Thanks again, Dreamhost.

Well, I WANTED to show you guys Page 011 today, but I guess my web host is having some weird problems again. The site and mail and everything seem okay (if not a bit slower than usual), but I can’t ftp anything to the server.

Eh, you get what you pay for, I guess. Sorry for the delay.

Anyway, if Dreamhost doesn’t have things worked out by this evening, I’ll figure something else out. I think I can still tack images to my Wordpress (and Livejournal) posts, so I’ll probably just stick pages in the blog down there for the time being. It just means you’ll have to scroll a bit, is all.

But we’ll see what happens.

We now return you to Arnold in Rio, already in progress.

Green Hell!

What do you see, lil’ Serenity…

Wow, so how about those first ten pages? Pretty green, eh? I just thought it’d be nice to start things off with a big explosion of green ectoplasmic hell. (What story wouldn’t benefit from that, I ask you? Annie Hall would’ve been classic!)

I still haven’t decided if I want to burn through this book at two pages a week or play it safe (for now) and roll them out just once a week. It’ll probably vary as we go on, but I think I can safely say there’ll be at least one new Serenity page every seven days. Neat! Page 011, featuring whatever the hell long-haired teenage Sera is looking at, will appear this coming Wednesday.

In other developments, the big freelance project I’ve been working on for the past couple weeks is coming to an end pretty soon, which should free up some time for commissions. Hurray! Sorry to everyone who’s been waiting so patiently for those; you should have them by the end of the month. People have thrown some really fun stuff at me this time… can’t wait to dig in and start some arts.

And did you know the first printing of Serenity Rose Vol. 1 has officially sold out? Yeah, it kind of snuck (sneaked?) up on me, too… The second printing should show up sometime this summer, though, hopefully in time for Comic Con. If not, look for me signing autographs behind a big stack of discarded panel schedules. In the parking lot. Behind my house.

I will keep you updated!

IT MOVES…

Dear god, I almost had a heart attack there… All this “YAY SR VOLUME TWO!” buildup and would you believe I almost couldn’t update today? Yep, the site went all finicky for some unfathomable reason, right smack at the worst possible moment.

BUT… after one small conniption fit, I have defeated it. And Serenity Rose Volume 2, my children, IS ALIVE.

Now, if you’ve been keeping up with the ol’ livejournal for the past few months, you’ve probably already seen Page 001 here. Big letdown, eh? But wait, what’s that you are hearing…

TEN PAGES. TEN DAYS.

That’s right, fellows: 10 Serenity Rose pages, 10 Serenity Rose days. We’re going daily for the next week and a half (then probably a page or two every week thereafter… still mulling over the schedule here).

I’d like to write more, but man, am I sleepy… I’m working on a very cool freelance project that could potentially pay for the rest of Serenity Rose Vol. 2, which is nice, but the schedule’s kinda really tight. So probably not much in the way of blog posty communication for the rest of the month, sad to say…

New pages, though! And that’s what you’re here for, innit. After way too long a wait.

Thanks for sticking in there.

IT BEGINS, PEOPLE!

EXTREME FATAL WRASSLIN!

Uh oh, looks like our gal Sera’s got herself a little competition. I’m pretty sure Sera could take her (y’know, magic and all), but I have to admit this “leg feed enzuigiri” has me a little worried. I bet the Frankensteiner isn’t as cool as it sounds, though.

Speaking of Serenity Roses… I know Sera could take these guys. It seems kind of mean to pick a fight, though…

Nah, we’ll leave the fight pickin’ to these guys.

“With the ability to drop the jaws of any innocent bystander within ears range, this rock-driven foursome from St. Louis will kick you in the ass and keep you coming back for more.”

RAWWWWWKKK!

ONE MORE WEEK.

Calvin & Hobbes.

And there they are!

Now, for whatever reason, when I started this “commissions” thing it never occurred to me someone might ask for a Calvin & Hobbes sketch. Which is really odd because, y’know, Bill Watterson is maybe my #1 biggest art hero ever (it sort of cycles between Bill Watterson, Tim Burton, and Hayao Miyazaki). I guess maybe it always just felt vaguely heretical to even consider drawing these characters… Like the very notion of it was simply not fit for respectable people like me. You don’t re-write Hamlet, you don’t re-paint the Sistine Chapel, and you don’t re-draw Calvin & Hobbes.

But I did it anyway, and it was a lot of fun.

It was cool, too, when I was flipping through my big stack of C&H books for reference, I was struck yet again by the incredible looseness of the drawings. It’s all so wonderfully scribbley and gestural, little bits and wiggles of detritus flying all over the place. So much energy… It reminds me -weirdly- of some of the old EC artists who’ve had such a big influence on me. Especially Jack Davis. That guy was an especially filthy little scribbler. And I love him for it, the creepy old cuss.

God, people’s obsession with “clean” drawings is a total mystery to me.

A couple more commissions that turned out pretty good, if I don’t say so myself but I guess I just did:

The first one is Starla-Faye Jovansensan from Jimmy Misanthrope’s “Agents of the Endtimes” webcomic, and the smaller floating girl in the second one is Faith from Thomas Szewc’s “Alone In A Crowd.” Thank you so much, Jimmy and Thomas!

If you want to be as cool as those guys, click HERE to commission your own… commission. And help keep Serenity Rose Vol. 2 going in the process. Seriously, it takes way less time and is far more enjoyable than taking on freelance jobs. Art directors always want “clean” artwork, y’know.

TWO MORE WEEKS.