Black and whites...

I've gotten a few dropped requests to see a few of the black and whites from my Thor story in December and I have relented. Enjoy.

The Project That Never Was.

We all have them, I suppose, and I'm sad to say this one didn't work out. It would be classless and unprofessional to say why, but it was in no way a bad experience. Frankly, I think everyone involved moved on and got what they wanted, and I'm thrilled to have gone through the paces and come up with these test pages. Still, this would've been one of the fun ones. Ce la vie.

Orion.

I managed to squeak out this sketch just before my exciting new script came in. This will more thank likely be the last blog sketch for a short while as I tackle that.

I haven't drawn the (deservedly) famed Kirby-krackle since my formative years. Its satisfying, I'll admit, though ultimately it doesn't suit me or my work. Still, for something as blatantly Kirby as this, it worked just fine. Fun piece.

Madwoman of The Sacred Heart.

This, quite simply put, is 192 pages of twisted, beautiful awesome. I haven't read a single word of it yet because I can't stop staring at every panel. The art is looser than I'm used to from Moebius, and it frankly doesn't matter, its still breathtaking. If you don't have it, you should.

Mugen.

I always balk at drawing any anime characters, probably for the same reason a manga artist might balk at drawing Sin City's Marv; there's a good chance it will look simply ridiculous. That said, I'm inexplicably fairly good at drawing Mugen and whenever I do, I loosen up to an extent. Pretty liberating, in fact.

My scanner has been giving me some untoward problems scanning the inkwash lately, and I haven't figured out if its the warped boards or not. That, or it may be time to buy a new scanner. Then again, that may just be my convenient excuse documented for tax purposes on the internet.

Anyway, it looks like this could be the last blog sketch I get to do for a while but you never know.

Sneak Peak, A Work in Progress.

This is a bit of a peep at something I'm working on with the illustrious Ben Fisher. Non comic related, I'm afraid, but plenty of artsy bits abound.

Since I was doing it in stages on a lazy (albeit strange) day, I decided to take shot process shots for all the junkies out there.

Silver Surfer.

I did this little pencil doodle last night and decided to throw some ink on this morning. Just now got around to scanning it, so; enjoy.

The Bride v. The Crazy 88's (in Hi-Fi Technicolor).

I tinkered, as I always do with color, endlessly with this bit before throwing almost all away and using one big patch of yellow. In the end, it seemed to fit best. That said, an actual colorist might have better success.

The Bride vs. The Crazy Eighty Eights.

I've been meaning to do something of the Kill Bill nature for quite a while, but never seemed to come up with an idea that bit me. So I give you girls, samurai swords, dead ninja's and some inkwash.

I'm sorely tempted to give this a once over with the gouache, but for some reason I'm paranoid about reactivating the Yasutomi ink I used. Reactivation of india ink is a useful trait when you're doing two tone wash, but if you want to color over it, anything water based, even a marker, will set it off. Still, I may be brave.

On a side note, and I don't recall whether they did or not, the Directors of Photography and Lighting on the Kill Bill films should've won hordes of Oscars. Uma Thurman, who I'm well aware many people don't find all that attractive, never looked better in any other film than she did in these two.

Whatta revoltin' development...

After having so much fun drawing the thing for only 2 (and a half if you count an over the shoulder shot) panels in my recent Holiday short story for Marvel, I decided to have another go. In light of the news thats been making its way round the interwebs lately regarding the Fantastic Four, I thought this sketch might be a bit of fun. Resisted the urge to letter it myself. You are all welcome for that. Besides, it worked better silent, as many comics probably would.