Archer a Little Old to be Reading Comics?

One more con sketch from Heroes Con.

Guys with bows and arrows have always been a challenge for me to draw. That said, this is probably my favorite attempt to date. Plus, extra cool points for it being Hawkeye in his old costume. Thanks to Shannon for sending along this image so I could post it!

Thanks also for sending me this photo of myself with Laura Samnee (rhymes with Omni) and Chris Samnee (don't call me SAM-knee). I'm the one in the middle, as is appropriate as I tend to like to be the center of attention. Why do are the Samnees smiling so big? I'll answer that with another question: Where are my hands?

If you want to make me jealous go ahead and pop over to Chris' blog to see a bunch of amazing drawings he did for the show.

Night Clubbin'

Another sketch from last weekend's Heroes Con show in Charlotte!
Anytime I get to draw a character from the Bat-verse I'm a happy fella--so, needless to say, I was doubly happy to do this Nightwing and Huntress piece. Thanks to Erica for sending this along!
Hope you all enjoy it.

Storm Warning for Charlotte, NC

Just got back from Charlotte early Monday morning (we drove the 12 hours straight through the night). Just now getting my drawing legs back. Had a great time--got to see old friends and make some new ones and I still had time to do a handful of convention sketches. The above sketch is the first one I did at last weekends show. I've joked with other creators that we should offer a discount for the first sketch of a show as it is usually not very good because we haven't gotten warmed up yet. This drawing is an exception to the rule, I think. I was really happy with the way it turned out. It also sparked lots of discussions about what the Golden Age of the X-Men was for people. I think we all agreed that it was the first couple years that you read the book and for me it started at issue 201 (which coincidentally featured Mohawk Storm on the cover battling Cyclops for leadership of the X-Men). That first year of reading for me had some X-Men losing their powers or injured, they were on the run, the Mutant Massacre happened, Nimrod showed up and Wolverine battled the Reavers in Central Park (the classic Barry Windsor Smith issue).
Anyway, this sketch kicked off the show on the right foot and I'm thankful to Andy for sending it along for me to post. Hope you all enjoy!

The Rise of the Euro: Part Deux

Some more drawings from me and Matt Kindt (on watercolors). Again these were tests for me to loosen up as much as possible and just expressive in the line work.

I'm heading out to HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC tomorrow. If you're in the neighborhood be sure to pop in and say hi! Looking forward to seeing a lot of people from last year and meeting some new faces. I'll be set up in Artist's Alley with Cullen Bunn promoting THE DAMNED. We'll be at tables AA-319 and 320.

The Rise of the Euro

I thought I'd already posted some of these images before but a quick look through my archive seems to tell me the opposite. If nothing else I may have posted a link to my friend Matt Kindt's blog. These were some sketches and watercolors (supplied by Matt) that we whipped up while sitting at a Starbucks (we were supposed to be working). He and I have both been inspired of late by European cartoonists such as Christophe Blain, Blutch, Joann Sfar, and Gipi. There is such an energy to there work and in many cases what seems to be a stream of consciousness approach to their storytelling. It's really invigorating and it encourages me to relax and loosen up (something I've been dying to do for years). I could see where this work here might not appeal to some people's aesthetics but it's a joy for me to work like this.

This above page was done as a way of showing Matt what I thought sequential in this style would look like. I have no idea what's going on here, I wrote it panel to panel, but I like the final product. I'm most fond of that final panel.

Old Ideas of the Future

There are several different genres that I would like to explore in comics but somewhere at the top of the list is sci-fi. But I don't want to do sci-fi in that clean, high contrast, washed out, and souless Minority Report style. Nor do I want to do the dark, dystopic Blade Runner. Why is it that movies that are set in the future are always so serious? I'm trying to think of a sci-fi movie (one set in the future) that has a sense of humor as well. I'm sure it's just slipping my mind right now. The only thing that comes to mind is Fifth Element (which I kinda hated). Maybe Total Recall. It was dark and paranoid but it still had a sense of fun to it.

Anyway, these sketches came out of revisiting a concept that's been rattling around the brain pan for 6 or 7 years. One of the fun things about coming up with an idea and then putting it away for awhile is that when you come back to it you are reinvigorated by what works with it and you have clear eyes to see what may not work.

Someday, maybe.

Retrofitting

This post is similar to the last one in that I've revisiting older projects with a new eye to the art style. The difference being these are all projects I've developed to differing degrees but never actually made into comics. It's fun to break out these old ideas and re-imagine them stylistically. It's like putting a new coat of paint on an old house.

Reeee-Mix!

More cartoony stuff from the ol' sketch pile. Looking for something to doodle, I decided to revisit characters I've already done in comics except to imagine them in my more cartoony style. The above are obviously characters from the "Damnedverse". I'm especially fond of the Verlochin in the bottom right corner.
Below are drawings of characters from Three Strikes(Oni Press), Skinwalker(Oni), and Hard Time (DC). Most of the characters are from Hard Time. As I got into drawing them I was reminded how much of an ensemble book that really was. There are several characters I didn't even get around to drawing.
Also, that guy at the bottom center of the page is supposed to be young Crocker from Queen & Country: Declassified.

Ninja Practice

I do all my sketching on regular bond paper nowadays and keep those drawings in 3-ring office binders. If I get enough sketches revolving around a particular story idea I collect them from my sketch binder and move them into their very own binder.
The binder these drawings come from is called "Ninja Island". That may or may not be a working title.