John Green's Journal

GO WEST... for a while.

2008-07-21T22:01:21Z

Wednesday I'm heading out to San Diego for its Comic-Con! As usual, I will be with the Comics Bakery crew, at table P2 in the Small Press area.

Looking forward to seeing many of you there!

A comic on July 4th...

2008-07-03T16:24:36Z

I had the pleasure of doing a guest comic for Tyler Page (aka astroboy12) and it will debut on July 4th. It's a totally true comic about when yaytime and I lived together in college.

I'll probably post about this again since most of you will be out at barbecues and fireworks shows during the 4th, but once the comic is up you should be able to see it at this page.

'C' is for Colbert, that's good enough for me...

2008-06-20T12:23:59Z

Muppets make the best talk show hosts.
Thanks to blueduck37 for the find.

Best Conversation Ever.

2008-06-13T03:27:24Z

Overheard while Marion and I walked home from the subway:

"He didn't know. How could he not know? I don't know, ya know?"

crypticpress @ 2008-06-04T16:46:00

2008-06-04T20:59:58Z

Since everyone else is talking about Harvest Is When I Need You The Most, I might as well post a panel from my comic:

The comic features work by a bunch of other awesome creators, and it debuts this weekend at the MoCCA Art Festival!

Me at MoCCA Art Fest!

2008-06-02T21:05:54Z

I will be at the MoCCA Art Festival this weekend! As usual, I will be at the Comics Bakery table with my fellow chefs, yaytime, goraina, and marionv.

I'll have a handful of new things at the show: a comic in a Star Wars-themed anthology, a comic in the latest Rabid Rabbit anthology (The White Album), and a mini comic collecting some recent sketches, some seen on this here LiveJournal. I'll also have a copy or two of my massive 400+ page Footsies book, for anyone interested in the comics I made as a teenager.

There will be plenty of other goodies at our table (and scones, of course) so come on by!

Birthday art

2008-05-22T17:03:36Z

A friend's birthday coincided with the opening of Indy IV, so here's a piece Marion and I collaborated on for a card. Pencils/colors by me, inks by Marion.

Fruitbatman! (and a martian)

2008-05-20T15:28:47Z

While watching an episode of "THE Batman", Marion commented how this version of Catwoman's purring and meowing was unfitting of her character. It worked in the campy '60s show, and it worked for Michelle Pfeiffer's delusional "brought back from the dead by cat spirits" version. But just because Catwoman is a cat burglar and is cat-themed doesn't mean she has to say each line like she's a cat. "After all," Marion said, "Batman doesn't go around going 'EEEEE EEEEEE!!!'"

Which prompted me to draw this:

And the JLA drawings continue... It's hard to find a good pose for Martian Manhunter. I'm not too familiar with the character, and most of the time he seems to stand around and look tough. Or complain about some psychokinetic disturbance.

In her satin tights...

2008-05-16T13:52:37Z

Zack, Martian Manhunter is next...

Since I couldn't stop at just Batman...

2008-05-15T04:30:15Z

...here's a Superman.

Since my wife won't stop...

2008-05-14T18:34:35Z

...drawing Batman, here's a doodle I did last night.

A secret project revealed...

2008-05-12T15:37:58Z

When I was 11 I created my first comic: The Footsies. It starred a bunch of kids with really big feet, hence the name. It's creation was brought on by my mom, who insisted that my drawing Garfield and other comic strip characters and selling the artwork to classmates was illegal. So I started making comic strips and comic books starring these characters and sold those around school. I continued making comics with these characters up until I was a freshman in high school, but didn't do anything with them since. I saved all the artwork and it was sitting in my parents' attic for about twenty years until late last year when I came across it and figured I should scan it in, since a lot of it was fading or ripped or generally falling apart. I then got the idea to make a book out of it as a Christmas present for my mom. I missed that date by five months, but now that I gave it to her for Mother's Day, I can mention it here without ruining the surprise. The book, The Complete Footsies: Bunions and All, totals more than 400 pages, and I put running commentary on most of them. There's a lot of stuff that's embarrassing, but I wanted it to be as all-inclusive as possible. I showed a copy to a few people at NYCC last month, and some said they wouldn't mind having a copy of their own, so it's up at Lulu.com. I'd never used that print-on-demand site before, but it printed really nicely. If anyone's curious, here's a link to it:

The Complete Footsies

One of the first drawings of the characters.

Cover of the second issue.

Cover of the ninth issue.

Sample from back cover to this collection.

Big Book of Wild Women...

2008-05-07T16:18:13Z

Nearly ten years ago I did a piece for one of the DC/Paradox Press "Big Books." I also lettered a half-dozen or so other comics for the anthology. Sadly, Paradox Press folded and the "Big Book of Wild Woman" never came out. It could eventually, but I'm not holding my breath, and when I had to scour a bunch of old CDs for work from days past I came across my comic, so I figured I'd post it. DC can ask me to take it down if they want, but if you're curious, click below the sample panel to see it:

Stumptown!

2008-04-21T22:44:29Z

You will not find me there!

This weekend is the Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, OR, but while marionv and I will not be there, the rest of the Comics Bakery crew will. Dave and Raina will have plenty of cool stuff, and it's their first trip to Portland, so everyone treat them nice!

