"MAGIC TILE LIQUIDATORS!" or "MAGIC TILE RIDE!"

Way back in CHARLATAN BALL ISSUE #2, Chuck and Caesar found themselves in a hooka-inspired, India-like landscape. I had an idea that didn't quite make it into the book of Chuck purchasing a flying magic "tile", instead of the typical magic carpet. I wanted it to be like a carpet or tile liquidators warehouse. But, the book being 18 pages, this little tangent didn't make the cut. What ELSE didn't make the cut? These development sketches for that issue inside the CHARLATAN BALL TRADE PAPERBACK, finally available for sale the week of San Diego Comic Con! These would've been fun to see in there, but truth be told, we had so many sketches, roughs and other special treats just for the TPB, so I thought I'd share these here.

But what you should be asking yourself is: "if THESE didn't make it in, then what DID?!"

NEW GODS!

Or is it the Old Ones, now? Pre "Final Crisis", pre "Death of the..." Either way, here's more commission fun with this one! Here's the rough...
And final...


I'm glad Quinton and I share the same affection for Orion's mutilated face!

BEST. CROSSOVER. EVER.

Those of you that know me, know I like my afternoon "stories"...and have a penchant for armchair bidding on The Price is Right. Even when I had a job, I didn't let a little thing like employment get in the way of getting caught up on who attempted to kill who, who slept with whom, who was possessed by the devil--and how much Gold's Medicated Foot Powder cost in 1998 versus a V8 juice in 2009.
That being said, and being an avid comic book fan, collector and creator--the best crossover event of the year wasn't Civil War, Secret Invasion or Dark Reign--it's not even Final Crisis or Blackest Night...it happened last week on the Price is Right and The Bold and the Beautiful! Behold--and beware, Galactus, eater of worlds...

Do you think he won some cheese with that "brand new caaaaarrrr!!!"?

NO MORE BLOCK PARTY...

That's it. Wrapping up with issue number 58, there will no longer be any MY GYM PARTNER IS A MONKEY in Cartoon Network's Block Party title from DC Comics. I actually completed this final 8-pager last year. It was such a blast and I'm going to miss drawing these characters so much. It was also one of those rare times when the actual creators of the animated series were "allowed" to write for the adaptation! In this case, Tim and Julie Cahill--as well as story editor Tom Sheppard. Such. A. Blast.

Sigh.

But check out this BILL WRAY COVER! Incredible!


And here are a couple of my original pencil pages from this issue:
Page one.
Page four above was a "mad scientist" montage.

I was really happy with how much I pushed the squash-n-stretch with the characters in page six (above). Sometimes, when given model sheets for these things, the tendency is to remain so faithful the character's stay somewhat stiff and immovable. So I was happy I pushed it a bit.

Page seven: KIRBY crackle!

And the final panel of the final Gym Partner story, page eight..."Goodbye CDMS".

Sniff.

Thanks Tim and Julie and Tom and Dan Davis and especially, the best editor in the whole wide world of comicdom: Liz Gehrlein!

SOME EARLY DEVELOPMENT...

I can't tell you what this is just yet...other than it'll be brought to you by the same guys that did CHARLATAN BALL...


More to come.

BIG EVIL IN TINY PACKAGES...

The little one will tear you apart. Seriously. F--- you up.

"A BRAVE & BOLD...COMMISSION"

For those of you that forgot my recent post, I've been accepting commissions. This has been a really fun, low-pressure way to draw some of my--and your favorite characters without being limited by a storyline or panel breakdowns.

More commission information can be found HERE.

Thanks Van, this was a fun one!

"CHARLATAN BALL'S CAESAR IN BATMAN BRAVE & THE BOLD!?"

Truth be told, there really is only a certain number of ways you can design a "mutant Easter bunny", but my ego would like to think it wasn't just coincidence. This was, by far, one of the best episodes.

Check it out! The Calender King's creations...and Chuck Amok's sidekick:

"DID SOMEONE (Steve Lambe) SAY 'MORE ZOMBIES'?!?"

Here's a few more...now watch the episode to compare!



At a certain point, the three of us found a "formula" for the ghouls designs. Since there were so many to draw, you might be able to catch repeating head-shapes, etc. My favorite implements were the Eerie Comics-style hands and feet!

ZOMBIES!!!

