Frank Espinosa's NUEVO MUNDI: a travel log of twisted routes

Happy New Year from mars!

2012-01-02T13:46:00.000-08:00

A happy New Year to all.

May this year bring about all the good stuff you really need and not the crazy stuff we dream about. Plus lots of health to everyone.

Back when I was living in L.A I heard that Kerry and Kevin Conran who had done Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow were going to helm John Carter of Mars.

Now at the time, Rocketo had not been published yet, and me being a John Carter super freak stopped working on Rocketo, and launched myself into the world of Barsoom.

I think for about three weeks all I did was paint, sketch, storyboard, and design almost the entire film. I finally did get some great face time with both the brothers and we got to chatting about my sketches and storyboards and tons drawings I did. Sadly nothing came of it. To this day, I never heard back from them, and then the project just dropped off the face of the Earth. As things would go, I got back on Rocketo and was able to create a world of my own.

Well, Pixar is jumping on the Barsoom express , and for some reason as fate would have it, I came across one of the CD's with some of that old 2005 artwork.

I did a tremendous amount of work on this project for no reason than, I loved the world that was created. At some point in the future I will find the rest of the CD's with more of the artwork, but here is a small taste of some of the rough sketches and ideas I had way back before Rocketo was ever born.

Some of my thinking for Tars is that he is a bit more martian insect than what has been done with him so far. Because he is more insect like he can twist that lower torso around almost 360 so he can fight you with those swords facing forward, while the lower arms fight behind him. I thought it would be visually fun to animate.

Carter has that old school belt, something that desert people usually wear, its that giant belt that holds a couple of Radium guns at a time, plus swords. I gave him a sort of Gladiator outfit mixed with all sorts of stuff, but my thinking was to actually give him Superman's colors. As John Carter is really the first Superman only backward.

Again this was all my rough first pass at this stuff, and I wish I had worked on it for a couple of months. Then again I wish I had three more arms.. See its better to get what you need, instead of what you wish for.

Enjoy and again Happy New Year to everyone.

Frank.

high tech finger paints

2011-12-07T08:37:00.000-08:00

I been playing around with the Iphone a bit these days. My computer was having its DVD drive repaired, so I had a bit of time to draw with the phone. Strange, to draw with the phone.. Dick Tracy himself could not have predicted that one.

So I got a bunch of drawing Apps and thought I would put each through its paces for a while. Each application has its strong points and its weak, and I should go over in detail each one, but what can one expect for a buck or two? The Rocketo and Luna Lake and the old man, drawings were done with Sketchbook mobile, its a nice app. Great brushes, and very nice control over the layers and colors, although going back and forth between brushes and color is a bit hard on the fingers. I did not do any tight drawings with this program but one can basically draw as tight and as loose as you desire. Its a nice app to play with, again my only complaint is the back and forth, it would be nice to have a more organic way to pick colors and brushes.

The other drawings, that have that charcoal feel are doing with the Sketji app.

Its a great app for those quick and tumble sketches, sadly... no zoom feature, so you can draw anything with any real detail, its all big giant strokes, but the strokes are organic and lovely to look at.

Anyway enjoy everyone and have a great day, back to my Image book.

Frank.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

2011-11-24T09:24:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to wish all of you a great and happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you all for taking the time to look around in this insane little blog of twist and turns.

Playing around with the Iphone this morning and did a quick little sketch of good old John Carter of Mars, and that other character with the laugh.. When I get my DVD driver working I will post some old Carter drawings I did years ago.

May you all eat well today, and be with your loved ones.

Frank.

Nightmare high tech at twenty thousand feet

2011-11-10T07:34:00.000-08:00

In the words of the wonderful Shatner.. "There is an APP at the wing of my plane!!"

Fate finally made me take the plunge. My phone broke down and I had to get a replacement, so I got one of those insane Iphones. Naturally I have now joined the wild horde of app crazy addicts. It happened at a good time, just before my trip to Stanford so I had some good time during the flight to play around with all the gadgets.

Couldn't help thinking what Jules Verne would say if he saw a couple of hundred people sitting in the belly of this giant metal bird that was flying at twenty thousand feet. He would look around and see people reading, sleeping, playing games, his mind would explode, then again, he might just say.. " I knew it all along!"

Imagine Columbus playing with the star app.. or the compass app..

So here I was trying to figure out a way to learn to draw with my giant index finger on this little screen. I have to handed to the designers, because after a while I actually began to understand it a bit.

One of my favorite books is Moby Dick, recently it has dawned on my mind to want to illustrate a version of it. In my opinion nothing beats the black and white illustrations done by the master Rockwell Kent. But I wanted to take a different path, while Kent worked in black and white, I want to work with symbols and colors and shapes. The book is all about symbols and metaphors and my drawings would try to take that to the limit. So here are some very early Iphone sketches of Ahab and Queequeg who is my favorite character in the book. As I get that time I will play around more in Melville's wonderful world.

And to all the Rocketo fans, I have added some concept art for the Mapping Guild, although in the book its going to be ten times more massive than in this sketch.

The girl, well she was just fun to draw.

Enjoy and have a great day everyone.

Frank.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

2011-11-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

Hello all.

I just got back from Stanford University where I got to meet some fantastic professors, and a great comic artist and fine artist, Marcella Trujillo, who managed to make a quick sketch of me while on a train to visit the San Francisco comic art museum.

The trip was amazing and the scholars who gave their lectures on Latino comics and creators gave me some wonderful insights that I will carry with me for a very long time. So hats off to Hector Hoyos, Angela Becerra, Haerin Shin, Hector Fernandez, Juan Poblete, Vanessa Chang, Ramon Salvidar and Frederick Aldama they made my stay at Stanford feel right at home.

So now I am back and its back to work! I will post more stuff this week.

Wheww...

2011-10-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

What a week. Everything just came down to four days. Four days of nonstop painting.

So finally the first book is all finished, and I will be scanning the pages next week.

Now I can play around a bit, get back to some Rocketo stuff, and put up some more stuff for this blog.

Here are two pieces I did for the Kirby show, in N.J tomorrow.. I need to take some really good digital shots of them, hopefully before they sell. Although right now the Cap one might not be going up for sale. It just hits the right spot with me. Blasted paintings, how did artists ever get rid of their work? I do a sketch and I cry when it leaves my hand.

The tribute to Jack is special to me, he is one of those artists that not only was a creative genius, but really pushed the enveloped into fine art with his own work. In a way that is why I wanted to take a much different approach. I actually want to do two more pieces that are even more abstract. Who knows, maybe next week.

The Cap piece is titled Classic Colors, I was thinking of those old Marvel comics I own, with all those yellows and gray and greens..

The other piece is called, The Four will save us.. actually I wanted to call it Negative zone superblaam punchout.. maybe I can still work that in.

Anyway letting go of the work should be part of the process, but its a hard one to learn, this is why I rarely sell my work, or even do commissions. I fall in love with the pieces.

Not the art itself, but what that piece taught me.

Well, things are slowly heading back to normal and for the next couple of days I am off in the New World of Rocketo.

Have a great weekend!

Frank

Under the weather...

2011-09-22T12:00:00.001-07:00

Been under the weather the last bunch of days, some sort of cold/flu thing. Wow.

One moment I was jumping around the next. Tyson punch.

Anyway hopefully I can add some new stuff soon, but here is more of the pages for the Image book I am working on.

I added some character sketches I did in designing the girl character. You can sort of see the evolution and how it turned out in the finished pages. I like to take pics of the pages as I work on them, for some reason the really crappy quality, helps in seeing how things read. Or if they don't.

The first book has two more pages to go to be finished, so if I could make it to my drawing board, I can knock it out for the weekend.

Also I am going to be displaying some Kirby inspired art very soon at a place in N.J I will give more details as the date approaches. So if anybody is around and wants to come in and chat that would be great.

And there is a lecture at Stanford U that I will be giving so more stuff on that next week, to anybody in the west coast that wants to say hello, that way you can grill me about the new Rocketo book in person.

Best to all. Have a great weekend.

Back to bed.

sketch book stuff.

2011-09-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

Excuse the delay, but I been busy working on that Image book and it takes my days in a good way.

Here are some quick sketchbook ideas that were running through my mind these days.

Personally I think the costumes of Superman and Batman are so iconic that to change them is just a mental wheel turn, eventually you wind up back to the iconic shapes that work the best. If it's not broke, don't fix it. But every once in a while its good to play around with these great modern myths.

In the mix are some Doc Savage sketches, mostly very rough and just explorations.. Again just playing around, but the mind wanders and it takes me back to all the Doc books I ever read, and how much fun it was to engulf myself in that world.

So as part of the revision, I was playing around with having Doc, half African American. If my memory serves, Doc was born on a schooner off the coast of Andros Island, which is off the Bahamas. So I played with the idea that here is this African American man in the thirties, hiding his own race, or maybe even not aware, what a fun concept. It adds a whole new level to that great character, something he can struggle with. And there it will stay I guess.

The other day a friend of mine sent me some funny Aquaman stuff, and it seems like that poor bloke, can't be taken seriously. So I played around with his scale a bit, made him the tallest and the widest of the JLA, as well he should be. That insane pressure would have worked wonders on his half Atlantean frame.

Green Lantern was fun to play with, I have not seen the new film, but I think his suit should exist apart from the power of the ring. When the ring power goes out, he will be naked in space, not a smart thing for the Guardians to design. So it should feel more like an alien space suit. Something that can keep him alive if the power goes out, I was thinking the suit would grow around him, while in deep space, freeing the power of the ring and his will power for the task at hand.

Flash needs some protection from little dust particles while running at that speed, and he needs to breathe. Again some protection growing out of the wings on his head might be fun to explore.

So with all due respect to the great artist and friend, David Williams who is by far the man who has drawn the most Batman revisions I have ever witness, and some of the best Batman, Superman concepts. Here you go.

Now back to the work at hand..

Best to all!

Frank.

stay safe East Coasters.

2011-08-27T17:30:00.000-07:00

To all of you on the East Coast, stay dry and safe. Here in NYC its raining and a bit windy.

Stay safe.

simple heroes

2011-08-24T14:36:00.000-07:00

A little time to play led to my simple versions of the classics. There is a lot of room to play with this concept.

This might also be the shortest blog I have ever written.. A bit wiped out today from painting.

Best to all!

Frank.

The project with no name.

2011-08-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would share some bits of my current project for Image comics. I can't really say to much about it, because the writer would come after me, and it really is his baby. But I can share some of the artwork in a semi rough stage. Semi rough because the pics you see are taken with a cell phone, while the paint was still drying.

The double page spread is for the inside and back flaps and will most likely be in a muted sepia or toned down quite a bit. Its a great project and putting me through some interesting paces as any good project will do it will make you grow. Or at least teach you how to paint faster.

Thank you all for the commissions orders that I have received this week, every one of them have been tons of fun to do!

Have a great day and some more stuff coming this week.

