AXE COP WILL CHOP OFF YOUR HEAD....if you're a bad guy.

Today I'm promoting my pal Ethan Nicolle's Online sensation Axe Cop. His 5 year old brother Malachai writes it and Ethan draws it and it is a beautiful thing that everyone should check out. It is hillarious....Trust me! He's gotten a surge of exposure with this recently and there's a possibility, if the surge continues, awesome things could come from it very soon, so I just want to help spread the word.

So unless you hate America, pie, babies and your grandma....get over to http://axecop.com/ and check it out.

Hitler wouldn't do it....You don't want to be like Hitler do you? CHECK IT OUT NOW!

http://axecop.com/

I hate Lady Gaga so I drew her.

Above is quick character study of Lady Gaga I did preparing for the GBPOB strip featuring her doom in the upcoming issue #3. Even though I find her annoying, and her "music" disgusting, I'm liking how this turned out....it kinda looks like her.

And below is a snip-it from the strip.

The above sketch took about 10 total minutes as I was waiting for Becky to finish using the computer so I could check my e-mail. I've been plotting for PEEP #2 for some time now but I didn't have the time to completely dedicate myself to it with all the freelance work the last few years. But after finishing my latest Lerner project, I find myself with a small window to possibly work on personal projects before the next freelance gig is ready for me. So I'm in the process of working on GREAT BIG PISSED OFF BEAR #3 and I've been plotting for Peep #2. If I get it done it will be something special seeing as it's been 5 years since I debuted the 1st PEEP installment. The above character is one of 3 Battle Chickens and that's all I'm going to say about that...Gotta keep you curious! ANYWAY...the Battle Chicken idea was originally spawned when I was 17 and made a fake commercial for a new toy line called BATTLE CHICKENS. In the ad, I took two ceramic chickens my mom had and I strapped GI JOE weapons to them and had them attacking random action figures. I even made a 2nd commercial when I was 21, using spring-loaded Joe weapons and featuring the EVIL FARMHAND and CARL THE COW. I fell in love with the concept, but even more importantly...the name. So fast forward a number of years and I draw a sketch of a HE-MAN looking chicken for a warm-up exercise for class and decided to use the term Battle Chicken when I described him to the students. This got the gears turning. I had to use this character and the cool name too and soon I had an epiphany! Why not feature them in PEEP, my comic of the exploits of an evil, murderous baby chick. So look for them to appear in PEEP #2 hopefully before the end of 2020.

The lower sketch was a commission piece from the Indy-con held by THE SOURCE comics and games, at the end of December. It's of BARON KARZA from the MICRONAUGHTS toyline from the 1980's. I didn't have enough time to finish it at the show, so I took it home with a plan. I wanted to draw a bunch of burning skeletons behind him which was an idea from an old Mike Mignola DAREDEVIL ANNUAL cover from the early 90's. So I drew my burning skeletons and it's my favorite part of the whole piece.

In 1991, The Void made his own comic debut just in time for Christmas. Holiday cheer abounded! So much Holiday Cheer that it couldn't be contained to just one cover.

Then again in 1992, on the anniversary of his debut, in issue #27, The Void returned to spread Holiday glee to the masses once again.

And Now The Void returns once again to don the santa hat and wish you a Merry Christmas in 2009!

Maybe someday, I'll learn to draw! Merry Christmas!

Matt

Tis the season...for Matt sketches!!!

With Christmas fast approaching, and in keeping with the spirit of giving that is part of the essence of the holiday season, I present you with this humble assortment of fine sketchings from the past few months.

This is a Peep Sketch I did while getting an oil change this summer. I think it turned out rather well...right on par with Peep looming over the bloody skull I did 2 years ago. I'm pretty proud of it.

I really like how this one turned out....ALOT! This was for the creative exercise warm-up on the last class of the fall 09 session. I drew my character Void's evil brother Trak with his Katars at the ready as he skids across the floor. I had this drawing approved by the Poop Monster since I had some extra time.

When Sam (co-teacher at the Art Academy) went to Korea in the middle of the summer session, we had the kids draw what they thought he was doing over there. They had him doing everything from zip-lining, to tagging graffiti, to battling ninjas, to picking up chicks. But everyone knows he was fighting bears as depicted in my drawing for that exercise.

While getting my Brakes fixed on the work van I squeezed out these random sketches. No real plan...just randomness.

In High School some friends and I made a super-hero film called SPATULA MAN. I played the hero in this epic tale while my friend, John Conn, played the villain-THE EVIL OLD BAG. This was a remastered rendition of those old characters I did as a 30 min creative exercise warm-up for the class.

In case I'm lazy and I don't make another entry before Christmas....Have a Merry Christmas all!

"She shall bring forth a son,
and thou shall call His name Jesus;
for He shall save His people from their sins."

~ Matthew 1:21

Halloweenies!

Over the 2 weeks leading up to All Hallows Eve, Bequi and I decided to go with a Halloween Monster theme to the creative exercise in the Manga/super-hero Art Class we teach. The Creative Exercise is simply a 20-30 minute warm up drawing we have the students work on in the beginning of class to help get their creative juices flowing. Most days we write an idea up on the Dry-erase board and the kids will create their drawings based on those parameters (EX: Draw a character that has the power to control noodles). At the end of the 20-30 minutes we have any student who is willing and brave bring their drawing to the front and we have a brief comment and critique session to hopefully, help and inspire the students. The above drawing is mine from the first session. I really wanted to draw a big ol' droopy blob assaulting a child for his Halloween loot.

This next one is from the second week. I wanted the students to draw the scariest monster they could think of. I drew Edward Cullen from that stupid TWILIGHT series (I saw the RiffTrax version-So funny). To me this is truly scary that Twilight is so popular....Vampires that are supposed to be vile, bloodsucking, monsters, turned into pale, lip-wristed, metrosexuals who sparkle in the sun and drink deer blood somewhere in Seattle. LAME!!! It's worse than when George Lucas made Darth Vader into a whiney, pansey, crying for his dead girlfriend at the end of Star Wars: Episode 3. Anyway, Here's Edward, in his big-haired, sparkley goodness, ready to play ball while Count Dracula and Nosveratu look on in disgust.

Then and Now: Far-Cry Comics

Back in 1991, Pat Gleason, Eric Farrington and myself started FAR-CRY COMICS. They were 14 years old and I was 15. Inspired by Batman, TMNT, GI JOE, Spider-man, and the Punisher, we cranked out comics for the simple joy of entertaining ourselves and a few of our friends and classmates. Issue after issue, the 3 of us cranked out the comics and built our skills as artists along the way. This also pushed Pat and me to actually pursue a career in comics. Pat and I continued to draw our comics well into college and we even resurrected them in the early 2000's when we produced some new issues in a mini-comic/zine format and sold them at comic book conventions and even a few punk shows around the Twin Cities. The above drawing is from 1992 and drawn by me....no doubt during one of my classes. It was our usual suspects group shot of characters from our various titles. The following is one I did earlier this fall that started as a doodle of one of Pat's characters and them exploded into an action "all attack" group shot featuring a current roster of usual suspects. Alot can change in 17 years but some of the faces are still the same....just upgraded