The Gargoyle Goblin

The Gargoyle Goblin is a character from Morgan MonsterHunter & the Crypto Kid.  In this story,  he threatens to devour Morgan's pet mouse, Fuzzbutt.  In the end, Morgan tricks the Gargoyle Goblin into a eating a zhu zhu pet, leaving Fuzzbutt safe and happy.  

Yes,  much of this plot came from a 5-year old's head.

Morgan's Dream...or is it?

e' Letrick Warbabyz

I am updating a logo for a friend's band.  Here is their youtube channel: e'Letrick Warbabyz.

Here is their current logo:

It is a good concept, but the execution is not great. Crisper lines and a cohesive word / image relationship, will be beneficial in T-shirt, poster, banner, and any other printed productions.

Here is the direction I'm going:

I still have a lot of clean-up and tweaking to do, but I am liking it so far.

  

When it comes to illustrating and designing with vector graphics, Von Glitschka is one of my favorite artists.  He has a super cool and fun website where he updates "ugly" logos called The Federal Bureau of Illustration. 

On a side note:  I was telling my daughter a Morgan MonsterHunter & The Crypto Kid story a few nights ago.  The villain in this particular story was horrible, brutish, un-dead viking.  As I was telling the story, the name that popped into my head for this monstrosity was Von Glitschka.  It just sounded right.  So, whenever my daughter hears Von Glitschka she will think horrible, brutish, un-dead viking. 

Wild Willie Wylde

This is a character from Morgan Monster Hunter and the Crypto Kid. Wild Willie Wylde is Morgan's grandfather. His ghost appears to Morgan with a warning of the upcoming monster apocalypse. Morgan thinks she dreamt the vision but soon realizes it was real. Wild Willie visits Morgan throughout the story with advice, warnings, and a joke or two.

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He is one cool cat and was an important player in rock and roll's early years. He toured with Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Jerry Lee Lewis, and played bass guitar on legendary tracks by Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Johnny Burnette and dozens of others.

Coming Soon: Morgan Monster Hunter

The Raspberry Gnome

I've been putting a lot of time into a graphic novel version of Morgan Monster Hunter & the Crypto Kid.  It will be an all-ages origins story and it looks really cool in my head. My goal is to get a large chunk of it done this year.  The blog posts may slow down a bit so I have time to focus on this and a few other projects.  I will still post at least 2-3 times a week so please keep checking in or subscribe(button in the column to the right).
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Something I've been hearing and reading a lot over the past year or so is "the project is the new portfolio".  A good portfolio is a necessity and I need to continue to update mine with stronger pieces, but I want to have a few cool finished projects to show as well.  Also, I want to get some of this stuff out of my head before I die. I'm hoping for another 50 years or so, but I may only get 50 minutes. Yikes!  The time to DO is upon me!
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There is not a lot of time beyond family, work, sleep, and building a business, but there are a lot of ideas.     I'm going to try to squeeze in 10 hours a week for personal work.  Good bye sleep, hello satisfaction.  Of course, there will be dozens of smaller things sprinkled in here or there, but these are the big ones.

-MMH & the CK comic 

-A fun/educational book w/ my wife (my ace in the hole? hmmmm...)

-Two long-term portfolio pieces (way too awesome to detail here:)

- A large series of fast and smallish acrylic and/or watercolor paintings
-The Forgotten Wildlife web comic?

I am often frustrated, but I am never bored.   And now...

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The Raspberry Gnome is a MMH & the CK bedtime story.  He does not appear in the origins story line, but my daughter and I had a good couple laughs with him. Maybe he'll show up again down the road.

On a warm summer day, Morgan and the Kid were out taking pictures and sketching in the woods behind Morgan's house. They came across a patch of bushes with the most delicious raspberries they had ever tasted. They heard a rustling from deep within the patch and then they heard a raspy little voice.

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"Leave my berries alone!" the voice said.
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We find out that the Raspberry Gnome, who tends the bushes, is not fond of sharing and turns Morgan into a toad. The Crypto Kid runs off to hide at his house. He worries about his friend, who finally shows up at his door. The Kid and Morgan the Toad devise a plan that not only turns Morgan back into a girl, but gives the Raspberry Gnome a taste of his own medicine.
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This story had several laugh out loud parts and I think influenced the comedic turn a lot of the future stories took.
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.Here is an earlier sketch of the Raspberry Gnome:
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Bark

Bark is a character from a story my daughter and I have been building on called Morgan Monster Hunter & the Crypto Kid.

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It's a mix of Alice in Wonderland, Universal monster and 50's B-movies, The Spiderwick Chronicles, cryptozoology, mythology, and legends from around the world, Scooby Doo, and Stand By Me (minus the dead body and the swearing, of course!), all contained in the normal school and family life of 11 year old Morgan and her genius friend, the Crypto Kid .

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We take turns adding characters and adventures before bed. It has been entertaining...and the world is quickly expanding. I wish I had more time to play around with the character designs. Bark was discovered in a cave in the woods behind Morgan's house. Morgan rescued him from the horrible Spider Lord of the Underground. She had to create a dog disguise for the little creature so her parents wouldn't get suspicious.

Of course, Bark can't "bark" and makes strange noises when he tries, raising suspicion in Morgan's parents anyways.