101

These last few months I've been drawing a lot of this kind of stuff... cartoony faces, as goofy as possible. A lot of these were drawn on envelopes, work schedules, movie tickets and basically whatever scrap of paper I happened to have in front of me at the time. Alas, that also means that a lot of them are lost in the waste paper basket of life. But I saved some of my favorites, as seen above. I think in this age of information where everything is constantly archived and catalogued, it's probably a good idea to throw some crap away now and then...

100

So... post #100! Should be something special, to celebrate, right? Well, this is in color... that's pretty cool, right? And what could be more special than... Santa Claus... oh, just go with it...
This was a last-minute idea - drawing my own little adress tag for my Christmas presents last year. Colored with color pencils (instead of markers or computer colors) to give it a little bit of that appropriate, old-timey feel.
And speaking of color, scroll down to post #86 for a special update.

099

My pal Ida asked me to draw her something for christmas last year. So I did this little thing for her on the inside of a gift certificate envelope. I was going for kind of a fish-eye lens effect with the peace sign there, which I didn't quite pull off, but that's okay. She said it was "AWEsome", so what more could you ask?
As for the comics story I'm working on, I've now got three pages roughed out and fully scripted. Still a lot of work to be done, but it's progressing nicely so far, I must say. Hope to have the whole story roughed out by the end of the week. Fingers crossed!
Next post will be post #100!!! This should probably be celebrated somehow... Hmmm.

098

(click to enlarge)
My blog... neglected to an embarrassing degree. Oh well...
I'm working right now on a short comics story for this year's application to the Comics School of Malmö. I got almost two pages roughed out so far, and I expect it to clock in around seven pages total. I guess I'll post them here eventually. Hopefully sooner, rather than later. For now, though, I hope this will tide you over...
The above picture is the kitchen/break room at work, drawn over a series of evenings when I had next to nothing to do. Originally I was going to ink it and "color" it in greytones, but frankly I got bored with it. So this is as complete as it's gonna get.

097

Sorry, I'm not translating this one. Not worth it. But you can click the pic to see it in a readable size, as usual.

This one was also a sample for the Comics School. I decided to do a really text-heavy strip for some reason; I probably overdid it. Part of it was the ambition to do something very different from the Mystery Man pages. Part of it might have been that I'd just read about a year's worth of Martin Kellerman's Rocky strips, which are often pretty text-intensive.

096

(click the image to see it in a readable size)

Translation:

"Where am I?"

"This is your stop, sonny. If you're getting off, get off."

"What?"

"I stumble into town"

"You told me to make sure you get off at this stop."

"Oh. Okay."

"like a drunken clown"

"Sorry, but we're behind schedule as it is."

"(Why am I here?)"

Here's the second page of Mystery Man. I had the script done for another four pages, but with the artist's block I mentioned yesterday, I only managed to get these two done in time to send off as samples to the Comics School. I'd like to think I would've gotten in if I'd just had a few more pages in my portfolio. Three story pages was probably just not enough (Yes, there's another page coming tomorrow, but not part of Mystery Man).

Admittedly, there are some iffy parts here... The faces are kind of inconsistent, and I probably should've inked this with a brush instead of a pen. I can also see how people would find the captions a little mystifying. They're meant as a counterpoint to the main story, almost like the soundtrack to a movie. It was an unusual experiment, and with a few more pages to get used to it, I think it would've made more sense and been pretty cool. As it is, it just confuses things. Oh well. Better luck next year, right?

095

Earlier this year, I decided to apply for the Comics School of Malmö. This is one of the pages I sent as my "audition" samples. It had been quite a while since I had done any story pages, so for whatever reason, I had this enormous artist's block, and it took a really long time to get started.

