American Virgin 18 Pencils

From American Virgin 18. I love posting these because they show that, yes, I can draw! I'm not just an inker!

In Stores This Week- Local #10 and American Virgin #18

It's a Super Double Team good week at the comic store for me as I have two books on the stands on Wednesday, August 29. So Go Get 'Em!--



Local #10
Written by Brian Wood Art by Ryan Kelly
The flipside to the previous issue of Local, this Austin, TX-based story tracks Megan's brother Matthew McKeenan, as he also reacts to the news of their parent's death. While Megan's journey was proactive, sentimental, and in the end, rather uplifting, Matthew's process is radically different, and possibly dangerous.



American Virgin #18
Written by Steven Seagle; Art by Ryan Kelly and Jim Rugg; Cover by Celia Calle

"Around the World" Part 4 of 5. Adam Chamberlain is having enough trouble trying to figure out what to do or not do with the opposite sex. So how does the third sex fit into the picture? In India, Vanessa makes a play to make time with the golden boy. Will temptation of the flesh win out?

Funrama Promo 4

Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson, originally uploaded by funrama.

118 Pages In A Month And A Half

70 New York Four Pages to pencil, ink and tone.
24 pages Local to pencil, ink and tone.
24 pages American Virgin to pencil.

This is pretty much what I have to in the next 6-7 weeks. Things are going to be really bad for a while. And I'm not bellyaching because I wanted to draw comics for a living. I just wish I got hit with all this when I was 24, childless, and begging.

All this would academically be possible if I didn't have 3 kids and twin babies who wake up crying at 3 am. But I love my comics and babies. This is the challenge of my life, for sure.

I'm saying this because I'm sure people hate me for never returning phone calls or emails. Unless it's a job or work-related, I'm pretty-much out-of-touch and lost in my own world. Sorry all, I should be done with all this in late October. It's all for comics! Comics! Comics! New World Order! Attica! Rickyyyy!!



NY4

American Virgin

Local

Max Roach

Max roach, originally uploaded by funrama.

Recommended listening:
Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street
Deeds, Not Words
Birth Of The Cool
Speak, Brother, Speak!
M'Boom

Giant Robot Warriors still ticking

GRW.Sandyintro, originally uploaded by funrama.

A nice review of Giant Robot Warriors, my book with Stuart Moore, at BoingBoing

"Giant Robot Warriors, a graphic novel, is a masterful comic allegory for world's military build-up and stand-offs....The writer, Stuart Moore, describes the book as having been written during the brief flare of post-9/11 optimism that ended when the US squandered its international goodwill on pointless oil wars and security theater.

Five years later, circumstances are still similar enough that Giant Robot Warriors still has political weight (unfortunately)"
Cory Doctorow

Buy it at Amazon
Buy it at Khepri

American Virgin.19.01

I'm on American Virgin #19 and Adam and Vanessa are now in Paris. It's going to be tres bien.


pencils

inks by Jim Rugg

Meggin

Alex-- I departed San Diego before you could get your convention sketch. It's paid for so e-mail me and claim your prize.

My Twitter

photo by brian wood

I jumped on the bandwagon and made this: twitter. There's no point to it, other than I want to remove all my senseless banter off this blog. Since I don't have an OFFICIAL website, this has to be my official homebase, so no more weird off-topic ramblings. People want to come here and see art, damnit! No one wants to "hear" me talk about Republicans or what I ate for lunch or what I bought at Target today. I'm not James Lileks. I'm Ryan Kelly. I'm special. People care about me. It'll be mostly art-related stuff here only! Oh yeah, and baseball cards.

And now that my favorite place in the world, The Engine is passing on, I'll probably post some art on Brian Wood's northlanders.ning.com. Other messageboards scare me. They're big and oppressive and sarcastic. This week, I will set this blog up so that if you click any of my links it will lead you to SOME KIND of Ryan Kelly art gallery. Comic samples on comicspace, Paintings and Illustration on MNArtists, etc...

