I changed my mind about my Batman redesigns.

Amazingly, this fella named Eric Verner got himself a ding-dang Bag tattoo (for those of you coming in late, Bag was the largely non-verbal, floating friend to Jeremy, long ago of my creation).

I'm flattered beyond belief, but I still think this was an incredibly bad idea. Like, i like Alley Oop, but the amount of regret I'd experience after awakening to find an Alley Oop riding a Dinny on my inner thigh would be monumental.

Then again it's not like I've got this Bag tattoo on my skin, so let the fella do what he will ... or ... or wait, is it? Is this tattoo like the video in the Ring? Like, you see it and a week later you get it on your own skin, or maybe you die? Oh good lord, I hope not.

Anyway, Eric's earned hisself a drawing, that's for sure.

==

In other news! The Star Wars vs Batman auctions on eBay are ending very soon (as in tomorrow), so there's still a chance to snatch up a Batman-on-a-Tauntaun pic ridiculously cheap (although you have to consider the expense involved in explaining to your friends what the hell it is you just bought, which makes the real expense something like a bazmibillion dollars). Also, apparently the Indiana Jones trading cards are on their way back to their artists, so I'll be posting my artists returns fairly soon (assuming they get to me more rapidly than the Clone Wars cards came back - ah well).

And then and then: Lest I forget, the next Seattle Drink 'n' Draw will be Friday, January 23 at the Old Pequliar in Ballard, starting around the usual time of 7:00-7:30 and running til we all fall asleep (which is around eleven o'clock for me). We'll bring the paper, you bring your participatory spirit and whatever you've got which most closely resembles a functioning liver. Ciao!

Coming up is the LAST round of Little Batman eBay auctions, covering pretty much everything I've ever put online of the little fella. You can find the whole lot of 'em up here, the individual pieces currently for auction are:

• BE! Aggressive! B! E! Aggressive!


• The Secret Origin of Batman (spoiler: He goes to Wizard School)


• "All-Star Little Batman"


• "First Appearance" (Cover art to the Little Batman minicomic)


• "Aw Man, Do I Look Like A Big Bat or What?" (Table of Contents illustration - if you're looking for a discount piece, this one has a lower reserve than the others)

Allll-so:

The signing this weekend went pretty well, lots of foot traffic and I had an opportunity to meet some nearly-local artists, which is great. Out of the fifty Little Batman minis I brought with me to the signing, I have fourteen left. Since I don't know when the next signing or event is going to be and I don't want to keep these things around (they're just paper, so they'll get mangled if I stack and store 'em), I am doing a one-time only sale through this LiveJournal.

I dunno the copyright risks involved, but here's how I think it works; buy my autograph for $3.00 (per autograph, plus two dollars shipping) and for every one you buy I'll throw in a copy of the Little Batman mini! That sounds transparent and evasive enough to avoid a problem, I think!

Right, three bucks each, two dollars shipping per order, fourteen copies only, first come first served (Oh, but if you've won a piece of original Bat-Art? I'm including a copy of the mini with each of those, so don't fret about 'em). Sound good? Okay, holler at me in comments or via email, and I'll update when I've sold out ... of autographs.

Update: Sorry folks, she's-a done! Thanks!

Hey folks, just a reminder that I'm auctioning off more Little Batman pieces on eBay, including the two rogues gallery pin-ups which are currently going for cheap.

Also, I just finished a HUGE gig last night - I'm participating in Topps Trading Cards' next Lord of the Rings Masterpiece Cards (Series II), providing 300 freaking sketch cards (PS - I am a little tired of drawing hobbits) - so I am currently available for commissions, if there's something last minute you'd like to arrange for the holidays. Er, after I finish and mail davecorun's, anyway ...

Hey all,

Well, the Little Batman auctions went gangbusters, thanks to everyone! I actually feel pretty bad, because some folks got savagely outbid in the last twenty-four hours. It is for this totally altruistic reason that I am listing another batch of Little Batman full comic pages, available here. The pages in question are:

• Little Batman <3'ing the heck out of Bats (Inspired by a scene from Batman:Year One and Batman Begins)


• Little Batman's Busy Day


• Little Batman having a bad dream.


