SOMETHING FOR A(nother) FRIEND...

SOMETHING 'CELESTIAL'...

I'm not even going to SHOW you how bad I ripped off KIRBY's CELESTIALS! Jeez...hey, can you say homage?


Below, I wanted to do a quick color rough to show JOE CASEY what I was thinking in terms of color, for THE GANG OF FOUR GODS; although nothing I do via the computer is "quick".



The panel above was something I've been wanting to do since I was old enough to find my older brother's copy of THE NEW GODS #7 (1972) and saw this incredibly breathtaking and evidentally inspiring image:

SOMETHING VIOLENT...

Just to note: for some reason I've always been drawn to the composition of the last panel on the right of the two above. It's found it's way into any comic I've roughed out even prior to this series--digging through my referance, it's no surprise: DAVID MAZZUCCELLI, in all his glorious genuis did this in his and FRANK MILLER'S run on the beautiful DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN story arc from the '80s. I've just been trying so hard to rip him off ever since. Man, I wish. He's my Fabio.

See any similarities?

SOMETHING NEW...

Once again, some miscelanious, non-sequential inked panels from CHARLATAN BALL #4...




The page up top I had done after taking a bit of a breather--up until that point I had felt I was just steamrolling through inking both issues #3 and #4, as well as simultaneously penciling issue #5. I felt it was important to step away for a day, grab a new brush and slow down. Comic books by design are disposable entertainment at best, so one theory is to barrel through an issue as fast as possible; that it's a showcase of the overall collection--and not a spotlight on individual pages or panels. That being said; however, as a fan I myself like to take a moment to linger over an artist's brushstroke or genius composition. I'm not saying I achieved either here, but the above was one page I actually appreciate slightly more than the rest. I hope you like as well.

As evidence, I didn't carry this formula all the way through every page of the issue(s), rather picked and chose my battles. Sort of like we do when character designing an episode in animation: in order to hit (your) quota and deadline each week, the smartest, most ideal scenerio is to alternate between 4 or 5 simple, one-character designs, accompanied by a hideous crowd scene. Genndy actually had us doing that during STAR WARS: CLONE WARS, while frantically combining character design into actual character layout--and still hit our shipping dates. Sorry for the headaches Shareena! hahaha

SOMETHING OLD...

Geez; I don't know exactly how many years ago we did CIRCUS PEANUT. It was my first pilot that ever got developed; the boys at SIX POINT HARNESS, before they were technically called that and right before they had a studio are the ones who animated it--and the irreplaceable AARON SIMPSON helmed production duties as well as art and animation. He's a one-man army! What an experience and education. One of which were BACKGROUNDS. Our backs were up against a tight spot: CP was being animated in FLASH and my only experience with it was via the internet/webtoons. My biggest complaint was its "flatness". I loved ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE, so I attempted to utilize and exploit "limited animation" as much as it's own art form as one would use a color palette (which would've been cool--except there are sequences in CP that I couldn't even tell wasn't traditional; oh my God--ERIC PRINGLE is a magician, to say the least. Anyway; my solution to "softening" up the look to a Flash cartoon was to use TRADITIONAL BG's, most everything done up until then were vector-based, flat, click-and-fill backgrounds (suitable for the internet). Seeing as this wasn't designed to stream the superhighway, my #1 stance on this project was its backgrounds. That's all well in good; but technically we had a budget of an animatic and more or less 2 weeks to produce it. That meant no money to hire an actual BG painter--and turned out, no actual time to implement myself...until I said "Hell no!” I believe around 8pm one night--and turned in 40-plus fully rendered BG's the next morning. I think Aaron said: "You're insane", first--and then: "Well, okay", next. Here are a few images I was able to scan. I hadn't time to learn how to ACTUALLY paint with the proper tools, so I thought: why fake it? So I used a combination of markers, colored pencils and even crayons. I suppose I was going for a children's book feel, while still being heavily influenced by Jay Ward.







That being said; if anyone possesses a copy of CIRCUS PEANUT and knows how to put up on the web via Youtube or whatever--not only would I appreciate it, but I'd even do an original marker comp for you!

SOMETHING DIFFERENT...

Thought I'd post something a little...a-typical for a moment. These were some designs I did as a favor for the beautiful and talented AMY ROGERS. Recently I've been wondering why it is out of all the pitches and shows I've put together, I've never presented an "action" show. I've always been a fan--though suppose I always viewed anything other than ROBOTECH sort of mindless. These days, anyways. But I caught Legion of Super Heroes the other day and thought it was fun; if only for seeing characters I looked at in comic books for years actually moving and talking. Who knows, perhaps inspiration will strike and the next developement road I'll travel will be one with toy possibilities!