Number One Reason I Want to Draw French Comics

Man. I been workin' like a dog--12 hour days, minimum, for the last week at least. But, ya know what? Never enjoyed my work more. I've been finishing up the art on the first issue of my upcoming comic, The Damned. I'm pretty excited about this stuff and I plan to post some preview pages here this week. Stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, here's a pretty lady to look at.

Friendly Neighborhood Peeping Tom

Another in my series of pre-convention sketches! This was a really fun sketch to do. Spidey is always a great character to draw even though all that webbing on his costume can be a pain. If I ever get around to it I'd like to take a shot at coloring this sketch. Stay tuned.

Another One for the Masses...

There is a reason for all the recent B&W sketches and I'm too lazy to read through my previous posts to see if I've made this clear or not. I'm trying to put together a surplus of sketches to have on hand at my artists' alley table in Chicago. Last year was the first time I had a table and I was surprised at how busy it kept me. Hopefully, having some finished sketches at the ready I can relieve myself slightly of the workload. I'm going to try to do at least ten more between now and then (first week of August) so if anybody has any suggestions please post them in the comments section.

Zorro!

I just recently finished the novel Zorro, by Isabel Allende. I picked it up based on a couple recommendations and found I couldn't put it down. The geek in me finds an easy comparison to Batman Begins. The novel focuses on Zorro's early years and does a great job of creating a real, living, breathing person out of this larger than life character. Young Diego (Zorro) crosses paths with Native Americans, gypsies, pirates, a secret society--all who, in one way or another, help to shape the man we come to know as Zorro. This is a really fun novel and I'd love to hear if anyone else has had the chance to read it. I believe it just recently came out in paperback. If you've ever liked the character of Zorro, or if you just want a great summer read, I highly recommend this book.

COVER: Queen & Country #31

Here's the cover to the upcoming ish of Q&C. This is a good example of starting off with a clear idea and then through the process coming out with a radically different version. Because I am still SO new to this coloring biz-ness, I had sent out 3 rough color tests (seen below) to a handful of trusted artists friends to get their feedback. It was pretty much split evenly as to which version everyone preferred with two of my friends offering suggestions about how to combine elements of two of the pieces together. I ended up having to rely on my own gut and, love it or hate it, I decided to go with the one I found the least conventional. I felt these colors were more jarring and psychologically disturbing which, in my mind, fit the scene depicted. I also felt the colors better represented the sense of place (Iraq). This has been the most gratifying color work I've done yet--something about working this piece really freed up my thinking about color. I'm really looking forward to my next piece.