SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERY INCORPORATED Book Art Is Up For Sale In My Store!

Since the book has come out, I thought I'd post to you that the original rough sketches I did in laying out the book are now for sale at my online store! I put the best ones up or ones which had no real production damage done to them such as redraws and paste overs or tons of white out. All the ones up for sale are really clean sketches and suitable for framing. Plus, this is the only existing art since from this point I did all the final art digitally. Check out my store link and go to the Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated catagory.

SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERY INCORPORATED Book Is Now Out & Needs Your Support!

My new Scooby-Doo book is now out (or comes out officially on June 1st!) Based on the new cartoon series and this is Book 1. If sales are good, they will do a book 2 and possibly a series as I was told today. If you can, please support it and buy a copy or two for any little ones you may know or else this could be a one and done! I'd like to do more of these as they are fun and this work is some of the best Scooby work I've done over the 11 years!

Scholastic.com has a cheaper price for buying directly from them!

OR...

Amazon.com!

Barnesandnoble.com

Borders.com (Also has a little Google preview)

And since they changed the cover and just used Shaggy and Scooby, I thought I'd post the original cover version with the whole Gang!

New Stuff Available At My Online Store!

I made up two new mega packs now on sale on my online store! One is a 20 comic Scooby-Doo Mega Pack! More info at the link! Plus, you get a Free Scooby-Doo Print with the purchase and Free Shipping! ALL FOR ONLY $50.00! 15 sets available!

SCOOBY-DOO MEGA PACK + FREE PRINT!

And I made up one 9 comic Cartoon Network Mega Pack as well! It comes with a Free Cartoon Network Print featuring some of the characters and free shipping as well! ALL FOR ONLY $25.00! 15 sets are available! For more go to:

CARTOON NETWORK MEGA PACK + FREE PRINT!

A Tribute To JAMES ARNESS (1923-2011)

Sadly, James Arness left us this past weekend. He was 88. Due to my deadlines I had to wait to post this till today. Plus the piece of art above was framed and I had to take it out of the frame and scan it so it took some time. I did this piece of art in the late 90's. I think it was 1998 or early '99. One of my originals that I've kept and it's been framed and hanging in my studio since 2000 or so when I framed it. The original still looks more beautiful than this scan but that happens sometimes with scanning.

Before I begin to talk about James Arness, I think a little backstory is needed, so bear with me.

As most who well know me know, though some of you do not, I've been collecting radio dramas now since 1986. I was at the local comic store on a Friday when new issues used to come out and saw Howard Chaykin's comic version of The Shadow. I bought the first issue and it had a nice backup feature by Anthony Tollin who wrote a history of The Shadow. That weekend I was at the mall and went into Sam Goody Records and saw audio tapes of The Shadow, Green Hornet, and The Lone Ranger hanging on the wall. I bought The Shadow one and went home and listened to one of the early episodes of Orson Welles in "Devil From The Deep" (which aired on 10/3/1937) and I was then hooked on old time radio! I went back the next day to the mall and bought the Green Hornet and Lone Ranger ones!

My love for audio dramas started when I was little and I had all the Power Records comic book and record sets and I listened to them so many times that I wore out the vinyl records and had to buy another. I'd play with my Mego Superhero figures and listen and reenact the story I heard. I'm still a fan of Power Records and have them all to this day. But with Old Time Radio I was introduced to a world of more sophisticated and serious actors who were doing all kinds of dramas ranging from westerns, scifi, mysteries, horror, and romance. This was a step up and a great transition from kids records where things were exaggerated but fun. Hollywood actors lent their skills to radio as TV wasn't around then and you got to hear Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes on the radio and then got to see him on the big screen that weekend as Sherlock Holmes as well. What a thrill that must have been back in the day! The audio effects and environmental sounds were incredible to me and I was able to listen and form my own pictures in my head as to what was going on. TV and movies still can't rival the power of a good audio drama and I think listening to mostly all the shows I now have in my collection for over 20 years (around 34,000 shows and still growing both on CD's tapes, and MP3's) has made me better as an artist since now I have to read a script and visualize what's going on and how to show it. I used to go to bed with my Sony Walkman and listen to a show. If I fell asleep during it, I'd listen again the next night, and the next night. But before sleep came to me, I listened and I kept changing my shots and working through my storytelling as a movie director would work through his camera moves. If I didn't like a shot in my head I hit the rewind button a few seconds and go back and reshoot. It may sound weird but many artists would agree with me on this working method.

