It's been a month!! Time to post.

What to say. Been really busy and now I am gonna share it all with you. first up the Magic Flute... This Comic Adaptation was envisioned entirely by me and was only loosely based on the Opera by Mozart... It was fun to imagine a full swords and sandals style epic and work with my friends the Lara brothers who assisted me with the digital colors. Check it out at www.covers100.com

The next Item! a little Halloween Horror for you kids! Animated by yours truly, it will be featured during the club row event at SMC on the 29th on the main campus. You lucky action artist blog followers get an early look, and here it is! try not to pee yourselves.



Finally, the last but not the least is a work in progress...
THE HULK photoshop painting! This is me attempting to sharpen my photoshop painting skills, and as you can see I have a long way to go. I hope to have this done up in a really spiffy way by the time I finish learning the ways of the great Photoshop painters. I have been recently wowed by one in particular.his namr is Nico DiMattia. Check his amazing work out here.http://nicodimattia.com/ Oh yeah and also here is the HULK I was talking about. still in progress... Later versions to come.



Here is an update on that Hulk Photoshop painting I'll continue to edit this post so that all the versions will be together for easy comparison!





Superback will be back next time! All I can say is Football plus Dinosaurs equals ACTION AWESOMENESS! nuff said.

Coming Soon

Haven't posted in a long while. Just been recovering from The work I did on Jolly Holly. I will be posting some brand new Superback art very soon, as well as other super secret stuff I have been cooking up! So, take heart true believers because the artist is sending more action your way soon! Goofy? yeah, I know,how I roll! but that's just

Super Heroes!!

Using today's blog as an opportunity to throw up some shots of a few of my favorite Super Heroes, right out of the MARVEL COMICS that the kids read these days.
First up is a friendly neighborhood wall-crawler I did for my friend Aries at HiDe Ho comics in Santa Monica.


Then we have the Star spangled Avenger CAPTAIN AMERICA dodging a V-2 Nazi Missile attack and preparing to huck his mighty shield at something. I went cartoon-y on this one and put it on My pal Rafael Navarro's Facebook wall. Raf was collecting Cap drawings at San-Diego Comic Con. So I thought I would send this one along... Just to add to that collection!


Jade Jaws here, aka THE INCREDIBLE HULK, was sketched tonight just for yours truly... He's always been and will always be the comic book character I like the mostest of all. What's not to like about him? He's big, green (environmentally friendly? I don't think so,) he speaks in the third person, and he almost always causes untold mayhem while (just happening to be) saving the day. He's the greatest. this sketch is a little homage... if you click on it I think it gets bigger.(that's what she said...Sorry...)



But I can't give you all this great Super Hero art without including at least one sketch of the Super Hero you all came to see...
That's right! SUPERBACK baby!!!!
This was done with a china marker or something I had lying around and I wanted the paper to have a dirty texture.
He may not be a Marvel character but he may some day have a crossover... Where he'll thump on the Thing, deck Daredevil, and wallop Wolverine!
who knows he might even give the Green Goliath a run for his... purple trousers?



That's it for tonight True Believers, but look out for the next indigestion inducing installment... till then

'Nuff Said

Lou

2009 A.C. and The Jury Pool

Just been recovering from comic con and getting back to work. I have a real treat to share today and that would be some of my process. So lets get started... first the set up. Sometime during the month of July I had a spare moment to lie on the beach with my good pals Jordan Helman and Sean Odlum. We got caught up on each others lives and Jordan mentioned that his band the Jury Pool was finished recording their album and that they had gotten the Viper Room, in Hollywood, for thier record release party. He then asked me if I would be interested in making a piece of art for the show, a gig poster, and if I thought I could do something that looked like the cover from the old 1950's "Tales from the Crypt" comics. To this I said "sure" and then didn't give it another thought for a whole month. This past week Jordan emails me and says "remember that poster can you still do it? if so we'd need it by Friday" So as any good friend I got to work first I searched out some inspiration....





Looking over all these great covers I knew I needed a girl, a monster, a dark castle, and a Mad scientist, or some combination of those things.
Jordan had also thrown out that his CD cover featured 18th century art work of Little Red Riding Hood meeting the Big Bad Wolf all dressed up as Grandma... and that might give me some direction so I thought I could go with a(not so)Little Red Riding Hood as my girl element with a big bad Were-Wolf carrying her off. I'd throw in a skull faced Crypt Keeper like character and that would be the cover. I did feel like I was missing the weird science element but I did this thumbnail first and then did a Sci Fi one with a Mad scientist, a girl, and the band in the background as shadowy figures, and sent them in to Jordan .



He showed the Band and they were not going for the monster thing at all it was too beauty and the beast... But they really liked the other one, with the girl strapped to the table begging for Jury Pool "music shock therapy" or whatever the hell was going on... so Jordan green lit that design and I started to work. I got into the Blueline pencils and I knew Jo was impatient too see it ( no doubt a little worried that I'd blow this off like I had all last month...can't blame him.) So I sent him a little re-assurance in the form of a blueline pencil version thus far.


After that came the Inks stage which kept me up late night... I had gotten busy as the week wore on, other work kept me from getting back to the poster until midnight, so I inked until about 3a.m. and then decided I'd finish up the following night.



Finally, I was able to color it up throw on the title treatment in Illustrator and get all the pertinent info onto the poster. Jordan was happy I was happy the band was happy an the rest is history. Limited numbers of these posters will be sold at the show so I am very proud that Jordan and the band where so pleased and though Jordan had me drop the retro genre side Tag I am posting it up here as I had originally intended it as to make it a more true homage to the good old brain rotting, morality diffusing, EC comics!!

