MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Best to everyone for the holidays.

Hope you're all safe and happy.

See you soon.

Tom

JEALOUSY!!!

Wish I were in Japan, too.
Hope you guys had fun.

Tom

My MOM!!!

Well, I finally have to face some death again.
My brother died back in 1994. Now, my mom has died.
She died on November 26th.
I'm okay. I'm very concerned about my dad, but I'll be spending time with him over the holidays.
Say a little prayer for him (and for mom) and I'll be happy.
Thanks for all your support.

Tom

DAN SHURTLEFF - where are you??

I should read the replies to my posts more often, Dan. I just saw that you wrote me a while back.
It edited out your email address, so just let me know your username and I'll write you. I'm tlyle49 and I use the same email company that you do.

Good to hear from you. I've tried to find you in the phone book and that stuff many times.

Hope all is well.

Tom

I'M BACK AND I'M ... BAD/MAD/SAD/GLAD/SCAD?

Hey all!

The quarter is finally done and I feel that I can breathe again. So, I thought I'd start off by posting something fun before I got to the news and other stuff.
Here's a photo from Halloween 2006 where four of my students dressed as "Tom Lyle" for Halloween. I am pretty scary.
The bottles of Diet Mountain Dew were a great touch as, until near the end of this current quarter, I always had one in class.
I'm now caffeine free.

News and Updates:
I've contacted both DC and Marvel in the past 10 weeks and been reminded how odd this business is. If I expect to get any real buzz in my possibly resurrected superhero career, I probably really need to go to New York and see these people in person. Face to face contact has always gotten me more respect than phone calls or emails.

Marvel set a page rate back in the summer, but has not come through with any work yet. I blame no one for their lack of job offers. I'm just not the best at waiting.

DC editor Mike Carlin and Mike Marts have both chatted with me briefly, but nothing happened on those fronts yet, either. By the way, both of these men are professional and return calls and emails. I respect them both, though I've worked for neither.

I will finally start my personal graphic novel project by January if I have no concrete offers from the big two by then. I would still definitely be open to work even if I start my own project, but I have to be doing something (I've just barely drawn any published work this last year).

I lost a pet a week ago and that was hard, but a good deal of the pressure and toughness of the fall 2007 quarter at SCAD came from personal stuff. My mother has been in and out of the hospital and it looks bad (she's not young, so don't get all worried - it's just tough to see your parent near the end of their life, early or late.)

My dad is getting older and more feeble all the time. Again, he's no youngster (he's 93!!!), but he played golf up until he was 90 and the decline of his health in the three years since he quit playing is dramatic. He's using a walker now.

So, life has it's pressures. WHAT A WUSS, LYLE!

;-)

I think I've mostly missed working on something that made me feel good. Teaching makes me feel great, but I'm not working on Projects for me. I need that creative flow.

I'll let you guys know about my personal project in late December after I've started writing it more concretely. I've started making notes and "seeing" the chapters in my head. I write visually. I pace it in my head and try to visualize the whole thing so that it makes sense and feels right as a story. I will tell you that the project I want to do is based on autobiographical tales, but I will definitely change details and names to protect the innocent!!

Hope everyone is fine. Feel free to leave a message. Thanks to Matthew and Joe for letting me know they dropped by this blog recently. Happy Holiday everyone!

Later-
Tom

I'm STILL ALIVE

School has knocked my butt this quarter, so I haven't posted in awhile.
I'm still here and I'll put up a longer post by next week.
Thanks.

Tom

Mortality and MIKE WIERINGO

Hi all-
Been a while since I've posted. The main thing on my mind this week has been my mortality ... what with Mike Wieringo's passing and all. He was younger than me and went before me. He was the same age that my brother Larry was when he died.

Odd coincidence, but I couldn't help acknowledge it.

I met Mike a few times, but never got to have a depthful conversation with him and now I never will. I liked his art. I liked him ... what I got to know of him. I'm glad that he had lots of friends as close as Todd Dezago.

Nothing else to report right now.

I'm waiting to hear on other stuff and I'll post about them when I can. Hope everyone else finds peace and happiness for the remainder of the year ... and beyond.

