DC Fifty-Too!

In early June, my friend Jon Morris asked a whole bunch of cartoonists, doodlers and comic book artists to participate in a cool comic book cover project he was putting together, in response to DC Comics' massive relaunch of their entire comic book line (scheduled for September 2011).

We were all asked to create a cover of a comic book we would have liked to see, and I immediately called dibs on Detective Comics, featuring one of my favorite DC Comics characters ever, The Crimson Avenger.

Well, the DC Fifty-Too! website went live just a couple of days ago and some seriously amazing covers have already hit the web. If you like comic books, DC Comics characters, or even good drawings, do your eyeballs a favor and go check it out.

Here's mine:



I drew my cover a few weeks ago while visiting family in Arizona, and used my dad's computer and extra-fancy version of Photoshop to color it. Now that I'm back home, though, the colors look a lot darker than what I'm usually comfortable with. I dunno, maybe it's my monitor, but I'm thinking I should have put the Photoshop palette file I usually work with on my pen drive before hopping on that plane to Arizona.

Anyway, just for fun, here are a couple of drafts of the cover that didn't make the final cut, as well as some older Crimson Avenger sketches I posted on my old blog a few years ago. I'll let you choose the ones you like best.







Now seriously, get out of here and go check out DC Fifty-Too!

Good News (2)

As anyone who knew me as a kid can tell you, I was never very good at sports. Soccer, Baseball, Basketball, Volleyball… I tried them all, and failed pretty miserably every time. I was kind of like the twelve-year-old equivalent of this guy:


So, not counting those few months when I took a Tae Kwon Do class ( which was tragically cut short when my teacher skipped town to go make it big in Hollywood; he later went on to portray such memorable characters as “Angry Biker #2” in an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger), I spent my childhood hating sports. Until I discovered fencing.

When I was sixteen, my Dad took the family for a hike in Sabino Canyon, and on our way back, we stopped at this small frozen yogurt shop. While we were there, I came across an article in a newspaper about a fencing club that had just opened up in Tucson, and managed to convince my parents to let me give fencing a try. From the first time I picked up a foil and put on a mask, I was hooked. I’ve been fencing ever since. Now I’m not saying I’m an expert fencer or anything, I’ve never won an international tournament (or even a local one) but I’m a hell of a lot better at fencing than I am at baseball, and I’m pretty sure I could beat any of the actors who played Jedi knights or Sith lords in any of the Star Wars movies (except for Ray Park/Darth Maul, because that guy really does know how to fight), so there ya go.



So, yeah, I love fencing, and for the past few years, I’ve been writing and drawing a film noir-inspired fencing story. In late 2009, I finally felt the story was ready to see print, and pitched it to several French publishers. After spending most of 2010 alphabetizing all of my numerous rejection letters, I finally knocked on the right door last December. I was fortunate enough to meet publisher Soline Scutella, who was interested in the story I had to tell, and who wanted to publish it.



I’m very pleased to announce I will be writing, drawing, lettering and coloring a 140-page graphic novel for French publisher Scutella Editions. So now I’m working on two graphic novels simultaneously, which to be honest is kind of stressful, but I’d rather have too much to do than not enough. More news to follow!

CORNERED: The Green Hornet

A new drawing just went up on Jon Morris’ Cornered blog today. Here’s The Green Hornet, from The Green Hornet Fights Crime #40 :



I’ve probably said this before, but I’m a big fan of pulp magazines and “golden age of radio” programs, and one of my favorite characters has always been the Green Hornet.



My favorite version of the character is from the 1941 black and white Green Hornet Strikes Again! Cliffhanger serial, but that 60’s tv show with Bruce Lee and Van Williams was fun, too. Unlike a lot of people, I also really liked the new Green Hornet movie that came out a few months ago, despite my profound loathing of 3D.




Aaand speaking of GH movies and stuff, French filmmaker Aurelien Poitrimoult did this short Green Hornet film a few years ago (2003, I think) that is worth a look. It was shot in French with English voice-overs, which gives it kind of a funky Saturday Morning Kung Fu Theatre vibe to it, but it’s pretty cool just the same.

Good News (1)

Well, it’s official : contracts have been signed and I’ve finished the first two chapters, so I’m very pleased to announce that I will be drawing & lettering a 148-page noir graphic novel for Oni Press, written by talented novelist, comic book writer and film critic Jamie S. Rich. I’m not at liberty to announce the title of the book just yet, but keep an eye out here and on the Oni Press website in the months to come and you’ll be among the first to know.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be working on this project. Jamie’s story is excellent, the characters are interesting and complex (one of them even wears a domino mask! Score!)and the dialogue is sharp and subtle, worthy of the finest films noirs of the 1930’s and 40’s. In short, it’s a real pleasure to draw.

I’ve been a fan of Oni Press since a friend introduced me to their comics back when I was attending art school in Angoulême, so finally having a chance to work with them on this book is something of a dream come true for me as well.

Here are a few sketches from the project :



I have some more good news to announce, but those contracts haven’t been signed--yet--so I’m waiting until they are before I jump the gun and announce stuff.

Stay tuned !

CORNERED: The X-Men!

Here is my latest (and last--at least for awhile) drawing on CORNERED, inspired by the cover of X-Men #36. I've said this before*, but I sure do dig the original X-Men (and issue #36 in particular). I could draw these guys all day.

In other news, I'm going to be closing my Etsy shop at the end of the month, so if you'd like a drawing and/or signed-with-a-sketch comic book from the shop, now is the time.

*In one of my Superhero Alphabet posts

CORNERED: The Nocturnals!

Yet another drawing on CORNERED, inspired by the cover of The Nocturnals #4.

This didn't turn out quite like I had hoped, which just goes to prove a theory I've had for a long time: nobody draws The Nocturnals as well as their creator, Dan Brereton. Go check out his website if you want to see some cool drawings of these guys.

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.