Happy Birthday, Jess-Belle!

Above: Jess-Belle today
Below: Jess-Belle exactly one year ago

Our little girl is one year old today! It's been a blast watching her grow and change(see for yourself how much by comparing the two photos above). One thing that has remained the same is her seemingly endless supply of energy! She's also still cute and loveable as ever. Tonight we celebrated with some spirited laser-pointer play and a little cat film festival consisting of a slideshow of all the photos we've taken of her plus all the video we have.
--C

Front row at the film festival

Cleveland Alterna-Rocks, Part 2

Yesterday we enjoyed a great day off in Cleveland. Once again, we were visiting the city for a concert, but we went up early and shopped in Coventry at Big Fun, scoring some Pee Wee's Playhouse cards and a floaty toothbrush (a novel twist on the floaty pen concept!) for our collections, among other items. We also picked up some toys for our little girl at a posh pet store and grabbed a bite to eat at Que Tal. In the evening we headed to the Beachland Ballroom & Tavern to see a live show by Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips, formerly half of one of my new favorite bands, Luna. A thunderstorm that threatened to turn into a tornado caused some delays and the show started late, but the music was good(the setlist was heavy with Luna songs so I was happy)--even opening act Michael Holland was quite good, and as in the past, we were able to stay and meet and talk with the performers afterwards. They were incredibly approachable and really nice to us--especially Britta, who chatted with Xan for a while before grabbing Dean to autograph a poster and a setlist for us!
--C

The Spirit

Here's a peek at my take on Will Eisner's Spirit. More soon...

--C

R.E.M.

Button from Lifes Rich Pageant Tour, 1986

Okay--I promised/threatened in a post from last year that I'd soon be writing a longer piece on R.E.M., and here it is. So, if you don't like R.E.M. and/or have never had a favorite band or have never been moved by music(any kind of music, but especially rock and roll), then just skip this and come back next week...

Last night I watched R.E.M. get inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. I first discovered them my freshman year at college and it changed my life. No joke. I was a horribly lonely and insecure skinny little art major at James Madison University, looking for something/anything to connect with, something that spoke to me. I came to college with all the holdovers from my early 80's suburban high school years: stale prog rock(Genesis, Yes), Claremont & Byrne comics that I thought were the epitome of the comic book art form, polo shirts, and lots of other boring stuff that I was quickly growing disenchanted with. I spent my first semester at JMU feeling miserable and scared, not really socializing and just sort of going through the motions to get decent grades. I started hanging out alone most of the time, walking around Harrisonburg and spending a lot of time haunting record and book stores. On one such record store trip, I realized I was sick of everything I had been listening to and I wanted something completely new that I had never heard before. I scanned the albums until something caught my eye in the "R" section: Reckoning by R.E.M...the album cover was bizarre and captivating, with strange song titles like "So. Central Rain" and "7 Chinese Brothers." I dimly remembered reading a positive review of one of this group's albums somewhere, and I think I might have seen the "So. Central Rain" video on MTV(this was back in 1984 when they still played music videos). Whatever it was, something about this weird little album did speak to me, so that was that: I was trying something new and R.E.M. was it. Back in my dorm room, headphones on, I listened to the album and was instantly and powerfully hooked! I don't think I can describe the music very well and do it any justice, it was just a "Beatles-on-Ed-Sullivan" kind of eye-opening experience for me.

Things started to change very quickly after I bought that first album...Not only did I become an R.E.M. fan, but through interviews with the band and by researching songs they covered I found dozens of other new and interesting musicians to get excited about(Robyn Hitchcock, The Velvet Underground, The Replacements, Television, X, Billy Bragg, and on and on)--I was saved from dreary Prog-Rock Hell! I also began to come out of my shell--finally making friends at college, going on group road trips all over Virginia to see R.E.M. play live. I'll never see another concert as good as that first R.E.M. show I saw in 1985: me and six or seven friends who knew every word to “Gardening At Night”(well, as much as anyone can know all the words to any of those early songs), an encore set that went on longer than the main set, covers of everything from "Toys In The Attic" to "Behind Closed Doors!" All these changes in my musical life inspired me to experiment with my own chosen art form, trying non-superhero comics (like Love & Rockets, at least after the early issues) for the first time, which led to me trying to discover other art styles and art forms and break out of my very stilted comic book only drawing style. I actually stopped drawing comics for a while(something I'd been doing since I was a little kid) and started to let go of old influences as I took in new ones, concentrating on figure drawing from models and life drawing--the two most important art-related things I took away from my college experience.