Frank.

You are a strange man, Dr. Strange.

2011-08-15T15:42:00.000-07:00

I remember reading Doc Strange when I was a kid, the Steve Ditko ones. Those were some odd, creepy tales. I had a friend who used to bring in tons of comics to school, can you believe this?!! His dad owned a newspaper store, and whatever didn't sell he was nice enough to hand to the kids. Imagine our hungry eyes, young, fever racked brains, feasting on the early X-Men, Early F.F.. early Avengers! They went like hot cakes.. Every went! everything but Doc Strange.. the kids around that school didn't dig him. So I wound up getting the left overs, and journeying into the mystic realms fighting the dreaded Dormammu!!

What a wonderful character, the Doctor, who loses the ability to operate on people journeys into the land of Tibet and learns the mystic arts. Comes down the mountain to kick demon ass.

there is a rumor that a Doc Strange film is in the works, which would be wonderful to see if they keep some of that insane fun and zany, dark, weird energy that Ditko brought to the pages. Lets all hope so.

As far as the Daredevil sketch goes, it was quick but I really liked doing it. I like to do a larger painting of that sketch. Stilt-Man was one of my favortie DD bad guys, he must be the lamest bank robber of them all. A ten stories high, slow moving, unbalanced target for Daredevils' kicks.

Thank you all who have asked for information and for commissions!

Best to you all.

Frank.

KRAAKATABBBOOMM!!

2011-08-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

Some of you have asked for original art, and what I can say to that is: if there is anybody that would like a commission piece, of either a Marvel, DC, or Rocketo let me know, you can send an email to rocketocomics@verizon.net and I can send them a range of prices.

Well its been a good week, had a good push on a project I been working on, and had to cap it off with a off the top of my head Rocketo piece, called.. " That just did not end well.."

Have a great weekend everyone..

Will post some more tomorrow.

lunch time funnies.

2011-08-05T08:47:00.001-07:00

Sometimes after a day painting, there is a bit of left over paint on the palette that looks really nice and you do not want to throw it out. Or it happens that after loading up the palette with paint, something else needs your attention and not much painting is done, in both cases you get paint that you do not want to discard.

So.. I do these little playful sketches, I try to keep them small and loose and fast and the rule is, no pencil just paint, so that it flows out.. Anyway here are some of this weeks Lunch Doodles.

When I was doing the Shazam sketch I was picturing this little kid saying the magic word and becoming huge, since Marvel has the powers of the Gods, I was thinking he should be a giant that can contain the power of Zeus, Mercury, etc..

The first time I ever saw the adventures of Superman on Television, I was a kid and the television had colors that were all faded out. So I got to see Superman with this really light suit.. which is still blue but lighter.. gives him that feeling of a savior. Not like the dark Superman we have now.

Well I added todays lunch time funny, which was Spidey. I like the weird creepy Spiderman that Ditko used to draw. I was painting to fast for my own good here but hey, have to post it.

Anyway have a great weekend everyone.

Thoughts on the Star Spangled Man.

2011-08-02T08:38:00.001-07:00

Well I guess I should talk a bit about it, Captain America the first Avenger. This is not so much a review of the film as more of a study in what was going on in my mind while I was watching it. Yeah I was thinking which is not a good sign. So at the risk of making many enemies and never working again in Hollywood I will start the first of my film thoughts.

In the First Avenger, the first half hour or so of the film did a better job than the rest of the film. There were some good scenes with skinny Rogers that were heartfelt and handled much better than the stale action that was to come.

One of the things about origin stories, or creation stories as I like to call them, is how they set up the ground for the rest of the tale that is to come.

They tell us how fast, how high, how large, how evil, the characters and the world that we are about to enter behave, they tell us the how and the why, they have the hard job of feeding us information while at the same time entertaining us.

Sometimes things are left unsaid, and that in turn gives a sense of form to the story, in the same way that negative space shapes the outlines of the figure or objects that we draw.

We do not have to know the origin of Darth Vader in the first film, but we do know by his actions that this man/machine is going to be trouble. Most important we know what the Death Star can do. We see it in action, stomping a planet into balls of flying molten rock that our heroes have to fly through. In the Guns of Navarone, the guns on that cliff blast and pound away at men, ships, Islands anything that wears the allied flag, while the clock ticks away at the invasion that is coming. Mystery and death!!

In turn I still have no idea what that giant plane in the Captain America film was going to do to my town New York. Was it going to blow it up? Turn us into Red Skull zombies? Give us a bad rash? If so how? Did we ever see that ship do anything other than fly around and make cool noises?

Imagine if the Death Star had not blown up a planet. Luke’s flying down the trench would have felt a bit odd. If we do not know what the stakes are, we will not care.

Now the Red Skulls ship could have blasted some Navy carriers, or U.S. tanks, or a couple of villages, etc. The point is, when the shadow of that giant ship comes over our fighting forces, we lose all of them. ALL of them. Who will stop this beast from eating us all?!! Think about this question and we start to picture many great adventure stories.

We need to feel pure terror, as the giant winged shadow blocks out all the light, men look up in pure shock, as the Red Skull laughs from above. We need to see this coming doom otherwise as a storyteller we are not doing our jobs.

On a character note, Rogers goes from skinny Rogers to Muscle Rogers and he knows how to fight and lead men, within seconds. Early in the film we are show that Rogers can think for himself, hell he can jump on a grenade faster than anybody, want to lower a flag from a pole, call Rogers: but thinking for yourself is not the same as leading men into battle. Captain America was an icon of leadership in WW2, somehow he had to learn that, how did he learn that?

If we had been shown in the first half of the film that skinny Rogers was collecting those little judo books sold in those days, or if he had a collection of books at home with every battle that was ever fought committed to memory, then I would have taken that quick transformation from geek to hero a lot better. We needed to see Rogers home, what his room looks like, what he reads, what he does when he is not applying for the Armed Services. Maybe, Rogers holds tactics and strategy to all the famous battles from Alexander to WW1 in his skinny head, I would even throw in some Baseball game scores and stats, something they could have used to make that ending more smoothly. If only Billy Wilder had written this film, if only someone had written this film.

How about if there had been a training sequence where the General takes him under his wing and shows him to lead men, and how to fight with his new strength. Captain America is a product of many hands, he later becomes the icon that he is, but at first he is really dependent on the many hands that formed him. Sort of like those big battleships that Rosie the Riveter used to make.

Now on a personal level, the idea of a film all in WW2 with Cap is strange to me. Sure it seems natural but it’s not necessary. We know who won that war. We know who fought and we know how men died, it was a brutal, horrible fight, but to me that does not make a good Cap story. That does make fantastic Cap sequences. Cap storming a beach, Cap fighting in france, Cap jumping off a plane over the desert, Cap in the jungles of the Pacific.. throw in some giant robots and some crazy gadgets, I am in heaven. But as nice as those shots are, they do not make up an interesting story for our time. If you are going to make a WW2 based Cap story it better mean something when Bucky dies, otherwise.. what is the point.

What makes Captain America a great character is that he is Rip Van Winkle with steroids, he shines a light into our present society. The more time that passes between WW2 the more interesting Cap becomes, his story starts in another age, but is told in ours. Start with that iconic shot of a full figure of a man frozen in the ice, he is thawed out, and as he gains his memory we get to learn who he is through old newsreels, stories, and as he visits those old men still alive. We learn his creation as he relearns it. Tell us what he can do, how far he can run, how fast, how strong is he? How did he train? Now develop the current threat and bring him into our modern day. Set him lose on our society, and let us see how he reacts to the change. What is the threat from the past that is destroying this new world around him? What is eating us that only Rogers can save us from?

He holds up a light into what we used to fear, what we fought, how far we have come and maybe how far we might have fallen.

Anyway..

Have a great day everyone.

P.S. Sorry did not have time to draw a Captain America piece like I wanted so here are some Rocketo New World panels. Next this week, I will tell the story of how I just got back from vacation in Florida and from the encounter I had there.

PPS.. I UPDATED a quick lunch time sketch of Cap just for the blog. Whew back to work.

more stuff, less stuff.

2011-07-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

Excuse the long break, been working on a project for Image comics with a friend of mine, that will hopefully be made public soon. No.. not Rocketo. There will hopefully be some news on Rocketo very soon. In the meantime, here are some small concepts for Rocketo Journey to the New World coming soon posters, and a shot of young spiro walking the crowded streets of Ehophat, looking for something to eat, as a silent man walks by.

Best to all of you.

Gene Colan 1926-2011

2011-06-24T16:41:00.000-07:00

Gene Colan passed away today, he was 84 years old.

I remember when I first saw Gene's artwork, it was in a Daredevil comic and I must have been around ten years old. I thought the drawings were going to jump off the page, Daredevil will do his famous double back flip right into my chest. I have always been fascinated with movement, how things shift and twist when in motion, what part of the body drops while the other pushes forward.

I never met Gene Colan, never had the chance to thank him for helping me understand movement and rhythm, and all the other complex wonderful things that the body does, while at the same time never letting me forget storytelling.

When I heard he passed away, I went into that old closet full of comics, stuck my hand in a grabbed a bunch of books, and sure enough in that pile there was a Daredevil, the same one I scanned and used for this blog. Just look at that cover and feel it. It's amazing.

Gene passed away at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx.

I know that hospital very well, my father was there twice before he passed away, its a very tough place to walk into and even tougher to walk out.

Thank you Gene Colan and may you rest in peace. That fluid pencil of yours gave many young fans dreams.

the bat jog.

2011-06-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share with you guys, my Bat-paint-Utility belt.

One of the things that I really enjoy these days is taking the time out to do some jogging around NYC. It a great day to clear the head and get the body ready for the long day sitting on the drawing board. Every once in a while I look around and think "that would make a great little painting.. or I wish I could remember that light." For a while I tried to carry a digital camera with me, but I just didn't like the feel of it.

So I got this fanny pack.. I know.. I know..

I got this fanny pack and decided let me see if I can get a little studio that I can take with me. I made a little folio of good quality 2 ply brystol that I cut down to a nice five and a half inches.. small tubes of gouache: black, white, three primaries. Two small brushes, a empty lightweight bottle of india ink, that I can fill with water from the public rest room, or the water fountains. Two small paper towels. Two small plastic tops to hold water in. Disposable palette paper, cut into small strips and folded into the folio.

So armed with this, I can go out for my run with very low weight and then be able to sketch whatever catches my fancy. Sometimes it would be a cloud, a brush, or maybe nothing at all. I been keeping a journal of my running and it might be a good way to add some illustrations to it.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Frank.

new yak for the ages.

2011-06-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

I was walking around the other day, and did some sketching around the neighborhood.

It was a research run on a book that I am working on called Ghost Whale. There are some post I did in the past showing the hero of the book, Belukha.

The little paintings are small nothing larger than four and a half inches, because of that I can do a bunch of them very very quickly, and just get a sense of the colors and how to get some of the city energy down. They were all done on the same sheet of paper.

