Preview panels

I couldn't resist. Here are some rough panels from upcoming pages. None of these are in sequence, and they come from different pages, so don't expect them to make sense.

Page 25! This will be the last new page for a while. I have to knuckle down and finish the book. I want to have it available for sale in time for Christmas, so time is getting short.

Much in print!!

Check this out! My friend Ted Wilson gave me this artwork this morning. It's the cover for the complete Much the Miller's Son comic, available (hopefully) in December!

Page 24

Just 12 pages left!

Proof of my (covert) celebrity

Here are the photos of my drawing found in Powell's, North America's largest bookstore in Portland, Oregon. Here's the original post: http://whadiwannablogfor.blogspot.com/2006/11/hp-lovecraft.html

Page 23

At last some action! This is where things really start to pick up. Only 13 pages left in the whole story! By the way, this was done with my fancy new brush. What do you think?

Post-it doodles

Just breaking in my fancy new brush. It's a Pentel pocket-brush which takes India ink cartridges and has synthetic bristles. It's quite a step up from the crappy felt brush pens I used to use. Expect my strip to look a lot nicer from now on. Herbert the Duck and Marvin the Dragon are characters from Lewis Trondhiem's brilliant Dungeon series. The dude with the scissors is the nameless Snipper-Sniper from Kazimir Strzepek's The Mourning Star.

Page 22

Here it is at long last. You may have noticed a redesign on Marion. I've gone back and redrawn her in all the previous strips, and I'll upload the revisions later. Also page 19-20 has been redrawn, if you go back and look. I'm preparing the strip for a complete edition which I hope to have available in December.

Last weekend in Portland

Well, I was hoping to get some photos from my friend to post, but oh well...

I had a great time in Portland. The Stumptown Comics Fest is a great place to rub elbows with the best underground and small press cartoonists on the west coast. I was lucky enough to meet Mike Allred, Matt Wagner, and Shane Glines. I also got some great new sketches from Kazimir Strzepek, Farel Darlymple, Coleen Coover, Camilla d'Errico, Joseph Bergin III, and Matt Wagner and Shane Glines, among others. I traded my Much comics for lots of great stuff, and bought some cool comics like A Conversation by James Kochalka and Craig Thompson, and The Marquis: Danse Macabre, by Guy Davis.

I was hoping to run into Brandon Grahame in Portland, but no luck. I did meet Al Columbia though! And I was at a party with Peter Bagge and Joe Sacco! I didn't recognize Mr. Sacco until after I had left the party, so I didn't get to meet him, which sucked.

Another highlight was Powells, the biggest independent bookstore in North America. It's huge, covering nearly a city block. I could spend a week in there. But this is the really cool part; in the Horror section, right at the top of the stairs, is a bookcase dedicated to H.P. Lovecraft stories. Right in the middle of the top shelf is a drawing of Cthulhu... It's MY DRAWING!! They must have got it from this very blog! I asked them to let me sign it, and when I get those photos from my friend, I'll post them up here.

So that was my weekend in Portland, and the reason there was no comic strip last week.

Steve

Armour studies

I love the way metal looks when you ink with a brush. As a historical note, these drawings are based on armour from the late-13th to mid-14th centuries, a hundred years or so after Robin Hood was supposed to have lived. As if anybody cares.

In lieu of a new strip...

an illustration.

No comic this week

Sorry guys, no comic this week. I was in Portland, Oregon all weekend at the Stumptown Comics Festival. I'll upload all my news about it soon.

Steve