Hey there. Been a while.

Clearly, the semester is over now. I made it through in one piece, celebrating with the purchase of a PS3, Fallout 3, and Red Dead Redemption. I've spent these last two weeks playing games, sitting on my arse reading from the massive stack of comics that had accumulated over time, and working. I'm in the process of moving out of my apartment and back home in Bristol, and also moving upstairs. Otherwise, I've been lazy, not working on anything in particular until this week.

First off, here was one of the final projects I did for school, which doubles as a flyer for my friend Sterlin's chapbook that he's self-publishing this summer:

And as it says on the flyer, I'm doing art for it. I did two illustrations this week:

Some of my older friends may recognize this as Archibald, one of the Distinguished Gentlemen, from a number of paintings and a short webcomic I did about 5, 6 years ago. It's a rather undignified return, I admit.

And this one, for a specific poem.

You'll notice that I've been using a lot of half-tone filters, zipatone, whatever you call it, in these pieces. It's something I've been wanting to explore for a while now, having fallen in love with its use in the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, some of Ashley Wood's black and white comics, and other stuff. I really love it, and I think it strengthens these pieces. I plan on implementing it a lot more in the future, too.

Right now I'm sitting on my bed typing this while watching the first episode of Stephen King's The Stand on Netflix, which is immensely entertaining despite being so dated. I'm surrounded on all sides by stacks of comics: comics I need to read, comics I need to file, and the comics I'm using as research/inspiration for my final show, which I'm also working on.

So far, the name for my show (because I'm tired of saying "I'm working on my final/senior show/project") is Back On Mars, but I dunno if I'll stick with it. I've got the concept, two or three of the characters down, and thumbnails for a few pieces. I want to actually try to have 10 or so finished pieces by the end of summer, so that I'll be way ahead when the semester begins, and can approach my committee with confidence. This'll also help us boil down what's working, what's not, and where to go next.

Stuff I'm using as research/reference/inspiration: King City, an issue of Young Romance (in my opinion, romance comics from the 60s/70s are great for figuring out how to draw a proper kiss), some Bill Sienkiewicz stuff, some Jack Kirby of course, and more.

And uh, that's about it. As many comics as I've read lately, my brain is crammed with things I'd love to talk about, like Kirby, the industry itself, Judge Dredd, et cetera, but nah, I'll spare you for now.

I'm gonna try to update more frequently this summer. I needed those two weeks of not doing anything, but now it's time to dive right back in, head first.

[Brett]