Okay, I know it may seem like a stretch, but it's hard for me to put in words--I'm an artist not a writer! All I know is that I had sort of a creative and social awakening at the same time I was discovering this band, and it is absolutely impossible for me to think of that period of my life without hearing R.E.M. songs in my head.

I continued to follow the band, and their music continued to be the soundtrack to my life. I distinctly recall listening to Automatic For The People repeatedly while working on Legionnaires, going to see a great show on the Monster tour with a new group of good friends, and how much "Why Not Smile" from Up helped make some bad times a little better later on. Sounds corny, but that's me--sappy and sentimental...

In 2004, thanks to the love of my life, Xan, I was able to meet R.E.M. after a show in Cincinatti, almost exactly twenty years after I stood in that Harrisonburg record store looking at the cover of Reckoning. We splurged on tickets for good seats and went on our own little two-person road trip. I brought a camera and took some pretty decent photos from the sixth row, and I could have gone home right then and would have considered it a great concert just because of our phenomenal seats, the great setlist, and all the photos. I had heard the band would meet and greet fans after shows, but I just thought it'd never work out, and if it did I'd spaz out and feel like an idiot fanboy. Xan, a veteran of waiting around after concerts to meet bands and get autographs, prodded and reassured, and we ended up waiting with other fans after the house lights came up. The band did indeed come out and shake hands and talk with everyone--they were as nice as could be, and even a little shy, (except for Mike Mills, who looks like he should be the shy one) and very humble-- every one of them. Of course I was a complete spaz and blanked completely on what to say to them(I think I managed "thank you"), but we took some photos and got our ticket stubs autographed, and I was buzzing all the way home(non-alcoholically, of course). Incidentally, I eventually had Peter Buck sign my old copy of Reckoning at a Robyn Hitchcock show(see the archives for November 2006), but by then I was a veteran of these things myself, having met tons of bands after shows and I knew enough to bring something to get signed.

So...as I said at the beginning of this monstrosity of a post, I watched the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction last night. I found it unexpectedly moving--from Eddie Vedder's funny and touching induction speech(which strangely mirrored a lot of my own feelings and experiences with R.E.M.) to seeing how choked up and nervous Mike Mills and Michael Stipe were; as well as seeing and hearing Bill Berry playing with the band again after leaving ten years ago. There was also some of that old-style R.E.M. unpredictability with Peter Buck throwing his monitor offstage as well as the band unearthing "Gardening At Night" during their performance. What most moved me was thinking about how much had changed since 1984--who I was back when I first heard that unknown little band as opposed to who I was last night, watching a superstar rock band with a twenty-six year career behind them. I don’t know—like I said. I’m an artist, not a writer—I’m not sure what I wanted to say or exactly how to end this except that it was just fun being excited about my favorite band again and being happy for them, like watching your team win the Superbowl, maybe? Oh, well—enjoy the photos, at least!
--C



Reckoning LP cover, signed by Peter Buck 23 years after I bought it!


Ticket stub from 1986--check out that price!


Cincinatti, 2004--"Begin The Begin"


Cincinatti, 2004


Cincinatti, 2004

Film Premiere

I've posted a 30-second film on both of our MySpace pages showing our little psycho kitty in action. Follow either MySpace link at right (or if you're really lazy, just click here or here) to be taken to our mini-movie so you can figure out what's going on in the above picture! I'm pretty sure you'll have to be a MySpace member and be logged in to see it. If you're not a MySpace member, it's pretty easy to sign up, and you don't have to maintain a MySpace page if you don't want to(trust me--my own page was dormant for three years!). Give it a try!
--C

So since I have had glasses since the age of 13, I am trying to assure Chris that all will be right with the world and his eyes soon. New glasses are always hard. You either feel much taller or much shorter, and the sharpness of the world practically stabs you. Hopefully, he will adjust nicely. I am adjusting nicely to his glasses...I think he is super cute in them!

