Another "Parable" Sneak

I have an early meeting this morning, so no drawing for me.

This is another page from my story featured in "Parable."

Parable Hits Shelves

"Long ago, in a faraway land..."

That is how this story could begin! If I remember correctly it was about four or five years ago when I was approached to do a story for the "Parable" comic anthology. I hadn't really done any sequential work at that time, but I jumped at the chance. Looking back, I have no idea how I was able to get anything finished. I had a month to complete the work. I was using a version of Painter called "Painter Classic" which was basically a demo version of the software. There were many features disabled, including the ability to create layers! But I plowed forward, creating what I can at least say is an honest effort to tell a quick, fun story.

My story is titled "The Picnic" and it is about a young boy who goes to great lengths to share his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And it has a cardboard box rocket in it. And an alien.

Because so much time has passed between when I started my story and current day, I have mixed feelings about how things came out. On one hand, I look back fondly at the experience. On the other hand, I start mentally re-drawing every panel as I read through it. The book itself has seen many changes over the last few years. The original direction was that of an "all ages" comic collection that could be enjoyed by just about any comic fan. The now very clear "christian" messaging will scare plenty of people off in my opinion... but perhaps that is a discussion for another time. :)

The bottom line is, I am happy to see the book published. There are a bunch of great stories inside, including offerings from my buds Bryan Ballinger, Paul Conrad, and Sarah Mensinga. The variety of art styles alone is a great reason to check it out. And I have to say that the ever so talented Mike Maihack has really done a fantastic job of not only adding a great story, but putting the entire book together.

One final note. I am considering not only re-drawing my story "The Picnic" over the next few months, complete with good artwork, but also drawing up it's sequel. My thought is that it would show the same tale from a different point of view.

Be sure to check out the preview pages and get more info HERE.

Thanks for checking the blog!

A Page From "The Picnic"

Yeah, I am alive, but moving slower now. I have been working on this Parable story for the past month, as well as doing the day job thing and being Daddy. While I can't really show you much on my story, I will post a random page or two over the next week. These are not fully cleaned up, and need a bit of work. Naked pages.

So, on the news front... I have been given a really great freelance book project to tackle. As usual, not many details for you, but this will be a great opportunity to design characters and illustrate a full book. The bad news is that I can't really post anything from it, so I will have to start doing a "blog drawing of the day" or something so I can stay in the blogging loop.

That is all

A Blog Slacker

I know, I know. I have been neglecting my blog. I admit it. I can however say that I have not been slacking off. Every night after dinner I head into my office at home and sit down at the drawing table. I am still doing pencils on my comic, and so far so good. I have about 12 pages pencilled so far, with almost that many to go. I am up till around 1:00am, doodling away... only to get up around 6:30am with the baby. Not complaining... just explaining the growing dark circles under my eyes.

So, that is my excuse. I really can't post anything from the comic... but maybe little snips that make no sense like above. I will try to draw something cool that I can show soon. Promise.

Parable Character?

Morning.... whew, long hours really chip away at your brain. I am pretty crispy since I stay up late drawing, and then wake up early with our 11 month old. Somehow, he seems just fine. Full of energy. Soon I fear I will give in to the Dark Lord Red Bull, and serve in the minion army of Guarana... but so far it's just Diet Dr. Pepper I carry with me onto the battlefield.

Anyway, enough sleepless babble. This is an early idea for my comic story hero. A younger chap, around 6 or maybe 7 years old. A happy little guy. He gets sleep.

Off to the salt mines!

Vanhoozer In Parable

Hey everybody! I have a cool announcement to share, and it involves comics! I have been invited to participate in a comic book project titled "Parable." I didn't know too much about the project, but after talking with the guy running the show (Mike Maihack) I felt that this would be a pretty awesome opportunity. I have been wanting to do a comic for a while now, and Mike is letting me run with it. One of the deciding factors for me joining up, was being in a book with so many really talented artists.

So, I may be posting less over the next few months since I have till May 1rst to dream up, sketch out, clean up, ink and color my story. I will show bits and pieces of the art here, but the final work will be kep hush hush for the book. I am very pumped to do some cool sequential stuff, and am going to attempt to go all out on this one.

Man... a month and a half. Who needs sleep!?


Jeremy