Classic Teen Titans

No shocker to any sketchblog regular, I like the Teen Titans circa 1973. As I mentioned earlier, I sold out of books early during Angoulême Festival. I began drawing to amuse myself and others, and ended up selling a few: one rough looking hot guy, a Yvonne Craig style Batgirl (from the '60s Batman TV show), and a '70s style Wonder Woman vs. Cheetah. The last one I drew was this classic Teen Titans. It didn't sell due to the late finish and higher price. It's a nice piece though! I am half glad it didn't sell, so I could make a nice scan of it, color it, and post here! Maybe I will sell it as a print as cons. A number of people pointed out all kinds of artists do that at cons.

Blurry

Though I was tired and eager to be home, I was also happy to be in NYC, and was able to see many of my pals there during NY Comic Con and throughout the week. I asked Goo-Goo to be my personal shopper, which he was very excited about. But generally, his ambition runs low, and when it comes to shopping, my ambition always runs low. We made it to one store, didn't try anything on, and didn't buy anything. We then went to dinner with wine, and then drinks. Since I am not a big drinker, it wasn't long before I was fairly tipsy. Add to that my big brother little brother relationship I have with Goo-Goo, I caught myself giving all kinds of unsolicited advice! Ultimately, I had a little out-of-body experience: I could hear myself droning on, but really had no idea what I was saying, and was definitely seeing double. And poor Goo-Goo was clearly a bit bored or beaten down from my time on the soapbox. Time to leave the bar, eh?

Cute French Librarian

While I had work to do for my day job while I was in NYC (after NY Comic Con) I also had some free time on my hands. I tried to go to the Whitney, but instead ended up at the Frick. I hung out with friends, and a got some drawing in. In France, I met a very sweet Librarian, and we pal'd around together a bit (I'll leave it at that!). But, I never did get a photo of us together. We ended up connected on Facebook, and I was able to see a few pics and then drew this. I am not very good at drawing actual people, but he liked it anyway. I've also had to draw some real people as assignments from the drawing collective I am in (we post our assignments to Facebook).

Whose baby are you?

The lyrics from the Batgirl theme song, as I recall them:

Batgirrrrrl, Batgirl! / Yeaaaaah, Batgirl! / Are you a chick who fell in from outerspace? / Or are you real with a tender warm embrace? / Yeaaaaah, Batgirl! / Whose baby are you?—Batgirl!

As I mentioned, one of the originals I drew at the fesitival in France was a Yvonne Craig/Batman TV show style Batgirl. I couldn't scan it (sold the original), but I was able to take a photo. Image on the left (while a bit dark) shows a bit of the blue line pencil. Image on the left is imperfectly cleaned up and colored. I'm not the best colorist, and didn't feel like investing too much time on this since it was from a photo. So you don't get a sense of how satin-y her cape it. But, I did apply the "noise" filter to her body suit... as the one Yvonne wore on the show was kind of sparkly.

I was referencing to Xavier and Jeff what the costume was like, they were disturbed that it was purple and gold. I was shocked they'd neither seen it nor the TV show! I insisted Jeff to use his phone to find internet pics of Yvonne in costume. He did, and immediately he and Xavier were wild about the costume. It does look pretty cool in pictures...

Then @ NY Comic Con, this woman (with a decent build) was wearing an AMAZINGLY professional-looking TV style Batgirl costume. I mean, every detail. I can't remember if Tall Tim was able to get a photo or not.

Pleasure bent again

I managed to get in lots of sketching while stuck in Paris, Dublin, and Shannon airports. On the left is a tree of knowledge, with the thoughts of a cute French librarian reading beneath a tree. Funny how when you have literally hours to kill in an uncomfortable chair, how many leaves you don't mind drawing. Almost immediately on arriving home, I turned around to get to NYC for the NY Comic Con and a week of MIT business, pleasure bent again. Here, poor Ags greets me after my alarm goes off at 4:30 AM in order for me to catch my train. I was intrigued by a week in NYC (while I've been many many times, I don't think for a whole week before!), but also completely not in the mood to be leaving home so soon. And ol' Ags was REALLY mad when I left! She's generally not a barker, but she was barking up a storm as I snuck out at 5:15 while she was eating her breakfast.

