New music for Christmas

Hey, hope you had a great Christmas!

My wonderful wife got me an assortment of gift cards, among them was an I tunes, and CD Exchange store. I like to get my money's worth and go for the 2.50 or 5 dollar CDs, but couldn't pass this up:

I'm mostly through it, and is awesome! I always wanted to see them live, but never got to. They even played a few blocks away from my house last year!

Also got Springsteen's Magic, Def Leppard High n Dry, which I had long ago on cassette. I really hear a lot of AC/DC influence on that album. From itunes, I got MuteMath (the whole album), some songs from Asteroids Galaxy tour, TV on the Radio, Snow Patrol, and ZZ Top. One of these things is not like the other!

On the comic front, I'm halfway through inking page 26, need to ink page 27, then about a week's worth of lettering!

Made for each other

I'm finding out that God designs things for a reason. He knew to make me have a certain life to make me who I am today. Every experience I've had became the receipe to make me a sensitive, patient, kind man. He knew My wife would become ill and we would have a different than normal relationship. God making me who I am became the perfect match for what my wife needs. Pretty smart guy.

Went to visit my grandparents today. I haven't seen them together in a year. They both had accidents, and ended up in the hospital together, then in a nursing home together. We found them sitting next to each other in a TV room. I hope after over 60 years, my wife and I can still want to hang out together!

Survivor!

I love the show Survivor, and someday I hope to get the nerve to try out. Watching the finale yesterday, I was shocked at a few of the players. One guy is so mean and bitter that he says he has no friends except his dog. A girl claims being nice is boring, and she complained to the show's producers that she wasn't portrayed as more...evil, I guess. Really? I mean, really?! I couldn't stand what I saw of her, and she thinks she wasn't bad enough? Maybe I don't watch Maury or Springer enough, I'm always shocked by people who would take joy in having such evil attitudes to others. How can you ever be happy? I feel sorry for you guys. Really.

At least a good guy won! Congratulations, Bob! Thanks for helping me win the office pool!

It is begun!

What you see here is the beginning of the final full page of work for Children of Light #2. I think I said I would start this week, so I'm doing good! I challenged myself to have this done by Christmas, fully inked. May seem like a long time for 1 page, but I think my old record is a month. Hey, I have kids and a real job, what do you want from me?

I need to do a lot of car reference for this one. I'll probably use my Olds.

Heard some great new songs from The Asteriods Galaxy Tour. Might sound familiar, their song has been on the itouch commercial.

Press release from my buddy Josh Alves:


I just posted on my site this morning, but I'm getting ready to place the order for my self-published project "Araknid Kid" and am currently taking pre-orders!

The print edition of Araknid Kid: Episode 1 is getting the final preparation (getting the files ready) and the plan is to have the book sent on the 19th with delivery sometime in early '09 (depending on how busy the printer is).
28 Full color pages with cover by DAPPER DAN!!!
Looking for a great stocking stuffer/gift? When you pick up a copy for yourself, how about another for that special someone (even a "not-so-special someone" :D) The books are priced at $5.50 ($3.50 for the book $2.00 for standard delivery in the continental US) When you order, once the comics arrive I can send it directly to the address of your choosing!!! Since it won't be available for Christmas, if you are interested in gifting it, I'll send you a hi-res "gift card" for you to print out and wrap, or put in a card or whatever
I've got some discount prices set for multiple orders as well (includes individual shipping of each one)

ORDER HERE

Everyone that pre-orders will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win an Araknid Kid Sculpt! (1 entry for each copy purchased)

Winner will be announced on December 22nd on my site.
Any questions, please feel free to email me! THANKS!
-Josh

New music

No new art yet, hopefully this weekend. I realized I need to re-letter a bunch of the pages because I saved them all at the wrong resolution. Poop.

