October books!

Vampire Huntress 4, Mmmm... Vampire Hunters smell like chicken!


Repost of the Fool Moon cover. Looks like it will finally come out! I saw the colors for the first 5 pages of Storm Front 7. Fricken SWEET! I'll put them up when I'm able to:)

Best,

Brett

Mr. Oliver from Anita Blake fame

Also known as the Earth Mover. A character design for the Circus of the Damned #9 cover.

More stuff soon. Have to get a Dresden cover done tomorrow. Then hopefully I'll be left alone to get some more Dresden pages done.

Best,

Brett

I'm feeling nostalgic this week. Redesigns- Wonder Woman and Supes

It's Comic Con time once again, and while I haven't been to on in ages, I do sometimes miss all the action. I've been feeling a bit trapped by my contract right now. Things with Dynamite haven't been going that well lately, just stupid crap that seems to keep popping up. Every time I get back into the groove something new and even more stupid than the last time pops up. It's rather frustrating. Anyways on to the nostalgia. I decided to toss my hat into the Wonder Woman redesign ring. I think I finally figured out what was bothering me about the re design. She doesn't look like Wonder Woman.. meaning she looks to young. In fact she looks more like Donna Troy (she might be young in the story so I might be wrong about this.) I know it's just a sketch, and that Jim did it quickly. I worked with him for years and sat over his shoulder watching him crank out pages and sketches. I did have a question, when did Wonder Woman get these enormous breasts? She didn't have them originally and now she's so top heavy I'm surprised she can fight at all!

So I drew up my redesign, trying to make sure she looked a bit older. I Drew up a Super Man redesign as well, but I'm not sold on it, needs some work.






Best,

Brett

Thank God it's Sunday!

A few weeks ago we got a comment form a 'fan' complaining about all the anti religious stuff on the blog. Saying he was going to stop reading comics because of it! He also stated that he hadn't been on the blog for a number of years and that I should thank GOD for my drawing abilities.

Well, if you don't come to the blog for years you are HARDLY a fan. I have taken to just posting anti religious stuff on Sunday, but this person sufferers from what most of the boo-hoo religious people do, if it offends me take it away!!! They seem to lack the ability to turn the channel, NOT watch a movie or in this case skip a blog post. My TV provider has like 5 religious channels, I am annoyed that I actually pay them money and can't choose to not have them, but I'm not going to piss and moan about it, I just don't watch them (unless I want to mess with Jess;))

What REALLY is annoying is the Thanking God thing. Like my hard work and practice had NOTHING to do with it. SO in this vein, Jess has written up a little Thanks You prayer of her own;)

Thank you, God

Thank you, God, for the talent you gave to me. The talent to paint, to draw, to skillfully care for many dogs.

Thank you, God, for beaming that shit right into the my head, so I didn't actually have to go to college and spend time, money and energy to, you know, learn stuff.

Thank you, God, for magically imparting me with the ability to mix colors, absorb the basics of a computer program by simply looking at the package, and put the image in my head right on the screen with no effort or trial and error at all.

Thank you, God, for giving me the innate knowledge to splint a broken leg, stitch a wound, select appropriate medication according to illness, and diagnose a sick dog by simply touching it.

Thank you, God, for giving me mighty Google Fu, so I can research anything I want to know, simply by touching the keyboard. Of course, that was supposed to be beamed into my head…

Thank you, God, for giving Brett kick ass talent that he never had to practice or work for, so he can support me in the way to which I am accustomed.

Never mind the five years I spent in college, doing loads of homework.

Never mind the hideously stressful final review to get my degree.

Never mind paging through manuals and tutorials, trying to figure out how that stupid brush tool works.

Never mind the huge collection of dog breeding, health, and behavior books I own, and the time it takes to read and understand them.

Never mind the hours and hours and hours of time I've spent looking things up, sorting through the garbage to find the gold, because I had to know, or needed to know, or wanted to know.

