19 Pencils and stuff

Sorry I am slow with this, but I am finally getting a chance to put up some of my layouts/pencils for issue 19. This issue was way fun to draw.


I also have a couple smooth links for you. This first one is to a short story I drew for my good Buddy Paul Sizer's book Little White Mouse. I drew this several years ago, and he is now putting it up as a web comic. So if you want to see some of my old stuff, or just check out his cool book, click away- http://www.webcomicsnation.com/paulsizer/littlewhitemouse/series.php?view=single&ID=163540

Second is an interview with me about stuff- http://whoissaintjames.com/2009/11/02/jason-howard-talks-to-saint-james

19!

Issue 19 comes out today. This issue is a little bit of a departure from recent issues, and it was a ton of fun to draw. After looking through a copy my son said "daddy, this is the best episode of Wolf-Man you've ever written". So there you have it, a glowing review from a 6 year old.

Here is the cover so you know what to look for.


And to show some process stuff, here is the rough sketch for the cover.

For those who missed the con in Baltimore last weekend, you missed a great time. What a fun show, tons of cool artists for me to drool over (their work, not them as a person) the show had a great vibe, and seemed pretty busy for everyone. I met tons of Wolf-Man fans, did some sketches and hung out with the rest of the Kirk-crew (Ryan Ottley, Cory Walker & Nate Bellegarde). Thanks to everyone who came by and said hi.

Also, here is a link to short video interview that was done with me at the show about the upcoming end of Wolf-Man- http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0910/14/howard.htm

Cons and Stories!

A virtual grab bag today.

Thanks to those who have bought sketchbooks, you all are the bestset. If anyone else want to be the best, just click on that pretty girl with guns over to the right there.

I have a couple convention appearances coming up.
- Saturday, September 19. The Windy City Comicon http://www.windycitycomicon.com. I was at this conventions inaugural show last year and it was great. The cool thing about it was that they took the part I like best about conventions (artist alley) and made that the whole show. This year their guest list has expanded and it looks like even more fun. Smaller shows like this give the fans a great opportunity to meet and talk to creators. In fact I am looking forward to going just so I can meet some of my favorite artists. If you are anywhere in the Chicago area you should come.
- Saturday & Sunday, October 10-11. The Baltimore Comic-Con http://www.comicon.com/baltimore/. It looks like I will be at Baltimore this year. I have never done this show before, but I hear good things and am looking forward to it.

Looking back over recent posts it seems that I have not written much other than to promote various things I have coming up. So I thought I would pass on a fun story from my trip to the San Diego Comic Con a few weeks ago.
I arrived at the airport in the afternoon, as usual in San Diego it was a beautiful day. I flagged a taxi and we set off to my hotel. The cab driver was chatty and once we got past the typicall "how great the weather in San Diego is" part of the conversation it came up that I was from Michigan. This led into some sports talk, and then things got quiet for a couple minutes. After a while the cabbie said "So what about that doctor?", I had no idea what he was talking about, so I said "What Doctor?". He replied "You know that doctor that kills people". "Oh, Dr Kevorkian" I said. Keep in mind that Kevorkian was big in the news, oh about 15 years ago, so he is not fresh in my mind whenever anyone mentions "doctor". But I guess the fact that he was from Michigan also, the cabbie thought I would have an opinion. So we discussed the pros and cons of physician assisted suicide for a bit and then things got quite agian. After a few minutes of quiet the cabbie spoke up again, "You know, I wanted to kill myself". At this point I became more than a little nervous about the person who was driving me and responsible for my safety. But I offered what encouragement I could and tried to avoid mentioning anything that might make the cabbie decide that NOW was his opportunity to drive off a bridge and end it all. As we spoke more the cabbie assured me that he was past those dark times in his life and things were good now, but it didn't provide me much assurance and I was quite relieved when we finally arrived at the hotel.

And now some art. The cover and some process stuff for Wolf-Man 21. He's back!

Sketch Books for Sale!

I finally got my act together. Over to the right you will see a brand new link for my Gun-Play art books. They are 20 pages of full color, comic sized finished drawings of girls with guns. I have a somewhat limited supply so if you are interested click the link and order one. They are $20 plus shipping, more details in the link. Thanks! If you have any problems/questions with your order e-mail me at jhowardhoward@yahoo.com .

Also, for those who live in the northern Michigan area I will be in Traverse City on August 29-30 for the Cherry Capital Con www.cherrycapitalcon.com . Come by and say hi and all that good stuff. I will have Wolf-Man trades and Gun-Play sketch books for sale. I'll probably also be doing sketches and chatting about the Lions pre season and whatever else comes to mind. Should be fun! Here is a T-Shirt design that I did for the show.

18 & iPhone

Hey peoples. Tomorrow is the big day, issue 18 should be in stores and it is a good one. With the prison arc wrapped up last issue, this one begins to set the stage for big new things, and some big old things. And some medium sized and even small things. All sort of things really. So check it out. This months variant by Frank Cho (he's so good).

EDIT- Actually this issue is supposed to come out NEXT week, August 19. Sorry for the mix up.

Also, for those of you with an iPhone or iPod touch be sure to check out the "Comics" app in the iTunes app store. I have really been into comics on my iPod touch, and in my opinion this app has the best reading experience. If you havent tried it yet give it a shot. Plus this is the place to get Wolf-Man comics. The Comics app is $.99 and comes with the first issue of Wolf-Man and many other titles for free. You can then purchase subsequent issues from right within the app. Come on, step into the future.

For those waiting, I should have ordering information on my sketchbook up here soon. I have been super busy the past couple weeks catching up from Comic Con. I know, whine whine.

Back from Con with news.

San Diego was great. Thanks to anyone who stopped by the table. Lots of fun times and cool announcements came from the convention but there was one somewhat sad one (at least for me). Robert announced our plans to wrap up Wolf-Man with issue 25. You can read all about it here-
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=22212

But don't be too sad. We have tons of awesome coming up in the remaining 8 issues. Plus this points out one of the cool things of creator owned comics, we can decide to wrap up a story at a logical end point and leave the character at a good place rather than have this type of decision made by a publisher who may or may not have the best interest of the story in mind. Anyway, while I will miss drawing Wolf-Man and company, I still have 6-7 months of work to do on the series and I am committed to make them the best issues that I can. I can't talk yet about what I will be doing after Wolf-Man, but Robert and I have been developing a new project for over a year and I cant wait to get started drawing it... Its going to rock!

Here is the cover for issue 25, I think there will be some fighting in this issue :)

Comic Con!

Just a note to let everyone know that I will be at the big San Diego Comic Con next week (July 22-26). I'll be sitting at the Image booth, sharing a table with Jon Sommariva and just over from Ryan Ottley So look me up and say "Hi". Seriously if you are reading this and then you see me in San Diego and don't say hi, it will make me sad.

I plan to be doing sketches and I'll have the first 2 volumes of the Wolf-Man trades for sale, as well as 12X18 prints of some of the covers.

I will also debut my new 'sketchbook' at the con. Its not really a sketchbook, as it contains finished pieces and not sketches, so I guess it is more of an art book. But it is the same size and binding as a regular comic, not all thick and book-like. Its called Gun-Play and the theme is girls with guns. I think I have posted an image or 2 here in the past. It is 20 pages, full color, and all the illustrations were created specifically for this book. The print run is limited to 100 copies. I haven't decided on the final price yet but it will probably be around $20. If I have books left after the show I plan to offer them for sale online. I'll give more details when/if this happens. Anyway, I put the cover up here, so even if you don't want to buy the book, you can look at the cover for free