Ah ha!

It figures. As soon as I stopped looking for my long-lost character sketch and started looking for something else...there it was. It was tucked away in a pile of papers I must have flipped through ten times. But I never saw it until I stopped trying. I'm really glad I found it, too, because the sketch I started a week ago got put aside so I could work on some really detailed illustrations for work. (I can't share them, unfortunately.) I just barely finished them on time and haven't had any time to work on anything else. And since I'll be out of town on an much, much-needed vacation next week, I thought I'd share with you this, sadly, unfinished drawing. This is my bad guy from the story I am...or was...writing back in August and haven't had time to work on much. I guess it's fairly obvious what the nature of his, um, condition is. But I don't want to give too much away as I fully intend to publish this one. For various reasons, I've never pursued any of my story ideas to any degree of completion. But I think this one may actually be marketable. As soon as my life uncomplicates itself a little, I'll get back to work on it.

I think I'm finally getting a grip on what I want him to look like and how I'll be drawing the book. I had started with a super-cartoony, loose style because of my Darwyn Cooke obsession but this is (to my chagrin) the way I actually draw and fighting against it was only frustrating me.

***

As I said, we're going on vacation starting tomorrow. I can't tell you how much we need this. It's been about a year since I took any time off that wasn't spent doing something I'd rather not have been doing. I'm exhausted both physically and emotionally.

My back is hurting worse than it has been in some time. A constant, nagging ache that just won't go away. And the pain in my hip that started as an occasional twinge about two years ago has also become chronic and my chiropractor tells me it's arthritis. I foresee a hip replacement in my not-too-distant future.

Mike is still on my mind every waking minute. I've finally reached the point where thinking about the good times makes me smile instead of cry but I miss him so much it hurts. A part of me still hasn't accepted that he's gone and sometimes when I think of him there's that instant of "I can't wait to tell Mike...oh, yeah..." And it hurts every single time.

Sorry to be such a downer. I'm just making the point that Suzanne and I are both excited to be going on vacation. We'll be going down to see Suzanne's parents on Harker's Island and staying in the cottage on the water across the street. I don't mind telling you I'll be sipping quite a bit of rum and coke and whatever else I can get my hands on. I'm not usually a big drinker because I tend to get sick when I drink too much. But this yearly vacation is when I usually cut myself some slack. I'm also taking a foot-tall stack of books to read and a pile of DVDs to watch and I plan on drawing until my fingers fall off. Drawing has finally become fun for me after nearly 40 years and I plan to take advantage of it. Whenever I draw for someone else, they always hand me something they saw and tell me they want me to "draw like this guy." I gotta tell you, that gets tiring. I never get to draw like me. That's why I like having this blog so much. I can do whatever I want. So I'll be storing up some blog sketches while I'm on vacation and I'll share them with you when I get back.

***

Finally, with all the traveling and picnicking and general goofing-off that goes on on Memorial Day, it's easy to forget why we get the day off from work in the first place. This Monday, wherever you happen to be and however you may feel about the conflicts we find ourselves in right now, please take a minute to remember the men and women who have given their lives to protect us and our way of life. It's something I try not to take for granted. But I often do. We all do. So, on this one day at least, spare a minute to think about these fine folks and what they gave up for us.

Go, Speed Racer, Go!

Suzanne and I just caught SPEED RACER with our buddy Paul. I honestly have no idea why the critics are being so hard on it. That's the most fun I've had watching a movie in the theater in a long time. It ain't Shakespeare, but it's not trying to be. It's just trying to be a good time and that it was. The little boy and the chimp are laugh-out-load hilarious and steal the movie. And Matthew Fox makes a great, cool Racer X, despite his inexplicably bad reviews.

The critics have pretty much killed the box office for this movie, the #$%*ers, so if you want to see it in the theater, you'd better do it soon. I guarantee you'll like it.

If you don't like SPEED RACER, you don't like fun.

And you should suck it.

