This was a recent commission for a kid who wanted a watercolor & ink gnome. The client has a pretty dark sense of humor, so I thought I'd make the gnome to match.



There is a light blue background wash, but the scanner didn't pick it up.

Process:
Pencil and watercolor on bristol. Then some ink on top: Micron 05 for the outlines and Micron 02 for the crosshatching. 5.5" x 5.5"

Labels: Commission

Here's a snippet from an upcoming 4-page story I'm drawing for a friend's anthology. I'll have more details around Valentine's Day.

I couldn't wait to post this because I'm pretty sure this is the nerdiest comic character in the world: a Voltron-like robot made of famous buildings:

{click for larger image}


Enjoy!

Labels: Architecturons

Johnny Cavalier
Episode #7
"Joe Cocker II"
First published: November 6, 1998
Grinnell College's Scarlet & Black newspaper

Click thumbnail for larger version

Easter Eggs:

• Trains passed through the middle of campus several times a day, eerily quiet, and slow enough to easily jump on. But that's illegal, of course.
  
• More celebrities in panel 4: Fox and Dana from The X-Files. I wasn't a diehard fan of the show, but I do remember some plot line about alien corpses being transported on trains, which is where this panel came from. This panel is also informed by a show on FOX called Alien Autopsy, which I enjoyed immensely.
  
• My little brother was the perfect age to watch Thomas the Tank Engine, which meant that I soon became a fan as well. There was something sort of existential about those characters, being limited to their tracks and everything, but I won't go into that. For the longest time I thought that the show was called Thomas the Train Engine, and I remember being kind of upset when I discovered the truth (through an Altavista or Webcrawler search, no doubt -- this was pre-Google... a form of dark ages).
  
• The "Splurt" in panel 8 looks like it was informed by an R. Crumb cartoon.
  
• Joe Cocker's lengthy liability speech was inspired by a speech my uncle Dennis gave me when I told him over fall break that I wanted to hop a train in Grinnell.
  
• I wanted Johnny to move to the dorms, hence the ending. Maybe this reflected my own state of feeling more like a part of the student body than just someone peering in?
  

Next Friday: A New Hope

Labels: Johnny Cavalier

Johnny Cavalier
Episode #6
"Russell K."
First published: October 30, 1998
Grinnell College's "Scarlet & Black newspaper

Click thumbnail for larger version

Easter Eggs:

• Russell K. Osgood is the current president of Grinnell College, and he got his start when I did, back in the fall of 1998. Right off the bat he made an impression on students, for good (he was a vocal presence on campus, was happy to talk to students) and ill (cynics claimed he was trying to make the school more elite). As a cartoonist I was more interested in his ubiquitous red running shorts and uniquely shaped head.
  
• Grinnell has a lot of money in the bank. A LOT of money. She got her wealth in part due to the nimble investment fingers of Warren Buffett.
  
• Every single Grinnellian is concerned about their school's ranking in the US News and World Report magazine. Or at least they were ten years ago. Back then we were #11, but now we've slipped to something embarrassing like #16. It's because I'm not there!!
  
• This cartoon acts as an intermission between last week's "Joe Cocker" and next week's "Joe Cocker II" -- hence it's written as a TV commercial.
  
• This is the first and only JC I drew with a rapidograph pen. I thought I'd try to be cool like R. Crumb and use a rapidograph, but I was frustrated while drawing the cartoon and unhappy with the results. Looking back, I wish I had experimented more, and maybe tried a brush or a micron or something. But I stuck with that damn crow quill until the end. After I finished JC in 2002 I threw all my crow quill nibs away. Good riddance!
  
  
  

Next Friday: Joe Cocker II

Labels: Johnny Cavalier