I saw the Smurf movie last night, it was very inspiring. The best joke in it was when the Smurfs, while trapped in New York City, were talking about the Smurfs they missed back home. "I miss Carpenter Smurf and Mailman Smurf etc." Then Smurfette said "You know who I don't miss?... Passive/Aggressive Smurf. You always feel bad after he leaves." So genius. This of course led to a long discussion about all the shitty Smurfs you've never heard of before of which this is my favorite.

a little down time today. a worm lives in his nose.

And now back to Bleak House. Another of my favorite characters, the overly dramatic, manipulative and somewhat flamboyant Old Mr. Turveydrop. Proprietor of the local dance school who can be seen here (starting at 4:10) in all his glory rebuking his son's announcement of engagement. In 30 seconds he covers the entire range of human emotion from outraged betrayal to selfless resignation. Disgustingly played by Matthew Kelly... bravo!!

Mia... is getting pretty good at climbing.

Here's another one from Bleak House. The crazy old bird lady Miss Flite (get it?) who's obsessed with Judgement Day and has a million birds named things like "Misery, Greed, Avarice and Death." She reminds me of Mrs. Garret from Facts of Life.

Here are some of my favorite characters from Bleak House. This one is Mr. Skimpole. Dickens is such a master of onomatopoeia character names. Even if the name isn't literally what the person is (like Mr. Krook to follow shortly) you know exactly how to feel about the character by the taste left in your mouth after saying their name. Mr. Skimpole... pole. rod... shaft. this guy is a total tool. The 19th century equivalent of "Mr. Douchebag".

Speaking of his "half dozen or so children" Mr. Skimpole says "Care for them? How could I? I have no aptitude for work of any kind." When asked "How then do they live?" He replies, "Why... I've no idea. But live they do."

Ordinarily i like to read the character description from the book and draw that, but the casting and acting in this movie is such perfection I cant imagine them as anyone other than who played the parts, in this case Nathaniel Parker. Well Done sir.

We've been obsessed with British costume dramas for the last couple of months, we've probably wacthed 15 or 20 of them. So many fantastic costumes, sets, compositions, lighting, really beautiful movies. And the sideburns... Good God the sideburns. Here's the first of a series of 5 minute sketches I'd like to do from some of my favorite parts. This one is from Bleak House.

I saw this guy on a documentary and liked the cut of his sail.

Here's a piece I did for an upcoming show at Q Pop. The theme is "The Hamburger Lifestyle"

I saw a great interview by this author Gabor Mate about his book "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts". It's about addiciton, behavior, childhood development, politics, a lot of stuff. He says the title comes from a Buddhist concept of different realms of being, one of which is the "Hungry Ghost Realm".
In the interview he says "people in it are depicted with large empty bellies, small mouths and scrawny thin necks, they can never get enough satisfaction, they can never fill their bellies, they're always hungry, always empty. Always seeking it from the outside" Kind of a haunting image i felt compelled to draw.

Mia at 1.

Mia engaged in her favorite activity. Pulling all the books off the shelves and standing on a pile of them "reading".

This is a prime example of what any new Batman projects are very likely not to look like.

NEW BOOK!!!!NEW WEBSITE!!!

Hey Everyone, Today is the day my book "Absolutely Beastly Children" hits the shelves! It also is the day that my newly renovated website http://www.dankrall.com/  is up (courtesy of the very talented and patient Cindy Morrow and her website design company GoodwillByDesign and the equally talented and patient Jojo Ramos who did the Flash animation on the homepage, thanks Cindy and Jojo!!!) Please stop by and see all the artwork I have been making over the last 7 years since the last update. It's not ready yet, but very soon a store will be open to purchase many wonderful wares.

If you have been so kind as to pre-order my book it should be on it's way! if you have not been so kind, it's not too late to redeem yourself!! Go into a bookstore today and buy as many as you can, go ahead and put them on a credit card and pay it off later. If they don't carry it throw a fit and make a scene and demand that they do. Much appreciated.
Thanks!!!
Love,
Dan

Signing Posters at Comic Con, this really happened.

This is not what the new Scooby Doo show will look like.

Mr. Fuzzums...

is looking pretty old:(