Never mind the years and years of practical hands on experience that gives me the confidence I need to splint a leg, or suture a laceration, or pull a pup.

Never mind the years Brett spent, drawing, going to school, learning, and trying to get work.

Thank you, God. For nothing. Because even if you existed, you had nothing to do with anything. It was my work, my blood, my sweat, my brain that put me here.

Thank me! Thank my parents, for raising me to have a brain and know how to use it, thank my instructors, thank Google, but don't thank God.

Now here's a Carl Sagan Video that I thought was cool!



Happy Sunday!

Brett

Westboro Baptist Church Zero, Comic Geeks Won.

Yesterday those funny little bigots at the Westboro Baptist Church picketed the Comic Con in sunny San Diego (a whole mighty group of 4 of them.) The comic fans apparently had heard about and decided to do a little protest of their own! Here's one of the images. Click on it and read the signs, I'm still smiling and I read this last night!

Rest of the story over on Phyrangula and a few more images and links.

Also more signy goodness here!

You did good my little Geeklings, soooooo good! I'm so proud of my people:)

Best,

Brett

Fran-en-stein!

Done for some con thingy. Not sure if it'll get colored in time, we still need to finish a colored Kevin picture and a dinosaur image. Lot's to do! All I have right now are pages so it's nothing really new. I have some designs on the drawing board but those have to wait until I get these pages and covers done. Maybe late next week.

Oh yeah, copyright me:)


Best,

Brett

Sunday of Toonie Blasphemie

A few months ago (May I believe) a cartoonist started a 'Draw Muhammad Day' over on Facebook. Since I'm not on Facebook I didn't find out about it until it was too late:(

Anyways, some idiot cleric (who's an American living in a Stan, not sure which one right now but I think it starts with a 'P') has decided to Fatwa her. Now in a previous Blasphemy post I showed that only certain sects actually believe that stupid, idiotic, childish law. So this is once again one type of religion forcing any and all others to do as it says. Wow, how surprising;)

So in a show of solidarity with another illustrator I drew Muhammad... or did I? IF I did, I drew him some friends to stone.... er play with. I'll give you just one hint, it's the religion of peace and child rape, girls this time, since boys were apparently icky (wait, that's 2 hints... well I don't think anyone will get it;)) Of course I could just be pulling your leg;)

Best,

Brett

Pssst! I think it's the middle one;)

Also, just read this on Pharyngula, Metaphors in the Bible. Quite interesting.

Why the Hell Does Wacom Do This to Me?

I have been a loyal Wacom customer for about a million years. Never has another brand of tablet graced my desk. I love the little cheap tablets, and when Apple decided that USB was the way to go, I replaced my aging ArtZ tablet with a Graphire. I am not one of those people who must have the newest model of whatever equipment they use. I use stuff until it dies or I can't upgrade or get replacement parts any more. I was a happy Graphire user until they started encasing the stylus in rubber shit.

I hate rubber shit. I have a contact allergy to rubber which makes me lumpy and itchy. That the world seems to have embraced the concept of coating everything in rubber shit is a constant thorn in my side. All elastics in clothes have to be covered (try shopping for underwear or bras with no exposed elastic. Not fun.) Shoes are a particular problem, which is why I own two, yep, count'em, two pairs of shoes. I may be the only woman who lives in an industrialized nation who only has two pairs of shoes. I will keep buying those particular shoes until they stop making them. And no, wearing socks does not help. The rubber outgasses or osmosises or something.

So, I was able to get the older Graphire pens, the non-rubber-shit-encased ones, and they were compatible with the new Graphire tablets, and I was happy to be not lumpy or itchy while I was stylusing. My last Graphire tablet died, and I replaced it with a Bamboo tablet. And the stylus is encased with rubber shit, which for a while seemed okay, but then, the itching started. I made the stylus a little sock but this is obviously not working, so I started searching. And Wacom has screwed me yet again.

