problem solved... HAPPY XMAS!!! (late)

it's a naked xmas monsters miracle!!!!

again, the best of the season to you from the fowlers: tom, monique, graham, and zool...

ps... the bear on the right is "stephen"...

pps... more xmas monsters in varying states of dress...

happy, er... feast of stephen...

just the teeniest bit pissed at blogger right now, as it won't let me upload this year's xmas card (one of my very best!) without reversing all the colours... anyone know why?

that said, i hope you're both doing well. please accept this naked christmas monster as our gift to you on this special day... after that other special day...

--the fowlers: tom, monique, graham, and zool...

ps... some more naked xmas monsters...

stuff...( cbc1 interview included)

with any luck it's still there (oct 18th ), or here. i don't have real player on my computer so i can't play it for myself. if i remember correctly i swore a lot and talked about pelicans the whole time.

it's fascinating....

(though it should be said i didn't know i'd be doing an interview until about an hour and a half before i was sitting in the studio.)



as far as le salon......de gatineau goes, here's my comprehensive, in depth account:

it was awesome.

articulate, no?

honestly, i wish i could remember it better. i met some really great people, was treated really incredibly well by the staff and the organizers (hell, it was like being a star), ate in some terrific restaurants, attended some great parties, learned a hell of a lot more about bandes desinees, and came away maybe thinking i'd like to take another stab at it...

all that and those two most glorious words in any language: PER DIEM!!! god bless the french! (or in this case les quebecois!)...

and with that a sneak peak at my next project...

---ssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!



EDIT... in digging around i actually tracked down some photos of the event! if i find more (or if someone sends me any) i'll post those too...

top row l-r: Bill Slavin, moi, Lalie, Yves Bourgelas, and Christian Darasse.
bottom row: Serge "Bosse" Bosmans, Boulet, Pierre Wazem (just behind Boulet), Emmanuel Lepage, Francois Miville-Deschenes.
not pictured: Philippe "Phlppgrrd" Girard.

i wound up on a panel with bosse, lalie, and lepage entitled "are you herge or franquin", and treaded water as best i could....



that's me doodling for a confused fan ("what do you mean these are original pages?"). if i look like like i'm sweating it's because i was struggling through a tortured-french explanation of who monroe was (and, indeed, what MAD is?), and running a temperature of 102. don't ever say i'm not there for the fans... to get them sick...

behind me is the great hall of the canadian museum of civilisation.

if i wasn't clear before, le rendezvous was everything a comic show should be, and quite unlike anything i'd ever attended in the past. it was at the same time a fun, relaxing, and rewarding experience, and i've already offered myself up to the organizers should they ever need any help in the future.

sadly, though, i won't get another per diem.

commissions...

hey kids! did i ever mention i do commissions? 'cuz i do. you should totally hire me to do a commission for you! why? i'll give you a hint. it starts with a "w", ends with an "e" and has a "hor" in the middle...

come to think of it what the hell are the "w"and the "e" for?...

in any case, if you're interested drop me an email and we'll talk rates (which aren't that steep).

ps.... there'll be a post-salon de livre post, with art, my cbc1 interview, and photos of french people. i'm just too lazy to write it right now...

EDIT... the above piece is now available for sale, btw, as the original client disappeared on me... $250.00!

Le Salon de Livre de l'Outaouais: Rendez-vous International de la BD de Gatineau

so i've been invited to (deep breath) Le Salon de Livre de l'Outaouais: Rendez-vous International de la BD de Gatineau, (this thursday to sunday).

as the name might suggest, to those of you who both speak frenchy-talk and managed to get through the title, it's an international festival of comics and bandes desinees. the organizers have other guests coming in from france, belgium, switzerland, and now, with the invitation of yours truly, from across the river... (of course they offered to pay for hotel and airfair, but i told them i'd be satisfied with parking.)

i probably should have mentioned all of this earlier on, but i've been busy, what with work, baby, and incapacitating illness (read: cold).

i've been invited to participate on the strength of my MAD work (although they did mention something called "caper: beware the hand of doom!" in my bio on the site), but really i'm looking forward to a very different "con" experience. i'll be available for autograph sessions all four days as well as a few special events. so if you're one of the three people reading this in the ottawa/gatineau area and you're willing to brave my contagion, swing on by.

oh! and it's free!


yeah, thought that'd getcha. cheap bastards...

---

pushing daisies...

so about four weeks before san diego i get a call from my friend michael wright in dc's creative services department. the call was to work on a promo giveaway for bryan fuller's new show, "pushing daisies".

i missed that call. when i called back i found out that zach howard and cameron stewart hadn't.

now, i'm a huge fan of mr. fuller's, so suffice to say i was pissed...

but it was then i discovered that because the deadline was insane (they wanted it done in time for comic-con!), and the entire story took place on a fire escape (thanks bryan...), and zach only had a weekend to complete the pencils, i was back in as the layout artist. to quote zach, under the circumstances he needed someone "to do the math". fire escape not withstanding, it was a fun job. as i said, i'm a huge fan of bryan fuller's, so i'd have jumped at the chance to do anything with him, still would.

after the layouts were done there was another call; again: missed.