Later.

Tom

In the meantime, I'm posting another of the sample pencil pages that I did. Spidey and Black Cat (and the Rhino) on this one.

Marvel Samples are done!!

Well, I got four pages drawn for Marvel. I had done five pages of layouts back in May with the idea that Scott Hanna and I would work together and Scott would do finishes over my breakdowns.

The BLACK CAT page that I posted a while back was from that group.
Someone at Marvel requested some sample pages of finished pencils. I finished one that was the next page from the Spider-Man story that I did the layout pages for, but I was very unhappy with the results so I stopped after laying out the next one and did a bit of self evaluation.

After some contemplation, I decided that I needed to start something different. Scott had sent me the script to ULTIMATE X-MEN #74, so I read it and decided to do the first four pages as finished pencils.

I'm posting them at the same time as this blog post.
Let me know what you think.

Chris Allo at Marvel gave some good initial positive feedback, but nothing will happen until after the San Diego Con which is this weekend.

THOUGHTS FOR THE SUMMER

Okay. I think that I'm going to sound like an old fart here, but why are the students that I'm teaching having such a hard time with observation and evaluation? Is it the MTV generation of fast visuals and instant gratification? Too much sugar? Too much porn on the internet? Too many video games (which are the Devil's work, I'll tell you now.)

I just cannot figure out why I seem to be talking Greek to these folks when I mention taking time to figure something out through observation.

Enough said about that for now.

I finished one page of my full pencil samples for Marvel, but I had guests from Wednesday on ... and it's hard to make yourself draw when you've got company that wants to party. I partied!!!

I'm going to regret all those calories later, but it was fun sitting in our small backyard oasis and drinking beer and wine and talking about life and stuff. Very cool. Especially since it's hot as heck here in Savannah right now.

Missed my 35th High School reunion last weekend, but looking at the photos online was interesting ... THEY'RE ALL OLD FOLKS!!!

Of course, I'm not.

More later. Best to everyone who has dropped by. Make a comment or two.

SUMMER QUARTER BEGINS - Back to Reality!

Had a blast in Charlotte. I was so pleased that everyone seemed to remember me. I drew my guts out at the show and it was great. Did some pretty good sketches even if I say so myself. We pushed the heck out of SCAD there as well and that went really well. All six workshops by the other professors and myself were really well attended and that's good considering we were only put on the HEROES website about a week before the show began.
I'm working on finishing up a few commissions that I couldn't finish at the show and then it's on to some full pencils for samples that Marvel has requested.

Keep your fingers crossed and I'll be drawing for Marvel in some form this year. Soon.

I miss superheroes!!

Started the summer quarter at SCAD on Monday. I was tired from the con, but it went well. I'm teaching four classes and they're going well. INTRO, DRAWING, PENCIL AND INK 1, and PENCIL AND INK 2. Good groups of people in each class.

Best to all and thanks for the support.

Tom

HEROES CON 2007

Hi all -
Well, as of Friday the 15th of June, I'll be in Charlotte, NC at the HEROES CON comic book convention. My first convention in about 3 years. Hope it's fun!
Come see me if you're there. I'll be at the SCAD table doing sketches and chatting.

Second Year Done at SCAD

Hi, all.
Well, I just finished the third quarter of my second full (it's considered a full year even though I will be teaching this summer as well) year as a professor at SCAD. I've been privileged enough to be able to try to impart some of my knowledge to quite a few really talented students. I enjoy teaching and I hope it shows.
I'm nearing some possible work with Marvel for the first time in almost seven years and I much say that they little geek boy inside me is really excited over that possibility. Keep your fingers crossed and see what develops.
I want to wish all the new graduates from SCAD a big GOOD LUCK. Some of them are going to do quite well.
Stay in touch.
Later. Lyle out!!!!

When the BLOG hits the fan!!

I'm really new to this blogging thing, but I needed to get my art and my life out there for the world to see. You all need to know that I'm still alive. I'm still producing artwork for comics and I'm even teaching college level kids at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

I needed to find a way to start getting my opinions and my information out there.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Tom