Dune Molar

Meet the Spy!

We interrupt the grey landscapes to bring you...another Hazardous Tales narrator intro! That's all three narrators! You can see the full set at www.hazardoustales.com.

Sales with these books are different than my others have been. I've never worked in the non-fiction/educational market before (not as an author anyway.) All of my previous books have been very commercial. Fantasy/fairy tales/fiction--sure there's aspects of learning in those books, but not like these.

The publisher and I are very curious to see where these get shelved. Yes, they are non-fiction, but they are cartoon non-fiction, with a thick layer of joke frosting. Me, I'd shelve them with the graphic novels.

In any case, it will be fun to see how it goes with these books. If you haven't seen them, you should check them out, get your library to order them. And if you have read them, tell a friend or post a review online. These little books are odd ducks, they are cool ducks and they are funny ducks, but they really are odd ducks--word of mouth will really help them swim.

We now return to the grey landscapes. I'm really enjoying them.

U Canyon

This one has a touch of "Southwestern Motel Art" to it.

Ghost Porch

Grey Pool

Guess who is now several pages deep into Hazardous Tales #3 final art. That's right it's me! I can't say much about what book #3 covers. But I can tell you the color. Green. Oh yeah.

If you can't tell, I'm having trouble sticking to anything resembling a posting schedule here on the blog. I'm going to try a simpler, more soothing, more...geometric set of posts to get myself back in the habit.

Prepare yourself for some text-free, grey, landscape squares.

Uniform Research

So, why did the Provost page take so long to post? You ask. Well, here's why:

Research!

With the Hangman, I just made stuff up. But I couldn't fabricate stories about the actual British Redcoat uniform. I found myself curious about what each of the elements on the uniform were for. I got lost in the research! That's a fascinating outfit!

On top stands my LEGO re-creation of the Provost. LEGO doesn't make a 1776 Grenadier's cap. They do a nice Tricorn, an Admiral style Bicorn, even a Napoleonic Shako, but I had to make due with the modern Bear-skin Palace Guard hat. That was the closest.

Meet the Provost!

It's another introduction to one of the Hazardous Tales narrators--there are three. Can you guess who the last one will be?

When I started this page, I thought it would be very boring compared to the Hangman's. But two hours of online research and nine library books later, I discovered it was far more interesting than the Hangman's totally made up outfit.

I learned all about the history of the Grenadier's cap--which is basically a furry miter. That's right--miter, like the Pope wears! This hat eventually turned into the bear-skin hat you see on modern Buckingham Palace Guards. They are still made from bear skin to this day--and are quite expensive (especially for the bear!)

Meet the Hangman! Hazardous Tales Launch Day 1

Now that we're finished launching Frankenstein (don't worry, he'll be back for Halloween) it's time to launch the Hazardous Tales books!

The books in the Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series are narrated by three characters; the spy Nathan Hale, a British Provost, and this guy--the Hangman. Time to meet him.

Frankenstein FOUND!

We found him! Frankenstein was hiding out in this: the weirdest picture I've ever drawn.

From Rick:

Okay. So we said that this was going to end last week. Like we're organized or something. If we were organized we wouldn't be doing the same thing we were doing in junior high--sitting in the back of the class drawing silly pictures and writing goofy notes. Instead we would have responsible jobs, and work a good solid 8 hrs a day like normal people instead of the measly 108 hours a week we put in now. (We have horrible cruel bosses.) Actually, I have been to the north country, in a land without wifi (at least where we stayed) Oh the Barbarity! (Actually it was kind of nice...)

Anyway--last image.

The Three Not-So-Wise Men following the Texaco Star, and carrying Gold, Frankenstein, and Myrrh.

Thank You to Chris

Those three not-so-wise men are supposed to be the Three Stooges. I've never drawn the Stooges before (I'm more of a Marx Bros guy.) The Myrrh is the MER-man, get it? I couldn't think of a good gold joke, so I went with a gold card credit card. What do you think? Do you have a good gold joke?

Anyway, that'll do it for What Would You Like on your Frankenstein. Thanks for playing!

A Momentous Occasion

It's a big day, folks.

No, we haven't found Frankenstein. No, it's not another book launch, and no, it's not the long-awaited completion of the Taco story.

It's the day I finished the last of the 850 bible illustrations! DooDoo Doooo! (that's a trumpet fanfare.)

I drew the last lines on the 125th story around 6:00 this morning as the sun was rising. It was an all-night sprint to the finish!

This was a whale of a job. It was a lot of fun and a HUGE challenge. Now, if everything goes as planned, the blog should be back up to full schedule starting next week.

Wait and see!

Launch Day!

We still can't find Frankenstein--but we did find this cartoon, from the new Hazardous Tales Blog:

It's officially launch day for my two graphic novels, One Dead Spy and Big Bad Ironclad! These books are now available wherever books are sold!

Who are these three characters? They are the narrators of the Hazardous Tales series. We'll be finding out more about them in the coming days.

Now where has that pesky Frankenstein gone?