In this interview I turned on screen share to show what I was working on, so you’ll get a chance to see me inking Mal and Chad book 3, Belly Flop! I hope I was able to give the students some kind of insight into cartooning.

A little while after the interview, Scott sent along some fan art that some of his students did for me– so great! It’s awesome to see different artists take on my characters. Thanks you guys!

Thanks again! Until next time…

I know I’ve already shown you guys the design for the cover, but don’t think that means the book is done! I still have another 130 pages to draw! It’s been quite stressful with the impending deadline, and even more so now that the preorder for Belly Flop is up on Amazon. It makes me feel like I better finish this book on time or else! It’s definitely crunch time, but I’m trying my best to meet the pace and keep up the quality.

I’m pretty bad at working with color, so, like the last cover, it took a lot of iterations to finally get the right color scheme.

The tricky thing is that the cover image is not merely treated as a representative for the interior contents of the book. It also needs to function as an advertisement for the book. As such, it needs to be bright, and eye-catching, like a good ad would be. With the help of my cartoonist friends Josh and Michael, we finally came up with this:

There you go! And look! Mal and Chad: Belly Flop! is now available for Pre-Order on Amazon! The book comes out in December– please pre-order now!

This week, I wanted to show you guys what my cover sketch looked like once I inked it!

Ta-da!

Tune in next week for the final exciting conclusion– the final cover in color!

This week, I’ll share with you the penciling stage. At this point, my main goal is to find a dynamic composition that compliments the text elements as well as catch the eye.

My editor and art director wanted to have Mal falling forward more– to unite the image with the title “Belly flop!” Foreshortening is hard! It took me a long time to figure out how to draw Mal falling forward.

Finally, it clicked.

Any questions about this process? Feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them!

Up next week I’ll show you guys the inked cover.

For those of you who don’t know, thumbnails are rough sketches of each page I plan to draw for the book. Keeping it rough like this helps me find the best composition, pacing and flow, without wasting too much time trying to make a drawing perfect.

The total pages come out to 233! This will be the biggest Mal and Chad book I have ever drawn.

And what’s that outside the window? That’s Japan. I’m now living in Japan! Please check out my blog documenting the trip!

Kurt made this costume for I Love to Read Week, a week long event put on by Yellowquill School in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Canada. Thanks Kurt! This is awesome! And thanks to Kurt’s mom for helping him put together the outfit, and sending me the picture.

I haven’t been online much lately, but I have been busy! I moved to Japan– and also I was in two interviews! One with Katie Davis, and another with Jerzy Drozd. Please check them out!

We are currently running a contest to see who can think up the best lines for Mal and Chad to be saying! Click here for more details!

What really excites me about the contest is the prizes. The winner will get the first and second Mal and Chad books signed by me, as well as a drawing by me of them as a Mal and Chad cartoon character!

This Friday through Sunday is the annual Albuquerque Comicon! I’m excited to announce that I’ll be there, and even though Mal and Chad book 2: FOOD FIGHT won’t be out in book stores until the nineteenth, I WILL have pre-release copies of the book for sale!

Here’s the details if you’d like to come. Hope to see you there!

Thanks Will! And everyone be sure to check out Will’s webcomic, Super Zeroes.

I’m currently preparing for Albuquerque Comic Con, as well as the release of Food Fight! Lot’s of big things happening in my life right now, I’ll be sure to fill you all in soon.