221 - update and upload

Long time no post but that's because I been working! Steadily cooking along as I make game cards for the Pass A Fist card game coming to a Kickstarter near you next year. As well as other random pieces here and there which mostly pop up on my Instagram or Twitter accounts. Which if your interested you can find links in the previous posts.

The big upload is finally done! I've got all 75 sequential colored pages of GEEK added to my Deviant Art account and they can be found HERE!  Go give them a look and leave me a comment or two, they are much appreciated.

Other than that things are chugging along, just gotta keep on keeping on as they say. :-)

220 - the continuation of stuff

Just a quick update. For those wanting to really follow what I'm up to on a more steady basis the best places are Twitter and Instagram:

 https://instagram.com/bachmananthony/ is where all my art post go now a days
and
 https://twitter.com/anthonybachman is where that art goes as well as my musings and crazy podcastingness

G.E.E.K. has not only wrapped and been printed but Matt Cohen is now shipping so i hope to be able to show you guys my copy very soon. Super excited to hold a book that I colored half of in my grubby little mitts.

I took some time off from all things at the end of G.E.E.K. which also coincided with me working through all the craziness of finishing off my divorce and selling my house. Much stress. Lead to much video gaming and not a lot of art.

As I started to get back into things I was lucky enough to have my name brought up in conversation to a fledgling game company and got interviewed to work on their project with them. The meeting went well and I've been working on sketches and card ideas for the Pass-A-Fist game for the past little bit and will be working on that for the foreseeable future. The plan is for the game to be ready to go to print and live on Kickstarter as of early 2016 so I've got a lot of art to work on. In the mean time you can right now go download FOR FREE a beta version of the game at PassAFist.net. 

Along with that I'm still working through Christopher Hart's Figure It Out which makes for great daily warm up as I'm doing cards for the game. People are going to love the game, it's a fucking blast to play.

Other than that I'm trying to get ahead on everything so I can participate in Mr Jake Parker's fantastic annual event known as Inktober. Didn't quite finish it last year but I got close, planning on doing all 31 this year and I've got a fun theme and a database of reference ready to go so we'll see how I do.

Here's a bunch of what I've been working on:

  

219 - stuff

Decisions were made and things have happened. After thinking about not continuing with the Next Element podcast I had the honor of podcasting with Matt Burden from FPW and my favorite movie podcast Matinee Idles. Next Element is sticking around and it will happen when Colin and I feel like doing an episode.

My part of GEEK is done. The entire book is now done and on it's way to the printer. Soon to be a finally published comic!

I'm back to drawing, podcasting, and writing for Gonna Geek.

So go check out the stuff:

I'm now the co-host on All Things Good and Nerdy

I'm the host of a new POI Network podcast called CMYKTV podcast about all them fantastic comic book related TV shows.

And I'm back to doing Bachman's Best over at Gonna Geek.

And all the drawing stuff is showing up on my Twitter @anthonybachman and my Instagram @bachmananthony 

218 - decisions

Decisions, decisions. Things are still hectic, as the quiet around here can attest to. What writing I am doing I am putting up over at GonnaGeek.com where I can happily say that Bachman's Best is continuing with gusto. I have also taken over the 3rd chair over at All Things Good and Nerdy so that means I currently LIVE every Sunday talking about geeky stuff, and everything else. The problem being that keeping up with those 2 things while doing colors on GEEK 5 days a week has really put a damper on trying to get new episodes of The Next Element Podcast out. And now I'm thinking about the Next Element maybe taking a hiatus at least until Colin finishes school and has more time for it or until I'm done with GEEK and can dedicate more of my time to it. Hmmmm...wonder if anyone will read this.

217 - way into the new year

Knock knock. Knock knock....

...

Is there anyone there?...


There in fact is. I am actually still here. Mainly just coloring. My writing on GonnaGeek.com has taken a hit and been really inconsistent, not as inconsistently as I've been posting here but not good. I've really only been taking time to hit up social media on my Facebook and Twitter during the bathroom breaks that I'm not reading comics. Also the podcast has been on a sort of hiatus as Colin has gone back to school and is now going through the fun of moving into a new house.