This week I heard new albums from my 2 favorite bands of the 80's Guns n' Roses and Def Leppard. There's already a thousand reviews of the long-awaited G n'R album, so if oyu want sophistication, go read one of those. My average guys' opinion is it could have been better for the 15-year wait. There were a few good songs to start off, and musically, it's a good album, but I feel Axl's screeching ruins a lot of it. Plus, Guns of the 80's was more than Axl. It was Izzy, Slash, Duff & Steven too. This feels like Axl and some band.

Some better news is Def Leppard just put out what may be their strongest album since Hysteria. No kidding! Songs From the Sparkle Lounge starts off with a strong, modern, yet classic Def Lep sound, and keeps kicking all the way through! I've heard the past few albums, X had a few good songs, and that was it for me. 1999's Euphoria sounded like recycled songs from Hysteria. On this new one, the guys sound more modern, but recognizable. "Love" may become my favorite song on the disc, as the band seems to channel Queen (minus Freddy, of course!).

Black Friday, indeed!

I was reading yesterday of a death in a Wal-Mart in NY, where a worker was trampled to death by people rushing in the doors as he unlocked them. Another incident involved a shooting in a Toys R' Us. How shameful. People in the Wal-Mart turned violent when asked to leave because THEY KILLED SOMEONE!

I dislike Christmas shopping. I like Christmas, I'm not a Grinch. I hate the over-commercialization. Every year I more and more want to forget it all, I'm not participating in it, and go volunteer and give to really needy people.

These incidents make me more determined to never participate in Black Friday. I'm thinking of asking my wife to give any remaining shopping money for me to Compassion International. These kids are in need. No one I normally give gifts to is in need as much as children who have to live on pennies a day, in filth. Please give if you can!

Even more art? What's going on?!

Page 24 inked. All by me. I'm liking the inkwash I've used on the past few pages, but don't think it came out as well on this page. You can compare to the pencils I posted a few weeks ago. 1 more to go!

Tampon shopping:
Face it guys, one of these days you'll have to do it, if you haven't already. Your wife or significant other has been shopping all week, and forgot that one thing, on purpose, one might think.

My wife was sick in bed today, and guess what she needed? Guess where we were just the day before? You got it. As I received the news, I had to begin planning. A guy can't just go and buy feminine products only, I started making a list of things I could buy to hide the "stuff" in. I don't care what it was, I had to get something else. A lobster, shoe polish, a gouda cheese wheel, anything to take attention away from "it".

I managed to come up with a modest list of things we for real needed. It can't be too big of a list, because you have to go through the self-checkout. There's nothing worse than locking eyes with the cashier while "it" goes *beep*. No way. You might say, "Oh, Tommy! Girls understand and might think you are so brave for buying "it". Aha! but what do you do when you choose the grandmotherly cashier (safest bet), and suddenly switches with a guy cashier. You leave, quickly and quietly. Yes, even if your stuff is already on the belt.

So I got some other stuff first, so I could hide "it" underneath. Then had to scope the aisle out before making my approach. Hmmm...toothpaste...mouthwash...casually looking...target sighted! Made a quick but non-attention-getting grab, and coolly stroll away.

turns out I had too much for the self-checkout. there's no limit, really, but they only give you like 1 foot of space to set your scanned items in. So I found my grandmotherly cashier, prepared to drop all and go at the sight of a dude. Played it cool, because if she saw me sweating, it was all over. Made it through without incident, until I thought I'd say hello to a high-school classmate I recognized. Then I saw what was sticking out of the top of the bag. Changed my mind, went home.



Listened to the new Jack Johnson today, liked it, need to have a few more listens before I could comment. Jack, you too may be called upon to buy "it". Be ready.

Cover for Children of Light #2 by Eric Merced. Coming your way soon!! Doesn't it radiate awesomeness?

New Children of Light pencils by Papa Nate

I'm getting near completion of CoL #2, hopefully in a month or 2. I've got 1 page to pencil & ink, and inks to finish on 1, and lettering for 5 or 6 pages. The awesome Eric Merced has agreed to do a cover which I'm always excited about! I am working more lately, knowing I'm close to finishing has lit a fire under me, and I've been working almost every day on the art. Hopefully it'll become a habit!

