This is progress?

From Gay League

"Joe Quesada still says no ongoing solo series starring gay or lesbian characters at Marvel Comics without a MAX or 'explicit content' label."

He then goes on to say that his own decision is ridiculous, but explains it by bringing up the old CCA scare tactics from the 50's, as if he thinks that actually still applies. They've already abandoned the code and, let's be honest, they've stopped marketing to kids years ago(just like video games, the average consumer is between 17-30 years of age). Granted the recent coming out of DC and Marvel characters en masse seems forced and gimmicky, but at least that would have led to some sincere diversity down the road. Being gay makes you explicit? When there's plenty of hetero sex flinging about in a lot of their books, especially the entire Ultimate universe? Well at least I'm not interested in any of their books anyway, barring a select few. I love Nextwave, Joe Casey's Fantastic Four, and Ennis' MAX Punisher is still going strong.

But still, how sad.

Exhaustion

Oh sweet, holy krishna I'm tired. It's 5:38 in the morning. I just finished formatting and sending, one-at-a-time each page of Invader to my friend Jaz who wants to color it. I'm using a site called yousendit.com, which specializes in large file transfer. But it only does one at a time, no multiple file sends or folders. That took forfuckingever. I am now going to bed, and will most likely rise around 1.

Another scrapped project

When I went to the Comic Con International in San Diego in 2004, I came back with a job! I had met an editer named Allan Freeman, who had done some pro stuff in his time, but has since been publishing small press comics. Incredibly nice guy, a professional all the way. He liked my stuff and wanted to connect me with one of his writers to work on something. It was a comic series called Solitaire and it was about a young black women who uses witchcraft to fight evil. Basically, think Witchblade but she's black. The script I got was very sparse, with no character descriptions, and impossible panel breakdowns. I tried not to dwell on it and began designing the main character. Simple enough, but it led to big problems between me and the writer. Here now, is a brief insight into the evolution of a comic book character...


One of the first designs. I thought she'd look kinda normal. The goggles I liked, but told them I understand if they didn't want it. It turns out they wanted something more super. Allan liked it, but only as an everyday outfit. He wanted me to jazz it up some. The writer didn't like it at all, and when we talked over the phone all he kept saying was, "Have you seen Witchblade? Yeah, like that. Make her really sexy." So, I let loose...



This was one of the new designs. My favorite one actually. I indulged the idea of her being sexy and scantilly clad, but wanted to give her more of a punk edge. This would show a bit more confidence in her, that she was more comfortable with her body. Even to the point of being kind of rude with it, like with the crotchless jeans. She'd also have magical relics and charms strapped all around her, to give her more of an urban shaman look. I also think it's an original angle to take, being that you don't see many punkish black girls in comics. But the writer hated it. He again told me to draw her just like Witchblade, so finally I obliged...


So here's the big splash I did for them, which Allan absolutely loved, but the writer still didn't like it! He then actually emailed me pictures of Michael Turner's Witchblade artwork and in bold capital letters typed LIKE THIS! I got so frustrated with this guy, after a few more weeks of redesigns I quit. It turns out it wasn't my ideas he disliked. He just wanted me to draw like Michael Turner, and I wasn't prepared to completely imitate someone else. It was bad enough I was drawing some crappy Top Cow reject. I hate Top Cow. But if it got me published, I was willing, but only if it was my artwork. I hated quitting, especially since Allan was such a gentleman, but the writer and I weren't a good match, and that's putting it lightly.

Here are some of the other designs I came up with...

Duncan. Main supporting character. Everyman, but part of a secret society(*shrugs*) thats watching Solitaire. For some reason.

Darius, a vampire. I came up with the idea of him being stark white, to the point where his hair wouldn't even show detail. He'd be dressed in a sort of masonic uniform and carry this awesome sci fi staff that shot out energy 'n junk(an idea that my writer actually liked!). I still like the idea of an albino masonic vampire, and might use it later if the opportunity arises.

These are the unfinished pencils of page 1, which I was working on when I quit.

Purging more old stuff

This was my very first piece of consignment. It was for a friend, but I still considered it a job. It's a portrait of Matt Helm, otherwise known as the American James Bond, and immortalized by Dean Martin's goofy ass.



This is what I was hired to do for the same friend a couple months after. It is going to be the cover to his book, if he ever gets it finished. All he said is, "I want hands holding up a gun. The gun has blood on it's tip, like it was used to stab someone. It should resemble hands praying. And he MUST be wearing a Rolex." I've always liked this one, even though when other people see it, they all have questions about the blood.


