Missile Mouse

Missile Mouse Kid

2011-10-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Got this in the email from my friend Kory Hienzen. Kory's a phenomenal artist who works for Dreamworks Animation.

His kids are big MM fans and so he drew his son as MM. Love it Kory, thanks for sending it along.

Missile Mouse's Blaster

2011-10-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

Got this in the email from Richard Smith who says:

"Hey Jake,

Love your work. My 4yr old son and I read your stuff all the time. MM is in the same pantheon with Spiderman and Diego for him :) I made this model based on your design. I hope you like it!

Respectfully,

Richard Smith"

You know what? I LOVE IT!!! Nice attention to detail, and I love the extra flourishes he did. A++
Thanks Richard!

Fan Art - Mark Lewis

2011-07-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

Got an email yesterday with a link to a delightful post Mark Lewis did about Missile Mouse. If you've got a sec go check it out here. Mark also did a great bit of Missile Mouse fan art seen here:

Thanks Mark!

San Diego Comic-Con

2011-07-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I'll be at San Diego Comic-con next week. You can find me at the Flight booth #2235 sandwiched between Marvel and Sideshow Collectables. I'll have both Missile Mouse books for sale. Stop on by and say hi if you're in the neighborhood. Also here's my Missile Mouse banner with Calvin doing his best Missile Mouse pose.

Fan Art - Alyssa Daw

2011-06-30T22:21:00.000-07:00

This fantastic MM was done by Alyssa Daw. I had Alyssa in my character design class and she consistently amazed me with her work. I made a deal with my students that if they draw me something I'll draw them something, so now I owe her. She also took my advice and set up an art blog: The Art of Alyssa Daw. Go check it out.

Missile Mouse - Aquamonster

2011-06-06T23:16:00.001-07:00

I did this commission a couple months ago and forgot to post it up here. I enjoyed this one a lot. First time I inked Missile Mouse with a brush.

As always, I'm accepting Missile Mouse commissions, so if you want one just click here.

Fan Art - Rick Evans

2011-05-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

This beauty was done by the prolific Rick Evans aka Arkonbey. I love this take on MM and also the great graphic treatment with the posters.

Fan Art - Michael Regina

2011-04-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

Michael Regina sends in some Missile Mouse story boards he made. Looks like he based the action off of the MM story I did for Flight Explorer. Cool stuff!

He also makes a comic called Kevin and the Light of Destiny that can be found at www.kevincomic.com

Fan Art - Ryan Metcalf

2011-04-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

Ryan was a student of mine this semester and did some great work...when he was there. He works for Carbine Studios now and I'm really happy for him. Here's a link to his blog: Murtcurf check it out, there's some great stuff.

Fan Art - Anthony Wu

2011-04-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start posting Missile Mouse fan art on the blog here. There's a lot of pieces I've seen over the last few years that are really great and I'd hate for them to not get the proper showcase they deserve.

To kick it off Here's some galacticious work by Anthony Wu. Anthony helped me out on both books with some of the color chores. So big thanks to him for that.

These first two are his conception of what the artwork for a Missile Mouse cartoon might look like:

And here's a sweet poster design of MM fighting the Blazing Bat.

Awesome work!

If you have a sweet piece of MM fan art send it with a link to your website/blog to jake ( at ) agent44.com and I will post it up.

Blazing Bat

2011-04-04T22:02:00.001-07:00

Not long after I came up with Missile Mouse in 1992 (see all about that here) I came up with his nemesis: Blazing Bat. He's a fixture in MM mythology and a key player in Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3. Below is the first drawing of MM fighting BB.

The years passed and I kept drawing Missile Mouse, but Blazing Bat got shelved. In the early 2000's my interest in the Missile Mouse character intensified and I thought I'd take another stab at the bat:

And now present day. I knew I wanted to bring Blazing Bat back to the Missile Mouse graphic novel series so that meant updating the design.

And here's the final design.

And the Blazing Bat in action:

Robot 44

2011-03-11T23:35:00.000-08:00

I have some more visual development stuff for Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3
. One of the main characters in this book is the Galactic Security Bot Robot 44. He's a loyal partner to Missile Mouse and proves to be just as tenacious as the rodent himself.

I began sketching out designs for him on my story writing pages. At this early stage I new I wanted a big black dome for the head because I thought it looked cool.

The idea developed further as I played around with proportions and little details like the joints. My editor felt like this design looked more like a guy in a spacesuit than it did a robot and you know what he was dead right. Plus he said there's no way for anyone to relate to this character if you can't see any sort of face. Right again. Sometimes I get too hung up on a design and I forget the practicality of it.

