Tuesday 28 June 2011

Page 58 pencils





Here's the pencils to page 58. Looks like Pearl has a trick, not up her sleeve but in her scabbard. Stay tuned.

Saturday 25 June 2011

Alex Toth

Today would have been Alex Toth's 83rd birthday. He was born on June 25th, 1928 in New York City and died May 22, 2006. His talent was evident very early and he began his professional career while still in his teens but never achieved a wide following in fandom despite being a favorite of many of his peers. As well as drawing comics he also worked in advertising and animation doing storyboards and designing characters such as Space Ghost. His strong drawing skills and clear and clever storytelling abilities gave him the reputation as an artist's artist but this may have rankled him somewhat as he developed a reputation for being cantankerous as he watched lesser but flashier illustrators get more recognition for their work. I myself passed over him when I was younger but as I matured, sought out his work wherever I could find it before finally getting to meet him and purchase the page you see above.

Friday 24 June 2011

Superman





June marks the month Superman made his debut back in 1938 in Action Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and Toronto born artist Joe Shuster, Superman became the template that helped launch an entire industry. He's gone through numerous changes over the years and now comes word that DC Comics is once again starting over the series starting at Number One.

Monday 20 June 2011

Code Name:Pearl page 57

This page took entirely too long but that happens sometimes. It all started with not knowing exactly what I was going to do with the layout. The rest of the chapter is a lot clearer.

Thursday 16 June 2011

Drama, Drama #3

Drama, Drama #3 is now available. It collects chapters five and six of Code Name:Pearl and the final two chapters of Honey. Sixteen pages color and sixteen pages black and white. A bargain at $4.50.

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Hugo Pratt's 84th

Today would have been Hugo Pratt's 84th birthday. He was born June 15th 1927 in Rimini, Italy and died August 20, 1995. An early follower of the Milton Caniff school of comic book art he eventually established his own style and in turn influenced others such as American Frank Miller. He was always drawn to stories with a historical background and his most popular creation was the seafaring Corto Maltese, a long running series that took place in the early 20th century.
Above is a page from his book "Aveno Un Appuntamento", a reminiscence of his travels to the Pacific using text, maps and illustrations. (Copyright 1994 Edizioni Socrates)

Sunday 12 June 2011

Happy Birthday Neal Adams

June is a big month for birthdays and we start with Neal Adams. Born June 12, 1941 in New York City, Neal is arguably the most influential artist to come out of the Silver Age of comics. With his background in advertising and a four year stint on the Ben Casey newspaper strip, (the above is from May 4th 1966) he brought a high level of realism and dynamic emotion to DC Comics in the sixties. He soon became the go to guy for cover art and his re-imagining of Batman was universally lauded.
In the seventies he became a driving force in championing artist rights and eventually created his own short-lived line of books in the 80s. Since the 1990s his work has appeared sporadically as he concentrated on commercial work but last year he returned to Batman for a short run and this September will be working on The New Avengers for Marvel. Happy 70th Neal.

Thursday 9 June 2011

Concept Illustration





This is a concept drawing for a proposed animated TV show I did for a company in New Jersey. I'll let you know if I hear it's been successful or not.

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Page 57 roughs Part 3





Ok, here's the finished layout for page 57. Just have to finish penciling, inking and coloring it and it'll be done. Stay tuned to see if Pearl can deal with the crazy Colonel and get out of the volcano before her GEM Squad friends blow up the rocket.

Saturday 4 June 2011

Page 57 roughs Part 2





Buried somewhere in the rough layout from the last posting was the genesis of this image. I ran into a problem though when I got carried away trying to make it exciting and ended up making Colonel V in the foreground about seven feet tall. She's only supposed to be about 5'3". I'll update soon with the rest of the page layout.

Thursday 2 June 2011

Page 57 roughs

Sometimes a layout for a page is fully formed in the mind and it is just a matter of executing it. Other times not so much. This is one of those times. Stay tuned to see how it all turns out.