Due to illness, injury, and ice, I have nothing to talk about lately. So I guess I will go now...

The big news for me this week was that I finally had to get glasses. About two years ago I noticed I couldn't focus easily anymore on 3-D objects after long stretches of drawing, and it just kept getting worse. Additionally, I was getting frequent headaches and having to hold items I was reading out to a distance of about two feet to see them clearly. Time for glasses. Oh, well...the specs came in today, and I've been trying to get used to them all day...

--C

P.S. Received my comp copies of Midnighter #5 today, so that means it should be in stores this week or next. Possibly the best looking one so far--in color. Issue #2 is still my favorite in black & white.

A Virtual Tour
of Plankton Studios
Here's a cyber walk-through of Plankton studios for those who've never visited and for those who have and have perhaps wondered "what is all that crap?"

Click on each photo for a larger view(clicking twice may give you an even larger image). I've tried to point out and label some of the more interesting, fun and/or hard-to-identify items. Enjoy!
--C


My workspace


Xan's workspace


The Computer Corner? The Geek Grotto? I don't know
what to call the above area...


Reference shelf 2

Comic Book Update

New Midnighter cover pencils

Just a quick one this time: I'm working on future Midnighter covers. We have a new writer on that book, but I'll wait for some sort of official announcement before I say who it is--no big secret deal or anything--I just want to wait until all the papers are signed and everything's nailed down. Also, the Walter Simonson Spirit story is in, so I'll be starting that this week.
--C

Last week, we were treated to a visit from Xan's childhood friend Sara, along with Sara's son Gavin and Debbie, her mother. Sara, who is expecting her second child, grabbed a lightsaber(something you can actually do in our house) and posed for the photo below...

Sarah the Pregnant Jedi defends Xan's mom Lin and our Yoda collection

Gavin had a great time playing with our old action figures, which we keep in a drawer in the studio for just such occasions.

Gavin and the little girl

Later, an exhausted Jess-Belle climbed into the action figure drawer for a little rest...

Our favorite little action figure

On Sunday, Xan, her mom Lin and I all drove to Debbie's home in Dayton to visit some more with Sara and Gavin, who are in from Toronto. We also got to spend time with Sara's brother Eric, their aunt Marcy(who brought her famous peanut butter fudge), and our friend Sherry and her son Ben, and Sherry's sister Sally. Good times.

We may get to see Sara again soon if we actually make it to the Toronto Comicon in April, where I think I'm supposed to be a guest. I'm listed on the website for the show, but I haven't heard from the organizers since the initial invitation was extended last year, so it seems a little uncertain at this point. Here's a link to the Toronto Comicon's site. Stay tuned...

Speaking of links, here's a strange little thing I found today. Scroll down a bit and you'll find a reference to a scene I drew in Midnighter #3.

--C

Ocean Headed to the Silver Screen?

Well, no...apparently not just now, anyway...If you follow this link, you'll find an article from good old Newsarama.com which reports that Gianni Nunnari, producer of the movie 300(based on a graphic novel by Frank Miller), mentioned in a press release that he'd be interested in adapting Ocean(the graphic novel written by Warren Ellis and drawn by me) as a feature film. as Warren points out in the update to the story also found at the above link, no one has actually approached either one of us about this(we own the thing, so presumably someone will have to approach us before buying the film rights), so for now, it's just some guy in Hollywood dropping the name of a book we created.

Still had me feeling pretty good, though. Even the nasty little comments by those internet pundits I love so much did little to bring me down this time...

...because in the end it's still some guy in Hollywood talking about making a movie about a book I co-created and drew and had published by one of the top two publishers in the comics industry.

