I spent my elementary years in a French Immersion school.  Since any books you brought to class had to be en français, Tintin, Asterix, and other French comics were prized reading material.  I don’t have many fond memories of that school, but I do still love those comics.  They were a great early introduction to bande dessinée and the whole Franco-Belgian comics tradition.  Thinking back on it, I guess they were the first comics I ever read – it’s a bit odd to think of  a North American kid reading every book of Tintin before ever setting eyes on, say, a Spiderman comic.

So I was really happy to get the chance to do a piece for Toronto Draws Tintin, a fundraiser show put on by The Beguiling (the best comic shop in Canada!), which is timed to coincide with the English language release of The Adventures of Hergé graphic novel.  Also there’s the movie coming out soon, but I’m not so excited about that.  

My painting is an homage to the cover of Le Lotus Bleu.  Nothing could improve on Hergé’s original, but I put my own spin on it, highly influenced by my trip to China last year.  The pattern on the vase is inspired by a teapot I bought for my mom while I was there! 

Toronto Draws Tintin opens on Nov.2 at the Steamwhistle Brewery and runs until the 27th, during which the pieces will be sold by silent auction.  There are some really incredible comic artists participating, so if you’re in Toronto be sure to check it out!         

This is a concept painting for my graphic novel – more coming soon!

Pomegranate, anyone?

Greyhounds are my favorite kind of dog. I want to adopt one so much, but I just don’t think owning a dog works with all the traveling I do. So I’ll just keep drawing them instead.

Well, I have to face it, this isn’t going to get finished tonight, and I’m exhausted. I guess I fail at 24 hour comic day, but it was a productive experience anyway – I now have at least half of a really nice little comic, and I’ll be finishing it up later this week. It was also really fun! So please check back and see the completed Ghost Migration soon!  Until then…

Well, we’re 15 hours in now. I have a good number of pages finished, but I’ve come to the realization that I picked way too complex a style for this kind of time frame. I’m really happy with the work so far, but there’s no way I’ll be able to execute 24 pages at this level by the cut-off time. I’ll keep going until I fall asleep though!

At it for 10 hours now – not really done pencilling, but I started inking some pages to shift gears a bit.

Woo, 7 hours in!  The thumbnails are done and I’m starting on pencils – here you can see what the page looks like from rough sketch to ready-to-ink.  The story is called “Ghost Migration” – it’s about a girl who’s town is infested with ghosts, so she has to lead them away, through the forest, and into the sea (where ghosts come from, naturally).

2.5 Hours in! I’ve got my concept sketches done and I’m working on my thumbnails. 24 pages is really a lot – I’m wondering if I can possibly get it done in time… Well, it’ll be interesting to try anyway!

24 Hour Comics day is today!  The challenge: create a complete 24 page comic, from script to finished product, in 24 consecutive hours.  Foolhardy insomniacs all over the world are participating, at events hosted by comic shops, or alone in their own studios.

It’s 1:00 on saturday afternoon.  We have an empty studio space, paper, pens, coffee and food and we will be working until 12:30 tomorrow afternoon.  I’m getting tired just thinking about it, but here we go….