This Has No Title

...And since I've been traveling for the Holidays, I have no blog entry.

If you were a robot, the oxymoronic nature of today's post would make your electronic brain explode.

Mickey's a Good Sport

I altered the colors slightly on this 1942, birthday art from Good Housekeeping to make it a bit more appropriate for Christmas.

Oh, I also added the word balloons.

Halo and Sprocket on itunes!

For your iphone or ipod! Halo and Sprocket: Volume 1 is being broken into 4 smaller chunks to allow for your H&S reading pleasure on the go!


I'd make a link if I knew how. Oh! Like this!

Not a Bad Hulk

A few days ago, I was looking through some old boxes and found copies of the now-defunct comic magazine Amazing Heroes. Coincidently, one issue (#155) was dated Dec. 15, 1988, twenty years ago today. I flipped through it and found a drawing of mine in its letter pages!

I had drawn the above Hulk, if memory serves, after being inspired by the way Todd McFarlane was drawing him. I then stole a line by Jessica Rabbit from the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Next, I mailed it off to Amazing Heroes for your viewing pleasure twenty years later.

The edited version

Been really busy lately . Haven't had time to think, draw, or such.

Well, okay, I did find time to do this...

Tacky activity for the kids!

You will need a few items. (A.) Tide detergent box, (B.) white acrylic paint, and (C.) small paint brush.


Step #1: Apply the white paint onto your paint brush.


Step #2: Starting in the center of the "d," paint a small strip downward. Next, starting in the top center of the "e," paint a small stripe to the left.


Step #3: Place finished piece in front of mirror.

Step #4: Giggle incessantly.

Reader's Robin Costumes from 1974

This is actually a continuation of the comments sections from last week's post. Back in the 70's, DC allowed readers to send in versions of new costumes for Robin. I don't have the issue that printed the winners, but I do have Batman #259, which printed some of the entries. I thought it'd be fun to show them here. Even back then, most readers knew those bare legs had to be covered. Click to enlarge...

Frank Miller draws my character

Well, back in 1980. I was a fan at the Chicago Comic Convention (was that the name of it?) and was hoping I could get a drawing from John Byrne. The crowd was too dense around him and I never got close enough to ask. At least I think that was the case. My memory's a little vague about it. I do remember however that Frank Miller was sitting by himself with no one around him. He had just recently become the penciler on Daredevil. I had a portfolio of drawings and asked him if he would do a drawing of a character I had created. He was charging $15 a sketch. The results are above. (Yes, as a teenager, I was a fan of Batman and Iron Fist. Why do you ask?)

At the same convention, Joe Rubenstein inked a panel on a page I had penciled featuring a What If idea I had where Spider-Man retained his four extra arms. Seen here.

By the way, the first comic job I ever had was writing and drawing a story for DC's Talent Showcase # 18 in 1985. You may recognize the character from earlier in this post..!

Are CATS Highly Intelligent or Just Plain Stupid?

A reader emailed and asked if I would share a cat strip from an old Halo and Sprocket comic (reprinted in H&S: Volume 1). I debated whether to do it or not. Then he sent me this link to a photo from his blog. Ha! I am greatly amused. Here's the cat strip...

Halloween Comes Late

I'm somewhat a Tigra fan, so I made myself a post-Halloween Tigra Clock. Which, admittedly, isn't as cool as my Galactic clock. (However it was more of a pain to Photoshop away all the lettering. Yikes.)

Btw, do any of my four readers know who the artists were on this great 70's cover? I'm guessing it was penciled by Gil Kane, but I'm not sure about the inks. Tom Palmer? Klaus Janson maybe?

Halloween Comes Early

Well, two days early. Screamland trade paperback, from Image Comics, hits the stands Oct. 29. It's a collection of the fun, single issues created by friends Harold Sipe and Hector Casanova.

I contributed a pin-up (to the deluxe edition) using an element from the story. There's the mention of a website where monsters cheapen themselves for the pleasure of others. Not my usual kind of thing, but I figured what the heck and created Miss Lagoon below.

(Btw, the "click here to enter" doesn't really do anything. It just adds to the charming illusion...)

CBG Review

Timothy Wood wrote a very nice piece in Comics Buyers Guide #1648. He named Halo and Sprocket: Natural Creatures as the "Indy Pick of the Month" and gave it four out of four stars. Thank you Timothy! (Click on the image below if you're curious to read it...)

I realize it's a bit self-serving to blog about a review, and possibly not very entertaining to you, the reader.

So here's a picture of a cat smoking a cigar.

You don't like me?

Sometimes, during mid-sentence, I decide to change what I'm saying.

It happened recently as I was using an old TV show reference. Unfortunately, the person I was talking to didn't understand the reference.