Tiger-Man

I was feeling so disgusted with myself about losing the sketch (which was of one the characters from the story I was writing when I had the time for that sort of thing) that I forced myself to crank this sketch out on my lunchbreak a day or two ago. I was recently reading an issue of Rough Stuff magazine and they showed some great artwork by Nick Cardy and Tony DeZuniga. Those guys drew really loose but no line was ever out of place. It got me thinking about all those amazing artists from the Philippines like Alfredo Alcala and Rudy Nebres that I loved so much as a kid. (And still do.) They did all this great rendering and, damn, could they lay the ink to paper!

I wanted to see if I could do some freehand rendering in ink. So I whipped up a very loose pencil sketch and then just went to it with the Pitt brush pen. I tried not to worry too much about where the brush fell and just went with it. Almost a stream-of-consciousness thing but with drawing instead of writing. I really like the way it turned out. In the future, I'll pay a little more attention to what I'm doing but this was just an experiment. This is what I wish I drew like all the time. Well, close to it. I love the carefree feel it has but some of the rendering is a little too carefree if you know what I mean. Anyone who's known me for a while knows I idolize Darwyn Cooke and his deceptively simple illustration style. Particularly his Kirby riffing in DC's NEW FRONTIER. That's what I shoot for when I ink my own stuff. Unfortunately, my pencilling style is too tight for that. I end up drawing like what John Byrne calls the "cut glass brigade." That's why I didn't erase the pencil lines before I scanned this piece. I wanted Craig to see that I could loosen up a bit. :)

I chose Tiger-Man for this because I've been thinking a lot about the old Atlas comics that came out in the 70's. Most of the books only lasted 3 issues or so and no two issues were alike. Rather than give a book time to find an audience, each book's direction would change almost issue to issue. Characters would get new costumes or even new names. Mike and I each had our own favorites. I was absolutely in love with THE DESTRUCTOR and Howard Nostrand's TARGITT, particularly when they changed him into a costumed vigilante. (Of course.) Something about Nostrand's bold, cartoony art spoke to me. Being a life-long horror fanatic, I was also quite taken with PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES. In fact, when I found out in college that Mario Bava's movie was NOT an adaptation of the comic, I was sorely disappointed. Mike preferred Ernie Colon's elegant artwork in the more consistent GRIM GHOST and the science-fictiony MORLOCK 2001. But we both got into TIGER-MAN. The idea of were-beast as superhero really grabbed us. (I guess it's why I like Robert Kirkman's WOLF-MAN so much.) And Ernie Colon's art was as great as ever. Steve Ditko even did an issue, I believe. I wanted to see what I could do with inking hair and so Tiger-Man seemed my best candidate with his long locks. I made him a little more bestial than he appeared in the books but I think a Tiger-Man should look like a tiger, man. Anyway, I hope you like it.

***



This is my week for double posts. Jim McLauchlin (I misspelled him name last time.) sent out an email to everybody involved with the HERO INITIATIVE tribute to Mike and shared the cover with us. This was originally intended to be the splash page of the WHAT IF? book Mike was working on when he died but I guess they figured it would make a nifty cover. Karl Kesel inked it and Paul Mounts did his usual stunning coloring job. He never fails to amaze me. It breaks my heart that Mike never finished this because he was doing such a beautiful job on the book. But the fine folks they got to finish it in his honor have done a bang up job. I've been fortunate enough to be included in the emails when the pages were making the rounds and, rest assured, Mike's friends have done him proud.

The finished book, including some additional tribute illustrations and prose by the people who knew and loved Mike (including one incredible piece by Richard Case that, I guarantee you, will make you smile and cry at the same time) will debut at the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, NC June 20th through June 22nd. The rest of you will be able to buy it at your LCS on June 25th. Make sure your shop owner's order it. Jim tells me sales have exceeded expectations but all the proceeds from the sale of this book are going to a great cause so lets exceed those expectations even more.

Okay, that's it. As Suzanne would say, "Peace, out!"

Gene Colan

Believe it or not, I had a sketch almost ready to post. And then lost it. I have no idea where it went.

Reminds me of the time my Critical Thinking assignment fell out of my notebook on my way to my review with my professor. “But...but...it was right here.” “Sure it was.” The guy was a total jerk and hated my guts for some reason. Though I excelled in every other class, this professor had singled me out and made me feel like “that guy”. You know the one. He never has his homework done and always has some excuse. He does that agonizing long search through his book bag for the assignment while everybody in the class watches uncomfortably and everybody knows it’s not in there because he didn’t actually do it.

