sketchbooks!

alrighty then... not one, but TWO new sketchbooks are on the way (and will be on hand at heroes con NEXT weekend)...

both books are limited to 100 copies, 8.5 x 11 with 28 pages (so plenty of room to show off this stuff )... the canson book's full color, the sketchbook is b/w with 12 color pages (and will come with a free headsketch inside)... each book'll run $20 (with flat $5 us shipping)

for folks who aren't able to head down (or catch me in chicago, cleveland, baltimore or boston this year), i'll be offering'm for sale through the website soon...

you're really super, supergirl...

whew, i've had that xtc song stuck in head for days now...

i'll post again later this week, gotta get back to work on iron man : the armor wars.

-c

another work in progress

so, nick's been waiting very patiently for me to finish this one... with any luck, it'll be done by the end of the weekend. (did this one a bit differently than peter parker by going with the white outline first...)

working hard on iron man and the armor wars (just saw skottie young's cover to #2... SWEET!) and getting into the halloween story for the haps...

realizing that heroes con is only a few weeks away, it's time to get cracking on not ONE, but TWO new sketchbooks... (one's the next canson, the other is commissions, sketches, etc) trying something a bit different this time around ( finished size'll be 8.5x11 instead of the smaller ones to allow the art to be bigger and uncropped... ) for folks who can't make to a show this year, i'll post ordering info when they're ready...

-c

so, since tv is slow for the time being (phew), i'm diving into dvds that've piled up... currently it's andy richter controls the universe (very funny, slightly surreal and canceled WAY too soon), next up, the complete box set of the wire.

gwen stacy.... and i am (drawing) iron man!

first things first, a gwen stacy commission i finished up a few weeks ago...

okay, so if you saw the august solicitation previews that got posted today, this isn't new to you... otherwise, here it is... my next gig for the fine folks at marvel... (no art to post yet, sorry)

(and when i get the okay to post some of the x men art, i will... val staples did a KILLER job on the pages, making me look good)

IRON MAN & THE ARMOR WARS #1 (of 4) Written by JOE CARAMAGNA Penciled by CRAIG ROUSSEAU Cover by SKOTTIE YOUNG Cash, cars, boats, houses...Tony Stark has got it all. The only thing that could ruin his day? If every single one of his IRON MAN armors were stolen, and then turned against him. Join us for a nail-biting, strapped-to-your-seat adventure as Tony battles his greatest creations, and tries to discover who could (gasp) OUTSMART him!?!? 32 PGS./All Ages ...$2.99

... and it's done.

okay, after a few days away (ending with a great visit with "uncle todd and aunt sharon"), i figured it's time to finish up the step by step on the peter parker commission...

besides going in and making any last little tweaks to the general colors, i usually go around the contour with a bright color (in this case the white) to really make things pop... and at the last minute i realized peter's shirt needed a little something, so i threw in the stripes... and i also figured the "spidey sense" lines made sense as well...

and that's a wrap!

issue 6 of the haps is off to image and we're working on the next issue in the next few weeks... and i'm hip deep in my next marvel gig ...

most tv seasons are wrapping up (the office, 30 rock, lost, 24 ... ) or have already aired season/series finales (chuck, scrubs) so i'll get back to the dvds piling up here (granted, there's still some great shows on like rescue me... and a few on tivo i never got to - fringe, dollhouse)

saw x-men origins:wolverine last week ... eh.

step by step... part 4

okay, so we're in the home stretch on this commission... you can see at this point i've added more mid range/ shadow colors to fill it out... and usually a quick trick to make it pop is adding a different cooler light source opposite the main one (and again, that light purple does the job pretty well)... not much left but the finishing touches...

oh, and since michael dooney (a CRAZY talented artist, i must add) asked a while back - all the inks for these (and 95% of what i ink) is faber castell pitt pens (either the S/superfine of the F/fine tips... and if i need a thicker line weight i'll redraw the line a few times, building it up slowly)...

okay, besides the commissions (i've got a few more to post soon, like a princess from "battle of the planets", a canson gwen stacy and a canson supergirl... and canson black widow is in the works now), i'm on my last page of our framing story for haps 6, the story for uncanny x-men first class special is done (i'll post a page or two when i get the okay) and work on my next marvel gig is underway...

i'm sure there's more i was gonna post, but since it's slipped my mind... next time.

