Thursday, December 31, 2009

Is 2009 over already?!!


And here is my last sketch of 2009. This has been a crazy, hectic, stressful and exciting year for me and my career... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Thanks so much to all of you who've been following the blog and leaving comments. Working as much as I do it's easy to feel like I'm stuck in a vacuum. The comments are a great reminder that there are so many great folks out there digging what I'm doing.
Hope you've all had a swell '09. All the best to you and yours in the New Year.
Be safe out there tonight.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

DYNAMO!

Dynamo here is just one of a number of great Wally Wood creations that made up the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.
DC Comics announced back in July that they had obtained the publishing rights to new adventures of The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves.
I don't know about you folks but I'm anxious to see what they've been up to :D

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

HAWKEYE (Shh. It's really Bullseye)


Okay, I'm sure there a ton of folks who could explain this better but... currently in the Marvel Universe there's a group of villains that have teamed up under the leadership of Norman Osborn (The former Green Goblin/current Iron Patriot) who have disguised themselves as members of The Avengers. They call themselves The Dark Avengers. Still following?
Anyway, the Daredevil baddie Bullseye is now dressing up as Hawkeye.
That's what you see above. Well, my first attempt at drawing him anyway:)

Monday, December 28, 2009

HEADS UP!!


Sometimes, if I need a little break in between inking pages, I do little head sketch on a bits of scrap paper to sort of scratch the itch of whatever character I think I need to draw at that moment.
Lately I've been using 2 X 17 inch strips that I trimmed off of some bristol board a while back.
Above are the only few that I've done recently that are worth posting ;)

Monday, December 21, 2009

We interrupt your regularly scheduled program...

Hey folks!

I hate to do this, but I'm afraid with the holidays and deadlines snowballing together at the end of the year, I just won't have time to post any sketches here this week.

In the meantime go outside and make a snowman, visit with friends and family and drink a bunch of nog. Before you know it, it'll be next week and I'll have a fresh batch o' doodles for you all. Sound alright?

Thanks for being patient, folks. Happy holidays and I'll see you all next Monday.

Friday, December 18, 2009

ALPHA ONE vs VOLSTAGG


Above is the art that'll be on the flyers for my upcoming signing at my local comic book store The Fantasy Shop (South County, MO Jan 6. from 4-7).
This ended up being a nice transition, from The Mighty to my current full-time gig of Siege: Embedded, to have both Alpha One and Volstagg on one sheet of paper.

Also, the final issue of The Mighty and the first issue of Siege:Embedded go on sale the same day. How's that for great timing?!

Anyway, have a great weekend, gang. See you all back here next week!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

RED SONJA


You can't tell from this sketch but my version of Red Sonja is totally rocking the same mullet that Brigitte Nielsen had when she played the film version of Red Sonja.*





*not really.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

CHAMBER


Here's the Wikipedia entry on Chamber... in case you are as unfamiliar with him as I was. Poor guy has had a real rough go of it apparently.

In happier news this is POST 800!! That's right, 800!!Woo!!


In even happier news, Batman 80 Page Giant, with a story by Simon Spurrier and myself, is out in stores today (in the US that is. Tomorrow in the UK)!!
This was my first chance to draw for a Bat-book so it could probably go without saying that it was a real thrill for me. The fact that it was a really great story by Simon was icing on the cake:) Go pick up a copy and let me know what you think.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

USAGI YOJIMBO


Upon finishing this piece I realized that the composition is actually really close to this sketch I did of Dave Sim's Cerebus several years ago. Oh well. What can ya do?
For those unfamiliar with Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, be sure to track down the trades, okay? You'll be glad you did.

Monday, December 14, 2009

PENGUIN


Looks like there's some romance in the air this Monday morning ;)

Friday, December 11, 2009

TWO-FACE



Not much to say about this one really... The scarred part of Harvey's face in the drawing was actually scratched off of the bristol board with a razor blade. Oh, and Two-Face is my favorite Batman villain:)

Since I just finished the pencils to Siege: Embedded #2 this morning I'm gonna go take a nap now. See you kids on Monday... if I'm awake by then :P

Respect!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The Answer


If you're unfamiliar with the above character... don't worry, I wont' take away any of your geek cred points since he's not in print yet. It's Mike Norton's The Answer!!

Be sure to keep your ear to the ground for rumblings of when this yarn, written by Dennis Hopeless & pencilled AND inked by Mike, finds it's publisher and decides to land on planet Earth to destroy all of humanity with it's powers of super-greatness.