at the eleventh hour the clients wanted a bunch of new cover concepts. ultimately one of zach's was picked, but because of the long weekend he couldn't ink it, and because of a number of changes demanded by the client (move "chuck" from upper left circle to main image, replace with blonde girl, etc...) and the fact that it wasn't a long weekend in canada, michael sent it to me to redraw (sorry zach) and ink. unfortunately zach's pencils became layouts and all i could save of his original drawing was the very large dead guy foot.

so here, along with that cover (above), are my layouts for the story. in case anyone's wondering about the numbering, zach did the first couple of pages solo.

the ones without fire escapes...



ps... watch the show.

new brushes...

got some new brushes yesterday from a nice lady in england. they took no time at all to get to me (less than a week! go post office!), so i spent the rest of my time yesterday goofing around with them, trying to shake out the cobwebs.


this was done with a "rosemary and co. kolinsky sable series 33 no. 4".

i'm pretty happy with it. come to think of it, i'm pretty happy lately in general.

weird feeling...

con sketch...

as promised, the first of (hopefully) many con sketches from this past summer.

this one was done at the paradise toronto comicon for good buddy and frequent client, murray roach. unfortunately i'd left my paint set at home in ottawa on the kitchen table, and the sketch had to be executed with a crappy little craftstore watercolour set that i bought that morning. luckily it still turned out and i think it's just about my favourite sketch of the summer.

this one's from san diego (remembered my paint this time). another favourite that didn't come together until the last minute (as is often the case with my con sketches)...


and a few more from past years. all pulled from comicartfan.com, they are all (unfortunately) slaves to other people's scanners....

the new normal...

i think it was said best in a recent email to a friend of mine:

"glad to hear you're busy, though. we're a bit busy as well, but in completely different ways. graham may be a fairly easy going little guy, but he's wearing us out. add to that summer colds, deadline pressures for mad and the "goldfish cracker" add that wouldn't fudding die... and it's the perfect storm of sleepy.

you guys totally have to try it!"

so there you go. this will likely be the last baby related posting here at blarg. those interested in the grisly details of new parenthood can read all about it at graham's own blog here. i'm anticipating lots of posts about poop.

there's not much there yet BECAUSE WE'RE TIRED!!!! but there will be soon enough.

once things have calmed down a bit here i'll be posting some more of the self-agrandising drivel that both of my fans have come to expect. including some con sketchs, some planet of the apes stuff (cause you asked for it!), and (fudd it) some green arrow pencils.

that's all for now, kids... i got a diaper to change.

Graham Joseph Duguay Fowler

in the tenth hour, of the ninth day, of the eighth month, in the seventh year...

by emergency c-section (which was less dramatic than it sounds) three weeks early.

mum is fine. baby is great. dad... needs a drink.

bit in a hurry to get to a car seat clinic then back to hospital (monique will probably be in til monday), i'll post more when we've had a chance to breathe.

(well... really it was the twenty-second hour, but it sounds cooler that way...)

san diego....

i'll be in san diego this year. as of monday.

and due to a last minute reprieve, you'll be able to find me in artist's alley at table kk-7.

this may well be my last san diego comic-con (haven't quite decided yet), and therefor your last chance to meet the curmudgeonly charming wit that is me. i urge you to do this while you have the chance... and bring cash.

here's the pitch cover for my next (by which i mean god only knows when) project. no names yet, i'll just let the imagery soak in...

bears...

i invite anyone who wants to to submit that to stephen colbert...

it's a boy!!!

... or a monkey of some kind. hard to tell right now...

spooks, spectrum, and speakeasy...

hey kids...

just some news today. first, here's a spankin' new promo image for "twice dead", my extra-curricular extravaganza with david hahn.

marvel at its ooginess...

secondly, it just came to my attention recently that one (or possibly more... haven't heard officially yet) of the pieces i submitted to SPECTRUM have made it into the fantasy illustration annual. i'm very excited about it.

yay me.

and thirdly, myself, myself's wife, and myself's work will be in toronto this thursday night april 5th for the speakeasy art show...

8pm-Midnight
The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen West
Second Floor Lobby

you can go to the show's site here for all the rest of the info including the other guests, etc...

note: the speakeasy art show is in NO WAY affiliated with that other company with the same name.

place angry grumbling here....

twice dead previews....

oooooooooooo spoooky.....

so, as stated above, here's some of the twice dead stuff i've been fumbling away at in my spare time. i've nothing really terribly interesting to say about it, except that the first issue will be done soon (david)...



it's about ghosts....

and sandwiches...

!!!!!!!!!

well kids, it's been a little while. i've been a wee bit busy/stressed/exhausted/stressed for a number of reasons, not the least of which is...


that's right!!! my boys are swimmers!!!!!!

we're at about 15 weeks. monique's doing great (aside from a fairly constant flow of vomit... i mean, my god, it's like "the exorcist" ...). strong heartbeat. fingers and toes all accounted for (that goes for all three of us - we don't live in a great neighbourhood). no tail to speak of. ditto for hooves (mum).

everyone happy. back with art in the next couple of weeks...

aside from xmas, i hadn't thrown up anything new in a while, so here's a montage from the monroe currently(?) on shelves that i'm still quite proud of. deft (or french) observers will note a subtle reference to albert uderzo...



this'll likely be the last monroe post for a little bit. while i'm still having loads of fun with the strip, i'd just as soon this not become a mad specific blog.

more stuff soonish...