TODAY

....is the day. The book is out. All sorts of interviews popping up across the web. Feels like giving birth (somewhat painful but joyous as well). I'll be happy when the kid has a few months on him and is sleeping through the night.

UPDATE: This is a really nice review over at Aint it Cool News!!!

This and That

Variant cover for 'la Marvel'. Also, for anyone interested in my blabbering, here is a nice interview over at Newsarama by Vaneta Rogers. They have a new Noel page in black and white as well. Might give folks a bit better of an idea what the book is about.

Not sure if there are any Jeff Buckley fans out there, but literally can't stop listening to his duo with Elizabeth Frazer (God made the world in seven days... and then made the Cocteau Twins ;) ) "All Flowers in Time Bend Toward the Sun". Might be one of the most beautiful, haunting things I've ever heard. Buckley was a genius. R.I.P.

More music stuff coming this week.

Page 19

Hopefully by now people have seen the Noel preview. Here's a page in black and white. I'll be doing this quite a bit after the book is released, but we'll start slow. Every page was done fairly traditionally: pencil, ink, and more pencil. Some wash over areas to push certain values a bit darker and some sepia and red colored pencil for skin tones. An important change I wanted to make in the style of this project was to push the cartooning a bit more. Will Eisner was a huge influence, as was the insurmountable Norman Rockwell. I find that a bit of exaggeration here and there adds an element of playfulness that fully rendered, stark realism just can't provide. Rockwell was the master of that.

Fear Itself

Variant cover. You all know the drill...

Wetness is hard to draw.

NYC

Cue Interpol song. Going to be back in the States attending the New York Comicon next week and it seems there'll be a special little Batman: Noel goody for those attending. New York Comicon magazine will be featuring a five page preview of the book, which is pretty damn nifty. For those attending, I'll be camped out most of the show at the Splashpage Art booth as well as doing a Batman panel Friday as well as signing at the DC booth on Saturday. Looking forward to drinking lots of coffee and seeing friends and family.

In book news, I've just seen an actual copy and am REALLY pleased with the way the thing printed. Pretty classy looking packaging as well so hopefully people will dig it when it comes out in a month. I'm going to be filling this blog with black and white pages after the thing is released, as well as some other covers and illustrations I've been working on for the past few months. If this blog is a crime scene (sometimes it feels that way), get ready for an orgy of evidence... To keep you tied over 'till then, the DC blog has unveiled a few pages to wet the appetite.

Surgeon General's Warning

New stuff coming soon..... LOTS of it. Until then, I came across this Hellblazer cover the other day and realized that it's one of my favorites. While I'm trying to move away from the 'fo-painterly' look in my more recent color pieces, I think that this piece succeeds in more ways than it fails. The only thing I think it's missing is more of a graphic quality, but that's probably just because my tastes are going more in that direction now. I've fallen back in love with holding lines, and like the idea of embracing more of the fact that these things are drawings, despite being in color. Still, I love John Constantine and miss the smug bastard sometimes....

Long time comin'...

Since the book has been solicited at long last, I wanted to share the final wrap around cover with folks. Just a few months left before it's release in November and things are very much taking shape. The lettered pages look fantastic thanks to the amazing Todd Klein and I really can't praise highly enough what Barbara Ciardo is doing with the coloring. Over the course of the next couple months I hope to be able to start sharing some pages here and there as well.