Here’s another reminder that I’ll be interviewed at Comic Chatcast tomorrow, Thursday April 7 at 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific! Join in and ask me anything about all things Ellie!
I’ve returned to my seat here at Strang Institute Mission Control from out west where I spent time with good friends and saw some amazing sights. I picked up some goodies too at Wondercon. Here’s a few:
Monster Commute is a webcomic by the good folks at Steam Crow. This is the first compilation – the second is already available and I’ll be getting that one soon too. Below, Daniel Davis, the man-half of the husband and wife team, draws me a sketch in the back of my copy.
I’ve followed Brianne Drouhard’s blog for some time and was happy to find her behind her publisher’s desk hawking her amazing children’s book Billie the Unicorn.
I’m also a fan of character designer Stephen Silver. I even took a design class with him online a year back, which helped me tremendously with my drawing skills. I picked up his latest treat of a sketchbook.
Another blog I’ve been following is that of Mann Arenas, who draws the incredible Yaxin the Fawn. I’ve watched the progress on this book over the last few years and it was a treat to finally get my hands on a copy. It’s in french though, so I’d better brush up on my foreign language reading skills.
My best Wondercon experience, hands down, was getting to meet the creator of Bloom County and Opus the penguin himself, Berke Breathed! I didn’t have anything with me to have him sign, so I snatched a copy of volume two of his Bloom County compendium. This is right after a talk he gave about his comics, books, and movies based on his comics and books. He also showed a short clip from a failed Opus movie project. David Hyde Pierce was the voice of Opus (which I thought was rather distracting). I asked Mr. Breathed what voice he heard in his head when writing Opus and he said that of Winnie the Pooh.
Here’s a few other mentions of people I met at Wondercon: Becky Dreistadt, one half of the duo that creates the fantastic hand painted webcomic Tiny Kitten Teeth; also artist and animator Pascal Campion, who does some amazing Flash based illustrations. Check them out!
Finally, here’s me in front of Pixar Studios, where one day the Ellie on Planet X movie will be made. So I tell myself.
I’m going to be in San Francisco this weekend visiting Wondercon! So if any Ellie readers are comic artists who have a table there, let me know and I’ll stop by and say, “Hi!” Because I’ll be incommunicato for much of the week, I may not be able to respond to comments in a timely manner, and blog posts might have to wait until next week. But there will still be comic dispatches from Ellie on their regular days!
In a comment from last week Tom Dell’Aringa, creator of the awesome comic Marooned, was hoping Ellie had the ability to fly after we witnessed her zip off a cliff with Jeff and Muffin in tow. Well, I know for a fact that she can’t fly, but it was in her original design plans. How cool would that have been? Here’s some evidence I found in an old journal I came across in the basement of the Strang Institute Mission Control Center:
And here’s a reminder that I’ll be interviewed at Comic Chatcast next week, Thursday April 7 at 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific. Join in and ask me anything about all things Ellie!
We at Mission Control found a nice surprise in our inbox this morning. Comic artist and writer Chad Sell sent us his interpretation of Ellie and Jeff!
“I wanted to send along this little bit of Ellie on Planet X fan art I did–it’s very simple and silly, but it was a lot of fun to do,” Chad said. “Jeff’s crazy eyes and antennae are definitely my favorite.”
I was hoping to meet Chad last weekend at S.P.A.C.E., the small press convention in Columbus, Ohio. Unfortunately, with the site giving me headaches, as well as some deadlines looming, I had to skip out. Chad has his own comic going. It’s got great art and interesting characters, but be forewarned that it’s for mature readers. So only if you’ve got the adult credentials, go see Manta-Man by Chad Sell!
