Solomon Grundy

This was for a DC card a few years ago. If I had to do it over again I might have drawn both figures a little less wonky but it was fun.

More Metal Men pencils

I'm even more pressed for time than usual so I'll just post a nice panel from a new Metal Men page by José. Haven't started inking this one yet but -- as always -- I'm looking forward to it.

Plastic cup art #6

This is the last of these. Like the previous installment, it was never inked or printed. It's a shame; it took place a night so the dramatic lighting might have made it a little more visually interesting than the others.

Plastic cup art #5

This one was killed after I started on the pencils. If you read it, you'll see why.

Plastic cup art #4

I wonder if the people who were profiled in these testimonials were a little weirded out when they saw the faces I improvised for their boyfriends, husbands, mothers, etc. The agency supplied me with photos of the person doing the testimonial but all the other people had to be made up.

Grimwood's Daughter: the last page, inked

Grimwood's Daughter: the last page

Jan Strnad's script asked for a small inset of Tirol and Brii in the land of the Frost Giants, framed with a garland of ivy. I sketched it several different ways, two of which I'm showing here. But neither of us were satisfied with the layout and Jan thought the garland looked too much like a Christmas decoration so he suggested dropping the inset panel all together.

It made for a rather stark final page but it fit the mood of the story.

Fast forward 26 years...

We're trying to pull together all the art for a new Grimwood Collection, but no one can locate copies of the last few pages. I decide to redraw them and look forward to taking a second crack at a few details that always bugged me about the earlier versions. Most of them are just little inking problems but this final page cried out for a larger revision, in keeping with Jan's original script. I discussed it with our editor, Scott Dünbier and he agreed, if we're going to go to the trouble of redrawing that last page, why not get it right this time.

So I dropped the garland and made the inset much larger. I'm really happy with the results... finally.

I'll post a scan of the inks as soon as I finish them. Maybe even later today.

Another Metal Men preview

Once again, I'm only showing you about half the page. José keeps dazzling me with his ability to organize panels that have a lot of different elements in them.

Plastic cup art #3

Who knew you could get food with an IOU at Krystal? I'll have to try it some time.

Plastic cup art #2

The agency changed the script after I started on the pencils so the sixth panel is completely different.  

Because the art was wrapped around a cup, the strips were designed to be read as three individual pages. That was probably a good call, otherwise you'd have to turn the cup back and forth to read it.

Frank Godwin

I found this old copy of the Denver Post Sunday Funnies Section in my closet the other day. Hey, Fibber McGee's got nothing on me.  

Frank Godwin's virtuoso penwork is a joy to behold.  Don't we all wish we could be that spontaneous and still create something so elegant?

Plastic cup art

More proof that if you want to find my work you have to search in some really odd places:

A couple of years ago I did a series of comic strips for the Krystal Hamburger chain.  They featured testimonials from customers about their first time eating a Krystal.  The agency provided me with photos of the actual customer and I did my best to draw a convincing likeness.  Since they were going to be printed on plastic cups, the images had to be simple and bold; no Stan Drake feathering or delicate crosshatching.  The art director provided the colors and lettering.

Action #795 cover art

I found a scan of this old preliminary sketch so I decided to show another step-by-step.

Hellboy and Jack B. Quick

Mike Mignola and I were guests at a terrific convention in Birmingham, England last year and we were asked to do this piece for their program book and charity auction. Mike pencilled the Hellboy figure and sent the board to me so that I could draw Jack and ink the whole thing.

That big empty space in the lower right bothered me so I added another contraption to fill it up.

Most people didn't even realize that I'd inked the Hellboy figure. See, I don't always redraw everything!

Adam Strange origin for "52" page 1

Some of you may know that I was scheduled to draw an Adam Strange mini-series back in the late 80's, but I couldn't get past the one edict from DC editorial:  "Give him a new costume."

I really liked the original costume and no matter how hard I tried to go in a different direction it seemed pointless.  Who cares about Adam Strange if he's not wearing that cool space suit?

New original art

Be sure to check out the "Original Art" link to the right.  I've finally put up some pages from the Batman Confidential series I did with Garcia-Lopez.  Once you get to the art page, there's an email link at the bottom if you're interested in buying any of the pages.

I also have the cover art for Batman Confidential #28 on eBay this week.  You can find it here.

Adam Strange origin for "52" page 2

Sorry I've been away.  I didn't lose interest in the blog (yet) but the logic board on my Mac died so I was mostly off line for a few days.  Here's something to tide you over until I can get caught up on work.

I'll post page one tomorrow.