jackcomics

These are the sketches I had left at the end of STAPLE! ( http://staple-austin.org/ ), earlier this month in Austin. On the first day, I was playing around with animals dancing to music from radios for some reason. I sold a REALLY cute one of an octopus dancing to music from an iPod. Wish I had a pic to share.

So, here's a collection of all the sketches I did at my table during Alpine, Texas' ARTWALK 2011, or at least the ones that I had the presence of mind to photograph before I handed them off. There were maybe half a dozen others that I completely forgot to capture as I got tired and stopped thinking clearly. All of these were done really fast, usually while the buyer was waiting.

Someone was selling animal-head hats. I did two of this three-quarter view because I liked it, and because I knew I'd forgotten to get a picture of the other one.

( Click here for lots more sketches behind the cut. )

Here you have it, the latest in chase scenes for the discriminating naturalist!

Sorry I've gotten so completely behind over here, but here's the next episode, soon to be followed by one more which I just completed!

A new episode, featuring what I like to call "Prey Pride".

The Texas Mountain Trail program's Daily Photo Blog has been running an occasional series of posts about some of the characters in Jack and the research that went into their development.

So far there's a general description of the strip and posts on Mel and the Earless Lizard. Each one has some details on the source material or scientist interviews I did in coming up with each character. Check them out!

I didn't expect to do any more of these roping practice dummy drawings, but this little welded "calf" popped up down the street from my house and I couldn't resist. Now I'm thinking about looking for even more...

Click the "roping dummies" tag below to see them all, if you're interested.

This was posted a little while back on Jack's facebook page -- it's getting updated a bit more frequently than LJ these days. Just saying...

By the strangest coincidence, my local public radio station just broadcast this short feature on spadefoot toads, the newest characters in my comic.

If you want to hear the real version of the BWAAAAP! sound effect I've been using, give it a listen!

Wow, fifty episodes and it only took me seventy-five years.

OK, maybe not quite that long, and I might even add that this is my quickest turnaround of a new episode in recent memory!

I just finished re-reading Matt Kindt's 2 Sisters from Top Shelf Productions.

I have to admit I'm really not that fond of the drawing -- it's a bit of a hang-up for me -- it feels really sloppy and the anatomy is ALL over the place. But the panel-to-panel storytelling is consistently inventive and there are some very striking splash pages that work really well.

Also, the story is outstanding. If you like cloak-and-dagger spy stuff, there's a ton of super-sneaky details of WWII spy missions. But it doesn't stop there. We get humanity, pathos, romance, tragedy, genuine surprises and an unexpected historical sweep. DEFINITELY worth the read.