Collector's Image

Back in the day my first outsource for comics was a local shop called Collectors Image. That store was what I still believe comic book shops should be. It really was a hangout and the environment was great. The decor was top notch memorabilia and there were just rows upon rows of comic books. This is actually the first comic book store that fed and fueled my every indy need. I was opened up to fantastic worlds of Usagi Yojimbo, The Tick, ZOT!, The Crow, Tales of the Beanworld, Scud the Disposable Assassin and on and on. I can just keep on name dropping all the hot indy books that the world later discovered and fell in love with.
The store owner was kind enough to allow me to set up a little stand on his counter and display and sell my comic book, Dorks. This was really a time where I felt I was part of the business. I was even featured in their newsletter and did an in store signing.

I had the opportunity to have that similar experience recently at Alternate Reality (www.myalternatereality.com) and it's something that I don't think I'd ever get tired of. When there are comic shop owners out there that care that much about the industry it puts a smile on my face.

Guest pinup artist

I just wanted to post this pinup that Stan Tanaka has done for the tenth anniversary edition of the Dorks collected. Just as a bit of a story here, it seems he "borrowed" the scene from Dorks issue 3. Since I never got very far with the series or the stories I'll just let you know what was going on here. Back in the day it was "cool" and "hip" to have mysteries upon mysteries in your stories. That's what sold. Just throwing a bunch of meaningless crap out there and having some huge origin behind it later on. In this case, the passing between Latitude and this lady was a minor encounter between mother and son. It was to be later revealed that she had abandoned him because of how he turned out.

...I'm really glad those days are over of pointless origin crap.

Jumping Ahead - Bride of the Wolfman

It's been ages since I've completed an actual full comic. In 2002 and 2003 I did two short Dorks stories that were 4 pages each. Other then that, not much had happened. In 2004 Dave Gruba asked me to partner up with him on a project of his. Bride of the Wolfman. We've never worked together on a project despite the long history we've had together in publishing. Even on Grubbmaster Pieces I did my own stuff, which was funny cause I remember a guy that Dave tapped to contribute to the book but he wanted him to draw White Knife. That guy complained to me how he wanted to do his own stuff like I was doing. Old times...
Getting back on track I just wanted to point out that I have done something new. It feels good but now that the work is done, I feel like I was let go from a job. I just don't know what to do with myself. I had all these plans of course to work on Dorks and other things but coming rite off Wolfman I just feel drained and energized at the same time. Everything that I had held back on working on so that this project was done is now trying to find its way out and I can't focus on what to do first. I'm shure though by the end of the week I'll have an idea. :p

Here's a look at the cover and I'll post some sketches and pages later on.
Thanks everybody and thank you Dave. It was fun and a great project to work on. It helped me focus more on the task at hand and gave me some new experience on how to work.

-Rene