I begged the professor to let me go back to my car and get the assignment. He said, “Our meeting was at 11:45. You were not prepared. Why should I give you a chance to go to your car and finish the assignment before coming back?”

Because it took 3 hours to do that assignment! Give me five minutes to go back to my car. If I don’t come back with it in five minutes, you can flunk me!”

“I should flunk you anyway. But...D-minus.” The assignment was sitting on the floorboard of my car, waiting for me, when I got back in.

I barely scraped out a C in that class by the end of the semester. And I had a teacher, Mrs. Martin, in middle school, that had similar issues with me. For some reason, she decided on day one that I was going to be her punching bag and she went out of her way to embarrass me in front of the class any chance she got. I would get so worked up I couldn’t function. Which just gave her more ammunition. In every other class, though, I was fine. Ah...memories.

***



Anyway, since I don’t have a sketch, I thought it would be a good time to point out to everyone that hasn’t heard that Gene Colan is in poor health. I don’t think there’s anyone who reads comics who hasn’t heard of Colan’s work. I would have thought that this news would be burning up the internet but I’ve barely seen a ripple. I had the great honor of meeting Mr. Colan at the Heroes Convention a couple years ago. Not only is he one of the greatest talents in the industry, he’s modest, accommodating and an all-around nice guy. Erik Larsen, prompted by Mike’s passing, wrote a great editorial railing on fans who don’t show their appreciation for someone’s work until they’re gone. He mentioned it seemed that the TELLOS hardcover had somewhat disappointing sales until Mike’s death caused them to sell out. I have no idea if that’s truly the case but we have here an opportunity to let Mr. Colan know just how much we appreciate his work while he is still very much with us. We should take advantage of that.

Clifford Meth has released an email from Gene’s wife requesting his fans send him get-well cards and tell him what his work means to us. I’ve already sent mine. The address can be found on Meth’s blog here:

http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2008/05/original-art-stories-gene-colan-part-i.html

Yesterday, I emailed him and asked if he would accept donations to help cover the growing costs of Mr. Colan’s healthcare. He politely declined but did say that there is an artwork auction in the works and that any money made from the sale of Meth’s books at http://www.aardwolfpublishing.com would be going directly to the Colans. He didn’t say it but I took it to mean the Colans are proud people and don’t want charity. So I’ll respect their wishes and I’ll be heading over to Meth’s site to do some shopping and I’ll be keeping an eye out for that auction.

If you’re a professional comic book artist, please contact Clifford. I understand there’s also a benefit book being assembled and they’re asking for contributions.

Finally, I asked Jim McLaughlin at the HERO INITIATIVE if they had heard about Mr. Colan’s situation. He said they were contacting the Colans at that very time. This is exactly why the HERO INITIATIVE (formerly ACTOR) was founded. To help these folks when they’re down. So, here’s where you can donate some money and be sure it will help:

http://www.actorcomicfund.org/Content.asp?Id=27

And remember, the HERO INITIATIVE isn’t charity. The guys and gals that made the comics we loved as kids have earned this. No doubt.

Slacker!

I'm the worst. I admit it. I've got a million excuses for not posting. None of them good. It seems I've had the perfect storm of bad blog conditions at work. Busy all day, leaving on time at night. Normally, that would be great, but it's the exact opposite of the kind of schedule that prompted all those sketches early on in the life of this blog. I've made a game attempt at sketching something at work but as soon as I put pencil to paper, I'm pulled away to, you know, actually earn my paycheck. The horror! The sheer unfairness of it all! Other than that, my free time has been taken up with housework, yard work and helping friends move. And, in the interest of full disclosure, we just got a Wii. I'm pretty good at not spending an unhealthy amount of time on video games but this is something Suzanne and I can do together and we've gotten somewhat addicted. But with two professional (though not paying, of course) drawing jobs to do, I'd better get my priorities straight.

