About Me

My photo
I have been a Freelance Artist since 2006. I'm married with two wonderful children and live in Maple Ridge, British Columbia. I primarily work in book and magazine publishing. I have illustrated four books so far, "Maple Leaf Forever?" (2008 - Author Paul Keery) and "R.B. Bennett: The Grinch Who Gave Away a Million" (2008 -Author Alan Skeoch, unpublished). Both for Jackfruit Press. In 2012 "Canada at War: A Graphic History of World War Two" was published by Douglas & McIntyre. This was my first graphic novel based on an earlier concept of mine and written by Paul Keery. It was critically praised in Canada and the US, became a CBA best seller and went into 2nd printing. My fourth book "The Night Wanderer", a GN adaptation of the novel by Drew Taylor was released in August 2013. My work has also been published in Kayak and Legion Magazines. My caricatures and stock art are available at artizans.com
A page from a very great book idea, conceived and written by Paul Keery about the history of Democracy based on Churchill's principles. We never did bother to try and get it published.

Reload

Ten pages intended as a proposal piece for a graphic novel entitled Reload. A history of sorts telling the story of The Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit. Combat cameramen, and women who filmed and photographed the Canadian Army during The Second World War.

Though dramatic license was taken (it is a comic book after all) it is, like all the stories that will be presented in the book,  based on a true event.











We Are the Dead

I thought I would post some stuff from a World War I book I had been working on. It was to be called "We Are the Dead: Canada and the First World War". I got about 9 pages in and stopped bothering as I'm now focusing on my latest graphic novel "Reload".

The first 3 pages are the prologue featuring the iconic Poppy. It then moves on to the events that started the War. The last page is unfinished. I attempted to write history as well as illustrate it and got bogged down. I don't know if I did history justice. If you want to know how the beginning ends click here









Richard Bedford Bennett,

An illustration from a non published YA book on R.B. Bennett, Canada's 11th Prime Minister.

Before he became a politician he made a fortune in Alberta oil. This scene depicts him yelling at one of his rig managers. R.B. was a weird guy. Interesting in historical terms.

I throw this one in because it's one of those illustration I did a while back and  really liked, and then I forgot about it.

I figure it deserves some exposure.

Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit

Starting work on a new graphic novel, along with Dale Gervais and Dan Conlin, on the Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit. The men and women who brought the war to the theaters and living rooms back home via newsreels and photographs.

A very interesting and unknown service during World War Two. Some amazing stories are waiting to be told!

Stay tuned. I'll be posting some illustrated pages soon. In the mean time please check out Dale's website http://www.canadianfilmandphotounit.ca/
The Night Wanderer has been nominated for  the YALSA (Young Adult Library Service Association) Great Graphic Novels for Teens Award for fiction. The list can be found here


Featured

A Canadair C 5 Sabre from the "Golden Hawks" RCAF aerobatic team.

Yay Football!

Although football for me began back in June (Go Riders!). The NFL hype machine has officially kicked in.

I did this one a few years back.


I'm currently re vamping my blog to make it easier for you good people to view my work. You'll be able to use the handy little tabs up top to navigate through the different categories of art that I'll place on here.

The Night Wanderer

The book has now gone to print. I received an advance of the hard and soft copies this week

First World War book

So I've started a new graphic novel. The working title is "We are the Dead: Canadians and the First World War". As the title suggests it's a graphic history of Canada's involvement in World War One. I'm trying my hand at writing and illustrating this time and thought I would post the first two pages of the book. They depict (partially) the events of June 28, 1914 when the Austrian Archduke, Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist. This event triggered the First World War. The story then moves on to a brief  overview of events that led up to the assassination and why it is important to the history of the War. After that the focus shifts to Canada and what the country was like in 1914 and how it managed to assemble an Army that would have a profound impact on the battlefields of  Europe. 

66,976 Canadians died in the First World War, out of a population of about 7,000,000. That is a ratio of almost 1 in 10, not including those who died after the fact, or the wounded, or the emotionally scarred, or the families that were devastated by the loss of a loved one. These numbers put the total in the hundreds of thousands. This was the most devastating War in my country's history

Hopefully I  can convey our story in this book.

 Anyways, here's pages one and two . And remember this is my first attempt at writing, so be kind ;)




Twigs 3

My favorite of the 3 "Twigs" Sundays.

Twigs 2

This ones a little too wordy but I like the opening panel and the payoff at the end.

Twigs

Nostalgia time. 'Twigs' was a comic strip I tried to develop from around '94 to '98. Apathy, a lack of confidence and the slow death of the syndicated newspaper comic industry were the reason for it's demise.

No regrets. I  always felt and still feel it was lacking. That having been said, I still think it is worthy enough to throw on the web.

'Twigs' revolved around the Twig family, August, April and their son October. Joining the cast were Tankred (also Tancred) a messed up Racoon and Floma a muscular housekeeper from an undisclosed eastern European country.

I'm posting three Sundays' that I coloured a few years back. The dailies are buried in storage.

Enjoy!

Racoon

This is a digital version of  Tankred the Racoon a character from a comic strip I did in the '90's. I never sent it out and basically abandoned it.

Gorilla. Stock art


Canada at War

This is the title page spread for Canada at War: A Graphic History of World War Two. The book has been out for only 3 months and has already gone into 2nd printing as well as being on The Canadian Booksellers Association's  bestsellers list for nearly 2 months. A heart felt thanks to everyone and anyone who bought a copy.