Mormons in Comics (thank you Theric)

Salt Lake City just had their comic con and I'm disappointed I missed it.

It was with delight I found out that Theric Jepson included mention of me in his (long distance) presentation about Mormons in Comics.


(He mentioned both Being Born , the piece I created for the Sunstone comic edition, as well as Traitors and Tyrants, the comic that John Nakamura Remy and I created for Monsters and Mormons.)

It was delightful to go back and remember both those projects, also it was an honor to be included in an amazing lineup of other fabulous artists and creators.  Thank you Theric. 

it's called NaNoMangO (Plus Sunstoned!)

After my previous post,where I mentioned doing my own personal NaGraDraMo next month, someone drew my attention (/snicker) to NaNoMangO; the OFFICIAL art/comic-drawing alternative to NaNoWriMo.

Sweetness. I just joined the group.

(Disclaimer: yes, I have a bunch of unfinished art commitments I gotta tie up before I put another time-consuming project on the table.. but really, I am really getting excited about this!)

The tagline of NaNoMangO is "30 pages in 30 days", which is more pages than I was originally thinking... but here's how they broke it down.

Either: 1) 30 pages penciled. OR 2) 15 pages inked OR 3) 10 pages "finished"

Thinking I'll aim for the long distance endurance version of 30 rough penciled pages, for the "wow-do-I-have-that-many-pages-of-story-in-me?" experiment.

In other news, guess what came in the mail today??!!!

Zot! Pow! Sunstone!

Nestled in this edition (an amazing collection of LDS comic artists and comic aficionados) is the little comic I drew up; Being Born. My first ever published comic (not counting Bloody Eve ). AND, I get a mention in the intro! Noting the breadth of style, the vastly different kinds of comics Mormons are making, guest editor Theric Jepson queries:

"Look at Galen Dara's earthy mysticism (pg 60). Witness Nick Perkin's bobble-headed National Treasure (pg 84). Then ask yourself: How could they be more different?"

Thanks Theric. :)

It really is a stunning and eye-opening collection, chock full not only with a vast array of Sequential art by folks w/ ties to Mormonism, but also with multiple insightful essays about appreciating comics, Mormon artists, the new Wonder Woman, Crumb's Illustrated Bible, how it all ties into the Mormon experience, etc.

It was a pleasure to be a part of it.

pages 3 and 4 (Being Born)

I really do like how these two pages, in particular, turned out. (If you click on the image, you can see it larger.) (Here's more about the story.)

lazy artist.

I'm a lazy artist.

My usual MO is to just sit down and dig in to a piece with only a little bit of forethought or planning. Sort of making it up as I go along. "Opps, I didn't plan that... ah well, it works, won't bother changing it". That sort of thing.

Well, for the project I am working on now, I can't get away with that kinda shit. It must be planned. Constructed. Carefully put together with forethought and intention. And this process is exhausting creative muscles I didn't even know I had!! Whew I'm tired, every day from it!

But it's good tired.
Guess I needed a little exercise.

sunstone comic! (being born)

In case you didn't know, Sunstone is doing an issue for Mormon Comic Artists. (Woot!)

The deadline is coming up and I am getting serious with the pages allotted to me.

So, after months of drawing around the images/concepts, playing with style, taking them off into all sorts of random directions, I am now bringing it all together; taking all the loose ends and trying to coax them together (sometimes with gentleness, sometime with bailing wire), filling in the gaps that I've neglected up until now, ironing out the awkward transitions, etc.

For your entertainment, here's my written synopses (complete with links to the various images/ideas/concepts that haves been my studies for the past year. Warning, a good number of the images are fairly graphic.)

What I'm working on in particular:

~making the shocking imagery more subtle, finding the fine line between challenging and outright offensive and off-putting.

~balancing the gender aspect of it.

~finding the gaps that leave the reader/viewer confused.

~making it sequential (I am better at single panels but need sequence to tell this story)

~ etc

***************

Anyhow, feedback, thoughts, (constructive) criticisms are suggestions are welcome :)