Preview of page 22 of "The Backwoods."
Albertosaurs from an independent project.
Updating the current status. There was no new page of ”The Backwoods” this week for several reasons. Anyway I’ve got a preview of page 22 of The Backwoods that will go up next week, along with a bunch of other work I’ve been…working on. I don’t have much to say today, so I’m just going to throw a bunch of art up.
Over the weekend I had to attend to some family business, meaning I ended up doing my favorite thing in the universe, 
night-boarding. Snowboarding under the luminous glow of a crescent moon was what I did except that there was no moon and it snowed over a foot of the fresh white while surfing the mountain waves that only the Cascades can offer. Yes… it was amazing and needless to say the weekend was fruitless, work wise. So I’ve been hitting the paper hard and fast while trying to refrain from delusions of avalanches and glaciers, evoking emotions that I can only assume are the residual thoughts passed on by some primal ancestor…. Anyway, here are some pencils and what not that I’ve been doing over the last few days.
page 21 preview
At the beginning of the week I was hunkered down with quite a bit of work and once that was wrapped up I decided to focus on making some much-needed updated business cards. So the last two days have been mostly dedicated to design work. It will be interesting to see how the cards actually look when printed up.
I also finished up a commission for a buddy of mine, up in the “last frontier” (AK). He’s a big fan of the video games and had me do this sea dragon thing from, I think, a game called Monster Hunter. I didn’t really care what it was from because the critter was pretty cool looking, and it’s always fun do draw monsters. Anyway, doing this made me realize that I’m about 15 years behind in the video game department. Hell, the wife and I play more NES than anything else. That’s right, my Gray Box from 86′ is still running and running strong. My wife even has an original Atari system still in 
the box back at her parents house. (I wonder what the Ebay bids for that would be?) At some point in the last 10 years I’ve slipped away from the time-wasting grip of the consoles from my youth and present youth and I can’t figure out why. It’s probably due to numerous life factors, but I think it’s mostly because I’m becoming an old man at 27. “Hot dang, I gotta listen to my AM radio programs tonight, it’s gonna be good.”… And yes to those night owls out there, I do listen to Coast-to-Coast if the show meets my fancy, but that is for discussion at a later time.
“Over & Out”
Even though the weekend hasn’t been as fruitful as I’d hoped I figured that this was a good opportunity to post about some past stuff and some new developments. I’ve recently taken a break from working on a personal project of mine (mostly to do some actual paid work) and have been doing a lot of layout work to try and get back into the swing of working on it again. For those of you who know about the project and actually have the time to kill in reading this post here is panel preview of pages to come.
I recently did a concert poster for a Florida based Band called The Flip Flop Boys. They’re a fusion rock-n-roll band that does some pretty wicked covers. If you’re going down to the sunshine state in the next few months check’em out, they’re really cool guys and have excellent taste is art (shameless act of narcissism).
Looking to the future and beyond… I’m in the process of getting prepped for the up and coming convention season by beefin’ up the old portfolio with some fresh fun work to try and tantalize the eyes of onlookers and potential employers. So be aware of newly added 
updates and posts to the “Port of Folio” and other adjacent online galleries. Which reminds me, I’m now on the “Tumblr” and am making a class A effort to tumble as much as possible. You can find it and devote your life to it at: taddgalusha.tumblr.com.
“Over & Out…”
...dragging some dead weight
So today there was no new page of The Backwoods posted for numerous reasons; mostly because I’ve been a bit crunched work wise. Another reason is that I have become more aware of the “holes” in my coloring game. So I’ll be using the week making improvements and adjustments to up that game. Next Wednesday will resume as normal with the posting of page 18. I apologize to everyone who tuned in today, looking forward to wasting a little time on today’s page. But it will be worth it to have better colored pages. I’ve ”tumbled” ( I think that’s what it is called) some previews to next week’s page over on my tumblr page. As well as left a little preview of things to come on this page. Again, sorry everyone; I will work harder. Remember to get your Thursday Bronson fix, most docs agree that it helps regulate chemical levels within the brain, but check with a doctor if you are currently taking other medications.
“Over & Out”
From line art to finished illustration
I’ve been real lazy with the whole blog thing, so my resolution this year is to be more regular… with my postings (I get plenty of fiber). Besides working on the Backwoods I’ve also been fiddlin’ around with some illustration stuff. I spent a good portion of January wallowing in the Hawaiian surf and it gave me some inspiration to try for an illustration that I turned into a coloring experiment. I kept thinking about those old Hostess commercials from the mid 90′s.
I’ve also been busy working for truefin.com on a web series the called the Rural Rate. It’s a comedic strip infused with a basis of financial education. Nothing technical, just day to day type stuff, but its been a lot of fun to work on. I get to draw a bunch of cute little critters digging through garbage while expressing their at hand financial follies.
Panel from page 6 of The Rural Rate.
During my January trip I acquired a boat load of new books. My favorite so far has been this book “The Tiger” by John Vaillant. How can I describe it… it’s 200 years of Russian politics, environmentalism, economics, and folklore all encased in a true life murder mystery where a tiger hunts down specific targets. It’s a beefy read in some parts, but its totally worth it when they start investigating the motives and methods the tiger uses in the slayings. Strong recommend as a bed time story for those of you with young children.
Other than that just been drawing stuff and occasionally writing and, of course, watching Bronson flicks. In my house it’s called Bronson Thursdays. Where we watch Mr. Bronson do what he does best; this week we’re watching Hard Times, which happens to win my award for “Greatest Movie Ever Conceived By Man”. Some people may disagree with this entitlement, such as my, oh so lovely, wife, but those individuals are free to their own thoughts. In short, the movie is awesome and I strongly recommend it to anyone who even has the slightest level of interest in the rough and tumble world of 1930′s Orleans bare knuckle boxing.
