David Petersen's Blog, page 64

Spotlight on Legends of the Guard contributor Jemma Salume:

David Petersen: Jemma, I really appreciate you doing this story as well as this interview. What is the work you are most known for artistically?

Jemma Salume: Most people know me for my cover work for Boom! Studios (Adventure Time, Candy Capers), but there's also fan projects like my Skyrim Valentines and superhero redesigns featured on Project:Rooftop.

David: What is your background in art from an education standpoint? Did you take classes or go to school for art?

Jemma: I studied illustration at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and prior to that attended an art-emphasis boarding school in high school. There were also countless extracurricular art classes before either of those - I was fortunate to know what I wanted to do very early on.

David: You've written and illustrated Captain Kitten before, but how different was it working on your Legends story? or was the process not very different at all?

Jemma: Captain Kitten was very "throw things at the wall and see what sticks" comic… It was originally conceived in a conversation with my friend Katie Longua (ROK), where we were tossing around ideas that sounded funny and could be turned into a short comic easily. The driving idea behind the comic wasn't much more than "How can I have cats and fight scenes in the same comic?" I was focused on streamlining my process issue by issue, and over all treated it as a learning opportunity.

Compare that to Mouse Guard, where I was coming into it as a huge fan. I love the juxtaposition of adorable mice and overwhelming danger! Where Kitten was about goofing around, I had a fairly rigid idea of what my Legends story needed to be and what it needed to get across. It was almost paralyzing to work on at first, but once it began to fall into the exact shape I saw in my mind, I was invigorated! I sort of feel more proud of my Legends story than my own original book, for that reason. Put simply, Legends is a finished image, while Kitten is a sketch.

David: When you start working on a comic story, what’s first after your story idea? Character designs, thumbnails? a script?

Jemma: I think of a mood for the story initially. Even if it's in black and white, I'll think of colors and shapes that communicate that mood, and then design characters around that. I like characters that embody the emotion they're meant to incite in the reader, like the eerie grey-furred and pink-eyed mice from my Legends story.

Once I have the characters, it's just a matter of thinking of the situations they would naturally seek out or find themselves in, and how they would interact with others. That becomes a very loose script (main beats of the story with a few panel descriptions), which guides page thumbnails, which then guide the final page and writing dialogue into the script. I'm much more of a visual than a linguistic thinker, so scripts are kind of a drag for me to work on - I don't spend more time on them than I have to, and will frequently be alter dialogue right on the page rather than go into the script for another rewrite. Legends was one of the most finished scripts I've ever done, because I needed to show it to others to review and approve. Compare that to the script for Kitten, which is nearly incomprehensible -- just a bunch of scribbles to remind myself what to draw from one day to the next.

David: All of your work is digital, can you explain the process of building up from a rough to the final art? Are there similar steps to the traditional media method of thumbnails, pencils, inks, colors?

Jemma: Though I would digitally, I thumbnail pages almost exactly like I would traditionally - Small rough sketches of what I want the page to look like, easy to alter if I want to try something different. After that, since everything is digital, it's simple to resize the rough to the size/resolution I'll be using for the final page. That way I can draw directly over the thumbnail, refining the sketch, inking, coloring, all of that. When I was much younger I'd always get so frustrated at how all the hand-resizing methods I was taught stiffened and deadened the impact of the final drawing, but it's much easier to preserve the spontaneity of the original thumbnail when I'm drawing right on top of it!

As for the final drawings, I'm just drawing directly into Photoshop using the simplest default tools available to me - Pencil for lines, Bucket Fill on a separate layer for colors. Nothing fancy, no special brushes. That's similar to how I work traditionally, actually - I just hate bringing in a bunch of different tools when one or two will do. It breaks my concentration, haha!

David: Your story starts with two Guardmice on patrol...one is headstrong and the other is more grounded. What made you choose these character archetypes? 

Jemma: That headstrong upstart/grounded veteran dynamic is fun! It's easy to come up for dialogue for them, actions they would naturally take, how their actions might bring them into conflict or get them into trouble with outside forces, things like that. Plus, each one clearly worries about and prepares for things differently than the other, which is always good. The most boring thing ever to me is when two characters are on exactly the same page from beginning to end - You might as well condense them into one character if they're never going to argue or surprise each other. I wanted my Guardmice, Aaron and Fila, to have the same job, but to come at it from completely different angles

David: That's great. It's that tension I find fun to write between Saxon and Kenzie. Without spoiling too much, the remainder of the tale is a bit of a ghost story about a spectral owl. Did you start by thinking “I’d like to do a Mouse Guard ghost story?” or was there some other route to that tale?

Jemma: My mind did indeed go to "Oh boy ghost story time" first, yes! I wanted to do a story with little chance of overlapping with someone else's (variety is the spice of life and all that), and a ghost story is a natural for that - Little precedent in the canon, but not strictly implausible. And ghosts are fun!

David: Who would you cite as creative influences?

It's actually surprisingly hard for me to cite direct influences because it's hard for me to look at my style that way, all I see is me when I look at it. I am a huge fan of other illustrators: Mike Mignola, Daniel Krall, Angie Wang, Emily Carroll, Sachin Teng, Leslie Hung, and Dean Trippe are the ones that jump to the front of my mind. I also watch a ton of movies and animation: Any movies by Guillermo del Toro, any animations directed by Hayao Miyazaki or Satoshi Kon, early Disney films with a strong individual aesthetic like 101 Dalmatians and Sleeping Beauty - things in that vein. I also listen to a ton of music when I work, which I'm sure exerts some kind of influence: Janelle Monae and Zion T are both artists love, and I also go for non-lyrical instrumental stuff like Disasterpeace and Floex.

David: What projects are coming up next that folks should look out for?

Jemma: I've got covers for various Boom! Studios comics slowly getting released - Readers may have already seen my Adventure Time covers. I'm also working with Dean Trippe and Jason Horn on a comic called The Secrets. I've got my own webcomic in the works, but it's still in the planning stages… Followers of my Tumblr and Deviantart have already seen images of the main characters, and they'll be seeing more related to it in the coming months.

David: Jemma, thanks again for doing the story and interview. Where can people find out more about you and your work?

Jemma: All of my art can be found at my Deviantart ( oxboxer.deviantart.com ), my art plus anything I'm currently interested in is over at my Tumblr ( oxboxer.tumblr.com ), and I've also got a Twitter ( twitter.com/oxboxer ) if you just want pages and pages of me screaming about things. Thank you for having me on for Legends of the Guard vol.2! Go Mouse Guard!

