David Petersen's Blog

2009-12-01T15:17:00.009-05:00

Free Comic Book Day 2010:
Archaia will be releasing a Free Comic Book day 'flip' book that features a new Mouse Guard story from me and a Fraggle Rock story and cover on the other side. Here is my cover for the Mouse Guard side of the issue. The white box is for comic retailers to stamp or label their logo/address in hopes to attract new readership to comics to their store. The story I'm doing will be 10 pages and will take place in Spring 1153 (as an homage to everyone who asks when 'Spring' is coming in the book series)

Watercolor paintings c.2004:
While I love watercolor as a medium, I always struggled with feeling like my watercolors were good enough to stand alone without ink line to help. So around 2002/2003 I started playing with the idea of painting loose and then going back over with pen to isolate shapes that were variations of color or stroke or form.

It got me going on a kick of painting superheroes & comic book characters. I was using paper that I had purchased and cut for our wedding invitations that was left over. In fact, some of these (all of them have sold or be given away long ago) may have the hand stamped image of leaves intertwining from our wedding on the back of them. The trick, I found, was to have a painting that was loose enough to need the linework, but strong enough that the forms were still all there without line.
(R-L: Rorschach, Spider-Man, & Dr. Doom)

The balance between the watercolor and line wasn't always what I wanted. Sometimes I felt I would overuse the line, while other times I felt I had overpainted the painting. I found that using negative space and strong lighting composition helped to not make the paintings turn into 'stained glass mud'. I would tend to work on multiple pieces at one time so that as one was drying I could be working actively on the next, and then back to the dry one, etc. This was at a time before I had started working on Mouse Guard as a comic series. I thought that these types of paintings would be good examples of my work that may generate commissions as well as be saleable items.
(T-B: The Flash, Han & Chewie, & Grifter)

These paintings received a positive reception by other artists who were posting on the hellboy.com forum. And being a Hellboy fan, I couldn't help but paint Mignola's characters this way. The forum artists also organized a holiday gift exchange of Hellboy themed pieces of art. I did several more of these style pieces in a larger format for the exchange. There was also a fan-posted anthology comic where Maija Graham wrote and I Illustrated a Screw-On-Head story in this method
(Top Row L-R: Liz, Johann, Hellboy, Abe, & the Baba Yaga)
(Bottom Row L-R: the Fairy folk, Roger, Rasputin, Lobster Johnson, & Screw-On-Head)

As Mouse Guard started coming out, I thought it would be foolish to drop the paintings from my convention display. So every con, I was painting a series of characters that all went together. The first of which was the Arkham Asylum lineup. I sold limited prints in little manila envelopes (printed with stencil lettering "Arkham Files" and printed coffee-ring stains) to help my table sales for those unfamiliar or uninterested in Mouse Guard.
(L-R: Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, the Penguin, Two-Face, the Joker, the Riddler, Catwoman, & the Scarecrow)

The last set of these I did was a grouping of Jedi. Mouse guard was strong enough on it's own and not having a relationship with the companies and publishers who owned copyright on the characters I felt I was pushing my luck. I picked 6 species (Twi'leck, Mon Calamari, Human, Rodian, Ithorian, & Wookiee) set them on different locations (Coruscant, Naboo, Kamino, Tatooine, Hoth, & Kashyyyk) and gave them all lightsabers.
This set I was happier with the original watercolors than usual, so I scanned the un-inked versions in case I preferred them. Here you can see the whole set in original and final states.

Fan Art:
Bo Harris gave this color pencil and ink drawing to me at the Windy City Con last Sept. I like how alone and unfettered to civilization this mouse is. He looks pretty self-sufficient. Thanks Bo!
And if you have Mouse Guard fan art you want to share, email me through the mouseguard.net contact info to send me your work.

Upcoming Appearances:*
Live reading: Holiday Walk at Flint Public Library: Dec. 8 (6:30 & 7:30pm)
----2010----
Alaska Library Confrence: March 4-7
CGS Supershow: March 27-28
C2E2 (Archaia Booth): April 16-18
Motor City Con: May 14-16
San Diego (Artist Alley): July 22-25
Baltimore Comic Con: August 28-29
*more 2010 dates may be added

2009-11-24T17:50:00.008-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving:
For us here in the States, Thanksgiving is this week. I have a great deal to be thankful for, chief among them my Wife, family, & friends. However, I wouldn't have the success I do without you folks out there who are fans of my work, so Thank You. I mean it. I have a career because people enjoy my work and I don't ever want to take that for granted.

Process:
Since Sean Wang's Runners: The Big Snow Job just wrapped it's first issue over at runnersunivers.com, I thought I'd show the process on how I did the pinup piece for him (an exchange for the pinup he did for Mouse Guard Winter #5). I started with my sketchbook and the section from the first Runners Arc I wanted to tackle (the old crew's hijinks...see inset panel). At this point I'm doing some rough layout ideas, but also getting a feel for the characters and their poses.

After scanning the sketches I can manipulate them separately and tone them to make it easier to keep track of what lines belong to whom. The ships they are riding were based in part on an iPod recharger. I only sketched one half of it, but was able to just mirror it in photoshop. At this stage I can also fix anatomy errors, like heads being to small or needing to be tilted. This composite technique allows me to get a final layout without having to do much (if any) redrawing.

I printed out the composite and used a lightbox to ink straight onto the bristol using my printout as a guide. As I mentioned in a previous post on lightbox use, I tend not to re-pencil, but to ink directly off my roughs. This helps keep the paper clean of pencil, and cuts out a step where I may tighten up and lose some life from my sketch. Inking is where a lot of the look of the final artwork comes into play. I focus on textures and line weights to make sure the forms are readable and that fabric is moving like fabric, fur like fur, etc.

Then after scanning it, I work with 'flatting' the colors in. This means picking rough colors and assigning where they go (where a shirt ends and an arm begins for example). Then I started adding the shading and painterly touches and light effects. Lastly I wasn't thrilled about how the palette turned out when I used the 'real' colors and since the 'old crew' were shown via flashbacks in the first Runners arc, I opted to go with a toned/muted palette for the final art.

Muppet King Arthur #1:
Due to art not being ready on time, Many fans may have seen my Muppet #1 cover solicited in Diamond on various sites online as the #2 issue cover. To my knowledge this cover will be printed on issue #1 (I'm now working on #2 so it can be in on time for it's printing). With Arthur's symbol being a dragon, I opted for Uncle Deadly to be the masthead of his boat and a small bearded dragon to be the design on his shoulder armor. Dave Alvarez (artist on the series) went with a La Choy Dragon homage for his cover.

Fan Art:
Should have posted this for Halloween, but better late than never. Fans of the book brought their baby dressed in a Mouse Guard costume to the Windy city con back in September. Pretty adorable!
and remember, if you have Mouse guard fan art you want to share, email me through the mouseguard.net contact info to send me your work.

*more 2010 dates may be added

2009-11-17T17:33:00.008-05:00

Square Format:
When Mouse Guard first came out, one of the things people noticed about it right away was it's odd format. There were folks who loved it for being different, and folks who hated it because it was hard to store or display. And while it was an unusual decision on my part (and Archaia's willingness to publish it that way) it seems that the square format is becoming more popular with titles like Dear Dracula, Stuff of Legend, & the upcoming Archaia Fraggle Rock comic.

There have been unusual format books before Mouse Guard, so be sure I'm staking no claim on the idea. Though I had never seen another square comic until I started Mouse Guard...or so I thought...

As a kid I had a Muppet comic called Muppets at Sea. It was lost at some point and a few years ago I remembered it and tracked it down on ebay...only to find that it was an 8" x 8" square comic! The panel borders even tend to be divided on the 1/3 page lines. I have no clue if the residual memory of this book (I didn't own a copy when I started Mouse Guard and hadn't seen mine in a decade) influenced my format or not, but it was fun to see the commonality.

My path to square started with the idea of mini comics (comics made by folding standard copy paper in half). To stand out, I had the idea of using legal sized copy paper (8.5" x 14") instead of the traditional letter sized paper (8.5" x 11"). This would give me something different without increasing my costs like colored paper stock or color printing would. The resulting mini comic had a heavier horizontal weight and I liked that. And though I never ended up printing a mini comic, the few sketches of panel layouts I did helped me see my horizontal bias.

