SOME MORE, UNUSED DESIGNS...

These concepts are from a show that was (still is?) in development...ages ago. The powers that be didn't respond favorably...so not a chance I'm spoiling anything posting them. Hopefully you will like better!

VINCENT WALLER IS COOLER THAN YOU

A couple months back I had tweeted from the pediatricians waiting room that the only toys available for my 2 1/2 year old with pink eye to play with were a telescope, binoculars and microscope...

--about a half hour later VINCENT WALLER sent this drawing out.

Vincent Waller is cooler than you. Period.

DOODLING MYSELF...

Phone doodles...I love drawing with ballpoint pen.

 Meeting doodles...I love drawing Hulk penises.

COME SEE ME AT IMAGE COMICS BOOTH #2729 SAN DIEGO COMIC CON 2012!!!

...not booth #2012 at SDCC 2729...that would be cool, though!

I will have hardcovers, trade paperbacks, art books, teeshirts, original pages and prints--as well as doing sketches and commissions. I'll even "try"! 

HA!

See you there!!

A

"GET A (SHELF) LIFE!"

Watch SHELF LIFE!

My friend Yuri Lowenthal (the voice of BEN 10 y'all!) has a very funny web series called SHELF LIFE about action figures 'after dark', so to speak...

They have an ASHCAN/comic that I did the pinup/cover for (above)!

Yuri, his wife Tara and company will be in SDCC at autograph alley (AA20) Friday morning (10-2:30) and Saturday (2:30-7) afternoon giving away the comic and also be giving it away at their "Moving to the Web: Be Your Own Producer" panel (26AB) Friday night 7:30-8:30. 


Head on over to see them and they'll  give you a comic! Then come see me at the Image Comics booth (#2729) and I'll sign it too! 


See you there!!!

"THE BATTLE BALLAD OF CUMBERDUNST"

I've had this CHARLATAN BALL one-off spinoff idea since I first designed this character in Charlatan Ball #1.

Wondering if anyone but me wants to see it happen? Who wants to buy this as a print? I will have this 'rock poster' sized at SDCC!

MOTOR CITY COMIC CON, COMMISSIONS AND SAN DIEGO...

Detroit's Motor City ComicCon has come and gone--and despite previous warnings and negative reports regarding the show in years past, it ended up being AWESOME. Seriously. I feel very honored to have met the people I did--from the people who ran it (Miriam!), the person who suggested me (Dave Aikins!), my friends that came with me, old friends from home and especially all the new friends I met there! So many great people. I also was commissioned to do more pieces in Detroit than any other shows I've done before combined! I had such a blast, I wanted to share a few...

When con-goers discovered I worked on the Batman: Brave & the Bold animated show and comic (I sold out of all of my TPBs!), their requests were almost entirely of that show/style. LOTS of Brave&the Bold fans in Michigan (they must not have heard it's no longer on the air : (   ...) Unfortunately, no requests for my Demon Empty!? WTF!

The gentleman who requested this version of Superman had very specific requirements as far as the costume goes...

 Lots of Green Arrow fans!

 Here is the original B&W version of the piece at the top *(that the uber talented Dave Aikins colored)

Jonah Hex was probably my favorite request (although Elvira was a close 2nd...)

The world's biggest TMNT fan (and expert) also lives in Michigan...she and her sister were dolls. (Above is a shirt she wore depicting a pose from one of my designs/sketches!)

Also: "Fairly Oddparents" fans! *(ahem, I designed the whole 1st season as well as title/logo!)

The dude that brought a collection of all my work, past and present earned a big spot in my heart. (the way to an artist's heart = ego!)


I would love to share and show more from this great show, but for now wanted to let everyone know I will have a table at the IMAGE COMICS booth for the San Diego Comic Con next week! Not only will I be selling my goods, but would love to draw some more commissions--so let me know if you're interested ahead of time or come find me. It's a juggernaut of a show, so I'd suggest dropping me a line ahead of time through astrobug@hotmail.com or via twitter @wolfboy74 

DOC BIZARRE MD...THE ANIMATED SERIES!?

...I will neither confirm nor deny this is total BS. It's been awhile and I wanted to post something.

NO TITLE NECESSARY...

UNWANTED ART...

There's more to this story, but let's just say I couldn't even give this away...

MORE PLASTIC MAN CARTOONS!!!

"Sorry, Archie--you and your Community Service Center didn't make make the new shorts." 

Buuuuut...even though Archie is a casualty from my original pilot from 2006, the pliable paladin survived and is indeed back--to be part of DC Nation's debut tomorrow, 10am on Cartoon Network!

Tom Kenny and I (and many other super talented people) did 6 brand new shorts, each a brisk 1:15 long. The first got a sneak peek via The Nerdist Podcast Channel here...

I will say one of the other (but not only) casualties from the pilot was my friend and artist extraordinaire, Stephen DeStefano. I would've loved to work with him again, but the timing and budget of these tiny 'toons necessitated a much more paired down, gorilla-style production (i.e. me cranking out all six over a weekend), but I hope I get to make more--and that I can invite all my friends to play. So please watch tomorrow (somewhere between Green Lantern and Young Justice I think)--if you like it, TELL PEOPLE YOU DID. Blog it. Tweet it. Tell Warner Bros Animation. More importantly, tell Rob Sorcher at Cartoon Network you want to see Plastic Man on their comedy lineup. If you do, there will be more! Or lawsuits. Either way.