Homeward bound

Did I mention I sold out of all the books I brought to the festival?—it's true! I didn't have much left on Sunday, but it was all gone by 2 or so. The day had a weird vibe to it. Very slow-paced, then suddenly, half the vendors started to pack up between 1-3. Then, festival-goers started swarming in a purchasing frenzy from 2-4. Xavier wanted to stay until 5, so we waited until things died down and then left. Lovely evening and train ride back to Paris, and the next morning, I awoke to a very pretty snowfall that brought CDG to 10% of operating capacity. I arrived in Dublin 4+ hours late, and missed my connection. Despite being checked through Passport Control by a DEVASTATINGLY GORGEOUS dark-haired, blue-eyed, very friendly Irish guy, I was disappointed to be delayed... as it seemed I'd be adding on a spontaneous stay in Ireland to my trip.

More Angoulême

The Saturday of the festival really begins spilling over from the night before, with the inaugural gay-drinks-gathering at Cafe Chaud. I had been chatting up Yann, and throughout our conversation, little notes and sketches were passed back and forth. He explains "Yann" is another variation of "Jean" and "John" and showed me his drawing skills with a little hedgehog. I then drew one for him. The next day, clearly hung over. You also get to see a draft of a Psylocke drawing I've been commissioned to draw. Xavier was helping me (as I am not so familiar with the character, except for ages ago, when her telepathy floated around as a butterfly). I was drawing big hair, and he would say "flatter." I reduced twice until he said, "it's like she has spaghetti on her head." He thought the flatness you see here works. He recommended I draw her "very slutty." "Slutty" and "nightmare" are two of Xavier's favorite words.

Angoulême Festival

The festival days blur together a bit for me. But I drew the little sketch on the left for Jean Paul, and asked that he scan it for me. He has a thing for older, hairier guys, so I did my best. He came up with an intriguing little backstory for the character... definitely sounds worth pursuing! I am glad Jean Paul emailed me the scan... I liked this little sketch, which I did with blue pencil and a brush pen. The next sketch is definitely from day 2, a great sunny day! Our booth was near the clear plastic "sunroof" of the festival tent we were set up in, so I monitored what the sun was like throughout the day... chronicled the bit of shopping I did, and some of the interesting festival-goers (the "freaky frenchman" was real... I couldn't make up an outfit like that...). At the end of day 2 (1/31) was the inaugural "LGBT roundtable" which I was very proud to be part of. There was a great attendance, and lively discussion. Of course, my French is so bad, I mostly tried to look interested when I could no longer understand. Afterward, we had the inaugural gay gathering at a pub. Maybe about 25 people for that... and a really fun evening overall! More tomorrow. Oh—I surprised some native Frenchies with the fact that Pelforth Brune is a French beer.

a Paris

My last night in Lyon was solo again. I had intended to find a jazz bar, but "sleep" won out. The next morning, despite having ample food and water, the cats were meowing like crazy. Apparently they wanted *fresh* food. Xavier finally came home and frantically packed, and we headed to the train station via the printer. On the platform, Xavier caught me looking at a fellow (as he did often); though he was in error as to which guy. He thought it was what he described as an awful looking guy (but it was another standing near him). Since the guy was far from awful (tall, blond, blue-eyed, Swedish-looking), I dubbed him as Xavier's ideal man in my sketchbook. The next day, I depicted myself as an angel, as I passed by an opportunity to be very naughty. Despite this, karma allowed me to step in some dog-doo. Later that day I hauled all my heavy convention stuff from La Defense to Gare Montparnasse. This inked drawing has become the iconic-me in my mind, and will get lots of use.

