HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER...

I don't know about you, but it's been far too long since my last blog post for my satisfaction! So I'm here to ladle news, updates, fevered musings and stray thoughts all over you, my loyal audience, whom obviously like the idea of being ladled upon 'cause you keep coming back. Weird.

DEAD DUCK--THE GRAPHIC NOVEL:

I'm still in talks with a certain editor from a certain comic book publisher about carrying "Dead Duck". Nothing is even close to finalized. But there is still interest on both sides, and it's my hope that I'll know something, anything, before fall hits.

DEAD DUCK--THE T-SHIRT:

I've recently opened up a shop at cafepress.com, and my first piece of merchandise for sale is a Dead Duck t-shirt. It's basic black with this design on the front:

You'll hopefully notice that this was the cover of my Dead Duck graphic novel. I really love that design, and putting it on a shirt seemed like a great way to keep that art circulating! If this shirt sells well, I have a couple other designs in the hopper that I'm anxious to unveil. But we'll keep it with this first one for now and see how interest grows. Click here to visit my cafepress shop and order your Dead Duck t-shirt!

NON-COMIC ART WORK: I've had my share of caricaturing gigs this summer, and have two more coming in the next couple weeks in both Lansing and Saginaw. I've also drawn some interesting individual and family portraits, some human and some, well, not so human, which you can view below:

I've illustrated a CD cover for a client:

 I've designed a logo for a kiteboarding company:

I've designed a logo for a hockey team:

I wrote and illustrated an article for an online magazine about my favorite long-forgotten animated film, "Twice Upon A Time." You can see the illustration below, and click HERE to read the article:

And I'm currently working on an ad campaign for a newspaper in New York. It's still in the beginning stages, but if it works out, it'll be a good challenge and great money. Here's the rough sketch I came up with for it:

LITTLE GREEN MEN:

As I mentioned before, "Little Green Men", a web comic I've written and drawn for Ape Entertainment over the past year or so, will be a graphic novel available for purchase sometime this August. In the meantime, you can view many of my "LGM" comics online HERE.

COMIC CON APPEARANCES:

I'll have a table at DETROIT FANFARE, a brand new comic con being held in Dearborn, Michigan over Halloween. Unlike most cons, it's going to be all comic book professionals--no wrestlers, old TV stars or porn models. There's going to be lots of cool creators there, and the special guest of honor will be Stan Lee, the main man behind the bulk of the Marvel Universe as we know it. Click HERE for more info on that. Rest assured, I'll be posting about this event later when it gets closer on the calendar. 

SKETCH CARDS:

I've had my share of sketch card assignments in the past year, and it's added up to a wild and diverse collection of properties. First, there's the "Cartoon Sketch" series that I worked on for Breygent Marketing. We were allowed to draw such classic characters as Betty Boop, Casper the ghost and Mighty Mouse, and I had a blast putting my spin on these characters. Here's just a handful of what I drew:

Then I worked on the "P'ups" sketch cards for 5finity. The assignment was to draw scantily clad pin-up girls with a variety of puppy breeds. Just cute and harmless cheesecake stuff, and so much fun to draw. Here are some of the cards I created for that series:

 After that, I worked on the "Female Persuasion" sketch card set for 5finity. This was a series where, again, artists drew scantily clad women in various themes. Hey, sex sells. I also designed the art for the backs of some of the cards. Here is the backing art and the sketch cards I came up with:

 After this, 5finity had me draw some sketch cards of the Archie Comics' character, Sabrina:

Now my latest sketch card assignment for 5finity is for the comic book property, "Hack/Slash". The comic is about Cassie Hack, a girl whose mom was a slasher of the Freddy Krueger/Jason Voorhees variety, and whom Cassie had to destroy. So now the girl, with her hulking sidekick Vlad, hunts and kills slashers. Being a big horror fan, this is easily the coolest sketch card assignment I've been handed since I worked on Star Wars: Galaxy 5 for Topps last winter. While I haven't quite begun my work on the Hack/Slash set yet, I can show you some of my preliminary sketches for the characters. That's Vlad and Cassie on the left, while the three weapon-carrying fiends to the right are characters I just came up with for them to battle:

Well, that's enough for this round of bloggery, methinks. More stuff to come, hopefully with news of Dead Duck's newly gained publishing status. Take care in the meantime, my beloved friends, fans and family. And as always, thanks for sticking with me all this time. You make it all worthwhile.

Much love,

 
--Jay