Today’s offerings are from an illustration I did for a feature that WIZARD MAGAZINE used to run called “LAST MAN STANDING”– in which they would speculate about theoretical battles between characters… usually from different companies… and who would be victorious. They asked me to illustrate one of these matchups between ANT MAN from MARVEL and THE ATOM from DC COMICS. I worked up three sketches for them– but I’m only showing the finish of the one they picked and the sketch for the one that -I- liked the best. The third sketch is not much to look at, and I only included it to give them more of a choice (although I REALLY had to cross my fingers that they wouldn’t pick THAT particular one– which has led me to stop sending “filler” sketches to give editors more choices. If I don’t want to finish it, I’m not going to suggest it).

So here’s the finished piece:

And here’s the sketch that I liked but WIZARD didn’t choose:

And now– I’d like to introduce a new feature that I’ll be presenting from time to time (hopefully once per week) here in my blog:

I spend a LOT OF TIME on the web. One thing that I’ve learned by spending all this time on message boards and art forums is that there is a massive WEALTH of artists out there that have their own sites who either work full time in comics, or do their own comics on the side while holding down outside jobs (mostly art related– like illustration and animation). There are so many incredilbly talented folks out there who are producing exciting work that I find so much more thrilling than the vast majority of what’s being published by the “BIG TWO”. So I’d like to highlight as many of these folks as I can for those of you that might not be familiar with their work. So, without further ado– today’s feature artist:

EVIL SPACE ROBOT is the site of artist Les McClaine. I first saw Les’s work in a book he created called HIGHWAY 13 published through SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS. His work immediately struck me as amazingly accomplished– full of life, movement and character. HIGHWAY 13 was about a young man named Rick Rogers and his werewolf sidekick Garth on a road trip through supernatural territory. It was a lot of fun– but I only saw a couple of issues. I don’t know if he ever continued the book or not– but I was thrilled when I discovered Les’s web site. He updates almost daily, and runs various strips he does– usually about 4 times a week. Some of them are kind of autobio strips, some just funny stream-of-consciousness commentary on pop culture; and one in particular called JOHNNY CROSSBONES is amazing. It’s done in Herge’s TINTIN style– which Les captures almost perfectly. There’s a ton of great content to check out– so please do. It’s a wonderful site, and Les is an amazing artist and writer.

All for now.

Mike