Now, the good news. As of this posting I'm 6 pages from the halfway point on GEEK, just need to keep going, that's all there is to it. Things are gearing up for LCTC 2014 also known as the Lexington Comic and Toy Convention where I will be making my first appearance as an exhibitor! My table, hotel, and plane tickets are all taken care of, I have 100 prints of my Adventure Time print on the way to me in the mail right now. It looks like all things are coming up Milhouse so I'll just keep my fingers crossed that things keep going the way that they are going.

216 - 3 page preview of G.E.E.K. or Where I've been spending my nights...

Want to get a good look at what I've been up? Why you never see me at the bar-b-ques? Why I'm just never in the club anymore? Where I've been spending my evenings...

Well click this lovely link and you find a 3 page preview of G.E.E.K.!

Oh, and Marvel announced they are bringing back a new X-Factor series written by Peter David and The New Warriors are coming back! So today is an epic day.

That is all. :-)

215 - a shocking quickie!

Just a quick update. Roughly 98% of the time I'm not at work or sleeping I am coloring GEEK. It's not coming along as fast as I would like, but it is coming along. Still hoping to see more of a speed increase as I keep going but the important thing is I ain't stopping. Pages done and plenty more to do.

I did want to share with you guys that I added to my original comic page collection. Powers Vol 2 Issue #13 Page #20 is now mine! I love it!

And below that is a small sneak peek at one of the GEEK panels I have colored. You guys will love it when you find out why this guy looks so shocked in this image. It's great stuff.

Okay, back to coloring I go.

213 - I'm Gonna Geek...or how I learned to spread my love on the internet

Things have been hectic and I would just like to send out a huge thank you to anyone still around and reading this thing. After a little talking to from my writer and editor of GEEK it was brought to my attention that I have been slacking and it is time for some serious pages. So I've basically been putting in full time job hours during my hours after work. A 40 hour work week followed by 40+ hours at my home computer over each of the last 2 weeks has been a frenetic blast of fun and nights with little sleep. Not sure how some people go full bore like this for years, but that's what I'll be doing over the next couple months as I lay down the colors over 130 pages of GEEK. So far I can't share pages that I'm working on with you guys but soon you will be seeing some pages that I have to say are turning out spectacular.

In the small bits of in between time when I'm not coloring I have actually stopped drawing as the 80+ hours a week at my computers are taking a toll on the wrist. Instead I have aimed a bit of my thinking power toward writing. Specifically writing about geeky stuff that I enjoy and would like to point people towards. I will be doing this over at a lovely site called GonnaGeek.com.

I have done a few blah blah blah posts on here and if you liked them I believe you will really enjoy what I will be presenting over at Gonna Geek. My first post went up today reviewing that beautiful thing that is Infinite Kung Fu by Kagan McLeod, if you've got a minute go take a look, give it a read, and if you leave me a comment I'll owe you a cookie - http://www.gonnageek.com/2013/06/bachmans-best-infinite-kung-fu/

So for the foreseeable future I'll probably be a bit more vocal over there then over here. And when things really start rolling in the next couple of months, man...you won't believe how much is coming and I'll be so happy to tell you all about it. So stay tuned.

212 - it's to quiet...

It has been far to quiet around this blog for far to long! And I have no one to blame but myself. Prepare yourself for a deluge of pics and stuff.

If you have a minute go give this a listen and it explains a lot of where I've been and what I've been doing - CLICK HERE! 

205 - 4 my eyes only

With the fan dying on my power supply I've been running my computer for only 4 hours at a time with the window open and a fan blowing the cold air at the tower. This has keep my computer from crashing so that is nice but man it is getting kinda frigid in my office. I'm coloring with a hoodie on all zipped just to keep warm. But here's the important part. It's so worth it because GEEK is coming along and the colored pages I think are looking great. I believe we will be showing then to the world soon so I'll be able to share them here soon, I don't think you guys will be disappointed. 

