chrisschweizer

Hey, everybody!  A while back I mentioned the Graphic Textbook, a project being put together by the folks at Reading with Pictures, an organization dedicated to helping make and make available comics that improve literacy and showcase how useful our medium can be as a classroom tool. 

The Graphic Textbook is a collection of comics related to the different subjects taught in school - math, science, English/language arts, social studies, history, art, etc.  Unlike many classroom-related comics, this one is using top notch comics industry professionals, and also me.  The talent aboard really is top notch: Janet Lee, Fred Van Lente, Katie Cook, Roger Langridge, etc.  The stories are sure to be fun and engaging, and teachers will be provided with LOADS of support material in order make the book easy to integrate into their class planning. 

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, my story is going to be called "The Black Brigade," and it's a Crogan Adventures story featuring Charles Crogan in 1777.  He's going to be encountering loyalist soldier Colonel Tye, the leader of a 24-man commando unit made up of escaped slaves.  I intend for it to be an action-packed, informative yarn, and I hope that you will help to bring it into existence.

Here are some of the character designs for the story:

Colonel Tye's physical appearance is based very loosely on one of my students, Brian Prince.


Captain James Galt-Brown is named for a professor I had in college who got me INCREDIBLY fired up about history, helping to put me squarely on the track I'm on today.  I believe he teaches at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College now.  Best history teacher I ever had, and I've had some good ones.

So!  Here comes the part where I explain the goodies.  There are three different options for different levels.  

1. $125 Donation.  An original page of comic art from "The Black Brigade," 11"x17."  It's a ten-page story, and I'm making six of the pages available through here.  I do not intend to sell the other pages, and least not any time soon.  If you want to own a piece of art from this story, THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO DO SO.  There are only TWO of the six available pages remaining.  If you want one, you'd better get it now!  You also get copies of The Graphic Textbook in both print and digital formats.

2. $150 Donation.  A one-hour video tutoring session with me.  Here's what the site says about it: "A one-hour video tutoring session with award winning cartoonist and comics professor Chris Schweizer!  Chris will personally go over your project and help you with writing, page layout, readability, character design, publishing logistics, and preparing a pitch for publishers."  And I will!  In addition to the comics work, I teach how to make comics at SCAD-Atlanta, and will gladly bring that teaching experience to your aid should you desire it.  An hour is a long time.  We can go over a lot.  THERE IS ONLY ONE OF THESE AVAILABLE AS A REWARD.  As much as I'd like to offer more, my schedule doesn't permit it.  So!  If you're inclined, give it a grab.  

3. $70 Donation.  I'll draw a portrait of YOU in Revolutionary War-era clothing/uniform inside your copy of THE GRAPHIC TEXTBOOK.  Heck, if you want it on a piece of drawing paper NOT in the sketchbook, for framing, I'm sure we could work that out, too.

This is a worthwhile project.  Everyone involved believes in it.  Most if not all of the artists are donating a part of their pay back into the kickstarter... some are donating all of it!  At the time I write this, the project is up past $50,000, which is amazing... but the goal is $65,000.  If the goal isn't reached in seven days, NONE of the money goes through, and the project doesn't happen.  

New readers are essential to comics.  If kids don't become habitual readers, then eventually the customer base will dwindle to the point that folks like me won't be able to make comics for a living anymore.  I'll still make 'em either way, but the number of books available to comic fans will certainly shrink.  This project helps to get comics into the hands of kids and make new readers of them.  Donating to the project - even just a little - will help to ensure the future of the medium that I suspect you love as much as I do.  Every little bit helps.  Go here to learn more about the project.

I was up in Toronto last month for the recording of four of the six CROGAN ADVENTURES episodes (based on my graphic novel series) that Decoder Ring Theatre is putting together for their 2013 Summer Showcase, and while I was there Gregg (the show's director, producer, and, in all cases save the Summer Showcases, writer) mentioned how he'd like to collaborate on making some paper figures for the Red Panda Adventures (possibly my favorite franchise, and certainly the one in which I'm the most emotionally invested - think the Shadow as if it were seamlessly integrated into a Tracy/Hepburn zinger romance) done the same way as my Sherlock Holmes figure series.  I thought it was a great idea.

He sent me a list of the characters he wanted to see, along with short descriptions of each (descriptions that were both concise and funny; even with Gregg has an audience of one, he never fails to deliver).  Based on those, my own thoughts on the characters, and my limited knowledge of the voice actors' physical appearances (with the exception of Harry Kelly and Dr. Chronopolis, who I doubt look anything like their real-world counterparts), I worked up this batch.  Hope you like 'em!

I believe Gregg plans to make these available in the not-too-distant future.  Check the news page of Decoder Ring Theatre to keep up with any such developments, and be sure to give it a listen!  And don't forget to tune in next summer for THE CROGAN ADVENTURES Summer Showcase!

I know that there are some people who want to collect one page from every Crogan story published. Well, I’m going to be doing a story for the Graphic Textbook, a collection of comics that teachers will be able to use to tie the stories into the national core curriculums for a number of disciplines.

