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...