Holiday break!

Have not had time to make any updates here due to the Holidays and some commission work.

Coming in 2010 is an article on the lost art of inking.

Featuring the lines of

Joe Sinnott

Wally Wood

Mike Royer

Alex Toth

and more!

Stay tuned!

In the meantime check out this great book from www.twomorrows.com publishing!

Have a Merry Christmas everyone! Happy Holidays! Have a Happy New Year!

Saving the Comic Book....

Can the American Comic be saved?

At this point it is hard to say. It has been dying a slow death since the gloss paper direct market promo cover craze of the 90's.

That decade alone probably hurt comics more than anything.

They disapeared from news stands altogether. They also got very expensive. The inflation of the US Comic is more than almost any other product. $1.50 was about the rate for your average DC or MARVEL book at the time. IMAGE came in with $1.95 on nicer paper. Everyone followed suit.

Now they are $2.99- $3.99!? Its ludicris.

For about the same you can get SHONEN JUMP magazine. Its full of Manga comics printed in black and white on cheap paper. You wonder why all these kids love Manga/Anime and this is a major reason.



You know what? Thats what the kids are reading. They are not reading Spiderman or Batman. Only the BABYMEN are.

Why MARVEL or DC have not tried this I have no idea! They are crazy. Too proud and stuck in this system that is beyond its use now.

I am in the process of trying to find means to print comics cheap in a book like this with some other artists. I think its a much better model and it seems to serve the Euro and Asian markets very well. The popular stuff gets made into Trades and/or TV shows.

Will the US comic survive? Not for long at the rate they are now.

They can survive in the format they are now but unless they get an alternative back on the magazine racks,at grocery stores,toy stores,etc then they risk dying all together.

Kids don't read comics because they can't buy them easily. There are not alot of Direct Comic Book stores and alot of the ones there don't cater to kids. In fact some of them go out of their way to discourage kids to come in. I have seen it at a few shops when kids come in and want to look at comics (DUH) and the employee's scold them for (GASP) reading them!

Nice way to get some future customers...

Props to Tucson Comic Store HEROES and VILLIANS for not having this policy. The owner doesn't carry as much as I wish he did but he does get the kids to come in.

Thor Test Page for Jam at PencilJack

Recently I have discovered a great site for artists.

www.penciljack.com

Great people there. They all love illustration and comic books.

They are there to learn from and help each other. Not a place to go if you think you know it all or aren't willing to "unlearned what you have learned"

So far I am on track to being a better artist. I have a skechblog there for crits and it has helped me a ton. I try to join in on some of the community projects too.

This Thor page was for one such Jam.



I am not happy with it. I have learned from it though and that is what matters to me as an artist.

Onward and Upward as a certain Sensei has told me many times.