-c

OH, i did want to mention i'll be at stillpoint comics in fall river, ma this saturday (may 2, 10am - 2pmish) for free comic book day, sketching and signing and more than likely, reading comics!

step by step...3!

alright, so here we go with some color... since the highlights and shadows usually play a strong role in these, i start with deciding where the light source is coming from - for this one, it's a dramatic up-lit image... laying in some highlight colors really sets the mood (and again, it lets the value of the paper play a big role in the finished colors)... i do all the colors on these with prismacolor colored pencils... from here, the next step will be laying in some darker values and some edge lighting and a contour to make it all pop...

hope everybody had a good week (and picked up their very own copy of the new haps trade that came out last week)... after being under the weather a bit (damn ick tearing though the house), had a great weekend with friends (some of whom have,alas , succumbed to said ick) and saw a great game at fenway on sunday with perfect weather for a game... finishing up the x-men story and jumping on a new supercool project at marvel for the same editor this week and getting everything ready to send issue 6 of the haps to image next week (finally!)

-c

step by step... part deux

i know some of you have been ANXIOUSLY awaiting this second post in the step by step process, so here we go!

after getting a tight sketch on plain ol' white copy paper i'm happy with, the next step is to transfer to the colored canson paper (i'm using the mi-teintes line, a heavier textured color paper that comes in a 19x25 sheet in a slew of colors) i should point out that choosing the right color goes a long way in making the picture work (trial and error has shown me that the mid-range/darker papers usually work best... and matching it to the larger color elements - costume, cape, etc - is a smart move... choosing the wrong paper becomes a struggle to get a solid color with the colored pencils - the green on the orange paper for aquaman was a good example of working against the paper).

since the paper is too heavy to see through on a light table... and i'm not about to redraw the whole darn thing, i use saral paper (think carbon paper - but i usually use the white) to transfer the image to the canson paper - simply laying the drawing on top of the canson with the saral in between (AND facing the right way - more than a few times i've traced the whole thing, only to find the saral was wrong side down... d'oh!) and tracing the sketch, leaving the white line art on the canson...)

once i've got the white tracing line down, it's time to ink (and by the time i'm done, i've smudged away most of the white lines... )

okay, so that should tide folks over 'til we get to the coloring in progress next week...

and hey, didja know, next week sees the release of the long awaited first haps trade from image?

-c

(season finale of friday night lights already?! damn)

step by step...

first off, had a great time at the boston comic con last weekend (spent plenty of time geeking out over mike allred who was sitting to my right - -he and his wife laura are absolutely the nicest folks you can meet )... thanks to everybody who stopped by and said hey (or, in the case of our own officer mulcahy, expertly hawked my wares all weekend as i sat with my head down over my drawing board)

okay, since i'm hard at work on getting pages done for both books right now (haps 6 and uncanny x-men first class special), i figure i'd use the next few posts to step through the process of a canson paper color sketch.... first up, the sketch.

so, the request was an 11x17 spidey loves mj style peter parker in an iconic pose... after a coupla false starts, i figured this was the way to go (after so many of these things, i don't do much prelim/thumbnail stuff, just get to the drawing)... after getting it tight enough, it's on to the next step...

-c

what, no rufus?

okay, so here's the third commission i finished up the other day... always fun drawing the kim possible crew (and i dig that new stylin' outfit she got in the last season)...

so, marvel solicits just came out the other day and the cat's outta the bag... besides doing the captain america back up that month (1940's cap vs. P.R.O.D.O.K.), i'm also doing a 16 page story with super cool cat jeff parker for the uncanny x-men first class giant size 1 (whew, talk about a long title... almost as awkward as marvel adventures superheroes featuring captain america... glad the next project i'll be working on at marvel won't have such a long name...!)... and it turns out, the softcover spider-man loves mary jane trade is solicited for that month, too... phew.

looking forward to seeing folks up at the boston comic con in a few weeks... and looks like i'll be heading out to the chicago comic con this august (i'll have more info on that later, i'm sure)...

