Author: Alex Schumacher

The past few months I have dedicated my creative energy almost solely toward developing animation pitches and children’s books. As of late, however, I have been diving head first back into creating comics.

Work continues on the alien invasion book “Don’t Mess with Texas” from I’m A Geek Entertainment as well as the upcoming OGN series by CW Cooke and myself (see previous post for preview art). I, along with co-conspirator Adam Wilson, am also in the process of finding a new home for Benjamin and the Fish as our current publisher has decided to transition to an all digital format. Most recently I have been hired by Bluewater Productions to deliver artwork for one of their upcoming biography comics due out in the fall, though I can’t say who the subject is as of yet. More news to follow but for now I’m headed back to the drawing board.

Never stop chasing the dream.

This is actually from a project my collaborator and buddy C.W. Cooke and I have been working on for some time. Now we’re starting to make it happen. Yes, it’s about a musician but it’s what we do with/to that musician that’s going to knock your socks off! Stay tuned and enjoy this 1 page preview:

It’s not some new workout fad it’s just describing the new artwork I’m posting today. Enjoy!

The past few weeks have been hectic and exciting here at the ole’ studio. I’ve been designing characters and writing scripts for a very secret project that I am not at liberty to discuss as of yet. However, if all goes well this project will absolutely prove to be one of the peaks in my career thus far! I was actually in La-La land last weekend at a fancy-shmancy meeting concerning the aforementioned project with some folks who are in an industry I’ve longed to be a part of since I was very young. These folks may actually help me realize that dream…

I will also be the guest artist in the upcoming issue of my friend, and fellow cartoonist, Bridgett Spicer’s ‘zine Art-O-Rama! Here is the description of the ‘zine from the website: “Art-o-rama is a 12 page art zine that is stuffed with reproduced original art, mini comics, photos, guest artists, odd poems and silly ideas. It is based on The Art-o-Rama art group in my daily comic, Squid Row (there’s even some tie-in’s to the comic strip).”  It’s quite an honor to be asked to contribute and be sure to subscribe to the ‘zine here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/106993226/1-year-subscription-to-art-o-rama. Afterward, go check out Bridgett’s daily comic Squid Row at: http://squidrowcomics.com/. The theme of the current issue is “Winter Dreams” and, because my mind works in ridiculous ways, this is the piece I produced. Enjoy!

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. day everyone! Forever let the reverend’s words inspire, move and impact us all.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic 2013 so far! I myself have been quite productive and in the next week will have an opportunity to pursue a lifelong dream of mine…more on that later though.

For today I want to share some new artwork as it’s been some time. Check out these 2 new pages of Benjamin and the Fish art, a drawing from my sketchbook that kept barking in my brain one night until I actually sketched him and a new colored piece which may or may not have something to do with the aforementioned dream.

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful 2012, a celebratory New Years Eve and are looking forward to all of the possibilities that lay ahead in 2013!

Speaking of which, Benjamin and the Fish will be roaring back into productivity with new artwork and stories to be posted soon on both our Facebook page and website. My project with I’m A Geek entertainment, Don’t Mess With Texas, is also currently in production and will be out this year as well as the “Girls of I’m A Geek” pin-up book. Additionally there are a couple creator-owned projects in the works, one with my buddy and writer extraordinaire CW Cooke and one which hopefully will be pitched as an animated show though for now I will keep tight-lipped on the details.

The awesome Mike Milo, storyboard artist for Nickelodeon, recently interviewed me for Animation Insider the site with “Interviews about Animators by Animators”. Check it out here: http://www.animationinsider.com/2013/01/alex-schumacher/

Thanks and be on the lookout for more news, art and updates coming your way soon!

Hello all! I hope this post finds everyone well and not suffering from too severe of a holiday hangover. You know the symptoms: Christmas music withdrawals, bloating, nausea, waking up next to an elf that you don’t know, etc. Anyway, I wanted to share some art which I was commissioned to produce during this past holiday season. Though the holidays are over these commissions still make great gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, bar/bat mitzvahs, hen’s parties…you get the idea. My rates are reasonable and my work is, well you can judge for yourself. Enjoy and have a happy new year!

Hi there folks! Just wanted to give a quick update as we roll into the very busy holiday months…

I’ve been hard at work on writing and drawing a few children’s picture books, one of which you can view a rough version (or “dummy”) on the “Children’s Books” page of this site. In addition I’ve been getting caught up on my comics workload including duties on Benjamin and the Fish for 215 Ink, Don’t Mess With Texas for I’m a Geek Entertainment and a few creator owned pitches with industry colleagues. My graphic novel for Arcana Studios and children’s book for Viper Comics are set to be released in a mere couple of months and I will be posting much more news about them in the very near future!

Recently I was asked to provide an illustration to help promote a kickstarter campaign for my friend, and all-around great cartoonist, Lex Fajardo who writes and draws the Kid Beowulf series of Graphic Novels for all ages. Though the campaign has already reached it’s goal you still have time if you’d like to contribute. Find the campaign HERE. Below is my illustration which is an homage to his characters Kid Beowulf and his pet pig Hama. There is one more homage that I snuck in…can you see what it is?

Today I thought I would share my working process regarding writing and illustrating. Currently I have been focusing on children’s picture books and while the writing style and design aspect differ greatly the process is very similar to that of writing and illustrating comics.

It begins with the idea. I have tons of spiral bound notebooks which I fill up with ideas. Yes, I am old school like that. It is here that I tweak, rearrange, heck even draw little doodles in the margins to tighten up said ideas.

After this I jump on the computer, which you young’ins are more familiar with, to type up the polished manuscript. Typically quite a bit of revision and altering happens in this stage as well but by this point the story is mostly fully formed. From the writing/story stage I move to the illustrations. For the purpose of this particular process walk-through I’ll use samples from the children’s picture book I’m presently working on. First I sketch what are referred to as “thumbnails”. They are very rough ideas, which I typically render with ball point pen, for how an illustration may appear. This stage allows me to play with the positioning of the character, motion of action (if any), camera angle, perspective, etc. Just as with my notebook, I have several sketchbooks full of these “thumbnail” ideas.

After I have what I believe will be the finished design I move to the final art. I “pencil” the image with non-photo blue colored pencils, a trick I picked up from animators I knew while living in the Bay Area, and “ink” the drawing with Micron pens. As you can see, if I don’t feel a design is working I still do some altering in this stage. It’s extremely important that the words and the pictures work together to convey the story seamlessly but I strive to create illustrations which can tell stories of their own without having to rely on the text. Personality (the character’s “acting”), tone and, in comics, pacing are a few key elements I focus on when illustrating. You haven’t read my story as of yet but can you come up with one of your own about who this boy is, where he lives, what he liked to do, etc. from the picture alone?

Once these stages are completed I drop images and text into photoshop and format the page to be either a picture book or graphic novel/comic book. Then digital files are created and sent off to editors and/or publishers.

There ya have it folks! That’s pretty much my process. There is no one way to create though so find the process that best works for you. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse in to how I go about creating and if you have any questions, comments or hate mail feel free to email me: leadheadajs@yahoo.com

Thanks and remember to VOTE!

As of late I have been writing and drawing a LOT of prose and poems for the children’s publishing market. While I will continue to produce work in the field of comics and graphic novels, writing for the children’s market has long since been a passion and dream of mine. Most of the ideas I am keeping under lock and key and neurotically protecting until representation and/or publication but I debuted the following 3 poems with accompanying illustrations this past weekend during the Salinas ArtoberFest celebration and would like to share them with you all here (click below for larger images):

Enjoy and I’d love to hear what you think!!

All poems & artwork © 2012 Alex Schumacher