Gwendy Vs. MJ

This is one of the many reasons I want to draw Spider-Man at some point, and I'd try my best to get Marvel to let me do it in the 60's. I think Mary Jane works best as the aggressive bohemian type to counter Gwen Stacey's prissy daughter-of-the-police-chief look. Growing up in the McFarlane era of Spider-Man comics, it wasn't 'till I checked out the Essential volumes (particularly vol 4 and 5) that I got to see Mary Jane in go-go boots, we need to bring that back! (at one point the love generation happened and we get MJ in a fringe leather jacket, but Stan and John were only trying to keep up with the culture they can't be blamed for that.) For that reason, Marvel always tries to keep their stuff super contemporary and hip, unlike the DC universe (in masterful hands like Darwyn Cooke) which is timeless. I remember reading the first issue of Ultimate Fantastic Four, and a kid was wearing a Sum 41 shirt, way to date yourselves jerks, I put the comic down at that point.

Terrible Claw

I need to get to the Museum of Natural History sometime, draw me some dino-sars! I'ts fun to do stuff on no sleep.

Wedding Noir

explain later..

My Aim is True

For those of you who don't know already, I am quite the avid Elvis Costello fan. I just felt like doing a portrait to capture him as he slips quietly into rock 'n roll dinosaurism. He still keeps his signature look, slick suits with horn rimmed glasses, (will that ever go out of style?). The suits have gotten baggier to hide the paunch and he's got the scruffy beard to compensate for the double chin, but overall I think he still maintains a certain amount of dignity. I rarely see him scowl or alienate his audience the way he did in the early part of his career, responding to cheers to play Allison with "you wanna hear the old songs, buy the fu@#ing record!" Instead he plays the hits with a smile of smug satisfaction on his face, content with the fact that he gets to be part of the slowly aging rock 'n roll elite even though his new music is for the most part irrelevant. If you disagree, I consider almost all music being recorded these days irrelevant (for proof listen to Radiohead's latest album). This isn't a popular music blogg, this is a blogg about drawing stuff so I'll cease my rant. and finish up with a quote from on of my favorite Elvis Costello songs.

Well I finally found someone to turn me upside down
And nail my feet up where my head should be
If they had a King of Fools then I could wear that crown
And you can all die laughing because I’ll wear it proudly

-Wear it Proudly
from the album King of America

Bill,Cricket and Frankie Pinup

It's 3:20 in the morning... Uh... I have no life

Family Reunion in Color

Just working out the color for "Family Reunion" Really starting to get a handle on the color scheme, havn't done alot of Bill, Cricket 'n Frankie stories in color before, want to keep the palate pretty murky, wish I could post more of this

Thumbscrews & Boilermaker

Here are some panels from Hellcity 2, a lot of the action in the second installment of this graphic novel, written by Macon Blair, revolves around these two hired hit-men, Thumbscrews, the short rat-like one and Boilermaker, the heavy hitter in the plaid jacket. I'm not gonna go into too many details as far as plot, don't want to give too much away. I've been reading a lot of Ian Flemming's James Bond novels recently and I've definitely been influenced by it. In the novels Bond is frequently up against all kinds of hired killers, some underworld gang and mafia types (see "Diamonds are Forever and "The Spy Who Loved Me", and read the books those two films are shit, despite one of them being a Connery) What as influenced me the most is the way many of Bonds adversaries revel in the death and havoc they reek. When drawing Thumbscrews & Boilermaker I try and really push the fact that they enjoy their work in a place where it's pretty every demon's job to spread misery. The two hired goons show up in Hellcity 1, but only in a few panels close to the end. In volume two readers will get to see these two cause lots of carnage and mayhem, Hopefully I'll get around to posting more stuff from Hellcity, some exclusive sketches and pin-ups you won't get in the book when it comes out sometime in 2008, fingers crossed.