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

The “DEADLINE DOOM” is really upon me now– so today’s sketch, and probably for the rest of the week, will be without much commentary. This is something I was working on for a possible eBay auction some time ago, but never got around to following through with. SERRA from TELLOS– being just a bit risque’.

More tomorrow.

Mike

I was talking with my buddy Jamar Nicholas the other day and he was telling me that he has a sketchbook that he’s having filled by various artist buddies– and the subject matter is a “big girl” or “chunky” version of WONDER WOMAN. I was working on a warm up sketch at the same time that had started out with an old man with a startled/bemused look on his face. After talking with Jamar, and getting a big laugh out of thinking about all the big ol’ WW sketches he’d be getting, I thought I’d add one into the warm up for the old man to be gawking at.

I’ve made it pretty clear that I’m a huge fan of the pet community. There’s nothing greater than having a companion animal living with you– always willing to offer their love unconditionally. Well– with cats, maybe not ALWAYS. It’s mostly on their terms, but they have ways of letting you know that they love you without always being overt about it. Anyway, I’m always doing GOOGLE searches for sites with pictures of cute pets to look at, and I found a fun one this morning. Check this site out— it’s chock full of cute and cuddly looking animals. Some of the pictures are funny– but they’re ALL wonderful.

See you tomorrow.

Mike

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