Loukas:

In Winter 1152, Saxon discovers the corpse of his mentor and inherits his sword in what was supposed to be a touching emotional moment for the otherwise uncouth redcloak. In my notes for the book, I had the mentor down as "mentor" and no idea what I was going to do with him (even though he appears as a pile of bones to Saxon, we get a flashback of him in life). I did this series of sketches and then did a quick color test while jotting down notes about the mouse Loukas. His name is an obvious homage to someone I consider a storytelling mentor: George Lucas. The rest wrote itself as I drew.

Loukas trivia: Though he has only appeared alive in 2 panels of the comics, he has made it into every year's sketchbook since 2008 and will be in this year's as well.)

Fan Art:

From Kubert School student Derek Rodenbeck comes this fanart. Thanks Derek!

Upcoming Appearances:

FCBD: Meltdown Comics: May 7

Motor City Comic Con: May 13-15

Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29

Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13

San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24

Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21

New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

Free Comic Book Day:

Saturday May 7th is Free Comic Book Day this year. For those unfamiliar, you can walk into your local comic book retailer, and they will have a selection of FREE comics that have (mostly) been specially created for the idea of getting everyone from existing comic fans to folks who have never picked up an issue of anything to try something for nothing. I will be at Meltdown Comics in LA to sign the Mouse Guard/Dark Crystal flip book Archaia published for FCBD. You can preview the book here

Excuse the short post this week. I'm trying to tie up some loose ends and get back on track with page production before family arrive for the Easter weekend. 'Till next week, enjoy this image of an apothecary mouse where I infused visual reference from: the MG RPG, historic recreation photos, the Cadfel DVD series, and a 1506 German urine chart for calculating what ails you.

Upcoming Appearances:
FCBD: Meltdown Comics: May 7

Motor City Comic Con: May 13-15

Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29

Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13

San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24

Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21

New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

Eisner Nominations:

Last Thursday the nominations for the 2011 Eisner Awards were announced and I am pleased and honored that Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard has been nominated for Best Anthology. I was also shocked to discover that I had been nominated for best cover artist for the series. Legends is a remarkable book and couldn't have been possible without the amazing work of the contributors who took the time to play in my sand-box. I offer a huge thank you & congratulations to them: Jeremy Bastian, Ted Naifeh,Alex Sheikman, Sean Rubin, Alex Kain, Terry Moore, Gene Ha, Lowell Francis, Nate Pride, Guy Davis, Katie Cook, Jason Shawn Alexander, Craig Rousseau, Karl Kerschl, Joao Lemos, and Mark Smylie.

Recent work: It has been a while since I've been able to share. Clockwise from upper right: New Avengers as mice, Recreation of the cover of X-men #141 with Cyclops & Phoenix as mice, Saxon & Gwendolyn holding hands, & an anthropomorphic fox in armor.

Fan Art: This sculpture of Saxon was done by Richard Hiltbrunner. Thanks Richard for sending me a photo of your tribute to Sax! If you have fanart you would like to share, email a photo or scan to ericebon (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Upcoming Appearances:

Motor City Comic Con: May 13-15

Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29

Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13

San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24

Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21

New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

"Camera" Choices:

When laying out a comic, it's important to switch up the "camera angle" (the reader's point of view) to make sure your page layouts are dynamic and interesting. I have seen a lot of portfolios where the artists repeats the same camera placement for nearly every panel, and while there is a time & place you can use that technique for effect, it's not what you want to do to tell most stories. Here are a few examples of camera angles with various Mouse Guard panels as examples:

Upshot:

Here the camera is under the subjects and looking upwards. The angle can be subtle or extreme. This can be effective for a scene where you need to include the sky or a very tall item with the characters. It's also a helpful angle when showing something falling towards the characters.

Downshot:

Just like the Upshot, but from above the characters. I use this often when I'm trying to show the characters relative to each other and/or their location. Drawing them from above can become much like a map of the characters and where they stand in a room. Just like the Upshot, this can be useful to force the perspective and show a character's scale to an item, location, or other character.

Non-Character focus:

Pulling away from your characters to avoid a series of 'talking head' panels can break up the monotony and give your reader a better sense of the world your characters inhabit. Showing a detail of architecture, someones handwriting, an establishing landscape view, or the craftsmanship of items on a desk, can still allow for narration or dialogue without having to put the character in every panel.

Zoom:

With each of these camera angles and view, you also have a choice of zoom. The basics are a tight, medium, or wide shot, but you can go between these levels and fall outside of them with extremes. Wide shots work well for establishing shots. Medium shots are good for one or two characters having dialogue. Closeups are good at showing emotion on characters.

So if you are working on telling stories in comics, make sure you are varying the point of view your reader has. Try inserting a new camera angle into your pages.

Fan Art: From Jason Forest: "My sons, though they are young (age 2 and 6) love to pour over the art in your books. My oldest asked me to draw him as a Mouse of the Guard- I decided not to compete with your mice, or toiling over making my son into one of them-so I compromised with him, and did a David Petersen inspired piece"

It's lovely and really captures the spirit of what I try to make Mouse Guard all about. Thanks Jason!

2011 Appearances

Motor City Comic Con: May 13-15

Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29

Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26

San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24

Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21

New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16