About a week before the application deadline, I attended SPX09 - the Small Press eXpo - and got the chance to meet some of the Comics School's students, past and present. The charming and talented Frida Ulvegren made me realize just how much fun attending this school could be, and the very gifted Niklas Asker (debuting his graphic novel Second Thoughts) gave me a glimpse into what kind of future the school could lead to. Spurred on by this, I ended up drawing most of my samples in the week between SPX and the deadline.

094

Translation:
EVERYDAY CRUELTY #211
"No one will ever love you more than I love you right now..."
"(Shit! That's probably right! It's all downhill from here.)"

Like I said, unintentional cruelty = comedy gold.

093

Translation:

EVERYDAY CRUELTY #237

"What an awesome sunset! Damn shame you can't see it."

"(Asshole.)"

As I said before, these were random throwaway sketches drawn at work, done directly in ink with no pencils beforehand. Having said that, I'm pretty pleased with it. The body language (relaxed vs tense), the details (the cane and the dog explains the context without spelling it out) and the composition (the open space on the right side which seems to imply a sunset). I like it a lot. This all came together very nicely, I thought.

Also, I guess this is where I realized: unintentional cruelty = comedy.

092

Translation:
EVERYDAY CRUELTY #117
"Hey! Who took the last cereal and put the box back in the cupboard?"

Once again, categorizing the mean, petty things people do to each other is good for a laugh. But wow, that perspective is pretty weak... In my defense, this was done straight to inks, no pencil underdrawing, not even a preparatory sketch. But who cares, it was just a funny little gag to put up at the bulletin board at work. Until now.

091

Translation:

EVERYDAY CRUELTY #543

"I'm fat, you're stupid - I can diet! Ha ha!"

"He's right!"

Drawing while at work, just to pass the time... The tagline "Everyday Cruelty #543" is what made this a keeper. The notion that every possible act of cruelty had been (presumably scientifically) catalogued and assigned a numerical value cracked me up. There are more of these to come...

090

Oh hey, long time no see! Been a while, huh? Honestly, it's been so long I'd forgotten my login password... how embarrassing is that? Thankfully, I had it written down.

Anyway, I haven't been drawing much lately. And even that, I didn't even scan, much less post. But everytime someone asked me about my artwork, I'd be showing them this blog, and frankly I was getting sick of that subpar Green Lantern picture front and center. So I thought I'd put up some "new" stuff.

As you can see, this pic is dated November 2008, so it's not really new, is it? But I'll be putting up some stuff I'd drawn and haven't scanned, for a start, then maybe after that get started drawing new stuff again. Here's hoping.

Anyway, enough excuses. This one, I was just doodling, and came up with a decent pose, then couldn't figure out what character to draw on that pose. Not sure why I chose The Scarlet Scorpion - I don't have any affinity for the character. In fact, I've never even read a story with him; I'd just seen the character in an ad or something. But come to think of it, that's probably exactly why I chose him.

089

Looking at this, I decided that I really should stop doing so much feathering. Most of my favorite artists have very slick, elegant lines. Guys like Chris Sprouse, Mike Parobeck, Cory Walker etc. (If you're unfamiliar with those names, do yourself a favor and google them to see some awesome art). That's the direction I'd like my artwork to evolve in. I wonder if other artists have this problem - your natural art style being different from the kind of art you enjoy looking at? Hmmm.

088

A small one - actual size is about 8 cm tall (or 3 inches if you're so inclined). I drew it while watching TV.

087

Another obscure super-hero. This is Dynamo, of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. An interesting factoid about him is that he was named after one of his writers, Len Brown.

086

I felt like drawing a few forgotten super-heroes. This fella's Atoman. He appeared in two issues of his own comic in 1946.

UPDATE: Some brazilian guy "borrowed" this picture for his blog. It feels kinda weird being pirated. No hard feelings, although I would've appreciated if he had acknowledged that I drew it or, at least kept my signature on it, which he removed when he colored it.
This is what it looks like in color:

(click to enlarge)

085

084

083

Batman of the 2000s, after Jim Lee.

082

Batman of the 1990s, after Bruce Timm.