Jemma's Story "The Shade"will appear in Legends of the Guard volume 2 # 2along with stories by Rick Geary & Christian Slade

Upcoming Appearances:Baltimore Comic Con: September 7-8
Granite State Comicon: September 28-29New York Comic Con: October 10-13North Carolina Comic Con: November 9-10

Spotlight on Legends of the Guard contributor Christian Slade:

David Petersen: Christian, very glad to get the chance to share your work with the Mouse Guard fans. Let’s start with you explaining who you are and about your book Korgi.
Christian Slade: I am an artist like many in the field of comics. I was born in 1974. My childhood was spent swimming in the inspirations of comic books, Star Wars, comic strips, childrens books and animated films....basically anything that gave off a strong visual sense including people, places and things in real life. These things still continue to motivate me. Korgi is my all ages graphic novel series published by the wonderful folks at Top Shelf Productions. It is a silent story told only with highly detailed pen and ink drawings. 
David: What was your artistic background? Were you always drawing? Did you know even at a young age that art had to be your career?
Christian: As with many artists, I consider this field a calling. I knew from as early as I can remember that I wanted to draw and make pictures every day of my life. I have drawn or looked at things as drawings as long as I can remember.
David: I know you started in animation before launching your creator owned book Korgi. Was animation for you, or did you switch to comics because of the traditional animation industry shrinking?
Christian: I started in animation but before that, I started in book illustration which is my primary workload these days. I approach comics kind of like book illustration, only, they are told with more pictures. I love animation and still work in it occasionally  I have also been involved with magazine illustration, theme park design, advertising campaigns and still love working in my sketchbook and doing plein air painting. Basically, I will go to wherever the art party is. As long as I can express ideas through drawing and painting...I am there!!  
David: Do you feel your animation background helps inform you on making comics? or does it sometimes get in the way when you can’t show movement or the passage of time on the page the same way as in animation?
Christian: The way I see it, animation and comics are brothers. There are more similarities than differences. Both are the sequential arts. Both have artists that do both mediums. I kind of see animated films as a moving comic on the screen with music and sound. I would say that comics offer a bit more freedom and immediacy. One person can create a comic on their own in a relatively short period of time. A quality animated film often takes many hands in a group effort over a good stretch of time.
David: Korgi is an all ages book (with no dialogue so even pre-readers or learning disabled children can follow with no language barrier) Is that who you are at your core as a storyteller? or did you plan out that Korgi needed to stay within certain storytelling age-borders?
Christian: The fact that pre-readers and disabled children can enjoy Korgi is wonderful side effect to my decision to sit down and finally create the graphic novel comic story I always wanted to read. In essence, Korgi is the realization of a dream I had since childhood to create a silent story in which the art can be the main showcase and vehicle. I did not have a target audience in mind when I set out to write Korgi. I just wrote it and put it out there. Even though it is considered all-ages, it really is for anyone who loves comics told in a sci fi fantasy woodland setting. Oh yeah, and it helps if you like welsh corgi dogs too :)
David: Do you ever feel restricted by either the tone or wordless aspect of Korgi? Do you ever have ideas that you have to discard because they don’t fit because they are too dark or would need language to narrate them?
Christian: I do not feel much restriction with silent storytelling. In a way I find it liberating to just tell things through drawings. I consider drawing a language so if I properly think things through in sketches, I can say anything I want. As long as I can draw it, it can be told. 
David: When doing a comic without words, do you have any type of script? or is it an outline? And describe the process of breaking it into pages and deciding how much of the story goes onto each page.
Christian: Actually, for a a silent graphic novel series, there is a ton of writing I do. Before I draw anything, an entire book is plotted out with short bullet sentences explaining every beat of a story. After that is locked in, I create small thumbnail pencil drawings of each panel and page. From there I lay it out in a rough format on the computer. This is the exciting part for me because, even though it is crude, I can for the first time see how the story looks as a whole. As far as deciding how much page/panel length to give sections of the story, I really just go with what feels right. I trust my instincts. I have noticed my tendency is to over explain a bit in which I often go back and remove panels and simplify a bit. I have also done the opposite and added pages into parts of the story to savor the moments and smell the roses.
David: For your Legends of the Guard story, you tell a tale about a sailing-mouse who falls in love with a mermouse. Without spoiling the story can you describe where this story came from and what you wanted to touch on while there.
Christian: We discussed previous entries in this series over the phone and it sounded like romance tales where not really covered that much. So I thought that would be fun. Plus I spent a greta deal of my childhood at the beach, even living right next to it for a great stretch. I feel it is a subject that often calls for me. I am always excited when this setting comes up in my art projects. It seemed like a natural place to stage this tale. 
David: When it was time to do the final art for this story, what was your process?  Christian: For this story, I actually did all the rough in digital format which was new for me for a comic story. I feel the computer gives me more freedom and tools to edit and change things very quickly. In fact I have done all of my roughs digitally for the last 4 years or so. It is sad really because I like having rough original drawings at the end of projects. That said I would rather spend that extra time on the final artwork instead. The only project I still draw my roughs traditionally is Korgi because I like to work on that while I am outside or traveling.
David: Who would you cite as creative influences? and feel free to venture outside the realm of illustrators or 2D artists into directors, sculptors, etc.
Christian: My creative influences are too numerous to name here but I will throw a few out there: Albert Dorne, Norman Rockwell, Franklin Booth, Heinrich Kley, Rein Poortvliet, Walt Disney, Herb Ryman, Ralph McQuarrie, Graham Ingels, Eyvind Earle, Harry Rountree, Corot, Rembrandt, Franz Hals.....too many artists I enjoy. That said, artists as a source of inspiration are nothing compared  to real life. My BIGGEST influences are the wonderful people in my family. My awesome wife Ann and our twin children Nate and Kate, our Welsh corigs Penny and Leo and all the inspiring places we visit....those are the things I truly love. Drawing and artmaking is more of an addiction and one I gladly partake in on a daily basis, but it is the people and places in this world, and the time spent there, that matter the most to me.
David: Christian, I appreciate your story and your time. Where should folks go to keep up with you and your work?
Christian: I actually just finished building a new website which has a blog and a portfolio at www.christianslade.com Thanks for the opportunity to work on a Mouse Guard story David. It was a lot of fun and I hope the readers enjoy it.
Christian's story Love of the Sea will appear in Legends of the Guardvolume 2 #2 along with stories by Jemma Salume & Rick Geary.

