More Nothingface brewing...

Having a great freakin' weekend! Did some relaxing and actually got a lot of work done on another Nothingface story, "Gaijin Run." This one-shot has been in the planning stage for a while and will be drawn by Jason Copland. The plan has always been for Novak to be in Tokyo on a courier assignment to bring something back to the states... something the Yakuza wants to recover and control. Today's brainstorming and scribbling also injected a dose of the Heather/Novak relationship stuff to which people seemed to react so well in the GN. Novak, Tokyo, Yakuza, swordplay, city lights, and a little bit of that insane man/woman relationship stuff written by me and illustrated by Jason. This will indeed, my friends, rock.

There's a link to Jason's blog over there on the right somewhere.....

The best person to solve a murder...is the victim.

Pierce is a new book coming from Imperium, the guys who do Trailer Park of Terror. I'm lettering it. Purely as a reader I have to say this book kicks ass. The first issue begins a very involved story with many layers, this first image should give you a little hint of just how much is going on...

Mysterious suits, cops and psychics, mobsters and mystical monks...all surrounding a junkie named Pierce. The first issue packs in a lot of story and I have a feeling it's just going to get better from here on out. Look for it in Previews soon.

This second image to the left is the opening splash page, not much of my lettering there but the face in the broken mirror is quite well done by the artist. I like that page.


Been watching a lot of movies lately, I just finished watching CRASH for the first time. Someone recommended it and then someone else said it was "okay"...I know the movie received a ton of buzz, but that usually means I won't see it for years. I hate having a set of expectations forced on me before seeing a movie because it never lives up to the hype. I agree, in part, with my friend who felt the characterizations were too heavy handed. At first it did come across a little cartoony, the over the top racism from just about every character to cross the screen. I think the writers wanted to hit the issues head on and not play it safe but they almost over do it. As it plays out it all comes together and in the end I was very entertained and impressed, there are a few moments that hit me right in chest. (Don't want to spoil it for anyone) I definitely give the movie a thumbs up but I don't get the "groundbreaking expose of racism in America" that some people seem to think it is. Nothing new...everyone has some kind of prejudice either big or small, sometimes those things are somewhat founded in reality, sometimes bad people can be good and sometimes good people can go bad. But it's all presented in a very cool way. Go watch it if you haven't.

WOOHOO!!

Just picked up another nice lettering job! Of course, it's another one I can't really talk about yet. Man if all these jobs go public at the same time I'll have a TON of stuff to post all at once! :D At least business is good these days, an' gettin' better.

2-18-02

Again with the painfully clever post title! How DOES he do it, folks!

Work goes very well! Not much I can post about....

...so I figured I'd toss up a Nic-O-Meter update. That needle's moved considerably in the past day or two...but, like the stock market, it will probably correct itself given time. Actually, if I were going to suddenly pick up and move...like TODAY...it wouldn't be Nicaragua. It would be somewhere much less dramatic or interesting, but it's somewhere I know I'd be more appreciated! A LOT more. In fact that's the selling point that's being used to get me to come there. :D Hey, I'm a GUY! We don't always think straight when certain things are thrown our way! Sex, money, fast cars, cool toys...there are lots of things to cloud our minds. ;) We're really not the complicated gender.

(Not by choice but) No family, no commitments....and a job I can do anywhere I have internet access....what's keeping me!?! Yeah, that's the question then, isn't it? An' what the answer boils down to is I'm too stubborn or stupid to "settle". If I'm not going to get what I want, whatever takes it's place need to be at very least AS GOOD, if not BETTER, and I don't think better exists. Hell, I can't even seem to find ALMOST AS GOOD.

Forecast: Partly coudy with temperatures cooling and the Nic-O-Meter plummeting to near it's previous low. ;)

One of the most important women in my world...

Today is my mom's birthday, or rather it would be. She would have turned 72 today had cancer and an inept doctor not taken her from me in 1993. It took me years to realize it, but she's still with me...in things I say, the way I do certain things, many of the good things about who I am. She taught me the value of sending a woman flowers, she inspired me to care about people, taught me to cook, taught me to read, to appreciate quiet times with good people. She loved bicycle rides and popcorn and hot tea with honey, she loved watching birds...the black cap chickadees around our house would land on her and eat seeds from her hand. Her laugh was so loud and free and readily released, at times as a kid it embarrassed me....now it's one of the echoes in my head of which I am most fond. Her toothy smile, her freakishly long toes, her favorite sweater, the way she got as excited about Christmas as us kids...these things always make me smile.

She hit me once. I was about 16 and a string of foul words describing my dad had just erupted from my mouth after he and I had fought. She snapped out and punched me with all her meager might dead square in the center of my chest. Now, I've been hurt by others in my life. I've been cheated on by a girlfriend, I've been insulted and accused of ill intentions by another woman I've loved...I've been punched, slapped, kicked, burned with cigarettes and even hit with a pool cue. That angry TAP in the chest from my little mom stands out as one of the most painful things anyone's ever done to me. Because I know how bad I must have hurt her for her to act so contrary to her personality and strike out at me. In that too, she taught be a couple of important things.

