Warm up: By Crom!

I'll show you what's best in life, by Golly!

Today's theme at Drawbridge was "barbarian". I drew me the big daddy Cimmerian hisself, Conan.

Warm up: Vertigo's Death

Well, you know someone was going to pick this one.

Neil Gaiman's Sandman was (and is) an incredible important comic to me. It was one of a handful of comics that I read in the 90's, a time when I felt that a lot of what was being published left me cold. That being said, even the first few issues of Sandman didn't really grab me. It wasn't until issue #7, "The Sound of Her Wings", which was the first appearance of Dream's older sister Death, that I was really hooked. My little drawing pays tribute to that story's pigeon-feeding centerpiece, with Death contemplating one of her flying friends. Hope you enjoy!


Check out the rest of  the Drawbridge gang's portraits here.

Warm up: Tigra

Tim, in his weirdly wonderful way just whipped off his Manga Tiger masterpiece before anyone had officially named a DrawBridge topic for the day. His mini-strip was so nice that I had to post-nominate "Tyger Tyger burning Bright" as our theme to accommodate Sr. Hamilton.

In a shameless bit of cheesecakery, I went with Marvel Comics character Tigra for my piece (inspired by a post on the excellent Scansdaily  all about her I read yesterday). In my drawing, she initially had her tongue out, but I decided to pull it back in the interests of decency everywhere. Besides, if you're getting off on ladies licking their furry forearms, you should really be frequenting other sites.

My Comics Class at Pratt wants you!

Hey! Live in the NYC area, and got a hankering to spend your Sundays learning how to make comics with yours truly? As part of the Pratt Institute's Center for Continuing and Professional Studies I am teaching an eleven week comics course (for real college credit) for high school sophomores and up. registration is due very soon, so don't delay. I'll see you there!

Todays' Warm up: the Marlboro Wolfman

pronounce it "Marlboro Woof-man". It's funnier that way.

It's with a solemn tip of the hat that we pay homage to former Hypothetical Islander (back when we were Hugs and Kisses) Steve Ellis, who with his compadre David Gallaher made the webcomic "High Moon" a staple of DC's recently departed web comic site, Zuda. The brilliant concept-- werewolf comboys. Nuff said.

We recently learned (from Twitter of all places) that our hombre Steve will be riding off into the sunset for greener pastures than New York City can provide. Vaya con dios, Mr. Ellis. Don't be a stranger, y'hear?

The Life Aquatic: Mermaid

Today was my turn to choose the topic over at the DrawBridge blog, and I went with The Life Aquatic. While it is my favorite Wes Andersen film , I did not necessarily mean the movie, but rather I dig the poetic-sounding way of describing life in the water.

And what lives in the water and is more fun to draw than a mermaid? Nothing, that's what. Enjoy, please.

Warm Up: Intergalactic Planetary, Planetary Intergalactic

Just pencils for me, thanks.




So it was Becky Cloonan's turn to choose a warm-up topic today. To honor yesterday's dissolution of the company, her edict was: draw a Wildstorm character.

My first reaction was images of WildC.A.T.s and other uber-90's fare, but after seeing Tim Hamilton's post, I remembered just how varied and cool some of what Wildstorm published was. I went with the core trio of Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's Planetary series, a book I highly enjoyed (though, honestly, drifted away from as the wait between issues got progressively longer. And longer) . Even my girlfriend really dug Planetary. After drawing this, maybe I'll go and finish up the series in trade.

A glass raised to you, Wildstorm. You did some good comics. Check out other Drawbridgers takes on their fave Wildstorm characters here.

Warm up of the Day: Ta DA!

This one's for all the ladies. Ta da!

Check out the other ta-das at Drawbridge, our awesome-pawesome drawing blog.

Warm up-- Design a member of the Green Lantern Corps

I wanted to go as alien as possible for my Green Lantern-- it's kind of a pet peeve of mine that most fictional aliens are, like, human, but with blue skin or a ridged nose or something. My Green Lantern hails from a gas giant planet in a distant, sunless sector of the universe. The atmosphere of his planet is liquid methane, and his people slide up and down silicate stalks absorbing ambient nutrients from its environment. It's a closed system, in that it has no substantial free-floating appendages to put a ring on, so it swallowed it's ring thru its cloacanus. It has no concept of green, being without eyes, so it depends on descriptions of the universe provided via direct mental stimulation from its ring.

How's that for some comicbookey sci-fi gobbledy gook?

Also, it was pointed out to me that I posted this upside down, which is absolutely true. But what is up, in space?

Check out my homey's green lantern corps here at the Drawbridge blog

Wonder Woo-man!

