Possum Press

My scanners have been acting up, and getting progressively worse over the last year, until recently they were both scanning so light that I couldn’t scan anything.  I have no idea what was going on, because it was 2 scanners, and I tried them both on 2 different computers and the same thing was happening.  It was driving me crazy!!  I haven’t been able to scan anything recently (hense the lack of drawings posted here lately).  Today I had to scan something to email to someone for work, so I thought I’d give it another try, and if it was only going to be a crappy light image that you could hardly see, well then so be it, that was what they would get for now (it was only a rough drawing that I had to send).  Well, I scanned the drawing without changing anything since the last scan I tried, and it came out perfect!……  So I tried scanning this strip that has been sitting here finished for a while, with no way of getting it on the computer……… and it came out perfect.  (Supernatural forces are at work here folks).  Did I mention that I hate computers.

All of the other Captain Smith and Broccoli Boy strips are here, if you wanted to get caught up with the story so far.

Progress continues on issue #4. This is me inking on page 3. Finally seeing some of the pages getting inked after looking at pencils for so long is exciting.

This is one of the cool things I came back from LA with, when I was there in November.

Some of you, who have kept up on your Possum News, may have remembered me posting about my brother Mike and My (and more important, Spy Guy and The Possum’s) trip to LA to be extras in a movie. Well here’s the movie. It’s called Superhero.

We spent most of our time on set doing sketches for the crew members. This is a sketch I did for Sara Paxton (the leading lady).

It’s slow going, but at least it’s going. I’m currently pencilling page 11. (Well, actually, I’m currently typing up this post, but page 11 is what I was just working on).

Here’s the links to the Planet Comic Book Radio interview I did last week.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Thanks again Javier, for having me on.

Are you an American? Have you heard of Ron Paul? (If you get your news from the mainstream media, you probably don’t know much about him). He is the man that the people in charge don’t want you to know about. He is my new hero.

Have you ever dreamt about having an honest president. One that has your best interests in mind, rather than their own? Would you like to not pay income tax? Have a currency that is worth something again? Be a peaceful nation, rather than a nation that polices the world, and invites hatred towards it? How would you like to be able to proudly travel with an American flag on your your backpack? (you may have noticed that Canadians wear their flag on their backpacks so they aren’t mistaken for Americans……. It’s not your fault. It’s your government’s foreign policy). Would you like your government to stop spying on you?

If you have ever complained about any of these things, then you have no right to, unless you vote for Ron Paul for President. If you think that you would be better with Obama, Clinton, Romney or McCain, then you deserve what you get. It won’t be pretty.

I’m scared for my children’s future, but we don’t have to be. Vote for Ron Paul!!

Take a few minutes to watch these clips, and learn who should be running your country:

Why is the controlled media so scared of Ron Paul? (9 min)

Ron Paul and Martin Luther King (9 min)

Candidates@Google: Ron Paul (1 hr 6 min)

Ron Paul DVD (3 hrs 34 min)

Here’s to the revolution! God knows we need one.

Tell all of your friends about Ron Paul!

Want to listen to me make a fool of myself?

Get caught up, before Tuesday, and listen to all of the other great interviews hosted by Javier Hernandez, at Planet Comic Book Radio, here.

All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy. All work and no play, makes Blair a dull boy.

Merry Christmas everybody, and God bless ya!

Yesterday, I penciled page 5.
No inks yet.

After burning myself out in October, I’m ready to seriously start on issue #4 of The Possum. I stole this power bar idea from Alec Longstreth (sorry Alec). From now on, as things get done, I’ll keep everyone updated on the progress of issue #4, via this nifty little rectangle. This is also a way to keep me motivated to get that thing up there completely red.

A few weeks ago, I mailed some Possum comics off to Serbia.

Here’s some animation I did a few years ago, on the Curious George feature by Universal, via Yowza animation, here in Toronto.

I posted my rough animation a while ago here.

About a month ago, I was contacted by someone from Dimension Films (The people who did the “Scary Movie” movies), and they asked if they could use Mike’s and My convention setups in their latest movie called “Super Hero“. They asked us if we wanted to ship our comics, signs, and t-shirts to them for use in a comic convention scene. We asked them who would be behind our table in the actual filming, and they told us, probably an extra. So we thought, “Why not us?”

