When I was a kid, Chris Clackum was a news anchor on a local television channel. Now that I’m a much taller kid, I’m good friends with one of his sons, and maybe even a little with Chris himself, although I have yet to receive a dinner invitation. Regardless, Chris is a tireless booster, and his boosting has led directly to work. So I thought I’d give him a thank-you gift, and had all sorts of ideas about making a funny cartoon, or poking fun at him in some way. But then his son Scott told me that his birthday was coming up in a few days, and gave me this sweet picture of Chris, which was way better than the one I had been working with. So, I put aside all thought of making money for a day, and dashed out this fairly straight copy of the photo. Although I botched the likeness, I’m pretty happy with the linework, and am getting a lot better at divorcing myself from having to draw every little thing. I’ve been hearing for years that Pelikan ink is really great, nice and dark and thick, albeit a little corrosive. This was my first try with Pelikan, and while I’m not convinced on the darkness, I did like the flow pretty good–unfortunately it’s not entirely waterproof; so when I went over the whole thing with the sepia ink-wash, there was a little running, most noticeably around the lettering, which is why the sepia is a lot lighter up there, to avoid further running. Chris certainly didn’t notice, although he did seem really excited. Sweet dude–and as a former sportscaster, it’s very educational to be anywhere near a sporting event with him, especially for a fair-weather fan like myself.

I did this just before this year’s HeroesCon, just before I came back to work at Heroes full-time. I liked it so much, I’m using it again for the 2008 show, at least until I get something better. This was just after my disastrous attempt at coloring my FACA submission (Sir Araknis, Hell’s Gallant!), and I put some of those lessons to work here. Altogether, much better, especially on the color scheme itself. I’m the best!

My friend Shawn Harlan, wife of Todd Harlan, who shares an office with me at work, hired me when I was freelancing to do this t-shirt design for a team-building event at her company. At the time I was high on drawing pirates, and she was enthusiastic about me using my little band of pirates. Lots of fun, and one of the few times that I got to actually draw a cartoon and get paid for it. Which is to say, I’d do it again, if you’re wondering.

Sam Hiti, who is one of the most dizzyingly amazing cartoonists working right now, runs this sweet blog called Fistacuffs! It’s basically a great big gladiator match between dozens of cartoonists, some of which are really famous, and others of which are me. I first participated in the last go-round (FACA 3), and somehow got to the finals of my division, despite a poorly colored character and some really rushed smack talk–in mid match, you can post cartooned “smack” to taunt your opponent and/or explain to voters why you should obviously win. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention: each match is voted on, and the drawers are all anonymous. FACA (I think it stands for Fist-A-Cuffs Association) #4 is getting ready to start–this new one is a 3-man team event, and my team is the awesomest! Unfortunately, that’s all I can say–Sam is a harsh mistress, and regularly disqualifies rule-breakers.

Above is my original black and white character for FACA 3: Sir Araknis, Hell’s Gallant. Below is the colored version, which sucks.