In the meantime while my comp is down for the hour I give it to cool off completely I've been doing a little sketching. I've finished one piece and almost the second in a set that will be winging off to the far north to my favorite podbrothers. So for now I can't share pics as I want them to be a surprise. Soon as the package I will soon send off is received I'll put the sketches up here, they are turning out nice. 

Hope you are all enjoying your 2013 so far.

203 - a quick punch!

I keep needing to take breaks from coloring.  So many hours of staring at a computer screen eventually does damage. So as I need breaks and I need to keep working and improving on my art I am going to keep updating this here blog of course but I am also going to try and toss some stuff back up on PencilJack again. That is a community of great people that I miss chatting with so I am diving back in. First step I took part in this weeks sketch group and started with the 10 minute sketch picture of an mma fight. It's not complete as I timed myself and was honest. It was nice to kinda get in there and just cut lose and see what would come out in 10 minutes. It's crazy when that timer goes off and you realize that 10 minutes just flew by. Fun stuff.

200 - here comes 2013! Everyone run!

Just a quick little hello to start the year. Noodle, the noodle armed boy says hi! Hope you like his hat.

2012 was really great for me.

I started a pod cast - The Next Element Podcast - and put up over 20 episodes on podbean and iTunes which has gotten some great feedback and very few death threats. Colin Addington and I had some great fun and the pod continues on in earnest. Sharing and chatting on the twitters about and with other podacsts made me a huge fan of An Elegant Weapon which lead to some great episodes, meeting a ton of other podcasters and becoming part of the super cool and all powerful Junk Food Podcast Network.

I showed much interest in an amazing Kickstarter called G.E.E.K. by the man himself Matt Cohen of Bagged and Boarded fame. This unbelievably lead to me getting the coloring job on that book, which I will go back to once I'm done typing this. The story is great, the art is epic, and I can only hope to get the colors up to the standards of the amazing guys I am working with on the book. Matt Cohen, Shawn DePasquale and Axel Ortiz are now some of my favorite people in the world. To stay updated check out this sexy little website: www.geekcomicbook.com.

Plenty of other happenings but I'm not going to get into all of them. The only real goals I set for myself last year were to make more art and by way of that post up more blog posts. According to my little tracker here I put up 59 posts in 2011 and upped that to a nice 71 in 2012. Other than 2009 I have increased blog posts each year since I started this thing in 2008. As far as I am concerned this is a trend I am proud of and plan on continuing. So for 2013 I will have 2 goals, increase the number of posts to this blog - aiming for 80 plus with almost all of them having art if possible, and finish coloring GEEK. That is all. 2 things to focus on and now it is time to start. If you are one of the people reading these things each and everytime they go up I just want to say thank you and you are awesome. We will continue to be awesome together.

Have a great year peoples!

160 - I just keep on winning!

It has been a crazy couple of days. But in a good way. Last night after picking up AvX #1 which turned out to be really good Colin and I set down and recorded the 5th episode of our little podcast. The Next Element Podcast is chugging right along. The night before, on Monday we the proud members of Jack's Useless Knowledge took 2nd place in Geeks Who Drink over at the lovely Brewforia in Meridian, ID. A fine evening.

With just that it has been a full couple of days. Now add to that the Action Labs "I want Double Jumpers" contest over on the Twitter pages. I sadly didn't win that. However I did receive a rocking runner up prize compliments of Shawn Pryor and the fine fine folks over at Action Labs.

But the big one. The thing that really got all this started and put me in a dancing little glee. In Super Dinosaur # 7 my very first letter to a comic was published. I tossed in a couple of names for a standard old Name the Letters Page Contest. Well being the lucky guy I am I thought they would go with anyone else's idea but mine so I read issue # 8 the next month and issue #9 this weekend not expecting much. Surprise to me as I started reading the letters page and had to take a double take when I saw that the letter's page was title Mailasaurus Text. The name I had sent in for the contest. WHAT?

