Over at SHANE GLINES’s DRAWING BOARD forum there’s a new “jam thread” with a different subject matter in the SUPERHERO forum each month– this month’s theme is LITERARY CHARACTERS. Brings to mind Alan Moore’s LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. There’s always many wonderful contributions to each subject– and I thought I’d use this month’s theme to springboard off of for a fun sketch for today. I chose Cervantes’ tragicomic hero DON QUIXOTE. He’s fun ’cause he’s MAD, I TELL’S YA…! So, here’s the sketch….

I’ve been using Blue SANFORD COLERASE pencils for years to do my sketches and layouts. I’ll lay out my figures and perspective, props, etc. roughly and (hopefully) lightly with the blue pencil, and then tighten it all up with graphite before enlarging the sketch or layout to transfer onto the art board using my light box. It’s become a crutch for me– I could just as easily just do it all in graphite, but I’ve become so used to using the blue pencil that I can’t stop. It’s like an athelete’s superstitious rituals. The particular blue pencil I’m using now is so short that I can barely hold it. I can’t even remember when I started using it, it’s been so long. But I’ve had so many successful sketches and layouts with it, that I’m feeling “superstitiously” reluctant to start using a new one. It’s really weird how I feel about this pencil… I know I’m going to have to replace it eventually…. Sigh.

OK– see you tomorrow.

Mike

Just a quick in and out today. I’m finishing up FF #519 today– and I’ve still got so much to do before I leave for the BALTIMORE COMICON on Thursday. So I’ll just leave you with this for now….

See you tomorrow.

Mike

I found today’s sketches hiding in a binder full of developmental sketches for various projects– some that happened, some that didn’t. You’ll recall from my last post my story about Todd Dezago and myself almost taking over as creative team on THE HULK ongoing book when Peter David was removed as regular writer several years back. Well, the sketches I found today are some studies/warm-ups for that very run that never happened. Keep that in mind when looking at them… ;). They’re just feeling-out kind of sketches and my final version would have looked a bit different. But I was, I think, much more willing to take chances with my anatomy and exaggerations/distortions of expression and figure work. I’ve become a lot more “conservative” in my work in the years since this time, it seems to me.

I hope you all have a great LABOR DAY. I’ll be spending mine… well, laboring.

Mike

I came across this particular drawing (it’s actually a COPY of the drawing– I think I gave the original to my bud Todd Dezago)– and it was a funny (NOW) reminder of a very strange situation that I was a part of years back. I’ve stated a few times in the past here that during MARVEL’s time in the midst of bankruptcy… somewhere around 1997 or so (I think), things were very unsettled for me. I was at that time kind of like a sailboat in a sea squall…. tossed from side to side as things happened around me that were completely out of my control. One such situation was one involving the HULK ongoing comic book. THEN MARVEL Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras made an odd arbitrary decision to remove Peter David as writer from THE HULK. Why he decided on this, I still don’t know. Only he and Peter really know– but at that time of real turmoil at MARVEL, Harras was making (or in some cases NOT making) a lot of really odd and bad calls, and this one was a real peach.

They had just cancelled SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN, and Todd and I were wondering about our next assignment. Harras decided it would be THE HULK and foisted us on the book’s editor, Bobbie Chase. Todd and I were really sort of terrified about the whole thing– because we knew that Peter David was a very popular writer and that his HULK run was a fan favorite. Hell, -I- had been buying his work on HULK from his first issue and loved it, so I was ONE of those fans. We both felt that WHOEVER followed Peter on the book would be roundly vilified by Peter’s fans. And personally, I felt my own work was rather inaproppriate for the title. All my discussions with Todd at the time were in this realm– and not much about what we actually wanted to do creatively on THE HULK. We both felt like pawns in a situation we really didn’t like. Something happened along the way in Todd’s discussions with Bobbie Chase, and he was eventually removed as the “new writer”. I quit as well, citing a lack of real interest (but it was more in support of Todd and our reticence to get thrown into this hornet’s nest). I DID do this drawing as a way of trying to pump up Todd’s enthusiasm (and my OWN). I guess in the end, it really didn’t work.

But it WAS an interesting time.

Mike

The Southeastern U.S. is really getting soaked this summer. It’s been so rainy here that when the sun shines, it’s becoming a rare occurance. We haven’t had a solid 2 hours of sun shining through all the clouds in weeks. And the ground feels like a sponge when you walk on it. But in all honesty, as crappy as the weather has been here– we’ve been incredibly lucky. We’ve “dodged the bullet” on a couple of hurricanes– and as far as rain goes, we haven’t had it NEARLY as bad as some places. Like, for instance, Richmond VA., where my brother lives. They just got over 12 inches of rain in less than 10 hours from Tropical Depression GASTON– and my bro sent me this link of news of the horrible damage. You can even see some video of the flood– you’ll need REAL PLAYER to watch it. It’s amazing what terrible things Mother Nature can do in such a short time.

And now Hurricane FRANCES seems to be headed for Florida, and they’re STILL cleaning up from Hurricane CHARLEY. I tell ya, there’s no let up in this crap. I feel horrible for the folks down there.

Mike