I’d like to congratulate DumbBum for his winning fan art piece, seen below:

Many thanks to the others who entered the contest, I really appreciate you taking part!

The real artist in the family is actually my daughter, Amanda. She’s ten years old and we have been drawing together since she was just two years old. We just set up a blog for her to post her sketches and her drawings. Go have a look and tell her what you think!

I really enjoy checking out other webcomics, and I’ve actually been exposed to a few when they have posted a comment here on my site (so post a comment here if you want me to look at your comic!) If you have posted a comment here and I don’t mention you here, it doesn’t mean I don’t like your strip. I admire anyone who has the drive, guts and sheer idiocy to take on making a webcomic.

Here’s a few webcomics of which I have become a daily reader.

I’ve already mentioned Legend of Bill by David Reddick. Another obvious one is Sheldon, a long running strip by Dave Kellet and one of the authors of the book “How to Make Webcomics” (highly recommended.) Sheldon has a certain care-free feel to it which makes it really enjoyable to read. And Dave’s sense of humor is both sophisticated and sneaky.

One that is less of a strip and more of a comic book type is Kukuburi by Ramon Perez. This guy just oozes artistic talent and creative storytelling. He posts a two panel update once a week and it’s spectacularly inventive and creative stuff. You owe it to yourself to check it out. He was also nice enough to give me a mention on his blog. (Isn’t it great when people are super talented AND nice? You can fit David Reddick into that category as well.)

Next is Pinkerton by Mike Witmer. Anyway, I’ve only recently discovered this one but it has me cracking up already. The characters are great, the artwork is really appropriate with the angled lines and the sharp humor. I must now go back and read the archives to catch up…yay!

Lastly is Calamities of Nature by Tony Piro. This is not a daily but a weekly, I believe. Tony just celebrated his one year anniversary of the strip (congrats!) He states he has been drawing his characters since he was ten - how about that! I like Tony’s very unique style and his characters have well thought out personalities that come through in his strip.

Check these strips out, you won’t be sorry!

Was digging through some files yesterday and found some older sketches from when I began to draw again a year or so ago, thinking about doing a comic or some kind of creative project. I had a few ideas which I ultimately rejected. Here’s some of that material.

Bird Superhero Character - I had an idea for a bird that was a superhero - kind of a Clark Kent thing going on.

An interesting precursor to Asimov, maybe is this guy HENRI

When my eldest daughter was 4, we did a little project and wrote a children’s book together. I did some drawings of the little girl in the story thinking I would illustrate it. In reality, I want her to do it as a project though.

A more sophisticated version of Captain John?

Lastly, right before I realized I just didn’t have time to pursue animation, I was going to do a short based on this book “Trubloff” I read as a kid, a Russian folk tale about a mouse who plays the Balalaika. So I had done a bunch of drawings of him that I was going to use to build the model. Here’s one.

I kind of like these, I’m glad I’ve learned not to throw stuff away. I had done lots of stuff in college that is long gone now that I wish I still had. Never throw your art away!

How about some fan art! Daniel Bethel, the illustrator for the neat webcomic Eben07 sent me this gem. Daniel is quite the illustrator and does great work for Eben07. Check out John here! He’s looking seriously capable! Thanks for sending this in Daniel, it rocks! It makes me think John could actually get something done