Because a traditional comic page is vertical, it forces the artist to draw panels that either tend to be more vertical, or horizontal panels that are not very tall (the taller you make them, the less horizontal they feel). I like panels that feel like a David Lean movie, epic, vast, sweeping, with room to breathe. And I find that horizontal panels on square pages give me that sense more than on traditional pages. Here I have taken two pages and compared panoramic panels. The square format feels easier to read and doesn't get lost on the page. (and though the last panel on the traditional page is similar in size to the horizontal panel on the square page, I argue that it doesn't 'feel' like a panoramic panel in that format)

As I mentioned with the Muppets at Sea comic, I tend to break the panels on the 1/3 lines (or the 9 panel grid). There have only been a handful of times that I have strayed from those grid lines. I find comfort in having a set grouping of panel arrangements to work in, but still a great deal of freedom because with mirroring or rotating those panel arrangements, I have lots, and lots, and lots of options (shown here are still not every combination of readable layouts).
I'll tend to pick a moment in the page that I feel is most important, and then pick a panel shape that fits that image. I can use this sheet to help me figure out how the remaining panels could fit (if they don't I start refiguring until I get a layout that works)

Last year the folks at Strathmore Paper approached me to do illustrations for and to promote their new line of sequential paper line (with Katie Cook and Tommy Castillo). I was already using Strathmore at the time, so I was excited about the idea. While I had them there, I asked for a quote on having them cut and bind custom pads for me at 12" x 12" of their 300 series bristol. I had been buying 14" x 17" and trimming each sheet down. They offered to make it part of their new line of products for comic artists. I explained that it isn't a standard size for comic artists and doesn't really belong there, they smiled and included it anyhow. Guess they were on to something.

2009-11-13T15:40:00.008-05:00

Home from Ireland and London!
I apologize that I'm typing this up so late in the week. I had been trying to post on Tues. each week, but after two weeks away and flying over an ocean to get home, there was no way I was going to be able to type anything of substance. The trip was wonderful. Julia and I had a lovely time staying with relatives and exploring Northern Ireland and London. It was a great way to celebrate our anniversary and her birthday.

I have a wonderful batch of photos that I will reference for architecture, carved details, tile work, stained glass, library design, etc for future Mouse Guard stories. Julia also took a great many photos with her camera (an SLR that I'm only allowed to play with if I ask). She has been spending the day processing those photos so she can upload and share them with family. A few ideas came out of our travels for the project I plan on when I need a break from Mouse Guard (not anytime soon) called Fir Darrig, which is set in Irish folklore.

We took a small trip to London for a few days as well which allowed me to do a signing at Forbidden Planet. The folks there were amazing and I really appreciate the warm and polite welcome from my UK fans. The owners of Forbidden Planet are also the owners of Titan Books, who publish the UK editions of Mouse Guard. It was a great opportunity to talk to them and be able to chat about the book's performance as well as looking forward to future UK versions of upcoming Mouse Guard books.

With two weeks over there, we had a lot of places to see and talk about, but among them some of the highlights are the Trinity College's long room, the Book of Kells, Giant's Causeway, Newgrange, Christ's Church in Dublin, Fairy Glen in Rostrevor, and damn near all of London.

I have uploaded photos from the trip to my Flickr page: here

Special thanks to Darcy & Eoin McCartan, Mat Allen, and the folks at Forbidden Planet in London for making sure we had such a good time!

2009-11-03T12:00:00.000-05:00

Due to being in Ireland, this week is a continuation of the list from last week of artists whose work I collect:

Joao Lemos:
I found out about Joao's work when Marvel's Avengers Fairy Tales #1 came out. I met Joao in New York two years ago when he was visiting from Portugal. He showed me a journal he had kept for a year in preparation for the Peter Pan story in AFT#1. It was amazing, he had stage plans from the original Peter Pan production, he had drawn characters and settings that were not in the script, just so he got a sense of all of this version of Neverland. I loved Joao's interpretations of the other Avengers as Lost Boys, so I asked him to do this commission for me. You can check out Joao's blog here: http://sete-estrelo.blogspot.com/

Guy Davis:
I had been following the first few issues of BPRD when I first met Guy. He won an ebay auction on a sculpture I made and let me drop it off to him personally. Guy is one of the kindest people in comics you can meet (He also named Conrad in Mouse Guard). No one can out-do Guy for horrifying creatures either. I have several pieces from Guy, but wanted to share this page from Nevermen that featured an octopus-headed villain I really liked named Honshu. You can find Guy's site here: http://www.guydavisartworks.com/

Craig Rousseau:
Craig's work I discovered through the Hellboy.com forum years ago. Craig is known for his artwork on the Perhapanauts as well as his great Canson paper commissions (which I am in line for currently). A few years ago Craig and I were at the Marriot lounge at San Diego and I noticed he was just sitting there while other of us were catching up on show commissions etc. I handed him some scrap bristol and he sketched and inked this Choopie for me. You can check out more of Craig's work here: http://www.craigrousseau.com/

Alex Sheikman:
Alex's book Robotika was part of the 'first class' of books brought into Archaia. Naturally we met at one of those early Archaia booths, and Alex and I hit it off instantly. One of the things I admire the most about Alex is his constant desire to improve every part of his work. He examines others work and dissects it and then dissects his own looking to make the next story, page, panel better than the last. Alex and I did a page trade for this one. His inks are so tight and precise. I liked this page because it had some of everything: action, setting, close-ups, the works! You can follow Alex's blog here: http://sheikman.blogspot.com/

Rebecca Guay:
I knew of Rebecca's work through her Magic Cards (I played frequently back in the late 90's). At my first San Diego Comic Con I saw her pages for sale (grossly under priced) at her booth, but I had run out of money. The next year, with Julia there, we found Rebecca's table and the pages I had admired before were still available. We couldn't pick between two (the stained glass in the one on the left and the cottages on the one on the right), so we got them both. You can find Rebecca's site here: http://www.rebeccaguay.com/

Sean Wang:
After reading Sean Wang's Runners book I e-mailed him telling him how much I liked it. Sean has a real mind for detail, not just detailed linework, but detailed designs and worlds. He take great care in designing his fictional sci-fi world. Everything from clothing to customs, to ships, guns, and furniture are carefully crafted to be believable. Sean did this sketch of Grissom, one of my favorite alien designs he's done, while we were both an the New York Comic Con a few years back. You can follow Sean's current Runners series twice a week at: http://runnersuniverse.com/

Mark Smylie:
Mark's book Artesia is fully painted epic fantasy. I admired Mark's work even before he became my publisher back in '06. I had my eye on a few pages from Artesia Afire featuring some cool ghosts. It took a while for me to get over those pages being sold before I saw this page (also from Afire) that I really liked better. While Mark is known for his huge military-style armored warfare scenes (as well as Artesia's adult scenes) this page offered a nice slice of life that I think shows Mark is a skilled world-builder. You can find out more about Artesia here: http://www.artesiaonline.com/

Jason Shawn Alexander:
The first original artwork I ever purchased was from Jason. It was my first San Diego Comic Con. I had gone with Jeremy Bastian, met a lot of great people in person, and showed Mouse Guard to Archaia. I ended the trip on Sunday by getting this page. I didn't know anything about Jason but that he was rumored to be working on an Abe Sapien mini-series. The third panel on this one is what sold me. You can check out Jason's blog here: http://bloodandwhisky.blogspot.com/

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Back next week with a 'fresh' (aka not pre-typed) post

2009-10-27T12:00:00.002-04:00

While I'm away, this week & next week's posts will be about Artists I collect the work of. I want to share these artist's amazing stuff and ways to find them.