Here's my take on Wonder Woman, drawn up to be auctioned off as part of Wonder Woman day. If you like this, please remember to bid on it when it goes live-- proceeds go to a great cause.

This is actually my second take on her in recent days; please click here for a peek at my first one, or make-a the click-click here to see my compatriots in arms of Drawbridge studios draw their wondrous women.

Requiem for Some Trees

So we had some freakish crazy weather in Brooklyn last night. Out of nowhere, we were slammed with insane wind and crazy rain. I was at the studio-- we had a clear view of an elevated section of the BQE where two tractor trailers were blown over on their side. Trees down, everywhere.



Got home, and this was my block. It was one of the greenest ones in Brooklyn, but we lost a significant chunk at least of nearly every non-pine tree. I know as of this writing the National Weather Service is still trying to figure out if this was a tornado or not, but considering the devastation on my street, and things being untouched a block away, I'm convinced.



That's our windows visible now. We used to have three beautiful trees providing coverage, with wind chimes and birdfeeder. They're all gone now. It's heartbreaking.



This was my girlfriends favorite tree on the block. It was also the largest tree on the street.



We would always point it out-- "it's our favorite tree"



A few months ago it lost a chunk in an unrelated incident, but we still loved it. All that's left now is that one straggly branch.

A couple of our photos were immortalized on the NYTimes. Check them out here:


http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/09/16/nyregion/20100917_READER_STORM-10.html

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/09/16/nyregion/20100917_READER_STORM-9.html

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/09/16/nyregion/20100917_READER_STORM-3.html
--

Warm Up Action Figure

Today's warm-up drawing topic was "Action Figure" so I opted to draw this still life from my drawing desk at Hypothetical Island Studios. I am an action figure freak (my collection at home is... significant) and a few favorites have spilled over to my studio away from home. Here we have Beaker of Muppet Show fame being tortured/menaced by Lobster Johnson, of Hellboy Supporting character fame. In the background, you can see my long-suffering Jade plant. I just can't keep those things alive.

As a "bonus" for those of you who view this here rather than at the Drawbridge blog, here's a couple of shots of my home collection.



Gorillaz vs. Hellboy



Not a giant action figure, but fellow DrawBridger Nathan Schreiber, making a guest appearance amongst the collection. He held that pose for, like, hours.

Wednesday Warm up from the merry old land of Oz

'Cause there's nothing more terrifying than a monkey that can fly. Seems I've been drawing a lot of skulls lately. Also, this is kind of a small scan-- someone remind me to rescan this later, okay?

Check out the rest of the Drawbridge crew's take on the land somewhere over the rainbow by making the clicky-click hereabouts.

Tuesday warm-up: Retro-Robot

Here's my retro robot. A little rushed, if I do say so myself. Midway thru drawing this, I realized that I should have drawn M-11, the retro Killer robot from Agents of Atlas instead. Maybe tomorrow.

Check out our new group blog, Drawbridge, to see my compatriots in arms attempts.

Solo sketch warm up-- Bizarro

As far as my warm-up compatriots go, it was just me at the studios today, so I indulged myself by drawing one of my favorite characters, Superman's imperfect duplicate, Bizarro. I call this piece "Hooray, lucky Yorick! Me am no know him at all."

Warm up: Dinosaurs!

I got to choose the topic for today's warm-up sketch, and in honor of Simon Fraser joining us yesterday (not to mention my own love for prehistoric beasties) I chose dinosaurs. Here's Simon Fraser's:



Fellow Hypothetical Islander Joe Infurnari entered the fray today with his frankly adorable Uniceralope.



The mighty Tim Hamilton drew his first with his morning coffee, before he even arrived at the studio...



Natalie Kim, who unless I somehow missed her didn't even come in to the studio today proved herself a champ by warming up remotely with her insecure dino.



And finally mine, with my rare wide-screen Tritelevisitops.


Simon rightly asked me why my Tritelevisitops is so knock-kneed-- I didn't know at the time, but now I realize it's because prehistoric tv's were so damned heavy. The technology just wasn't really there yet, you know?

warm up catch up

As previously mentioned, I was sick for the first part of this week, and as such missed out on the warm up drawings that were done around the studio without me. One of the topics, though, was too good for me not to throw in my hat over (?) so hence this catch up warm up session.

The topic was "tongue". Here's T-Money Hamilton's:



and here's mine.





My girlfriend hated this, I should mention.

Warm up: Scott Pilgrim UPDATED!