"LET'S HANGOUT THIS WEEKEND!"

As I posted previously, the first ever IMAGE COMIC EXPO is happening THIS weekend up in Oakland, California! If you are coming up, come say "hi"--I will be in the Artist's Alley area, table 204. I'm looking forward to meeting new people and having my ego either stroked...or crushed. Please help it be the former! 

As a special treat, I created exclusive prints JUST FOR THIS CONVENTION!!!

Joe Casey and I will also be doing a special signing Sunday, 1-2pm at the Image proper island. Special giveaways abound like these exclusive prints below:

So please come on by, say "hi", get a sketch, original pages, prints, teeshirts and books...or rifle through all the neat stuff on my table, asking me where Robert Kirkman is.

Image Comic Expo
February 24-26, 2012
Oakland Convention Center
550 10th Street
Oakland, CA 94607

MY OWN PERSONAL "IMAGE"

It's IMAGE COMICS big 20th Anniversary as well as the debut of Image Expo this coming weekend in Oakland California (some would speculate to take the place of Wondercon, which decided to migrate down to Anaheim this year). To say Image Comics had an impact on the way we perceive and collect independent comics is an understatement--but it's the fact that it remains to be what it started off as: a safe haven for artists and creators to own their properties 100%. Well I might not be as fortunate as Robert Kirkman to have my comic creations bought, developed and successfully greenlit to series or film, but at least I get to live an die by my own sword under the creator-owned mantra. That being said, I would still very much welcome the former windfall of good fortune and mass appeal--but I digress...

In light of the occasion, I thought I'd take a moment via blog post and share my own long, diverse, almost two-decade history with the publishing company...

In 1996, just a few years after Image Comics was formed and several years before I grew back hair, there was the world's greatest magician named Rudy Coby and his uber weird, super unique altar ego named Labman! 

This sourcebook, along with a super cool poster were freebees at the 1996 Sand Diego Comic Con.

Only one issue was ever printed, although if memory serves, I inked to completion 5 issues--most of which while living in Berlin, or traveling wherever else the (eventual TV) show took us, in post war hotels or surviving pre-war apartments and almost always on some makeshift desk under poor lighting. I was young. I was an Elvis impersonator in a mad circus, Vaudeville review. It was romantic. 

Image's first all-company crossover even invited Labman to it's pantheon of hero martian resistance fighters!

Like the magician he is, the short-lived Labman series disappeared in a poof of smoke, paving the way for my very own (albeit also short-lived) series...

I did BIG HAIR PRODUCTIONS back in 1998-2000 if memory serves correctly, the first issue while still living in Detroit, the second after moving to Los Angeles and starting my career in animation. The best part about this title was getting to continue to work with Image and more importantly my good friend and then-art-director Doug Griffith. Everything was traditional, I even scoured art supply stores across the country for their picked-over, beyond dated sheets of Zipatone. I had aspired to make my own version of Saturday morning cartoon shows (remember those?), back in the days when cartoons were still on Saturday morning--but desired to package it like an easily accessible comic you would get free with a kid's meal at Bob's Big Boy.  The paper was cheap, the jokes bordered on tacky, but all in all this book holds a dear place in my heart. You can read a little bit more about it HERE.

Jump forward many years later with something a little different...but now seeing all the work together I can recognize familiar techniques...

Charlatan Ball was a collaboration between Joe Casey and myself (an introduction made by his wife, my then development executive at WB Animation Megan). It was and remains to be a pure visual expression of my Id. I hope to do more, because I know we've only begun to scratch the surface of our insanity.

Here's a glimpse of what one of our jam sessions looked like: 

And more wraparound covers...

After the first 6 issues were collected of that series, we decided to set aside our magic wands, trading in our book of spells for scalpels and syringes to play in another genre--with our own little touches and came up with Doc Bizarre MD:

I hope you enjoyed my little visual tour through memory lane--and more importantly hope you've enjoyed one or more of my books. I hope to continue publishing my ideas through Image. I am currently working on a few right now that will hopefully be seen in the light of day (or announced at another convention) soon! Until then, I will let your imaginations run with what those ideas might be and in what genre I decided to defile next...

"THIS AND THAT"

Look! I've got friends! Super, extremely talented friends...

Super excited to be a part of THIS LOS ANGELES Gallery's annual group show. Sadly, I will be in Oakland for the Image Comics Expo, but that's an announcement for another blog post. Just because I won't be at the opening doesn't mean you can't be (I'm a terrible conversationalist in person anyway). You should go and you should buy my piece (below)--it's super cheap!!

 My humble and rather grotesque contribution...

"O Cap'n! My Cap'n!"

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Illus. Board

11x14

*framed

BOOK PLUG!

INTREPIDS TRADE PAPEBACK IN STORES NOW!!!

INTREPIDS by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Scott Kowalchuk from Image Comics was one of my favorite new mini-series of 2011--it was first and foremost FUN, had secret island lairs, mad scientists and cybernetic grizzly bears! Did I mention the colors? Amazing color theories happening inside as well. Scott Kowalchuk has easily become one of my favorite artists--so I was more than eager to donate a pinup. Check out the book and tell me different. I dare you. Double dare you!