Also by Ovi: The Beginning

Newsarama took the time out to interview me about Cow & Buffalo’s new book (available now!) as well as the various other projects I have going on. During the interview, I give a little insight on the publishing status of Parable, Volume 1 and  talk briefly about volume 2. Click here to read it now.

Ben Avery has started a new fantasy webcomic with artist Kneon Transitt. With only a few pages in, the  story has already featured dinosuars, a mysterious tribe and flying whales. That’s enough to get me hooked! Read it HERE.

I’ve been laboring feverishly on crafting my submission for Parable 2, flicking the compositional bugs out of my preliminaries, and begun penciling my final pages. When I’m in the birthing process of a creative endeavor like this, I find I tend to be given over to artistic despair when I can’t seem to get a pose just right, or nail a facial expression. During these “dark nights of the artistic soul” I find it helpful to pull out old projects that turned out well and convince myself I can finish this current project.

Enter “Rise and Fall of the Great City.”

This was a story that I never quite worked through but ended up producing a couple pages for my senior exhibition in college. Anyway, turned out kinda fun, so here are the pages for your viewing enjoyment.

The title holds significance; grave and important significance. For one, this news spot has been delayed a little. I have an excuse, I got married! Getting married takes a lot of time, but it is time well spent. I will make up for it with this massive post today. For two though, someone else is back… and he needs your votes!

Josh Alves submitted his comic creation Araknid Kid to Zuda several months ago and ended up a little less than 1st place. Now Zuda has announced their first ever invitational competition and Araknid Kid has been invited to compete again! Woot! The Kid is currently sitting at 6th place but with votes and comments, I’m sure the Parable team can bolster his placement to NUMBER ONE! Vote here (there’s only 2 weeks left!) and check out the AK promotional site Josh has set up here. The promotional poster can be found in miniature below.

Paul Conrad participated in an exciting project as well. Complete information can be found on his blog, but the gist is this: Artists from around the world are donating art for an auction whose proceeds will be given over to help save the Sayama Forrest (also known as the Totoro Forest) in Japan. The project is called (not surprisingly) the Totoro Forest Project , and was founded by renowned film maker and anime master Hayao Miyazaki. If you thought that Totoro sounded familiar, you’re right! The forest is where Hayao found inspiration for one of his most loved characters, Totoro, from My Neighbor Totoro. The art that Paul is contributing (shown below) is fantastic. He deserves a clap on the back and a friendly high-five. And make sure to check out the other pieces of amazing work being auctioned off.

The last two things are smaller, but no less important. Caleb Monroe has a new site, it is clean and brilliant. Please check it out. Also since I was not blogging during Canada Day, I missed this. I will post it now since I am Canadian. Sally Thompson created a picture that embodies most everything Canadian: a beaver, a roots hat and is that a Tim Horton’s donut? See the picture below and the original at her blog. All that’s missing is the hockey jersey :) And a happy late fourth of July to all our American friends as well (I couldn’t find an American Style pic, sorry!)

Until next time!

Just a couple of things, maybe mundane to some, but I’m plugging them anyway. Mike Laughead is a shirt making machine. I believe this is his official title and if it is not, then we should lobby to make it so. You can vote for his shirts and you should. Many, many have already voted and they were right in doing so. See an example of his fine work below:

As many of you may or may not know, our other Mike, Mike Maihack, has a little pet project called “Cleopatra in Space.” I love this kind of genre/setting cross over- feels fresh. Mike has page number four up as of today for our enjoyment. Check it out at his blog. It’s fun and fast paced and perhaps if enough people like it he will update pages more frequently.

Until we meet again,

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!

You might, at times, read my titles for these newsposts and wonder ‘what does it mean? Is there some cryptic message hidden there, like writing on a wall?’ No, sadly, not usually. BUT today is different. Somewhat. This post has a theme of sorts, of moving and travel and the dangers and excitement that comes from those sorts of endeavors.

Ben Hatke has been traveling with his family lately and his latest blog entry puts him in Gravagna, Italy. His art seems to be traveling too, making appearances in magazines. The Artful Blogger is published by Stampington & Company and encompasses the do’s and don’ts of creating a blog. Ben’s ‘Benedetto Juggling’ below was featured as an example of artful. I think you will all agree. It looks like a neat magazine, make sure you check it out!

In other good news, Jeremy Vanhoozer will be relocating to Atlanta. Why, you ask? For a new job as the Art Director for Cartoon Network Game Studios! Check out his blog and read carefully. What a humble guy, the news is in the second paragraph hidden below his recent drawergeeks submission. Congrats Jeremy on the new job! I’m sure everyone in Parable joins together with that wish. Good luck!!

Tune in again for more amazing news!

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