Toddblog

Burning Out His Fuse Up Here Alone

2010-11-16T00:14:00.002-05:00

I've never once picked up a Rocketeer comic. However, I did see the movie in theaters when I was little, and there learned probably one of the most important lessons of my childhood: Jennifer Connelly is my dream woman.

And that James Horner score! Wow!

Color Me Baddman

2010-10-24T21:28:00.003-04:00

I was doodling today with pencil on paper, but some ideas are just better doodled in color.

Sinister Six

2010-06-16T00:56:00.006-04:00

Hey look, Spider-Man fighting the Sinister Six! The Harmful Hexad! The Dastardly Half-Dozen!

Mysterio! The Vulture! Electro! Doctor Octopus! Sandman! Kraven the Hunter getting his face smushed!

This was fun. I got back into inking with my nib pen rather than regular pens, and the lines are so much more fun (to me, at least), though the ink bleeds a smidge on the Moleskine paper.

All those white bits were done in Photoshop to clarify stuff a bit. All the white-out style pens I have leave watery, gray spots rather than quality white. Anyone got any ideas for a good white line, short of breaking out the acrylic paint?

Snow and Escalators

2010-05-27T01:11:00.017-04:00

On the eve of a new comics-related project (coming soon!) I have to remind myself that yes, I actually can make comics. Here are some oldies.

What better way to celebrate 90+ degree weather in NYC than with a wintry comic plumbing the depths of my heart?

In lieu of a website proper, this blog sure does make for some convenient online comics viewing/archiving. Here's another one!

WildAid

2010-05-08T14:55:00.008-04:00

Not too long ago, WildAid sponsored a two contests (one-color and four-color), challenging folks to come up with a tiger-themed t-shirt design; 2010 being the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese zodiac and all. Long story short, my design won the one-color contest!

Maybe WildAid spokesman and avid tiger supporter Jackie Chan will come to my house and be my friend.

I hadn't had much opportunity to do a lot of graphic design since college, and it was pretty jarring to work on something that didn't have any story to it. So I made the tiniest bit of narrative for myself: tigers are on the verge of extinction (the flatline), and we can help them (flatline comes to life to make tiger stripes).

Click here to see the extra-loquacious version of that narrative, as well as the four-color contest winner and the honorable mentions. Thanks WildAid!

Fantastic Fab Four

2010-03-31T00:36:00.006-04:00

A mostly silly idea I had one day: there are four members of the Fantastic Four, and there are four Beatles. How had no one done this mash-up before (I checked the Google.)? I changed the dimensions from square album art to that of a comic cover, mostly because I figured it wouldn't hurt to have cover-type stuff in a portfolio if I ever got one together.

But mostly I just wanted to draw Mister Fantastic's stretchy neck.

What do you think: "Please Please Me" next?

Simple Color and A Resolution

2010-02-28T12:14:00.011-05:00

Original inked version here, or just scroll down the blog.

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, I guess. I attended a semi-inspiring "Visionaries" artist panel with JH Williams III, Bill Sienkiewicz and Michael Golden at a comic con yesterday, talking about how they broke into the industry, among other ripe topics. I really gotta get off my duff already.

Two months later...

2010-02-23T00:14:00.006-05:00

I had tried for a real long time to do this in a real painterly way, with rendered flesh tones and all that, but it really was going nowhere. I guess I was just looking at way too much pretty Adam Hughes art for my own good, and was subconsciously trying to emulate that. When I realized what I was doing, I scrapped that and just messed around. In the end, I had fun and I learned something. That's worth a two-month wait, right?

Promethea UnColored

2009-12-14T23:36:00.003-05:00

Hey, I did it! Inks!

Promethea UnInked

2009-12-10T23:17:00.007-05:00

From Alan Moore's Promethea, which I just finished reading. I don't think Mr. Moore has converted me to his brand of Hermetic Kabbalah, but there's no way you could read that whole series without being affected somehow. And J.H. Williams' page layouts! Yowza!

Inks tomorrow? I only posted this today because I was getting antsy.

At The Mountains of Man-ness

2009-12-03T00:14:00.011-05:00

No superheroes this time!

Here's a sketch that I got carried away with. I was trying to get a feel for this character, who's from something that I've sort of been thinking about working on. Maybe.

Girl Power

2009-11-23T22:11:00.005-05:00

In light of my inability to produce newer work on a timely basis (since I'm fiddling with some actual sequential drawings), I thought I'd post an older drawing: a muscular Power Girl. I like my super-women to look like they won't snap at the waist and/or collapse under the weight of their bosom. So sue me.

Cephalopodblog

2009-11-11T00:45:00.004-05:00

Animal Man's gotta be such a fun character to write. You'll be writing and suddenly think, "Damn, how am I gonna write him out of this jam?" Then you flip open some zoology book and go, "Oh yeah, he'll shoot octopus ink from his butt."

Arm Wrassles

2009-10-20T23:07:00.007-04:00

Hercules arm-wrestling the Thing. Duh! It's so self-explanatory it's crazy.

The Romantic Spider-Creep

2009-10-04T18:28:00.007-04:00

This is the last spread in my '08 - fall '09 sketchbook, meant to be a romantic send-off to the era. Instead, Spider-Man's tap-tapping at the window has Mary Jane–that's who that's supposed to be–genuinely scared.

Remember how I said I didn't want to do inking? Whatever.

Norse Code

2009-10-01T22:32:00.007-04:00

For some reason I have a way easier time drawing in my Moleskine than in my regular 9 x 12 sketchbook. It's kind of a problem.

Here's Loki, sulking, with the Enchantress, sorcery-ing.

It might see the light of inks one day, it might not. I wanna be a penciller, not a tracer, naw mean?

Introductions And Disco Mutants

2009-09-28T22:37:00.007-04:00

I like comic books. Wham-pow-kaboom-style comic books.

Art school somehow made me not want to draw muscles in spandex; it somehow twisted my mind into thinking that drawing comics would be an ignoble career choice. Something must have happened since then, though, because now all I want to draw are superheroes.

Here's a drawing of Dazzler, the disco mutant superheroine. My pre-collegiate, high-school self would be proud of me.