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A Brush of Death with Todd Klein.
Last week at my favourite local comic shop (which I mentioned earlier and will mention again next week), I was introduced to Todd Klein.
For those of you know don’t know, Todd is considered by both fans, critics, and scholars of graphic novels to be the eminent master of lettercrafting sequential art.
Todd Klein @ Locust Moon Comics
I recommend looking at his history and getting a feel of exactly how much he’s contributed to comic books. When people talk about any concept even remotely related to comics, they always picture those thought and word balloons. And I honestly believe when people picture word balloons, they all immediately picture Mr. Klein’s contributions to the craft.
He is the very embodiment of lettering, and I think he’s genuinely a nice guy.
I want to take a moment to personally thank Todd for appearing at Locust Moon.
It is always a great pleasure to watch artist at work.
Commission: Locust Moon. Lettering: Todd Klein. Character: Neil Gaiman
Thanks to Locust Moon for helping create one of the high watermarks of my career.
Marker Render (MineCraft)
Conceptual piece I just did recently. The corresponding result ended up not looking the same, but I may share it later.
Recent Marker Renders.
Due to circumstances beyond my control… (my laptop exploded), I have had to take a break from all of my digital media projects.. However, I did manage to resupply my drawing cabinet with enough tools I could focus properly on doing some illustrations. At the same time, I’ve also started hanging out with a small crowd of like minded artists twice a month. We meet up, sit together, and just break open sketchbooks. This week also featured Pictionary, but I missed it due to work concerns.
For now… here’s some of the illustrations I’ve done there. All of them rendered using my “concept art” tool set, but I’m using sketch techniques.
If you have any questions about the process, or just want to contribute to a FAQ, let me know, and I’ll get around to you pretty quick.
An open letter to Artie Lange.
Hey,
You don’t know me. You really don’t. I’ll wager you don’t know a thing about me.
That really doesn’t make a difference to me, however, it matters to me that I mention it.
I don’t owe you a thing, and at the same time, you don’t me a thing either.
However, things have changed recently, and I hope you kinda get this.
I just saw that movie you made a few years ago. It was called “Beer League”. Not gonna lie. It was definately a low budget movie. You know what though? It made me laugh. I’m not gonna lie. I don’t think you did a good job as an actor. But I think you did a great job of being funny. That’s what counts though, right?
Alright, let’s be square. I feel I need to contact you briefly, for some quick vague reasons.
1. I have spent all day watching documentaries of varies comedians. The first was about Don Rickles. The second was about Richard Pryor. After dealing with those assholes, I kinda feel like I know a thing or two about being funny. Those guys were funny. I also watched Caddy Shack tonight. That was funny. You… you’re funny. Seriously.
2. I have lost chances to tell very special people in my life that I was thankful for what they did for me. A few friends. A few family members. A few artists.I really regret the fact that I never told them “thanks”.
3. I don’t pay much attention to “celebrity news”, but I heard your name mentioned. Seems like you got into trouble. Cool, whatever, I don’t judge anyone. Whatever. Everyone makes mistakes and that should in no way be held against you. Or anyone for that matter.
4. Short, but to the point and honest. You’re just plain awesome. An honest laugh has been hard to come by and in times like these, they’re much appreciated. Thank you.
Four good reasons to contact you. They all make sense to me. If you kinda mix them up. They are related.
So really, after mentioning all of that, I wanna say one thing.
Thanks.
NightRaid: A Winamp Skin
Over on reddit, a user posted a link asked “anyone else remember skinning this?” The link was to a screen shot of the default user interface for Winamp. Winamp is one of the older and more popular of the mp3 players. I recommend it for the visualization library and the tagging and reburning features alone.
I love those animated buttons
I’m a big fan of UI design. It’s fun to do in website design because you’re free to do anything with very little in the way of limitations. However, sometimes it’s a lot of fun to work under practical constrictions. It causes a person to have to really push themselves and see how far they can get away with.
Over the course of a few months, I designed and released three skins. Two of them were shared on Winamp.com, and two were released to critical acclaim over on DeviantArt.
Hooray! FireStorm Industries
Nothing like "Happy Hour" at the burn ward.
Congratulations to my fire performance troupe for another full year without any serious show-threatening accidents. Here’s hoping for more for next year… Here’s a promotional project from the beginning of the season.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsO-n1nX7qE
Also, we’re currently looking to book places. If you’ve got a party, event, or gallery that needs some stupid human tricks, you know where to go.
Loki’s Workshop: Postcard
Designed as a last minute emergency replacement for Loki’s Workshop’s appearance in Fangoria, it was shelved for future use. This design will be used in Loki’s next ad campaign, which includes releasing to another magazine, and will also be used for their first print media campaign. More than likely this will also be released as bonus content on their website shortly.
Just sent off to the printers, in glorious CMYK format.
Postcards from Hell.
Done as a way of a quick high five to the rest of the Haunt Industry, this work is an homage to a shared influence. I think a large majority of those in the scene were fundamentally and permanently altered by the low-brow genius of pulp horror, especially in graphic novel media.
Fans of this should contact me via e-mail or throught this site with their name and address as soon as possible. There might be some Halloween magic in it for you.
Sorry, offer ended. Look out for the next one.
Fangoria Appearance
I guess since the cover has been released, I can go ahead and announce it now. I will be appearing in the Halloween issue of Fangoria Magazine.
It hits the streets September 10th. Grab a copy. I’ll sign it.
I’ll talk more about it once the issue is out.
(Edit: I’ll talk more about it once I get my hands on a copy as well…)
In Front of Her Mouth (A Book Review)
Let me take a moment to talk about a woman I know. She’s floats in a few of my social circles. She’s not just a loose friend of mine (every discussion draws us a little tighter), she’s also one of my idols. No pedestals for this broad though. The envy-tinged respect I have for her has been well earned. She’s approachable, she’s amicable, and she’s very friendly. Maybe too friendly for her own good. I count myself lucky enough that I’m probably one of her few fans that she doesn’t handle with kid gloves.
We also have a few things in common.
There’s a few parallels between Marrus and I. We’re both artists. There’s no way around it. It’s what we do, and we can’t get escape it. We also spent years on the road, doing the whole Renne Faire circuit thing. We’re both really well known in that circle, if for way different reasons. We’ve both had a few things published. We both try to eek out some sort of living being artists. We’re both pretty sharp witted and we never run out of things to say.
There’s some contrast between us. We’re very much in love with New Orleans. She’s a native. I’ve adopted the place. She’s great with kids, they kinda frighten me. She’s bright colours and sparkles. I’m dark and spikey. Seelie to Unseelie if you get the mythos. She’s the gentle queen of the court, I’m the evil jester.
The main difference between her and I (if it’s really considered a “difference”) is that while we may be on the same path, she’s definately way ahead of me. She’s way ahead of the game. More than likely, because she fought much harder for it than I have. She’s earned her successes. I’m just now starting to steal mine. She’s living my dream, and it’s been a pleasure watching her do it. If I’m going to pick anyone to live vicariously through, I couldn’t pick a nicer gal.
