An open letter to my right wing friends in the spirit of Christmas

To my hardcore, Fox News rhetoric spouting friends (of which there are admittedly few): I'd like to have a word for a moment in the spirit of Christmas: stop the unbridled and ignorant hatred. It's tiresome. 


I understand that you need SOMEONE to blame for the current situation in our country, but what so many seem to fail to understand is that what's happening today is a result of 30 years of political shenanigans and deregulation and rehashing the same failed tricks over and over under new & exciting names. Trickle down (now supply-side) economics didn't work in the 80's or 90's, so how is it a solution now? This crap started under Reagan, continued under Bush, Clinton, Bush Jr, and now Obama, so how is it solely the last guy's fault?


Easy answer - it's not. The more rancor and ire that gets raised, however, causes us to forget to use our better judgement, makes us easily susceptible to groupthink and lovely, lovely buzzwords, and turns rational people into an angry mob out for blood. Remember that these politicians, Republicans AND Democrats, are out for themselves, and themselves alone. They're really good at putting their hands up in the air, proclaiming total innocence, and vehemently pointing at the other guy. Some of the shit that's being done is shameful and borderline treasonous, and the backstepping and ass-covering is utterly blatent at best on both sides of the fence. The fact that so many people just accept this crap at face value without doing any due diligence is sad. Do a little research. Think for yourself. Automatons are not what made this country great.


Chill out, enjoy the time with your family, and in that downtime jumpstart the rational centers of your brains, and maybe, just maybe, we can come to the conclusion that these guys are ALL assholes.


Merry Christmas. ;)

Down for a while, hopefully not for the count...

Well, there haven't been a lot of postings since there hasn't been a whole lot to post. Dealing with some health issues that are drastically affecting my dominant arm, and haven't been able to do much of anything for the last 2-3 weeks or so.

At this point it looks like I'm having some big nerve issues that are causing pain & spasms and it appears that some muscles in my shoulder & arm are essentially cut off from nerve impulses except for pain - effectively paralyzed. Also got diagnosed with arthritis in my neck. All holdovers, I'm sure, from my car wreck 10 bloody years ago.

I'll admit that it's freaking me the hell out, but I should know more after my MRI next week. I'm crossing my fingers for good news.

500 Pageviews! Thanks, everyone!

So I just passed the big 5-0-0! I just want to take a moment and say how much I appreciate folks dropping by and checking out my little corner of the web. Thanks a million, everyone! =)

A Matched Set...

Reworked my male brawler - added more contrast and color work in the skin particularly, and finished up little Miss FemBrawler a few minutes ago. I realized that I burn through Copics relatively fast with the way that I do marker work. I just went to Dick Blick yesterday to get refills for my C1 & C3, and after a morning of working, it turns out I'm going to need at least a new C5 as well! Ah well. Anyway, without further ado, here they are! =)

Head Lice process

Here's a quick bit of process for my latest monster design. I didn't take as many scans during this as I was originally planning, but I got in the zone while I was working and totally forgot. LOL

*update 1/22/12 - added background, details & popped contrast. This should be the final.

pencils

inks & markers

background & finishing touches

Finally, geez!

Finally sat down and finished inking and toning my Brawler drawing with Copics this evening. =)

Better late than never, damnit! ;)

Sketch o' the Day...Mister Miracle!

Sketched this out in about an hour and a half while watching Project: Runway with my wife tonight. Don't know why, but I was in a Mister Miracle mood. I figured that his costume would be a really good one to test out my new contrasting warm grey copics vs my cool greys, since there a nice dark green to go with the bright red & yellow. With that being the ultimate goal of this, here are the pencils:

Alchemist painting

Finished this Friday night. I got to experiment with a new digital painting technique over pencils that seems to work better but still not crazy about it. I'm still trying to get my digital stuff to look more traditional, but feel like I'm fighting it every step of the way.

This was originally supposed to be used for a GM screen for Carmine, but was decided against. It's cool though...I learned a few things and honestly, I hated the original drawing anyway - it was a concept sketch that got drafted into service for the first book with a little clean up that I was then asked to paint on a fairly quick turnaround. If I'm asked to revisit this guy again, I'm starting from scratch. LOL.

And before anyone asks: yes, I totally based the color scheme for him off Mal Reynolds in Firefly, and those are indeed Louboutin inspired boots. LOL!

