King of Kong:A Fistful of Quarters

Don't Get Chumpatized!

I am a video game kid. When I was a kid we had a Pong game (battery operated!) for our TV. I clearly remember when my brother and I saved up our half to buy an Atari 2600 (it was $150, Mom and Dad paid half) . I was a teenager in the heights of the '80s videogame boom.

The King of Kong is the documentary of the rivaly between two men over the title of world champion of Donkey Kong.

Owning the world record in Donkey Kong may seem like a trivial 'geek culture' goal, but The King of Kong is more than that.

The story starts off with Billy Mitchell, current holder of the Donkey Kong record and undisputed 'Gamer of the Century'. Confident and successful, the mullet-wearing Billy has it all. He even has his own brand of hot sauce!

"If all this can happen to me," says Billy "I know some poor bastard out there is getting shafted!"

Enter Steve Wiebe! Steve is a guy who just never got a break, always came up a little short. When Steve was laid off his job, he turned to video games, specifically Donkey Kong. When he heard of Billy Mitchell's 20 year old record score, he thought, "I can beat that!"

So He bought a Donkey Kong machine and started to practice. And practice. Until he beats it!

But that is just the start, this film has so many twists in it you will be constantly suprised. This is a rivalry story on par with any Rocky or Karate Kid. You will find yourself enjoying an interesting cast of characters, including someone called 'Mr. Awesome'.

And in the end you'll have to remind yourself 'This is a documentary.' You couldn't make this stuff up!

So if you're a video game kid or just someone who enjoy a good rivalry, my suggestion is to save up your quarters and go see The King of Kongs!

http://www.billyvssteve.com/

Monster Hunters

Got the cover back from the colorist. He did an awesome job!

The colorist is Mykal Adams and you can check out his web page here: http://geckodojo.com

What is 300 MPH?

Coming Soon!

Structure of Man update

Hey guys, I'm not going to post any images right now, but I thought I'd post an update.

Yesterday I finished lesson 74 of the Structure of man series. This is significant because this is the final lesson on the skeletal structure.

This is a huge milestone for me. Already, when looking at other artist's work, I can see guys who know their skeletons and guys who don't. Looking at my own work I can see problems. Mostly little things like not knowing exactly where bones stick out.

I have just started the muscles sessions and I am very excited to see where this leads me!

I'll scan some images soon!

D. L. Nelson's Blog

My good buddy and writer of 'I am Domino' from http://www.firstplanetcomics.com/, Dave "D. L." Nelson has finally started a blog. You can check it out here: http://heydlnelson.blogspot.com/

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Dave's first post is interesting because it involves our trip to Chicago and just how cheap we really are!

More Structure of Man

Here's some more Structure of Man lessons.

This isn't everything, just some of the more interesting stuff. I am currently on 53 of 227.

More life drawing

My weekly life drawing sessions are through the Oklahom Art Guild. The guild rents a building on the Oklahoma fairgrounds. Since the fair is in September, the guild cannot use their 'headquarters' during sept.

So for september there is no figure drawing classes. This will give me time to work on my Structure of Man lessons.

Meanwhile here are some more life drawings.

At one point I left the room during the session. As I was leaving, a lady asked me if she could look at my sketchpad. When I came back, about half the group was gathered around my pad, raving about my art.

I hadn't really show the other artists too much of my work. They are all either Fine Artists or Art instructors, I don't really feel I'm in the same boat as them. Plus, it's not like I'm going to hold out my pad and say "Look at this!"

Maybe I should because I was pretty stoked that everybody liked my art!

I am reading a book "Talent is Never Enough" and the first chapter is about belief in yourself.

I can feel my confidence growing daily!

BUSTED!!

I've been meaning to upload this ever since the Chicago Comic Con. It seems writer D.L. "They'll Never take Me Alive" Nelson wasn't too familar with the rule for flying during the War on Terror.

Just remember kiddies, when a guy in uniform pulls on rubber gloves, RUN!

Also remember: It is illegal to photograph a TSA Security checkpoint!

Anatomy Lessons

I am going through the video series "The Structure of Man". I am very optimistic that this is helping me. There are 227 videos in the series. It works out to 43 hours, which may sound like a lot, but based on the response I got in Chicago, if it helps me improve my anatomy it will be time well spent.

After all, I had been told if I could improve my anatomy I would get work in comics. That is a strong incintive to plow through the videos!

I'm not sure I will post ALL the videos, but this should give you an idea what they start out like.

