Optical Disillusions

I RULE THE NIGHT returns

2011-09-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

And for the occasion, some pencil pages from Chapter 3 & 4.

Superman

2011-07-26T07:12:00.000-07:00

A Clockwork Orange

2011-05-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, like most comic creators, I'm asked the question "If you could do your dream project, what would it be?" For me, the answer is easy: for many years now, I've wanted to adapt Anthony Burgess' classic novel A Clockwork Orange into comics form.

I'm not entirely sure why; I'm also a big fan of Stanley Kubrick's work, and no one could successfully argue that his iconic film adaptation is in need of improvement. Maybe I just like a good challenge. In any case, during the summer of 2009, I found myself dealing with a major family crisis and in need of something to keep my mind occupied during long interstate train rides and otherwise insanity-inducing idle time at my destination, and the one thing I found that could occupy mind enough was this long-dormant idea.

So I grabbed a fresh copy of the book, pulled out my trusty legal pads, and before long, I had pushed, pulled and trimmed the story into a complete 150-page comic script. Later on that year (crisis passed, thankfully) I took some time to work up a few pages as a proof-of-concept proposal.

Over the last two years, a number of friends and colleagues have seen these, but for a variety of reasons I've kept them from public view. But it seems like now is the time to set them loose.

Grimm's Fairy Tales - process peek

2011-04-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

Grimm's Fairy Tales v2

2011-04-05T06:48:00.000-07:00

Rough from yesterday's batch for Grimm's v2.

The Art of Fishtown - Gallery Show

2011-01-18T07:28:00.000-08:00

THE ART OF FISHTOWN

Saturday, February 12, 2011

South Philly Comics

1621 E Passyunk Ave.

Philadelphia PA 19148

(267) 318-7855

A rare gallery showing of selected artwork from the Eisner Award-nominated graphic novel Fishtown by Kevin Colden, Saturday February 12th at 6pm.

I Rule the Night - on the table

2010-11-09T07:30:00.000-08:00

Home stretch. What goes on?

More on STRANGLE/SWITCH

2010-11-01T06:37:00.000-07:00

In the interest of saving time and being prepared, I try to work as far ahead as possible on any given project. Even though S/S was an eight-page pitch, I had initially planned to finish it on ACT-I-VATE, and in the interest of expediting that, I had written an additional 12 pages of script.

More than that, I decided to rework the entire beginning, in traditional comic proportions. After the cut is the script and the VERY NSFW (serious nudity) reworked pages.

So, as I mentioned last week, Geoff's niece Jenny arrives to live with him, and immediately discovers his fixation on a Hannah Montana-like pop singer named Lola Belle, who's about 10 years old. There was going to be a very uncomfortable sub-plot involving Geoff becoming romantically involved with Lola as his fame and power grows, with the catch being that Lola is really in her 30's. She takes advantage of a growth-hormone deficiency to make gobs of money pretending to be a child prodigy.

When I needed to figure out where I Rule the Night was headed, I cannibalized the perpetual child angle for the Lainey Lord character. I think I made the right choice there.

We also didn't have a chance to get in to the root of Geoff's bizarre way of speaking, which is commonly a symptom of schizophrenia called echolalia. It was set up to subtly imply that the more magical elements of the comic might be his delusions as opposed to reality.

Upon re-reading this script I see that the character of Jenny is a little too close to the character of Angelica in Fishtown for my comfort, and I think I realized that at the time. In fact, I likely killed the entire project because of that. Who wants to repeat themselves?

Without further ado, script for pages 9-20 of Strangle/Switch mk1:

PAGE 9

Geoff’s head whips around.

CAPTION
Is that real?

He puts his hand on the knob and opens the door. Standing there is Jenny, smiling, a guitar bag slung over her shoulder

CAPTION
Who the hell is she?

GEOFF
Who the hell are you?

GEOFF
I’m Jenny, your niece. Why are
you repeating yourself?

CU Geoff’s startled eyes.

PAGE 10

CAPTION
Upper Darby, PA.
2 Months ago.

We are on a high school campus, near a dirt track. Jenny is sitting on the bleachers smoking a joint with her friend Rob.She has her guitar next to her, an acoustic, out of its case.

JENNY
Jesus, where did you get this shit?

ROB
S.good, right?

PAGE 11

JENNY
No, it’s fucking awful.

She coughs and passes it back to him.

ROB
If you don’t want to pay for it, don’t bitch about it.

JENNY
Fair enough.

She takes another hit.

JENNY
Let’s fuck.

PAGE 12
Jenny and Rob are having sex in the woods behind the bleachers. She is on top of him, holding her guitar behind her neck as she leans back. She’s more experienced than him.

