Missile Mouse Giveaway

Only a couple days left of 2009. Lots to think about. Much to be thankful for. And a whole lot to look forward to this next year. To start 2010 off right, and to end 2009 with a bang, I'm having my first ever contest.

The prize:


1) A signed hardcover copy of Missile Mouse: the Star Crusher.

2) A signed copy of Flight Explorer.

3) A signed print of the cover art for Flight Explorer (13 x 19 in).

4) The original inked art for the back cover to the Star Crusher (11 x 14 in).

There are multiple chances to win and you can enter up to FIVE times. Here's how:

1) Comment on this post. Make sure to include your email in the “email” field (will not be published) and let me know what your favorite post of 2009 was. I'm also interested in knowing what you'd like to see more of for 2010. Inktober again? More MM? Ease off on the MM? More finished stuff? Less sketchy stuff? Let me know. This counts for ONE entry.

2) Become a fan of Missile Mouse Facebook Page or follow me on Twitter. This will get you another entry. If you’re already a Facebook fan or Twitter follower you’re good to go. This counts for ONE entry.

3) Want to get the edge? Order a Missile Mouse commission. This counts for THREE entries.

That's it! Good luck. Contest ends in one week. On the night of Tuesday, January 5th 2010 I'll randomly select the winner and announce it on Wednesday. Cool?

Missile Mouse In Stores Now!

A bit earlier than expected. I received word yesterday from a friend that he saw Missile Mouse at the bookstore. I stopped by Barnes and Noble in White Plains today and sure enough:


I can't think of better company to be with on the book shelf. My friend Kazu's book Copper is out as well and it's a must get. Actually, this photo doesn't quite reflect reality. When I got to the kids graphic novel section MM was tucked down underneath the displayed books. So I took them out and put them up top inbetween Copper and Amulet. You can do the same if you want next time you're at B&N. I don't mind.

Here's a closer look at the book. Both the paperback and hardbound copies:






Amazon notes it as "In Stock" as well.

The Missile Mouse Book Trailer

We are just a couple weeks away from the release of the Missile Mouse graphic novel. Perhaps it's too early to post this, but I can't wait. This was put together by the amazing Darren Rawlings. He far exceeded my expectations with it. Also posted it on youtube here.

And Ideology of Madness has posted my first podcast interview/visit. Go check it out!

Funnybooks with Aron and Paulie: Missile Mouse’s Jake Parker

I had a great time talking with these guys. And if you can handle an hour of me blabbing about myself you'll hear all about my first gig as an artist and how Missile Mouse almost never happened. Tried really hard not to sound like an idiot.

Air Viper

Another Missile Mouse Commission. Missile Mouse is going for a spin on his Okkino Air Viper. With a full Carbon Maginox Fiber body, thrust vectoring, and the Intellicanard system, there's little in the sky or on the roads that can keep up with him. I think he had to get this to balance out having the Air Junker.



Missile Mouse: the Star Crusher (Available in Jan) is getting lots of good reviews! I've been posting these on twitter, but here the are in full for you non twitter types.

The Blarg:

Scholastic is really putting their graphic novel foot forward, and this first installment in an ongoing series from writer/illustrator Jake Parker is proof. Parker, an animator at Blue Sky Studios, has created an action/adventure sci-fi hero in Missile Mouse, a pint-sized secret agent who packs a big punch. The storytelling is fairly straight forward for the genre (good versus evil, inter-galactic war, surprise double-crosses, et al.), but Parker’s illustration work is what really makes this book pop. His background in animation is apparent; with clean lines and solid coloring, each frame looks more like an animation still than it does a comic book panel. The humor is definitely there for kids–which is appropriate since the book is geared toward eight- to twelve-year-olds–but I do wish there was some subtle adult humor peppered throughout.

Kirkus:

When his mission to recover an ancient star compass goes wrong, intrepid Galactic Security Agent Missile Mouse finds himself saddled with a partner. Agent Hyde, the son of a senator and a rookie, is willing to please, but part of his job (according to Chief Maxwell) is to keep Missile Mouse from making costly mistakes. The two are to retrieve a missing scientist who holds the key to a horrible weapon, the Star Crusher, in his hereditary memory. They rescue Ulrich Vondorf from the Rogue Imperium of Planets (RIP)—but not before RIP gets most of the info they need. Missile Mouse must find the last stash of dark plasma before RIP, but that’s not the only hurdle GSA’s finest is going to face! An animation artist for such companies as Disney & Nick as well as a comics artist, Parker produces a first full-length graphic novel that’s a gem in story and art. Bright, action-filled, at times wordless panels keep the pages turning. Intelligent space opera and a realistically rounded hero will have young fans of the future demanding the next volume. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)

