Terry Moore's Blog, page 18

Bik&Beep's Political Speech & TM News of the Day

ECHO The Complete Edition is a hot item on the webstore. Grab your copy before they sell out. We have the entire series collected into, your choice, softcover or hardcover versions. Two different covers, same explosive story inside.

(Oops. I've already used 3 non-complimentary typefaces in one visual, which is a designer no-no. No diploma for me.)

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For only the second time in my career, I have to cancel a show, the Dallas Fan Days show in October. I offer my sincere apologies to the Dallas fans, but I have an unavoidable conflict during that time. I look forward to returning to my hometown in the future.

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For the New York convention in October, my sketch list is full, so we've taken down the order form on the webstore. This may be my swan song for sketch requests. The publishing deadline for Rachel Rising is relentless. It will take all I have to stay on it.

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In December I will release my first Sketchbook to the public at large. You may know I've always made small, handmade sketchbooks in tiny print runs for conventions. This will be different, 64 pages, full color. More details to come as we get closer.

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That's the news for the day. I leave you with another Bik & Beep.

 

Which is it, The Cartoonist or evolving ink?

Bik & Beep argue the classic debate. I scribbled this cartoon on a long plane flight and posted it in 2008. Wanted to bring it back up to show somebody. You can look, too.

 

Baltimore Con Schedule & Sketches

I'll be there. I'm not doing any conventions next year except San Diego, so this will be my last time to visit Baltimore for at least a couple of years. I'll try to make this a great visit.

Robyn and I will have our booth on the floor somewhere in the middle of the fun, next to our friends from Cartoon Books. Because it's just Robyn and I at the booth, I plan to be there all the time, with a lunch break. I don't plan to sketch at the booth unless we have zero activity, which sometimes happens. You never know. I've seen the biggest names in comics sitting and twiddling their thumbs at one show or another.  And I know of (at least) two guys who leave the minute it gets slow, so they are never seen idle. That actually works, because their reputations are intact, but I think you miss out on a lot of rewarding conversations if you don't keep yourself available. Just my take on it.

So stop by, pick up the new ECHO Complete book or How To Draw Women or Strangers In Paradise Pocket Edition books or Rachel Rising Tshirts or maybe you just need directions to the DC panel. We're here to help with a smile. Speaking of panels…

Saturday from 1-2 PM, I will be at the Charles Vess panel, asking him questions about his beautiful craft, and basically getting him to confess all to the public. I've never failed to make my interviewees cry, so bring Kleenex.

Saturday night I will be at the Harvey Awards dinner and ceremony. I've been asked to present an award, but I don't know which one. I hope it's Best Picture. ECHO was fortunate to receive a Harvey nomination this year for Best Continuing Series, however, CHEW and DAYTRIPPER are also nominated and unbeatably good, so that's that. Why can't I ever get nominated against really unpopular books, like The U.S. Tax Code, 1963 Edition? I could beat that book. I think. Depends on who's judging.

Here's one of the pre-ordered sketches I did for delivery in Baltimore. Some sweet girl named Nancy Callahan. Ever heard of her?

Enjoy. See you there or catch you back here next week.

Hot Girls & Cold Feet

Rachel Rising has made new friends over at HorrorNews.net

I love wandering onto the radar of the horror community. Since I was a kid I've always wanted to participate in the genre.

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The window is closed ordering sketches for the Baltimore con this weekend. I've got all I can handle! The one I'm looking forward to the most: a request for Bettie Page. I should pay the customer for asking me to draw Bettie. Classic.

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NEW SKETCHBOOK FOR COMIC SHOPS IN DECEMBER

Speaking of sketches, I have been making these little 24-page homemade sketchbooks for several years and selling them off the table at cons and the website for $10, but I've never put out a real sketchbook for comic stores. Time to fix that. I just solicited a 64-page full color sketchbook for December release.

The reverent, highly dignified title is: HOT GIRLS & COLD FEET.

For real. Robyn came up with that one. I had Hot Girls & Even Hotter Terry. She nixed that. Price on this sexy jewel will be $11, just $1 more than the B&W Kinkos books (which admittedly are very limited). Start saving your pennies now and you will see a ton of art that never made it into the published books. Like this sweet couple…

 

 

 

RIP Elvis Presley

34 years ago today… on August 16, 1977, I walked into a music store in Dallas and bought a new Gibson Les Paul.  I remember being pleased with the deal, getting in my car to drive home, turning on the radio.  An Elvis song… on my rock station.  Love Me Tender. Huh.  Then the jockey came on and said Elvis had just died at a hospital in Memphis.  No details yet, but a crowd was already assembling outside the gates at Graceland.  I wondered if the other drivers were also hearing this news, because traffic seemed particularly slow and polite.  Then the station played Love Me Tender again… and again… nonstop, for 24 hours, and I knew it was the end of an era.