Dragonflight was a complete bust...

I think my experience can be summed up by the following short dialogue:

Mongolian Chieftain: "Conan, what is best in life?"

Conan: "Apparently not Dragonflight...:/"

Mongolian Chieftain: "That is good."

The kind of stuff I do during gaming sessions much to my GM's regret...

In my defense, however, when you have a new character, you're OBLIGATED to let everyone know what he/she looks like, dammit! LOL

Dragonflight 2011

Just a heads up...I'll be attending Dragonflight 2011 in Bellevue, WA with Attention Span Games next weekend, Aug 12-14th, and will be bringing prints of 10 different pieces with me, shown below:

All prints are 8.5"x11" on 80# stock, and will be priced at $10 each or 2 for $15. Swing by the ASG booth and say hi! =)

Something goes horribly, horribly wrong with DC's redesign of "The New 52"...

LOL found this quickie sketch while going through saved artwork, looking for pieces to make into prints. =) 

More happy WIP.

OK, I have to admit that I kind of like scanning and posting stuff in progress, if only to have a record for myself of what I've done. Here's another, the female brawler.

More WIP stuff...

More stuff I'm working on for Carmine. This is for the Terror Hunter caste.

and here are the finished pencils. =)...

A little WIP action...

ARR! Deadline be creepin' up mightily, so I be hoisting me mains'l, and catchin' the wind! In other words, "Crap, crap, CRAAAP! Time's running out, so I better get my ass moving!" LOL

Since I started conceptualizing the brawler class, I haven't been able to get this picture of an old-timey boxer out of my head, so I decided to run with it. Thought it would be fun to take a lot more scans along the way, and just update this post with progress pics, so here goes!

Gentleman Jim, at your service! =)

A little more complete...

Almost there...

And that should do it for the pencils...on to inks!

Sketch o'the Day...brawler concept

Worked on some concept art tonight. Did a new character design for a melee class (Brawler) for the new Carmine expansion. I envision this kind of character with medium to heavy armor on the arms and from the knees down, in order to be able to block edged and blunt weapons effectively, but with minimal armor on the core part of the body in order to facilitate fast movement.

Rough pencils, followed by copic multiliners & markers, Final highlights with white ink pen.

SO as to the lack of posting...

So, man oh man, have I been busy. We've started work on the new Carmine book, which is always challenging, even when you're NOT art directing the project! New long-term projects take a little while to gain momentum, and you generally have to drag everyone and everything along by sheer force of will, kicking and screaming, until the ball begins to roll, and then it tends to almost take on a life of its own. Inspiration strikes in one form or another, and then you just can't STOP working! Being swept up in that wave is where I like to be. =)

I've been slowly picking up more and more freelance design work, which is great! It's a really nice feeling when go from trolling craigslist looking for opportunities, and begin the transition to people approaching you out of the blue looking to see if you're available to hire. God forbid, Google+ has turned out to be a great resource for exposure and has actually led to a couple opportunities in the short time that I've been on it! 

Still looking for a regular day-job at the moment though, just to keep the bills paid and all that. Not quite at the level where I can do my work for a living full-time, but it sure is nice to see some movement in that direction. 

I've picked up what looks to be a big opportunity on the near horizon, but it's like Fight Club - I can't talk about it, at least not yet LOL. Things are just starting to get rolling, and I don't want to tinker with that momentum. ;)

Have I mentioned that I freelance?

So that may seem like a goofy question, but it is actually quite valid. I honestly don't think that I've ever mentioned other than in passing on my Google profile that I will absolutely accept inquiries about work for a new or existing client! God forbid, I figure that it might be a good thing to mention.

I accept both design and illustration commissions. I generally charge $35/hour, billable by the quarter hour, unless it's a project that I can easily quantify into a set amount, like a business card design where the art elements like the logo are already provided. If you have a particular project in mind, but the budget is tight, I've been known to take work at a (slightly) reduced rate if it piques my interest enough. The very best thing to do is to drop me a line with the particulars, and we just might be able to work something out. =)

Sketches o'the Day...DC Comics random happiness

Ah, gaming night, or as I'd prefer to call it, drawing night constantly interrupted by game  LOL! 

