Hades has been nominated for a ReadKiddoRead award!

...so I made this comic about it.

You can vote for me here. It literally takes seconds, and if you vote for me, and tell me, I'll make more zany comics like this. Also? I'll be your best friend.

Hades on the NYTimes bestseller list!

Long time, no post, but this I had to share: the latest volume in Olympians, Hades: Lord of the Dead, just appeared on the NYtimes bestseller list! Wahoo!

A big thanks to everyone who helped make this happen. Give a click here to see the list, and to read a brief Q&A with yours truly about it.

Yet another finished color page from Hades

It's been a whirlwind of posted finished colored pages 'round here lately! Here's one from the book's central action scene, where the Lord of the Dead himself carries off young Kore to the Underworld. This page is part of the same sequence that these two almost finished pages I posted awhile ago belong to, and I also had previously posted the black and white artwork for it as well. And now it's done!

Finished colored page from Hades:

Just to prove it's not just all doodles around here, here's a finished color page from Olympians Book 4: Hades.

New page from Hades: Charon's Approach

For your viewing pleasure, a finished (well, black and white, not colored) page from Olympians Book 4, Hades: The Wealthy One. The book opens with a tour of the Grecian afterlife,and here comes ferryman Charon to take you across the Styx. Hope you have a coin for him.

Persephone pin up!

Isn't she lovely? A round of applause for the Dread Queen of the Underworld, everybody! This is the first piece of finished artwork I completed especially for Olympians Book 4, Hades: The Wealthy One. More to come soon.

Hekate and Persephone, not in that order

good news! It was only in the low 90's today! It's like a veil has been lifted from my brain!

In celebration, a few more character sketches for all of you from Olympians Book 4, Hades: The Wealthy One. First up is this sketch of Demeter's lovely daughter Kore, after her transformation into the Dread Queen of Hades, Persephone.



And nextly, someone who has ended up being one of my favorite characters in the book, Hekate, goddess of the Crossroads. She becomes Demeter's loyal companion as she searches for her daughter after Kore's abduction. It's a subtle little craziness in her face that is the thing I like about her so much.

Old Men I drew

The heat continues unabated here in NYC. I've eaten nothing but berries for so many days now that I know what a bear feels like.

Here are a few doodles of a couple of gentlemen you might run into in the afterlife. On the top is Kharon, ferryman for the River Styx. I have to admit, it was pretty tough to not just copy the skeletal design of him from the classic "Clash of the Titans" (not the new version-- that was the worst movie I saw all year-- maybe in several years). Beneath Kharon is Tantalos, who you would only run into if you had been very, very naughty in life. Tantalos is being punished eternally in Tartaros. He stands beneath grape vines that pull up whenever he reaches for them, and in a pool of water that recedes whenever he stoops for a drink. I imagine he's gotten pretty hungry and thirsty over the millennia. This poor dude is where we get the word "tantalizing" from.

Hot as Hades in NYC today...

In honor of the old saying and the fact that the temperature has been in triple digits here in NYC, I thought I'd share this double page spread from my sketchbook, with doodles of an armored Hades, a thoughtful Demeter, and a drawing from behind of a certain demigod who may have been surprised to find himself in the Underworld.

More Hades Dramatis Personae...

...This time, a profile sketch of Hades himself, and a shot of Kore/Persephone, after her transformation into the dread queen of the underworld. Enjoy!

Hades Dramatis Personae: Demeter

Book 4 of Olympians, Hades: The Wealthy One is a bit more like Zeus in its structure, in that it principally tells one big story (in this case, the abduction of Persephone) rather than a tapestry of interconnected tales, as in Athena.

It may be Hades who gets the title nod, but he really shares the starring role with both Persephone and her mother, Demeter. Of all three main characters, until this point in the series Demeter has gotten the most panel time, as it were, but only as a supporting or background character. As a result, I've spent a lot of time sketching the beautiful Goddess of Grain in a wide variety of moods and poses, as she really gets put through the emotional ringer in this book.



The first step when I'm writing a book is to fill up some sketchbooks with "key Scenes" that may or may not make it into the final version. Here are a few sketches of an enraged and distraught Demeter, including an action shot of her in her role as Demeter Khrysaor, or Demeter of the Golden Blade. Looks like she's pretty miffed at Zeus. I wonder why?

Hey, ain't this supposed to be an online sketchbook?

If so, where're the sketches?

been awhile since I posted anything sketchbooky here, so to remedy that, here are a few studies of the gloomy lord of the underworld as he'll be appearing in Olympians Book 4 Hades: The Wealthy One. Enjoy!

This is why it pays to have a good editor...

And I have two good editors on Olympians. Mark Siegel, head honcho of First Second, acts in the capacity of my art director, whereas Neal Porter acts in the capacity of my text editor, helping me to refine my words and story. I'm also ably assisted by Calista Brill, who keeps the whole show running, and David Langva, but I digress. Back to why it's important to have a good editor (or four).

Longtime readers of this blog may remember seeing this pencil sketch before:



Not bad, but it is a small sketch. Everyone liked it, signed off on it, and then came time to do the finish.

Normally this is not a problem that I have, but I just couldn't nail this drawing. It's no exaggeration to say that I probably drew about 7 separate pencil drawings of this, and none of them were clicking. The signs were all there that the composition was falling apart at a larger size, but I couldn't see them. Hades looked too small, when we were looking down on him, Cerberus looked liked three dogs, rather than one horrible 3 headed beast. I even took some embarrassing photo reference of myself, acting all mopey on my throne, which has since ended up in the hands of nefarious forces. Finally, over one weekend, I said screw it, and penciled, inked and colored the below image (with several departures from the sketch).



At the time, I was so burnt on this whole cover that I fooled myself into thinking the above image was good. I look at it now with a real feeling of 'meh', so much so that I almost didn't put it up on the site. But at the time, I was blind to it's faults.

Cut to a few days later. I'm at my studio, drawing away when I get a phone call from my two aforementioned editors, Neal and Mark. To their credit, they approached it very carefully, but they said, gently of course, that the Hades cover wasn't working for them. Demeter's headshot overwhelmed the piece, Cerberus still looked like three digs,Hades looked like he had a migraine. A lot of illustrators will get pissed when there's changes to be made after the sketches were signed off on, but I am grateful they flagged this one. We talked a bit, and while I was on the phone with them , I knocked off a few sketches of the cover design you see below. In my opinion, it's stronger in nearly every conceivable way.



So there you have it. Editors can be your friends.

Olympians, the Poster!

So guess what? The series I've been talking on this blog about forever is now just called Olympians. Who needs the the?



Who can name all 14 principle characters?

Wolf Cap of Hades

Another possibly familiar image to Facebook users. Here is a headshot of Hades, wearing his helmet of invisibility, that served as my Facebook avatar for awhile. Let's chalk it up to artistic license the fact that Hades is wearing his helmet and still visible.

Cover sketches

For your viewing pleasure... Rough cover ideas for 3 of the first four books in The Olympians. The Glory of Hera was not available at press time...