We've Moved!

SPROUSENET and all its related pages (including the art sales site, SPROUSENET ART EMPORIUM) have taken up residence at Wordpress. We'll no longer be updating any of the pages on Blogger, but all of the old Blogger content will be available at the Wordpress site. Come on over and check it out:

http://sprousenet.wordpress.com/

--C


Note: this means that no new artwork will be added to the Sprousenet Art Emporium. All artwork is now being sold on the Wordpress site

Rocketeer Adventures 2 #3 Out Today!

Rocketeer Adventures 2 #3 hits the stands of local comic shops near you today.  It features a story written by David Lapham (writer of Stray Bullets), drawn by me, inked by Karl Story and colored by Jordie Bellaire. Rocketeer Adventures 2 #3 is also available for digital download via the Comixology app if you read comics on your iPad, Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet (rooted, of course).


Speaking of Comixology, several books and series I've worked on are available digitally via this app, including Tom Strong, The Return of Bruce Wayne and even some older titles like Legends of the Dark Knight. Click HERE to see the full list on the Comixology website.


--C

 New Projects!

 I can finally announce some projects I've been working on over the last few months, in addition to my regular gig drawing the next Tom Strong series, Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril. First up, coming this May is a short story I drew for the Rocketeer Adventures 2 series being published by IDW. My story was written by David Lapham and inked by the always-amazing Karl Story and is scheduled for issue #3 of the 4-issue series. I can finally talk about my second extra-curricular project because of an announcement DC made today on USA Today.com as well as the usual comics news sites. You wouldn't know it from the USA Today article, but it's in the DC Comics website press release: I'm working on a 30-page story written by David Tischman that will be serialized as the eighth storyline for the digital-first series, Batman Digital. You can get a sneak peek at some of the pencil art for both projects above and below.

One other bit of news: it's probably obvious to Legion fans by now, but I will not be doing any more covers for Legion of Super-Heroes--issue #7 was my last (I showcased that cover in my last post). It seems there was a change in the editorial regime on the book and the new guys brought in some new artists. It's a shame, as I was hitting all the deadlines and hoping to spend a good long time back in the world of the 30th Century. Oh, well...















 --C

Legion of Super-Heroes #7 Cover

Above is the finished color art for Legion of Super-Heroes #7, available March 21 of next year. Inks by Karl Story, colors by Guy Major. My pencil art can be seen below.

--C

Legion of Super-Heroes Work

A rumor started a day or so ago that myself and Karl Story would be taking over the interior artwork for DC Comics' Legion of Super-Heroes, but it's just a rumor based on an incorrect reading of solicitation info (at least that's my best guess). Karl and I are the regular cover artists on the book (except for issue #5, where Walter Simonson does everything) and nothing more. I love working on the Legion books and all the characters and it would certainly be nice to do some actual Legion stories again some day, but that day is not today. Sorry if the rumors confused anyone! Anyone interested in seeing me do Legion of super-Heroes work can look above and below to see the pencil artwork for two upcoming Legion-related projects. Above is my cover art for Legion of Super-Heroes #6 (due out February 15, 2012) and below are the pencils for a cover for the Star Trek/Legion crossover book IDW is publishing. You can see the finished color art for the Legion #6 cover HERE, by the way.

--C

New Artwork Added to Art Sales Site

I just loaded many, many new pages over at the art sales site, Sprousenet Art Emporium. One of the highlights is the unused pencil version of the cover for first issue of the upcoming series Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril.
--C

The 2011 Birmingham Comic Con

Peter Hogan alerted me to the fact that someone has posted some video footage of the 2011 Birmingham Comic Con on YouTube (see above), so this seemed like a good reason/time to finally get around to posting about our UK trip. I really enjoyed the little film because I never saw anything of the convention other than a row of people in front of my table and-very briefly- the panel room. Now I feel like I have a sense of what the show was like for everyone else!

Now for the trip recap:
Things got off to a shaky start when the hurricane hitting the east coast of the U.S. caused massive delays. All of our flights were either delayed or cancelled and we ended up spending about sixteen hours sitting in two different airports over two days before we finally left the ground on Friday evening. I was supposed to attend a signing session for VIP ticket holders on Friday night in Birmingham, but we were somewhere over Northeastern Canada or the Atlantic Ocean while that was happening. My apologies to anyone who was hoping for a signature or sketch that night. We finally arrived in Birmingham at 7AM on Saturday morning, almost two full days after leaving our house.

The Birmingham Comic Con began at 9AM, so we rushed to the hotel and I went straight to the convention, where I met lots of really nice fans, signed comics, and sketched until nearly 7PM, when I had just about lost my ability to focus my eyes on whatever I was drawing--I was that tired. I'll offer my apologies again, this time to anyone who had a less than satisfying or enjoyable conversation with me or received a shoddy sketch--I was so tired I literally couldn't see straight by the time I left the show floor! You can see me ramble on and lose my train of thought at the Tom Strong panel when you watch the video above...I still had a really good time, even if I was dead on my feet. James Hodgkins, the person responsible for bringing me to the show, was wonderful as was the convention staff--thank you all! But the highlight of the convention for me was finally meeting Peter Hogan, writer of the two latest Tom Strong series and some of my favorite issues of the original series. Peter was a joy to spend time with and I'm glad we finally were able to talk in person. The post-show dinner was also a blast! Xan and I ate Italian food at a sort of enclosed shopping/living area called The Mailbox with Peter, James, Dave Gibbons and his wife Helen, and Dougie Braithwaite and his wife Sue. We talked about everything from metaphysics (well, Peter and Dave did the talking there) to the Norman Conquest, with the Watchmen movie and old Gerry Anderson TV shows somewhere in between the two. The next day, Xan and I stayed on in Birmingham, walking and shopping at record stores and a comic shop which was actually in the same building as the hotel. We had a nice little meal of UK comfort food (pie and mashed potatoes) at a sidewalk cafe and just generally relaxed after the whirlwind of the previous three days.

