Big Time Attic in Project:Romantic

Tom Spurgeon has the full Big Time Attic Project:Romantic story up!
The Comics Reporter

Tell us what you think.

Project:Romantic is available for pre-order right now:

"Project: Romantic features a wrap-around cover by Maris Wicks, is 256 pages, is in color, and costs $19.95. Its ISBN # is 0977030423, and its Diamond # is AUG06 2903"

San Diego ComiCon Sketches and Photos

I left a few days early to hang out with my old high school buddy, Sam.


We went hiking somewhere around San Diego... I forget where.


I have to make a pilgrimage to the Star of India every summer.





Many hours were spent watching episodes of the "The Office" in this living room. Coincidentally, I drew this while watching C-SPAN House debate over the big cross on Mount Solidad (just north of San Diego).


Uh... just killing some time with this one.


Here's our local watering hole, Ralph's. I drew this while sitting at my new favorite coffee shop, "It's a Grind!" See, that's funny because it reminds you that life sucks AND it's what you do to roasted coffee beans before you brew coffee. Plus, the guy who worked there called me 'Boss' and that's okay in my book.


Mr. Anderson.


Drawing smokers is about the best thing in the world because you know they'll sit still for at least five minutes.


Uh... another time-killer.


This guy was totally trying to impress that girl by drawing something. Sorry buddy, that trick never works. Belieeevvve me!


This was the cover for the book that we used to keep track of sales. Maybe if I had spent less time drawing the cover we could have sold more books.


I woke up early one morning and walked down to the harbor. This picture was drawn surrounded by sleeping homeless guys. The benches in San Diego have bars dividing them so you can't sleep or lay down anymore. Or moonwalk across them.


This girl clearly did not like being drawn.

BLOST: TRAVEL EDITION

Hey, what better location to draw a new Blost episode than on a plane??

San Diego Comic-Con 2006 Pics

The convention is over. Everyone I talked to had a great time and the people who were looking for work found it. The con is bigger, but the comics part seemed more intimate than the last few years. We reserved our room for next year already...so hopefully the whole BTA crew will come down.

I realized that I went the whole weekend without taking many photos of folks not in costume so I tried to get a few last night...here ya go:


Heidi McDonald, the especially elegant Patty Jeres, and Anina Bennett.

4
Tom Kenny, the voice of Spongebob...and now on every Cartoon Network show


Eddie Campbell, Zander, and Brett Warnock. That looks like a deal makin' handshake?


Jackie Estrada, Melinda Gebbie, Chris Staros, and Jose Villarrubia.


Gene Ha, JH and Mrs. Williams, and Jose.


Steven T. Seagle, Paul Guinan, and Z.

The promised "BIG" Time Attic

Having forgone San Diego this year in exchange for a little more Z-time, (and however much I wish it was an option, I don't mean Zander-time) I've been feeling a little more comic-less than usual lately. And being in such a depressed state, I've started making some weird commitments. This might not be the normal Surge of energy for My Three Bosses that you'll witness, but it does appear to be at least a Mountain Dew. (I honestly hope nobody understands that joke.) Meh meh meh blah blah blah, here I go again when all you really want is

Saaaaannnn...Diiiiieeeegogooooo

Zander and Ted Cannon.

Chuck D from Public Enemy

San Diego Comic Con More Photos

I'd throw up photos of Day 1 but I have no idea what day it is or how long we've been here.


Zander's college buddy Matt Atherton as Feedback, and his little pal Nitro G from "Who Wants to be a Superhero."


Monkey Woman.


Chicken Boba Fett waited for the walk signal.


Gene Ha's line, CONGRATULATE OL' GENE FOR WINNING THE "BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL" EISNER AWARD.


I ran into Craig McKracken annnndddd...to the studio back home: he really liked the Foster's thing we may or may not have worked on.

Big Time Desperation

All right, I'm not going to lie. With the bosses having been out of town now for three days, we've more than lost direction. Motivation, discipline, basic awareness of daily routine...we employees have lost it all, and quickly, to boot. So, in desperate need for any kind of authority in the office, we had to resort to shoddily constructing Foam-Core likenesses of our supervisors and pretending they were the real thing. In time, however, we came to rely on their interaction a little too much. It's gotten messy.

Tim tells the stoic Stand-In Shad a thing or two.

Brit cautiously approaches the stern Stand-In Kevin.

Jon nervously tries to get Stand-In Zander's approval.

San Diego Comic Con Set Up

Before man arrives, machines rule the hall.



Zander and Geof Darrow are scared of each other.

Drawing Camps

"An Exhibition About Drawing Conjures a Time When Amateurs Roamed the Earth" by Michael Kimmelman

Here's an article about a time in America's past when the nine of us at Big Time Attic would have been considered "normal" for drawing in school. In my experience everyone drew daily up through maybe third or fourth grade, but after that the activity was practised only by those kids who were self-motivated. Of that lot, you had three camps. First, there were the "gifted" artists, those whose talent was semi-realistic and whose art was proudly displayed on classroom walls. Second were the caricaturists, who used their talent for making fun of other kids, or for illustrating severed limbs, fecal matter, or sexual positions. The caricaturists always had a strong underground following, but never seemed to grow artistically. Finally there were the loners, whose passion to draw was purely self-driven, and if their drawings ever found an audience, they were treated with ridicule or sympathy. I'm thinking specifically of the kids who drew nothing but airplanes, or characters from role-playing games.

