Shonborn

This is the End...

2008-08-16T15:04:00.007-04:00

...of this blog!

And no new art to boot.

Scared yet? Don't be. My "feeling old and lonely" depression hasn't driven me to off myself, and this isn't my last hurrah. If anything, my depression kicked my ass and spurred me on. I've had my own domain name for a while, and I even toyed with this blog being directed to it, but it fucked my email.

So, as of yesterday, I am the proud new poppa of two new domains and a web hosting package of my own.

So, there will be no more use for me to keep my blogger page. Not when you can check out blog.shonborn.net for all your bloggy goodness. This is of course a subdomain of www.shonborn.net. I haven't exactly figured out what I plan on doing with it yet. Something accessible, show-offy, but not exactly blog-a-licious either. More along the lines of my former site www.nobody.sh, but different. I'm no longer a part of that, but you should check it out anyway because it's still awesome with some awesome people keeping it alive.

And be sure to keep an eye out for my other site www.guttertrash.net. Gutter Trash is going to be my bi-weekly comics and movies podcast. We're still some time away from being up and running, but I'm planning for sometime in September, finances willing.

I'm not going to be trashing the blogger page. It'll still be here, but this is the last time I'll be updating it. All new updates will be at blog.shonborn.net, and everything that was posted here is over there now too.

So, the final rundown:

My website: www.shonborn.net

My blog: blog.shonborn.net

My future podcast: www.guttertrash.net

And while you're clicking on random shit, don't forget: buyerbewarecomics.blogspot.com, scarablacesear.blogspot.com, and fanfour9.blogspot.com .

Thanks for checking this place out, all the folks who I know and don't know. I hope to hear from you at the new place.

30

2008-08-11T12:47:00.002-04:00

I'm old today. This is definitely not where I saw myself at the age of 30. 2008 has been a definite shit year for me, mostly of my own design. The comic thing is still a definite goal for me, but I work slowly. I want my projects to mean something personally to me. I no longer have the dreams of being a big superhero artist or writer. I would be perfectly content never having anything published by Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Image, etc. I still love doodling and sketching all those big heroic characters, but the stories I need to tell need to be smaller, and need to be mine. The goal isn't fame and fortune in a dying industry, but rather longevity. Something that can sit on a bookshelf, something long-form. Nothing I do will be amazing. My genetic make-up won't allow me to be amazing, or allow anyone to tell me that it's amazing. But whatever I do, will be a labor of love for me, and me alone. It's taken me a very long time to come to that conclusion, and I'm ready to face it.

Meanwhile, as I enter into my third decade, fallen out with two people I used to consider my closest friends, I'm still struggling to not completely shut myself off from the outside world. The biggest regrets in my life for the past 10 years all happened in this past year, but, it also helped me focus I think. I hope that someday I'll be able to reconcile with the people that I wronged, but that'll take time, and despite being what I officially consider old, I don't I'm yet mature enough to deal with that. After all, I still love comics.

This post is dedicated to Amanda and Bruce, the two people I wish I could be spending today with, but - due to my own fucked-up mindspace - can't.

Fantastic 2: Rise of the Self-Loathing Artist

2008-08-03T04:04:00.005-04:00

Drew this as part of an art swap for a friend of mine. He's commissioning a ton of artists to recreate an old issue of The Fantastic Four. You can find that blog here. You can also see the super-awesome Blue Beetle page he did in return for this FF piece here. Also check out his blog at buyerbewarecomics.blogspot.com Below is the Jack Kirby original of the page above.

Life Failure

2008-08-02T19:10:00.004-04:00

Project Rooftop had a Superman Redesign contest about a month ago or so. Didn't make the finalists. Drawn in Illustrator.

I have nothing to say about Project Rooftop.

Fantastic

2008-07-25T01:07:00.003-04:00

I like the Fantastic Four, in theory. The execution has never held up to what I expect it to be. An old friend of mine and I used to come up with FF stories to try to pitch Marvel (each rejected or ignored), and our ideas of the FF were more appealing than the actual comics. Anyhoo, I drew this a bunch of years ago. I was working at a television station, in Master Control. This was drawn entirely in ballpoint pen on the back of a timing rundown for a newscast.

Hell, boy

2008-07-12T15:42:00.003-04:00

I keep forgetting to try and update this badboy. I was sorta lacking a good piece to pop up here. I mean, I have hundreds of drawings stocked away, I just don't like any of 'em. The images I wanted to post up here, well, I'm not ready yet. They're not ready yet. Soonish. But I figger, Hellboy II is out this week, and I'm excited, despite probably waiting a while to see it. I hate going to movies on opening weekend. All you fuckers and your conversations and cellphones and texting can all fuck off and die, motherfuckers. I didn't pay 10 bucks to listen to your bitch-ass, I came to watching a fucking movie. And when I fucking yell at you to shut the fuck up, don't act surprised, and don't act like I'm interfering in your movie-going experience. Proper public etiquette and four years of working at a movie theater give me the right to fuck up your world if you bother me in a theater. Assholes.

P.S. I love you Mike Mignola.

God of Thunder

2008-06-24T21:26:00.003-04:00

Fuck yeah.

