illustration friday-backwards

isn't today backwards day?

illustration friday-little things

so you're laying around, dreaming of fire hydrants and chasing cats, when all of a sudden you get this sharp pain in your hindquarters and...

illus friday-excess

for all the "supersizers" everywhere.

Popgun Volume One

Hey Fellow Bloggers/Cartoonists/Comic Book fans,
The Popgun Volume One anthology from Image Comics is coming out today. A stellar line-up inside!! You may ask why I'm plugging this fine funny book. I'm plugging this wonderful first issue because I will be in Popgun Volume 2. Doesn't that make sense to you? Anyway, go out and purchase this pulse pounding publication! Anyone who wants me in their book can't be all bad, huh?

Here's the hype, true believer:

The 29th of November will see Image Comics release the graphic mix
tape entitled Popgun. This 400+ page behemoth of awesome will feature
only the freshest selection of sequential styling by new upcoming
creators and creators new to the medium; it will even feature a select
few veteran creators producing something new and different to what you
would previously associate them with.

Popgun aims to deliver something for everyone by targeting the larger
pop spectrum as opposed to the usual niche comics market. It was
approached with the mindset of developing the ultimate comic book mix
tape; a diverse and sophisticated collection of work with which to
attract new readers and infect mainstream pop culture with comics.


The PopGun Website that explains what the book is about:
http://hiddenrobot.com/POPGUN/

Here is a link to the text for the Myspace Bulletin Page and you can
copy and past this into a bulletin:
http://www.imagecomics.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=38688

Then here is a link to pass around for the actual Amazon ordering page:
http://www.amazon.com/Popgun-Erik-Larsen/dp/1582408246/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196301123&sr=8-1

POPGUN ARTICLE ON CBR:

http://comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=11982

POPGUN PREVIEW ON CBR:
http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=11971

IGN PREVIEW:
http://au.comics.ign.com/articles/825/825932p1.html

MYSPACE 16 PAGE PREVIEW:
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=92159514&blogID=326258417&Mytoken=24347100-2E2A-489B-AF8E58414D5B8B2614324103

Two stories Previewed on Newsarama:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=130072

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=130228

sfg-another angry cat illo

another angry cat sketch with th' .03 micron pen...

new comix

Here's a new comic, "dog comix" doggone sayings page I recently did between paying work when I could. In the late '80's, I did a bunch of "dog comix" mini comics through High School Comics (a couple of kids I met at a con) who were looking to "publish" my stuff. It was all in good fun and I did other mini comic stuff for a while back then.

illustration friday-superstition

don't let this guy cross your path!

illustration friday-scale

another fishy sketch for our scale theme...

illustration friday-hats

good ol' dr. suesss...

sfg blue

the theme for this week over at sugar frosted goodness is blue. it reminded me that my cartoon pal and kubert school roomie, mike kraiger, came up with a great name for his big blue cat character, blue henry. way to go squarehead!

illustration friday-blues

Here's a sketch of an old character, Blind Puppy Dogg, that I thought would be great for our blues theme. I drew a 2 page comic with him way back in '85 that was published in Spin Magazine. One of my "big breaks".

old comix 3

continuing our posting of old comix. these 2 "monster kids" page were done for mike manley's monsterman book way back in 1996. back then we were "old skool" with our gray tones, cutting this stuff called zipatone onto our art! th' good ol' days!! I liked the idea of making a gang of these cute, but monsterous little kiddies. I tried to have fun with the verbage on the "uno" strip like basil wolverton did on his strips...

old comix 2

Continuing with some old comic stuff:
"beatsville" was done after I saw Gene Deitch's "Cat" cartoons (and cool 2 color covers) for the record changer. This might be one of my earlier comix in this style. I don't think it was printed anywhere except in a small cartooning club I'm in. I probably experimented previously in this same kind of style after seeing Cliff Roberts' beatnik illos in Langston Hughes' First Book of Jazz. Just some spot illos, no sequential stuff...
I think "Brainpan & Cheesy" was done after I came up with different characters of the same name. If my bad memory remembers correctly, Marvel was finishing up their Nickelodeon books because of licensing fees. The game plan was to see if the freelancers who worked on that stuff had any "Nickelodeon" type of work Marvel would print (and avoid any fees). Guys like Mike Kazaleh, Dan Slott, Darren Auck, me and some others I forgot drew up some ideas and then it went away. Oh well. Marvel was never really into the funny stuff anyway, which was too bad. I always heard how the industry was concerned about losing the younger reader demographic, yet they never seemed to do too much about it. DC did start the Hanna-Barbera/Cartoon Network books around this time and thankfully they're still around. "Cheesy" looks too much like "Stimpy" anyway...