Listened to the new Guns n Roses today. At 1st, I thought it could have been better for 15 years in the making, but I'm really diggin' it now. Might be worth buying.

Got Starbucks for the drive to work and listened to Jack Johnson & Friends: A Broke Down Melody (find it yerself, I'm tired of linking). Makes a snowy drive nicer!

Sketch and The Lord's Table

Here's a sketch of Page 24 of Children of Light. Note how I patched the pages together hastily due to having to work with a small scanner. Someone else was supposed to do this one, but they disappeared on me. Mouselad, where are you?

I started a new online course from Setting Captives Free, The Lord's Table. I realized a need to get control over my eating habits (gluttony) before I become a mentor for SCF. Day 1 is today, so we'll see how it goes!

My 1st comic appearance

A few months ago, I got to meet Adam Withers & Comfort Love, a great husband/wife art team at Wizard World Chicago. I had been reading their comic, The Uniques, and got to talk with them for a while about the comic and art. They offered to put my family in the comic since they liked us (they have put a lot of their fans in the comic, actually, because they're cool like that!). We're the family in the last panel giving the police a statement. You should become a fan today, and maybe you can be in the comic, too. You can download it for only 99 cents and read the rest of the story.

Home alone 2

First, new art by me for Children of Light:

I used inkwash to do the tones, still experimenting with it. I think it came out OK, and set the mood I wanted. Below is the reference I used.


This is my last day home alone. I enjoyed the peace, and got some things done I wanted to do. I got to be selfish, I guess. Is that OK? I don't get to do that much. Friday I cleaned some for our open house Sunday, and watched Heroes that I missed last Monday. Saturday I cleaned some more, had to go to work for a couple hours, went to a comic shop in Cleveland, Carol & Johns, great shop! Brian Bendis used to go there! Also bought a few used CDs: Elastica, U2 (Atomic Bomb & Rattle & Hum)and Eurithmics greatest hits. Sunday I finished cleaning (yes our house was a mess), took Sushi for a 5-mile walk in the park trail, went to the thrift store and bought a few nice shirts, and finally sat down to do some art.

I made the awesomest dinner on Sunday! We had a pack of cheddar biscuits I made with a whole roll of sausage, and a few eggs. It was messy like something you'd get from a cheap diner (not because I'm a bad cook), and was excellent! I had it again today.

Home alone

My wife & kids are leaving for Indiana for the weekend to visit relatives. I'm not going because I've been having a bad season with allergies, and they're staying in a cat home. Not a cat house, that's something different...um, so I've been told...so yeah, that is a legitimate reason for not going. But it works out that I get a 4-day personal vacation to do what I want.

Any time I'm faced with time alone, I get all these grand plans of what I can do. I could go on a 100-mile hike, I could remodel the basement, I could work out for 10 hours a day and be ripped when they get home, I could watch all the movies I never get to watch, I could draw 40 pages of my comic, I could pray and read my Bible a lot, I could go to the Chinese buffet, and get so many plates I'm there for lunch and dinner, I could go on a road trip to comic stores I've never been to.

Then reality sets in. I do have some obligations while they're gone. I do have to work Friday and Monday. Sunday we have an open house, so I'll be doing the cleaning for that. I think I can manage a mix of all the things I want to do , in moderation. Hopefully I won't spend 75 hours watching TV!

Fasting- epilogue

Please, for the love of God, do not just eat whatever you want after a fast. Keep it light and raw, if possible.

That's all I have to say about that.

Fasting- day 3

Day 3 actually went pretty well. On the evening of day 2, I had a bad sneezing attack, and had to take medicine. I didn't want to, I was trying to keep my body "pure".

I got up feeling kinda weak, but energetic (hard to explain). We had donuts and sandwiches at work, and I managed to stay away. I took more time to pray and worship during the day. And in the afternoon, I had even more energy. I even had more energy into the evening and night, stayed up playing Wii with Sam until 10:30.