Jeremy Bastian:
Not only one of the most talented people I know, he's also a good friend to boot. Jeremy's work is amazingly detailed and creative. He does all his inking with a brush, which a lot of folks do, but not with Jeremy's 19th century engraver's-line sense. This piece was a gift because Jeremy knew how much I admired this character's design. You can find more of Jeremy's work at http://www.jeremybastian.com/

Mike Mignola:
Since 1993 when I saw the Wizard cover announcing Dark Horse's new Legend imprint, I have loved Mike's work. Hellboy has been one of my favorite comics ever, and I think Mike is a genius at panel by panel storytelling. I bought this piece from him in Chicago, which was my first big con to attend..it's also where I first met Mark Smylie). It took almost all my convention spending money to get this piece, but I really wanted it and Mike was pretty much the only guest I had come to see. http://www.hellboy.com/

Eric Canete:
I found Eric's work via his old blog (he has since overhauled it and started fresh) and was really amazed with how dynamic his compositions are. I love the energy and complexity he puts into each piece he does. Last year Eric did an Iron Man series for Marvel called 'Enter the Manderin' which just goes to prove he can do more than single images, he's a great storyteller as well. Just last week at the Big Apple Con, I browsed his original work and had to buy this Robotech/Macross piece. You can find Eric's blog here: http://kahnehteh.blogspot.com/

Evan 'Doc' Shaner:
Evan and I met through cartoonist Jay Fosgitt. Evan's work is more than just a 'throwback' to Toth lovers, he is really doing something original that it's hard to quantify. It's familiar and different at the same time. Evan's mugshot lineups are one of the staples of his commission list, so I recently asked for him to do a lineup of my favorite X-men team, the All-New/All different Giant Sized team. I also love that Evan is hand coloring these with guache. You can catch up with Evan's blog here: http://www.evanshaner.com/

Katie Cook:
Katie often gets labeled as a 'cute' artist, and while she knows how to work the cute angle, I think she is also equally witty and genuine. Though Katie does full sized commissions and comic pages, she is becoming more well known for her mini-paintings. They can range from comic characters to food mascots, to harry potter teachers, to cult movie creatures for subject matter. Katie seems to have no end to her familiarity with all things geeky. This mini-painting she did for Julia and I on our 5th wedding anniversary. You can follow Katie's blog here: http://katiecandraw.typepad.com/

Nate Pride:
Nate's artistic talent hasn't been as widely seen as it should due to his years placing balloons and aligning text. But, it's clear to me that his real place is as a pencil and ink guy. Nate's linework is something that I envy. He can throw down a perfect contour line to describe someone's arm or leg in a single stroke, or make hundreds of little hatches and tics that make a surface look moldy or weathered. This piece is one I bought from him a few years back at the Motor City Con. Nate can come up with these great characters that seem for all the world like they have a backstory and life to them. You can check out Nate's work here: http://www.natepride.com/

Jay Fosgitt:
Jay and I met through e-mail and then later in-person after he and his wife moved to my neck of the woods in Michigan. Jay's sense of humor is one of the things I like best about his work. On top of having beautifully clean smooth inks, he knows how to poke fun. Jay and I are both big Jim Henson fans. To return a favor, he offered to draw me my favorite Henson-based character..I told him it was a toss up between Gonzo and a Skeksis. He was awesome enough to do them both and throw a gag in for good measure. You can follow Jay's blog here: http://jayfosgitt.blogspot.com/

Duncan Fegredo:
Like many fans of Hellboy, I was nervous about a Hellboy book not drawn by Mignola. I didn't have the problem with BPRD and Guy because it was always intended to be a spin-off book. So when Darkness Calls hit shelves with Duncan's artwork I was very pleased to see what he had done. His next Hellboy arc: The Wild Hunt, is even better and I had to get some of his work to own. The cool thing about buying Duncan's work is that he pencils, scans the pencils and prints them out in blue-line on heavy bristol and inks the blue-line. So when you get a page from him, you get both the pencils and the inks are separate pieces. You can check out Duncan's site here: http://www.fatotto.nildram.co.uk/Site/index.html

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next week 8 more awesome artists, originals, and links

2009-10-20T19:45:00.012-04:00

This week's post is a bit of a hodgepodge. After doing 5 shows in the last 7 weeks, I only have unrelated bits & bobs to share

Recent Commissions:

Here are six commissions I have done at cons (or taken home from cons) from the recent past. All are 7" x 7" ink on bristol.

top row L-R: Obi-Wan Mouse, Celanawe, Watchmen/Minutemen mice.

bottom row L-R: Lieam & Crab, Arkham lineup, a mouse herald

New York Highlights:

While in New York for the Big Apple Con I had two major highlights.

1) Tour of 30 Rock studios.

Scott Adsit who plays Pete Hornberger on the show is a comics fan. We met at Heroes this year and I did a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen piece for him (which I don't have a scan of unfortunately) He, in turn, invited Julia and I to visit the set while they were shooting. We met Tina and Alec, and watched them all film a scene with Scott. Later we sat in on a table read where the entire cast was there. It was great! Thanks Scott! I owe you another LoEG piece!

(Photo: me sitting in Liz's chair in her office on-set)

2) Meeting Carol Cleveland

I'm a big Monty Python fan. Holy Grail ends up on my top 5 movies list fairly consistently. And at the Big Apple Con I was able to meet Carol "the female python". I always appreciated that besides her fitting the bill and looking sexy and cute in their skits, she completely got the sense of humor and had great comedic timing. She signed a "Zoot" photo for me and took time out to talk to me all three days of the con. I love that in this photo we took together, Carol still looks like herself (and not a victim of vain plastic surgery) and I still have the look on my face from when I was 11 and giggled all the way through the Castle Anthrax scene in Holy Grail)

The Old Guard:

While searching through old sketchbooks, portfolios, and file cabinets I found a bunch of Mouse Guard work from '02/'03. This would have been about one to two years before starting on 'Belly of the Beast', but I think shows a very close connection to the art from that first issue.

Saxon, Kenzie, & Abe: In this incarnation Saxon had studded armor but his trademark ear-notch and longsword were there from the start. Kenzie had a long tunic and coat-style cloak. My goal for his longer and more coarse fur is evident near his cheeks. Abagail was 'Abe' at this point. Healers had hoods as a trademark in my mind, but male or female, I knew this character was up to no good.

Sadie, Quiggly, & Lieam: You can see Sadie's dagger was part of her early history as was Quiggly's hat and squinty gaze. Lieam's cloak was more like a coat here and the 'triangle sword' looked more like a traditional short sword. This drawing of Lieam I did at a family function and I remember after all the stippling thinking 'I could keep up this style of work forever'

Aubrey, Gwendolyn, & Rand: Aubrey has only been seen in a few panels of the comics so far, but it looks like I borrowed her skirt and belt design for the current incarnation of Gwendolyn's costume. Gwendolyn always had a polearm as a weapon. Rand's shield design started as something based on crusade shields, but has now taken on new meaning I will explore in later series .

Celanawe & Midnight: My goal for Celanawe was to show him as an amazing old grizzled mentor who can still hold his own, but has a backstory where he was even more impressive in his prime. I think this may be the first drawings of Celanawe. Midnight was a good character at this point. He had a backstory made up by a pal of mine where he was a former circus performer turned swords-mouse. I kept the name and look, but changed most else about him.

Fan Art:

At Dragon Con I had my first experience with Mouse Guard costumes aka Cosplay. The female trio reminded me of the drawing Nate Pride did for me a while back of a more booth-babe geared Mouse Guard. Thanks ladies for your dedication!!

Ireland:

For the next two weeks, I'll be in Ireland and will be unable to type up new blogposts. The trip is to relax and celebrate Julia's Birthday and our Anniversary. I also plan on using the time to do a bit of research for later Mouse guard stories. So, as I have done in the past, I'll pre-type some posts for Blogger to auto-update for me. The subject matter will be Artists whose work I collect.

2009-10-13T17:52:00.007-04:00

Legends of the Guard:
Mouse Guard will have an anthology spin-off mini-series starting next year called Legends of the Guard. The handpicked creators will be getting to tell their own stories in the Mouse Guard world. The list of creators on-board so far is very hush-hush, but a few names that I can mention are Jeremy Bastian, Nate Pride, and Mark Smylie. You can read a little more about it on CBR.

Design tips:
When I was in high school and my friends and I wanted to design characters (or perhaps even redesign our characters costume) we would use a sheet of photocopied 'blank' superheroes. This way we could just draw costume ideas or try colors without having to redraw the human form over and over and over.

When it came time to design Mouse Guard clothing, I used the same technique. I drew two 'blank' mice and copied them so I had a full sheet worth. And just like with my high school heroes, I can sketch out ideas, even crazy ones, without having to redraw the model. I find this very freeing to my designs. Not only do I save time, but I'm more likely to try unlikely ideas because of the lack of risk in screwing up the drawing underneath. Here you can see some of the designs that ended up going into the Winter extras and epilogue.

TMNT:
As a long-time turtles fan, I was really happy to pick up and read the collected volume that was just released this summer. And I found out that someone I owed a favor to, was also a TMNT fan, specifically of Raph. So I took the opportunity to do a drawing for him. After I colored it and mailed him the original inks and a color print, I thought it would be fun to play with photoshop to replicate the look of the old B&W style tones that were used in the original series. Here are the results.

Hellboy:
As long as we are on the subject of gifts and fan art. I wanted to share this piece I did as a gift for Mike Mignola. I love Hellboy and was really taken with the twist the latest 'Wild Hunt' storyline has taken. After reading Issue #6 I was forcing Julia to read the issue and study the panels and impact of what Mike and Duncan had done. I was planning on doing a drawing for Mike that I owed him for a favor, but the recent issues cinched what the subject would be. Julia and I want to express thanks to Mike and Christine and Katie for their kindness.

