Thursday, December 13, 2007

Aces: Curse of The Red Baron



Here's a quick pin-up I busted out for my buddy Shannon Denton. His comic book Aces: Curse of The Red Baron is being collected into trade paperback and this will be part of it. Ever since I was a little kid, I loved The Red Baron (mostly due to reading Peanuts) and then there was the song, Snoopy vs The Red Baron, which I would sing ad nauseum and drive my parents nuts! Remember this?

After the turn of the century
In the clear blue skies over Germany
Came a roar and a thunder men had never heard
Like the scream and the sound of a big war bird
Up in the sky, a man in a plane
Baron von Richtofin was his name
Eighty men tried, and eighty men died
Now they're buried together on the countryside

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin' out the score
Eighty men died tryin' to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany

It's by a band called The Royal Guardsmen. I must have had the record; I'm not sure how else I would have heard it. Takes me back! I had a more ambitious Mike Mignola type layout in mind with more characters and a castle and everything, but I had to get it done in less than a day. I squeezed in a very Mignola-esgue crow, though! Too much work! But it was fun!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Still The Man!


CAPS, the Comic Art Professional Society, held our annual banquet to honor the great Stan Lee last night. Each year, our guest of honor receives the coveted Sergio award. It's a statue based on Sergio Aragonés, legendary artist of MAD Magazine and creator of Groo and one of the founders of CAPS. Bill Morrison and Mark Evanier presided over the ceremony with speeches from Scott Shaw! and Marv Wolfman.


Stan was then presented with a beautiful leather bound book of original drawings from all the artists of CAPS in his honor. Above is my contribution to that book.The event was organized by Stephen Silver who did an amazing job, as well as the cover to the program! Thanks, Stephen! Love you, Stan!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Be Smart, Don't Start!


So why do skunks stink? Because they have a two and a half pack-a-day habit, of course! More unused character designs which went right into the trash and onto my blog! It's the same thing really...

I just post all my stray ideas, throwaway sketches and broken dreams on this blog in hopes that someone will see them, someone will love them, someone will give them a hot meal and a good home.
So please, adopt an unused character design today. Unless you're Ellen Degeneres. They make great pets, they're good with the kids and don't fuss too much if you buy them smokes.
But remember kids: smoking is a filthy, filthy habit. Right up there with heroin by the way society treats it. So be smart, don't start!

Character Design: Puff The Magic Dragon


So where do unused character designs go to die? The web, of course! Here's a few unused character designs for a project that never got used. Poor Puffy. He never had a chance. He's addicted to sweet, sweet nicotine. You see, he's covered in nicotine patches but but he can't stop smoking! Silly dragon! Maybe that's why dragons are extinct. Like the Gary Larson Far Side cartoon about how the dinosaurs really became extinct!

Anyway, they wanted a twisted take on the classic Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons. Cute, but twisted! The bunny with the oxygen tank cracks me up. The juxtaposition of cute and sad is so perfect. I also like the tough guy cupid. He almost has a John Kricfalusi vibe to him. I love John K. He's a genius. I'm a hack. So there!

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Wonder Woman Day 2007


Has it been a year already? Last year, Wonder Woman Day raised over $15,000.00 for the two shelters: The Raphael House of Portland Bradley-Angle House. Andy Mangels masterminded the event to be a part of national Domestic Violence Awareness Month. You can bid here. Lots of great original art by Adam Hughes, Jim Lee, Steve Rude and lots more! Even if you're not in the area, you can bid online. It's a really good cause.

WONDER WOMAN DAY II
Sunday, October 28, 2007 -- 2pm-6pm, FREE
Excalibur Comics, 2444 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, Oregon
A part of national Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

SPECIAL GUESTS SIGNING:
Phil Jimenez (Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Infinite Crisis)
Gail Simone (Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, All-New Atom)

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Teaching at Art Center


I'm teaching the Storyboarding for Filmmakers class this semester at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Having never gone to Art Center as a student, I was honored to even be asked and jumped at the opportunity. With past instructors and graduates like Ansel Adams, Ralph McQuarrie, Bob Peak, Drew Struzan, Burne Hogarth, Syd Mead, Michael Bay, Craig Mullins, Ryan Church, Feng Zhu, Scott Robertson, Stan Sakai, Zack Snyder and Michael Whelan to name but a few. Whew! What a list! It reads like a Who's Who of art and film. All guys I've admired and studied their work more often than my own. How they worked their way down to me, I'll never know!

Storyboarding for Filmmakers is Tuesday evenings from 7-10 if anyone is interested.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Mini-Size Man-Thing!


You've all heard of Giant-Size Man-Thing? I guess that would make mine Mini-Size Man-Thing since it's on a tiny card. I'm so ashamed...

Spider-Man 2099 Sketch Card

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Back From the Burn


I survived another year at Burning Man and this was the best year yet. Much love to every one at Camp Esperanza (you know who you are!). I was going to write a long blog entry about everything that happened this year, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep! Which is a fancy way of saying I have a shit load of work to dig myself out from under before I can even think about things like blogging. And sleeping. So there!

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Make Mine M.O.D.O.K.!


It has begun!

I've sketched out 30 of these little bastards, now I have to ink them and send them off to Upper Deck, who will then randomly pack them in with their 'Marvel Masterpieces' collector sets. They've got some great artists contributing original art sketches. Guys like Travis Charest, Eric Canete, Chris Bachalo, Andrew Robinson, and Ryan Ottley just to name a few! How I wormed my way onto that talented list, I'll never know! I was just going to do little head sketches (do you know how hard it is to draw on a tiny trading card? I'm used to working 10"x15"!), but Eric has set the bar so high, that I'm going to try to step it up and do full body shots! Damn you Eric! You are way too good! He packs enough energy and detail into every card, it looks like a full sized cover shrunk down!

Everyone seems to be doing the mandatory Spider-Man, Wolverine, etc. sketch cards. So I'm going old school with characters like M.O.D.O.K., Blackbolt, Man-Thing, The Destroyer and all the off-beat characters that I love but no one remembers! Remember The Human Fly? That's right, you heard me, The Human Fly AKA The Greatest Superhero in the World.

I only wish Marvel still had the licenses for ROM and The Micronauts! Damn!