REALLY dug the finale to battlestar galactica the other day (well done, and great send off to a thought provoking show)... and man, friday night lights, the office and 30 rock have been stellar lately... and if that was the final ever flight of the conchords, it went out on top.

here comes the fun cooker!

-c

Only a master of evil, Darth.

well, here's another commission i finished up the other day... never bored doing star wars stuff...

on the work front, i wrapped up the flashback story of the next cap issue of marvel adventures superheroes and started on another project (just a one-off for me, but it's pretty sweet!) for my editor before doing the other part of that issue...

looking forward to the BSG finale tonight... damn, can't believe it's over. heckuva run, though...

wild thing!

so, here's the first of 3 commissions i did this weekend, trying to get back into a groove (need to finish those last pages of 'haps 6 so y'all can see leanne and jason's stories)... 

again, not a character i'm familiar with, but fun to do (guess she's wolverine's daughter in the spider-girl continuity)...

so, 24 is having a great season of "wow, this is totally unbelievable... but i can't WAIT to see what happens next" action, the clock is ticking down on battlestar galactica (and wow, they've got a lot of balls in motion in the homestretch), lost is at a creative high point these days (the show's mythology keeps getting more interesting... i've read a few theories that, if true, are very interesting indeed), friday night lights is just damn good drama... and castle was fun, if not breaking new ground (nathan fillion really made it worth watching)

back to work.

-c

etrigan!

so, i was inspired to this one by matt's super sweet etrigan he did a while back... (and the omnibus he and squeeze got me for x-mas... thanks again, guys!)...

not much new to report, still getting back into the swing after NYC, trying to get some pages finished on the next cap story so i can fit something else in for marvel before the next one... (this 4 month gap between issues is working out well! as soon as i can spill on what's on tap, i will)

signed off on the proofs for the first image haps trade today, so it's coming (and so is issue 6 as soon as i finish a few pages on my story... scott and leanne and todd and jason are waiting on me... good thing it's my name over the title or i'd be outta work)

only a few episodes of BSG left, can't wait to see how it all wraps up.

-c

back from new york comic con...

so, made it back in one piece and back to work on my next cap story and haps 6.... it was a great show (realizing now i didn't get to see half the folks i wanted to... and even the ones i did see i barely had time to talk to...)

random highlights include - BBQ at virgil's (mmmmmm); dinner with todd, rich woodall, kelly yates and rod and leanne hannah (and an excruciatingly painful/funny story from rich); getting to 30 rock to see SNL (thanks yet again, scott!!); meeting new/old friends like david and julia petersen, shane glines, greg and marianne adams, and WAY too many more to mention; getting my sketchbook back from andy macdonald with a killer piece in it! (and it was extra sweet, since i thought i had lost it for good - and it had a nice piece from 'ringo in it); selling out of most of the 'haps we brought with us... and all the great response to the book still...

wanted to thank everybody who stopped by the table to get a book signed, get a sketch or page of art, or even just say "hey!"

and some folks who were at the show saw this color print i had done since the first issue of my marvel adventures superheroes featuring captain america comes out this week (wow, say THAT name a few times...)

okay, back to that work i mentioned. 

-c

(caught up on my friday night lights, BSG, the office, 30 rock and 24... whew! that's damn good tv)

harry potter

well, here's a harry potter i did for a friend of a friend (who has, like many, been waiting patiently)... 

starting to get everything ready for the new york comic con this weekend, trying to get through a few more cap and 'haps pages and few more commissions...

and i don't know about everybody else, but i gotta say, tv is really hitting some high notes right now (bsg - frak!, 24, lost, and friday night lights are all delivering in a big way... and some returning favorites are as solid as ever - 30 rock, the office, earl, scrubs, chuck)

exiles

okay, so i've never read the book, but i hear it's good... so good, in fact, that one of my friends commissioned this drawing... (over a year ago, but that's a whole different story)

getting ready for the new york comic con next weekend (feb 7-9), we'll be over in artist alley at table M4 (stop by, say "hey!", pick up a book or two or maybe some original art)

-c

back to tellos

here's another canson commission that's been in the queue for a bit (thanks for being so patient, billy!)... srra and dani from tellos. it's the third in a series of commissions so far (the last few years at heroes he's asked for a color piece... the first i did at the show - rikk and hawke - and don't have a good scan of it... the second was the koj/jarek in the gallery somewhere...)

finished up my first captain america issue for marvel adventures the other day and hard at work on the second one (looks like it's out in early feb, so i certainly stretched the deadline a bit... the next one should be a bit easier) and getting in a groove on the next haps book as well...

besides that, getting ready for the nyc comic con in a few weeks... and lost is back tonight! (and man, talk about good tv lately, friday night lights is back in fine form, battlestar galactica too... and even  24 looks like it bounced back from the last season pretty well... woohoo!)  