Thought it would be fun to just keep filling up a page in the old sketchbook until I couldn't reasonably fit much more on it. Supes was already on the page from the other day. I tightened him up a bit, then started the Red Lantern Guy Gardner, Flash and Nightwing. All in all, I sketched these out on and off over the course of 2-3 hours. 

Sketch o'the Day...Superman

I was watching the first few episodes of Bruce Timm's Superman the Animated Series, and what can I say...I found myself inspired. =)

250 pageviews!

Hey all. Just noticed that I passed a whopping 250 pageviews as of today! Thanks a million for reading. =D

Sketch o'the Day...Drink n' Draw edition, part deux

OK, had some time this evening to throw about another hour into my unfinished Batman sketch from the Jet City Drink n Draw last Thursday. Did the final touches with a multiliner, white paint pen & Copic cool grey markers.

Pencils vs Inks!

Hey folks. I don't know about you guys, but I always get a kick out of seeing other artists' process. I've been wanting to show comparisons of my friend's pencils to my inks for a while now, and finally dragged ass to Photoshop to put together some composites. These are a couple of the critters that we did for Carmine.

I know this isn't as broken down as others showing their process, but it is what it is. LOL In the future I may start taking multiple scans of WIP stuff to get a better breakdown. Let me know what you think!

Pencils by Tai Beckham
Inks by yours truly

Sketch o'the Day...Drink n' Draw edition

Went to the Jet City Comic Show Drink n' Draw tonight @ the Pillagers Pub in Seattle, and it was really awesome. Got to hang out with some friends, and meet some new ones! A good time was had by all and I'll definitely be going to the next one! I gotta say though that if tonight showed me anything, it's that I'm slow as hell and need to speed up! I was sitting with Jason Metcalf, and he knocked out like 5 pieces, while I was dicking around with a pretty crappy Wolverine sketch for way too long. At least I was able to get one decent one out tonight. It's totally WIP with the beginning of some inks, so be kind. LOL ;)

Sketch o'the Day...Iron Man finished in Photoshop

Took me about an hour or so to clean up edges & tweak with hues/saturations in Photoshop to colorize my grey tones from the Copics. 

Sketch o'the Day...Iron Man toned with copics

Got about another 2-3 hours into this today. Laid down tones with my Copic markers and then dropped in some highlights with an opaque paint pen. Next step will be to colorize in Photoshop. I swear, every time I use these damn things, I love them more and more! =)

X-Men: First Class sets the curve

I finally had my opportunity to see X-Men: First Class, and in my humble opinion, this is the best of the bunch. While there were some questionable choices, including some of the characters they chose to include, all in all, this was a great effort and a very entertaining watch. The time period was used well, and never got really cheesy, as is such a danger with anything set in the 60's. Special effects & makeup were solid, and the pacing was spot on.

The casting for the main 2 characters was dead on, and after this, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see Michael Fassbender fast tracked to play James Bond. Admittedly his Irish lilt popped out in a few scenes which consequently jolted me out of his portrayal of Magneto, but that's about the only criticism that I could come up with in regards to his performance. James MacAvoy played the role of the dickish yet brilliant Professor X to perfection. January Jones, not so much, as I'm pretty convinced that she couldn't act her way out of a paper sack. Unfortunately emotions are hard, but at least she was nice eye candy, and the effect they used for Emma's diamond form was amazing!

As per usual I don't want to give anything away, but there are some cameos that are nothing but pure awesome. In fact, if I could just have a movie of Professor X & Magneto schmooze with prospective mutant recruits, I'd be completely down.

Anyway, go see this flick, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Just don't bother staying past the credits, as there's no sweet extra scene attached to this one. Enjoy!

Sketches o'the Day...Ultraman & Iron Man

Hey there, super limited audience! =)

Here's a couple pieces that I did tonight while hanging out with my friends and playing a rousing game of Arkham Horror LOL.

I finished the inks for Iron Man here first. Started the pencils as a second drawing during my last gaming session with the boys. Wasn't super happy with some of the shapes around the head, so I did a bunch of refining tonight, and finally worked out a design I liked. I always have a really tough time figuring out mechanical stuff. I swear it's my kryptonite. Anyway, decided to take my new Copic Multiliner SP's for a spin and inked away, and I have to say, I'm really happy with the result. About 1.5 hours dicking around with the pencils, and about another hour or so on the inks in between my turns in the game. I plan to hit this with markers next and see how it goes.

