East Coast Rising 2 Cover

Comics Will Be The Death Of Us All.

Death by comics! But Oh, what a way to go.

Hotcakes... Uh I mean, Namor.

Sketchy sketch.

(press release) Demo Rights Revert

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan Announce ‘Demo’ Rights Reversion

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK -- September 23, 2007 -- Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan announce the immediate and full reversion of publishing and other media rights for their critically-acclaimed comics series Demo.

First published in 2003 by AIT/Planet Lar, Demo challenged the format of the typical superhero book for a grounded and more realistic look at the personal lives of young people with unusual powers. The unconventional series was nominated for two Eisner Awards and has seen print in multiple languages. Wizard Magazine named it the “Indie Book of the Year”, Comic Book Resources said it’s “what the X-Men would be if they were created today”, and Variety proclaimed it “more human than mainstream comics dare to be.”

“Demo is one of the most important things I’ve done,” series writer Brian Wood said. “And it’s been my continuing mission for it to reach as many people as possible. We’re currently exploring options and offers from other publishers with that goal in mind.”

"Working on Demo was a real turning point for my career in comics and as also an artist;” artist Becky Cloonan said. “Now this opportunity marks a turning point for Demo itself."

“We will update readers and retailers when future plans for Demo are finalized,” Wood said. “Should be soon, so stand by.”


Brian Wood is currently writing DMZ and Northlanders for DC/Vertigo, The New York Four for DC/Minx and Local for Oni Press. Becky Cloonan is currently illustrating American Virgin for DC/Vertigo and writing and illustrating East Coast Rising for Tokyopop. They can be found at www.brianwood.com and www.estrigious.com/becky

Sorry, babe..

My friend said this today and I took it way out of context for the sake of this picture:


Also happening today, I did another 4 pages of East Coast Rising 2 and one page of American Virgin! Super props to the ever-lovin' Ryan Kelly who filled in on pencils for issues 18 and 19, without his help I probably wouldn't be able to tag-team these comics. Definitely check out the issues he's done, I learn a lot by looking at his work. I love how he lays out his pages and basically everything!!!

Things are looking pretty good schedule-wise, it's a little harrowing but hey, I live on the edge. My middle name is Danger, you know that? Here's my favorite panels from ECR 2 so far:


In the last month I totally re-arranged my 'drawing' room (actually the living room, where comics are made). I still have some tidying to do but it's come a long way, baby. Ideally I'd like a 2 bedroom apartment, that way I could have one room that is nothing but work, and a living room to keep all my books and couch in. One day I'll get there!! For now I couldn't be happier with my space. Now I just have to find a special place for my jug of arsenic that my mom got me for my birthday (yes it was in June but I just recently got the present!)... yikes!


Note: that jug of Swift's arsenic has such a strange, unusual and fairly morbid history! Thanks mom! :D Also it's very old and no, there isn't any poison in it anymore.

Wednesday is Umbrella Day

I whipped this up tonight (literally, it took an hour) in anticipation of Gabriel Ba's "major label debut" as artist on The Umbrella Academy, written by Gerard Way (who already had a major label debut but deserves congratulations nonetheless). Issue 1 drops Wednesday and I'm looking forward to picking this up.


Brush, Ink, Photoshop.

So drawing this picture was like trying to buy a present for a rich friend who already has everything. What could I possibly draw that Gabriel can already draw better? It was difficult. I just put brush to paper and whipped this up, I figured that it's the thought that counts, right? Agree with me, guys. I haven't done fanart in a while (except for pictures of Yanni) so I felt a little funny about that too. I mean, it's someone else's character. I don't even know this character yet, aside from what was on the Dark Horse Presents site. The hardest part was probably stealing those logos haha! They were all so low-res! Jeez..

So in other comic news Sleepwalker has finally made his grand appearance in the newest Ms. Marvel comic, which I'm totally loving. Next to BPRD it might be my favorite monthly right now. Oh, and American Virgin, man that comic is awesome... wow whoever draws that comic is amaz-- oh wait, Ryan Kelly is on pencils for issues 18 and 19!! Hah no wonder I love that book, Ryan Kelly is awesome!!

Been a rough week. Looking forward to another. ECR is moving right along, I'll be finished coloring that cover in a few days, and I'll be finished with the book in.. ugh a few weeks. @_@ Where is Superman when you really need him?? I bet he could fill in blacks with his laser eye beams or something.

wrist torture

east coast rising 2 cover inks.


will have it up and colored in a few days. will maybe write more when my hands aren't about to fall off.

