Sketchbook 2

Here's a pencil layout for STRANGE ENCOUNTERS,the 48 page special of UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN that Kurt Busiek,Roger Stern,Tom Orzechowski and Matt Hollingsworth did with me-it remains a highlight of my career both artistically and personally- and look at that team!

wowzers...;o)


the layout for a recent Batman/Scarecrow commission:

Cover layout for good buddy Curt Purcell's chapbook,NIGHT FALLS ON A FAIRY TALE:

Layout for a commission of CASABLANCA done as if i was designing a "film poster":



A thumbnail done for a ARMY OF DARKNESS comic audition i started and never finished-sigh...


more to come...;o)

Tragedy Strikes Comic Convention!

Well,not really... but if you go to the following website-COMICMIX-you'll read the newest installment of my bro Bob Tinnell's online strip E Z STREET and you'll see what i mean.

He and old friend Mark Wheatley have been doing this strip for awhile now and it takes some interesting twists and turns thru the industry I've been groovin' in for 24 years-take a look if you like comics,Hammer Horror (you'll see why) or just good writing and drawing.

Sketchbook

The 1st of yet another ongoing feature here in the Blogosphere- i have produced so many individual pieces of art within the various steps i go thru to get to that final piece that many of them never see the light of day-layouts,concept sketches,finished pencils,designs,etc...

This is as good a place as any to dump...er...present them to you,dear reader-i hope you enjoy it...;o)

This first is a sketch i did of Dracula-one of many I've drawn thru the years-but this one was for the proposed adaptation Bob Tinnell and i were going to do-ARE going to do- i tried to get some Hammer DracuLee in there without doing an exact caricature:




this is a pencil page from PARLIAMENT OF JUSTICE-Mike Oeming and i did this book some 5 years ago now but it still gets me some very gratifying compliments:



Yet another favorite character of mine-JONNY DEMON-co created by Kurt Busiek way back at the start of our personal and professional relationship-a great concept that we had to condense into a story half it's size-we both promise to do it justice someday:


This is a page layout for a project that Oeming and i were going to do awhile ago-I'd tell you more but we may still get around to it-i wanna keep some mystery after all:



THE BLACK FOREST sketches-a favorite book of my fans and myself-this is one of the many concept sketches i did before starting the book:


a Catwoman pencil sketch done for a commission:



More to come...

Unpublished Projects...part 4

Here's the sequence i did based on Bob's sketches...









and here's a follow up sequence he added...







The actual work never got seen in published form (nor as a film,sadly) but it did start a working relationship between Bob and I that continues to this day.

PS-a short time later we did a short story based on the opening sequence-changed of course from the TCM connection-and that DID get published in an indy comic called MIDNITE TERRORS.

Unpublished Projects...part 3

The TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE- a title which sends shivers down the spines of those of us who saw it back in 1974 and made us all avoid little backwater towns that sell BBQ.

Well,back before my good friend and writing partner, Robert Tinnell and i got deep into making THE BLACK FOREST and THE WICKED WEST,we did a little project together-it was never really meant for publishing,but it still counts as a "story".

Bob is a veteran filmmaker (his newest flick-he's the writer/director- is in preproduction now) and he was up for a possible directing gig on the remake of TCM- needless to say,he didn't get it (mores the pity,considering the resulting film) but we did do a series of storyboards to show some of Bob's ideas to the producers-Bob asked me to do them based on my comic book experience because he wanted them done almost as a comic-to help the powers that be to get his concept.

What follows are the original boards that Bob himself gave me as a guideline (take my word for it,h's a better filmmaker than an artist-as i suspect I'm a better artist than I'd be a director...;o)





The next pages-in the next post- are what i did with Bob's concept-including another sequence he added to the mix...

Unpublished Projects...part 2

This art was for a Comico Primer cover,way back in the dawn of my career- I plotted a short story based on an idea i had for years before i got into the pro side of things-i also did the pencils-the bonus was that i somehow convinced Matt Wagner of GRENDAL fame to both dialog and ink it!

The story was finished-essentially a 1st chapter to a larger-i hoped-story,which never got published because Comico canceled the Primer book- looking back on it,I'm kinda glad it never was seen-but that's because I'm so critical of the artwork now-some well meaning friends want me to "publish" it here and I'm considering it-we'll see...;o)

PS- the art here is actually not the original way it looked-years later i pulled a "Lucas" and added a wash over it.

Heath Ledger Memorial from Warner Bros.

http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/HeathMemorial.html