Gal Friday: Armani

Here is another sketch, along the same lines as last week's Gal Friday, drawn from a photo that's been in my files for a few years now. This one was actually an old add for Georgio Armani.

Technicolor Thursday: Green Lantern

Here's a shot of Hal Jordan putting that old "if they're too powerful, punch 'em in to space" rule a lot of superheroes follow.

Whatever Wednesday: Marvel Demons

I've been drawing quite a few demons in Devil Slayer (and plan on a lot more in issues to come) so I decided to break out the old Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and take a crack at a few of the established Marvel demons. I don't know if I'll be able to draw any of these crazy lookin' things in the upcoming issues or not, but this was quite a bit of fun so... whatever.

Oh, and there's a six page preview of Dead of Night Devil Slayer #1, which hits stands tomorrow, over at CBR.

Super Tuesday

It had to happen, right? Superman for Super Tuesday? I've got it out of my system now though, so I'll be sure to have a bit more varied assortment of the super folks in the future:)

In a strange coincidence I just got this link to Ordinary People Change the World. Com in my email this morning, concerning the current state of the home where Superman was created. Thousands of people go to Metropolis, Illinois every year, but isn't it about time that Jerry Siegel's home, the true birthplace of Superman, was considered a landmark?

Be sure to go to the link above to bid on an item, pick yourself up a snazzy shirt or donate to the Siegel and Shuster Society.

Monster Monday: Killer Croc

Hmm. Now that I think about it Croc isn't really a monster at all.  In the past ten years or so he's been drawn like one, but he's really just a big ugly guy with a bad skin condition and sharp little teeth.
Maybe I should've stuck with the movie monster motif I started for Monday sketches:P

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'.

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!

Books I'd Kill to Draw: Zot

I know there's no way in the world I'd ever get the chance to draw Scott McCloud's Zot in print (being a creator owned project and all) but Scott McCloud has been a huge influence on me. Long before I had heard about Understanding comics I was learning loads from his wonderful storytelling in the pages of Zot.
I actually got the chance to meet McCloud back in 2000 and had him sign my dog-eared copy of of the first Zot trade Eclipse put out in 1990. I still smile every time I look at it:)

Books I'd Kill to Draw: Iron Fist

This one was a lot of fun!

The Orson Randall incarnation of Iron Fist is easily one of my favorite new characters that Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction and David Aja have brought in to the Marvel Universe of late. He's got such a great pulp sensibility with his set of .45s and his Phantom like sweater.



Also, Martijn Form's farewell to Exterminators is up at Comics Bulletin with a wee quote from me in there.
Exterminators is unfortunately another of those great books cancelled far far too soon.

Books I'd Kill to Draw: Robin

As you can see from the title I've settled on my first new theme. Books I'd Kill to Draw is pretty self explanatory... I'll be posting sketches of characters from my favorite books past and present that I think would be a dream to work on (no matter how tonally wrong I may be for any particular title:)
These will be comics I grew up with, or am still reading, that have had a hand in shaping my comic tastes and style, and some that I just think would be a hell of a lot of fun to work on:)
We'll see some obvious stuff in these posts ( that means a fair share of capes and tights) but there'll definitely be a few surprises along the way as well.
Let's start with a pretty easy one. Below we have Robin...

...in true 90's fashion I imagine he's saying "Come get some.":)

Star-Man... er MEN

Yeah... so I'm one of the few who STILL hasn't read any Star Man. Maybe I'll try to pick it up since it's in one of those big collections now.

Have a great weekend, everybody. Oh, and if you're out in San Diego have a safe trip back. I gotta say I'm pretty glad I didn't go. Staying home this time out has afforded me more time to devote to work, and I'm sure I'm keeping up with news from the show better than if I were actually there:) I'm a bit disappointed I don't get to catch up with a lot of my friends at the show, but it's such a mad-house there I probably wouldn't have been able to chat much anyway. Take care, folks!

Tara and Paul

Colossus

In case you were wondering, yeah I saw Dark Knight yesterday... I'll tell ya all about it later:) Until then here's a Colossus sketch for ya until I've got the time to rave about movies.

Hope your week starts out on the right foot. My right foot stepped on a dead frog in the carport this morning! I need a cup of coffee.

Doom!

RICHAAAAAARRRDSSS!!!!

Man, those old Byrne issues of Fantastic Four ruled.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Look! Up in the Sky!!

Here's the one I mentioned yesterday. Maybe I'll try to get some more color stuff up here from time to time. Spice up the ol' blog a bit.

Spidey Sense Tingling!

Here's one of the doodles I did up for a couple of the kids before a recent family get-together.

I've got a Superman too(that needs a little cleaning up in Photoshop) that I'll get that up here tomorrow.

Heroes: Joker and Thanos&Death

Okay, I've milked the Heroes Con sketches all that I can. These are the last two pieces done at the show. Thanks again to everyone who made it out (a big thanks to those of you who passed along scans) and to all you folks who've been leaving comments. I really appreciate it.

Now it's on to posting somethin' new. Guess I'd better get back to the drawing board.

Heroes: Doc Ock and OMAC

Here are a couple great things that came out of the Silver-Age:)

Heroes: Big Boss and Mister Terrific

The sketch up top is of "Big Boss" (from a video game I'm ashamed to say I've forgotten the title of again) and below is Mister Terrific whose power (aside from the only one that I was aware of, which is his T mask that makes him invisible to cameras or computers or something...) is that "he's better than you.":)

Hereoes: Secret Invasion Hawkeye and DD

Here are a couple more sketches on those blank Secret Invasion covers. Unfortunately the ink I used on these two was different from the last time, so I wasn't able to erase all of the pencils without taking the majority of ink off the page with 'em. At least now I know what NOT to use next time.

Also, there's a short piece up at Newsarama about Pulp Tales with a bit more preview artwork than has made it out on the internets before. Great lookin' stuff, and apparently Boom! will have a limited number of copies up for grabs at the San Diego Comic-Con if you haven't already ordered yours.

Heroes: Martian Manhunter X 2

I guess his recent death got Martian Manhunter back on some folks radars. Can you believe I did TWO sketches of J'onn J'onzz at the same show?

Heroes: Oracle & Black Canary and ummm Oracle again

I was asked to draw the top piece in a sketchbook, but in my last-day-of-the-show confusion I managed to do the whole thing on a sheet of bristol board. I did the little head shot of Babs in the book to hopefully make up for my absent mindedness.

Hope you all had a safe Fourth of July... and fifth and sixth. Our neighbors are still celebrating nightly with fireworks:(

Heroes: Agent Maria Hill

This is the last scan of sketches I worked up before the show.
And yes that is MODOK's shadow:)

Heroes: Wolverine & Shadowcat and Casanova & Zephyr

Hmm, maybe these are my two favorite pre-show sketches:)

Heroes: Vision & Scarlet Witch and Woverine & Hellfire Club

These are a couple of my favorite pre-show pieces. I've never drawn any of these folks, with the obvious exception of Wolverine, but I'm really happy with how they turned out.