I felt like there was another one in me tonight, but couldn't figure out what the hell to draw for the longest time. I kind of just started doodling out out the shadows from a heavily down-lit face, and wound up with a drawing of Ultraman, Superman's evil antimatter universe counterpart, and leader of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika. I really like his facial expression. I just imagine that he'd take great joy with being the last thing that you'd ever see. He's kind of a dick like that LOL. I plan on hitting him with inks and markers next. Got a solid 45 minutes or so into the pencils.

Holding out hope for the First Class. Will my blue ring break?

So, X-Men: First Class opens tonight, and I face it with a mix of excitement and trepidation. After all, X-3 damn near single handedly sunk the franchise, and the Wolverine movie almost put the nails in the coffin. Now with a 60's retro flair, will Matthew Vaughn succeed and bring this venerable franchise back to life or is it going to be dead like disco?

It's a little weird to admit, but this is the first comic book movie that my lovely wife Racheal has been more excited to see than I. CONSIDERABLY more excited. Like freaking out excited. I, on the other hand, have been approaching First Class with caution and guarded optimism. Every little clip that I see instills hope, but on such a tenuous foundation that it could all come crumbling down in an instant. I guess we'll see this weekend, after which I'll post a spoiler free review.

83% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes seems to indicate that maybe, JUST MAYBE, they got it right this time. =)

Sketch o'the Day...

My second piece with the mighty, mighty Copics. Yeah, I'm really starting to develop an almost unhealthy infatuation with these things. First markers that I've found that aren't splotchy and a giant pain in my ass to use. Added bonus is that the greyscale makes colorization in Photoshop  easy as hell!

Did this on & off for about 3 hours or so during my regular tabletop game. Sounds like were going to use this for the next Carmine expansion as a new type of Taligar. 

Sketch o'the Day...The Joker, Dark Knight style with a Copic twist

Hey all. So I finally had a chance to take my new Copic markers for a spin, and I gotta say, I LOVE them so far. I knocked this one out during my downtime working at the store today. Not too shabby for a first stab with a new medium. =D

If any of you guys are marker experts out there, feel free to critique and leave tips for my future endeavors! LOL

Sketches o'the Day...

As you eagle eyed reader might notice, this isn't technically a new post. The labels for the original post had gotten jacked up somehow, and in my editing to fix it, blogspot decided to post it as new. *shrug*

Knocked these out during game last night. Finished up the Captain America that I'd started at the last game session & started to work on Thor. 

Finally got some Copics!

I discovered the joy that is Dick Blick's Art supplies on Capitol Hill in Seattle today. Racheal and I were coming back from the SIFF Secret Festival (which I totally can't talk about), when I saw the brick & mortar Valhalla. I've been checking out the website for years now, but I had no clue that they had a physical location in town! Anyway, I finally picked up a handful of grey tone Copic Sketch markers that I've been dying to get my hands on for ages now. I fully expect that I'll be posting up some experiments relatively shortly.

Sadly, their entire inventory of Copic Multiliner SP's were stolen...:/

Thor is a Hammer Throwing Good Time!

I just got back from my midnight showing of Thor, and wanted to get my initial reactions down before they are lost in a sleepy haze. Just as a heads up, this review is pretty much spoiler-free. Saw it in digital IMAX 3D (not by choice), which I honestly feel takes away from the movie quite a bit as it wasn't used to any great effect & made many of the action and tracking shots blurry. The DLP projected picture came out visibly pixelated, which was only exacerbated by the mediocre 3D effects. If you really want to see this movie in its full glory, go check it out in 2D.


Let me preface this with the following: Thor is no Iron Man, but it comes pretty close. 


I thought Thor was very solid film and a great deal of fun to watch, although it was, in my opinion, the least approachable of the Marvel movies thus far. Most of the earlier Marvel films do a really nice job of holding your hand and explaining every little facet of what's going on so that the casual movie-goer can come in, plunk down their ten bucks, and leave with summer blockbuster jitters. Thor takes a different tack. 