I'm familiar with all of these camps, having cycled through them over the last two decades. The first drawings I remember were of pirate ships, way back in preschool. Non-stop pirate ships, most of them with a one-armed pirate hovering over a pair of green alligator jaws. When I realized I could use art to get attention, I switched to more popular subjects, like recreating tv commercials or making up new Ninja Turtles with the names of other renaissance artists. In junior high I went through a long grotesque phase, drawing sketchbooks full of severed limbs and people with their skin inside-out. In high school I moved toward photo-realism, after finding out that the more my art looked exactly like the subject, the more praise I received. Unfortunately, none of this art had any emotional value. Even drawing from life in sketchbooks ultimately felt like I was just transcribing the real world without any personality or feeling. It was only by drawing comics in college that I felt like I was putting myself into the art, by combining drawing and storytelling. Unfortunatly, in a liberal arts setting working among fine artists, comics never felt appreciated. Even though "Johnny Cavalier" was published and read, I still felt like I was in that third camp, scribbling panel after panel in solitude, while the pictures of correctly-proportioned and accurately-lit bowls of fruit are what made it onto the gallery walls.

But my first trip to the San Diego ComiCon flipped that perspective on its head. Here was an assembly of artists from all three camps under one roof, learning from each other and discussing their craft. It may be a stretch, but I suppose this is what the Olympics are like, in a way; a great assembly of those "artletes" who were one of a kind at their schools, but who are now among the company of equals. For me, my first con was overwhelming. Not being the "best artist" in a room full of people -- like I had been for twenty years -- was like having the rug pulled out from under me. I was discouraged at first, but not anymore. The sheer number of people at the con is still overwhelming to me, but it's worth having the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds to be able to be shoulder-to-shoulder with the best cartoonists in the world. After an experience like San Diego, the "camps" don't really mean anything anymore. The lines are too blurry to be able to draw boxes around people. And now, in my own sketchbooks, I'm back to drawing pirate ships, which either means I've come full circle or have regressed twenty-three years. I'm not sure which yet.

Zander, Shad, and Kevin go to San Diego Comicon!

BTA founders and despotic demibosses Zander Cannon, Shad Petosky, and Kevin Cannon will be on hand at the San Diego Convention Center from Wednesday night to Sunday this week for the San Diego Comicon (aka Comicon International). We'll be set up in Artists Alley, next to Gene Ha (one of our partners in comic book crime), number II-12. Come by to buy comics, get comics signed, buy original artwork from comics, have us look at your comics, and draw comics with us via Nintendo DS Pictochat! Comics, comics, comics!

One new thing for any Replacement God fans out there is that we've been archiving pages from the Image issues (1-3, so far) and so the original artwork from those books (main story only, so far) will be available for the first time! Anyone with a fat wallet and a working alarm clock could have an uninterrupted sequence if desired!

So see you all there! It's time for nerd prom again!

The lads at BTA

Sometimes on hot summer days such as these, I find myself so famished that I forget what it truly means to hydrate oneself. If you are like me let this video remind you of the glory that is water.

Racquetball

Some late-night racquetball drawings inspired by Tim's boxing sketches.

Too many employees to fit in a punchline

What? Well, anyway ... here's ...

Wide Angle Attic

Patrick Kelly came by on Tuesday and took some kickin' photos of the BTA crew. Here we are in our new space, hanging out as we normally would with or without a camera present.

More new space

Getting the new space for the new thing ready....


We worked with Charles a bunch when Action City was being built. He helped us with their party rooms, and is now helping with the utlimate party room...our new space. Yeah.

Maybe we'll have a party.


Here are pieces to the conference room door.

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Max gets the trim.


Jon gets the photo op.


I get the drop on Tim.

Big Hike Attic!

With our hearts intrepid, boots laced, canteens full, and spirits high, Big Time Attic's Elite Day-Hiking Troop set off to Minnesota's very own Whitewater State Park. In the course of an afternoon, these three adventurers learned that nature is an untamed treasure; while postcard-beautiful to the layman, our fragile ecosystem is also a thriving habitat of plants and animal-life that struggle to retain their critical chain of codependence. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our state's Forestry Department for taking such care to ensure that our natural preserves remain protected, and to teach present and future generations alike.

This Just In....

Action City rules!

You know you've been a digital artist for too long when...

... you sit up from drawing a colored pencil portrait and reach for the save button.

Alright, busy time!

I'm back from vacation and back to work! We've got projects lined up from all fronts and 'My 3 Bosses' needs its reboot.

In the form of, perhaps, an epilogue ...

Puny..something

We took possesion of more studio space on Friday. This is where BTA's interactive projects are moving and what that side of BTA is becoming...

It's just downstairs from our current space. Next month we get the audio studio space and then we'll be rolling. More than we currently roll.

We're also working on a second restaurant identity/design and some more comic work. More later...I should be painting.


The raw space...Brit and Tim start stripping it down.


Future server room/kitchen.


Tim preps the wall.


Max just preps.