The return of the Mummy ... back by popular demand.

Dark Crystal samples ...with a spot of color

Here are a couple of my Dark Crystal samples colored by LIzzie John:

My Fair Lady

Batman: Winter in Gotham

I am sure that there is something not quite right about drawing Batman inside my book...but it is a sketch...just a fan sketch. The inspiration came from a woodcut I saw of a winter scene done back in the 1890's. I thought the high contrast black/white was a perfect environment for Batman. I could do a whole story like that ;)





Continuing the same train of thought:

Richard Corben and "Odds and Ends"

Here is one of my sketches for the Robotika collection...it kind of got away from me and I kept adding and adding little lines....


So it turns out that Richard Corben has self-published a book this month. I just sort of learned abut it by accident when I went to his website. The book is called "Odds and Ends" and is:

32 pages, 7"X10.5",
includes in black and white the second chapter of FROM THE PIT,
A Corben collection of unpublished or obscurely published comics and art.

Corben Studios Sales Page

I went ahead and ordered the book and just got it last night. I never read the first chapter of "From The Pit", but the second chapter is great. The art is some of the best I have seen (pen and ink with digitally added gray tones...very well thought out) and the story is very much like Edgar Rice Burroughs books about travelling to the center of the Earth. The gallery section has a few CD covers that Corben did and a couple of illustrations for different books Lovecraft, Ashton Smith, Poe (some pen and ink and some digital gray scale). The book is a little bit bigger than a regular comic book, printed on very nice heavy paper...everything in it is awesome. In fact it was so good I was kind of bummed out it was not a bit bigger with more pages...but I am very happy with the purchase.

Rick Hershey did a nice Robotika piece recently:

For more of Rick's work you can visit his blog.

Gearing-up for Wonder-Con 2010

I am starting to get ready for Wonder-Con. I got a couple of copies of the first Robotika collection left and I will be doing sketches on the title page to have a few available for sale at the convention. The drawings on the title pages will be my "one-a-day" posts for a bit:

Gift of the Magi

A tribute to Dark Crystal:


I thought of an interesting thing. This Christmas, IDW published two books, Rocketeer and WinterWorld, drawn by artists that has passed away. The artwork is presented in a bigger and better format and some of it has never been published. It gives a chance to a whole new audience to experience the magic that Stevens and Zaffino were able to create on a comic book page. It is sad that the new fans can not look forward to any new stories from these wonderful artists, but it is an awesome unexpected gift for old fans like me to be able to see these new books.

John Bauer and Brian Froud

A tribute to John Bauer and Brian Froud:

Cody Starbuck by Howard Chaykin

I have loved reading Howard Chaykin's graphic novels for almost 10 years now. I started with "Batman: Dark Alliances" and worked my way back through "Blackhawk", "Shadow", "Mighty Love" (loved Richard Price's "Lush Life" poster in the background!), "City of Tomorrow", "Iron Wolf" (both the 70's and the "Mignola" versions), "Twilight", "American Flagg", "Times Square" (I don't know how to do the math sign), the various Dominic Fortune appearances...the list goes on and on. But one storyline has always vexed me...Cody Starbuck! The Problem is that Cody Starbuck is a series of stand alone stories (in some cases almost re-boots) with gaps of 2-3 years in between. I love the stories...but I wonder if I am missing chunks of it. Here is what I got:

Star*Reach #1 (1974) and #4 (1976)

Cody Starbuck Star*Reach graphic novelette (1978)

Heavy Metal: May, June, July, August, September 1981--- a serialized 46 page graphic novel


1978 Cody Starbuck portfolio by Schanes and Schanes (6 black and white plates)

1980 Cody Starbuck portfolio by SQ. Prod. Pub./ Continuity Comics (4 color plates)



I have also read in an interview with Neal Adams that "Cody Starbuck" was sold by Continuity to some company in Europe and they printed a graphic novel. I have not been able to find any info on that. I am not even sure if it was printed in France or Italy...or if this "European graphic album" is the reprint of material from Heavy Metal.

Can anyone help? Does any one know who I can ask?

Happy New Year!

Warlock

The Ancient One

I have just finished reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". I originally checked it out of the library because I knew that "BladeRunner" is based on that short story and since I like the movie, I figured I would try the book.

I quickly discovered that the short story was nothing like the movie. There is definitely some of the same plot points and even a few similar situations...but it is two very different stories. I must say that I like both versions (even if I don't fully understand the Dick's verse version). Philip K. Dick is like the Kafka of science fiction, his writing is more about the out-of-body experience that his characters are undergoing rather than about anything specific that is happening in the plot. The spider torture scene almost made me dizzy...

Wolfshead and Timothy Green II

I have added a link to an active blog by Timothy Green II in the links section. Timothy is a very talented artist and I have no idea why it did not occur to me to add the link earlier.

I have been a fan of his work ever since I saw his StarLord mini-series at Marvel. His last two stand alone stories (Immortal Weapons #3 and Ender's Game: War of Gifts Special) have been great and I very much look forward to seeing more.

Apart from being a good artist and inventive storyteller, Timothy is also a very kind person, so anyone going to Emerald City ComiCon next year should seek him out to chat and check out his original pages!

Captain Marvel and Cosmic Awareness....

Zeus

An assignment based on Greek mythology gave me a chance to draw some of the Olympian gods and some pictures from the daily life of Ancient Greece. This one was Zeus-

Inked....

That was fun to do...but now that I inked it I think I see something funny with his legs not being quite right. Back to the drawing board!

Love at first sight....

When I saw this Warlock cover I thought it was the most beautiful piece of comic book art out there:

Now that I am working on the fanzine I thought that might be fun to play with that composition a bit:

Inked version...Lost in Space

I finished inking the earlier penciled picture. It turned out OK, but not how I thought it was going to look...I was hoping for a more "integrated" look, so Warlock is almost blended in with the stars.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Maze

Just done in pencil and a bit of crayon (that I stole from my kid). I totally got inot textures in this one :)