Instructions Comic Strip for Foldigo

Well I don't want to spoil the end of the Livingston and Friends "Tournament" Story for you all here, but oddly I'm as excited about how the instructions turned out as the foldable toy itself.  I'm a bit geeky that way, since I love instructional and educational comics.

Yes, our first series, Livingston and Friends; The Tournament, is complete and will be shipping in mere days! Just look at all the fun you can have!  There'a plenty of other cool stuff included in the monthly package. If you haven't yet, check us out at www.foldigo.com.

Info Graphic Karory

Here's a fun infographic I made for Myron Luis at CommonVision.  

Three Amigos Caricature

Nope, not  Martin Short, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase.  This "Three Amigos" is a trio of close dear friends, in a friendship spanning many decades, filled with humour and fun.  This caricature was commissioned by Margaret Smith, the daughter of the fellow on the far left, as a commemoration on the occasion of his funeral.  What a fun and joyful way to celebrate the lives of these three wonderful men!
She had a big batch of these printed up at 11x14" (A standard size for store-bought frames) to give away to the friends and family.

It's one thing for me to look at some photos and make a likeness, but Margaret has a lifetime of impressions of her father that a few photos simply can't capture.  So Margaret and I worked back and forth to get her dad's appearance just right and she was super happy with the result... which makes me super happy too!

I asked Margaret If I could use her emailed words about it as a testimonial and she replied with "Absolutely !!!"  So here are those words, collected from the last few emails between us: "I am very excited!!!"  "That (caricature) is wonderful, thank you so much." and "I couldn't be happier.  Thank you so much for all your effort."  And to top it all off...

Hi Scott just wanted to let you know that your caricature was a huge hit.  All were thrilled and said it would be framed and hang in their homes.  You certainly told their story well.  Thank you again
– Margaret Smith 

"Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) for Kids" Comic

I've created this one-page comic to help anybody enhance their use of EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques).  I invite individuals and EFT practitioners alike to share and use this tool for free forever.

Several years ago I created a comic like this for adults.  Then recently an EFT practitioner named Tony Macelli, based in Malta, contacted me asking for permission to modify it for use with younger children. Tony felt the cartoon format would help the child relate more to the information.  

One thing led to another and we ended up collaborating to design this new version. I did all the artwork and the layout is almost identical to my old one.  Tony rewrote my words to be more kid friendly and suggested the thermometer element so kids could point with their finger to rate the level of their upset feelings without necessarily needing to know numbers or to speak aloud if they were feeling reluctant to speak.  

If you read the fine print at the bottom you'll see the comic is free for anyone to distribute, publish, host, photocopy, and share in whatever way, forever without limit.  My hope is that people will find this very useful and share it freely to help each other heal and grow.  If you need a higher resolution version of this for publication you can email me to request it, or google around for it and hopefully some other people will be hosting it somewhere that you can download the high resolution PDF.  At some point I'll figure out how to put a download link here in the blog.

Black and white is better for photocopying... especially if there will be photocopying of the photocopies.

Foldigo Cover Re-Do

After 6 hours redesigning the cover for Livingston issue 1 I look at both versions side by side and wonder why I insisted on creating a completely new illustration.  The old cover was too busy at the top, the titles were too hard to read, and Franchesca's  house doesn't' match the pop-up version I created for the craft kit.  The new cover has more free space at the top and simpler letters, and we get to see Livingston's excited face. So I think the new cover is a better solution.

Actually, The purple wasn't working for me.  She's supposed to be in the shade of her front porch, not a grape Kool-aid ice sculpture :-)  

M in the Abstract

My friend Douglas Davey recently launched his great new young adult book, "M in the Abstract" about a struggling teen who seems to have a particular ability.  Not only is he a writer and an avid consumer of story, Douglas is a parent, a teacher, a librarian, and so has a particular insight into the minds and culture of young people that I seem to have forgotten (my teen years being more than half my life ago), until reading this book.    Really touching, beautifully written.  This is my reinterpretive doodle inspired by the cover of the book.  It's a great read even if you're no longer a teenager.  I recommend it.

Foldigo Issue 3 Is In The Can!

... in the film making sense... nothing to do with the bathroom... although that is where I get some of my best creative ideas.

Here's a sneak peek at issue 3... my favorite most exciting foldigo cover art yet.  There's a real trick to making cover art, I'm finding.  If you can believe it after all these years of making comics I've rarely designed a cover.  I'm always drawing interior story art or making coverless short stories.  Anyway, I'm starting to get the hang of it, I think.  Keep it simple, make it pop, don't clutter up the top quarter where the titles need to go, use imagery that grabs people's attention.  Now I want to go back and redesign the cover for issue #1 with these principles in mind.  Hmmm...

Doesn't this make you want to click over to www.foldigo.com and buy a subscription to Livingston and Friends?  Only $11.95 and you get short comics and a bunch of paper crafts to go with the story.  But wait!  There's more! :-P  There's also a bunch of free downloadable paper crafts too. Cool, right? :-)  Check it out.

Foldigo Comics and Toys, First Issue Launched!

I'm part of a really cool startup called Foldigo. We create foldable toys and stories delivered to you by good ol' fashioned snail mail.  The kids at the test session had a great time folding up their foldable characters, and now the comic is complete. The first issue of our first available subscription is now available!  We have a facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Foldigo) with updates and photos of the toys and if you Like the page you'll be kept in the loop of how things are developing.

I had a lot of fun creating the story, with a fun cast of characters and a positive message... I even snuck in a little math lesson into one of the gags... I'm tricky that way :-).  Here's what the comic cover looks like:

Trains

A new subject matter for me... Trains.  Another fun project for UpHere Business Magazine.

Frozen Globes

This got me one of my favorite client responses ever.  Says editor, Guy Quenneville upon receiving final art, "WOW - HOLY CRAP. That's stunning."  Have I mentioned I love working with these guys?  This was art directed by Mike Ericsson, who also art directed the Supergiants illustration (scroll down to June 2011 here in the blog to see it).

UpHere Business Magazine is starting an annual awards ceremony to recognize successful businesses and entrepreneurs in Northern Canada.  The awards are called the Frozen Globes.  They asked me to design an illustration to promote this.  I figured it should look like something that could be turned into an actual award trophy so, to give them the option, the glacial lettering is designed to be isolatable as a pedestal to hold the icy globe above.  I imagine the whole thing made out of coloured glass, maybe with a little LED light inside, and a Star Wars style hologram making the Northern lights shimmer above it.

UpHere Business Magazine Gig

Got another fun job with UpHere Business last month (http://www.uphere.ca/).  For an article about Nasa's recent discovery of a planet 5 times the mass of Earth and 1/3 composed of diamonds.  In a comic book universe this would pose a serious threat to the diamond industry in the Northwest Territories.  Premier of NWT Bob McLeod depicted as a superhero come to save the industry.  Special thanks to Guy Quenneville and the other editors at UpHere for choosing me for the gig and being such great collaborators.