Happy Holidays!!!

One last sketch for 2010 to say Happy Holidays!

I'm taking the rest of the year off from work, so just wanted to say a very sincere "thank you" to all you wonderful folks who made 2010 such an amazing year for me!!! I would not be where I am without your support. I wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year! See you back here in 2011! :D

Thor & Cap FCBD!!!

Yesterday, the silver books for Free Comic Book Day 2011 were announced. Among them is a new Thor: The Mighty Avenger & Cap story, written by Roger Langridge, drawn by me, and colored by Matt Wilson! Thought I'd go ahead and post the cover process. Hope you enjoy!

This FCBD issue has been in the works for a long time, way before it was announced that the series would be ending at issue 8. I hope it serves as a nice little coda for our run. (The first trade of which is available now, the second trade will be out in March.)

For the cover, I was asked to come up with an "iconic" type shot of Thor and Cap. The first two thumbnails were the choices I gave for that.

The third thumbnail was an extra option I sent along, for a cover with a little more personality. ;)

The powers that be ultimately chose thumbnail 2, which I still had a lot of fun with. Here are pencils.

And inks.

And Matt Wilson's beautiful colors!

Hope you get a chance to pick it up at your favorite comic shop in May!

EDIT: A lot of folks have commented on the great design of Cap in this cover. Just wanted to clarify that this Cap design was by Gurihiru for the upcoming Captain America: The Fighting Avenger with writer Brian Clevinger.

Round 2!

Hello again! I advanced to round 2 of Newsarama's Best of '10 tourney by the skin of my teeth last week! If you're so inclined you can vote for me in round 2. I am only down by 900 votes! :D

As always, your support is much appreciated! You guys have made 2010 an incredibly amazing year for me!

I need your votes!

Newsarama has posted their first round of choices for the Best of '10 Tourney and I'm in two categories! You can vote for me in their artist tourney here and if the cover for Thor: The Mighty Avenger #4 above makes you smile, you can vote for it here!

Sorry for the lack of sketches lately, I've had some pretty hairy deadlines. Hope to be back sketching soon.

Daredevil & Elektra

Saving Thor: TMA!

Thank you all so much for the outpouring of support for Thor: TMA since Tuesday! It's been really overwhelming!

For those of you that asked, the best way to show your support for the book, in the hopes that it will return, is to continue to buy it! Issue #6 is out next week. Issues #7 & #8 will be out in December and January. You can pre-order the first trade (out in December)and the second trade (out in March)on Amazon or at your local comic shop.

There is also a great interview with Roger over at iFanboy along with preview art for #6, if you want to go take a look.

Additionally, I'll mention that people are using #SaveThorTheMightyAvenger on Twitter and a Facebook page has been started.

And in the spirit of Thor: TMA, I hope you'll make any online interactions about the book with Marvel(including their editors and creators) as positive as you can. Thanks again for the amazing support! :)

Sad News

The cat is out of the bag that Thor: TMA will be ending at issue 8, for now.

Thank you all so much for all the kind words and amazing support you gave this book. Thor: TMA has meant the world to me and I'm so thankful I had the opportunity to work on it with the amazing team of Roger Langridge, Matt Wilson, Rus Wooton, Nate Cosby and Mike Horwitz.

We've still got three more awesome issues that will be out, I hope you continue to support the book. And feel free to let Marvel know that you'd like to see it come back! :)

Daredevil & Black Widow!

I did this piece way back in June for the Hero Initiative to auction off but never got around to posting it here. I'm think this was auctioned off at a show this summer, but not totally sure about that.

Serenity on USA Today

Won't have any sketches to post for a while as I'm on a very tight schedule for Thor: TMA #8 right now. In the meantime, you can check out a FREE 8 page Serenity story written by Zack Whedon, drawn by me, over on USA TODAY.

Monster Week: Wolfman!!

Hope you all have a great HOWL-oween. ;)

Also, I just posted my "Marvel What If?" piece over on the ComicTwart blog HERE.
Go give it a look, okay?

Monster Week: CREATURE!

Charity Auctions!

If you're interested, my Dracula sketch from Monday is being auctioned on eBay to benefit CBLDF and my Archie cover from way back when is being auction on eBay to benefit Hero Initiative. Both great causes - I hope you'll bid! :)

Monster Week: THE MUMMY!!

Monster Week continues with the mu-mu-mu MUMMY!!!!

Monster Week: BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN

The Monster demands a Mate!!!

Monster Week: DRACULA!

Inspired by my friend Francesco Francavilla's awesome 31 days of Halloween, I've declared this MONSTER WEEK on my blog! This Dracula was actually done for the ComicsAlliance/CBLDF Monsters Project and will be up for auction soon!

Let me know in the comments below what monsters you'd like to see me draw this week!

Batman Video!

I've been meaning to do another video for a while now, but well, I've been kinda busy. ;) Sorry for yet another Batman drawing, but I wanted to do something fun and brushy. Once again, this video is sped up. Didn't figure anyone really wanted to watch me draw for 27 minutes. :) Finished drawing is below. Hope you enjoy!

P.S. Just a reminder that my Wonder Woman Day piece is still up for auction on ebay to benefit domestic violence programs and shelters!

