Hope you all have a great New Year! See you back here in 2010!
A random collection of material from comic artist Kevin Nowlan. Started with the best of intentions, but like most other efforts, doomed to perish from neglect as soon as the novelty wears off.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
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!
Hope you all have a great New Year! See you back here in 2010!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
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.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Deadman cover inks over JLGL
Monday, December 28, 2009
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.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Dr. Strange limited edition print
Friday, December 25, 2009
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!
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!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
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!
Update: The commissioner came through with a scan of the inks. Thanks, David!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
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.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
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.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Teen Titans pin-up
Sunday, December 20, 2009
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.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
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.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Speaking of Doctor Strangefate
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Jack B. Quick: "Facts of Life" page 4
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
2009 DC Holiday Card
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
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.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
"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.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
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!