It’s been an insanely busy few weeks at the Current offices. In addition to putting out the weekly edition, we also produced an 88-page glossy magazine devoted to local cuisine, called Flavor, in a little under a week. Needless to say, when trying to convey just the right shade of panic and stress in last week’s cover illustration, I had plenty of personal insight. (Kidding … mostly.) As for the drawing style, I’ve been reading a lot of Dan Clowes lately (just got his new book, The Death Ray — another excellent work), and the wrinkles, wall-eyes, sweat beads, and protruding tongue can probably be traced back to R. Crumb (like most everything can be). I originally wanted to hand-letter the entire cover, but the time-crunch dictated that I only draw the flaming Current logo. Overall I’m happy with the piece. Flavor-related post coming later this week — stay tuned.

Concept sketch (including last week’s cover concept sketch), and b/w line art:

Miranda Studios — the hardest-working videographer in San Antonio — shot a sweet video recap of my recent Second Saturday art show at LoneStar Studios. Check it out! (And watch for the amazing Marvel Films-style intro, which might be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen).

Everyone involved with the event did an awesome job, and they deserve a huge “thank you” on the internets: LoneStar owner Sean Fitzgibbons, Current publisher Michael Wagner, Current editor Greg Harman, Chuck Maurer at Alternative Ink (who produced the gorgeous prints), Andy Benavides, Say.She.Ate gourmet food truck, Rocker Dogz, Nicolette Good and Jesse Basham, Travis Simpson, my bandmates in Bad Breaks, illustrator Alex Fine (who drew the kickass Jackie Earle Haley/Rorschach illo featured in the video), and Justin Parr. And, of course, big thanks to everyone who came to the show — especially if you went home with a cover.

Illustrator Brian Taylor (who has some great work you should check out) just posted this on his Facebook page and I just had to share it. These minimalist superhero-themed flags, created by Fabian Gonzalez, are perfect reductions and further proof of how iconic some of these characters’ designs actually are. I mean, when I see six black triangles on a yellow background I can’t NOT see Wolverine. (Seriously, it’s a condition.) A few of these had me stumped, but I was able to identify almost every character flag pretty much instantly. Fabian has lost of other cool minimal designs (like a Simpsons alphabet), so check them out on his Flickr page.

I really, really wanted to like the Green Lantern film. I’ve been a comic-book fan for most of my life, and while the Green Lantern books weren’t my all-time favorite, I’ve always appreciated the character. The central themes of courage vs. fear are universal — sure, Hal Jordan’s ring is a versatile, powerful weapon, but it’s driven by his own courage and willpower. Essentially, Green Lantern’s super-ability is his force of will, which is pretty cool. Plus, the silver-age GL uniform, designed by Gil Kane, is one of the all-time great costume designs, and — along with its iconic, minimalist logo — has never been improved on.

The Green Lantern film makes attempts to get it right, but throwing the surface elements on the screen without an exciting — or even functional — story cripples the movie when it should be doing green somersaults. Everybody’s playing it straight, but not a single beat goes by that carries anything remotely resembling tension or drama. Characters are barely introduced (I can’t even remember the name of Hal’s bespectacled friend), and motivations aren’t even really sketched out making it tough to care about who’s fighting who. The final showdown between GL and the evil, possessed Dr. Hector Hammond (played by Peter Sarsgaard) lacked sizzle, partly because Hammond and Jordan barely even had a scene together beforehand, and partly because Hammond reminded me way, way too much of Jeffrey Jones’s evil, possessed Dr. Walter Jenning from Howard the Duck.

Howard. The. Duck.

‘Nuff said. Check out the full review over at sacurrent.com.