They told him, "don't you ever come around here!"

Here's that drawing of MJ I did, now that NMD is over.

Heal the world we live in/ save it for our children.

NATIONAL METAL DAY!!!

Hey everyone: Happy Veterans Day. I'm so glad that as far as I know, all of my friends who went on to serve in that horrible decade of turmoil called the '00s, that most--as far as I know, all--of my friends have returned. I couldn't possibly name all of them, but to Jesse, Josh and Raymond, if you're reading this, you're awesome and I'm glad to have you in my life.

Okay, but today being 11/11/11, it's also NATIONAL METAL DAY!!! Why? Because today goes to 11.

Ironically, I was drawing a picture of Michael Jackson, and I decided to glance over to my Facebook, to see one of my friends pointing this fact out and posting a video of Hatebreed. Not to be outdone, I posted a video of Black Sabbath, but then I realized, "hey genius! You haven't posted on your blog in a while," so I decided to do this sketch of Led Zeppelin.

I picked LZ because, well, I'm a fan of theirs (good reason) but also, they kind-of started the whole thing. I don't really think of them as strictly a "metal" band, as there are tons of songs of theirs that aren't metal at all, and even some of their heavier songs haven't aged as well as Sabbath's, so I think of them as more of a hard rock band who influenced metal.

That said, AT THE TIME, they'd certainly have been considered heavy metal for songs like, "Dazed And Confused," "Whole Lotta Love," "Immigrant Song," "Black Dog," "Kashmir" etc. but more importantly, songs that aren't so much "metal" or even "proto-metal"--"The Battle of Evermore," "Ramble On," "Going to California" "No Quarter" etc.--which are either acoustic or more like prog-rock--incorporated fantasy lyrics, which became an important part of the metal genre.

Still: all that proves is that Led Zep--like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones--covered a wide ground and are just as influential on groups like U2 or artists like Prince. The important thing isn't whether or not they'd still be considered "metal" today; the important thing is that they defined the genre in its infancy.

I decided, btw, to put the big, looming picture of John Bonham over the band since, well, he's dead; but also, it's so hard to create a decent composition of a band with the drummer in the back unless he's on a huge friggin' riser or something.

Hoo! Strange times...

My life is getting a little weird. I mean, just last night, a couple of my former bandmates said we should do a reunion gig Saturday night, but just hours ago, I was told there would NOT be a reunion at all because another band on the bill dropped out.

Hard to explain.

Anyway, I admit I've been kind-of going astray, but that's because there are so many projects I want to do, but it's hard to say where to begin. I did an editorial illustration for a corporate presentation, and here it is. This one, I did each part pretty much over night as far as the penciling went, then inked it the following night after seeing if any changes were mandated.

That was a fun gig. I really enjoyed it. I actually think I might go back and print it up and paint it on watercolor paper. Y'know, old school style (in fact, they still do that sometimes).

This assignment came at a time when I was really starting to worry about where things were going, so I'm so glad I got this assignment done in a timely manner and it came out as well as it did. I'd love more editorial gigs.

I did this sketch of the gorgeous Dina Meyer a few nights ago. I'll never forget when I was 14 and I saw her in Starship Troopers, which was a great movie anyway, but about 1/3 of the way in came the shower scene featuring naked people of both male and female persuasions. In she comes and she just throws off her shirt. I was in heaven until her character died at about the end of Act II. I cried. Okay, no I didn't, but her dying still sucked, especially since it seemed like she almost got the guy.

Flash forward several years: I noticed she was on Twitter, so I Tweeted her with it and she said, "Nice!"

I'm glad to be alive.

Okay... new content. FINALLY!!!

Okay, I know it's been a long time since I posted here and that's really shameful. I guess it was mainly because of SDCC and unfortunately, I had a death in the family, not to use that as an excuse.

Still: I have been keeping busy, so here are a couple of illustrations (one more-or-less colored, one still unedited linework) and I'm planning to turn this into a book.


Yup.

Moose Monday

Hey. Okay, a couple of things this month that are gonna be a little bit different. For starters, I'm going to stop calling these posts "Misc Mondays." Aside from Misc Mondays, I rarely post anything else. I no longer post my minicomic here (because I no longer DO my minicomic) and so, I thought I'd just have a blog where new posts just generally come out on Mondays.

Also, in addition to promoting my art, I'm going to promote my friends' gig. Ipswich, a band consisting of my former bandmates, will be playing the Moose Lodge in Newark, CA this month and I did a flyer for them.

Misc Mondays: Future Girl

About a month ago, I posted the underdrawing for this piece on my blog, and I may or may not have mentioned wanting to go back and ink it before I colored it. At first, I kind-of wanted to go in a less "comic book" direction and do a full-on digital painting, but it wasn't coming together. Here, however, is my piece and I hope you like it.

Misc Mondays

Here's a page from a children's book I illustrated for a fledgling author named Windy Mountain, whose website can be found at, http://abigailblue.net/

I had a lot of fun illustrating this book. As novelist and filmmaker Nicholas Meyer said, "art thrives on restrictions," and this is actually a great example as I initially had more of a yellow/orange background until she said she wanted more white, and when I changed it, I also changed the color of the sofa to blue just because I thought it looked better, and ultimately, I like the "new" color scheme I came up with much better than what I had.

Whatever the fate of the book, in terms of where it gets published and so-forth, I'm not posting the whole thing because, well, I want people to buy it.