the kids stick together

answer the question

2011-11-23T17:55:00.004-05:00

Interview with Rico here! He doesn't talk much, notoriously turrible telephone talker (though king of zings), so get it while it's hot.

fight test

2011-11-21T01:41:00.004-05:00

crop out

2011-11-16T09:27:00.004-05:00

back to back panels from Loose Ends #3, order code JUL111247, Fellowship of the Geeks review here. was thinking about this line of Mos Defs' : "...too real, news reel-- edited, the close up block out the rest of it....."

zoom out

2011-11-14T12:43:00.006-05:00

bits from Loose Ends #3, order code JUL111247, and another review at Weekly Comic Book Review

loose ends iz z'out

2011-11-08T22:51:00.011-05:00

runnin on an hour of less-than-sleep, a seinfeld backgrounded snooze (...."Rochelle! Rochelle!"...) we made a comic! you could get it! in stores today, order code JUL111247. nother nice review @ Criminal Complex. and dag, at ComicBookResources too. and AintItCoolNews. and ComicBastards.

i'm not gonna teach him how to dance with you

2011-11-07T10:51:00.007-05:00

UPDATE: Newsarama exclusive preview of Loose Ends No.3 here

UpUpDATE: Review at the Daily BLAM!

pencils, then to rico for a color comp, then ink. hated to lose the line-y quality of the pencils, but that woulda been too busy, i think, in ink. the black and white art is really just raw material for color; so i end up with ugly/confusing/heavy-handed/unbalanced originals in order to get more, uh, elegant color solutions on the finished comic.
Loose Ends #3 out this Wednesday! order code JUL111247

miami nice

2011-11-02T12:18:00.003-04:00

UPDATE: Aye, looks like Loose Ends #3 will be in stores Nov 9th! Let your local comic shop know you want a copy (if you do i mean), order code is JUL111247

friendly mart

2011-10-31T13:02:00.003-04:00

don't move

2011-10-12T13:06:00.009-04:00

ola, been awhile, especially since i started the year all aggressive-like with the posting. in between that phase, it's wind-down, the Loose Ends wind-up, and now......there were deadlines to make, fam+friends to say "so long (for now)" to, school enrollment, and a city to move (back) to. my multitasking skills leave a lot to be desired. im working on it. for a month or so i dint have a mail key, when USPS finally came through i found a box overstuffed with mail from the previous tennant (see above). anyways, Loose Ends #3 is freshly finished and at the printers; apologies for goin AWOL, just the way it's gotta be sometimes.

new panel above. Jason's script and our "military advisors" called for a bootleg Tupac tee sayin "Rap Music", the research turned up a lot of funny:

wish there'd been more room for it, but there were bigger fish to fry. here's what i squeezed in:

ah well.

playground love

2011-08-24T10:08:00.010-04:00

Loose Ends #2 is out today! nice reviews here and here and here and here and here and here.

guns of brixton

2011-08-01T13:18:00.011-04:00

The fellas over at ComicTwart had a Loose Ends theme week, it was a happening for sure, thrilling and surreal (course im biased).

Ron Salas:

Declan Shalvey w/ Jordie Bellaire:

Evan "Doc" Shaner:

Mike Hawthorne:

Robbi Rodriguez, non-ComicTwart, one man wolf pack:

Nice mention at Indie Pop, and a review at the DollarBin!

rhapsody in blue

2011-07-22T17:23:00.004-04:00

we're doing covers for STATIC, finished the one after this yesterday, still trying to remember how to draw superheroes.

opening to "manhattan" with "rhapsody in blue" by gershwin. the talking stops at 1:56 and then its just great shots and music.

lawry's

2011-07-16T14:26:00.005-04:00

it was a good week. Blair Butler of G4tv talked about our comic at 6:35 here:

Game Reviews - E3 2012

will this count as new art? Loose Ends had variant black and white versions, we went to town doing remixes at the release party. and gee whiz, was that perfect- all our people came out, we laughed our asses off (Izzy's giggles are contagious), ate all the bbq at Dish, drank all the gin at Philosophers Stone, and closed it out.....thankyou to everyone, we're grateful. ima stop now before i get all maudlin. fresh jams next week, promise.

the official video for this is fantastic, my buddy used to teach it in his Geography class. but, uh, i love the talking here before the song comes in, and it's built on the best one second of Thriller. more talking? raconteur lunatic Jason Latour (Sgt. Pork Chop), who's scrambled egg mind thought up Loose Ends, was interviewed here by the fellas at SIDEBAR. Shomer Shabbos.

on the water

2011-07-13T03:28:00.005-04:00

Loose Ends No.1 is out today.....

magick

2011-07-12T01:41:00.002-04:00

Loose Ends No.1 tomorrow, Magik today

PS Rico and I are also workin on a 'nother blue and yellow superhero

SNIKT!