They lay next to each other briefly. Jenny gets up, puts on her clothes and walks away.

ROB
Is that it? No snuggling?

She smirks at him and walks away.

PAGE 13
Jenny is at her locker. The school day is just beginning. A voice comes up from behind her.

MARLA (off-panel)
Have you accepted Jesus as your lord and savior yet?

Marla is a mousey-looking girl wearing a large cross and an eyepatch.

JENNY
Thanks for your concern, Marla, but no, I haven’t.

MARLA
It’s never too late, you know.

JENNY
I know. We go over this every morning.

JENNY
You ask if I’ve found Jesus, I tell you to go fu-

Marla suddenly grabs Jenny’s arm.

PAGE 14

We see that Marla now has sharp teeth and a long tongue like the man in the bar that met Geoff.

MARLA
You’re going to hell, Jenny. I’m trying to save you.

Jenny recoils a little, but shakes off Marla’s grip.

JENNY
Listen, it’s been real, but I gotta go.

Jenny walks away muttering under her breath.

JENNY
Freak.

PAGE 15

Jenny is sitting in study hall, falling asleep. The minutes pass slowly. We see a tall man walk over and stand over her in silhouette.

MAN
Jennifer Angela Blake?

Jenny wakes up.

JENNY
Yeah?

The man shows her a badge.

MAN
You’re under arrest for breaking and entrering.

JENNY
Shit.

PAGE 16

Cut back to Geoff’s apartment in the present day.

CAPTION
She can read my thoughts!

GEOFF
My thoughts.

Jenny smiles.

JENNY
No, I can’t. You’re not thinking, You’re muttering under your breath.

JENNY
And you keep repeating yourself.

She pushes her way into her apartment.

JENNY
Mom sent me here after I got arrested. She said you were
a little fucked up, but I didn’t think she meant this fu-

She sees the pictures plastered all over the walls.

JENNY
Holy shit.

JENNY
Now that’s fucked up.

PAGE 17

Jenny puts down her bag and guitar. She’s transfixed by the photos, which all seem to be of the same girl.

JENNY
Holy Christ, Geoff. Obsessed much?

She looks at a headshot of Lola Belle. She’s a little unnerved.

JENNY
Are you a kid toucher?

PAGE 18

GEOFF
Kid toucher! I’m not a kid toucher!

JENNY
Well, you certainly do like this one kid a lot. Like
creepy a lot. Lola Belle.

GEOFF
Lola Belle.

JENNY
Well, she’s kinda everywhere lately, so I
guess a lot of people like her.

GEOFF
People like her. I just like her... music.

JENNY
Right...

PAGE 19

JENNY
I’d respect you more if you wanted to fuck her little
12-year-old bean body than listen to that shit she sings.

GEOFF
Not shit she sings.

JENNY
Whatever.

-BEAT-

JENNY
Aren’t you a musician?

PAGE 20

Geoff grabs his guitar.

GEOFF
Yeah. I need a new guitar.

JENNY
New guitar?

GEOFF
New guitar?

-BEAT-

JENNY
Jesus, you’re a goddamn mess.

She picks up the Moira guitar store card.

JENNY
Well, I know what we’re doing tomorrow. Got any scotch?

---------

Now, until the advent of the iPad, I was never really into the 4:3 format for comics. There, I said it. I don't really enjoy reading printed books in that format (and print was sort of the ultimate goal at the time I initially drew this), and I find it way more difficult to lay out pages for the widescreen dimensions. I like using lots of thin panels to delineate moments in time, and the page just doesn't break up very easily in to small, skinny rectangles when it's that wide. I've learned to adapt, but generally, I still prefer the traditional proportion.

So, when it became clear that S/S wasn't going to picked up by Zuda, I reworked the beginning to be more of a slow build, and changed the format to the traditional page proportion.

What follows is the somewhat more obtuse, somewhat racy new opening for the project. It begins at the end, with the corpses of our protagonists, killed violently in differing circumstances. There was some symbolic point to the uncomfortable nudity, but I can't remember what it was at this point. It was supposed to invoke a feeling of vulnerability and the two images were intended to invoke some sort of yin/yang symmetry.

Bear in mind, some of the pages are unfinished, and none of the voiceover-heavy text is included. Also, there were two more pages penciled, but I never scanned them, and they have been lost in the vortex of my finished-art cabinet, possibly never to return.

Note also, that I re-purposed the entire figure from page 2 for Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper as the iconic cover to issue #1, as well as the trade collection.

STRANGLE/SWITCH

2010-10-25T06:07:00.000-07:00

Re-presenting my first foray into the Zuda Comics competition, Strangle/Switch. The basic premise of this story was: a schizophrenic musician named Geoff finds a guitar that gives him the power to kill people and was essentially a take on Faust. Simple enough, right?

