A TALE OF TWO ("PRESIDENT") BATMANS...

This has been a big week for me, comic book-release-wise; bigger couple of weeks, if you include CHARLATAN BALL #6, two weeks ago! Along with CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #55 (cover image above), BATMAN: THE BRAVE & THE BOLD #3 (cover also depicted above--it should be noted I did neither), came out this past Wednesday. Pretty neat!

I'll post some of my MY GYM PARTNER IS A MONKEY pages next week, but wanted to show you some rough pages from this latest Batman issue. You'll notice there are a couple versions of each--with one small, but major alteration...
In this story, Batman assumes the identity (by way of hologram) of the President of the United States. In the current comics climate of slapping Barrack Obama's mug on every funny book out there, DC decidedly didn't want to follow the current trend...and while my first take wasn't exactly our new Prez, he definitely wasn't different enough. So revisions were made and this is what ends up in the final printing.

I sort of think he ended up looking like the dad from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

I've been digging the 2-page openers...

This was a cool sequence: Batman fights Congress!


That being said, I've been loving working with Rachel, DC Comics and drawing Batman, writers like Matt Wayne and J. Torres, being inked by Dan Davis (who's working overtime on all the extra line work I've put into issues #4 and #6). I feel like I'm just starting to loosen up and bring a little warmth to my designs and panels. It can be really tough and at times, paralyzing, following someone else's designs--especially translating one medium to the other. But challenges can be fun too; it inspires growth and I'm definitely learning with every issue.

"JUST YOUR FRIENDLY, NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN"

Spider-Man is real, and apparently he lives in Bangkok! I'm sure a lot of you have already seen this recent news footage, but thought it was pretty sweet, touching and altogether humbling to think there are people like this out there. Check out the story of how a fireman dressed up as Spider-Man to rescue a kid HERE.

BATMAN'S BUDDY...

A couple of folks have asked if I'll be doing more BATMAN: BRAVE & THE BOLD comics for DC. The answer is YES. Supposedly (and hopefully), Dan Davis (the inker) and I will be one of the two teams of "regulars" on it (I'd do every one if I could). P.S. Please don't ask me to help you get "my" job on this. Ahem. Really?? Anyway, so far we've done issues #1, 3, 4 and 6. They are looking GREAT and we're both evolving, stylistically--becoming more relaxed and comfortable with the style and incorporating our own "voices" to it. I think we were both surprised and ultimately awe struck by show producer James Tucker's cover for #1. It was the shows style, but so much more. Incredible.

Here's an upcoming "SECRET FILE"...

As for the TV show, I storyboarded a Plastic Man opening sequence that will be coming up sometime soon I think.

"I USED TO BE SEXY!"

Uncomfortable post title aside, I recently dug up a couple of character designs and development from eons ago. The project was called: "Sexy Deadly". Originally developed as "Birds of Prey" with DC Comics at WB Animation--DC pulled the plug due to either legal, TV, or feature conflicts. Not wanting their hard work to go to waste, they changed the name and added about 50% more raunchiness. The man for the job? Paul Dini, of course. As enamored to work with him as I was, I couldn't say he felt the same way--culminating in my witnessing him asking for another artist right in front of me...sigh. God bless them though, they kept me and put up with my recently evolved--or DEvolved "gross" style of designs. Again, this was years ago--before the recent trend and tendency towards this style (i.e. "Flapjack", etc. ). I smoothed a couple designs out the best I could--trying to let go of any ego I might've had for not being known as the "sexy-girl" artist. I think my favorite part of this experience, aside from working with Paul Dini, was going to MTV for a video-feed meeting on both coasts, where each team of development execs looked like super hip veejays and were literally hung-over from their no-doubt, ultra-cool festivities the evening before. Actually getting a "oh, my head, please don't talk to loud" comment through a satellite feed was priceless.

These are some cleaner models...





This drawing below is still one of my favorite designs...



The drawings below remind me of THIS recent message board where readers were talking about how my Power Girl design in BATMAN: Brave & the Bold looked like a tranny...




Yeah, sort of gross.

"HELLO AND GOODBYE"

...And on a completely unrelated note--

"SPEAKING OF COVERS..."

No, do not attempt to adjust you monitors, this is my cover for CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #56 (I believe). Yes, obviously an homage (or blatant rip off) of ANDY WARHOL's (self-)portrait(s). This one was inked by Mike DeCarlo; the colorist's name escapes me, wish I could remember who Liz said, because they did a great job.

What's cool is, Comicbookresources.com ran a "Judging a book by it's cover" feature--where they described this one as: "Very clever Cartoon Network Block Party cover by Andy Suriano. Definitely the sort of cover that stands out on a rack." Made me smile--and appreciate an editor like LIZ GEHRLEIN for providing me the space and encouragement to take risks and think outside the box--(yes, even on a CN offshoot book like this). Check out all the covers, HERE.

And here's the devolution of the process...
This was the color comp I sent with my penciled page. The final penciled page.

Then, here are some of the rough concept sketches I initially did...

CHARLATAN BALL #6 COVER!

Well, the front half, at least. Not to be missed on shelves, eh?


