Merry X-mas 2008!

So here's my on-line X-mas card for the year 2008 as promised. I've had this idea in my head for some time... and since it's 20th anniversary of The Sandman, I thought "Aw, what the hell! Let's do it." Hope you like it.

It's called: "His Master's Laundry"




Cheerio.

PS. I think I should also mention just for the record that The Sandman was created by Neil "Scary Trousers" Gaiman and Sam Kieth. And all the characters are trademarks of DC Comics and Warner Bros. Right.

I feel pretty. Oh, so pretty...

Yes, I checked the Coraline-site.


Cheerio.

Countdown to X-mas...

This year I promised myself that I won't waste time doing a X-mas card illustration...

...now, the problem was that I had this idea of a four panel (Sandman related) comic strip going around in my head for some time... and it kinda had this X-massy feelin' in it.

So I did it.

And I'm going to post it here on Monday 22nd.

In the mean while, here's my online-X-mas-card-thingie 2006.

I't called: "Mo(o)re* about the origin of Santa Claus"


*But seriously I love Alan and I really hope he'll be gentle upon me and doesn't turn me into anything cold and slimy if he happens to see this...

Now, if you don't understand any of this you might want to check out this video interview of Alan, but as far as the joke goes, I'm afraid it will be ruined for you... jokes don't work backwards (...like "Oh, THAT'S the reason why it's funny... hardy-har-har")... IF it was funny in the first place.

Cheerio.

Miyazaki can solve any problem...

I once read from an interview of some Pixar-studio guys that whenever they have big problems in their animation projects, they gather to this auditorium and watch animations by Hayao Miyazaki... and they always find the answers they need.

I have quite similar thing myself. Whenever I'm stuck with an illustration, I sit down (usually on the living room floor) and read (or just leaf through) Miyazaki's amazing comic "Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind". Many times I find the answers I need... and sometimes it just makes me to forget the problem... but always it makes me feel happy.

If you don't believe me, try it.

Cheerio.

I'm still doing other things too, you know...

Ok, there's awful lot of hype about the "Saucers" poster right now (and that is a very good thing indeed), but I'm still doing other things too... like "Odd" for example.

Now, while I'm stuggling to find time to color the remaining three pages of chapter 1, I'm also doing tests to find a illustrating style that would minimize the time needed for coloring (cause I'm still going to continue doing this online-Odd-thingie) and get me back on track with the story.

Here's one of those test-panels... now, as you can see, the style is bit more sketchy and the coloring is a lot more simple (basically just one shade of grey and white)... This might work. Any opinions?


Cheerio.

The truth is out there...

OK, it's a bit lame joke, but I just couldn't resist it when I got a message from Cat saying that "The Saucers" poster thingie got linked in Gillian Anderson's site. That's cool.

Awful lot of links for such a short text.

Cheerio.

Stroll down memory lane... Babycakes from 2002

When Neil mentioned in his blog that I have every now and again illustrated his stuff, I started thinking about the first time I did that. It was in early 2002. My wife had given birth to our first child the previous summer and I was learning how to be a father. Then I happened to read Neil's short story called "Babycakes"... and it hit me HARD. I had read it before and thought if was great story (in a really disturbing way)... but reading it as a father of a tiny baby, the creepiness took a whole different level... and I IMMEDIATELY decided that I wanted to do a comic of it... and I did.

That was also the first time I ended up in Neil's blog (April 10th and April 12th). Ah, those were the days. I also checked if the comic is still up... and guess what... it IS... thanks to Tara.

But in order to save you from some unnessessary clicking, I decided to show the comic HERE.







Hmm... Actually it's not that bad.

Cheerio.

"The Mystery Project" revealed...

Finally.

I mentioned WAY BACK I was doing this "thing", and now it's finally out.

The story was that I fell in love with Neil Gaiman's poem "The Day the Saucers Came" and I got the idea of having this one picture in the beginning, and then just "zooming out" of it so that there's more and more stuff visible. I did couple of pictures and sent them to Neil and he really liked them. Then I did the rest of the pictures and was really happy with myself... and then Neil asked me what are we going to DO with the illustrations... and I had no idea.

We went back and forth with various ideas (basically anything and everything between... let's say from set of postcards to T-shirt printing to illustrated picturebook)... and then Neil was busy with stuff... and then I was busy with some other stuff... and then we forgot the whole damn thing for a little while... and then we remembered it again.

Now, at some point we added Cat Mihos from NeverWear to the "brainstorm" and we came up with an idea of a poster. So, I did a backround image and put the illustrations on it... and that was it. Everybody was happy.

Here's a picture of the poster.


Go buy it from here. It's a nice poster... and a great poem.

Cheerio.