One day in the mid-90's, after ten years of collecting, I got a new catalog to order old radio shows from and so that night I went through the pages and circled the ones I wanted. They had a sale going and I'd thought I'd try something new. I loved The Six Shooter starring Jimmy Stewart and so I saw a few tapes for what was hailed as "The Greatest of all Westerns"... Gunsmoke. If they hyped it like that, I figured it must be good. I ordered two audio tapes and that was four early episodes of the show from 1952. It even featured the very first show called "Billy The Kid." I got the tapes in a few weeks and one night as I was organizing my comics in their boxes, I put one of the tapes in my stereo and played it. It wasn't long before I stopped filing the comics and just sat there and listened to the show as the quality of the sound patterns and the time that they took to just let sounds play painted such a picture of Dodge City that it sounded incredible to my ears. The sound of spurs hitting the plankboards going into the Marshal's office or the piano playing in the distance as you stood across the street from the Long Branch Saloon was simply magnificent and added to the drama. For a lot of radio shows, the rule was to keep actors talking, but Gunsmoke (and radio director Norman MacDonnell) was after more and it exceeded on every level. You could feel the grit of Gunsmoke. The scripts were more adult in nature and the acting was first rate all around. The violence of the old west was portrayed as it was and some of the early scripts that were used on radio had to be changed when they did them on TV as they could never get past the TV censors at the time. John Meston was the voice of Gunsmoke and wrote most of the radio and then TV scripts. It was his stamp of authenticity that made this show what it was. If it's not on paper, it just doesn't work most of the time. Meston's scripts about morality were never in your face but accented the message he was trying to send to the audience. William Conrad stood tall as US Marshal Matt Dillon and his voice had such a presence that you knew he was the hero. Conrad had such great range with his voice that you could really say his voice was truly an instrument, and he knew how to use it from soft scenes to loud ones. With William Conrad as Matt Dillon, Parley Bear as Chester, Georgia Ellis as Kitty, and Howard McNear as Doc, this western show made me a fan and I soon would go on to collect the whole series run from 1952-1961 when radio was fazed out as sponsers then put all their money into the blossoming arena of Television.

For some reason, it was a year or two after I got intially started with Gunsmoke that I found out there had also been a TV show as well! I kind of started the way it was really introduced, from radio to TV. I got a catalogue from Time Life one day (the ones that sell all the old TV shows) and it had Gunsmoke across the front cover. I was blown away! They made this into a TV show... and it was on for 20 years?! How could I have not known about it? Well, I was mid-20s and some things you do find out about decades after they are gone. I ordered the first tape and watched the first 4 shows! I was thrilled how well they adapted the radio scripts to TV format and the cast once again, though different, was first rate! In the first episode that aired called "Matt Gets It" I was introduced to James Arness who played Marshal Matt Dillon and who then gets shot down on Front Street in the early scenes! He survived his wounds and got better with the help of Doc Adams to only go back and kill the bad guy who gunned him down in the end. That first episode was good enough to hold me as it was character driven and I watched the other 3 that night. It wasn't long before I subscribed and got a new tape every month, and sometimes bought several tapes if I had some extra money. The first 156 shows or so used all radio scripts and it was fun to see how it was visually shown as I had pictured them differently from their radio counterparts.