-c

another old one...

not much to report, putting the finishing touches on my last pages of the cap story, working on getting stuff together for the haps trade and issue 6 (you DID pick up issue 5 wednesday, right?)

really looking forward to both friday night lights and battlestar galactica (nerd alert - set your dvrs to record a few minutes extra on bsg... or so i've read)

oh, and this art is just another old painting of the beast i did back in 95 (i had done some x-men samples at the time as well, i gotta scan'm) ... REALLY wish i had the time to get back to this kinda stuff... i'd LOVE to do a painted haps cover down the road... oddly, in getting touch with old friends on facebook recently, everybody's telling me they got old drawings i did way back when... and i just cringe (heck, even the dark horse stuff makes me cringe at times)... i think i've got maybe 3 pre-college drawings around...

diggin' deep...

okay, since most of the stuff i'm doing these days i don't wanna spoil (like the fate of poor karl... oh, leanne and rich, i fear i've said too much... ha!), i figure i'll dig into the old stuff that i'm sure nobody's seen...

back when i got out of school and was working on my samples, i dabbled a bit in painting stuff... 

like this image of chamber from generation x... ( and was clearly showing my love of bachalo and fegredo... funny that my fist comic work was so cartoony, since that wasn't where i thought i'd end up... as you'll see when i post some samples down the road)...

-c

hoping to get better than 1 or 2 posts a month...

so, looking back in the archives, i realized i'd only had a few posts a months most of the year... we'll see if we can do better this year, shall we?

okay, so i'm pretty sure i didn't post this one before (i did it just before the baltimore convention last year)... one of those "off the beaten path" pieces, first time i'd ever done my take on gandalf... i'd say it came out okay, and david (the owner) seemed pretty happy with it...

i'm headlong into wrapping up the first issue of marvel adventures captain america, finishing a few "deleted" scenes for the haps trade and working on my story for issue 6 ... and  starting to think about getting ready for the nyc show - might be time for a new sketchbook or two... and possibly get a few pre-show commissions done -  (looks like the cap book should be out by that week... and diamond says issue 5 of the perhapanauts is out next week!)

-c

one last one for '08

rounding out the commissions for 08 is the third zatanna piece of the year (this one was a bit more work trying for the likeness of the girl and her dog...)

okay, looking back, this year has been pretty good 'round these parts (including the sweet new site design by kieran chapman)... we relaunched the 'haps over at image and managed to get 5 issues out (the 6th just missed by a few weeks...) and i've had plenty of work over a marvel as well (the x-men first class fill in as well as the spidey loves mj mini), as well as a great slate of conventions, a slew of commissions, and oddball freelance stuff... 

09 is shaping up to be a pretty good one too... we've got big plans for the haps (with some of our incredibly talented friends - like jason, leanne, scott, matt, christian, fred, rich, and more - pitching in to keep us on some sort of schedule) and i'll be busy with the marvel adventures  captain america stuff and more down the line...

so, here's wishing everybody a good 09 as well. cheers!

-c

 

... and one more for ya...

okay, so here's the last (for now) holiday card i drew back in 2000... (and the caption inside read "season's bleatings")...

and while i'm at it, here's a recent wonder woman commission (really dig that battle armor...).

-c

new years 98...

so, knowing i was gonna miss getting christmas cards out BY christmas, i went for the extra week and did a new year's card ( and it should come as no surprise to anyone that the quote inside was wishing folks one helluva new year... )...

and the latest marvel solicitations are on-line, and wouldn't ya know, they're doing a hardcover collection of the spider-man loves mary jane (i've posted the direct market cover here... the "regular" one features the art from the cover of #1 along with terry's name in HUGE letters ... you'll be hard pressed to miss it )... looks like it's a plain ol' "premiere edition" which means no extras or bonus stuff...

okay, back to work, hear we might be in for some snow this weekend!

