Tex Cover

This cover really caught my attention when I first saw it! Mark Texiera did some great inking and some nice work with white paint.

Annie strips!

In response to the Bucce, I am posting more ANNIE Sunday comic pages. Enjoy!

Overboard cute

I can't help it. So beautiful!

New Orleans

The Saints are playing right now in New Orleans and I can only imagine how happy the fans are. I hope the city recovers quickly and I hope the Saints win their game!

UPDATE- The Saints beat The Falcons! 23-3

Sunday comics

I was really into comics around 1982. It was my second year of High School and I started hanging out with like minded fans of comic books. My art sucked, but I kept trying hoping to improve. I'm still trying to improve!

My family read the NY Daily News and I read the Magazine section and the Comics! At one point I started clipping and saving a certain strip and really studying the art, and that strip was ANNIE.

Not Little orphan ANNIE, just annie, Drawn by Leonard Starr. The line looks simple enough, but it's drawn with ease and confidence! Excellent work of a bygone age. Another thing is that in the Sunday strip I've posted, you see that a number of characters not only hold, but fire guns! Not a big deal back then, but today there is an unofficial rule that weapons can't be shown in newspaper strips today. You may not have read your local Sunday paper lately, so take a look. Just corny jokes, save the violence for the front page.

Cloak and Dagger

Cloak and Dagger premiered 20 or so years ago in an issue of Spectacular Spider-Man. I thought that the pairing of a teenage blond girl and a teenage black guy was a bit ahead of it's time. The two were runaways who gained powers of light and darkness, after being injected with some strange drug. They were a hit with me, and they kept popping up in the pages of Spider-Man. After sharing space in a comic book with Doctor Strange they got their own book and the act got stale.

Cloak would be a little overbearing trying to protect Dagger. He needed her light to survive and Dagger provided it.. The book had no real supporting characters until the writer introduced a unique storyline. After fighting some villain named Ecstacy Dagger was blinded! Dealing with her lack of sight in a realistic way, like learning how to walk the street, was great reading. She learned how to fight and protect herself. She made friends other than Cloak and the art by Mike Vosberg improved with every issue.

The storyline lasted maybe a year and I remember those issues fondly.

Magazines

I subscribe to a lot of magazines and I'm constantly at the newsstand looking through anything that catches my eye. I wind up with stacks of them at my apartment and I have to make time to read them. I do read them, but I buy them because I'm looking for something. Reference.

I look at every newspaper and periodical from OK Magazine to USA Today clipping photos. Hey, there's a shot of a sinking oil rig! I'll put that in my files! Hey, there's a photo of an overturned truck! I think I'm getting nutty with reference stuff. When I draw, I want my work to look authentic, so I have to dig up that Space Shuttle ref.

So I guess I have to keep buying magazines. And keep drawing. And keep reading!

More art I admire!

As Art Director for Comiculture Magazine, I am on the mailing list of a number of Advertising industry magazines. I caught this painting in the Sept. Issue of Creativity magazine! This is a great painting by Michael Koelsch that recalls the old-fashioned Men's Mags of the 50s and it's for a Dutch beer company. How Macho! I like it!

Another win

Yesterday was a good day! I really enjoy watching football and there was some excellent games on Sunday. The Chargers won easily, The Giants had a thrilling overtime win and The Saints beat The Packers! If The Saints win 6 more games, I win my bet!

Art I admire!

I'm a great fan of Jim Lee's art. His early art. I inked the backgrounds on Alpha Flight when Al Milgrom did the inks. I noticed the change in Jim's pencils from heavy contrast and shadow, to a tight linework. A style that Scott Williams would ink very well! The last time worked with Jim was an issue of Publisher War Journal. I did backgrounds and he inked himself.

This page is from X-men issue 269, page four. Really attractive art and great layout! He would soon leave this book to start a new X-Men book, and after that leave Marvel altogether to help start Image Comics.

Sketchy KOLCHAK

Golly, it's been busy! I am running around and doing all my work as fast as I can. That includes working on the third issue of the Kolchak series for Moonstone Books. It starts off with a bang! The hero Monster is being attacked by 4 doggy creatures, and there are innocents in the middle! I try to do thumbnails when I have action sequences, so here are some quick marker/brush sketches.

Cracked Promotion

I have mentioned CRACKED Magazine in an earlier posting. I lamented about the loss of the artwork and how they are imitating the latest R rated magazines. It looks like the plan is working! I stopped into a local saloon to watch the Monday football and noticed some aggressive advertising. It looks like CRACKED is going after the over 21 crowd with Advertising on beer coasters. Nice!

How about some football?

I have a bet with my friend David. I bet that the New Orleans Saints will win at least 8 games. Well, The Saints won the first game of the season this Sunday, defeating the Cleveland Browns! What a great game!

Birthday Bar Hopping

How do you celebrate someone's 40th birthday? A new car? A facelift? No, I decided to drink! My friend Rob shares the same date of birth, but I'm a year older. Rob came up with the bar hopping idea and I put together a list of cool Santa Monica bars. It was such a blast!

We started at my place. I supplied the beer and Rob brought some food, Champagne and some excellent clothes. Steve brought some beautiful framed artwork and a great book as gifts. Dean and Monica brought chips, dip, a tasty cake and a great gift card that I'll be using tomorrow! It's a good thing that Rob was designated driver, because the party has started!

The first place was a Vodka bar named VODA. It's inside a Santa Monica hotel and we got there after 6:00. It was nice and empty and we got to know the bartender really well! He recommended some good drinks and we ordered some tasty pizza from the bar menu. The place gets the thumbs up!

After we relax with a few drinks, we head to a nearby Mexican restaurant with a hopping bar scene! We enjoy Margaritas with salt and we are joined by 2 friends who happened to be in the area! They didn't follow us to the next bar, but that's okay. More for us!

We had a lot of beers at O'Briens and even more at Punch on Wilshire! Things get a little blurry after that. We planned on going to more bars, but we know when to say when. Lots of drinking and lots of laughs.

Rob dropped me off at my place, and thankfully no vomiting! Just some fake hurling to freak out the neighbors. A night out drinking with my dignity intact! I must have learned something in 40 years.

Today is my Birthday!

I was born 40 years ago and I am taking the day off from work. There will be other celebrations to be sure, but playing hooky is like a gift to myself.

I can't help but notice the differences in my life between 30 and 40. I have a Graphic novel, I feel that I'm a respected artist and I still have so many ideas that I want to work on. I am keeping busy. I hope too busy for a mid-life crisis.

My workspace

In a response to a posting by Allen Gladfelter, I will show my drawing table. I think it's a modest space with an interesting view. I keep my equipment on the right and my reference on the left and the page right in front of me!

Black Panther

I have read The Black Panther series since the first issue and I have an opinion on it. It's a good book with great characters and excellent art. I find myself looking forward to the next issue and the further adventures of T'challa, The Black Panther and Storm.

The first issue really didn't thrill me so much. Reginald Hudlin started with an abbreviated history of Wakanda and how the small African country was never colonized by Europeans. It was great to establish a history for the character, but the book went into a political commentary, which did not interest me. The Black Panther really took off with the addition of Luke Cage as a supporting character and T'Challas' search for a bride!

There's plenty of drama surrounding the courtship and the wedding! Now the book is about the two doing a good will tour around the world and getting into adventures. Instead of getting into Wakandan politics or fighting the KLAN as he had in earlier books, Hudlin focuses on a powerful monarch and his successful marriage.

Hey Kids! Let's draw!

Yesterday was a slow at work, so I got out the felt tip brush and sketched.