--C

Brrrr....
Not much news from the Sprouse House as we hunker down inside and try to avoid the brutal cold weather this week and last.

I finished up the first big Midnighter storyline and began working on covers for the next few issues, one of which I've posted below. Next up is a short story for the new Spirit comic (to be written by Walt Simonson, one of my comic book idols), and then back to the Midnighter for more dark humor and all-out (some might say "over-the-top")action.

The cover of Midnighter #7--freefalling with zombie-cyborgs in pursuit!

Xan has kept busy during her off hours bonding with her dad as she helps him figure out and fill up his brand new iPod. It's actually really cute watching them together, talking music and trading songs(doo-wop, soul, and classic rock, mostly).

Xan's dad: hyp-mo-tized!

Jess-Belle is loving having her humans stuck at home with her so much, but she doesn't seem to be enjoying the constant static shocks that come with winter. This hasn't stopped her from sleeping on top of the cable box, my computer monitor, my drafting table light box, and various other electrical appliances for warmth, however.

Yes, she really is sleeping like that in this photo...

Just around the corner for us: a trip to Seattle in late March/early April for the Emerald City Comicon, another jaunt up to Cleveland's Beachland Ballroom, and just maybe a comic convention in Toronto in April.

--C

First Snow

Jess-Belle watching me deal with the first real snow of the season...


...later, she finds a cozy little hiding place...

--C

A Blast From The Past
(or "That 70's Shame")

I warned you faithful readers that I'd be posting some embarrassing
old photos as I scanned in the Sprouse family slide collection.
Well, above is a souvenir from our 1979 road trip to visit my mom's
brother's family in Wisconsin. It's a perfect example of what Hollywood
gets wrong when it attempts to depict the 70's accurately: no one ever
gets the hairstyles or the clothes bad enough!

This is just a cute little photo of my sister Megan and I that I don't
remember seeing before, again from 1979.
--C

Christmas Day

A Pez-tacular time was had by all as we
hosted Christmas at our house for the
first time!

Jess-Belle enjoys her leopard-skin catnip
mouse, a gift from Xan's mom.

Sleepiness sets in after gifts are exchanged
and much food is consumed.
--C

Happy Holidays!

Jungle Jim's

Xan on the...um...Lobster Throne? Crustacean Chair?
Just one of the many strange things found at this most unusual
grocery store

The British foods section at Jungle Jim's
--a cheesy little slice of Sherwood Forest

Merry Xmas, Xan!

My main view of Xan lately, engrossed in her new MacBook!

After the madness that was Mid-Ohio Con and finishing up the latest issue of Midnighter, I finally had a weekend off, my first in a long time. This was very convenient as my parents stopped in for a visit, their last stop on a nice road-trip vacation. Xan had to work on Saturday, so we headed out into Columbus for some Christmas shopping. I'd mention where we went, but that would give away too much to my siblings and nephew and nieces! Xan joined us for dinner at a local Indian restaurant, then it was home to talk and play with the cat. My dad and Jess-Belle got along famously, playing together almost every moment we were at home. They departed on Sunday, leaving me with several more boxes of old slides to scan in, so you should probably not be surprised to see more embarassing childhood photos turning up on this blog in the near future!

--C



Photos:
1) Dad and the Belly-girl resting between play sessions
2) Missing Grandpa...

Geeks & Gobbles
Thanksgiving weekend was quite the good time this year. We spent the actual day at my parent's house. Dad was craving turkey this year, so we put the Chinese food tradition on hold and had a traditional spread of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberries, the standard drill. We brought Jess-Belle with us, and she was pretty good, considering that this was the first time my parent's had a visit from their grandkitty. She pretty much sniffed everything over and over all day, and only got up on the counter twice. She had a new toy, a laser pointer, so we were able to keep her busy while the turkey came out of the oven. I have a new respect for parents after trying to travel with the cat. After packing the catbox, her food, some toys, I started to think that parents of human babies have to pack like this everywhere they go! Yeesh! After food, we played some games, then fell asleep until my good pal Steve stopped by. He hung out for a few hours before needing to get back to his family's house and sleep, as he had begun his drive from Chicago at 3am that morning. Ouch!

