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...)