The New York Four-First look interior art

This spread is the first look at the interior art for The New York Four, the Minx Graphic Novel with Brian Wood. This was shown at the San Diego panel and it has been posted in Comic Book Resources' Look at all the Minx books, so I didn't want to miss the boat in posting it. I hope to post some more art and sketches for it along the way. But my preliminary sketches, as always and forever, are gawd-awful.

"..Kelly said the art relies heavily on photo reference and is very New York-centric. “It's about living in New York and it's about 19 year-old women and the transition between high school and college.”

Shelly Bond asked me to say a few words about this page at the panel, and I just took an abrupt u-turn and talked about hairstyles or something. In this spread, we see Riley, the primary character and the girl who provides our close and personal vantage point throughout the story. She's very shy, and I have to draw her facial expressions always with a thick tuft of hair seeping over her eyes, which has been the most challenging aspect of this particular job. But, for this spread in the first scene, we see Riley bolting out of her subway stop, whipping her hair back with a tiny hint of a rare display of contentment. She's in her element; in the city, riding the Metro, tapping on her Treo, stopping for coffee. Riley's attending NYU, so I'm drawing a lot of scenes downtown , in the sorta-East Village area (I think). This particular intersection is where Houston, Lafayette and Broadway meet ( I think). That's the Puck building on the right.

Anyway, I was excited about the art until I saw the previews for everyone else's Minx books. All the artists are just slaughtering me! Oh well, if you liked the art in Local, you'll love The New York Four. It's atleast AS good. Hopefully. And if you're interested in Brian Wood , once again, doing something very different, you're in luck. More on my progress later.

Edit:
...and original concept thumbs..

1 Year

Deep in the thick of the "W...T...F" insanity of our bridge collapse yesterday, I've neglected to properly celebrate my boys becoming one year old today. Damn, it's going fast. Tell me I'm a lucky guy. I'm Lucky. I have to keep remembering that everyday.

My First Ever Nerd Classic-I Made Pictures

This was my first San Diego Comic Con adventure so I guess I should post something. I was there to support Local and the announcement of The New York Four and to buy small plastic Japanese monster movie toys.

I guess I was supposed to to try to further my career or something but I usually get overwhelmed at these things and I just clam up and wander around outside looking for a bar or cheap fish tacos. I feel like a total knuckleknob going up to editors, asking for work so I just say "hi, how's the kids?" and hope somebody calls with a job in the next year. I got to meet up with a lot of old friends and peers and coworkers and I met some new creators that I really admire, too many to begin to mention. I've been extremely Laissez-fare about about my career which is not healthy. But I had fun. I'm still working on Funrama and I hope to have a publisher on board soonish. I got to say hi to Bob Schreck for the first time. I saw a Pink Storm Trooper in a dress. I was on my first panel and I have no recollection as to what came out of my mouth.

I'm not very talented at schmoozing but I'm really good at sitting on the beach alone staring at the setting sun and thinking existential thoughts on life and death and $8 Convention tuna sandwiches.




My Motel 6 bedsheet-complete with cigarrete burns and rancid smells. It just needs a few Yodas sprinkled within that emaculate design for complete sleeping satisfaction.


This was the most refreshing place to sit and relax and yet no one was ever sitting here except for the homeless people. Sad. I heard that San Diego was a fairly Republican town but it didn't quite hit me until I saw tons of homeless people sleeping on every street. My White Male Reality Guilt started to sink in everyday as I walked to this monstrosity of commercialism and money and passed by all the poor people. Back in good ol' Blue-blooded Minnesota, we have a ton of shelters so at least those services are available.


Fight!


I ended up doing a horde of sketches, most of which I neglected to take photos of. I did many Megans.


...And a few Death sketches like this.


View from the Oni table.


Kevin Murphy! A genius, a Crop-dusting GENIUS! I met my heroes this convention-Mike , Bill, Kevin, the whole MST3k gang. Mr. Crow and Tom Servo were even on my flight home! What a treat. The Film Crew (essentially a Mystery Science Theater 3000 reunion) panel and screening was amazing and it was PACKED. A whole auditorium of people on the floor laughing.I got their first DVD release Hollywood After Dark, starring a young Rue McClanahan.

Oh yeah, The Harvey Awards voting ends on August 3rd. Remember to vote. The power of Democracy is in your hands!