2011-07-11T03:58:00.004-04:00

done at Showmars w/ Sketch Charlotte for Jason Horn to deliver to kids during his trip to Guatemala this month. spreading mutant love.

first review of Loose Ends in Episode 021 of "3 Chicks Review Comics" at the 30 min mark; counting down to the release, this Wednesday the 13th......

brickhouse of the dead

2011-07-08T03:25:00.002-04:00

Super There Will Be Blood from Tomfoolery Pictures on Vimeo.

see you next wednesday

2011-07-06T09:04:00.008-04:00

Loose Ends No.1 comes out next Wednesday, July 13th. Diamond order code is MAY111222, please call your local comic shop and tell em that. We'll be at Heroes Aren't Hard to Find in Charlotte, NC with writer Jason Latour signing books and...

below is the limited edition silkscreen print, FREE with the purchase of our book at Heroes on Wednesday, which you were going to do anyway, right?! We're only printing 100 of these and once they are gone they are gone! They will be available for purchase on the Heroes site after the signing. Feel free to call the store and ask them about that. You can use a goofy phone voice if you want. You can say "You wouldn't like me when i'm angry". Have fun with it, riff.

ladyfingers

2011-07-01T05:13:00.003-04:00

so real

2011-06-30T14:50:00.002-04:00

Hot off the presses, into a cell phone camera and soon in stores... LOOSE ENDS #1

FCBD version vs. actual size

breakfast in america

2011-06-13T17:22:00.004-04:00

from "Breakfast in America", but i don't think i liked it til it was in "Magnolia"

pencild

2011-06-09T14:25:00.001-04:00

paintbox

2011-06-01T19:01:00.006-04:00

sometimes i'll feel like painting, but ink usually scratches that itch. and if you get a mosquito bite, rubbing alcohol will take care of it. that's a summertime tip for you.

art of storytellin part 1

2011-05-26T16:20:00.002-04:00

today is the last day to order Loose Ends #1 (Diamond Code: MAY111222) , and here's the cover for #2

gun show shogun

2011-05-26T05:07:00.002-04:00

FCBD 3: Baby Fish Mouth

2011-05-20T05:32:00.005-04:00

monarch-y

2011-05-18T04:31:00.002-04:00

Edit: Depeche Mode rules, let there be no confusion about that.

claveles

2011-05-16T12:05:00.006-04:00

<a href="http://losclaveles.bandcamp.com/track/nacional-42">Nacional 42 by Los Claveles</a>

FCBD 2: St.Elmo's Fire

2011-05-13T13:07:00.005-04:00

FREE COMICS

2011-05-07T09:18:00.006-04:00

Today a Loose Ends preview (in a flip book with I.C.E. remember) along with like 50 other comics will be FREE at your local comic shop! CBR preview of preview here! more info here.

EDIT: report here from Eric Stolz's evil twin.

3 day weekend

2011-05-06T10:20:00.003-04:00

just for the tag line.

PS Free Comic Book Day is tomorrow! We have a comic for it! And are sketching at Heroes Aren't Hard to Find! Full blog blurb blurgh here.

robots- yes.

2011-05-05T06:02:00.003-04:00

edit: originally just posted the robot far right, but there were comments about the transforming rail gun, as well as a cute factor, so here's the rest. the project was to build a concept around pogs, in 2007 if you can believe it. robots made of pogs. a production manager thought "pogs", a team of writers came up with "robots", and Chris Ortega and I got to take it from there.

pogs.

2 fists and a thirst for vengeance

2011-05-04T12:19:00.001-04:00

can you get to that

2011-05-03T06:03:00.005-04:00

An 8 page preview of Loose Ends, written by Jason Latour, colored by Rico, and drawn by myself, will be available Saturday for free for Free Comic Book Day! We will be sketching at Heroes Aren't Hard to Find in Charlotte; the comic itself will be in a 12 Gauge Comics flip book with I.C.E., by Doug Wagner and Jose Holder, in the other half. Support us, your local comic shop, and Team Comics by showing up and grabbing a copy (a store locator waits for you at the other end of the FCBD hyperlink). If you like it please let your retailer know- we don't have mystical hammers or power rings on our side, just 4 wicked comics and you. Orders for issue#1 of Loose Ends (out July) will be placed soon after FCBD, be sure your retailer knows you want a copy. Deal? We good?