Getting ready for Comic Con

Hey all. I finished Sassybax cartoon last week and turned it in Monday we found out that the client loved it so I'm at 100% so far for satisfied customers of my animation. I made some funny shorts for my girlfriend, Emily Brundige, on our anniversary. she is a terrific young artist with an awesome Blog of her own (I think I am linked to it somewhere on this page... help!) She is going to Cal arts to get a masters degree in experimental animation... which is ultra cool and her Brother is in New york shooting his independent film, right now! also undeniably cool! Meanwhile the day after tomorrow will see the first printed copies of Age of Insects Book 4 finally fall into my hot little hands. about time! I am kicking into high gear going into comic con. We will be pushing AOI real hard (now that we have completed the whole story!) and after that I am going to be seeing to the completion of the GAX (SMC's animation club) animated project for submission in the FOX ani boom contest. Concurrently I will be trying to develop My other super secret awesome projects (there's two of them) and looking to take on more work and I have to keep working on SUPERBACK for a possible APE Expo release... wow, I'm busy. watch the cartoon now!

Up Close, and Personal

Been super busy with an animated commercial the past 8 days or so but I wanted to get a shot up of he who is our favorite tacklin' terror... Superback! It occurred to me that I never draw him in close up. That is because he mostly doesn't have a face... Superback is just a Helmet with 2 red eyes peering out from between the bars of a simple yet foreboding face-mask. Lately I have been drawing the bridge of his nose to give him some facial structure, especially in three quarter view. I would love to know what all two of you reading this think!

Superback! ba-by!

Super quick, Superback post. Didn't want to go to long without posting. More to follow, and more often, too. (Hopefully.)
-L

He's smashin' it up now!!!

Look out! Superback is on the loose! This time the grid iron Goliath leaps into frame, lands in his signature 3 point stance and then executes three punishingly perfect blocks off the line! Don't miss this terror of the turf in action! He is fired up and ready to make pancakes out of any one who steps up! The only opponent Superback likes are the FLAT ONES!!! It plays twice in case you miss it the first time!


-Lou

Super-quick SuperBack post

New Superback animation! he's running and gunning folks... still rough, I know, but he'll get there!

-L

True story!

This happened to me once... I totally freaked out, but it's okay. The whole experience allowed me to make this animated documentary as a way of coping, and making peace with the most horrific moments of my life, ala "Waltz with Bashir." I now share those moments with you... this is "crazy squid guy"

Expression

In my last post I related my obsession with this character, The Mighty SUPERBACK! Today, I want to give a few words and thoughts to the fuel of the obsession, that is, not the character himself, but the ability he gives me to express and relive in the most self satisfying way, the level of smelly, dirty, sweaty, power and exhaustion that came with suiting up in the very same sort of armor... gripping the dark turf, bent and poised like the drawn hammer of a gun. Waiting to unleash the terrible noise and fury of the strife that forged our very existence! Colliding with ourselves over the very earth that we all must share, expending valuable life force over mere yards, feet, inches! Experiences fast and fleeting, yet so profound I will seek the means to relate them for the rest of my life... While glorifying ritual violence is our national past time, expressing these feelings of fear and determination, is what truly makes me free. Expression.

Enjoy the pic

-Lou

It's my obsession

I can't help but be obsessed with this character... These sketches are from last year some time, so I thought I would post them up. On second viewing, they seem to capture elements of Superback that I hope to retain as his development progresses... They are good reminders of things I want to incorporate. Although his model has changed since these drawings were executed, I believe they help inform what he should be and that developing a good character is a constant evolution. Till next time!
-Lou

Any one who's keeping an eye out...

Here's a new post!!! Ta da! See? It didn't take me another six months to post something. let's see if I have a good picture to show today... Here's some stuff!!

some quick sketches of our old Pad Wearin' Protagonist!!!

For me this is what it is all about... ACTION, smashing, crashing in your face, kinetic, frenetic... ACTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thats all for tonight.

Working is Good

Just wanted to put up a quick post mentioning a few things going on in my life. Item one, I am on the Facebook. Item 2, I saw "Up","drag me to Hell" and "High Fidelity" all on the same day! Item 3 I am working hard and having a great time, I just finished off a silly little animation of a pig pooping money for its only three dollars.com itsonlythreedollars.com
that site was set up by my girl friend's brother, who is currently in New york city getting ready to shoot his indie motion picture this summer.
Item 4, I want to do more with Superback... but I find it hard to get to the writing, which I feel is important to nail down before I start drawing it. I also want to do more Superback animation but have not really had the time I would need to make it stellar!!
Item 5, I feel I need to make more money as my talents have increased I am finding myself unable to accomplish the volumes of work I would like to be doing without assistance and that requires capital... I need to figure this out but I am sure I will. I'm creative after all! Da cartoons has been in desperate need of attention and I wish we had been better equipped to update and produce animation on a constant basis over the last two years but our commitment to quality and lack of funding makes it nearly impossible to do anything but let the site sit... for now.
Item 6, I don't know I am rambling but I do want to try to get a video game off the ground more on this later.

Okay here is what you are really here for, pretty pictures. enjoy!

Trying to get animated!!

Just having some fun with a cell shaded version of the Grid-Iron Galute. more to come this summer! I hope
-L