The other day I got an email from Dan Slott. Dan writes the delightful SHE-HULK series, as well as the new THING series at Marvel. He was writing to thank me for drawing the FLAT-MAN ACTION FIGURE page in the GREAT LAKES AVENGERS X-MAS SPECIAL that came out recently. It very nice to hear from Dan– although it was entirely unnecessary for him to thank me…. the page was a lot of fun to do. But in that email, he mentioned that we had worked together on two one-page items at this point, and that he’d like to work together on something a little longer (I’d like that as well….!). He related the OTHER thing we’d done together; another very fun little job. Several years back, I was asked to draw a nine-panel story that would be used on the back of a subset of WOLVERINE cards from Fleer. It involved LIL’ WOLVERINE trying to decide which of his many incarnations would be the best one to dress as for Halloween. It was a ton of fun to draw… and until getting that email from Dan, I’d either FORGOTTEN that he’d written it, or never knew in the first place. It was a pleasant ‘blast from the past’, and prompted me to go back and pull the only xerox copy of it I still have and offer it here. I don’t know how many have seen these cards…. so here ya go:

Anyone who is NOT reading SHE-HULK … well, you SHOULD be. It’s an amazing comic. Dan does a wonderful job of writing a truly intelligent, witty and fun book– and he also is great at mixing character development with a healthy dose of action. He keeps things moving at all times, and that’s one of the things that makes comics so interesting for me. Unlike so many of the books written today, Dan never lingers on any one scene for too long….. his characters move from place to place and that’s something that’s not only fun to READ, but it’s got to be fun to draw as well. And Juan Bobillo does a brilliant job of drawing Dan’s great, quirky stories. Do yourself a favor and buy this book. It’s one of MY favorites, and it deserves your support.

That’s it for today.

This is Entry 173.

Mike

I did this sketch quickly last night while watching a movie called THE HI-LO COUNTRY on the Independent Film Channel. I love IFC, because they’re constantly showing movies that I have never gotten a chance to see– or in the case of last night’s film, I’d never even known it existed. HI-LO is a western– but set in the WW II era. The stars of the film include Woody Harrelson, Billy Crudup, Patricia Arquette, Penelope Cruz and Sam Elliot. I’m a huge fan of the western genre, and I was very excited when I stumbled across this film. I was at first kind of disappointed when I realized it was a relatively modern-day tale…. but the incidental props like cars and 40’s-era guns didn’t change the basic tenor of the film…… it was still a pure western. I suppose I like well-done westerns (movies, novels or comics, it doesn’t matter) because the fact that these tales are set against the stark, rugged landscape of the west and shines a spotlight on the physical, emotional and spiritual struggles of the players. THE HI-LO COUNTRY is suffused with the themes of friendship, love and loyalty juxtaposed against betrayal, jealousy and greed. The movie’s got a few flaws here and there… but the acting is genuine and the story was very compelling.

There’s an italian western comic called TEX that is enormously popular throughout Europe. It’s been published continuously for some 40-plus years since its creation. I think that Europeans are fascinated with the American west because of that very open, rugged, untamed landscape that is so much a part of our history and culture. It’s possible that the new spate of western comics that are popping up here in the States will do pretty well over there– in particular the new title LOVELESS from DC/Vertigo. It’s a very dark, hard edged and immensely violent look at the immediate aftermath of the end of the Civil War. The artwork is brilliantly done by Marcello Frusin. He’s been a favorite of mine since I first saw his work. He’s a former studio mate of Eduardo Risso, and his work has that same wonderful use of heavy black that Risso’s does– but Frusin’s drawing is much more naturalistic… less stylized. If you’re at all into the western genre, you should check it out.

Artwork from issue #3 of FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN is now up in my section on the MOTHCOMIX web site. Just follow the SALES links at the top of the page to see the items up for sale. And the double-page spread from the end of the issue with IRON MAN carrying Peter’s dead body is up on eBay now.

UDATE: Today Marvel released the solicitation copy and cover images for the March titles…. so I thought I’d post the cover image to FRIENDLY #6 here:

That it today.

This is Entry 172.

