Alien Invasion!

I've really been neglecting this blog! I've been creating a couple of funny Alien characters every week over on my social media links. I've created postcards, posters and birthday cards with them as well.

If you want to be up to date on my new projects and regular doses of deep space denizens then head here-

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Burp or Treat... Smell My Feet!

Happy (almost) Halloween everyone!

Sorry for the extreme lack of blog posts and news on here. I've been very busy with lots of projects- including my first book as author. I usually just post quick news to my Facebook Page and Twitter. So feel free to follow me there, but I'll try to blog news more often. Lots of good monstery mayhem coming up!

The new George Brown , Class Clown book came out way back in August but it's Halloween themed, so I thought it was the right time to post about it. The brilliantly titled- Burp or Treat... Smell my Feet! is a double book Super Special and full of spooky and silly mischief from GB and his pals.

 

Some interior illustrations- 

Ten Monsters in a Bed

Do you like burps, slurps, snores or sneezes? How about monsters? What about monsters that burp, slurp, snore or sneeze (and fart)? Well, then, here's the book for you- Ten Monsters in a Bed!

A fun, colorful, noisy picture book- perfect to read before bedtime! It's published by Templar Publishing, the same wonderful UK publisher that I illustrate the shark series- Harry Hammer for!

 Templar's description-


In this play on '10 in a bed', 10 monsters are very squished on a bunk bed. On each spread, a monster gets pushed out on to the floor, where readers can press them to hear the fun sounds they make, for example: snoring, scratching, burping, slurping, sniffing and farting.

In each spread, a different noisy monster is kicked out of the top bunk bed by his fellow monsters, where the reader can press a button to activate that monster's noise.

Some near-final sketches of the ten monsters-

Pick up your copy here-

Templar Publishing
Book Depository
Waterstones
Amazon UK
Amazon US

Some early nice reviews-

Read it Daddy!
Red Reading Hub

PS- Sorry for the long time of (8 months!) lack of blogging- I've been posting all news on my Facebook and Twitter but I'll try to add more big news here when I can!

My Facebook Page
My Twitter Page

Cartoon Network Animation Academy

 I was contacted by TBWA/RAAD to design and illustrate characters to appear
on a series of advertisements for Cartoon Network's Animation Academy.

The characters are in three separate groups (humans, monsters and superheroes)
and all are in unfinished states, bored and waiting to be completed by animators at the school.

Character development and exploration below the ads.

 

Dracola- RC Cola Halloween

Dracola! Special-edition, glow in the dark, blood-red Halloween label for RC Cola UK.

At Asda stores throughout England. Or order online HERE.  

Crabby Aliens & Impatient Balrogs

The new issue of Edge (video game culture magazine) is out on the shelves now! Pick up a copy to see some new illustrations that I did a few weeks ago for an article on Modding- A slang for "modifying"- when gamers change the appearance of their characters or various parts of the environment.

I did a feature spread illustration depicting a medieval scene on the left side with a knight being sucked through a portal into another world full of space marines and crabby aliens on a distant planet.

I'll post some interiors and sketches later on...

Thanks to the guys at Edge for giving me such a fun project to work on!

Vile & Vicious Varmits

Here's a sneak peek for our next book, Vile & Vicious Varmits of the Northwoods. It's sort of a sequel to our last book- A Field Guide to Midwest Monsters. It's been over two years since the last one but we are hoping to get this one out for summer of 2008. It's been difficult collaborating with my good friend and immensely talented monster-maker, Jason Felix, over many time zones and the Atlantic Ocean. But it's the time of year for monsters and a good time to get the furry ball rolling once again.

I'll keep you up to date with any new Varmit news! This one will be bigger and better (in color!) than the last.

Here's a sample spread-

Bonsters!

The Bonsters

Hey hey! Here's some little characters I designed a while for a kid's website. Pick your favorite one, dress 'em up and customize dance moves for him to cut some serious rug.

See them here. The site is going through Beta testing now, but you can sign up and play Dr. Frankenstein.

Boogie Monster

Boog Aloo
Likes- back hair on girls, talcum powder
Dislikes- soggy cardboard, wearing sandals w/socks


Some previous versions of Boog

Eat Your Broccoli!

