my comic is printing!!! (...and James Gurney)

both saturday and monday nights i went to bed after 4am and got up before 8am, sunday there was an epic neighborhood-wide power outage, and still i managed to finalize the digital files for my comic and send it off to the printers.

get.

psyched.

sometime between wednesday and friday next week i will hold in my hands 200 copies of my first ever attempt at making a finished comic book (or graphic novel, as the cool kids call 'em). i'll gush more on the experience of spending nine months and every spare minute on one big project later, because right now i want to talk about...

James Gurney!

the creator of Dinotopia and billions of other super-stellar illustrative work came to talk and paint at my old alma mater, the California College of Arts (and Crafts), and i went with a few friends to bask in his glory. he has this amazing ability to get you so super excited about art and science and everything in your life in between. and he's an all around super sweet guy. one of my favorite parts of the presentation was when someone asked him about his involvement in Ralph Bakshi's Fire and Ice with a certain unnamed painter of light. Gurney didn't talk much about the painter of light, but DID entertain us with stories of his years of freighthopping and drawing pictures of southern barflies for beer money!

here's a teeny tiny picture that i drew of James Gurney painting a portrait of the most magical man i've ever known, Randy Chavez

next time i see you i'll be a legitimately (self-)published comic book artist. see you there!!