B

2011-05-02T05:59:00.002-04:00

signage

2011-04-29T07:25:00.004-04:00

boards

2011-04-28T06:36:00.002-04:00

don't you feel my leg

2011-04-27T06:21:00.002-04:00

drawn from a photo

my great-grandma

123

2011-04-26T05:02:00.003-04:00

pompadour

2011-04-25T01:53:00.002-04:00

duhnuh nuhnuh nuhnuh nuhnuh duhnuh nuhnuh nuhnuh nuhnuh

2011-04-22T13:30:00.003-04:00

bruceNbride

2011-04-21T04:41:00.001-04:00

passenger side

2011-04-20T04:35:00.002-04:00

edit: i wracked my brain trying to come up w/ a song that linked to this drawing, and just wanted to register my embarrassment for not thinking of "no scrubs" ("hanging out the passenger side...")

monk-e

2011-04-19T04:58:00.001-04:00

my first monkey......gimme a break

a little death around the eyes

2011-04-18T01:23:00.003-04:00

Devin from the Dollar Bin came over friday wearing a Libertines shirt + bearing a sketchbook

7 year itch, T, & Chipotle

2011-04-15T12:48:00.008-04:00

fluorescent peach

2011-04-14T06:26:00.003-04:00

drawn from a photo, and fluorescent peach doesn't scan for sh*t.

hulkamania

2011-04-13T03:43:00.003-04:00

sketch from the Raleigh Con, had to move pretty quick

rebo williams

2011-04-12T14:16:00.003-04:00

what rico meant to say was "max rebo", what he did say was "rebo williams". r2 is bottom right.

back

2011-04-11T13:23:00.003-04:00

old drawing, done on a return flight from Sri Lanka, unfortunately the only drawing i did on that trip.

Raleigh Tally-Ho

2011-04-08T11:55:00.006-04:00

i'll be set up at a con this weekend, mainly because i expect to find good bbq, a dollar bin, and i love a road trip. but i'll do some drawing and bring sketchbooks, prints, a pile of original art (including the warm-ups i been posting here).

re-postin from the blog at:

Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find will be out in force at the Raleigh Comic Book Show this Sunday, April 10th! We will be set up with great comics including modern back issues, a great selection of Silver Age books and more. Our friends Andy Smith (WWE Heroes, Dean Koontz’s Nevermore, Superman Confidential), Budd Root ( Cavewoman), Chris Brunner (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Boondock Saints, Loose Ends), Jason Latour (Captain America, Daredevel, Loose Ends), and Rico Renzi (Yo Gabba Gabba!, Stumptown, Loose Ends) will be making the trip with us too. I’ve even heard if you come by and say the password to Chris, Jason, or Rico that they might be able to let you flip through a preview of their new series Loose Ends. See you there!

cover rough for Loose Ends that'll probably never get used. reason #257 of why i'm glad it's taken so long: at the early stages we hadn't yet figured out the story was about Cheri, so each cover was going to be a shot of a main character, now they're all her. it might also be that the rest of the cast are jerks. or that, whatever the drawing, it's improved by including a pretty lady. also, i wanted to draw a classic jukebox, but it just didn't belong in the location, so thats half this cover out the window.

digits

2011-04-07T09:12:00.003-04:00

12 miles

2011-04-06T02:51:00.002-04:00

background from a panel

wolf like me

2011-04-05T03:57:00.002-04:00

you remind me of the babe

2011-04-04T04:40:00.002-04:00

do not speak to administrative assistant

2011-04-01T07:31:00.003-04:00

really struggled with the likeness here

swirly

2011-03-31T02:42:00.006-04:00

doing all this brush slop reminded me of playing with my food when i was younger- making swirls in the ketchup. it was half a stalling technique, but i was also drawing in it, getting the swirls to look like tunnels.

Captain America #616

2011-03-30T10:50:00.002-04:00

I helped Jason Latour out with his Cullen Bunn-penned 12 pager in Captain America #616. It came out today!

freeway

2011-03-29T04:45:00.003-04:00

dtmfa

2011-03-28T03:05:00.001-04:00

games

2011-03-25T09:18:00.002-04:00

snap

2011-03-24T02:12:00.003-04:00

patti smith

2011-03-23T08:15:00.001-04:00

nicotine deficient

2011-03-22T05:05:00.002-04:00

sonam

2011-03-21T00:06:00.004-04:00

learning about toes, messing with a palette from "Chinatown"

dr. strangelove

2011-03-18T03:32:00.002-04:00

bellatrix

2011-03-17T08:16:00.003-04:00

Yo Gabba Gabba: Comic Book Time!

