A Monster-Powered Mystery

I'm not sure what a "Monster-Powered Blog" is, but the only one I know of belongs to artist Matt Mossman. I don't really know anything about Matt either, only that I'm hoping he illustrates one of my stories in the future, and also that he possibly looks like Bruce Willis, or at least thinks he looks like Bruce Willis. It's likely he's a fan of David Mamet and basketball. Very mysterious. To further pique your curiosity, I'm posting some of Matt's artwork that I pulled off of his Monster-Powered Art Blog. Equally little is known about the stories and characters that these drawings represent. Enjoy.

This first one is a cover for a title called "Shifthouse," possibly created by Matt Mossman and John Gateson.


These final two are Matt's rendition the character "Construct" allegedly created by Mike White. All I know for sure is that Construct looks cool and has an even cooler name. I'm just hoping Construct is a robot because that would totally top off the whole deal for me.

On another note the lettering program I've been using doesn't translate onto my PC at all so I've taken a short hiatus from lettering the pages for Undertow #1. In the next month or so until I return to Heather's iMac (and Heather) I'll be posting pages from some other stories that won't be in the book, as well as featuring fellow creators. Good stuff all around--stay tuned (Mom).

Kord and Harley

When I signed up on Facebook a couple of weeks ago one of the first people that friended me was a fellow writer and comic creator by the name of Matthew Adams. Matthew has self-published two issues of a book called the Mortal World Compendium, and he pointed me toward a cool website to check them out--Indy Comic Creators Worldwide. The ICCW is a group of independent small publishers, and the website is a place for them to correspond with each other, advertise for their projects, and also to sell their book.

Matthew is one of these guys. He's currently working on a graphic novel titled "Kord & Harley," that is a collection of short pieces featuring his two characters, and it's going to be a monster when it comes out--200 pages. That is a ton of work. Roman Morales III and Greg Harms are currently working on his newest short for the book. I've pulled some of Matthew's cover pieces for the individual stories that will appear in the book and posted them below.

The picture above was penciled by Jonathan Rector, inked by Greg Harms, and colored by Matthew Adams (he's artist artist also). As for the images below--I'm not sure who did what but thought they deserved to be displayed. Maybe Matthew will get on here and line me out so I can edit the post and give some credits.

Got Out of Bed and Told Myself I'd Start Writing...

But instead I did this. Well, not much for me to do here. Take a look--page four of "Tales From a Drunken Soldier," illustrated by Greg Harms.

Tales From A Drunken Soldier

That's the tag-line for this one. A little silly, but then again so is the story as you will soon see. My friend had a lot of stories to tell, and it seemed like we were both always a little tipsy by the time he started breaking them out. I think it's a good fit. Here are pages two and three:

The Drunken Soldier

This next one is a story told to me long ago by a friend who has a gift for weaving a tale. The poetry of his oration can't be reproduced by my abilities, but I tried. Whether I succeeded or not, it's still a funny story about an experience that maybe no one else on earth has had.

All the artwork done here is from Greg Harms--pencils, inks, and gray-scale colors. He does a beautiful job setting the tone with his gray-scales--his idea, and also a lot of work. It puts the jungle in the jungle. I love it. Just found out the other night this one was Greg's first paying job, circa 2003.

So whoever is checking this out, enjoy. And Kimball, wherever you may be--this story is for you. Hope I get to put this book in your hands someday. Here's page one with more to follow:

A Couple of Things About GQ

Okay, just one actually. He's a bit of a perfectionist. This morning I received an email from GQ with a link to a forty-page PDF file titled, "Tips to Make Your Lettering Not Suck." Or something like that, perhaps not so subtle. No big deal--we're good like that because we both want the best possible finished product. After reading the article, I went back through the pages and fixed some things and I must say I am considerably happier with the results. Perhaps I'd missed an earlier email attached to the article, "Get That F-ing Balloon Off of My Art," which I'm pretty sure is rule number one. I also Photoshopped in some musical notes which I'm hoping gives a little better of an effect to an otherwise pretty open page. Here's page one:

The OG as done by GQ

So things are rounding out for the content of the book--there will be four stories total, three old and one new (more on that later). The 2nd story is called the Organ-Grinder, which started out as a very simple idea about a man getting beaten down and left in the street. It pretty much blew up from there and this anonymous guy became Jeremiah McAlester, a one-armed man beholden to a cursed organ, who's sworn off the way of the gun--the Organ-Grinder.

Jeremiah first encountered the Organ during the Civil War, and it becomes a character in the story as it's possessed by the spirit of a young girl who points out injustice when Jeremiah plays the Organ. Problem is Jeremiah has huge guilt issues and can't even bring himself to look at her any more--lucky for him he's got a sidekick to look for him and then lead the way. His name is Moses, and he is a monkey, but not a nice one. So basically they end up traveling around the country seeking out these injustices, getting into trouble themselves, shooting up and/or destroying everything along the way. Yeah, the swearing off the gun thing usually doesn't work out so well.

I've written a couple of short stories about these guys, and a first issue (some of which has been illustrated). The page above is a rough edit from the original eight-page short, illustrated by Gibson Quarter, and they'll be appearing in Undertow #1 after GQ is done reworking them a bit. He'll also be doing the OG for the cover, which will then be colored by another super guy and hard-working illustrator by the name of Greg Harms.

GQ's first cover (I think) just appeared on Futurequake #15 from Future Quake Press. Future Quake publishes a few different books that collect creator-owned pieces in different genres. It's a great idea and they've been doing it a while--if I'm lucky I'll get something of mine in there one of these day. Here's GQ's cover:

That's all for now, folks. I'm actually writing something new that I've got to get to--a little rusty but I'll deal. That, and believe it or not I just got an email from Rick Hudson. If that's not kismet, I don't know what is.

The Tragic End of Cat/Bug/Bat

I just noticed on the last page that the arrow is pointing through his head in a different direction. Well, strange things do happen in the Land of Make-Believe. I think I'm getting the hang of this.

Spirit Medium Works!

No, I'm not out spending money again. But I found the right font! It's called Spirit Medium. I downloaded it at Blambot--thanks, fellas. I'm getting the hang of lettering in Comic Life--it's a wonderful program and both it and the fonts cost me ZERO. That doesn't happen too often these days. The right font for the lettering makes a huge difference--I've also reduced the space between the text and borders in the captions. Here are pages 2 and 3 thrown up again--I think Rick Hudson would approve, if I can ever find the guy.