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MOCK APRIL post!
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Wow, is it April already? Here's two versions of an unpublished cover for my friend Vassilis's "Mr. Universe " comic that Image published a while back. I painted one darker to hide the girls face which i felt i kinda botched. Still not sure which i like better...
I'd like to eat up server space bragging about three people in my life who I've been talking to, who YOU may or may not have heard of. They will be drawing some of the Oni Trout books I'll be writing, laying out and trying NOT to draw (otherwise they will never get finished as I'm too swamped to draw more than two books a month. Tried to on Bimbo, almost killed me. Never again!).
Tim Kelly: This guy has a sweet organic style that really blows me away. He says he gets compared to me a lot in his style, but I got compared to Frazetta and Bernie Wrightson—which is who both of our true lineage comes from, and no matter how we pale in comparison, it's still a cool place to try for. Besides, by now Tim's got his own style. He can pencil, color, ink, paint like a demon. He's a compulsive creator too. He always makes me WANT to draw, because he makes it look so damned FUN to create stuff. And it IS, when he does it.
Leigh Dragoon: I met Leigh years ago. Out of the blue I asked a friend if she knew any women cartoonists; she gave me Leigh’s name, and when we spoke on the phone I was stunned to find out she lives in the same town I do! She's multi-faceted too—writes, draws, paints, all of it. She's getting so much writing work, it's crazy. She doesn't just draw, she 'acts' her characters, often much better than I do. If Lynn Johnston (from “For Better or For Worse”) had a long-lost daughter who drew comics, Leigh would be it. I'm lucky to be working with her. Leigh just finished a story she wrote for Fraggle Rock #2.
Vassilis Gogtzilas: I only put Vassilis last because I threw him into my second sketchbook FIRST. He's someone else I felt like I've always known. He lives in Greece, teaches art and does his own comics, advertising, has directed animated music videos, has his own art books too. Insanely prolific. VERY talented, and can draw even more wild cartoony stuff than I can, yet can shift to drawing much more realistically than I can. Basically he kicks my ass, but in a good way. He's humble too. I like working with folks who make me look better than I am. He's got his own comic series called “Misery City” from blacklinecomics.
All three are tirelessly helping me on my goofy little trout-a-verse, and in turn I tell them to exploit whatever attention that gives them towards their OWN books, because they have lives beyond me. Check their stuff out when you can. It's creators like these who are the future of comics,seriously. I wasn't doing half the crap they are when I was their ages.
end of plug.
sam