Fan Art:
Christopher Rice dropped this off at the Archaia booth at the Long Beach show while I was away from the table. It's funny because I saw him working on it in the Archaia panel at that show. Sorry I missed meeting you Christopher, and than you for the artwork!

Upcoming Appearances:
Big Apple Con Oct. 16-18
Forbidden Planet London signing: Nov. 7
Live Reading at the Flint Public Library Dec. 8 (6:30 & 7:30pm)
(2010 dates coming shortly)

2009-10-07T17:22:00.010-04:00

Winter 1152 in Previews!

The Black and White ed. of Winter is in the Oct. Previews! Winter has received the same treatment as Fall 1152: 12" x 12" Printed pages (same size as the original artwork), cloth cover, velum overlay pages, and slipcase. The fans asked for it and Archaia delivered. As mentioned before, the price has gone up, but only due to the hand-tipped-in vellum sheet count tripling from Fall's (from about 20 to about 60!). So if you would like one, have your local retailer to use order code: OCT09 0693.

Ink & Stein:

For the next few months, Ink & Stein will not be on the last Saturday of the month. Because it interferes with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, we have bumped it a week before it normally would be (Oct. 24, Nov. 21, & Dec. 19). If you are an artist or writer in the South Eastern Michigan area and would like to join us, feel free to do so on all or any of the upcoming dates. We meet at 7pm at the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti, MI

More Layout Tricks:

I'm happy everyone is enjoying the step-by-steps and behind-the-scenes posts I have been making about the process of making Mouse Guard. This week, I'm showing a model I made to help me keep track of mouse placement. For the funeral pyre scene in issue #6, I knew I wanted more than just the key characters present. And to keep track of all those mice, I'd need a layout key.

I used paper plates to rough in the balcony shape. Then I took soldier pieces from my RISK set to represent my characters. I used key colors for key players (though I was limited to the Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Black, and Grey that RISK comes with) and filled in the rest with grey. I toyed with the placement of each of them, knowing who needed to be close to each other for the dialogue.

Once I liked the placement, I drew circles around each piece's base and labeled what character was there. I took photos from several angles. This way I should be covered, but if not, I can recreate the scene using my guide photo. I really like the simplicity of some of these types of models. It didn't take any more than 20 minutes to set-up, and saved me far more than 20 minutes down the road of drawing and coloring.

Fan Art:

This piece was given to me at Windy City, I believe. Unfortunately, I don't know the artist's name other than it's signed 'Gabo'. I apologize, to the fans and the artist. I'm so swamped at conventions and being pulled in every direction, that I don't remember people's faces or names more often than I'd like to admit. If you are the artist in question, let me know and I'll credit you appropriately.

Upcoming Appearances:
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct. 10-11
Big Apple Con Oct. 16-18
Forbidden Planet London signing: Nov. 7
Live Reading at the Flint Public Library Dec. 8 (6:30 & 7:30pm)

(2010 dates coming shortly)

2009-09-29T01:27:00.012-04:00

Long Beach Comic Con & More:
I'll be 'touring' Southern California part of this week and next. In addition to the Long Beach Comic con (Golden Apple #555 & Archaia booth #265) Where I'll be signing an exclusive poster, I'll also be doing several store signings and appearances. Here is the quick run-down:

Wednesday, September 30, 4-7 p.m.
signing at Comickaze Comics Books and More
San Diego, CA

Thursday, October 1, 7-9 p.m.
signing at Secret Headquarters
Los Angeles, CA

Friday, October 2nd, 8:30 p.m.
Live Art and Music Party, Co-Sponsored by Atomic Apple, ComicVine.com and Archaia
Room #204
Long Beach Comic Con at the Long Beach Convention Center

more details about the events can be found here

Overlay Drawings:
As promised, I wanted to show a technique I use when I'm struggling with a complex scene or layout. I find it useful to draw parts of the scene and then place them on the lightbox to work on another portion. For example, I can draw this background inside Lockhaven and then on a different sheet of paper, be drawing the hares. This way if I don't like the hares, I can erase or start over without worrying about ruining my background drawing.

In this example, I was also having to fit in lots of mouse characters. So I used yet another sheet of paper for that. Again, this way I can draw and erase the mice until I get what I like without ever altering or disturbing the hares or background. Once this step is done, I can scan the sheets in and composite them in photoshop. Here I color coded some of the characters he help me remember which mice they were as I inked & colored them on the final art.

Another example of when I'll use this is when the perspective can be tricky and I want to really get the background just right. I can draw all sorts of perspective lines and construction lines as I build up the setting. I then use another sheet to add the characters in using the background perspective as a guide for their scale and foreshortening. Scanning the sheets separately again (but using little 'X' calibration marks in the corners to realign them) I can also tint the background to help me see and focus on the characters more.

Ultimately, the photoshop composited images, which are cropped and sized for the final page layout, is printed and lightboxed onto the final bristol page.

Fan Art:
Patty Barden writes: "Last year, on November 1, my son and his sweetheart's wedding featured a Mouse Guard wedding cake--see attached. True fans. . . "
Awesome Patty! And Congrats to the happy couple!
(no mention as to who made the cake)

Upcoming Appearances:
Comickaze Comics signing: Sept. 30 (4-7pm)
Secret Headquarters signing: Oct. 1 (7-9pm)
Long Beach Comic Con: Oct. 2-4
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct. 10-11
Big Apple Con Oct. 16-18
Forbidden Planet London signing: Nov. 7
Live Reading at the Flint Public Library Dec. 8 (6:30 & 7:30pm)

2009-09-22T22:23:00.007-04:00

Weekly Blogging:
If you haven't noticed, I'm trying to update the blog more often than I have in the past. I was posting at a 1 per month rate before, but decided to up it to 1 per week. I'm certainly no James Gurney, and can't imagine doing a daily blog, but the weekly schedule seems do-able.

Detroit Comics Book Club:
This Friday (Sept. 25th) I'll be a guest at Detroit Comics in Ferndale, MI as they discuss Mouse Guard Fall and Winter 1152 from 7PM to 9PM. The plan is to have a real conversation about the books and story and the creation of the artwork and not to wander off into various other topics. I'm excited to talk about character motivations, places I feel the book fell short, or how little story threads tie together. With that in mind, I won't be doing any drawings or sketches at this appearance, I want to focus on the book club conversation.

September Ypsi Ink & Stein:
It's that time again, the last Saturday of the month! For those unfamiliar, a group of artists and writers gather at the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti the last Saturday of every month from 7pm 'till close. The idea is to come and work, make connections, bounce ideas off one another, and to inspire and be inspired. If you live in South-Eastern Michigan and want to join us, you are more than welcome!

FCBD '09 process:
I just sorted through a bunch of sketches I had in a drawer to find some examples of my process. I'm reluctant to share pencils usually, but I think I have a few weeks worth of stuff to share. This week I'm showing the progress on the Free Comic Book Day print from this year.

Having done a FCBD print the year before, I had established a format: 5.5" x 8.5" print with 2 panels, a scene and the letters FCBD and the year. Here is my rough sketch. It's only a few inches wide in my sketchbook. My idea was to show Saxon, Kenzie, and Rand fighting weasels (a nod of stories to come). I was concerned here with the shape of the mass of weasels and the mice as a final focus.

The next step was to scan and enlarge the thumbnail to working size (about 6" x 10" for the images). I printed out the rough at size and then using a lightbox, tightened up the pencils on a new sheet of paper. You can see the rough as yellow lines in the image here. Note that I also used a font for the layout of the text here.

Once I liked the tightened pencils, I threw a sheet of bristol on the lightbox with the pencils underneath. I inked directly on to the bristol. This way I never get any pencil on the final art. I'm finding I like using this method lately. It means being tied to my studio to ink over the lightbox, but allows me to have cleaner final artwork. As for the "FCBD" portion, using the printed font as a guide, I was able to distress the text and add stippled texture.

I then scanned the inked artwork and started coloring in Photoshop (I'm still using 7 cause I like it and "if it ain't broke..."). This stage is called 'flatting' Not only am I selecting an overall palette here (which sometimes can change again before the final colors) I'm designating which areas are broken by color. I tend to do this on multiple layers labeled things like 'mouse fur', 'clothing 1', clothing 2', 'weapons' etc.
This is also the stage where I select linework that will get a 'color hold' ie: linework that will be printed as a color as opposed to black.

