SRM X

As in "x-ray".

Overview and diagnostic of the mighty SRM.

Detail:

Transparent

On screen tonight;

Danger Rudolph Danger

'Working on a pretty cool project right now (hope to show you some of it soon), I was searching through my archives for some related reference and happened upon some things that I thought were kind of interesting...  So I guess we'll call this segment;

 TALES from the SRM Attic

This was a story I was working on a few years back, very 1950-60's B movie inspired, with jet pilots vs giant alien robots... (I think I can detect a heavy New Frontier influence too.  ;)

Here's some doodles from that stalled project;

And in the holiday spirit, heres the cover I did  over a year ago for a new Little Golden Book  retelling of the Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer story, which I haven't seen yet, but I believe it's on the shelves now.... Ho Ho Ho!

Update:  You can get it online at Amazon.com.

Here he comes!...or... Evolution of a Monster

You've heard me mumble about a series of graphic novels with the same moniker of this here weblog for many a moons...
Well this is the year it happens! Ha. What you see here is the recent progression of the way 'ol SRM looks.


You've heard of the expression "necessity is the mother of invention" right? Well I've been invited to hang out with Chris Pitzer at the super cool Adhouse booth at the Baltimore Comic-Con Sept. 27-28 (that's a little under 2 weeks from now true believers!) and I thought it would be kind of cool to do a sneak preview poster image of SRM. Easier said than done. What I've found is that I see him semi-clearly in my head, but have yet to really bring him fully to life with pencil, ink and digital color. My first two tries are just that... "tries". This isn't him yet. He's getting there, but hasn't fully materialized in a way that says "Aha! That's SRM!" to me.

I have a much better understanding of the natural progression of the visual style of characters like Mignola's Hellboy or Kirby's Thing for example, in that like a sculptor discovering the figure within a block of marble, the character starts to reveal itself over time... and as the necessity above states, invention can happen.
The problem that I'm currently wrestling with, is that I want to convey his "surface texture" but I don't want it to be too laborious as I'm planning on drawing this guy a lot, as well as I don't want to overpower the viewer with too much surface detail. I lean more towards enjoying "simple" design rather than too much noise... All that to say I'm still "figuring" this guy out. Like an inventor working out problems on the chalkboard, mine are still ending with question marks.
But I'm narrowing it down.

Here is some recent sketch noodlings to show you some of my process...






Stay tuned...more to come and soon!

POPMONSTER!

A few months ago my friend, musician and filmmaker Greg Pope, approached me about doing the cover art for his upcoming solo album titled "PopMonster". Greg and I have a lot of similar interests, specifically sci fi and classic monster movies (he easily has the largest collection of Kaiju on vhs and dvd in this part of the country) and he thought I might be good at doing a giant robot monster inspired cover for his new rock n'roll album. (Don't know how he got that idea...)

Here's a few pics of Greg in action sporting a tasty SRM shirt;


Greg's just finished the final master of the album and is sending off the tracks and art today. I'll do a follow up post with the links to where you can purchase the album or go see one of his shows. (Since he'll be doing shows promoting the album, I may try and do a poster for one of his gigs too) Until then, he's got a link up with a couple of sample tracks from the new album here.

Greg's posting some news over here at his non-solo "group" site; edumund's crown

AND you can download a couple of free tracks from his previous album there too... this one's my fave: Keith Richards

Here's what the front and back for the PM album look like together, as well as the actual disc too.




For those interested, you can check out some of the process steps toward the final art below.

Some initial sketches:



And a few of the color concepts;

BUNNY- ATOMO!

Well...here he is in all of his unfinished glory. This weeks challenge for Drawergeeks was : Bunny/Rabbit.
I was going to slick this up, inks and full colors, but I just have too much on my plate right now. I thought folks might like to see the initial doodle/concept anyhow.
Undoubtedly influenced by the Transformers movie and the comic story I'm working on right now. (there's a fair amount of "Johnny Socko and His Giant Robot" influence in there too!)

If I get the chance, I'll try and come back to this guy sometime later...

Robot Horde!

Allright ...previous commitments swept out of the way...
Family illness on the mend...it's time to get crankin on my next story. This is for another anthology that's coming out...don't know that I can name it yet. :(

Anyways, this one is going to be done in more of my traditional pencil/ink style...it'll be a bit longer than "DD & the Kid"...and I'm looking at it as an ongoing story (I already have several chapters plotted out). Hope you like it!

This is some development on various members of the "robot horde":

Doc Dastardly Preview!

Well I've hinted at this a bit previously, but I've got the okay to actually show a couple of pages!
These are from a short story I have in the upcoming comics anthology "Parable".

Here's the title (Dr. Dastardly & the Kid!) and a following page:



If you like Robots, Mad Scientists AND super powered kids...hopefully you'll like this too!

SPACE MONSTER: Battle for Nashville

Hey my friend Greg Pope has a new video up on you tube...
featuring cool things like, giant robots, robotic spiders from outer space, missles, death rays and mass destruction...
You know... for kids! :)

Go check it out:

Here!

Holy Cow

I'm speachless...

If you like Giant Robotic Battles like I do...then go watch

This

Wow