A Robot’s Journey

I’ve always heard life is about the journey, not the destination. It can be tough to follow that advice sometimes but I’ve really tried to slow down a bit and listen to the tree frogs barking out in the woods. I knew I wanted to play on the environment side of the fence with this post so I decided to start a set reflecting one bot’s journey….somewhere. I don’t have a clue where he’s headed but I figure we can tag along and check out some bizarre places along the way.

Dragons

I’ve been exploring some new painting technique lately trying to find ways to speed up the process a bit. I continue to tip my hat to Enrique Fernandez as he cranks away on completely painted graphic novels. I can’t say I’ve made all that much progress, but I’m chipping away hoping to find the holy grail of light speed!

The Thorndyke contest is just about wrapped up – there were certainly some hilarious submissions (you need to login into Flickr to see the entire set). We’ll be closing the group later tonight and will have a voting page up soon so you guys can pick the winners.

Ok, enough chit chat, time to get back to Thoughts, Scribbles + Madness: Volume 3!

Monsters of Destruction

It’s that time of year folks – the comic book convention season is quickly approaching! As with the past couple of years, this means Greg and I have begun the journey of putting together the third volume of our yearly sketchbook. This is always a crazy time for us but we’re excited about some of the plans we have in store. Posts may get a bit sporadic as we get the little beast under control (including creating images exclusively for the book). We’ll be sure to keep everyone updated!

Related to the book, here’s a peek at some of the strangeness in store. Greg and I have made a point of clinging to the soul of books from our childhoods. Here’s to hoping goofy publications survive the digital transition.

Navigator

I have a terrible sense of direction. If you spun me around twice and pulled a sweater over my head, I’d be lost for days. Fortunately our space age world has provided all sorts of gadgets to help me find my way around. But what if I end up on some distant planet with spotty cell phone reception? The image above was based on the idea of having GPS bots who help map out new planets for all those directionally challenged space explorers. He’ll be making an appearance in the next Atmosphere strip (yeah, I fell off the wagon after one episode – how sad is that?? Thanks tax season.)

In other news, NC got a large helping of sleet and snow this weekend. I have to tell you, there’s nothing funnier than watching your wife slide down the yard riding a large Rubbermaid storage lid. Ahhh, winter!

Nuts and Bolts

I’m not much of a handy man…and it’s all my fault. My dad has been involved with hardware and remodeling his entire life. He never ceases to amaze me with his work and his attention to detail. He mixes cases of paint by eye, constructed a 20×20 barn without using a single nail and has rejuvenated countless homes. Yet when I was growing up my head was buried in cartoons and comics.

I was reminded of this yet again as my wife and I battled a bathroom cabinet for 5 1/2 hours this weekend. In my defense, there was a bow in the drywall which didn’t want to play nice with metal rails. Somehow we found a way to laugh about it as we were entangled around the toilet all afternoon. It’s all about the adventure right?

I figured the best way to cap off the weekend was with a drooling grumpy robot. You can’t ever have enough of those in your life.

Atmosphere: Episode 1

I would love to say the strip above flowed effortlessly from my fingertips. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case as I found myself fighting for every pixel. There was an abundance of hair pulling, a collapse of confidence, and some swearing tossed in for good measure. I even considered throwing in the towel all together but I knew Greg would never let me live it down.

Drawing cartoons for a living can be a bizarre journey. Some days are smooth sailing while others feel like you’ve never sharpened a pencil in your life. And yet clarity can crawl out from the strangest of places. In my case, after hours and hours, I found solace in a single shade of purple (panel two, inside the helmet). That one silly hue turned into the smallest grain of confidence to get through the image. I guess the moral of the story is there’s always a solution buried somewhere if we’re willing to torture ourselves enough to find it! Ha!

Atmosphere collects several ideas Greg and I have talked about for awhile. We’ve been asked about [echoes] and we promise it has a place in the lineup. In many respects, Atmosphere provides a bit of backstory for the larger adventure. We plan to keep the comics updated every Wednesday or so, as long as life permits. Here’s to hoping the next strip goes a bit easier! Onward!