From the Office of Wheels
If you know me you know I love unconventional modes of transportation. When I saw the coal fired steam bike I had to share. Designed, engineered, and crafted by Mark Sanderson, it is a thing of beauty.
Well worth the 7 minutes to watch this well produced video on it: LINK
Speaking of steam powered vehicles. You ever see SteamBoy? Intense steam powered action in this clip: LINK
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
Everything good in my life ties directly to friendships I've made with people. The old saying attributed to motivation speaker Jim Rohn “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with” tracks with my experience.
My high school friends were a creative bunch, open to new ideas and experiences, and that shaped me into following a creative path for a career. For the last 20+ years wife has been my north star for focus, direction, and what really matters in my life. And I have a solid group of father/husband/artist friends that I communicate with regularly which helps me navigate life.
Recently I've read a couple articles about making and enriching friendships, so this has been on my mind a lot lately.
According to this research by evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar, “It takes about 200 hours of investment in the space of a few months to move a stranger into being a good friend.”
If you're going to spend 200 hours with someone becoming good friends the best way to do it is spending that time doing something pointless.
The gist of that article is that in a highly transactional world relationships tend to turn into useful alliances...hence the term "networking." Yes, you need a network, but for a satisfying relationship you don't base it on something practical like a project or a job, you organize them around something that isn't useful at all. Like a fandom, or a sport.
This is getting long, so I guess the point I'm trying to make here is don't neglect the making and keeping of friendships, because there's not much more to life than that.
-Jake
From the Illustrators Division
I love these DUNE: House Atreides comic covers by Los Angeles based artist Evan Cagle. I'm a big fan of the eccentric and romantic look of DUNE he captures. I did love the film directed by Denis Villeneuve and the grounded brutalist design...but DUNE should be a little funky and wild in my opinion.
Cagle is a master of the scratchboard line-heavy illustration style reminiscent of Franklin Booth. He takes this early 20th century technique and style and washes it over contemporary compositions and subject matter. It is lovely. He's one of those artists that makes you realize the potential of the medium.
See more work on his website: LINK
Instagram: LINK
Twitter: LINK
Here's my favorite drawing of his: LINK
-Jake
From the Office of Arts and Crafts
Check out these super rad little wooden dog guys by Paraguayan artist Rolo Ocampos. More wood toys here: LINK
-Jake
From the Drawings Unit
I haven’t really been drawing in my sketchbook much lately, but I had some time a couple weekends ago to bust it out and mess around in there. I'm going to be putting together a spaceship collection book in the future so I thought I’d draw a few more construction ships to add to it.
-Jake
From the Friendship Unit
A friend of mine (Christopher Miller) reached out this week to tell me that the game he's been working on is finally available!
SURVIVAL Z: LINK
Survival Z is cool in that the levels are randomly generated. So every time you play it's a fresh challenge. I am not a gamer, but I love the style they've got going on here, and the game play looks fun.
The coolest part, for me at least, is that in this universe, there’s a Skull Chaser movie in theaters!
You can check out more of Christopher's incredible work here: LINK
-Jake
From the Office of Scale Models
Planning on visiting Rome? Put this on your list of thing to see: LINK
This really gets me excited. I've been infatuated with miniature scenes and tiny sets ever since I was a little boy. My grandpa had a scale model of a small town with a train going through it. It was top of my todo list of things to check out when I'd go visit him. My favorite part of Mister Roger's Neighborhood was the end and beginning where the camera pans across the scale model of Mister Roger's neighborhood. If there's something like this at a visitors center, a museum, or a road side tourist attraction you bet I'm stopping to check it out.
This particular model took 35 years to build. It was the project of Italian architect Italo Gismondi. Look at the level of detail, and the overall scale of this thing!
-Jake
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
A couple years ago I was listening to a Q and A with filmmaker and YouTuber Patrick (H) Willems. (He's my favorite YouTuber btw.) And he made a good point in this Q and A that I wrote down, and it's stuck with me ever since:
"People will only hire you to do what you've basically already done."
- Patrick H Willems
This tracks with my career. I didn't ever get a graphic novel deal from a publisher until I had drawn over 75 pages of comics on my own. I didn't get a job doing concept art until I had a done concept art for my own projects.
One of the big problems about getting work is getting the experience needed to be qualified for the job. I think Patrick's implied solution is spot on: go out and DO the thing you want to do. It might be bad at first, but you'll get better. Keep at it, and you'll get good enough to get the job.
-Jake
From the Exploration Unit
Known as the "Blue City" because of the distinct shade of blue most of the buildings are painted in, Jodhpur is located in Thar Desert of the northwest Indian state of Rajasthan aka, the middle of nowhere.
These photos were taken by French photographer Florian Delalee who travels Asia taking photos that capture what it feels like to be there.
More photos of Jodhpur here: LINK
-Jake
From the Office of Robots in cooperation with the Office of Scale Models
I found a great scratch builder of robots on twitter. He's based in Japan and goes by スエキチ(ケロッグ) or @surume0407. As far as I can tell he only posts on twitter. There's no website, gallery, or art account for his work, so you're stuck scrolling through his twitter feed to find all of his amazing works.
These are all cobbled together from other kits and some custon sculpted components he makes himself. Really incredible and inspiring.
More here: LINK
-Jake
From the Friendship Unit
My buddy, co-host on the 3 Point Perspective podcast, and partner over at SVSlearn.com, Lee White has just launched his Kickstarter project.
I'm not just a friend of Lee but also a HUGE fan of his illustrations. He's been talking about doing this for years and lately has been working on it behind the scenes. I'm so excited to see all of this come together in this project.