It was a good experience. Very hard, but good. It helped me realize I won't die if I don't eat as soon as I want something! I'm not sure if it gave me the desired results for my body. I was breathing better yesterday, but I'm sneezing more. Not sure which is worse.

Denying my flesh what it wants really does enhance my spirit, and brings me closer to God.

Fasting- day 2

Ok, day 2 is a bit harder than day 1. Late last night I wasn't too hungry, but I was longing for food, does that make sense? Had a little less energy today, have felt some lightheadedness, and am more sneezy than usual today. Haven't felt bad enough to stay home or anything. At least I'm not going through caffeine withdrawal again, we've been drinking decaf! I didn't pray or read my Bible as much as I should have. I did lose a couple more pounds in just 1 day! Probably because of no food in my digestive system.

I anticipate a difficult day 3, as we're having a lunch feast at work due to meetings all day. I'll have to hide out and pray or something while lunch is served!

Been enjoying the sounds of the Beach Boys, and you should, too, while it's still summer!

Fasting- day 1

I've never truly fasted before. I've skipped a meal occasionally, or given up a certain thing for a time. There's fasting for medical reasons, and Biblical reasons. I've tried for Biblical reasons before, to sacrifice something for God, to say no to my flesh. The Bible says to keep your fasting private, not to brag about it, showing how spiritual you can be. So why am I telling the whole interweb? Well, never did a proper fast before, and thought I should document the experience. I remain humble that I am the least of spiritual people.

I've been reading about reasons to fast medically (maybe medically is the wrong word, how about health fast), and I felt I could benefit. I've had asthma & allergies for many years, and was reading that a fast could even help allergies. Well, Ok, I'll give it a shot! I could use a fast for Godly reasons, too. Two birds with one stone, right?

So day 1 went much easier than expected. I'm only having water & apple juice (recommended). Before I get into the day, let me say I've been practicing different eating habits. I habitually overeat, always have, and carry a little extra weight, 20, 30 pounds. The only thing that has saved me from being more overweight is I've had pretty active jobs. So i was reading from Setting Captives Free about another course they have, The Lord's Table. It follows the same principles as the Freedom course I took, and is based on the fact that overeating is gluttony, a sin. I've been working hard this year to get as sin-free as possible, and found this to be an area I could use some improvement in. So I've been trying to eat only when I'm hungry, and then only enough to satisfy me. It's been working, I've lost over 10 pounds in a month or so!

So back to day 1. I was only hungry a few times, and when I was, I drank some juice. I had good energy all day long, and still feel pretty good, at 8PM here. At lunch time, I did some Bible reading, substituting spiritual food for physical food.

My top 5

There's a radio show called "Life & Lyrics" on my local indie radio station. L & L features someone of prominence in the community, and they talk about 5 songs that shaped their lives. I had been thinking what mine were for a couple weeks here, and here's my Life & Lyrics show:

Journey: Saparate Ways- This is pretty much the song that introduced me to rock music. I was maybe 11 or 12, my brother had a great stereo system in his room, and when he was gone, I would put on those giant headphones, put the record on (yes, this was a real vinyl record), and play it over & over. That whole album was great, and I still have it, on CD of course.

Guns & Roses: Sweet Child of Mine- I was about 17 & remember working nights at a supermarket when this song first came out, some guy made fun of it, and I thought it was annoying, too. Like a weed, that song grew & grew on me, and I became the rebellious, nice guy rocker, complete with a great big mullet! Like Jon Bon Jovi, but better looking!

dc talk: Jesus Freak- marks the end of my rebellious stage, ha! I became a Christian in 1991, and this song came out a few years later, but makes a good tranformation from sex, drugs & rock & roll to music that reflects my new life in Christ. I almost chose King's X: Faith, Hope, Love album, which was out around a few years earlier, I think, but Jesus Freak reflects where I was at more at the time. I was a new Christian, and hung out with very spiritual people.