• And both of the Little Batman's Rogues Gallery pieces (1 and 2)

In other news where I sell things that have endless monkey scribblings all over 'em, I've gotten started on the sketches for folks who buy copies of Jeremy: The Complete Strip Collection. I didn't put a deadline on these things, so let's say that for every copy of the book you buy before December 15 (which is when I'll be sending out the lion's share of the sketches), then I will get to you a nice, lean cut of draw-ring. Also, you certainly can make a request by way of what you'd like the sketch to look like, many folks have. Here's two which will be going out in the mail tomorrow:

   

You can get your copy of the book here, if you're so inclined (by the way, it's crawled all the way to #70 on Lulu's list of Comics & Graphic Novels top sellers. So, you know, that's neat!)

Thanks folks! Ciao!

OH WAIT, I DONE FORGOT! I realize that there aren't five or six people from Tucson or surrounding areas reading this journal, BUT I will be signing this Saturday at Charlie's Comics from 11am to 6pm, alongside a whole buncha other dudes from other comics, I kind of don't have the list handy. Charlie's is located at the corner of Craycroft and 22nd, right around the corner from the peeler bar where I used to draw intently in my sketchbook and neglect to look at the dames. That makes it eligible for Historical Monument status, both as a testament to the burgeoning career of a young, fat artist, and also as something my therapist clearly needs to talk to me about. Anyway, see you on Saturday!

Hey, it's a big week for Little Batman!

What you're seeing in the photo accompanying this post is a portion of a huge stack of Little Batman minicomics which I assembled over the Thanksgiving weekend.



Obviously, I can't actually sell the minis through my site or anything - copyright and legal issues and all that. What I'm doing with 'em is bundling up a stack and sending 'em out to the DC offices as a fine how-do-you-do, and using the rest as table incentives at upcoming signings.

The minicomics contain every Little Batman strip (in glorious black and white!), plus the two-page spread of Batman villains and a BRAND-SPANKING-NEW, NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN six-page "origin" story of Little Batman. That's right, a secret story only available in the mini, which I cannot sell publicly. Oh, I know, I'm needlessly cruel.

(As an aside, I know the Little Batman drinking glasses shown in the photo look just the awesomest, but I have to confess that they look kind of crummy in real life. The colors are less vibrant than I anticipated and the spirit-based varnish used to secure and fasten 'em left ridges. Still, I have a set of Little Batman glasses and you don't. This will come in handy for company which I'm not particularly trying to impress. They were just an experiment, anyway. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do with these things)

On a related note, I am currently auctioning off original Little Batman art (PS - thanks to everyone who bid on the Harry Potter sketches, it was very rewarding to watch the bidding war get up and on). There are five pieces up for bid, all with 99 cent starting prices (well, the full-page comics have reserve prices, but we'll see what comes of that). If you're interested, the items up for bid are:

• Little Batman dressed in his Hogwarts uniform.


• Little Batman exercising his magic powers.


• The first-ever Little Batman comic.


• Little Batman racing out of the Little Batcave (introducing Alfred and his portable television).


• Batman vs Killer Croc, also CRAFTS!

Okay, that's all your Little Batman news for today, and probably also for quite some time because after all the work getting these books together, I'm probably not gonna be drawing the guy any new stuff any time soon. ENJOY, BUH BYE!

Hey, it's Halloween! Have you got your costume picked out? Batman does!





He's really gotten into character!





Happy Halloween!

Clarification for the pedants: Guys, they're casings. The bullets have already done their thing.

I didn't really feel like coloring these (I'm kind of tired and a little sick, still. Stay tuned, I may piss and moan about it in a locked post, one never knows).

Anyway, ( The Batman's Rogues Gallery. )

"Rogues Gallery" always confuses me a little. Should "Rogues" be possessive? Is it the Rogues' Gallery, or the Hero's Gallery of Rogues? I never know where the apostrophe goes, I guess is what.

Well, Ben Barnett's fundraising for his National MS Society bike-ride has gone phenomenally, as he had already reached his goal when I donated the cash raised from the art sale. All told, including folks who contributed directly, we raised about $400 for Ben's ride, HOORAY!

