Weapon Cover Stuff!
More Weapon stuff!
I thought I'd delineate the process of coming up with the cover to issue 1. When I do my sketching process, I do it on the computer. I went through about 4 or 5 cover sketches that were along the lines of just Tommy Zhou in the darkness, without any detail besides Tommy's Dragon symbol costume and the idea of maybe a dragon sort of thing floating in the background-
I thought about turning the logo sideways, and did about 3 or 4 of those - similar to this one-
The whole book is action packed - so I thought about a huge fight scene- (which led to the cover for issue 2, you'll see) I did a long cover concept that would have tied up one huge fight into all 4 issues - I won't post it here yet because it has too many spoilers, but here's the general concept for that first cover-
I finally went back to the first concept, landed on making the dragon a lot larger, focusing on Tommy, and making the background separate from Tommy. I cleaned up the sketch a bit, tightening what I wanted to do with it-
I finished it-
And then Paul Mounts worked 10 times harder than I did-
There ya go! Any questions?!
I'm the Zelig of Comic Books!
In a horrible moment of clarity, I realized that somehow i've become the Zelig of Comic Books - there at the scene, but completely unrecognized. I used to think it was because I just kept my head down and stayed out of politics at the companies I worked for, but I met Ed Brubaker at the Los Angeles Comic Book Convention, Tom Brevoort introduced me and Ed had a completely blank look on his face. I know he must have read a least a few of Mark Waid and Ron Garney's Captain Americas, everybody talks about them, but no recognition whatsoever crossed his synaps.
Your favorite Moon Knight comic from 1993? I was there. Your favorite run of Captain America from the mid 90's? There. That odd Electra book with Deodato on it? The end of Excalibur? That weird run of Hulk issues where Dr. Banner never turnes into the Hulk? The last issue of G.I Joe? X-Men/Star Trek? Superman 1 Million? Electric Superman? Perez's Avengers? All that MC2 weirdness that's come out in the last few years- those Last_ Standings? The giant Spider-Man above Universal's Marvel Restaurant? Spider-Man Cereal? Stan Lee Media? That Spider-Man statue behind Stan in this photo? Frank D'armata bought it and I pitched in 20-
Maybe it's just in the nature of an inker or a colorist, or a letterer, or an editor.
Well, hopefully The Weaopn will shift a few things around. Have I mentioned the Weapon this week?
I will in the next post - I'll give a sketch - ink and final for the Weapon cover...
At Last! The Weapon!
YES YES YES!
The solicits for The Weapon are out!
Due in June!
I'm penciling and inking!
Fred Van Lente is writing!
Paul mounts is doing the fantastic color!
Here's Fred's copy blurb!
Martial arts enthusiast and inventor Tommy Zhou has developed a groundbreaking innovation–wrist bands that create an endless variety of weapons from solid holograms. But an evil order of assassins believes Tommy has stumbled upon the long-lost mystic technique of the Order of Wu-Shi—“the way of the Weapon”–and they’re sending waves of killers after him to steal it back! Action! Fights! Advanced technology! Ancient Chinese legend! They all collide HERE!
Order your copy now!
Hoooray!
Sketch of the day- Olu!
One of my current favorite drawings for the continuuing SK8 kids series
More Misty Knight action!
Another Shot of the Misty. I like what they've done at Marvel with resussitating Misty Knight - i always thought she was kind of neat - anyone who'll roomate up with Phoenix's all right with me.
Working Weekend
It's another working weekend (number 529, most likely). I'm having fun blowing up helicopters, boats and SUV's (not literally, since it's just in the course of my drawing that I'm doing those things) this weekend. In the next week or two I'll probably be able to go into some spastic promotion for the project I'm working on. Until then - a little drawing from the fabulous Al Rio from the upcoming Heroes For Hire issue I got to ink-
The Wiz!
I went to the WWLA Convention yesterday and had a suprisingly good time. I got to talk to everyone I wanted to speak with, met a new batch of people that I really liked, saw some great old faces and had a lot of fun overall. Platinum was humming along pretty well with DJ Coffman's Hero By Night book, Marvel was doing great with their Hulk and Iron Man promotions. And parking was super-easy, in and out in 5 minutes tops...
WWLA
Wizard World L.A. is here-
I've been 6/7 years in Los Angeles now and I'll be wandering into the L.A Convention for the first time.
It should be neat- I'm a little burned on San Diego, it's just too overwhelming - if the L.A. con is a little smaller then maybe I'll just go to this one from now on...
The upside of a good weekend for the 300-
21,500 + 8,200 = we're never leaving, are we?
Did anyone else spot the almost underground mention that the Surge in Iraq will have an additional 2 to 3 Brigades? Um, - any news outlets want to mention that we'll be up to 165,000 troops by May and that there are already rumbling that tours will be extended into the fall? I dunno, after everyone's freakout about the surge of 21,500, it just seems weird to hear the silence about the next 8,200...
Wonder-Man 3!
Wonder Man 3 is out tomorrow (I only know this from reading Peter David's blog). I inked about 10 pages of the book, I'm not really sure why - there was some innocent reason, I'm sure, but the end result was that I had a pleasant time pinch hitting for the regular inker over Mr. Currie's very nice artwork. The pages I inked didn't have very many shots of Wonderman in them, mostly concerned a young girl with an Electra-like origin story. Check it out in the stores. I've stopped going to comic shops until June, when my super-secret, ultra-special unmentionable comes out...
Marvel Adventures Iron Man
Very excited about the new Marvel Adventures Iron Man book that I've been working on - it should be a really nice book - written by the redoubtable Fred Van Lente and pencilled by the fantastic James Cordeiro!
I can barely contain my excitement!
I can barely contain my excitement about the news that i'm going to be posting here in the next few weeks - I've been waiting 15 years to be able to say something like what I'm going to be able to post - it's agony to have to wait to tell everybody!
New Jet Pack Pets in Disney Adventures Mag!
A new episode of the Jet Pack Pets - entitled " Jet Pack Pets No More!" has been released in 4-color-greatness, ensconsed within the pages of the newest issue of Disney Adventures Magazine! A tremendous romp wherein Captain Swerdlow ditches his city job and heads for the mountain air and laid back lifestyle of his goat herder ancestors! Unfortunately - he'll have to bring his pet cat Bix along - unknowingly breaking up the Jet Pack Pets! Will they ever get back together? And where does the robotic menace of Mach-6 fit in? Pick up a copy today and find out! I got mine- go pick up yours! Available in almost every grociery store outlet nationwide!