Upcoming Appearances:Baltimore Comic Con: September 7-8
Granite State Comicon: September 28-29New York Comic Con: October 10-13North Carolina Comic Con: November 9-10

Legends of the Guard Vol.2 Hardcover Cover Process:

Even though we still have issues of Legends of the Guard Vol 2 to be released, Today I'll walk through my cover for the hardcover collection of the second volume of Legends of the Guard. On the left is the final cover, with border and logo, and credits. But first I started with an idea for the cover of "a mouse peddling goods involved in a race against another peddler or a predator". It took some suggestions from friends and my wife Julia before it shaped into "two guardmice with a cart harnessed to a quail fleeing minks"
First up, I wanted to design the cart. I looked at a few medieval era cart drawings and recreations, but decided I'd rather scratch build something myself to get a feel for it. I used scrap basswood (they sell bags of it at the hardware store) to frame up the cart, lashed it together with string, and used some cardboard for the planks & wheels. I like building models this way (opposed to digitally) because it gives me a reason to push away from the computer, use my hands and engage my brain in not just a design sense, but a construction sense. How it's assembled is as important to me as what it looks like in the end.
I sketched out a quail, several minks, and the guard mice and assembled them in photoshop with a photo of the cart in the position I wanted. I struggled back and forth on what the minks should look like...should they wear clothes? if so, what type. I've only shown one mink before (Black Axe #4) and I drew it without clothing...but I felt these four needed needed them, not just to convey intelligence, but as a design choice to add some color and eye-lures to move the readers eye across the image better.
I printed out the above digital composite and taped it to the back of my Strathmore 300 series bristol. and then inked the piece on a lightbox using the printout as a guide. As you can see, I did a lot of the work in the ink. The mushrooms became so prominent because a fan tweeted to me that they'd like to see me draw more of them (they asked for morels, which I thought were too fussy with detail on this scale), so the guardmice now had a job of harvesting mushrooms.
The last step was to color the piece. I wanted to gain back the obvious 'up on one wheel' speed and fury the quail cart was going, so I added a color hold to all the inkwork behind the little ridge they are coming up over. Other than that, I colored this in my normal way, flatting in colors first and then using the dodge and burn tools to render each part and add texture. The overall palette is a bit more monochromatic that some of my past Mouse Guard work, but I'm aiming to be more subtle with color and not beat you over the head with it.

I'm really proud of this second round of Legends of the Guard. I think the contributors did a fantastic job. I hope you all enjoy the hardcover when it comes out later this year, and that you enjoy the one paragraph story that accompanies this cover.

Upcoming Appearances:Baltimore Comic Con: September 7-8
Granite State Comicon: September 28-29New York Comic Con: October 10-13North Carolina Comic Con: November 9-10

Spotlight on Legends of the Guard creator: Rick Geary:

David Petersen: Rick, Thanks for doing the interview and for creating such a great story for Legends of the Guard! You are best known for your series of true-crime graphic novels set in the 19th and early 20th centuries. I know you do a tremendous amount of research for those real events, people, locations, and timelines. With Legends of the Guard, I asked you to create an original story. How often do you get to flex that writing muscle? 
Rick Geary: I don't get to flex it very often, and I'm very grateful for this chance. In addition, the Legends story gave me the chance to do a little research into Medieval costumes and paraphernalia. 
David: As fans of Mouse Guard have heard before, it was discovering one of your books in my local library that made me re-think doing comics. I saw all your hatching and stippling and patterns and felt a printmaking kinship to that inkwork that felt like things I did, but didn’t see in comics (so thank you!). Did your sense of linework and pattern-for-tone arrive through some natural development? or were there other artists or processes that influenced that look?
Rick: I don't believe that my ink style developed through any kind of conscious process. The most I can say is that I try for a certain tone or texture and I know it when I see it. The artists i consider my influences are too numerous to list completely. Edward Gorey, Robert Crumb, Gary Gianni, Tony Millionaire are some of the more contemporary ones. I also revere those pen-and-ink artists of the early 20th century: Charles Dana Gibson, Windsor McCay, Franklin Booth, Gluyas Williams, W. Heath Robinson. See? Too many to mention. 
David: How did you start down the path of tackling true crimes as non-fiction comic stories?
Rick: I date my interest in true crime back to the early 70's in Wichita, Kansas, when a friend of mine, a former cop, lent me the complete case file of an unsolved murder from a few years earlier. I studied it in utter fascination, and it became the basis, years later, for my first published comic story. The idea of telling the stories of unsolved murders, laying out the clues and the various paths of investigation, stuck with me, and I did a few short stories for different comic anthology publications before landing with NBM in the late 80's and starting the Treasury series.
David: Did you have any concerns about trying to find an audience or publisher for your style of story and artwork in this comic marketplace dominated by cape and cowl superheroes?
Rick: I've been lucky in that I've worked with the same publisher (NBM) for over 20 years, and have been able to establish a little niche for myself in the true crime genre. Non-fiction comics are assuredly a small corner of publishing, but the genre has been growing and attracting readers in recent years, and I've had the opportunity to work on historical and biographical projects outside my Treasury of Murder series.
David: Your story for Legends of the Guard starts with an adventuresome young mouse exploring the tall grassy areas by streams near his home and discovering ‘treasures’. Did you have similar adventures growing up in Wichita, Kansas?
Rick: Hmm. I've never thought of that before. I enjoyed growing up in Kansas, and, though I've never been much of an outdoorsy person, I feel a sort of spiritual connection to the prairie. This has probably shown up in my stories in various ways, but it's not a conscious thing.
David: How do you start work on a story like this Legends story? Does it start with a script first, or do you thumbnail create the dialogue & narration later?
Rick: I always start with as complete a script as possible, and the visuals grow out of it. 
David: When you start on the artwork, what is your process and what materials are your tried and true favorites?
Rick: My method has become so standardized over the years that by now it's set in stone. I like to start with a pretty detailed pencil rough, and then I do a simple preliminary ink line over it with a thick-tipped pen, and then erase the pencils, and fill in the solid black areas with a Sharpie. Finally I do the finished ink work with a #0 or #1 Rapidograph pen. 
David: Unlike your crime books (which are black and white) and your work on Gumby (which was colored digitally) this Legends of the Guard story is colored by you and by hand. Was there a difference of thought process while creating the linework knowing the story would be hand colored? What materials did you use for the color work (feel free to name brands)
Rick: I always use Prismacolor Pencils for the (rare) color work I do. I'm not very confident with a brush, and the pencils give me the control I need, plus they can be blended to give a nice painterly effect. When I hand color a piece, that always changes the way I do the ink line over it. With the color, I try to supply the textures and shadings that I usually reserve for the linework.
David: Do you listen to or watch anything special while working?
Rick: Sometimes I listen to music (mostly Classical), sometimes I have the TV on, mostly old movies or old episodes of Criminal Minds or CSI Miami, mindless stuff that I don't have to pay strict attention to.
David: Thank you again Rick, I really appreciate it. It was a thrill for me when you agreed to do this Legends of the Guard story. So we can direct people to more of your work, where can people find out more about Rick Geary and your books?
Rick: Give a mention of my website, if you wouldn't mind: www.rickgeary.com
Rick's story Over the Falls will appear in Legends of the Guardvolume 2 #2 along with stories by Jemma Salume & Christian Slade

