abbyhoward

Crossroads Preview-Our Lake Monster

Excerpt from the pencils for the fourth story in my upcoming anthology, The Crossroads At Midnight. This was a fun one to work on! I love me a good southern spooky tale.

I'm currently working on the pencils for the fifth and final story, then it's just a couple months of marathon inking and I'll have a big beautiful book. It's 360 pages of delightful horror tales and I am so jazzed to be working on it! It's so fulfilling!!

Thank you again for your support and for all the kind word...

Excerpt from Crossroads: The Strange Boy From The Sea

More from my upcoming collection of short horror comics! Apologies for the image quality for some of these pages, I'm just taking pics with my phone since they're too big for my scanner.

I've had this story on the backburner for years, and I'm so excited to finally be working on it. It's probably my favorite in the book, though I love all my creepy little tales very much.

I've just completed the roughs and layouts for the final two stories, and am hoping to finish pencils by the e...

Preview of Crossroads story #2

Hey folks!!

I apologize for how long it's been since my last update. I've been hard at work fulfilling the JSPH Vol 2 kickstarter and, of course, working on The Crossroads At Midnight, my book of short horror comics (due to be published by Iron Circus next year). It's about 360 pages, so it's been demanding nearly 100% of my time, but it's turning out to be a really great book so I think you'll be pleased with the end result!

This is an excerpt from the 2nd story in the book, "Mat...

Big Ol Eating Disorder Comic!!

2019-08-28 19:47:02 +0000 UTC View Post

JSPH: Volume 2 LAST 48 HOURS

Whoo!! The kickstarter has funded and surpassed the first stretch goal-- now we're workin on hitting as many stretch goals as we can in the last 48 hours. We've already got a guest comic by Amy Falcone on the way, let's see if we can't get to the Spoons pin too! Here's a list of all the stretch goals:

2019-07-22 17:00:32 +0000 UTC View Post

JSPH: Vol 2 Kickstarter LAST THREE DAYS

Heyo, everybody!

Only THREE DAYS REMAIN to back the kickstarter for Volume 2 of Junior Scientist Power Hour. The project has funded, but now we're creepin up on some really sweet stretch goals, such as a guest comic by famed DnD player Amy Falcone and a SPOONS PIN-->

2019-07-20 20:46:43 +0000 UTC View Post

A Few Journos

Please, you mustn't get me started on my plants, I will show you ten thousand pictures and discuss them each at length

ALSO DID YOU KNOW, there is a Kickstarter happening right now for JSPH: Volume 2? We passed $19k yesterday, and original art tier slots are being snatched up left and right! Thanks to everybody who's backed thus far and to everyone here who helps...

Journos! Plus JSPH BOOK 2 KICKSTARTER

WHOO there's a Kickstarter goin on for Junior Scientist Power Hour: Volume 2, a collection of almost all the comics since April of 2015, including Junior Paleontologist Power Hour, the two mini comic/journos collections, four years of hourly comic day strips, and hopefully some very special guest comics.

There's also Spoons stickers, bookmarks fea...

SECRET SNEAK PEEK: The Crossroads At Midnight

Hey!! Apologies for how long it's been since my last post-- I've been hard at work on various projects, such as The Crossroads At Midnight, my upcoming book of short horror comics. Last week I finished the pencils for the first story, which you can download below. I'm so excited to be able to make a book like this, all the stories are a thrill to work on. This is the only story I'll post in full like this, but I'll put up snippets from the other stories as they're completed.

You might n...

Opossum Plush Kickstarter Goin On Right Now!

Heya, folks!

Just alerting you wonderful people to my Kickstarter to make little plush opossum buddies (and some sweet lil enamel pins). Y'all know I have a deep interest in these beautiful beasts, and if I can't tame a wild one without it being full of maggots, it's time I made myself the next best thing-- a stuffed one that can't run away and will probably never be full ...

Journos!!

A big chunk of journos for you this lovely March~

I'll be updating Wednesday's house again this month and it's all I can think about. I love to provide for my animals!! And I've been watching nonstop vivarium building youtubes, the kinds where they play soothing lo-fi hip hop beats to chill/study over the footage. Those vids combined with the mindless leveling of Runescape are the most powerful calming forces in my life

Mammal Takeover 4-page preview

I've had a pretty hectic February, so instead of your usual Paleo Pals post, here's a short preview of one of the South America sections in the upcoming third installment of Earth before Us! This book is absolutely jam-packed with wildlife. If you'd like to pre-order, you can do so here: https://www.amazon.com/Mammal-Takeover-Earth-Before-Us/dp/1419736248

Next month I'll be highl...

Reptiles of Cenozoic Australia

Australia is very unique in that for basically the entire Cenozoic, reptiles were the dominant predators. The biggest a mammalian predator ever got was about the size of a large dog (Thylacoleo).

Quinkana was the longest-lived of these giant reptilian predators. It was a croc that walked around on land and eventually reached sizes around 20 ft in length. Though near the end of the Cenozoic, it finally had competition when Varanus priscus, which could possibly grow between 15-23 feet, ar...

A Brief Visit To NYC

Our kitchen is being renovated and we had to be out of the house for a few days, so instead of sticking around and sleeping on my sister's couch, my boyf decided we should go on a.... "vacation?!" So we went to NYC!

I got to hang with people I rarely ever see and I picked up a fun lil illness from them, but that's all right, since we're allowed back in our house (though all we have in the way of cooking is a microwave, and we have to wash our dishes in the bathtub). It's like we're pion...

Ancient Mammals of Australia

Cenozoic Australia is always very interesting to learn about. It was a semi-isolated continent, which means the life there was able to evolve in very different directions than the life on other continents, resulting in some very unique critters. It's the only continent where marsupials, rather than placental mammals, became the dominant group, and the only continent that still has monotremes. So I've highlighted a few of my faves!

Also, the evolution of milk is fascinating and a little ...

Holiday journos!!

PHEW, I'm finally back to my usual routine of working on comics that aren't exclusively about ancient beasts. So here are some little comics for y'all, my ever patient friends.

And jokes aside, I am currently working on a big ol 22-page The Last Halloween update, so expect that in the new year. I am so excited to be able to get back to work on my beloved comic.

ALSO, in case you missed it, I've just signed on with Iron Circus Comics to create a 6-story horror anthology, all writte...

No Sleep Illustration Process Pics

Do y'all know I sometimes do illustrations for the No Sleep Podcast now? I'm pretty jazzed about it. I felt my design for this one was pretty ambitious for my level of skill, and I'm pleased with how it turned out!

And I'm sure y'all have been wondering why I haven't been posting much of anything anywhere, and it's because my deadlines for the final Earth Before Us book are tighter than they were last year, so I've had to focus almost all my time on making sure I get it done on time. I'm still...

Some journos

Whew!! I'm back in action. I had a whirlwind couple of months there between moving, a few cons, that whole foot sledgehammer thing, and working on book 3 in the Earth Before Us series. But I feel like I'm finally settled back in and can start updating once more <3 Thank you all for being so kind and patient and supportive in the meantime.

So here, have some journos! Welcome to the marvelous season of autumn, in which my powers are at their strongest.

Unfinished journos~

Heya! I've finally faced the fact that I'm probably not going to finish all the comics I'd written from my big month of traveling, so instead here are the unfinished comics I've had sitting on my desk for... like two months, haha. It makes sense that I couldn't finish them, considering the subject matter!

Also, apologies for my lack of posts recently-- I've been in deadline mode with book 3 of Earth Before Us (Mammal Takeover!) and it's been kicking my butt. I had to pencil 125 pages in less t...

Evolution Of Whales

On my last post I was asked to go over the evolution of aquatic mammals, which is always a fun topic! I was asked to cover whales, pinnipeds (seals and walruses), and sirenians (dugongs and manatees), but when I was drawing I forgot to include sirenians ooops. I'll touch on those at the end anyway, even if there aren't illustrations of them!