For many days after Elvis' death, the country seemed sad and, I think, beyond the love many people of that time felt for the entertainer they'd grown up with, it was also because Elvis' death marked the end of a time in our country most adults remembered fondly.  When the Kennedys were at their height and rallying America to a wonderful future, Elvis was on the soundtrack.  When the war and assasinations almost tore us apart, Elvis was left behind like all the other 50′s crooners. But he came back and showed us what cool was again. Like the post-touring Beatles who rebuilt themselves in a newer, meaner world, Elvis' second career was bigger than his first.  He was more than a survivor, he was now bigger than the musical era he came from. You have to be big more than ten years to achieve that. Elvis surfed the top for 20 years.  Then one morning he was done.  Overnight it all became ancient history. One day he was here, the next he's an article in the newspaper. It was the same when John Lennon died. One day we lived in the age of Beatles—when a reunion was possible and rumored incessantly—the next day the Beatles were history.

That's why you still hear about Elvis and the day he died. And you'll keep hearing about him through the end of your generation. Giants throw long shadows, it takes awhile to walk out of them. You may not think there's a connection between your favorite band today and a destitute kid from Tupelo, Mississippi, but there is.  So, remember this… if you give two shits about anybody who ever picked up an electric guitar, then you owe a debt to the boy who became king.  Long live Elvis.

 

Baltimore Comic Con Sketches

Tomorrow, Tuesday Aug 16, is the last day to preorder your sketch for pick-up at the convention in Baltimore this weekend. As the people of South Park once warned us, the day after tomorrow will be too late!

Order by clicking here and following the link.

It's just impossible to draw at the conventions these days. Not enough down-time to do anything like that and, when I try, people look at the finished sketch like I just threw up on paper and handed it to them. Best to catch me at the drawing board at home, let me do my thing in the room designed for it, then pick up the mini-masterpiece at the show. Don't believe me? Here is a typical pre-ordered sketch:

 

And here is a typical sketch from a typical convention:

You have been warned.

 

The Sexy Wheels of Rachel Rising

So you read Rachel Rising #1 (thank you) and you saw her driving a little black Mini Cooper like a bat out of hell and (maybe) you thought, "cool".

I drive a Mini, a blue one I call my Tardis because it takes me places. I like the Mini, even though it's very dangerous on the road because every other car bullies you. Every time I drive it, I'm almost hit. So now I drive like a bat out of hell—flogging the screaming little engine, keeping the tach in the red and tires reeking of burnt rubber— even on a short trip to the corner store. This way I stay away from other cars—like a running back making his way up the field of bigger guys determined to dismember him. For some odd reason, I don't see other Mini drivers doing this, so I'm pretty sure it's just me all the cars are out to kill. Why everybody is always after the Tardis, I don't understand. Ask the doctor.

So, Rachel. Needed a car, so I gave her the most deadly vehicle on the road—the Mini. Now, I don't want to have to go downstairs to draw my parked car every time I need it in a panel of Rachel, so I went to a hobby store and found a tiny replica and I use that on my drawing table.

That's my real Mini on the eraser. I'm a lousy parker. The model is much smaller, of course.

Wait, it gets better.

This issue, #2, we have a new character, and she needs a car too. Well, we can't have everybody in town driving Minis (not unless Mini wants to sponsor Rachel), so I was thinking, What would be really cool for this (new) lady to drive, and the final answer was: a 1957 Corvette. Why? Because that was the coolest car on the toy display at CVS where I buy my Diet Coke for the day. From that find I realized all kinds of things about my new character, what she was like, her style, her past. Like Lennon reading about Mr. Kite at a fair and writing a song about it.

So I'm sitting here today, drawing the cars racing around Rachel's town of Manson, and I thought you might like to see the parking lot.

If I had a '57 Corvette, I would be happy to go downstairs many times a day and draw it. But fate has decided I should die in a burning Mini Cooper just moments after it is crushed by a 6-year old on a big wheel. So… say la vee.

 

 

 

Rachel Rising T's are here!

Show the world you walk with the Whatdead in this snappy designer haute co…tur… tier… fancy schmancy tshirt! Available in S-XXL. Click here to order yours now. Click here to look at puppies on a bench. Or, click here to fix the economy and establish world peace. Well, huh… that took us back to the puppies, didn't it? Okay, we'll work on that.

 

Rachel Rising 2nd Printing

I learned today that we have to go back to press for more Rachel Rising #1. That's just awesome, I have to tell you. In this day and age…. So cool. Thank you to everybody for making it possible.

The 2nd printing will have an inverted cover so you can tell the two apart. Like this:

I've joked on Twitter and FB that this made the 1st printings priceless collector items, which is silly. We all know you will sell yours for the right price. It may be well up into 2 figures, but you can be bought. Right?  I understand.

Thank you fans, readers, friends, retailers and assorted law enforcement agents who monitor me daily!

Rachel Rising Blog for Review & Chat

This is interesting, a review and discussion blog devoted to each issue of Rachel Rising as it comes out.

http://rachelrisingreview.wordpress.com/