U-NITE this Thursday

Come on down for a theatrical reading of PECK this Thursday evening at the Sacramento Crocker Art Museum. Free admission for Sac State students, alumni, faculty and staff. If you don't fall under one of those categories, let me know by Tuesday and I can get you on the guest list. U-NITE runs from 5-9pm; the PECK presentation takes place at 6:30pm in the Setzer Auditorium.

PECK at Crocker Art Museum

U-NITE returns to the Sacramento Crocker Art Museum this Thursday, April 10th. I will be performing a dramatic reading of PECK, Issue #1 at 6:30pm in the Setzer Auditorium—voices and all. Come on down and check it out if you can!

bacon and "the way of the can"

Here's an update on a previous rough sketch I did. In fact, it was real rough before. See below. (Ink + watercolor wash on 98 lb Canson XL Series paper).

dent found

Wow, I totally thought this image was lost to the ages. I recently resurrected my old Powerbook and while rummaging through the drive, I found a small folder of Peck images. This drawing just really catches the atmosphere of fictitious Sactown and the coolness of Dent.

balance

"In the immortal words of Pat Morita: Balance, Billy-san. Balance …" 

~Cornelius Bacon

the way of the can

Cornelius is the Master of Gar Bag Do (in kanji it is traditionally called "Cando" or Way of the Can). This martial art involves becoming one with the discarded, using it to one's advantage when required to defend oneself in battle. It also gives Bacon the uncanny ability to speak and/or emerge from any can or receptacle in the city. This comes in handy when he needs to communicate with Dent/Peck. 

meet cornelius bacon

Cornelius Bacon is the unlikely mentor of the Dent (aka Peck). A highly educated man, Bacon attended Oxford and Harvard, securing doctorates in Eastern Studies, Philosophy, Literature, Linguistics, Physics, Chemistry, and PE. He traveled the world extensively for two decades, but spent the majority of the time in a Tibetan monastery. Eventually he found his way back to America, securing employment at an obscure state college known as Sactown University. He retired from SU when his obsessive pursuit of Gar Bag Do (the Way of the Can) began to overtake his academic career. He currently works and resides in the Sactown Landfill with his teddy bear confidant, Billy Trudare.

baby sketch

Here's a 30-second Peck sketch on a 2x2 inch post-it—I call them "baby sketches." It's interesting how quick thumbnails can have so much energy. And sometimes the enlarged, finished versions lose some of that soul in the transition.

peck issue 2 begins (again)

Okay, I'm feeling a bit sheepish about this. I'm commencing with Issue #2. Again. Only after a mere four year break. I won't bore you with excuses, but I can account for at least one year of delinquency: I was editing and contributing to a cool anthology graphic novel known as Yarns and recrafting a single-panel cartoon called Incompatibles. But I digress. This post is about Peck!

Above is the opening page to Issue #2. If you're new to Peck, go ahead and recap issue #1 here. Remember from the previous installment: Dent was found by Cornelius Bacon in the Sactown dump, broken and plagued with amnesia. Short of a full restoration of memory, Bacon and Billy (his teddy bear) are able to nurse Dent back to relative health. But they know there's more beneath the surface of this soft-spoken one-armed transient. In this issue, Bacon continues to unfold the mysteries that explain Dent's past. He also reveals the tipping point at which Dent—a mild-mannered waste management engineer by day—becomes a wraith-like crime fighter by night …

heinrich kley

One of my favorite influences is the German caricaturist Heinrich Kley. His work was just so dynamic and free. It's amazing what he could do with a line. If I can bring an inkling of the energy he brought to his drawings, I'd be satisfied. Check out some of his work here.