illustration friday-moon

quick pencil sletch of a nervous moon and hungry mouse...

savage dragon sketch

I've enjoyed The Savage Dragon for years now, and I always thought it would be cool to do a pin-up for it. This sketch has been on my studio wall for quite a while. NYPD Blue was still on the air when I did it. I thought the idea of Sipowicz having another "green" partner was funny. So here's my NYPD Green Dragon sketch...

old comix

My NCS pal, Mike Arnold and Marten Jallad are putting together a MAD/Cracked type of humor trade paperback and asked if I had any older stuff they could reprint. Most of this work was done for smaller publishers or just for the sake of it. My first post is "Surly Squirrel" from 1994. This was done for a short lived humor mag called Rubber Chicken, started by a former Swank editor. Nice guy.

grungy cat

I did this illo for Kim Deitch (and his wife Pam Butler) after meeting him at this year's MOCCA. I bought his new book, ALIAS THE CAT, and he signed it for me. Great stuff.

devil kid

this is for this week's "red" theme for sugar frosted goodness.

cymbal monkey

don't you just love those li'l monkeys ya wind up and go crazy on the cymbals?

sketchbook pages

been a while and I had these sittin' in my sketchbook...

running cat sketch

always have a habit of drawing a character running around with arms flailing. also try to do the mickey mouse thing of big hands and feet on a smaller character. i drew this after reading about kim deitch's new book, alias the cat...

pirate monkey

here's a quick sketch colored piratey in photoshop for sugar frosted goodness.

illustration friday-polar

This was a rejected graphic tee from work and it even has the word "polar" in it...

Nickelodeon Magazine

Here's a couple of panel gags from the April 2007 issue of Nickelodeon Mag that's out on the stands right now (Justin Timberlake's on the cover). Lots of good stuff inside.

happy tax day!

This poor, destitute little bunny had to pay Uncle Sam his last $5.00. Of course, he was saving that five spot for a 45 oz. of his favorite carrot juice ripple. Easy come, easy go...

illustration friday-snap!

oh, snap! dig it, daddio!..

Sugar Frosted Goodness!: Post Somethin' Monday : Farm

Sugar Frosted Goodness!: Post Somethin' Monday: workin' monkey
This is my first post to SFG. Thanks for the invite, Jeff! Looks like a great bunch of artists on this blog. I've been an illustrator and cartoonist for over 20 years, working for a bunch of people. Currently working full time as an illustrator for The Children's Place doing art for their boy's graphic t-shirts. Also do freelance, working for DC Comics on their Cartoon Network books and Nickelodeon Magazine doing gag panel cartoons. Go to garyfieldsstudios.blogspot.com and garyfieldsstudios.com for more stuff.

illustration friday-I spy 2

I'm on a roll. Here's a Mission Impossible-esque Secret Squirrel...

illustration friday-I spy

Here's my take on this theme. A Chandler-esque Secret Squirrel...

gene hazelton gag panel

One of my favorite artists and biggest influences is Gene Hazelton, the man behind the Flintstones and Yogi Bear syndicated comic strips. He also was in the animation field working for Hanna, Barbera, and Tex Avery. He designed the characters for Avery's Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarves cartoon. I read that he had submitted cartoons during the golden age of magazine gag cartoons. This one is from The Saturday Evening Post, May 18, 1946!

Kosmic Katz

Here's a comic page done to keep my hand all "inky". Had a nice old, broken in pen nib and some good ink and it flowed. Sometimes that happens and sometimes I wonder if I'll ever draw/ink right again...

illustration friday-communication

that kiddie game telephone immediately came to mind. add the iconic tin cans and string phone and you're all set

illustration friday-sprout

how can you resist?...

illustration friday-80's number 2

Way back in the 80's I drew (quite badly looking at it now) a bunch of punk inspired stuff for some zines. One was a local zine who my printer friend hooked me up with. I did some stuff for him, including this cover. Looks like I tried to use a brush...oh, well....

illustration friday-80's

This was an older illo assignment for The Washington City Paper. Did a bunch of stuff for them a while ago. Thought the 80's George was appropriate...

animals in bars illo 2

"Just because I'm a @#$%^&* monkey you assume I want a banana daquiri? Just gimme a beer!"
Once again, micron pen marker on bristol...

illustration friday-buzz

just an obvious quickie sketch this week...

"I drink to forget..."

Silly animal at bar panel gag number one in a series of probably three. Micron pen marker on bristol...