Afrodisiac

Why have I never heard of this comic before? It's about as close to perfect as you can get...

The Incredible Endorser

I want to endorse two fantastic hardcovers/ trades, coincidentally the last two I purchased; Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr.'s Eternals miniseries and Christopher Moeller's JLA A League of One. Eternals follows a small collection of characters out of an immortal,
superpowered society who have lost their memory thanks to a sort of wicked Peter Pan, possibly annihalating the solar system simply so he doesn't have to be forever 11 years old. Knowing the plot doesn't take away from the frenzied page turning Gaiman's dialouge inspires. It feels so stripped down, instead of a hundred Eternals, hundreds of Deviants and scads of Celestials, you get a few of column A, 2 of column B (until the last bit), and 1 of column C. Somehow everything feels more important because of this. Romita Jr.'s art equally conveys a coffee shop encounter and a 2 pager of the Avengers meeting God, a dreaming Celestial who is so enormous he fills a sideways spread with Giant Hank Pym a tiny footnote in the corner.

JLA A League of One is a tale from the Big 7 Morrison days where a Greek oracle warns Wonder Woman the JLA will die battling a medieval dragon. She takes it on herself to put them out of commission and fight the dragon on her own. It's everything you could ask for in a JLA story-- high stakes, personal moments showing the relationships between all the characters, a unique and powerful villain, creative
use of the JLA's abilities (particularly Batman's expanding bat cape trick to escape Wonder Woman's lasso). It's also fully painted in a fairly realistic fashion, really bringing the characters to life. Moeller even makes the Dragon as realistic and they come, videotaping his dog running to use as art reference. I paid $5 on Amazon for this and feel it was a steal.

Dog Food Blues

Spidey Vs. Vulture

Some doodles from the sketchbook using Prismacolor's "Warm Grey" set. I love Prismacolors, and they must know this, because they are really damn expensive. So anywho, I've been enjoying the new Spider Man cartoon quite a bit, and the actual comic is pretty great these days as well, but I never cared much for his classic rogue's gallery as much as a lot of fans do. I grew up with the Hobgoblin, who was a great mystery threat that Spidey never definitively beat, and of course the Lizard is a cool tragic character, and Mysterio has a great look. But Electro, Doc Ock, and all the rest? Pfft. No one seemed more lame than one villain who was a flying old man, the ever-vulgar Vulture-- what a challenge for a young scientific genius with the proportional strength of a spider! What's next, a fat guy with extra arms? Anyways, I always thought it was a hoot that Peter Parker would get off kicking this old man's ass, so I drew it, making sure to include a forceful kick to the skull. Someone whould write a story where Spider Man causes a fatal heart attack in the Vulture and has to come to terms with the guilt.

Fabulous Five- World's Greatest Comic Illustrators!

The fabulous 5 of comic artists! I like a lot of artists and as I
develop my own style it's hard to determine who is actually an
influence. This list doesn't reflect my all time faves as much as
artists I find myself looking at and trying to discern what they are
doing technically and conceptually.

1. Ryan Sook-a humble man with an incredible design sense. I first
saw him doing Arkham Asylum Living Hell, then next on Seven
Soldiers-Zatanna, doing truly mind bending work along the lines of the
design work done by J.H. Williams III.2. Joshua Middleton-not terribly dissimilar from Ryan Sook, but he really stands out in his economy of line. I love that the art can be minimalist, yet could be mistaken to be very expensive animation.3. Kyle Baker- so energetic it may even be called anarchic. I aim to go wild with my drawing and art choices and Kyle most definitely does this, changing his style bit by bit with each project.4. Adam Hughes-blending art noveau and cheesecake, Adam's work deliberately appeals to our basic belief in what looks good. I think his coloring style is somewhat similar to Sook and Middleton, but I have to say when I think of Adam's work, it's not his eyepopping covers that come to mind, but his hilarious and minimalist convention sketches you find all across the internet.
5. Bret Blevins-local AZ guy! His curvy, Jack Cole-inspired style is more prominent now than when he actually did comics like New Mutants and Sleepwalker. His drawings seem so effortless, the characters feel like they are always in mid-motion rather than static poses. I chose this image out of all his stuff because I had just written an Amazon woman on a pterodactyl in one of my own stories...

Kyle Baker's Tiny Tots Toon

Kyle Baker is easily one of my favorite graphic artists, but I've never visited his site until now. Lots of cartoons on there that describe daily life with Patrick and Maggie better than I could ever put into words.
Watch Funny baby Video: Playpen in Family Videos  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
Watch The Bakers: GIANT STEP in Animation  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Grendel meets Mothman

Two more mythical monsters that I am especially proud of-- Grendel and the West Virginia Mothman. My Grendel was quite obviously influenced by the recent Zemekis Beowulf film which I enjoyed very much. I did love the Beowulf story as a child from a book of myths and legends, basically the same concept I am working with now.Since making these composites I've done several linocut stamps of monsters that I'm pleased with and now I venture into more unfamiliar terrain-- computer coloring in Corel Painter. I've owned said program for over a year, alongside a Bamboo Wacom Tablet, and done very little with either, but the few attempts at Photoshop coloring with a mouse are really pathetic. I may even try hand painting these prints but I'm giving the computer a shot to "wow" me as I've never been much of a painter, and the only paintings I've ever done that I liked were painted with a knife.

Part of what is so exciting about my myth/ monster project is I'm trying techniques I've never done too much with (photomontage) or never done before this year (linocut and computer painting). I aim to show a start-to-finish creature next post...