Read the intro by the awesome Sina Grace and the following congrats from Robert Kirkman and realized I had not only won the contest but I had some awesome stuff coming my way. A few emails later I now know that I have a t-shirt, I'm sure it's the Super Dino one, a page of Jason Howard's oh so sweet original art from Super Dinosaur, and as Sina put it random other things that Robert wanted to send. I am so looking forward to seeing a package arrive in the mail. You there will be a nice pic on here of all the goodies, especially my very first page of original comic art. Such a good couple of days.

Long days and pleasant nights all...

71 - The Flash with Black Dynamite or Why it's all Kevin Smith's fault!

These sketches are all Kevin Smith's fault, which I believe to be a good thing, but let me explain. I don't think I have ever brought any attention to the podcasts I listen to and thought now would be a good time.

My iPod is usually full of episodes downloaded from the SModcast Podcast Network that I listen to while at work mainly during the time that I am processing mail. These podcast make the day go by faster and they are extremely entertaining. SModcast with Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier is the grand-daddy of them all, really entertaining stuff. Then there's Tell Em Steve Dave, Blow Hard, Plus One, Puck Nuts, Hollywood Babble-On, Jay and Silent Bob Get Old and the two that led to these sketches; Bagged and Boarded and Red State of the Union.

Red State of the Union is Kevin Smith's new class on film podcast that has been filled with great interviews with people that worked on the film Red State. If you really dig on film this is a great podcast to listen to and learn a bit about how this film was created. I just listened to the episode starring Kyle Gallner and enjoyed hearing all about this kids journey to Hollywood and his entry into the acting world. Kyle first caught my attention as he did a lot of comic fans when he appeared as Bart Allen a.k.a. Impulse on Smallville, great stuff. Listening to that episode I realized he was also in Jennifer's Body and the new Nightmare on Elm Street remake, whether or not you think they were great movies I enjoyed them and Kyle put together some cool character work in these. Now he's playing what sounds to be an integral role in Red State which I can't wait to see. I tried a quick sketch last night of a picture I found of Kyle Gallner and have to say I like the sketch but I don't think I got even a bit of the likeness. But 15 minutes with a pen and I did end up with a pretty good head shot, the proportions came out to my liking.

Next we have Bagged and Boarded with Matt Cohen and Brendan Creecy, a real funny podcast with a couple of geeks that have a lot of the same interests I do so I find the episodes to be mini laugh-a-thons and fairly informative, they introduced me to Team Unicorn, check it out. The new episode had a great interview with Michael Jai White a.k.a. Spawn, Tyson, and the super cool Black Dynamite! They had a nice sit down with Michael and had a great conversation about the Mortal Kombat mini-film and the possibility of a second Black Dynamite, the world will get funkier! Any who, I was digging on the episode and thought tonight I would throw down a quick sketch of the man with the kung-fu koolness! 20 mins with a different pen and I am quite happy with the resulting likeness.

If all that isn't enough then after you listen to all the SModcasted podcasts you can also check out The Walking Dead Cast, The Devil and Me, Around Comics, Word Balloon, and 11 O'Clock Comics. I have listened to a couple hundred hours of these and found them all to be fully enjoyable, get your geek ear on!

64 - well they ain't tails

Two more and away we go...
Just more heads from the Christopher Hart Simplified Anatomy book. I'm really enjoying the book and it's nice to actually be enjoying drawing again. Sketches, tattoo designs for friends and redesigning a beer company logo, things are good.

And to bring back on old fav...
SAT-Spoiler Alert Theater: Saw 3-D
Did the yearly outing to see Saw 3-D with my friend Valynn and I have to say it was well worth the extreme theater prices for a 3D movie. Great traps, the fun of having body parts flung at the screen off of saw blades tearing into bodies. Nothing like watching a film in 3D that was shot specifically for 3D, especially a horror film. If you ever enjoyed a Saw film I would recommend seeing this one in the theaters and paying for the 3D glasses, it is well worth it. If they are actually ending the franchise with film as they advertised it will be a fitting end. And if not I will see you guys next year Saw - Jigsaw Reborn!