So I went back into the design trying to go for a more clunky robot look, and began working out an appealing robot face.

Didn't like the above sketches all that much, but these guys below started to get close to something I liked.

As it came closer and closer to actual production time on the book I had to go with something, but I didn't think this guy was quite there yet. Then it dawned on me to stick the dome head on the new body design and give him a glowing digital face projection, not unlike Eve from Wall-E.

Here's the data sheet and cutaway I did for the World of Missile Mouse section in the back of the book:

And finally, here's Robot 44 in action:

The Tankians

2011-03-07T23:35:00.000-08:00

In Missile Mouse: Rescue On Tankium3 there's a race of amphibian men who have become enslaved and it's up to Missile Mouse to rescue them. The tankians went through a couple design passes before I settled on something. In this first page I initially thought of my main character, Lasukus, as being a little boy:

But the story changed and I knew he needed to be older. Plus I knew I needed to draw A LOT of these guys in the end of the book, so the design couldn't have too much line mileage. Here's the direction it went next:

And here's the final design on an information page I made for the Tankian race for the "Guide to the Missile Mouse Universe" I have at the end of the book:

And lastly, the guys in action. They're actually good guys, but they've all been outfitted with mind control devices that forces them to be agents for the evil King Bognarsh (more on him later):

Lava Monster

2011-03-04T23:34:00.000-08:00

Here's some concept sketches I did for the lava monster in Missile Mouse: Rescue On Tankium3. When I'm writing out the story I'll often times sketch out designs on the same page. You can see here I was initially thinking he could be some sort of armored worm. Eventually he evolved into an armored insect/crustacean thing.

I compiled a few sketch pages into one below to show the progression of the design. I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted after the first couple sketches so a lot of these are roughly in the same ball park. I did lose the idea of him rolling up in a ball, though I still really like that idea.

And here's four pages from the book where we see this guy in action.

Missile Mouse Valentines

2011-02-11T23:33:00.000-08:00

My kids commissioned me to do a couple Missile Mouse Valentines to give to their class mates.

I uploaded a nice hi-res file for you to print out and use as well if you want. Here you go:

Missile Mouse Valentine 01

Missile Mouse Valentine 02

Happy Valentines Day!

P.S. You get the new Missile Mouse graphic novel here. You'll like it, I promise.

Recent Commissions

2011-01-27T23:33:00.000-08:00

I did these two commissions a few weeks ago. It was great to draw MM again. I haven't touched him since I finished the book last spring, so it was nice to pull him back out and see how he was doing. These are 8 x 14 inches on bristol and you can get one too. Order here.

We Have A Winner!

2011-01-06T23:38:00.000-08:00

Awesome! Thanks for the response everyone. I really love the feedback and knowing what stuck a chord with people. I'm pretty happy with 2010 and am excited to make 2011 even better. Alright, lets get down to business.

The winner of the MISSILE MOUSE 2010 GIVEAWAY is…

David McClain

Congratulations David! I’ve emailed you at the address you provided. If you didn’t get it, please contact me with a correct email address.

And thank you to everyone who commented, followed me on twitter, retweeted, blogged, and linked to here. All the support really means a lot to me and is a huge motivating factor in what I do.

As for your comments, looks like I'll have to get my act together and do another Inktober. Lots of people liked seeing the process and sketchy stuff. That's good, I can do more of that. And the Constraints and Accountability post was a big hit. So I guess I'll have to put more of my thoughts to words this year. Ok, I've got get back to work now. Thanks again everyone!

2010 Missile Mouse Giveaway

2010-12-29T23:37:00.000-08:00

I love the end of the year. It's always very introspective for me. I like looking back at old posts and reading old journal entries from the last 12 months. Seeing where I've been and all. 2010 was a busy year. And to carry on with the tradition started last year and in honor of Missile Mouse: Rescue On Tankium3 coming out it's I'm having another Missile Mouse Giveaway!

The Prize:

1) The original inked art for the back cover to Missile Mouse: Rescue On Tankium3 (11 x 17in).

2) A signed hardcover copy of Missile Mouse: Rescue On Tankium3.

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

4) A signed copy of Flight Explorer.

Just like last year there are multiple chances to win and you can enter up to SIX 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 2010 was. I’m also interested in knowing what you’d like to see more of for 2011. This counts for ONE entry.

2) If you have a blog, mention this contest with a link to this post. This counts for ONE entry.

3) If you have a Twitter account follow me on Twitter and retweet my tweet about this contest, or mention this contest with a link to this post. This counts for ONE entry.

4) Want to get the edge? Order something from my online shop. This counts for THREE entries.

