A History of American Flight Helmets

From the Air and Space Division

Not sure how I ended up on this 90s era website devoted to military aviation, but I'm glad I found it. I thought this page of military flight helmets was fascinating. It starts with WWII era gear and ends with late 90s gear.

Amazing to see the advancements in 50 years, and hilarious how it seems like the helmet was the last thought on the aeroengineer's minds for about the first 20 years.

Looks like it was a "we provide the jet, you provide your own helmet" kind of a situation.

See all of them here: LINK

-Jake

Sukova Gang Members

in

From the Drawings Unit

I paused making comic pages for a day to design some characters for the Sukova gang. They're a group of bandits and outlaws who terrorize small asteroid mining communities in the Red Shift Territories. I'm making a short 10 page comic where the Renegades are all trying to snag one of these guys.

This short comic is something my agent needs to get a book deal, so I have to do it asap because she's waiting on me. I thought I'd release it as a freebie for you guys once it's finished as well. I should be able to wrap that up next week, then get grinding on Issue 2 of RSR right after that.

Posting work in progress on the patreon: LINK​

Watch this weeks livestream of comic making: LINK

-Jake

Vibrant Shibuya Sunset

in

From the Photography Desk

These sunset photos by London born, Tokyo based photographer Anocam stopped me in my tracks. The palette, composition, and mood are all right where I want to be with my Skull Chaser comics. Adding these to my environment design inspiration folder.

Check out his portfolio here: LINK

I particularly like his Cinema Sets: LINK

Also, Instagram: LINK

On Friendship

in

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

Everything good in my life ties directly to friendships I've made with people. The old saying attributed to motivation speaker Jim Rohn “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with” tracks with my experience.

My high school friends were a creative bunch, open to new ideas and experiences, and that shaped me into following a creative path for a career. For the last 20+ years wife has been my north star for focus, direction, and what really matters in my life. And I have a solid group of father/husband/artist friends that I communicate with regularly which helps me navigate life.

Recently I've read a couple articles about making and enriching friendships, so this has been on my mind a lot lately.

According to this research by evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar, “It takes about 200 hours of investment in the space of a few months to move a stranger into being a good friend.”

If you're going to spend 200 hours with someone becoming good friends the best way to do it is spending that time doing something pointless.

The gist of that article is that in a highly transactional world relationships tend to turn into useful alliances...hence the term "networking." Yes, you need a network, but for a satisfying relationship you don't base it on something practical like a project or a job, you organize them around something that isn't useful at all. Like a fandom, or a sport.

This is getting long, so I guess the point I'm trying to make here is don't neglect the making and keeping of friendships, because there's not much more to life than that.

-Jake

The Neo Romantic Illustrations of Evan Cagle

in

From the Illustrators Division

I love these DUNE: House Atreides comic covers by Los Angeles based artist Evan Cagle. I'm a big fan of the eccentric and romantic look of DUNE he captures. I did love the film directed by Denis Villeneuve and the grounded brutalist design...but DUNE should be a little funky and wild in my opinion.

Cagle is a master of the scratchboard line-heavy illustration style reminiscent of Franklin Booth. He takes this early 20th century technique and style and washes it over contemporary compositions and subject matter. It is lovely. He's one of those artists that makes you realize the potential of the medium.

See more work on his website: LINK​

Instagram: LINK​

Twitter: LINK​

Here's my favorite drawing of his: LINK

-Jake

Construction Ships

in

From the Drawings Unit

I haven’t really been drawing in my sketchbook much lately, but I had some time a couple weekends ago to bust it out and mess around in there. I'm going to be putting together a spaceship collection book in the future so I thought I’d draw a few more construction ships to add to it.

-Jake

Skull Chaser Cameo in New Zombie Game

From the Friendship Unit

A friend of mine (Christopher Miller) reached out this week to tell me that the game he's been working on is finally available!

SURVIVAL Z: LINK

Survival Z is cool in that the levels are randomly generated. So every time you play it's a fresh challenge. I am not a gamer, but I love the style they've got going on here, and the game play looks fun.

The coolest part, for me at least, is that in this universe, there’s a Skull Chaser movie in theaters!

You can check out more of Christopher's incredible work here: LINK

-Jake

Scale Model of Imperial Rome

in ,

From the Office of Scale Models

Planning on visiting Rome? Put this on your list of thing to see: LINK

This really gets me excited. I've been infatuated with miniature scenes and tiny sets ever since I was a little boy. My grandpa had a scale model of a small town with a train going through it. It was top of my todo list of things to check out when I'd go visit him. My favorite part of Mister Roger's Neighborhood was the end and beginning where the camera pans across the scale model of Mister Roger's neighborhood. If there's something like this at a visitors center, a museum, or a road side tourist attraction you bet I'm stopping to check it out.