Jars of Clay: Flood- Not much later, Jars debued with their groundbreaking album. It introduced me to folk rock, and on later Jars albums, americana, bluegrass and jazz. They remain one of my favorite bands, and I've loved every time I've seen them. they came to my church once, too! I got to prepare their coffee.

Jack Johnson & friends: A Broke Down Melody- This song rocks in the mellowest way possible! Jars helped me appreciate a whole new world of music, folk, blues, jazz, soul, so many new things. Jack's pretty popular now, but this is the kind of music I would have laughed at as a kid! This song is from a lesser-known album with some of jack's friends. My wife loves the beach, and is making me long for relaxing times near the ocean, hearing mellow tunes.

I really am working!

Here's proof:

But I did draw this many weeks ago. Um..the ink is new this week! I did decide to just work on open pages for Children of Light, and not just sit and wait for artists to come around. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the artists who've volunteered. Mostly I was waiting until my pages came up to actually work on them. Thought I could get ahead this wasy, and keeping busy is good for me.

Workin' and waitin'

I did some drawing for the 1st time in weeks today, felt pretty good. Usually I feel like this is what I was created for when I'm making comics! Hopefully someday I can do this all the time.

Why I haven't drawn is I've been doing a lot of editor-type stuff. Trying to get hold of guys working on Children of Light pages, organizing Timmy submission stuff, and generally waiting for people to get art back to me. It's teaching me patience.

Setting captives free 2: I don't care what you think.

The reason I'm so public about my former struggle with porn is to help people. Also, it helps keep me accountable, because people ask me about it, how I'm doing, and I can't lie to someone's face. I probably wouldn't lie to someone's back, either! So why risk public embarrassment to help people? So many guys have come up to me, and shared that they have or had similar suruggles, and I get a chance to talk and minister to them about it. Hopefully, I've been able to help some.

Porn addiction is considered "normal" in today's society, and almost acceptable. "Boys will be boys", after all. We were watching Borat last night (don't ask me why!) and there was a scene of Borat's friend masturbating to a cherished magazine. Hilarity did follow, but I was pretty shocked at the boldness of the scene. Porn addiction affected my life in a deep way for many years. Since I was 14, 15 earlier, I wasted countless hours seeking after my sin. Hours I could have spent in so many better ways, spending with family & friends, creating art, educating myself, learning about God. What a waste.

I wonder what people think of me sometime, knowing my "secret". Do they label me as a porn addict when they see me? Like when I see a mentally handicapped brother at church, I can't help to think about his disability. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." This is what I've studied lately. It says I'm a new creation, a new man, since being washed by the Lord Jesus. The guy that sought after porn constantly is gone. Oh, I'm not some robot that's programmed to only do the right thing, I'm gonna screw up occasionally. This is part of a recent study lesson: "If we are sinners who are trying to be good, we will inevitably fall. But, if we are saints who occasionally sin, our nature is such that we hate sin, and our habitual pattern of life will be to walk in righteousness." I used to be a sinner who tried to be good, and I did fail. I'm striving to be a righteous man in a sinful body.

So what I'm trying to say is, if someone wants to label or judge me, I don't care what you think. That guy isn't with us any more.

Setting captives free

Some of you know, some don't, that I had been a porn addict since I was old enough to know what it was. I'm 37 now, so that's a lot of years (too early for me to do the math!). For many of those years, I was a Christian, pretending to be a faithful follower, while living a double-minded life. I made a few public declarations of freedom at my church, but kept failing in my struggle.

My problem was, I tried to conquer sin under my own power. It just can't be done! The only key to being free from sin is TRUE repentance, which means turning from the sin, and turning toward God at the same time. I tried to do it for my glory, for selfish reasons like being a better Christian, husband, etc. Doing it for God's glory is the true way to freedom.

