Hellboy Jr. pin-up

This was for Mike Mignola and Bill Wray's notorious Hellboy Junior comic back in '99.  I'm also showing a self-rejected color guide, just 'cause I had it handy.

Hope you all have a great New Year!  See you back here in 2010!

Ash pin-up: Wrightson pencils with my inks

This one is from 1996 or '97. Jimmy Palmiotti phoned me out of the blue and asked me to ink a Wrightson pin-up. This was before I worked on the Batman & Solomon Grundy story, also pencilled by Berni (or Bernie). To date, neither of them have been published.

Wrightson forgot to sign the piece and I didn't want to forge his signature, so I added my name in ink and lightly pencilled his above it, for him to add later.

Deadman cover inks over JLGL

This was for the fifth issue of the Dead Again mini-series in 2001.  We did a sixth cover for a collection which was never published.

Jack B. Quick: "Smalltown Stardom" layout, page 3

Over the weekend I found this layout for page three of the first Jack B. Quick story.  You can see the pencils and inks in an earlier post here.  Panel four was giving me the most trouble at this stage.  Since all of the JBQ stories were done from full scripts and it seemed unlikely that any of the text would be changed, I started out by lettering each page, then I'd work on refining the drawings.  It seems backwards to some people but it really helped me determine how much space I had left after the balloons were added.  The drawings could be moved around but the dialog couldn't.

"Death" bust designs

Here are two more of the pencil sketches for the Sandman mini-busts:

Dr. Strange limited edition print

This is from 1987.  It looks like I must have gone to my local printer and had a halftone print of the pencils made before I started painting.

1983 Christmas card

I had a great uncle who was a working artist and made his living painting Colorado landscapes. Every Christmas we'd get a beautiful hand-made linoleum block card from him, more often than not, a winter scene – skillfully designed to make the most of the "high contrast" printing process. Unfortunately, none of us thought to keep any of them. If we had, I'd be posting one here.

I've done a poor job living up to my namesake's legacy. So far, this is the only personalized Christmas card I've ever drawn. I heard it creeped a lot of people out at the time.  Nice legs, huh?

Feliz Navidad!

Captain America commission 2009

This is more or less a convention sketch, but it was drawn pre-con and delivered at the Baltimore Show in October this year.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a scan of my inks.  Anyway, here's the prelim and the finished pencils.

Update:  The commissioner came through with a scan of the inks.  Thanks, David!

WildC.A.T.S. 25, page 5 with Dave Johnson

Dave did all the layouts, most of the pencils and quite a bit of the inking on our half of the book.  For this page, Dave faxed me his prelim, then I did a tighter drawing of the flying Mr. Majestic.  He did a larger layout, sent the board to me and I finished the pencils on the close-up and the flying figure.  Then it went back to Dave who inked everything.  Nice colors by the talented Mr. Glen Murakami who did a beautiful job interpreting the lighting.

Killer Croc design for Batman Cartoon

The character design for Killer Croc was a real challenge because in the comics, he was drawn with hundreds of tiny scales.  For the animated series we had to start from scratch and come up with something much more streamlined.  I also wanted to make him look like a wrestler, not a body builder.

Teen Titans pin-up

This was originally a commission for my buddy Robert Jewell.  Later, it was published in TwoMorrows' Titans Companion.

Outsiders Annual: Page eight

One thing I really enjoyed about this job was working "Marvel Style", from a plot instead of a full script.  I had the freedom – especially on action pages like this – to handle the pacing as I saw fit.  The story was 46 pages long so we had the luxury of devoting several pages to Batman's dogged pursuit of this thief, even though it was a minor plot point.  I grabbed the photo of the original art when this page sold on eBay recently.  It wasn't my auction, unfortunately.

Ms. Mystic cover sketch

I wish I could remember the story behind this one.  The folks at Continuity probably gave me some kind of a description, then I did this sketch.  Looks like it died right there.  Needless to say, even though this is just a sketch, I really should have slimmed down her lower torso.  I like the pose and the body language, though.

Speaking of Doctor Strangefate

In spite of what you see here, I really did ink the magic effects that José pencilled, but they were on an overlay and it looks like I didn't bother to make a copy.

Jack B. Quick: "Facts of Life" page 4

This page probably doesn't make much sense out of context but it's good for a comparison between pencils and inks/colors.

2009 DC Holiday Card

A reunion of the Strangefate art team: Pencils by José Luis Garcia-Lopez, my inks and colors by Matt Hollingsworth.

Batman & Catwoman pin-up color guide

This is a follow-up to an older post that you can see here.  I did a very detailed color guide and Lovern Kindzierski created the seps.  Guides like this were rarely returned to the artists. They were either discarded, filed away or snatched up by people in the office who liked them.  Fortunately, I went to the trouble of making a color copy of this one. As you can see, I went a little crazy with the notations.

X-Men Annual #14 pin-up

From 1990. I think I was trying to finesse Longshot's three-fingered hand.

"Francine Langstrom" model sheet

This was for the first season of Batman: The Animated Series, "On Leather Wings".  I tried to make everything as simple and streamlined as possible but I think Bruce Timm ended up giving her a longer hairstyle.

Wonder Woman pin-up

I don't know if you can call this a commission.  "Trade bait" would probably be more accurate.  Back in the '90's, a dealer had some Oksner originals that I wanted so I did this piece to barter with. These days it's in the hands of Mr. Matt Hollub who generously provided me with a color scan.  Thanks, Matt!

X-men art for Marvel Calendar

I couldn't tell you what year this was.  Maybe 1998?

Man of Steel 115 cover inks over Mahnke

Doug has a terrific rendering style.  I was surprised to see that his pencil technique reminded me a little of Mike Mignola.  You usually don't see it in the inks.