Not as exciting as art but...

A short summary of a talk I gave on the life and lot of the comicker to the Sequential arts illustration students at Max The Mutt Animation school.

http://www.maxthemutt.com/blog/index.php/2008/10/27/guest-speaker-kalman-andrasofszky-comic-book-illustrator/

Max the Mutt is, to my knowledge, the only school offering any kind of hands-on Sequential art/graphic novel/comics illustration program in Canada. It's pretty cool that they're in my hometown.

I'll also be teaching there next semester, but that's a tale for another day...

The Force Unleashed

A long time ago, but not so very far away (it was right here, in fact,) I did some interior art for the new edition of the Star Wars RPG. All was quiet for a long time, but earlier today I got a handsome FEDEX box with some comp copies of the book, which apparently is called The Force Unleashed (on sale now!), so I guess it's safe to post.

Also, please note the change in email address. As of today any mail should be sent to evilkalman@gmail.com as the old mail, the horhaus mail, no longer works, and any correspondence sent there will go spinning off into a yawning black void.

Queen Takes Pawn

So I'm burning the midnight oil tonight, which is not at all unusual, but it makes for a nice opener. NYX #3 is out this Wednesday at finer comics selling establishments. In honour of that fact, I'm posting nothing at all to do with NYX!

Even after all this time, I haven't added my Checkmate cover run to my gallery. Yeah, I'll cop -- I'm lazy, and way more concerned with drawing new things, but since I can't post new things here yet, here's a tast of that run, out from the archives.





Checkmate marked my first regular comics gig working on something I actually enjoyed as a reader (NYX is the second such gig), so it was an important turning point, at least for me. The cover to #21 (second from the bottom here) is probably my favorite image from the run.

Shazap!

So under the gun...

That's where I've been, under a big, black, heavy gun.

While doing a bit of, um, research today I stumbled across this video review for NYX #1, so I thought I'd throw it up here so there'd be something this month.

This guy says some really nice things about Marjorie, and about Joe Q, and, well, everyone but me...

But who has time to be bitter when you're wrestling guns?



Also: Best song ever. For now.



Also also: Redecorated.

Toronto Fan EXPO

Happening this weekend, August 22-24 at the Metro Convention center. I'll be there, along with all my RAID studio cronies. I'll be doing sketches and commissions (like the one pictured above) and I'll be sporting the usual array of goodies too - prints, original art, comics, and also some extra-special NYX mystery merchandise.

Come say hi.

Hadoken!

So, as you may or may not know, Street Fighter is 20 years old this year.

Yeah, I know, this fact sent me straight to the mirror looking for crow's feet too.

At any rate, to celebrate this momentous anniversary, and possibly stave off any uncomfortable self reflections it may dredge up, UDON, that notorious Toronto art collective is releasing a huge anthology art book of various artists' interpretations of the SF characters and their world. It's entitled Street Fighter Tribute and you can learn more about it here.

Why am I shilling for UDON and their book? Because I'm in it. See pic above. I was a total Street Fighter II fiend as a kid (although I pretty much sucked at it --no taste for blood, me) so I jumped at the chance to contribute, and decided to do a re-interpretation of the fight between Chun Li and Vega (or Balrog for the hardcore) as seen in the first SFII animated film, a sequence that's totally stayed with me over the *choke* years.

And yes, I do know that Chun Li doesn't actually hadoken, you nerds...

A note on the scarf...

So I received a letter from an NYX reader with an unusual question today. He was kind enough to let me post his email, along with my answer, which will hopefully serve to allay any similar concerns anyone out there may have.

The email:

Hello Kalman,

I just picked up the latest issue of NYX, in which you were the artist, and was a little concerned to see Kiden wearing a keffiyah, a show of solidarity with Palestinian terrorism. Was this your intention or is this a misunderstanding?

I look forward to hearing back from you
-Dan

And my response:

Hey Dan,

Thanks for picking up the book, and for writing.

There is absolutely no political agenda at work here. Whatever the keffiyah may mean to Palestinians, or to you, or to Israelis etc., it's undeniable that here in North America it has become a ubiquitous fashion item among urban teen hipsters. I'm not really able to speak for said hipsters, but I'm certain 99% of them are against terrorism of any kind, Palestinian or otherwise. As am I, for the record.

