Okay so there was no fire, but it sounded good. Huge sale on original art at NYCC. We’re talking Atomic Robo, Punisher War Journal, Killer of Demond, Hexbreakers Inc. (Popgun Vol.2), Wicked West, and more. This stuff is really piling up at my house and I’m running out of room for it. Expect to see a sizable pile of pages for $10. I really want to see this stuff go to a nice home, instead of rotting on a box in my bathtub. And for your pre-viewing pleasure I will also have the first two issues of Atomic Robo and The Shadow From Beyond Time (Vol.3) with me. It’s sure to be fun for anyone who loves Charles Fort or H.P. Lovecraft or for anyone who just likes to see Robo wearing funny hats.

Three days and counting before I can get out of this one-horse town and return to the trash-ridden, over-crowded, traffic-snarled land of my birth. Gosh I can’t wait! I will be at the smaller of the two Jetpack Press booths -#2402. You can find the NYCC Planner right here. Click on Facility Overview, select Level 3 (Red), and 2402 is over by the first set of stairs on the right. Whatever end of the convention center you come in from we should be relatively easy to reach. I’ve had good luck setting up near the bathrooms are other shows. Everyone needs to pee -especially after that 72 ounce Diet Coke from the food court.

I hope to see lots of folks while I’m there. We’ll have TPBs, prints, t-shirts, original art, and I’ll be doing convention sketches. Oh BTW, for the first time ever I will be able to accept credit cards! Awesome. 

(From atomic-robo.com) The Young Adult Library Service Association chose Atomic Robo and the Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne as one of 2009’s Top 10 Great Graphic Novels For Teens. That’s pretty damn cool. Now if only we could convince them to put Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War in the 940s.

I can’t believe I just did a Dewey Decimal joke.

I think we settled on a title for the new Volume 4: Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X. It’ll be a “feature length” story arc instead of the the one- and two-parters of varying degrees of interconnectedness we’ve done so far. I don’t want to give anything away, so I’ll just say the whole thing takes place somewhere in the 2000s (with some flashbacks of course). It’ll definitely be between four and six issues.

This bumps Atomic Robo and the Flying She-Devils of the Pacific back to Volume 5. We haven’t specifically locked down anything beyond that, but I’d like to do Atomic Robo in Diamonds Are For Never for Vol 6. Scott balks at abandoning our Indy-inspired “and the” convention; and I know he’d like to do a Return of the Sparrow storyline outside of WW2; and I have a feeling we’ll be under a certain amount of pressure from readers to do a story with Dr. Dinosaur ASAP after this year’s Free Comic Book Day. So, yeah, it’s still way too early to call.

OfficePorn anyone? Who doesn’t love office porn?! I’ve noticed in other artists (and myself) an almost voyeuristic interest in the way other people have their studios and work areas set up. I tend to be left feeling horrible about my life and the world when I see the amazing set-ups some people have, which is stupid because some of the best art in the world is created at the kitchen table, or sitting indian-style on the couch. But still, I envy those people. To be honest, there is nothing stylish, comfortable, or cool about my work space. I like to call it a “studio”, but if you’ve been watching this blog for a while you know that it’s nothing more than a 10′x10′ laundry room. barring the bathrooms, it is the smallest, ugliest room in the house and I have to share it with a writer and the washer/dryer set. But for me it’s still the best room in the house and I am happy as a clam spending all day in there.

Something I consciously decided not to do was clean up. On the half dozen blogs I have seen devoted to people officers and studios it is always painfully obvious that someone spent hours cleaning every surface and positioning things “just so” to get that perfect art-fag feng-shui thing going on. Where are the coffee mug rings and overflowing trash bins that tell you someone actually works there?

Da Book Shelf -this used to be “shelves” (plural) before we moved to Wilton, but you can only fit one medium sized bookshelf in this room.

Top Shelf -mostly reference for drawing Atomic Robo, and some over-sized TPBs (LEAVE IT TO CHANCE and Frezato’s amazing KEEPERS OF THE MASER series). In that mess are books on steam engines, muscle cars, weapons of WWII, weird science, classic Hollywood nudes (in 3D!), bridges, architecture, cinematography, trees, movie monsters, how to “press fairies” (like pressing flowers only squishier),  perspectiveve, and collected fashion catalogs from the 1920’s through the 1970’s. Also the only useful “How To Draw” series I have EVER found, by Ben Dunn put out by Antarctic Press.

