Many of you have never seen my syndicated comic panel, Health Capsules. It's syndicated by Universal UClick syndicate. I thought I would show you a sample of the artwork that I create for the panels. I just drew these this past weekend. I recently passed the 3000 mark...3000 Health Capsule panels that I have written and illustrated for the daily feature, over the past nine years.

This is the process that I go through every weekend, year in, year out. First I write six day's worth of panels. Then I create the artwork (above) that goes into the panels. These six drawings will be placed in the panels that contain the text that I have written, one for each day of the week, Monday through Saturday.

 I try to write Health Caps on Friday and draw them on Saturday. If we have plans and go out of town for the weekend, I bring Health Caps with me and work on them in a coffee shop during the course of the weekend. It seems that when you're self-employed, you're always on duty.

It was my childhood dream to have my own syndicated comic strip someday, so I never take this privilege of having my own syndicated feature for granted. I never dread working on my Health Caps...I always look forward to it. My syndicate once told me that they receive up to 7000 submissions per year from people who want to have their own comic strip...and they sign one or two individuals. I'm so happy that I kept trying for many years to break in, and finally beat those long odds.

To see my feature in its finished form, click here.

Airborne Beasties

Yet another little beastie crawled out of my sketchbook this morning and quickly took flight. It's more than a bit unnerving to try to concentrate on my work while a little pterocroctyle creature and his bug-eyed, bulb-nosed hairy companion are darting about my studio. I tried opening a window, but they don't seem to want to leave. Perhaps I'll just have to learn to live with them.

Eye to Eye

Here's another little beastie that appeared on my sketchpad yesterday. He goes by the name Hornball. He calls his little friend Eyefly. I do all my sketches with a regular Micron mechanical pencil. 

What's for lunch?

Here's another Little Monster sketch in what might become a series of drawings that could turn into a book...we'll see where it goes.

Little Sea Monster

The is a sketch of a sea creature for an online game I was working on a couple years ago. It's obvious that he needs some orthodontic correction for that severe under-bite.

The Toad, The Bad, and The Ugly Movie Poster

The Toad assumes the role of Clint Eastwood in this soon-to-be-released remake of Sergio Leone's classic "spaghetti western" movie, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Depicted in the painting is the memorable final scene with Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach, wearing the noose.

I watched this scene in the film many times in order to capture all of the details to insure authenticity.

Buy the poster and t-shirt: www.zazzle.com/bron_smith

Toad Warrior Movie Poster

The Toad is captured on canvas in between takes of his soon-to-be-released movie, Toad Warrior. The epic-scale film is being shot on location in the scorching sand dunes of Dalanzadgad, in Outer Mongola. Skagway stars as the legendary toad samarai who roamed 11th Century Mongolia armed only with a sword, spear and throwing stars.

The real Toad Warrior of Mongolian legend was a Mongolia Sand Toad (Bufo roddei). The Toad is a Western Toad (Bufo boreas). In order to portray the character with authenticity, he endured three hours of makeup each day during filming. He also did his own stunts. No stunt doubles were used in the battle sequences.

The Toad stated in a recent interview that he also found the title role to be exhausting because of the burden he had to bear during long days of shooting with his heavy armored costume, weighing in at a hefty one quarter ounce.

It was an honor to be chosen to illustrate the movie poster. I can't wait to see the movie. A release date hasn't been set.

Buy the poster and t-shirt.