So Long, 2016

It's been a year of many adjustments, but it's been a good year.

This year, I:

• Drew concepts for a card game
• Finished my webcomic, Petrichor
• Illustrated a children's book, Riley the Albino Rhino
• Created several mini comic short stories
• Participated in Hourly Comic Day
• Did a presentation for the comics group at MSU
• Submitted pitch packets for a children's book and a comic
• Was picked up by Iron Circus to produce my graphic novel, Minus
• Created a logo for a local ministry
• Was interviewed by the local newspaper for a comic convention
• Designed a t-shirt for Pup Panache
• Revamped my business cards
• Begun development for another graphic novel via NaNoWriMo
• Tabled at 2 conventions
• Completed another Kaijuly and Inktober
• Drew almost 140 comic pages

2016 has been a challenge. I look forward to see what next year holds. I plan to table at many local conventions and push forward with Minus (hopefully finish it in 2018). 

As always, here's a sketch dump for this month:

See you guys in the new year.

NaNoWriMo

For many years, I've watched friends and family participate in National Novel Writing Month and stood on the sidelines. I made it one of my goals in 2016 to finally give it a go--well, in a sense.

Since I am a comic creator and not a novel writer per se, I decided to spend the month of November writing a script+drawing thumbnails for a 200-page graphic novel.

And I did it! It's been an enjoyable challenge, but it's done. The whole thing is still very rough, but it's done. I plan on polishing it up little by little and producing the full book in the near future, but for now I have to keep most of it to myself. Darn. I always do this, don't I?

I'll leave you with a doodle and the logline:

"Weary from a whirlwind career of rock music and method acting, Basil Schrade wishes to exit all creative industry until he startlingly falls in love with his stunt double."

I've been very busy this month and can't share much publicly.
As far as Minus goes, I am a hair short of my 2nd milestone.

Page 50 is within reach.

And here are the (very few) other sketches I worked on this month.

One more month before we start another year!

Inktober III: Give Yourself Goosebumps

It's the most wonderful time of the year again! I survived yet another Inktober. This year I decided to tackle redrawing the original 31 Goosebumps book covers by R. L. Stine.

#inktober starts today! Inspired by @reedicule 's tweet in June, I'm going to be drawing the first 31 Goosebumps covers this month. pic.twitter.com/hT2fbrAmoY

— LisaOfTheBlackLagoon (@lisanaffziger) October 1, 2016

Tim Jacobus, the original illustrator was one of my big inspirations as a child. I loved his colorful take on spooky subject matter. This Inktober was my homage to his work:

This was my most challenging Inktober yet. It was exhausting but ultimately satisfying. We will see if I'm as ambitious next year.

Inktober Year 1

Inktober Year 2