I love the unique take he has on the subject matter. Each one of these card has been re-thought from the ground up. I don't really know much about tarot decks, but Lee explained ti this way:
"The more modern use of the cards is they just give you a topic to think about and how it relates to your life. The cards aren't magical or tell the future or anything like that. They are more like themes to meditate on and use in the way that fits your life."
You can check out the project here: LINK
-Jake
From the Making Comics Division
The explosive first chapter of RED SHIFT RENEGADES is out now! And I do mean explosive, there's, like, 3 of them in there.
This first issue introduces Missile Mouse, Skull Chaser, Star Princess Aven, and the C.A.T. Bot and sets them on trajectories that will eventually converge with each other in an epic cosmic brawl.
ORDER AND DOWNLOAD NOW: LINK
My colorist Anderson Carman really knocked it out of the park on this one. I feel like we are both firing on all cylinders here. This is not a comic you're going to want to sleep on.
--
Accepting New Patrons: Not only are Patrons getting under the hood updates on the comic, but they actually got this comic for FREE as a reward for their support. I don't make a ton of money on Patreon, but it is enough to turn down some work so I can MAKE MORE COMICS.
Become a patron and you also get to join a community of like minded people who love this kind of stuff, you get to do live hangouts online where we draw and shoot the breeze, and you get to give input on current and future projects.
Join here: LINK
-Jake
From the Art Department
Artists online have been posting their sketches vs the final art. I thought I'd join in. Always cool to see where something starts and how it ends up.
This print is available in my shop: LINK
-Jake
From the Inspirational Thought Unit
For many years I put off doing my comic SkyHeart because I felt like I wasn't ready to do it. I knew it would stretch my abilities, perhaps beyond what I was capable. I felt like I needed to prepare a little more, get a little better, level up a little more before I took it on.
James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, has this to say about doing something that stretches you.
There will never be a perfect time to do something that stretches you. If you were ready for it, it wouldn't be growth.
After 15 years of putting it off I realized I might never be ready. It dawned on me that perhaps act of doing SkyHeart was going to be the thing that made me level up and be ready to do the book.
When I figured that out, it decided to just dive in and do it, and boy, was I grateful. It was by no means a perfect comic! However, I leveled up as an artist, it was a self publishing success with 3000 copies sold, and it boosted my confidence as a creator. There's way more to the story, but the lesson learned was I shouldn't have waited 15 years for the perfect time.
-Jake
From the Reading Desk
I made a goal this year to actually read all the comics I’ve bought but never read. And to not buy any new graphic novels. The goal was even more specific: read a book, screenplay, or graphic novel a week.
And as of earlier this month I had only read ONE.
So this month, every time I wanted to reach for my phone to check social media, the news, or messages, I reached for a comic instead.
Here's what I read:
TMNT books I, II, and III.
This is where it all started. These collect the first 10ish issues of the Turtles. I hadn't read this since I was a teenager and it was amazing to be reminded of how much these books have influenced me. It also rekindled a love for the Turtles that has been somewhat dormant, though never extinguished.
I was also reminded of how fun these books are, and the secret sauce of making good comics which I will get into another day.
Get copies here: LINK
RADIO SPACEMAN: MISSION TO NUMA 4 #1
Mike Mignola writing a story about a space skull character??? SIGN ME UP! Drawings by Greg Hinkle are so much better than they needed to be to pull this off. Can't wait for issue 2.
Get your copy at your local comic shop.
THE WITCH OF WICKERSON by Derek Laufman
I highlighted Derek back in November and talked about the kickstarter for this project and how cool I thought it was to do a smaller "graphic novellas" instead of these epic 200+ page stories. This approach directly inspired doing a shorter story for Red Shift Renegades.
Well, I finally got my copy of The Witch of Wickerson and it is just plain delightful. REally impressed with the whole thing. Laufman is a real pro.
Get your copy here: LINK
I actually got this book on audible and listened to it while inking Red Shift Renegades. If you've seen the Social Dilemma on Netflix this book covers a lot of the same ground.
What was interesting to me was reading the author's experience of doing a three month detox from the internet by going to a secluded seaport village with out anything but some books, a laptop (with internet disabled) to write with, and a dumb phone for emergencies.
The author sets up the problem, shares loads of reports and data to back it up, then offers some solutions to fix it. Pretty well done, even though I don't entirely agree with some of his conclusions.
Get it here: LINK
Honestly, if you feel like you've got an attention problem due to your phone or internet you're better off reading this book: LINK
-Jake
From the Machines Division
Photographer Luca Casonato put together a nice gallery of colliders he's photographed. I love machinery and interesting tech. Colliders are some of the wildest stuff out there. What's great about these is they're designed by engineers with the needs of project and the constraints of the technology as the motivating factor of the design. And yet there's still a distinctive beauty to them.
Eating lunch with a friend yesterday and we were talking about jets. He brought up that they look like the way they do not because we designed them that way, but because we discovered the best shape needed to get the job of flying accomplished. There's a beauty to function.
Colliders are the same way.
See the rest here: LINK
-Jake
From the Flora and Fauna Unit
I keep finding images of these little suckers popping up in Pinterest and Twitter. They're not alien life or mutated lab experiments, these are little shrimp cousins that live in oceans and lakes. One of these is from Lake Baikal, the oldest lake on earth. Creepy and cool, I do take a little comfort knowing they're very small.
To me these look like inspiration for monsters in a future comic I'll be working on.
You can read more about them here: LINK
Or this New Scientist article: LINK
And here's a cool paper on how one of their legs evolved into wings in insects: LINK
-Jake