Back from a nice vacation; thanks for asking. I'll post some drawings of my sunburn later, but first, one of my favorite Samurai Jack Episodes I designed on was Episode #30 (I think)--the Graveyard/ZOMBIE eps.! I believe this was one of the first ones Jim Smith worked on as well, which was a real treat to work with one of my then heroes. I also loved any episode that I got to commiserate/work with fellow newbie/non-CalArt's alumn/outsider Shakeh Haghnazarian. Man, that chick could design like nobody's business! Like I had previously posted: having gone through my boxes of drawings and miscellaneous doodles for MY SKETCHBOOK, I had scanned a few from the stacks and piles. Here are a couple of my favorites...
Like some other designers I know, I actually enjoy drawing crowd scenes. I don't know, some of us either love it or loath it. Maybe it depends on the show, or workload--but I think for me it was the challenge of piecing together shapes; trying to make things fit and read. It can be a Tetris-like puzzle, but when it works, it works. Speaking of, I had a tendency to overwork a lot of crowds on Genndy's shows--eventually learning to simplify even more, liquidating the design shapes to even more recognizable quick-reads. Plus, I ran out of time! hahaha

"I WAS DRAWING THESE WHILE TALKING TO YOU."

I guess if the last post was "strong", then this would be categorized as a "weak" drawing. Doodles, really. More to the point, phone doodles. I always seem to slip into just drawing heads.

IT'S BEEN AWHILE SINCE I'VE POSTED...

...anything "STRONG". Or from Charlatan Ball. Here's both.
He's not The Hulk, he's not The Thing...he's THUNK! And he will break you.

"SPEAKING OF THE CIRCUS..."

I'm in the middle of putting together a flier for a friend's graduation (a pedestrian task for anyone more or less skilled with assembling via photoshop; a Herculean ordeal for my limited knowledge, but I love putting these things together), and had scanned some images from one of my favorite books: "The American Circus: Wild, Weird and Wonderful 1901-1927".


I love how utterly depressed everyone looks.

"SPEAKING OF CIRCUS PEANUTS..."

I recently dug these designs for my first pilot, CIRCUS PEANUT. It was my first foray into Flash animation and Eric Pringle, Matt Danner and Aaron Simpson taught me how to break everything down onto separate layers and so forth. It should be noted that this was Flash, if not in it's infancy, then it's toddler years. Per the design aesthetic, I'm more or less happy with what I came up with at the time, though I suppose had I drawn these now, I'd definitely push some more appealing shapes and features.

BUY THIS ALBUM!

I couldn't be happier to see the growing success of my very good friend and occasional collaborator, SHAUN CROMWELL. For those of you who happened to see my very first foray into animation pilots, Shaun did the rootsy score for CIRCUS PEANUT. Since then, he's worked on other movies, TV shows and currently headlining folk festivals around the country. Aside from painting this CD cover and designing with Charlatan Ball co-collaborator Ben Kalina, the music itself is some of the most sophisticated, introspective and whimsical songs I've ever heard. Listen to some of the tracks on his site or ORDER THE ALBUM FROM HERE.

Check out this video...

COMMISSIONS!

Recently I've been getting quite a few email requests for commissions. Not having considered it before, I took this one on as a test and discovered I really enjoyed it. If you'd also like a piece of original art like this, go ahead and let me know!
MY COMMISSION RATES are as follows:
LARGE B&W--11"x14" (on comic page; as shown above) is $100 for a single character, $50 for every character after that.
SMALL B&W and SOME COLOR--8.5"x11" (on comic book backing board; like the ones I send out with my tees and books) is $50, usually only one character.

Your best bet is to allow me to let my imagination loose, but won't think less of you if you ask me for a specific character! hahaha

All money is in USD; payable to my PAYPAL ACCOUNT. I'm still figuring out what shipping will be and the best way to ship. Feel free to contact me with questions and hopefully your requests: andy@bighairproductions.com

ALSO: If there's a particular ORIGINAL COMIC BOOK PAGE of mine you'd like to hang on your wall or use as a place matte; let me know. I'll try and post about this soon. In the meantime, sift through your issues of CN BLOCKPARTY, BATMAN: BRAVE & THE BOLD and CHARLATAN BALL to pick out which pages you want!

Thanks!
A

"SPEAKING OF KIRBY..."

I recently saw THIS during my ritual-like scanning of Ebay for Jack Kirby original pages (that I cannot afford, mind you--but fulfills my need for self-afflicted abuse!). This apparently is being billed as a Kirby penciled cover for The Phantom. I haven't investigated further to find out if it's valid.
Whether this is true or not; I really love the design of the dwarf! And that four-armed chick...I'm guessing she'll seep into my not-so-subtle subconscious and appear in Season 2 of Charlatan Ball.