Since I'm desperate and since I understand a lot of Mike's friends and fans peek in here every once in a while, though they don't post, I thought I'd dip back into that box of stuff I found at my parents' house. So, here are some pictures Mike drew when we were kids. I can't be sure but I'd place these pages roughly around Mike's early high school years. Looking at them, I'm amazed at the amount of detail and the sense of composition he had even then. We were always competitive with our art but I can see now I never stood a chance.

THE HERALD


This is the splash page for a book Mike started but never finished called The Herald. He's not pictured here but this was the "Messiah" character he drew and posted on his blog a while back under another name. Around the time this was drawn, Mike still wasn't inking his comics but he'd discovered that if he did full, tight pencils, then added shading with a waxy grey pencil Dad had brought home, it was almost like those nice ink wash illustrations in the Marvel black and white magazines we loved so much. He used this style quite a bit, as you can see some of the following illustrations.

KA-LOR

This was Mike's answer to John Carter, Warlord of Mars. KA-LOR OF SATURN was an Earthman stranded on Saturn who is made the leader of the "good" tribe (in gold armor) who are constantly at war with the "bad" guys, (in blue and red armor.) This was one of my favorites of Mike's creations. Eventually when he and Carlton Hill started doing comics together, Carlton prompted him to re-imagine Ka-Lor as a more barbaric, leather-clad warrior and I hated it. I loved the iconic designs seen here and the colorful drawings he did of the battle scenes between the two groups.

CURSE

I'm taking some liberties posting this one. This is from one of Mike's collaborations with Carlton called "THE MAN CALLED CURSE". Curse was completely Carlton's creation and I have no idea if he's ever planning to use any of the dozens of characters he created. I hope I'm not causing him any trouble putting this out there. I don't remember much about Curse except that I really enjoyed reading the books. Carlton was a passionate writer with a million ideas bouncing around in his head. He's African American and so most (though by no means all) of his characters were Black. This was years before Milestone Comics came about and the universe he created by himself and, later, with Mike, was just as rich with interwoven stories and plots as anything being put out by Marvel or DC at the time. Admittedly, quite a few were derivative but a lot weren't and he always put a new spin on everything. I really miss that time in our lives. Again, I hope he wouldn't have a problem with me sharing this. I only post it because it shows how much detail and love Mike put into all his drawings, even then.

MESSIAH

Mike finally discovered inking. I think this page is based on something published by Marvel at the time but I can't put my finger on it. Probably a CAPTAIN MARVEL or X-MEN book since Mike was heavily into his hero-worship of John Byrne and Jim Starlin at this point. I want to say it was the Warlock MARVEL TEAM-UP issue but I'd have to dig that out and it's too late at night to go scrounging through my collection. Anyway, it still shows a grasp of drama and a pretty darn good inking technique considering he was using Pentel markers and Sharpies. I think we'd both been playing around with whatever pens we could find around the house, including ballpoints, but somehow Mike discovered the Pentels. He'd been using a mechanical pencil with a .05 mm lead to draw with and the Pentels were something he could use to keep that fine line he liked. I, of course, started using the same equipment at my earliest opportunity, to lesser effect. I have very specific memories of Mike and me scouring the school supplies section at the local K-Mart, looking for those things.

Damn, he was good. He was always good.


Mixed in with Mike's stuff in the box were a few of my drawings. This one drawing was a character design for my villain "Crimewave". I don't remember how old I was when I drew this but I remember being really proud of the color scheme and the "C" logo on his chest. I also thought the inking was simply spectacular. I was using a thick felt tip marker I'd found and thought it added a really professional finish to my work. Now, it just looks muddy, like I was drawing with house painter's brush. I was imitating Byrne too (because Mike was, probably) and when I finished it, I rushed into Mike's room to show it off. He said something like, "Hey, that's great! What are you going to use him for?" Which was the worst thing he could ask me because I don't think I had an answer. "I don't know," I said. And as far as I can remember, that's as far as the felonious career of Crimewave went. Typical.

Mom told me they've found another box of our drawings but I don't know when I'll get back to Lynchburg to pick them up. Gulp. Wish me luck on getting a sketch done for next time.

For my buddy Christian...

Damn. Just when you think you're the best at something.