And our "No-Prize" of the week goes to TOM for getting my KITH reference in the post below. Nice catch, Tom!

FREAKSHOW: ISSUE #6 IN STORES THIS WEDNESDAY!!!

That's right, shout it from the rooftops. CHARLATAN BALL #6 finally hits the stands this Wednesday, the 11th!
The delay and extended break from issue 5 was due to no fault on our part, but apparently a back up que at the printers!?
In any event, it's the best issue yet! Seriously, those of you waiting for the trade paper back are missing out--besides, the only people who go for trades are housewives and those that pick up "Greatest Hits" albums.
I felt like everything sort of came together in this issue, like THIS is the starting point or baseline for which I want to continue with. Marc Letzman's colors are incredible this go around too. We really gelled. Plus, I had so much fun drawing aliens and freaks. (I call the orange dude above in the BG, "Kumquat Head".)"Hyper/Meta-Reality Alert": Me, Joe, Marc and Ben make appearances in this book...
Here's 3 of our 5 contributers; wish I knew what Russ Wootan looked like. Ben Kalina shows up four panels later. (Little known fact: Marc moonlights as a masked pro-amatuer wrestling announcer!)




Oh yeah, buy a teeshirt!

HOW-TO-BE-ME

I thought this was both flattering and humbling, Kathryn Alcorn and Jonathon Conner over at UTRECHT Art Supplies invited me into their catalog and website as a "spotlight artist"!

In the marker paper section of the catalog, Kathryn asked to put up one of my marker comps from CHARLATAN BALL. On the websites Learning Center area, I broke down my marker illustration process, step-by-step, even paper selection. It was so much fun and such a challenge to try and articulate things both learned and stumbled upon. Check it out HERE

LEAPIN' LAGOMORPH!

...or is it Leporidae?



Either way, buy a shirt.

BRAND NEW CHARLATAN BALL VINTAGE TEES!!!

Any day now, CHARLATAN BALL #6 will hit the stands, then the trade paperback collection a few months later--both with an advertisement for these shirts. But for those of you that read this blog, I'm making the tee shirts available immediately. These are high quality, limited quantity shirts you won't get anywhere else. Order them now and you'll be wearing them before the rest of the *world* knows they're even out!

Here's the new design, I think it really turned out great:"Big Evil/Little Demon"--is an image of the antagonist of our stories; the Chaos Mage pulling Chuck's strings, the one, the only, DEMON EMPTY. This came out really nice, vintage-style silk screen process on a high quality, soft, dark blue t-shirt. 50/50 blend. Available in every size.
We'd actually wanted to do this print back in our first run, but thought it more prudent (*cough* affordable!) to start with the Chuck & Caesar one.

Speaking of, after selling out of the first printing, we went ahead and did up another batch of the *classic* "CHUCK'S AMOK" vintage red tee:

These are really, really nice shirts. American Apparel brand, 100% cotton. Super soft, super high quality , vintage gym class, ringer style.

Here's THE AD, done by BEN KALINA (who also designed the shirts), that's about to run:

Use the safe, secure, easy PAYPAL LINKS on the side. I fixed the tabs so now you can even select the size instead of emailing me. But still feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Go ahead and order a few.



In the market to get your creations stretched across somebody's chest? Kurt and his crew at Brunetto t-shirts really did a first rate job. Check them out.

BACK TO ME...

Along with illustrating the further animated adventures of BATMAN: BRAVE & THE BOLD, I've been compiling a TON of early conceptual sketches and roughs from CHARLATAN BALL, to put into the newly solicited CHARLATAN BALL TRADE PAPERBACK!

In addition to collecting issues #1-6 of the first series, the tpb will include endless pages of extras, drawings, color process and outline to final page comparisons--a virtual smörgåsbord of insight into our collective creative process. Not being satisfied with merely regurgitating and repurposing old artwork, I decided to include never-before-seen marker comps like the ones below. These will be special chapter breaks, 12 total, depicting an important character or element from the series. I'm not going to post them all (gotta have something to look forward to!), so enjoy these while you can.

--And please, PLEASE ask your local comics shop for a Diamond/PREVIEWS ORDERING CATALOG and ORDER the CHARLATAN BALL TPB YOURSELF(!), do NOT count on your shop to do it for you. Serious. Seriously. For reals. I don't want to hear about how your shop didn't carry it. They will if you order it. (All you do is fill out the form and hand it directly back to them!) Do it NOW; the deadline is any day now.

FROM JERSEY THEY CAME...

...No, I'm not talking about The Smithereens (this time), but DAN McCDAID'S and GLEN BRUNSWICK'S "JERSEY GODS" from Image Comics, issue #1 hits stores this Wednesday--with variant covers (Paul Pope, Darwin Cook, Mike Allred to name a few), so go buy them all.

An amazing talent aside--Dan is singularly responsible for getting me into DOCTOR WHO (thanks for the books, Dan--btw!). I love this guys art! You can see more, including, development, sketches, finished pages and fan art (mine!) on his blog HERE.

Go! Go now! (and then come back for a special announcement from me!)