The final colors get rendered and tweaked. With this composition it was important for me to make the weasels a mass, but also have each weasel 'readable'. You needed to be able to tell where one ended and the next began. I also wanted to really help the mice be the focus, so I added the lightness to the background and color hold behind them.

Next time I plan on showing more overlay/lighbox sketch/layout techniques.

Fan Art:
This week comes from Sandra Becker. You can check out her work by clicking her name. Thanks Sandra!

Upcoming Appearances:
Detroit Comics' Book Club: Sept. 25
Long Beach Comic Con: Oct. 2-4
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct. 10-11
Big Apple Con Oct. 16-18

2009-09-16T20:47:00.005-04:00

Windy City Con:

This Saturday (Sept. 19th), I'll be at the Windy City comic con with fellow South East-Michigan pals Jeremy Bastian & Katie Cook. Because this is a one day show, I will not be taking any commissions, but I will be doing free quick doodles for anyone who has a Mouse Guard hardcover or their own sketchbook for me to do it in.

Long Beach Comic Con poster exclusive:

At the Long Beach Con (Oct 2-4), I'll be signing an all-new, exclusive Mouse Guard print, with an image created specifically for Long Beach Comic Con. On sale for $20 only at the Atomic Apple booth. Limited to 25 pieces per day (75 total). I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. Careful readers/fans may be able to figure out both the mouse and location featured (though it will take some extrapolation)...though if you do, there is no prize this time.

Big Apple Con: *just added*

I will be attending this year's Big Apple Con (Oct 16-18). This was a last minute addition for my schedule, but as my next NYC show wouldn't be until fall of '10 (which at best I'll only make 1 day of), it is a trip I felt was needed. Thanks to Peter Katz for making the arrangements!

NYT Best Seller Week 6:

I almost hate to keep posting on this every week because I don't know how many times I can say I'm surprised! Is is now ranked #10 (out of 10) So I suspect Winter not to be there again next week, but if it is, it's thanks to the fans! Here is the full list

Fan Art:

This week's Fan Art comes from Dominic Bercier. I met Dominic about a year ago at Baltimore and he had some cool sample pieces to show off. He just sent this Mouse Guard piece a few weeks ago, Thanks Dominic!

Upcoming Appearances:

Windy City Con: Sept. 19

Detroit Comics' Book Club: Sept. 25

Long Beach Comic Con: Oct. 2-4

Baltimore Comic Con: Oct. 10-11

Big Apple Con Oct. 16-18 *just added*

2009-09-10T02:51:00.005-04:00

Muppet Peter Pan #4
This may be my favorite of the Muppet covers I've done. Gonzo is my favorite Muppet and I didn't feel like I really nailed my take on him on the two other covers he's been featured on. I'm also pleased with the water (inspired by Windsor McKay) and the coloring. I think Peter Pan #1 ships soonish from Boom.

Dead Duck:
My pal Jay Fosgitt has a book coming out from Ape called Dead Duck (Previews Sept090577). Jay has a great sense of humor (a nice blend of Muppets, Monty Python, and Benny Hill) and Dead Duck is his way of pouring that funny stuff right onto the page. I warn fans of mine that it is more adult than Mouse Guard, but fun for those old enough to appreciate it. Oh, and here is My take on Dead Duck and Zombie Chick.

NYT Best Seller Week 5:
Every week I figure is my last, and Winter 1152 keeps hanging on! Thanks to fans and retailers for making it happen! Here is the full list

Fan Art:
Mat Marbolo sent in two Fan pieces. I like the stylization and use of color on this one. Thanks Matt! here is the other Mouse Guard piece on his blog

Upcoming Appearances:
Windy City Con: Sept. 19
Detroit Comics' Book Club: Sept. 25
Long Beach Comic Con: Oct. 2-4
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct. 10-11
Mouse Guard Live Readings in the Michigan Area: TBA

2009-08-31T17:39:00.006-04:00

NYT Bestsellers Week 4:
I don't know how I can still be surprised anymore, but I am!
Mouse Guard Winter 1152 is at #9. You can check out the full list here: NYT Bestsellers Graphic Novels

Dragon*Con:

I will be set up at Dragon Con (Sept 4-7) in the Artist Alley. I'll have Mouse Guard Fall, & Winter Hardcovers as well as B&W ed., Sketchbooks, Posters, Buttons, and original art for sale. In attendance will also be Mythbuster Adam Savage. I didn't get to meet him at SDCC (despite my bribe of a free commission to both him and whatever fan of mine brought him to my table). I hope that perhaps I'll get meet him at this show...and I'm making the same offer...

Oh and speaking of commissions, I will be trying the drawing names method that we used at Chicago again.

Puppet contest:
Last week, I posted about the TVTV Puppet Contest. Well here is my entry: The Snail. He was a puppet I built when I was 16 or so. Unfortunately, I had used permanent marker to trace my pattern and it showed through on the seams and where I had mis-traced. He had also lost his eyes over the years, so I gave him a makeover. He got a puffy paint stippled texture to mask the marker and cool button and feather eyes.

New Runners:
A while back I mentioned Sean Wang's awesome comic Runners (This is a pinup I did for him exploring the past crew seen in a flashback from the first series). Sean has been posting pages a every day from the first series leading up to this coming week, when Runners: The Big Snow Job starts! So if you like classic Star Wars and awesome ship and alien designs, check out Runners.

More Commissions:
Still getting out from under the list I brought home from both SDCC and the Chicago Con. From L-R: 'A Mouse With a Staff and a Mouse with a sword (It was my choice to show Kenzie and Saxon nibbling on a snack), Rand on a cat, and Fastball Special + Nightcrawler X-Mice'

Fan Art:
This piece comes from Ryan Cabral who sent me this awesomely moody nighttime piece. I like how cinematic it feels. Thanks Ryan!!
Upcoming Appearances:
Dragon Con: Sep. 4-7
Windy City Con: Sept. 19
Detroit Comics' Book Club: Sept. 25
Long Beach Comic Con: Oct. 2-4
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct. 10-11
Mouse Guard Live Readings in the Michigan Area: TBA

2009-08-25T00:34:00.019-04:00

3rd week on NYTimes Bestsellers!
Winter 1152 has stayed on the NYTimes Bestsellers list for Hardcov er Graphi c Novels for its 3rd week! After last week of it getting to 8 of 10 (while still thrilled I was ON the list at all) I figured it was the end. But thanks to fans suggesting it to new-yet-to-be-fans, it has hung on! We will see what next week brings!

Indie RPG awards:
Mouse Guard won 3 of the Indie RPG awards handed out at Gen Con: Game of the Year, Best Support, and Best Production. I'm thrilled Mouse Guard won these! Thanks to Luke Crane & his crew for such a great game. You can read more about the Indie Award results & comments on why we won here

Mouse Guard Playlist:
A fan was commenting on Twitter about what kind of music would be good for his Mouse Guard RPG adventure. It got me thinking that while Ballad of the Iv ory Lass is available on the MG site (and the ballad from issue #6 is coming soon), I could round out the list with music I use while I'm working on Mouse Guard to evoke the mood I'm after in the storytelling. So here is a list:
(and I'm interested in your suggestions as well, feel free to post them as a comment in this post)

-Howard Shore: Lord of the Rings: Fellowship, Two Towers, & Return of the King:
Pretty much everything on these soundtracks is appropriate and was listened to heavily while I worked on Mouse Guard Fall & Winter. Highlights are Concerning Hobbits (for any town/mouse settlement/mouse culture pages) The Hornburg, & The Grey Havens.

-Trevor Jones & Randy Edelman: Last of the Mohicans:
Again, this whole album is great and most of it fits with scenes in Mouse Guard thematically. The Main Title, Ambush, & The Kiss are my favorites though.

-Simon and Garfunkel: Monday Morning 3AM:
Odd choice, I know...but one of their takes on a traditional ballad is right in line with Mouse guard and was something I listened to before trying my hand at writing one: Peggy-O

-Natalie Merchant: Ophelia:
Same reason as Simon & Garfunkel, only this time it's her take on the traditional When The Ring the Golden Bells that served as inspiration.

Winter Black and White:
I don't know if I have been given a full green light on a Winter version of the Black and White limited ed. hardcover we did for Fall, but I was asked to mock-up the cover for it...which is a good sign! I wanted to share it here. I'll let everyone know more, when I know more (including pre-order info etc.)

