Entry 102: SHIELD #5 is coming Plus AXE COP!

Hello, friends.

 I make it a point to never start a post on this live journal by apologizing for taking so long to put up a new post. For one thing, it just feels a little presumptuous of me to think that you're waiting on my posts. Also, when I read those kinds of apologies on other blogs it makes me feel like the blogger is losing interest in their blog and it's like if they're not that into it why am I reading it.

  But, guess what, it's been a while since my last post. But I want to talk about my reason for taking so long. Since starting Shield I've developed a pattern. You guys don't know this, but I get each issue of Shield done just in time for it to come out. I finish it and then in a couple weeks it's on the shelf. The book comes out only every 2 months and I'm just fast enough to meet the deadline and it never fails that in the last week or 2 before the deadline I find myself having to crunch a lot of work in. I pull all-nighters, drink energy drinks, get sick, and when it's over I crash. I'm exhausted and need to recover and, instead of getting right into the next issue to avoid this situation again, I rest. And the cycle continues. Also it's during this rest period that I post on my live journal.

 So that's where I'm at right now. Recovering from issue 5 and about to get started on 6. I think I did a good job on issue 5. I can never really tell what I think of something I've worked on till it's printed and I can read it all put together. But right now I feel pretty good about it.
 How bout a little preview:)

 With this page I threw some quick tones on it to help Christina out with deciphering the crazy jungle details.

Here's another Preview.

 So, have you heard of Axe Cop? It's a web-comic by brothers Malachai and Ethan Nicolle. Malachai comes up with the ideas and the story then Ethan draws it. And oh yeah Malachai IS 5 YEARS OLD. That's right, the world finally has a comic written by a 5 year-old and it is glorious. All the wild imagination and idiosyncrasies of a 5 year-old boy translated perfectly by a skilled comic artist. The Nicolle brothers have created a genuinely absurd silly universe.

 Clearly, I'm a fan. So much so that when I heard that Dark Horse Comics was going to publish Axe Cop as a graphic novel and that they would be including pin ups by other artists I thought, how do I get in on this. Since I'm exclusive with Marvel, it took getting legal permission, but they were cool with it. I think Axe Cop has some fans in the Marvel offices.

So here's what I did

 

I had so much fun drawing this stuff because it's crazy fun stuff.

Seriously, you need to check this out. Go to Axe Cop.Com, read the comic, then buy it when Dark Horse releases the collection on December 22nd.

Also, Ethan tells me that the details haven't been worked out yet but it looks like there's going to be a release party here in Portland at Bridge City Comics and that both him and Malachai will be there. I'm going. It's going to be sweet. 

 Another bit of news: Out Law Territory has been delayed! It was supposed to come out October 6th, hell, it was supposed to come out like a year and half ago. It's getting to be ri-god damn-diculous. It's now set to come out December 28. So if you can manage to maintain any interest in seeing They'll Bury You Where You Stand till then, god bless you.

One last thing, I'm going to try out a new feature. I'm calling it "Lauren's Poetry Corner." My fiancee Lauren does some really nice refrigerator poetry and I just think it needs to be seen. So here it is: