The Black Panther

My friend Charlie Harris, the owner of Charlie's Comics in Tucson, Arizona, is holding a fundraising event on November 9, 2013 from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. to benefit the Primavera Foundation, which provides pathways out of poverty through safe, affordable housing, workforce development and neighborhood revitalization. He asked some local Tucson* artists to contribute a drawing of our favorite member of Marvel Comics’ superhero team The Avengers for the silent auction that will be held at the end of the event.

 I’ll let you guess who I chose.

 I won’t be able to attend the event this time around, but the drawing is already on its way across the Atlantic. The original art is about 8 x 10, drawn & inked on bristol board, (see above) and if the person who goes home with it sends me an e-mail, I’ll be happy to send him or her a high-resolution digital copy of the drawing in full color (see below). So if you’re interested in supporting a worthy cause, reading comics and hanging out with some good people, (and if you live in or near Tucson, Arizona) don’t forget to stop by Charlie’s Comics on November 9th !

*for the record, even though I live in France,  I still consider myself a local Tucson artist :)

Riposte: Back to Black

Riposte, the fencing book I've been working on for the past few years, went through some changes last week. I was finishing up colors on the first chapter when I realized that I had taken a wrong turn somewhere.

Riposte is a crime story, inspired by some of my favorite noir films from the 30's and 40's: Out of the Past, Gilda, The Phantom Lady, The Killers, and Double Indemnity. It's about revenge, betrayal, and murder... so why did I want it to be in color?

I decided to start over. I replaced the blue with gray tones on the first four pages, and showed them to Soline Scutella, my editor/publisher. We came to the conclusion that the gray tones did indeed fit the story better, giving it a sharper edge that was closer to the original mood I'd intended to convey when I wrote the story.

So... long story short: Riposte will now be in black & white (with gray tones)!

Here is one of the "color vs. black & white" pages I sent to my editor, so you can see the difference between the two versions:

Paranormal/Jazz

Here is a commission I recently did for a friend of mine, who asked to see some of my characters from Paranormal in a retro-jazz club setting. As you can imagine, I had a blast drawing them again (who knew the Ogre played the saxophone?)...

And speaking of Paranormal, I should have some good news to pass on regarding the release of vol.1 very soon. Stay tuned!

Aces Weekly: Vol.5!

Just a quick reminder that RUN--my spy story in Aces Weekly--launches TODAY!

Aces Weekly: RUN

About a year ago, David Lloyd invited me to draw a 21-page story for Aces Weekly,  the online comics art magazine he was putting together with creators from around the world.

Having the opportunity to write & draw a story about anything I wanted--and seeing it appear in a unique format next to the work of artists whom I respect--sounded like a lot of fun. For the past few years, I’d been seriously considering the idea of drawing a weekly adventure webcomic, and here--finally-- was my chance. When I was a kid I loved reading newspaper comic strips like Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes and Steve Canyon, and was itching to draw one of my own. Now I just needed to figure out what kind of story I wanted to tell...

I have a soft spot for noir crime fiction and superhero comics, but was already working on those kinds of stories for other publishers... so I looked to my bookshelf for inspiration. I saw John Le Carré’s The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, Smiley’s People, A Call For The Dead, Olen Steinhauer's The Tourist, Greg Rucka’s fabulous Queen & Country novels and comics,  as well as Tom Rob Smith’s Agent 66 (among others)… the choice was suddenly clear:

An espionage story.

There is something about protagonists in spy stories that really appeals to me. They are ordinary people faced with difficult decisions, torn between loyalty to their country and their own conscience. To me, that's what makes Alec Leamas, George Smiley, Jim Prideaux, Milo Weaver, Tara Chace, Tom Wallace, Paul Crocker and Leo Demidov some of the most interesting, endearing and complex characters to ever come to life on paper.

I already had a lot on my plate when I agreed to join Aces, but whenever I'd get a free minute, I’d fill up pages in my sketchbook or jot down story ideas in notebooks… and the result of all that scribbling is RUN, a futuristic, wordless story about an agent whose cover has just been blown behind enemy lines .

On June 10th, RUN will be released in Volume 5 of Aces Weekly  and will appear in three-page installments over the next seven weeks. If you’re interested, you can subscribe to Volume 5 for $9.99/£6.99/€7.99 on the Aces website. I’ll be joining artists Val Mayerik, Jim Hudnall, Bambos Georgiou, Mychailo Kazybrid, Dave Hine, Shaky Kane, Batton Lash and others to bring you nearly 200 comic book pages in just a few short weeks.

See you in the funny books!

Aces Weekly (1)

Here are a couple of panels from the story I've been working on for David Lloyd's digital comic book magazine, Aces Weekly:
 
Right now I'm racing against time to meet my deadline, but I'll post more panels (in color) soon. In the meantime, feel free to head over to the Aces Weekly website and take a look at some of the other stories that are currently being published. My story should appear in the next Volume (#5), which launches in early June.

 Stay tuned!

Teaser Alert 04: Oni Press

A couple of hours ago, I turned in the final pages of the graphic novel Jamie S. Rich and I have been working on for Oni Press, and I'm still kind of in shock. I can't speak for other cartoonists, but for me, finishing a book always feels weird... it's hard to describe. The closest thing that comes to it is dropping your child off at school for the first time. You're happy and sad at the same time-- happy that he (or she) is growing up and discovering new things, and sad to realize that a chapter in your life has just closed. (And that's where the comparison stops, because comic book pages don't hold their arms out to you, sobbing "Daddy! Daddy!" when you let them go. Which is nice.) The book is now out of my hands, and I hope you like it. I've said this before, but Jamie's story is just amazing, and it was a real pleasure to draw. It took me a long time to finish--almost exactly two years--but I can honestly say that I did my best. Feel free to check out the Oni Press website for official release dates. Thanks for stopping by!