Savage

First Wave variant cover here. I'm pretty intrigued by what Brian told me about this series. It seems like an interesting approach to all the various characters they're using, and of course the fact that it features Doc Savage is just perfection.

I was first introduced to the character via the brilliant James Bama covers. To say they made an impression on me would be a HUGE understatement. There are few illustrators who have influenced me as much as Bama. I look at his work and his characters seem alive. I think the fact that he had a way of 'weathering' his figures made them feel more human to me. Typically, when trying to reinforce the fact that a character is iconic and powerful, an artist is pressured into idealizing almost every facet of said characters physicality. For example, wrinkles on clothes and costumes tend to read as 'messy' or 'imperfect' if done badly, therefore they are generally to be avoided if you wanna play by the rulebook. I remember a certain artistic 'superstar' explaining to me that too many details and particulars in skin and costuming made the character come off as goofy instead of cool. I couldn't disagree more. Of course this all comes down to personal taste, but I've always felt that those details somehow help me believe in the character more. Bama had a way of making Doc Savage look like he had really been through the shit, powerful and experienced all at the same time. His torn shirt looked like it had really been ripped apart by something, not just featuring carefully placed 'artistic' damage meant to make drawing the character easier or more formulaic. More importantly, it really looked like Bama's Savage had an internal life as well.. something going on underneath the surface. All those surface details actually contributed to his power and believability as opposed to limiting it.

Looking at the cover now, my pitiful attempt to do the character justice just reminds me how good Jim Bama is. For the coloring on this piece, I tried something different than on almost all other covers by doing the entire piece in Photoshop. Normally, I do most of my work in Painter, only really utilizing photoshop for effects and flatting. I wanted the piece to have a slight grain to it. Since the line is 'pulpy' I didn't want the image coming off as too slick.

Human Targè

Looks like this cover was released to the general public, which means I FINALLY have something new to post. I really dig the character, and I also enjoyed the hell out of the covers Tim Bradstreet did for the Vertigo Human Target series. In fact, I like them so much I had a hard time not picturing them while trying to come up with layouts. Bradstreet is a tough act to follow. Honeslty, though, the biggest challenge of doing this cover was literally not knowing what the main character was going to look like. There was no visual information for me to go on other than some stuff I had seen online about the new HT TV series (and no one was even sure if that would be the model to follow). Since I started out in this business doing licenced product work, I know that sometimes these things just need to get done, regardless of how little information you have. Sometimes, it even makes the project more fun. This was the case on Human Target.

Personally, I love not being beholden to an exact model or visual. I enjoy an assignment more when I get some basic parameters and am allowed the space to do my thing. The only art direction was to go a bit 007 with it and that was all the info I needed. BIG props to my brothers over at Wildstorm for pushing through my idea to place the tag line over the figure as a graphic design element. We decided it would be best to do it digitally, though, and leave the art untouched just in case. It all seemed to work out in the end, which makes me a happy camper. Looking forward to seeing the show.

clowns still scare me

Been so long since I've posted I almost forgot my password to login. The big 'L' is planted firmly on my forehead, I might as well just tattoo it there. Still not much new to post until a few things hit the stands. Got a DMZ piece to show in a few weeks as well as another cover featuring one of my favorite pulp characters. Graphic novel is coming along, slowly (understatement) but surely. It's by far the most 'complete' piece of work I've done.. not sure if that will a good thing or a bad thing. Oh and here is a pic of the amazing Mark Chiarello holding the Wednesday Comics hardcover!!!!

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2010/01/mark1.jpg

The Carnevale poster was something I did a couple months ago for my father in law, who works in conjunction with the committee that runs Carnevale in the little town my wife was born in, Castelnovo Sotto. The Graphic design was done by Mauro Corradini, who also provided the desing work on the covers to Hellblazer 244-246. The guy is a fantastic local graphic designer and friend. These posters will be plastered all around the cities in the area this month, which will be bizarre to say the least. It's so colorful it almost hurts my eyes, but then again it's Carnevale...whattayagonnado.

Neglect breeds boredom....

... or is it the other way around? So more than a month now without a post. Couple reasons for that, but mainly the fact that I can't show anything I'm working on just yet. I wanted to post some of the Wednesday Comics sketches and pages in various stages of completion, but it looks like most of that stuff is going to show up in the hardcover collection. Got a couple things to put up this week, though, old and new.

I did this variant cover for Daredevil a year or so ago. Not sure if people have seen it so this seems like a good time and place to put it up. Had a good time doing this. The owls were an unexpected surprise. I went into it thinking they were going to be a pain in the ass but it was fun rendering all those feathers and playing around with them in the context of the overall composition. My only complaint here is the shadow of DD cast on the wall. I think I could've found a way to work it in better, or at least more clearly.

Another commission...

Yup. Spider-man versus Wolverine. Who would win? (sarcasm button pushed and held firmly before burying his head in the ground sheepishly)

Legacy...

Don't know if these have shown up anywhere in black and white. Whenever I do these connecting pieces (and I've done quite a few of them now), I generally try to use some sort of unifying theme to try and have everything make sense. This cover was REALLY challenging in that regard. I chose to try and use Professor X's psychic blast as a means of showing little 'shifts' in time. The only real way to illustrate this without cluttering everything up EVEN MORE was to show these shifts via changes in the characters costume. While it seemed like a great idea at the time, after getting into the piece I realized that this only really hits home in color. For example, Wolverine and Magneto's costumes have changed a number of times but based on the time periods we chose to use, the little differences in fashion became pretty damn subtle at times. Gambit presented a real problem too, since I needed to give him the trench coat but couldn't remove it in the 'strips' that shifted into more of his present garb. Is this explanation just as confusing as the cover itself?

Best bits: Mohawk Storm and Professor X

Worst bits: Whatever that Robot character is called, Magneto, and Mystique.

Mantova Manifesto

I did this poster a couple years ago for Mantova Comics and Games, a convention in Northern Italy organized by my wife, Sara, and a couple other friends. It's been fantastic to watch the show grow and evolve over the past few years and Mantova really is a fantastic little city. Every year, they try to get a new artist to draw the poster, the first was done by Gabriele Dell'Otto and the third by Simone Bianchi. Looking forward to seeing who does this years.