Happy Halloween to all my friends, fans and followers! To
me, there is no more glorious a holiday
than All Hallows Eve, an annual celebration that revels in costumes, creepiness
and candy! I have a handful of treats with no tricks in sight for this week's
blog post, so put on your best mask and open that candy bag wide, 'cause here
comes the goods...!
My apologies for last week's promise of my Live Sketch Show,
followed by a last minute cancellation. I hope to make up for it with this
week's show, where I'll be drawing the cover to "Bodie Troll" #1. This week, the show will start at 7 pm
eastern time and run until 8, allowing me to catch ABC's annual airing
of my all-time favorite special, "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"
You can catch my broadcast at the link above. And if you'd like to chat with me
during my show, you can reach me via Ustream's chat window. You need to log in
to Ustream to use the window, but registering is easy. It only takes a username
and an email address. Once you've entered that info, you can chat with me while
I draw. I hope to see some of you online!
In other "Bodie Troll" news, I've been lining up
some really fantastic artists to draw pin-ups (single page illustrations) as
special features in the "Bodie" comic! I don't want to spoil the
surprise just yet, but I'll tell you that there'll be some very recognizable
artists in the roster, and some artists who you may be discovering for the
first time, and man, will you be excited that you did!
This past weekend, I participated in the 3rd annual Detroit Fanfare Comic Con held at The Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, MI, and had a terrific time! I
had my usual table there, and sat next to two of my favorite
"Bill's"--sketch card artist Bill Pulkovski and Bill Morrison, art
director for "The Simpsons" and "Futurama" and former
creative director at Bongo Comics. My wife Laura is a HUGE Simpson's fan, so
she and Bill had a lot to talk about. Bill and I are both National Cartoonists Society members and know
a lot of the same artists, plus we're both HUGE Popeye fans, so we had our
share to jaw about, too! Here's a pic of us on the last day of the con:
Now, besides working my table, Laura and I also dressed up
in our Halloween costumes--myself as Max from "Where The Wild Things
Are", and Laura as a very cute Wild Thing. Laura sewed my costume herself,
and it's the best costume I think I've ever had for Halloween! Here's some pics
of our get-ups:
But one of the most special moments from the con came when a fan of my comics showed up in costume...
This is Ricky dressed up as DEAD DUCK! Never before have I had someone cosplay one of my characters! It was the biggest honor, and Ricky did just a phenomenal job with the costume! He even got J.P. Yorick's scythe with the car keys dangling off 'em! Seriously, do I have the best fans or what?
Finally, a special treat in honor of Halloween. I've been
creating "Necronomicomics", my monthly single panel cartoon for Rue
Morgue Magazine, for over a year now, and enjoying myself immensely. Below are
two of my recent cartoons. The first one ran in this year's Halloween issue:
As I mentioned at the top of this post, I'm a HUGE
"Great Pumpkin" fan. I even went the extra mile on this cartoon,
opting to paint the sky in this cartoon by hand using watercolors, in a close
approximation to those gorgeous backgrounds you saw in the original Peanuts
specials. For those who don't recognize the monster I drew in there, it's the
creature from the 1988 horror film, "Pumpkinhead". Pumpkinhead, Great
Pumpkin. Get it?
The other treat I have for you is a look at one of my only
rejected Necronomicomics cartoons. In it, I lampoon one of my favorite horror
movies, the 1999 Tim Burton flick "Sleepy Hollow":
In case you're wondering, the cartoon wasn't rejected
because of the dirty joke. The editor worried that the joke was too obscure,
and readers might not get it. How about you guys (and won't you be the dirty
minded lot if you admit to getting it!)?
That's it for now. Hope to see you guys online tonight. Take
care, and the happiest, hauntedest of all Halloweens to you, my fiendish
friends!
--Jay
2 comments:
The Dead Duck Cosplay was nicely done! Wild things turned out great as well. Both were some of the most creative ideas I've seen this year. Thanks for sharing the pics.
I really LOL'd seeing you in your Wild Things costume. Your wife is delightful in hers too -- you both look like you're having a great time.
And that Headless Horseman cartoon is GREAT! Innuendo is a tough sell sometimes, but almost always fun.
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