That’s it! Good luck. Contest ends in one week. On the night of Wednesday, January 5th 2011 I’ll randomly select the winner and announce it on Thursday. Cool?

Missile Mouse: Rescue On Tankium3 Flip Through

2010-12-14T23:32:00.000-08:00

The release of Missile Mouse: Rescue On Tankium3 is just weeks away! Last week I got a finished copy in the mail from my editor and I was blown away with how well it turned out. I'm really proud of this one.

Here's a couple shots of it:

Here's a quick video of me flipping through it (P.S. My iphone filmed this sideways and I don't have any video editing software so you get a sideways video. Fun!):

One of my favorite things about this book was I had some space in the back to fill. So I made a guide to the Missile Mouse universe and drew some cutaways and diagrams of some of the vehicles and characters in the book. Here's a sample:

Missile Mouse Book 2

2010-10-22T23:31:00.000-07:00

First off, thanks for all the warm wishes in the last post. I'm feeling much better.

My next Missile Mouse book is available for pre-order on Amazon (available Jan 1). It's called Missile Mouse: Rescue on Tankium3, and I couldn't be happier with it. I thought I'd share some cover illustrations for it.

Below is the final illustration, cropped with the title and type treatments, just as it will look on the printed version:

This is the raw cover illustration. Wanted to leave plenty of room for trimming:

And this is the initial sketch I sent for approval:

Missile Mouse Book 2 is finished!

Missile Mouse book 2 Inks: FINISHED

This post was brought to you by the good people at Draw Force:

Missile Mouse Book 2 is finished!

2010-04-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

I uploaded the files last week and aside from a few odds and ends (back cover illo, title page illo, etc) it is done. If you recall back in February I posted a few inked pages. Here they are in color:

And here's the rest of the book in thumbnail form.

Like the last book, 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, my wife was hugely instrumental in helping me to get this done. Her support and whip-crackery kept me going. She gets the Wife of the Year Award.

Missile Mouse book 2 Inks: FINISHED

2010-02-02T23:29:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished inking my second graphic novel which also happens to be my second Missile Mouse book. At 146 pages it's a good 26 pages less than my first book, but it was no less daunting. I tried to push the action, explore the environments, and expand the characters more than in the first one. And so far I'm extremely happy with it. I can't wait to dig into coloring this thing. Deadline is in March so there's a lot of work to do fast.

And these are the casualties of the war in graphic novel making. Each of these brave little soldiers fought valiantly for the cause giving all that they could give. Being all they could be. They actually still have a little ink left in them, it's just the tips wear out before the ink does. Maybe I'm pushing too hard.

And here's a little sneak peak at the first three pages:

Fixing It Old School

2010-01-12T23:36:00.000-08:00

How to fix an inking mistake with out using Photoshop (aka how comics use to be made).

You guys asked for more how to/process stuff so here you go. While working on Missile Mouse Book 2 on Saturday the perfect opportunity presented itself to make a nice "how to."

Ok, this has to have been one of the most hair-pullingly-frustrating pages I've done...ever. Although there are several names I've thought to call this little devil it is simply known in the Parker house as "Page 86." One reason the experience was so frustrating was it should have been a painlessly easy page to draw.

Get in, draw it, get out, on to the next page.

But I ended up spending a whole afternoon on it! Right now I'm averaging about 1.15 hours to ink a page, a little fast for my taste, but the deadline is looming. It is important to note this whole thing could have been avoided if I was working at a more thoughtful leisurely pace. Right now the pace is "highly motivated to meet my deadline." So, I've been using a little more white out than usual.

All right, lets get on to it.

The Set Up:

I started with my roughs. After seeing MM's robot partner destroyed by the cave monster he positions himself in front of the large pipe of explosive fuel. The monster charges, MM rockets out of the way and BOOM! the monster is toast.

Here's the roughs. Pages 84-87:

I had a last minute impression to show Missile Mouse in the same shot with the explosion. I thought it might be cool to show him getting thrown off balance by the force of the explosion. So I inked it up, and upon finishing realized the whole sense of scale was off. The explosion looked like happened right under him. That, and MM just looked funny in that pose. Like his head was dislocated.

I hate scrapping a finished page, but I couldn't stand to look at this one. The errors were too glaring. And I wasn't going to let page 86 bring the book down. So I started over.

Here's the new page. This time I made a better boom, and made it look like he was rocketing away from the splosion. Canned the idea of him getting thrown off, and kept him in control of the situation. And using perspective (which I learned in the seventh grade, but apparently it fell out of my head while drawing the last page) I made it look like the explosion was far behind him instead of in his lap. Ah, much better. Smooth sailing from here on out, right?

