Gal Friday

This moody little number was drawn from a production still of Charlize Theron in Woody Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion. I've had this photo in my files for years but never had a chance to sketch it until just the other day. There's a lot to learn from sketching from life, but a lot can be said for working from photos as well.

Technicolor Thursday: Devil Slayer

Just felt like going back to the roots of the character I've been working on in my funnybooks for the last few months. 

This one actually came out a lot better than I had intended. Bonus!

Whatever Wednesday: Frog-Man

Everybody picks on guys like Stilt-Man, who is obviously an easy target, but I never hear anybody making fun of the Fabulous Frog-Man. Eugene here actually has battery powered springs attached to his flippers for cryin' out loud! Now here's a nemesis for Spider-Man:p

I actually had a fun time sketching this goofy guy. I even went as far as updating his costume a bit but... whatever.

Super Tuesday: The Thing

Looks like poor ol' Ben is having another one of those days. 

This was done after staring at a bit of José Muñoz's work the other day, if you happen to see a bit of his influence here.

Monster Monday: Godzilla

For our sophomore Monster Monday we have the big G as he appeared in Godzilla vs Destroyah!!  I almost did a sketch of Godzooky, but I just couldn't do that to all you nice folks:)

Be sure to swing back by tomorrow for Super Tuesday!

Gal Friday: Athena Voltaire

Here's one book I almost put up on my Books I'd Kill to Draw a while back, but Steve Bryant is way too nice a guy to steal away his right to draw his and Paul Daly's aviatrix Athena Voltair.
If you haven't checked out the web comics or the hard copies released by Ape Entertainment you're really missing out.

Apologies to Steve Bryant for the liberties taken with the costume here. I tried to do this from memory, and ended up making her costume quite a bit baggier and buttoning her jacket on the wrong side. I'll get it right next time. No foolin'.

Things you need Thursday: Devil Slayer #3

Here's the full solicit text for the 3rd issue of Devil Slayer. On-sale 11/12/08, so be sure to toss a few in your shopping cart!

DEAD OF NIGHT FEATURING DEVIL-SLAYER #3 (of 4)

Written by BRIAN KEENE

Art by CHRIS SAMNEE

Cover by KAARE ANDREWS

As a secret cabal within Heaven and Hell conspires to manufacture a war, the new Devil-Slayer finds himself besieged by ghouls and surrounded by enemies on all sides. It's a race against time to unravel the Bloodstone conspiracy and stop Operation: Xenogenesis before it's too late for all of mankind, in this terrifying, brutal reinterpretation of the Devil-Slayer by acclaimed horror novelist Brian Keene and rising star Chris Samnee (DAREDEVIL: BLOOD OF THE TARANTULA)!

32 PGS./Cardstock Cover/Explicit Content ...$3.99

Whatever Wednesday: Abe Sapien

Yeah, just in case today's them isn't obvious enough, this will be sort of a catch-all in the middle of the week where I'll post basically... whatever. It could be a panel from what's on my desk at the moment, experiments with new art supplies or something like what you see today. Having just finished watching a PBS program on cuttlefish I wanted to do a sketch of Abe Sapien battling one. Well, I guess here he's really trying to escape from one... but whatever.

Super Tuesday: Old Man Superman

Super Tuesday won't always be Superman Family specific, I just couldn't pass up drawing this funny old Supes from a tale in Action Comics #270.

This will be where sketches of any superhero that happens to strike my fancy will find their home during the week. Be sure to come back tomorrow to find out what our next new theme will be!

Monster Monday: Creature

This week I'll be debuting 5 new themes. Doing these new themes, which will be tied to each day of the week, will allow me to sketch any and all of my favorite subjects, as well as a few I could stand to strengthen, to my heart's content without ever having to struggle to come up with any more of those blasted theme weeks.
So, welcome to the first day of New Themes Week!

For our first Monster Monday we have one of my favorite monsters ever committed to film, the Creature from the Black Lagoon!!!

Books I'd Kill to Draw: Batman & Robin

This is the last week of Books I'd Kill to draw. Don't worry though, there are plenty more posts in the works of books that would bring me to murder. Keep an eye out;)

Anyway, I've made no secret of my love for the Bat titles, so it's pretty obvious that today's post would be Bat related.

This sketch is actually an homage of (I believe) an old Bob Kane drawing of the Dynamic Duo.