Last day in Lyon

Xavier and I were to depart the next morning for a day in Paris. To celebrate our departure, as well as the departure of his friends Patrick and Kelly, as well as the birthday of his friend Simon, Xavier organized a big lunch. The meal was great, and terribly pricey for Lyon. However, the old lady waitress was trying to hurry Kelly along, and at one point even told her to not talk so much. Ultimately, they told us they were closing, so we had to leave. So much for the stereotype of long leisurely meals! :) Later, Xavier was concerned that his cat Duncan was getting sick, and was preparing a Vicks Vapo-Rub treatment for him. Since I was also under the weather, he prepared a bowl for me as well. He put Duncan in a cage and covered it with a towel so he'd breath in the fumes. Then covered my head with a towel so I would breath the fumes. Afterward, we were talking comics—whenever we talked comics, Xavier would disappear for a minute and then haul out whatever comics we had just been talking about for me to look at. The topic had been "Justice Machine" from the 1980s, which I'd never read. You can see from my drawings, the characters had really awful, really gay costume designs.

Not a morning person

Xavier had to spend the night at the hotel he works at, so after we ate dinner there and I drew him an "Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld" I went back to his place for a nice night of sleep (I had been up since 4 AM to transfer from Stockholm to Lyon). His little cat Cassie slept near me, which was sweet. I was awoken in the morning when Xavier came home and was making some tea. I crawled out of bed to say hello, and I was greeted with a chipper, "You are not a morning person!" I then eased into the gloomy day and decided to shop in the dry comfort of Celio. Suddenly, the sun came out, and I hoofed my way around the center city and up the hills of Lyon with my purchases before the rain returned. That night, Xavier took me to the bear bar, Station B. I'm not so into the bear scene myself, so Xavier accused me of only liking children. But I did think his friend François was cute and maybe he could be described as a mild bear or maybe mild otter. We all ate a traditional Lyonnaise restaurant. Since I don't eat red meat, they steered me from that, but when I asked what exactly I was eating, François explained, "it's usually best not to know."

Transfer

My time in Sweden was brief (4 days) and packed with tourism, social outings courtesy of Anders, and a presentation & signing at Hallongrottan book shop. Most of my sketches are quick, about the weather, or all the cute guys in Stockholm. Most aren't very detailed or interesting. I do plan to make a Tim Fish version of the 1919 painting at the modern art museum, "The Dying Dandy," which was described as a "possible comentary on homosexuality." For now, here is a sketch from the day I transfered from Stockholm to Lyon. On the left, a trio of guys on the flight, each with a distinct look: the first, tall, broad, cute, short spikey hair, full kissable lips, and total Ben Sherman ensemble. The second, boyish and the least cute, but with beautiful wavy-curly hair; the tallest of the three, and also the thinnest, with tight jeans to accentuate the fact. The third, the best looking, blond, thick Poindexter glasses, snug Levi's denim jacket with mutton lining, tight brown pants and redneck boots. On the right, the cats of my friend in Lyon, Xavier. Duncan, a very large cat, who likes to sleep on Xavier's '80s computer monitor (which was frightening to see this behemoth crawl up there!) and sweet and fluffy Cassie. Both were friendly cats, which was nice.

Pretentious Euro-tour 2009

After a swell time at Angoulême last year, I had decided to exhibit this year. Without much arm-twisting, Xavier convinced me to spend time in Lyon before the festival. Perhaps with slightly more effort, Anders convinced me to stay in Stockholm before visiting Lyon. I sketched a journal entry every day, and over the next days, I will post the highlights of the sketches. My trip begins with a jaunt up to NH to deposit Aggie with my parents. It was so cold!—maybe -5 degrees F. The cold but fast-running Winnipesaukee River was so much warmer than the air, it was steaming near the old tressel. I drew that, but you only see a bit of the trees here. Also tough to see is the airport guy with the HUGE eyebrows. Instead, I focused my artistic efforts on the hottest guy on the flight from Iceland to Sweden. Dressy-casual, blond, intense blue eyes, scruffy, mild mullet. Yes, many mullets in Scandanavia. Also on the plane were LOTS of bears, all together. Must have been some sort of convention...