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May 30th, 2007
A while back I posted an image of Dick Tracy and said I had done a handful of pulp character head shots and that I would post them soon. Well I didn’t exactly get to them very fast but here is a new one of Walter B. Gibson’s The Shadow.
One of the great things about being able to work out of the house is that I get to listen or watch stuff while I work. I actually don’t watch much of anything as I don’t have a TV in my office but I can watch DVD’s on my computer. Also I prefer to listen to things so I don’t have another visual fighting with my work for attention. So I tend to listen to many podcasts, often comic or sports related. Somedays though they don’t cut it and I want to listen to something like a radio drama. With Itunes you can access Iradio and listen to internet radio. One of the stations I love listening to is AM 1710 Antioch. You get to hear a bunch of great shows like Dragnet, Detective Stories, I Was a Communist Spy For The F.B.I., Speed Gibson, The Whistler, Suspense, and of course, The Shadow! If you ever get a chance , I highly suggest giving it a try.
Brent
May 25th, 2007
This week has week has been pretty hectic. In fact this whole month has been. Seems like I have a million things going on. Not just with work but we are getting ready to do a lot of house projects now that we are coming to summer. I think I’ve decided after this summer that I’m going to avoid working on personal work or at least not have due dates during the summer. It just seems that every weekend is booked and the work week is usually pretty intense for me during this time cause a lot of places are actually trying to get all their holiday product ready to go. I put myself in a pretty big ditch somtimes.
Yes I said that just to connect my blabbering with a piece of work. This image is from a project (the client we will just call Client X) for a motor sports company who wanted designs for a monster truck titled “Digger Time”, to rival a better known monster truck called “Grave Digger”.
Actually an idea of a competitive monster truck sounds like an awesome drama on the Fox network. Anyway I could go on forever about this job but the whole time I had a feeling this thing was never going to see the light of day and I was right. I guess Grave Digger’s people didn’t like the idea of a “Pepsi” in the monster truck world where they are clearly “Coke”. As for the drawing I threw the star background in there for kicks, it’s horrible but sometimes you gotta go with what a client wants no matter how bad it looks. The rest of it reminds me of a 1990’s Rob Liefeld comic. Anyway, I’ll always remember working on this one as we were moving the day the it was due and I just remember how stressed this crappy thing made me.
Brent
May 23rd, 2007
Here’s a quick sketch of Dr. Doom, the greatest Marvel villain of all time, maybe not on film though. I’m posting him as it’s been sort of looking to be a doom and gloom week here in Minnesota. I had plans to be working outside on the house this weekend buy mother nature looks like she might be in full bitch mode come Saturday. Hopefully things will change. I’m attaching a really quick inked version as well that I did with a sharpie. Originally this was part of the “What can I do in under and hour?” project I posted months ago. I know the pencils and inks were very quick but poor Victor here never got to the color stage, which is fine. He’s not that great anyway.
Brent
May 21st, 2007
Had a good week or two of sweet reading so I figured I’d share it with you. First off if you’ve never read or heard of Marvel’s character Nova, I highly suggest checking him out. He has a new series out and it’s damn good. Basically Nova is Peter Parker with the powers of Green Lantern. Currently I am also reading the Marvel Essential volume 1 of his series in the 1970’s and man is it full of your great D list bad guys which I love.
Here’s a quick rough I did of Nova months ago that I’ve never gotten back to fix and finish.
Next up is Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer and Rags Morales. This book came out about three years ago and I’m a little late to the party. I remember this book being all the rage when it came out but I’ve never been a huge DC guy so I skipped it. Now that I’m sort of changing my taste for books I figured I’d give it a shot. I bought it while I was in Chicago and read it on the plane ride home. I can’t really say much about the plot other than it’s the best murder mystery with heroes that I’ve ever read and I’m really tempted to start reading the new Justice League Meltzer is writting now.
