We comic and animation geeks have lost another idol

The legendary Alex Toth has passed away.

More on the story here.

Happy Memorial Day weekend

I'm kinda sick today but I wanted to get on here and leave a quick note to you few who come here. Have a great Memorial Day weekend, enjoy your cookouts and camping trips, your extra day off on Monday. Whatever you do just have fun and be safe.

AND...remember what Memorial Day is actually about. Take 5 minutes and actually THINK about what this holiday means, who it honors. Never forget.

Evolution of a logo

Okay...I've said it before that logos really aren't my thing and I stand by that, BUT the creator of one of my current lettering jobs talked me into giving it a go for him. I figure it's probably okay to show this since the book has been picked up and I've seen him talking about it online here and there.

Anyway, on to the logo. This was the first attempt. At this point all I knew was "Revolutionary War" and "steampunk-ish" and that there was electricity involved. I went with a low tech metal look, made the dots over the eyes into little lightning bolts and put a parchment banner underneath. I was fairly happy with this one and think over all it's my personal favorite...but I'm not the customer. (All logos enlarge with a click)
I was informed that was all wrong and we were looking for a more superhero-esque logo. The circle of stars from the early US flag was requested as part of the logo. So, I thought, "Okay, let's imagine this was Captain America set in that time period..."
As far as a REALLY superhero-ey logo, I'm actually quite fond of that one but alas...it was not to be. There were some sports logos provided to give me an idea of SORT OF what we were looking for before the one above and the request was made to change colors more in line with one of them...
I believe the verdict on this one was that it was TOO much like some basketball logo or something...I don't do basketball, so I dunno. After more discussion and examples being sent we went with something that was designed to look good over a dark background (hence the white outlines) and by request I removed the little lightning bolts that dotted the I's and we wound up here...

This is pretty much the final logo, depending on the use, we switch the colors of the word PISTOLFIST and the banner, but other than that....that's it.

The book was created by JS Earls and will be coming out through ALIAS.

Writing is a funny thing...

When it grabs ahold of me, there's just no breaking loose. I planned to take the whole weekend off...completely off, no lettering, no writing, not even thinking about any of it...but my brain has other plans.

It started with waking up several times Friday night and needing to grab the bedside notebook and has continued all weekend. When I'm not thinking about it, things just come to me...ideas for a series of sci-fi one-shots I'd like to do, as well as fillers for plot holes, twists and endings for stories already underway. I drove all the way to town yesterday, about 20 minutes, and didn't remember a mile of it because I was off in the future exploring for alien artifacts with my wives. (Yes, plural. That's for an old novel idea that I'm trying to bring to new life as a comic with the help of an artist friend.)

So, basically this has been the most productive weekend I've had in a while and I guess it's because I'm trying NOt to focus on it!

Us creative types are just weird.

Sorry, We're Closed...back in about 2880 minutes!

Just a couple more page from Trailer Park of Terror #4. Just a little something for yuz ta look at....WHILE I TAKE THE WEEKEND OFF!!

My oldest and best friend is back from a month long trip to Bulgaria so I get to go hear all the details and we're having some family over this weekend and I'm cooking my lasagna for my sister for her birthday (I skipped it one year and bought her a real present and she was disappointed she didn't get the lasagna) and my great nephew is coming over to help with some springtime yard work (heh...paying a kid to muck out the dog pen is so much better than doing it myself) and no one got me material for jobs that are waiting to be done so they wait until Monday...MAYBE Sunday night. :D

How's THAT for a run-on sentence!!

Hope everyone has a groovy weekend! Later.

Burning (out) Man

Whew! Okay, so back in February I started working pretty much 7 days a week...either lettering for other folks or working on my own projects (writing, lettering, researching, etc), and occasional other side jobs. At the time I didn't realize I was doing it to keep myself distracted from another #@$*ed up personal situation. (Actually took TWO big sledge hammers to the ego in the same day from two different people... that's a record even for me.) Anyway, it's now become habit. It's starting to take a toll. My brain just fuzzes over and I find myself staring at the screen.

It used to be FUN! I work on COMICS for crying out loud. How cool is that?!? But I think the lack of downtime is burning me out. I start when I get up in the morning, don't really take breaks for meals, half the time work into the evening and when I finally do stop to go chill and maybe watch some tv or read my brain is still working. Don't you hate that?!

Anyway, I think it's time for a change. Summer is here, the snow is pretty much all gone...sitting here at the computer for hours on end day in and day out just isn't gonna cut it anymore. For my clients who read the blog...DON'T PANIC!!...I'm not quitting, it's just time to start taking weekends off. I gotta get back to having some fun once in a while...then work will be fun again too!

The pic up there is a page from Trailer Park of Terror #4. Make with the clickety-click to enlarge it.

RRRRAAaaaAAaARRrrr!!!