Thor: The Mighty Avenger #8 Cover Process

Another cover process for your viewing pleasure. Sorry if these are getting redundant!

thumbnail

pencils

Then I took a rare step of rendering my pencils, halfway through inking the cover. It was both for my benefit (so I could figure out what still needed black) and my colorist Matt's benefit (since Tony's costume has so many different planes on it).

inks

In glorious color, by colorist Matt Wilson

Wonder Woman Day Auction now live!

My Wonder Woman Day piece is now up for auction on Ebay! Proceeds from the Wonder Woman Day auction will benefit domestic violence shelters and programs. Please bid for a great cause!

Superman! and a bulldog!

This sketch of 1938 Superman and a bulldog was done for my (now former) Marvel editor Nate Cosby. Nate's last day at Marvel was this past Friday and I can't express how much I'm going to miss working on Thor: The Mighty Avenger with him. I will truly miss Nate's enthusiasm and willingness to trust his creative teams. Thanks Nate, for the amazing opportunity to work on Thor: TMA and best of luck with whatever is next!

Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale

Yesterday, a preview of Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale went up at Wired.com, so I thought now would a good time to mention that you can pre-order the book at your local comic shop or on Amazon. I've been told the release date has been moved up to October 27th.

If you missed the news out of NYCC, I'll also be doing an 8 page Serenity story with Zack Whedon for USATODAY.com. Newsarama has a great interview with Dark Horse editor Scott Allie on the partnership.

NAMOR!

Back when I first started work on Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Roger asked me what characters I'd like to draw. (Aspiring writers take note - asking your artists what they like to draw and then including those elements in the story is always a classy move, and results in a book that is more fun for your artist to work on, which usually makes for a better book). Roger had already planned to include so many great characters, all I could come up with was Namor. Specifically, Namor being a jerk. Find out how jerky he is in Thor: The Mighty Avenger #5 which is out today! :)

I Got Merchandise!

Just a friendly reminder that THOR: THE MIGHTY AVENGER #5 is out in comic shops tomorrow! I hope you pick it up!

While you're at the comic shop, you can also pre-order your very own THOR: THE MIGHTY AVENGER POSTER by yours truly. I believe the order cutoff is 11/19 for the poster. Poster ships 12/22.

Know what else ships 12/22? The first trade for THOR:TMA! Pre-order at your comic shop or on Amazon!

Earth (The Book)

click to enlarge

A while back my editor at Marvel offered me the opportunity to contribute a few illustrations to Jon Stewart's Earth (The Book). Despite the fact that we were literally living in a hotel (moving between St. Louis and Portland), I had to say yes. This illustration was to accompany a "if superheroes really existed, they would be using their powers for evil " type passage.

Devil Dinosaur!

Took another suggestion from Twitter this morning. How could I not draw Devil Dinosaur once it was suggested?

Catwoman

Batman

Hey, remember Bat-Mondays? Thought I'd do one this week. Though it's possible I draw Batman too much.

Big Barda

A long overdue Big Barda.

Avengers Academy: Game On Cover

I did this cover for Avengers Academy: Game On which was just announced and is written by my friend Paul Tobin. If you're not reading Paul's work, you are missing out on some of the most fun and well written books in comics.

Wonder Woman Day

This is my contribution to this year's Wonder Woman Day auction. I'm not sure if this will be auctioned in person at the Portland event or online. If it ends up on ebay, I'll post about it again. Pencils below.

Thanks for lookin'!

Jet City Sketches

Here are some sketches from the Jet City Comic Show I attended this past Saturday in Seattle. If you got a sketch from me, and can email me a scan (at least 400 dpi) to samneeart (at) gmail (dot) com, I'd appreciate it. Thanks to Brian Meredith for having me out and putting on an awesome show! And thanks to everyone who stopped by to say hi and chat!

Sorry for the quality of some of these images - most came from pictures on my phone.

Batman and Scarecrow

Mysterio and Doctor Strange

Jason Voorhees

Supergirl

Punisher

Thor!!!

Jet City!

I will be a guest at the Jet City Comic Show in Seattle this Saturday (table AA03) and will be taking a limited number of sketches at the show (though I'm not taking pre-orders).

My con sketch prices for Jet City are:

$75 for a single character in B&W on 9 x 12 bristol
$100 for two characters (on 1 page) in B&W on 9 x 12 bristol

Sketches will be done on a first come, first served basis. All sketches will be personalized, no exceptions.

I will also have sketchbooks and a few blog sketches for sale.

Please stop by and say "Hi" if you're at the show!

Thor: The Mighty Avenger #7 Cover Process

Despite what the December Marvel solicits say, I am drawing Thor: The Mighty Avenger #7. Thought I would do another process post for #7's cover - hope you enjoy!

Also, for those of you that aren't onboard yet - Issues #1 & #2 of Thor: TMA have been collected in Thor: The Mighty Avenger: Double Rainbow, which is out in stores tomorrow for the low, low price of $3.99.

I can't thank you all enough for your support of this book. Please keep picking it up, so I can keep drawing it! ;D

thumbnail

pencils

inks

Matt Wilson's beautiful colors