Fan Art Friday No.3 (ok, it's actually Saturday)

Only in the dead of night, will I post this fan art of...JAR JAR BINKS:


Crispy mornin' munchin'.

Stuff: Poop

This was a going away present for a coworker-friend Sunnye:



Sunnye kept an amazing blog about her plastic use for a year: KnowPlastic

Currently, she's busy traveling the world (with her poop, no doubt); you can be insanely jealous of her exploits here.

The stuffed poop was made with brown fleece, polyfill stuffing and, of course, love.

Fan Art Friday No.2

I just can't help myself...

Process: Staying Fit (well, kinda)

Last year, I pretty much became a work-from-home illustrator. By "pretty much", I mean that I still work 1-2 days a week for my other awesome job, but those other 5-6 days are spent writing, drawing or coloring. Although I love working from home, it can be challenging to not completely devolve into a Playdough-like lump. And while writing, drawing and coloring are all great cognitive exercises, my mortal being was left feeling...well, a bit Playdough-y. So...

Step 1.) STANDING DESK. That's right, I stand up and work. And I love it. No more backache or crappy posture from working in front of a computer for 10-12 hours a day.

Step 2.) GOOD OLD-FASHIONED EXERCISE. I will be the first to admit that I have a really hard time being consistent with things (long-time readers of this blog will agree). Daily exercise is a chore, and between paying bills and cleaning and cooking, I don't really like to subscribe to additional "adult" responsibilities...but, with the persuasion of Liz Prince, Joe and I started the INSANITY WORKOUT (when you read that out-loud, it should sound all epic and reverb-y). You may have seen the late night infomercials advertising fitness guru Shaun-T's "Insanity Workout", or his classic "Hip Hop Abs". Well, I totally dig it (oh, and while we're on the subject of late night infomercials, the Magic Bullet Blender is pretty rad too).

Liz, Joe and I have been working out 5-6 days a week since late November, and aside from the occasional soreness, I feel great. Like I want to Hulk-out all the time. It's awesome. The best part is that it's FUN. When you workout and can laugh at all the silly crap you're doing (see images below), it makes it rather enjoyable. Ok. That's enough about that. If you really want to read more about our experience, you can check out this blog. And now, here's me sweatin' and lookin' silly:

Fan Art Friday No.1

Yup, you read it correctly; every Friday henceforth shall be known as "Fan Art Friday". I will post drawings of my personal fan art for things that I love, as well as commissions from conventions.

This will be obvious to most people that know me, but I LOVE ADVENTURE TIME. It's design, animation, voice acting, writing, and backgrounds, as well as gratuitous use of gastropods, make it one of my favorite shows EVER. So here is a doodle of Finn and Jake (and maybe a rogue gastropod) the night before a quest:



Also: Adventure Time has a comic now!!

Robot Quilt

Our good friends just welcomed their new baby; this was my baby shower gift:



To make this quilt, I first did some doodles:



Then I tightened up my favorite design (and did some maths!):



And then I cut out about 204 squares and sewed them all together. With my sewing machine! I'm not sure if I'll ever get past plain old square quilts (I'm very intimidated by anything other than squares), but I figure that'll pave the way for Tetris and Legend of Zelda quilts. Maybe someday I'll seek counsel from the amazing quilter-seamstress-toymaker-designer Claire Sanders, but until then...Yay 8-Bits!

Process: Writing

Prior to this past year, I had either written and drawn all my comics, or drawn comics while working from a script. For the work both written and drawn by me, most were mini comics, or short (2-12 page) stories for anthologies. I had never really given much thought to separating writing and drawing, but a number of opportunities presented themselves...like writing a one-page story for Mike Allred's Madman: 20th Anniversary MONSTER! Actually, he asked both Joe and me, so we worked together (awwww). In this post, I'm going to outline the process that I used to write the script. I'll be doing this with future posts as well, since I've recently written some other comics-y things.

BRAINSTORMING...or IN WHICH MARIS AND JOE TALK ABOUT NERDY THINGS OVER COFFEE



This might be my favorite part. Joe and I spent many walks and coffees discussing what may happen in the story. We do this for each other's respective projects as well; sometimes it's good to just talk stuff out.



FIGURING IT OUT...or IN WHICH I MAKE ILLEGIBLE MARKINGS WITH A WRITING UTENSIL ON A FIBROUS SURFACE



I should mention that I wrote a brief synopsis to send to Mike before we started laying out the panels. Also, I re-read o bunch of Madmen comics to get my head in the story. Research = fun! (Especially when it involves reading comics!)



THE ROUGH PANEL LAYOUT...or IN WHICH I MAKE ILLEGIBLE MARKINGS WITH A WRITING UTENSIL ON A FIBROUS SURFACE (part 2)



I guess this would be the second draft (but who's counting); scrapping things that don't fit, and tweaking the dialogue and settings to make sure it flows.



THE SCRIPT!! or LOOK, MA! I'M USING A COMPOOTER!!




Yup. Looking a bit more...professional? I really like using a pen and paper (stubborn and old-fashioned, I know), but typing it out is nice. I can make those final edits, and even scribble on the script some more. After looking at the final script, Joe combined a few panels/lines of dialogue. When you look at his layout sketch, you can see how ridiculously dense it is (sorry, Joe):


If you'd like to see more about Joe's process (including some very silly reference photos), they can be found here and here and here.