Houdini The Handcuff King by Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi. This book is awesome and should win an Eisner award this year. Bertozzi’s did a great job on the art and nailed the look of Houdini who is a really an odd looking man if you’ve ever seen reference on him. Lutes does a great job in avoiding trying to tell the story of Houdini’s epic life but instead focusing on what would be a regular day in the life of Houdini. This story actually gave me a new take on a story I hope to tell someday. I hope to see more from The Center for Cartoon Studies as not only was the book great but the design was wonderful as well.
Three Strikes by Nunzio Defilippis, Christina Weir, and Brian Hurtt. Great modern noir written by the editors of my upcoming book Astronaut Dad. Story deals with California’s three strike law and how easily the best intentions can turn bad. Told from the perspective of both the law and the unlawful Brian Hurtt is certainly a guy I will be hunting down all previous work. Ed Brubaker writes a great intro as well.
hope you go buy some of this stuff.
Brent
May 18th, 2007
Cardiac is a Spider-Man character I have a hard time defending, cause let’s face it, he’s pretty lame. I’m really just hoping in these days of taking second rate characters and making them into something a little more interesting that someone takes the time to do this to him. I remember as a kid getting the Mark Bagley run on Amazing Spider-Man and seeing this character, his look was so unique that I just loved drawing him. It’s a shame Bagley’s run was sort of ruined by some rather crappy stories such as the return of Peter’s parents and the clone saga. His art was top notch even then. Here’s a little more info of the oh so sweet Cardiac!
Real Name is Doctor Elias Wirtham. He surgically replaced his own heart with that of a compact beta-particle reactor that gives him his great energy and had his skin laced with a Vibranium pseudo-nerve network…He focuses this energy into his muscles for strength, speed and agility and also into his power staff which he directs at will…Elias depends on this beta-particle energy which allows his heart to work properly, very similar to the old Iron Man/Tony Stark tales.
Brent
May 16th, 2007
After my post on Monday about the awesome Rip Haywire I got thinking about a project I did in college that had the same vibe and influences as that comic strip. I didn’t have the time to go through all the stuff for a post about it today but it will probably come up soon. Anyway I did go back and look through the old college portfolio cause I enjoy torturing myself and found this piece I did of Vincent Price.
It’s suppose to be the final shot of “House On Haunted Hill” and it is actually a photo taken of a set I made, all the characters are cut out. I always thought this would be a fun direction to go with my art. Maybe I still will someday. I thought a children’s book would be very cool like this. I still really want to do a children’s book down the road, I have two ideas in my head. One takes place on Halloween and the other is a wacky western. Someday.
Brent
May 14th, 2007
Morning everyone. I promise I’ll get back to posting art of my own sometime soon. For now though please enjoy some stuff I enjoy from other people. Here’s a great example.
RIP HAYWIRE! A MAN OF ACTION!
“Rip Haywire” is a humorous adventure strip that takes pot shots at the classic adventure strips, of the 40’s and 50’s, today’s action movies, and anything else that gets in the way.
Rip Haywire, Captain of the Cargo plane the Bumble Bee stands side by side, neck and neck , foot to foot, belt to…um…never mind…with his hot dog TNT. They hire out to anyone who’s in search of danger, action, thrills, and intrigue! While we just Laugh.
Created by Dan Thompson this strip is one of the few great online comic strips that I continue to check out, make sure you do the same.
Brent
May 11th, 2007
Last year at a garage sale in our local neighborhood I came across this awesome dime novel from Dell written by Jack Iams. Sporting an awesome cover by legendary paperback artist Harry Barton and featuring art by a young Roy Crane, who ghosts the art of cartoon assistant Mary Bradley in the story. Here’s the scoop…..
“Death mysteriously strikes down top flight cartoonist — twelve unpublished comic strips disappear — a nude woman holds a supernatural rendezvous in a dead man’s studio — a blue sedan roars down upon two person in a cab … purpose: death for two — and murder strikes again and again in this exciting mystery which reveals some unusual trade secrets of the men who create newspaper comic strips.”
Sadly it took me almost a year to finally read it. In a rare surprise the book was actually as good as the cover. If you ever get lucky enough to find this little treasure anywhere be sure to pick it up, you won’t be disappointed.
