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:

Video Comic Review

It's a long way to go for a sentence, but it's exciting nonetheless!

...continuing a steady flow of good reviews. I can't wait for later issues (and much better art) to hit the stands.

Thanks again to everyone that's picked up a copy.

SOMEONE ELSES ART...

--That has totally knocked me on my ass, recently.

The first is more GODLAND covers. It's interesting, in the latest KIRBY COLLECTOR #50 (or, as it appears on the cover: "KIRBY FIVE-OH!"), from Twomorrows Publishing, Godland artist and fellow JOE CASEY collaborator TOM SCIOLI said in an interview, oh God(land), I just looked it up to quote--but must've gotten my sources mixed; in any event, he had said somewhere that he was going to "stop trying to do it the Kirby way", or something along those lines--and problem solve as he, himself as an artist would. Whatever he's doing, it's working! Check these out:



Then of course, good-golly there's Tim Sale...yes, he's the artist behind the artist that paints the future, but Issac never painted like this. Those colors are amazing too, huh?



Now, check out this Argentinian artist, MAX FIUMARA. He's collaborating with writer JOE KELLY on another Image title called FOUR EYES. Wow. His inking takes my breath away. I know how that sounds, but...look at these pages!

(MY) METAL MEN!

This was my very last paying job before marriage...something Paul Levitz at DC actually asked Tom Kenny and myself to develop ages ago, when it didn't look like we were going to get the clearance to do PLASTIC MAN. Fearing a "bait and switch", Tom and I declined...along with doing a Plas comic (PRE--Kyle Baker, I might add). Now, years later and nearly a month ago to the day, this was being talked about again @ WB...w/out any participation on my part--although the guy they WERE talking to I'd give a nut to work with. I'm not sure I can reveal his name, but he's seemingly the ONLY writer @ DC--prolific to say the least...(Jeff but with a "G"!)...hehehe

I absolutely loved working on these. Very fast. I would've liked to tweak and "flesh-out", their albeit metal designs.







Returning from my vacation I found out that not only is the project may or may not be being reworked (most likely without any further assistance by yours truly), but there's a(nother) completely new head of WB!? ...AND gas prices had risen .65 cents!!! We were only gone for 2 weeks! Geez. Talk about a Rumpelstiltskin moment.

COVER #4...

Okay, so by now everyone that reads this has gone out and bought at least 3 copies of CHARLATAN BALL #1, right?? I have. In fact, I've donned fake glasses and beard on some occasions to go into the same shop TWICE! hahaha Big thanks to Mr. Andrew Salmond, all the way in the UK and our own "Uncle" Phil Rynda here in the states for their promoting of said, above mentioned book. Super-secret, ultra-rare, highly collectible Charlatan Ball tee-shirts that are being printed now will be sent your way! Send me your sizes.

Thanks to those who wrote to me, a big thank you, my blog messages rarely reach double digits--I've a lot more (of your) links to add. Please keep writing in, let me know what you think as the series progresses. Personally, it was a strange and almost irksome feeling to pick up the book, in all it's floppy-paper goodness (or bad) and stare at work done almost 2 years ago that I feel looks muddied and awkward in comparison to the pages leaving my table now. Oh well, I hope readers hang in and stay on board, it's going to be one hell of a ride!

I also wanted to address those of you who weren't able to find CB#1 at your local comic shop; or those who're confused as to why this would happen or think the book might be late in any capacity. First off, Joe and I have nearly 6 issues already in the can, as they say, prior to issue #1 hitting the racks. That insures us, and you, the buying public that the book absolutely, positively will be released on time. That being said, for whatever reason, apparently Image books sometimes are delayed a week, give or take from their intended release date. It's not that we the artists are behind, but could very well be that Image's printing #'s are lower than the "big 2's" and Diamond, the distribution company waiting to pack more books per box. I could, of course talking out of my ass--but it sounds good, right? Another reason could be a lot of smaller comic book retailers are afraid to carry books being published outside of Marvel or DC. But keep asking your no doubt condescending shopkeeper to order you copies through his or her Diamond/Previews ordering catalog. Back issues are usually available, even after they're released.

That being said, I guess numbers on the first issue have been decent, as in good, as far as Image titles are concerned. Reviews have been pretty good too! Some dare I say "great" even...then there was one that graded the TV show CHUCK comic higher than ours...let's see if that lasts. At the very least, folks are writing, commenting and reviewing this book out of a massive piles and sea of others.

There was some questions regarding the image I posted previously. That is in fact the cover to issue #3, due in stores Aug. 20th. I'm not sure why so late, as issue #2 hits racks July 16th!?

Before I go back to posting non-CB related materials, thought I'd share some more of my process creating a cover, in this case, for issue #4:

I usually start with a handful of thumbnails--some being only a few inches tall. Scanned, I send over to Joe Casey and get his thoughts. This drawing actually replaced a few other ideas I had previously decided on. It felt right.


A little tighter and "at size", I wanted to send Joe a specific shot of Chuck's acting, etc.


The final inked version, scanned by my good friend who's credited with "digital assists", Ben Kalina.


Then on to Marc Letzmann, who colors the thing.

IN STORES THIS WEDNESDAY!!!

That's June 11th...issue #1 of CHARLATAN BALL premiers! Please feel free to promote or display on your blog(s), websites, diaries or dream journals. More importantly, go BUY it! In case you are stationed on a remote Antarctic viewing outpost, feel free to use this Comic Book Shop LOCATOR to find a store nearest you.

I figured since I've posted the cover to #1 so many times you're sick of it, here's a preview of issue #3.


P.S. Thank you to those who've written in, posted or linked with me. I just got back into the country after a long honeymoon and will do my best about getting back to you, linking and commenting.

POPPING MY CHERRY, INTERVIEW-WISE

They say you never forget your "first". A big thanks to Michael Patrick Sullivan over at Comic Book Resources for popping my interview cherry! Check out THIS ARTICLE about CHARLATAN BALL!

Plus there are a few more sample pages inside, complete with lettering by the amazing Rus Wooton...