Animatism #0 Revisited!

Page 1 originally published in Black and White.

Page 1 newly colored.

Page 2 and 3 originally published in Black and White.

Page 2 and 3 color.

Page4 and 5 originally published in Black and White.

page 4 and 5 color.

If we hit the "way back button" in the time machine. You would likely find a very giddy individual that was on the cusp of his first self publishing adventure. I had spent almost a year back in 2000 in preparation for publishing ANIMATISM. Yep, having a full time job while trying to put a comic book together "all on my own." Is not a task for the weak or the weary. It was very time consuming as anyone knows that's attempted it. The only unfortunate part of that book in my eyes, was that I couldn't afford to do it in color. So it ended up a you can see above, being published in black and white with tonal work being put in to give it some depth. It turned out to be a good looking book anyway, but I think it ended up being ignored without the extra added flavor that color gives a comic.
But anyway, I've gone in and fiddled with some color, and placed a few pages here along with the originally published black and white stuff. Thanks for looking it over.  :)

Major Mouse Costume

Major Mouse Close Up

His badge has an awesome metallic gleam.

Major Mouse shows off his big guns!

Me with Major Mouse at a kid's carnival.

Well after some digging I found the pics I had of the costume designed for the Sheriff's Office reading program. What started out as a little more than ink on paper, kind of took on a life of its own. I felt the costume turned out pretty well all things considered.

Major Mouse Cards

Major Mouse is Copyright 2007 by Scott Childers

 

 

I thought I'd post some of the cards I designed to go along with the coloring book cover below. As I think I remember saying below; "the cards came first." A good friend of mine and I were talking about the creative process, and the steps that you usually take in a job of this size. He said to me; "Umm the book came first, I mean the story right?" I advised him that no! Just like everything else in my creative life. The cards came first then the book. He advised me that I did it backwards. I advised him that when I took on this project originally. I did it because the Sheriff's Office only wanted something they could hand out to kids when they went to their classes to read to them. The reading program was something that was a very important to the new sheriff at that time. (And still is important to him.) When I took the project on, I had no idea what it would end up ballooning into. (They even made a suit for an officer to wear to the schools for kids....yeah I'll dig up a pic of that and post it as well.) ;)

Kid's Reading Program

Cover for Major Mouse coloring book for the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office.

Hmmm...what is it with me and mouse characters?!?!?!? Ah well, as it turns out, the sheriff's office got in touch with me through a friend. They had seen my work on the Animatism book and decided they wanted to do some stuff for their kid's program. I had originally thought that perhaps a turtle character might work, but they were adamant to have their own mouse character. "Something like Mighty Mouse." They said. So I began by doing some trading cards first, after some spur of the moment thinking about what has gone before in comics. I came up with a name for the character, and designed an all American logo for him. After the cards were a hit with the kids, they wanted me to do a coloring/reading book for them. So I sat down with the cards and utilized those as the springboard for the story, and it worked out pretty well. I'll have to dig out some of the finished card art and post a few of those here later.

GAAK ATTACK!!!

The cover for Darryl Hughes and Monique MacNaughton's GAAK Trade

Unused cover for GAAK when it was originally to be published as two graphic novels

I thought I'd put these up on the blog since the second one has never seen the light of day, except between The Dee Man and myself. I've known Darryl Hughes for quite a number of years. We got to know each other back when I was originally attached to do the art on UFOs. (Before it became known as GAAK) I consider the Dee Man a good friend. He has been nothing short of "relentless" in his drive to promote his work, as well as the work of the artists he associates himself with. Do yourself and comics a favor and buy a copy from First Run Publishing. I'm sure Darryl and Monique will appreciate it!
Ah well...perhaps one day The Dee Man and I might yet get to do a project together. :)

Goofing Around!

I was just goofing around in Photoshop and came up with this postcard for Asheville NC!
I love GODZILLA! :D

Night Of The Katipo

Pen and Ink 11x17 orig.