Hey all!

So, yesterday, IGN announced Dungeon Defenders 2! [link]

Teaser Trailer: [link]

Not only is this the game I've been working as a concept artist on, but I wrote, boarded, directed, and even did some voice over work for the teaser trailer. All in all, from start to finish, the announcement trailer was done in 2.5 weeks with in game graphics imported from UDK. Whew!

I don't think NDA has dropped enough yet that I can post concept art, but as I promised students I'd post process things when I could, I'm putting up some information on the production of the PVP teaser trailer via my tumblr account.

Tumblr:  [link]

Hopefully, we'll be allowed to post more soon!
<3
M.Good

While this is probably an elaborate troll, if you run into a rocketshoes outside of this page or my tumblr...it's not me.

Hey there! So, I know I disappeared there for a long while, taking most of my online presence along with me.  I've had a lot of sweet emails and messages and things and legit, I didn't realise how long I've been hermiting until recently.

So here's the thing: Right in the middle of getting ready to launch the comic this past summer (along with new tumblr/twitter/etc.) I landed a new job/city and all previous plans were put on sort of a permanent halt until the frantic-ness of that all died down. Aaaand as that started to finally happen in November... I got hired on for the NFL Rush comic, the first two issues of which we had to crank out, double time. (Not that I'm complaining about work!)

Honestly, my personal art endeavors have been pretty lame as anything that hasn't been done for work (which is still under NDA at the moment) has either been rough sketching or technique studies. I'm learning a lot, but producing little in terms of final work.

Sometimes, I do post that stuff though and I'm trying to get better about doing so. If you're looking for my tumblr, my temporary one has become more or less my for realzies one now:
[link]

No idea of when I'll be able to jump back into Rocket (or any original work) with any real gusto at the moment between my jobs, but Jon and I are still writing it, so it's still on our minds. If you're interested in reading it, let us know here: the more interest we know is out there, the more options it gives us for publishing. Everything is just slow as day jobs take precedence.

Time is unfortunately a bit tight still until spring, but I'll try to post/livestream as often as things allow.

Hope all of you have been well!
~mgood

Thanks to everyone who came! : )

Thanks for coming! : )

Thanks to everyone who stopped by! I'll finish Eidres sometime this weekend...gotta sleep for now!

[link]

I did not expect all the birthday love this weekend--thank you!  Zeet and I just got back from our party weekend in Michigan celebrating birthdays and going to steampunk-themed weddings! Whew! Time to sleep!

Hitmonchan interviewed me for work today! x 3

[link]

Sorry Rocket had to break after the prelude--we'll be getting back to it again sometime in the fall as soon as I can get into a production schedule for it with the new job. I'm starting as a concept artist at Trendy Entertainment soon and everything this summer has been getting things together for the move. : ) I am super psyched!

Hope everyone here is having a great summer!
~m.good

[link]

Last night, Princeless took home 3 Glyph awards, including Story of the Year! : )


More Princeless news:

In case you missed the announcement, the Princeless graphic novel is also now available from Action Lab and "2for1" the Princeless/Skullkickers crossover is in this month's Skullkicker's #14 from Image Comics.

My officemate, John Larison and the ever-cool Seqa Lab crew interviewed me last week for their podcast as well:
[link]

Also, Jon Shepard (our favorite Commander on the Citadel) interviewed me back in March for MOMBSITE:
[link]


Hope everyone from SCADSEQA is having a great Editor's Day weekend!

<3
M.Good

Sorry to have been so quiet lately--life's been moving along and I'm running to keep up!

I'm working a crazy amount of hours right now at the school between classes, independent studies, interns, thesis committees and individual portfolio building sessions. It's been super exciting and the work every one has been doing is really cool. We've just started a tumblr account to house a lot of the concept art class work we've been doing and it'll be updating regularly with the sequential grads and their new "Gretel" project as well as with the illustration concept class and their TF2 items/ARG characters and upgrades. It's the first quarter I've tried the game in class and Monday is our first "raid"(critique). My intern's character is already up on the site, but more are sure to follow. [link]

On the Rocket front, Jon and I are slugging our way through posting the prologue right now as a soft release.  We'll be updating every Friday until my schedule clears up a bit more and then we'll pick up the pace on posting more days. It'll be a bit slow going for a while, but this way we won't miss any updates while we sort out other work things for the big release and we'll be posting cool stuff like concept art and the like along the way.