My decision to dress Kiden in this scarf, simply boils down to the fact that she is an urban teen hipster, and I made her fashion choices reflect her time and her subculture. It's pretty safe to say that if asked, Kiden would have no sympathy for terrorism in any form. Furthermore, she, like most urban teen hipsters, would probably be unaware and unconcerned with the issues of the Middle East, and probably equally unaware of the origins of, what to her and her peers, is an apolitical fashion accessory.

All the best,
-Kalman

And there you have it.

This is the day, this is the hour...

This is it kids! Out this Wednesday August 6th at your LCS (as the nerdvine calls it -- see how I did that?), NYX: No Way Home #1.

Pick it up, give it a flip, let me know how you like it.

Arkham Knight

So I've been hearing whispers through the nerd-grapevine (the nerdvine?) that my Heroclix booster art has finally been posted in the Heroclix regions of the interweb. And I'm here to tell you that it's true. The images are out there, so now they can be here too.





The top version was what I originally submitted. The bottom version was what they wanted. The middle version was our compromise. The bottom version is what they went with. That's the biz kids, (when you deal with Wiz kids... oh I slay me.) I have to say, despite my trepidation about ALL THAT WHITE overpowering the characters and drawing the eye to all the wrong spots, it actually looks pretty good on the final package.

Crank-tastic

So I found myself on the crankcast earlier this week, much to my surprise.

Hold on, the what?

The crankcast, the comics/ramble podcast put on by stalwart mensches Mike Norton and Chris Crank. If you're at all curious what three nerds like us could possibly talk about for an hour-and-a-half, you can stream the 94 minute monster, or simply subscribe through itunes.

'Cause I'm not going to tell you here.

Oh, and for the record, that's NOT a picture of me on the crankcast site, next to the relevant post (It's Nigel Kneale, actually.)

But I'm kind of wishing it was... maybe it's time to shave the beard and bring the burns back...

You saw it here first...!

...unless you didn't.

Presenting the lovely variant cover for NYX #1 by the equally lovely and talented Jo Chen...

*Drool* Yet another excellent reason to buy this book, people.

In other news I'll be at the Paradise Toronto Comicon this coming weekend of July 12th and 13th. It's being held at the Holiday Inn on the corner of King and Peter St. Come by, say hi, and thumb through an issue+ of yet unseen NYX art.

The Rip

Brilliant brilliant song. Brilliant brilliant video.
This track was an immediate stand-out for me on Portishead's new THIRD album, but recently it's crept back into heavy rotation. And since I can't share the things I'm drawing...

NYX preview art

At last! Huzzah! W00t w00t!








All right, all right. I know I promised you art here first and then got scooped by Newsarama, but look there's art here now. All of the art from that interview, in fact. Which, incidentally, seems to have vanished off the Newsarama servers, at least for today.
But you gotta cut me some slack, because the reason I haven't been posting, is that I've been drawing, and really, you'd rather have me doing that, wouldn't you?

So here I am working hard to save you clicks. And if you did click over there and find nothing but red X's where the art should be, well I sincerely apologize on behalf of Newsarama.

But we're still friends, right?

More NYX Press, this time with art...

A whole new interview about NYX, with pretty much everyone involved in it but me (not bitter, just sayin'), just went up at newsarama.com. Check it here.

The best part is that they posted like 6 pages along with it. That last one I handed in just yesterday...

Hulk... shoot?!!?

So our entire studio (along with some friends of the 'family') got tapped by the Paradise Convention people to do badge art for their upcoming show, and since Herb Trimpe is the guest of honour, the order of the day was all things Hulk.

I chose the new red Hulk, and didn't get even the tiniest bit of ridicule from my mates, much to my surprise.

Now it's no secret that one of the things I hate to draw most are guns (right after chains, cars, and hands, in that order) and I quickly realised that that being the case, I chose the wrong Hulk, but there you go.

Still, it was really satisfying to take a piece from start to finish in a matter of a couple of hours. No sketch approval, no elaborate camera angles, just me, my pen, and the Hulk.

And his gun.

Midnights

Or Minuits, if you're French.

The character designs that follow were done while galavanting around Argentina for five weeks in January of this year. The project (See above title, in the language of your choice) is a sci-fi/spy-fi series set in near-future Hong Kong. The creator and writer is the always effervescent Sebastien Latour. The format is Bande Desinee, french-language graphic album. And the mad rush that necessitated drawing in hotels and cabins was in order to get art together for the pitch session in Angouleme.





The project did indeed find a home, but ultimately morphed into a quarterly anthology series. I may still possibly draw a volume next year if all the ducks line up, but at this point someone else will be designing the cast, which, as I understand it, has undergone some major revisions anyway.
Which means you guys get to see art.

