Where Ox and Ass are Feeding

Our friend Ted Jager (who currently lives in Thailand) sent us an email with an idea for a short comic. We thought it was pretty funny and developed this:


MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!

Nutcracker - Josh

Here's another attempt of a Nutcracker I've been doodling for a while in various past sketches (1, 2, 3).

This is further exploration into a story concept about the Nutcracker from ETA Hoffman's original book.

Merry Axe-mas - Josh

To kick of the Christmas season, I thought I'd post the actual Guest Comic that I drew and Matt Wilson wrote for the web comic Axe Cop. It also acted as a promo for our graphic novel of Scrooge and Santa.

Gave It A Chop

My good friend Ethan Nicholle is the co-creator (along with his kid brother) of the successful webcomic, Axe Cop. Ethan was nice enough to let me draw a guest comic for this great series. Matt Wilson wrote the comic and as a result it became a semi-promo for Scrooge and Santa. You can view our guest comic on the site by clicking on the icon below.

Ethan wrote a nice intro for our guest strip on the main page (at least while it's still up).

Graphic Novel Progress - Josh

If I've appeared to be unsocial to anyone these last couple of months, it's mainly because I've devoted any moment I can spare on a graphic novel project. This is the same one I mentioned in a PAST POST. It's a Christmas story that deals with Scrooge and Santa. The story was written by Matthew Wilson.

I'm about halfway through the 3rd act, so the end is almost in sight. Right now the book is in black and white and soon to be colored. A Lettrist is currently working on all the text. Here are a few page samples of my work-in-progress (the font is not final). This is my first graphic novel and comic book, so it's been a real learning experience.

Work In Progress

I'm currently working on a comic book that has a Christmas theme. Here's couple samples:

2009 Holiday Sketches - Josh

During our trip to Minnesota for Christmas and New Years, I whipped up a few sketches when I had small amount of free time.

My beloved 89 year old Grandmother, while she was talking with my Sister.

These were drawn while Katie and I were enjoying our favorite MN coffee chain, Caribou Coffee.

Merry Sunshine

We wanted to wish y'all a Merry Christmas but we'll let The Hoff do all the talking for us, because nothing says Christmas like a German god prancing through the streets of Euro Disney.

Cracking!

Aside from a few Nutcrackers from Josh's childhood (he used to collect them), we have been building our own collection since our first year of marriage, one Nutcracker for every Christmas. The one with the big head on left side is this year's addition.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

And as Tiny Sofie observed, "Squee! Gurble! Dadadada! Drool." (Translation: "God bless us, every one!")

A Little Nutty

Hi everyone,
As you can painfully see we have not been posting anything for a while now. Life has just been personally busy in ways we cannot avoid and so it has caused us to neglect our blog. We've whipped up a collection of posts and now we're trying to find time to actually put them together.
It's Christmas and I (Josh) don't have much to show you but I do have this very rough sketch I threw together yesterday during my 15 minute break at work.
It's a design of the Nutcracker for a personal project of mine. The Nutcracker's form is actually a cursed man from an origin story in the Nutcracker novel called The Hard Nut. I've wanted to see the Nutcracker book by ETA Hoffman adapted into a film for while now, and until that happens I've been slowly designing my own! Another example I can show of my work on this project is the concept for a teaser trailer. (I know, I show this every year. TRADITION!)

More to posts to come!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Happy Christmas everyone!This year we spent Christmas with Josh's sister Lani, who came from Hawaii!

Ever wanted to see Josh in a kilt? No? Well, too bad.This is when we attended the Christmas party for the Scottish bagpipe band where Katie plays a snare drum.

North Pole Workshop (Part 2)

I’m trying to make an annual tradition for myself to design themed attractions for different seasons. I have one for St. Patrick’s Day and one for Christmas. This is an interior attraction/experience which acts like a small theme park. It allows visitors to explore Santa’s Workshop in the North Pole, while also providing educational attractions that explain various elements of the Christmas season. This post picks up where my last post from Christmas 2006 left off (click HERE to read last year’s).
I’m starting to paint my rough drawings from last year. Here is the North Pole landmark.And the exterior of the Entrance Building/Room.The Entrance Building/Room contains all kinds of Christmas imagery such as toy soldiers, nutcrackers, Christmas trees, lights, toys, etc. Everything is deigned to look like it’s made of wood using large round friendly shapes. The room is one big circle where the visitors enter from large double doors on the south side. On the north side is a large, round, stylized Christmas tree that appears to be halfway embedded in the wall. On the east side is a very large fire place that actually functions as the Front Desk.On the west side is a solider box and inside stands a large six foot tall Nutcracker.Four large toy soldiers stand against the walls.This room will come to life with various forms of effects and animatronics. A secret entrance through the Christmas Tree will be revealed and lead the visitors to the Workshop.Till next year ...