Checkmate:Faces

Hope you're all havin' a nice holiday season. Be sure to check back after X-Mas for post 300, okay? I'll do my best to post something cool:)

Checkmate: NOT Steven Seagal

Have a great weekend, kids!

Checkmate: Headshots

Just figured I'd go ahead and wrap up the week with a few more days of Checkmate sketches if that's alright with you folks.

Checkmate: Period Costumes

Checkmate #21 hits stands today, kids!

Checkmate: Suits

Couple more character designs today.

Checkmate: Color Sketch

Hmmm. I won't ruin anything if you're readin' Checkmate by saying who this is. You'll just have to hang in there until #22:)

Checkmate: Snowfall

Well, since my next issue of Checkmate hits stores next Wednesday I figured I'd post a bunch of my design and prelim stuff for issues 21&22 over the next week or so. I'm trying to do this all spoiler free so you all may have to guess who or what some of these things are. Hope that doesn't take any of the fun out though.
Have a great weekend, everybody!

Sketch Dump

Here's a couple today since I didn't manage to post yesterday.
Crocker was another sketch I found up on Comicartfans and the soggy Logan was a 3 minute sketch from a while back that got lost in the shuffle until just recently.

Mid-Ohio: Guy Gardner

Aaaand here's my last scan from Mid-Ohio with my favorite Green Lantern, Guy Gardner.
Sure it's a teeny tiny scan but that's all we've got, okay?
Also, if anyone else has a scan, or even a photo, of my sketches from the show would you mind passing 'em my way? I'm only two away from having scans of 'em all and the collector in me just HAS to have a complete set:). Oh, and thanks again to Adam.

Old Wolverine Con Sketch

Here's one I yanked off of comicartfans the other day:)

Mid-Ohio: Knight on a Horse of Leaves

This may be my strangest sketch request from this show but ya know what I ended up havin' a lot of fun playing with it. What he wanted was a knight, with some antler horns, riding a horse made of leaves...leafs? leaves? and the rest was up to me. I'd go blind if I ever had to draw this over and over again in a comic but I'm really happy with how this one came out.
Thanks again, Billy.

Mid-Ohio: Major Bludd

This was for a GI Joe themed sketchbook where I got to pick any character from this really amazing reference book that had been put together. There were a lot of ones I ALMOST drew but, after passing on a guy with a cinder block on a stick and a bunch of snake men, Major Bludd's robot arm sold me on him. Thanks again, Shane.

Mid-Ohio: Milo

Closest I've ever come to doing an Unknown Soldier sketch for somebody:) This here's Milo from 100 Bullets. Thanks again, Gary.

Mid-Ohio: Wildfire

Here's one for all you Legion fans. This was actually the first page in this particular sketchbook. No pressure, right;) It's always a little scary to be the first. I mean, I feel like I've really got to bring my A game to get things started on the right foot, so that as more sketches get added each person tries to one-up the last one. At least that's how I think about it. Thanks again, Rob!

Mid-Ohio: Hulk Smash!

Probably the first time I've drawn in someone's sketchbook with a horizontal composition. Nice challenge though. Thanks again, Tim.

Mid-Ohio: Micronauts & Kang

Here's a couple scans from last weekend since I didn't manage to post yesterday. I just finished 36 hours straight of work without sleep to finish Checkmate #22. zzzzzzzzzzzz

zzkfzxfthppptahuh? Oh, uh have a nice weekend everybody. I'm headed on down to Sleepytown:)

Mid-Ohio: Rocketeer

This one was a lot of fun. I've never done any sketches of the Rocketeer before and Andy, the same gent who picked up the Nimrod from yesterday(thanks again, Andy), had plenty of really helpful actual photos for reference which helped me from from feeling outclassed by Dave Stevens's art...of course Brian Hurtt's Rocketeer did that instead.

Mid-Ohio: Nimrod

Alright, here's my first of many sketches from Mid-Ohio. Today we've got the X-Men villain Nimrod. Thanks again, Andy.

Comics are Awesome! People Should Read Them.

Well, we made it back safe and sound from Mid-Ohio Con, where we met a lot of great folks and got a chance to see some old friends, so now it's time to get back to the old drawin' board.

If you're reading this and picked up a sketch from me out at the show I'd really appreciate it if you could send along a scan so I can post it up here on Ye Olde Blogge. Thanksabunch!!

While we're waitin' on some scans, here's a link to an article on some of St. Louis's comic creators... and me!
Sure, there are a few little mistakes. I was born and raised here, and never relocated to be a part of the comics community or anything.
"Two and a half weeks to pencil a 60-page comic book"? I hope none of my editors ever see that one. Yeah, I can go pretty fast when need be but I think 22 in three or four weeks is tough enough for now:)
And I do work a lot but the cat and the TV aren't my ONLY company. My wife Laura handles just about everything around here that isn't drawing comics on top of her 9 to 5 and school and still manages to find time to hang out with me every day. Love ya, kiddo!
But still, it is a really nice article spotlighting a lot of great creators from the area who work in comics, so go take a look. If nothing else to check out my That Girl hair in my photo.

3 min: Punisher

I had Jorge Zaffino's Punisher in my head when I did this...not that it really shows, but that's what I thinkin' of.

By the way, this'll be my first and last post of the week. I'm cracking down on another batch of pages this week to make time for Mid Ohio Con this Thanksgiving weekend.

If anyone is in the area, and aren't too stuffed with turkey to move, come on by. I'll be doing 9x12 B&W con sketches on bristol for $40 (it's an extra $20 for each additional character) and should have plenty of comics on hand, as well as a big stack of the sketches that have been up here on the blog lately for sale.