You can check out the videos here:

http://thestructureofmandvd.blogspot.com/

August 14 Life Drawing session

After having the Marvel editor tell me to work on my anatomy and CB tell me I should post more art on my blog I decided I would combine the two and post work from my Tuesday night figure drawing sessions.



The sessions are for members of the Oklahoma Art Guild and held at the City Arts Center on the fair grounds (in case anybody is in the Okc area reads this and wants to attend.)



I had been going pretty regular for awhile, but I always get sidetracked with something. This time it was finishing up the Daredevil pages for Chicago.

For what it's worth, the first few are done with charcoal and the last with a 6b Staedler -Mars pencil. I like working with charcoal because it forces me to 'think big' rather then get stuck on the details.

The Thrill of Victory...

Making the cut for Marvel's portfolio review at the Chicago convention.

The Agony of Defeat...

Finishing the review with the editor telling you he's not going back to the office and sending you work.

Seriously, it was super cool just getting to talk to an editor. Out of several hundred portfolios dropped off, mine was one of several dozen chosen to be reviewed. Great thing is I made contact with a Marvel editor, as the last two I met have quit Marvel. Okay, one has come back as 'talent cordinater' still always nice to meet someone new. Best of all he gave me solid, understandable advice.

Daredevil pages for Chicago

24 Hour comic

I did a 24 hour comic this weekend. Here's some pages:

My story was about Houdini being recruited by the government to find Tesla before his kidnappers force him to build a 'Tesla Death Ray' for them.
My impressions of the whole thing:
First, I figured I'd be wiped out after this. Actually I recovered pretty quick. This makes me want to do it again, knowing it won't kill me.
I was pretty happy with my story. Most pages I finished, with no idea what I was going to draw on the next page. The first step to every page was me going "what is going to happen on this page".
I really enjoyed working without a net.
I don't feel I did my best with the art. I wish I had 'practiced' drawing in hour chunks beforehand, so I had a better feel how much I could draw in an hour. That might help me do a better job on the art. Also, I'd use a softer pencil. Oh, and I'd practice my lettering so I got a better feel for how big to make it.
I will NOT be sending this art to editors to try and get work!
However, I have been trying to work a little looser. I think 24 pages of SHEER loose, may drift over into my 'regular' work!
Did I enjoy it? NO! I was very sore when I got done! My thumb is still sore.
Will I do it again? Absolutely!

Kansas City planet Con

Last weekend i went to the Planet Comic Con in Kansas City. I 'm always trying to attend more cons, but this can get expensive. Kansas City is only a 6 hour drive from Oklahoma City, so we (D. L. Nelson, Wayne and I) decided to got. Split 3 ways it only cost us $65 bucks each.

Kansas City is a nice town. One amazing thing is all the comic talent in Kansas City. Matt Fraction, B. Clay Moore, Tony Moore, Jeremy Haun and several more all live in KC.

The con was actually fairly small, but there was a ton of pros there. I showed my Monster Hunter pages around and reveiws were pretty good. Several people gave me some good advice and most seemed to think I was headed the right direction.

I also met Phil Hester. Turns out Phil lived for 2 years (7th & 8th grade) in my hometown of Yukon, Ok. He didn't got to my school, but it was cool sharing a background like that. He spent a lot of time talking to me and giving me advice. He even challenged me to loosen up on my backgrounds and gave me a 'challenge' to help me.

One last thing; Kansas City has several Half Price Books, my favorite bookstore. I bought a cool Richard Estes book!

More Studio 4c stuff

Another Studio 4c clip I found on youtube. This seems to be a trailer of multiple projects. The striking thing to me is the variety of art styles represented. Extremely cool and very inspiring.

Nelson goes under the knife!!!

My good buddy and writer of my webcomic, Dave 'D.L.' Nelson, had surgury today to correct a deviated septum.

I've talked to him and the surgury went well. We figure he will survive.

Give Dave a shout-out at heydlnelson@gmail.com

The best part is maybe this will fix his snoring in time for the Kansas City con and I'll actually get some sleep at a con for once!

Studio 4c Kung Fu Love

I was poking around on Youtube and I found this.




The description says its a promo short for a proposed full length feature. This looks really amazing. When I was in art college one of the instructors brought a bootleg video of 'Akira' just to show the class.

It really blew me away, I had never seen anything like that.

The same instructor worked at a local comic shop and pointed me to the old Epic Mobeuis books.

Thanks to the internet the world gets smaller and smaller!

More Monster Hunters!

Just sent the next page to the writer. I was pretty happy with this page. I picked up some new pencils and we all know it depends on the type of pencils you use...