A logo I designed for a coworker. She planned on opening a high end sex/bondage shop called Gagball Mary's. Get it? She asked for a logo without any other input, and this is what came out.



This is an illustration for a magazine article that a friend wrote entitled, "The Night Sam Peckinpah Almost Got Me Killed." The article was never published, but then again, neither was the magazine.



Another illustration for said defunct zine. The article was about how Michael Eisner was crushing Disney by shutting down their handrawn animation department. To this day, I still like to think that Eisner has an actual gotti four finger ring with his name on it, that he wears alone at home while watching BET.

Bored.

I have to leave for work in 45 minutes. Doesn't leave me much time to draw, so here's another Invader page instead. Hopefully this one will make it seem a bit more accesible. It's not all hallucinogenic trips and surfing through multi-dimensional weirdness. It DOES actually take place in 'normal land'. In fact, the first issue may well be the most absract. Anyway, page 20:

Another page from Invader

One Nation

This was a comic I worked on before Invader. It was a superhero book about a teenage kid(that had a monkey tale and can warp reality) who's better looking, superhero brother got all the credit. He would've eventually met up with a group of apolitical superfolks trying to escape mandatory governmental registration, like what's going on now in Civil War. A lot of people that know me will be familiar with this.

It was written by another friend, who decided to quit the whole project so it was never finished. This is the first sequential work I had ever done. Here are the first two pages of issue 1, as well as some pinups & character designs...

A pinup of the main character, Surreal.

Jack

Equinox

Oldies

I feel like putting up some of my older work here. There are a couple reasons for this. Some of it I still really like, while some I think is utter trash. I also want to fill this thing with purty images, to solidifiy a little more as an art blog. But mostly I want to get it allout of my system, so that I have nothing to fall back on. After the next couple of posts, I'll have nothing else to put up here, therefore adding tomy motivation to work faster. Starting off, here are some single pieces I did for myself. They're either for fun or study, but no sequential work...

Ah, my love of monochrome

Honestly I don't know where this came from, or what it means.

This is one my favorite peices. It started off as an anatomy study and eventually took control of itself.


That's it for now.

The femmelord of comics

Last night, as I was cashiering at the ol' bookstore, Gail Simone walks up to buy some books. She probably has to be the most well known women in mainstream comics, and she was incredibly nice. And I came very close to giving her the old, "Hey, I draw comics! Can I shamelessly hock my work on you?" But I didn't, and now I think I should have, to at least have given her one of my ashcans which I had in the back. Would it have done any good?

Well, I'll always be able to peddle my sweet ass the next time Brian Michael Bendis comes in.

My first published work

I did an ink assist job for Dan Cooney, creator of an indie book called Valentine. It was for issue 11, which is now available at his site, redeyepress.net. I inked about ten of the pages (all except for the main character on each page, as Dan was kinda testing the waters with me) and you can read the whole issue in pdf format by clicking the preview link. Even though it was just an inking job, it still feels great that something I worked on has been published. BTW, the ish won't make it to comic stores for another 2 months, but my free copies are in the mail!

From the top

My name is Ian McEwan. Not the same Ian McEwan that writes critically acclaimed novels. I am an aspiring comic book artist, and this is the beginning of my work blog. *yawn* BORING! Alright, I'll start this thing with some actual content. I'm illustrating an independent comic entitled "Invader", written by my comrade Andy West. I am without Andy's proposal or ad copy, so I'll wing it as far as a premise goes.

PREMISE: A mysterious alien lands on earth. A cosmic being, driven by will, who desires to experience what the human race is all about. It begins with him landing in the desert, and coming into contact with a manifestation of earth deities(after ingesting enough peyote to cause even Terence McKenna to wince), who introduce him to this planets underlying principles, and instruct him to help the world on it's evolutionary path. That's an over complicated way of saying he has one hell of an insightful trip. After this "information download", he's off on his merry way to go and fix reality as we know it. Eventually he gets entangled with some rather unenlightened G-men, and any number of weird technologies they've been hiding from the public(que action scenes!), continues his path of cosmic shenanigans(spooky, spooky mojo mischief!), and hopefully manages to turn this place into the utopia that it needs to be. An ongoing series of at least 40+ issues, full color, with no publication deal as-yet. Which means if you likey, and are associated with any publishing companies, let us know.

Here are the first 15 pages of issue 1. They're black and white, and as the coloring isn't there, the line art may seem a little sparse for those of you who aren't used to seeing pre-colored comics pages...