Mine is going to be called THE BLACK BRIGADE, and will feature Charles Crogan and his interactions with a veteran 24-man commando unit during the revolution war comprised of Black Loyalists, most if not all of whom were escaped slaves. The story will take place during a battle, and will, I hope, carry the same mix of action and historical feel that defines the other stories in the series. It will also get comics into schools and into the hands of kids, helping to ensure a new generation of readers and fans, a necessity to the future of the industry.

Now, if you are of a mind to collect a page from each story, as I know some are, I highly recommend that you contribute to the project’s KICKSTARTER campaign. A lot of money has to be raised – 65,000 – for the sheer volume of copies being printed and to pay us artists a fair page rate. Getting this page rate means that I don’t have to sell the originals to make the whole project financially feasible; I can donate the pages to make the project happen. I am donating six of the ten. The other four will NOT be for sale, at least not in the next few years. When I’m old, who knows. But for the foreseeable future, these six pages will be it.

For $125 dollars – just $25 more than I’ve BEEN charging for pages – you get one of these pages, and a copy of the book (plus a digital copy). It’s a great way of helping a worthwhile project, and a way of getting a new Crogan story that will OTHERWISE NOT EXIST. So. Six pages available. Actually, five – one’s been secured already.

Please follow the link below if you’re interested. I’ll even send you a small sketch sized to be put in the textbook when you get it.  You can find out all about the project, and make donations at different levels with different incentives, here.

Below are some costume and character designs for the story.  Enjoy!

(Click the image for a full-sized version)

I talk a lot on here about how much I love Decoder Ring Theatre, and at least one of my readers listened (the rest of you should, too!).  Maka Takahara and his two daughters commissioned a drawing of the show's flagship characters, the Red Panda and the Flying Squirrel.  I recently got to meet Gregg and Clarissa, the voices of the characters, and tried to incorporate their features (albeit through the haze of memory and cartooniness) a little into the designs.

Here’s the other half of the Hat Creek Cattle Co. (though, if you take into account Pea Eye, Deets, and Next, he’s really only a fifth, and if you count the drive hands then the fraction becomes even more confusing), Gus McCrae, one of (if not THE) finest characters ever to emerge from the western genre.  To be fair, I haven't yet read Monte Walsh, which I hear is quite deserving of the title.

I'm working my way through McMurty's Lonesome Dove again for the second time since November, and am about halfway through.  I started reading it to get a fixed description of Captain Call - whose only physical characteristic, as far as I've found, is that he's "barely middle-sized" - and just kept on going.  It's tempting to just draw white-bearded Tommy Lee Jones, but as most any character with facial hair is described as having it, I decided to leave my Call clean-shaven.  He's riding his roughly-monikered mare and carrying his Henry.

If you haven't read it, or seen the movie, I recommend both.

After being good about posting nearly every day for quite a while (what, 3 months)? I have let an entire month slip past with no updates.  I traveled for about two weeks straight, and since then have been too heavy with research and projects to get any public-ready art completed.  My apologies!

Anyway, I'm going to try and be better about posting regularly again.  I've done a lot of drawings in advance... I've just been too busy to post 'em!  Here's this week's Wizarding Wednesday, to get me back on the wagon... Draco Malfoy!

Newlywed HeroesCon staffers Heather and Seth Peaglar commissioned me to do a 30 Rock piece for them (Heather's gotten a couple of TV-based commissions from me now; she's the one who asked for a Community piece last year), and I just finished it.  So here it is - 30 Rock/Star Wars! (Click Here to see 'em all lined up together)

Feel free to print these out and make your own popsicle-stick puppets!




























If you're a fan of both, maybe you can figure out who everyone is supposed to be.  If you can't, that's probably a fault in my drawing.  Whoops!  Apologies for any characters that you'd like to have seen (Jonathon/Greedo, Don Geiss/the Emperor, etc) that I didn't end up doing.

Anyway, I love 30 Rock, but don't feel the need to proselytize about it the way I do Community, because, well, everyone already watches (and loves) 30 Rock.  If you're in the minority that doesn't, well, get on board, man!

My commission plate is now free, and as I'm taking a trip to Toronto this weekend for the recording of the Crogan Adventures episodes for Decoder Ring Theatre's Summer Showcase (2013) and don't want to go too far in the hole with all those swanky Motel 6s (do they have those in Canada?) I figured that now might be a good time to offer up some commission openings!  I'll take ten spots, ink and gray marker, 8 x 10", up to two characters per drawing, sixty bucks apiece.  That includes shipping.  Click below to do it, and DON'T FORGET TO INCLUDE WHAT YOU WANT IN THE NOTES SECTION!  Thanks, and use the button below if you want one.

Hanging out with Cara (ihavebeensherlocked), Jackie (jackiemakescomics), and Calista this weekend made me want to do nothing but draw Sherlock fan art.  Did two today.  Here's the first.

Redbubbled for your convenience