Brent
May 9th, 2007
Got back in last night from a wonderful trip to Chicago with a plate full of work waiting for me. So I’m keeping it short today but while I was in the city of broad shoulders I managed to chat it up with the fine folks over at Around Comics. Chris and Sal (sadly Tom Katers was missing) treated me like an old friend and we chatted comics for a while on their Free Comic Book Day episode. This episode will probably generate some buzz in the industry (not cause of me) with their first guest on the show, Steve Rude. Steve basically calls out his writer and Nexus co creator Mike Baron for turning in poor work and that he needs to step it up. It’s an interesting interview to say the least. I love Steve Rude and love the fact that he took what could have been an easy thing to sugar coat and say everything is great, and actually tell you that collaboration can be hard sometimes. I hate it when people try to cover up the grueling process of collaboration. No matter how great it is there is bound to be differences and struggles, why hide it? It makes me want to read more Nexus knowing that there was a struggle to create it than something that just came flawlessly. Anyway check out the episode.
Brent
May 2nd, 2007
So after many a year of having a rather uninspired work space I’ve finally gotten something that helps get the creative juices to flowing. Below are some pictures of my new studio at my house. It’s a far cry from the old place I use to have that was right next to the cat litter box. That was a rough one.
1. Here’s the general walk in area as modeled by my bulldog Matilda. There must be something good in the trash that has caught her interest. On the wall is a skateboard I designed for Target. Also there is an old poster for a motorcross event in 1971. My dad got this at the event while he was running a cycle shop with my grandfather. Originally it hung up in his garage back in Illinois ever since I was a little kid. I thought the design was cool and funky so he passed it off to me and I finally framed it.
2. Here’s the first window that has a nice view of jack shit, but my cat Ozzy seems to love it. On the floor is some randomness that I need to take to the basement, like my new comic boxes (or drawer boxes for all the geeks.). Yes that is a calendar of The Office.
3. One of the many pieces of Ikea furniture we own. That funky thing holding up my printer is from there as well. On the wall is a cool painting my wife got by a local artist named Micheal Birawer of Chicago, my favorite city. On the opposite side is another gift from the wife, she took these 3d trading cards I did for the kid’s snack Go Gurt and framed them all up for me. I usually don’t like hanging my own stuff on walls but I was pretty happy with how these turned out and it was also at the time, a big freelance job for me so this was a cool gift.
4. Here’s the closet that I gutted out and added shelves to make a nice little display area. I bought this nice storage/file folder at Ikea and it’s been great to use so far. Also I got a reprint of the old Universal movie The Mummy. I want to switch the poster out every couple of years but I really love this one right now.
5. Here’s the right side. This is mostly books and comics. Reference stuff. Way too many Essentials.
6. Here’s the left side. This side is sort of unfinished. I need to get it organized better. Mostly right now I call it the “Things Remembered” shelf as most of it is all gifts from weddings I’ve been in over the last year or so. Also I got some of my old pulp novels and books on display.
7. Right above the closet I put up a shelf to display old comics I have. I don’t have the greatest collection in the world and most of them are reader copies but I still love looking at them for inspiration. I bought the copy of Avengers #3 in LA last year at the first convention with Horrorwood.
8. Here’s a picture my wife took of me working at my desk. I finally got a window so I can at least see what a great day I’m missing outside. I just got that desk at, you guessed it…Ikea. Still kicking it with an Imac G4 but we did get a Powerbook G5 this year. On the wall with the window is a photo my wife took of an abandoned gas station on the street we use to live on. It has since been knocked down and is a CVS Pharmacy and Starbucks. You can see our deck outside where I watch the bunnies living under our deck every morning get up and destroy our flowers.
9. Finally here is a closer look at the shelves I have above my desk. Mostly superhero and monster stuff. A photo with me and Stan Lee from San Diego 2005. A Honey Nut Cherrios box and Boo Berry box I’ve done and of course some General Mill’s bobble heads.
Well that’s it, believe it or not the room really is only about the size of a jail cell but hey it’s what you make of it. I’m probably in there enough to make that a good comparison. I’m heading out of town so I will not be back to posting stuff till next Wednesday. Take care!
Brent
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