For the Motherland....

From pencils to inks: Dr. Strange and Clea

Batman / Bruce Wayne

I like how you can't see the face of either one.....

Page 6...The Gulag

Page 4 ... a knock knock joke

The Human Hourglass by Charles Yoakum.

Here is the inked version of the Captain Marvel pin-up:




Together with the inked pin-up, I got a copy of Charles' "Carnival: The Human Hourglass". Charles still has a few copies available after APE and he is selling them through his BLOG.

The coolest thing is that for just a few dollars you get the ashcan AND Charles does an original sketch (knowing my love of the 70's cosmic Marvel universe, Charles did a Captain Marvel for me). "The Human Hourglass" is a great crime noir story, well told, and drawn with care. I enjoyed it and I recommend it...a lot :)

Jim Starlin Captain Marvel (Old School, Baby!)

Bronski page 2 pencils

Love, love, love...but wait.....

A start of a new project: "Bronski"

In the next few weeks I will be sharing pages from the new story that I am working on and studies from a Transmetropolitan project that I have been invited to participate. I'll be only contributing one page, but I ended-up with a bunch of ideas for it :)

So the first penciled Bronski page: Soviet Union 1938 "The Dawn of Communism".....

A Strange Ebay Auction

I have inked one of the Dr. Strange drawings and have put it up for sale on Ebay...I think it's a fun drawing that goes along with Strange's mystic. Pass it on to all collectors of original art that you know :)

Here is the ebay link : HERE

Amazon review

I got an e-mail that someone has put up a review of "Robotika: For A few Rubles More" up on amazon.

Of course I was curious and I went over to read it...ouch, a bit of a disappointment, got only 2 stars.

It would be too bad if that was the only review up there, so I would like to call on the whole "Robotika Nation" to come over to Amazon and write down your thoughts about the book. Good or bad, it will be all appreciated :)

To get to the Robotika amazon page, just click HERE

Hamlet illustrated by John Austen

I don't know much about John Austin, but a long time ago I saw a 1922 edition of Hamlet that he illustrated...it was $150adn it was awesome. He was just as decorative as Harry Clarke but not as busy, his drawing had just as much style as the work of Aubrey Beardley, but his figures were not as weird and his sense of design (I thought) was better. I could not afford the book, but I enjoyed looking at it for a while.

The cool news is that there is a new reprint edition that just got released that contains all of his original illustrations!


And the really cool news is that at amazon it is only $17...oh yeah.

IN celebration of Guy Davis and The Marquis!

For some reason, this makes me think of Al Williamson ...

Dr. Stran"G"e

I want to thank everyone who stopped by at APE to see me and Charles at our table.



Simple, but elegant....for those that are paying attention, the letter "G" is done in the style of the "old school" Michael Golden signature. Why? Because Doctor Strange #55 was great!

Table #655 at APE October 16-17

I will be sharing a table with Charles Yoakum (artist on Batman:Outlaws, The Grackle, Wardancer...and more) at APE this weekend. Come on by table #655 and say "Hi". I'll have sketchbooks, Robotika collections, originals, and new unpublished pages to show off...and of course Dr. Strange doodles :)

Can you find...Doctor Strange?

Can you find the good doctor?

Jim Starlin's Warlock/Magus

Fun!

Buddha

Slurp....

Dr. Strange (with inks!)

I have not been inking for the last few weeks, so this is kind of differnet...

One last Dark Crystal...for the time being :)

Full page Dark Crystal illustration

Inked Dark Crystal try out

Bat Cave

Doctor Strange ... Flight

Doctor Strange and Clea

The Doctor's shape will be inked black, except for the hands.

Dr. Strange pencils (take 2)

How many doctors can one draw?

Brian Churilla and Thanos the Mad Titan

This is another attempt by me to get Thanos "right"...I just can't get enough "mass" effect (although I think this is better than my earlier efforts).