-c (awfully disappointed that pushing daisies only has a few more episodes left...)

christmas '97

okay, so next up is the card i did back in 97... so, i was already working at dc at the time (and the main reason i know this - because my mind is like a sieve when it comes to dates - is that i drew this on a dc board)... the caption inside read  "this ain't no pillow, baby... it's 100% claus")...

hope everybody had a good weekend (i practically slept the entire weekend - shaking the ick i most likely got from the kids), looking forward to tonight's holiday themed chuck (and yeah, i'll end up watching the end of this arc of heroes...)

-c

christmas '96 x2!

okay, trying to keep up with todd's cards through the years progression, here's not one but TWO christmas cards i did in 96 (wow, crazy how much time a guy without kids had back then)... the "alien" card had the oh, so quippy "merry X-mas" inside (but with the x being a copy of the then in vogue x-files logo)... and the giant angry santa gorilla card (don't remember what the caption was inside, but come on, it's a giant angry santa gorilla)...

and since it was a LOT easier and cheaper than full color back then, these were b/w on card stock with red and green letraset foil ironed on...

have a good weekend! 

-c (hey, this "mining old stuff for posts" thing is a heck of a lot easier than having new art to post) 

christmas 95

okay, so following up on the christmas cards, here's one i had done in 95 (or so the date on the art itself says)... the caption read along the lines of  "wishing you a real gonesville christmas, daddyo"...

but ya know, i'm pretty confident i never actually got these cards finished. go figure.

funny how much i played with patterns around this time (you'll see more of this kind of stuff when i get to the "tall tales" b/w stuff), now it's all about open linework.

-c

oh, yeah, todd... two can play that game...

okay, for all you folks who've been reading todd's blog entries about his homemade holiday cards, i figured i'd chime in as well since he's up to the point i started making my own cards for a few years (before the kids and deadlines took hold of whatever free time i have)... the first one i did after college was pretty simple in b/w (on red or green card stock maybe? that sounds right... but i can't seem to find a copy of the card). anywhoo, the art here is a colored version i worked up later...

oh, and i figured since it's off to image (finally!), i figured it's safe to post the new and improved, actual cover to perhapanauts 5 (on sale in finer comic shops early in 2009)...  

and while i was digging out the old holiday card stuff, i did find and scan some other pre-comics odds and ends that i'll be posting here as well...

-c

!annataz rehtona ,kool, yeh! *

*okay, for all the non-complete comic nerds out there, it's "hey, look, another zatanna!"  backwards like the way she casts her spells, get it?... and would you believe the next one in the queue is zatanna as well? go figure (besides that, i've got one last one of dani and serra from tellos hanging over my head, then i'm done with the commission backlog... well, if you don't count that exiles one for jim... or the "REALLY long overdue but with any luck it'll be done by the time you have your baby" one i owe one of my oldest friends (yeah, bobbby, that's you)

so, here's yet another LONG in the works commission of zatanna and scarlet witch for the very patient hitoshi amano (it's been laid out for months but i never seemed to find the time to finish it)

putting the finishing touches on the last 2 pages of haps 5 and sending them to rico to work his usual magic, layouts for the first marvel adventures cap story are moving along... 

finally got around to finishing the update to the canson paper galleries (6 pages already?) after working out a few kinks with the web hosting server.

seemed weird last night to NOT sit down to a new episode of the shield... sigh. (yet, i still watch the heroes i'm tivoing in the hopes it might get back to being mediocre... but it's like watching a new trainwreck every week... at least chuck is still pretty fun - just rewatched all of season 1 this last week while working and enjoyed it even more the second time)

took the kids to get a picture with santa today... maybe next year we'll manage to get'm both to smile at the same time...(but cat not crying in the picture this year was nice)...

well, these comics don't draw themselves... back to work.

more marvel on the way!

so, looking at the latest solicits for marvel books in february, cat's outta the bag... after wrapping up spider-man loves mary jane 5 (and currently putting issue 5 of the haps to bed FINALLY!), i've jumped right onto another sweet project... 4 issues of marvel adventures featuring CAPTAIN AMERICA! there's gonna be 4 issues (pretty sure they're rotating characters monthly, so the deadlines not killer and will allow me to keep up with the haps) with 2 stories (modern day and 1940's) written by scott gray and roger langridge (who did those great fin fang four stories a while back)...

was gonna post some sketches of cap, but i've been too busy with haps 5, so here's a zatanna commission i finished from a while back (and i was too lazy to write the blog entry title backwards...).

and on that note, back to the haps! i'll post some cap stuff later this week.

-c

(only 1 more shield EVER?! i can't imagine how it's gonna end... this week's confession was mindblowingly intense...)

brand new day

feels like we're watching history unfolding before our eyes and it's pretty amazing... here's hoping president elect obama can start to set this nation back on track (but it certainly won't be easy, with the economic turmoil and unpopular wars... and just a bit of extra pressure being the first black president and all).

so, getting ready to head out tomorrow to wizard world texas ... i'll be in a few panels and signings throughout the weekend, as well as in artist alley  booth 2720b... if you're there, swing on by and say "hey!"

so, since i'm short on time, let's cut to the chase... here's a piece i did for an article in the umass dartmouth alumni magazine about a few of us who got into comics (me, bob almond, dave tata, norman lee and bettina kurkoski)... 

back to work!

-c

forgot to mention... even with all the election hullaballoo, i did manage to watch the shield on tivo... holy crap! talk about feeling the noose tightening... only 3 (!?!) more episodes left.

well, here's another quick post... realized i needed to get my last 3 artist proof sketch cards in for the marvel masterpeices set, so.... i decided to just do the cards i wanted to and see if they'd sell on ebay  (bid now and bid often... gotta make that money to pay rico to work his magic on the colors for issue 5 of the haps!)

... and away we go!

so, as you can probably see (well, unless your reading via rss feed then maybe not), things are looking a bit different... kieran's done a fantastic job building a new, stylish, easy to navigate (and update!)... there maybe a few kinks to work out as we go, but come on in and check it out... take it for a spin and kick the tires... 

-c

coupla tiki con sketches...

just a quick post, gotta keep going on these pages if i wanna take the night off thursday to go see los straitjackets ... found these 2 scans online of the sketches i did the other weekend at the screaming tiki con (amusingly enough, i met fellow artist dave aikens - who does plenty of great stuff for nickelodeon and was kind enough to send a backyardigans book home for johnny - thanks again, dave - at the show and he ended up requesting 4 of the 10 or so sketches i did that weekend for his friends and fellow collectors).. not always a fan of my convention sketches, but these came out alright (shane sent another over i'll post later this week... along with the picture of todd and me in the batmobile!)...

oh, and we have to wait HOW long for the next season of mad men?! not an earth shattering cliffhanger season finale, but a powerful character-driven episode that makes me think it's one of the best shows on tv today...  just glad there's still a few episodes of the shield to get me by... and i'm just getting into the first season of pushing daisies on dvd (had it on the tivo last year but the hard drive met an untimely demise... luckily, the new season is on the even bigger new hard drive)... enjoying life on mars so far (haven't seen the bbc original so i can't compare it)... and brian, i didn't even bother with my own worst enemy based on lackluster reviews.

-c

tiki accomplished

okay, back from ohio... and already gotta think about getting ready for my next trip.... not sure if i posted it here, but i'll be attending the wizard world texas show in dallas nov 7-9. wasn't on my radar, but since they were nice enough to invite me to come down to participate on a few panels (spider-man loves mary jane, creator owned books)  i figured why not (and heck, i can finally meet terry moore in person!)... so, i really should get some stuff done here in the meantime.

but i did have a fun trip to the brand new "screaming tiki" con in ohio last weekend (the image above is the the art for the exclusive print todd and i put together for the show... we've got a few left over, so keep an eye on todd's blog for details on how to get your own)...  i got to meet folks like mark sumerak, cat staggs, mark mchale, and fellow animated batman artist christopher jones... seeing how it was their first show (and a big one at that), i'd say the folks who put the show together did a bang-up job.... really, how many times  can you say that you hung out with peter "chewbacca" mayhew and spent the weekend sketching for fans in an inflatable dome!