I had still been struggling with this sin until April of this year, when I discovered Setting Captives Free. It has free online courses designed to help you have permanent freedom from sexual sin, weight loss, homosexual lifestyle, and several other courses. You'll get a mentor that will work with you through the course. It's been a blessing in my life, as I've finally learned what it takes to be free from this sin! I feel closer to God than I ever have before! If you're a Christian, and there's any hint of sexual immorality in your life, even if you check out girls in their summer clothes, you need this course. If you don't know God, and you're into porn, you're hurting your relationship with your spouse, or future wife (for you single guys)! Don't kid yourselves, this is serious stuff! Please check it out, or ask me any questions you want to.

lazy Sunday

A pretty lazy day so far. Melissa is sick in bed, so I stuck the puppy outside, turned on shows for the kids, and vegged out reading comics (sorry, having a bad dad day). I got 3 of The First graphic novels from Crossgen, and was working my way through those.

I also updated my Comicspace page, to show the current pages, and buying info. I didn't realize I got a nice review back in 2005 from Comixpress. Kinda brightened my day!

This week, I'm gonna try to update my long-neglected Myspace account for the comic, as well as make a Facebook page, too. Can't beat free promotion!

Children of Light pages 22, 23

Art by Kris Diaz(some mature content).

Art by Bijoy Raveendran.

New music

Haven't been excited about much new music. You know how it is. Until yesterday, on World Cafe I heard The Ting Tings. Fantastic! Not my Name is one of those catchy tunes you can't get out of your head, like Mmmbop. Just kidding (not really)! If you threw Blondie, Gwen Stefani, and Gorillaz in one of those new band-mashing machines, this is what you'd get.

Another good one I came across yesterday is the new Def Leppard album, Songs from the Sparkle Lounge. Yeah, that's right, I said Def Leppard. Boy, back in the day I used to rock me some shredded jeans and t-shirt with an award-winning mullet. But I digress. I heard only some samples from the new album, and it has the most original sound from the band since Slang in the 90's. Classic Def Lep sound with modern influences. I've passed on the last few albums, but I'll be picking this one up.

Also worth noting is the new King's X: XV. I don't think it's their 15th album, though. I've loved these guys since the late 80's, but have missed buying the last couple albums. I think they put out like 2 albums a year or something. Anyway, the kings of progressive rock have another good one out!

New Children of Light pages 19-21

Art by Josh Shelton.


Art by Mark Melton.


Art by me.

Hey now! I've had these pages done for a while, thought I'd start posting them here as I finish. Pages 1-18 you can read on Megazeen's online comics page here. At the bottom of that page is a link to buy the previous comic from ChristianComics.net, pretty cheap, I promise. So that comic is #1, and the online comic will be #2 someday, maybe!

Write me an e-mail, and let me know what you think! I'd love to hear from you!

Am I smarter that a 5th grader?

Apparently not! I did my 1st teaching gig at chruch on Sunday, with the 4-5th grade class. We were trying to match a Bible person to the verse that talked about them. I didn't have a teacher guide, or a pencil, but I figured this was easy! Needless to say, the kids ended up correcting me on some of my matches!

If you'v ebeen following Children of Light over at Megazeen, sorry for the delay in new pages. I've had some ready to go, they just haven't been put up yet. Joey's a good guy, I think he's working hard on getting his book, Colossians, done. I understand, man!

Here's a pic of a monster from Bijoy Raveendran, upcoming CoL artist.

workin'

Upcoming preview for Children of Light. I spent like 5 hours on this today. That may be a new record! Inked the top 2 and bottom panel with a brush pen, then couldn't decide if I wanted to ink the big monster, or try something different. I took picture samples of ground and patched them all together to build the earth monster, then tweaked the shading to blend it better. I think it looks pretty cool! I need to finish shading for the inked panels, and good to go!

The Beatles: Love

Listened to this album today...awesome!!! When I picked it up, I thought it might be imitation Beatles from that show, but it was real Beatles songs, but somewhat remixed and blended together. Some songs were sped up, slowed down, instrumental pieces acted as intros or to splice 2 songs together. A great experience to a Beatles fan!