So a long time ago our ancestors crawled out of the ocean because it sucked to live there, as it was full of giant sea scorpions and big fish and all mann...

Journos: My Many Travels

The first big chunk of journal comics from my month of jetsetting! These cover two out of the five towns I visited. The rest of the journal comics will be posted next month!

Also here is Bomba during the scary movie night, crushing my friend with his protective love.

Sketchbook chunk~

I am finally back from my many travels! I visited like five towns in one month and now I never want to get on another plane ever again. Too bad I'm doing Heroes Con down in Charlotte in two weeks. The neverending travels of a cartoonist...

I've got a wealth of journos to catch up on, and should be posting those as well as a paleo post in the next couple days! Thank you folks for bein so patient.

Sketchbook chunk!

A little chunk for you today, featuring some sketches from my trip to DC. I would have sketched more but I was with my boyfriend who didn't want to spend 5-10 minutes on each individual exhibit in a huge zoo. How rude.

I am very excited for my cute pins!! I can't wait to see the dinosaur one.

A Handful Of Cenozoic Critters

I'm currently in the research/writing stage for the next Earth Before Us, which will be all about the Cenozoic, so this month we've got a whole chunk of Cenozoic beasts. The Cenozoic era stretches from the time of the dinosaurs to present day, and gave rise to all the beautiful animals we now share the world with!

First up is Daeodon, which lived in North America during the late Oligocene, which is the last epoch in the Paleogene period of the Cenozoic era (periods are like Triassic, Jurassic,...

Journos: Ceiling Pustule 2

Some of you may recall that part of my ceiling fell in last year due to an unpatched hole in the roof that was letting water pool right above my studio. My very sweet landlord patched the ceiling but not the roof, so... rain kept pooling above the studio and the leak is in fact ~much worse~ than it was before. This week a new water pustule started to form right next to where the old one was, which is also right over my drawing desk...

Anyway, y'all like those pimple popping vids?

Tonight! 9PM eastern! Jackbox!

Just a little reminder that tonight was scheduled as a Jackbox Evening. In case you need a refresher on how to join in, we do these over skype, so you just add me (abby.howard.art) as a friend and I'll send out the call around about 9pm. All you'll need to participate is a device that can connect to the internet (people usually use their phones, but laptops work, too!)

Let me know if you have any questions-- see you then, folks!

-Abby

Jackbox on the 6th??

Hey, everybody!

Sorry for being uncommunicative all month, it was a wild time for me with all the traveling and catching-up I had to do. But I'm gonna set dates for the next 3 Jackbox nights, to make sure we get em all in. I've made them all Fridays, but can easily shift it to Saturdays if need be.

For the next hangout, how's next Friday (the 6th)? Round about 9pm EST?

To make up for March, we'll fit another one in before the end of April-- the 27th would be good for me, if it work...

Sketchbook chunks!

So many museum sketches! I love to go to a museum. 

I wasn't sure if I should include all those top-secret sketches, but they do look nice, and maybe it will help you all feel like part of a cool club, which you are B)

Thank you all for your support!

-Abby

Ancient beasts-- Cephalopods edition

Sorry for the long wait for more invertebrates! But finally, here are some amazing and strange cephalopods to brighten your day. 

Cephalopods are the group that contains modern squids, octopus, and cuttlefish, and they are a very old group, having gotten their start possibly as far back as the Cambrian (the dawn of animal life in the oceans). That means they predate starfish! I don't know if that's amazing to you, but it is to me for some reason. Cephalopods all used to have these big chu...

Little comics for you

Some comics about going to Atlanta! My publisher sent me down to do a signing and a school visit and it was lovely. Especially since I had a perfect amount of free time to visit the Georgia Aquarium, which is one of the best in the nation and has been on my list of places I need to visit before I die. Now I did it! One step closer to finally being able to shrug off this mortal coil.