When her cancer came back and she was in the hospital wasting away my dad was there pretty much 24 hours a day. The nurses let him stay after visiting hours and even gave him access to the non-public areas so he could grab something to eat or wash up whenever he had a chance to slip away for a few minutes. Even toward the end when she had been unresponsive to anyone or anything for a few days, he was there. I don't think anyone expected her to ever come around again. One day she did. She made a little noise and looked at him. She tried to talk but was so weak hardly anything came out. He moved closer to her and still couldn't understand her. She was trying to lift her arm but was simply too weak, her little body too ravaged by cancer and drugs. Guessing at what she wanted, he carefully lifted her frail arm up and put it around his neck. Suddenly this weak little lamb had the strength of a tiger. She pulled him down to her so tightly he didn't think he could have pulled away if he'd wanted. She gasped "love you" into his ear and then slipped back to sleep. She wouldn't wake up again and died shortly after but, and I'm sure some will think I over romantisize this, her final goodbye moves me every time I think about it. All but gone, this woman who was no physical powerhouse even in her healthy prime, had the strength of will to tell Death to just back off for a minute so she could have one last moment with the man she loved and found the physical strength to hold him almost too tightly for just a few seconds. That says something to me...about her...about love.

Thus far....

Kickass weekend! Of course it's only 9am on Sunday so it's not over but most of the week has been so good I don't think anything can go down that will blow my mood. (How that for tempting fate?!?!)

In an effort to try and keep posting fairly regularly I'm forced to just keep random stuff going in here until I have more lettering I'm allowed to show and more art from my own books to share. (Been going over some layout for one of the Nothingface minis with Lee Ferguson, he's been reading a lot of Steranko and it shows in what he's doing on this project.)

Anyway, just for some eye candy (I don't think I've posted this yet) here's a cover piece Mathias Lorenz did for what was once called Wolfenreich and is now called The Black Watch: Wolfenreich.

NOTE: The Nic-O-Meter remains unchanged at this time. ;)

Oh, fer the luva--RELAX, guys!

Okay, I'm still getting email from people who think I'm all down and depressed. I'm not, honest! Look, I even dialed back on the Nic-O-Meter!!


Things don't suck, I just see a clear path for things to take so that by the end of the year they seriously COULD. I'm not talking general bumps in life's road that we all deal with, I'm talking about the kind of things that make you pick up and change your life. Dreams, desires, goals that either are or are not declared unattainable. Things go the wrong way, I have no reason to stay here and Nicaragua starts looking pretty sweet. Things go the right way and I'm the happiest guy on the planet and I dig in and move on toward the next big thing. I've never been too good at the whole "take it one day at a time" thing. I want an overview and contingency plans. And what really helps is when there's something I can actually DO to work toward the outcomes I want. I want dragons to slay, campaigns to be waged (I swear, I never played D&D once in my life) BUT with some things all you can do is put your best effort out there and wait because it's not up to you. It's up to the publisher or the retailer or the reader or the loan officer or the girl(s) or the judge or whoever.

I'm SO not good at waiting.

So, just don't actually worry about me until the Nic-O-Meter gets past half way. I'm actually pretty good right now. My projects are going pretty well and I'll show more when the time is right, my lettering gigs are cruising along and I spent all night on the phone with that "blast from the past" mentioned yesterday and it looks like maybe I'll be having an out of town visitor very soon. I'm not doing too shabby at the moment. :D

2-8-2006

Clever post title, eh?

Anyway, in keeping with my previous post I'm instituting a new feature for the time being. Meet, the Nic-0-Meter!!


Okay, now to clarify a couple things. After my last post I received three emails from people who thought I was in some immediate trouble or things were falling apart around me or something equally disastrous. Things for the moment are okay, might possibly be good depending on the direction of the wind at any given moment. I've just been looking at business and personal developments (had a good appointment this morning) and spending too much time trying to guess where they'll end up and letting doubt get the better of me. Is it doubt or realism?? Hmmm....

Anyway, now my friends (and at least two people who I believe pop in here who'd love to see me fall on my face), you have an actual meter to see how I'm doing. :D

Gotta get outta here and back to work. I suddenly find myself swamped with work and distracted beyond belief at the same time.

Hope to have more work related posts soon!

Heh...on a personal note, recieved an interesting phone call. A blast from the past, I guess you could say. Someone I haven't seen in years. Could be....interesting. Ever notice how nothing happens for a long time and then everything happens at once. Fate's a fickle bitch, ain't she? ;)

Nicaragua

Did you know you can live like a king...or maybe at least like a corupt city official there for like 500 bucks a month...or less? Yeah, sure it's hot...and I'd have to learn some Spanish, but....






I'm telling you kids, if this year goes as badly as I think it could, this may just be where you'll find ol' Uncle Kel this time next year. I'm not generally for running away form the fan as the crap hits it. I'm usually more likely to fall back, regroup and attack the problems. But I'm feeling spread too thin...working too many "fronts" at the same time. You know what they say about a man and his limitations...and picking battles. Starting to feel like it's time to cut my losses in about five different areas and chose a couple fights I think I might have a shot at winning. Tilting at all these windmills is just wearing the old man down. And, hey, if my friend with the property down there gets his place built by then, he's talking about getting hi-speed satelite internet...I could still do some lettering gigs.

Anybody know of a good set of CDs for learning Spanish? :D

Mo' Monkey!

Just another quick "I'm alive" post. Here's a couple more panels of Furious Fist of the Drunken Monkey: Origin of the Species....I hope we win some kind of award for longest comic title. Anyway...just a couple panels because it's hard to find fun ones that don't give away too much. ((click to enlarge 'em!))

I also just finished the first issue of another book...a really fun all-ages piece. If I can get permission from the powers that be I'll toss up a few of those panels too.

All my own projects move along slow but semi-steady.


Personal stuff...well, the big problem I wasn't being let in on was finally revealed to me. Big life-changing stuff for a friend of mine. Basically got "this is what's going down but I still don't want to talk about it." At least now I know...and of course now knowing I don't really know what I can do to help....it's one of those things that sucks but in the long run it will be for the best.

Oh, one more thing...