Kronos

So I know I'm often remiss in posting in a timely fashion on this blog, normally 'cause I'm at my studio, drawing, drawing away. Really, though, with all the computer coloring I've been doing lately, I have absolutely no excuse (other than forgetfulness) to not post cool shtuff. Here's a panel of Zeus: Father of the Gods' big bad, Kronos, the titanic baby-eating embodiment of all-devouring time.

Zeus

A pinup of Zeus as he appears in Father of the Gods that I drew up the other day.

A page from Zeus, Father of the Gods, sans borders and in black and white.

Ball-Peen sketches-- the final installment

Here we have pictured the already introduced Exley tending to young Horlick. Horlick, the final of the four main characters of Ball-Peen Hammer, is a feral child growing up in the ruins of the city whom Exey tries to take under her protective wing. In the script he's described as being thirteen, and this first sketch is my attempt at drawing that awkward age.




Drawing children convincingly in comics is a tricky proposition. SO much of the impression of a child comes from their boundless energy-- I find that a lot of artists, particularly those who use a lot of photo reference-- tend to draw strange, deadened little creatures rather than kids. I attempted to rectify this problem by "cartoonizing" (my own word) Horlick a little. Sure, he's a caricature, but then, what kid isn't?

More Ball-Peen sketches- Underjohn

Here's some early sketches of Underjohn, the character from Ball-Peen Hammer who is possibly the most idealistic. He has willingly subjected himself to the horrors of Ball-Peen's world in order to write about it, in the hopes to help prevent anything like it from happening again.

Of all the principle characters, he's the one who underwent the most changes from these early drawings. Here he's a lot more handsome than he ended up being-- I wish, though, that I had kept his broken glasses look intact.

More Ball-Peen sketches

My favorite character to draw in Ball-Peen Hammer was definitely Exley, the love interest of Welton and the most genuinely "good" character in the whole story. She arrived in my sketchbooks much as she would eventually appear in the final book. These are some of the first sketches I did of her, around January of 2007, believe it or not. She's a bit slighter here than she ended up, but mostly she's completely recognizable as the same character,

New Years resolution-- Love my blog

It's been an age and a day since I last updated this blog-- let's rectify that!

Ball-Peen Hammer, my new graphic novel written by Adam Rapp, goes to press this week-- to celebrate, here's some preparatory sketches I made way back in 2007 when I first became attached to this project. These are among the sketches I submitted to the publisher fro inclusion as back-matter, so they may or may not have made the cut for the final book. These are some of my early sketches for Welton, one of the main characters. More to follow in days to come...

One good link deserves another...

So this past Sunday I had my picture taken for an upcoming book by the supremely talented Seth Kushner to be called Graphic NYC: Creating Comics in Gotham. We decided to go with a mythological theme, what with The Olympians coming out and all. Mr. Kushner has photographed tons of people, everyone from the Beastie Boys to Jay Leno to Gary Coleman, and it was an honor to be included in this portfolio. I've reproduced the shot we decide on here, but please follow the link and check out his work.

Hera

Hera is totally my favorite goddess.



I think she gets a bum rap in a lot of the stories, especially in the myths of Heracles. Anyone who's studied the ancient world knows that Hera was an incredibly important goddess; Zeus himself seems to have been overshadowed in actual cult back in the day. Starting with Homer and later chroniclers she begins to be depicted as the jealous, shrewish wife; Homer was sexist.

Heracles, incidentally, translates to "The Glory of Hera", which will be the name of volume of The Olympians that deals with Hera. I'm going to explore Hera's relationship to the heroes, both antagonistic (Heracles) and protective(Jason), as well as a look into what it's like to be married to the most infamous philanderer in mythology. I think it should be very illuminating, and more than a little redemptive for a misunderstood goddess.

For Hera's appearance, I wanted her to be extremely beautiful (Zeus did choose her as his queen) and also a little arch and severe. To that end, I gave her the tightly-drawn back hair, evocative of a peacock's crest. The peacock is one of her symbols in ancient depictions, so I additionally wanted an echo of that.

Oldie but moldy

In 2006, I was living temporarily in Italy, when First Second editor Mark Siegel asked me to create something for their new blog, as a kind of way to introduce myself and my sensibilities to new readers, and while I was at it, maybe talk a little about my new homa in Roma.







The above comic is what I came up with. First Second initially passed on it, as it was determined to (A) be way the hell out there and (B) nothing to do with whatsoever with my then upcoming First Second comic Journey into Mohawk Country. Instead I sent in some sketches from sketchbooks that had luckily moved to Italy with me, and that was that. Sometime later, when a normal contributor to First Second's blog missed a deadline, my zombie comic was resurrected and made its undead appearance.
I've always been rather fond of this strip, and I keep thinking how I should make a new installment for my new(ish) apartment in Brooklyn. Too bad I didn't think to run this on Halloween.

Obama Nation

Snarky post title aside, I'm so happy right now that I could cry.

Best. Birthday gift. Ever.

Modern Fossil

Biking down the west side with the lovely Arta after our recent dino-drawing expedition, we came across this rotted hulk off the shoreline:



Hard to imagine what it was originally for. Shipping, obviously, but what exactly? A nice counterpoint to a day of drawing old bones.