Mike Allred's Madman: 20th Anniversary MONSTER is out now! I'll be posting more about my writing process for other projects, as well as my pencilling/inking/coloring process. Until then...bye bye!

Turkeys are done, People are finished...

That's right! I finished coloring the book about primates! Written by Jim Ottaviani! To be published by First Second! Let me just say that Jim is THE BEST. Last night, I received some Zingerman's Chocolate-awesomeness from Jim (stealthily delivered by the ninja-like Liz Prince):



All that's left are the lettering and the cover!! Woot!!

Happy (belated) New Year, everyone!

Here's a commission that I did along with Joe Q and Liz P:


If you want the low-down on who-did-what, you can find that here.

I'll have a bigger update/post soon (almost done with the book I've been working on FOREVER!!)

Cephalopods...

...of the Octopus variety.

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

Still life with juggernaut and cats.

Two things: Thanks to everyone who came out at NYCC; it was a blast! I'll be posting some of the commissions I did here (and on my tumblr) over the next few days.

And also, thanks to everyone who donated to The Apocalypse Calendar!! We reached the kickstarter goal, and you can purchase said calendar RIGHT NOW! You can also just buy a print of the underwater illustration I did for the calendar here.

NEW YORK COMIC CON!!

NYC here we come!
(no, we will not be arriving via tractor)

Joe and I will be sharing the magnificent S-2 table, right next to Mr. Paolo Rivera. Saturday we will be in COSTUME...you heard me. IN COSTUME. The identity of my costume will remain a surprise for now.

I will being selling lots of prints, including this one:



Each of those dudes will be available as individual prints too! Also, there will be mini-comics and original art. AND I'll be doing commission sketches. woot! It'll be a fun time!

APOCALYPSE CALENDAR!!!!!

Now you can see in EPIC DETAIL all of the marine critters I jammed into this piece for the APOCALYPSE CALENDAR! Can you find:
2 hagfish
1 goliath grouper
6 marine snails
1 cownose ray
2 sea roaches
3 angel fish
1 giant pacific octopus
7 moon jellies
4 seastars
1 scallop
1 clam
2 horseshoe crabs
1 rock crab
7 royal grammas
6 cleaning wrasse
4 redfish
2 flounders
1 longhorn cowfish
4 porcupine fish
4 anemones
4 grass eels
4 moray eels
2 cuttlefish
3 rainbow parrotfish
1 southern stingray
1 green sea turtle
1 harbor seal
1 american lobster
1 whale shark
5 human skeletons
and a whole bunch of barnacles

You can see a bunch of other apocalyptic images, as well as support this project (previously mentioned here), at it's kickstarter site!

MODOK!

Teeny tiny MODOK, from Emerald City Comic Con.

APOCALYPSE CALENDAR!!!!!

That's right! With the end of the world just around the corner, wouldn't you like to spend your final days looking at THIS? I was lucky enough to be part of this awesome project, put together by RISD buddy Thomas Quinn, featuring a whole bunch of rad artists! This calendar has a Kickstarter to help it see the light of day (before the light of day is extinguished, that is):
APOCALYPSE CALENDAR KICKSTARTER!

You can even watch a video about it! Can you guess which piece I did?

Thanks to everyone who came out for M.I.C.E. this past Saturday; it was so nice to see all that support for a local indie con! The next con that I will be at is New York Comic Con. Joe and I will be sharing a table in Artist's Alley; I'll be posting more about those details later.

Also, I am starting a tumblr: mariswicks.tumblr.com (click to see some more superhero silliness) I am going to use this as a motivation to post more often, as well as to get less precious about my posts (less words, more DRAWINGS).

I will still post here, but there will be doodle-y goodness going on in the tumblr. Mmmmmm...doodles.

COOOOOOOOMICS

Hey everybody! It's the internet! But let's talk about REAL LIFE:

Joe and I will be at our local, down-the-street comics fest this coming SATURDAY!! If you live in the Boston-area, come out and say "hey" at M.I.C.E. (Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo). IT IS FREEEEE!!!! I will be drawing things and chatting and maybe if you want to hear about ocean animals I will totally TELL YOU ABOUT THEM. They even let me do one of the posters for the show (available as a limited edition print AT the show:

MICE, The Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo

September 24, 2011 10am - 6pm

1815 Mass Ave., Cambridge MA (Porter Square)
Illustration by Maris Wicks

That's me: always working intestines into an illustration. AND...I got to help draw the cover of this week's dig boston, along side the talented Ming Doyle and Patt Kelley:

The DIG is a free weekly local paper that you can get on many classy corners around the Boston-area! Pick it up!

Stay tuned for more comics-related news...

MOOSE!!

Biggs riding a skateboard, done for Paul Maybury Heroes Con 2011

Hey everybody. It's been a crazy summer; I will have updates on work and upcoming conventions soon. I recently did a pin-up for my friend Max de Radiguès' mini-comic MOOSE #3. His comics are ultra-awesome and have been a great inspiration to my own work. You can buy MOOSE #3 (and many of Max's other comics) HERE.

Sketches!

I did a BUNCH of sketches at Heroes Con...it was a lot of fun. I'm going to try and pace these out, though it is very tempting to post them all at once. I'll start with the more summer-y ones:


Octopuses and put-put golf are summer-y, right?

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Along side the fabulous DJ Spider!