Thor is very thick with references and easter eggs, but fairly thin on explanation. I feel that they made this film with the expectation that the people watching are already familiar with the universe and the players involved, so do not waste much time on introduction. With Thor being a bit less mainstream of a character for your average fan though, Branagh could have spent a bit more time on helping the viewer understand the world and the cast of supporting characters better. He did a wonderful job, however, in making this movie and the subject matter truly feel epic. The set pieces are appropriately out of this world. Whosoever designed Asgard is worthy of wielding Mjolnir, indeed!


The action is great & it has some great comedic moments as well, without making the movie feel campy or goofy. Chris Hemsworth made a great Thor, with a fantastic mix of equal parts confusion, arrogance, bravado and dashing bluster. He also does hell of a job filling out the armor. Anthony Hopkins was awesome as Odin, but that nearly goes without saying, as this role is right up his alley. I truly enjoyed the hell out of the subtlety of Tom Hiddleston's performance as Loki, and am greatly looking forward to his role as the big, bad villain in The Avengers. Natalie Portman as Jane Foster had some of the best lines and reactions in the movie though. Definitely a good step in the right direction for making up for the Star Wars prequels. LOL


I don't want to ruin/spoil anything but let me just say right now that the fight with the Destroyer was AWESOME! You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it.


Personally, I think Thor is a great watch and definitely recommend checking it out in the theater, but I'm looking forward to seeing if there's a director's cut release when it comes out on Blu-ray with some more footage.

Thor tonight...

I'm seeing the midnight showing of Thor tonight at Alderwood with some friends. Review after I get back. =)

Sketch o'the Day...Jazzry's Cap Commish colored

Hey folks. OK, I know this isn't technically a sketch, but it IS what I worked on today. =) My friend, the very talented Jazel Paul Riley asked me to color one of his pieces if I got bored or otherwise found some time on my hands. Well, I saw this awesome Captain America pinup that he posted up on Facebook the other day, and the rest is history!

I gotta say that I had a blast with this piece. This is actually the first time that someone else has asked me to paint their work, and it was an honor & a pleasure. Hell, I might start taking requests! LOL

I'm not sure exactly how much time I have into this offhand, but I'd estimate a good 4 hours or so in Photoshop CS3..

Pencils & inks : Jazel Paul Riley
Colors: yours truly

"MLK made a new quote today. Holy shit, he IS risen!" or "Why you should do research before you parrot shit on your Facebook or Twitter feed"

I love quotes. Nothing sums up an event perfectly quite like a well-timed quote. Today seemed like no exception when Osama bin Laden's supposed death (pics or it didn't happen!) sparked the greater collective of the internet hive mind into action by throwing the following quote up on their Twitter or Facebook feeds,

‎"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." ~ Martin Luther King Jr

Well, it's a nice sentiment, albeit a bit naively idealogical while being bitingly topical. At face value, it seems to be the perfect quote, the VERY thing to be said about this particular moment in time, by one of the greatest men in our recent history. The problem? MLK never said it. At least not all of it.

The part that's so amazingly topical...you know, the "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy" part? Yep...not MLK. That bit was made up somewhere in the Twitterverse, before going viral across the in-tard-net. Now if you try to google any chunk of that particular phrase, you're bombarded with nothing but page after page of Twitter feeds and Facebook updates. People have filled their Tumblrs, flogged their Flickrs, and blogged their blogging hearts out, and all without having done one iota of research.

Now that's not to say that at least part of it wasn't legit. The rest of the quote was indeed part of a sermon delivered by the Reverend Doctor on finding forgiveness, delivered at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama on Christmas in the year 1957. I won't (mis)quote Martin Luther King's speech - that's already been done enough today. If I may be allowed, however, to paraphrase what was said so much today as my own personal commentary:

‎"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious brain cells, as a shocked populace struggles to express itself, and finds twitter. Returning ignorance for ignorance multiplies ignorance, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Ignorance cannot drive out ignorance: only research can do that, so read a goddamn book already, you dumb bastards." RC

Woohoo! 100 pageviews!

Hey, I know it's not THAT big of a deal, but I had to celebrate. =)

Playstation Network data breach is a bloody mess - how to protect yourself, from the perspective of a former fraud analyst

So, I'm one of the minority among my group of friends that has and plays a PS3. Let me preface this rancor with the fact that, generally speaking, I love my console - I find it to be a much better media relay than my XBox 360 (when the wifi isn't tweaking like a speed junkie), and the graphics are generally prettier. However, the folks who run the infrastructure behind the ill-fated and currently offline Playstation Network are a bunch of mouth breathing idiots.