Upcoming Appearances:Baltimore Comic Con: September 7-8New York Comic Con: October 10-13North Carolina Comic Con: November 9-10

Eleanor Oddbody Arcane & Modern: MTV Creator Pitch Live '13

This year at SDCC, one of the panels I participated in was the MTV Creator Pitch Live. It's a panel where 3 creators are given a topic just before SDCC and then asked to pitch their idea in front of an audience for a vote-by-applause and bragging rights going to the winner. I was on this panel last year (and you can watch the video of last year's pitch as well as read my blogpost about it here) and won, so I was asked to come back this year to defend my title against Tony Lee & Sanford Greene. This year's challenge was "to develop a concept that COULD ONLY be done in PRINT and distributed through brick and mortar shops, preferably your LCS. The idea here is to think about the value of both your LCS and the unique properties that print offers vs digital, and develop both a story and product that leverages both." My pitch: Eleanor Oddbody: Arcane & Modern

I want to stop right here and say that the images and story I created for this pitch were for the pitch alone and not a project I plan to work on. Though I've talked about taking a mouse-break before getting to The Weasel War of 1149, this is not a project I would or could tackle alone or in that time.

Half of the challenge I already had an opinion on. I've been focused on printed books being art objects since Mouse Guard started coming out in hardcover format. I believe that as the digital shift happens, printed material will need to be more than just a physical content folder, but concerned with design, paper quality, production, format, and presentation. I used two books in the start of my pitch as examples of how I wanted my idea to be expressed. Cursed Pirate Girl by Jeremy Bastian & the Gryphon & Sabine books by Nick Bantock. Jeremy's book has beautiful production value with it's cover design and deckled edges, but it's standout feature is a fold out wanted poster that you are instructed by a character in the book to unfold.
In Nick's series, the story is told through a progression of correspondence that you, the reader, get to remove from envelopes, and read. Both have an interactive, tactile, and immersive/voyeuristic quality that can not be replicated digitally. But from there, I need to explain my idea in terms of story...

Eleanor is a young girl living in the middle ages. She isn't a princess or come from a traditional trades family...her kin are all seers, bone rollers, soothsayers, potion brewers, medieval barbers, and Oracles. These are odd folks even for the times, but Eleanor is proud to be with them and to learn the family business.
Art Notes: I never do well with drawing any face meant to be pretty. So I drew & painted these Eleanor character pieces based on photos of my niece Kate.

Unfortunately, the Black Plague has started to spread and as Eleanor's family's business is to deal with the unknown and fix the unfix-able, they too are exposed to and infected by the plague. In 1351, her grandfather Gwain the Gaute, magically sends Eleanor (the only one of them not yet showing the black boils) away to find a cure...
Art Notes: This was the first piece I did for the pitch. I had fun with the lighting effects and Gwain's hands. This drawing also established Eleanor's costume for the other images, something I wished I'd designed a bit differently as I went, as it's a bit boring.


Eleanor emerges from her grandfather's conjured smoke and mist to emerge in 1851 London in front of "Oddbody's Federation of Alchemy, Incantation, & Prophetic Arts Arcane and Modern.". It is a place most Londoners ignore and see as a shop for the deranged or as a talent office for novelty seances, card tricksters, and parlor magicians.
Art Notes: I based this building on a real french castle (the reason for which I'll explain later) but altered it to make it less royal and more cozy.



Oddbody's is run by characters who, in the story, would be referred to as Eleanor's uncles, but who are in-fact her great great great great great grand nephews: Oscar "Long" Oddbody and Edmund "Tall" Oddbody. They give Eleanor mixed news on her arrival, that the cure to the plague is to eliminate the rodents and their fleas and to wash with soap....and also that they, even with their vast resources at Oddbody's, have no knowledge of time-travel magic. And so Eleanor is stuck in 1851 with no way to cure or see her family.
Art Notes: I'm rather fond of my design for Edmund, but Oscar is a bit too monochrome. My goal was to show a more laid back "uncle" and another who is more rigid. Not with a Bert & Ernie range in temperament, but with a few of those characteristics working on a subtle level.


Eleanor arrives at a time of "magical upheaval" in which her uncles, as well as all the notable members of Oddbody's have no time for her. They can not properly train her in any magic arts, they are too busy huddled around tables, shooing her away, looking into crystal balls while asking her to be silent, and locking her out of rooms as they conduct group magic to deal with some major problem which is unknown to Eleanor. This being the age of child labor though, they don't think it harmful at all to magically bind Eleanor to the building (it's for her own protection) and have her mend, clean, wash, and organize Oddbody's. Her chores do give her a bit of insight into their world though, she is asked to re-copy ancient texts (which is well suited to her since her handwriting matches perfectly) and to care for and feed the unusual creatures there.
Art Notes: This was my favorite series of paintings to do for the pitch. Each portrait got to sum up a personality and history and adding the text gave the audience a full picture of each character

Oddbody's proves to be a lonely place for Eleanor. It's not that the adults are mean or cruel like in a Roald Dahl book, they just are very very busy with important work and there are no children around for her to interact with. The only friend 'her age' is a 291 year-old Gryphon named Sinclair. Sinclair doesn't speak, but interacts with Eleanor all the same and is about the size of a large dog.
Art Notes: This is the second pass at Sinclair. The first version didn't have enough bird cues in the face design leaving it to not feel like a gryphon at all, and was overall a lion-ish yellow color. This version has more of a mixed animal feel and I prefer this coloration.