61 - Damn stack of books...

On my book case I have a giant stack of books on How to Draw. How to Draw the Marvel Way, How to Draw Monsters, How to Draw Cutting Edge Anatomy, big ol stack of books and I have never gotten around to really doing anything with them outside of using them as reference for certain drawings. Add that to what I believe to be probably my biggest deficit as an artist, a lack of filled sketch books and I think they add up to a simple answer. I simply need to increase my output, after all these years I still don't think I have gotten the bad drawings out of my system, I still haven't found my "style".
So that's the new goal, in between projects now I am going to do my best to just put out some pages, ease up on trying to do perfect drawings and just draw. If I have heard one constant from all my art teachers and all the artist blogs I have read and tutorials I have seen it's that sheer numbers are the best way to go.
So as it stands now I have Simian beer labels to design and monkey motif t-shirts to work on and when I'm not doing that I am going to try to draw my way through this big ass stack of books.
These sketches are from the first book I'm working my way through, Christopher Hart's Simplified Anatomy for the Comic Book Artist, the idea of this one is to make characters with the more streamlined look ala Michael Oeming's Powers. I have a bunch of Hart's art book's, nice step by step instructions now it's just up to me to do the work.
Anyways critiques are always appreciated, that is if you made it through this diatribe, blah blah blah indeed. Now back to the monkeys...I shall return...

60 - Scott Pilgrim vs all the movies out this weekend...

Spoiler Alert Theater again-

Enjoyed the hell out of this. Edgar Wright has now done for teen comedies with Scott Pilgrim what he did for zombie flicks with Shaun of the Dead. This one will have to have it's own genre, it just won't fit anywhere, fun as hell. The soundtrack, the one liners, the super-powered vegans, the editing-this movie is worth seeing for any one of this reasons and it has all of them!
Any who doubted the power of Michael Cera will have to admit his ability after seeing this flick, he's still the lovable loser you cheer for but in this movie he seems to pull it off in a completely different fashion, it's enjoyable just to hear the cadence he gives to the characters speech, stumbling, interrupted, and naturally unfiltered is how it comes across.
We can also not forget the other great appearances in this film, to many to get into but the girls in Scott Pilgrims life our brought to the screen by some fearsome actors, cute + powerful equal Scott being in trouble from credits to credits.
If you at home doing nothing right now, get up, get out and go see this movie. You won't regret it.

P.S. And just so we're clear I am still planning on seeing The Expendables and The Other Guys, Pilgrim was the group choice for our Friday night outing.

57 - ENVY

Jealous. That's the word you're looking for jealous. At the Captain Comics Anniversary sale my wife earned major points when she said it would be okay to drop a few sheckles on a copy of The Incredible Hulk #181, which the fan boys know is the first full appearance of the Wolverine!. A book I have wanted for a long time and I now own! Life is sweet!

55 - Party today!

It is time for a house warming bar-b-q! Beer and brauts, chips and dips. The yard is mowed and the grill is ready, still got a couple of things to put on shelves but after that we are ready to go. If your are reading this you are welcome to stop by. The beer is being provided by Simian Brewing Company, best beer in the Treasure Valley, I'm gonna get me some.
Have a great weekend all!

53 - SOOO MUCH TO DO!

We signed the papers yesterday and now it's all down to the move. Going to transfer all of our crap form the apartment to the house, most of it today. Tons to do but so worth it for Danielle and I to have a great place all our own away from this damn apartment neighbors.

So now that almost all the packing is done comes the sad part, taking down the desk and computer. Though it is a sadness that won't last as they will rise again in a new location, triumphant and ready to take on the world!

Okay...that was a bit much....

Have a day.