The good news is, there is an artist who gets how to draw Thanos and he is drawing him right now (!). The artist is Brian Churilla, who has illustrated number of great stories (including a Robotika back-up story "Once Upon A Time...") and he is now illustrating Marvel's re-imagining of Jim Starlin's "Infinity Gauntlet". The title of the book is "Avengers and the Infinity Gauntlet" and #1 is in comic book stores NOW! Here are some pages and covers from the book (courtesy of Brian's blog): "Brian Churilla's Cool Art".

What can I say...I am in love :)

Doctor Strange (take 1)

Jim Starlin's Warlock

Guy Davis' Marquis(a) (II)

Guy Davis' Marquis (I)

Princess of Mars

What do Jim Starlin and I have in common?

Answer: an introduction by Ron Marz.

Jim Starlin is also a legendary storyteller who has been creating wonderfully complex universes and engaging characters for years. A retrospective book about his career is long overdue...and here it is:
A regular edition

and a signed and numbered edition


When Norman told me that this book is coming out (thanks Norm!) I started "googling" and found a post on Ron Marz's blog about the book and his introduction. I thought that was great, because a few years ago Ron Marz was kind enough to write an introduction for my first Robotika collection. So now, even though tenuous and tangential at best, there is a connection between Mr. Starlin and....You can read the full introduction (for Jim Starlin) "HERE".

Anyone interested can order the book through amazon "HERE".

Mouse Guard Legends #1 (pencils p.7, p.8 and p.9)

Mouse Guard Legends #1 (pencils p.5 and p.6)

Dave Stevens' Rocketeer Artist's Edition....the most expensive book I ever bought!

It was an extravagance, but I purchased a copy of Dave Stevens' Rocketeer Artist's Edition. It was a $100 purchase, plus $20 in tax and shipping...I think it might be the most expensive book I own.

Except for 2 pages, all the art is reproduced from new "shots" or "scans" of the original artwork. I am guessing about the "shots", but I believe that most of the pages that remained in Dave Stevens' estate possession were shot with a digital camera. I say this because of how the shadows from the past ups appear on the printed pages, the shadows tend to indicate a consistent light source that makes them look 3D and I know that when pages are scanned (or at least when I scan them) the paste ups are hard to distinguish. A few of the pages must have ended-up in other collections and those were definitely re-scanned and sent in for publication. The "shots" appear more like gray scale drawings (showing the lettering underneath the paste ups, the white-out touch-ups, as well as the pencil notes) and the "scans" tend to have more contrast and appear like black and white drawings. Again this is just a guess based on my experience with scanners and digital cameras.

In any case, the reproduction is great and the larger black and white format makes it real easy to appreciate the care that Stevens' put into his line work and rendering. The book is oversized, but it well put together. The paper stock is real nice and the binding appears to be strong (which is a trick with a book this size). I very much enjoyed it, it truly is just like handling original pages (or at least as close as I will ever get to handle Stevens' original pages).

It was interesting to read that IDW is hoping to do this some more with other series if there is enough of a demand and since they sold out of their 1,600 copies (at $100 a pop...$160,000) I would imagine companies like Marvel, DC, Image, and Dark Horse might hop on the band wagon. It seems that while monthly comic sales are trailing off, big comic art books are on the rise ("Absolute" editions, "Al Williamson's Flash Gordon" by Flesk Publishing, DC's over-sized collections like "Batwoman" and "Wednesday Comics" and Adam Hughes collection of covers, the recent Nino in Slumberland collections....)

I wish Bernie Wrightson's Frankenstein illustrations got the same treatment (!).

Mouse Guard Legends #1 (pencils p.3 and p.4)

Batman: The Long Halloween ... NOT!!

Mouse Guard Legends #1 (pencils p.1 and p.2)

The original pages were penciled and inked print size and later digitally colored and lettered.

Baba Yaga page 6 (pencils)...version 1.0

The prince turns cold and wicked and he delights in tormenting young maidens by turning them into slimy ugly things, like snakes, lizards...and frogs



I am not very happy with the storytelling on this page. I think the top panel lacks drama, I don't like the fact that the face of the prince is so "accessible", and I think that the maiden who gets turned into a frog, should actually be more of a mutant creature which is something between a human and a frog...so I am working on a revision.