Hello!

Things are humming along here at JP Creative International. Staying busy, and trying to crank out this comic.

Here's five things I thought you'd like to check out this week.

Enjoy!

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1) A Panel from Space Punks

From the Making Comics Division

Not a lot of art to share because I'm cranking away at this comic and recording classes for SVSlearn.com and there's just not a lot to share right now.

BUT here is a panel from the comic I'm excited to ink. I was going to have three identical C.A.T.Bots and my son Calvin (notorious for being my art director and not letting me just phone things in) told me that this was the perfect opportunity to introduce variants of the C.A.T.bot design. He said I should make a bulky tank one. I took his advice and went on step further and drew a slender assassin one too.

Also...I came up with the name Space Punks around the beginning of 2021 when I launched the pin set. I did a google search and didn't find anyone else using it for anything so I thought I was in the clear. Since then a game came out called Space Punks and I don't want to have my project confused with theirs so now I need a cool name for the book that's like space punks, but cooler, heh. Preferably one with an available domain name.

Or do you think it matters? Should I just press forward with the same name?

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2) Paleoart Round Up

From the Illustrators Division in partnership with the Division of Prehistoric Studies

I'm always impressed with paleo artists and their ability to give life to animals that we only have scraps of skeletons to work from. Thought I'd share some cool paleoart I've seen lately.

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By Joanna Kobierska (LINK)

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By Karolina Twardosz (LINK)

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By Hank Sharpe (LINK)

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By ivaniofri (LINK)

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By Gabriel N. U. (LINK)

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By Rudolf Hima (LINK)

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3) The Largest Cave on Earth

From the Exploration Unit of the Department of Interestingness

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The largest gave on earth isn't big...it's MASSIVE. Gosh dang, I did not realized just how big until I saw this short film. Film maker Ryan Deboodt did the world a service by taking his drone and camera set up to Hang Son Doong to document its size in this peaceful yet awe inspiring short film.

You can see more of Deboodt's work here: LINK​

website: LINK​

Watch the film below:

(via Colossal)

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4) Absolute Zero

From the Comics Division

This is cool...Absolute Zero is a short, 7-page comic book published in Wired several years ago that I never knew about until recently. It tells the story of what happened to Dr. Mann (Matt Damon) on his ice planet before the events of the movie.

This was written by Christopher Nolan himself, and drawn by Sean Gordon Murphy. I kind of wish more movies did this: fleshed things out with comics drawn by really good artists. (That's why I kind of dig the Star Wars comics that are filling in all the gaps between the original trilogy.)

You can read the comic here: LINK​

Or go track down a copy of the November 2014 issue of Wired and read it in print.

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5) On Batman

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

I was thinking about Batman this week. (By the way, I'm not too excited for this new Batman movie. I want to be, but I don't need more darkness in my life right now and boy howdy it looks grim. Crazy idea, but hear me out: What if we got a live action Batman film that was...PG? I'd like a little less dark and a little more knight with my Batman, please. A live action take on the 90's Animated Series would be everything for me. Set in the 30s-40s. The tech isn't over the top. He has to be a detective...stuff like that.)

ANYWAY...Some creators want to be all Batman and no Bruce Wayne.

They want to spend all their time working on the fun stuff, staying out all night, punching bad guys, using the latest tech, and driving a cool car. But Batman does not exist without Bruce Wayne.

Bruce Wayne spends time in the real world, he's watching the finances, he foots the bills, he's out doing research, he's networking, he's going to meetings at Wayne Enterprises. All of that needs to happen for Batman to be able to go out and have fun fighting crime.

At the beginning of my career I wanted to just play the Batman part. I wanted to have fun doing illustrations, graphic novels, working in animation, dabbling with 3D. However, I think in order to really succeed as a creator you need to learn to embrace both the fun art side (Batman) and the less fun business side (Bruce Wayne).

The fully actualized version of you is the person who can kick butt at art, and also kick butt at business. Be Batman AND Bruce Wayne.

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That's all for this week. Thank you for reading this newsletter and hope you have a great weekend!

-Jake

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