The Mighty Samson!

The first issue of my new book, The Mighty Samson, hits the stands this week! Written by the Mighty Jim Shooter and the Mighty J.C. Vaughn, colored by the Mighty Dan Jackson and published by the Mighty Dark Horse Comics, it's been a fun project to be involved with. I've been enjoying the character, post-apocalyptic setting, and getting the chance to ink it myself. Here are a few pages and the variant cover I did for the first issue.

Frankenstein(ia)

Waaaay back in 1989 I had the opportunity to work with Martin Powell on an adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I was just starting my comics career and was looking forward to the work. It turned out to be one of the projects I am most proud of in my 23 years in the comics business. The art is a little rough around the edges as is to be expected I guess from a recent art school graduate, but I immediately connected to Martin's wonderful adaptation and i think that came through in the pages. Thanks to Martin's tireless efforts our Frankenstein adaptation has never been out of print. Which brings us to today, just in time for Halloween, Pierre Fournier's very cool blog, Frankensteinia, has devoted a post to the adaptation Martin and I did all those years ago. Check it out at http://frankensteinia.blogspot.com/ . Here's a page from the adaptation.

offal

2-3 years ago a handful of artists (myself included) decided to collaborate on a project that would be as much a storytelling challenge as an artistic one. The idea was that each artist would get one page to do, the only constraint would be that he would have to pick up where the previous page left off. There would be no overall plot structure of any kind, the story could go in any direction the individual artist wanted as long as it's beginning was the ending of the previous page. I thought (and still do) this was one of the best ideas I had heard of in a long time and was very excited to be a part of it. Well, as most things in life go, the Grand Idea was quickly overwhelmed by life's other responsibilities. Deadlines, paying work (none of us would be getting paid for this, money only possibly realised if we could compile it as a book), and other distractions proved to be too much and the project died after only 4 pages. I'm posting the page I did for the project. Pencils/inks/lettering and what passes for dialogue all done by little ol' me.

Iron Man Custom Comic

Here are a few pages I recently did for an Iron Man Custom Comic. Unfortunately no Iron Man, but Tony Stark's cool too right?Uh....right?

ink sketches

As soon as i dig myself out from under my current workload I'm hoping to get back to a more regular posting schedule, in the meantime here are some ink sketches from an old sketchbook.

On Stands Now!

Here are some pages from the Untold Tales of Spider-Man story Kurt Busiek and I did recently that appeared in the latest Amazing Spider-Man annual. Tons o' fun to do!

Father's Day

Happy Father's day to all of you dad's out there, to mine especially! A quick post of 2 pencil pieces, don't know if either of these gentlemen were/are Father's but......they are on my blog!

Al Williamson RIP

Heard the very sad news this morning that Al Williamson passed away yesterday. A true legend in the industry, an enormous talent and it was my great pleasure to have worked with him for 7 years. He started inking my work on Untold Tales of Spider-Man and we ended our collaboration at the end of our run on Spider-Girl. I'll leave it to others more eloquent than I to talk about his artistic legacy, my memories at the moment are more personal, one memory in particular. At some point during that run on Spider-Girl my wife and I were having some financial difficulty, I was really counting on selling some original art at the Pittsburgh Comic Con that year to help pay bills. Al was also a guest at the show so I wasn't surprised to see him approaching my table on the first morning of the convention, I was shocked however when he handed me a stack of Spider-Girl original art that went to him as the inker on the book. I tried to give it back, telling him I appreciated it but I couldn't accept it, he refused to take it back. I made a nice chunk of change at that show due in large part to Al's generosity. It helped me out at a tough time, I'll never forget it. I've posted a couple pieces he and I did together as my small tribute.

Untold Tales of Spider-Man returns...kinda

The Amazing Spider-Man annual # 37 hits the stands this week, and in it is a brand new Untold Tales of Spider-Man story by Kurt Busiek and myself. To say I had fun with it is an understatement. Kurt did his usual fantastic job. It certainly didn't feel like it'd been 14 years since we worked together! Be sure to check it out. Here's a teaser panel from the issue.

Portrait post

A quick posting for a Monday morning.

Amazing Spider-Man annual

The first 2 pages I did for last years Spider-Man annual were some of my favorite pages in the issue. I hadn't been inking my own work much at that point and was trying to find my way with the tools of the trade. Overall I was happy with the issue, but these pages stand out for me as being some of the closest to what I was aiming for.

Golf anyone?

The sun is shining, the flowers blooming, seemed an appropriate post for today.

Worth a shot

Several years ago I worked up a couple of pages to send to DC in the hopes that, if they liked what they saw, I'd have a shot at the new Doom Patrol book they were launching. Unfortunately (for me) they decided to go in a different direction. I was pretty happy with the pages nonetheless so here they are.

More Spidey Digital

A quick post of another page from Amazing Spider-Man Digital.

Warm ups

I've fallen out of practice a bit, but for a while, a few days a week, before I started my comic pages for the day, I would warm up by pulling out some photos, magazines, whatever, and draw up some quick pencil illustrations to get the blood flowing and my brain hopefully headed in the right direction. Sometimes it would be the inspiration I needed, and sometimes, well....not so much. Anyway, here are a couple, a Hemingway shot and one of the Dali Lama. I need to get back in to doing more of this.

Spider-Ghoul

Here's a variant zombie cover I did for Spider-Girl a while ago. When I was asked about it my brain went off in a more graphic direction, but when I hit on the idea of her in her bedroom, zombied out, surrounded by her stuffed animals, and biting the head off of one, I knew I had it. Fortunately my editor agreed. Here are the pencils and the inks by the lovely and talented Serge LaPointe.

Amazing Spider-Man Digital

I recently finished work on a 10 chapter arc for Amazing Spider-Man Digital. I had the great pleasure of working with Bob Gale who it turns out likes to tell the kind of fun Spidey stories I like to draw. Bob also had a specific way he wanted the pages to be read online, a panel at a time as opposed to a full page at a time. With each click forward a new panel pops up, or a new word balloon or figure. I loved the idea and was pretty happy with the result. I think the single panel format might be how most online comics are viewed in the future, time will tell i guess. You can check out the arc online at Marvel.com. The chapters are also being reprinted in Peter Parker, the first issue is out now. Here are a couple pages from our run.

A beginning....kinda

In my attempt to stay several steps behind current technological trends, I've decided to go ahead and start a blog. I know, i know, why the rush? Well, all the other kids are doing it, soooo.....

Since if I'm known for anything it's for being an artist, I'll post a quickie illustration i did that I was pretty happy with at the time. More to follow....