review-palooza

deep

romeo was here

merry christmas & happy holidays!

castleabra

3D

melon

My first new painting in about a year (I think).

cyclops

review: avatar 3D

put a cork in it

review: 2012

holiday cards are up!

After squeezing in some drawing time here and there, the new holiday cards are up at my store! Same deal as years previous: $3 for 1 card, or $12 for 5.

to back ground, or not to background?

my man-crush on michael buble continues to grow

all hallows

Ah, October. A month full of lots of work (hooray?) and just enough freetime to enjoy Boy's first demolition derby in 5 years (he came in fourth) and just enough time to end the month with two Halloween parties that had a delightful 80's flare. I'm sort of obsessed with the E.T. costume.

review: x-files - i want to believe

playlist

Bad Romance Lady GaGa
Bad Boys Alexandra Burke
Forever Is Over The Saturdays
Haven't Met You Yet Michael Buble
Good Girls Go Bad Cobra Starship
Dominos The Big Pink
Pencil Full Of Lead Paolo Nutini
The Spell Alphabeat
For Your Entertainment Adam Lambert
New In Town (Fred Falke Remix) Little Boots
Don't Trust Me 3oh3
Party In the U.S.A. Miley Cyrus
Bodies Robbie Williams
10,000 Nights Alphabeat
Little Lion Man Mumford & Sons
You've Got the Love Florence and the Machine
Under The Milky Way Sia
Left My Heart In Tokyo Mini Viva
Bust Your Windows Amber Riley/Glee Cast

review: zombieland

review: good hair

falltum

I love that the weather is changing, even if its going to change back to "warm" in a few days. There are still amber leaves on the ground at the dog park.

I have to say this new TV season, while so promising on paper, has yet to set me (and most of the viewing public) on fire. The only new shows I'm actively watching are Modern Family (same night) and Glee (I'm 2 behind). Flash Forward, Eastwick, and a variety of other shows are simply stockpiling on the DVR, which may prove beneficial during the impending holidays.

the bookshelf: nerd alert

I brought a ton of reading material with me on the trip, and have plowed through a lot of it. Random thoughts:

- Night at the Museum 2 (on the airplane): Looked mildly fun until I put the headphones on. Best viewed on mute while playing the new Muse or Mika album.

- League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 1910: anticlimactic. This felt more like a super-sized serial issue rather than a self contained story. Also, having two of your supporting players sing exposition in a comic...not really working.

- Trials of Shazam: The first time I've really questioned Judd Winick as a comic book writer. Disjointed and stilted, a good story is arranged haphazardly but beautifully illustrated by Howard Porter (who appears to have lost steam halfway through, and eventually hands things off to Mauro Cascioli for the final few issues).

- Blackest Night: Continues to be the mega-event that could, delivering on all cylinders when it comes to the main books as well as satellite titles. I liked the Titans issue so much, I just ordered the first trade paperback from Amazon.

- Marvel Books: I'm sort of over the doom and gloom of the Marvel Universe and its Dark Reign. Instead of planning to buy a run of books, I'm looking at them all in-store and actively dismissing or purchasing. Sad. (Old Man Logan's finale is being saved for the flight home).

- Superbooks: Still loving The World of New Krypton. I love how its an actual event, and not a flash in the pan.

- X-Books: Now that this whole Utopia/Dark Avengers mess is sorted out (I skipped most of it) I'm happy with the new status quo, and hope the book can returns to the high points of Messiah Complex. Mention of the Predators has me hopeful.

Is anyone actively reading Flash: Rebirth? Can a Flash novice who learned everything about the Speed Force from Justice League Unlimited pick it up and enjoy it?

bonjour/bon voyage

Hello Blog!

I am at the tail end of a much much much needed vacation.

Seven days ago I untethered myself from the computer, and flew with Boy over to Boston to stay with our friends Craig & Lisa, who were married almost a year ago.

They have an 80 year old house (the definition of "charm") in Arlington Heights that we treated as our own personal bed and breakfast, which a little town center accessible through a park that lines the lake across the street. They both kept apologizing for having to work while we're there, but there's nothing like sleeping in, waking up with nothing to do, brewing coffee, reading, and walking into town for lunch. The pedestrian-ness of it all really made me miss the east coast.

Now, don't get me wrong, you CAN be very pedestrian in LA, in fact one of my friends doesn't even own a car, but time is the key factor. I often don't have time to walk down the hill or take a bus, I need to get a book for work, get home, and finish said work.

