On the bright side, I’ve been working on a huge pile of stuff, some of which (like The Tick) you’ll be able to see soon or even right now, some (like the huge mess of action figure and vehicle designs I’ve been doing for Hasbro) you won’t be able to see for a long, long time.

So– If you’re in the Seattle area and are planning to attend the Emerald City Comicon this weekend (the 13th and 14th), well, I’ll see you there! I’ll be at table G-05, which I’m sharing with Indigo Kelleigh and Sarah Oleksyk. I’ll be selling original art from the Middleman and the Tick, some fancy prints, and some t-shirts. Here’s a map to the table that I have shamelessly stolen from Indigo’s site:

If you’ve been waiting for a commission from me, I owe you an apology for being so behind on those. I’m going to try to get them all finished soon– I’ve got about half of them finished but I haven’t packaged them or mailed them yet. They’re sitting in a little pile on my desk. I’ll try to get the first batch mailed next week and I’ll be drawing at least one a day starting Monday until they’re all done.

And, for some content, here’s the black-and-white version of the cover to the Tick #4, which got cropped for the final color version:

Today’s the day the first issue of The Tick, vol. 2 comes out! I drew it, and Benito Cereno wrote it. It’s kind of a big deal.

You can check out a preview here, then head on down to your local comics shop and buy five or six copies.

Also don’t forget about the original Jonny Crossbones art for sale.

The pages are 18×24 inches, black ink on white 2-ply bristol board.  Some pages have stuff drawn in the margins.

The price is just US $100, plus $5 shipping.  They will ship via USPS in a sturdy cardboard tube.

Original art makes a great holiday gift!  Also it will keep me from dying of a chronic disease.

I’m afraid I’m keeping pages one through ten for myself.  Any other page is up for sale!  My one condition of sale is that I would like to reserve the right to borrow the page for a possible gallery show upon completion of the book.  Your name will be listed as owner under the piece in such a circumstance, and I’ll cover any shipping costs.

Okay!  Click this button and own a page today!

contact me at lesmcclaine-AT-gmail.com if you’ve got any questions. And please feel free to spread the word around!

page 68 unavailable

I’m working on the first issue of the Tick, and due to some delay in getting script approval, I’ve got to rush the whole issue out by the end of the month.  I’ll be back in the beginning of October with the 5-day-a-week updates.  Sorry about this!

The Tick: All-New #1 written by Benito Cereno, drawn by me.

It’s a new ongoing series, with us as the creative team. Oh, we’ve got such plans. This first issue, which one might find on page 280 of today’s new Previews catalogue, with the item code SEP09 0937, is a Christmas special, something I’ve always wanted to do.

If you’re a regular comics reader, or even if you’re not, try to get down to your local comics shop and ask them to order a copy or two. It’s gonna be good and we want it to do real well.

Also, Arthur has some pretty shapely legs on that cover.

Next week I’m going to be at the San Diego Comic Con, so no updates there.  If  you’re going to be there, I’ll be at the Viper Comics booth from time to time, and I’ll be wandering around.  You can send me an email if you want to catch up with me.

You know what would be the perfect gift for a spouse, loved one, or even yourself?

How about a hand-drawn commission from yours truly?

Over the next month or so, I’m going to be doing 100 commissions!  They will be 5″x5″, in black ink with blue pencil on acid-free bristol board.

I will draw whatever you like (withing reason– it’s a small space!) for just $10.00 each, plus $3.00 shipping, flat.  Order as many as you like and shipping remains the same!

You can buy them by clicking this button right here:

If anyone else in the Portland, Oregon area is looking for studio space, we’re looking for another two people to come in with us– even with seven people we’ll each have almost a hundred square feet.  Shoot me an email if you’re interested: lesmcclaine(AT)gmail.com.

Just for some content, here’s a warmup drawing I did yesterday.  I’ll probably be posting a color version over at evil space robot at some point.

all my ruined stuff

I was heading into work on Friday when I got a telephone call from Indigo Kelleigh, my studiomate.  It seems that the roofers who were “fixing” the roof at our studio did an extremely shoddy job of covering the building before they left on Thursday (Wednesday?  I’m not sure when they’d last done any work) and the rain of Thursday night and all day Friday had poured right on into the building.

I got in a few minutes later, and it was a disaster.  Almost a total loss.  About ten or so finished Jonny Crossbones pages (they’d all been scanned, thank goodness), a few commissions, some other illustration and comics work, and all my art supplies were completely waterlogged.  Water got in under the laminate on my drafting table, so that needs to be replaced, too.  I am extremely glad that I’d taken my Cintiq home for the week, so I could work on an illustration gig there because of the noise the roofers were making.

My bookshelf seems to have escaped mostly unscathed, so my reference and inspiration library is okay.

My housemate/studiomate/hetero lifemate Jon lost all of his art books, all his artwork, and his Cintiq was soaking wet but still seems to work for the time being.

Indigo lost a big box of minicomics he’s been collecting for the last fifteen or twenty years, some books, some art supplies, etc.

And BT Livermore lost a ton of artwork that was hanging on the wall, and a whole rack full of supplies, but was lucky enough that his own artwork was on a rack that escaped most of the damage.

Now we’ve got a couple of garages full of wet art stuff and nowhere to work.  We’ve already started our search for a new location, so hopefully we’ll be back on track soon.

The most frustrating thing about this is that almost the exact same thing happened at the last location Jon, BT and I shared.  Roof taken off without adequate covering, water-damaged studio.  That was just a year and a half ago!  At least that time we didn’t lose anything.  We weren’t nearly so lucky this time.

Let’s just hope this trend does not continue in our next location.