While left unsupervised, Eleanor and Sinclair explore the archive of magical knowledge at Oddbody's. They look for any way to send Eleanor home, they eavesdrop to find out what the "magical upheaval" is, and they research to discover what ever became of her family from 500 years ago. Eleanor becomes the curious kid detective character of classic children's literature, and as the reader, you are along for the ride watching the mysteries unfold.
Art Notes: This piece really sums up the feel of the project for me. It's kids and pets being more inventive and intelligent than adults give them credit for and the level of mischief those qualities can get them into.

As the book unfolds, we, along with Eleanor, find that a group of industrialists have harnessed a dragon while it slept and are using it to literally fuel the industrial revolution. All the heat and fire used to smelt, cast, harden and forge all the metal of that era is being provided by this beast (who had woken up briefly in the 1600's and sneezed to cause the fire of London). Clearly, Oddbody's Federation members are so occupied with this because they are terrified that such a powerful and intelligent magical creature is under the unqualified care & false control of the non-magical world.
Art Notes: I have to thank Cory Godbey for this one. He gave me this idea, and I did my best to capture it as a sepia-toned old photograph.

 Here is where I get back to the pitch's challenge. To embrace the qualities of print, each book in this series would contain inserts, booklets, and fold-outs. But so that it's not a gimmick, each piece would have content that is important to the story and needs to be read. Newspapers with articles mentioned in the stores (and personal ads on the back that perhaps give character insights and clues) Maps of London with character's annotations, booklets showcasing a peek into Oddbody's library (complete with watermarks that provide hints), clues & bits of advertising, postcards (written & sent by Eleanor's grandfather who has followed her into the future, but is still 50 years behind her), and blueprints of Oddbody's iteslf.

To help you explore Oddbody's, a cut-and-assemble papermodel would be included. This would be assembled by the reader and would be modular so that in addition to the outside of Oddbodies, you get views of the inside in 3D as well...and some places that may be locked and off limits to Eleanor in the story, would be visible in the model...like perhaps a room marked 'Chrono-magic"...
Art Notes: For the pitch, I found this papermodel of a real French castle that felt like it could be a basis for Oddbody's before I did the exterior painting. This way I didn't need to build a mock-up papermodel if I had designed something from scratch.

So far, I have not addressed the part of the challenge that dealt with your local comic store...but the following inserted items would deal with that. Everything so-far is done alone, reading, exploring clues, even building the model...but I wanted some of these extras to be something you would do with other fans of the series....and where better to find other fans than your local comic book store. Perhaps in the book, a play is referenced. With a cut-and-assemble paper puppet stage and a script, fans of the series could read aloud and perform the play, getting not only an immersion experience, but perhaps seeing parallel stories in the play and Eleanor's troubles

Two types of games would be included in the books. One would be a card game that could be played over and over. While this is mainly meant to get you further into the experience of the world of Eleanor Oddbody, the game's rules could help explain more about the scene in which it's played in the book. "Eleanor found the card game to be extremely fast paced and rather confusing to play"...well when you play the game and discover the cards are two sided and there are no 'turns', you can relate to Eleanor. The game would also have a bluffing, hand signals, or a social component to play...so this isn't a game that can be played as an app on a device, this is meant to be played in the presence of good company.

The other game would be something akin to a blend of a traditional Role Playing Game and a Choose Your Own Adventure book. This also would be done in groups where players take on the role of characters in the book and determine how certain chapters of the story play out.
Since Roleplaying traditionally allows players to take their characters on their own route, this proved to be a design challenge so that the end of any variation of the players choices could sync up with the next chapter of the story itself...

The players are guided through several (perhaps hundreds) of choices, but ultimately pass through a handful of plot options (A-H on the graphic)..and eventually funnel back down with fewer choices to the same end point. Each of the plots that can be explored would be referenced later in the books, but could be read at face-value to someone unfamiliar with the information from any given path. For example, perhaps route A deals with Eleanor getting, through seance, to witness the last moments of her father's life before he died from the plague...later in the book, there could be mention of Eleanor crying at the terrible vision of what her Father's end suffering would have been. If you had not played out the 'A' plot, you would still understand the story's text...but having played it, would have a deeper connection to her emotions.

 I see Eleanor Oddbody as a series of slim hardcovers (to keep production costs down and to encourage you to visit your local comic shop with each book's release) that could be packaged in a nice slipcase. An art object of a book series you would be happy to display in the main living space of your house. Something you could only experience in print and not digitally. Something that satiates your love of collecting, story immersion, and, world building. Something you not only want to share with your friends who enjoy this type of material, but that you are encouraged to share. I think comic folks and lovers of fiction like this tend to feel very alone, like outcasts and on the fringes of society...but that isn't the case any more...we are like Eleanor, trying to find a way to a family that feels just beyond reach and to a modern world around us that we think ignores us...but the truth is, look at popular TV and movies, look at events like SDCC...there is a community of us, and the best place locally to find them is your local comic shop.

At the end of the pitch panel, I received the most applause and won the panel for the second year in a row. I really do like this pitch and idea, but I know that I could not do this project alone, even if I wanted to. It would take a team of artists, writers, and designers and a very forward-thinking publisher (to see publishing something like this in an era of digital-is-the-future) to make this work. I'm not saying Eleanor will never see the light of day, but with my dedication to Mouse Guard, it will take the right people coming forward to make this work.

Also of note, I have been retired (for the time being) from the Pitch Panel. This means I go out undefeated and that next year before SDCC I can stick to my usual amount of panic and scrambling and not the amount required to pitch something like what I've just shown you. I am curious to see what new blood enters the panel next year...

While it's not up there yet, I believe MTV Geek will be posting the video of this panel on their site soon.


Watercolor Wednesday: *announcement* Last week's watercolor pieces marked the 1 year anniversary of Watercolor Wednesday! And with 52 weeks of new paintings under my belt, I'm going to take a break from Watercolor Wednesday. After a look back at last week's paintings, I'll explain what comes next...The first of the two paintings is titled 'old scratch' and was a play on making a fiddle playing devil who looks a bit frail and harmless (that's how he gets ya!). This is one of the larger Watercolor pieces I've offered for Watercolor Wednesday.
And the last watercolor for a while, is of my watercolor tray. I did the rough sketch for it when I didn't have my tray handy to look at, so it's not accurate to the number of cakes my set has (I have less). It felt appropriate as a way to round out this year-long experiment.
So my plan is, to collect all of the non-copyrighted Watercolor pieces I did for this project and publish them in a nice little hardcover art book. I'm still in the planning stages of this project, but hope to have something ready before Christmas available for purchase. And I'll gladly start up Watercolor Wednesday again sometime soon-ish...but a year felt like a good place to rest. And then I'll measure out another 52 weeks from the point I start up again as a planned break. Thanks to everyone who participated in buying, spreading the word, and taking the time to look at my paintings this last year.

Upcoming Appearances:Baltimore Comic Con: September 7-8New York Comic Con: October 10-13North Carolina Comic Con: November 9-10

Bodie Troll Pinup Process:

My friend and fellow Michigander Jay Fosgitt has a new creator-owned book out through Red 5 called Bodie Troll. It's an all-ages book about a little troll who isn't big and scary (though he tries to be) so no one takes him seriously. Jay asked me to contribute a pinup for an upcoming issue, and I was glad to. Here's the process for the artwork.Sketch/Layout: After looking at Jay's first issue (the only issue available when I started the pinup)over and over for reference and to brainstorm on an idea, I decided that I really wanted to include the puppet newscaster Socko as well as an action shot of Bodie. I talked to Jay about Socko, asking what would he be made of, if Jay ever planned to show the puppeteer, if Socko should appear away from the puppeteer ever, etc. With some answers from Jay, I sketched out Bodie and Socko in my sketchbook, scanned them and placed them into a photoshop template with the bleed area marked out in yellow. I used a drawing of Jay's in my layout for the puppet theater and Socko's painted sign.To help with the layout, I quickly splashed some underpainted color onto the characters to help me see if the masses worked the way I wanted them to.
Inks:
With the sketch printed out to full scale, I taped it on to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. I inked the piece on my lightbox where I was able to see the printed sketch through the bristol to use as a guide for my inks. I tried to give Bodie's varied fur types some texture and movement as well as to stitching texture to the theater's banner and Socko's wooden head. I only used Jay's version of the theater as a guide and added my own movement and embellishments to the curtains and awning.
Colors:
The last step was to scan the inks and color them digitally. Jay is using a lot of color holds on Bodie Troll, so I wanted to do a similar treatment. None of the lineart is black, but different shades of brown, with the lighter browns being used to convey distance. Otherwise the colors are just kept as close to on-model for Jay's book as I could get.

The pinup will appear in Bodie Troll #4 which is in Previews now for pre-order (ask your store to get you a copy) for release in October.
Watercolor Wednesday:Here's another look at last week's watercolors in case you missed them. The first started as an exercise to use a mirror for facial expressions. But then I played and had fun with the beard, costume, coloration, and background. In fact, both pieces last week had patterned backgrounds.
The second of last week's pieces was a dragon in a knight's helmet. The background needed to be light once I'd painted in a strong red for the flag-ribbon...but the pale yellow was too dull...so I had fun with repetition
.Upcoming Appearances:Boston Comic Con: August 3-4Baltimore Comic Con: September 7-8New York Comic Con: October 10-13North Carolina Comic Con: November 9-10

Weasel War: 1149 limited print process

Weasel War: 1149 limited print process:
Last weekend at SDCC, at the Mouse Guard panel, I announced that while I'm going on a short Mouse-Break to focus on some small personal projects, the next Mouse Guard book upon my hasty return will be the Weasel War of 1149. For attendees of the panel, Archaia and I offered an exclusive print, technically, the first artwork I've done for that series. Now that the image has been revealed, I figured I could show the process of making it and my thoughts about it.

The Weasel War of 1149 is the earliest story I had ever thought of for Mouse Guard. In fact, at that time, the title of the project was 1149 and the Mouse Guard was simply the name of the group of heroic mice in the story. The three characters I wanted to focus on were Kenzie (leader, blue cloak, name means wise), Saxon (aggressive, red cloak, name means sword), and Rand (defensive, yellow cloak, name means shield) in the heat of an unevenly matched war against the weasels of Darkheather. This image is a print from my first printmaking semester of college in 1996/97.

A lot of what I wrote down back in 1996 for that story is now junk. But the idea of it, some character interactions, and the way it resolves, are still alive and well in the mental draft I have going for the next Mouse Guard book. Plus after having three other Mouse Guard books of mine published since then, I have to incorporate what Mouse Guard has become into this forthcoming volume. I started with sketches of my main characters Rand, Kenzie, and Saxon as the foreground, and then peppered the sketches of the ongoing battle with mouse characters from Fall & Winter and weasel design cues from Winter and Black Axe. The two sketches were tinted in photoshop (to make it easier for me to see where one drawing ended and the next began) and sized to fit the print's format.

I then printed out the sketch at actual size, taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol and inked on a lightbox (so I can see through the bristol and use the printout as a guide). Inking this piece could have become a visual mess. There is a lot going on here...but knowing that I was going to fade out the battle in color, allowed me to give it detail without going overboard, blood and violence without it becoming a gore-fest, and a focus on the main characters down in front. The Weasel War will have more fighting, bloodshed, and violence than past Mouse Guard books, but I hope to be able to always handle it respectfully and only as a way to meaningfully show what the characters are going through and never as a gimmick or for shock value.

I colored the scanned inkwork in Photoshop added the effects to push the battle back into the background, add the snow, tone down the violence, and focus on the main trio.

I want to answer the questions I figure many folks have about this print and the next book:

The print was an exclusive for the panel as a big Thank You to the folks who came to listen to me babble about Mouse Guard past, present and future, at SDCC. I do not believe it will be available anywhere (other than perhaps the secondary market: ebay)...but that's not to say the artwork won't get reprinted in a future sketchbook or hardcover.

I do not have a start date set for Weasel War, nor do I have a completion date yet. I have a few side projects I want to take some time to work on and publish before I dive into another Mouse Guard hardcover. I'll update on all of that through twitter and this blog, when I'm ready to share more info. And do not worry about my return to Mouse Guard, this is simply a short vacation...Mouse Guard will be the project I work on for the rest of my life.

Watercolor Wednesday:
Looking back at last week's watercolors I'd say that I was in the mood to paint some inanimate objects. The first of the two was an antique phone. I thought about this as a subject after a conversation with my nieces revealed that they had never used a payphone or a rotary dial. With the oldest only 13, it makes perfect sense, but the realization that there are objects I used as 'modern conveniences' they have never touched threw me. I've never used a phone like this, but I got to touch one in a kids hands on museum once.

