Projects I can finally talk about:

Star Wars Galaxies 4:
I was asked by Topps to do a card for Galaxies 4. Being a huge fan of Star Wars, I was THRILLED to be asked. I was told I could do anything Star Wars I wanted, but that seemed too broad for me to pick from, so I self-imposed the restriction of something from Empire Strikes Back (my favorite of the 6). Wanting to see more of the bounty hunters myself, I opted to have the three most visually interesting in a shootout of some sort. The Galaxies 4 packs are out in stores currently. Happy Hunting!!


Muppets!
Another of those life long geek fantasies came true when I was offered the cover assignments for the Muppet Robin Hood series! (at one point in my life, I had thought about trying to become a puppet builder at either the NY or London Henson shops). I have 3 of the 4 done currently, but I can only share cover #1 for now. It was a huge pleasure and I look forward to drawing more muppets and sharing the results with you guys.


Strathmore:
Fans of Katie Cook's blog knows she was one of the artists asked to do cover illustrations and a bio comic for Strathmore paper's new comic-art line of paper sizes and products. I did the artwork that appears on the 300 series. It features a Scottish Grasshopper and Ladybug amongst the thistle (Strathmore was founded in Scotland and their logo is the thistle).



So that should cover it for a bit. Thanks for all the feedback from the month of Old Time Radio! I'm glad people enjoyed it and hope people unfamiliar gave it a try.

Feb. ,Mar. , & April....
Last month was crazy because of all the traveling we did. New York, back to Michigan, Fairbanks, back to Michigan, San Francisco, and back to Michigan. They were all great trips that I enjoyed, but now I have a mountain of deadlines staring me down for all of March and spilling into April.

So while I'm back home again, I may be slow to respond to e-mails, requests, comments, etc.




Alaska:
I was invited to Alaska by Greg Hill, who is the director of the Fairbanks Public Library. He started a program a few years ago called 'Guys Read' aimed at improving the attitude boys have about reading right at the age where their reading comprehension scores drop in the 4th grade. Adult males volunteer to go to the public schools and read the first chapter of a graphically packed book aloud (with the images from the book) projected behind them. The schools then receive several copies of those books so the boys can check out the rest of the story. The reading goes on for a number of weeks until there is a party at the public library for the boys who participated. I was invited up to be the special guest at the party, and read Mouse Guard Fall 1152 aloud (and in character voices) to the boys.


I was also invited to give a lecture/presentation at the University of Alaska Fairbanks as well as teach a workshop there on comic storytelling. The workshop went well. I feel I lingered too long on talking about the process when I should have had them just start on the process, but live and learn. The students all seemed happy with the workshop and I feel we covered some great ground.



And special thanks to Greg, Clare, Jamie, and Diane for making our trip so comfortable.