Frank Cho’s got a brand new message board. I’ve long been a huge fan of Frank’s work– and in recent years I’ve become friends with him as well… so I love to visit his board and interact with Frank and the people there. Recently, Frank asked folks to post some images of the Marvel SENTRY character’s most recent costume for some new big, secret project he’s got in the works at the ‘Big M’. I’m also a HUUUUUUUUGE fan of Art Adams (who isn’t…?)– and I love it when he does the illustrations he does where he turns various superheroes into gorilla versions. He’s done it for both Marvel and DC… as well as some commissions, I believe. I also know that Frank’s a huge gorilla and monkey fan (he has the nickname MONKEYBOY, after all….) so I thought it would be fun to draw the SENTRY character as a gorilla and post it in his thread calling for images of the costume.

It was fun to do– and I hope that Frank and the folks at his forum get a kick out of it.

OK– that’s it for another week… have a great weekend, folks.

This is Entry 226.

Mike

I apologize for not posting sooner. This morning, a crew from the local power and cable companies came by to change out the pole outside my house. They’ve been working on changing out the poles in my neighborhood for the past week or so. The old poles were getting very frail and old looking– very grey and weathered, so they’ve been replacing them with new strong poles. I suppose it’s in anticipation of any hurricanes that might come through this season– and in the future. This morning it was my turn. They told me the power would be out for several hours– so I left to go run some errands. I just got back home, and the power’s back. So here’s today’s post… a bit behind schedule.

Today’s ‘blast from the past’ is a FLASH bookmark that I did for the WIZARD MAGAZINE folks years back. There was a time when they could call me at any point and tell me that they had some sort of contest going on in their magazine, and they’d ask if I’d draw something to donate as a prize for whatever contest they had me in mind for. I would always agree– and draw something for FREE for them to give away. I did many such pieces for them over the years– but that all ended when I solicited them to give my buddy Todd Dezago and I a bit of publicity for our TELLOS comic when we were planning on debuting it back in 1999. They declined. As it turns out, the WIZARD guys only want what they can get from the creative community to serve their OWN needs and aren’t interested in any kind of reciprocation. Unless, that is, that creative person is someone on the level of a Jim Lee, Frank Miller, J. Scott Campbell, Michael Turner or any of the ‘upper level superstars’ in the business. But that, too, is ultimately just to sell more copies for WIZARD. That was a bitter pill to swallow for someone who thought that give-and-take and reciprocal treatment is a good thing as I did. I learned my lesson, however– and I won’t do anything for WIZARD unless they pay for it anymore– and even then, rarely, since their rates for illustrations are rather pathetic compared to other magazines I’ve done work for.

Anyway— enough bile. It doesn’t feel good to rant about past ‘slights’– and that’s not what I intended today’s post to be about. Just trying to show off some stuff that might not have been seen before.

This is Entry 225.

Mike

Every once in a while, I like to go through a big binder full of copies of stuff I’ve done through the years. It’s kind of fun to look back and see how my work has changed over my time working in the comics biz. And it’s also neat to refresh my memory on some of the more obscure and odd things I’ve done through that time. Today’s post deals with one of those oddball items. Years back– I can’t remember the exact year, but I’m guessing it was in the late 90’s– I was asked to draw a prize for a contest Marvel had held. I don’t know how Marvel got the word out about this contest. It could have been in a magazine or through their own comics (if that’s the case, I must not have been paying much attention to the ads in their books, because I never saw it)– or it COULD have been an online contest– although I doubt it, since the internet wasn’t as huge as it is no, at least as an entertainment medium…. but I could be wrong. The contest was for kids to design a bad guy that could take on SPIDER-MAN– and the contest winner would win a drawing of their villain (with SPIDER-MAN in there somewhere) done by a SPIDEY artist. I was chosen to be that artist. I think that the piece was digitally colored, and the original B&W and the colored image were framed together and presented to the winner in the Marvel offices. I seem to remember seeing a photo from the presentation of the prize to an excited and very happy looking kid. It was fun to take a kid’s drawing and turn it into something that looked like it could end up in a Marvel comic.

Thinking about it makes me realize that young kid must be a young ADULT by now.

This is Entry 224.

Mike

Tomorrow is May 6th– FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. Last year, I took part in FCBD at HEROES AREN’T HARD TO FIND in Charlotte, NC. I had a fantastic time meeting excited and enthusiastic fans. I think that FCBD is a very worthwhile endeavor and I support the industry’s program to make more folks aware of comics and to promote them as the wonderful entertainment medium that they are. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it to this year’s FCBD anywhere….. I’m under too much deadline pressure and have to work tomorrow. But I hope that everyone goes out and enjoys the day at your local comic shop. There’s a lot of wonderful stuff being offered this year. Go check it out and enjoy the festivities.

This is Entry 223.

Mike

I often write about some of the wonderful artists I’ve come across in my travels through the internets. One of those artists, who’s work I first saw on DRAWINGBOARD.ORG (see last post for a link) is Dean Trippe. Dean has a wonderfully open and inviting style and it connected with me immediately. His level of craft and ability is incredibly impressive… and there’s an authority to his simple line work that’s really striking. Dean does a very delightful strip on his site called BUTTERFLY . It involves the adventures of the young sidekick OF a sidekick. It’s a sweet and funny take on the superhero genre. Recently, Dean started a contest calling for entries for alternate universe versions of young BUTTERFLY. He’s going to be doing a story arc that involves several of these various alternate versions making their way into BUTTERFLY’S world. Being a fan of Deans, as well as a HUGE fan of the strip– I thought I’d take a shot at coming up with something to submit to him. I’m not sure how successful it is— but it was fun to do, and I think she turned out to at least be pretty cute.

Go check out Deans site– and read the archives of his BUTTERLY strip. It’s really wonderful, and I’m sure you’ll fall in love with it as I have.

This is Entry 222.

Mike