This particular model took 35 years to build. It was the project of Italian architect Italo Gismondi. Look at the level of detail, and the overall scale of this thing!

-Jake

On Doing

in

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

A couple years ago I was listening to a Q and A with filmmaker and YouTuber Patrick (H) Willems. (He's my favorite YouTuber btw.) And he made a good point in this Q and A that I wrote down, and it's stuck with me ever since:

"People will only hire you to do what you've basically already done."

- Patrick H Willems

This tracks with my career. I didn't ever get a graphic novel deal from a publisher until I had drawn over 75 pages of comics on my own. I didn't get a job doing concept art until I had a done concept art for my own projects.

One of the big problems about getting work is getting the experience needed to be qualified for the job. I think Patrick's implied solution is spot on: go out and DO the thing you want to do. It might be bad at first, but you'll get better. Keep at it, and you'll get good enough to get the job.

-Jake

Jodhpur

From the Exploration Unit

Known as the "Blue City" because of the distinct shade of blue most of the buildings are painted in, Jodhpur is located in Thar Desert of the northwest Indian state of Rajasthan aka, the middle of nowhere.

These photos were taken by French photographer Florian Delalee who travels Asia taking photos that capture what it feels like to be there.

More photos of Jodhpur here: LINK​

-Jake

The Robots of @surume0407

in

From the Office of Robots in cooperation with the Office of Scale Models

I found a great scratch builder of robots on twitter. He's based in Japan and goes by スエキチ(ケロッグ) or @surume0407. As far as I can tell he only posts on twitter. There's no website, gallery, or art account for his work, so you're stuck scrolling through his twitter feed to find all of his amazing works.

These are all cobbled together from other kits and some custon sculpted components he makes himself. Really incredible and inspiring.

More here: LINK​

-Jake

Lee White's Tarot Deck

in

From the Friendship Unit

My buddy, co-host on the 3 Point Perspective podcast, and partner over at SVSlearn.com, Lee White has just launched his Kickstarter project.

I'm not just a friend of Lee but also a HUGE fan of his illustrations. He's been talking about doing this for years and lately has been working on it behind the scenes. I'm so excited to see all of this come together in this project.

I love the unique take he has on the subject matter. Each one of these card has been re-thought from the ground up. I don't really know much about tarot decks, but Lee explained ti this way:

"The more modern use of the cards is they just give you a topic to think about and how it relates to your life. The cards aren't magical or tell the future or anything like that. They are more like themes to meditate on and use in the way that fits your life."

You can check out the project here: LINK​

-Jake

COMIC DROP ALERT: RED SHIFT RENEGADES #1 - IS HERE!!!

in

From the Making Comics Division

The explosive first chapter of RED SHIFT RENEGADES is out now! And I do mean explosive, there's, like, 3 of them in there.

This first issue introduces Missile Mouse, Skull Chaser, Star Princess Aven, and the C.A.T. Bot and sets them on trajectories that will eventually converge with each other in an epic cosmic brawl.

ORDER AND DOWNLOAD NOW: LINK​

My colorist Anderson Carman really knocked it out of the park on this one. I feel like we are both firing on all cylinders here. This is not a comic you're going to want to sleep on.

--

Accepting New Patrons: Not only are Patrons getting under the hood updates on the comic, but they actually got this comic for FREE as a reward for their support. I don't make a ton of money on Patreon, but it is enough to turn down some work so I can MAKE MORE COMICS.

Become a patron and you also get to join a community of like minded people who love this kind of stuff, you get to do live hangouts online where we draw and shoot the breeze, and you get to give input on current and future projects.

Join here: LINK

-Jake

A Cool Boxy Robot Toy

in

From the Office of Robots in partnership with the Office of Toy Acquisitions

Cool new toy announced by 52Toys is a die cast box that turns into a robot. This is totally something I would've designed and I love seeing that it actually exists! More info here: LINK

On Stretching

in

From the Inspirational Thought Unit

For many years I put off doing my comic SkyHeart because I felt like I wasn't ready to do it. I knew it would stretch my abilities, perhaps beyond what I was capable. I felt like I needed to prepare a little more, get a little better, level up a little more before I took it on.

​ James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, has this to say about doing something that stretches you.

There will never be a perfect time to do something that stretches you. If you were ready for it, it wouldn't be growth.

After 15 years of putting it off I realized I might never be ready. It dawned on me that perhaps act of doing SkyHeart was going to be the thing that made me level up and be ready to do the book.

When I figured that out, it decided to just dive in and do it, and boy, was I grateful. It was by no means a perfect comic! However, I leveled up as an artist, it was a self publishing success with 3000 copies sold, and it boosted my confidence as a creator. There's way more to the story, but the lesson learned was I shouldn't have waited 15 years for the perfect time.

-Jake