I recently found this video of Doug TenNapel speaking at the Art Institute Inland Empire to a group of incoming freshmen art students. He covers a surprising amount of ground in this talk, including artists’ obligation to the truth, how to stay inspired, and his writing method. If you’re a fan of Doug’s (like me) or want to learn more about creating comics, you should definitely check it out!

Here you can see two random pages (minus dialogue) from the longest story in Random Ink #3, “First Impressions.”  It was written by Elton and me and drawn by Matt.  It picks up immediately where the Sir Knight story in Random Ink #1 left off.  He has been taken from the past to the future and given a mission in the present.  Unfortunately, his first experience in modern day is not a peaceful one.

Matt is really coming into his own with his art on this story, kicking it up a notch in both detail and action.  It’s been a blast to see his take on our characters!  I know you all are going to enjoy it.

Remember, we’ll be premiering this issue at both HurleyCon (in Joplin on March 6) and Planet Comicon (in Kansas City on March 27 & 28).

I finally finished a commission for another one of our Evil Ain’t Easy contest winners.  Daniel Pevar requested a portrait of one his favorite writers, Anna Akhmatova.  It’s was fun to do a realistic portrait… been a while.

Still cranking away at Random Ink #3… should have much more to show you very soon!

So, for quite a while now I’ve been wanting to share with you what we have in the works, but I wanted to wait until things were closer to completion. Well, we’re getting pretty close now, so here goes…

We’re gearing up for our usual two conventions (HurleyCon and Planet Comicon) in March, and preparing at least two new books for release then. Random Ink #3 is going to be coming out, featuring stories by all four of us. The preview image above shows some random panels from my main story in the book, “Useless Words.” It tells the story of a man who just found out that the moon is falling to the earth and has to deal with the panic of knowing the world is about to end. This was originally made for a comics anthology that was to feature stories all set in the same situation.  I’m glad it’s finally going to see print!

Also in the works is Sketchings #3, which is going to showcase quite a bit of Dusty’s artwork, as well as collaborations between him, Matt, and myself (creature jams, jam comics, and inking each other’s work).  I’m coloring the cover to that right now…

Duel #2 is also being worked on by Matt and me.  Look for preview pages of that (and more from Random Ink) right here real soon!

This came out of trying to challenge myself to create an entertaining one-page story.  I like the idea of stories with no panels, too.  Some people get confused on the dialogue order, which I’ll definitely keep in mind if I do something like this again.  These two were a blast to write!

(Some of you might remember seeing an earlier version of this page quite a while ago.  I went back and added some gray tones to it before posting it to Random Ink.)

This page will see print in the upcoming Random Ink #3 (more about that very soon)!

Over on the Random Ink site you’ll find another one-page jam comic by Matt and I.  We both thought it was fun to try a fantasy comic… I’m sure it won’t be the last one.

A couple of new sketches for ya… a random ancient kung fu master and yet another hobo from John Hodgman’s list of 700 hobo names.

A new one-page comic has been posted on the Random Ink site!  This one is a jam comic by Matt and myself.  We spent a lot more time on it than we do no most of our jam comics.  It’s always a blast to collaborate like this.

Stay tuned for another one next week!

Next is my version of Josh Alves’ Araknid Kid, which was won on the Twitter contest:

Another Twitter winner was Kevin J., who requested a portrait of himself:

Two more contest winners, both from the DeviantArt contest. First up is a commission I did for Jonathan Sanders of his character, the Crusterminator (which he created as a kid):

Next is one for Josh Alves of his villain, Ippy Cac:

Thanks for participating, guys!

Part two of that zombie series… I’m really happy with how the inking turned out on this one.  He looks somehow content as a zombie.