One-a-Day #60

Norman showed me his copy of Marvel Masterworks Warlock Vol 2...and the next day I ordered a copy. I should have it in a week or two :) So of course I am still drawing Starlin's heroes:


This is a scan of one of the earlier drawings that I took the time to scan before I started inking it...I REALLY like how the blue pencil looks. I migth do a whole story just in blue and black:


This is another one from "the file". Back in the day, when Ryan was working on the very first Hellboy spin-off, BPRD, he was gracious enough to let me try inking a few of his rejected pages. My hope was to build-up an inking sample portfolio to try to get some inking jobs. It did not really work out that way, but I did learn a lot and I had a wonderful time inking Ryan's pencils...in fact I believe I learned just as much about penciling as I did about inking from this:

Viking

I have finished reading Bernard Cornwell's "The Last Kingdom" and "Lords of the North" (the library did not have "Pale Horseman", so I had to skip that part of the trilogy for now). I like these books almost as much as his "Winter King" cycle and most of his Sharp novels and I thought I would post something along the lines...with lots of liberties taken on historical accuracies :)

Going "viking":


I also wanted to post about a book that I just read that was simply amazing: Deathblow & Wolverine. It is written and drawn by Aron Wiesenfeld and according to the back cover received 2 Eisner nominations back in 1997 (?). I don't believe I heard of it before, but I just love it! The story telling is awesome and the drawing is real cool. I did a google search on Aron Wiesenfeld and it turns out he left comics to pursue a career in fine art...that is too bad because judging by this book, he has a real knack for storytelling!

Sketchbook designs...

I was kind of inspired by the Guy Davis sketchbook that he put out this year, so I thought I would try using photoshop to put together some muck-up pages. It was fun, bu it took up all my free evening time, so I did not get to draw anything new at all :(

One-a-Day #59...Shape of Things to Come

I have been working in my sketchbook since June and I did not realize that I am almost done with it. I only have about 10 pages left and inking is a bit tough now because of the uneven surface created by all the completed pages (makes me hold a pen at an awkward angle). Wow, I can't believe it...I will actually FINISH a whole sketchbook...what does one do with his own finished sketchbook?

I am still grooving in the "Starlinverse", so here is a Warlock close-up with Magus:


And here is something that I found in the "crypt". A photo of me and Mick Gray, probably from 1992-93, attending a local convention right after we finished working on "Bloodlust" for Slave Labor Graphics. Mick, apart from being a swell and fun guy, is also an Eisner award winner for his inking on ABC's "Promethia" and Lee Bermejo's "Joker" graphic novel.



The thing that this photo made me realize is that I have been hanging around comics for a long time, doing an issue here or there but always talking about doing a "real" series. Time is brutal...it flies right by. It was not until 2004 that I started getting serious about working on storytelling and focusing on writing and drawing something longer than 32 pages.

One-a-Day #58....Madness of FuturePast

Yes, I am still reading the Warlock reprints :)

This is Warlock in his "old" Gil Kane costume:


And this was a real treat! Ryan saw the Batman drawing and had a couple of minutes of free time so he colored it for fun and I just love it (!) Ryan has penciled/inked /colored his own work for all sorts of projects (covers, interior pages, commercial illustration...) but I believe, I have a distinction of being the only artist who has gotten the benefit of Ryan Sook's color on his drawings. We worked together on a couple of cards for DC (I got to draw Teen Titans jet (!) and PlasticMan AND Green Arrow AND Black Canary) and now this Batman drawing :)

One-a-Day #57...Thanos the Mad God!

....or "Gamora the Deadliest Woman Alive".

Gamora really works much better if green is used. Since I did not want to color I blacked-out her costume, but because I was thinking of the way Leyendecker painted I left some rough highlites to make her stand out a bit from the black background.

Thanos was fun to draw because I never really think of drawing such distorted features on my own (does anyone else see a resemblance to a Skrull?).

I am enjoying the Warlock reprints so much, I went ahead and bought Starlin's series from the mid 90's called "Breed" and "Breed II". I am also thinking about digging around and pulling out all the "Dreadstar" books and giving them a read as well...I might be drawing Vanth Dreadstar in a few days :)

I also realized that I have never read "the Death of Captain Marvel"! I need to look that up and see if it is available in reprint.