Booklist:

Missile Mouse, or MM to his friends, is an agent in the Galactic Security Agency and the kind of gruff loner ideal for deep-space adventuring. After he botches a mission and lets a valuable star compass fall into the hands of the dastardly Rogue Imperium of Planets, he partners up with a hotshot young agent, cramping his reckless-but-effective lone-wolf style. Their mission is to rescue a kidnapped scientist who holds in his outsize noggin the knowledge to construct a black hole–generating doomsday device that sure could come in handy for the baddies’ plans to rule the galaxy. The setting and overall look of this graphic novel owe much to Star Wars and the Halo video games. Parker’s fluid lines and animation-quality characters make for uncluttered action sequences, nicely kept PG with laser shots that knock weapons out of hands and more KOs than kills. MM’s fearless brashness makes for a winning hero, and the able mix of humor and urgency make for a solid space caper.
— Ian Chipman

Air Junker

Haven't posted any Missile Mouse in a while. This is another commission I did last month. MM has found himself a Piluxx P-CC, also known as an air junker. These were mainstays of air flight generations ago, and one of the first to utilize negative mass anti-gravity technology. This one was apparently used in a military capacity of some sort due to the blaster mounted to the front. Once ubiquitous they are somewhat hard to find now. They're sometimes posted on ebay Space though prices skew high. MM was able to pick his up at an auction on Sylann-7. Not sure why he has that scowl on his face.



The Missile Mouse book release is getting close! Only a couple weeks away. Did a call last night for a podcast with Ideology of Madness and we talked about a bunch of MM stuff and more. They say it'll be up in a week or so. I'll be sure to post a link to it when it's up.

Monster Wranglin'

Crazy busy this last week. And after Inktober I thought I'd take a week off from the blog. Thanks for sticking with me and thanks to everyone who ordered the book.

This is a Missile Mouse commission I did a while back, finally posting it.

Missile Mouse - Page 93

Big thanks to everyone who became Facebook fans of Missile Mouse!

So today I want to share with you the process behind one of the pages from the from The Star Crusher. This was one of my favorite pages to work on in the book, but it was also a beast. As you can see from one of the panels from the page above.

Step 1: the Thumbnail

I couldn't find the thumbnail for this page, but I drew it at about 1 x 2 inches, very loose and simple, almost just stick figures.

Step 2: the Sketch

I draw this at the actual print size which is 9 x 6 inches. I keep it really loose, which helps me to focus on layout, composition, and shape and not get bogged down in details. This gives me a good sense of how it will look when printed.

Step 3: the Rough

I don't have a scan of this step, but I took a photo of the page in the middle of inking. I take my sketch page from step 2, scan it, blow it up, and print it on 11x 17 paper and use it as a guide for my roughs via the light box. You can see the roughed-in drawings in the spots not inked yet. I don't labor over the rough too much preferring to reserve some of the exploration of the drawing during inking.

Step 4: the Inks

Here it is fully inked. Microns on heavy stock laser printer paper. I bought a ream of this stuff at my local print shop and made my own guides in Photoshop, then printed them myself on my Epson. The ream cost about 35 dollars for 250 sheets as opposed to comic paper which is a buck a sheet at it's cheapest. I also letter it at this stage using a proprietary font I made from my handwriting.

Step 5: the Flats

Once the page is scanned and imported into Photoshop, I lay in the flat colors by selecting and filling, and/or using the hard round brush. I keep the characters on a separate layer from the background.

Step 6: the Final Color

Here's where I add in all the shadows and highlights and the effects like swoosh-marks, sound effects, and gun flash. And it's done. On to the next page!

Missile Mouse: Facebook

I set up a Facebook page for Missile Mouse. Eventually, I'll set up a fancy MM website with lots of artwork and information, but this will have to do for now. Check it out when you get a minute, and if you feel so inclined, become a fan. Cool!

Missile Mouse Postcards

Wow what a warm response for the Bear and Rabbit image in the last post! Thanks for all the feedback. I'm really digging these two guys so expect to see some ore of them soon.

This is the back cover art I created for The Star Crusher. When Comic-con Came around Scholastic used the image to make some postcards for me to take with me. I made Missile Mouse, the transport ship, the planet and the space BG all on separate levels so we could adjust the composition as needed with the copy that they're throwing on there. You can see MM's ear covers a little more of the spaceship in the bottom one.

Sploosh!