In a totally amazing and unexpected turn of events, I've also been nominated this Spring for four Glyph Awards and two Eisner Awards for working on Princeless.  Seriously--there aren't enough ways to say thank you. The Volume 1 graphic novel comes out this month and my crossover work with Jim Zub will be appearing in Issue #14 of Skullkickers in early May. Exciting times ahead!

As my old one got sort of mucked up with other things and in an attempt to condense some of my accounts down, you can also now find my new personal art tumblr here: [link]

It's unlikely my schedule is going to open up for fun-time-freestyle drawing anytime soon, but hopefully summer break will bring a few more hours to my work days.

<3
M.Good

Thanks to everyone who stopped by!

[link]

[link]

This looks legit.

[link]

This dude won't stop emailing me. I don't get it.

[link]

The Prodigal Princess Returns to Kick Some Skulls!

Princeless: Save Yourself trade paperback will include team-up short story with Skullkickers

In 2011, Princess Adrienne showed readers the power of self-dependence and taking your own destiny by the hands.
And in 2012, the Princess will have an unexpected team-up that is sure to kick… some skulls.


This April, Action Lab Entertainment presents the critically acclaimed Princeless: Save Yourself (Diamond Order Code FEB120706), collecting the first volume of the sprawling fantasy adventure series by Jeremy Whitley and M. Goodwin. Join Princess Adrienne, her guardian dragon Sparky and a rough and tough sidekick named Bedelia, as they begin their own quest for adventure designed specifically for those who are tired of waiting to be rescued, and who are ready to save themselves.


Plus, as an added bonus, Princeless: Save Yourself contains a special, never-before-seen team-up short story between "Princeless" and "Skullkickers" written by Skullkickers creator Jim Zub and featuring the art of M. Goodwin. Skullkickers (www.skullkickers.com) is Image Comics' irreverent sword & sorcery action-comedy series, and we are proud to be able to present this team-up that will give fans of both series something fun and memorable.


Princeless: Save Yourself is the perfect chance to jump on board the series that Comics Alliance called "…the story Disney should've been telling for the past 20 years" and Comic Book Resources describes as "…family friendly material that is filled to the brim with humor and intelligently crafted characters."


Prepare to fight, hammer, and laugh your way right to the end with our prodigal princess and her friends in a one-of-kind fairy tale you don't want to miss!



ABOUT ACTION LAB ENTERTAINMENT
Action Lab Entertainment was founded in 2010 by a group of indie-maverick comic creators with the sole intent to bring the world the most action packed, most thought-provoking, most entertaining comics available, thereby ushering in a new age of world peace under the dominating, yet benign control of the Action Lab. Action Lab Entertainment is the public front for all the activities of the Action Lab and its members.


Although most of the Action Lab's activities remain classified, Action Lab Entertainment can disclose that two of its many functions are the marketing of comic books through various sales outlets, and the expansion of their domination into other mediums. For more information, visit www.actionlabcomics.com.


ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics' publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central.

Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

Beginning in March 2012, new comic Rocket: The Second Star by creators M. Goodwin and J. Verrall will be released online at rocketcomic.com. Rocket: The Second Star is a science-fiction story for mature readers, about a military engineer who unwittingly becomes the operator of a living weapon designed to rescue Earth.

ABOUT THE CREATORS
M. Goodwin is a professional comic artist, professor and giant robot. J. Verrall is a scriptwriter and actor who has previously collaborated with M. Goodwin on several smaller projects, such as world destruction. This is their first major release together.



Contact:

M.Goodwin
goodwin@rocketcomic.com

J. Verrall
verrall@rocketcomic.com

rocketcomic.com


OH MAN IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING! O_O

One thing I've noticed about all plagiarists: the first thing they do when caught is to claim ignorance. "I didn't mean to infringe!" "I love your art!" "I never said -outright- it wasn't original--I was only -redrawing-."

Ugh. That word.

Redrawing.

Take a seat next to teacher here and let's have us a talk.

That word is not some magic coverall for trying to pass someone else's work off as your own--and you ARE trying to pass it off as your own if you're changing signatures, names, etc. with no mention as to the original creator or characters you're appropriating. We have a word for that shit...say it with me now...plaaaagiaaarismmmm. Good job.

But, Teacher! Isn't copying a way to learn from other people?

The short answer is: Sure it is! Just don't be a douchebag about it.