Second Shelf -I’ve run out of room here. Appleseed, Bone, BPRD, Ghost In the Shell, Hellboy, Invincible, Popgun, Powers, Top Ten, Tom Strong, everything by Doug Tennapel, and more.
Third Shelf -TPB spill-over: The Wretch series and Edgintons & D’Israeli’s fantastic WAR OF THE WORLDS and SCARLET TRACES. Also there are some of my favorite books and a pile of RPGs that I just can’t bring myself to part with, and which are also chock full of great art and ideas.

The bottom two shelves belong to my wife and her poetry -I don’t know what goes on down there.

The Beast -when your wife tells you that quitting your job to draw comics was pretty much the last straw and if you spend more that $50 on studio furniture she will divorce you, CraigsList becomes your new best friend. The Beast is a drafting table in the architectural sense of the word. Measuring 5′x’3′ and being constructed of steel and solid back breaking wood this thing was made to draft blueprints for doomsday devices. Originally it had a cable guided ruler on it, but I found it much less useful than I’d hoped it would be so I removed it. I also removed the massive art supply tray since it added another 9 1/2″ to the width of this monster, though recently I reattached it to the table surface off in the corner. Toss in the free chair I found and the original light I dumpster-dived from behind my old work and Crankshaft Studio was in business for a grand total of $37.

As you can see, The Beast is filthy. Just the way I like it. In the photo it looks like it’s been doing hard time in a coal mine, but in person it is merely the color of dead people. There is an exquisite film of graphite dust, paint, and ink that makes me happy whenever I gaze at it’s scummy surface. You can see the area at the lower middle there where my arms have rubbed everything clean. I’m mildly disgusted looking at this photo. In real life the desk is nowhere near this nasty looking. I must have fucked with this too much in Photoshop.

Robotville -okay I did move these guys around so that you could see them. That doesn’t count as cleaning though! This corner of my desk is where awesome robots come to live, watched over by their benevolent god, the Cyberman helmet. Mr. Poze’M is my favorite of the lot because he is tough and super posable. I use him as a model for Robo when I get stuck.

Art Supply Nook - Wedged between the Beast and the washing machine, this is where I keep most of my spare art supplies, templates, and the wires and do-dads I need to plug into my computer from time to time.

It is also where coffee goes and therefore the most important place in the room. You can see the big empty space that should be full of coffee mug . . .where did i put that?

I think I’m running out of room for stickers on the back of my drawing board there. Might be time for a new one -or maybe a new layer of stickers? Can you dig my ratty Cookie Monster pelt rug? All that white stuff is eraser filings. I wait until I can feel a marked change in the resistance and texture of the floor beneath my slippers before I seriously consider busting out the vacuum cleaner. I did it just last week and you can see how quickly it all starts piling up again.

Wall-O-Stuff -usually this has several layers of stuff, but since I am bring shelves back with me from NYCC next week I’ve started thinning it out.

Wally Wood’s “22 Panels That Always Work!!” is a nice little reference tool to keep handy. If you ever get stuck just take a browse through the options Wally lays out and in no time you’ll be back on track. You can download this from a million different art blogs.

I really need to get my Batman poster framed. I love this one because it’s nice and pulpy. Bruce Tim captured the feel of these old comics in his amazing original Batman Animated series. I’ve tried reading the comics but for the most part they just stink. They lack the simple ellagence of Tim’s reimagined Batman.

You can see I’ve got a page from Robo Vol.3 pinned to the wall there -horsehair plaster is just as good as cork and the busy wallpaper hides the tiny holes. I usually have several Robo pages clipped up around my desk while I work on a series. This one is my costume guide for 3.1 and 3.2. 3.3 jumps from the 20’s to the 1950’s so I’ll have to get something else to hang there next month.

Robo Cards - I  have lots of Robo art done by other people and I love it all. But these little cards have a special place in my heart. They never fail to evoke a goofy “Daaaww . . .” from me.

I demand more small Robo art!

Okay that’s it for now. I’ll see you guys after NYCC. While I’m away, post some pics (or links to pics) of your own work-spaces.

RANDOME SPLENDOR

-Black Dynamite! This is a real movie and it looks so incredibly awesome (NSFW).

-Best Horrible Fight Scene (Ever?).

-Worst Movie Scenes Ever.

-Because you demanded it -Aquaman Cos-Play!

-Okay, so these little girls are a tad silly -but 100% typical of the 12-17yr age range. And they’re also sort of awesome. Their observations on comic books, in general, are right-on and basically reflect what a lot of people think about the comic industry. I think I might send them a copy of Atomic Robo.