Though I won't be at the show, I will have some new work debuting there! I did a comic for an anthology called Cop Comics (starring Mummy Cop), and I colored the wraparound cover which you can see below.

So what else is new? New York Comic Con 2008 has come to a close, and it was a great show. Despite some debacle involving a bit of a car accident, once the show really got started on Friday everything was pretty smooth sailing. It was a lot of fun, got to talk to a lot of awesome people, show some of my stuff around, and laugh and eat and geek out about Avatar.

As for what I have been doing lately, I'm the background artist for a new adventure game in development from Wadjet Eye Games to be published by Playfirst. I've also been doing storyboards for a tv show that will be on the History Channel later this year. Lots and lots of other things have been keeping me busy as well, and some projects require secrecy, hence my lack of posting.

If anyone wants an update on my own game, Nearly Departed, I am still working on it but it's going slow as other projects sometimes have to take precedent.

Next con is the MoCCA Art Fest! Back to work!

Happy Birthday to me!

2008-03-20T14:59:30Z

My age is a palindrome.

PCGamer

2008-02-08T00:09:35Z

PCGamer magazine's current issue (#172 Volume 15, Number 03, March 2008) is zombie-themed, and it *should* feature a little interview with me plus the Nearly Departed demo on their game disc (and maybe the recent trailer I made, if they got that on time.) I have not picked up a copy yet, so I don't know the extent of the coverage. Hopefully I'll be able to find one today and see if they used any of the new screenshots I sent them.

Teaser Trailer

2008-01-07T18:09:57Z

Here's a teaser video I made for my zombie adventure game, Nearly Departed.

There's still a lot of work left to do, but hopefully this will convince people that yes, I'm still working on it!

Space Office update

2007-11-27T18:32:02Z

In case anyone's missed it, Space Office has updated. And I forgot to mention it last week, too.

Top 10 Other Things that Han Shot that Didn't Shoot at Him First

2007-11-17T21:16:52Z

Found this list online here.

10. A poor, defenseless Minoc. This flappy critter couldn't even operate a gun, much less shoot at Han.

9. The Space Slug. Just moments after the cold-blooded Minoc shooting, we see Han shoot the insides of a space creature kind enough to have an atmosphere and gravity in its stomach.

8. A stormtrooper. Given slightly lower test scores, this guy could have been a bounty hunter.

7. The garbage compactor door. Even Leia thought this was excessive.

6. The intercom at the Detention Block. Think of all the calls home Imperial troops had made from that comm unit. "Hi Mom. We blew up Alderaan today. Give love to Pop."

5. An officer on the Death Star. Hey, that could have been a Bothan spy. They're masters of disguise, you know.

4. Imperial probe droid. Before he left the base, Han listened to the garble it was transmitting and said, "It isn't friendly whatever it is." If you don't know what it is, how can you tell it is bad? There might have been space kittens in there.

3. Vader's wingman. The guy was given a direct order not to fire. He was just around for moral support.

2. The Sarlacc tentacle. It was only trying to eat Lando-- heck, didn't Chewie want to do that at the end of Empire?

1. His poor, dying Tauntaun. Perhaps in the special edition, Lucas should have animated the tauntaun going nuts and in the throes of death, clawing out one of Han's eyes or grabbing his blaster and squeezing off a few shots-- making it justifiable to spill its smelly macaroni guts in the snow.

I would like to add Darth Vader to the list, who, while no doubt a baddie, Han tries to mow down upon the offer of afternoon tea in Empire, and of course there are the Ewoks in Jedi, who Han was ready to exterminate before Luke stopped him.

Bemusement Park

2007-11-16T15:19:42Z

Shortly after Disney Adventure's shutting down, I got an e-mail from a new magazine about Orlando theme parks. They were looking for me to create a monthly comic feature for their mag. The result, with the aid of lunchbreak_pat, is Bemusement Park. The first issue of the magazine, Orlando Attractions, should be out now, though it's probably only available in Florida. But you can see a promo for the comic online:

Bemusement Park promo

What the space-hell?

2007-11-13T14:34:16Z

I forgot to mention that Space Office updated with another page.

Here we meet Xander's boss, Mr. Flemsaak.

Chowder

2007-11-12T17:17:50Z

This show is insane.

Dreamworks Tales

2007-11-08T21:11:08Z

Over the summer Titan Publishing started putting out a magazine in the UK called Dreamworks Tales, which, among other things, has comics based on Shrek, Madagascar, and Shark Tale. I've written a few--a Shrek comic in issue 2 and Madagascar comics in issues 2 and 4. The one from issue 4 turned out particularly well, plus had the fewest changes to my script (only two lines of dialogue cut, and they were pretty superfluous anyway.) Since the magazine's UK-based, no one I know will really get to see them, so I'm gonna show off photos of the comic here.

Space Office Online!

2007-11-05T16:19:03Z

I've added Space Office to my comics at WebComicsNation. I'll try to upload a new page each week, starting with the material from the mini I made earlier this year.

CLICKY THE LOGO!

Space Office Online!

2007-11-04T19:36:47Z

I've added Space Office to my comics at WebComicsNation. I'll try to upload a new page each week, starting with the material from the mini I made earlier this year.

BEHOLD!