Wrong. You noticed the page isn't finished though. That's because right around now I realized I had forgotten to draw his blaster in his hand. Gah! Closer look:

No blaster.

Also, I showed my wife and she asked what was going on with the smoke exhaust from MM's rocket. I said he's winding away from the explosion. She said it looked stupid. Ok. She's right.

At this point I'm contemplating packing up up and going home. But no, I realize if I do that the page wins. I'm going to bring this battle to the page and fight it on his turf.

Side note: Due to space constraints in my home right now, my computer is up on the second floor in my bedroom. My drafting table and art space is down in the dank dusty unfinished basement. Nestled between the water meter and the furnace. I like it this way because the computer can be a huge distraction. And being down there where no kids like to set foot allows me to get into the "zone" easier. It also has motivated me to keep things old school and fix it right on the page instead of saving it for Photoshop. I like doing it this way because at the end of the day I have a finished inked page, and not some random bits of drawings that need to be scanned in and pieced together.

The Process:

Ok, now to the process boys and girls. This is how your grandfather fixed a mistake on a comic page:

Step 1: Draw!

Make a new layer...I mean, place a new sheet of paper over your drawing and, using a light box for proper placement and proportion, draw the hand holding the blaster how it should have been drawn in the first place.

Step 2: Cut!

Once it's drawn you'll use a thing called an X-Acto knife to cut it out. It's like the lasso tool, but real. (You notice the correction tape on the circle area. I'm even screwing up the drawing I'm fixing my drawing with.)

Step 3: Placement!

You'll want to make sure it's going to fit right on the page. At this point mark where you're going to put it so you know what other parts of the drawing to white out.

Like this. I use the Tombo correctional tape for all my mistakes. Inking mistakes I mean. Glides on smooth and dry.

Step 4: Paste!

My wife had the perfect tool for this. The Martha Stewart glue pen. Worked like a charm! Thanks honey.

Pasted! But not done yet.

Step 5: Seamlesstify!

Ink around the edges of the paper and over the whited out areas to make the addition fit seamlessly with the rest of the drawing.

Also took care of the stupid looking smoke trail. Thanks honey!

Ink the rest and stick a fork in it 'cause it's done!

Final note: After looking at it again, and rereading the roughs I think the original rough for 86 is right. I should have just stuck to the original idea to have a huge explosion with no Missile Mouse. I'll come back to it after the whole book is inked and see how it flows with the rest of the book.

Missile Mouse Giveaway

2009-12-29T23:27:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-22T23:27:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-17T23:26:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-14T23:26:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-10T23:25:00.000-08:00

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'

2009-11-12T23:24:00.000-08:00

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

2009-09-03T23:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-07T23:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-31T23:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-12T23:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-19T23:17:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-07T23:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-01T23:13:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-27T23:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-27T23:09:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-20T23:08:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-18T23:08:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-02-12T23:07:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-03T23:06:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-15T23:06:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-09T23:05:00.000-08:00

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.

We Have A Winner!

2009-01-06T23:28:00.000-08:00

Wow. What a tremendous response everyone. Thank you so much for the feedback on the website. And thanks to everyone who follow on twitter and facebook. 2010 is going to be a spectacular year. I can feel it. All right, let's get down to it shall we? The winner of the MISSILE MOUSE 2009 GIVEAWAY is...

Will Kelly

Congratulations Will. I've emailed you at the address you provided. If you didn't get it, please contact me with a correct email address.

Now on to your comments. Inktober was by far the thing everyone liked the most last year, and was the most requested for this year. I'll take that as a mandate. So, be looking forward to a happy Inktober next fall.

Coming in second was more Missile Mouse and more technique/process stuff. Very cool. I'll definitely be addressing those this year.

As for everything else: More videos, vehicles, landscapes, Blue Sky work, robots, dinosaurs, kid collaborations, spaceships, dreams, sketches, pencil work, Lucy Nova, and otters. Looks like I have my work cut out for me this year. Thanks again everyone!

Missile Mouse - The Design History

2008-10-15T19:13:00.000-07:00

I've been ultra busy these days so I don't get to blog as much. But the book is coming along well. There's lots of new characters I'm adding to the missile mouse universe and I'll be posting those in the coming weeks.

I came across some old folders of artwork I did about 10 to 15 years ago. In it were a bunch of Missile Mouse drawings. It was fun and painful to see all the variations and evolutions he's gone through over the years. I thought I'd post the pictures here with a brief explanation of each drawing. Hopefully you'll enjoy this stroll through time as much as I did.

1992: This is the first drawing of Missile Mouse I ever did. I was watching Chip N' Dale's Rescue Rangers after school and every drawing I did seemed to be some variation on the theme of rodent adventurers. I remember seeing The Rocketeer in theaters and LOVING it. And every Sunday I eagerly rushed for the funnies to see if Calvin and Hobbes would be a Spaceman Spiff adventure. This drawing was my attempt to take everything I loved at that time of my life and distill it into one character.

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1993: I can see some Stan Sakai influence in this drawing. I did this for my high school newspaper. I updated his spaceship and blaster design, but MM still looks pretty much the same as the original design.

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1994: Fearing he was looking too "cute" I can see I began to stretch his proportions out a little here.

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1995: I finally settled on colors for him. Proportions are that of a human. Also little technical details seep in like knee pads and the jet pack harness straps around the legs.

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1996: I was heavily influenced during this period by Dave Johnson and Masimune Shirow. MM exchanges cute for kick butt. Emphasis on technological details and physique.

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1997: Continuing with the ultra humanized technical MM. First time I can recall drawing him with out his helmet on.

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2000: For a few years I tucked Missile Mouse away and focused on other stuff. Then one day I thought I'd take a whole new approach to his character design. I believe I was influenced somewhat by the Stuart Little movie that came out in '99. Gone was the helmet, human proportions, and technical detailing.

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2001: These two illustrations introduced a couple visual staples that would stick with the design. The jet engine based rocket pack, and the snub nosed blaster, and the large hairless ears. Also, going back to the extremely cute proportions.

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2002: I decided it was finally time to draw a Missile Mouse comic. The plan was to make a short 25 page ashcan and take it to conventions and sell it on my site. My design theory was to take the technical cool stuff I applied to the character designs from the late nineties and apply them to the cuter designs I did in 2001. He went through a couple phases in this stage, but through that I nailed down a few other components: the belt buckle, the blaster, the jet pack, the boots, gloves, and suit.

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2003: I did a follow up short story and changed the suit ever so slightly by replacing the open collar with a round neck opening, complete with draw strings. It stood for several years and can be seen here, here, and here.

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Today: This is the design from the Guardian Prophecy in the Flight Explorer book, and is where the design stands for the graphic novel. I took away the draw strings and gave him an updated symbol akin to the tri-triangle design from the original 1993 design. I'm completely happy with this design, but recognize it could still change as the character and the universe grows. I found this sketch I did a couple years ago which might be a good direction for the future.

Eat This!

2008-10-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

Missile Mouse doesn't normally carry grenades. Not that he doesn't like them. It's just that they're bulky, and heavy, and a little inaccurate. That said, they're extremely effective in difficult situations. No one understands difficult situations more than MM. In the image below he's about to give a drognardian hopper something to make his bad breath go away...forever. That little Altoid of death happens to be a V50 made by EG (ExplosiveGalactique). Typically MM would prefer a surgical shot to the head with his trusty blaster. Quick and easy. But when you're transport ship is shot out of the sky, and the only thing that survives the crash landing on a drognardian infested planet is a crate of V50s you're not going to complain. You make do.

This was a commission I did a week or so ago. You can get one like it by ordering one here. If you want.

Been super busy. Work steadily progresses on the Missile Mouse graphic novel. I'm trying to ink 2 pages a night, which at times is difficult, but satisfying to know I'm staying on track. When I announced I was working on this book I said I'd post some designs and concept work to tide us over until the release of the book. Next week I plan to deliver on that promise. I'll begin posting some character designs and background info on the key players in the book. So stay tuned.

Sniper Rifle

2008-09-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

This is a recent Missile Mouse commission I did. MM is armed with the Plasmatic CS-53*. The official sniper rifle of the Galactic Security Agency. It's a plasma based weapons system hence the coolant canister attached to the underside of the rifle.

*CS stands for Clean Shot and 53 represents the rifle's model number in that series.

Packin' Heat

2008-09-13T19:11:00.000-07:00

I drew this as a type of model sheet for me to refer to as I draw Missile Mouse over and over and over again for the graphic novel. I pretty much have him down pat and could draw him in my sleep, but still it's good to keep this in front of me to make sure I don't stray too far from what the original design is.