Missile Mouse is caught off guard by a deadly basgus. Though space mice are not a part of the usual diet for a hungry basgus Missile Mouse will do just fine to ease the hunger pains. It's shell is said to be one of the strongest materials in the galaxy. And as such, segments of it's exoskeleton go for the highest dollar on the black market. Consequently, the basgus superior design has caused it be one of the most adaptive species in the galaxy, easily evolving to survive in different extreme environments and climates. There's even word of giant basgus who live in the lava flows of distant planets.



This is a recent commission I did for someone. Since finishing the book it had been a few months since I've drawn MM and I admit I got a little rusty. Below is a video of me drawing this commission. You'll notice I had to erase parts of Missile Mouse a few times before getting it right. If you want one of these original Missile Mouse drawings you can order one here.



Drawing a Missile Mouse Commission from jakeparker on Vimeo.

Star Crusher Cover

Now that Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher is listed on Amazon I thought I'd share the cover process. I had a lot of fun with this cover. Despite the old maxim to never judge a book by it's cover the public at large sets this tidbit of wisdom aside and will usually only pick up what looks cool. With that in mind a lot of folks at my publisher have to approve this cover and make sure it's going to enhance sales instead of hinder them. Despite that there was very little back and forth between us making designing this cover a breeze.

I began with sending them some sketches of possible cover ideas. These were pulled from various scenes in the book.



Scholastic liked the one with the alien bursting through the ground and asked me to develop that further. I drew up three more designs and sent them over.

After seeing those they decided to just stick with the original idea and I went ahead and inked it. I inked the background separate from Missile Mouse so my art director Phil Falco would have more freedom in designing and placing the title.

With inks finished and approved I colored it. Below is the color I sent to them. They liked it but felt it was a little too dark for a kids book. A couple color adjustments were made and if you want to see the final for print click over to the link on amazon here.

RIP Fighter

The Rogue Imperium of Planets (RIP) in partnership with Cephalodian Defense Systems (CDS) developed this space fighter for escort missions. It's light and agile with a respectable armament of two 50mm blaster canons. In the Star Crusher, Missile Mouse faces off against two of these with nothing but a grappling hook, some rope, an interplanetary ballistic missile, and his wits.



Because of the complex shape and my looming deadline I got a friend of mine from Blue Sky to model this craft for me based on my sketch and ortho drawings. He then positioned the model according to my roughs and gave me screen grabs which I in turn drew over. Thanks again for your help Dave!

And here it is in action!

Dagger Bike

One of Missile Mouse's simple pleasures is the Kraxzon DB2. Now considered a classic speeder, it can still stand it's ground against it's modern equivalent: the DB7. This is in part due to MM's obsessive drive to keep in top condition. He's also upgraded a few components to increase performance giving it a top airspeed of 600mph. Which makes it the obvious ride choice when you've overslept your alarm and are late to your mission briefing.



Artist's note: I had an extra long skinny piece of bristol, so I wanted to design something to fit the paper. Fun experiment. Try it some time. Get a odd shaped clipping and design an object that fits that space.

Ideology of Madness Interview

I was recently contacted by Paul from Ideology of Madness, a fine blog about all things cool. Paul had the mad, mad I tell you, idea of "Mice With Weapons Week" and asked if I wouldn't mind doing a little Missile Mouse interview for it. You can read the interview here: Mice With Weapons Week AFTERMATH: Interview with Missle Mouse Creator Jake Parker. Go check it out, and along with the interview is a little sneaky peak of some of the pages from the book.

Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher is FINISHED!

Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher is finished! What an adventure this has been. I feel like Frodo returning to the shire. I actually went to bed at 10:30 last night! Below is a screen grab of all 172 pages colored and finished. In the coming weeks I'll post a few of these pages bigger so you can see them better. I'm really happy with how it all came out. This is by far the biggest project I've ever tackled and though it was brutal at times I enjoyed every step of the journey. Star Crusher will be out in January of '10 so put that on your calendar. I wish it was sooner, but such is the world of publishing.

Also, I just bought my plane tickets to San Diego so that means I'm officially going to Comic-Con this year. If you want to meet up or say hi I'll be at the Flight booth probably. I'll have more details as we approach the convention.

Major props go out to all those who helped me on this book. Specifically, Anthony Wu, and Jason Caffoe who assisted me on coloring the thing and Katie Smith who corrected all my spelling errors. Also, Tom Saville, and Mike Lee who lent their helping hands on coloring chores as well. Dave Strick who did a little spaceship modeling for me (more on that later). And Kohl Glass with general story advice. Thanks guys!

And of course, I could not have done this book with out the tremendous help and support of my wife, friend, and the goddess of our home, Alison. She's basically gone without a husband for the past year and wants you all to buy this book so it will have been worth it!