Firstly, I missed a few days, as I was sick. Back at the studio now, and it was Nathans' choice today. The assignment-- draw a Scott Pilgrim character. This is kind of tricky, if you ask me, as once you take away Bryan Lee O'Malley's very distinctive drawing style, there would be very little to identify the characters. I mean, Scott is by design a kind of everyman, right? Still, we rose to the occasion.

here's mine:



Nothing too new and original here, just a take off of the cover to Scott Pilgrim #1. Still, it's just a warm up, right?

Here's Tim Hamilton's:



Much nicer, with just a touch of that manic Hamiltonianess we all love and cherish. Up next, the lovely and talented Natalie Kim who has been guesting at the Studios lately. She's already very successful in her other careers as an actress and writer, so lord only knows why she would want to be a cartoonist. Doesn't she realize how low down on the food chain we are? We're like kelp. Nice work, though.



Lastly, mad Scotsman Simon Fraser graced us with this very pretty picture of cinematic Scott Pilgrim, Michael "George Michael Bluth" Cera. I like the hearts. The movie, btw, was the best thing ever, and if you didn't see it, well, you're my enemy.



UPDATE! Scott Pilgrim Idea Progenitor Nathan Schreiber got his sketch to us late. We're not sure why, but it probably has something to do with protecting his vital bodily fluids, if his piece is any indication. Pretty nice one, and worth the wait, I'd say.

Warm up post: Bob the Uranian

Didn't get to post this yesterday, it was a crazy day, but here is Friday's warm up sketch. I decided to pay homage to my favorite character from the only Marvel Comic I'm reading these days. Writer Jeff Parker took a mostly obscure bunch of 1950's comic characters and transformed them into the Agents of Atlas, a strange superhero team that is the best thing, IMO, Marvel is publishing. One of the team is Bob Grayson, formerly a bright and shiny superhero called Marvel Boy, now the extraterrestrial Uranian. I won't go into great detail what makes him cool here ( but he has his own UFO! With a meteor Smasher!), but you should go check out some trades of Agents of Atlas, and even grab the current series (just called Atlas) while it's still on the stands. Unfortunately, even with great critical acclaim, the series has struggled to find an audience, and is being canceled with issue 4. boo.

All characters depicted and mentioned trademark and copyright their respective owners, natch.

Warm up of the day: An anime character you've never heard of.

Tim Hamilton got in first, and he threw down the gauntlet with his previously-unheard-of Anime creation, Ninja Stick Kitty. So twisted, yet I don't know why.



I followed up with my invention, er, discovery, "Anime Ecchi Giant Robo Hentai Squad" which is, to say the least, not one of my finest pieces of work. I decided it was a long-lost work of forgotten anime genius Mai Watanamo, which really says it all, I think.

It should be mentioned that Nathan Schreiber, contributor to yesterday's post, initially agreed to draw an anime character you've never heard of as well, yet wisely disappeared, assignment uncompleted, and was not heard of again for the rest of the day.

You're on a cruise ship that sinks equidistantly between two identical islands...

...the only food source on one island is human flesh, cooked gourmet style by people you never see, and on the other island you are forced to forage completely for yourself, in competition with a tribe of wild shirtless Dean Haspiels... which do you swim to?



After pushing my studiomate Joe Infurnari to the brink of sanity and beyond with an endless assortment of questions posed by yours truly, just like the one above-- QUESTIONS IN WHICH THERE CAN BE NO SAFE ANSWER, FOR PITY'S SAKE-- we, the good folks at XOXOs (Hugs & Kisses) studios have decided upon a new studio name. We've just come through a tumultuous period which saw the departure of a few comrades and the addition of Mr. Reilly Brown (Cable & Deadpool, The Incredible Hercules, Prince of Power) and as such we have all decided to mark this fresh start with our new name and logo : Hypothetical Island Studios.

Hypothetical Island Studios IS:

The Unsinkable Reilly Brown
The Quixotic Kat Roberts
The Precious Jason Little
The Alleged Becky Cloonan
The Aforementioned Joe Infurnari
and me, Gorgeous George O'Connor

So please join us in a hearty three cheers for Hypothetical Island Studios!

An Octopus Lady

Continuing my new practice of warm-ups, I sketched out this lovely lady who happens to have an octopus for a head this morning. It's maybe a little detailed for a warm-up, but I had to break in a new nib as I utterly killed my old one the other day. I was pretty happy with it, even though I could not tell you what possessed me to draw such a thing.



As an added bonus, here is warm-up-idea-progenitor Tim Hamilton's attempt at a similarly afflicted woman.



And Nathan Schreiber's Admiral Akbarian attempt. Looks kind of like Dr. Zoidberg.