I think most Gunsmoke fans will say that the first 10 years of Gunsmoke on TV was it's "golden age". Those early half-hour shows were my personal favorites and they could pack more story and drama into a half-hour than MOST of the one-hour TV shows that are on today. Watch the episode "Never Pester Chester" and you'll see what I mean. I also loved the medium of black and white as well since it seemed to focus your attention on the characters and drama more than color allows. Orson Welles has said this about black and white film as well. When they moved into color, and Festus replaced Chester, it carried on for another 10 seasons! Fans note that in the first ten seasons, Marshal Dillon was almost in every scene and so after 10 years they changed the dynamic and focused more on the people of Dodge (or people coming into Dodge) and their stories and the Marshal would show up in the middle and the end to help out if he could and tie it all together. This allowed Arness to have more family time as well since he didn't have to be on the set every day. Gunsmoke focused mainly on character development and kept an economy of dialogue to it so that you saw what you needed to and could form your own backstories in some cases without being distracted from the main plot. It never wrote down to the audience and in 20 seasons it only produced 4 bad shows. James Arness stood tall for 20 years (and with the spin-off Gunsmoke TV movies that he made in the late 80's and early 90's) and was a real man's man for the entire run and his life. If you were in the Long Branch Saloon and some kind of fight was brewing as some dude you didn't want to mess with was taunting you, you'd be praying Marshal Dillon would walk through the door and save your ass. And he did it with style. Not the kind of style that Paladin would use on Have Gun, Will Travel but a style that was true to Arness and how he lived his life. I can see how he was a role model for the youth of the time in the 50s and early 60s and how families loved the show. It's popularity spawned a bunch of books, comics and toys; many that I have in my personal collection as well.

James Arness had some great moments on the show and Dennis Weaver who played Chester was so incredible that he could save a slightly weaker script by having a great scene at the end of it that would turn it into a superb show. He deserved his Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in 1959. His acting was genuine and sincere and he worked well with Arness who had the same sensibilities. The main difference between the radio version of Dillon and the TV version of Dillon was that both actors played it differently though some aspects were in both. Both had the commanding presence and tone of authority, but with the radio version Dillon would make mistakes and people would sometimes die or the bad guys would get away. When Arness played the part, he played it that Dillon was always right and he would somehow know that they bad guys took the right path down a crooked road instead of the left one. Both actors were successful, and I think Arness' choice to do it the way he did was correct, hence we wouldn't be talking about the show today. The good things always stand the test of time.

And so... to James Arness, I thank you for work and standing in the middle of Front Street in Dodge City and facing down our fears for us. A double-edged dagger for Arness as well as many actors would never have played a character for as long as he did for fear of being typecast. In the end, Arness became an icon and was the star of the GREATEST Western TV show ever produced, and that's certainly not a bad thing. In fact, I'm sure Marshal Dillon is walking the clouds right now keeping the universe safe... it's how he would have wanted it. (Cue the opening Gunsmoke music)

Memorial Day Weekend Working On DOOF N' PUSS

Got a rush job with a tight deadline around two days before Memorial Day Weekend and so I spent the holiday working on Doof N' Puss while others frolicked and relaxed  in the ocean surf. Doof N' Puss is a segment on Phineas and Ferb and it's a lot like what the Itchy And Scratchy Show was on The Simpsons, meaning that it's a show within a show. Doof N’ Puss was an 80’s-style TV show that Doof pitched to a network exec at the Science Fiction and Fantasy convention in the Phineas and Ferb episode “Nerds of a Feather.” So once I got the model sheets, I was off and running drawing Agent P battling the zombie pigs and aliens I created. I'll be working on it till mid-next week. More as I go along...  

Monster Attack - SCOOBY Style!

Here's a Scooby Mystery Incorporated piece I did called "Monster Attack", and it's a teaser for you all! Pencilled on paper and then scan as a guide and then all digitally created from there to the end. I forget how many layers it wound up being but it was a lot. Hope you enjoy!

ALFIE Sketch

After I finished up my Phineas and Ferb work Sunday night for a Monday deadline, I drew this Alfie sketch before I went to bed last night. It was done in about an hour and was easy to draw since Alfie was tired and curled up to sleep. He occassionally kept raising his head to wonder what I was doing while looking at him. It was drawn with the Micron Pens and I used a PITT Brush Marker for his back body hair.

PUSS IN BOOTS On The Drawing Board As Well...

