NEW CRAP to look at, ....and lots OF it!!!

Thanks for everyone's comments! Remember when you don't get any new post from me, it's good news: Means i'm working my tail off playing catch up on a buncha NEW crap.

( remember i use 'crap' with affection) ........ so speaking of crap..

.. i'm finishing the first issue of Hollows for IDW, (above) - which i'm pleased is sort of a cross between a hand colored book and a black and white one... so expect something a little different on this sucker..

And the OTHER job i'm busy with? ( see above) Knee-deep in the last eight page installment of Aliens for Dark Horse Presents.  - Yikes - Both Hollows and Aliens are ... due..  (of course) ..at the same time.

Again I am obviously more taken with drawing 'quasi-gibson-girl-hair-styled ladies and teddy bears rather than the Aliens, ( though i did enjoy painting this swell little Giger-esk cave) and it shows.

There's also lush drawings of women showing up in the Hollows panels above too.  But Hollows has much more big-assed-oversized-bonsai-Trees... rather than Teddy bears. Aliens: Teddy Bears. Hollows. Bonsai Trees.

I still can't *believe* got away with 20 Century Fox and Dark Horse approving an Aliens story with a friggin' Teddy bear, how messed up is that?  Pretty cool. And thanks to John Layman script, it actually makes *sense* there's a teddy bear in there now too... rather than just randomly thrown in like it would of be i had written it.

Plus I totally forgot I'd promised the HEROS charity folks to do a Fantastic Four cover...

And, well by a mistake, i accidentally discovered two extra FF covers lying around in packages i lost track of... (crap) ....

...so now, (because of my own stupidity in losing track)... have THREE  blank FF covers due today.

..hope they Heros folks aren't pissed i'm hogging three covers.  Promise i'll sit out any future FF cover gigs to make up for it.

Okay, i'm calling this FF cover (above) finished! pronouncing it D.O.A. -

i may get back to coloring it, or maybe it's cooler to just heave it in blue-ish half tone?

Now, onto the next FF cover..

Good news is these three covers don't ALL have to be in color.. so far... this one looks terrible. I may have to color just to save it from it's current horrible state..

Better.  But better work on the hulk some more...

hopefully i can pump a little life into them in the next  hour...

....on this crazy busy sunday afternoon.

Okay, a little goofy looking, buy at least there's some life in it now. the Hulks teeth look like a circle or shot glasses on a round tray, don't they? Whatever.

Then the Heros guys also passed along me a couple sandman trade to add a quickie doodle in. I usually don't sign comics unless i'm a a con, but these are so late may as well throw them in with the FF covers package too, eh? Best i can do in one minute.

It's not a race, but i think any more i add may make this sandman look WORSE.. .so better quit while were ahead.

Now let's dive into the third and *last* FF Cover... this one is way goofy, just look at the things lower lip.

I'm pleasing myself here, no one else.

...and hopefully pleasing who-ever who buys it, because they'll have to be as screwed up in their taste as i am to appreciate it, right?

Sorry, this one came out too fast for me to get in any process pics, just zoned out while drawing it..

What else? Oh yeah, those the commissions, haven't forgotten about those too.

And Kim and I have promised each other to have the Potbelly toy FINISHED by next years San Diego comic con( actually it's me who fell behind getting him sketches, but he's re-inspired me to get back on top of that too. - thanks buddy!)

Let alone chickens. Here's proof i'm Jon and I are back on top of that too.

Hopefully this will make up for the lull of posts last week.

Bet you got sick of looking at that woman's face at the top the last post, eh? Me too.

Not that it's a bad face, just time for something NEW again..



- Sam

Of Aliens, Sequels and teddy bears.

In between this alien drawings instead of describing how i work, i'm going to rant a little about the first series and explain why i i'm not a big fan of nostalgia or sequels. That shouldn't take away from the fact if you dig Aliens, cool.  If my doing a new series does if for you, even better.

But i always manage a way to screw it up, sometimes in a good way, like everything i draw.

I've never been a fan of movie sequels. This is why i've always resisted reviving a Maxx comic. Not because i consider myself 'above' it, hey, i'm just as big a whore as any other freelancers. :)  It's mostly because i'm more excited by possibly failing by trying something new, rather than flogging the same old dead horse. Plus fans always see things how they remember, and any style you do that's new kills their nostalgia buzz quick. Not all, but a few.

That said, I made clear to the editor I only agreed to do this Aliens deal if they accept the fact i don't draw the same as I used to now. Not to be an obstinate jerk, but because on a practical level, as we artists morph over time, it gets pointless to explain or apologize for whatever our styles morph into.

Wanting-vs-Hating change is human nature. I do it too. As my old friend Terry Fitzgerald  jokes, if your favorite band puts out an album that sounds *different*, fans are bummed that they changed their sound.  But if your band keep pumping out albums with the same sound, fans bitch because the band *keeps* doing the same old tired thing. I'm guilty of the same thing with artists i grew up liking. I want change, yet I resist it ....because i know, with change, there's always something that's lost.  

The first time i drew aliens many years ago, it was a mixed bag.  Other than the first Aliens issue i drew which i liked, the last three issues were very rushed and pretty bad work on my part. Trust me, the color hid tons of rushed lame art.

Dark Horse got 300 pieces of fan letters from the first series i drew. Unfortunately, only 3 letters liked it. Kelly Jones found out the same thing when he drew an Aliens book too. It seems whoever drew a NEW miniseries was compared to the previous artists, and fans threw tomatoes at you for not looking like the previous Aliens artists.  But, like Kelly, it taught me to develope a thick skin early on. Fans bought it anyway, and in retrospect... nobody seems to mind all the flaws. Or remember the flap over it. 

So I thought, if i took another stab at it, i might be able to, at least.... be more consistent this time.  Some would say a new series will suck compare to the old stuff or won't but others would like it anyway, and most won't really freak out either way.  

I'd agreed only to do this series... if it was understood, for better or worse... I'm a *different* artist now.

...and if i could draw the most unlikely object into an Alien series.

Something just for me.

Something that didn't belong. Something stupid.

Something fuzzy.


a teddy bear.

Oddly enough, they agreed.

John Layman wrote it into the story, and there we are. Warts and all.

So that's why, for me, sequels often seem destined to disappoint. Or 'suck'. Because we can't 'go home'. I sure as heck can't.  I'm usually using an old favorite comic or movie as a way to revisit who i used to be... but instead i only get a vague hazy memory of my old self, at best.

Because, it's too late. I've changed. Maybe you're a different person too.  Different than you were in the 'old Maxx days', or when you first read an old Aliens comic? And if so, glad to hear it. The only thing that's spookier than when people change,

is when they don't.