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Mmmm. If you think these are tempting to look at, you should be staring at them live and smelling them like I am while I'm drawing!
This one's also 5 x 7, done with Polychromos on illustration board.

This morning started off great with the FedEx man dropping off my package of newly ordered pencils from Dick Blick.


I figured I'd better stock up on my browns if I'm going to be doing this whole chocolate series.


Hey, I don't mess around. I said I stocked up.
That's my sophisticated labeling system: drafting tape with the color written in Sharpie marker. This way I can look in the drawer and see what I have easily. These are all my backups after I use up the couple or three I have in my tins (which are all organized according to color... maybe I'll do a post about that next week.)


This afternoon I took a trip to Barnes and Noble, and sitting there on the shelf in the children's book section, just for me, was this gorgeous book:


"The Chocolate Cat", written by Sue Stainton and illustrated by Anne Mortimer. (I hope they won't mind me posting this image here since I'm linking to them on Amazon.)
Anne Mortimer's illustrations are AMAZING. I've been a big fan of hers for a long time, and have several of the books she's illustrated. She's especially known for her cats. You can almost smell the chocolate on every page, its just the most gorgeous thing!!!!!! This low res image doesn't do it justice at all. She works in watercolor, and the illustrations are all very detailed and lush and must take her more hours than I can imagine (well no, I can imagine.)

What a treat to look forward to drooling over in bed tonight!

All images and content herein are © Paula Pertile and may not be used or reproduced without permission.

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Do you like Comic Books? Do you like Graphic Novels? If you do there are two men you need to know about for whom without their involvement in the creation of Comics, the landscape as we know it today of Comic Books and Graphic Novels would be much less interesting. The Comic Book Creators Series has two biographies that have recently come out that focus on two giants of the industry Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Stan Lee: Writer & Creator by Sue Hamilton - Stan Lee, if you have never heard of him, created such comic characters as Spider-Man (with Steve Ditko), The X-Men ( with Jack Kirby), The Hulk (with Jack Kirby), The Fantastic Four (with Jack Kirby), Iron Man (with Larry Lieber), The Avengers (with Jack Kirby), and many, many more superheroes that you probably read stories about and see at the movies now. Stan Lee created Spider-Man with Steve Ditko way back in 1962. He wrote his first comic in May of 1941 (which happened to be a Captain America Comic). He has been everything from a writer, editor, publisher, movie maker to “Chairman Emeritus of Marvel Comics” in his long career in the comic’s field. He is a living legend that all whom love comics should love and respect. Read this book to find out even more about this man.

Spider-Man’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15 Aug. 1962 for a mere 15 cents. Today this Comic Book is valued for as much as $32,000. It should be noted that this cover was drawn by Jack Kirby.

Jack Kirby: Creator & Artist by Sue Hamilton - Jack Kirby, also known as Jack “The King” Kirby, was an illustrator of comics who worked with such men as Stan Lee among many others and created such famous comic characters as Captain America (with Joe Simon), The Fantastic Four (with Stan Lee), The Hulk (with Stan Lee), The X-Men (with Stan Lee), The Mighty Thor (with Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby), The Silver Surfer (with Stan Lee), The New Gods and many, many more that you probably read stories about and see at the movies now also. He worked on his first comic around 1938/1939, but his budding career was interrupted as with many Americans, when World War II broke out and he joined the military. Jack Kirby served under the famous General George S. Patton. When World War II was over he returned to illustrating comics. He worked for both giants of the Comic Book Industry Marvel and DC among other companies and is looked upon, even today, as the King of all Comic Book Illustrators. Read this book and be amazed at this man’s amazing and productive life.

Captain America Comics #1, which was the first appearance of Captain America as created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, was first published in 1941 and sold for 10 cents. Today this Comic Book is valued for as much as $80,000.

One last thing I would like to share with you guys is that one of the gentleman, John DaCosta, who performs the Comics Camps we have once a month at ImaginOn has illustrated an Aesop Fables story The Fox and The Crow. Just click on the title to check it out. I think its pretty sweet!!!



Well guys I don't want to overstay my stay, so peace and take it easy,

Bill

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As an alternative to parades or football, may we suggest, these 39 never-reprinted Kirby Monsters comics at Philip Parodayco’s Monster Blog. Hours of browsing fun.

Most of Jack Kirby’s 188 pre-superhero stories have been reprinted; here’s the 39 that have NEVER been, in chronological order. As collectors provide me with scans from their original issues, I’ll be posting these stories on Monster Blog for your eternal enjoyment and edification!

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Via Mark Evanier. Shot by Lee Hester.

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- Mit Commentary! This fine feature runs on the MARVEL website. Damn their getting into the content business!

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Holly and I had gone to see The Simpsons movie together. We drove back not saying anything.

After a while, Holly sighed. "You brought that on yourself, Dad. You wrote the bit in your blog today about not being recognised and not wanting to be famous. And now that happens. See?"

"I could move," I said. "I could head off to the Scottish Highlands. Or Patagonia. I could absolutely go to Patagonia and leave no forwarding address."

"Oh dad," said Holly. And then she pointed out, "You aren't allowed to vanish mysteriously until Maddy's eighteen."

"I could wear a hat," I said, a bit desperately.

"It wouldn't do any good," she said. And she may be right. And if I brought it on myself by writing my previous blog entry then maybe if I don't actually talk about it on this one it won't happen again...

...


The Birdchick and her husband, "Three Dollar" Bill Stiteler, were over today and we went out to the bees, checked on things, and brought some honey home. I'm sure that Sharon will document our bee day on her remarkable blog -- it's a terrific record of events. I just wanted to say how wonderful the honey tastes, fresh from the hive. And it tastes different to the last batch -- less piney, more fruity. I hope we'll have lots of honey to give to friends at the end of the year, and that we'll have enough to keep us going until next summer.

We're already planning a couple more hives, and today we started to plant wildflowers because, well, it will make the bees happy next year...

I told Sharon I thought she should take her bee-learning experiences and put them into a book. I hope she does.

...

You know, the funny thing is that LOST DANES FEARED FOOLISH DEATH DURING SCOTTISH STROLL could as easily be a headline for Beowulf as it is for Stardust. But the Danes in question here is Claire and not a bunch of Hrothgar's men directionally challenged and in trouble.

And -- for those of you who wrote in wondering about the scene in the trailer where Charlie Cox ("Cox somehow manages to walk a tightrope between matinee-idol dashing and puckish whimsy, as the film veers from a childlike innocence to an absurdist, Candide-style picaresque." L.A. Times) and Claire Danes ("as the short-tempered star, Danes hurls insults with the lethal accuracy of a screwball heroine" L.A. Times) meet for the first time.

They were -- in the trailer anyway -- apparently the best of friends. But here's a taster of the actual scene: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2007/08/03/exclusive-clip-stardust/

It's educational comparing it to the way the scene is cut in the trailer.

...

The retailer who had over ordered the Charles Vess Stardust statues wrote to let me know that he had sold them all within minutes of me posting the link, and to say thank you. I got the impression that he could have sold his statues many times over, so I went to Charles Vess's site, at http://greenmanpress.com/news/archives/105
and found the link to
http://www.statuetoys.com/stardustmoonstarstatue.html where they're selling it for $60 off, at $134.90. But that's a pre-order price, and the thing ships very soon, so you may want to move fast.

I also checked Dreamhaven's wonderful Neil Gaiman & Friends shop, at http://neilgaiman.net/ but it didn't look like they had it listed yet.

...

Pam Noles has been my minder at San Diego Comic-Con for almost a decade, and the only reason I survived the last three Comic-cons that I've been a Guest of Honour at is that Pam makes sure that I did.

People think I tell Pam what to do at Comic Con, because I am the writer and she is the one-woman entourage, but actually, it's the other way round. If you ever find yourself a guest at Comic-con and Pam looks after you Do Not Sign Things For People When You Aren't Meant To be Signing Them, otherwise you'll find yourself turning up on her hilarious blog described as "The Occasionally Disobedient Guest". You can read about it at : http://andweshallmarch.typepad.com/and_we_shall_march/2007/08/tidbits-from-th.html

(The bit where I was signing for people while, literally, running, was on the Sunday, as I left the Jack Kirby panel and ran for a plane.) (Which reminds me, a few people wrote in asking about the Kirby story I described as one of my favourites --I just checked and it was The Losers in Our Fighting Forces 153. )

(And my Comic-con "Spotlight On..." panel is described at http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=11485)

...

I'm interviewed in the LA Times about Stardust and other stuff, and they gathered quotes from Matthew Vaughn, Claire Danes and Roger Avary: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-ca-charlie5aug05,0,1998613.story

(The photo was taken through a glass door, which is why the image is refracted so oddly, and the unusual expression on my face is me looking at the photographer and thinking, "Er, is that going to work...?")

And, more interestingly (for me, at least) Charlie Cox is also interviewed in the LA Times -- http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-ca-charlie5aug05,0,1998613.story (but you may need to register or visit bugmenot.com for a password in order to read it).

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