March 30th, 2006
XEKO
at Emerald City Comicon
One
of the project I'll be premiering at the Emerald
City Comicon (April 1-2) is the trading
card game XEKO for
which I created the majority
of the illustrations (with additional art from
Dean Yeagle, Edward Pun and Travis Kotzebue). I'll
be posting some art samples in the coming weeks
as
the game
gets
its official release in May. In the meantime,
come by our booth, get a preview, and be the first
to own it! Here's a 5' x 3' banner I just created
for our booth:
Click
here for larger view.
March 24th, 2006
April's
Previews
Just
want to let everyone know that ZED
#7 is soliciting
in the April issue of Diamond's
Previews.
It's on page 293 under Gagne International Press. 
Please
let your comics retailer know about it and
tell them
to order a bunch. ZED
#5 and #6 as
well as
ZED:
Vol. 1 (compiling the first four
issues) are still available from Diamond.
Here are
the ordering numbers:
ZED #5 - FEB052857
ZED
#6 - APR052910
ZED:
Volume 1 SC - STAR17110
ZED:
Volume 1 HC - STAR17109
Flight
Volume 3 is also soliciting on page
245,
accompanied by a full-page ad on page
267. I contributed
a
28-page story for it which I'm very proud
of. The whole book is absolutely fantastic so make
sure you let your comics retailer know about
this one as well.
March 21st, 2006
www.gagneint.com
is 5 years old!
I
can't believe it's
already been 5 years since I started this website.
The
site has been through many incarnations, as I constantly
learn new ways of improving it.
Looking at the archives, I'm amazed at how primitive
and utterly unappealing it looked when
I started.
Check
out my first entries. You're probably
wondering why there was no pictures with
the text. The reason is simple: I didn't know how
to
integrate
them! That's how minimal
my technical knowledge was at the time.
I've come a long way.
Click
here to see the original
homepage (the news page
and homepage used to be two seperate entities.
I decided to combine both in April
2005).
March 18th, 2006
Animation
Clip for NBA Score Board
For
a big chunk of 2005, I was involved in designing
a trading card game called XEKO (which
will officially premiere in May).
I created the majority of the card illustrations,
as well as designing several of the games components
(icons, borders, box and packaging elements, etc...).
I just received some advance copies and
it
looks
great!
(Copyright ©2006
Matter Group)
A
couple of weeks ago, I was asked if I could create
a 7-second animation loop (featuring
one of the Xeko character I designed) for the
score board at the March 19th, NBA's The
Cavalier vs The
Lakers game. The idea
is to promote the XEKO game as well
as getting
the crowd pumped up as the little character bops
up and down during breaks and commercials. I took
on the task and immediately contacted Flash
animator Mike Hogue (Insanely Twisted Shadow
Puppets) to
help me create the piece.
The
clip is silent so different
music can be played over it (that's the way
they wanted it).
Click
here to view the movie.
Click
here to visit the official XEKO website.
March 15th, 2006
The
Unicorn Show
Opening
reception: Saturday, March 18, 2006 (7pm-11pm)
Click
here for more information.
March 8th, 2006
Odd
Numbers makes Bud Plant's bestseller list!
While
perusing through the new Bud Plant catalog, I was
delighted to see that one of my books made the 2005
Bestseller List. Odd
Numbers ranked #8 in the "Children's Books
and Illustration" category.
Bud
Plant has a wonderful printed catalog that caters
to art/comic/illustration enthusiasts. Bud reviews
each item with expertise. I love his catalog. Check
out his equally excellent website!
On
a side note: I designed the illustration on Bud
Plant's mailing envellope a few months ago. You
can view it here.
March 5th, 2006
The
Trilobite Show
Here's
a two-man gallery show I'm putting together with
my pal Andrew Scott. We're planning the show for
later this year or maybe early next year. I'll
keep you posted. Click
here to check it out!
March 4th, 2006
Hideous
Pet Tricks
A
few days ago, I lectured to a bunch of enthusiastic
students at the Oak Harbor High School. A few hours
later, I received this email from Henry Aesoph
(the student
who "shadowed" me a couple of years ago):
Subject:
Hi Michel
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006
HI!
it's Henry Aesoph
Thanks for coming to the school- it was great to
see you and all your stuff again, and I think all
the other kids loved it! I was just wondering- we
found a little one - page comic in one of the binders
that we all loved- I think it was "hideous pet
tricks" Do you have this on your computer? because
if you do it would be great if you could email us
a copy. See you at comiccon!
Glad
you had fun Henry! Well, I did some digging and
unearthed the sick little gem (originally created
for Animation Blast magazine #8). Click
here to read but beware, it's not for the faint
of heart ;)
March 3rd, 2006
I
AM 8-BIT
Here
are two pieces I created for Gallery
1988's upcoming "I
am 8-Bit" show.
Click here
for larger view.
Click
here for larger view.
March 1st, 2006
A
logo I designed at the age of 9.
A
friend of my mine, whom I haven't seen in nearly
30 years, sent me a bunch of pictures from the
small town where I grew up: St-Félicien,
Québec, Canada.
Photo: Jean Guillaume
Among
the pictures was a sign for a lady's store which
used to be owned by my mother in the mid 70s. 
It
was fun to see that the logo I designed so long
ago (at the age of nine) is still being used. It
was my first commision, sort of.
