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.

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

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:)

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 ;)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

PENGUIN

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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!