Over selling a bit? Nope. Not at all:)

Have a great day, kids. Talk to you all tomorrow.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

SHADE


The Shade here is from the Starman series written by James Robinson... and he looks cool. :)
Keeping this post short today... hours to go before I sleep and all that.

Have a happy Hump Day, kiddies. Talk at ya tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

BEAST


This is The Beast's current incarnation... or at least my best approximation.
Beast's outward appearance started out as just a regular dude with big hands and feet. Later, his entire body was covered in a grey fur (soon to be replaced by blue). One of his more recent changes was becoming even more cat-like... with big ol' kitty paws and a face that just makes you want to take him home and spoil him with cat-nip toys.
His mutation is currently in flux. You can read more about the Beast, whether you prefer hairless or fuzzy, HERE.

Monday, December 07, 2009

BATMAN


Just a a little warning to get the week started.
If you ever hear me say that I'm sick of drawing Batman BEWARE!!
There's a good chance if you hear me utter those words that I may have been replaced by an inferior robot duplicate of myself... or possibly an alien wearing my skin.
Just a heads-up.
Okay, now back to your Monday routine. I'll see you all back here tomorrow.

Friday, December 04, 2009

DR. FATE


I wonder why Dr. Fate is hanging out in a cave in front of stalagmites... Oh, that's right! 'Cause I thought it'd look neat! :D
Our pal Kent Nelson here will also be making his live-action debut in the upcoming episode of Smallville. The same episode that I went on about a while back when I posted my Hawkman sketch. Maybe I'll have to tackle Stargirl next...


Also, just a quick reminder, my two auctions that are up on Ebay will be ending this Sunday 12-6-09. Good luck bidding:)
The Harley Quinn auction is HERE.

The Robin auction is HERE.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

IRON MAN


Found myself wanting to sketch Iron Man the other day... but after digging through page after page of reference lately, in an attempt to keep the Iron Patriot's armor on model, I decided to play this doodle of ol' Tony Stark fast and loose. Keeping him in his old suit meant the only reference I needed was what I had rattling around in my ol' noggin'.

I was shooting for George Tuska with this one... but it ended up turning out more along the lines of something Eric Canete might do. Not to compare myself with either of these guys, mind you.

Some days you just gotta go where the art takes ya though.



Also, The Mighty #11 hits stands today!! Here's a link to a 5 page preview over at CBR to whet your appetite until you can make it out to your LCS :)

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

ZORRO


Is it too soon for more pulp and and foliage?

Find me a person who doesn't love drawing Zorro... and I'll show you that person getting socked in the belly by ME for having poor taste.
Man, Zorro is just awesome.

Speaking of awesome, be sure to pick up my pal Francesco Francavilla's work on the Zorro title for Dynamite. Short of bringing Alex Toth back from the dead and forcing him to work on the book, Francesco is the only person I can imaging being able to do "The Fox" justice. I've said it before but I'm pretty sure this is the book he was born to draw.
Here's Francesco's Twitter feed so you can keep up with all the other projects he's working on at any given moment.
Also, here's a link to the collection of Toth's Zorro work. If you're unfamiliar with it do yourself a favor and snag a copy. We'll just call it an early X-mas present for you, okay?

Click away on the above links. You'll be glad you did:)

Okay, back to work for me. Have a happy Hump Day, all. See ya tomorrow.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

THE PHANTOM


The Phantom's purple costume tends to stand out against his green jungle surroundings so much that I thought it might be fun to take a stab at making him blend in to his environment a bit here.
Well... that's what I had in mind when I decided to take on sketching fellow St. Louisan, and creator of Mandrake the Magician, Lee Falk's "Ghost Who Walks". I may have gone a bit overboard on the foliage. What can I say? I like inking trees!



Monday, November 30, 2009

HARLEY QUINN

The above sketch of Harley Quinn was inspired by a marathon bout of Lego Batman where Laura and I finally managed to win a game!! Take THAT, evil-doers!!

This sketch as well as a Robin sketch are up for bid on Ebay!

The Harley Quinn auction is HERE.

The Robin auction is HERE.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Black Friday!

Happy Black Friday! Free shipping on all orders placed in my Etsy Store today until 10 pm central!

THE TICK


Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving filled with overeating, families and pies! Well... those of you in the states anyway. Have a great weekend folks. Time to eat some of those leftovers!! :D

Thursday, November 26, 2009

THE SHADOW


Happy Turkey Day!! This year I'm especially thankful for all of your support, both of my comics work and the stuff I've been posting here on the blog.
You guys are the best!!
Be safe out there.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

KID FLASH


Kid Flash here was a recent suggestion from the überkind Evan "Doc" Shaner via my Twitter feed.

