December 9th, 2011

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It’s the secondary and tertiary characters that can make all the difference between a good story and a mediocre one. How many times haves you read a comic or watched a cartoon and all the supporting characters appear to be spit out of from the same mold? Sometimes it’s a matter time — there is no wand that can be waved to make new characters simply appear, they need to be developed. Perhaps I spend too much time on that at times, but I’d like to believe it pays off. This is Sergeant Slag, who’s pretty much a one-dimensional character: he doesn’t like Roscoe’s kind. He’s a first class FURC-hater. And as haters tend to be, he’s rather myopic — he allows his prejudices to keep him from finding the the true criminals.

I have several pages of sketches of some sort of sergeant to accompany Detective Penski. The Penski character was already gruff, the sergeant had to be more of an ignorant clod. During this period, I experimented with all sizes, races, and even gender. This led me to think about their captain, who would eventually appear on the page as a politically savvy woman. She would have to be smart in order to become a captain — someone who was considering all the angles and ramifications.

Roscoe’s bike is a constantly evolving vehicle — perhaps like the Batmobile, with many iterations. I’m always trying to justify its design, as if it would ever actually fly. So I work with it for a while and think, jeesh, that thing would never get off the ground, or how does it really do this or that? Stay tuned.
Posted in Character Design, Comic Books, Drawing | 1 Comment »
October 12th, 2011
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April 17th, 2011
- Photo © 2011 Brett Unis
On April 9th 2011 I was returned to my people. It had been 9 years since I appeared at a comic convention. It was in some ways everything I’d hoped it would be: the art, the fans, the camaraderie, making new friends, the pasion for the medium, and all those wonderful comics. But the best part about MoCCA Fest, was I got to spend the weekend with my old pal Jon B. Cooke. Will Eisner documentary producer and publisher of the award winning Comic Book Artist Magazine, J.B. and his brother Andy Cooke (director of Will Eisner: A Sequential Artist) kept me in stitches with equal parts of chop-busting and comic book references.

Cliff Galbraith, publisher Jon B. Cooke and Director Andrew Cooke
When not outright laughing, I found myself smiling, for no particular reason, other than the fact that I was incredibly happy, and forunate to be making comics once again. While at MoCCA Fest, I ran into another old friend, Alex Simmons, who invited me to his Kids Comic Con in the Bronx. While the Bronx isn’t the most convenient place to reach from Red Bank, NJ, I nonetheless drove into northern NYC to visit with old friends and make new ones. I’m not sure what artist Rick Parker asked of us as he took this shot, but Jack Morelli (master comic letter for Marvel and Archie comics), me, Torsten Adaire (Comics Beat contributor) and Jim Salscrup (editor extraordinaire) are enjoying the con as much as any kid at Kids Comic Con. Well worth the drive.
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April 7th, 2011

Prints by the mighty TDT Screen Printing of South River, NJ — a god forsaken place, where men are men, and men print shirts. If you need T-shirts, you’d be a fool to go anywhere else. They do some amazing work, including discharge printing. Far superior to anything I did when I had my screen printing business.
TDT’s president, Geoff Dagostino learned his trade in my shop in the 90’s, but the student is now the master — I was impressed with the level of craft applied to his work. It did my heart good to see some of the procedures I implemented years ago, still being used in Geoff’s operation.

And here’s final product: Asphalt and Navy American Apparel slim-fit 100% cotton T-shirts, on their way to NYC for MoCCA Fest, and Rat Bastard’s first comic con in nine years.
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March 27th, 2011

Cliff, Judie, and Bruce Springsteen ©Tracey Noelle Luz
I’ll explain later.
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