What a great series of games the Zelda franchise has been.  Skyward Sword is definitely one of the best so far, and my five-year-old daughter and I have played the heck out of it.  Currently, her favorite thing is to hunt down the Skulltula spiders in the game.  So I painted this the other night while she was playing.  She would stop every few minutes and check on my progress… making color suggestions, of course.  Then she would go find another spider, so I could have some reference to look at.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, but the important thing is that she likes it.

I got some great news recently… I have been selected to be an Artist-in-Residence for Glacier National Park this summer!  This means I will get to stay in a cabin on the shores of Lake McDonald in the park for the whole month of June.  I will be working with the Park to produce artwork for their Junior Ranger Program Booklet.  I think all of the children’s book illustration I’ve been doing helped me get selected for this.

This is a huge thrill for me, as I grew up in Kalispell (less than an hour from the Park) and have spent a lot of time there over the years.  It’s pretty much my favorite place on earth, and I’m honored that some of my artwork will be used by them.  In addition to that work, I’m expecting to have a lot of time to work on some comics and photography, as well as spending time with my parents and other family who live up there.

This summer just got pretty awesome…

This was definitely the biggest Planet Comicon ever, and one of the busiest.  For the first time, they opened up the entire room for the show, and there were more artists and media guests than ever before.  It was really hopping, especially on Saturday, and it was encouraging to see so many people interested in comics.

For some reason I had a ton of commission requests this time (including one of the most unique ever… the octopus one below).  The new “Mt. Rushmore of Evil” print was a pretty big hit.  As always, it was great to hang out with other artists (both new and established).  Seeing great work from others always me to create more and get more stuff done, and that was definitely the case this time.  I can’t recommend this show enough!

It’s that time of year again… time for Planet Comicon in Kansas City this weekend!  This is always a really great show that just gets better and better every year.  In fact, this year is going to definitely be the biggest one ever with tons of new guests.

We’ll be setup there, as usual, with comics, prints, and more for you to check out, and of course we’ll be doing commissions again.  Above you can see one new print I just finished for this year… the Mt. Rushmore of Evil!  This drawing was a request from my brother-in-law, and it was a heck of a lot of fun to work on.  I hope you dig it.

This really is one of the biggest and best comics events in the whole Midwest… and I hope to see some of you there! (Click the logo for details…)

Hey, here is another story from the last issue of Random Ink.  This one was written by Elton with art by Matt Meyers.  When you read it, it should be very obvious that both of them love working in the fantasy genre.

Hello! It’s… uh… been a while.  To say things have been been crazy around here would be an understatement.  The high school that I teach at was destroyed in the tornado, and we were relocated into new facilities for the next three years while we rebuild.  Starting over in a new building and teaching a new class (Digital Photography!) has been overwhelming.  It’s definitely been the busiest year since my first one.  I’ve also been doing a ton of artwork… just not comics.  I’ve taken on more freelance illustration work than ever the last few months, including my first ever children’s book.  I’m already working on the second book, and it looks like I’m going to end up doing four of them in a series.  I’ll post links to the first one once it is available online… ’til then I can’t show you any of the artwork.

Anyway… it feels like things have finally settled down, which means it’s time to get back to comics!  The one above was a one-page story featured in Random Ink #4.  It’s a goofy, true story from our college days.  It’s pretty rare that I do auto-biographical stuff, but I really like how this one turned out.  You’ll definitely see more of these eventually.

Stay tuned to this site, as it will be updated a few times a week from here on.  I’ve got several more comics ready to share with you and some more random artwork on the way.  Thanks for sticking around!

“I don’t believe in fairy tales or sermons or stories about money, baby sister. But thank you for the cigarette.”  -Rooster Cogburn

As I mentioned in our Planet Comicon recap, we were interviewed there by Charlito of the Indie Spinner Rack podcast (definitely one of the best shows out there for independent comics).  This isn’t the first time I’ve been on that podcast, as they had me on an episode way back in 2006.  It was great to actually talk shop with Charlito in person this time, though, as well as introduce him to Elton and Matt.  He seemed to enjoy the latest Random Ink quite a bit.

Anyway, they just posted the episode (#192) over on their site (and via iTunes), so feel free to download and enjoy!  Our part starts at about the 32:00 mark.  We had a blast joking around with Charlito, and I think that comes through in the interview. I hope we meet up again with him sometime!

We actually premiered this book during the last conventions, but we’re finally ready to make this issue available to our online readers, too.  We’re really proud of this issue and feel it’s our best one yet.  Eight stories packed in one full color comic! In this issue… Martians will fight Rovers! Caves will be spelunked! Squirrels will swarm! Furbies will die! Evil will not be easy! Giants will get the blues! Swords will fly! And hunters will be hunted!

You can check out the first story “Horde” already right here on the Random Ink site:

Stay tuned as we post the rest of the stories very soon!

Just a quick note… I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted.  As you can imagine, it’s been crazy around here since the tornado destroyed a quarter of our town on May 22.  For any of you wondering… Elton, Dusty, Matt, and I (and our families) are fine.  Dusty’s house has some significant damage to it, but other than that we were all very fortunate.  Matt was even working in the Wal-Mart that was destroyed as it was hit.  We’re glad to have him still with us! As you can see above, the high school I teach at was pretty much demolished.  Next school year is going to be interesting, to say the least.

It’s going to be a long, long road of recovery for our city, but the outpouring of support from people near and far has already been overwhelming.  If any of you happen to want to help out, we would direct you to Rebuild Joplin, a central hub for coordinating relief efforts here.

Thanks for the concern we have already heard from many of you!