PLAY BALL!!

These are some designs I did for a local screenprinter that does a lot of high school homecoming shirts. The highschoolers come up with the ideas. I draw them. Then the screenprinter colors them and (usually) adds the text in house.

I'm not sure why the Brave in this one is in a pit in addition to being burned alive. The concepts are just passed on to me as written notes and usually the screenprinter doesn't know any more than I do. I guess it could be intended just as additional ignominy for their foes.

In this one I added text just to show their designer how I envisioned its placement. Also, on my original sketch I had the alligator looking sort of dopey and happy. But word came back that the client wanted there to be across-the-board menace, which is understandable. I was a little on the fence about the dopey alligator version myself.

As with the text in the one above, the color here was just a "sketch" to show what I had in mind for the background - separating it from the foreground with one (or two) simple colors, plus using the color to create a ragged border. Another change from the client came back on this one - I had originally written "Curses! Foiled again!" in the villain's speech balloon, but an alert teacher must have vetoed that. Whether out of personal sensitivity or a finely honed awareness of the sensitivity of parents, we can only speculate.

The text here was going to be "GMO the Jets!" I think but --- oh wait, my bad, it was actually for a chemistry class celebrating a chemical holiday of some sort.

Well that's all I've got, now go get 'em, team!

State of the Stands (Oct '12)

We now present some important observations gleaned from a quick perusal of the comic book racks...

Francesco Francavilla's comic art has a level of detail about like old 30s comics, but he uses more modern fancy layouts. His coloring is very "artistic" too, not the typical overdone computer coloring - it's minimal like the drawing, with occasional unexpected color choices punching it up.

Alan Davis (does he go back to the 70s? Seems like I've seen the name in old X-men comics) has a 3-part series running thru several of Marvel's "annuals" that looks good. It seems like a more 70s style

Pete Moss Comics #1 - Preview Pages

Here's a short preview (with new cover design.) I'm now offering the comic (11 dense magazine size pages) for $1.99 as a PDF (use Paypal button at right and provide your email address in the "notes" section.) OR, you can get it FREE in exchange for a review, letter of comment, or critique that you post to some public comic forum and link to me. Positive or negative reviews accepted. Just send me an email to the address at right, and I will send you the PDF to read and review.

Click to enlarge:

"8-bit" Illustrations

Here's some material UAB Magazine commissioned for an article about local students and faculty who fight computer crime. They wanted to give it the "8-bit" (or maybe even 4-bit) look of old video-games. This one is an early version that strayed too far from the 8-bit concept, so

New Comic: Pete Moss and the Search for the Holy Nib

Part One of Three is finished. Here's the cover:

Pete Moss, an aspiring cartoonist, gets frustrated with his tools and sets out in search of the perfect nib. He tracks down his hero, Pulpo Papierios, at a comic convention and pesters him about his "line quality". Meanwhile, he's pursued by mysterious agents of a foreign power, and Pulpo seems to be mixed up in some sort of cult. It's all very droll.

Some random scenes/previews:

I xeroxed a small batch to give to friends and fellow cartoonists locally. If anyone in the wide world is interested, I suppose just paypal five bucks to rocksgraphic@hotmail.com and I'll mail one out to you. Right now though I'm mainly just showing it to people locally and looking to get some audience feedback that way.

Down Home Southern Fried Caricatures

 Another recent caricature commission from down heah in the Heart of Dixie:

 If you would like a watercolor caricature to frame and give to your friend or loved one on some special occasion, contact me, Tim Rocks, with your initial ideas. Email rocksgraphic@hotmail.com or you can also call 205-251-0763. I'm based in Birmingham, AL but can ship anywhere thanks to an extensive network of roads that lead right up to my shack.

sports sports sports

At least at the moment, I kind of like this one despite some &#%$ ups.