Batman "Aminated"

A few years ago I had a chance to try out for a Batman project that was supposed to look "like the animated Batman series". I did some sketches but did not get the job (it was cool to be even considered for the assignment, the other guys tries were Norman Felchle, Ryan Sook, and Brett Blevins (who in the end got the penciling part of the job and I think Norman somehow ended-up coloring the cover for it) :


Recently I got the "bug" again and tried my hand at Batman one more time:

One-a-Day #56

Wise Oleg:

From Russia With Love

I was looking through my books for something light to read and I re-discovered a retelling of Robert Luis Stevenson's "Treasure Island". It's a simple adaptation that can be read in an evening (and it made me remember just how good the "real" book is...so I pulled that off the bookshelf as well). This retelling is profusely illustrated by Alexander Mikhnushev, who according to the bio at the back of the book, is the winner of "prestigious awards". There are lots of little 1/8 page spot illustrations and also a lot of double page illustrations (that regretfully suffer by having a book crease right in the middle) and even though the style took a little time to grow on me, I think they all capture the spirit of adventure that saturates the whole book.

Fair Fight take two...or Conan again

I mentioned earlier that I had this one idea for a "silent" 4 page story...and I have already done 5 versions of it. The latest version was done in my "one-a-day" sketchbook (here), the version before that ended up in the first issue of Robotika, the other three versions...are scattered all around. Last night, by accident, I found photocopies of my third attempt at it. This was done right before I started working on the first Robotika mini-series. Here are the pencils:




I was clearly having some problems drawing different body types and my hands were even more awkward then they are now. But once I got through with the pencils I jumped right into inking:




I felt a lot more confident in my inking abilities, so I had a pretty fun time inking the pages. Just about everything but the panel borders, the arrow and the chain mail were done with a brush of some sort...and looking at that now I think it's pretty boring. Currently I am using everything that makes a mark to ink my drawings and I love the variations in my lines. This really could have benefited from some textures and some more dynamic ink work.

One-a-Day #55 (Guest Artist)

Today's sketch is by Timothy Green II...I figure it still counts because it is in the sketchbook :)

Timothy is the artists on Dark Horse's "Aeon Flux", DC's "Rush City", and Marvel's revamp of "StarLord". Currently he is working on a number of Iron Fist stories, but he took some time out to hang out and have a sketch session during which we swapped sketches in our sketchbooks (I got the better part of the deal!)

One-a-Day #53-54 Jim Starlin and Warlock

At the local comic store there are boxes with discounted comics. When I got extra cash I go through them and see if I can find something interesting. Last week I found issues 1 and 2 of a reprint series showcasing Jim Starlin's Warlock comics. The first two issues reprinted his "Strange Tales" stories and his first regular Warlock issue.

I have read these books 10-15 years ago...in fact these were some of the first comics I was introduced to. The guy who got me into comics was a huge Starlin fan and just about had all of his artwork. I loved them and I am happy to say that they withstand the test of time. There are just as fun to read now as they were back than. Warlock discovering that through his soul gem can consume memories and feelings of his victims was a great twist. And of course the whole idea that he needs to battle his future self in order to save the universe from his own religious dictatorship is totally fun...in fact so fun that I started drawing Warlock stuff :)


The Trial of Adam Warlock


The Soul Tree

One-a-Day #51-52

I was trying to figure out how to ink a black cloak and also looking at different sorts of compositions

One-a-Day #47-50...CONAN!!

I mentioned earlier just how much I admire Conan comics by Barry Smith. One of my favorite stories is "Twilight of the Grim Grey God", it has everything in it: mythology, savagery, romance, politics, intrigue...and a barbarian. Below are the first two pages as drawn by Barry Smith in the early 70's when he was in his early 20's.




At first glance, the figures look silly and very comic-book, but when I tried to re-draw them I found that his figures (even at that time) had lots of energy. Twisting and turning, every body wound up like a spring. I tried a couple of times to capture the half turned half crouching pose...and failed. It sure was a great sketching session :)




One thing I realized when I got down to trying to re-draw/re-imagine/re-create/re-copy the pages is that for dense stories, drawing on 8.5x11 is very tough. I had a heck of a time drawing little figures on the second page:

One-a-Day #41-46

First of is a 2 page experiment "ArtWork"...a bit more cartoony than my usual stuff:



A few takes on Guy Davis "Marquis", that almost looks more like "Phantom of the Opera":



And a couple more days of sketching:

ONE-a-DAY #40

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