The PSN had been down since April 17th, with little to no information as to why. Rumors were abound as to the cause, and given the attacks by hacker activist group Anonymous the week before over Sony's treatment of Geohot (the guy who hacked the PS3 firmware), a lot of us figured it was an extended DDoS attack. Of course, the rumors of the involvement of a major hack and data breach started within a couple days, with Sony finally getting off their collective asses and admitting to an "external intrusion" as of April 22.


What kills though, much like the official Japanese reaction to the Fukushima disaster, was the lack of an admission of a problem from Sony. Sony didn't wind up warning their customers that there was a MASSIVE intrusion, and that MILLIONS of customers' personal information was compromised until April 26th, A FULL 10 DAYS after the incident happened!!! Especially with the speed that fraudsters can use your info (I have lots of personal experience - I used to investigate ID theft for T-Mobile), a delay like this is completely unconscionable!


Sony has now admitted via e-mail that "Although we are still investigating the details of this incident, we believe that an unauthorized person has obtained the following information that you provided: name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. If you have authorized a sub-account for your dependent, the same data with respect to your dependent may have been obtained. While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained."


This is a scary amount of information in the hands of the wrong people, fraudsters who can do a frightening amount with very little personal information, and can use what little they have to get more. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security because credit cards "may or may not have been compromised". A tremendous amount of damage can be done without a credit card number.


What's frightening beyond this, is that Sony STILL doesn't know the extent of the breach, or if they do, they're playing those cards awfully close to the chest. When it comes to the level of comprised personal information that we see here, delaying the vital information to the victims is utterly unforgivable.


I, for one, have lost a great deal of faith in Sony, and am greatly considering whether or not I want to cull my PS3 from the herd, as it were. Ironically, I paid for my first subscription to Playstation Plus (Sony's equivalent to XBL Gold) on the day the network went down, and of course, there's no word in regards to compensation for the lost time on our subscriptions. At the very least, Sony needs to step up to the plate and provide credit monitoring for the people affected by their lack of security.


Now, if you're caught up in this debacle, try not to panic. It's going to be really important to take some simple steps to help get this under control. First, call your bank and advise them of the data breach. You'll want to ask them if there's been any suspicious activity on your account, and may want to go as far as getting a replacement debit/credit card, preferably with a new number. If, for whatever goofy ass reason, you chose to have the same password for your PSN account as the e-mail account you log in with, you're going to want to change that ASAP, along with any other important sites that use the same login/password combo. Next, you're going to want to check your credit report with ALL THREE credit bureaus for any suspicious activity, possibly even going as far as to request a fraud alert be placed in your file. There are 2 different types of fraud alert, an initial alert lasting 90 days, and an extended alert which lasts 7 years. If you file a fraud alert, be aware that it will make it more difficult for you to obtain credit, as the bureaus will require additional info to verify your identity before they will extend credit.You can request 1 free credit report per year per federal law at www.annualcreditreport.com, which is the official place to go, unlike what those annoying commercials will tell you. I cannot stress enough that you need to make sure to talk to all three bureaus as they all file and report activity differently and separately from each other, and credit checks can be run through any of them independently. I've included the contact information below for anyone who might need it.


Experian: 888-397-3742; www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013 
Equifax: 800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241 
TransUnion: 800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790


Hopefully, this will all get taken care of sooner than later on Sony's end, but in the meantime, I sure hope this helps.


*Edited 4/03/11.

Carmine drops May 1st!

Well, my work on Carmine is finally at an end. I approved the cover proofs as of last week, and the book has gone to press! Now that it's come to fruition, I can finally post the cover designs that I've been busting my butt on!

I designed the logo, cover layouts and bordering. I also penciled the figure of the dude on the front cover (for some reason, Tai has the hardest time drawing guys that don't either look like a girl or gay LOL). My studio partner Tai penciled the slayer chick, clothing & weapons & painted the figures.  The background was a composite of the "ancient document" designs that I had done for the interior of the book. 

The back cover was all me. I designed the layout and painted the background. 

Here she is in all her glory! I had to make a full bleed version for final print, but that didn't change significantly from what was here. Last minute addition to the back cover - the price, which everyone had overlooked! Gotta love those last minute, semi-frantic calls. Hehehehe.