Have a great weekend, folks. I'll see ya back here on Monday!

Books I'd Kill to Draw: Superman's Wife, Lois Lane

This sort of goes along with the Jimmy Olsen drawing from the other day. Lois Lane is another supporting character that I think could easily carry their own title, if done properly. She had her own title back in the day, with Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane, that lasted for all of 137 issues,as well as a handfull of one-shots and miniseries along the way. I think for it to work nowadays it might have to be a bit of a mash up of some of the silver-age kookiness and Lois actually using some of her reporter's instincts to get into the fray a bit though.
With this sketch I was trying to riff on the Fleisher Studios bow-lipped version with a slightly modernized version of her hair. I think she ended up almost looking as much like Huntress from the Birds of Prey TV show as Superman's gal. Still kind of dig the sketch though:D

Books I'd Kill to Draw: Atari Force

Today we have Pakrat and Morphea from Atari Force. Yes, that Atari, which is probably the reason this comic will never again see the light of day. I'd kill to draw this book, but I'd also kill just to get a collection of the series. Most of my copies are dog-eared, and a few of them have chocolate pudding stains inside. I promise not to eat anything while reading if someone would be kind enough to put out a nice collection though. Super-swear.

I've previously posted about Atari Force before here, with a sketch of Babe.

Books I'd Kill to Draw/Write: Jim & Alfred

Along with a Jimmy Olsen comic, I'd kill to write and draw a comic starring Commissioner Gordon and Alfred Pennyworth. It's actually one of my life goals. Yeah, I guess I've got a weird thing for supporting characters:)

Books I'd Kill to Draw: Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I know everyone has their favorite version of Nick Fury. Yours may be Sgt. Fury, who fought in WWII, the Sam Jackson-ized Ultimate version, or even the one played by TV's David Hasselhoff but my money will always be on Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. James bond style action, espionage and flying cars is just the perfect recipe for good comics!

This will probably be the last week of Books I'd Kill to Draw. I'll still be peppering in some BIKtD, but I've decided on few new themes I think would be a lot of fun to start posting here in the days to come. In the meantime, thanks for lookin'!

Books I'd Kill to Draw: Jimmy Olsen

Jimmy Olsen is one of only around three things I'd actually kill to draw AND write. I previously ranted about Jimmy here, so I'll try not ramble on too much. I will say that Jimmy doesn't get the love he deserves... and just try to leave it at that:)

Below you'll see the first step in inking this piece. I went in with a marker for all the outlines and little details before I broke out the brush. I actually almost let it be at this stage, but it just didn't feel like a finished piece.

Even though the writing scrawled on the robot's chest and the dinosaurs in the background look like I was just goofing around, these elements were actually taken from a story in Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen #12. If you can't track down the original, it was recently reprinted in Showcase presents: Superman Family volume one. Those old Silver-Age tales were just packed with this sort of crazy stuff!

Anyway, have a great weekend, folks. I'll see ya back here on Monday!

Books I'd Kill to Draw: The Shadow

Man in Black

I did this while watching a really great episode of POV last night on PBS. It featured a documentary from 1969 called Johnny Cash: : The Man, His World, His Music. You can catch it online here.

I was really taken with what seemed like just a single light shining on the stage and how it caught the Man in Black's craggy features against an almost pitch black background.

Pretty far from comics I guess... well, maybe not!
Now THAT's a book I'd kill to draw:)

Books I'd Kill to Draw: B.P.R.D.

Since I've been having so much fun with the Books I'd Kill to Draw theme (BIKtD to the cool kids) I figured we'd keep this going for a while longer.

Today we've got Johann Kraus and Roger the Homonculus from Mike Mignola's B.P.R.D.

They've had so many great adventures I figured to pick from I decided to just draw a couple of the agents having a bite to eat:)

Books I'd Kill to Draw: Airboy

Well, I don't know that I'd actually have to kill anybody to do this one. I think all the Airboy characters are public domain nowadays but I could be mistaken.
In any case, I think it'd be a real blast to draw Airboy's plane (that had flapping wings!) and all the colorful characters in that book. I can't vouch for the golden-age tales, but if you've never read any of the issues Chuck Dixon did for Eclipse back in the 80's you're really missing out.
Above we have Airboy and the Heap, since I didn't feel like digging around for reference for Airboy's plane "Birdie". Yeah, I'm lazy:)

Have a great weekend, folks!