"Doughboy" minicomic in the works...

With so much drama in the world today -- the presidential primaries, a frigid winter in China, Britney Spears being hospitalized -- I'm sure tons of you are wondering, "What's Dave Crosland up to right now?" Luckily, you restless hordes can ease your curious nerves with this little show and tell.

For the past month, I've been getting ready to work on a new minicomic called "Soft Coeur." The short story in this book follows the trials and tribulations of a young, female doughboy trying to rescue the soul of a little drowned girl from the perils of the afterlife. The story is aptly titled "Doughboy," and features odd creatures, hidden dangers, mystical power-ups, and lots and lots of candles. I actually got the spark for this short after seeing a sidewalk memorial to two folks who were killed in a pretty awful car wreck up the street from The Bunker. Chilling stuff....

As you can see in the sketches above, my doughboy is a young, black girl with her standard issue doughboy helmet (circa World War I, yo). She'll also have a satchel loaded with tools and potions that help her do her job. And I dunno who that weird, fish-fin-headed dude is behind her on the right. I think it might be Abe Sapien from the Hellboy books. Who knows... I was drinking a lot of coffee, that night. Oh, and on the right is the drowned girl. She's the centerpiece of the tale, which is funny, because she basically "sleeps" through the entire thing.

Soft Coeur is gonna be self-published and ready just in time for WonderCon, in San Francisco, February 22nd through the 24th. I'll be posting with more info on that convention in the next week, so stay tuned.

Get back... get on back... get back to where you once belonged.
-Bunker, out.

Monsoon Season...

Greetings, from the well-insulated warmth of our beloved Bunker!

It was a wet and frigid weekend, here in The Bay. But, amidst soggy trips to the grocery store, library and laundromat, I was able to have fun and get some keen drawing done, too. Check it:


It was a good weekend for drawing women kicking ass. When isn't it a good time for that? In particular, I had a blast penciling these pages with Aurora (my new fave in "Everybody's DEAD") slicing zombies to bits and striking dope poses.


And this pic shows early inks for the following page. This is just, like, the larvae stage of the ink wielding that's about to go down. Kee-yaaaai!

This weekend also had the most wonderful ending of all -- a deliciously late Sunday dinner, prepared by our loving Bunker mascot, Yoshimi! The wonder mutt had all the fixings ready for roasted tilapia and an almond/pine nut sauce, served on a bed of fresh arugula. Looks like she's putting all those hours she spends on the Food Network website to good use.


Now, I'm all sleepy, with a belly full of fish and a brain full of "Love And Rockets" comics and episodes of "The Shield." It's beddy-bye time for this ebony extraterrestrial.

- Bunker, out.

ps -- My special ladyfriend and I also spent time at a diner, drinking bottomless cups of coffee and honing our crafts. I worked on character designs for a new mini-comic story I'm doing, called, "Doughboy." It's just one of the things I'm cooking up for Wondercon, in February.

I'll have those sketches -- as well as more info on the short -- posted this week. Word booty.

Get cha'self dipped --- FRESHLY DIPPED!

The wonderful folks at Formula Werks contacted me at the end of 2007, asking if I'd like to be a part of freshest endeavor, Freshly Dipped. How could I not say "yes?" Simply put, it's a website where a select collective of artists have come together to exhibit and sell original works, prints, merchandise, and more to a worldwide audience. I'm honored to be a part of this, amongst friends and wunderkinds like Jim Mahfood, Joey Monsoon, Elizabeth Berdann, Attaboy, and more. There are 30+ creators featured on the site, from all over the globe. If independent art collecting/oogling/loving is what you're into, go to www.freshlydipped.com.

"Everybody's DEAD" page process

Hey, peoples! It's been a hot Friday in The Bunker. I'm fighting off a cold, but the lines were flowing like crazy today. I knocked out a whole page of "Everybody's DEAD" #3. Keep on reading, and I'll walk you through the process! *click the pics for a larger view*

1. The Pencils -- Okay, so I was up by 8am. I put on some tea, went through my morning routine, and was at my desk working on the page by 9:30. I started with a pathetic little sketch of the page done in the margins of the script. And between 9:30 and noon, I was able to turn it into this:


It's rough, it's dirty, a little scribbly, but all the main points are there. Certain artists pencil to varying degrees of "tightness." Luckily, I'm my own inker. So I can be loose with some of my pencils, and just pick up the slack when I go to ink. It's almost like I'm being an asshole for myself to work with. Hmm....