Now Ghost Whale is a story that I been slowly developing and it's dear to my heart as it brings together a lot of the old pulp feel that I grew up with. Lets just say that it pays a nice homage to almost every single hero invented in the pulps. In the little paintings one can catch a glimpse of an old man in a giant skyscraper and of a flying man circling the city. Its fun, it has giant steam-men, robots, aliens, and my neighborhood of Washington Heights is a big part of the setting.

Enjoy the weekend everyone.

Best always.

Frank.

in the shadow a bridge

2011-06-08T04:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went for a nice long run, everything went well until the sun hit. Holy smokes, it was like running inside of a frying pan. Days like that force you to slow down, get off the stopwatch and listen to your body, or else you die.

My usual routine for a long run is to walk to the Little Red Lighthouse that sits under the George Washington bridge, and run from there. The lighthouse was made famous by a kids book, and has a very interesting story in its own right. I start at the lighthouse which is about 181st in Manhattan and from that point I can run almost to the end of Manhattan with almost no street lights and just the danger of getting hit by a bike or a rollerblader. It is a great run, parts of it shrouded in green with the Hudson river to your right as you head South. Clears the cobwebs of the mind.

Yesterday it was brutal. So I cut off the long run and headed back home in a big circle, with a total of seven miles, back to the Little Red Lighthouse.

I sat under the shadow of the GW bridge, looking up at its humming and cranking steel underbelly as the folks whizzed back and forth in the daily grind. My eye hit on two little floating things in the water, they were ducks, swimming Northward. Two little ducks with that giant bridge over them, and the giant swells of passing boats lifting their bodies up and down in that cold Hudson water.

Made me think about fear. Those ducks have no idea what is happening around them, they just swim because they have to. No choice you know. Sort of like artists.

I wondered if they had no fear because they were together. I guess being with another duck in that water would help. It's hard to swim alone in the Hudson. Nice to know another little ball of feathers has your back.

Anyway it all brings me to today's post on John Carter of Mars. Which has nothing to do with ducks or running, but it has to do with some sketches I did while I was at MIT after a lecture on John Carter of Mars. I guess I should talk a bit about that lecture of J.C but when I do I will post illustrations of ducks.

Be well all of ya.

Frank.

Still around and kicking hard

2011-06-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

Anyway like I was saying...

Hello everyone it has been awhile and lots of stuff has happened and even more stuff has not happened. This is what happens when a bloke quits smoking.. he eventually goes mad. The good news is that I run like an old Lion, been logging in those miles at the track and finally the breathing and the legs are starting to come back. Anyway that would be some blog for a future time.

Speaking of the future, Rocketo is back on track and so is another little series that I have been doing some work for. I am posting some sketches that I played with and had some fun. Takes place in NYC, but unlike a NYC that we have seen in comics. Right now the title is The Belukha but I might go for the Ghost Whale later on.

So now the summer is here and those wonderful greens have come back and I feel like its time to hit the road and paint a bit of sunshine on the canvas or in the sketch book.

By the way if anyone ever needs illustration work done for children's books or comics let me know. I am available. I guess I should make a big post out of that later in the week. One of my big dreams is to do a bunch of children's books.

Best to all and sorry about that long gap in time, which I could have said I was kidnapped by Aliens or something but the truth is much more mundane, sad, with a touch of gray. Thank you for your patience.

3D is the craze.. ugh..

2010-11-10T12:16:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the long post time but you guys know how things go.

Here are some quick studies I been working on teaching myself the basics of the insane world of 3D modeling. Long way to go with this stuff, its another world to learn from.

I like keeping the little black dots for Spiro. Some things belong simple, like Tintin.. More Rocketo stuff coming soon.

Best to you all.

MORE STUFF

2010-08-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

Onward.. onward.. moving through book 2.. Last night I hit a snag and the page I was preparing just did not go well.. Basically I was stretching the paper and it sort of fell apart! I had finished the page before this one and thought I could squeeze in another, just goes to show you a clear head saves paper..

So today I gave it another try, like I have any other choice.

This afternoon I started painting the page, and took a couple of snapshots of some of the process.

The scene..

Lunaripal, the empty city of the Solarium Men..

Doc Blast's brother shows him the wonders of living inside the Universe of energy.. he asks Doc to join him and the rest of his family..

Doc considers it but turns him down.. The Brother telling Doc how much he loves him, begs him to reconsider..

Then a telepathic transmission from Rocketo summons Doc Blast to an emergency meeting..

Doc tells his brother he can't join him, while brother disappears into the eternity of space time..

And now to lay out tomorrows page and start the process again.

Best to all!

Frank

A quick sketch

2010-08-17T11:14:00.001-07:00

Still on book 2, and had to design some aero gunner that play an important role in keeping Rocketo and his men on their feet. In the Lucernian navy there is this insane pilot that for some reason wants to fly in something as crazy as that, I guess he keeps himself happy by blasting away anything that moves. The thinking was to make it look like some horrific giant fly, the type that hang around in NYC in the summer time.

Back to work. The great little thing about quick little doodles like this is that it frees you up before you work on the page, I liked doing the background for it with a piece of paper towel dipped into the paint and just rubbed in. Quick and dirty but it gets the feeling down and softens up the background.

Best to all.

Tune in later in the week for more stuff.

BOOK 2 panels

2010-08-09T14:02:00.002-07:00

So we are into Book 2 now, moving right along as they say. Had a bit of a snag these last couple of days. I ran out of paper and so did the art store, and the online store all at the same time. The perfect storm of paper loss. Left me no choice but to buy a Bristol pad and cut it down to size, while I wait for the paper to come in later this week.

The good news is that I got some nice watercolor paper that will be fun to paint on, for a nice cover or a double page spread.

I been experimenting with tearing up rice paper and painting it into the pages, to give it some textures here and there, here is one of the panels I worked it in.

Funny the panel is a recreation of a scene that happened in Book 1, and it was fun to see it in full color as the scene in the book is all in one color. Naturally Rocketo is having a flash back to that important scene with the Ull.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Back to work.

BOOK 2 panels

2010-08-09T14:02:00.001-07:00

ROCKETO TRIPTYCH

2010-07-31T14:48:00.000-07:00

The first book of the New World was finished on Weds so before I start on book 2 on Monday, I am taking a bit of time to do a little play project I had in my head for a while. I been meaning to do a series of Rocketo Triptychs, and here is the first one.

The plan is to do a Triptych or a poster every time I finish a book, so there should be twelve in all with the New World story as a glue that will hold them together. It should be fun and they will all be original pieces one of a kind to sell.

The Triptych is all hand made, the wood is cut by hand, prepared for painting and then the fun begins.

The piece is on wood and is 25 by 5.

Day by day..

2010-07-14T07:49:00.000-07:00

So here I am again, three hundred pages to go, not counting covers and a couple of posters here and there for promotions... one day at a time. Reminds me of running a blasted marathon. Its important for artist to keep themselves healthy at some level, we get so used to sitting around for hours, painting, sculpting, drawing, composing, that we do not see our weight slowly creeping up on us.. the heart machine slowly about to go kaput.

I always been a bit of a runner, and these days I run just to keep the mind from going insane from the thought of having a couple of hundred pages, to ink, paint, color, and write. The run does me good, it reminds me that one step at a time and it all adds up. It's the same with animation, and I mean animation from the old school days, when one had to draw one frame at a time.

Marathon running.

That is all it is. Storytelling and art is Marathon running.. exhausting down the prey, so that it can be consumed for others. Not that I am any hunter mind you I just thought the metaphor was fun.

Anyway, I just wanted to keep you all posted a bit every day, little journal as pages are made, all three hundred of them.

Some pages have very tight story structure to them, others just pop up. its part of the fun of having your own project.

Here from rough storyboard, you can see the ideas being put down, no editing at this point, just pure idea work letting it all come out from the mind to the page.

The next step is to try to get it down in some sort of manner relating to time, rhythm,emotion, or action.. This part is the part that is going to show.. You can see I went off in many directions here, and one can get lost forever. But its called editing. So its good to stop at some point. You can see it was all a bunch of little panels before it opened up to a double page spread.

After that a value study, or a small color rough will get me on my way not to tight I want to figure some stuff out while working on the page, it helps.. so I don't get bored.

Then the final page.

One page a day and in this case a double page spread, but a couple of hundred more to go.

Hope you enjoy the journey.

Frank.

some NEW WORLD PAGES

2010-07-12T14:04:00.000-07:00

Excuse the long delay been busy these days. Here are some pages from the New World. In the coming days I will be posting a couple of more. The painting has officially started and now I am trying to paint one page or more a day for a while until at least four or five books are finished, and then off they go to the publisher.

Its about time right.

Enjoy and best to all of you.

OUT OF THE WAY!!

2010-05-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

For those who miss Rocketo here is a sketch that I had fun with, Mutants jumping around about to squash you is great subject matter.

Enjoy and best to all of you.

Frank

helps to get out and paint a bit

2010-05-28T11:19:00.000-07:00

Here are some quick sketches from a falling apart sketchbook. I love getting my old bag ready to paint outdoors, limiting my colors, picking my brushes, filling my water bottles and then sitting and waiting for something to hit me and say, " Paint me!"

So many lovely moments out there to capture, not enough time in the day.

The little sketches of people I did while waiting for a friend at a 23st. park during lunch time. Everybody was eating, and talking, moving, walking dogs, reading papers, or just sitting staring their past, present or future. Its a nice time to try to capture people usually they are so busy devouring that burger that they forget that someone is sitting around sketching them. I did not have a lot of time and basically just threw some quick gestures down, not really looking at my paper as much as my subject, I find that doing that teaches me so much.

Later in the week I painted one of my favorite bridges around my neighborhood, the cross bronx bridge, I wanted to capture some of that crazy hectic, energy with blocky clouds and little toy cars, everyone is always rushing somewhere in NYC.

Enjoy and all my best

Frank

rice paper drawings

2010-05-12T13:58:00.001-07:00

Digging around the studio, I came across a bunch of rice paper that I loved to play around with a long time ago. One can go their entire life just playing with ink and wash on rice paper, it seems that the paper picks up every single stroke of your brush before you bring it down. Anyway, its a bit busy today, but I wanted to just put up some quick playful snaps with the brush on that wonderful surface. Its nice to change up the materials we use as artist, it pushes our minds and talent outward. As soon as it clears up a bit, there is this certain pipe smoking sailor that I have to paint.

Enjoy the day.

Best to all

the Ghost who walks.

2010-05-11T13:00:00.001-07:00

For my friend in Italy, the Phantom.

Lee Falk, created two great heroes, the Phantom and Mandrake the magician. When I was growing up in Cuba, there was no such thing as Marvel comics and DC comics, but I did read Popeye, the Phantom, Superman and Mandrake in the papers. So for me those characters have a special place, I thought about traveling to the Skull cave, looking at the great book that held the stories of the past Phantoms, and riding off to fight the pirates that threaten the security of my jungle... well lots of things have changed since those days, the land I used to know is gone in many ways, but the memories that those characters gave me, the ability to open up my imagination and take me to a new world, well that is something that can't be put into words.