And also just started working on some Puss in Boots stuff, which I'm working on at the same time as the Phineas and Ferb work. Yes, Puss in Boots is getting his own spin-off movie and it's been in the works before Shrek 4 came out. There is a tease for it at the end of Shrek Forever After, where Shrek closes the book at the end of the movie and puts it up on the shelf and right next to it was a smaller book with "Puss in Boots" written on the spine, meaning that Puss has his own story as well. Anyway, it's feast or famine being a freelancer... so you grab it when you can. Still in the early stages of it so I'm not sure how long I have to get the work done yet before Puss comes out.

And Some Graphic Design This Week As Well...

Since the economy is still chugging along slow, I've been doing some graphic design as well. Below are three concert banners that I did earlier this week and they'll be 7 feet wide by 3 feet high when they are printed. I did one banner each for Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, and Zac Brown. They were made for WYNK radio for some concert thing that Clear Channel is doing. The basic idea is that fans will sign these banners and then the radio station will give each banner with all the signatures to each country star as a token gift from the fans, hence, why there's plenty of open space around them for signatures. The hard part was separating the characters from the backgrounds in their original photos and creating crisp edges. It takes some time to do it right and I think they came out pretty cool in the end. The Kenny Chesney one also had a small mic on his shirt collar and so I had to digitally paint that out as well. I sent the files to Vivid Ink who did the printing job on them and so I had to add their logo to the bottom as a final touch.  

And right after that I did a business card design and two ads for Rima Akoum at Mai Mira Salon in Baton Rouge. The first ad I did was in black and white for some charity publication and then I did this full color one that will run in City Social Magazine. It's a half page ad and took me a little time to figure it out since I was given the five smaller pics to work into the design that weren't in the black and white ad. I kept the background white since from the specs I was given there was no bleed and I though that it would look better with a bit of separation to it instead of adding a solid color in background which would box it more. I'm happy with how it turned out as it was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle to get it to work. It's just like the previous post with Phineas and Ferb, you have to have all these elements in a drawing and make them work. Design is 95% of the job no matter what I'm working on.

Working With PHINEAS AND FERB Again!

I've been bad about posting stuff of late but allergies have been killing me this year and it's hard to draw when you sneeze 15 times in a row. But I have been working on some stuff here at Casa de Neely. Since the 12th of May I've been working with the boys again... the boys being Phineas and Ferb! Above is a rough layout that I drew with a blue ball-point pen on some better than average art paper. Those of you who follow me know I draw mostly on cheap copy paper when I do my rough sketches but for this one I somehow started drawing it on good art paper. Can't remember why at this point but I think it was because I was too lazy to go and grab the cheaper paper in the closet at the time. I was probably too tired from sneezing to get up and get it. I'm posting it since it was one of the rare times that I actually had this layout really well thought out in my head and was able to put it on paper. I also drew it with a ball-point pen to change it up; plus not having an eraser on the end helps you draw faster. I sometimes do sketches with just a pen as it forces you to get the image out and not worry about fixing it as you go along. It's kind of like being a writer and banging out a first draft and then going back and fixing it after it's done. A lot of times, I create in pieces and then move the elements around the get the best position for stuff to make a better design. This one kind of came together a little easier than normal and once I had it pretty well etched in my mind I put it on paper. The work was approved and I've been doing the final art the last two days and will be working this weekend on it to get it done.

Spoke To The Graphics Class At DCCC Today!

This afternoon, around 2:30pm, I spoke to the graphics class at Delaware County Community College. My former Photoshop teacher, Robert Jones, had asked me to come in and speak to the class and tell them what I do. I've done this before for him in the past years as well so I offered this time since I had some down time. So for this talk I showed the class some of my layered art files since I think they would've given them a good idea of how work is done in licensing since it has many concepts that are used in graphic design and how to keep thinking in layers even from the initial sketch. I think I talked for about and hour and a half and took questions. Hope it wasn't too long 'cause I can ramble on! Ha! They seemed to have liked it so that was good. I took this pic of the school when I was leaving around 4:15 or so.