The only Graphire pen still in production is the bluetooth version, which the Wacom web site is happy to inform me is not compatible with my Bamboo tablet. My Bamboo tablet appears to be some kind of evolutionary dead end, because the stylus for the new Bamboos, which happens to be not covered in rubber shit, is not compatible with it. I am going to have to buy a new tablet to get a stylus that both works and is not covered in rubber shit. I may ritually burn the old tablet. Luckily the little tablets are pretty cheap or I would complain about that, too.

Dear Wacom, just stop covering your styluses in rubber shit. Make a sleeve that people can buy if they absolutely much have a rubber-shit-covered stylus. Sheesh.

Backfire: Natural Defense Mechanism Against Cognitive Dissonance

An article that actually explains why people are willfully stupid. It is written as pertaining specifically to politics, but I think it works pretty well for, well, everything. RTWT.

Most of us like to believe that our opinions have been formed over time by careful, rational consideration of facts and ideas, and that the decisions based on those opinions, therefore, have the ring of soundness and intelligence. In reality, we often base our opinions on our beliefs, which can have an uneasy relationship with facts. And rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we chose to accept. They can cause us to twist facts so they fit better with our preconceived notions. Worst of all, they can lead us to uncritically accept bad information just because it reinforces our beliefs. This reinforcement makes us more confident we’re right, and even less likely to listen to any new information.

Kid on Rock Sketch

Done for a friend of mine, just a quick idea I had. Not sure if it will ever be used.

Best,

Brett

The Gutters

I was sent a link today to a comic about the comic book industry. There are only 13 done so far but very funny and OH so truthful! Have a look and a laugh!

The Gutters

Best,

Brett

Fuzzy gate 2010!

Not really, just some designs that didn't get approved. Basically the same problems I had before, they want the fuzzy 'werewolves' (I can't call them Were anymore since they are just large wolves.) It's frustrating, I'm known for doing Anthros and when I think I might be able to do them I'm once again hog tied. But, the bright side is I can use the main werewolf for myself, and I know just were he'll fit in:)

Oh, just a few wolf fun facts. Large wolves live in cold areas and thus have SMALL rounded ears. The larger pointy ear ones are smaller, and have a good deal of coyote in them. Dire wolves aren't larger than regular wolves, they just have larger heads (for crushing bones) and in some cases are smaller since they have shorter legs than regular wolves. The alpha crap you've heard so much about? Not true, that's all from captive wolf pacts that basically shove a bunch of un-related wolves together, not natural behavior. Actual pacts are small and are usually made up of mom, dad and the kids. Small pacts will get together and form larger temporary pacts during the summer months to hunt large prey or split up even further and get back together when the weather turns colder. Basically what I'm saying is this, if you write about wolves, actually read about them.

Best,

Brett

This Sunday is too much for the Dark Side...

I have more, but I'm to tired to argue this week. It's all sticky again. Once again, thanks to Art for sending me this:)

Best,

Brett

Dresden Files Vol2 #2 is out

I wound up drawing the last 4 pages of this because of all the crap that happened at DB. The original artist left. I actually got comp copies for this yesterday so I took a gander... I was disappointed, no one seems to get this, but the cut and grad coloring (the majority of comic art coloring now a days) does NOT work over my pencils. In fact it seems to make them look even worse. Annoying as hell for me. Andrew is taking over as my regular colorist with the next issue so I'm sure that will be better. So here are the pages in pencil form:


Dynamite prints the pages at a strange size so lots of stuff is getting cut off. Of course they didn't tell me until after I was halfway done with issue 8;)





Brett

Westboro Baptist Must Be Bored

Westboro Baptist Church, the church cult run by Fred Phelps and his maladjusted family, the ones who do stuff like protest at the funerals of soldiers, shrieking that this is god's punishment for tolerance of gays, is going to the San Diego Comic-con. Oh, my. This is their reasoning, via Scifiwire:

"Are you kidding?! If these people would spend even some of the energy that they spend on these comic books, reading the Bible, well no high hopes here. They have turned comic book characters into idols, and worship them they do! Isaiah 2:8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: 9 And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not. It is time to put away the silly vanities and turn to God like you mean it. The destruction of this nation is imminent - so start calling on Batman and Superman now, see if they can pull you from the mess that you have created with all your silly idolatry."

