Monday, November 30, 2009

Lucifer bust designs

I should mention that all of these were designed with the elbows bent and the hands raised a bit so the arms wouldn't be chopped off.  In this instance, a martini glass provided us with a useful prop.





Sunday, November 29, 2009

Old Batman inventory cover

I drew this back in the mid-nineties.  That logo outline is a dead give-away. DC hasn't used it yet but I reworked the motif for several other pieces.




Saturday, November 28, 2009

Friday, November 27, 2009

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Legends of the DC Universe #6, page 4

I wrote about the odd situation leading up to this story back here. Looks like I missed at least one solid black that was supposed to be filled in.  Hope the colorist caught it.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Delirium Bust designs

One of the many sketches and turn-arounds I did for a series of small statues featuring characters from Sandman:






Iron Man

This is a character I've rarely – if ever – drawn.  I think that Terry Dodson sample that I inked was probably as close as I'd ever gotten before.  I was going for the late '60's, early '70's look.  A little Gene Colan and a little George Tuska.






Monday, November 23, 2009

Green Lantern pin-up

This one is a mystery to me.  The note says it's for something called a "3D Gallery" but I don't know if it was ever published.  DC put out a book called "Green Lantern 3D" in 1998 which sounds about right but the GCD doesn't mention this piece.  Pencils by Gil Kane.




A cover design fix


This was for a collection of Drew Friedman strips in 1985. I don't know who did the first design, but the publisher thought it was weak and asked me to rework it.  The drawings were beautiful but the typography and composition was lame.  I put together a sketch with a symmetrical approach, something I usually avoid, but this time it worked.  The final image is the printed cover.  Someone else did the final typography and changed the logo and made a few more little alterations but it works.  And who can argue with a giant Shemp head?






Sunday, November 22, 2009

Three more letter column designs



Man-Bat character designs for Batman cartoon

Some of my sketches for "On Leather Wings" from the first season of Batman: The Animated Series.  I remember Bruce Timm kept saying he wanted Man-Bat to look bigger.  




Saturday, November 21, 2009

Strange Tales letters page header

This is a pencil layout on tracing paper for the letters column in Strange Tales.  I'm guessing it was done around 1985 or '86.  It's too bad that most comics don't have letters pages anymore.  When I was a kid, that was always the first thing I read when I picked up a new book.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Punisher Logo roughs

From 1985.  Editor Carl Potts asked me to come up with some designs for this logo after I told him I wanted to focus on lettering for a while. you can see me fumbling around on the first sample, searching for an idea.  The final design incorporates his skull emblem.  I usually don't like designs that are this painfully symmetrical but I think it works.






Thursday, November 19, 2009

Outsiders Annual: Two-page spread

Many thanks to the current owner of this original, Mr. Joe Lee, who went to an awful lot of trouble to mail me a full-size copy.  Layout, pencils and inks for pages two and three of the Outsiders Annual:



Tuesday, November 17, 2009

More Frankenstein

You can never have too many Frankenstein pictures on your blog.  In fact, I think I've been far below my quota.  






Wildstorm swimsuit calendar art

I don't even remember this character's name and I'm too tired to look it up.  I think she was in WildCATS, but you guys don't really care about those details, do you?  All I remember is that this was for a calendar in the late '90's and even though I did a really tight color guide (shown below) and specifically asked the separator to leave the swimsuit white, he or she put a 10% black screen over it.  Why do they do stuff like that?  By the way, I only drew two flamingos.  The rest are clones.




Monday, November 16, 2009

Terra Firma Irma "cover"

Years ago I was asked to contribute a piece of art to a charity auction.  I didn't have the slightest idea what to do so I sketched around until I came up with this...






Sunday, November 15, 2009

"Superman: Save the Planet" cover art

Here's a very exaggerated, almost cartoony take on the Man of Steel, from a 1998 one-shot.  The Superman figure was printed on a clear plastic overlay and the background was the front page of the newspaper.









Saturday, November 14, 2009

Iron Man sample

From 1997.  Terry Dodson pencilled this tryout page and asked me to do the inks.  We didn't get the gig but I thought it was a nice effort.