Finito!

I have turned in the final page forWe, The People, my new graphic novel from Outlaw Entertainment, and I couldn't be happier. Feels like I've been working on this forever--my first book juggling all my work plus taking care of an infant. It was great fun, though and I can't wait to see the final printed book, which is due out in August, but will premiere at San Diego Comic Con in late July. (Diamond order code is JUN09 1047, so preorder today!) It's some of Jason Burns' best work, in my opinion (biased as I may be)--he's back into his 'Expendable One' style of humor.

The book will have backup material, which will include character designs/sketches, so I worked these up since they are the team's final costumes.



Next up for me is my own super hero book, a short story with one of my favorite writers, plus a pitch with an up and coming writer that I think has a helluva story concept for a book. I can't wait to jump in on that one.

For now, a vacation! :-)

Scott Pilgrim

Sorry for the lack of updates! I've been real busy here, wrapping up We, The People, commissions and getting apps in on the iphone app store. I'm nearing the end of the new GN, and it feels really good. I've gotten some great feedback from writers and editors in the industry I admire, and I hope everyone else enjoys the book too! But, I digress..

It's good to try and decompress between drawing sequential pages and whatnot by doing some personal art. I usually end up doing X-men or video game character sketches, but today I decided to do something different. If you haven't heard of Scott Pilgrim, you probably haven't been reading comics lately! It's a series of books published by Oni Press by Bryan Lee O'Malley, and they've taken the independent comics scene by storm. I've read volume one so far (they're hard to find!) and it was good stuff. Anyway, here's my interpretation of the lead character in my style:

Mr. Sulu

I frequent the Brian Bendis messageboard over at Jinxworld often. One thing I like is there is a weekly sketch thread with a different theme each week. My Cloud Strife pic was for one such thread. This week's theme was the original Star Trek--any crew member from the series. I chose Mr. Sulu, as I remember most the episode where he went bonkers and ran around the Enterprise shirtless, brandishing a sword. Real quick colors on this--all in all about an hour's work on the piece as a whole.

DC Trinity

My buddy Mike Williams is always getting on to me to draw more DC comics characters. well, after burning through 11 pages in 9 days of We, the People, i figured i needed a little break.

so here's my take on DC's 'trinity' of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman. I've drawn two Superman commissions in the past few months and taken a liking to drawing him, and Batman's always fun to draw. Never drawn Wonder Woman, so next time I take a breather between pages, I may do a solo shot of her.

cintiq & cs3

Dodge's Bullets

A little blast from the past today! I love seeing an artist's process, from the initial roughs to the final product. I figured I'd show a glimpse into my process!

Last year I had the opportunity to collaborate with one of my favorite writers, Jay Faerber. Jay is the writer of Noble Causes, Dynamo 5, Gemini and more. He had a graphic novel come out a few years ago entitled Dodge's Bullets about a musician who moonlights as a detective. Jay thought revisiting this story would be the perfect fit for a collaboration. So we set about doing a short 5-page backup story (that later morphed into 6 pages).

Here's a look at some of the pages, from the initial thumbnails, to digital inks, to colors (beautifully done by Paul Little).

Page 1 My roughs for this project were a little more defined than I usually do, but I wanted really put my all into this gig. Jay suggested a different angle for the bottom panel that I think worked better--in keeping with the 'left to right' rule of comics.







Page 2 Again, the bottom panel was changed--but this was just a simple flip this time. And the top panel went through a couple of revisions as well.







All in all, the collaboration was a blast, and Jay and I have talked about doing another project together. We just have to align our schedules first (not an easy task in the comics biz!) You can find the Dodge's Bullets short in Dynamo 5 #18.

Talia

Here's a peek into my character design process. This is Talia, one of the leads of my new book from Outlaw Entertainment, entitled We, The People. She's an archer/Robin Hood-type, so the writer and editors wanted her look to be a throwback to that classic style, but at the same time, she had to be very sexy.

So, first off I wanted to get some ideas down for her costume. my first run through was real basic.


I didn't feel that look really had a lot of 'pop' so I tried some more designs, along with color notes:



Finally, we all chose a design, and finalized her look for the book. This shot here is more of a general guide for her body type and for the colorist to get the basic tones.


Colorist Giuseppe Pica adds a lot of depth and really brings her look to life in the book itself:

Cloud Strife

here's a recent sketch i did of Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII. All digital.