 I haven't been to Comic-con in forever, and I really wouldn't want to brave the heat and the crowds and the shitty parking just to mix it up with these assholes, but still...the angry Goth in me wants to round up some friends and put the fear of comic fans into these idiots.

Fool Moon 1 page 3

First scanned page from Fool Moon, people talking! Be afraid!

Best,

Brett

Andy Smith's 1st Man/Apollo

I received an interesting request this week. Andy Smith asked me to draw up one of his characters from 1st Man. So I broke my no super heroes rule and drew this up (more of a guideline than a rule.. well maybe more of personal mottoie thing.) Anyways here is Apollo! Enjoy the super heroie goodness while you can!

Just in case you don't know since I don't do it much, the BWS stands for Black With Stars, you need to take shortcuts while you can! Now back to wizards and werewolves.


Andy's blog and website:

http://www.andysmithart.blogspot.com/

http://www.andysmithart.com/

Best,

Brett

This Sunday will ROCK!

This weeks Sunday Blasphemy comes via ^^W^^, thanks again!

Let the crazy commence!

This actually reminds me of some Vodou
ceremonies I've seen. Interesting how that was later incorporated in to these religious ceremonies. This actually brings up an interesting point. Why do the super religious dislike change? They seem to think change is a bad thing, but they seem to forget that if you stagnate, you die.

Happy 4th for those in the States. And a big thanks to the Founding Fathers for getting the ball rolling, you know, the actual founders of the Nation… not the mythical religious zealots the right wingers and Tea Baggers (still LOVE the name!!!) have deluded themselves into thinking found the country.

Best,

Brett

Storm Front is done, on to Fool Moon...

Just and FYI on were I'm at. I finished off Storm Front a few weeks ago (this is page 22.) I've started on Fool Moon this week. Having some trouble getting started, I sometimes have a problem shifting from covers back to pages. Plus I'm trying to get that 7 page Kevin story done, I'm on page 5 right now. The weather has been a problem as well, very humid, the pencil is digging in and is showing up very light... well lighter than normal. Everything is sticky... I thought I left Florida! Andrew I feel like I'm back in San Antonio!

Best,

Brett

Not scary enough?

One of the problems I seem to encounter working on these novel adaptions... Scarism. There is this new trend in books to make the werewolves all wolf like, like Twilight or whatever one of those the werewolves appear in . The people who dislike the vampires in these kinds of books call them 'Sparkly' which is really funny, especially if you've seen the Secret of Nimh. Well I'm calling these new 'werewolves' 'Fluffy'. You see the authors want them scary yet pretty, they have bought into the spiritualization of the wolf and decided that that would make the perfect werewolves for their books... just make them larger. The problem... well spiritual crap is just that... crap. Turning an animal into something it's not. So drawing these things based on real wolves constrains what I can do with them. If they are supposed to look like wolves I have to make them look like wolves. I have several good books with good images to use for reference on them. But for some reason these wolves fall flat when brought to the page. Not scary enough.

This werewolf wasn't scary enough. It wasn't looking the woman it was menacing in the eye. I think the tongue bothers them, they've never seen this behavior before so they think it's NOT scary. Well it is scary, it's a warning, usually around food (which is what was going on here.) I've seen my dogs do it and the one thing they don't do when doing it is look another dog in the eye, that way they can sneak attack. Plus it reminds me of the snake tasting the air, creepy. So what the real problem is is that no one actually reads about wolves and their behavior when doing these books. They just emulate what other writers have done before. So here I come with reference and background drawing something accurately and I get told it's wrong... GAH!!!!! Sometimes things need to be changed from a book, it just doesn't translate well.

That is all.

Brett