Todd Klein's Blog, page 376

Backyard Nature

A few pics from the last two weeks, from the front yard as well as the back. This is a small dragonfly, one of two living around our pond. It's a Blue Dasher, and it does dash about over the water frequently. Can't really see it here, but the head is iridescent green with white spots.

Also in the pond are a few Bullfrogs. I like this view of one among the lily pads, watching me watch him.

This much smaller frog is from the front yard, quite far from the pond, so I at first assumed it was a...

Bathing Cats

Every summer around this time Ellen bathes any and all cats in the house, whether they like it or not, and they never do. The main reason is it removes a lot of cat dander, dried saliva, excess hair, and other stuff that some people are allergic to, and in each group of summer visitors we get, there's at least one person allergic to cats. We didn't get to it in time for my sister-in-law Lena this year, but Ellen's sister Ann is coming in August, and she's very allergic.

Katie, our older...

And Then I Read: THE SPIRIT 1

Images © Will Eisner Studios, Inc.

DC has relaunched The Spirit again, and this time it's a darker, grittier Denny Colt as a private investigator approach. No sidekick, unless you count Commissioner Dolan. Mark Schultz' captions might be right out of a novel by Mike Hammer, though his dialogue does allow a bit of humor here and there. The overall feel is more like a mix of film noir, Batman, and Eisner's Spirit, with the latter taking a back seat much of the time. Not terrible, but I'm not...

New Print Now On Sale

Image © Bill Willingham & Todd Klein.

Now available on my BUY STUFF page, or if you'd just like to order this new print, you can do that HERE. Bill and I, and all my print partners, thank you for your support!

Incoming: BATWOMAN ELEGY Hardcover

© DC Comics, Inc.

Love, love, love the cover on this oversized collection of the Batwoman stories from DETECTIVE COMICS 854-860. Especially the logo and credits, also designed by J.H. Good grief, is there anything he can't do well? No. No, there isn't. The paper quality and printing are top notch, too, and I expected to see it had been printed in China, but no, it was produced in the USA. Whoever printed it did an excellent job. I lettered these issues, so I'm biased, but I think this is one o...

And Then I Read: AMERICAN VAMPIRE 2

© Scott Snyder & Stephen King.

The second issue of the new Vertigo vampire series gave me a different impression than the first, as far as the writing goes. In issue 1 I was most impressed with Stephen King's section, here I liked Scott Snyder's better. Snyder is focusing on the young would-be starlet and flapper Pearl in 1925, now dealing with the reality of her own death and reawakening as a vampire. Skinner Sweet, the vampire cowboy, shows up to explain a few things to her in his own...

And Then I Reread: THE ATOMIC KNIGHTS

© DC Comics, Inc.

As I've said here, I usually don't reread old comics, perhaps in fear of disappointment, but I've made another exception for this collection. The Atomic Knights was a favorite feature in a favorite comic, STRANGE ADVENTURES, and while I didn't find all these stories in their original 1960-64 release, I had many of them. Post atomic war stories were fairly common at the time, in the midst of the cold war and the arms race, but writer John Broome found ways to make the...

First Sand Castle of the Season

My brother Doug and I made this one Sunday, a perfect beach day, with some help from Ellen, niece Haley and nephew Charlie. I planned it and did the central section, Doug did some of the outer towers, Ellen and Haley did the front gate, Charlie helped with the moat.

Another angle.

I like the shadows on this side, didn't get a good picture of the sunny side, where there were some houses.

Here are Charlie and Haley for size comparison, with young Dylan at back left.

The tide came in and I enjoyed s...

Watching DESPICABLE ME

My brother Doug and his family are visiting this weekend, and yesterday was too rainy for the beach, so we all went to see this and everyone enjoyed it, though Dylan at age 1 wasn't really watching. Dylan had fun with the snacks instead.

Steve Carell does a great job with the purposely funny eastern European accent for Mr. Gru, the previously successful but now aging super-villain shown above, and all the voices are good. I didn't recognize Julie Andrews as Gru's mother.

The computer animation ...

Creating F THE ENCHANTED LETTER Part 2

This and all following images © Todd Klein and Bill Willingham, except as noted.

My approach to the small illustrations for this print needed a different technique from what I'd done previously for two reasons. First, I planned to use a parchment-like paper, so gray tones wouldn't look good, nor would large outlined shapes because the paper texture would conflict with the intent of the drawings. I felt high contrast art with lots of solid blacks, using silhouettes as much as possible, would...