Cat Scratch Fever

Here's one of the sketches I did at HeroesCon. I grabbed a snap of it on my now-sadly-outddated iPhone. I messed with the levels in Photoshop and converted it to a blueline so I could reprint it on bristol and ink it again. It's a nice way to save sketches when you can't get a scan per se. And then I have another original to sell, too. How cool is that?

This one is of the Black Cat, created by Marv Wolfman for the Spider-Man books. She hasn't made an appearance in Powerful Women yet (unlike Poison Ivy, who seems to command at least a page a volume), so it's always good to see someone new in those pages.

Hey Nineteen!

I hope this panel doesn't reveal too much, but man, I really like it. Body language, pose and facial expressions all scream drunk. Which is exactly what it's supposed to scream.

Only five pages left. And five days or so left in the month. It's like serrendipity.

This issue has taken far longer than it should have. I meant to be done in early May, not late June. I'm okay now, but this throwing stick will boomerang on me for the next issue. Still, it should be okay as long as I don't have to go to California for two weeks in July. Oh, wait, I do. Yipes!

Wasn't One of Her Letters Actually a Guy?

Another day, another Powerful Women piece.

This one is from a warm-up piece at HeroesCon in Charlotte. I like working on something, even when I don't have a commission scheduled, just so people can see what I can do. This one is another one of Mary Mrvel, and I think I really got her expression down. She seems pretty optimistic, as opposed to the leather miniskirt version that's been running around lately.

Freebies For iPhones!

I haven't gotten the new iPhone yet (and will probably wait until next year to upgrade) but my Mom got hers, and she wanted some Love and Capes wallpaper for it. She's so nice. And it was a good idea, so you can now download iPhone ready wallpapers below or at the Love and Capes Download Page.

The Most Terrifying Black Lantern of All!

Sorry about the lack of Charlotte posting. I managed to forget my MacBook power charger, so I was conserving juice in case I needed it. Hence the tweets-only coverage. It was a great show, and because of it, I think things will only get greater. Man, I wish I could tell you why. But not yet. Sorry.

In the meantime, enjoy my brilliant pitch for a Blackest Night tie-in project. Jonathan Kent, Martian Manhunter, Tula, Firestorm, Aquaman… they're all back from the dead. But who's the character they dare not do? Cheeks the Toy Wonder, tragically killed in Ambush Bug #1.

Unless, he's the big twist reveal at the end, of course. In which case, sorry to figure it out, Dan.

It Has Begun!

I'm in Charlotte, set up at booth SP-638.

Now I'm just kicking myself for not figuring out a way to play up the LNC character Charlotte/Charlotte, NC connection. Maybe next year, I suppose.

Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?

If all goes according to plan, I'm well on my way to Charlotte and HeroesCon by the time this post appears. I've got it set to appear automagically by using the telepathic uplink feature of the iPhone 3.0 software.

I'm just kidding. The iPhone doesn't have a telepathic connection. AT&T won't allow it.

Anyway, I did finished this commission last night. The commissioner wanted Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy. He suggested Gwen be in a similar post to that classic "Face it, tiger, you just hit the jackpot" pose. (And say what you will about Kirsten Dunst's performance, when she called him 'tiger', it worked, and that's a hard line to sell.) That gave me the idea to have them mirror each other, and about to knock on Peter's door just flowed from that.

This is a great time to remind everyone that I still have nine spots left for Powerful Women #3, and I'd like to have that filled up and ready for San Diego. Hopefully I'll have more than a few commissions coming out of Charlotte, but still, if there's anyone you want to see, go ahead and let me know.

Love and Capes Loves Ladies!

I've been reading the silly "guys only" contest stuff at San Diego, and the Jake Gyllenhaal abs comments and all, and I've had enough. So, first 75 ladies who come up to my table at Heroes Con this weekend get a free randomly selected copy of Love and Capes. One per customer per weekend is all I ask. I'll be at booth SP-638 in small press.

Hmmm, I'm usually not that pithy. Still, I think it's pretty self-explanatory. I've got a box with issues 1-9 of Love and Capes. Come up, be a woman, get a book.

What the Heck is a Doosix Machine?

With the giant anvil of work that's been whacking me around, Love and Capes #11 has been getting pushed around a bit. Hopefully, now that page 18 is done, the remaining six will just zip out of my brush.

This page is one of those "do your work right and everything will work out fine later" pages. This page, and the next couple following, are set in the ambrosia cellar (think wine cellar with, you know, ambrosia) of the Castle Leandia. So I had to design a room that looked like a wine cellar without really stopping to point out that's what it was, and still have that Flash Gordon future feel that everything else in Amazonia's world has.

But, since I did my work and created a workable wine cellar "set" with the next couple of pages in mind, I should be able to reuse without too much of an effort. Stuff like that is how I manage to churn these books out, I guess.

I Got to Zoom Baby, So Give Me Room Baby

Yeah, I've been away for a bit. Work got the better of me. A week of sixteen hour days later, though, I think I'm back on my game.

The big thing that kept me away was finishing up a children's book assignment for a place called Rourke Publishing. I was contracted to do to books in an occupational series, one about being a NASCAR Crew Chief, and one about being an Animal Trainer. The work was pretty intensive, with me doing pencils, inks and colors. I had to dust off my Raider style, a slightly more traditional comic book style, for the series.

I think the books came out well, and I'll let you know when they go on sale. The people at Rourke were great to work with and I hope to do more with them soon.

And hey, now I'm officially a children's book illustrator. I have to say, that's pretty cool.

(Oh, and click on any image to embiggen it.)