After a few days of leisure in Boston (including a surprise visit by Boy's Dad and Stepmom), we took the train (yay! mass transit!) up to New Hampshire, where the leaves are already changing and the weather was getting chilly. We took in our annual Jonatha Brooke show with our friends Pierre and Andrea and have proceeded to be no-good layabouts for another few days. We leave tomorrow. I miss my dogs, but man, I needed this.

review: cloudy with a chance of meatballs 3D

belated birthday

I'm really having fun with these faux-toy portraits when I can squeeze them in! This is for Micka, Tobias' hubby.

today's loop

Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) - Florence and The Machine
New In Town (Fred Falke Remix) - Little Boots
She Wolf - Shakira
Hot N Cold - Katy Perry
I Am Not A Robot - Marina & The Diamonds
We Are Golden (Original Radio Edit) - Mika
Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves (Remastered Version) - Eurythmics
Celebration - Madonna Celebration
Bulletproof - La Roux
Walking On a Dream - Empire of the Sun
My Delirium - Ladyhawke
Don't Trust Me - 3oh3

A very gay playlist with a decidedly straight finale.

Also, I'd like to buy this please:

minigolf

starsquid

destro and the baroness practicing their clarinets

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Henry Rollins

review: G.I.JOE

I'd also sit through this again before ever rewatching X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

giftage

I miss recreational drawing. Between work-work, and personal pitch-work, I often don't have that much time to doodle. This gets sort of annoying when it comes to holidays and birthdays, because if I'm so inclined I'm able to make one-of-a-kind gifts...if I can find the time or the energy. Thankfully, my friend Tobias' birthday fell during a 2 hour lull and handed me everything I needed on a silver platter.


Part of the woe-is-me part about birthday gifts is that they require thought, and more often than not I'm mentally exhausted. But Tobias, oh, Tobias loves two things: action figures and super-heroes. He loves superheroes so much he was a contestant on Stan Lee and SciFi's Who Wants to be a Superhero?, and he loves toys so much he makes custom action figures at his website Imatoy.com.

It was basically like I was drawing on auto-pilot.

the fossil foundation

Because everyone loves a dinosaur in a bowler hat.

comic-con

Why I think 5 days of Comicon counts as a vacation is beyond me. Its sort of anti-relaxing, where you walk 20+ miles, deal with socially awkward people and are surrounded by ... your childhood, friends, and everything you think is cool.

I had a wonderful time with friends old and new, and think I did a pretty good job of pacing myself on the floor and seeing the few panels I dared to brave.

Batman Brave & the Bold was worth it to simply see the laugh out loud musical episode with Neil Patrick Harris guesting as the lyrically inclined villain.

Superhero Squad was a double shot of awesome, being thankfully funny and also starring one of my very best friends as Mole Man and Loki.

The Doctor Who panel had David Tennant. In person. And he was oh, so charming. And the new trailers for the next specials had me screaming like a little idiot.

I also had an unintentionally geeky time with celebrity run-ins, what with sharing a lunch spot with Zachary Quinto and sharing an elevator with a mortified Leonard Nimoy.

beach boys

After weeks (literally) of nonstop work, yesterday was free(!) and we took the dogs down to the Huntington Dog Beach, where they got to run around like maniacs, have a wonderful time and yet still be terrified of the water.

Sure it took over an hour to get there, and almost 2 to get back (due to a brush fire near the 405 and general driver stupidity), but we survived. All was worth it to see them happy and running around to the point of exhaustion. It was also nice to get some fresh air, a sea breeze, and some color on my skin (even if my neck is a bit red).

review: the half-blood prince

swag

I am so, so, SO excited for Comic-con in just over a week! I'm also excited to see the t-shirt I designed walking around the floor via my friends at Hitfix!

bones

rose colored glasses

deadtime story

5 Reasons why Demon Knight deserves a space on your Netflix Queue on a lazy sunday:

1. Billy Zane in full evil/bald/hottie mode...before he lost his career to Timothy Olyphant.
2. CCH Pounder as foul-mouthed, clove smoking, innkeeper.
3. Thomas Hayden Church trying to be a badass while wearing a white mesh tanktop
4. Dick Miller aka "Mr. Futterman" from Gremlins.
5. Made in '95 straddling the charming limitations of 1980's and the technical innovations of the new century.

mini-print! BRIGHT EYES

5x7, edition of 10, signed and numbered. $10