Icky Ricky

While working on Fangbone, I've also been planning another series called "Icky Ricky." Random House will be publishing the books, and they are basically my answer to "Fancy Nancy," however, they are not parodies. This image is for the first book's cover. It's the first non-digitally colored piece I've done since 1997, and I'm really anxious about it. I wanted it to look loose, but not sloppy. I initially tried a photoshop colored version, but the whole "icky" thing didn't really come off too well. There's much more to the cover than this, and hopefully I can show that soon.

Astronaut #13

Wow. It's been over a year since I did my last astronaut. I hadn't planned this for the series, but it fits in well. This is a sketch of an idea that I have for a picture book. When I'm at this stage in developing a story, I like to do a quick piece of art to give me a concrete idea of what I am working on. I hope to do a "finish" of this soon.

A joke cut from Fangbone #3

One of the hardest things about writing a book like Fangbone is cutting gags that I love. This is one that was taken out at the very last minute because we needed to add some information that was important to the plot. And while I love this bit, I was worried that kids wouldn't know what a boil is, and the the whole joke would flop. Hopefully I can use this bit in the future.

The last few panels are blurry because they are still in the book and I don't want them spoiled.

Bad Bill Bill

Sometimes when I have an idea for a story, I like to do a quick drawing of a character from the story so that I can make the image in my head more concrete. While this may look like a finished piece of art, it was only about 2 hours work so I consider it a sketch. I'm pretty happy with it, but it really is a first draft of an idea that can go much further. I also wanted to try a style that was much more bold and stripped down than I usually do. As far as specifics go, it was hand drawn with a brush pen, and color added in Photoshop.

The story is a western that features a bunch of fowl, and as I was drawing this bad guy a name for him came up..."Bad Bill Bill."