Ian Draws Comics

2012-01-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

2011-11-22T10:49:00.001-08:00

More sketchbookery over at the Tumblr.

2011-11-13T10:06:00.001-08:00

Sketchbookin'

2011-10-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

I'm in The Comics Journal! Sort of. We Take the Bottom With Us was photodropped in Chris Pitzer's Richmond Scene Report. Thanks Chris! Further proof I should move back to Richmond. Here's the pic:

Go read the report at The Comics Journal, and buy a copy of the book, written by Tom Batten, here, or at Velocity Comics. Tom's blog is here.

2011-09-05T19:05:00.001-07:00

It's been a tough week at the day job.

2011-08-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

The world has gone mad. Hurricanes, earthquakes, and now I've participated in a meme. What else was I going to do during a hurricane? Brandon Graham put out the call, and I answered. Also on my Tumblr.

2011-08-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

And now Welcome to the Neighborhood is on Etsy as well! It's two measly bucks, get one! Or come get it at SPX, even better!

2011-08-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a page from We Take the Bottom With Us, written by Tom Batten and drawn by me, now available on Etsy! We plan to be at SPX in a couple weeks, but are still wait-listed for a table. Nevertheless, I'm hopeful.

2011-08-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a panel from my new mini-comic, Welcome to the Neighborhood! We had them for sale at yesterday's Philly Alt Comic-Con which was a good time, if a little slow on the floor, due to the driving rain all afternoon. I'll make sure they're on etsy by the end of the week, so check back!

2011-08-14T18:17:00.000-07:00

I'm now posting over at Tumblr too. Get with it! More tomorrow. Now sleep.

Pleiades

2011-06-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

NEW NEW NEW

2010-09-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have a new comic book finished! It took quite a while, but it was completed in time for SPX, and I'm pretty proud of the results. The script is by Tom Batten of sunny Richmond, VA, with black ink art by moi. Mandy printed the covers (woodblock letterpress) and the interiors (photocopy - the first 50 on a nice pinkish French paper, the rest on white) and handbound them. She did an amazing job making my work into books and making them beautiful packages. That's the sort of work usually done by a publisher, which is why you'll find "Rhubarb Pie Press" on the back of these comics! We'll be putting then on etsy in the next couple days, and I'll post and tweet to update that. They'll also be available at Velocity Comics in Richmond as soon as we can arrange it.

SPX was great! So great I drew a comic about it! I told someone at the show that I did neither webcomics nor autobio comics, and now I've proven myself a liar by doing both at the same time

Here's a pic of our table, with friends Jessica Hoffman and Justin Quinlan to my left.

I may post to tell you about the best comics we picked up when I get to read them all. You should all come to SPX next year so I don't have to tell you what a good time it is.

New Tomorrow

2010-09-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

We were a whirlwind getting ready for SPX, which was amazing, and now we're back. I will tell more and have a mega-sketch recap post tomorrow. Plus, new books! Blog excitement coming soon! Check back!

2010-08-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

These are some trace monotypes I did, that Mandy and I then letterpressed over. They were a while ago, as you can see, but we just got around to scanning them, and I still like them. Meanwhile, I'm inking! Results soon.

Ranchero

2010-07-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

More ballgame sketching.

Do they sing the star-spangled banner at baseball games in Canada?

2010-07-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

Been drawing in the sketchbook while watching the Mets games the last couple weeks. I needed something to distract me from those miserable games!

Might try something like this, even if it reminds me I'm not as good a cook as I'd like to be. I can cut the hell out of an onion though!

2010-07-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been a while. Sry. I was busy getting married to Mandy and getting melted into goo by this ridiculous summer. But I've been drawing every day. Hopefully some of those drawings will be worth putting here. Like so:I read Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and wanted to do a little spot. I had forgotten that watercolors were fun! There may be more of them here soon.

Swift Black Ships

2010-01-10T10:34:00.001-08:00

I was inspired to finally read The Odyssey by my friend Ryan, so I drew him this postcard. I've got the Robert Fagles translation. It's awesome.

Truth in advertising

2009-12-10T17:34:00.000-08:00

I finished a new mini-comic! It's 16 pages on b&w xerox, with covers letterpressed by Mandy on a Vandercook at school, and this is an edition of 40. I adapted it from a story my Mom told me about the pet rooster they had when she was a kid, and drew it on two 11x17 pages so it could be copied onto a single sheet. Overall, I'm fairly happy with this one, and I like the format. I'll probably do this kind again, after I finish that other, bigger book I've been working on.

If you'd like one, I'm selling them for $3, and for an additional dollar-fifty I'll mail one to YOU. I take Paypal at ianesampson@gmail.com, if you're so inclined, or I could send you my home address to do it the old fashioned way.

I know what you did last Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T14:44:00.000-08:00

New Panel

2009-11-03T16:57:00.000-08:00

Here's a panel from the other mini I'm working on. It's simple, but I'm happy with it. It's a rare case where the gesture and composition I liked so much in a thumbnail translated to the page. Hoping to have both of these books done for Book Paper Scissors at the Free Library in December, where Mandy and I will have a table.

SPX! It happened

2009-09-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'm back from SPX. It was great! Here are sketchbook drawings of the people in my immediate vicinity. They are pretty much universally unflattering to their subjects. For that, I apologize.
Also, Mandy did really well and sold a pile of books. We can't wait to go again next year (when I'll have finished the books I'm working on)!

Working

2009-09-11T14:54:00.000-07:00

So, here's some of the thumbnails for the book I'm working on.

And here are the pencils for these pages. By the time I finished thumbnailing the story, I had a better idea of how it would all look, so I've changed some of the old thumbs to fit into it.

I've also been trying to cut panels out and compress some of the action and dialogue. The script was written by my friend Tom Batten at my request, with the setup based on a dream I had. I let it sit around for a million years and finally got to work on it this summer, hoping to have the book at SPX. That's not gonna happen, but I'm happy with how the work's going, so I'm hoping it'll wind up a book both Tom and I are happy with that we can sell at many future shows.

In the meantime, I'm gonna try to bang out a short fun mini-comic to have on the table, though I'm mostly looking forward to this year's show as Mandy's coming out party as a comics and book-maker.

I'll be trying to post new stuff here at least once a ~~week~~ month, probably mostly sketchbook drawings, but I'll update as I work on books. See you at SPX!

Holy Cow

2009-09-01T18:14:00.000-07:00

It's a blog!

Drawings here asap