2. Inks, Mofo -- With the pencils done, I took a moment to make some more tea and toast (zang!). Then it was back to work! After an hour or so of zen-magic wrist-action, the page looked somethin' like this:

That's what I'm talkin' about, people. Oodles, and oodles of linework. At this point, everything was outlined. My solid-black fills were mapped out (with those little "x's"). And I had erased all the pencils. All I had to do now was handle those fills. Oh and, as tightly drawn as the page was at this point, there were still errors and small fixes that needed attention.

*Some artists will actually use a light-table to do the inks on a separate piece of paper. It spares them the erasing step, prevents them messing up the inks with an eraser, and allows for a freer interpretation of the pencil drawing into an ink drawing. Me, I'm a heathen. I just like to do the majority of my drawing and decision-making right there on the final board.*

3. Inked Up And Ready To Go! -- Step 3 is all about the nitty-gritty. It's filling in blacks. It's making outlines bolder. It's fixes and cleanup. And after some fine tuning with pens and brushes (plus, some TLC from my delicious Bic Wite-Out pen), I bent my knee to the scanner gods. And, thus, my worship brought forth a newborn comic page!



At last, the page was finished. I had it scanned and sent in a little before 5pm. Not a bad day's work, eh?

I hope you've enjoyed this, the first of many "looks-under-the-hood" to come. I'm off to some late-night treats and "Dragon Wars." Oh yes.

-Bunker, Out.

HULK SMASH for Stan Lee tribute show at G1988 in L.A.!

Gallery 1988 Los Angeles is currently showing "Under The Influence," an exhibit of artistic tributes to the work of the legendary Stan Lee. And I have a piece in it! My collage and paint-heavy Hulk pic is called "The Gamma Rays Made Me Do It." You can view all of the work from the show on G1988's blog. Dig it! for more: www.gallery1988.com

Pinup in the new "Scud: Disposable Assassin" series

You may know Rob Schrab from his writing work on Monster House, or his writing and directing work on The Sarah Silverman Program. If you're a Hollywood hipster or filmmaker-in-training, you may even know his name from the short-film-genius gathering of Channel 101. But, if you're a comic nerd like me, then you know Rob Schrab from his groundbreaking romp through the surreal, "Scud: The Disposable Assassin." Scud was an independent comic series that I got into during the 90's. The action was fast, the dialogue was hilarious, and the artwork was as magical as the first time I tasted bubblegum.

Sadly, that all came to a screeching halt in said 90's, just before the final issue (#21) was created. But now, thanks to the Gods of Underground Dorkdom, Rob has come back to comics to complete the series. And not just with a final issue, but a final, 4-issue MINISERIES. Boss!

And oh, bless my stars and garters, Rob asked me to draw a pinup for the new series. Click the thumbnail to see my piece, "Scud vs. Jeff." If you aren't familiar with Jeff, he's the arch-nemesis that Scud can't kill, lest he die, himself. Jeff can latch onto objects and make them a part of his own, twistedly violent body. Hence, the elephant head for an arm, extension cord plug for a head, etc....

The final Scud series starts up in February 2008! I'll keep you posted on release dates and which issue my pinup is in. For more on Rob's creativity, visit robschrab.com

"Everybody's DEAD"!!!

After a short break from comics last year, following my work on "Scarface: Scarred For Life," I'M BACK! This time, it's with the motley fraternity vs. messy monsters epic, "Everybody's DEAD"!

Written by Brian Lynch (writer on "Angel: After The Fall", the comic continuation of Joss Whedon's Angel), this book follows the post-apocalyptic adventures of "... the last people on Earth you'd want to be the last people on Earth." It's a 5-issue miniseries. I'm working on the third issue now, and it's a blast. I'm talking, like, the Tunguska Blast of 1908! Simply put, it's a handful of dorky fratters and one badass kick-boxing chica, against the undead hordes. It's classic cult stuff. But there IS a twist to these undead hellions. For that, you'll just have to pick up the book.

This series has me drawing all sorts of fun items -- muscle cars, gore, sexy costumes, MORE gore, fraternity brawls, and did I mention the gore?

I'll be dropping plenty of updates on this blog, as I progress thru the books. For now, you can click the issue 1 cover to the right. Enjoy!

ps-- Len O'Grady (the colorist on Scarface) is also coloring this series. The man's a demigod of chroma.