Now it's really official.....

Surprise at Amazon

Death of Captain Marvel

I am a big Jim Starlin fan and I read a lot of his work, but I never read THE graphic novel. I am not sure why...I do remember when it came out, or at least hearing about it coming out. It sold out pretty quick and a friend of mine (who was even a bigger Jim Starlin fan) got his sister's boy friend to drive him around San Jose until he found a copy. I remember being taken back when he told me that he bought a copy for himself but did not pick me up a copy...in any case I never got to spend my $6 to buy a copy.

Back than, comics did not get reprinted (unless a Conan story published in Savage Sword of Conan got colored and printed as a fill in the Conan The Barbarian comic), so I thought I pretty much missed my chance of getting it. But things were changing. The first Marvel graphic novel got a second (and a third and a fourth) printing pretty quickly but I never got around to buy them. Mostly because I started hearing that The Death of Captain Marvel was “not as good” as “his Warlock and Captain Marvel stuff”. Later I heard the same opinions about Jim Starlin’s “Dreadstar” and “Breed”. Just recently I hear that same opinion about “Death of the New Gods”…but I enjoyed all of those above mentioned books, so last week while shopping at Hijinx I took the plunge and got a copy of the reprint that was available in their stock.

This is a reprint of Captain Marvel 34, Marvel Spotlight 1 &2, and “The Death of Captain Marvel” graphic novel. The reprint is comic sized, so the pages have been shank down from the original magazine sized book and the reproduction is horrible. It looks like someone has scanned the printed pages of the graphic novel and there are all sorts of problems with zip-a-tone and color dropping out in certain spots. It’s a shame.

I read it.

I loved it.

The writing was wonderful, the storytelling was great, art was mature and well thought out. It was a great story. A true graphic novel.

This is Old School, baby!

I was reading the blog post by Alex Alice, the French writer/artist of comics. In the latest post he talks about doing the colors on his latest volume...and he is still doing it by hand! He feels that there is certain richness that goes missing if the same process is done digitally. Don't hear that sort of a thing too often, so it's kind of cool, check it out at: Alex Alice

Dark Crystal page 3...I guess it's OK to post

The colored version was posted by Stephen Christy on his twitter account, so I figure I can post the original.

I have been working on the first Dark Crystal graphic novel (of three that are planned) since mid April. I got about 30 pages done, so I feel we are making progress. The hope is to get the script approved and have me finish the art in September....then we wait and see what the reaction might be.

What language is this?

I got a link to another review of the Dark Crystal FCBD giveaway (thank you Todd!)...but I have no idea what language it is in. I think it's Finnish....it's definitely not German or Dutch....
Dark Crystal in ?

Dark Crystal FCBD: German review

I got this cool link from Kevin (thank you!). I can't read German, but I trust it says some nice things about my short story for the FCBD give-away:
Dark Crystal in German

Sketchbook review at Parkablogs.com!

I have been a frequent visitor to Parka's blog to find out about new art books for a number of years. I got some very cool art books based on his recommendations and reviews and that makes it extra cool to see a sweet review of my sketchbook on his site! Check it out at: Parka Blogs
Thank you!

Thank you :)

A shout out to everyone who stopped by to say "Hi" and hang out at Hijinx this weekend! It was a pleasure to spend some time promoting comics' medium in the company of Hijinx's owner Neil Ferris and Flesk Publications publisher John Fleskes.

Neil welcomed everybody into his store and had everything from free comics to special discounts on his inventory. John was able to bring out some of his books and engaged folks in conversation about fine art and different artists. I got to hang out and talk about the upcoming Dark Crystal book. It was fun!

You guys can check out Flesk Publications at:
Flesk Publications

And if you decide you want to stop by at Hijinx, check it out at:
Hijinx

And a special shout out to Blue_Jay and Tom (you guys know who you are!) for making the special trip to hang out. Much appreciated gentlemen!

May 7th, 2011 Free Comic Book Day @ Hijinx

I will be signing Archaia books and showing artwork from the upcoming Dark Crystal graphic novel (and of course selling sketchbooks and originals), so come one and come all :)

WonderCon...one more time

My timing turned out to be bad (again). A few hours after I finished writing about my presence at WonderCon I received an e-mail with the signing schedule at the Archaia booth. So for those that are interested I can be found at the Archaia booth:

Friday 1-3 pm and 5-6:30 pm
Saturday 3-4:30 pm
Sunday 12:30-3:30 pm

I'll bring some original artwork to look at :)

WonderCon and beyond

I am planning on attending WonderCon this coming weekend. I tried getting a table in the artist alley, but by the time I contacted the convention all the spaces were sold out. My plan is to show up and see if any spaces opened up and if not, I'll just walk around and buy some comics :)

I will probably spend a few hours at the Archaia booth signing their copies of Robotika, but I am not sure what the sighing schedule will be. If you do spot by Archaia's booth and I am not around, ask them to see the colored version of the Dark Crystal short that will be out next month. It turned out pretty sweet.

I am planning on having real table space at the San Jose convention in May and also at APE later on in October, so if we don't run into each other at WonderCon, I hope to catch-up later on in the year :)

I might even have this all done:

Does the world need more Batman....

...surely it does :)

NY Times best seller list

David Petersen's "Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard" collection (to which I contributed "Oleg The Wise" short story) is on the NY Times best seller list...and has been for a couple of weeks. Check it out: NY List

Dark Crystal and More

Today I got to see the finished colored pages from the Dark Crystal 8 page story that will appear on the Free Comic Book Day in May. The colorist, Lizzy John, did a wonderful job completing the story and giving it a lot of "mood". I am pretty excited about seeing it in print.

I am also starting to work on the cover and interior chapter illustrations for Matthew Maxwell's "Strangeways: The Thirsty". It's an original graphic novel that is a sequel to his "Strangeways: Murder Moon". I have talked about Matthew and his work in my earlier posts. He and I shared convention tables at APE and WonderCon in the past, and apart from being a very creative guy, he is also a gentlemen and a true fan of storytelling. To read more about Matthew and his work, you can visit him at Highway 62

In the meantime, here is another page from WWII:

Dark Crystal Preview

Here is a preview of some of my Dark Crystal pages (together with some Mouse Guard pages from David Petersen). The pages shown are full pencils, but they will also be fully digitally painted by a very talented artist. So enjoy the sneak peak: Preview

Page 10 Battlefield

I am almost done with the Dark Crystal story for Free Comic Book Day. So far, the editors at Archaia (the publisher) and the art directors at Hanson Productions, have been very supportive of the pages as I turn them in. I look forward to seeing how the story is going to look in color.

While I can't post any of the Dark Crystal material (yet), I am posting another page of pencils from my WWII crime noir story. Here is "Bronski" page 10:

Transmetropolitan

The folks who created "Transmetropolitan" for Vertigo are doing a charity book for the The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and they invited me (along with a lot of other artists) to create illustrations based on their characters. Here is the preview of my page in black and white, it will be fully painted in the published edition:

To learn more about this project, visit: ComicBookResources.Com

A recent Shadow Lass commission

Warlock and Dark Crystal on E-Bay

I am listing two original drawings and an older self published portfolio on E-Bay...if anyone is interested :)
Here is the ebay link : HERE

And here is the second ebay link : HERE

Here is the ebay link for the portfolio: HERE

Death and Dream commission

A recent commission-