Convention Sketches:
I like sharing these from time to time. Some of these I finished just today, some of these I found saved on my camera's memory stick and I never posted them. For those new to the blog/Mouse Guard, I do commissions at shows that are 7" x 7" on 12" x 12" bristol. I do not have an open list and do not take names outside of conventions. Some of these are requests of the person getting the piece, others are my own ideas (though this time they all seem to be requests).

Translvania TV:
Gordon Smuder, who has been a supporter of Mouse Guard, is one of the minds behind Transylvania TV, an adult-humor puppet show with online webisodes. Gordon is the performer for Furry J. Ackermonster, an albino Yeti. I love the design of the character and I think he's my favorite on the show, so I did this fan-art for them. Right now the show is running a contest to get your own handmade p uppet into one of their episodes! (I have my entry already photographed and ready to send in!)

Fan Art:
Issac Thayer, is a great kid whom I have met before at the Chicago Comic-Con. He and his Dad were at this year's show again and Issac was cool enough to give me a bunch of Mouse Guard fan art! I picked this one out of the batch because I liked the use of shading using tone rather than line. Keep up the good work Issac!

Upcoming Appearances:
Dragon Con: Sep. 4-7
Windy City Con: Sept. 19
Detroit Comics' Book Club: Sept. 25
Long Beach Comic Con: Oct. 2-4
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct. 10-11
Mouse Guard Live Readings in the Michigan Area: TBA

2009-08-18T16:38:00.013-04:00

Fresh Ink:
Today on G4's Attack of the Show segment Fresh Ink, Blair Butler named Mouse Guard Winter 1152 as one of the "five trades you should be reading"! Thanks to Blair and ATOS for the spotlight! G4 usually replays ATOS later the same night and again the following morning before the new episode airs at 7pm, so if you missed it you can try and catch a re airing.
*edit* You can watch the Fresh Ink segment online here

New York Times... AGAIN!

Mouse Guard Winter 1152 has stayed on the New York Times Best Sellers list for the 2nd week! Pretty amazing I think! You can take a look at the other 9 Hardcover Graphic Novels that made the list as well by following this link.

Old Time Radio:

As I have said before in blog posts (a, b, c, & d), I am a fan of Old Time Radio. I have Sirius Satellite Radio (channel 118 is the OTR channel) and between that and various OTR sites with free downloads, I'm able to program an entire work day with a playlist of the stuff.

I wanted to share a few sites I use and suggest that if you have a job where you can listen to radio without being distracted by phone calls/customers/etc...OTR is one of your best options.

Here are some great sites:

OTR.net: http://www.otr.net/

Radio Lovers.com: http://www.radiolovers.com/

Old Time Radio Downloads.com: http://oldtimeradiodownloads.com/

Muppet Peter Pan #3:

Here is the cover I did for Muppet Peter Pan #3. The direction I was given was "a Kermit and the Lost Boys cover". I had a blast drawing Animal (the first time I have done so for the Boom covers). I love doing these and hope Boom will continue to ask me to contribute.

Peter Pan #1 will be in-stores mid-September with the rest of the series following monthly.

Ink and Stein:

This Month's gathering is quickly approaching! For those who don't know, Ink & Stein is a gathering at the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti, MI for artists & writers to spend an evening working on their work, sharing ideas, getting critiqued, making contacts, and overall-having a good time. This Month the date is Aug. 29th at 7pm. If you can't make this month's gathering, try us again the last Saturday of every month.

Fan Art:

Michael Murray(age 10) hand delivered this piece of artwork to me at the Chicago Comic-Con! Thanks Michael for the fan art and for coming to my table at the convention. If you would like your fan art to appear on the blog, email it to me at ericebon (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Upcoming Appearances:
Signing at Paradise Comics Toronto: Aug. 22
Dragon Con: Sep. 4-7
Windy City Con: Sept. 19
Long Beach Comic Con: Oct. 2-4
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct. 10-11
Mouse Guard Live Readings in the Michigan Area: TBA

2009-08-13T15:18:00.007-04:00

New York Times...?!?!

While in Chicago, I received several calls from Archaia staff congratulating me and informing me that Mouse Guard Winter 1152 made the New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover graphic novels! Obviously I am thrilled and amazed to have Mouse Guard or my name in the same sentence as "New York Times Bestseller". The Winter collection debuted at #4. We will see what the coming weeks will hold.

Charles Christopher

I have become a BIG fan of Karl Kerschl and his webstrip the Abominable Charles Christopher. For me Karl is making a strip on the level of Calvin and Hobbes. Don't click the link looking for a direct comparison of strips though...what I mean is that he has a full emotion range (from HAHAHA, to Awwww, to sob!) and his draftsmanship on par with some of the top in the visual storytelling field. So I was thrilled when he offered to let me do a guest strip! It was a few weeks ago now, but here is the link.

Black Axe info

At my spotlight panel in San Diego, I talked about the upcoming Mouse Guard: Black Axe series. CBR covered the panel and you can read their report here. The basics of the new series are: It's a prequel, It will have 2 familiar mice from the Fall/Winter stories as younger mice, They travel off the map, and the series will start early next year. I also wanted to share this image that I teased at the panel. I have run out of these as prints, with no immediate plans to reprint them.

Archaia+Henson=YAY!

I'm thrilled that my publisher and the Jim Henson company have teamed to produce new stories of Henson properties (Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Fraggle Rock, etc, etc, etc....) but also to create new material together. I was fortunate enough to not only be a part of the panel in San Diego that announced the partnership, but I was asked to do the poster artwork for the announcement featuring the Dark Crystal! Creative teams for the books have not been announced yet other than the news of Brian Froud doing covers and creative direction for Labyrinth and Dark Crystal. I do not have any more of these posters, but I did hear rumblings at Archaia that it may get reprinted for future cons. You can read coverage of the panel at CBR.

Fan Art:

This piece was given to me by Amanda Estey. Thank you Amanda! I agree Mice with swords are awesome (mice with staffs, bows, maces, axes, slings, daggers and shields are pretty cool too)

if you want to see your fan art here, e-mail it to ericebon (at) hotmail (dot) com

Upcoming Appearances:

Signing at Paradise Comics Toronto: Aug. 22

Dragon Con: Sep. 4-7

Windy City Con: Sept. 19

Long Beach Comic Con: Oct. 2-4

Baltimore Comic Con: Oct. 10-11

Mouse Guard Live Readings in the Michigan Area: TBA

2009-08-02T00:47:00.008-04:00

Mouse Guard 2009 Sketchbooks
I have Sketchbooks available to order online. This year's book is similar to last year: a 7" x 7" 24 page color sketchbook featuring colored commissions & etc. from the past year. The price is $20 plus $5 domestic shipping or $10 for international shipping.

email: ericebon (at) hotmail (dot) com to place an order.

Chicago Comic Con
(Formerly Wizard World Chicago)

I will be in Artist's Alley table 4410. I'll have Winter 1152 Hardcovers, Fall 1152 Hardcovers, Limited B&W Hardcovers, RPGs, Sketchbooks, Posters, and Original artwork for sale. Autographs/signings/inscriptions are always free.

As for commissions, I'm going to try something new. They will still be $100, 7" x 7" on 12" x 12" bristol, fully inked anything (within reason) of your choice. However, to get on the list this time, I'll be taking the first 10 names per day (with cell info) and putting them in a hat that I will draw from at noon each day (6pm on Thurs.). I'll draw one name per day, call that person, and ask them to return to the table by the end of the day to formalize the commission request and payment. The next day we start from scratch.

I know this is a pain for fans, but with the work load I have, I can't come home with a list like I did from San Diego (otherwise the Black Axe won't get started) so I'm limiting the number of commissions per day without creating a race to be #1 in line on any given day. This is a trial run of this policy...if it doesn't work well, it won't stay.

Online ENnie Award voting

2009-07-28T13:44:00.003-04:00

The Mouse Guard RPG is nominated for 3 ENnie awards!

Best Interior Art, Best Production Value, Best Product of the Year.

The winners are determined by online popular vote (which are only open for a few more days), So the only way we can win is if fans make a push and vote. You don't have to vote for every category, so if you only want to support Mouse Guard in your voting, that's fine.

Here is the link to the ballot, and thank you in advance!

http://www.ennie-awards.com/voting/ballot.asp

(SDCC wrap-up post coming soon with info on '09 sketchbooks etc.)

SDCC Info dump UPDATE

2009-07-10T23:52:00.007-04:00

San Diego Comic Con '09:
I'll be a Guest of Comic Con this year which means I'll be spending most of my time in Artist's Alley AA03. I'll also be signing at the Archaia Booth 2635 once per day. Check the Archaia booth for a schedule of my signing times as well as the signing times of other Archaia creators.