Myself and Peter Hogan at the Birmingham Comic Con (top); dinner at Zizi'z (bottom)


Xan and I in a Birmingham park (left); inside "The Mailbox" (right)

Monday, we were up and on the train for London, where we spent the remainder of our trip. I had never traveled on a train in the UK or Europe and I didn't know what to expect, but I loved it! We passed through lots of picturesque little villages and some beautiful English countryside. We also passed by the site of the Reading Festival and stopped and picked up hundreds of concertgoers on their way home after spending three days in mud and altered states of consciousness, so that was interesting...

View from the train (top); dismantling the Reading Festival (bottom)

In London, we set up camp in a really cool hotel near Paddington Station, the Hotel Indigo...
Paddington Station (top); the Hotel Indigo (bottom)

From there, we took the tube and walked all over the city for the next five days or so. We tried to see some new sights and hit some areas we didn't visit last time, such as Trafalgar Square and Portobello Road, but we did repeat some of our favorite things from our 2006 trip, such as shopping at the Tintin Store and some of the same record stores. We also walked through Westminster to the Thames again, but we chose a different side of the river to walk along this time. Xan was even able to find some rare non-U.S. Pez dispensers along the way.
Trafalgar Square (left); overlooking the Thames just outside Parliament (right)


George Orwell's home (left); Portobello Road (right)


Rough Trade Records off Portobello (left); Savile Row and the Royal Academy (right)


The Baker Street tube station (left); 221b Baker Street (right)

On Thursday, we met Peter Hogan again for lunch before our scheduled signing at the Forbidden Planet store on Shaftesbury Avenue, and after lunch Xan explored all the funky stores in the area while Peter and I did a brief interview at a coffee shop. Then it was on to Forbidden Planet for a couple of hours where we signed and met more wonderful people (both staff and fans) followed by a great Indian dinner with Peter.
The pile of books waiting for us at Forbidden Planet (top); Peter and I signing (bottom)

On Friday, our last day in the UK, we hit a few more record stores (Sister Ray and Reckless)and a large and frankly nerve-wracking toy store before ending the day and the trip with a visit to the Doctor Who Experience. This consisted of a live audience participation "adventure" wherein we were able to step through the doors of and "pilot" Doctor Who's Tardis (that's his time machine, for those who've never seen the show), interact with some Daleks and other scary series villains before finally being let out into a massive exhibit of sets, costumes and props used on the BBC TV series. This ended up being one of the most enjoyable things we did on our trip--definitely a great way to end our stay.

Outside the Doctor Who Experience (left); a Tardis prop from the 1980's (right)


A 1980's Tardis control room set--still "functioning" (top); K-9 (bottom)


Various Sonic Screwdriver props from throughout the years


Panoramic shot of the David Tennant era Tardis set


Davros and several Daleks on display


The enormous Face of Bo prop(top); the smiling face of Xan and the creepy face of a Matt Smith wax replica on either side of me (bottom)

Now it's back to work and our everyday lives. Hopefully another five or six years won't pass before I'm able to take a vacation again...

--C

SALE ON ORIGINAL ART!
After nearly pulling my arm out of its socket and having my original art case break under its own weight this week, I've decided I'd better thin the herd (so to speak) a little bit! So, I've lowered my original art prices drastically in order to unload as much art as I can. Everything is $40 until I decide otherwise, and anything already priced at $40 will now be $20. If you've ever wanted some of my artwork, now is the time to pick out some pages for yourself at my art sales site, the Sprousenet Art Emporium.
--C

Old Stuff

We're preparing to leave for England right now--I'll try to post some photos from the trip while we're there. In the meantime, I thought I'd post a link for anyone who ever wanted to see one of Alan Moore's scripts. A friend from Italy who goes by the name Smoky Man has a website devoted to Alan's work. Today Smoky Man posted a piece on Judgment Day, a crossover mini-series Alan wrote for Rob Liefield's universe of comics. My first work with Alan writing was a few pages I drew for one of the Judgment Day issues. I also drew a little six-page comic called the Judgment Day Sourcebook which was a freebie bundled in with an issue of Wizard magazine in the mid-1990's. I provided scans of Alan's Judgment Day script pages to Smoky Man, who also owns the entire set of layouts for the Sourcebook, and he has all of these things up at Alan Moore World for everyone to see. Enjoy!

--C

Note: for everyone asking about the possibility of me doing sketches at the Forbidden Planet London signing on Sept. 1, all I can say right now is that I won't be able to do anything in advance, but if we end up staying longer than an hour at Forbidden Planet (or if no one shows up and we're left sitting around with nothing to do), I'll see what I can do. It's up to the store and how quickly they want to move us along, really.

Legion of Super-Heroes #3

My pencil art for the cover of Legion of Super-Heroes #3 can be seen above, while the inked and colored version can be viewed by clicking HERE. This comic is out in November.

--C