Ok, I'm going to live life a little this weekend and then it's on to book 2!

Character Profile - Agent Hyde

This next character profile introduces a key player in the Missile Mouse universe: Agent Hyde.

Agent Hyde is a Junior Agent in the Galactic Security Agency. As I mentioned in the Missile Mouse Profile, GSA rank is signified by space suit color. Missile Mouse being a Senior agent with a special "Solo" status is given the colors yellow and red. Junior Agents wear orange and blue. This coloring system may have to do with my countless hours of playing with Lego Spacemen. As a Junior agent Hyde is not authorized to go on any mission alone and must be paired with another agent.

Agent Hyde was born into an upper class family of galactic politicians. Hyde was the last son of a powerful Galactic Union Senator. Overshadowed by zealous brothers all vying for power as future galactic officials Hyde realized early on he could never achieve what they could. He became disenchanted with politics and decided that if he was truly going to make a difference in the galaxy he had to get down to work with his own hands.

My first couple of design passes left him looking too young, and too cute. I decided to scratch these and went ahead and designed the drawing at top.

Big Gun

Here Missile Mouse is holding the Krengrack-8 a high impact laser rifle made by Krengtronic. The Krengrack-8 (or the "Big Gun" as MM affectionately calls it) has an effective range of 8 light-minutes at it's highest setting. However, at that setting the generator only has enough energy for 10 to 12 shots. Missile Mouse is perfectly content using it at half power in close combat where the Big Gun has more than enough firepower to take out even the most fortified battle tanks. The Krengrack-8 is heavy, so Krengtronic outfitted the gun with a mini antigrav disc that reduces it's weight by a good 90% making the gun much easier to maneuver with. Now if only they could figure out a way to make the generator smaller.



This was another MM commission piece. I'm glad I set this up because it forces me to come up with new MM stuff that I otherwise wouldn't have thought of. Here's a scan of the sketch before inking it:

Scuba Suit

Missile Mouse encounters a beaked snap-eel. If the bite doesn't kill him it's poison barbed tongue will paralyze him in seconds. Luckily, MM's blaster works under water. MM's space suit also works well underwater. He puts the hood up, attaches a rebreather and is good to go. His hydro-electric flippers create a current through the water greatly enhancing the effectiveness of each kick, increasing his speed by a good 150-200%.

Again this was another commission piece. Order your own here.

Thognart

Because of it's adaptability to extreme environments the thognart has been a favorite mode of transportation for several races on several planets for thousands of years. Originally from Nodgun 3, it spread to hundreds of planets by space colonizers and galactic merchants. It's particularly high stance gives the rider an improved vantage point resulting in superior situational awareness. The large hump on it's back stores energy for weeks at a time making the thognart effective in environments where food is scarce. Still, the care and feeding of a herd of thognarts is an art, and was ultimately an enterprise that proved inefficient for the needs of the GSA. After initially trying to use thognarts for scouting missions the GSA replaced them with a mechanical alternative. Here Missile Mouse wonders how the thing feeds itself.

Missile Mouse Pages

As promised here are some pages from the Missile Mouse graphic novel. The first one is page number one of the book and I've already colored it. This was actually one of the fully finished pages I put in my book proposal for the publisher. Here we join Missile Mouse on an expedition searching for a downed transport ship. He's followed by two hired porters who are a little more familiar with the area than he is. In the foreground is the bones and toothy skull of some long dead beast, foreshadowing that danger is ahead for MM.

The rest of these are a few random pages from the book that I like. While flipping through the pages I couldn't decide which to share, there's so many of them I like. I finally narrowed it down to these. This page was a lot of fun to draw. A while back I posted concept designs for this alien slug monster . You can see those here, and below is what made it into the book:

I had to have MM get eaten by this guy. What good is it having a space slug if you don't put any one in him?

And lastly a nice shot of MM demonstrating how to use the Jet Pack in close quarters. Panel 5 was a bit of a chore to figure out, but all in all fun to draw.

I'll post a few more in the coming weeks.

Scout Runner

Missile Mouse stops to check his six while out hunting down an escape monster from the Galactic Security Agency's maximum security prison. He's riding the TK-3, a bipedal scout runner perfect for the rocky terrain in which he's hunting. The agency once kept a herd of thognarts for assignments like these, but the care and feeding of them proved to be too costly. And their temperament made some situations dangerous. So the GSA switched over to a mechanical alternative.

This was a recent commission I did for a Missile Mouse fan out in the UK. Glad it made it to you safe! If you want your own piece of original MM art go here.