I'm pretty sure it made me merely sound like a deranged psycho when I said... "Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when... I stab you!"

Gas! Gas!

I own two Captain America comics written and drawn by Jack Kirby.












I opened the Bicentennial Battles to a page with the following panel on it...

When I opened Captain America #193, it noticed this panel...

I then (very disrespectfully) wondered why it would occur to an artist, sitting alone at his drawing table, to write about gas suddenly appearing.

I then had a great desire to pull out other Kirby comics to see if I could find more panels filled with gas.

But, following that, I had an even greater desire not to.

Making Happy Things Creepier

Before I begin, you need to read the two page, color story from my latest Halo and Sprocket book. If you don't own Natural Creatures, shame on you. You can read it below, nonetheless...












When I first created the last page, I created a standard Happy Face and added scanned-in human flesh to it. My reaction was just a, "Aw, it looks like happy orange. It's not creepy enough."

So, I decided to add real teeth and a few blackheads. "Better," I thought, "But I can still tolerate looking at it..."

Next I added more zits, more realistic eyes, and floated his head. My family and friends couldn't stand to look at it. Finally! I was done.

...SHINEY....

I got my Bronze Captain America this week. It's very cool.

But then what character wouldn't be cool in bronze?

Oh. Silver Surfer.

Me and Groo

I attended the MO-KAN Comic Conspiracy this weekend. I enjoyed it. The guest list included all the artists involved in creating Groo comics! I sat directly across the aisle from Sergio Aragones and visited with him a bit to tell him that MAD magazine helped form my personality. (He and Al Jaffee were my absolute favorites.)

I've always been a Groo fan. I had a letter printed in issue #88, from 1992. I brought the book to the con and it was signed very graciously by everyone-- Sergio Aragones (storyteller/artist), Mark Evanier (wordsmith) , Stan Sakai (letterer, and Usagi Yojimbo creator!), and Tom Luth (colorist). Great and friendly guys, everyone.

Problem solved.

Have you ever read the last page of Dr. Seuss' I Had Trouble in getting to Solla Sollew?

Why doesn't anyone write children books like this anymore?

Envelope Art

Many years ago, when I first mailed Halo and Sprocket as a comic book submission to SLG Publishing, I decided to try to convince the editors to open it sooner by adding art to the envelope. This is what I pasted on it...

SLG, of course, picked it up as a short-run series. Later, Publisher Dan Vado told me that the image did influenced him to open the envelope sooner. It wasn't the art or joke that did it however, it was the fact that I'd actually checked their website before submitting..!

Captain Food Storage

Right after I received my Economic Stimulus Check, I decided to spurge a little and ordered a Faux Bronze Captain America statue. It's the most money I've ever spent on a single item like this, but it looks sooooo cool. (I own several Bowen Designs mini-busts, also cool.) I haven't gotten it yet. I will soon, hopefully.

I have a friend, who after losing his job, continued to buy things like this. A thought occurred to me. These kind of collectibles should be made from compressed rice, or such!

It would help justify buying them. If times ever got tough, you could eat them.

Old View-Master reels are cool

I jury-rigged my scanner to scan an old View-Master reel to get a better look of a frame I liked.

By the way, a more optimistic writer would have named the above character "Captain Hand."

Bele and Lokai

Remember that episode of the original Star Trek where the two guys were fighting because the black and white halves of their faces were on opposite sides? They were both from the planet Cheron , but considered themselves separate races. They hated each other.

Was anyone else waiting for Captain Kirk to ask the obvious question?

Imperious Rex!

I hope the US Olympics Swimming Team doesn't get in trouble for having Sub-Mariner racing for us.

Oh Shoot!

I suspect that when China designed the uniforms for the 2008 Summer Olympics Women's Archery Team, they hadn't recently watched any reruns of Gilligan's Island.

Halo & Sprocket and Grow-Arm-Hair Lad

The first Halo and Sprocket collection has a (fairly popular) scene in it involving "Butter Crackers". I actually stole the concept from myself! Originally it was a single panel gag, along with a "Little Mermaid Fishing Lure" in an unpublished story. Let me explain...

Waaaay back in 1987, I created a comic named Directory to a Nonexistent Universe. It was a take-off of the popular superhero directory books at the time. I did these when I was pretty young, so don't judge them too harshly if you click on and read the three sample pages below...












I created Grow-Arm-Hair Lad very much as a throw-away character. However, he seemed to be one of people's favorites! A few years later, I wrote a stand-alone 8 page story for for him. I eventually decided that the world has enough superheroes, and if I wanted to dabble in comics, I needed to invent something non-superhero. Halo and Sprocket eventually came from that. Here's the first three pages of my GAHL story. You'll see the Butter Crackers in the last panel...