A few people have asked me to design a tattoo for our friend Nate who died last year. He was The Big Scary Monster, and he played bass. So I drew this, the Monster playing Nate's bass.

I don't have any tattoos, but I plan on getting one for Nate. Possibly this one. I think I'm going to keep designing and thinking about it.

Two more works in progress for "Badass Vampire Tornado." HOVER OVER IMAGE TO TOGGLE.

I'm thinking now of what I am going to do with this comic that I am working on. Possibly I will print all of the panels out big and hang them up in an art gallery and have a live band play the soundtrack. Then it'll be a live walk-through comic book experience. That could be fun. And I'd like to print it out into a book, too.

On another note, today is my birthday. Here is a comic I hastily drew on that subject.



Thanks to everyone I know for being so great. Friends, family, coworkers, Mollie-my-Forever, you are all so great.

Here are a couple more stills (hover over to toggle between the two) from the comic I'm working on.

I'd like to talk about my process in making this, but I'm not really sure where to start. I draw it mostly in photoshop using a wacom tablet, everything except for some thumbnail sketches to outline the scenes. I'm getting much better at using it, but it still isn't as easy as a real pencil, at least as far as making lines go. But it's so easy to erase, which I do a lot of.

These are two work-in-progress frames from the comic book I'm working on, "BADASS VAMPIRE TORNADO."

(rollover the image w/ your mouse to toggle between the two)




The Monster and Andre follow a vampire riding a tornado through their neighborhood, finding their way into his haunted castle.

And there are hotdogs.

New Howcast video I directed/animated at BARK-BARK.

How To Date a Tall Woman If You Are a Short Man on Howcast

This is a poster I made for my little brother's band. They're great. Go see them if you can.

Here are some more stills from my autobiographical work in progress.

This one is from the scene where my dad calls, but I don't want to talk to him. In the background you can see my mom's office from the drawing I posted earlier.



The following picture is a scan from one of my sketchbooks, where the above image was expounded upon.



I think there is something really nice about the basic black and white line drawing, just the three elements of story and character, super minimalist. It's hard for me to move away from that. But I'm also having a really good time making these backgrounds, and playing with color schemes, depth, and researching what kind of stuff we had when I was a kid. I vaguely remember a phone like this, but I think it might have been a rotary.

I've never done a project like this before, where I actually just talk about my personal history rather than masking it with monsters or complete caricature. It's extremely difficult, but so far really rewarding.

Here's an image from one of the projects I'm working on. It's an autobiographical piece focusing on when I was a kid and my parents were getting divorced. This is my mom in her office in our apartment on Thompson Ave in Glendale, CA. I used to love that green-screen mac she had. I would draw pictures in the paint program and write stories.

I'd been drawing storyboards for this project, but then Nate died and now I'm really determined to make a Big Scary Monster Halloween animated special. Something I've been thinking about for a year now. I've got a lot of ideas, and the plan right now is to make a 2 minute trailer. That way I can experiment with styles, the overall look, animation methods, etc.



I've been jumping from project to project for a while now, trying to figure out what I really want to do. But I think these two projects are it. And somehow a sketch comedy thing with some friends. And a full time job, and buying a house, and getting married.

Someday I'll finish a cartoon.

I've been posing here lately:

www.remembernate.blogspot.com


a memorial blog for my friend Nate.

The Big Scary Monster in: "Behind the Scenes"



There are some really nice moments in here. I like when he tells the story about the girl in the bathroom, and when they dance for a long time.

www.remembernate.blogspot.com