Finished Inking!

I finished inking the last page of the Missile Mouse graphic novel at 10:43 pm last night. What a satisfying feeling that was. It clocks in at 172 pages and has been quite the beast to draw. I ink on some nice paper I found at a paper store in Stamford Connecticut. It is heavy stock and extremely smooth. Takes the ink well. I think it's made for laser printers, but it's perfect for inking comics. Best part is it's about 30 bucks for 250 sheets of 11x17. I'll post some scans of a few of my favorite pages next week.

Character Profile - Ulrich Von Dorf

Ulrich Von Dorf has one of the most brilliant minds in the Galaxy. He is a Cerebellian, an ancient race with the unique capability of genetically passing down knowledge from generation to generation. Ulrich comes from a long line of scientists in his family, which means his brain possess all the knowledge gained from his ancestors over the last few millenia. His knowledge and memory of ancient and advanced technology is immeasurable, making his brain one of the most valuable assets to the Galactic Union.

His most recent studies have been in the field of galactic energy consumption. For the last 20 years he's been trying to unravel the mystery of "infinite energy" a technology that his ancestors stumbled upon, but ultimately were never able to harness.

In "The Star Crusher" Ulrich is kidnapped by the RIP (Rogue Imperium of Planets), and it is up to Missile Mouse to rescue him and figure out just what the bad guys wanted with him and that mind of his.

Here Ulrich is testing his Thermal Flux Disruptor. He's not quite sure what it does, though the first time he fired it up it he noted in his logbook that all the birds in the neighborhood flew backwards for a few days.

Inking Missile Mouse

If you have the patience to sit through 7 minutes of someone drawing then watching this recording of me inking a missile mouse panel should be no problem for you. Around 1:16 I make a line that I don't like and pause to decide whether I should fix it or not. I decide to go ahead and fix it. I use correction tape for my mistakes because it's quick and clean. I'm drawing with #2 and #5 Pigma Micron pens.



I apologize for the compression on this. I probably should have shot it at a higher resolution.

Character Profile - Missile Mouse

This post marks the beginning of series of profiles on the characters of the Missile Mouse universe. I figured it'd be best to start with the mouse himself. Since the last Missile Mouse post covered his design inspiration and evolution this post will focus on the character in world.

Missile Mouse is an agent for the Galactic Security Agency (I'll have a post on the GSA sometime later.) He is an expert pilot, a crack shot, and can dish out a good punch. What he lacks in finesse he makes up with brute force and dogged determination. You could say he's the hatchet as opposed to the scalpel. The GSA isn't quite sure what to do with him, but they need him. Just when they think he's too much of a liability he proves them wrong and becomes an asset they can't function without.

Missile Mouse is a Rodentian, though he has never set foot on the home world his race comes from. Dire circumstances caused his father to escape the planet in secret with baby "M" and relocate to an asteroid belt in a nearby system. When tragedy takes his father from him M takes off on his own and joins the GSA becoming Missile Mouse.

MM wears a standard GSA flight suit with ArmorFlex™ undergarment. It is blaster resistant, blade resistant, water proof, and chemical proof. The outer suit provides thermal insulation, shielding from solar radiation, stabilizes internal pressure, and protection from micrometeoroids and other space debris. The GSA signifies rank by suit color. MM sports the elite colors of gold and red indicating he is a solo agent.

MM also wears a standard GSA utility belt. When fully charged this belt can emit a powerful force field strong enough to shield the wearer from solid and electromagnetic attacks. The belt also has a security feature that when activated electrically charges the suit shocking whatever comes in contact with the suit.



MM is one of the few agents with enough coordinated ability and physical competency to pilot a jet pack. He prefers the UberTech™RS600 for it's weight to thrust ratio and compact size. The RS600 utilizes an advanced form of electrostatic force to produce high exhaust velocity. With no moving parts it is extremely quiet and a perfect tool for MM. MM pilots the jetpack using two control mechanisms located around the ankles of each foot.

MM likes his blasters like he likes his jet packs: compact, lightweight, and powerful. The snub nosed PS-5 collapsible blaster fits his criteria perfectly. When not in use the blaster collapses into a compact disk that can be stored in a pocket on hung on a belt. Perfect for dangerous missions when you don't want extra baggage getting in your way.

Well, that's all for now. I didn't get into MM's goggles. I'll have to save those for another post. I have several other profiles lined up to do. Whether I get time for that or not remains to be seen. Also, work progresses on the graphic novel. I passed the hundred page mark last week. A gratifying moment indeed. Now I only have 60 pages left to ink, and then it's color time.