May 1st!

Hey everyone, Thanks for your patience through what will be known as the BIBLE months--strike that--the BIBLICAL TIMES. I'm up to the book of Luke now. 85 stories down, 40 to go. I can see the light at the end of the biblical tunnel. This has been an epic--EPIC job. No joke, it's like Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack combined, only Rapunzel and Jack are bearded men with robes and headscarves.

What news is there? Let's see, ONE DEAD SPY, the first of book in my Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales series has been picked as a Junior Library Guild Selection. My only previous book to get that was Calamity Jack. I'm supposed to get printed, final versions of the Hazardous Tales books this week. I'll shoot some photos when they get here. My manuscript for book #3 in that series is finished and being reviewed right now. The manuscript for book #4 is due at the end of this week...I should probably go write that soon...

While I was away from the blog--during BIBLICAL TIMES--blogger has gone and revamped itself. There are many new features that I have never used before. If I'm using it right, my most popular post ever is the photo of my LEGO Lewis and Clark boat. huh, wouldn't have guessed it.

Anyway, the Space Station should be somewhat operational tomorrow. Although, if I'm honest, I'd love to shut it down until July, when the BIBLICAL TIMES are finished. The problem is that TACO HELL DRIVE-THRU is a complicated story to draw. I just need to finish it, then launch something easy to draw. Or post some old sketchbook stuff. Or something.

Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Abrams Catalog Sneek-peeka!

The Abrams Catalog is here! The Abrams Catalog is here!

You've been hearing about my historical graphic novel series for over a year now, well, now you can finally SEE what they are going to be about. Take a look at pages 10-11 (right after the Wimpy Kid spread!) Coming this summer!

Open publication - Free publishing - More abrams

April Extrabot

Walker Books is doing a special paperback edition of THE TWELVE BOTS OF CHRISTMAS this year. I just finished making this little guy for the "This Book Belongs To..." page.

Not quite the season, but here's a little bot for you.

A Timeline

Hoo. What a mess. You know that feeling when you've gone waaaaay too long without cleaning a room? That's how I feel about my poor blog. It has been severely neglected. Like in Animal Crossing when you haven't visited your town in months, and there are weeds everywhere. Never mind.

In any case. I need to set a date to get things back on track, instead of just letting the last few posts just float here in limbo.

The date: May 1st

I will return to the rock-solid five-day-a-week posting schedule I've held to for the past few years. It will be rad.

Graphic Novel Panel Discussion Tonight!

I'll be doing a panel discussion about graphic novels tonight at the Orem Public Library with a few other comic book artists, Brandon Dayton, Jess Smart Smiley and Mr. Missile Mouse, Jake Parker! It is at 7pm on Wednesday (tonight!) Should be good!

Once again, I apologize for the massive delay in regular posting. I'm juggling like a maniac over here. But it is all exciting stuff. Lots of fun things on the horizon. But regular daily posts should be back up and running soon (ish.)

Painting Preview

Hang in there folks, we should be over this hump soon.

Anyway, I realize that for an illustrator's blog, I rarely post much of my actual illustration work. Here's a detail from a painting I did last week for a Scholastic Book Fair series I've been doing covers for. It's called The Secret in the Attic series. This one's based on Christopher Columbus.

This is all Photoshop. I'm getting better at making my digital paintings look like my paint paintings.

My title for this is, "Hey you kids! Get down from that mast!"

Next week I'm going to power right through to the end of the Taco Hell story. For real.

The gaps! The gaps are everywhere!

Hey guys. In case you haven't noticed I'm dropping posts like...I don't know, a guy who drops a lot of posts. 2010 me is deeply ashamed of 2012 me. I missed, like, two posts that year. Yeesh.

The reasons are good--very good in fact. I've got lots of terrific projects coming in. In a stunning show of confidence, my publisher has ordered books 3 and 4 in my historical graphic novel series! This was unexpected. I was sure the publisher would apply the usual Wait-and-See-Sales tactic before extending the series. But apparently the first two books went over extremely well at their sales and publicity meetings. So it's game on for the next two books!

In fact, the manuscript for book #3 is due in two and a half weeks. Yikes!

The bible is going strong. I'm in the book of Matthew and this week I'll pass the halfway mark on the entire job. Whopeee! Today I'm illustrating the concept of forgiving someone "Seven times seventy times." Where's my calculator, I don't even know how many that is...is it 140? That sounds right.

In any case the gaps will keep coming. We're very close to the end of the Taco Hell story. Think of these gaps as a way to extend the grand finale--sort of like in the Lion King, when Scar and Simba fight in cheesy slo-mo. The gaps are the cheesy slo-mo.

Taco Hell Drive Thru Part 2-22