PART 3: "Where's My Gas Money!?"

At this point in the story, a dejected Dynamite sulks over a cup of joe, at a coffee joint directly next to the battle site. I intercut scenes of the battles with Dynamite spiraling towards a breakdown.

PART 2: "CAN'T TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW..."

Change is hard for Dynamite Jones...(and even harder for others!)...


As you can see, the story became a super hero parody; which ultimately was it's kiss of death. "We've all seen it before". It's true, we have.

The main through line of the piece was the father/son relationship between Dynamite and his son. I tried to inject as much "heart" as possible.

PART 1: DYNAMITE! STORYBOARDS...

HAPPY 2009 EVERYBODY! Hope you all had happy, healthy, holidays.

I recently collected a few storyboard pages from the recently failed DYNAMITE JONES! pitch. I'll put up a few sequences so you can get an idea of the tone of the proposed show.

The two pages below are at the top of the story. Dynamite runs a "Hire a Hero" shop, as you can see, not-just delegated to bodyguard work or fighting bad guys...


...it was at THIS point (5 pages in), it was suggested I should have continued to pursue this storyline, that of having Dynamite service, er, the old lady's gutters--and not, as was previously decided, outlined and revised 3 times, follow the original plan of driving his son to the "Long Hall of Supers" for his first day on the "Super League of Supers"...which I had done...for about 300 more subsequent storyboard pages later. And not well-executed or funny storyboarded pages either! Ugh.

...and looking back, pursuing that tangent definitely would've made for a funnier cartoon. No question. I'd like to do that short someday.

At this point of the opening, I wanted to showcase Dynamite's only power--his "chain-breaking-strength", along with his soft-spot for helping those in need as well as illuminating his popularity of 30+ years ago; demonstrated here by busting open his large book of i.o.u.'s...

MANNY TRIED.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, STEVE AUSTIN!

This image was sent to me by my good friend Michelle. She's got even more bizarre (i.e. Incredible) displays of Xmas imagery and album covers at her blog, Tiny Picnic.

Have a six million dollar Christmas and New Year, everybody!

SLEEP TETRIS

I GOT A CINTIQ!!!

So a couple months back, for my birthday, my friend and fellow collaborator BEN KALINA came over carrying a box, nay, THE box I've yearned for-- for nearly three years. A Cintiq. For me. On my birthday. I thought: "Either Titmouse is paying better than I thought, or Ben stole that sucker before he left WB!".
His possible impending arrest aside, I giddily accepted the gift and ceremoniously laid it out on my dining room table to open...
To reveal a pixel-based drawing apparatus of SOME kind...just not the one I had thought. Nestled inside and carefully wrapped, the what I thought was an inappropriately priced gift (or stolen) piece of technology I was receiving was instead a Fisher-Price "Doodle Pro"!? I'm not sure what mixture and combinations of surprise, humility, laughter, heartbreak and confusion betrayed on my face--but I was utterly impressed at the amount of creativity that went into getting me disappointed opening up a present (my parents seem to do it every year without a fraction of the thought! haha)--and being humbled that I completely disregarded my own common sense that the box was light as a feather (I thought it might've been a new model!). Ben even included installing instructions and mounting brackets!
The bastard.

I LIKE SUPER HEROES!

...though I'm not a fan of the show, "Heroes". Loathe it, actually. Tim Kring thinks superheroes are dumb and has no respect for the medium and merely attached himself to a fad. I'll say it: I like spandex. Don't get me wrong, I love 100 Bullets' crime noir, sci-fi and I'm awestruck by Jordi Bernet each month in DC's western, Jonah Hex--hell, I even love a darker, grittier, "real-life" take on The Punisher. I dig comedy and indies. But reading Marvel's recent mini (maxi?)-series Secret Invasion reminded me of the late '80's, riding my bike up to Dave's Comix to buy the latest Secret War. I like Daredevil having lady troubles, nervous breakdowns and his annual disbarment--but I also love seeing him in his red tights, kicking ass in Josie's Bar and shaking down Turk, the low-level, lowlife and snitch. Homoerotic undertones? Maybe. Latent homosexuality masked BY masks, muscles and musical-like choreographed fights? Probably. But I'll take it. I say, put Luke Cage back in his yellow satin shirt and tiara! You know you want it.

