yet another post....

there.



: )

Some New Warm-up Sketches...

Mucho Apologies for the lack of post. Tons of thanks to everyone who's reached out to make sure I'm 'okay'.  Also thanks to Karel Kelly who threw up an interview with me here. 

Started a new sketchbook.. probably no new lines I have to make, but sometimes a different size or colored sketchbook makes us *feel* as though there's a fresh start.   New possibilities. Some sense of hope.  Here's some more surreal Trout doodles.. ( or Twout as it's sometimes spelled).. 

My therapy is... usual escape into creativity and doodles... here's a spread from a Mars attack comic that's eventually coming out. A wistful post-martian-attack mom.. fits the mood I'm emerging from. 

You probably already know the drill we all go thru.  Defaulting to "hermit-crab" status... during the impending pre-thanksgiving- and pre-christmas-cluster.... 

....that makes some of us all plunge into various forms of our own private holiday regression. 

No excuses. Not seeking pity. Mostly lack of posts are because of whatever cyclothymic moods I'm trying to push my way through. The good news is... i've remerged and more or less back. 

Most of these are material from either Worlds sketchbooks 2 and 3, 

.....or Nola and Dana sketches. 

But you've probably already figured that out, from all the "Dana" and "Nola" scribbles. 

Plus various other weird little disintegrating faces here and there.... 

just quick most little warm up sketches.. 

Trying to ease back in. Hope everything's cool with all of you guys too - 

... I wish you all the BEST.... a Stress-Fress-Holiday ( whenever possible ). 

Take care,

Sam

Leaves, Fires, and a Hundred Trees...

A burnt leaf.  Rough times out here on the west coast.. all these damned Fires are turning a lot of lives upside down.  Emotionally.  Psychically.  Tons of ways.  My thoughts and sympathies to all those affected, some I don't even know personally.


Also, i wanted to also Thanks Ted Adams and the guys at IDW for getting behind the Hollows, and my art books.  Ted the guys and gals at IDW have been a safe port in a turbulent sea.

Speaking of that, here's some loooooong over-due Hollows covers.  There's over a hundred of them.  I was discouraged by drawing these... so I decided to draw a bunch of Trees on these comic covers,....

.....because Trees always inspire me.



Can't go wrong with a tree. Well, you *can*.

Yikes - i learned that during the first 40 or so that i drew.

These are comic cover sketches for retailers who ordered the hollows.. but i'll throw some scans of them into an art book so you can check 'em all out next year. Maybe do a separate art book full of just Trees and Bonsai?


Yeah, Sam's Big gook of Trees n' Bonsai" ~ that'll give the super hero comics a run for their money, sales wise. : )

Don't worry, i know there's a lot of you out there who want a sketch on a comic book like this. I'm sure some of these will pop up on eBay down the road too.

Meanwhile... these really show one thing... there's only so many ways to DRAW a hundred trees without repeating oneself, isn't there? : )


Hopefully these retailers won't be too horrified their getting a tree.  Least most are in color.



But i prefer the simpler ones...



I don't know what it is with me and trees.

Thanks to everyone for sticking with me through various personal and artistic slumps.  We all go through them.  Sometimes ... I think i'm pretty much done creatively.  Worry i'm out of things to say. Out of 'ink'.

But then, something.. somehow, a new day starts, and new crap pops out of me, just like the rest of you. Life, finds a way.  Sheesh ~ ow i'm quoting Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic.

Time to quit this post before i embarrass myself any further, eh?

Yup.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: Maxx Scans... (plus SDCC edition of Worlds of Sam books came)

Scanning - scanning-scanning... I'll probably be soooooo sick of seeing Maxx at the end of all this, but has to be done!  That my camera cord dangling across the Maxx art.

People who see page one often ask if there's some significance to all those maxx 'logo' lettering in the upper left.  Just a artsy design element, nothing more.

Here's a little friend of maxx cover.. on small paper.. i did the previous friend cover on larger paper, but it has less detail than this smaller version. Really no rhyme or reason to why pages are different sizes.

For ease of printing headaches most Maxx pagers were mostly 10 x 15, the comic art size. This just fit those big 11x 17 scanners.

Sometimes the art was a little bigger on the Darker Image Maxx pages. Course i need to stop taking pics and put the art on face down if we're gonna scan now, eh?

Here's probably one of my favorites... i don't mean it egotistical way.

I just mean... *this* kind of creature is more like what i'd naturally draw, instead of trying to stuff Wolverine or Ghost Rider into my usual oddly-shaped proportions.

I could totally relax... be myself... while drawing this guy.. Maxx is really more of a fantasy book than super hero if you think about it.

Another nice part of the collected and Artists edition is.. i always intended to have the whole series start with darker image 8 pager ... following by Maxx issue 1.    I never got around to doing it in the old Maxx reprint trades from Wildstorm.

But we may as well get it right this go-around. Above is a little panel that kinda gets lost in the color. Kinda crude actually... but it's easier to see original art size.

I felt kinda embarrassed about a Artist Edition. Walt Simonson,  Mingola, sure. They deserve it. Honestly a lot of later issues of the Maxx have really hit and miss art. My fault mostly. Not Jim Sinclairs'.

I'm not fool enough to equate myself with the classic artists who IDW's done. I know it's just commercial popularity of the Maxx that would call for a Maxx artists edition.

I'd love to see an 'Epicurus' Artist Edition too... but that's much less popular (and not as well known. ) What i should really do is shut-the-heck-up and be grateful their even including Maxx in this series.

Yeah, while old school classic golden and silver age art collectors may cringe a 90's 'Image' comic made it in Artists Editions ... remember, Maxx is 20 years old. Some fans who were in high school at the time,

....those who grew up on it... *they* might dig checking the originals, right?

And if not, don't buy it, right?   I'll never be able to please everybody out there.

Luckily i don't have too.

Because, suddenly ... it happened!

Rescue! Salvation: a Box showed up today. Some art books from IDW... ?????

Thus, this handy-dandy box of books....

..... gratefully begat overflowing fruit, and pre-pachaged junk food, and thus these Magical Worlds art books, .....spared us from yet another bout of "Sam's Neurotic self-loathing over his old art-work"!

: )