If January is any indication of how the rest of the year is going to go for me, then 2013 is going to be a crazy busy year.

First off, here are the four watercolor paintings, a series called the Same Mistake, that I did for the art show that is currently on display at the Bristol Grind House:

Secondly, I drew a 10-page, silent sci-fi western snowstorm comic over the course of a few days, completely on a whim after a massive snowstorm hit us. You can "read" the first five pages of that HERE and the rest of it HERE. You can also check it out on deviantART HERE and HERE. Maybe I'll post it all on here. I guess I should do that.
 

Also? I’m kind of an amateur stand-up comedian now. After watching my friends do it for quite a few months now, I decided to give it a try myself. I’ve done it three times now. I'm not so sure how good or funny I am, it's really impossible to tell when you're up on stage, but it's a new and fun and terrifying and beautiful creative outlet for me to play around in.

Oh, and I drew this for my friend Sterlin:
FURTHERMORE, I’m doing freelance design work for the local newspaper now, which brings in a little extra cash and lets me use a different part of my brain. I just wrapped up a logo for a thing recently. Not as steady work as I'd like, but still, hopefully this will open up to more opportunities, right?

And finally, I am in this art show at Floating World Comics in Portland. Zines are available to order and stuff too, so check it out! There are a LOT of talented folks in there, all of us paying tribute to the Incal by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius. Really, I feel like I don’t deserve to be in there next to artists like Dave Taylor and Sloane Leong. It's like I pulled off some sort of heist. Here's the panel I did, which I somehow failed to post when I did it back in November:
Yeah, it’s February and I’m in two art shows at roughly the same time? I don’t know how that happened. I’m savoring it, because it will probably never happen again.

Um, obviously, chapter 6 of Other Sleep isn’t done yet, but it will be soon, I swear. Look, here’s the cover for it!
And I think that covers everything, right? Now I must get back to work! THERE'S MORE TO COME.

[Brett]

"I’m an artist, I do comic strips, and my main preoccupation is doing drawings."

Two days ago, at the age of 73, Jean "Moebius" Giraud died. The world is poorer, dimmer for it. It's a devastating loss.

Even if you're not aware of the man and his work, you've at least felt his influence in comics, movies, and videogames. Moebius single-handedly redefined science fiction art, and inspired many artists and creators, including, but not limited to, Ridley Scott, Katsuhiro Otomo, Hayao Miyazaki, Brandon Graham, Paul Pope, Geof Darrow, Mike Mignola, Frank Miller, and Jim Lee.

The man was a giant, a legend, and it's staggering to think about the massive body of work he left behind. What's even more staggering is that, even in his old age, Moebius could still draw better than most artists half his age, and was producing still greater work. Unlike a lot of artists and creators, the talent of Moebius never wavered. He was one of the greatest living artists, and his work will continue to inspire others for generations to come.

The internet is flooded with obituaries and tributes to the man, most of which are much more eloquently written than what I'm trying to type out here. I spent all day Saturday reading them, watching videos of him drawing, documentaries on his work, and flipping through my collection of his comics. I was incredibly lucky last summer to find all six volumes of his work that Epic Comics had published back in the late 80's and did not hesitate to buy them all at once, and I flipped through them all yesterday. I found my copy of the Fifth Element on DVD because I knew he was interviewed in one of the special features. I watched Blade Runner with Ridley Scott's commentary because I knew how big of an influence his comic the Long Tomorrow played on the look of that film. I just drank in as much as I could about him and his art.

And I cried. I've never cried over someone's death before, but my respect and admiration for Moebius is just so great, and I can't think of a single artist involved in sci fi or comics who wouldn't say the same.

You've seen this little tribute I did before, probably, but it's worth posting again:
 And here's an attempt I made in December at copying a panel from his comic Marie Dakar, published in Dark Horse Presents:
 

Like I said, we've lost a giant. The world will not be the same without him. My mind is still reeling from it.

Thanks for the amazing art, the great comics, the inspiration, for everything. Godspeed, Jean.

"At one point I truly believed that I could be a prophet, a saint, whose medium was drawing. But no, I’ve become…well, now I’m a 67-year-old man. And I’ll die in some truly banal manner, the same way I live. But I still draw, I put all of my energy into my drawings, to make them vibrate. I would like people to say, “oh, he’s really bizarre, but he’s there all the same.” That’s all."