2011-03-16T07:30:00.003-04:00

Yo Gabba Gabba: Comic Book Time comes out today. I had the honor of coloring a couple of the stories in the book. "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."

strange'

2011-03-15T02:28:00.001-04:00

babs

2011-03-14T07:26:00.001-04:00

toade'

2011-03-11T05:37:00.003-05:00

eh, i got bored after the top toad.

rash

2011-03-10T12:02:00.003-05:00

my 13 year old self wants the believability, a Terry Gilliam Battletoads movie.

zitz

2011-03-09T09:44:00.004-05:00

bespin bbq

2011-03-08T00:36:00.004-05:00

big thanks to Jason Aaron for the kind and kinda gory quote.

hi school

2011-03-07T07:29:00.007-05:00

the girl top right did have that subtle lop-sided Shannen Doherty eye thing happening, it's no accident. and i have that Forest Whitaker thing happening, so im not clowning neither. anyways. these are dry-runs from a bit ago, getting into the mode for a chunk of high-school pages in Loose Ends- doing that issues' cover now and remembered. id worked in the likeness range before (very much strugglin), but hoped to level up and edge into caricature. J Scott Campbell linked to this (below) Mort Drucker essay which flipped a switch, the bit about exaggerating spaces between features instead of the features themselves- when i can hold that in the frontal lobe it helps. fookin 'ell, lookit this guy draw.

fran lebowitz

2011-03-04T08:16:00.002-05:00

i meant to draw natalie portman

2011-03-03T06:37:00.004-05:00

NBK

2011-03-02T07:25:00.001-05:00

the animated series

tmnt

2011-03-01T06:33:00.005-05:00

i don't know where the hell this came from, rico suggested the quote, from "the Art of War" via "Ghost Dog"

redrum

2011-02-28T02:59:00.001-05:00

bright eyes

2011-02-25T07:00:00.001-05:00

mia

2011-02-24T09:13:00.002-05:00

winona

2011-02-23T01:43:00.002-05:00

Winona Ryder, from an episode of Larry Sanders

another one goes by

2011-02-22T05:11:00.002-05:00

walkin

2011-02-21T04:10:00.002-05:00

warm up drawing, pic from the sartorialist

foods that start with the letter Q

2011-02-18T01:59:00.002-05:00

if

2011-02-17T01:00:00.003-05:00

Loose Ends for Free!

2011-02-16T06:30:00.000-05:00

I don't think we've mentioned here yet but there will be a 8 page preview of our book (Loose Ends) in 12 Gauge's Free Comic Book Day offering. It will be the first time anyone other than us has seen this stuff in full color! We're excited for you guys to see this stuff! Here's an Loose Ends ad we created for the FCBD book, enjoy!

Pretty Weak

2011-02-15T06:00:00.002-05:00

I was trying to explain something to Chris the other day about drawing a pretty lady with a "weak chin". He wasn't getting what I was saying, I don't think I was explaining myself well. So, I decided to try to illustrate what I meant. I typed "weak chin" into Google and used one of the pictures I found on the first page of the search for this image. I liked the end result and figured I'd use it for something down the line, a print, a cover for a little book, I dunno. The bad news is I flattened the file, so it'll probably never get used for anything...

Happy Valentines Day

2011-02-14T11:49:00.001-05:00

champagne and potato chips

2011-02-11T09:40:00.002-05:00

zoe

2011-02-10T09:25:00.001-05:00

my parents were awesome

2011-02-09T08:30:00.002-05:00

nother warm-up drawing from a photo, usually it's tricky remembering where i get pictures from, but in this case i do- the tumblr page "my parents were awesome". hi mom.

dammit mookie

2011-02-08T05:07:00.001-05:00

rihanna

2011-02-07T05:37:00.000-05:00

music when the lights go out

2011-02-04T06:22:00.003-05:00

nother warm-up, drawn from a photo

the secret city

2011-02-03T02:10:00.004-05:00

above, i'm drawing foreshortened circles, below, the PBS show "Secret City" with Mark Kistler, that taught me how. you know how it's easier for kids to learn a new language than adults? Mark demonstrated all kinds of principles i didn't come across again until art school, nearly a decade later. to whatever degree i handle perspective, it's at least comfortable to do so, and has everything to do with seeing this show, as a young'un. check out that neat opening crawl, the sci-fi drawing outfit, and how enthusiastic this guy is!!!!!! he sometimes says: "are you ready to BLAST across that page?". hell yeah! thanks sir !

........and Marks usual sign off: "DrawDrawDraw! Practice your drawing!"

polly jean

2011-02-02T04:43:00.003-05:00

audrey

2011-02-01T04:12:00.001-05:00

there goes my baby

2011-01-31T01:13:00.002-05:00