I would rediscover the Phantom like a lost friend, or rather he would discover me, his strange eyes would be looking at me while I walked through a newspaper store looking for comics. This was before the day of the speciality comic book store, and comics shared their space with magazines and newspapers which made the store smell great. And it gave the act of buying a comics the gentle feel of an adult nature to a young kid.

So there he was, looking at me.. no eyeballs.. no white.. just flesh.. flesh through the mask.. The Ghost who walks...The Phantom.

I brought the comic book and me without even knowing how to read English at the time. It did not matter the images of the Skull cave were a familiar home to a boy in a strange land.

Excuse the scans, I went and varnish the paintings in the sketch book, forgetting that I should scan them first. So they reflect a bit more light than they should..

Best to all of you and as always thank you.

have brush will travel.

2010-05-07T05:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everybody!

One of the ways of relaxing the small marble inside my head is to just take that brush and move it around and see what comes out of it. Free the mind, no references, clip files, just let the colors fall where they will and let the brush and hand do their work. It always surprises me what comes out of it, and what goes in the trash.

The other day I took a walk in the Cloisters a park that is close to where I live and a great place to go sketching and painting on weds afternoons. The flowers have come in strong this year, one walks and the ground explodes with color, a stretch of blue flowers resembles a field of stars. I wish I had the time and the talent to catch that light.

I sat down and painted for a bit, afterwards late at night at home, I painted from memory some of the images from that long walk. Funny how the memory is sometimes more alive than the real thing. I tried to get some of that light in the Rocketo sketches I did later on Thursday.

So here are some ramblings from the mind.

Have a great weekend all of you and thank you for your comments.

Some more sketches

2010-05-04T16:05:00.000-07:00

Some more quick studies of the Rhino, and other Spidey bad guys.

Best

make mine madness

2010-05-04T14:57:00.000-07:00

Excuse the long delays between Posts.. I will try my best to keep it more updated from now on. Funny what happens when you are painting something and then a bunch of ink falls on it. Here I was planning some Rocketo drawing and a bunch of sumi ink spilled over and covered a good part of the page.. well, good things like that cant be ignored! One must be bold and change direction!! So from Rocketo came out the Incredible Hulk! I pushed the ink all over the page and then came at it with some Gamma green. Well the energy must have kept going, because I played around with Spidey and some of his great bad guys. The great thing about those early designs is that one can be so bold, and play around with these wonderful giant shapes, very graphic styling in those early days of comics. Comics for comics sake.

Just looking at that great Spidey cover where he fights Electro got me thinking, of doing my own zany version. I figured from now on its a good experiment to find those old classic cover and paint them in a crazy fun way.

BTW. One of my favorite costume is the old Phantom. I love how graphic he looks, I saw the trailer for the new Phantom television mess of a show, and there is a line where the kid, looks at the suit and says he will not wear that. Funny, how the makers of that show think they are better than the material. You would think they would want to do something different, graphic, bold.. naw... lets give him a black hood thing. What a waste. Anyway back to work. Real men wear purple in the Jungle.

Best to all of you.

Frank.

Are you J.C OF MARS?

2010-03-17T08:30:00.000-07:00

John Carter of Mars was one of my all time favorite series of books as a kid. Looking back I can see the crazy racial stuff that Burrough was trying to pull, a similar device to his Tarzan books. But we can ignore that or loop it off as a thing of the past... still, for a hispanic man like myself its still a bit colonialist. JC was a Confederate soldier, lands on a planet of green men and kicks their ass. In that case its not so dissimilar from Avatar, sucker lands on planet and becomes better than the people that have been evolving there for millions of years, but those are topics for long and thoughtful conversations back and forth.

John Carter took my imagination for a ride, out of the inner city New York neighborhood I was living in, threw me on Mars, rode me up and down the Martian plains full of dying martian forests, and introduced me to a legion of Martian lifeforms and cultures that tumbled and rumbled my tiny mind.

So I have great love for the Carter books, and a while ago, while living in California I had heard that the young lads that were responsible for Sky Captain were working on a John Carter film. You can imagine what happens next, I sat around my drawing desk for about a week, putting Rocketo on hold for a while ( The Journey to the Hidden Sea had not been published yet.) and launched myself into John Carter land.

A week later I had over forty pieces of artwork. By some miracle Lisett Torres a very gifted composer had managed to get an interview with me and the Conran brothers. I presented all the artwork and had a great meeting, talking to them about my ideas for the opening sequence of the film, my ideas for the Martian ape, how the Tarks should be able turn and move their bodies and how that would effect their fighting techniques, among many other things. The Conran brothers treated me wonderfully listening and then... I never heard from them again. I am sure that they had another vision in mind, and would have pulled off a nice looking film. The thing about Carter is that everyone sees it in their own unique way.

That was many years ago, and now Pixar is at it.. sadly its in live action.

My idea for the John Carter series was animation based, what we now see Avatar doing so well. I wanted a film that was a mixture of the old John Carter book illustrations of the fifties and sixties and a Max Fleischer, Superman cartoon.

Carter was in a way the first Superman, and at some point I even had the colors of his tunic resemble the Superman colors.

The funny thing about all of this is that John Carter would have been the first animated feature if Bob Clampett had been able to

do his vision, instead animation history drifted into the fairy tale world of talking rats and dancing ducks that has engulfed it for over seventy years now.

So here was this great adventure story ready to m

ake its mark on the animation world again, in a way to bring it back to its roots. An animated tale for adults and kids, that would be full of fun and adventure. Naw.

Which would be a good topic for another giant post, why the animation industry is so insanely backward. Instead of competing with live action, they should be thinking of surpassing it.

Anyway, here are some sketches, done very fast for the presentation, like stated above their were many more done, and as I find them all I will post some up, some I will not, for the simple reasons I found the ideas very creative and used them for Rocketo Journey to the New World.

Whew. If you are all still awake, bless you.

One of the big inspirations for the opening of the film was Jack Kirby... I thought that the cave that Carter runs into with his wounded friend should be an old Martian base, full of strange Martian machinery from way in the past.. John would somehow trip open the machines and be teleported backward to the distant past of Mars..

The small black and white cities sketches are part of a large group that tell a story.. The idea of a Martian city that is grown from out of the sand.. with a giant cave network as its support was fun to play around in. I was taking Burroughs and playing with it.

The Thoats were inspired from looking at the way the American Indians branded their mounts with the fingerprints and designs of each tribe.

Enjoy

Frank.

ROCKETO VIDEO TEST 1

2010-03-10T18:35:00.000-08:00

Many, many moons ago when the Earth was young and I was in Animation school it would have taken me hours, maybe days of shooting under my faithful Oxberry Animation camera to get this result. Now with the magic of Imovie one can make a quick little bit like this and have endless hours to play around with it. I do not know which in the long run is better, but I had a blast working on this.

At some point it would be nice to make a short Rocketo story with narration and original music. The music is by Barry Gray of the Thunderbirds fame and its from a film called Journey to the far side of the sun, known as Doppleganger in Europe.

Sadly the final version of the music cuts off a bit at the end, but that will be fixed when the original Rocketo theme replaces it.

Hope all is well with all of you.

My best

Frank.

DANGER WILL ROBINSON! NEED YOUR EMAIL!

2010-01-28T05:05:00.000-08:00

Well after ten years, my trusty computer decided it was going to that big round up in the sky.

Just hearing about the new Ipad must have sent my old Mac into panic mode. Sadly it did not give me any warning... ok.. it was making strange animal sounds for a couple of weeks before the big crash, but one minute it was on, the next well the less said would be less better. The main thing is I wound up losing my address book, so for all of those who have not heard from me in a bit, or want to hear from me in the future send me and email, so we can all stay in touch.

frank

Looking forward to putting some more stuff up very soon. Excuse the delay.

The best to all of you!

Email is

rocketocomics@verizon.net

So I was saying...

2009-10-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

Its been so long, I think I forgot how to do this. Lets see... Push a button here, and bang, instant art comes out. Nice. I think I can get to like this computer thing. Excuse the long delay, lots of stuff going on.

I cant believe some of you are still following this insane blog. Thank you, I really appreciate that. Its nice to come back to the old homestead and see the family is still around.

Now its time to try to get to that magical Rocketo finish line that keeps moving backward every time I get within feet of it.

I did these small sketches to just play around and also to put something up besides comic pages. Some of these small quick sketches point the way to styles that will wind up in the coming books.

Here are some cover ideas for Book 1 of the New World.

I want to get some strange feel with the Art, is this struggle to get the know and the unknown down at the same time.

Again excuse the long delay.

My best to you all!

Still around just being a monkey

2009-04-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the long delay between blogs, I will try to keep move it a much faster.
One of the reasons is I am deep in working on Vol 2 The NEW WORLD. Writing, drawing, painting, its all one giant jumble right now, now and then I stop and say, hell I should post this.. but then I would be ruining some of the surprise of reading the actual book for you guys.
So I pick and choose very carefully.
Here are some rough sketches, that give you a sense of my insane storytelling. I basically lay it out in these small thumbnails, usually a couple of versions of the same scene. By doing multiple versions I can pick and choose from the scene which part I can start in and end with. After that stage I do a page layout, that I will post later, so you guys can see how it all comes together on the page. I have block out in white some of the notes I make around the images, only for trying to keep the story fresh for you guys, when you read it.
I threw in some of the color work that is going along, not yet all finished, lines have to be added here and there, colors have to be a bit corrected, but right now I am moving on, I will do all the corrections in one or two days, after the book is all painted, that way I can hopefully catch everything with a fresh eye.
Again sorry about the delay.
Best to you all!
Frank.

EXPLORING THE NEW WORLD IN MY NOGGING

2009-03-06T18:04:00.000-08:00

Yeah I know, more painting stuff.. more ideas, more thinking.

Pushing again..

Yep, it takes a while for me to put things down.. I slow down then, move through it quick. There was a time when people would wait until books would come out, or films, or novels, the audience, the fans gave time for creators to think about things before they knocked stuff out.

I like to explore all the avenues, for me this is the way I make the world come alive, testing and testing, most important for me, is learning. What do I get out of it? A better understanding of my craft and something new has been learned along the way. It would be easy for me to knock out the next book in the same style as before, no worries and everyone is happy.

What have I learned from that? What do I take with me?

So I paint and learn, and push that envelope.. I am not at Warner Bros. anymore.

Best to all.