I was fortunate enough in my education to be forced to take a Master's Class. For 20 weeks we did nothing but reproduce classical works by artists like Da Vinci and Michelangelo in charcoal and pastel--and I hated every moment of it, because at that moment in time, all I wanted to draw were comic books and WTF was I learning by copying from a buncha dead guys and Jeez! my professor was an asshole about critiques, laughing like an old cruel landlady in a comedic anime series about how EMBARRASSED the old masters would be if they could see the shit we were hanging on the walls under their names...OHOHOHOHOHOHO!

But hey! Whatdoyouknow! Turns out that shit was helpful after all. Attempting to reproduce another artist's work line for line and tone for tone was a very quick way to reinforce the discovery of things like technique, contour, form, etc.etc. and all the other good shit you hear us academics blabbing on about in terms of Elements and Principles of Design. (Google it.)  And much later in my education, this sort of learning progressed on to newer artists and suddenly I was reproducing complex background panel work from Ghost in the Shell at 3 times the size with ink and quill and churning out 5 (yes 5 -_-) of the exact same pencil portrait drawings in Yoshitoshi Abe's artbook. And DAMN! But that's an awesome way to learn/teach yourself new techniques, because no one is there to guide you, it's all guess work and frustration and AHHH! TEAR OUT YOUR HAIR moments because WHY CAN'T YOU MAKE GOUACHE DO THAT...IT IS GOUACHE RIGHT?AHHH! and then suddenly BAM! the technique hits you and you learn something new and then all that trouble was worth it because you've got another weapon in your arsenal.

So yes, reproducing artwork at any level can be an awesome learning tool and helpful for skill progression. YAY.

The catch is, you can't claim that shit as yours. You can't leave room for ambiguity that it "might be someone else's"--because it technically is someone else's, you are just copying their work.  You HAVE to credit that person if you're going to put it out there and say "HAY LOOK AT THIS SHIT I DREW! ISN'T IT ACES?!?" because otherwise you're leading people to believe you're the brains behind it all, when really, you're just standing on the shoulders of someone who came before you.  It's not hard to do.  Just say loud and proud "REPRODUCTION ART BY: ME, ORIGINAL ART BY:ARTIST". So easy! And yes, you DO HAVE TO SAY IT LOUD AND CLEAR, EVERY TIME.

But, Teacher!  It's not as impressive that way is it?

WTF is this shit. Reproduction art can be amazingly impressive. The time and dedication taken to reproduce a technique--especially when it works--is really fucking impressive. More so if I can look at the original work and then back at yours and say "Wow! That person really tried hard/succeeded in figuring this other person's technique out!" But this is only true if you're crediting the other person and you're not just looking for a quick fix for praise.

I'm not saying this because FUCK I'M MAD SOMEONE TOOK MY ART ARGH! That shit happens all the time and yes, it's crap and they suck, but at the end of the day, I do all my own stunts and they don't. >:3c  The reason I'm posting this shit is because I'm tired of hearing the excuses.  There is no reason to plagiarize someone's work.  There's no way you're going to downplay that shit so that the artist is going to be cool and forgive you. Can't draw? Learn. It's sooo hard? Tough shit, cookie. Suck it up and work harder. My arm doesn't do half the shit I want it to. It's physically wrecked from a condition I didn't have any control over and sometimes, it hurts and it shakes and it's a constant fight to make it work for me, but that's the lot I was dealt and I make it work.  I may always be Rock Lee in a sea of Uchiha's that have a million special techniques and chakras that I'll never possess, but I'd rather attain success as a genius of hard work than making excuses for not being able to keep up with the other ninjas in the village because I can't magically summon lightning out of my ass.

So whether you're a student or kid just learning to draw or a pro who reaaallly doesn't have time to figure out how to draw that fight scene but oh hey no one would notice if you borrowed straight from Tite Kubo rite--do us all a favor and stop bullshitting yourself and others that what you're doing isn't plagiarism.  Learn to do it yourself--even if it takes a long time.  Even if your drawings--YOUR DRAWINGS--suck for a while, or forever; do it yourself.  If you don't have the time and energy to outdraw a semi-broken armed person like myself, don't expect me to feel anything for you but contempt. From where I'm sitting (furiously drawing comic pages for contract work) having two perfectly good hands means you don't have any ground to stand on. Be glad for what you have and work for everything you feel you don't.

Now, someone hold my legwarmers, I've got shit to do.

-Rocketshoes, the SPIRIT OF YOUTH

Here is a helpful link I think you should take a look at:  [link]

-Professor Goodwin



THE MORE YOU KNOW!