Missile Mouse Graphic Novel

2008-08-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to announce that I'm working on Missile Mouse's first graphic novel: The Star Crusher. Publishers Weekly has the details here:

Jake Parker Two-Book Pact
The Flight generation—cartoonists included in artist/editor Kazu Kuibishi’s acclaimed anthology of color comics—continues to prosper in the new graphic novel era. Cartoonist/animator Jake Parker has signed a two book deal with Graphix, Scholastic’s graphic novel imprint, to produce two graphic novels starring Missile Mouse, a cute crime fighting mouse character that will star in Parker’s two sci-fi adventure graphic novels.The deal was negotiated by agent Judy Hansen of the Hansen Literary Agency. Missile Mouse was introduced earlier this year in Flight Explorer, an anthology based on Flight with comics created for young readers, published by Villard. Missile Mouse: The Star Crusher, the first of the two graphic novels, will be published in 2010. Parker’s work has also appeared in Out of Picture, another color comics anthology that collects the comics works of animator that is also published by Random House/Villard.

So that's what's replaced my social life for the past 6 months, and why I've had Missile Mouse on the brain so much lately. I'm super stoked to be doing this book. The more I live in the Missile Mouse universe as I create and draw it the more I want to share it with everyone. I know 2010 is a long way off, but I'll be posting little works in progress, concept art, and few pages here and there as we barrel towards the release date. To start off here's one of the panels from early on in the book:

Ungulate

2008-07-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a speeder just isn't a reliable form of transportation. In which case using indigenous creatures suitable for riding is the preferred alternative. Here MM has found some sort of double toed ungulate that seems to be part fungus and part slug.

Missile Launcher

2008-07-17T19:09:00.000-07:00

Another Missile Mouse drawing. I'm going to have to start coloring these at some point.

Speeder Ball

2008-06-23T19:08:00.000-07:00

A Galactic Security Agent is trained to be expertly proficient in handling all kinds of vehicles. From sophisticated fighter ships to your average commuter speeder there's nothing they can't turn into an efficient pursuit vehicle. However, if given the choice, I don't think Missile Mouse would have picked the Speeder Ball SB5 as a get away vehicle. It's handling is poor, acceleration rivals that of a Gorgonian sand slug, and it's noisy. But when you're in a pinch some things have to suffice.

Double Gun Jump

2008-06-17T19:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks again to all of you who ordered the sketchbooks. You should have received them by now. They were fun to sketch in and I hope you like the sketch you got.

I did this drawing tonight to wind down. I was so tired I didn't want to draw it. But once my hand started sketching I couldn't stop and it gave me a little art boost of energy. I love it when I get those.

Bug Monster

2008-05-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

Missile Mouse rigged this electrocution staff to work with a standard fusion generator, since he couldn't find any fully charged batteries for the thing. This will amp up it's power by a good 500% turning it from a stun device to a lethal weapon. One powerful enough to take out the bug monsters he keeps running into on this planet.

I drew this while talking on the phone with my friend today. We had a nice conversation ranging from the effectiveness of using flashbacks as a plot device to slavery and the founding fathers. It's always a treat when Kohl calls.

Serpent Monster

2008-05-28T19:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks to those of you who ordered the Art Digest. If you like any of the stuff here on my site I'm pretty sure you're going to like the book.

I hadn't drawn a finished inked Missile Mouse in a couple weeks so I took a few moments today to do this drawing just to keep my reflexes sharp. MM climbed to the top of this rock formation to see if he could get his bearings straight on this new planet he discovered. Little did he know that he disturbed a sleeping serpent who made a home in a comfortable crevice atop this precarious perch.

Special thanks goes to my 7th grade English teacher, Ms. Glenn, who taught me the alluring art of alliteration.

Flight Explorer, Missile Mouse, and Language

2008-04-15T19:05:00.000-07:00

Over at All Ages Reads they give a nice review for Flight Explorer. However she brought up a good point about the language in my Missile Mouse story and it's appropriateness for the classroom. In Tracy's review she says:

"On the Flight blog, Kazu wrote, “After hearing from many booksellers and librarians that there weren’t very many high quality all-ages comics available for their youngest readers, we decided that a volume of Flight containing only the stories with the youngest readers in mind would be a great solution to the problem.” Hurray! What a fabulous idea!

Um, well, it would have been, with one – actually two – very small exceptions. While the stories in Flight Explorer are imaginative, colorful, well-written, and appeal to not only kids but to everyone, I cannot bring it into my classroom or give it to the school library.

In the story Missile Mouse, the eponymous character says, “Holy crap!” and “Oh crap.” That’s it. The same word, used twice, has cut this book out of many classrooms and libraries in America."

