Hi all,

To those of us who live in North America, this weekend holds a very special place in the hearts of all comic lovers. That’s right, it was free comic day! The one day a year when your local comic store will give you, free of charge, one of many comics published specially for the day. I myself picked up a copy of Atomic Robo from Red 5 Comics. I had to do a bit of research and found out that the shops do have to pay for the comics, so make sure if you go to pick up one of the ‘free’ issues you go the extra mile and pick up another copy to support this awesome day.

Marvel and Upperdeck have brought back the Masterpieces Sketch Card Series, and our very own Josh Alves has submitted his genius for Marvel to check out. Josh did fifty of these guys and while they were all sent back, they really are fantastic. Check out one sheet below and head to his blog to check out the rest!

Lastly, a couple of our contributors have websites with new looks. Caleb Monroe (calebmonroe.com) and Caroline Parkinson (carolineparkinson.co.uk) I would recommend checking out both sites, both are pretty neat and well put together.

That’s all for this week folks!

Hi all,

I actually noticed this first bit of news last week but, like a fine wine, news gets better with age. Err… well it gets outdated, I guess, so maybe thats not entirely true. Anyway, at least it doesn’t get less newsworthy. :)

I’ve known about the Pepper Project for quite a while now, and I was absolutely thrilled to see that Sally Thompson had created a submission for it. For those that aren’t in the know, here’s what it’s all about:

Pepper is the character of Stanley Lau and is also the mascot of Imaginary Friends Studio. Maybe more importantly though, Pepper is a cult classic at deviantart.com. She has as many forms and versions as ideas, a muse for any and all with only a few defining characteristics. So when the challenge was sent out to create unique versions of Pepper, well, the turn out was pretty good. Check out Sally’s submission below.

And I know I mentioned Tor Harold Blom’s webcomic before, but that was when it’s flag ship page had just launched and I wasn’t sure exactly what it would be about. Now with a few months worth of updates, it is crystal clear. “A Cup of Tea: A Diary in memory of a Tree” is not just art, its education.

-John

Hey all,

I thought I’d take some time today and go through just a few of the comics that Parablers do as their own personal projects.

The Dreamland Chronicles
Read Dreamland Chronicals. It has a great story, wonderful characters and the fully rendered 3D presentation is stunning. Creative props go to Scott Christian Sava. He’s got two books completed and scale figures of a few of his characters as well.

Funnypages Productions
I had to include these guys. I mean, they worked on Big Idea’s “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything”, and that’s no small thing. Their client list is long and impressive: Disney, Wildstorm, Hasbro, Sega… the list continues. It was a joy to have Tom Bancroft and Rob Corley produce a comic for inclusion into Parable

Cow Shell Graphics
Mike Maihack needs no introduction around Parable. Cow and Buffalo is a renowned web comic (it’s even found on lunchboxes! see Lunchbox Funnies) and Seed is also a very entertaining read.

Community Comics
Ben Avery runs Community Comics as his day job. He’s one of those friendly, approachable types who will sit down and critique a comic/script just to help people out. He’s helped a lot of comic creators out over the years.

Webcomics Nation-> Dean Rankine
There’s no style quite like Dean Rankine’s. And there is no denying his hard hitting characters and humor mixed with pure truth. With titles like “Goldfish Frank Kicks the Bucket” and “Grandpa Joe has a Permanent Wedgie” you’d think Dean’s comics were all fun and no message- but no. Within each and every laugh fest is a thick slab of truth that just makes you think.

That’s the highlights for this week kids! See you again in a couple weeks!

-John

The past two weeks has seen even more professional progress of our parable contributors. We’re an active bunch, no doubt about that!

Top of the news list is the addition of Josh Alves’s Araknid Kid in the line-up for Sugary Serials, comics for all ages. Araknid Kid first made it’s appearance in DC comic’s Zuda Comics contest and placed 6th in the month of December. But it’s actually a blessing since now Josh gets to keep his comic without handing the rights over to DC. Check out a brief preview below.