SOME ROCKETO CONCEPTS

2009-03-04T09:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry about not putting up some stuff in a while, things just got a bit wild. On one end the NEW WORLD pages are coming off a good nice good clip, although on the other hand,.. on the other hand, I am thinking of painting this sucker by hand. Between pages, I like to get some concept work done, small little things, that make me think ahead visually to were I am going to go. This time, during a break, those concept sketches started to really point the way into a new direction color wise. There are things that a brush can do, that computers just can't get to yet. Its a nice thought actually, that a thousand year old invention some hair and a stick can still kick the crap out of the digital age. Wet meets dry. Opaque meets transparent. The brush opens up at the last minute. Something happens that one could never plan.
Things happen on that painted page, that is magic to me. So here is a vote, how many of you would like to see a painted version of Rocketo?
I started with some concept work for climax of one of the books.
Trying to get a feel for how our technology would look in the future, a future that has had to reinvent itself along a different philosophy, it would be closer to magic, their machines would be more like idols. One of the bad guys, has reached a machine that is part living organism, part dimensional gateway.

Here are some concepts for Lucerne, the land that rules the world. My original thinking was to have a city that was so lovely, so beautiful to look at that it would dazzle the eyes. The buildings would resemble giant trees, acorns, floating gardens, a sort of fake natural world,
to make its citizens happy and proud, so they can ignore the horror that Lucerne does around the planet. That big green Acorn is the King's palace, a super large city in its own right.
Back to the drawing board.

Best to all of you.
Frank.

NEW WORLD SWAMP JOURNEY.

2009-02-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some panels from some of the pages that are being worked on.

The color is rough and tumble and just to see if everything is reading at this point. When I color the work I like to do it all at once so I can set up a rhythm for the colors, based on emotion, design, and mood, but every once in a while, a panel sticks out when the full page is scanned, and I cant wait to see what a little color will do to it. When I start on the next book, Rocketo Journey to the Broken Moon I would like to paint the entire thing by hand. Right now time is running, and its best to tackle the thing with a bit of computer help. Although I plan to add some "real" paintings to the covers and to last pages of Journey to the New World, this would be a nice way to end each cliffhanger.

It's cloudy, windy and looks like rain.. and this is the daily weather cast for lovely grey scaled NYC.

Frank.

Best to all today.

Frank.

NEW WORLD DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD.

2009-02-10T06:36:00.000-08:00

I thought I would show of the steps and the thinking that went into working out a Rocketo page.
In this case, it was going to be a nice long panel, maybe, taking up half the page. The idea was simple enough Rocketo and Spiro leave their ship to go exploring in the new world. The thumbnails are really small, and I group them in one page, originally they are on two separate papers and they are both so small that if I scanned the entire pages, it would be hard to spot them.
So out comes the Bristol paper. Now normally if this were a painting I would use an Illustration board, but when working on a comic, I try to keep the Illustration board work down to just the covers. I sketched out the figures and once a couple of corrections were done, I started the inking on part of them, just so I could remember certain details, that would tell me more about the flow of the action.

keep it flowing now. The sky tones are put in as quick as possible, so I can control how much white of the paper is going to show through, that way my values will be a bit more controlled in the end. Another reason is, just to get the ball rolling... we all have this fear of ruining the picture, I like to ruin it as fast as possible. From this point on I better work at fixing the blasted thing.

The values of the car are thrown in, big thinking at this point. The textures of the car and some of the forms that I like to bring out are played with in very fast strokes.

Once some of the values of the car are worked up, I go back into the characters at this point about twenty minutes or so has gone by. I use a hairdryer to dry the paint even quicker, yep, the pages warp a bit, but since I want to scan these, it's not a big deal, I can always flatten it later.
This is were it slows down a bit. The characters shapes are blocked in, and some back and forth happens between car and characters and background, everything starts to erupt fast at this point. I pretty much work this sucker up to the finish state.
Now, remember the thumbnail, it shows a big ship at the end of it, well I threw out that idea and wanted to add something a bit more open, to give the feeling of a big vista. This story is called the NEW WORLD, not the New ship. So now the panel upgrades to a nice double page spread, that took me by surprise.

Here is the rest of the background, same process, big strokes and quick shapes. In fact the background takes even less time, because it's nice and loose and should not have fine details to it. There is still foreground work to be done so I tackle that and soon it's pretty much done. It's back and forth and sideways, going back from dark to light and light to dark.

Here are the two black plates for the pages, more or less at a ready point for the next steps it will take to finish it. Basically it's not finished until the lettering gets put in, and the color is final, the borders are defined.. that is when its ready to send out, but at this stage its fun to see where it can still go.

A very rough color, shows me how the values and textures will look with some color on top.

Best to all.
Frank.

Its going to be a long journey.

2009-02-07T09:43:00.000-08:00

I have been working away at the New World, and wanted to share some of the pages as they are being worked on. Many of them I just took digital pictures of, because its tough to stop and scan a page while the madness of creation is pounding away. But while the layers of washes are drying, and if I have enough brain left, I manage to snap some pics.
Here are also some of the pages, after all the washes are done.. I drop in some very quick color just to see if the washes will show through, if I need to lighten or darken something to make it read better. This color is not final, just a study in contrast.
I find that every page is different, I wish I could say I have a system worked out, sometimes I put in the blacks first then work up to light, other times its light and then blacks, it all depends on the mood or the feel that particular page is trying to convey. What I like is the feeling of surprise at the end of it all, as tight as the thumbnail sketches are, they loose some of their meaning when they are blown up and put on the actual page. Some pages have no thumbnail period, they are roughly sketched out and then taken to finish, that way, like I said before, it surprises me and keeps me involved in that world. Its hard to loose sight of the entire project, without the thumbnail sketches, but the actual project is the finish page, I found if I can leave room to create and think on the page itself it lends a more fresh look.
Keep moving.. keep moving, all I say to myself, work it out, and then move on to the next page.
Work it out page by page, do the work. One can't think himself out of a problem.
Like the Old Man and the Sea, one must go into deep waters to find a nice big fish.
Best to all.
Frank.

ROCKETO'S NEW WORLD

2009-01-29T09:38:00.000-08:00

Rocketo's new Journey takes him and his crew to places that were never shown in the vol.1 Journey to the Hidden Sea. I look at that map and I see the names written on them, and now I realized its time to bring them to life.

The Ocean of Cyclopes is crossed by Rocketo and his new companions, while trying to escape a Lucernian War ship. Its a desperate act in the story, as the Ocean has never been crossed. The reason: there is no water in the Ocean of Cyclopes, just giant jelly eyeballs as far as our eye can see. Waves of swirling eyeballs, that if one stares at them, your worst nightmare or your biggest dream is shown to you. Many have plunged into that mire without ever coming back. Rocketo forces the men, to throw their weapons overboard, as the visions, they see will test their will power.

These quick studies in my sketchbook, help me to visualize the sequences, and to design that dreaded Ocean. These tiny drawings are a wonderful guide for me later, as things that I thought would look great turn out to be really bad or, every once in a while, if I am lucky...the visuals actually work. Then the time comes to let it all go and just let the page take over.

Slowly the journey begins.

Frank.

FRANKENSTEIN COVERS

2009-01-28T14:07:00.000-08:00

Had some time to do some quick playful studies of cover designs for Frankenstein. I would be a long time sketching to exhaust all the many graphic treatments this wonderful book has to offer. To do something with a lot of color instead of the traditional dark muted colors was my goal.

Hope you enjoy.

Frank.

OLD MAN AND THE SEA COVER COMPS

2009-01-27T15:36:00.000-08:00

It was fun to play around with some quick color studies on the Old Man and the Sea. What a great illustration job that would be. These little color notations are a great way practice, and play.

Best to all of you.

Frank.

SANTIAGO

2009-01-25T16:33:00.000-08:00

It feels like a Marlin chase now..

Where will I wind up? Like Santiago says.. "I have gone to far out." That is were I want to take Santiago, to far out. I took a break, hit some more sketches.. the more I draw of Santiago, "Not enough" keeps repeating in my mind.. This guy is taking me out to sea. What a blast.

Frank.

THAT WHICH I WAS BORN FOR.

2009-01-25T12:39:00.000-08:00

I figure there must be some grunts and fouls being called from some of you who are following this blog, and are expecting more Rocketo work. But the truth is that I get my inspiration for the Rocketo books, by reading many different types of books. It is sad to say but few comics actually inspire me these days, in many their artwork is fantastic and the writing is in some top notch, but I think the Superhero genre has hit its wall for me. So in the search for inspiration I look at some of my favorite old comic strips, and read as many books as I can.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is one of those classic books that most of us are commanded to read while in school. I had to, and I hated it. At the time, I thought that good writing, was the type that described every single minute detail of what was going on in that scene.

Plus my mind was full of John Carter of Mars, and Doc Savage.

Years later, I read the Old Man and the Sea at the suggestion of an old friend who had pitched Hemingway to me. Not bad, I thought... maybe I will read up more of this Ernest fellow.

Little by little like a boulder rolling toward my skull, Ernest Hemingway would smash me to bits. It hit me. Those short powerful sentences, the action, the truth, caught like a japanese brush master on paper. This was comic book writing at its best.

Recently I was lucky to have a copy of the Old Man and the Sea available to me again, and so without any hesitation I once more met Santiago, and the giant Marlin. The ultimate battle of wills, in the waters off Cuba, man vs. giant Marlin! Its much more than that we all know. Santiago knows his mission in the world, he is old and wise... he knows exactly the type of fish he has caught by just feeling the line ever so softly. He is a master of his craft. May we all be so lucky. Santiago holds on to his Marlin, knowing he will kill it, but never once losing respect for the creature that is pushing him to his physical and mental breaking point.

As artist, we all know what that is like. That search for the truth, holding on to something, fighting with it, bringing it home for others to enjoy.

Santiago's struggle is not about winning or losing, for me its about doing that which you were born to do.

As Santiago the old fisherman talks to himself in that small boat, Ernest writes.." Now is no time to think of baseball, he thought. Now is the time to think of only one thing. That which I was born for."

Zen Master at work. The artist concentrates. The fame is so short, everything ends, but the work, the love of the work is eternal.

When thinking about how I would draw the book, there were so many directions to go it was hard at first. I finally thought I would handle it with as little realism as possible. So that Hemingway's words of truth would be your anchor.

Santiago came in my head like some giant red crab, some old sea creature that had been burnt by the sun. Quickly I did these sketches to try to get that feeling down as quick as I could, to try to feel the heat around his shoulders.

In the meantime I will keep trying, keep sketching Santiago out, whenever I have some free time.

And yes, at some point more Rocketo.

My best to all.

Frank.

Hideous progeny

2009-01-18T08:49:00.000-08:00

Still thinking about Frankenstein...

I came across an interesting thing that Mary Shelley wrote in her introduction to the 1831 edition. "Perhaps the component parts of a creature might be manufactured, brought together, and endued with vital warmth."

This got my noggin thinking...in the book Dr.Frankenstein experiments on dead bodies, but there is no mention that a dead body was used to create the creature. Later in the story when Frankenstein begins to build another creature, there is no mention of him dragging a body to his new Laboratory. So it could be that Dr. Frankenstein "manufactured" the creature's parts in his own strange way. Created organs, and brains, eyeballs, and hearts to fit the creature's great size.