Mike

Anyone who has seen the first couple of issues of TELLOS– and in particular, the DYNAMIC FORCES variant cover to the first issue– knows that the SERRA character is showing a TON of…. cleavage. In fact, she’s wearing a top that is totally unbuttoned (or unclasped) and tied at the waist. She’s barely covering herself with that look in those first couple of issues. I don’t know what I was thinking at the time– but what I was probably trying to do was to appeal to the part of the market that loves their comic book women wearing as little as possible. It was more than likely an attempt to give SERRA that ‘bad girl’ scantily-clad look that so many adolescent (and full adult, it seems) male readers like. Pandering, is what it was– pure and simple. But something happened that made me change SERRA’S ‘look’ as soon as I was able. Todd and I attended a show (I can’t remember which one it is after all this time) after the first issue or two had shipped. The book was coming out bi-monthly, and so I was just starting issue 3 when we went to that first show after TELLOS started coming out. Instead of the expected wave of young men drooling over SERRA’S frontage (although there were many of THEM), I was seeing lots of parents bringing their daughters and/or sons up to our table to tell Todd and me how much they AND their children loved TELLOS. Over and over I heard how happy they were that there was a comic out there that they could read together; something that was fun and exciting that they could enjoy as parents, but their kids could enjoy as well. I kept expecting SOMEONE to add “….But it would be even better if the SERRA character wasn’t showing so much cleavage….!” But that never came.

And yet, seeing all those smiling parents and their beaming kids, that cleavage was all I could think about. I felt personally mortified that I had clothed SERRA in so little and that there were so many kids seeing her like that. I started to feel as though I’d done the character — and all these families who were reading about her–an injustice. And so at the first opportunity– which just happened to come in that third issue I was still working on– I worked in a clothing change for SERRA. I gave her a frilly collar that went all the way up to the top of her neck, emanating from a vest that covered her up nicely. To be honest, I loved the new look immediately. And I’d like to think that if SERRA could speak to me, she’d thank me for giving her an outfit that was, frankly, more sensible for the pirate captain on the go, fighting for her life and her world.

Today’s sketch is another design for her. I’ve been, as I said in a previous post, been thinking about the characters a lot lately… and I wanted to play with SERRA’S look again.

In a sensible way, of course.

This is entry 171.

Mike

These are the third and fourth pages of the unused art for the MARVEL/UNIVERSAL ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE FANTASTIC FOUR portion of the comic book. Someone in the comments section of the previous post remarked that these pages/layouts seem quite a bit more cartoony than my present work and asked if that was a conscious decision on my part. Actually, no…. the simple fact is that my work during this time had become very cartoony all on its own without me even thinking about it. I was working on, I think, SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN at the time… and I was entering a very cartoony and animated phase for my work during that period. Looking at the energy and fun of these pages, it makes me feel as though I wish I were STILL in that mode. I don’t know what’s caused me to move away from this type of drawing. Maybe I’ll play with something like this in future work on FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN. We’ll see.

I recently did a phone interview with John Siuntres for his terrific podcast interview site WORDBALLONS.COM. John’s a radio sportscaster who’s done work for CBS, FOX SPORTS and ESPN. He’s also a huge comic book fan– and he’s very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about that subject. It was a blast doing the interview with John, so if you’re so inclined, and enjoy listening to podcasts, go check out the interview. He’s also got an amazing array of other discussions with loads of great comic book luminaries. You can spend hours listening to them (as I have….!).

OK… that’s it for today.

This is Entry 170.

Mike

Many years back, well before I ever would have even IMAGINED that I’d ever get the opportunity to work on the ACTUAL FANTASTIC FOUR monthly comic, I worked on a short FF story for a comic book produced by Marvel for their UNIVERSAL ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE park in Florida. The script was initially written around a science fair held in Central Park in New York City. If I remember correctly, the participants of the fair came under the mind control of DOCTOR DOOM, and were used to attack the FF. After I’d penciled all the pages and Richard Case (former studio mate) inked them, the editors of the comic decided that the story needed to be modified to make it more DOOM-centric. And so I was asked to redraw the original first 4 pages with a re-written beginning. I don’t know how many folks have ever seen the published comic book, but I thought it would be fun to post the original 4 pages of layouts here over the next couple of posts. So here are the layouts for pages 1 and 2. I’ll post pages 3 and 4 in the next post (probably Friday).

This is Entry 169.

Mike