Found! Charlton Comic's "The Comic Book Guide for the Artist Writer Letterer" in pdf form.

I've looked for this particular booklet since I was a kid, I had missed the boat on it back then by about 5 years. I had collected the bagged 3-pack Charlton comics in the late '70's, the comics had been bundled after sitting around for a long time. The booklet rarely shows up on eBay. Originally offered in1973 the booklet was so popular it went into a 2nd printing.

Here is some nice history on the booklet, as well as jpeg pages and a pdf version.

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-make-comics-charlton-way.html

New old art from the files!

Found some stray scans from the Nat Geo 2008/2009 Kids Calendar I worked on.

I had half the monthly illustrations and one main illustration to do for it. The project had to be done in 20 days, pure craziness of a deadline and little room for revisions.

I started with 2 rounds of sketches, one whole batch of ideas were rejected. The second batch of sketches were approved with little changes. The pencil art was scanned and revised in photoshop. After sketch approval I ink-lined in Photoshop and coloured.

About 8 months later a nifty calendar showed up on my door!

As a bonus, here is an Iggy Arbuckle comic strip sample I was asked to do for Nat Geo Kids....I had pencilled up 5 full pages, but only had time to colour a daily page.

Found! Giant Play Zoo animal collection!

While cleaning up my box of items destined for eBay I ran across a bunch of plastic animals I picked up years ago in a mixed bag of PEZ and such.

I instantly recognized them from the mid-70's comic book ad and stashed them away until I could find a copy of said ad. I'm not sure which comic or company the ad is from, Gold Key or Charlton.

They are all pretty guady and badly painted. When I was a kid I thought they were really GIANT size as stated in the ad, but sadly they are only about an inch high.

Way back when I was collecting comics....

In 1983 I was dreaming about the comics I could only read about in Comics Scene magazine. It was the first magazine I had seen that covered comic books in such depth and seriousness as a "real" magazine. I discovered a lot of the comics and artists that I have enjoyed and have influenced my own work through this magazine.

But it wouldn't last....the first run of Comics Scene ran 11 issues, and without any idea when it would reappear I quickly forgot about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Scene_(magazine)

I had entered a contest in one of the issues to win a Spider-man prize package....I am not sure of the exact details of the contest.

To my surprise, about a year later this showed up in my mailbox.

I must have read Star Raiders about a million times and have a few copies on my shelf, including my original.

The Discovery Train Programme 1978

One of the weirdest things I experienced as a child was the The Discovery Train Programme. During the summer of the late '70's The National Museums of Canada put trains loaded with Canadian culture on tour.

I can't remember how many times we saw the Discovery Train, it could only have been once, but it did have a direct effect on my current occupation. They had an afternoon of NFB animated films onboard for anyone to see.

One of the non-animation films they showed was "Paddle to the Sea". That one has haunted my dreams for years! http://www.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/?id=10584

According to the Freedom Train website the trains were appropriated from the American Freedom Train program. The Freedom Train ran from the 40's to the 70's. More can be found on their website. http://www.freedomtrain.org/html/whereabouts.htm

Development Design "Simon's Shoes"

Development design for a show called "Simon's Shoes".

Basically a science-geek kid with time-travelling shoes.

Promo postcards

These pieces are from a series of postcard designs I did for promo pieces.