The vision that stuck in my head was of some overgrown embryo, a creature that would have giant blue veins, under almost, yellow, white translucent skin.. A bad sculpture, half finished, half aborted, if you will of a human. The creature would be either made from science or from some strange mystical darkness that the young Dr. Frankenstein was experimenting with, symbols that would be written over the creatures body.

The vision was so great, I knocked out these quick color studies to use for a larger painting later.

I will keep at it, when the time permits sketching away at this creature that has captured so much of my imagination.

Frank.

"MY REIGN IS NOT YET OVER"

2009-01-16T15:03:00.000-08:00

With those words, the monster taunts his creator.

I just finished re-reading Frankenstein. The last time I read it, I was in college, and now I wanted to refresh my memory of the famous novel. My mind was swirling with the images and symbols that Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley so wonderfully created. The passionate, obsessive creator works non-stop to make his work, only to abandon it after it's done. The creature, who in many ways is superior to man, searches for acceptance. Then in a horrid turn of events, the creation recreates his creator, fashioning a vengeful madman who will pursue him to the ends of the Earth. In that one act, the monster has made his mate.

So now my pen takes a life of its own and starts to draw the Frankenstein monster. So many ways of handling, one can design this creature for years... and maybe I will just make it a point to keep playing around with the creation of it.

It would make a great film, an animated film. Serious. Dark. The ship coming through the ice, the sails snapping open sprinkling ice chips like stars. The men onboard, beards frozen, ply the ropes. Black cracks of ice spreading outward like a giant spider web as the ship breaks through. The gigantic figure of Frankenstein is seen by the crew, racing across the great ice shelf. When will animated films learn?

There was an animated film called the tell-tale heart by UPA studios from Poe's great story, the film is amazing. A great example of the animated form doing something different besides rabbits and gnomes...

Well here are some sketches, they are just the start, maybe as it progresses I will post some more. As I read books, I will be adding an illustration or two from them. It should be a fun experiment.

Next one: The Old man and the Sea.

Tigermen

2009-01-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Above is the left hand side of a double page spread..

This is the right side..

One of the many joys of working on Rocketo is designing and planning all the different wildlife and creatures that populate it. The Tigermen are my favorite, I imagine them outnumbering the humans about five to one.

The tigermen have spread their culture from the desert plains, upward into snow mountains filled with mysterious Monasteries, and into hidden jungles deep inside unknown continents. It seems that wherever one goes in the New World, lurks a Tigerman. In designing a complete tribe of them, it was fun coming up with different ways to separate one from another.

Color, dress, even how advanced one tribe is from another makes a difference and helps to sell the idea that this is a complete world.

So as I read everything I can about different cultures around our planet, I bury my nose to the board to help design the tribes of the Plains.

I put up a double page spread from one of the opening shots of the New Series. It tells about the attack on the Chanku ferry, by the Tigermen of the plains. Have fun putting it together!

I sketched this out, in detail, and then like always, just started drawing.

One can see where I have not erased the lines around the inks, as this is not a final scan. You can see where I just went off the drawing underneath to follow a different emotional lead.

During a recent tribe to the NY Natural History Museum, which in a way is one of the visual guides for the Mapping Guild itself, I came across some great designs that sneak into the Tigerman culture. Thousands of years of culture cannot be made up in a single instant, so going to the Museum and snooping around is the best way to jump start an idea when one has hit the wall.

I also added the inked page of one of the pages that was posted before that had just washes.

Enjoy!

Frank.

here we go again

2009-01-07T08:15:00.000-08:00

Well its been a while since I posted, I been a bit busy running around.

Now its back to the New World, in the New Year.

Here is a page from the new series.

The Bomb that the tigerman throws at Spiro is a mutant mind bomb...

The bomb explodes killing the mutant, whose mind releases a powerful mind blast that creates a sort of gravity free zone for a while... so its actually a gravity bomb as they call them in Rocketo's world.

This is still in the books, it was too much fun to throw out. That cannot be said for the following pages...

I decided to show some of the old pages that will not be used in the New World. I was lucky enough to take some pics of the different stages. As you can see it all stays very loose until the Indian Ink is put in. I keep the pencils really loose, and then during the ink washes I try for an even looser approach. Letting the inks do their work.

It sounds like madness, and in some ways it could be. But its the only way I can keep the energy of the pages alive.

I must add that, I work out the pages in very detail little comps, but once that is done, I almost seem to forget the comps while I put the pencils and the washes. Although I look closely at the comps when I am putting in the Indian Inks. The reason for the comps is to make sure that things read clear, so when I put in the Indian Inks I want to try to hit some of those notes, there are times the notes are hit, sometimes they are not, the full size page has a rhythm all its own. One must follow the energy of the full size page, and take advantage of all its power.

The following are scenes from an attack on the Chanku Ferry, for those familiar with the books, the Chanku is a giant organic train that travels across the plains. The Chanku attack is still in the books, but toned down a bit, in the old version it would last almost two entire books. Fight scenes are so nice to draw that they can carry you away. But the story and the characters have to come first.

May all of you have a wonderful New Year.

EDITH WELLES

2008-12-29T08:48:00.000-08:00

There is this character that has been on my mind for a long long time her name is Edith Welles.
Edith is the type of character that will give you many rewards in the act of storytelling. Sometimes those characters come easy, like Rocketo and Spiro Turnstiles, but many times those characters have to be born with special care, that only time can bring. Edith started out as a librarian, a keeper of Maps, then she evolved into a specialist of rocks, and now she is a naturalist, a specialist in the varied multiform life of the New World. Her profession had to be picked carefully, and it had to fit her style, moods, and personality.

I had a vision of this shy, gentle, and very scared girl that would join Rocketo in many of his most dangerous adventures. I finally settled on the Naturalist, the reason... well Edith has a flaw, and like all good characters that flaw has to be small to others and big to her, or big to others and small for her, in any case her flaw had to be exploited to its fullest. So Edith is a Naturalist that can't stand to be outdoors. Poor Edith can barely make it out of her front door. This shy Agoraphobic Naturalist, this study in contrast is what makes Edith so special to me.
That is why I have struggled with Edith's physical look for a while. Tons of drawings have been done from the sexy, to the cartoon and many of those drawings have said, "No that is not me, try again." So I look and struggle for Edith in the way one sees a dim vision and can't bring it into focus. A couple of days ago I was riding the New York City subway, scanning around like I usually do for any faces that stick out, noses, mouths, ears, etc. Suddenly in front of me sat a girl, I will never know her name or her background, but there she was, sitting, making some strange faces powered by some unknown thoughts in her brain.
Right in front of me, was the model for Edith Welles come to life. I must have drawn her in my mind again and again until we parted company. But in those minutes Edith began to have a face. So I went home and knocked around making sketches of her and found out I couldn't use any of them.. I was thinking too much of the girl on the train and had forgotten that Edith is a caricature of life.
But it was too late, the genie was out of the bottle, and Edith had to be born, she could wait no more. So I struggled and pulled, forsaking pencil for a big giant brush, and drew with my eyes closed, eyes opened, drew with dry brush, drew from memory, and little by little as I caricatured and pulled and played, Edith began to take some shape.
As the books start to get drawn, Edith will change a bit more. Nothing will be final until her turn in the spotlight comes up, but now at least I have a lead, standing there with her trusty umbrella ready for adventures inside her own living room, like all of us she dreams.
Edith is special to me, she will be in all the books from the New World until the last. She has to have appeal, movement, balance and truth, so I don't worry that it took a long time, it's just part of the process. To me she is Buster Keaton, and Olive Oyl, she is Myrna Loy and Lucy Ball, but most importantly she is Edith Welles, Chief Naturalist of the Commonwealth. Keep your eyes open one never knows when a character walks up and stares you in the face.

EDITH WELLES - C'è questo personaggio a cui penso da tanto tanto tempo, si chiama Edith Welles. Edith è il tipo di personaggio che ti ricompenserà parecchio durante la narrazione. A volte i personaggi si manifestano facilmente, come Rocketo e Spiro Turnstiles, ma più spesso devono nascere con attenzioni particolari che solo il tempo può fornire. Edith ha cominciato come bibliotecaria, una custode di Mappe, poi si è evoluta in una esperta di rocce e ora è una naturalista, una specialista nelle molteplici forme di vita del Nuovo Mondo. La sua professione andava scelta con cura, e doveva confacersi al suo stile, umore e personalità.
Avevo una visione di questa ragazza timida, gentile e molto paurosa che si sarebbe unita a Rocketo in molte delle sue avventure più pericolose. Alla fine ho deciso per la naturalista, la ragione...be', Edith ha un difetto e come per tutti i grandi personaggi quel difetto deve essere piccolo per gli altri e grande per lei, o grande per gli altri e piccolo per lei, in ogni caso quel difetto doveva essere sfruttato appieno. Così Edith è una naturalista che non sopporta di stare all'aperto. La povera Edith riesce appena a uscire dalla porta di casa. Questa timida naturalista agorafobica, questo studio nel contrasto è ciò che rende Edith così speciale per me.
Questo è il motivo per cui ho lottato un po' con l'aspetto fisico di Edith. Ho fatto tonnellate di disegni dal sexy al cartoon e tanti di quei disegni hanno detto, "no, quella non sono io, riprova". Quindi mi sforzo di fare Edith come quando uno ha una visione sfocata e non riesce a metterla a fuoco. Un paio di giorni fa ero in metropolitana a New York, guardandomi intorno come faccio spesso per volti particolari, nasi, bocche, orecchi, ecc. All'improvviso mi trovo seduta di fronte una ragazza, non saprò mai il suo nome o cosa fa nella vita, ma era lì seduta facendo strane facce alimentate da chissà quali pensieri nel suo cervello.
Proprio davanti a me c'era il modello animato di Edith Welles. Devo averla disegnata nella mia mente ancora e ancora finchè non ci siamo divisi. Ma in quei minuti Edith ha iniziato ad avere un volto. Andato a casa mi sono messo a fare sketch e ho scoperto che non ne potevo usare nessuno. Stavo pensando troppo alla ragazza sul treno e avevo dimenticato che Edith è una caricatura della vita. Ma era troppo tardi, il genio era uscito dalla bottiglia e Edith doveva nascere, non poteva più attendere. Così mi sono sforzato ancora, abbandonando la matita a favore di un enorme pennello e ho disegnato con gli occhi chiusi, occhi aperti, a memoria e poco a poco mentre giocavo Edith ha iniziato a prendere forma.
Quando inizierò a disegnare il fumetto, Edith cambierà ancora un poco. Nulla sarà definitivo fino al suo momento di andare in scena ma ora almeno ho una guida che se ne sta lì con il suo fidato ombrello pronta per avventure dentro il suo soggiorno, come tutti noi, lei sogna. Edith è speciale per me, sarà in tutte le serie dal Nuovo Mondo fino all'ultima. Lei deve avere fascino, movimento equilibrio, essere vera, quindi non mi preoccupa che ci sia voluto tanto. Per me lei è Buster Keaton e Olivia Oyl, Myrna Loy e Lucy Ball, ma soprattutto è Edith Welles, Naturalista capo della Confederazione. Tenete gli occhi aperti, non si sa mai quando vi troverete davanti un personaggio.

colors of the mind

2008-12-26T08:50:00.000-08:00

I have no idea why but I have the strange habit of taking pictures of my paint palette as soon as I finish a painting. It's a strange sort of thing to do I guess, but part of me thinks that the paints have followed me throughout the journey of taking an idea from mind to matter and it deserves some sort of respect. I guess now, while writing this blog one of the reasons has become clear.

