High contrast

New Robotika review (thanks to John for keeping a look out!):

DriveThruComics

And a few more role playing illustrations from my files. These were done at the very end of my involvement with White Wolf. The storyline was coming to an end and the art directors tried to pull together everyone who has contributed artwork to the books that culminated in the "apocalypse". I wanted to try to do something different and I focused on trying a more contrast oriented, style with simple shapes and not much rendering.
Killing Ground

The End

Sketchbook sketches...

I started getting some orders for the Sketchbooks with the original drawings in them and I wanted to show what a few of them look like:

Sketchbook 2010

I have just picked-up my sketchbooks from the printer. I am very happy with the printing...I really like the paper and how the ink impressions look.

The book is 60 pages, 8.5"x11", and contains my sketchbook pages from the "One-a-Day" sketchbook I kept last year, pin-ups that I did for various publications (some got printed and some never saw the light), a couple of my favorite illustrations I did for role playing games, personal drawings, and a few commissions I did over the last 2 years. Here is a sample from Front cover to Back cover:


I printed 100 copies.
I will draw a sketch in the first 50 copies and sell them for $20 each + $3 shipping.
The last 50 will be without a sketch and will sell for $10 each + $3 shipping.
You can avoid paying shipping if you buy the book from me at WonderCon, where I will be sharing a table with Matt Maxwell (Highway 62).

I accept PayPal (please paypal to alex@sheikman.com), checks, cash.... :)

To everyone who follows the blog: PLEASE help to spread the word about the sketchbook :)

Haiku...and "Has anyone heard about this Steranko book?"

I found a cool book called "Steranko: Visual Theory, Volume 1" that Steranko published himself back in 2003. I found it through a review printed HERE.

I followed the link at the bottom of the review and found this:

Visual Theory

It appears that is it still available for purchase (!). Is this real? Has anyone tried ordering this before from this site?

Role Playing Illustrations...and best books of 2009!

2009 turned out to be a great year for printed books. In fact, thinking about it, I realize that a plethora of books like that was only dreamed of by me 5-10 years ago...and 2010 looks even better! So tried to think of the books that I really enjoyed in 2009 and here are my "picks":

Books:
Flash Gordon by Al Williamson. All of Al Williamson's Flash Gordon strips reprinted (most from the originals) in a large black and white format. I loved looking at all the storytelling tricks and all the wonderful detail. I would love to see the same treatment done for Al Williamson's "Star Wars" and "Blade Runner" comics.

Dames, Dolls, And Gun Molls: The Art of Robert A. Maguire. Wonderful collection of paperback cover art by Maguire. Everything from crime noir and barbarians to romance novels. The book is full of great reproductions and there are even original photo reference that was used by Maguire. I loved seeing the covers and the different types used in design.

Spies, Vixens, and Masters of Kung Fu: The Art of Paul Gulacy. This was real fun. I have not been a huge fan of Gulacy's work throughout the years, but this books pulled together all of his best covers, pages, and illustrations. After I read this book I went back and started picking up his work. In a $1 box, I found his 5 part "Prey" storyarc and and just loved it.

Best comics reprint:
Grimswood Daughter by Kevin Nowlan. All sorts of extras including newly re-inked pages and all the artwork reprinted from original in black and white.

Best used book purchase:
In 2009, I "discovered" Steranko. I think it started with me buying a copy of "Tower of Shadows" #1 for 50 cents and I loved his story in it. So I went on and bought Captain America and Nick Fury reprints...again, loved it. I already had "Red Tide" and I got to re-read it..yap, loved it. So I went on e-bay and bought a French reprint collection of his Outland adaptation. Now I am looking forward to his new book from Vanguard in 2010.

The Undead ...with computer manipulation :)

Blood on the Snow and Michael Golden

I did not discover Michael Golden's art until late, but once I did my collector instinct kicked in and I started tracking down everything he ever did. This was all before internet, so my search involved reading through the comics price guide (he already had an entry for himself), talking to the comic shop owners, going through the credits of all the back issues...

So back in the day I found some early Golden work that he did for DC: a couple of issues of "House of Mystery", "Batman Family" issues (wonderful 20-24 page Batman stories inked by Joseph Rubenstein and Craig Russell), a story in "Ghosts", a couple of "Batman" issues (one inked by Golden himself), his issues of Mister Miracle (inked by Russ Heath!), and his 2 issue "Detective Comics" story featuring Man-Bat and Demon . The issues were in terrible shape, so I ripped out his pages and saved them in a binder. I still have that binder and look through it once in a while. Simply gorgeous work.

Last week I stumbled on a "new" Golden story: House of Secrets #151 (1978). It's a 6 page story (title page plus 5 pages of panel to panel work) and it is amazing to see how well developed Golden's style already was...within his first few jobs! He is like Athena, who has sprung from Zeus' head already mature upon her birth!
The title page:


This is the scan of the original black/white line art from that title page that I found on line:

Pirate ABC

A great way to introduce my kid to reading.....

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 :)

Werewolves...like you like them.

One of the funnest assignments I had, was illustrating a book for White Wolf about a tribe of werewolves that settled in Russia. It was perfect because I got to draw all these creepy illustrations with different history themes. Apart from the two here (the first is from the seige of Stalingrad 1942 and the second is from mid 12th century) I have a drawing that looks like an old 1920's photo of red commissars posing by a werewolf head...a bit too graphic for the blog I think.

Adam Warlock...Lost in Space

This is the first drawing of 3 that I am going to be doing for a fanzine (more about that in a few weeks). It is just a loose layout at the moment, but this is how all of my "space scenes" start out. Just trying to figure out where the planets are going to go and which parts will be left white.

Amazon Author's Page

I spent a couple of minutes on Amazon over the weekend (ordering books of course) and while there I somehow stumbled on an invitation to put together an "author's page". I figured I would give it a try. It took amazon a couple of days while they were checking with the publisher to make sure I was who I said I was, but just today I was "cleared" and the new page went-up...regretfully, I have no idea where my BWS look alike photo is, so I used whatever was handy in the photo folder.

Author's Page

The real cool thing is that I actually have a couple of items that can be put on the page :)!

And I was just told that there is a Wiki page devoted to Robotika...how cool is that. I read the synopsis and thought that it was excellent that someone took the time to create that!

Wiki Page