Inspiration

San Jose now has a comic book convention. I believe it was the same show that started in Oakland a few years back, but has now been held at the San Jose Convention Center for the second time. I hope it continues here and I am planning on getting a table next time around.

I did not go this time, but I got to have lunch with Ryan who drove down to attend. We had lunch and ended-up talking comics for a few hours. Ryan also showed me an antique book illustrated by Franklin Booth called "Flying Islands of the Night". Michelle found it for Ryan and was able to buy it with out having to take out a huge loan. It is one of the few books that showcases Booth's color illustrations...and he was as good with color as he was with a line. Simply beautiful work and it sparked a talk about some old school illustrators that was real fun.

Ryan was also kind enough to show me some of his latest work. I was blown away by the story that he has done for the Top Cow's "First Born" storyline, featuring Magdelena. Ryan's covers are awesome, but I originally fell in love with his story pages (from Arkham Asylum) so it is a real pleasure for me to see his new panel-to-panel work. This is going to be a great story and I am waiting to see it piblished.

After talking to Ryan about sorytelling and rendering I walked away being totally excited about drawing...I was also reminded about how hard it is to be a professional artist. Even though Ryan is always positive and very upbeat about everything, I imagine it must be hard (at least it would be hard for me) to wake-up every day and be "on". By "on", I mean being able to draw, draw well, and draw whatever someone put infront of you. Something like that could be a real challenge.

Some new pages:

Backgrounds

My approach to the new pages has been to draw the foreground figures in ink and then draw the backgrounds in gray tones, either with ink wash or markers. This did not work out as well as I hoped, because I ruined some of the panels. I am now drawing the backgrounds on separate paper and combining the foreground and background digitally.

Artist's Alley

Together with Marvin Mann and David Moran, I participated in an interview that covered all aspects of creating independent comic book making. I got to talk about my influences and inspirations, as well as what my thought process is for writing and laying out storytelling.

The first part is here:

Artist's Alley at Broken Frontier

http://www.brokenfrontier.com/lowdown/details.php?id=1271

and from there you can follow the links to the subsequent chapters.

Below is the inside front cover for issue #4 of "Robotika: For A Few Rubles More":

Random fight panels from #4

Another fight

More fighting in the "danger room".

New art

I am currently penciling issue #4. It's a bit slow going, but I am making progress. The storytelling is a bit complicated for this last issue (because there is so much content that had to be included, I had to be creative with page layouts...and still I had to expand the issue to 28 pages). Here are snips of pencils from a few pages showing a fight scene.

WonderCon 2008

This was my first con of the year and it was one of the best conventions I have ever attended. This was in large part due to the fact that I got to share a table with two other ASP creators: Marvin Mann and Patrick McEvoy. Apart from being way talented, these two are the nicest guys and were a fun bunch to hang out with.

It was also a blast to met some folks who read Robotika and to sell the book to a few new potential readers. In fact I sold out of the hardcover collection of the first mini-series...wow!

I spent most of the time at the table, which kept me from walking around and spending money (good), but also limited my ability to pick up new art (bad). However, I did manage to re-introduce myself to Alex Nino and again express my appreciation for his past and current work. I was very excited to hear that he will have a new art book out for San Diego, and a new illustrated Graphic Novel in March. Also by accident (and kind of rudely) I introduced myself to Timothy Green II whose work I have followed from Aeon Flux (Dark Horse) to Starlord (Marvel). He was great to talk to and we chatted about old school illustrators and different rendering techniques. Timothy showed me a few of the pages from his upcoming Image project "Robota", based on a Doug Chiang art book. The pages look absolutely beautiful, and it was great to see someone else draw robots other than myself!

Richard Becker (the artist on anything and everything that has to do with pirates) and Joshua Dysart (the talented writer of many excellent books like: Violent Messiahs, Swamp Thing, 1946), as well as my old friends whom I met at signings around the area, stopped by and were super supportive of my current efforts. I want to thank everyone who took a few minutes to chat and encourage me. Thank you!

Here are a few images from the convention:

Marvin and Patrick on Friday before the start of the show.

"Robotika" in full force!

Working...

Working harder...

Marv doing a sketch for one of the fans.

This is Patrick using the time to pencil one of the panels from the upcoming Starkweather issues.

A late dinner with Ryan, Nick, and Chris.

Issue #3 is done!