Now, if you haven't sent payment for your piece yet - and only a couple of you are still outstanding - at the very least, please get me your mailing address, so that I don't have to make multiple trips to the post office. I hate that place. It gets right up my ass with cleats on, is what it does. My email address is Jon@Ape-Law.com, drop me a line there.

Now, in the meantime, I've finished all but three of the Little Batman commissions, and they're all behind this cut. I also cannot remember if I was supposed to color 'em or not, but I hope not, because they look kinda good like this( ... )

I almost forgot, on Sunday night I ended up seeing possibly the greatest thing to ever have been on a Super Friends episode; The Scarecrow was messing around, using his Fear Gas (or actually some sort of strobelight plastic skull that hypnotized people into experiencing messed-up exaggerations of their deepest fears, BUT I DIGRESS) to rob banks and generally inconvenience a lot of people all over the place. At some point, the Batman gets a face-full of Fear Strobes and starts flashing back to the night his parents were killed.

For a kiddie cartoon episode, it was actually kind of dark.

Anyway, the most amazing thing came right after the first time that the Scarecrow clocks Batman with the Fear Laser or whatever. Batman ends up STANDING STOCK STILL in an alleyway, surrendering to total shock and bewilderment, as rigid as a statue. In pursuit of the Scarecrow, Robin turns the corner to see Batman paralyzed with fear - he walks up to him and gently touches Batman on the shoulder, asking "Batman, what's wrong," and then ...

...then there's a closeup on Batman's shocked, terrified, stock-still face, and suddenly - HE ERUPTS INTO WILD TEARS. And this was from when Hanna-Barbera was hiring out to Korea for the animation, so it's totally Lupin III-era Japanese style roaring rivers of unbidden tears, just rolling in a broken faucet of weeping. IT WAS SO REWARDING, he's in his mask, just standing there and WHAM, HERE COME THE WATERWORKS. Then he turns on his heel and runs so amazingly desperately fast away from Robin, like so embarrassed he couldn't stand it. NO ONE UNDERSTANDS EMO BATMAN.

It was the least Batman thing I have ever seen Batman do. I tried to capture the spirit of the moment as best I could ...



Poor Emo Batman.

The above was done as a birthday card for a friend of recently re-motheripatedBiscuit, who ought to have bigger things on her mind than procuring birthday cards for Batman-obsessed friends. Still, it was a delight, and if you have a need for a Little Batman birthday card, you can find an 8"x5.5" 300-dpi version with printable crop marks here. Because I know you asked for printable crop marks.

Also in Little Batman news, Leslie over at Meltdown Comics recently blogged the Little Batman experience, reminding me that I need to get around to collecting these in an easier-to-read format. Stay tuned for that, I guess.

The thing I'm routinely forgetting to mention, though, is Katie Cook's recent and astonishing actual factual Little Batman Batmobile Craft Project. That there is some pure astonishment.

Hey, while I'm clearing out backlogged links and everything, zantimisfit made mention of a surprise Jeremy sighting (sort of) in a display of elementary school children's art projects. American Gothic indeed.

And lastly, mrwomack hit me with this great story about how pervasive my insano, bat-obsessed Batman has become a bit of a meme among his UW colleagues:

"I've used your Batman Writes a Book Report as my desktop wallpaper (among my colleagues - I'm a PhD student at the University of Washington school of drama - "this is my book report on bats - BATS!" has become sort of a catch phrase, roughly meaning "I'm entering seminar/delivering a paper horribly unprepared but with plans to steer the conversation towards something I know about." We yelled "BATS!" a lot this last quarter ...)"

I'll have you all know, that's why I started doing this strip in the first place ...

Okay, NOW it's the end of the Little Batman thing.

( Little Rogues Gallery )

Little Batman may be done (for now), but here's a couple pieces done for commission:





manningkrull suggested I take one last shot at Little Batman by way of telling Batman's origin story, so I sketched that out last night. I probably will not follow through on it because, to be blunt, the way I tell his origin is so sad that it makes yesterday's cartoon look like a technicolor musical where Jerry Mouse dances with Gene Kelly in a laughing gas factory. So, that probably won't happen.

I might do The Killing Joke, tho.

Okay, the last one of these, more or less: