A couple of years ago, I spent some time doing these little blue and graphite pencil sketches and selling them on eBay to make a few extra bucks. It was fun to draw characters that I’d never had the opportunity to work with before– and to have the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. It didn’t really matter whether they sold or not, I was just having fun with them. This BLACK CANARY piece is one of the sketches I did to sell– and I made a scan of it to keep for “posterity” (or my own ego, I guess. Actually, with the wonders of modern technology, I can now keep nice clean scans of all my work and save them digitally to remember them by long after the original artwork is gone. I love our modern times).

I have a friend named John Cogan who lives in California, who when he saw this piece on eBay asked me to do a fuly realized, inked re-creation of it. John had sent me some amazing pencil copies of a David Williams LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT story that will most likely never see print, as well as a GEN 13 cover (original art…!) that is just stunning. I’ve always been a huge fan of David’s work, and John knows this. So, he asked for the BLACK CANARY re-creation in exchange. I’m still going to do it, John…. I promise. It’s just hard to get to side stuff when I’m so caught up with my monthly “chores”.

But I’ll get it done….!

Mike

I have, I think, a metric ton of layouts, sketches and character designs in my filing cabinets in my studio. Lately, I’ve been going through them to find some old stuff that maybe no one’s ever seen. I’ve actually been finding more stuff than I thought I would– more stuff than I remember doing until I come across some obscure sketch that refreshes my memory. Today’s sketch is one such animal.

A few years back, I was contacted by someone in Spain (I don’t remember the person’s name) about a BONE tribute book that they were putting together for a visit that Jeff Smith was making to a comic festival over there. They were asking for contributions to the book from various artists– and frankly, I was honored that they asked me, since I’ve been a HUGE BONE fan from way back. So, I worked up a piece and mailed it off to the address I was told to send it to. Unfortunately, I never heard whether the piece ever got there– nor, needless to say, did I recieve a copy of the tribute book. Oh, well– it was fun to do anyway. So, here’s the sketch/layout I did for the piece.

Jeff Smith just ended his marvelous BONE saga with issue #55 recently. It was really a sad day for me personally. I have been reading BONE faithfully since I first stumbled on the book (issue #4, I think) over a decade ago– and it’s always been a book that I look forward to. I never lost my love for the characters, even when Smith got distracted by Hollywood and fell behind, or hurt his hand and fell behind…. or any of the things that caused delays in his publication schedule. BONE was the kind of comic I would have waited any amount of time for– I just loved it….. well, still do. That’s the beauty of comic books– you can always go back and read them again, reliving all the great moments.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Smith does on SHAZAM (the REAL CAPTAIN MARVEL).

Mike

Some time ago, there was a thread on THE DRAWING BOARD— a wonderful community of pro and novice artists hosted by the uber-talented SHANE GLINES– that focused on Jack Kirby characters. I drew this HIGHFATHER sketch from Kirby’s wonderful FOURTH WORLD series as my contribution, but for some reason, I never posted it to the board. I’ve been in a Kirby frame of mind recently, so I thought I’d post it here and now… so here goes.

Of course, it doesn’t come anywhere NEAR the majesty and sense of power that Jack Kirby infused all his work with, but then there’s really very few artists out there that will ever come close to THE KING in ANY catagory… so we can all only try our best and awkwardly fumble with the wonderful characters he created in our vain little strained attempts to brush up against just a bit of the glory he left us with.

I was THRILLED to see that there’s a JACK KIRBY APPRECIATION THREAD over at Joe Quesada’s message board. It’s full of wonderful scans of just an IOTA of the incredible body of work that Kirby produced in his career– but it’s some great stuff. It’s heartwarming to see that in a time when so much of the present comics readership doesn’t even know who Jack Kiry IS that there are still some who appreciate what he contributed to the comics industry. Hell– there wouldn’t even BE a Marvel Comics without Kirby.

Do yourself a favor go to the JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR section of TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING and see the wonderful selection of issues and Collected Editions of the JKC they have offered. They’re all there– and between each amazing cover is a look into the history of Jack Kirby, his life, his work– and literally TONS of pages of classic, rare, and never before seen drawings by the King. I’ve been buying the Collected Editions as they’ve been available, and it’s thrilling to have them and to be able to pull them from my bookshelf any time I want to look at this man’s amazing legacy (which is quite often). You really get a sense of how prolific Kirby was from this magazine. I’m stunned at just how much material he produced and just how many fantastic concepts he created in his time. There will never be another creator like Jack Kirby.

I’m just so glad he gave us the wonders he did.

Mike

Today’s post is of a rejected sketch I did for a comic called SIDEKICKS created by J. Torres (writer) and Takeshi Miyazawa (artist). It’s a great book that I took to immediately– and I was thrilled when C.B. Cebulski (then Publisher of FANBOY ENTERTAINMENT– now Marvel Editor) asked me to do a cover for the book. It gave me the opportunity to draw in a more cartoony manner than I usually do for my “mainstream” work– and it’s more natural and more indicative of the kind of work I’d like to do on a regular basis…. if I weren’t fearful that it would alienate me from that very “mainstream” market.

Over at MYSTIFYING ORACLE, Parker has put up a map of the layout for the COMICON INTERNATIONAL in San Diego this year. I head heard from several folks in the comics creative community of what a “ghetto” that Artist’s Alley has become at that show– but until I saw this little map of the show floor layout, I really didn’t have much of an idea just HOW MUCH OF A GHETTO it has been turned into. As the show quickly morphs year to year into more of a venue for film and gaming (card and video) companies to strut their wares, it’s sad to think that what was once the most exciting and lucrative show in the country for comic book creators and publishers is pushing those very folks who’s presence helped to build the COMICON into what it is today to the side like unwanted red-headed step children. Ah, well– I’ve always got my memories of my first experiences there in 1991 and 1992 to keep with me.

There’s a cool interview with a new buddy of mine, Skottie Young over at NEWSARMA. Skottie is a great new young talent– and his growth is amazing week by week to watch– and he’s incredibly enthusiastic about the comics medium and its potential. He’s one to watch.

I stumbled onto an interview with Kazu Kibuishi over at SILVER BULLET COMICBOOKS. It’s about the incredible anthology, FLIGHT, he’s helming that’s coming out soon from IMAGE COMICS — as well as another project of his called DAISY CUTTER coming soon from VIPER COMICS. I haven’t been so excited by an upcoming comic as I am about the FLIGHT anthology in a looooong time. As I said to Kazu in a message board post not too long ago, I think FLIGHT is going to be one of the greatest comic book “experiences” to be had for quite some time. What I’ve seen so far in previews is just breathtakingly gorgeous.

OK–my head is spinning from coding all the links, so it’s back to work for me.

Mike

Laura Gjovaag, who maintains the Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog…blog… is a huge fan of AQUAMAN. She regularly posts sketches that she’s gotten comics pros to do for her at shows. I enjoy seeing different artists interpretations of the character. Yesterday I posted a sketch I did of a LEGION “warm-up” I did a while back in anticipation of the possibility that I might be working on that title. Well, today’s sketch is along the same lines. Mark Waid and I often talk about projects we’d like to work on together– and AQUAMAN is a character that we both have an affinity for…. and we think along the same lines of how we’d like to see the character handled. We had been batting ideas back and forth and I got enthusiastic about the possibilities, so I worked up this sketch to send to Mark and show him how I visualized the AQUAMAN that was in my head. So– anyway, Laura– this one’s for you.

I have to send out a huge “THANK YOU” to Craig Zablo at the STALLONE ZONE for the feature on my blog and web site at the top of his own blog yesterday! He’s got a terrific site– and I was only familiar with his collecton of Sylvester Stallone art! So again, Craig– thank you very much!

Over at NEWSARAMA, there’s an interview with Ted Naifeh, who is, hands down, one of the most talented artists I’ve ever seen. The guy’s art is absolutely gorgeous and I really enjoy his COURTNEY CRUMIN series of mini series. He’s very prolific as well, which makes me envious that someone who draws that damned well can be so fast.

So that’s it for today.

More tomorrow, I hope.

Mike

UPDATE– Thanks to my “unofficial blog guru” Jeff Parker, I now have a comments link via HaloScan….! So comment away, if you’d like.