A long time ago I had the pleasure of learning from and working with the wonderful artist, Daniel Melgarejo, way back when I started at Disney Consumer Products. Daniel was an amazing artist, he could knock out a drawing of Mickey and five other characters while talking on the phone, plus having three young drooling artists staring over his shoulder, trying to figure out drawing secrets from the master himself. It was one such day while I was looking over his shoulder that I noticed a glass jar full of tiny worn out pencils...worn down to nothing.. the eraser and some small yellow thing that resembled a piece of wood. I asked Daniel why he kept this jar, and he looked at me and with that wonderful low Argentine voice of his, said.. " I can't bear to throw them away.. they are my friends.. they have helped me so much." It was then that I began to glimpse Daniel's amazing secret, it was his sensitive touch that guided his Herculean talent, his amazing heart that moved every single stroke. We all miss Daniel, he passed away a while ago, and his drawings along with all he said and did with us back in those days will always guide me. So now I take pictures of my paint palette, in many ways his philosophy has rubbed off on me, although not his talent.

Look him up online, his artwork, his sense of design and composition his ability to find appeal and movement in drawing are a wonder to see. He will always be the master.

So here is a picture of the palette that I used for a couple of the Belukha paintings. I wanted to make a Christmas card of it this year, but things got a bit out of my league, maybe next year, it will bring a new palette and a new set of paintings to go with it.

COLORI DELLA MENTE. Non so perchè ma ho la strana abitudine di fotografare la mia tavolozza appena finisco un quadro. Suppongo sia una cosa strana, ma parte di me pensa che le tempere mi abbiano seguito nel corso del viaggio che ha portato un'idea dalla mente alla materia e meritano del rispetto. E penso che ora, mentre scrivo queste righe, una delle ragioni mi si è chiarita. Tanto tempo fa ho avuto il piacere di apprendere da e lavorare con il magnifico artista Daniel Melgarejo, quando ho cominciato alla Disney Consumer Products. Daniel era un artista stupefacente, poteva fare un disegno di Topolino e cinque altri personaggi mentre parlava al telefono e in più avendo tre giovani disegnatori sbavanti a guardare da dietro le sue spalle, cercando di carpire segreti al maestro in persona. Fu uno di quei giorni in cui guardavo da dietro la sua spalla che notai un barattolo di vetro pieno di matite consumate...consumate fino al nulla...la gomma e qualche piccolo coso giallo che ricordava un pezzo di legno. Chiesi a daniel perchè teneva quel barattolo e lui mi guardò e con quella meravigliosa voce bassa argentina disse.. "Non posso buttarle via... sono le mie amiche... mi hanno aiutato tanto." Fu allora che iniziai a intuire lo stupefacente segreto di Daniel, era la sua sensibilità a guidare il suo talente erculeo, il suo cuore stupefacente a muovere ogni pennellata. A tutti noi Daniel manca, è morto tempo fa, e i suoi disegni insieme a tutto cio che ci ha detto e fatto con noi in quei giorni mi guideranno sempre. Così io ora fotografo la mia tavolozza, la sua filosofia mi è rimasta addosso anche se non il suo talento. Cercatelo online, le sue opere, il suo senso della composizione, la sua capacità di dare appeal e movimento nel disegno sono una meraviglia da vedere. Sarà sempre il maestro. Quindi ecco una foto della tavolozza che ho usato per un paio dei quadri con Belukha. Volevo farne una cartolina di Natale quest'anno, ma le cose sono finite fuori della mia portata, magari l'anno prossimo, porterà con sè una nuova tavolozza e un nuovo set di quadri.

Bats.

2008-12-23T09:22:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I love to draw this masked man. Every inch of his design is so graphic that he is a joy to bring to life.

Pipistrelli.

Ogni tanto mi piace disegnare questo uomo mascherato. Il suo design è talmente pittoresco che è una gioia dargli vita.

the trash bin

2008-12-23T08:58:00.000-08:00

I would like to say that making these books is easy, and that I breeze through them, but the truth is that there are many false starts. Here are some of them.

Way back when I was working on the Hidden Sea I did not know the format of the book. Should I do it in normal comic book standard or adopt the horizontal format that the book is currently at?

So I did a bunch of pages, using a scene in the Hidden Sea where Rocketo would meet up with the ghosts of all who had sailed into it and had met their doom. The scene was cut out, only because I wanted to take the book in a different direction and having ghosts and skeletons showing up in the Hidden Sea would be more of a supernatural bent then I wanted at the time. But I had a blast doing the pages.

Later I will post some of the pages not used for the New World story.

Enjoy. The dialogue was just to place something in, to give me a guide later on.

Il cestino. Mi piacerebbe dire che fare questi fumetti è facile e che per me è una passeggiata ma la verità è che ci sono molte false partenze. Eccone alcune. Quando lavoravo al Mare Nascosto ancora non sapevo che formato avrebbe avuto. Avrei dovuto farlo nel formato standard o adottare il formato orizzontale che ha attualmente? Così feci qualche pagina, usando una scena nel Mare Nascosto dove Rocketo avrebbe incontrato i fantasmi di tutti quelli che vi si erano addentrati incontrando la loro fine. La scena è stata poi tagliata solo perché volevo che il fumetto andasse in un'altra direzione e avere spettri e scheletri saltar fuori nel Mare Nascosto sarebbe stata una svolta nel sovrannaturale che al momento non volevo. Ma è stato uno spasso fare quelle pagine. Più avanti posterò alcune delle pagine non usate per la storia nel Nuovo Mondo. I dialoghi qui erano solo per scrivere qualcosa che mi facesse da guida successivamente.

its a mix of Doc Savage and Moby Dick... you know.. for kids.

2008-12-22T07:23:00.000-08:00

There are days that while I work on Rocketo many projects drift through my skull and I wish I had more time and more hands to do them all, this very minute.

After the Rocketo books are all said and done, and for those of you who do not know this: the Rocketo books are four giant Journeys, the first being Journey to the Hidden Sea, the next one Journey to the New World, followed by Journey to the Broken Moon and the last book being Journey to Ultamo.

After the Journey to Ultamo book I would like to dive in head first into a smaller series that resembles Popeye, the Phantom, and Dick Tracy with a dash of Doc Savage and the Shadow, and as always a touch of Moby Dick. I know... it sounds insane. That is where the Belukha: the Ghost Whale comes in. It's a character that lives in a world where Time Bombs have gone off.. literally, blasting different alternate dimensions all over the globe. Where Dinosaurs swim past Ocean Liners, a world where a city full of 1930's pulp heroes land in the middle of Time Square...a place where Atlantis rises from the depths full of Mayan inspired Lizard men, the whole thing is whacky and lots of fun, and I did a short story for Popgun vol 2. These days, I have been expanding the world, building it up, giving it laws and structure, and making it simple, simple, simple.

So here are some Belukha sketches from my rough and tumble mind book.

Part of the charm of the book is that throughout the series I would never show the character without the mask. I always love a good mystery.

E' un misto di Doc savage e Moby Dick… sapete… per bambini.
Ci sono giorni in cui mentre lavoro su Rocketo diversi progetti mi passano per la testa e io vorrei avere più tempo e più mani per farli tutti subito. Dopo che tutti i volumi di Rocketo saranno finiti, e per quelli di voi che non lo sanno: I volumi di Rocketo saranno quattro grandi viaggi, il primo quello nel Mare Nascosto, il successivo il viaggio nel Nuovo Mondo seguito dal Viaggio sulla Luna Frantumata e l'ultimo il Viaggio a Ultamo. Dopo il viaggio a Ultamo vorrei tuffarmi a capofitto in una serie che ricorda Popeye, Phantom e Dick Tracy con un po' di Doc savage e The Shadow e come sempre un tocco di Moby Dick. Lo so… sembra folle. Belukha, il personaggio, vive in un mondo dove sono esplose le bombe temporali..letteralmente, portando diverse dimensioni alternative in varie parti del globo. Un mondo dove i dinosauri nuotano accanto alle navi di linea, dove una città piena di eroi pulp degli anni '30 atterra nel mezzo di Time Square…un posto dove Atlantide sorge dagli abissi piena di uomini lucertola di ispirazione maya, dovrebbe essere divertente e ho fatto una storia breve per Popgun n.2. In questi giorni ho lavorato all'espansione del mondo, costruendolo, dandogli leggi e struttire e rendendolo semplice semplice.
Quindi ecco alcuni sketch di Belukha. Parte del fascino sta nel fatto che non mostrerò mai il personaggio senza la maschera. Amo sempre un buon mistero.

we salute those...

2008-12-20T06:48:00.000-08:00

This Spring I had the amazing experience of going to Italy for a very short time to a Comic book show in Lanciano. The journey was filled with food, more food, followed by food, and then some incredible ruins. There is this small comics shop in Italy called... Italy Comics. Behind the desk is a giant bearded fellow that looks like he just came from running a Gladiator school. Beside the giant, seated on a small chair, is his ever faithful companion, a fellow with the look of having just came down from that extinct volcano where Spartacus hid his followers. Paolo, the giant and Dario, the soldier, are the guardians of all things comic and fantastic in that small store in Roma.

These two maniacs basically kidnapped me and took me on a Journey that Spiro would have been proud of. From Roma to Lanciano, a car ride through the Italian country side filled with ancient forts, rivers, bridges and towns that look like some time machine blew up, scattering time and space, past and present into a landscape filled with the light of the Renaissance.

We arrived at Lanciano, a small town by the coast, and met more friends, who told stories, filled me with food and created memories that will be with me for a very long time. I met some wonderful people, from a bunch of young artists that have so much talent in them it makes one's hair fall out to the many editors, publishers and fellow artists that helped to make the journey so much more than what it was meant to be.

The Journeys of Rocketo Garrison throughout the New World would not mean anything if they were not filled with all the good people that populate that world. So many times we fill adventure stories with Monsters, Cyclopes, and Harpies, and yes we meet many of those in our life, but we also meet Nausicaa, who gives us clothes when we are naked. We meet the old man who gives us shelter and the magic weapon to defend ourselves. We meet the friend who sticks by us until the journey is over. As I work on the New World, these are the thoughts that fill my mind, the good things, the good people, the good food. These inspire and make themselves known bit by bit into the world of Rocketo. Thank you Roma and Lanciano.

