Hero Time Part 5: New Avengers #1 Sketch Cover

I'm a bad blogger. Blogs should be updated in a timely manner, but my time has been short and my manners non-existent! So I'm sorry about that (see, my manners are coming back already, I just apologized!). I should have thrown this up sooner, since the auction has come and gone, but the good news is that the final bid was over $450.00, thanks to everyone who took the time to place a bid! It all went to my favorite charity, The Hero Initiative. Marvel Comics printed 100 blank-covered copies, and Hero had 100 stellar artists (and me) do original New Avengers covers on the special edition books which were auctioned off to benefit Hero and needy comic book artists, the late, great Gene Colan among them.You can see them all here.
When I was a kid, one of the first back issues I ever saved up and bought at a comic con was Giant-Size X-Men #1. I paid $20 for it, which was a lot for a little kid like me at the time! The iconic Gil Kane cover is forever seared into my mind, and since New Avengers #1 centers around introducing a new team, that was all the justification I needed to swipe-- er, "pay homage to" the late, great Gil Kane!

"In brightest day..."

	In brightest day, in blackest night, No evil shall escape my sight Let those who worship evil's might, Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!
—Hal Jordan

Haven't seen the movie yet, but I did get to work on some early packaging comps for the action figures from Mattel. Fun job! Haven't seen the action figures yet, so I don't even know if any of my comps made it through the approval process to the final packaging design or not. I really need to get out more!

My initial sketch was based on Hal Jordan from the comics, and then when we found out Ryan Reynolds had been cast, I tried to make it look a little more like him in the color comp.

Art for A Good Cause

If anyone in the LA area is looking for something fun to do tonight, may I recommend Art for A Good Cause: “Auction 9” Fundraiser for Public Arts HS #9
. You can read more about it here.

Featuring works by David Lynch, Shepard Fairey, Clayton Brothers, Betye Saar, from Luis Buñuel Archive, Eames Office, hundreds more.
 Benefits Downtown LA's Under-Served Youth attending LAUSD's HS #9 
@
HS for the Visual & Performing Arts / LAUSD #9

 You can see a slideshow here.

The theme of the show was La Lotería, and the idea was to reinterpret classic Lotería cards with a modern pop culture twist. So I couldn’t resist drawing Homer Simpson as El Borracho (The Drunk) in front of Moe's of course! Now if I had the time to do an entire set of Lotería cards Simpsons style, I would do Barney as El Borracho, but Homer is the much more popular character, and the goal of the auction is to raise money for the kids, so I figured Homer was the way to go!

Anyway, it’s tonight, Thursday, June 2, 6-8:30 pm. Hope to see you all there!