On Wonderful Things, Sketching and Fighting in Streets

I didn't get to watch It's a Wonderful Life this Christmas, so I'll have to make one.

This is the 3rd time that I've lived in Japan. This time, it's a little different because I'm living with my wonderful wife, Mako. We're about to go back to her home and visit her folks for the New Year. Before that, I thought I'd recap on some wonderful things thus far.

This robot drawing was made by my friend, Tommy. Tommy is a child who I was lucky enough to spend many nights drawing with. He's surrounded by good people. He's the little man wearing a tuxedo in my wedding photos. Super proud of him. His mother is one of the strongest people I know, always an example of responsibility and how to live for others. My good friend, Andrew, showed me how to set an  example and how to be a father and drastically influence lives for the better.

 This painting was made by my close friend and mentor, Natalia. I met Natalia at a small state college in northern Minnesota. She taught me how to draw, paint and print. She's always set an example of how one should approach the arts, not just on the canvas but in all aspects of life. She's that wonderful teacher that we've all had that never gets enough credit and tries harder than Atlas to hold up the world. She's pretty wonderful.

                                    

I'm not a big fan of Catholicism, but my dear Grandmother was. She was an example of never ending love and had the biggest heart of anyone I'd ever met. When she passed away in 2007, I received a few little trinkets that reminded me of her, but the one object that I really wanted was a plaque that she had on the wall, The Prayer of St. Francis. I think St. Francis is more commonly attributed to peacefully living with animals, but he's also a universal pacifist. I say this prayer often. 

Optimus Prime is something from my childhood that's always been a symbol of fighting for what's right and makes me reflect upon good times. He's also a TRUCK that turns into a ROBOT. Thanks goes to Ed Moorman for picking this up at a con for me.

Tthe graphic novel is well on it's way. I'm keeping pretty close to the chest until I've got a stack of inked comic pages, but I'm about an inch thick stack of paper deep with character designs, locations and drawings. I'm currently finalizing the script.

Here are some daily warm up sketches before working on my graphic novel.

My brother and I heard about an opportunity to make a weekly comic strip about video games and we thought we'd submit a comic and see what happens. If you like Super Nintendo games where you fight in streets, then this is for you. We'll see what happens with this strip, but for now it was nice working with my brother, drawing in a completely different manner and making a color strip.

Yeah, life's full of wonderful people and things. Now, I just need to play some more soccer...

Happy Holidays!