2 new products available for the first time at SDCC:

Winter 1152 Hardcover. 192 pages collecting the 6 issues of the comic series plus an epilogue, and guide pages. Foreword by Dinotopia creator James Gurney. (these will be available at the Archaia booth*)

2009 Sketchbook:
24 pages full color for $20. Limited to 300. Copies left after SDCC will be available by e-mail order or taken to future shows. (these will be available at my Artist Alley table.**)

*Also available: Fall 1152, and the Mouse Guard RPG at the Archaia booth
** Also available: Mouse Guard Posters, and original Mouse Guard pages and other misc. original art

Panels:
I'll be involved in 4 panels this year (possibly 5, but here are the 4 confirmed):
It will be 5:

Friday July 24th: 11:30-12:30 Comics Arts Conference Session #6: Can College Prepare Creators for Comics Careers?
Ben Templesmith, Stephan Pastis, Hope Larson, David Petersen, Nick Langly, Mark Head

Friday July 24th: 1:00-2:00 Archaia/The Jim Henson Company: The Perfect Publishing Partnership— Learn about the fantasy titles the publisher has in store, including a new Mouse Guard volume (with creator David Petersen), Artesia (with creator Mark Smylie), Okko, and Primordia. Then find out more about the partnership The Jim Henson Company and Archaia have formed to create comics and graphic novels based on such beloved properties as Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, MirrorMask, and Fraggle Rock, as well as all-new, original concepts! Hear more about this venture with Henson's director of publishing and development Joe LeFavi, Archaia's director of development Stephen Christy, and a few surprise guests as creative teams are announced and publishing plans are discussed. All attendees will receive a free Archaia/Henson poster featuring a new piece of art! Room 4

Saturday July 25th 5:00-6:00 Graphic Novels Sense of History
Rick Geary, Stan Sakai, Chris Schweizer, Eric Shanower, & David Petersen

Sunday, July 26th 11:30-12:30 Spotlight on David Petersen.
David Petersen will talk about his Eisner Award winning series Mouse Guard, how it came to be, the process that makes it happen, and what the future holds for his mice. Discussion will be moderated by Nick Tapalansky. audience Q&A will follow the moderated discussion.
*There will be an exclusive given away at the panel.*

Sunday, July 26th 1:30-2:30
Comic and Graphic Novels for all Ages
Jimmy Gownley, Kazu Kibuishi, Chris Schweizer, Jeff Smith, David Petersen, & Lex Farjado

Regarding sketches/commissions:

Sketches: I plan on doing free quick mouse doodles in any Mouse Guard hardcover (either purchased at the show or brought from home.).

Commissions: I WILL be taking commissions at Comic Con this year. (7" x 7" inked artwork on 12" x 12" bristol). I had e-mailed a few people before that I wouldn’t be taking them, but I have had a change of heart. Doing commissions at shows has become increasingly hard and so has devising fair rules for the people who want them to get them. So here are the rules for SDCC commission list:

I’ll start a list every day (starting Thursday) at the opening of the doors to the public (if you are standing in line BEFORE the doors are open, you won’t get on the list period). When the list has three names (2 on Sunday), I’ll ‘cap’ the list for the day. Fans who didn’t get on that day’s list are welcome to try again the next day for that day’s list. No advance lists, etc, every day, everyone has the same fair shake to get a commission. Limit 1 per person for SDCC.

Commissions are $150 PLUS a donation to the CBDLF (I won’t dictate the donation amount…and I don’t know if they issue receipts…so…we might be on the honor system.)

I also value the time at shows to talk to fans, answer questions, sign books, take photos etc. I’ll prioritize interacting with fans before getting commissions done, so there is chance that finished pieces will need to be mailed and will not be available at the show. And because of how closely Chicago follows SDCC, I may take up to a month before they would be mailed…so please be patient.

This should answer any SDCC Q’s…but feel free to post other Q’s as comments and I’ll try to answer them ASAP.

2009-07-03T15:10:00.011-04:00

Cannot Display Webpage...
mouseguard.net and davidpetersen.net are currently down because of a fire at the hosting site:

Due to a fire that has disrupted power to one of our data centers, some customer services are currently offline. This outage impacts some web hosting customers and VPS customers as well as email services. Power is being restored in the data center and we are currently working to restore connectivity and systems to bring services back online. There is currently no ETA. All available resources at the data center are working to restore services
*Edit 7-4* Looks like it's back up and everything is A-OK*

Recent Commissions:
Here are a few of the commissions I did (mostly) at Heroes.
*EDIT* FIXED link to image!!!!*

Upcoming Appearances:

San Diego Comic Con: July 22-26

Wizard World Chicago: August 6-9

Signing at Paradise Comics Toronto: Aug. 22

Dragon Con: Sep. 4-7

Windy City Con: Sept. 19

Long Beach Comic Con: Oct. 2-4

Baltimore Comic Con: Oct. 10-11

Mouse Guard Live Readings in the Michigan Area: TBA

2009-06-28T02:45:00.010-04:00

Mouse Guard RPG wins 2009 Origins Award for best Role Playing Game!!

Luke Crane did a wonderful translation of my Mouse Guard world into a playable and fun game. He and I talked early on that the game had to be something more than just an RPG where you happen to be mice, one that really took the scale and the lifestyle of my characters and made the mechanics focus on it. So thank you Luke! And now it has won RPG of the year 2009 upsetting Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition. Even though Mouse Guard uses only 6 sided dice, I think it just rolled a natural 20.

You can find out more about the Mouse Guard RPG at:
Burning Wheel's Mouse Guard RPG forum or Archaia

Dames & Monsters:

For the 2009 Emerald City Comic con, I was one of several artists (Frank Cho, Stuart Immonen, Bruce Timm, Scott Morse, Ted Naifeh, +42 other very talented folks) who did a piece of art in the Dames and Monsters convention book. (From what I understand there may be a few left if you e-mail the convention organizers). The original artwork is being auctioned off for the Seattle Children's Hospital. So bid bid bid people (hey it's for charity!)
All the auctioned artwork is on ebay here or
you can bid on my piece here

Social Networking:

I am excited about the use of social networking and its relationship between fans and creators (being a creator who also is a fan of other creators). I now use Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and this Blog (and that's not counting regular ol' e-mail.) I want to invite all of my fans to use the Blog, MySpace, and Twitter to keep in touch and connect/comment/question/compliment/or complain. However, I'd like to keep Facebook as a more personal site for friends and family I know personally and keep in touch with. I'm not trying to complain here, I just want fans to know that if I have ignored a Facebook request it's not a snub, just please contact me through one of the other venues.

Muppet Peter Pan #2:

I saw that Boom put up the cover for the 2nd issue of Muppet Peter Pan. I still am having a really great time doing these covers and I'm thrilled to be able to draw the Muppet characters in all these locations/costumes/story scenarios. "Thanks Boom! I'll keep drawing them as long as you will have me!" For this cover, I was happy to flourish up Gonzo as Captain Hook. Gonzo is my favorite Muppet, so I take even more pleasure in drawing him. I thought about having the feather in his hat be the tail feathers of a chicken that sat on his head under the hat...but I decided to go more traditional (and since I don't think that's in the story it was just embelishment for my own glee) However, note the chicken motif on the ship's railing and the pommel of Gonzo's saber.

Fan Art Redux:

A few posts back I mentioned how Walter Harris did a great job on his Mouse guard action figures he made from Ewoks. Well, he's been at it again and now has 3 'waves' (1: Saxon, Kenzie & Lieam. 2: Sadie, Celanawe, & Midnight. & 3: Rand, Conrad & Gwendolyn.) Take a look at his site for detail photos of all the characters. Thanks again Walter!

Upcoming Appearances:
San Diego Comic Con: July 22-26
Wizard World Chicago: August 6-9
Signing at Paradise Comics Toronto: Aug. 22
Dragon Con: Sep. 4-7
Windy City Con: Sept. 19
Long Beach Comic Con: Oct. 2-4
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct. 10-11
Mouse Guard Live Readings in the Michigan Area: TBA

Next Time (or soon thereafter): SDCC info...

2009-06-23T15:25:00.006-04:00

Trivia Winners:

1st place: Bo Harris

2nd place: Morgen Dukes

3rd place: John Brown

Runner Ups: Bree Smith, Geoffery Wong, Sharon Wong, Brandon Klassen, & Nick Nemphos.

(Winners, please e-mail me shipping addresses to get your prizes off to you.)

