I WON!

WOW-EY! What a night I had last night! No, I wasn't out on the town boozing it up or anything although I DID feel like I had been!



This past Sunday I received a call from the National Cartoonist Society informing me that I was one of their finalists for the Jay Kennedy Memorial Scholarship! I had applied for this scholarship back in January and I'd be lying if I said I haven't been twiddling my thumbs to hear anything from them. So you can imagine how floored I was to received the news Sunday that I was being considered to be their winner!



And then last night while my girlfriend Kassandra and I were eating tortellini, I got a call from the NCS telling me that they had chosen me to be their guy to receive the scholarship as well as (and here's the REAL kicker!) participate in the 2009 Reuben awards in which they will fly me (and Kassandra!) out to LA for the weekend of the awards.




Wow.


Oh, and did I mention, it's happening on May 23rd? My 21st BIRTHDAY?!

I should go play the lotto. Have these guys been talking with the "Make a Wish" Foundation or something? I mean, come on!

Needless to say, I was estatic and can not wait until the awards. Honestly, I can't think of better place to spend my birthday than with some of most prolific cartoonists of our generation. This is a dream come true.

Thanks NCS!

Station 8 won!

I just found out yesterday that my comic, Station 8 won the "The Michigan State University Comics Forum" comics competition! MSU hosted a very cool event with David Peterson as the main guest speaker and one of the judges for the competition.

Many thanks to David and the other judges as well as MSU for picking "Station 8" as the winner!

Sadly, I was unable to go seeing how I was too tied up here in Detroit. Many thanks though to my buddy from Comics Obscura, Jay Jacot for acting as my mole and calling me as soon as the winner was announced. Thanks dude!

Here's my comic, Station 8 if you haven't seen it:

Reed Gunther Teaser!

Good morning everybody! Thought I'd post a sneak peak at one of the finished pages from my brother Shane and my comic, "Reed Gunther and the Steak Snacking Snake!" The issue's coming along nicely and has been a ton o fun to work on. It's right on schedule to come out in May.

It's a hefty issue weighing in at 30 pages of story, possibly a few pages of sketches and such, AND pin-ups by some GREAT artists like Pascal Campion, Bob Flynn, and Guy Davis just to name a few! I'm very excited to have these guys (and a gal) participate!


Also, I've received two VERY exciting phone calls over the weekend and am giddy as all get out. I'll be sure to announce the news (good or bad) when things are announced officially...

Dragon!

Here's my submission to Drawer Geeks "Dragon" topic this past week. There were a lot of fun submissions so be sure to check out the link!

Art Trade!

Have you guys heard of David DeGrand? If not, check out his GREAT wild and crazy cartoons that are sure to make you bust a gut. David was nice enough to agree to do a little art trade with me and here are the results!

Here's David's really fun drawing! Look how happy that cloud is!



Here's the drawing I sent David and later colored in PS for fun. I forgot to save an original of the scan which had the pirate saying, "I want cher booty" which I though was comedic gold!




Thanks again David!

Detroit Zoo Poster!

Here's my submission for the Detroit's Zoo big ol' poster competition they just had. It was a lot of fun to do! I mean come on, how often to you get draw a bunch of goofy animals piled together? Well perhaps you DO get to do that often but I don't so it was fun.

Participants were allowed into the zoo for $free, given goody bags of zoo stuff, breakfast, and a lecture including films about the zoo's history. Who cares what the outcome of the competition is after all that!?

If you are ever in Detroit (or Royal Oak to be more exact) be sure to "SWING" by the zoo! I'm sure you'll have a "WILD" time! ...See what I did there with the puns? HAW HAW!

Rough comp/drawing:

Final:

Kamikaze!

Whoops! I completely forgot to scan in and post this painting which I uploaded the line drawing to a few weeks ago.

Here it is inspired by the quote, "Few people succeed unless a lot of people want them to." I decided to try and tackle childhood pressure (from parents, teachers, friends, religious leaders, etc...) and mirror it with the strange occupation of being a Kamikaze pilot (by which a successful day means you're dead).

A little different for me for sure! But it was fun digging into a deeper concept and going from there. I'd love to hear what you think!



Oil on illustration board, approx 18" x 13"

Invasion of the Moon Thingys!

Another piece from my "Sci-Fi Painting" class. This was fun! We had to do something regarding the moon so I thought an old pulpy cover for a fake magazine or comic would be fun to do. So here's some process work for "Invasion of the Moon Thingys!"

Look for it in stores but don't expect to find anything!

Thumbnail:


Rough:


Clean-up


Color and value studies:


Final:



Have a good one, ya hear!

Ol' Reliable

I remember in 4th grade, there was nothing I wanted more than a BB gun. All my friends seemed to have one. Living in the alfalfa fields of Michigan, there wasn't too much for a boy to do except shoot at things, I guess.

So come Christmas, I begged my parents to get me one. Now, I wasn't too much of the begging sort, but I made quite the exception that year. I believe "But BB guns are the TRUE meaning of Christmas" and "Jesus would've wanted me to have one!" were some of my pleas. But there was nothing I could say to possibly persuade my parents to get me one.

Come Christmas morning there was no BB gun in sight. I had honestly forgotten about the BB gun and had given up hope for it in the days before. But after all the gifts were opened, there was one last present hidden behind our book shelf!

Did my parents get me a golf club? A shower curtain rod? Or a tube of cardboard? No sir, it was in fact a BB GUN!

I immediately ran outside, pointed the barrel right at my face and shot my eye out.

Most of that story is true.

Underwater Highway!

Here's a fun painting I did the other week for my "Sci-Fi Painting" class taught by ex-Disney background artist, Keith Newton. It's a blast! The assignment was to do an alien landscape and since that's pretty broad, I came up with this cooky idea of some sort of underwater highway.

Final Pencil Sketch:


Finished Oil Painting (picked up a bit of glare from the scanner):


Have a good one eeeeverybody!

Neeeerd!

Hey guys! Be sure to check out Bob Flynn's blog to see a preview of his pin-up he did for the Reed Gunther book. It's GREAT! He also shows off some really great process work and development he did. If you haven't flipped through his blog or website, you're missing out on some really fun and fun-NY draw-rings!

In the mean time, check this guy out! HAW HAW! Look at what he's reading about- now THAT'S classy!

Reed Gunther and the Steak Snacking Snake!

Wow- say that one five times fast! Or slow for that matter.

Yes, Reed Gunther is now appearing in his first 30 page issue named "Reed Gunther and the Steak Snacking Snake!" You may have read before on this blog about the bear-riding cowboy, Reed and his trusty bear-pal, Sterling. They're back but they've undergone a few changes.

My brother, Shane Houghton wrote this first issue and took care of a lot of the development/story problems I was having in the short segments I was working on for the independent comics magazine, Comics Obscura. It's a real fun story and as of today the issue is all penciled and ready for inks.

The issue will be out in May but I'll be sure to post some sneak peeks until then. There will also be some fun pin-ups from some amazing artists in the back of the book, which I'm very excited about!

Some character sheets:







Two non-sequential pages: