Category: News

Art, Main, News

Owl Dollars

More arts! A while back I did an illustration for folks over at the Reed College Annual Fund. They’ve just launched a fundraising campaign to get recently-graduated alumni to donate to the college. This is what I came up with for their branding:

If you look closely in there you can spot a number of Reed-related gags (I think 6 in total). See if you can find them all!

Has this image compelled you to fling money at my alma mater? Great! You can check out the campaign here.

Stay tuned for some preview art from True Believer later this week as I wrestle with the second half of the inking process!

 

News

Progress Report

So, you guys may’ve noticed that things have been a little quiet here on the comics front. Fear not! Things are happening and this post will hopefully clear up a few questions about where my energy’s going these days and when you can expect to see some new sequential work.

Oooh! Aaah! Pages!

I’m currently neck deep in my 34-page thesis comic (tentatively titled “True Believer”), which should be out in time for Stumptown this year. I wrapped up the pencils last week after a grueling page-a-day push through February, and am now taking the opportunity for a little downtime over Spring Break. I’ll begin inking in the next few days, then do color, layout, and printing in April. This is, of course, on top of full-time school commitments and a few freelance jobs, so there may be delays, but the progress in February was really encouraging. I’ll be posting some more pictures as I start inking so you can get a sense of what it’ll look like.

In the meantime, the blog will be featuring (surprise, surprise) more illustrations! I’m making the shift from my little Pentel Pocket Brush to the real deal Windsor & Newton Series 7 for this project, so I’m trying to do as much freelance work as possible with the W&N to get the feel of it.

Thanks for hanging in there, everyone! I’m getting really excited to share this new work with you. So excited, in fact, that I’ve taken to walking around like this:

Yup.

And with that burst of absurdism, I bid you adieu.

News

Buttons in the Emporium!

I know, I know. I said this was going to be done long ago, but the wait is finally over! You can now purchase Baggywrinkles-related buttons to confirm your place at the head of the seafaring cartoonists’ community.

Choose three buttons from the image below and they will miraculously appear on your doorstep in short order.

Want the entire range? Go for The Whole Shebang and get yourself a free doodle with your purchase.

Single Button Pack (3 buttons)…$2.00 + Shipping

[There’ll be a field where you can specify which buttons you’d like before you complete checkout!]

The Whole Shebang (9 buttons and a doodle)…$5.00 + Shipping

Art, Main, News

More Watercolorin’ (and a Tumblr!)

Some more watercolor doodles! I can’t seem to stop myself these days.

Aaaand a comic. Because I can’t resist and GOD. DAMN. the wind was cold yesterday.

Also: I got a Tumblr because it seemed like a smart move. You can check it out over here. I’ll probably post more silly doodles there in the future.

Too busy for more blogging, but keep yer eyes open for more illustration & comics later this week!

Main, News

Baggywrinkles 1 & 2 Now Available Online! (Fo’ free)

If you’ve been out there itching to show your friends the magic of Baggywrinkles without having to buy tangible copies of the comic, then boy howdy is this the post for you! I’ve just made both issues available online in their entirety because I love you all and really, it’s about time.

Furthermore, the amazing Joe Follansbee (author of the Fyddeye Guide to America’s Maritime History) recently put up an interview with yours truly on his site! To learn more about how I got involved in all this sailing and comics stuff in the first place, check it out over here.

I had a wonderful (but brief) trip out to see the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain this past weekend in Oxnard, CA. We had a lovely breeze for our three-hour sail, and it was a huge treat to be aloft and out on the water after so much time away.

Finally, I’ll be returning to Portland this weekend to reprint both issues of Baggywrinkles and make a bundle of new buttons. If you’d like to buy buttons on their own to distribute to nautical friends or decorate your own peacoat/ditty bag/fisherman’s hat, they’ll be available in the store next week in packs of three for two bucks (plus shipping).

That’s it from me. I’ll see you all in a week!

News

Freedom (from school), Censorship (on the Internet), and Everything Inbetween

Exactly eight minutes ago I sent in my last paper of the semester. I’m officially done with school for the next five weeks, and boy howdy does that ever mean it’s time to post some comics. Thank you all for hanging around as I’ve blundered through the last of my classes.