Life, Taxes & Hard Drives

Kinda stuck in a holding pattern of sorts this week. I did an audition last weekend, turned it in Monday, and then haven't heard back about anything yet... so it may have collapsed as a project (since even if I was approved they could pull it for time since the deadline was super tight) as it would have been slapdashed together to get something out. So who knows... work on Puss In Boots is coming soon though.... plus I did my taxes to get them done in case the government had shut down since who knows what part (if any) of the IRS would still be working if it did.

Other than that I've been sketching, digital painting and mostly backing up my external hard drives, reorganizing my files, and deleting old ones that I don't need anymore. It now seems that even 2TB drives aren't enough. Ha! Backing up my work and other files I've collected onto my Back Up drive (a smaller 500GB drive that sits next to my computer for immediate things that I'm working on or need to pull from) and then after about three weeks or so I back them up to the Back Up-Back Up drive (one of my main drives with mostly everything on it) and then again onto, not one, but TWO Back Up-Back Up-Back Up drives (two clones of the previous drive with everything on it, BUT with much more including comics scans, audio stuff, teaching stuff, etc. And I have two drives in case one fails. These two are the main drives that I can't lose though.) is an several hour process and I usually wait till the weekend at night to do it since you just have to sit and do it. It's a long and boring process but has to be done.

I seem to remember when I used to burn CD's and DVD's with data on them but now it's all about the external hard drive since they hold much more stuff and tranferring files over is much faster than burning. There was a time back in 2004 or so when I'd go to the computer store (no longer in business either) and buy 9 or 10 spindles of CDs or DVDs on sale so that I'd have them, but in the last two years alone I think I've only burned 3 CDs total! Technology is rapidly changing so fast that even the flash drives (or thumb drives) that were the rage for about a year have fallen by the wayside as hard drives have surpassed them in terms of speed and space, as well as keeping the physical dimensions of the drives down to a nice compact size that you can put in your pocket. 2TB drives are a little bigger in most cases but are about the size of a hardcover book.

It may seem excessive to some with all the backing up but I laugh at those who lose all their stuff when their systems crash and they didn't ever think to back anything up and have now lost it all. It's a large peace-of-mind to fire up a drive and back up the day's work and then go to bed knowing it's safe. Once you accumulate a large amount of stuff you don't want to lose it. Even working from the hotel room from my previous trip I would back up the night's work onto a flash drive and then a small external hard drive as well since I didn't want to rely on my laptop though I'm sure it was safe. Laptops can get man-handled going through the airport security and being thrown in the bins as they go down the conveyor belt.

I'm the Back Up Kid!

Captain Blue Hen's Mascot - Bucky Blue!

Thought I'd post the original sketch I did of Bucky Blue who is the mascot for Captain Blue Hen. Captain Blue Hen is a comic store in Newark, Delaware and I was asked a couple years ago to come up with the character as a way for the store to promote comics. Above is the actual raw sketch I did on copy paper with ball point pen. Once I scanned it in I then wanted to do the final art as vector art in case they wanted to blow up the art for something big. Bucky is a little kid (and like most of us did) is dressed up in an Adam-Westy-kind-of-costume and using homemade props as weapons. I used a clothes hanger as a grappling hook once or twice myself as I scaled the picnic table growing up.

Below are the two main sayings that they wanted to incorporate with the character for a poster and t-shirt.

And here's one of Bucky swinging by for their Christmas Card...

So for process junkies, it was a pen and ink sketch and then the rest was done in Adobe Illustrator.

LANESCAN Tri-Fold Brochure Design

Here is a tri-fold brochure I did for ARCM Corp. back in September of 2003. There was a lot of information to tell and only so much space to do it in as the client wanted the mailing card added to it as well at the bottom. I think it's one of my best design jobs and one where the art and text all worked together. It's like a puzzle most of the time trying to get the pieces to fit. Art was all done in Adobe Illustrator and then assembled and laid out in Photoshop. The art of the cars, trucks and roads were done as vector art since the client needed the art also blown up to trade show banner size as well. The backside of the brochure is a little bland since it's a mailer but I'm still happy with how it all came out. I did a bunch of stuff for the company that year before it was sold to another company who then took it over.