Chuck Brockly
Likes- cheering for his least favorite teams
Dislikes- armpits that smell of asparagus

Misc Monsters

Johan Abblebomb
Likes- wrasslin', canjun cooking & Swedish meatballs
Dislikes- shaving

It's spring cleaning time! I'm going through some old pages in my sketchbook and cleaning up some old monster sketches I did last year. They didn't quite make the cut for a couple of projects I was working on, but it's time for them to see the light of day. So over the next couple of days (most likely weeks) I'll chuck up a monster or two for your viewing pleasure.

Squid Blob

Beware of the Squid Blob!

In the Third Dimension!

My good friend, long-time co-worker, and all-around awesome animator, Lyla Warren, has choosen one of the creatures of my book, Field Guide to Midwest Monsters to make into a sculpture. Here's her turnaround sketches of the friendly but bearhug giving, Cuptico-Calico. I can't wait to see him in gooey clay form. I'll post any upddates as I receive them from Ms. Warren.

Check out the Wonderful World of Warren- HERE.

Halloween Monsterama!

Halloween is my favorite time of the year! Since it's not too big in England, I shipped over a couple of boxes full of monsterous goodness, ready to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting Brits. Last Halloween, I just tried to freak myself out by visiting the very haunted Tower of London (at near closing time). But this year, I 'm throwing a full blown party /haunted house.

The invite is above, minus all the deets.

Monstersquid Reborn!

It's alive! It's alive!

A brand new Monstersquid has risen from the cold murky depths! Gaze apon the horror and grotesqueness of my new website here!

For some reason I've also started up a Mys Pace page too. Personally I think it's asthetically ugly and another internet time waster but what the hell.

Spying on Monsters

More shameless "tooting my own horn"...


Hero Spy, a website devoted to reviewing comics, movies, and other pop culture goodness has just reviewed our book, A Field Guide to Midwest Monsters. It's a glowing review and we've been honored with a five star rating.

You can read the entire review here.Big thanks to Hero Spy!

Con Men

Myself and Jason Felix pose with topless female fan.

A whole month without an update! What a shite blog this is.

I've just returned to London after an extremely fun yet exhausting trip through the good ol' US of A. I spent two weeks in my motherland of cheese and bratwurst, Wisconsin. It was relaxing to catch up with family In Green Bay and ol' buds in Madison. From there the Blecha clan invaded NYC for my brother's wedding. It was a gorgeous reception on the "shore" of Brooklyn overlooking the Manhattan skyline. I was bestest man and I was very palm-sweatingly, pooping-my-pants nervous for my speech. I think it went OK- at least there's nothing online to say otherwise.

After a hellish night spent in JFK airport and a 3 hour bus ride from LA, I arrived at San Diego for Comic Con 2006. It was another stellar year there. Never before has so much inspiring work, stimulating artists, sensory overloading booths and slathering nerdgeeks been concentrated at one place and one time.

My good friend and collaborator, Jason Felix and I shared a booth in Artist Alley. We were selling our book, A Field Guide to Midwest Monsters to the swollen masses. We had a great time chatting with people and selling out of the batch that we brought down there. There is some possibly some big news for us up ahead but I'll wait to share when things are finalized a little more.

Thanks to all the people that picked up our book and to all the artists I that inspired me in turn.

You can see my small collection of Comic Con (and the following week in SF) photos HERE.

Monsterous Vomitous

Thought I'd share a little bit of my sketch and thought process. My assignment was to come up with some general funny monster designs a few months back. For this job, I wanted just try to cram as many quick monster ideas as possible on a couple of sketchbook pages. I tried to get varying sizes and personalities, hoping for a few keepers. I choose a few favorites then fleshed them out a little in the following pages. These still aren't close to what the finish creatures looked like- the client decided to go in another direction.

I'm heading back home to the States tomorrow for four or five weeks. Starting out in Wisconsin, then my brother's wedding in NYC, followed by Comicon in San Diego and then maybe working a little in San Francisco. Whew. Hopefully I'll be able to update on the road.

Monster Sketches

I'm off to Barcelona with my brother for a week so I just wanted to quickly throw up some sketches from my book, A Field Guide to Midwest Monsters. The co-author and good friend, Jason Felix had a booth at San Francisco's APE last weekend and he said sales and feedback were very positive. Thanks to all who have supported the book. It was a lot of fun to work on. We hope to collaborate again this year.