"What are you working on?" I'm often asked.Truth?—I'm not working on anything.
After I wrapped up TRUST/TRUTH summer/early fall 2009, I immediately transitioned to two shorties for Marvel which took the rest of the fall. Then came "the holidays" and finally the filling of book orders on TRUST/TRUTH and my annual trip to Angouleme Festival in France.
The spring was a difficult time for me, dealing with family issues and ultimately a death in the family, the technical aspects of buying my first home, and the emotional aspects of buying my first home. And, of course, considerable interpersonal confusion. During this time I attempting to outline and write the second half of BABY MAKES THREE simply to conclude it was unworkable.
Upon the closing of my home purchase, I was thrown into cleaning, painting, packing, moving, unpacking, more painting, arranging, re-arranging, furniture hunting, and the like.
Though in the summer I was able to start drawing again, including a 5 page mini comic "Trying Something New" written by Greg Lockard; 10 new pages for my CAVALCADE Volume 1 reprint; the first 3 pages of another mini comic written by Greg; complete thumbnails for an art-as-therapy OGN which I'll not likely draw; the X-Calibur and Wonder Woman Day illustrations I posted to this blog. I was thrilled to help out Monica Gallagher with a 13-week guest run of her webcomic BONNIE N. COLLIDE this fall. Then it was off to India, and after I completed my travel sketches. And on to creating some custom Mego action figures and then "the holidays" again. I drew this illustration of Sailor Moon just prior to my recent trip to France.
This sounds like so much more than it is, in terms of comics production. The past year-ish resulted in 31 finished comic pages, 3 specialty art pieces and 3 custom Megos. That's all.
There is no book in the works...no pitches...no mini-comics...nothing.
That's not to sound doomsday about it—it's been a lot of fun fixing up my apartment. More fun than I'd anticipated. But for a variety of reasons, I have no ideas for comics at the moment, no projects underway, and no motivation to change it.
As for this Sailor Moon, I think it might be my most favorite thing I've done in a long time. I really love the way the line art turned out. I colored it...and something's lost. I still prefer the line art.Yes, it is Matt as Tuxedo Mask.
