Mindy the Tree

I was going through some old files and found this simple little marker sketch.  The design is rough but I always thought it was charming.

So who's Mindy?

Well, a few of you may know and a few more can probably guess but for now I'll have to just leave the rest of you wondering.  

But with a little luck, we may all see more of her later this year.

A tiny portrait

I considered writing about the 15 inches of snow that fell here between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning but the photos don't really do it justice and I'm never really interested in hearing other people complain about the weather so I'll just move along.

This little ink and watercolor drawing was done about ten years ago.  The subject is my wife's grandfather.  It's barely 3 x 5" and you'll have to take my word for it when I say that it's a reasonably good likeness.

Every Christmas, for the family gift exchange, I would do these little "portraits".  They all seemed to enjoy them but I started to really hate doing them and got very stressed each year, thinking that one of her aunts or uncles would never speak to us again because of the way I'd drawn them.

This was the last of them and it fell back into our hands after he passed away.

More Garcia-Lopez

This page is from Batman Confidential #27.

We all know that José Luis Garcia-Lopez draws better than just about anyone in comics but here's a sample that shows off his skill as a storyteller. The script for this page reads:

________

ONE:

Back down at street level. We're looking at the COPS. COP #1 is clearly unhappy, complaining.

1 COP #1: This bites. There's an ACTUAL crime going down out there and we're stuck here...

TWO:

On the POLICE CAR. A SHADOW, possibly familiar with its Tut headgear shape, has fallen ominously on the car.

2 COP #1: ...with NOTHING happening,

THREE:

A different street. BATMAN arrives at the scene of the alarm. Its a small shop with a BROKEN FRONT WINDOW. The alarm is still going off.

3 SFX: WHEET WHEET WHEET

FOUR:

BATMAN stands at the broken window, looking inside. Everything looks normal, save for the ROCK that was presumably thrown through the glass. But nothing else is out of place inside.

4 SFX: WHEET WHEET WHEET

FIVE:

BATMAN races back towards the townhouses. He's been duped.

NO COPY.

SIX:

On the POLICE CARS. Both COPS are slumped over in the front seats. Out cold, maybe dead. In the background, the SUN is rising.

NO COPY.

________

Okay, now look at the pencils. José added a reaction shot which really helps the tension and the pacing, but look what he drew for panel three. "Batman arrives at the scene" indeed.

It goes without saying, José is a very generous penciller.

Spirit #30 cover sketch

This is the rough that was approved for the Spirit inventory cover.  I don't always fill in the black areas with a marker but the large, contrasting areas were pretty important to the overall design so I wanted a dry run before I moved forward.