I have a pile of sketches to post that came straight from the hive mind that is the Twitterverse. So keep your eyes peeled in the weeks to come.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

NIGHTCRAWLER

I LOVE X2! For reals like LOVE it, love it.

That said, why the Hell didn't anyone in that movie mention the stink of Nightcrawler's teleportation?! It's supposed to smell like fire and brimstone right? That'd be godawful to be around... especially over and over again in a small hallway!
If I were in the editing bay I'd have had them put in at least one shot of a couple of those White House security guards making faces like they just caught a whiff of big ol' fart.

BAMF!! Indeed.

Aren't you glad I'm back to the old schedule so I can post words of wisdom like this five times a week? ;P

Talk to you all tomorrow!

Monday, November 23, 2009

ROBIN, The Boy Wonder!!


After a few weeks of catching up on deadlines it looks like I'm starting to amass enough sketches to get this blog away from the measly 3 posts a week and back to it's regular schedule of 5 days a week. That's every Monday through Friday, folks!
Well... for the time being anyway. Fingers crossed ;)

Oh, and that's Dick Grayson up there. Nightwi... er... Batma... um... Robin? Yeah!! ROBIN!!!

See you all back here tomorrow, right?

Friday, November 20, 2009

HELLBOY


I'd been itching to take another shot at Hellboy lately... and apparently he'd been itching to take a shot at somebody himself!! I imagine they're soaring through the air several feet off the page here :)

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

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #20 (anatomy of a cover)


Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #20, which I posted the solicitation info about yesterday, will be my first cover work work for Marvel Comics, and hopefully not my last, so I thought I'd post a bit of the process that went in to making it today.

Here is the first pass at a rough layout. My Editor Nate Cosby had asked for a shot of the Vision tearing a car in half. Sounds easy enough, right?

After it was decided that neither of the first two thumbnails were working I took another shot and came up with these two.

I guess you can tell which one we went with because below are my finished pencils. These are considerably tighter than I generally prefer to work since I wanted this to be JUST right. I even went out and took a bunch of reference photos of my car since I wanted to, though it may not all be 100% correct, make the car parts as believable as possible in each stage.
And here are the finished inks.

I was a little worried, after taking a step back from the finished piece for a bit, that the Vision's cape could easily be mistaken for the car door, not to mention the amount of confusion that could be caused by the number of times I made the decision to leave lines open, so I worked up this quick little color comp.
Obviously it's crudely simple but it's main purpose was to help separate objects on the page.


All this piece needed now was some killer color work by Veronica Gandini, which you can see at the top of this post, and the final logo and design work.
I was afraid I may had gone a bit overboard on the dramatic lighting here. Vero really made it all work though by using bold colors to help sell the moment, without making it too creepy.

All said, I'm pretty dang happy with how it turned out. And it was a ton of fun to work on to boot!! Be sure to pick up a copy when it hits stands on February 10th. The issue is written by
Paul Tobin after all, so I'm sure it'll be a hoot.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

HAWKMAN!!


I'm starting to get really jazzed about Hawkman's appearance on the upcoming episode episode of Smallville entitled "Society".
The fact that this episode will also showcase Dr. Fate and Stargirl, is being written by Geoff Johns AND is now being planned as a two hour movie event is almost too much after seeing this first shot of ol' Carter Hall in the flesh.
Anyway, this sketch is just a spillover of that excitement:)


Also, when I try to channel Kubert it comes out looking more like Bernet...

February Shopping List

Goodies by me in the February issue of Previews:


AREA 10 HC
Advance-solicited •On sale April 7 • 184 pg, B&W, 5.5” x 8”, $19.99 US • MATURE READERS
Written by Christos N. Gage
Art by Chris Samnee
Cover by Lee Bermejo
“An exquisitely creepy crime story loaded with twists. Gage and Samnee make one hell of a team. Thanks to them I’ll forever be uncomfortable around power drills.” – Jason Aaron (SCALPED)
“A moody, compelling thriller superbly told. AREA 10 is a breakneck ride. Time after time, I thought I had it figured out, then got thrown at the next bend of the road.” – Mike Carey (THE UNWRITTEN)
In New York City, a killer known as “Henry The Eighth” leaves a trail of decapitated corpses — keeping the severed heads to use for unknown purposes. NYPD Detective Adam Kamen leads the investigation, until a seemingly unrelated freak incident leaves him with a brain injury in the section known as “Brodmann Area 10.” When he recovers, Adam’s perceptions of time are altered. He becomes slowly convinced that his bizarre condition could be tied directly to the “Henry” case — and that the key may lie in the ancient, mystical practice of trepanation.