Treehouse of Horror

I went to Lynchburg this weekend for the 40th birthday party of my high school buddy Brian. It gave me the chance to hang out with my parents, which I've been trying to do more of lately, and also pick up some pieces of Mike's artwork that I needed to scan. They're a couple of Flash-related pieces that somebody needed for a magazine article and I promised to send the scans to them. The art actually belongs to Mike's good friend Paul Rogers, owner of Dominion Comics in Lynchburg (the fella who sent me the EERIEs) and he graciously agreed to loan them to me long enough to complete the scans. I'll probably post them here once they've had a chance to publish them. I don't want to steal their thunder.

While I was at my parent's house, we went through the ritual we perform every time I visit. They load my vehicle up with whatever I can fit in it in an attempt to free up more space in their house. Their reasoning is that I'll have to do it "someday soon" anyway. Might as well start now. This has been going on for about five years or so but has gotten really bad since last August. I really can't spare the space in my house but I don't have the heart to tell them no. Usually it's a lot of junk from my childhood like old broken toys and clothes that don't fit. Most of the time it goes in the landfill or to Goodwill. This time was different. They'd uncovered an old high school and college-era box of Mike's and my stuff. Inside was a treasure trove of old drawings by both Mike and me and some strange photos Mike took for a photography class. This was one of them:



At the time this was taken, we lived in a VCU-subsidized two-bedroom apartment in a complex called Treehouse Apartments. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. I wanted to live on-campus but VCU had other plans. Mike and I shared the apartment with two guys from southwest Virginia named Eric and Shannon. This photo shows my corner of the room that Mike and I stayed in. I can't believe how messy I was. it looks like a caricature of a college student's bedroom. I mean, there's actually a sock hanging out of half-open drawer. It looks almost staged. Alas, it wasn't. That's really how we lived. It got so bad in the apartment once that, while we were taking a nap, our roommates opened the folding doors between us and the living room and chucked in all the junk we'd left lying around. When we woke up we were buried in crap and I asked, "What the hell happened!??" We were really embarrassed but the guys were pretty jovial about it. They were pretty good roommates and I really missed them when they got their own apartment the next year.

I debated with myself about whether or not to show this next one but it's too funny not to. I'm pretty sure this shot was taken by my great friend Don McCants. He started out as a friend of Mike's and Paul Rogers' but, when Mike moved back home and I stayed in Richmond, he became one of my best friends. He used to call us up around 10:00 at night to tell us he was coming over but woundn't show up until about midnight. Then he'd insist we watch the strangest movies I'd ever seen. He actually had pretty good taste but at midnight on a school night, I would have had a hard time staying awake through anything. Of the forty or so movies he brought over during our college career, I think I saw three, start to finish. I'd wake up on the couch the next morning and Don would be gone. If it was anyone else, it would have been really annoying but since it was Don, it was actually endearing.



One night, Don showed up and told us he needed us to dress up in all-black, put on sunglasses and dance around in front of the apartment's blank white walls while he snapped some shots for his class. Don't ask. It was college. If he'd shown up asking us to put on pink tutus and ride a fire truck down Broad Street, we'd have done it as long as he brought the right brand of beer. Though Mike's not in this shot, he was involved. At one point, Don had me grab Mike and swing him around the room. As I let go of his arm, he jumped up, flailing his arms. There was a loud crunch and we were shocked to see that Mike's ass had left a perfect imprint of itself in the drywall about four feet up. It was like a figure-eight on it's side. Mike was so embarrassed but we all couldn't stop laughing. Well, not until we ended up having to repair the wall and paint the entire living room so we wouldn't lose our security deposit.

I don't know who the dude on the left is. His face rings a bell but I just can't remember him. I think he was a classmate of Mike's. The fella in the middle is our roommate Eric Ritchie, he of the amazing heavy metal music collection. He eventually went on to become a successful physical therapist here in Richmond. And the giraffe on the right with the purty mouth and the roadkill on his head is me. It was the 80's so I can probably be forgiven for the mullet. And there was much more where that came from. By the end of the year, my hair would be past my shoulders. At least I grew it out on the sides so it was less Billy Ray Cyrus and more Jon Bon Jovi. Still...yikes.

Next time, if I don't have a sketch, I'll post some of the drawings I found in the box. No more mullet shots, I promise.