Chris had some work to do Friday, so Mom and I drove to Kettering to visit family friends. My friend Sara and her son Gavin were visiting from Toronto, and her friend Kristen was visiting from New Jersey. Kristen and her mom Sherry came over to Sara's mom Debbie's house where we caught up, ate leftovers (specifically Debbie's homeade pecan pie which is the most heavenly pie of all time), but saved enough room so we could make a stop at Sonic for a cherry limeade. We also came home with Gavin's cold, but we didn't know that until Sunday afternoon. Saturday and Sunday were all about the Con, and since I worked Saturday and spent Sunday reading the Twilight Zone comics I bought, I'll let Chris tell more about it.

Saturday I packed up my artwork, some pencils and markers, and a box of comics and headed off to the Mid-Ohio Con. This is practically the only convention I do professionally anymore, and this was the fourteenth or fifteenth year I've attended as a guest. I was busy for the entire convention, signing comics, selling artwork, and sketching and chatting with fans and a few friends. Xan joined me on Sunday, spending time out on the con floor shopping and catching up with friends Nebbie Brown, Steve Swanson and Chris Collier before the symptoms of her cold started to manifest and make her miserable. She also helped at my table and gave much needed moral support and fetched much needed Mountain Dew as I started to burn out in the afternoon.

Throughout the show I ended up talking music almost as much as I did comics, discussing the recent Robyn Hitchcock show with Dave Aikins, gushing over Velocity Girl with a fan who showed up in a VG T-shirt, and trading stories about R.E.M. and Paul Westerberg with Aubrey Stallings. I met Aubrey at my very first signing as a professional comic artist, and he's easily one of the nicest people I've ever known. We hadn't seen him in a while, so when he showed up, it was the highlight of the weekend!

The next convention I have scheduled is the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle in March. HERE is a link to the show's website. Some of my comic book creator heroes will be guests there as well--Michael Golden, Howard Chaykin, Paul Chadwick. Best of all, Xan will be going with me, so this has all the makings of a really good time!
--C & X



Photos from top:
1) Saturday, signing an old Legionnaires comic just after being interviewed, photo by Vaneta Rogers
2) Aubrey Stallings
3) My cool new Midnighter action figure, courtesy of Aubrey
4) In this photo I'm doing a fun drawing of a fan's pet cockatiel!

Click HERE to be taken to a Newsarama.com feature on Mid-Ohio Con, the source of the first photo above

Cleveland Alterna-Rocks!
On Sunday, Nov. 12, we headed up to the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland to see Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 perform. The Venus 3 is Scott McCaughey from the Seattle band The Young Fresh Fellows, Bill Rieflin from Ministry (and the current drummer for R.E.M.), and Peter Buck, founding member of R.E.M. I'm a big Robyn Hitchcock fan, but anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a REALLY big R.E.M. fan.

So...we arrived in Cleveland early and decided to do some record shopping at the Music Saves record store next to the Beachland. I had heard that bands playing at the Beachland sometimes do signings at the Music Saves, but the store was empty when we stepped inside, so it looked like it would just be your average everyday alternative music store experience. As I was browsing through the bins, I heard a customer come in, then felt Xan elbow me in the ribs. I looked at her and she nodded at the guy thumbing through the vinyl selection--holy socks!--it's Peter Buck! We'd pretty much finished our shopping, but we stayed just a little longer. Not wanting to intrude on the guy's personal time, we eventually slunk out, hoping the band would stay after the show to meet and greet fans. Starstruck? You bet! If there is a soundtrack to my adult life, Peter Buck esentially composed and performed it. I plan to write at length sometime soon about R.E.M. in a future post, by the way, but for now, let's just leave it at that.