… My wife has forced me to sit down and talk about myself, again. This will be my second blog entry, which from what I’ve been told is very sad and a bit pathetic on my part. Before I start rambling on about the deepest darkest workings of my inner-mind I would like to thank all the people who have gone and supported The Backwoods. It really makes me happy to know that there are dedicated individuals out there, like Mr. Frank, who wake from their slumber as the first slivers of light touch the Appalachian peaks on those early Wednesday mornings and rush to their computer screens to view the newest page. If it weren’t for the absurd amounts of animal vehemence that plague my being, I would shed tears. Tears of joy. So in honor of those followers, patrons, and friends of The Backwoods I give you a bit preview of next week’s post.
Again I want to thank everyone for their interest and support. Things will start getting crazier as we progress deeper into the first chapter. Other than that, there isn’t much more to report. I have a few irons in the fire, but nothing worth talking about yet. I have the fortune of spending the holiday season in Hawaii with my wife, which will be a nice change from the gray and gloom of the Northwest. Not sayin’ I don’t like it, it will just be a nice change of pace. There should be some new gallery additions coming to the site that I hope everyone will enjoy.
…Lately Yeti, Sasquatch, Yowie, Bukwas, or as most know him Bigfoot has been the topic of discussion within my dwelling. This is nothing new or out of the ordinary, but recently my wife forced me to purchase a documentary focused on the Yeti. She, of course, will deny this, but let’s just say I bought it. Anyway, the film boasted that its focus was on an expedition in the late 30′s that was organized and financed by the Hitler and the Third Reich to find the Yeti of lore and use it to help create their Aryan super soldiers. Now the documentary was total crap, it was just a reedited version of a ’54 film called The Snow Creature (which is a cheap rip-off of a ’53 Hammer film, The Abominable Snowman). Now this is all really beside the point. What’s really important, is the fact that this expedition actually took place and was an actual mission carried out under Hitler’s orders, which the reportedly proved that the Yeti did in fact exist. Whether you believe that the Yeti does or doesn’t exist, it still makes for an awesome story. Now you can understand our broken hearts over the shitiness of “my” purchase. But I kept finding myself wondering why somebody hasn’t done something concerning this. It would make for an awesome something! After a few days of ravenous sweeps of the inter-webs and coming up empty handed, I’ve taken it upon myself not let this amazing act of insanity go to waste. I’ve started writing a bit of a short story concerning this project and lets just leave it at that for now. If anyone out there does happen to know of any media concerning this little crazed Nazi adventure, please let me know of it.
Thanks again to every one, but I’m all out.
I normally don’t like writing blog posts, but my wife is insisting that I make a blog entry instead of making a gruff announcement to her in our living room about my work. The Backwoods is moving along and is really going to start getting weird in the next few pages. Ulysses is going to find himself on a cutting table and his dog will be encountering strange beings…other than that people are going to have to keep tuning in to find out the details. Right now I’m working on a few more projects, like a new header for the website, which I’m in the middle of inking. I’m also working on a short story in a different style that’s a little darker than my usual stuff. Here are some concept sketches that I did of the main character. The short is only about 10 pages long, but should be a lot of fun from start to finish.
I have a lot of different stuff laid out, so hopefully there will be way too many updates made before the new year. I really hate making these blog posts. Maybe I should start reading other peoples blogs so I can get better about addressing a nonexistent audience.
I’ve been doing a lot of work on my Dinosaur graphic novel and despite efforts to avoid the mistakes that I feared making most, I think that I have possibly made those mistakes. Not that it really matters since it is a fictional work and written purely for entertainment value. I plan on hopefully finishing it over the next year. That is unless something better comes along, but that’s about how it usually goes.
I don’t really think I can talk about myself anymore because it is starting to get very boring and I can’t stand it much longer. So I will end this rant with a hypothetical thought (because those are the most interesting anyways). If I was a Film maker/time machinist, I would make a movie with Charles Bronson as a ski patrolman at some mountain resort that is being over run with yetis, and Bronson would have one of those snowboards that turns into skis, so he could navigate the flats after massive powder scenes. The film would be rated R, due to massive acts of visceral, grizzly, carnage. It would be awesome in every way possible. Charles would say nothing but one liners that were puns or applicable to everyday situations. Think about it.
The launching of my web comic, The Backwoods , 
commenced yesterday at 12:01 am (EST). Which means that I am now expected to exhibit a level of responsibility that I’m usually unaware of. Page Two is in the finishing stages as I type this so my self confidence in meeting that Wednesday morning deadline hasn’t started to diminish yet. Everything aside, I just want to thank everyone who took the time to check out The Backwoods. Your interest alone is my motivation. We (my wife and I) recently went down to the river by our home and took some reference photos of our dog for pages to come. We were able to get a really cool action shot, even though I think its a little too goofy to actually use for anything.
Anyway, thanks again to everybody for their support. I’m also finishing up a few illustrations that I will hopefully be posting in the coming days. In the meantime, here is a part an illustration that I’m currently putting together.
In the spirit of Comic Con lets hear it for the blog’s first contest.
Who do you think would win in a fight:
The Shaven Yak or Hellboy?
VS
Rules:
Winner will receive 1 free print of their choosing.
Contest ends on October 1st, 2011
Comment below to enter
Most creative entry wins
Be sure to enter your email so we can get your prize to you
Yep, this contest is totally subjective and your answers will be judged. We’re expecting to be impressed. We’re expecting to be reduced to tears or laughter. So get those guns (or razor) out and show us what you’ve got.