The other watercolor from last week was a set of dice: a 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, & 20 sided die each with their top number showing. I titled it "polyhedral armory" since each die is used to determine the damage caused by every scale and type of weapon in roleplaying games. Next week I'll post two more.

Upcoming Appearances:
Boston Comic Con: August 3-4Baltimore Comic Con: September 7-8New York Comic Con: October 10-13North Carolina Comic Con: November 9-10

San Diego Comic Con 2013 Info

With my biggest convention starting tomorrow, I wanted to share all the info I have about where I'll be, items I'll have available, and what else I'll be doing at the convention. Lots to cover, so here we go:
Where:
Most of the five days of the show I'll be in Artist Alley GG-09. I have scheduled signing times at the Archaia booth (#2229) every day (see their schedule), but I am happy to sign anything of yours that I've worked on at either location. I'll do quick head sketches at either place so long as there isn't too much of a line. If I'm not at either of those locations, I'm most likely at a panel (see below) or taking a bathroom break.

Items:I'll have my standard con items at my table: books (including Black Axe), prints, watercolor commissions (first come first served each day), &original art....but at SDCC I'll have a few new items:

2013 Mouse Guard Sketchbook: A collection of commissions from the past year specifically colored for this collection (plus a few other illustrations) 24 pages, signed and numbered (500) $20. After SDCC, I'll take remaining books to my upcoming conventions, and put them in my online store once I'm back from SDCC. (and don't worry, I never sell out of them at SDCC....even if an ebay seller claims I did).
New Black Axe Tee: With the red banner shirts almost entirely gone, and with the release of the Black Axe hardcover, it was time for a new shirt! Celanawe with the Black Axe is surrounded by illustrated depictions of the five ancient serpents who once surrounded all that was. The printing will be black and grey ink on a heather-grey shirt. At SDCC we will have Mens & Ladies sizes and make the shirts available in the online store soon after we return home.

SDCC exclusive Black Axe:
Skelton Crew released a special finish version of the Black Axe in an antique gold. These will be available at both my table and the Archaia booth for $30. I believe Skelton Crew will make any remaining available through their website after SDCC.Panels:I'll be on three panels over the course of this weekend. Here are their descriptions, locations, and times.MTV: Creator Pitch LIVE
MTV Comics executive editor Tom Akel conducts a live pitch competition between three of the top creators in the business. Last year's winner David Petersen (Mouse Guard) will be back to defend his crown against two new challengers. Creators are presented with a topic just a few weeks out from the convention and then develop original pitches that you, the fans, vote on to determine the winner!
Friday July 19, 2013 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Room 28DE


How and Why to Write a Great All-Ages Comic Book
Some of the biggest "kids" in comics discuss the current state of the industry and what steps are necessary for comics to secure a place in the hearts and minds of the next generation. What are the benefits and challenges involved in writing all-ages comics? How are licensed comics playing a role in our future? How might webcomics, digital publishing, emerging technologies, and self-publishing change the landscape? And how can we ensure that more young readers today become readers for life? Panelists include Andy Runton (Owly), David Petersen (Mouse Guard), Katie Cook (My Little Pony), Mike Kunkel (Herobear and the Kid), Neo Edmund (Jurassic Strike Force 5), Otis Frampton (Oddly Normal), Royden Lepp (Rust), and Jimmy Gownley (creator of Amelia Rules!). Moderated by all-ages comics writer and editor Joe LeFavi (Fraggle Rock).
Sunday July 21, 2013 11:00am - 12:00pm 
Room 28DE

Archaia Entertainment: The Year of Mouse GuardAfter its debut, Mouse Guard has become one of the most popular, beloved, and honored stories in comics, and in 2013, creator David Petersen is not slowing down! This year will see the release of the Mouse Guard Vol. 3: The Black Axe hardcover and the debut of the four-issue Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard Vol. 2 miniseries (followed by the release of a hardcover that collects them). In addition, from Skelton Crew comes collectible replica Black Axes, the first in a line of Mouse Guard replica weapons! Moderated by Mel Caylo (Archaia's marketing manager), join the Eisner Award-winning Petersen and guests, including Jeremy Bastian, Israel Skelton*, and more to be announced as they give you a behind-the-scenes look at the making of all this Mouse Guard goodness, preview art from upcoming releases, and answer everything you wanted to know about Mouse Guard! Every attendee will receive a Comic-Con exclusive print of an original David Petersen drawing. Plus, one lucky audience member will win a free copy of the limited Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 Black and White Edition!
Sunday July 21, 2013 3:00pm - 4:00pm Room 28DE(* Israel won't be there in-person, but will send a video message, and we will also be joined by Legends of the Guard contributor Eric Canete)
Watercolor Wednesday:
Here's another view at last week's Watercolor piece that I offered for sale. First up was a giant with a cottage on his head. I was thinking it would be fun to show a giant character using something we think of as 'big' as a small piece of attire. I think as I was painting it I realized there is a bit of Terry Gilliam/Time Bandit homage here...but a cottage instead of a ship.

The other piece I drew in the lobby of the hotel at the Albuquerque Comic Expo. I was looking at my pad of bristol that I did the art for and thought it might be fun to re-visit a gentleman Grasshopper. To make this more than just a re-dressing, I opted for him to wear no clothing and just use body language and the tea & saucer props to convey him being a gentleman.  Tomorrow (even though I'm in San Diego for Comic Con) I'll post two paintings in my online store. Watch my twitter @mouseguard for when they go live


Upcoming Appearances:
San Diego Comic Con: July 17-21Boston Comic Con: August 3-4Baltimore Comic Con: September 7-8New York Comic Con: October 10-13North Carolina Comic Con: November 9-10

Black Axe Hardcover!

It's been a looooong time coming, but this week, Black Axe arrives in-stores as a hardcover collection! I wanted to take this blogpost to talk about the book and its extras. To the left is the wraparound cover, which I covered in a process blogpost earlier this year. For those who didn't follow the series in issue format, Black Axe is a prequel book that takes place about 40 years before my Fall and Winter books. My rule as I went about telling this story was "the only point of a prequel is to add insight, perspective, and weight to the existing books".

