Alice Faulkner on Amazon.com!!

Now available at Amazon.com!! Stellar cover coloring and graytones by Rori Shapiro with a terrific introduction by Brenda and Effie/Doctor Who Hornets Nest author Paul Magrs and a dedication to my late Professor Patrick Welch. Who I owe a great deal of my inking style to.

Click on the image below to order your copy today:

Patrick W. Welch

I have mentioned it in countless blog entries but Patrick W. Welch's comic art has probably been the biggest influence on my own inking style. I thought I would share with you some of the work of Patrick's I have in my own collection that continues to inspire my own storytelling and inking style.

Projects on the horizon

I started work on my next project as I continue to prepare Sherlock Holmes for publication. It's actually one I started a while back but had to put it on the shelf while I devoted my time to finishing up Sherlock Holmes.

The next one I've been planning with my friend, writer and editor of the Big Toe Review Joshua Michael Stewart. We had discussed the possibility of creating a graphic novel based on his poems. Even though the poems are all self contained stories, we had decided on loosely creating them into one ongoing narrative which all take place in this small town and the characters in these poems become the characters in this town.

We kind of had a trial run with the idea when I did a five page short story based on his poem O Come All Ye Faithful which ended up in both Detours for the Undercoverfish Group and my own book Confessions of a Peculiar Boy... And Other Stories. I was also experimenting with the ideas by seeing how my work would look with less line and grays. It wasn't that successful. Not Rori's fault who did a great job with the grays, but my own work seems to lose something with less details.

But I was satisfied with the way the poem adapted to a short story format. Josh's poems read like little stories anyways, so his words and my art seemed a very ideal union.

O Come All Ye Faithful will be a part of our book as well. It's one of my favorite poems of Josh's.

After I've completed that project, I'm toying with an idea of doing an 80 page graphic novel completely devoid of dialogue. Possibly a murder mystery mixed with a little factual history.

This project would be in honor of my friend and mentor Patrick W. Welch who did a series of post cards called the Hippogryph Files which had absolutely no words in it and you had to figure out the story from the pictures.

I had Patrick sign one of the cards for me from the series when I was still in college down in Savannah :-)

But I have to think a plotline through and write a script before I dive into this.

Patrick Welch's website

Check out some of Patrick's Micromentalist work by clicking on the link below:

www.patrickwwelch.com

His work can also be found on:

http://www.gescheidle.com/view_exhibition.php?eid=58

and:

http://www.gescheidle.com/view_exhibition.php?eid=60

In 2006, Welch started an art movement collectively known as the micromentalists. The general philosophy of the group is that art need not be "monumental" in scale to be important, and has been described as "pseudo-Marxist". Welch's purpose in putting together the Micromentalists was to start an art movement based on this philosophy. Their founding members included artists Bill Drummond, Steve Keene, Paul Nudd, Patrick W. Welch, James J. Peterson and Eric Doeringer.

The group is known not only for its premise of small art, but also for its commercial practice of selling art at lower prices, adjusted for the income of the buyer. Their first shows were mentioned in Chicago and national art media for these reasons and for the participation of notable artists such as Drummond and Keene.

Patrick W. Welch. Teacher, artist, mentor and friend

I can honestly say that Patrick Welch personality and work has had the greatest influence on my own artwork. Especially pen and ink. Needless to say, I was in completely shock and disbelief to find out that he passed away back in October.

I first knew about Patrick back in 1996 when I started going to college in Savannah. I didn't really get to know him until the following semester when I took his Penciling and Inking classes for the first time. I had already become a fan of his work. I loved his inking style and the style of his artwork. Not to mention the bizarre sense of humor in his comic art.

His character design and inking style is what has heavily influenced my own work.

I also became a fan of his teaching style. He wasn't afraid to tell you what he thought was shit about your work. But at the same time, he would be certain to tell you about what he thought were the strong points in your work and how to build them up.

For me, that's what made Patrick a great professor.

After he left SCAD in 1998, I ended up losing touch with him for a few years. But I've been very happy with the advent of places like Myspace and Facebook to get back in contact with him again.

I was very pleased to have Patrick W. Welch as my mentor. But I am more pleased to have been able to call Patrick W. Welch my friend.

Thank you for everything, Patrick. There are so many students you have influenced out there with the person you were and always will be. And I was one of them. Thank you.