MBTMI

So, I finally joined tumblr. Mostly to look at gifs of cats being jerks and red pandas being red pandas. 

I'm also making an effort to turn the time I spend on public transportation (at least 2 hours a day, five days a week) into something other than wasted time. It's called MBTMI. 

So I've been taking photos on my phone of places I pass on the train, and making drawings of them. With the weather being what it is (and with the MBTA being what it its...) I'm also posting some bitchy little sketch-comics about being cold and public transportation sucking. 

So here's some building sketches, some bitchy winter comics and a photo I took from inside a train. 

Enjoy.

The Flash

A quick, sketchy impression of a recent episode of "The Flash" on the CW:

The Gabriellas

Mega-excited about working on a comic with my super-pal, Matt Aucoin! He's writing the badass story of a trio of teen girls. In a punk band. Who go to Catholic school. Who hunt monsters. Also, it's the 1950s. There is no element to this comic that is not awesome.

I'm lucky enough to get to do the pencils! Having a great time working with Matt, so I thought I'd give y'all a little taste of it:

A couple panels from the pencils so far:

Some preliminary character sketches:

Some ideas for weaponized instruments:

If everything stays on schedule, the first four pages of the first story will debut in DoubleThink at MeCAF in May. More to come, hope you can check it out!

MFA sketches 2

More sketches from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Detail: Hans Von Aachen "Pallas Athena, Venus and Juno" 1593

Cup and cover, turned ivory, 17th century, probably Italian

Esaias Zur Linden, Nef,  silver, 1620

Nautilus cup, the Netherlands

Sir Joshua Reynolds, "Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse" 1789

John Singer Sargent, "Mrs. Fiske and her Daughter Rachel" 1903

John Singer Sargent, "Edith, Lady Playfair" 1884

John Singer Sargent "Mrs. Edward Darley Boit" 1887

Skull and crossbones from the bottom of a crucifix, Netherlands, 1625-1630

MFA sketches

Some little sketches from a visit to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Great place to clear the cobwebs out of one's head!

"Bakemono (Umbrella Ghost)" Edo Period, Late 18th Century, small ivory carving 

Buddha statue

"Seated Kirin", Edo Period, small carving

"Maedate" Frontal Crest, Mid-Edo Period, from the Samurai armor exhibit

More sketches for your viewing pleasure...

Another dose of sketches, more recent than the last batch, mostly random alien dudes. Drawn in a crappy blank book, hence the annoying creases. Apologies.

Have a couple more, a mercenary-type and some dude in his underwear (I apologize for my representation of feet):

Finish it off with a random pinup-y sketch:

Ladies and Gentlemen..

Things that I'm working on that will not be appearing in this blog post: Unpleasant People #5 (thumbnails done, on to feedback and editing, WOO HOO!), trying to get Unpleasant People #1-4 online (having some differences of opinion with comicpress) and getting prepared for Boston Comic Con. I'll post a list of what I'm bringing at some point beforehand, but it's pretty much the same as last year, maybe with a couple more comics.

Anyway, all I have to show for my time is some drawings:

 

The next few drawings I did for a client for the second and third chapters of the sci-fi role-playing game he wrote. Having strong female characters that weren't over-sexualized was important to him and I had a lot of fun making these drawings. I had just the right amount of guidance when it came to what the characters looked like, while being able to get creative with it. I did a lot of sketches, but these are the finished drawings that ended up in the online publication. It's the first illustration work I've gotten in awhile and I really had a blast doing it!

Ghostbusters circa 1775 or so

Well, I probably won't have much in the way of new one-page comics until I'm done inking Unpleasant People #4 (whenever THAT is...) since any and all spare time I devote to comics is being devoted to getting that done. In the meantime, I present color-experimentation from my sketchbook.

The four main characters done with watercolor and pens on sketchbook paper

I've been tossing around the idea of doing a supernatural-adventure webcomic about ghost hunters in late 18th Century Vienna.

Why Vienna?

Why not?

Portraits of three of the four main characters done with marker, colored pencils and brush pen.

I've bounced ideas off of a couple friends (thanks, Andy!) and so far don't have a complete script for the first chapter. At this point, I'm not even sure if I'm going to follow through with it at all. However, my almost manic love of ghost stories will probably push me forward on this. It's simmering on the back burner for now.

 

Concept sketches for various monsters. These vamps don't sparkle.

I'm still aliiiiive!

Okay, I've been a total tool and not updated in, like, three decades, with no good excuse. (Plenty of bad excuses, of course, but no good ones) Anyway, a COMIC!

The misadventures of the well-intentioned matchmaking novice:

And, hey, here's a portrait my mom asked me to do for her co-worker's birthday (it's a portrait of the co-worker, not my mom...)


...And there was much rejoicing.

*key unenthusiastic Monty Python and the Holy Grail cheer*

Hooray...

Another hostess comic!

More adventures in restaurant-seating-and-greeting. I should state, for the record, that the events in this comic may have been slightly embellished.


And because I happened to scan it:

Kinda like how the perspective on this one came out.

Plus, cleavage!

In other news: I'll be going to the Boston Comic Con this weekend with my buddy Matt Aucoin, so brace yourself, Bean-Town, because...

uh...

I'm going to...
to be there...

for the weekend.

Okay, then.