the back of my mind that within a couple of months, it will be dark by 5:30 in the afternoon. That’s not something I look forward to. So there’s always a dichotomy of warring emotions for me that comes with the advent of fall.

But the beauty of the season always wins out.

This is Entry 150.

Mike

Today’s sketch is another warm-up/sales piece that I’ll be turning into an inked and grey toned sketch to sell at a show to try to save myself the ‘commission blues’ I usually experience at cons. I just happened to sketch it a bit tighter than I have some of the others I’ve been doing, so I thought it would be good to post it here.

Fabio Moon has been doing a wonderful series of shorts on the blog he shares with his (also) artist Gabriel Ba.. They’re done in stick-figure form…. but Fabio’s sense of storytelling is so strong and his drawing abilities so fantastic that they have more life and meaning than 75% of the comics being published today. He’s been pouring his thoughts about the struggles of creating comics into these wonderful short stories. Storytelling is such a complicated and at times frustrating process…. the artist or artist/writer is responsible for so much that goes into the creation of a comic page….. and ultimately a story. To bring everything — characters, settings, lighting, mood and so much more– together into one coherent tale can be daunting…. intimidating. But those us who love to do this for a living (and would be doing it even if we DIDN’T get paid for it) relish the struggle. As the old saying goes– it’s not the destination, but the JOURNEY that’s the thing. And Fabio and his brother Gabriel are two people who’s journey is a wonder to watch. Fabio’s latest work is on the OGN SMOKE AND GUNS with Kirsten Galdock, published by AIT/PLANET LAR. Do yourself a favor and ask for it at your local comic shop.

This is entry 149.

Mike

It’s amazing how fast time seems to slip past me these days. Everyone my age I speak to says the same thing… the older you get, the faster time whizzes by. So I realized late last night that it was coming up on almost a WEEK since my last blog post. Sorry about that. Last time, in my post about the BALTIMORE COMICON, I was writing about doing sketches before the show so that I wouldn’t have to sketch during the con, and thus save some wear and tear on my poor deteriorating back. The sketch above is one of several I’ve done since I returned from Baltimore. It’s a bit rougher than the ones I usually post, but that’s because I’m planning on tracing it onto art board, inking it and adding grey tones to make it a more complete piece of art. My plan is to try to get at least one or two done each week before my next big show. Considering I’m not going to any more of the larger shows until next year, I should be able to have quite a few ready by the time my next trip.

 
Here’s the cover image for issue 3 of FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN. I thought that since the solicitations for Marvel’s December publications were recently released, it would be OK to post a copy of it here for you to see…… at least, those of you who might not have ALREADY seen it.

This is post 148.

Mike