I am now done with issue #3 and I feel it is the best art I have ever done. Here is the inside front cover:


And here are a few other pages:

Robotika #2 Available for Pre-Order

Issue #2 of "Robotika: For A Few Rubles More" is now available for pre-order through Diamond Previews. Order Code: DEC07 3393

So now, all of you who did not order #1 and felt guilty about it, have a second chance to make good :)

Issue #3...moving along

Robotika #1 Pre-Reviews

I have sent out a number of copies of Robotika#1 PDF for review purposes and there has been three reviews so far...very positive reviews :)

Broken Frontier

Jazma Online

Comics-And-More

Robotika #3, Page 13, Panel 5--Romper Stomper

I am getting into the whole "drawing fight scenes" thing.

Color Preview Pages

Colored and lettered pages from the first issue are just up on Newsarama. I am hoping that will help raise the awareness about the book.

Newsarama

Leif turned me on to "The Ultimates" and I am enjoying it a lot...I am spending more time reading instead of drawing.

Issue #3...my first 2 page splash!

Working on Robotika continues to broaden my horizons. Here is my attempt at a 2 page splash...I hope it will print alright.

Robotika #1 "For A Few Rubles More"

Robotika #1 is listed in Previews Magazine for pre-order. It is featured on page 226 along with other great titles from Archaia Studios Press.

The pre-order # is OCT07 3263 and I hope you will take a chance on ordering the book.

A new review

I just got an e-mail about a review that was done in current Rain Taxi journal:

9.25.07 – Robotika reviewed in Rain Taxi.
This quarterly review journal said in its Spring 2007 issue, “Like the organic machine technology of its future world, Robotika fuses disparate elements into a quirky, but surprisingly catchy concoction…. Sheikman’s characters face their world with an energy that mirrors the eye-catching layouts that depict them, giving the comic its engaging personality.”

I am very much looking forward to hearing what sort of responce there will be to the second series in December!

the REAL job

When I am not drawing (or hanging out with my family, or working on the house, or...) I work building up test stands. Here is my current project, a UH-60 Blackhawk rotor.

Robotika X

Since San Diego I have been focusing on pin-ups, covers, and illustrations. Here is the latest Niko idea.

Archaia Panel at San Diego Comic Con

There are two short reports of the the panel that I attended at San Diego.

The Pulse

Post San Diego

I saw lots of art at the San Diego Con and one of the realizations was that I might have been limiting myself to only working in ink for a long time. I am going to attempt more pencil/marker sort of projects and see if I can learn something.

San Diego-2007

The convention at San Diego is the biggest
convention I have ever been to and it seems to get bigger every year.
This year was pretty amazing for me because I could show off a
collected edition of the firstRobotika mini-series and also preview the first 2 issues from the second Robotika mini-series coming out in December.

The huge news from the convention was that David Petersen, the creator of Mouse Guard, has received
the Russ Manning award. David has had an amazing year and it is
wonderful to see him being recognized for all of his hard work. I had a
great timetalking to David and Julia AND I got to read the first issue of David's second series, which is simply awesome.

I got to met and talk to Ted McKeever and Ron Marz
who have been super supportive of my efforts and were kind enough to
write introductions for the collected edition. I got to spend a few
minutes talking with friends who live too far to see on regular basis.
I did not catch everyone, but I had a great time talking to Ryan, Leif,
and David Moran.

I also got a chance to connect with some folks whom I have only known through e-mail up to his point: Brian Churilla, Jeremy Shephard and his wife Julia, Joe Suitor, Joe Illridge and the whole new ASP crew...it was pretty sweet.

And
the "wow, can this really be" moment of the convention was when I
bumped into David Williams. I met David 12-15 years ago when he was
living in Oakland, since than he has worked for every major comic book
company and every animation studio in US. He also worked as a designer
on a bunch of movies, including the Harry Potter franchise. David is back working at Marvel and he has a sweet sketchbook out.

I sound silly

I got interviewed at Indie Comic News by Miguel Rodrigues. This was sort of different because instead of doing it by e-mail, Miguel interviewed me over the phone. It is odd to hear my own voice...I sure say "you know" and "well.." a lot. I am not sure if I always made sense, but I tried to give honest answers.

Indie Comic News

BA-BooM!

Backgrounds

I am trying something different for some of the backgrounds in the series. Since my figures are inked pretty tight, I decided to loosen up on the backgrounds that are not establishing shots and hopefully create a nice contrast in the artwork...sometimes it works...sometimes it does not.

Page 6, Panel 3

I got an award (!)

This is pretty cool...I have never won anything before, so this is pretty awesome. I think everyone knows what it feels like to put-in work everyday, week after week...not even knowing if anyone outside your circle of friends is even aware of your efforts. It is such a gift to hear that there is an audience out there looking at my work!

ForeWord Book Awards

BasketHead

As silly as it looks, I am actually pretty happy with the straw basket on teh guys head. After 10 inked pages I am feeling like I am getting my "inking feet" back and moving along through tha pages.