While perusing blogs for this week’s news updates I noticed a lot of Parable artists participate in DrawerGeek’s biweekly art challenge. For those that don’t know the website, they post a weekly topic and artists are encouraged to draw a picture based on the topic given. The results are varying and, above all, extremely entertaining. Last weeks “Lord of the Rings” topic included art by Parablers Matt Yokom, Jeremy Vanhoozer, Michelle Gorski, Mike Maihack and Stephen McCranie.

That’s all for this time folks, tune in next week!

Hey! Happy belated new year to you all! Hopefully it was a great 2007, I know mine was. As Mike was kind enough to introduce my arrival a couple days ago I shall keep my entrance brief. I am John, the writer behind “Thistles”. I’ll be helping update this Blog with all the interesting things that parablers are doing. My aim is to update twice a month, in the second and fourth weeks. This will depend mostly on newsworthy items. Speaking of which, here’s the headlines for this post!

“The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” is the second feature length film from Veggietale’s creator Big Idea Productions. You’ve probably heard about it if you have kids, venture into Christian bookstores or walked past a theater lately. What you may not know is that Parablers Tom Bancroft, Rob Corley and Monika Brozda played a huge role in the development of the film through Funnypages Productions. Check out their Blog entries here to see the extent of their amazing work. “The Pirates Who Don’t do Anything” hit theaters this weekend, definitely check it out.

Tor Harald Blom has launched a new webcomic featuring his most excellent painting skills. “A Cup of Tea: Diary in Memory of a Forest” can be found here. His comic “Illuminated” is in the upcoming Parable. Blom’s website is a good one regardless, check out his work at Jigglepaper Studios.

Bryan Ballinger has a new shirt up on threadless.com and the polls are open! This parabler deserves a few props for his design. Check out the details on his blog Breadwig. If nothing else then for the name, most excellent use of imagination.

Thats all for now.

I just wanted to take a moment to mention how much I love the other Dean of this little anthology- Dean Rankine. Dean draws Christian comics. Dean is also really funny. No, REALLY funny. Dean is also Australian, but don’t let that stop you. If you’re in the mood to see some hillarious contemporary takes on some classic Bible characters from a master of the cartoon arts, check out his comics website. His latest batch includes Jesus meeting Oprah, God as a tag team wrestler, and um.. midget tossing? If you’re just in the mood to make your day a little better and see what else Dean’s been working on, check out his online blog (one of my daily browser clicks- make sure you check out “No Business Like Snow Business”). You can also dowload his most current books at wowio for free. Just go to “Holy Cow! Christian Comics” under the publisher tab.

And since we’re on the subject of Dean and his work, i’d also like to mention the Pulp Crucifiction Christian Anthology that’s recently been released. It’s filled with a whole slew of great Christian artists (including Dean) and is only $3 through the ComiXpress website. All profits go to support Toto Winarno and the COMIX35 ministry.

Little Green Ball is the brainchild of Josh Alves and comedian Chris Quimby. Every Wednesday a theme is given that anyone with a sense of humor can submit too. Topics have ranged from taxidermy to frogs to this week’s subject- puppets. It’s not unlike the commenly known Illustration Fridays, only in this case other media beside illustrations are accepted. Stories, poems, comics, drawings, whatever you can think of- as long as they’re funny (or at least are attempted to be). The theme for next week is transportation, so if you have an idea, submit it! And make sure you take a peek at some of the submissions people have already sent.

Ha ha! And today he’s on Drawn!  Way to go Dean!

(Thanks, Blom!)

Today on some, “let’s see what Dean Trippe is up to on the gajillion websites he has…” browsing time on the web, I found out that he was interviewed a few days ago on Newsarama. If you’re curious to find out a little bit more about Dean, his love of superheroes and his work for the upcoming My Name is Earl project for Oni press, click on his ultra rad Superboy drawing to the left. And be sure to check out some of Dean’s other sites: Project Rooftop, Mainsteam Art and his super fun webcomic Butterfly.

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Tor Blom, our Norwegian liaison for parable, has recently redesigned his website. Not only will you find some very enjoyable paintings and illustrations (make sure you look at the bottom of each main page!) but Blom has also started a monthly web comic called Cup of Tea. There’s only one comic so far but it looks to be a very promising start.

Blom is currently working on a fully painted story for parable. Apparently, each panel of his story is created on it’s own separate canvas. They are so large that Blom has been photographing them and compositing each page together digitally!