Black Axe is a longer book than Fall and Winter. The issues are the same size, but I've added more hardcover extras than ever before. To bundle all the stuff together and make sure it all was in the correct order, that two-page-spreads covered the right places, and that I was on target with all the extras I had to produce, I made a pagination guide. It shows all the interior pages as two-page spreads (even numbered pages on the left, odd on the right) and came in very handy not only for myself, but also when handing all the files off to Archaia.

Black Axe will start with a Prologue...which is a reprinting of the 2010 Free Comic Book Day story. While "The Black Axe" isn't mentioned in that story, the themes and story meld well with the spirit of the prequel story. This marks the only time a Mouse Guard Free Comic Book Day story has been reprinted/republished (though when I have enough of the more recent stories like The Tale of the Wise Weaver, The Tale of Baldwin the Brave, and The Tale of Thane & Ilsa, I'd like to collect those together).

After the contents of the 6 issue story, is a new Epilogue. The epilogue is a bit shorter than the past ones, but with a different visual style than anything I've done with panel-by-panel storytelling. Obviously, I can't give much away about what the epilogue covers, but I'll say that I used it to tie up two loose ends I saw...one from a story point of view and another from a moral point of view.

Then we have the extras. In Fall and Winter there were 8 pages (four two-page-spreads)....for Black Axe, there are 22 (eleven two-page-spreads). These make up location guides, multiple maps, better looks at artifacts, and ships. Below I'll share a few examples of some of the inked original art for the guides:

All six awesome pinups will be included in the hardcover. I love seeing other artists interpretations of my mousey world. So huge thanks to the following folks for their pieces: Alex Sheikman Sean Rubin Duncan Fegredo
C. P. Wilson III Shane Michael Vidaurri Mike Mignola (colors by Dave Stewart)
The last thing I'll note is also the most unusual and biggest surprise (even for me). The Foreword was written by Monty Python's own Terry Jones! When Editor in Chief Stephen Christy asked me to brainstorm about who I would like best for that task and told me to "dream big" with suggestions, Terry came up as being a big longshot. I'm a big Python Fan, but Terry seemed like a wonderful fit also because of his background in medieval history and his work in children's books. I was floored when Stephen got back to me saying that through some connections, he'd reached Terry and that he'd be pleased to write something. Thank you,
Sir Bedevere, the Nude Organist, and Mr. Creosote.



Watercolor Wednesday:
Last week's pieces came from the basic principle that it's always fun to draw animals with clothes (I've made a career out of it so-far). I wondered what animal it would be fun to paint that I hadn't tackled already and I decided on parrots. I started with two, but after a friend saw them, he encouraged me to do some more. So last week saw 4 paintings.





Upcoming Appearances:
San Diego Comic Con: July 17-21
Boston Comic Con: August 3-4Baltimore Comic Con: September 7-8New York Comic Con: October 10-13North Carolina Comic Con: November 9-10

Legends of the Guard Vol2 #4 cover

Legends of the Guard Vol 2. #4 cover process:
The second volume of Legends of the Guard will close with issue #4. The last issue is the focus of this week's blogpost...well the cover rather. This cover I think has taken the place of Winter #4 as my favorite Mouse Guard cover. My original notes for this cover were "ritual or ceremony w/ pedestal basin and chalice. interesting architecture in background". But I had already done a piece like that as a commission (which was later colored & included in the 2012 sketchbook) and couldn't figure out a new take on it and assumed I'd just repeat myself. Inspired by the Watercolor Wednesday  painting of coins, I thought "It would be fun to do mouse discovering a Smaug-esque treasure horde with a weasel skeleton atop it"...so that's the direction I went.

I started not with a sketch, but a model. I wanted to keep the bit from my original notes about interesting architecture. I've drawn from Moorish architectural cues before when drawing Weasel dwellings. and this time I replicated (in chip board, basswood, & paper) a column salvaged from a Masonic Temple that is now at Materials Unlimited. I had seen the column in person when I worked there, but I refreshed my memory by looking it up again online. The remaining elements were the mouse & weasel skeleton. I looked at reference online for the skeleton, but made some of it up as I went. I also couldn't decide which way I preferred the dislocated mandible to point, so I drew it both directions.

With my camera on a tripod and a grid on a table, I was able to take several photos of the single column in multiple locations and arrangements. I Photoshopped these together until I had a layout for the columns I liked (a few were too dense, a few too sparse). The sketches were dropped in and I did some tweaking of the weasel skeleton sketch (shifting the head and arm a bit, and elimination the one version of the mandible). And piled in the shape of the coins with a quick custom brush.

Once I had the layout all digitally adjusted and ready, I printed it out at 8.25" x 16.25" (the same size as the final original artwork). I taped this printout to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 bristol and worked on a lightbox to ink the cover. This was one of those times that, as I inked, I couldn't tell if I was going too far, or not far enough. The more texture, the more dramatic the lighting, the better it seemed the piece would be, but about 1/2 way through, I started getting worried. Cory Godbey & I were exchanging in-progress work that day, and he messaged me to "push through", and so I did. The inks were all done with Copic Multiliners (even the large black areas...though I did resort to using one of their brush-tips a few times)

I knew the final color values & tones of this cover would be subtle, so to make it easier to be sure I had flatted all the colors properly, I went with eye-piercing obnoxious & garish colors at first. The object of flatting in color anyhow is to just make sure you have established all the color areas as separate from each other. Once the flats were all established, I started replacing all the ugly choices with something more like the final art to prepare for the final rendering.

Here's a look at the color cover art without the logo & text. The rendering was all done using a textured brush in Photoshop and the dodge & burn tools.
Issue #4 of Legends Vol.2 will feature stories fromBill Willingham, Jackson Sze, Justin Gerard, & Cliff Monear


Watercolor Wednesday:
Odd items were on my mind when painting last week's Watercolor Wednesday pieces (paintings I offer for sale every Wednesday in my online store). The first of the two I titled "Royal, Holy, & Chivalrous" depicting a king, bishop, and knight from a carved chess set. I looked at a few carved sets for inspiration, but made each piece my own in some way.

The other item came up while I was searching for chess-set reference. I found a photo of a marionette theater in Prague (I don't know who I linked to there from chess-sets...) and thought it would be fun to paint some mis-proportioned and silly looking figure. A knight won...but I could see me doing a set of these with a king and villain...perhaps a fool as well.

Upcoming Appearances:San Diego Comic Con: July 17-21Boston Comic Con: August 3-4Baltimore Comic Con: September 7-8New York Comic Con: October 10-13North Carolina Comic Con: November 9-10