I regret that word is in there. When I wrote and drew Missile Mouse it was originally for FLIGHT 4, a book popular with teenagers, college kids and adults. When Volume 4 got too cumbersome Kazu felt this would be the perfect time to make EXPLORER (an idea a lot of us had been pushing for since the first few volumes of Flight came out) with the stories he felt were best suited for younger audiences. My Missile Mouse story was one of the stories chosen for the book and because I was so focused on other stuff I didn't think to go back through and recheck the content for a kid audience. It wasn't until last week when I ordered the book off Amazon (still haven't received my comps) that a coworker was reading through it and said "Hey there's the word crap in here, you don't mind you kids reading that word?" I couldn't believe it. She passed me the book and there it was, I had totally forgot about it. Then after reading through it again I found the second crap, again totally forgetting it was there too. Had I remembered this I would've changed it to "cripes!" or "trousers!" or something funnier. I'm going to push changing the two craps in the second printing of the book.

Anyway, in the bigger scope of things kids have their whole lives to be adults. Anything I can do to protect their innocence is a net gain for society. Because children who are allowed to be children grow up to be adults who act like adults. That's why as creators for children we should be mindful of what we are creating for them.

Monster Evolution 02

2008-04-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

Here's the last batch of sketches for this monster. As you can see for a little while there I toyed with giving him legs, but they just didn't seem to fit with what the monster will be doing in the story. "A" and "B" felt a little too serious, and "F" was a little too obscene. So I settled on "G." It's a more refined version of where I was going with "X" in the previous batch. I would have loved to have spent another week on this guy's design, but I have a schedule to keep in order to finish this story on time.

Monster Evolution

2008-04-08T19:03:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks I've been trying to come up with a space monster design for Missile Mouse. These are pages from my sketchbook showing the evolution of the beast from "A" in the first image to "X" on the last image. I want the monster to be alien and sluggish, but I feel like all of these skew a little too the goofy side of the spectrum. I feel like it needs to look like a more formidable opponent. Maybe I'll change my mind, but for now I'm not quite satisfied. I'll post another batch of designs when I get closer to the design I want.

Flight Explorer In Stores

2008-04-04T18:50:00.000-07:00

While I haven't seen it personally in stores (neither the Barnes and Noble, nor the Borders near me have ordered it) I do know that Flight Explorer is in stores as of last week. I bought mine from Amazon and was super stoked to be finally holding it in my hands. Each story in this book is a little gem. These guys are all the best of the best from the Flight series and pulled out all the stops for Explorer. The book is also a bit smaller than the Flight books. It's more of a digest size and I can see it fitting snugly in a backpack or bookbag. If you have a son, daughter, niece, or nephew pick up a copy for them. I think of it as a gateway comic, perfect for exposing kids to the world of graphic story telling.

The Karonians

2008-04-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

Planet T13-006, as it is known in the Galactic Security Agency's archives, is inhabited by a primitive society of humanoids called the Karonians. Strong, stout, and adaptive, the Karonians have manged to survive and even thrive on a exceptionally hostile planet. In my story for Flight Explorer, Missile Mouse crash lands on this planet and meets Kumo a Karonian sent from his village to search the deserts for food.

Karonians have two enormous fleshy lobes that extend out the back of the head. These store fatty deposits allowing Karonians to survive weeks with out water or food. Karonians also have a tale which is used for balance.

Kumo is outfitted for the hunt. His garb is minimal so as to not interfere with the active nature of tracking, shooting, and retrieving the kill. He carries a leather quiver (A) with 7-8 arrows in it. The arrows (B) are made of hard and light swamp reed. The point is sharpened bone. The chemicrifle (C) is an ingenious device that exhibits the intelligence of the Karonian race. The sphere houses chemicals that when combined during trigger release create an explosion expelling the arrow out the barrel. His dagger and sheath (D,E) is more utilitarian, than defensive. The sharpened bone blade is lightweight and strong.

Kumo's village is strategically located between a mountain range and a small forest of massive trees. The mountains provide protection from the fierce desert winds. The trees provide shade, shelter, and nourishment. The village consists of several thousand people and is lead by a Prophet Seer. He provides direction, council, and judgment for the people of the village. The village is also protected by a Guardian. The Guardian is a warrior chosen by the Prophet to protect the people from outside threats. Among the Prophet's prophecies is the coming of a new Guardian that would deliver their village from the clutches of an evil demon. The demon, having killed the bravest of the village, has left them without a Guardian. When Kumo finds Missile Mouse amongst the twisted wreckage of his crashed fighter craft, it is the fulfillment of prophecy and an exciting yet sacred moment for him.