SIEGE: EMBEDDED #2 (of 4)
Written by BRIAN REED
Penciled by CHRIS SAMNEE
Cover by ADI GRANOV
SIEGE BLOCKBUSTER TIE-IN!!
As Norman Osborn's siege on Asgard heats up, there is one god missing. But not for long, and he's got company. The true face of Norman Osborn stands to be revealed, and this may be the god to do it!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
In Stores: Feb 3, 2010


Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #20
COVER BY: Chris Samnee
WRITER: Paul Tobin
PENCILS: Ig Guara
The Story: Diablo is back, and as an alchemist who can control earth, air, fire and water, he’s one of the most deadly threats the Avengers have ever faced. But, who is controlling Diablo, and will the captive Iron Man learn the answer in time to save his life, and the lives of his teammates? All Ages …$2.99
In Stores: Feb 10, 2010


MARVEL ADVENTURES IRON MAN/SPIDER-MAN DIGEST
The Story: The all-ages, all-action fun continues with four stories starring two of Marvel’s most famous heroes! First, it’s up to Spider-Man to save the day when a werewolf terrorizes Midtown High. And if that’s not bad enough, Tombstone and the Torino crime family have put a price on his head! Then, learn the terrible secret from Tony Stark’s past that forced the billionaire inventor to become the Golden Guardian known as Iron Man, the world-renowned symbol of mega-conglomerate Stark International! And finally, our heroes battle together in two titanic tales of Marvel past, facing the twin terrors of the Radioactive Man and Zarrko, the Tomorrow Man! Collecting MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #57, MARVEL ADVENTURES IRON MAN #1, IRON MAN #234 and MARVEL TEAM-UP #9. All Ages…$9.99
In Stores: Feb 24, 2010


DAREDEVIL BY ED BRUBAKER & MICHAEL LARK OMNIBUS VOL. 2 HC Written by ED BRUBAKER with GREG RUCKA & ANDE PARKS
Penciled by MICHAEL LARK with CLAY MANN, PAUL AZACETA, DAVID AJA, LEANDRO FERNANDEZ & CHRIS SAMNEE (edited due to lack of credit)
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
The critically acclaimed, award-winning creative team of Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark continue their take on one of comics’ most enduring legends! Featuring the threats of the Owl, the Kingpin, Lady Bullseye, and the Hand, plus Matt’s unlikely new ally, the Black Tarantula! With one of the most surprising endings in Daredevil’s history! Collecting DAREDEVIL (1998) #106-119 & #500, DAREDEVIL ANNUAL #1 and BLOOD OF THE TARANTULA. 464 PGS./Rated T+ ...$75.00 ISBN: 978-0-7851-4520-2

Monday, November 16, 2009

Batman Beyond




This is from a few months ago but after watching Batman Beyond (as well as G.I.Joe Resolute and episodes of Super Friends, Plastic Man & X-Men) over the weekend I realized that I never got around to posting this sketch of our pal Terry McGinnis.

Thanks again to all of you who left birfday wishes. You guys are just the best!! :D

Talk to you again on Wednesday!

Friday, November 13, 2009

It's Mah Birfday!!

Tomorrow will be my 30th birthday, making this my 15th anniversary of being in comics. I guess I've been doing this professionally for half my life now. Huh.

Anyway, to commemorate this joyous occasion I thought it might be fun to look back on some of the stuff I did from when I was a kid.

And yes this is a plea for birthday wishes. Feel free to leave them here or on Twitter ;)

Oh, and don't make fun of young Chris's drawings. He didn't know any better.





Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Confounded by Fantasy



One of these sketches is of a character from the movie Legend, I believe, and may be a man or a woman... I dunno.
The other is a sketch of some sort of giant or something... and is from a book, I think.

Talk to you all on Friday!! I may be a tad bit more informative by then. No promises though ;)

Monday, November 09, 2009

Batman: A Death in the Family


I recently got the galley forArea 10, the Vertigo Crime graphic novel I did with Christos Gage, and was struck by the smell of the paper. Weird, right?

I don't know what paper stock they'll be using for the finished product but the copies I got smelled exactly like the Batman: A Death in the Family trade that I've had in my collection since 1988.

So... yeah. Long story short, I've had that Batman yarn stuck in my head for a week or so now and just had to get this sketch of the Joker, post Robin beat-down, on paper.

Friday, November 06, 2009

Cap & Black Widow


Just found this over at ComicArtFans the other day. It was actually done during Heroes Con back in June.

Have a great weekend, folks. Talk to you all next week:)