"Go, Team Venture!"

"Go, Team Venture!" / 11 x 14.5" / watercolor, acrylic & ink on paper

With their new season airing right now, The Venture Bros has been coming up a bunch of conversations. And in a funny coincidence, I just happened to be working on a Venture Bros illustration, this week.

I've only seen the very first season, plus a handful of random episodes from later seasons. One of these days though, I'll have to sit down with the DVDs and catch up. Even with my limited knowledge of the series, this is still one of my favorite current cartoons. I mean, damn, how can you NOT like a cartoon where the characters actually age & develop, from year to year? And as a child of the 80's, I'm a total sucker for all the Johnny Quest, Scooby-Doo, classic cartoon homages they toss in there.

"Someday the grapes will be wine, and someday you will be mine."
- Dave C.

New Football Drawings

"Enter The Red Zone #87" / 9 x 12" / watercolor, acrylic & ink on paper

Low & behold, I've actually been creating football illustrations, this season. I've even been sketching a bit during college games! Honestly, how could I resist? These pieces are a combination of two of my favorite things -- art and football!

The top illustration is from a play where Colts wide receiver, Reggie Wayne, made a catch in the Bills' red zone, and it took three Buffalo defenders to tackle him.

"Unto The Breach" / 9 x 12" / watercolor, acrylic & ink on paper

And the second piece is from one of the many times during the Houston vs. Detroit Thanksgiving matchup, where Texans running back, Arian Foster, plowed through the Lions' defense like a freight train rolling through a stack of pound cakes.

Look for more of these to start sneaking up on the blog, between now and The Super Bowl.

"I started off starvin'. Now they got me out here Brett Favre-ing. Trying to see if I still got it..."
-David C.

H and I = Aliens and Empire

The "Alphabet Attack!" blog is still rolling along. Be sure to check out "Heroic Hicks" and "Imperial Interrogation" from today and last Friday. And stay tuned for more daily pieces throughout this week.

"There are no atheists in. There is no intellect in the air."
- King Gum.

Lando Calrissian Crushin' It!

In case you weekend warriors missed yesterday's "Alphabet Attack!", it features none other than the blaster-wielding, Colt 45-sipping, alien honey dip-pulling space hustler, Lando Calrissian!

"My backpack's got jets! I'm Boba the Fett! I bounty hunt for Jabba Hutt to finance my vette!"
- King Gum.

CHOKER Pinup

Way back in spring, my friend and colleague - Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night, Wormwood) - invited me to do a pinup for his new miniseries with writer Ben McCool -- Choker (Image Comics).

I took my sweet time finishing it... snatching moments here and there, painting it in between other projects and deadlines. But I was finally able to put the kiss of completion on this puppy, a few nights ago. At 2am or so, I called it like a doctor in an OBGYN, and my Choker pinup was born.

This piece will appear in either issue 5 or 6 of the Choker miniseries. Hell yeah.

"Oh, Ramona! If there was only something between us... other than our clothes."
- King Gum.

On The Slate 8.18.10

Today's diddy is a little mixed media piece I call "Swirls." This was done on a wood panel that I tape pieces to for watercoloring. It was originally cut to be my lap board at Comic-Con. Seemed like a good idea to draw on it one day, as I was warming up.

- Gum

My new sketchbook, "Little Clouds"

About four years ago, I turned this old library book -- titled "Little Clouds" -- into a sketchbook. The opening inscription reads, "Started in the wee hours of January 21st, 2006." I did a few meandering pieces in it, then put it aside and forgot about it. Now, years later, I've pulled it out of cold storage and started working in it in earnest.


Above is my first finished sketch, "Glory." The book, itself, is a work of art. It's all printed on gray-toned paper. The text is hand-written, and a lot of the pages are prints of doodles, diagrams, and collages. Between all of that and my own knack for mixed-media, I'm very excited to see what sort of magic I can conjure up between it's thick covers.

Stormy seas in Oakland, today....
- Gum