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.

Another Joker illustration....

This piece was done last year for the Dark Knight IMAX premiere at the Palms in Las Vegas. It was a cool night, and the theater, in conjunction with Derrick from Comic Oasis, printed a number of these things to give away to people with tickets to see the flick. A limited number where actually printed up large scale onto canvas as well. Comic Oasis is a fantastic store, and anyone in Vegas with some time should stop by and check it out.

Color?!?!?!?!?!

What the hell is that?!?! Yeah, I noticed that this blog lacks some color in a major way. To remedy the situation, I decided to start tossing out some covers I've done in color. Why not start with my favorite. Gotta say, I really like this cover, which, if you know me, is a strange thing. Sometimes the stars align and things just seem to work out. This cover was one of those occasions. The truly sad thing is that I have yet to do a color piece that I like as much. The truth behind this particular image, though, is that it isn't the technical aspects of the piece that get me going. I like the subject matter here, and I hold this cover directly responsible for getting me interested in drawing things in smoke. This cover also holds a warm, fuzzy place in my heart because I used a good friend and former room mate Francesco Meo as my Constantine model. Francesco looks NOTHING like John C. but damn does he know how to smoke a cigarette. If I can dig up the black and white version I'll post it as well. I'm sure it's out there online somewhere....

At any rate, this piece was colored in Painter. I've just recently started to get brave enough with photoshop to venture into the world of 'layers' and 'command z'. For some reason it never occurred to me to do things on layers. Yet another Forrest Gump example of Lee getting a hold of technology and finding the slowest, most ineffectual way to use it. I would basically just scan the black and whites in and paint directly on top of the piece. If I screwed something up, I would just paint over it. DOH!!!!!

Page 12

Last page of Wednesday Comics in pencil. Fun to finally get to draw Perry White and Jimmy. Working full steam on the new graphic novel. Still can't talk to much about it (trust me, I'd like to) but maybe I can sneak in a small peak or two in the coming months.

Joke's on you...

This piece is the perfect example of why I don't take commissions outside of conventions. I started this sucker about two years ago for painter Gabriele Dell'Otto. We traded Joker pieces, but he had a special request that I add Batman. In the time he waited for this, he and his wife had one child, conceived and gave birth to another, and probably lost their minds wondering why I hadn't finished this damn piece. In any case, I FINALLY got it done and a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Ahhhhhh... the precious guilt. Anyone who is familiar with Gab's work should know that you can't just give an artist like that something ordinary. I've seen that bastard do some absolutely gorgeous color commissions at conventions over the years. Maybe I should add a flat red background... make a print of this or something.