So, we flew down to Hollywood for a week, with all of our convention gear, and were extras in the “Super Hero” movie. One thing is for sure, I’m not quiting my day job to become an extra…. 16 hour days of sitting around. We were treated pretty good though. They called us “vendors” instead of extras, which meant we were allowed on the set all day, instead of outside in the tent where all of the other extras had to sit until they were needed in a shot, when they would be herded in like cattle, then herded out once they were finished with them, and we got access to the good snacks and good coffee! We met a lot of really great people, and it actually felt like a real convention, as Mike and myself spent the majority of our days doing sketches for the cast and crew members, between waiting for them to shoot near our table. (I’d post some sketches, but most of them have the super heroes from the movie in them, and I think I’d get in trouble). I even sold a few t shirts too.
It will be interesting to see what comes of all of this. Our life size Spy Guy and the Possum cut outs made it into a handfull of shots, (a couple of them nice and big) and Mike and myself might be in a couple, but you never know what is going to make it into the final film. We’ll have to wait until March to see. (Look for us in the last sequence of the movie, during the “Hero Con” comic convention).
“Super Hero” looks to be in the same catagory as the “Scary Movies” and “Naked Guns“. It’s not going to win an Oscar, but should be good for a few (or more) laughs.

When I was at the Small Press Expo, in October, I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Phil (one of the hosts of the podcast “Indie Spinner Rack“). I gave him the latest Possum comic, and Mike gave him the complete Spy Guy set. I also did a trade with Alec Longstreth (Phase 7). In episode #99, Mr. Phil, Charlito, and guest co-host Alec Longstreth go through their SPX loot.
At the 15 min 48 sec mark, they get to their Possum and Spy Guy comics. Click here to listen.

Have you ever tried working 2 or 3 jobs, making a comic book in your spare time, and trying to spend time with your family all at once? I’m sure all of those freelance artists out there know what I mean.
Sometimes I dream of just being able to concentrate 100% on one thing, instead of having 4 or 5 things on the go at all times. I like being productive, but this is getting a little rediculous……

……There. That’s out of my system……… Right! back to work then.

Confused? Me too, a little bit.

On October 22, the Trampoline Hall lecture series is temporarily uprooting itself and moving to Fort York’s barracks - and they’re going to try something unprecedented with a bunch of comics artists (including me and Mike).

Sean Craig tells me “Trampoline Hall is a very famous literary salon where non-experts talk about subjects they are obsessed with. It was created by Sheila Heti, who is a very famous author. In trying to find new ways to document these lectures, we’re going to make the first ever attempt at comics stenography— having a bunch of cartoonists and comics artists in our audience trying to capture the event literally or figuratively in comics form as it happens. Whether they go straight to comics, take notes, do sketches and work from there, use speech bubbles or not is totally up to them. No one, our research tells us, has ever done this before. You can go narrative, you can go documentary, you can go experimental, you can go anywhere. Wherever you go, Maissoneuve in Canada and McSweeneys in the United States are going to help us publish the results of the experiment for our own fun and for the artists’ benefit.”

Leah Buckareff will be talking about Hyperbolic Crochet.

Waylen Miki will be talking about Robotism.

Jacob Zimmer will be talking about Diverse Curiosity.

Becky Johnson, the show’s curator, will be turning our comics into a little zine in time for Canzine, which happens six days after the show. The Beguiling will stock this print for the rest of the world’s eyes, and Valerie Howes at Maissoneuve is going to push for publication in the comics-friendly Montreal-based mag.

The event is October 22nd at Fort York at 8pm sharp. I’m going to show up with pencil, pens, and paper, and see what happens. I have no idea what to expect, but what the heck.

Some of the other artists who will be attending, are: Zach Worton, Arthur de la Cruz, Ben Shannon, Steve Manale, Emily Holton, Shannon Gerard, Kagan McLeod, Roxanne Bielskis, Diana Tamblyn, Reverend Aitor, Stuart Immonen, Kathryn Immonen, Blair Kitchen, Mike Kitchen and Jeff Lemire.

Read more here, here, here and here.

UPDATE (Oct 25): Here’s some reports about this event, here, and here.

Here’s some more photos from SPX. (click on them to see a better photo of the sketch)
We did a lot of SPY GUY/POSSUM team-up sketches, which are always fun. I drew the Possum, and Mike drew Spy Guy.

I found that a lot of people asked for a sketch with the midget wrestlers in it at this show. Those are always fun ones to do.

..and last but not least, we had great neighbours at this year’s show. On the left is John Bintz who draws “A Moment of Clarity” and to the right is Kevin McShane, with his comic “Toupydoops”. (and in the middle…… that’s Mike, with our stuff).

It’s been a busy year for conventions. (8 of them in total for Mike and I). As of now, we don’t have anymore booked, so we have to start making our list for the upcoming year. I’ll keep you posted. Which ones are your favourites? Let us know, so we can hopefully make it out to them.

For more on our SPX trip, check out Mike’s Ultraist Studio Blog post here. (He’s got lots of photos, and a good portion of the weekend documented).