Chiaroscuro is in stores now!

Podcast and Career Day

First order of business: Podcast! Yes, I've been recorded and I'm now available (at your convenience) for download at www.comixology.com ! One of the perks behind written interviews is that they tend to edit many of the "ummm..." bits out of your conversation. Not so on a Podcast! So enjoy the smooth sound of my voice as I stammer through a half-assed synopsis of my graphic novel.

Next: Halloween is the big day! Chiaroscuro will be in stores on the 31st, Woo-hoo! I have my advance copies piled up next to me looking slick as all get out.

And then there's Career Day. Well, it was.... Interesting. I was asked to speak at my old High School to the students about my careers in animation and comics. There was 3 sessions of about 40 minutes each, between 20-40 students in each session.

I remember being in high school all to well. There's the little cliques; the metal heads, the cool alternative geeks, the smart asses and the disinterested. Snarky kids and some kids with a genuine interest, but with no teacher supervision in the room: just me. Yar. Not a lot of questions were asked, most kids seemed vaguely interested in computer animation and little else. I don't know that I was of any use at all in getting kids excited about pursuing the arts, but I tried. I would run out of things to say after 30 minutes and then with no questions, just sit back and watch the clock.

Except the last session. There was a kid who came in who clearly had social/mental issues. He spoke too loudly and with no inflection, interrupting everyone and becoming irrationally hostile towards me for no real reason. It was odd having to deal with this poor kid in a polite manner, as I said there were no teachers present. It was nearly impossible to speak to the rest of the kids while he shouted weird things at me with a big smile on. When the session was over he got up in my face with a fist raised yelling "You haven't seen the last of me, I'll have my revenge! Why don't you got to Hollywood, we don't want you here"! Really weird. I feel bad for the guy, it can't be easy getting through the day in such a manner.

It's also strange to find that all those lousy children's cartoons I worked on over the years are the stuff these kids grew up on. Ouch.

A trip down amnesia lane

Let it be known I never went to school for animation, I'm self taught. So that means ya gotta start somewhere, right? I started out by making this little film back in the days before Flash. It's hand drawn animation pieced together in Adobe Premiere and run through After Effects. The audio was poorly recorded in my friend Pat's basement on a lousy 4 track that could hardly pick up sound.

Now here it is online for a larf. I added the subtitles because of the lousy quality of the audio.

The cartoon was based on a comic strip I was drawing for the now defunct Capital City magazine in Ottawa.

There's another old animated short of mine hidden away somewhere on one of these old disks, but it makes this one look like Fantasia. Maybe someday when I'm feeling particularly horrible about myself I'll dig it out and post it... But then again, maybe not.

Shame on you Comic Shop Guy.

Newsarama has an interview with IDW President Ted Adams speaking about the upcoming movie "30 Days of Night" and the graphic novel that it's adapted from. About half way down the article he mentions Chiaroscuro and the lack of support comic shops have given it in pre orders (and they are pretty low folks).

Shame, shame on you.

To the brave few that did take a chance on my book, thank you.

Book Launch November 9th!

I have in my possession an advance copy of the hard cover edition! It looks awesome and has a good feel to it, very nice job! Your money will be well spent on this puppy. IDW has it listed on their web site as shipping October 31st, so it won't be long now! Hope to see you all at the book launch, I'm sure no one will have any trouble getting to P.E.I. for the big day.



Yippiee!!!

Hiccups and Diversions

I was on a blog posting roll for a bit there but then things went to crap and I haven't felt the desire to chat about it until now.

It started with the news that the Chiaroscuro book launch was going to be postponed due to issues with the printer in Korea and shipping times. I'm still trying to work that one out but it looks like it'll be bumped into early November.

Then my sister's dog Angel took a turn for the worse and she had to be put down. Angel was a big, beautiful dog and my sister's best friend. She was 14 years old, which is pretty good for a dog that size. I went with my sister and her husband to the vet and was there when they gave the injection; it was one of the saddest moments of my life. I've been much kinder to my own dog since then 'cause he's no spring chicken either.

Anyway, I decided I needed a break from drawing so I picked up Shadow of the Colossus for the PS2 and beat it in a few days. Fun game but a little frustrating at times. Carol's been eating up 3 seasons' worth of Grey's Anatomy on DVD, I think she's as frustrated with her own work as I am with mine.

I've been slowly gravitating back to the drawing table, so I think my funk is passing. I've been doing some teaching this week at a couple of high schools, talking about comics and such and helping with some class projects. I spent a lunch hour today doing sketches for some of the younger grade kids here in Kensington; a lot of Doodlez, a few Untalkative Bunnies and the odd Angora Napkin character.

That infernal bunny keeps cropping up in my life. Just last week I had an email request for an Untalkative Bunny pic for a birthday:

At least he's easy to draw.

Okay, back to work for me. I should have some good news to post in the next few days about the book launch and I'm expecting to see an advance copy of the book itself very soon!

Mmmmm.... Hamburers...

I've been laughing at this ever since my pal Pat showed it to me. You can find this little shop serving up yummy hamburers in Cavendish (Tourist Trap) Prince Edward Island during the On Season. It's the place with the large fiberglass Space Shuttle in the back, you can't miss it.

I spent a few years working in a sign shop so I know these signs do not come cheap, I wonder how this got put in place without anyone saying anything to the owner... Mind you, I once silk screened 500 double sided real estate signs and spelled "Reality" instead of "Realty". This is why it's a good idea to married your editor.

Carol's gone out with her pals and I just put the girls to bed. Time to do some drawing! I'll have at least 9 pages of Angora Napkin done this month instead of the usual 6. I was shooting for 10, but I'm not going to complain.

I've been listening to a bunch of audio commentaries from DVD's I own (or have rented recently) while I work. Tonight it's the 1983 classic Repo Man.