I've always wanted to do a DEMON series...
Jason Blood was one of my favorite Kirby characters. Even visually, his blood-red hair and white streak--so, so cool.

Here's a couple of 'love-letters' to Rick Remender. FEAR AGENT is a super fun read, with a great anti-hero, "Heath Huston".
And you should buy THE END LEAGUE on concept alone...

I did the next few sketches awhile back. One of my first posts was about Gene Colan's DOCTOR STRANGE. He's one of my favorite characters--totally underused in my opinion . I can't remember if I've already posted this Martian Manhunter before. I did this a year or two ago. Sometime's I get disappointed by the lack of "design"--especially in Team-Up books. If you got a big brawler dude on the team, give him some weight, mass, etc.

Oh well. I had fun drawing these. Superheroes. Sigh.

KIDS AND ROCKETS...

I had another pitch for this project the other day. It's been 3 or more years in various stages and to be honest, felt like talked to death--so I decided to update a few drawings and sort of re-energize any interest I had. It worked, sort of. Even in the room, during our song and dance, something felt missing--you know, that one, key element that ties it all up in a neat, nice bow? That one sentence, X-ingredient that makes all good ideas great. It wasn't until I was driving home (!) from the meeting that I had the epiphany of what that was.

These drawings were done very quickly (like all my marker comps) and don't reflect that dramatic change yet (I'm not that trusting!)--but thought they were safe enough to share.


I like the texture I got on the big alien dude.

(2) ART (4 T.V.) SHOW IN NEW YORK!!!

THIS FRIDAY!

Too Art for TV 3
New York's 3rd Annual Fine Art Exhibit for the Animation Industry

Opening reception Friday, December 5th, 6pm-9pm
December 5th through December 15th, 2008

at Erebuni 158 Roebling St. Williamsburg, NY 11211

Check out more info HERE.

I'm so excited to be part of this show--and to be able to make a short trip out to the city (I wished I moved to). If you or someone you know lives there, stop by! If you have any suggestions of cool comics shops to stop at, please let me know: I'll be needing to pick up my copy of CHARLATAN BALL in NY, since I'll spend "new comics day" on a plane.

CORRECTION: ON SALE (THURSDAY) DECEMBER 4th!!!

CHARLATAN BALL #5 hits the shelves this week, (because of the holiday) Thursday, December 4th! Go buy some!!

Here's what you'll see...



And what you won't...


What you would see if your eyes are unable to see in the spectrum of colors...



And what you would see if you have a Time Machine...

"GREETINGS FROM THE FUTURE!"

Where apparently we all have tumors that look like our mate's face growing out of our heads.

I love Epcot!

TRANSIT

Aside for the state of my life right now, it's also an amazing book by TED MCKEEVER!



This digest-sized hardcover just came out from IMAGE Comics last week. It collects the first 5 issues of this cutting edge, "underground" comic from over a few decades ago, believe it or not--PLUS a final 6th chapter in the story. To say he was and is a huge influence on me is an understatement. I'm so looking forward to the subsequent collected EDDIE CURRENT and METROPOL. Does anyone know if PLASTIC FORKS will be in this batch as well??

I know you might not be able to tell from the way my work looks now, but there was a time I tried to emulate this style in every way. I almost got a tattoo of one of his images (but my friend who was getting inked in front of me passed out. Needless to say I then declined one of my own--but that's a story for another day). Even if you are a fan of more mainstream books, treat yourself to these collected volumes. They're definitely worth it!

A few months back, the beautiful Miss Mandy Amano and her beau, Mr. David Mack were doing a signing with Ted McKeever at Golden Apple Comics on Melrose. I told Mandy I was a FREAK for him and she asked him to sketch me something!
It's NUN and EDDIE CURRENT (mysteriously shrouded in shadow)! Characters of his that pop up throughout nearly all his work! They introduced me and instead of him being the surly old English chap I expected, he was an extremely nice, energetic, smiley, hip, NY-Italian dude! I was floored!! (sort of reminded me of Stephen DeStefano).

Ahh. Suddenly I was 15 again...