TRIVIAL PERSUIT 1: East Coast Rising

I'm up to page 63, which isn't too bad considering I've been two-timing this comic with American Virgin. Nobody really seems to mind except when there's not enough of me to go around! I've still got to finish the cover, but in the meantime here's some more trivia (there's so much of it.)

Archer's character is inspired by my younger brother Ross; when he was a kid he was so enthusiastic, earnest and A.D.D. I guess that's where the resemblance stops though, as my brother was never involved in a fight with Jersey pirates or a sea monster.


If you can't guess who inspired Lee, you should go stand outside of a church and play air guitar for nine minutes. Yep, it's Axl Rose!! See the resemblance? God, November Rain might be the greatest song ever written. Not that Lee has anything to do with Axl Rose, I guess it's the style and attitude that influenced his character design the most.



Also, Jacob Pepper is was the first person to cosplay Deathsnake! Don't have any pics but it was rad as hell. He even ran his clothes over with his car to make them more authentic (read: dirty).

Every day I do about 2-4 pages of East Coast Rising and 1-2 pages of American Virgin. I took Saturday "off" and only did edits and dialogue polishing and went for a few hours to the Rocketship in Brooklyn for the Sentences/DMZ 3 release party. I didn't stay out late though because I get cranky if I don't have my sleep! And some of us have to work the next day, jeez!

TTFN, I still got work to do tonight!!

So sweet it gave me cavities!

Speaking of sweet, everybody reading this should be reading Sugar Shock too, for many reasons. Since I'm feeling benevolent I'll give you two. The first is it's online at Dark Horse Presents, and it's free so you don't have any excuse not to read it, really! Second, it's written by Joss Whedon drawn by our very own South American Superstar, the King of Inks, the Only Man Who Draws Comics In A Suit, ladies and gentlemen: Fabio Moon! So go check out issue 2.

While you're at it you can go through the back issues (issue 1?) and check out Gabriel Ba's Umbrella Academy, written by Gerard Way (who's enthusiasm for comics is not only encouraging, it's staggering!). I'm so excited to read this book, and the online preview was the final nail in the coffin, totally sealed the deal! It's in my pull box.

And next, you can go order our collaboration 5 from Khepri (also starring Gabriel Ba, Vasilis Lolos and Rafael Grampa- but everyone reading this should know that already!!)

Also I'm glad everybody seemed to enjoy the thoughts on gigantic 20 foot Paleozoic mushrooms! I've been reading a few books on plant and tree symbolism as research for a new comic that I'm writing and Vasilis Lolos will be drawing. It's really interesting stuff. :D More later! Gotta do dishes!

Nothing's free in Water World.

WD stands for Water Displacement. That's what I did today- oiled my fans so they stop squeaking, oil my windows so they don't stick, replace all my lightbulbs because for some reason 5 of them went out today.

Some guy was beating his wife at the post office, and then later at starbucks, some other guy was beating himself to porn on his laptop, jesus christ. It's like all the crazies came out and my light bulbs just couldn't take it.

Been having weird dreams lately too, nothing extreme though. I cramped up my hand from inking yesterday, I hold the pen too tight I guess. Today it hurt to draw, boo hoo, poor me. ECR2 cover almost done. AV 20 coming along. ECR2 still slow and steady... plus a string of illustrations.

I'm reading this book during lunch breaks about the symbolism of trees, and this one idea really interested me: The author spends the first chapter talking about prehistoric forrests, and he mentions stuff like mushrooms and moss grew to enormous sizes (imagine standing under a mushroom!). Did giant mushrooms leave fossils behind? I'm not sure how I feel about that, but it's an interesting idea. I've never really thought about it before. I like to eat mushrooms but living in one would really stink. In the end it made me glad I wasn't born in the Paleozoic era.

Here's a wip of Scylla- I'll show you guys the final inks when it's done.


Something like this will take a while to ink because I won't work on it often (if I sat to do it it'd take all day! I'd hurt my hand again. Poor me.) Instead I work on it for a short sitting every day to warm up in half hour incriments. For example, today I inked her tail, tomorrow I might do her hair but I don't want to think about that right now. Goodnight!

Circe

Ink, Brush, Photoship


I had Ferdinand Von Reznicek in mind, as well as the Pre-Raphaelites (although I'm nowhere near as sophisticated...). One day I might have time for painting classes. Maybe next year.