City of Cards: Ghosts of Samsara v1.1

Well, I figured it's about time I start introducing what exactly City of Cards is and what I have planned. Over the next couple of months I'll be posting my progress on the first full installment from this project. This is what I'll be doing for my pre-thesis assignment, but it's also part of the larger work I have planned over the next several years.

To start things off, I've got the preliminary cover art for Ghosts of Samsara, a 20 page vignette that takes place during the beginning events of the story.



I took the photo that I used for the cover back when I was studying in Tokyo in 2006 but CoC doesn't actually take place in Tokyo, just a fictional city based on all the different cities I've been to and that have inspired the idea of "city" in my mind. The story is a little bit of everything I enjoy writing/drawing including horror, science-fiction, supernatural, buddy-comedy, superhero... it's all in there in some way.

Next post I'll introduce Ace and a little bit about who/what he is. I'll try to keep these posts spoiler free for the most part.

Comics You Should Know

Mermaid Hostel by Jen Vaughn

One thing I figured I could do on this blog is get the word out about some of the comics I get exposed to while at CCS. From the amazing works of the visiting artists to the tremendous output of my classmates, there's almost too much to go through.

So first, I direct you to my school's homepage: The Center for Cartoon Studies

The main page has a lot of information about all the guests that come to the school as well as faculty and student works. It's a great resource.

Secondly, I'll direct you to a great webcomic by artist Jen Vaughn who is currently a second year here at the school and a totally awesome lady at that: Mermaid Hostel

It's definitely one of the most unique takes on mermaids I've ever read and her colorful wash art style is really striking. She's also currently running a fundraiser right now so if you like what you see, feel free to send a little money her way.

Earshot and Sonar: Echoes of the Golden Age

Okay, a little late but I still wanted to cover this project here in this blog because it was definitely an intense but awesome time. With the help of our editors Paul Karasik and Alec Longstreth, myself and five of my classmates were put in a group and given two weeks to create a 30 page full color golden age superhero comic complete with faux ads and editorials.

I won't be posting the full comic up here but I'll at least give a taste of the work we did.

First off, this sweet cover picture:



Pretty awesome, huh? Artwork for the cover was by Corey Middleton, an amazing artist and great guy to work with.

We all were paired up to individual 10 page stories within the book and this is what Corey and I did:



This project taught me that pastiche is way more fun than should be allowed. One of things I was largely responsible for in this project was writing, particularly the text for the ads and I fell in love with one of them especially.



I did the color on the mouse and the InDesign work and fellow teammate Ben Horak came up with the awesome design that is the Elephant Mouse. Seriously, I want one.

So that's the Golden Age project!

The next couple of months are going to be dedicated to my pre-thesis project, but for now it's Spring Break and I'm looking forward to getting some sleep and enjoying the awesomeness that is post-winter Vermont.

Tales from San Papel

It's been awhile since I've updated, but I'm slowly accumulating a lot of neat stuff to put up here so don't worry, I haven't been slacking. First off I wanted to start spreading the word about Tales from San Papel, an anthology put together by some of my amazing colleagues at the Center for Cartoon Studies. I myself contributed a four page piece but every story in the book is fantastic.



Above cover artwork is Copyright 2010 Pat Barrett

Here's a sample one page from my work in the anthology



For those familiar with my storyline, yes that is Ace and Plato from City of Cards and you can expect to see a lot more of those guys in the upcoming months as I work on my mini-thesis project.

Coming soon I'll catch people up on the Golden Age assignment we had here at school. It was two weeks I don't know if I'll ever fully recover from but in a very good way.