Saluti… La scorsa primavera ho fatto la stupefacente esperienza di andare in Italia per un brevissimo periodo a un evento fumettistico a Lanciano. Il viaggio è stato colmo di cibo, altro cibo, seguito da cibo, e poi delle incredibili rovine. C'è questa piccola fumetteria in Italia chiamata… Italycomics. Dietro al banco c'è un gigante barbuto che sembra abbia appena finito di dirigere una scuola per gladiatori. Al suo fianco, seduto su una sediolina, il suo fedele compagno, un tizio con l'aspetto di chi è appena disceso da quel vulcano estinto dove Spartacus nascondeva i suoi seguaci. Paolo il gigante e Dario il soldato sono i guardiani di tutto ciò che è fumetto e fantastico in quel piccolo negozio a Roma. Questi due maniaci mi hanno di fatto rapito portandomi in un viaggio del quale Spiro sarebbe andato fiero. Da Roma a Lanciano, una corsa in macchina attraverso la campagna italiana piena di antichi castelli, fiumi, ponti e città che sembravano uscite da una macchina del tempo, sparpagliando tempo e spazio, passato e presente in uno scenario colmo delle luci del rinascimento.
Siamo arrivati a Lanciano, una piccola città vicina al mare, e incontrato altri amici che mi hanno raccontato storie, riempito di cibo e creato ricordi che resteranno con me a lungo. Ho conosciuto delle persone meravigliose, da un gruppo di giovani artisti che hanno dentro tanto talento da lasciare di stucco i tanti redattori, editori a altri autori che hanno fatto sì che il viaggio fosse tanto più di quanto doveva essere. I viaggi di Rocketo Garrison nel Nuovo Mondo non significherebbero niente se non fossero riempiti da tutta la brava gente che popola il mondo. Così tante volte riempiamo storie di avventura con mostri, ciclopi e arpie e sì, ne incontriamo tanti di questi nella nostra vita, ma incontriamo anche Nausicaa, che ci veste quando siamo nudi. Incontriamo il vecchio che ci dà riparo e l'arma magica per difenderci. Incontriamo l'amico che resta con noi fino alla fine del viaggio. Mentre lavoro sul Nuovo Mondo, questi sono i pensieri che mi riempiono la mente, le cose belle, la brava gente, il buon cibo. Questi ispirano e si manifestano poco a poco nel mondo di Rocketo. Grazie Roma e Lanciano.

My old friend

2008-12-19T06:48:00.000-08:00

The artist's faithful friend: The sketchbook. I use it like some sort of sponge where everything my mind can think of gets soaked up. I don't censor myself at this early point of creation. The editing and the pacing will be thought of later, right now it's a race to get as many ideas down as I can. Sometimes an idea that sounded good looks horrible when actually drawn out, and the same thing has been known to happen in reverse. So I try to get it all down, quickly, before it evaporates. Here are some sketches for Mutants. The idea was born from a classic Buster Crabbe: Flash Gordon episode, where some giant white ape battles Flash Gordon. Flash fell into some sort of pit and then Ming unleashed a WHITE APE on his ass! Flash, at least for this episode was faced with the fight of his life. I remember seeing that when I was a kid in Cuba and the memory has stuck with me for some oddball reason or another. So here is this giant white Mutant that has hair that is spun so thick that it is almost invulnerable. Lots of directions to go with this, still more work to be done. The other page has some possible directions for the new Science Master of Lucerne that has replaced the famous Dr. Arkwright at least for now. Hope you enjoy.

Il mio vecchio amico. Il fedele amico del disegnatore: lo sketchbook.. io lo uso come una specie di spugna che assorbe qualsiasi cosa mi passi per la mente. Non mi censuro in questo momento iniziale della creazione. Revisioni e sequenze verranno poi, sul momento è una corsa per mettere giù quante più idee possibile. A volte un'idea che sembrava buona risulta orribile quando messa su carta, e succede anche il contrario. Quindi cerco di mettere giù tutto, rapidamente, prima che evapori. Ecco alcuni sketch per i Mutanti. L'idea è nata da una scena classica in Flash Gordon dove lui si batte con uno scimmione bianco. Flash cade in una specie di arena e Ming gli scatena contro una scimmia bianca! Ricordo di averlo letto da bambino a Cuba e il ricordo si è fissato in me per qualche motivo. Quindi ecco questo gigantesco mutante bianco che ha peli così fitti da renderlo quasi invulnerabile. C'è ancora molto lavoro da fare su questo. L'altra pagina vede alcune possibilità per il nuovo Maestro di Scienze di Lucerne che ha sostituito il famoso Dr. Arkwright almeno per ora. Spero vi piacciano.

Back to the drawing board, sucker.

2008-12-18T14:14:00.000-08:00

Funny, how this Rocketo story all works out. I had a completely different idea a year ago. I was pretty sure that the story was going as planned. So I worked up about four solid books worth of stuff, thirty two pages, all drawn, inked and painted... then I saw what was happening. Chaos.. action.. fistfights! The story was going head over heels into an imitation of a bad action film. All the while I was doing the pages, some part of my mind was not responding.. this part of my mind was lying to me, telling me that once I got past that next action scene I could settle into telling the story.

Well after pages of Tigermen fights, and giants exploding, I realized that what I love about Rocketo's world is not just the action, but the gentle moments.. the moments when the characters take shape and form and actually feel like they belong in the world. So I slowed down.. took a breath.. started over again.. went back to some of the old ideas, threw some old ideas out, and worked on a new script that would highlight the world and the wonderful people in it.

At some point it has to get easy. Some quick page layouts for the new version of the start of the New World story. Its the first flashback scene, happening just six months before Rocketo loses his parents.

Rocketo and his father Volt Garrison are in the land of the giants. A land were the rocks act like living recorders. Recording every sound and word said on the Island. Volt is on a mission to bring peace to the small ethic clash between the Bullmen and the Birdmen as his son, Rocketo a young boy at this stage sees the entire ceremony. Rocketo guards the flying horse that brought him and his father to the Island.

Rimettiti al tavolo da disegno, fesso.
Buffo come si è sviluppata questa storia di Rocketo. Avevo un'idea completamente differente un anno fa. Ero certissimo che la storia sarebbe andata come previsto. Così ho realizzato quattro numeri di 32 pagine, tutti disegnati, inchiostrati e dipinti…poi ho visto cosa stava succedendo. Caos…azione.. scazzottate! La storia stava diventando un'imitazione di un brutto film d'azione. Mentre facevo le pagine una parte della mia mente non reagiva.. questa parte della mia mente stava mentendo, dicendomi che una volta terminata la prossima scena d'azione mi sarei potuto soffermare sulla narrazione. Be', dopo pagine di scontri con Uomini Tigre e giganti che esplodono mi sono reso conto che ciò che amo del mondo di Rocketo non è solo l'azione ma i momenti teneri… i momenti in cui i personaggi prendono forma e appartenenza a quel mondo. Così ho rallentato… fatto un respiro... ricominciato da capo.. sono tornato ad alcune vecchie idee, altre le ho eliminate e ho lavorato a una nuova sceneggiatura che mettesse in risalto il mondo e le persone meravigliose che lo popolano. Ecco alcuni layout per la nuova versione dell'inizio della storia del Nuovo Mondo. E' la prima scena di flashback e si svolge sei mesi prima che Rocketo perda i genitori. Rocketo e suo padre Volteo Garrison sono nella terra dei giganti. Una terra dove le rocce fungono da registratori viventi, registrando ogni suono e parola detta sull'isola. Volteo è in missione per portare pace in una disputa tra Uomini Toro e Uomini Uccello mentre suo figlio Rocketo, un bambino in questo momento, assiste all'intera cerimonia. Rocketo sorveglia il cavallo volante che lo ha portato sull'isola con suo padre.

2008-12-18T10:14:00.000-08:00

The past year has been one of many twist and turns. I was working on the Rocketo books, when other things besides the New World took control. One of the ideas that I did manage to publish, is in the Popgun Vol 2 from Image Comics, a short story called Belukha. The character has been dear to me for a while, and I have been working on building the world that he lives in. During the blitz of creation I manage to squeeze out tons of small paintings for the project, and I will be posting many of them here. The paintings are very small I think four by seven is the largest. They are done very quickly to get the idea of a possible scene in my mind. More Belukha: The Ghost Whale will be coming soon.

L'ultimo anno è stato contorto. Stavo lavorando a Rocketo quando altre cose oltre al Nuovo Mondo hanno preso il controllo. Una delle idee che sono riuscito a pubblicare è nel volume 2 dell'antologia Popgun della Image Comics, una storia breve intitolata Belukha. Il personaggio mi è caro già da un po' e ho lavorato alla costruzione del mondo in cui vive. L'esplosione creativa riesce a spremermi tonnellate di piccoli quadri per il progetto e ne posterò parecchi qui. Sono molto piccoli, credo che il più grande sia 10x18. Sono fatti in fretta per fissare l'idea di una possibile scena nella mia mente. Presto vedrete altro su Belukha: la Balena Fantasma.

Short short hand

2008-12-17T17:56:00.000-08:00

Some quick graphic notes from my sketch book. Always trying to make it simple, and always falling short from the mark. I would love to say everything with three brush strokes, simple clean and direct. To communicate like the old japanese brush masters.

Qualche rapido appunto grafico dal mio sketchbook. Cerco sempre di farla semplice e fallisco sempre l'obiettivo. Vorrei poter esprimere tutto con tre colpi di pennello, semplici puliti e diretti. Per comunicare come gli antichi maestri del pannello giapponesi.

Journey to the New World

2008-12-17T17:17:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Franke's journey into the New World. As the days go on, I will do my best to keep you informed of all the ideas, progress, and developments of the new Rocketo graphic novels, "Journey to the New World." I would love your feedback on the drawings, character designs, story ideas, and concepts, as the books progress. Here is a page from Book 1. Rocketo and Spiro making their appearance at last. It's been awhile since I've drawn the characters, and now getting back to them will be a lot of fun.

For the Rocketo fans in Italy the wonderful Giant Paolo has translated the post and I will be adding the translations to the bottom of the current post.

VIAGGIO NEL NUOVO MONDO.
Benvenuti al viaggio di Franke nel Nuovo Mondo. Giorno per giorno farò del mio meglio per tenervi informati su tutte le idee, progressi e sviluppi della nuova graphic novel di Rocketo, "Viaggio nel Nuovo Mondo". Gradirei il vostro feedback sui disegni, character design, idee e concetti man mano che lavoro sulla serie. Ecco una pagina dal numero 1, Rocketo e Spiro finalmente fanno la loro comparsa. E' un po' che non disegno questi personaggi, e ora rimettermici al lavoro sarà uno spasso.