Sara, (sometimes with an h)

a cat named Hercules

Some rough studies of the Farnese Hercules statue, which all kick ass.  Here's the original version i was inspired by.

Yet another version of Herc also appeared in the Inner Bimbo comic. Since there's several versions this famous statue, there's probably room for my own modest stab at it too.

yet another tree..

. . . just had to get this quickie out of my system.

Sandman

Screwing around in photoshop with this old piece

Maybe it's just me . .

. . but isn't it all these R's . . .

that are actually the coolest thing about this panel?  

Something different

Paint doesn't accept leather very easily,  but it was interesting experiment to try. 

Moms & Mars

There's a lot of comic book adaptations of Mars Attacks out there. 

But you know if Sam Kieth did it,

he'd find a way to sneak a few Mom's in there.

Friday's Tree

. . . can you find my signature?

Eleanor: Blue vs. White ?

Here's a variant Eleanor 1 Cover with Blue background

. . . vs. the original 1 background in White.

Any preference?

Way$hak collaboration

Just for fun, jon did the black and white, i added the strip of color down the middle.

Maxx: It's the little things.

You know what i'd forgotten i'd drawn here: 

check out those tiny little toes.

: )

Couple from Nola

The Nola project, style wise, is all over the place.  I wanted to stretch myself,  sometimes shifting from elaborate painted pages...

... to stripped-down pencil panels like this.


Not trying to be pretentious, just to push myself out of drawing the same old crap.  Even if it doesn't work creatively, i still think it's worth a try.  

Crazy Joker 'cuts outs'..

Maxx: Negitive Slug

Found a negative film strip of an old Yellow Slug Maxx page. It's weird though, because it's only of this one page, but i sometimes come across vintage production crap lying around the studio. Sorry if it's a little blurry.

Prehistoric artifacts - from about twenty years ago. 

Years before we artists started scanning our own work.

Lost Sketche

Orphaned sketch for a project that never came to fruition.

Nola Issue Logos?

Here's something i don't think i've posted before. Like other comic artists i often draw mind maps in my sketchbook, to brainstorm ideas.

I also keep drawing "logos" for small thumb-nails for each page of an issue. (I skipped issues 10, 11 and 13, also almost ditched 5 & 6, but the story stops at issue 21.)

The logos have become more ornate over time - kinda stupid as it's doubtful anyone, other than me, will ever see it.

Until now. 

So here's a question: Should i work the Logos into the actual Nola story itself?

Or not?

Mixed media Maxx Cover 34

This Maxx background was made from pouring Acrylic paints on some post cards from the Comic Art Museum retrospective from a few years back.

You can actually see the cards sticking out from the cover's edges.

I figured since had a bunch of extra post cards lying around the studio, i may as well use 'em up.

Hollows sketch

Sometimes i try something rough and lose, just to warm up.

Hulk Panel

My old buddy Kelly Jones helped me ink this sucker. 

I remember Kelly helped with the brushwork on Hyde's coat.

All this over a duck?

A duck?

That's what Joker asks, when Batman waits on a blackened night for a police van to pick up Joker. 

Most of my stories are about people who have some childhood incident that causes them to be somewhat developmentally stunted.

I was going to hand-paint some panels of the series, so here's a color image of grass -  a panel which i never used in the story.

Here's that: 

In Batman Secrets, i tried to talk about the after effects of grief,  without dwelling on Batman's parents being killed, which other writers had already handled much better than me. 

My editor said  you can't have Batman reveal his origin to the Joker.  True. So what i tried to explore, was another simpler trauma that happened a few months after the murder, young Bruce was involved in a friend's accidental shooting of a duck. Since Bruce couldn't even begin to deal with such a profound loss, this duck accident amplified an otherwise ordinary incident, thus Batman sublimated his previous grief into a more acceptable form. 

Batman does tells Joker a deeper, more personal truth than the details of his parents’ murder.

Batman just left out *who* the duck, reminded him of.

Thus batman had revealed his secret,  he just left out the worst memories: the robber's gun, his mother, the pearls, streetlight, blood, etc. 

Inverted Tree

By accident i inverted this tree painting in Photoshop, kinda interesting to see it in blue.

You may remember original green version. 



Which do you prefer... and why? 

Annie, Nola & Mommy Issues.

In Ojo, Annie had her dead mom mixed up with a red eyed monster in a drain pipe.

---


Nola has different Mommy issues.  Nola has her mother confused with her own red eyed childhood flaws, which Nola refers to as "the Mote in her eye".

Grown up Annie meet and Nola meet in the new Nola graphic novel, to talk about pipes,  red eyed creatures, and other convoluted issues.

---

You know, it even strikes me sometimes . . .

. . how friggin' *weird* my stories are.

Haunting Image

Rough Art from Children's story in the 'Worlds of Sam Kieth' art book.

Epicurus Spread, Pencils & Inks

Always love looking at  rough pencils to see whatever changes happen after the inks.  In the pencils, Socrates is leaning against a wood pile, which became a wooden barrel in the inked version.

Added a basket of fish next to the pig. 

Also changed Socrates 'profile' to 'three-quarter' to show him off better, then added the other philosophers - in the penciled version, i was lazy and tried to keep the philosophers 'off panel' so i wouldn't have to draw them.

I was a very lazy artist back then.

Still am.

Batman Panel

Hand colored panel from a rarely seen short Batman story i did a few years back.

It'll be collected for the first time in the Graphitti Batman Gallery Edition. But remember, not everyone wants to pop for pricey original art sized book, so feel zero-guilt if you prefer to stick to the smaller, usual comic book sized reprints instead.

I hate plugging crap on the blog, but how else will you know it's *out* there . . . if i don't mention it every once in a while? Okay this has been three times already so far, so promise to shut my yap from  here on out.  : )

Abstract Monday

This almost looks digital in places, but it's actually hand painted, acrylic, watercolor and sand.

Just feeling a little abstract this Monday for some reason.

Not in a bad way.

Eleanor panels

For some odd reason, Eleanor's "Nooooo" balloon edges kinda turned into weird kinda graffiti.


-------

Follow up Post:

Here's Ronda Pattison's colored version of the same page, which makes it look even better.

Sci-Fi Twout

Maxx 32 Cover/Poster.

I did this as a Maxx cover 20 years ago, but wound up using it as a poster instead but not many people saw it.

 A few years back, I came across the art again, and wound up hand-coloring it and using it as Maxximized  cover, so it finally got the fate it deserved.

Here's the before and after, color wise.

More critters..

Thanks to everybody for the box feedback.

Here's some hyper-looking Possum sketches to tide you over.