However, before I can post more comics, I wanted to make a brief post about something that will impact every single person viewing this page (or checking their email, or reading the news online, or promoting their webcomic, or blogging about their travels).

The ████ of the ████████ █████ in ███████. ████ ████████ ██████████!

Oh, wait. You can’t see that? Yeah. Here’s the problem. The Stop Online Piracy Act (otherwise known as SOPA) will be going through the House Judiciary Committee in the next couple of days. For those of you who aren’t familiar with SOPA, it will essentially destroy every trace of the Internet as we know it now. The Act gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the Internet. To see the uncensored text, and to do your bit to make sure that this thing never sees the light of day, please take a second to hit the big ol’ button below:

Uncensor This

I not normally a big fan of promoting stuff like this through my personal sites, but this thing is important. It’s crucial. And I’m going to do my damnedest to make sure it doesn’t impact the way I express myself, whether through comics or anything else, via the net.

Thanks, everyone. Stay tuned for more frequent updates, a couple interviews, and some exciting news about next year!

Main, News

Wherefore Show Opening!

Exciting news, dudes! The first 12 pages of Wherefore, the graphic novel I embarked on over the summer, will be in a show opening this Thursday at Reed College!

The shindig goes down at 4:30 pm in the Art Building (for those of you not from the Reed Community, enter in the East Parking Lot (SE 36thish and Woodstock) and head for the blue-roofed building in the NE corner of the lot), and the work will stay up another week or two. The exhibition will include pages from the original script, sketches, studies, penciled pages, and the final inked product, offering a complete overview of my process. I’ll be giving a brief presentation about the creation of the work around 4:45 and it would be excellent to see your smiling faces there. I haven’t yet decided how to go about posting the pages on the web (if at all), so this might be your only chance to see them for a while.

The project was made possible by the Kaspar T. Locher Summer Creative Scholarship, which goes out to four Reed students every Spring. The other three recipients will also be presenting work, so if you make it you can also look forward to awesome paintings, poetry, and a documentary shot in Peru. Cool stuff all around.

That’s all from me for now. Hope to see you all this Thursday!

 

 

Main, News

Onward and Upward

While it’s lovely to take pride in one’s work and rest on the old laurels a little after turning in something on a deadline, I really do love the little voice in my head that says “Oh man, fuck that project! This is where it’s at” as soon as I sink my teeth into something new. It gives me a feeling of jet propulsion where each new piece is another step towards that great big magical state of artistic competence in the sky.

I’ve been having a load of dynamite conversations with people in the last few days about art, creation, culture, spirituality, craft, dedication, and other Big Things. It has my brain in a whirl, but I’m also in mega productivity mode to ink 18 pages this week. So far I’ve tackled 3 on one project (a 6-page piece that I’ll start updating on Monday), and 5 on the other:

These are the opening pages of the 12-page prologue to Wherefore, my graphic novel. The finished pages (what you see above plus lettering and inkwashes!) will be on display, along with notes on my process, at Reed College starting November 3rd. There’s a little artist’s talk and an opening that afternoon, which I’ll post details about soon, but mostly I’m just really excited to finish all this inking so I can start sharing with you guys via the magic of the web.

Hang in there. Things are going to get crazy around here in the next couple weeks.

Art, Main, News

The Final Fenton

And here we have it: the dramatic conclusion to Fenton’s 4-page spotlight.

And that’s that! Since this comic was completed in a rapid dash for a deadline there’s still a lot more painting to be done to bring it up to snuff, so I may update these images sometime in the future with cleaner meaner versions. But for now, in typical style, my next comic will probably be about something completely unrelated to this! Get ready for excitement and…I don’t know. Manatees? You tell me.

In the department of exciting news, I have a piece in the upcoming Top Secrets-themed issue of Portland’s own Stumptown Underground! This is my first anthology inclusion so I’m extra thrilled and would love to see your grinning faces at the release party this Friday. The shin-dig goes down at In Other Words (14 NE Killingsworth St.) this Friday from 7-9pm. Hope to see you all there!