#‎DailyInks‬ #1 – Been inking ALOT today!! Easier to show a table of it! Met with pal Barbara at Axum Coffee Shop in Winter Garden, Florida, to get an illustration for her started and went from there. Lots done. Swampy’s Florida Happy cartoons, editorial cartoons, caricature, coloring page, milk cartons, etc. etc. About four hours worth. And there’s still more to do! Thanks to my new young writer friend Amira for snapping this shot!

Thought I would share this cartoon I drew in 2009. Many know I’m kinda-sorta an all out book nut. One book espionage series I love is the Vince Flynn series of espionage thrillers featuring, American hero, Mitch Rapp. This cartoon was for my home base for editorial cartoons that was having the author on to promote his book. Each Halloween since, the publishers of Mitch Rapp are so kind as to resend out this cartoon.

Since this cartoon came out, unfortunately Flynn has died. The series is just restarting this week with another author I’m very familiar with, Kyle Mills (author). Mills is great and I’m really looking forward to the new adventures of Mitch Rapp!

My neighbor has been a HUGE help this past year doing many things including helping to remove a fallen tree in my front yard – a HUGE tree. During his Fall Festival (AKA Halloween) Party I participated by drawing some of his guests.

Jonathan (Above and below) told me much about himself. I decided to make this more a novelty item and have his love of Batman and dragons coalesce.

Anthony (Above) enjoys researching Christian biblical ideas.

Jennie is involved with arts and crafts from painting to making beaded jewelry.

My inked cartoon for Friday’s Swampy’s Florida Happy cartoon! Guess what Friday is celebrating. You can head over to the Swampy site later to see the colored version.

This was inked entirely with Kuretake brush pens.

Eyes of Eagles by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Eagles series of books is one, soon to be of the few, series that started while William Johnstone was alive. Would like to hope this has more of Johnstone in it than ghost writers, but we all may never know.

This is a sprawling book that could have been three or more books. An enormous amount is covered here. Yes, unlike so much written today, this is a cohesive story that is pretty tight. One of the reasons i like the Johnstone Clan herd of books is the editing process works where it seems to be practically missing in the bulk of books written today.

The writing is not as good as in other books written during Johnstone’s lifetime, but still much better than so many contemporary novels I’ve read. Considering how many characters, fiction & non-fiction, are presented throughout the novel, the definition is very impressive. Characters are the greatest strength of the Johnstone Clan books.

The last third of the book covers the Alamo story that is extremely well done. If that were set as a book of it’s own, I would give this five stars.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 out of ten points.

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My inks of tomorrow’s Swampy’s Florida Happy cartoon. Check into Swampy’s Florida Wednesday morning to see what we’re celebrating!

Inked with a PITT soft brush & medium pen.

Part of a political cartoon I’m working on right now!

Inking was mostly a PITT Medium pen. A little Kuretake brush.

An inked choo-choo for a project I’m working on.

Used a bunch of pens. From Prismacolor brush, Kuretake brushes, Pitt Medium pen, Precise 7, etc.

#‎INKtober‬ #24 – Been doing the caricature thing here in Downtown St Cloud for a wedding! Found a fellow who’s also a big old movie buff. Especially the gangster flicks.

This woman is AMAZING! She and her husband raised 10 children – 6 adopted while both having full time jobs AND volunteering for organizations!!! She and her husband moved to our state of Florida and, unfortunately, her husband died. Now in retirement, she finds herself still in the mode of her earlier life filling all of her time volunteering and still raising two of her children. Here’s a mother of the century nominee! — at Downtown St.Cloud.

The Intercept by Dick Wolf
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I hated the writing in this book. The dialogue is written more as some illiterate types a “text”. At one point, as I started reading the book, I was going to mark the horrible bits of dialogue. It took little time for me to realize I would likely spend more time marking the book, than reading it. It’s even more unfortunate when distinct voices are not part of the dialogue. Most all in the book have a similar banter. Trying to follow stunted sentences and unclear descriptions had me often lost in this simplistic novel of espionage.

Why an editor didn’t scrap this is beyond me. The dialogue alone is a reason to do it. Then there is the rest of the book. An over written, over described, under dialogued mess deserves editing. The writer obviously is not skilled in writing an actual novel. A hand full of paragraphs does not a chapter make. Especially it’s all drawing out to the inevitable. This book could have been 200, maybe 300 pages less, stream lined and focused.

There is a mystery embedded in all of this, which should have been the actual book. The biggest success I can tag the author with is that this contemporary novel’s bad guy I didn’t guess. The rest of the novel is so formulaic, the mystery is the only thing I didn’t know would happen at the end. I will add that the medium used and how it is used was a welcome surprise in the book.

Something else I liked was the written reasons why the bad person was after certain people near the very end of the book. Showed an understanding of the field involved that is rarely explored in espionage novels.

Bottom line: I do not recommend this book. 3 of 10 points.

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