When I was 17, having grown up in the "grunge rock" era, I was looking for the nastiest sounding electric guitar I could find. Anyone who knows anything about electric guitars will tell you that the most abrasive guitar you can buy is a Mosrite, but close second is the much cooler-looking Fender Jaguar.

The Jaguar was designed specifically to play surf-rock (think Dick Dale or Link Wray), and has a skull-splittingly high tone due to its distinct, ultra-thin single coil pickups. There are also a number of confusing switches on the guitar body that turn the different pickup configurations on and off to change the tone. If the screechy, high-pitched standard sound of this guitar wasn't enough to make your ears bleed, there's a high-pass filter switch that will drop out all of the low frequencies and make it sound like you're scraping a frying pan with a garrote.

It is popularly known as the "strangle switch". And it lives up to its name. In all the years I've owned this particular guitar, I've never found an actual use for that damned switch. It doesn't sound good on stage, it records like shit, and always seemed like no one in their right mind would ever need or want to use it. So I though to myself "Maybe it's REAL use is to conjure demons." When I needed a good idea to submit to the Zuda folks, this was what came up in the one-armed bandit of my idea mill.

Needless to say, I never got beyond this initial 8 pages. Well, that's not entirely true - THIS VERSION never got beyond 8 pages (more on that later), though I had a rough idea of where the story was going to go - Geoff's juvenile delinquent niece was going to come live with him, become his partner in crime, and they were both going to have some kind of reckoning in the end. In a nice bit of synergy, I was able to utilize some major elements from my original ending of Strangle/Switch for the ending of I Rule the Night, bringing the whole Zuda creative experience full-circle for me.

Will this ever be finished? Likely not. But you never know. For now, I hope you enjoy the piece in its original form, and if you like it, drop some coin in the till by hitting the PayPal Donate button over to right.

Baby With A F*cking Mohawk - coming 2011

2010-10-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

Heads Up Display LP available now!

2010-10-20T07:19:00.000-07:00

As many of my comic book cohorts know, I lead a double life. I'm not a cartooning mastermind chained to my drawing all of the time, suffering alone in my garret apartment. In reality, I've also been a musician for over 20 years, and for the last three, I've been the drummer in Heads Up Display.

Our new, eponymous LP produced by General George Fullan (Action Action, Taking Back Sunday) is now available exclusively at http://headsupdisplay.bandcamp.com/ along with our two previous EP's.

The EP's are already available on iTunes, but if you purchase the records on Bandcamp, there may be some unlisted bonus material that will automatically download with the record proper.

Enjoy.

I Rule the Night

2010-10-19T07:37:00.000-07:00

What I'm working on today - nearing completion of I Rule the Night. Here is a small panel from the end of season 3 - and yes, it's in full, bright technicolor.

The Question - Classic

2010-10-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

Warmup sketch of the classic Vic Sage Question. Are you detecting a theme? I am.

M.O.D.O.K.

2010-09-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

I've been seriously busy with deadline stuff and publisher upheavals lately, so it's been quite some time since I've drawn something I can post. So here's a M.O.D.O.K. I drew for myself at Baltimore Comic Con.

Beware the Creeper

2010-08-26T12:50:00.001-07:00

The Question

2010-08-26T10:55:00.000-07:00

In stark black and white, naturally.

Grimm's Fairy Tales

2010-08-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned before, IDW is releasing an edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales, illustrated by me. It's very much not for kids. Cover and interior plates:

Green Goblin

2010-08-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

Guest appearance by some other guy.

From the archives....

2010-08-13T13:59:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, a director friend of mine asked me to do some designs for a film he was making about a killer Filipino demon baby.

Seriously.

A Filipino demon baby that eats people. It's actually a real legend, I think. Anyway, here's some concept art.

Nightcrawler

2010-08-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

Rocketeer

2010-08-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

Hello again.

2010-08-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

It's been quite some time since I've blogged with any semblance of regularity. The old blog was on Live Journal and I used it a lot when I was posting with ACT-I-VATE, but I got spoilt by Twitter over the past few years. Damn you, Twitter.

Lately, I've been doing a lot of one-off pieces and posting them on Twitter and Facebook, and will continue to do that, but I figure this is a better venue for that sort of thing.

In the interest of keeping people entertained, I will also be re-running older works from The Chemistry Set that have since fallen into the ether, as well as never-before-published sample art, pitches, REALLY old work from before I knew how to draw, and the like.

Assuming I don't get too distracted, I'll update this at least once a week with new drawings, and once I start running stories, I'll do that several times a week.

This could get interesting. It could be embarrassing. But at least it'll be fun, right?

And for our inagural post...

2010-08-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham from June.