CREATING DEMON EMPTY

Upon creating the CHARLATAN BALL antagonist, I didn't have to reach much further than the baddie to end all baddies: Jack Kirby's DARKSEID. He's the quintessential villain. His Design is rough, stoic, immovable and unapproachable.


That being said, I had an idea of the tone Joe likes to write in, and someone too threatening might not be able to sell the comedic beats I need him to hit. Then I remembered this DARIUS DRUMM character from Kirby's SILVER STAR. Sure, he was terrifying, but I always found his absurd and sort of funny. I mean, just look at the way he came into this world:


This was Jack's early design...eerily similar to Darkseid.


And now slightly more "cartoony"...


I read a review somewhere that spotted this little homage to the RED GHOST. They were correct.


And while I'm laying out all my cards on the table, I have to say one of the biggest inspiration for my Demon Empty design would be 70's singer-songwriter, variety show mainstay, Mr. PAUL WILLIAMS. I'll also admit he used to scare the hell out of me!



So I began...and at first needed to confirm I DIDN'T want a big, scary monster:




Once I got that out of the way, explored my initial instinct of making The Realm's most powerful Chaos Magic Mage and grand schemer be a literal, walking juxtaposition. I love drawing 'little people'!





There. I finally hit something I liked: a Darkseid/Darius Drumm/Red Ghost/Paul Williams hybrid I could get behind--and more importantly, have a ball drawing.




And there you have it. Now, I know there are other inspirations I left out, I can think of a few of MR.MIRACLE'S antagonists off the top of my head, but this was more or less the road to and through my creative process. Hope you've enjoyed. Go buy Charlatan Ball. And a sketchbook. And a teeshirt.

BACK FROM THE BRINK...

Holy jeezuz. Who knew? Who knew?!? Inspiring and exhausting. I am back from "the con".

Here I am with a nice four o'clock grease-sheen going--on my oily, Italian face...

Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Dan and Darrick (who took this picture with his incredible new iPhone), Mr. Lambe, Uncle Phil and his cronies. I appreciated the support, as well as help with getting the Art of/Sketchbooks out there.

...and LOOK! Now I've got paypal buttons! Order a book or teeshirt, I'll throw in a sketch and signature as well. Tell your friends! Post on your blogs!

*ALSO: those of you who requested a shirt previously, they've been saved and await you! Go ahead and complete your order now.

"THE ART OF ANDY"

BIG NEWS!!!

Debuting at the San Diego Comicon, via The Art of Fiction Booth (#523)!!! "THE ART OF ANDY" idea started off as a portfolio...then turned into a sketchbook...then into this beautiful, 120 page, hardcover, full color smorgasbord of designs and sketches ranging from development ideas, Samurai Jack models and Clone Wars layouts...to comic book pages and paintings, many never before seen! Not to mention super-cool intro by Spongebob himself, TOM KENNY. All for the mere price of $25!

*I will also be @ The Art of Fiction Booth (#523) as well as the IMAGE COMICS booth (#2729) all throughout the weekend, signing and selling my wears...

Check out:

http://www.artoffiction.com/5CChome.html

For those not coming to the con, you can also purchase at:
THE HOUSE OF SECRETS
1930 W. Olive Avenue
Burbank, California 91506
(818) 562-1900
e-mail:
houseofsecrets@earthlink.net

Contact them via their website and they will tell you how to get one via PAYPAL.

One way or another, try and get your hands on one. They are very limited, only 1000 copies were printed.

RUN, DON'T WALK: CHARLATAN BALL #2 IN STORES THIS WEDNESDAY, JULY 16th!!!

*P.S. T-Shirts (see below), are STILL available...reserve them before Comicon, and while I still have a choice of sizes!

WHO WANTS A CHARLATAN BALL TEESHIRT?

Tee Shirt #1 just arrived!!


...it's Chuck Amok and his pal Caesar in a classic vintage style look. Nicely silk-screened, no rubbery iron-on feel.

And while I'm trying to figure out how to put together a merchant account and paypal button on the blog, let me know if you want to reserve one and at what size (S-2XL). (Act fast! Quantities are limited.) They are super-high quality American Apparel ringer tees. Sort of slimming, so you may want a size up. Thinking, $20 sounds about right?



Depending on how well these sell, we'll do another run with DEMON EMPTY and his hover-car riding Demons!

PAINTING SHOW!

I am in an exciting painting show with three other artists at a fabulous place called YES Gallery in Rhode Island. So if you are close by, or know anyone on the hill (isn't that what they call it in Showtime's BROTHERHOOD??), tell them to stop by...and buy my pieces!

TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF SKETCHES...

Well, THREE, if you want to be technical. But technique is what I'm talking about, in terms of stylistically. I don't know, maybe you can find the similarities--but they're all sort of compartmentalized in my head.

This first one I did while on my honeymoon...yeah, I'm pretty romantic. Anyway, I had an idea for a CHARLATAN BALL spinoff and wanted to show Joe. I liked this sketch so much so that I redid an entire page of issue #5 to include these guys. Actually, I've pretty much redid all of book 5 because I felt like I was cutting too many corners, especially after seeing issue #1 printed and bleeding on the pages, so to speak. That being said, issue 5 is single-handedly the best work I've done, to date. I can't wait to post some...but want to be somewhat of a tease.


Another doodle for #5, PRE-honeymoon. I dug the design and shape of this guy.


And now to shift gears for something altogether different. This isn't a design for my Dynamite Jones character, per se--but he fits into the world in a strange way, curtesy of my friends Eric and Paul at HOUSE OF SECRETS in Burbank. More to come later!

STAR WARS+AWESOME MUSIC!

I've been listening to D. STICKER ENSEMBLE nonstop for the past week or so. Check them out, they only seem to be on iTunes and such; it's a purely digital age I suppose. If anyone else has heard of these guy(s?) let me know--I know nothing other than their album "Seasons of Sticker". Sort of reminds me of Neutral Milk Hotel, or Matt Suggs from White Whale.

This is SO incredible: