Long time between entries....

....but........ya. Not that I'm drawing much--I am. I work steady enough to keep my hands active and when I'm not working, I still try to do other things like model-making or...personal projects.  

Like the latest pin-up.
PUNCH is a magazine local to me. Published by the folks at Amazing Stories, a Saskatoon comic book/collectible store that I frequent. They came up with the idea to self-publish a fan magazine in recognition of all the local talent.
And I was all for it. Almost 30 years ago now, I was privileged to participate in another venture with another store: The Comicshop on west 4th ave. in Vancouver, and their fan magazine/newsletter- the Comicshopper.  Put together by Chris Brayshaw, it was a home-spun attempt to bring fans and "news" together. It featured articles and artwork, even a few comic-strips now and then all done in black and white print. This was several years before mags like Wizard came along---this was almost a fanzine, but more like a newsletter of sorts.

I did about a dozen or more covers, and wrote some articles here and there. Over time, I kept trying to step up my game, doing more and more elaborate work. Pencils, to inks, to zip-a-tone work......it got quite involved.  It was self-promotion and it was promotion for the store---all voluntary. There were pay-offs, and some side- benefits. I believe the work I did caught the attention of Todd McFarlane, who contacted me to be his assistant for one summer. The magazine ran for many issues....I believe may have made it up past issue #100, under the guidance of others.

But most importantly, it was a vehicle......not just for myself or the store........but for talented fandom.

And that brings me to this Hanna-Barbera pin-up I've posted here. My first contribution to PUNCH was the Spider-man piece  that is also in my gallery here.
Looking at it now......it's dinky......and pretty low-key. I was doing it kind of half-heartedly then, caught up in some lethargic head-space at the time, trying to claw my way out of it.
And I think it showed.

This pin-up was supposed to be printed in issue #2 last summer, but it's now coming out in #3 this spring.  I was doing other paying work and had to put this drawing aside.
This past December I had some open time and started to work on it again.  
It came together, and in doing so, it opened up something that had been hidden inside me for quite a while.