Thanks to everyone who entered! I had to be VERY strict on the judging and enforce some spelling penalties (especially with the spelling of MY name). There were a few Questions that I want to make not of and a marked with *'s in the key below:

Answer Key:

Matchup:
Kenzie : Blue
Saxon : Red
Rand : Yellow
Lieam : Green
Sadie : Purple
Gwendolyn : Silver
Midnight : Black
Sienna : Orange

Name Meanings:
Saxon: Sword
Kenzie: Wise
Rand: Shield

History:
who was the 4th matriarch of the Guard: Laria
based on the RPG, what is Kenzie’s birth year? 1121
When did Lieam join the Guard? Winter 1149*

Real life counterparts:
Who is the character Saxon based on? David (Petersen)
Who is the character Lieam based on? Emerson (Jones)
Who is the character Kenzie based on? Jesse (Glenn)

Misc.
Has Rand ever killed a Snake? No.
How many different swords have we seen Lieam use? 3
What does the inscription read on the compass lid of Loukas’ sword?
Wander where you will the grove of oaks stands no taller than your bravery
What was Landra’s job prior to taking over for Rand? Quartermaster
What is the motto above the door in Gwendolyn’s office?
It matters not what you fight but what you fight for
What did the mice use to mark the grave of the grain merchant?
A piece of his hat
What type of bed does Celanawe use?
Hammock
How many of Midnight’s army were left outside the gates of Lockhaven?
114
In the game Saxon and Kenzie play in the Casks, which mouse is apparently winning?
Kenzie
What poison was found in Rand’s leg bandage?
Hemlock
What inscription is over the door in Lockhaven’s Cookery?
Only what ye need and not a morsel more
What baked good is Lockhaven known for?
Gabcroon

Geography:
What city is the Easternmost on the Mouse Territories map? Wolfepointe
What three cities are listed as having fallen on the map? Woodruff’s Grove, Ferndale. & Walnutpeck **
What city is mentioned in the story, but not shown on the map? Windselm ***
Where was Sadie stationed prior to the Fall of 1152? Frostic

Hidden Gems:
What series & issue shows a mousey Han & Luke? Fall 1152, Issue #3 (pg 10)
What is hidden amongst the bones on the cover of Winter #4? Millenium Falcon

Publication:
When (year) do I date the first Mouse Guard drawings? 1996
What was the company I used to publish the first black and white issue of Mouse Guard: Comixpress
To whom is Fall 1152 in loving memory of? Gilbert and Doris Petersen
List the pinup artists in order:
Guy Davis, Rick Cortes, Mark Smylie, Jeremy Bastian, Geof Darrow, Stan Sakai, Craig Rousseau, Nate Pride, Jane Irwin.

*Several places I refer to Lieam having joined the Guard in the Winter War of 1149, however, I found that the RPG has a misprint that says he joined 2 years ago...taking into consideration that the RPG is set up in the same time as the comics thus far (1152), the match comes out to be 1150, which I also accepted.

**The city names were the biggest trip-up for the entries. More people got this wrong than any other, and it came down to spelling. I felt bad at first that the map's text, which is handwritten, was hard to read with the strikethrough, but I found that the cities are listed in the printed text of the RPG and 2 of the cities are printed in dialogue in Winter #1.

***Another one I didn't expect to get more than 1 answer to consider correct. Glen Stone was submitted and I had to accept it. While I hadn't ever done much with it other than place it in the song lyrics (not even having decided if it were real or fictional), the reality is that it was mentioned and is therefore also correct.

2009-06-12T00:01:00.001-04:00

Contest Rules:
Paste the questions & answers into an e-mail and submit them to ericebon (at) hotmail.com.
The answers should all be available in the Fall Hardcover, the Winter issues, the RPG, this blog and or various online interviews. The contest will be open for 1 week. Entries must be recieved by 6-19 at 12:01 AM (EST).
Correct answers will take priority over speed, but speed may be used in the event of a tie.
Only one entry per person. Winners will be announced on this blog between 6-22 & 6-27

Prizes:
First place: 2 six foot long Mouse Guard banners (my former convention banners) AND an original piece of Artwork.

Second Place: A set of the convention sketchbooks (one with an original sketch on the inside front cover) AND a signed Winter #1

Third Place: A 2008 sketchbook AND a signed Winter #1

5 Runner-ups will recieve: A Mouse Guard poster and buttons.

Questions:
Matchup:
main cloak color:
Kenzie
Saxon
Rand
Lieam
Sadie
Gwendolyn
Midnight
Sienna

Black
Red
Green
Orange
Blue
Yellow
Silver
Purple

Name Meanings:
Saxon:
Kenzie:
Rand:

History:
Who was the 4th matriarch of the Guard?
Based on the RPG, what is Kenzie’s birth year?
When did Lieam join the Guard?

Real life counterparts:
Who is the character Saxon based on?
Who is the character Lieam based on?
Who is the character Kenzie based on?

General Q's:

Has Rand ever killed a Snake?

How many different swords have we seen Lieam use?
What does the inscription read on the compass lid of Loukas’ sword?
What was Landra’s job prior to taking over for Rand?
What is the motto above the door in Gwendolyn’s office?
What did the mice use to mark the grave of the grain merchant?
What type of bed does Celanawe use?
How many of Midnight’s army were left outside the gates of Lockhaven?
In the game Saxon and Kenzie play in the Casks, which mouse is apparently winning?
What poison was found in Rand’s leg bandage?
What inscription is over the door in Lockhaven’s Cookery?
What baked good is Lockhaven known for?

Geography:
What city is the Easternmost on the Mouse Territories map?

What three cities are listed as having fallen on the map?
What city is mentioned in the story, but not shown on the map?
Where was Sadie stationed prior to the Fall of 1152?

Hidden Gems:
What series & issue shows a mousey Han & Luke?
What is hidden amongst the bones on the cover of Winter #4?

Publication:
When (year) do I date the first Mouse Guard drawings?
What was the company I used to publish the first black and white issue of Mouse Guard?
To whom is Fall 1152 in loving memory of?
List the pinup artists in order:

2009-06-04T16:52:00.009-04:00

Mouse Guard Contest:
I have mentioned in previous posts that I wanted to do a contest for the blog and for the fans. So here is how it will work: I will be posting a list of trivia questions at 12:01 AM on June 12th. e-mail back the answers....it will be as easy as that. The prizes will include: Original Mouse Guard artwork, My old 6' show banners, a set of sketchbooks, and signed books and posters. So check back to enter (and for further rules.

Snowy Valentine's Day:

I'm not able to post much artwork, but I'm getting into the final coloring stages for Snowy Valentine's Day. The publisher was drawn to my Wind in the Willows illustrations where I used fabric textures for the clothing on the characters. Julia and I went to a fabric store and spent a good hour just snapping photos of patterns and textures we thought would be helpful. I'm trying to wrap the interiors up this weekend, otherwise the book could be pushed back a year! (book publishing schedules are set way in advance and since SVD is a holiday book, if we miss the window for 2011, it goes to 2012).

Muppet Covers:

Here are the covers for Muppet Robing Hood #4 and Muppet Peter Pan #1. The Robin Hood cover was in some ways an homage to Disney's Robin Hood...it was the narrator in the Disney film, but with Kermit's connection to the banjo, I thought it was fitting.

Peter Pan #1 was a bit complicated. When I was given the go-ahead, the final scrips hadn't been approved. So you may have seen a cover of mine with Robin as the Michael character. This version was used in Diamond and seems to have made it around the interweb. After the change was made to Bean Bunny, I fixed the artwork so the book could print with the correction. The next Peter Pan covers have Gonzo as Hook and the Lost Boys (waka waka!!)

Ink and Stein:

The first Ink and Stein was a huge success!! We had a larger turnout than we expected, got folks in for the local area and even brought in a few from the Lansing area. We had a few writers show up, which we hadn't planned on, but I was pleased they came. The whole idea is to get creative people around each other talking about and working on creative things. If Ink and Stein can bring writers and artists together to collaborate on ideas or help each other with their thought process, I'm all for it!

The next Ink and Stein will be June 27th (more info to come)

Fan Art:

Katie Cook drew this a while ago, but I saw it again at the Motor City con and thought I'd post it. Thanks Katie!!!

Upcoming Apearances:

Heroes Con: June 19-21

Detroit Comics Reading Club: (edit: date postponed)

San Diego Comic Con: July 22-26

David Petersen's Blog

Online ENnie Award voting

SDCC Info dump *UPDATE*

SDCC Info dump UPDATE