Some NYX Press...

IGN has posted a brief roundtable interview with the whole NYX 2.0 gang. Check it here.

No new art there though.

Just sayin'.

For that you're going to have to keep on coming back here.

NYX in NYC

So I'm back from New York in one piece (mostly).

It was announced Friday at the Mondo Marvel panel that there is a new NYX series slated for August release, and that I'm doing it. The preview page above was colored by the magnificent John Rauch, who will be coloring the entire series, and the writer is Marjorie Liu, a paranormal romance author new to comics. You can find out more about these fine folks under the collaborators heading.

I'm a good chunk into issue 1, and I'm finding the nuts and bolts of this project to be satisfying in a way that none of my previous work-for-hire has been. I guess I just find cute, hip teenage girls more fun to draw than angry men punching each other. Who knew?

The whole studio went down, and we even arranged a few days on either side of the show to spend some time in New York. Last year we did the usual con hit-and-run thing, hardly left the vicinity of the Javitz, and came home asking ourselves if we'd even been to New York.

Some highlights of awesome from the trip:

• Porter airlines- Upstart commuter airline flying out of downtown Toronto. We decided to give it a try. No $50 cab ride to the sticks, no line ups, no bullshit, complementary wi-fi and continental breakfast in the lounge, as well as fantastic graphic design. A++
  
• Clement Sauve's Pantheon City Pencils- I could have spent all three days just staring at them.
  
• Drinking with Kwanza- I could elaborate here, but it's very simple really, Dude introduced us to some fantastic people, and some fantastic bars.
• Galaxy Rangers out on DVD- We never got this in Canada, but every visit to the states I made sure to catch an episode. Now I can have them all.
  

The Unkown - Teen Love in Space

I just finished this piece of cover art yesterday, and I thought I'd post it, since that's what blogs are for. It was commissioned by writer Len Kody, it's for his sci-fi/horror/teen-angst project The Unkown. See detail below.

I'm in a maelstrom of angst myself as I desperately try to get half an issue in the can before I head off for the New York Comicon next week. Half an issue of what, you ask? Sorry, I can't tell you. I hate to be a douche, but there it is.

It will be announced at the show though, so at the most you have 7 days of suspense to endure.
I'll give you hint though: It's got mutants in it.

Vampires, Hunters, and Addicts, oh my!

A few months back I was asked to audition for a pencilling job on Marvel's adaptations of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels. Since the series was already underway, they asked me (and the several other artists they approached) to use the existing character designs and even try to emulate the style of the departing series artist.

With my silver tongue, I managed to talk them out of the latter requirement, but could make no headway on the former one. Still, it was a fun couple of days.

I accepted a Countdown-related gender-bender extravaganza for DC shortly after doing these, which put me out of the running. In any case, I don't think my art was to the author's taste.

Ron Lim got the gig.

A little Background

For those of you who don't know me, and have no idea what the last post was all about, please allow me to introduce myself.

I'm a freelance illustrator. I guess I'm best known for my work in comics (Checkmate, ION, Satana, Belle & Sebastian) and role-playing games (Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, D20 Modern), although I've also been known to do editorial illustrations, storyboards, and design work for animation and videogames.

For the last 8 years my main web presence had been under the horhaus.com banner, along with Karl Kerschl, Matt Forsythe, and Brenden Fletcher.

Things, they change. Even though I did finally get to share actual studio space with Karl for about a year there, he's now moved back to Montreal, and I'm here in Toronto kickin' it with the fine people listed over there on the right, under the Studio header. In 2000 having a virtual studio was important. For me atleast it was a lifeline to a world I was struggling to reach for, believe in, and step into fully.

Things, they change.

Fall of the House of Hor

Welcome to my first-ever solo blog.

What happened you ask?

Nothing dramatic, really. Everyone's still friends.

It was just time.

Until I get my pimpin' new site up, my gallery is right where it always was. And this will be my new blog. Does that mean I will post more?

...maybe.

Come on, I'm a comic artist. Any pronouncements I may make about time, timing, future activities, and the volume of said future activities is, well, to be taken lightly at best.

But I'm sitting on a mountain of unposted art. And blogger makes posting art so easy.

And now I have this huge empty blog to fill up.

In the meantime, horhaus.com has morphed into karlkerschl.com, Brenden is making beautiful music at ragni.org, and Matt is still at comingupforair.net. Go check them all out and say 'hi'.