Links: Flight Explorer

Fighter Design 02

2008-03-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

Previous post: Missile Mouse - Fighter Design 01

Early on in my Missile Mouse story for Flight Explorer, MM's ship gets badly damaged and he has to bring it down. Normally he would have been able to land the thing without any extra damage to the ship. However, the ship's hydraulics were blown out and he couldn't switch to atmospheric mode. The resulting drag on the ship made nearly impossible to make a smooth landing.

atmospheric mode

In space mode the craft is open to allow ventilation and cooling for various high performance components.

space mode

Links: Missile Mouse - Fighter Design 01
Flight Explorer

Missile Mouse Pin Up

2008-03-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

I was invited to give a demonstration at Kids' Comic Con down in the Bronx next weekend. Unfortunately, I have a scheduling conflict and I can't make it. However, I offered to do a Missile Mouse pin up for them to give to one of the kids. They accepted and this is what I drew:

If you're in town and you have a kid, Kids' Comic Con is the perfect place to expose them to comics in a friendly age appropriate environment. With comics professionals in attendance, workshops, exhibits, panels and more I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday with your kid.

Link: Kids' Comic Con

The Cephalodians

2008-03-20T18:39:00.000-07:00

The Cephalodians are an aggressive and competitive race in the Missile Mouse universe. 90% of their planet is covered with shallow warm oceans. This resulted in a large amount of biodiversity, and consequently extreme survival instincts developed in it's inhabitants. Being the most evolved life form on the planet the Cephalodians have a high degree of intelligence. They were one of the earliest races in the galaxy to explore space. Towards the end of my Missile Mouse story in Flight Explorer we meet one such Cephalodian: Gorgo.

Gorgo has an ax to grind with the Galactic Security Agency and would love to knock off one it's agents. Specifically Missile Mouse, who, more than once, has foiled his diabolical plans.

Below is a Cephalodian Commando Droid. Gorgo got his hands on the latest model, the C-12. At nearly twice the size and 4 times the blast power the C-12 is the most powerful CCD Missile Mouse has ever encountered. However, bigger, does not mean better, and Missile Mouse realizes that he is able to exploit one of the CCD's engineering flaws. A small exhaust valve in the back of its head leads directly to the central fuel cells. A perfect shot could easily bring this otherwise formidable warrior down.

In designing the Cephalodians I found that I wanted a unifying shape that made them and their technology easy to identify. I find that when designing anything, using bold, recognizable shapes can go a long way. Block those in and then add the details on top, aways making sure the little stuff doesn't over power the core shape of the design. Can you guess what shape I chose to help identify the Cephalodians?

Below are a couple of pages from my sketchbook with my initial thoughts about where these designs should go. At first I thought it would be cool if the robot that attacks MM transformed from a box. A nice idea, but didn't seem alien enough. (I might still use that idea later though.)

Here's the sketches for Gorgo. Since I design the CCD first and gave it one big eye, I thought it would be cool to apply that to the design of the species that designed the CCD.

Link: Flight Explorer

Fighter Design

2008-03-17T18:31:00.000-07:00

Any boy who grew up in the 80s knows his fighter jets. With movies like Top Gun, D.A.R.Y.L., Iron Eagle in theaters, and RoboTech on television how could you not fall in love with jets? Because the boy from my youth is still alive and well somewhere in my head I never abandoned my love for cool fighter jets. When it came time to design Missile Mouse's space ship for the story I did for Flight Explorer I relished the opportunity. I wanted the space ship to have one foot in reality and another foot in space fiction. A big influence on the design for the ship was the ultra-sweet F-22 Raptor. Not only is it the most formidable air craft ever made but it's flat out beautiful. A favorite quote of mine comes from Ben Rich the successor to Skunk Works founder Kelly Johnson. He said, "All of us had been trained by Kelly Johnson and believed fanatically in his insistence that an airplane that looked beautiful would fly the same way." How true. Just compare the way the elegant and sleek SR-71 flew to the way the angular and harsh F-117. Likewise, the F-22 looks fast and surgical, and is supersonic and extremely precise.

Though I didn't work straight from any reference photos of the F-22, it was still in my the back of my head as I began sketching out ideas. Here you can see how the forms and shapes evolved:

This is the final design. You can see some elements of the F-22 made an impression on it. In the end though it had to feel futuristic and spaceship like, and not just a jet fighter variant. I'm pleased with the design. It was almost a pity to have MM crash it into a planet with in the first 3 pages of my story.

Links:

Sweet 80's goodness: Top Gun D.A.R.Y.L. Iron Eagle RoboTech

The comic: Flight Explorer

Jets: F-22 Raptor SR-71 F-117 Skunk Works

The geniuses: Ben Rich Kelly Johnson

Missile Mouse Pin-Up

2008-02-08T07:31:00.001-08:00

Here's a little Pin-up with Missile Mouse. See more here: www.agent44.com.