Children of Light- Paul

Paul Taylor was the first Children of Light character I created. It was in high school, I had made him for an art class project. At that time, he could transform into earth, air, fire or water on contact. I settled on him controlling the elements instead. He’s pretty much based on me. I think a lot of writers put part of themselves into their characters. I decided to go all the way and just make Paul me. Not all the details are the same, though. My parents are both alive. Poor writing? Maybe. Maybe not. I know James Robinson did it for Starman. So there!

Anyway, here’s a bio:
Paul James Taylor’s parents died when he was 12. He moved out of the city to live with his grandfather, who owns a large piece of land in the country. He graduated from High School, and works as a delivery driver. He wants to be an artist, but lacks motivation. He became a Christian after going through some troubled years after his parent’s deaths. He’s friends with some girls from his church, and made friends with Scott Barker while working together.
Age:18
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown
Heritage: Irish-German
Favorite drink: coffee. Has to be good, strong stuff. He's a coffee snob.
Talents: drawing and painting.
Pastime: reading comic books.
Powers: Paul has the ability to control earth, air, fire or water on contact. The upper limits of his ability aren’t known, but are limited by his confidence. Like all the Children of Light, Paul’s powers come from God, who gave them powers to fight demonic forces.

Hospitals

My poor wife was in the hospital last night. Kidney stones. 3rd time in 3 years. Ugh. It's a pain I never want to have, from what I can tell, but I would have taken it all on for her. The hospitals are very crowded lately around here. Flu is going around like crazy. I swear half the people I know are sick lately. My father-in-law has been in & out of the hospital the past few months for pneumonia, my brother is in with a bleeding ulcer, right after getting out for heart trouble, my grandpa was in with some nerve damage in his mouth, A co-worker's husband had a heart attack, another co-worker has colon problems. I decided to go to the doc on Friday to have the dreaded prostate check. Too much sickness, man! God protect my family and friends from sickness!

As if I didn't have enough of hospitals, here's a preview of the upcoming hospital scene from Children of Light by Mike Auban.

The Uniques!

My favorite new comic: The Uniques! Independently published by the husband & wife team of Adam Withers & Comfort Love, who are as unique a team as their creations. Adam & Comfort both wrote, drew & colored together on every panel in the book! I won't tell you much, except the art is stunning! Treat yourself for a measly 99cents, and download the comic over at www.uniquescomic.com
They also do a twice-weekly blog to show off their commission work and other neat stuff!

snowed in

Got a lotta snow in Akron yesterday, so I believe we'll be staying in! I'm going to stay in my pajamas until noon. That's what I love about Saturdays, my one day to be lazy, read comics, and be with my family. Doing some laundry, and gonna try to get some CoL work done today. I'm starting to pencil a new page further down the line, and need to fill out the script for later pages. There's a few guys who are waiting patiently for pages to do for me. I appreciate you guys!

Comics review: 52: 52 is a weekly comic series that fills in a missing year in the world of DC Comics. at the conclusion of a universe-shattering event (Infinite Crisis), all DC Comics jumped forward 1 year, aptly called One Year Later. It gave every DC title a fresh start, and in my opinion, a brilliant marketing move! 52 fills in this missing year, where Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are missing from the action.
I passed on the series when it came out, mostly due to the extra weekly cost. I'm now reading the paperback collections from the library, and am halfway through the year. With writing by 4 of comics top talents (Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, and Geoff Johns, this should have been a sure thing in my pull list! The series spotlights some of DC's lesser known heroes like The Question, Steel, Black Adam, Elongated Man, Booster Gold and policewoman Renee' Montoya. Quite a good read so far!

Waiting patiently for the next pages of Children of Light (love ya Joey!) in the meantime, here's his sketch of Kris, starring in his pages.

S-s-s-s-stutterin'

Have a new favorite song; Stuttering by Ben's Brother. You might have heard it in the new Dentine Ice commercial (or some type of gum like that). I think it's the only song using stuttering as a method of singing that I like. Bad to the Bone- George Thorogood-Hate it. Ain't seen Nothing Yet-BTO- Hate it. Shakin'-Eddie Money- Didn't hate it, but we thought he had a disability when we saw him sing, so I excused it. But something about this song is really good. Maybe it's the fact that the singer admits his stuttering problem in the song. I like his honesty. You be the judge!

