CORNERED: The Badger!

A new drawing on CORNERED, inspired by the cover of The Badger #68 (my favorite issue ever, drawn by the excellent George Freeman).

Mike Baron's Badger is my favorite martial-arts superhero of them all. Instead of endless soap-opera intrigues, soul-searching and whiny angst, Badger comics were all about beating up rednecks, demons, and evil karate masters, which to me was a refreshing change. Many great artists worked on the different incarnations of the character, like George Freeman, Jill Thompson, Steve Rude, Mike Oeming, Mitch O’Connell, and the Pander Brothers (just to name a few), and the genre-spanning stories ranged from Bruce Lee-style martial arts tournaments to cameos in Mike Baron’s Nexus comics, with the occasional H.P Lovecraft/Cthulhu parody thrown in for good measure (again, see issue #68). Just goes to show all the fun things one can do with a mentally-disturbed Vietnam vet with multiple personalities who masters “obscure, esoteric, arcane (not to mention abstruse) martial arts”.*

To my knowledge, the last Badger series came out in the late 90's, but the character always seems to come back, so maybe--just maybe--one of these days I'll get a chance to draw an issue. Hey, a guy can dream.

*Excerpt from The Badger’s character description from the inside cover of every issue.

CORNERED: Alpha Flight!

A new drawing on CORNERED, inspired by the cover of Alpha Flight #4.

CORNERED: The Black Panther!

Here's a Black Panther drawing that just went up today on the CORNERED art blog, based on the cover of Black Panther #12:


And a couple of sketches thrown in just for fun:


I dunno about you, but I really dig the old school Black Panther. I haven't read any BP comics in years, but I'm really looking forward to the new Marvel series, drawn by the talented Francesco Francavilla. From what I've seen online, the book is going to be amazing.

Champions Villains vol.3

Just a quick post to let you know that Hero Games' & Cryptic Studios' Champions Villains vol.3 has been released and is available as a PDF download in the Hero Games' online store (the printed version is scheduled for release in early 2011). Here are four of the twelve illustrations I drew for this volume:




Thanks to everyone out there who stops by the blog. I wish you all a safe & happy New Year, and hope that 2011 treats you right.

See you soon... with some great news!

CORNERED: Iron Man!

A few weeks ago Calamity Jon Morris and his talented cohorts in the elite Seattle-based cartoonists' club The Bureau of Drawers decided to create a blog dedicated to the small character illustrations found on the covers of cool comic books of the 1960's-1980's. Jon invited me to contribute a drawing or two to CORNERED, so here is IRON MAN, inspired by the cover of Iron Man #128. (My apologies to all you die-hard Iron Man fans out there)

I will have some really good news to report soon, but in the meantime, have a happy & safe holiday season! Merry Christmas!

Etsy store (updated)

I’ve just added some new items for sale on my Etsy store, including Red Hands, my first published graphic novel (it's in French), as well as some recent drawings from the blog. I will also be accepting a limited number of commissions over the next few weeks, so if you are looking for an original drawing, please send me an e-mail to inquire about prices and availability. All drawings are done on A4 bristol board and are shipped flat. Thanks for looking!

Eagle

A few days ago, Neil Vokes, one of my favorite comic book artists, asked me to draw a pin-up for the soon-to-be-released first volume of the trade paperback series, Eagle: The Original Adventures, which will be reprinting the first 6 issues of the now-legendary black and white comic book series from the late 1980's. One of the (many) things I loved about the original Eagle series was the guest artist pin-up that was featured at the back of each issue, (like Matt Wagner, Marc Hempel, Adam Hughes and many others) so it should come as no surprise that he didn't have to ask twice. Here’s what I came up with:

Rough thumbnail sketch (original size:8cm x 10cm) & first draft on tracing paper

Finished, light-boxed final pencils (drawn in blue pencil) and inks

And the final greyscaled version


Moonstone Books will be publishing the series of trade paperbacks, the first of which is scheduled to hit stores soon. Even though I already own all 23 issues, you can bet I'll be buying the new trades as well.

Thanks to Neil for giving me a chance to draw Eagle; it was a real honor (and a lot of fun).

P.S. For anyone interested in seeing how I draw comics, from sketch to finished page (and just in case you missed it the first time), feel free to click right here.