Anyway, we still had some time to kill, so we headed over to Coventry and shopped at Big Fun, a cool store full of every toy you ever owned as a kid--every Major Matt Mason, Strawberry Shortcake, G.I. Joe or Mego figure--and every conceivable novelty from floaty-pens to boxing nun hand puppets and retro 70's iron-on T-Shirt designs. I usually spend most of my time in Big Fun annoying Xan by gasping and pointing at things and saying "I used to have one of those!" We made some completely frivolous purchases of Krazy Kat action figures and Pee-Wee's Playhouse trading cards.

7PM rolled around and it was off to the show! We were there early enough to get a table, but we later decided that we would rather stand closer to the stage. So we grabbed our drinks, (the Beachland sells orange Crush in glass bottles, which excited Xan quite a bit as she had to work the next morning and had not wanted alchohol) headed up to the stage and ran into Dave Aikins and Andy Bennett, fellow comic pros. We talked to them until the show started. The show, despite Robyn Hitchcock's thrown out back, was amazing! In a nearly two hour set, the band played oldies stretching back to Robyn Hitchcock's Soft Boys days (which had Soft Boys fan Scott McCaughey grinning from ear to ear) and ran through some really good new songs before ending with some covers of songs by Syd Barrett, Bob Dylan and the Beatles. Since we were in the front row, I couldn't resist snapping a few flashless photos as unobtrusively as I could during the performance.

In the lobby of the Beachland afterwards, the band did indeed meet and greet the fans and we were able to have them sign some LP's we brought with us as well as a poster for the concert that a Beachland employee was kind enough to let us have. Xan asked the surprisingly approachable Peter Buck about his earlier record store purchases and talked him into posing with us for a photo.

--C

1) Show Poster w/band signatures

2) Robyn Hitchcock

3) Peter Buck w/his beautiful Rickenbacker guitar

4) Scott McCaughey w/Peter Buck's beautiful Rickenbacker guitar

5) Peter Buck w/two tongue-tied fans

One More Midnighter Thing For Now
This morning Karl Story sent me his inked version of the page from Midnighter #2 that i posted yesterday. If you've ever wondered exactly what an inker can bring to a page of comic art--what makes a good inker invaluable, see below. Wow! Thanks, Karl!
--C

Reviews

In the comments section of my last post, my friend Leighton gives a link to a review for Midnighter #1 (thanks, Leighton, and thanks again for trying to sell some comics for me!). Fortunately it was a good one--I had sworn off reading reviews because they can depress me or even anger me and rarely if ever had any constructive criticism, but I've read a few for this book because I was anticipating a little controversy and was too curious to resist.

I have to say most reviews have been favorable, but a few have been vicious(one guy writes about how I've lost it and am too lazy to draw detailed backgrounds anymore--nevermind that this book took place in a desert and a featureless metal cell & corridor...) and a few have just missed the point, dwelling on either Midnighter's sexuality not being featured heavily enough or how the subject has been dealt with in a clumsy and heavy-handed way. The award for missing the point the most, however, goes to the internet pundit who was outraged that--according to him-- Midnighter killed U.S. troops in this issue(for the record: he killed a caucasian mercenary--no U.S. flag or anything similar anywhere on his fatigues--and destroyed some tanks being used by unscrupulous local chumps taking advantage of a de-stabilized Afghanistan to work out old tribal grudges...no American soldiers or patriots or even Republicans were harmed in the making of this comic book).

...I guess it's kinda obvious I'm letting 'em get to me again! So...I'm going to start avoiding reviews again and continue trying to just draw as well as I can and tell stories to the best of my abilities. That's why I got into comics, after all.

As for what the Midnighter comic and character are all about, I'll let someone more capable and qualified talk about that: HERE is a link to an interview with Midnighter writer Garth Ennis(actually it's kind of a press release, I think, which is being used all over the place--Xan & I read almost the exact same text in a UK fanzine in Forbidden Planet in London).

--C

Here's a small preview of Midnighter #2--my favorite page from that issue, in pencillled form. Too bad I'm too lazy to draw detailed backgrounds anymore or this would have been a really cool page...