issue 3 of mj is out, issue 4 is out next month and 5 is well underway (same goes for haps 5, which wraps up the first arc of the image run... wish sales were better, but that seems to be the state of the industry)

so, the sox lost to tampa bay... and i really can't say that bothers me much at all... here's hoping the rays can go all the way!

been riveted by both mad men and the shield these last few weeks... GREAT television there.

bart in the house

keeping with the them of this drawing, it's gonna be a quick post... here's another one that was done for a patient fan, dave!  (hitoshi, yours is on the board RIGHT NOW... honest! that just leaves one more tellos drawing from heroes and a few from baltimore)... i sure do miss bart.... hmmm, maybe we need an impulsive speedster over in the haps... (not like dc's doing anything with'm)

-c

(so, sox go to game 4 of the play-offs on big jim's anniversary - and he's got tickets, so here's hoping it's a good game for you and missus q!)

back from baltimore!

well, everybody made it back safe and sound... had a great show, enjoyed spending time with family and friends this weekend. managed to do a few sketches for folks at the show (and did a few to bring with me... this one of choopie and howard the duck was done for our good pal roger ash)... now it's back to the drawing board, gotta get pages done on both the haps (folks we talked to seemed to be liking issue 4 ad wondering what happens next!) and the final issue of my mary jane run (wow, this job flew by... must be working with that terry moore guy)...

tv is getting back into full swing (gotta get through all the stuff we tivoed while we were on the road), but i did manage to watch the office (good stuff, back in fine form), heroes (moving at a good pace, but really all over the map, inconsistent and derivative... don't know how much more i'll stick around for) and listening to the new ben folds cd while i work...

a few more marvel sketch cards...

so, first things first.. above are a few of the marvel upper deck artist proof sketch cards i've had a chance to do for folks (i've still got a few blanks left to work on here...)

baltimore comic-con is right around the corner on september 27 and 28, so we're in gear to get  get as much done before then as possible (if you're anywhere near the area, you ARE going, right? it's easily one of the top 3 comic conventions i go to - heroes in charlotte and emerald city in seattle being the others - all of which have a similar family friendly, comics first atmosphere run by great folks)... i've had a few folks email about getting on the show  commission list (i hesitate to call'm sketches anymore, since they're not really...), if you're interested, drop a line and we'll see what we can do (i'm planning on doing a  lot of the prelim stuff on the road before the show once i wrap up those last 3 lingering commissions from WAY back and heroes) 

issue 4 of the 'haps will be out that week and we'll have that as well as the other image books, ti shirts, the trading card prints and STACKS of original art for sale ...

work on issue 5 is moving right along too (we've obviously taken a hit in the monthly schedule, but we're trying hard to get it out as fast as possible without sacrificing quality AND making sure you get your $3.50 worth...)

working hard on getting issue 4 of mary jane wrapped up (response seems to be okay... i knew going in there'd be - a. fans who miss the anime look ('cause this ain't it), b. the three of you out there who'd buy it since i was drawing it, c. terry moore fans who'd buy it no matter who was drawing it...) but i'm happy with the way it's turning out (some brilliant coloring by guillem mari), and i'm pretty sure the folks at marvel are happy too (we're talking about my next gig already...)

been watching a LOT of tv on dvd lately while putting in a lot of late nights  (season 4 of the office which went off the track for a bit but managed to pick up towards the end of the set, heroes season 1 holds up pretty well in a short viewing as opposed to spread out over the year... we'll see about season 2... and 3)... been loving the shield this season (nothing good can come of all the plotting and manipulation going back to the very first episode) and trying to get into sons of anarchy (but so far, all the characters are so deeply flawed and criminal i've got one to root for)

on the comics front, not so much getting me really excited about my weekly trip to the shop (the goon, b.p.r.d., criminal are still some of the best books around... most dc stuff leaves me STONE cold these days, while marvel's so hip deep in skrull stuff - good god, it's been SIX issues of a beautifully drawn mini-series that has about TWO issues of content - and i'm not about to read all the other marvel titles connected to have to get the rest of the story...)

-c