Blue Beetle by Mike Norton

2008-06-19T22:03:00.004-04:00

This'n's a bit different. There's an awesome comic artist by the name of Mike Norton, who's work you can find at www.ihatemike.com. Mike and I both have a love for Blue Beetle, and while doing a random google search for Blue Beetle art, I stumbled upon this con-sketch Mike had done for someone (here):

I thought it was awesome. And then I got a real "bug" up my ass to "finish" the drawing. Using Adobe Illustrator, I did. By no means am I taking credit for Mike's work, I just wanted to do something fun with a drawing of my favorite comic character of all-time, by one of my favorite comic artists.

Read Green Arrow/Black Canary. It's good. Visit Mike's blog for more arty goodness. Listen to the crankcast for random hilarity.

Magneto

2008-06-11T14:06:00.002-04:00

Wanted to try a more traditional pen and ink illustrative style, with shadows and highlights, midtones, etc. Took a long time, especially for an impatient spastic like me. I did a lot of this while watching "The Departed". Good film. Don't know why it took so long to watch it. I even really liked Leonardo DiCaprio in it.

Hulks

2008-05-24T00:20:00.002-04:00

I drew the original about two years ago, and thought I had lost it. Since I've recently discovered it again, I decided to colorize it. Then I decided the Variant Hulks needed representing. Dunno why. It was a time killer. I'm so alone.

Li'l Avengers

2008-05-22T12:05:00.002-04:00

A joke of a take on the whole "Young Avengers" thing. Done entirely in Illustrator. I enjoy how cute they turned out.

Jack Staff

2008-05-10T14:36:00.003-04:00

There's not a lot to say about this other than I have wanted to draw at least one picture of Jack Staff for the longest time, and everytime I do I fuck it up, because it's nowhere near the level of Paul Grist's work. Jack Staff is my favorite comic currently published. Period. No argument. If had to drop all but one book, Jack Staff would be the one I keep. It's really a shame this book doesn't get a lot of buzz, it is consistently the best book on the stands. I really hope that it's move to a long needed regular schedule ups the profile on it. Paul Grist does amazing work, and my little crapfest above does nothing to pay tribute to his talent. Go read.

Hoary Hosts

2008-05-04T15:03:00.004-04:00

Another character that holds a strange (no pun intended) appeal to me. I don't know what it is I like about Dr. Strange, I've not read that many of his comics. In fact, I can only think of the Tony Harris mini from the early Marvel Knights days, and the more recent Brian K. Vaughn series. And I really only liked the BKV book. Weird. Or Strange.

Firestorm (Not the crappy Jeph Loeb/Howie Long movie)

2008-04-05T09:57:00.004-04:00

Another B-lister redesign, Firestorm (Ronnie Raymond). He's been a personal favorite since seeing him on the "Superpowers" cartoon growing up. I even had the little "squeeze his legs" action figure. Anyhoo, the theory behind this is Firestorm as a New God, and wanted to give him a straight-up Kirby design. Done entirely in Adobe Illustrator.

I ain't got no clever title. It's Blue Devil, bitches.

2008-03-31T18:42:00.005-04:00

I've always had an unexplainable fondness for the Blue Devil. I guess I've always been more of a fan of B-Z list characters than I am the Big Name guys. I participated in a redesign contest a few months back, in which B.D. was one of the options. The contest never officially ended, and I'm pretty sure it never will. Damn internet kerfuffles. Anyhoo, this was my Blue Devil entry.

Brainiac likes short shorts

2008-03-29T09:57:00.005-04:00

I don't know what Brianiac really looks like, so I made a no-reference guess based on my memory of Superfriends. It's sort of my "default" when I think Brainiac. That, or James Marsters. Or the Timm version. Or the tentacled skull robot latched onto Luthor's head.

The stranger thing about this piece is that I rarely - if ever - work in color. But when I do it's Photoshop or Illustrator all the way. This was done in color pencil, and as I was working on it - sort of in an out-of-body experience kinda way - I realized that this is the first piece of art I've hand colored in over 10 years.

Made me feel old.

And depressed.

But that's just like shooting fish in a barrell.

In Brightest Day, In Blackest... oooh Pizza!

2008-03-15T15:15:00.003-04:00

Self portrait of the artist as a Green Lantern. Fuck you Hal Jordan.

Criminal Court Part Two is now in session...

2008-03-09T03:43:00.002-04:00

Night Court is one of my all-time favorite television shows. That's all you need to know.

Mahojin Return!

2008-02-22T09:07:00.013-05:00

A re-design of Thor from a few years ago. I like to take established characters and tweak them here and there. It's all in fun, and I get to draw, which I sometimes enjoy doing.

Panther

2008-02-21T17:53:00.004-05:00

My first blog. My first blog post. Just trying it out. Black Panther is one of those characters I'd really like to like. As it is, my interest sorta peaked with Christopher Priest's run, otherwise, he's just a really inconsistent, but cool-concept and cool-visual character. I was trying a animated look with this piece, and worked it out completely in Adobe Illustrator. One of the few pieces of my art that I don't completely hate.