Home with the kids for 2 days while Mom is in Indiana for a funeral. Hope to get some drawing done. You'll see it here first!

Comics review: Doom Patrol

Hey there! Thought I'd give an occasional review of favorite current & past comics I've liked. I don't buy many new comics anymore, so I've been reading things from my collection.

First up is Doom Patrol, volume 3 (2001). Written by John Arcudi & art by Tan Eng Huat. Doom Patrol began in the 60's by DC Comics. The deal was a group of misfits that became a family and beat on weird creatures. Robotman is Cliff Steele, former race car driver, whose brain survives in a robot shell after a racing crash. Elasti-Girl is Rita Farr, a model who gained the ability to change size. And pilot Larry Trainor became Negative Man, who contains an energy creature inside him while wrapped up like a mummy from head to toe. The Chief was their wheelchair bound leader genius, and somewhat manipulative and eccentric. After some adventures, they got blown up and died. But they got better (that's the norm for comics).

After a few different incarnations of the team, rich guy Thayer Jost decides he wants to buy a superteam. He gets the rights to the Doom Patrol name from Cliff Steele, who at the time is the only living member of the team. He recruits some new members: Kid Slick, slacker with a frictionless force field, Fever, excitable girl with heat & flame powers, Freak, who has a mysterious creature living within her, and Negative Man, pessimist A-hole who can see 1 minute into the future (yeah, that's it).

The book only lasted 22 issues, and I felt the story suffered from that. Some subplots were started, and then dropped as cancellation loomed to wrap up the series. Like what the thing inside Ava(Freak)was. And Ted pushed his powers so he could see further into the future, but that was dropped as well. The writing was good, however. Robotman's humanity was examined, and the tem's constant fighting (mostly started by Ted's attitude), made for an intereesting team dynamic.

The art was unique and I loved it. Similar to Manga, with cartoony characters with high amounts of detail in mechanical and background objects. You could see every nick and dent in Robotman's body, and he could look expressive at the same time. A treat was the 2 issues done by the late Seth Fischer (Fantastic 4 & Iron Man: Big in Japan). Tan is currently doing a Silver surfer project for Marvel I hope to check out.

At the end of the series, Cliff and the others went their separate ways. Robotman starred in the next DP series a few years later. I'd love to find out what happens to
the others, but just like in life, we never get to meet up with friends that go away.

No more car trouble!!! Please!!

Aah, glad I got that out of my system! Lets see, got car wrecked 2 Fridays ago, spent the weekend trying to find a reliable car for under $1200 (not as easy as it sounds), got locked out of the car while running last Friday, wouldn't start on Saturday, spent all day Sunday trying everything I could do & check in vain. Got it towed this morning to the garage, it turned out to be a tiny electrical connection. A $10 part cost me $200 in towing, diagnostic & repair. Poop. Could have been worse. I am blessed to be able to pay for another car so quckly.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow!

Listening to: Tobymac (portable sounds)
Reading: Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters by Meg Meeker, M.D.

Hey, haven't updated for a while! Still working on new Children of Light stuff, and Timmy the Killer Robot. You can see new CoL pages over at Megazeen. Still have pages coming in. There's some awesome art coming up soon!

Here's a sketch I did of the mountain creature the kids will be fighting later on!

Got my car wrecked on the way to work last Friday, someone hit me in my door going about 35 or so. Saturday all I had time for is last rites for my car, Sunday we drove around looking, only to find out no dealers are open during normal peoples' day's off. Today I had to call off work to look some more, took us like 2 hours to find this place we found online that had cheap cars. Settled on a '91 Olds Cutlass for $1100 had to wait 2 hours while they fixed something, come home. Whew! Glad that's over! Oh, wait, it's not! I forgot I have to go to court in a few weeks for the accident. i guess I was at fault or something. ugh.