Had a great visit with Ryan who shared some of his work with me and inspired me to no end...after he left Barbara and I started pulling the kitchen floor apart. We are getting ready to install the same floor as in the living and family rooms, before you know it we will have the same flooring through-out the house (what a concept!).

Wanted

I have been struggling with the back cover for issue #1. Did I want to print a guest artist? Should I do the cover by myself? What image should I use?

In the end I decided that I was going to do the back cover by myself, and I was going to feature Bronski since he was the main character in the back-up story for that issue. My next question was..how can I do something new and cool that I have not done before?

After a few sketches, this idea of putting Bronski in front of a "wanted: dead or alive" poster worked itself out and I was pretty happy about it. When I was all done I showed it to Norman when he was visiting. I was all jazzed because I thought this was very clever and has never been done before...Norman pointed out that he has seen something similar when he was 9 years old watching "Tom and Jerry" cartoons...oh well. Off it goes to the colorist :)

San Diego Dreaming....

I have started inking the next issue and if all works out as planned I hope to have the next 30 pages done (inked/lettered/scanned) by San Diego Comic Convention...

I finished....and reviews

...penciling another issue and just started inking again. I hope to post a few inked pages in the next week or so. In the mean time, here are two recent reviews for the hardcover collection of the first series:

PopMatters

Legion of Doom

Anatomy of a fight...scene.

I have always had a tough time with fight scenes. I am not talking about a shot of two opponents squaring off against each other; I am talking about a panel-to-panel sequence that lasts longer than a few frames.

Partially this is due to the fact that I do not practice any martial arts and that I have not been in a fight since 5th grade...maybe 4th. This really became a problem recently when I got my main character, Niko, involved in a fight that was going to last most of the issue (interwoven with other events in the storyline), I wanted something that made sense and not just a collection of shots of two toughs. I was not even sure how to begin.

I was kind of stuck until I remembered that at the fitness center, where I work out at lunch, there is a jujitsu class that is being taught every Tuesday and Thursday. I came up and introduced my self to the instructor, John Nguyen, and asked for help.

John graciously agreed and after we talked for a bit about the set-up, he started introducing some very cool ideas. Thanks to him, the fight is starting to take shape and is much more involved than just two guys duking it out. There are now different phases to the action, each involving a different element (fire, water) and it has it's own rhythm that is echoing the beats in the rest of the story.

Below is the opening sequence:

Review

Since the trade collection came-out a while back, there is not much in the way of reviews anymore, but someone sent me this link of a recent (and very nice) review:

RPG.NET

Storytelling

When Robotika was being published I did a few internet interviews about the series. It seemed like every interview ended (or begun) with a question about influences. The truth is that I am influenced by just about everything that I came into contact with: all the comics, books, movies, paintings, animation...

Sure, I get excited about some particular techniques that I see in comics and illustration, but it does not motivate me to sit down and draw for 8-10 hours. I file stuff like that away in my mind and look for an opportunity to use it some day...most of the time with mixed results :(

What really inspires me to continue doing pages is talking to people like Jim Williams III, Ryan Sook, Norman Felchle, Brian Apthorp, and Frank Cirocco who are always thinking about experimenting with storytelling and are always pushing themselves to continue studying all aspects of drawing. These guys are amazing and it is my privilage to know them, but there are also other very talented storytellers whom I never got to met who challenge me to think about my work. Folks like Rodolfo Damaggio, Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Marshall Rogers, Alex Toth, Sergio Toppi, Claire Wendling, Will Eisner, Damion Scott...the list is never ending :)

Talking about storytelling here is a cool bit from a recent Ryan Sook story in Worldstorm #2:


Believe it or not, I did the layouts for the bit below before I saw Ryan's page, but I must admit that by the time I executed the actual drawng I was well aware of the Worldstorm story and I am sure it influenced my approach:

Friday the 13th

Ever since I got to buy a Swamp Thing reprint back in the late 80's I have been a huge Wrightson fan. Wrightson was somehow able to take the ugly and the scary and draw it in a way that made it look fun and playful...with an edge to it. I still spend hours looking through the "Look Back", "Swamp Thing", and "Frankenstein". It's beautiful stuff.

Recently Ryan did a cover for Friday the 13th series from Wildstorm that had the same effect on me. The subject matter is crazy, but the picture is executed with perfect lines and beautiful anatomy, mixing the innocent with the horrific and flowless technique with the unthinkable subject... everything in perfect balance. I am simply fascinated by this...work like that doesn't just inspire me to try to do better, it makes me understand things about drawing that always seem to elude me.