I realized that I’ve been depriving you of sketchbook pages, like, ever since I took my blog sabbatical last spring. Oh, sure, I’ve posted one here or there from time to time, but boy have I fallen out of the habit! Here are some sketches for a revamp of Nymphonomena, still in progress. You can see some new pages here.

In other news, Kevin Bramer at Optical Sloth wrote up Dental Damned! Thanks, friends. Let’s talk again real soon.

Well, I must say I’ve been working like a fiend to get my Abe entry in for I Am the Last VCR before Cait and I leave to visit her parents in Charlotte this weekend. I thought the Inspiratomatic was as in-depth as I would get for our little artsy community, but boy was I wrong. I’ve spent all day and all night for the last week and a half on this damn thang. A three-page comic, in color, and in the Stan Lee-Jack Kirby-Steve Ditko Marvel Manner. It sorta rocks my own face off. There, I said it.

Last night: a breakthrough. Sometimes one’s mind is not in any state to read a New Yorker article. Each sentence takes at least ten minutes, and drawing a drawing will do much better to help said mind to relax while remaining engaged. I hadn’t drawn Buchwald the Repentant Demon in a long time, and it looks like he’s been very lonely.

I just want to properly acknowledge all the sites that linked to the Inspiratomatic, especially Pop Candy, Neatorama, Fecal Face, Buzz Feed, The Presurfer, Ueba (in Portuguese and in English), QBN, Boar’s Head Tavern, the How Design Blog and The Little Chimp Society. This is not to mention all those social bookmarkers on Stumble Upon, Twitter, Facebook, Del.icio.us, etc. Thanks.

And check out the young Abraham Lincoln who must journey through time and space to end injustice wherever, and whenever, it stands! (Comic coming up at I am the Last VCR.)

The Inspiratomatic has gotten a really positive response from my dearly beloved, so I got a domain for it. I’m gonna see if it can’t make at least a minor splash in the Blagoblogosphere. Just a heads up. So look out!

Speaking of Dr. Strange, I drew a picture of him (below). In my never-ending quest for accurate detail and my nerdy desire to stay “on model,” half way through doodling the occult surgeon, I looked up drawings of him by co-creator Steve Ditko on the Google. I had read through his adventures in the Marvel Essentials format, which is a big soft cover, black & white newsprint book. I thought the crazy character designs and psychedelic dreamscapes were basically the coolest thing to ever happen in super hero comics. Then, thanks to the Google and Sanctum Sanctorum Comix, I saw it in color. Whoah. God bless those little old ladies in Connecticut that meticulously cut out all those halftone screens in these acid candy rainbow hues.

Here’s that follow-up I promised. These are marked as copyright of Field Publications, but it looks like they belong to the Dr. Seuss Collection at the University of California, San Diego. They’re from a collection my mom found at a used book store called Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel. It’s by Richard H Minear and was published by The New Press, New York, 1999.

Apparently the good doctor drew political cartoons from 1941 to ’42 for PM, a liberal New York rag, before he joined the service making instructional and propaganda films. Seeing this many of his drawings back to back to back pointed out how clearly Seuss used the silhouette to improve legibility. It’s a classic trick of cartooning and animation, that an action is clearer if it can be judged by the shape of the figure against the background (this is also a trope of character design). So, rather than sipping a drink held in front, cartoon characters turn their heads sideways and gulp it from an uplifted hand. Anyhow, the dude gets it.

I’ve also been reading Popeye and Krazy Kat and Little Nemo comics lately, and I feel like I could stand to incorporate some of the frontal, theatrical nature of old comic strips into my own work. I tend to compose cinematically, with camera angles and a sense of space, but I’m really drawn to the clarity and elasticity when the characters are at the front of the frame, and the scenes are behind them. This is something that’s worked for book illustration since the illuminated manuscripts. But what do I know? Maybe my overly-rendered backgrounds are my thing. Maybe I’m more a product of the movie theater than the stage.

Okay! That’s enough art school blah blah blah for today. Here are those drawings I’m ripping off:

This heat wave is serious business. The PATH train is catching fire, the G train is suspending service. The breeze feels like sticking your head in an oven to check on the pizza. Basically, I’ve been coping by sitting around in my underwear all morning. Somehow, around noon I feel the urge to work on something. Wellll, that something is quite often a little frog with a beautiful rainbow.

Yes, loyal bloggers, the famous frog is reaching a point of completion. I’m just not sure if I’m going to go with the gray fill that appeared previously or not. Probably yes.

Alright, alright, I know, I know. This week’s over, and I didn’t start the Portrait Project. I had a feeling I shouldn’t write about it until it actually started, but oh well. I did. As my mom has always said “Deal,” or “Tough nuggies,” or “Well, life isn’t fair.”

Still, there are some exciting things going down in the studio. Among them, I’m trying to figure out WordPress. This, and a promotional flipbook I’m working on, are also leading me to do a little “rebranding!!” No more picture frames and gold and velvet for my public image, cause now I’m all about frogs and rainbows!! Does this have more to do with me? Does it define me better? Who knows, not me!!!! Also, the right shift key on this keyboard is busted, so my left pinky’s getting a serious workout.

The winter time is a sleeping time. Also a time for losing checks! What the funk!

This post has a new drawing. They’ve all been a little bit old so far. Like, from the fall more than from the now. This one’s a little bit new. O-A looked weird to me. But it was right all along! See why we need to start over with speleeq?

I’m sick of spelling. I’m sure everybody else in the world is too. Why not make phonics actually work, especially if that’s how we’re going to teach people to read and to write? Wouldn’t it make sense to condense our language a bit? (Wudn’t it maak sens too kondens aur laqwij a bit?)

Nobody needs Q as it is. But, Q looks similar to G, so it can be NG.
X is also useless, but since it’s like a crooked T, it can stand in for TH.
No need for Z either, so turn that backwards S into SH!
C can be replaced by K or S where it makes those sounds, but we need it for CH, so it will do that on its own.
G will always be hard G, J will always be soft J.

Now, I admit the vowels are much harder. This is probably the most imperfect part of my New Spelling, and I admit it could use some work. But I’m trying to avoid accents and letter combinations, and to use only the letters we already have. Then again, the vowels as they stand are pretty freakin’ imperfect.

A alone is hard like cat
AA is long like ate
E is like ebb
EE is like pee
I is like imp
II is like eye
O is like pot (and like walk)
OO is like oar
U is like up (and like what, and at least for now, also like bird)
UU is like poo
Y is a consonant!

Ookaa, yuu kan luk foor moor uv xis in xu fyuucur. Heer’s a kupl droweeqs, boox storted wix xu litl droweeqs of karakturs II’m wurkeeq on and xen II druu giis on xu traan:

It’s about time there were some sketches on this sketchblog. These are both recent drawings. The first is a subway sketch. I usually draw old men, or at least weird-looking men so that people don’t think I’m a perv. I suppose I could have a Weird Old Man perversion…

The second one came from reading Ivan Brunetti’s little lesson plan pamphlet in the most recent Comic Art. He was talking about how, when you draw somebody else’s character fast and without reference, the character maintains her defining characteristics and gains a certain charm. Actually, I drew that blissed-out naked guy first, then Charlie Brown, then Snoopy, and then the fart bubbles and thought bubbles. Man, two posts with Charlie Brown involved, and I’m not even a fan — blah blah blah, some visual blog this is!