Panda SMASH

Working on this and that at the moment, a bunch of character designs and sequential stuff I'm not allowed to show publicly yet. I wanted something to show you folks though, so I did a super-quick sketch of these two guys. Carla and I did manage to catch two movies on our honeymoon, The Incredible Hulk and Kung Fu Panda. Now understand that, aside from the upcoming Spirit movie (which I'm really not as worried about as I seem), I'm pretty easy to please as far as movies go. Some pretty lights, explosions, and a joke or two--I'm set. That said, I loved both of these movies.

Like most of you (probably), I was a little underwhelmed by the 2003 Hulk, and was looking forward to this one. The cast is well suited, and the big guy himself looks a lot better. Edward Norton reminds me of Tim Sale's Bruce Banner, and much like his Clark Kent, Sale's version of our nerd turned monster is my favorite. Most of all though, this film did two things the earlier one didn't: Bruce Banner is a fugitive on the run, and the Hulk is a hero in the end. Add just enough Hulk dialog and a Tony Stark cameo, and I'm sold.

Panda was a lot of fun too. The colors alone were gorgeous, and the character designs were flawless. The action all looked good, and while all the voice acting is good, Black and Hoffman really turned in great performances. This is the best story of any Dreamworks animated film as far as I'm concerned; all the jokes made sense for the story, they didn't reference something outside like the Shrek movies and weren't goofy just for the sake of being goofy. Kids and adults alike seem to like it. Not to mention it was fun watching the credits and seeing a couple of people I know.

So there's a little sketch of Hulk and Po ready to take on the world. That should keep you for a while. Looking forward to maybe seeing Wall-E this weekend, can't wait. Take it easy folks.

Two Clarks and a Jonah

Hey everybody, I'm back from vacation! Did plenty of sketching over the couple of weeks, and figured I'd share some of them here. This first set to your left is a bunch of Doc Savage sketches I was working on. I like all of them, but only a few of them really feel like Doc Savage to me. The far left one in the middle looks like a Mike Wieringo Reed Richards to me, and the far right of that row feels a little too squatty. The bottom right was halfway a Joe Kubert study.

To your right is a bunch of Jonah Hex studies. I need to work up some sequential work to show various editors, and besides the thing I'm working on with the Latino brothers, I figured I might write and draw an 8-page Jonah Hex story. We'll see. There's also a small Bat Lash sketch up in the top right, another favorite Western character of mine.

And just to keep things relatively short, here's a bunch of Clark Kent sketches. The top right was an Alex Toth study, even though Toth's drawing wasn't of Kent, I felt it had such a good Clark vibe that I ran with it. I love the Tim Sale and Frank Quitely versions of Clark, and tried to get a little of that spirit here. Also, a side-by-side Superman and a quick Lois. Still not quite happy with the Lois, but I feel like it's starting to get there.

Thanks for the well-wishes before the wedding everybody. It went great and he had a very good time. We're in the midst of moving into our house (and my new studio!) so while it may be a little scant around here for a bit, there should be more to show after a little while. Thanks for staying tuned everybody!

Goin' the Chapel.

Well folks, I'm getting married Saturday. This means that I won't be posting for a while here. I won't be getting back from the honeymoon until June 19th, and while I will check my e-mail then, I probably won't have anything to post until a little while after that.

Certainly e-mail me and leave comments in the mean time though, I love hearing from you guys.

To keep you tied over until then though, is a couple pieces I did for some of the guys helping me out with the wedding. The piece at the left is for my 2-year old cousin Aaron, who's going to be the ring bearer. My aunt tells me he's going bonkers Supes and Spidey, so that's he what he gets.

The next one is for my Uncle Pat, who's going to be an usher for us. He's not particularly a Flash fan, but he appreciates comic books, and I'm sure most of you comic book folks can see the connection betweem Kid Flash and Flash and why I've chosen these two.

So that's all for now. I'll be back before you know it though, so I'll look forward to seeing you all again real soon. Later!

Thursday Houdini

Finally flippin' caught up to today with this "portrait" of Harry Houdini. Just in time to get behind for tomorrow's.

I've never done something like this, but I really had a good time on it. I'm a bit of a history nerd, so expect more of these in the future. This one got me itching to do a few more Abraham Lincolns.

When I started out on this one it kept getting progressively more Mignola-ish, so I finally just gave in and went 100% with it.

This one will go for $45.

Wednesday Miracle

As per request of one Jason Latino, here's Mister Miracle. I assume he meant the Fourth World Superhero/Escape Artist and not somebody I've never heard of.

A lot of fun to do, this is a character I've really been wanting to work on for some time now, not to mention any Fourth World characters. Also, Kirby crackle! I tried to position the dots so it looked as if he was outrunning something...like Darkseid's eyes maybe.

Still catching up, and hopefully will post today's sketch by tonight.

This one will run for $45.

Tuesday Scheherazade

I'm still a day behind, but hopefully you can see why in today's sketch. It took much longer than needed to, mostly because I felt the same 'ol crazy compulsion to jam as many people as I could in there.

For those not in the know, Scheherazade is the storyteller in '1001 Nights'. I tried to include some of those stories in her 'hair' just for fun, so pictured are Aladdin and the Jinn, Ali Baba (top right), Sinbad the Sailor (guy with the sword), and Harun al-Rashid (bottom left corner). Admittedly, I could've worked up a better comp, but I was trying not to take too much time.

Doing a couple figures completely in wash was more difficult than I had originally expected, but very rewarding. I love how the Jinn came out. I hate Aladdin's hands, but didn't want to waste any more time on them, so that's what I get.

This one's going to $50 because of all the extras.

Monday Shadow

Hey everybody, never got around to scanning yesterday's because I got too much sun and passed out. So here's Monday's sketch, the Shadow.

This week is 5 characters suggested by good buddy Jason Latino. I assume it's because they're favorites of his.

I won't always be doing themes every week, but I really liked Jason's suggestions so I'm running with them.

And yes, I realize the Shadow uses automatic guns, I'm just too dumb to remember that while actually drawing them. The first time I decide to draw guns without reference and I give the guy a pair a Colt .44s.

Anyway, today's sketch turned out far more complex than I thought, so tomorrow might be a double post, we'll see.

This one will go for $45. UPDATE: Sold.

Friday Logan

Final day of Cigar week, here's Logan. I realized I haven't drawn the little guy in a very long time, so this was interesting. I've always had trouble with him because it's really hard to draw him without tapping into all the cliches, much like with Superman.

Anyway, thought I'd go with the brown costume, because that one's my favorite. Tried to throw as many Shaner tricks into his face to make it unique. I really like the way Eduard Risso draws him these days in that miniseries with Vaughn.

This one's $45 for those interested in the original.

UPDATE: This one's been sold folks, but maybe we'll see about prints if there's interest.