Hope to see ya there. If ya can't make it be sure to have a great Turkey Day.

Still Pluggin' Away

Don't forget, to place your orders for Checkmate #22, okay? Hell, forget that I pencilled and inked the interiors, Kalman Andrasofszky's cover should be enough to get you to pick up a copy!
I know it's kind of nerdy, but I think it's really cool to see another artist's take on something I designed. Even if it's just an incidental character like the little girl seen above... Just sayin'.
Here's all the official solicit text:

Written by Greg Rucka & Eric Trautmann; Art by Chris Samnee; Cover by Kalman Andrasofszky

"Mademoiselle Marie" concludes! Will Black Queen's Knight get her target safely out of Bialya, or will she become the latest Mademoiselle Marie to be laid to eternal rest?

DC Universe 32pg. Color $2.99 US

On Sale January 16, 2008

Have a great weekend everybody!

5 min: Mask-Man

From Legion of Superheroes we've got the 30th century descendant of Mxyzptlk Mask-Man.

3 min: Joker

Since today's my birthday I really wanted to post something that felt I dunno...birthday-ish, but I couldn't find anything special so, instead you all get a glimpse of what to expect in 3 minute sketch week with the Joker here.

5 min: Rocketship Pumpkin

Okay, so I guess we're going a bit obscure today, since I couldn't even find anything in a Google search for ol' Rocketship Pumpkin here. After reading this issue of Our Fighting Forces again last week I just had to put him on paper.
If you look at the scan of the cover in the link above my copy looks almost just like that. Well probably a bit more well read, but some kid drew a moustache on Johnny Cloud>:(

Snapper Carr

This was done the same night as that Despero from last week....okay, back to work. Here's a bit of info on Snapper if you've never heard of him.

Silver Age Despero

I didn't plan on two "remember when?" posts in a row but I did this doodle last week after reading some old Justice League comics, and since it took more than 5 minutes (I had to get the scales on his fin right didn't I?!) I figured I'd go ahead and stick it up here.
Not really sure when his fin turned or he got big muscles and junk, or even why, but I always thought this version was pretty creepy.

Killer Croc

Remember the good ol' days when Killer Croc was just a big dude with a skin condition, instead of literally some sort of crocodile man?

I suppose this could've gone in with the 5 minute sketches but I wasn't timing myself, so it found a home here in potpourri week.

Q&C Blog Matter

Okay, so it may not be on the Diamond shipping list this week but Queen & Country Vol 8 Operation: Red Panda is out today. No, for real, I have a copy lookin' at me right now. No foolin'.
Anyway, I scanned in a bunch of pages of thumbnails, sketches, designs and what-have-you to help fill out the back of the trade. I'm sure I gave them way too many options, but since all you end up with is a sketch of a bruised Tara and "Anatomy of a Cover" I figured I'd go ahead and post all the other stuff I had gathered together as options, and just post the whole lot!
Starting at the top we have pencils to inks of #32 pg1, a few candid pics of some of the cast that I thought might be cool for the roster in the back of each issue (in the issues it's just head shots for consistency's sake), #29 page 13 the most trouble with a page I've ever had...so we've got a few self-rejected versions of that:), half a dozen or so pages of cover ideas for the trade and we wrap it all up with some thumbnails.

ROM: Spaceknight

Here's my contribution to the Spaceknight- ROM Tribute Show that Jason Leivian at Floating World Comics is putting on in order to help out Bill Mantlo. I'm sure most folks reading this have heard, but just in case this is news to you ,Mantlo (who wrote every story in the 75 issue running ROM comic back in the day) was injured in a hit and run accident back in '92 and due to severe injuries now resides in a brain injury rehab nursing home.
This show will serve as a fundraiser and celebration of the stories Bill has given us. All of the artwork and more will be compiled in a tribute comic next year that will be sold as a non-profit benefit book for Bill’s brother/caregiver, Mike Mantlo, to provide funding to enable Bill to enjoy somewhat of a quality of life.
In the meantime if you dig this, or if you'd like a print and/or original ROM art by the likes of Chuck BB, Jim Rugg, Jeffrey Brown, Simon Gane, Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz, P. Craig Russell, Sal Buscema, Steve Ditko and tons of others you can check out the show here:
DECEMBER 6TH, 2007 - 1ST THURSDAY OPENING, 6-10PM
FLOATING WORLD COMICS
20 NW 5TH AVE #101
PORTLAND, OR

Scrap Batman

I've got another week's worth of 5 minute sketches waiting in the wings but I figured I'd give everybody a little break from that sort of thing for some assorted sketches, doodles, and stuff that I've gathered together in the past week or so.
This piece here was originally just the scrap paper I had taped to my desk that I was using to get a point on my brush as I've been inking lately. After a couple of days doing this I noticed that an image was starting to form, so I went ahead and slapped down some more ink to turn it into this gritty Batman sketch.

5 min: Elongated Man

I know a lot of folks favor Carmine Infantino's work on Batman or Flash or what have you but, in my opinion anyway, the best work of his career was in the back-up stories in the Flash staring Elongated Man. Especially when he managed to ink them himself. Man, I just love that stuff! I was going to go into all the reasons this stuff holds up so well to this day, but I think you just have to see if for yourself. Go pick up the Showcase Elongated Man, I can't recommend it enough.

5 min: Kanjar Ro

You know if you squint Kanjar Ro kind of looks like a fish. No, really. The ear thing is an eye, he has a fin, the front of his little helmet thing is the top of the mouth and his nose is the bottom of the fish mouth. See it? Yeah. I'm tired. More five minute sketches tomorrow.