HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Okay, it's a little late to have a "Happy New Year" blog... but that's kind-of the theme. See... I've been doing a miserable job of keeping this blog afloat. It's been almost two weeks since I've posted, and I need to get back to a weekly.

So, where do I begin? Well, I've weighed in ad-nausium about the DC reboot, and DC's big movie this year--Green Lantern--wasn't much to write home about. But the game? Well, I did manage to get a copy of Arkham City, so here's a shot of Batman and Robin in the game. Yeah. Robin's a downloadable character if you have X-Box live. I don't have a wireless adapter and can't hook it up to a modem, so I'm a bit SOL. Then again, how much time am I gonna have to play anything? Yeah, it doesn't really matter. My mom got me the collectors' edition of the game for Christmas, which came with a maquette and a booklet with concept art. I love my mom. I also got Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, but that was nothing to write home about.

BTW: if you're reading this, Cousin Tim... I challenge thee.

Anyway... I don't really have any Marvel-related art, even though they've got two huge movies coming up and, no doubt, some huge comic events. I wasn't a fan of the reboot of Ultimate Spider-Man. I don't have anything against the new Spider-Man, but for ALL the hype they put into it, the first issue doesn't have the @#$% courtesy to let us see him in action. The issue ends with Miles noticing he has a power that makes him turn invisible. Damnit! The first appearance of the regular Spider-Man, way back in 1962 was only 15-pages, and we got a complete story. Peter's a nerd who gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gains spider powers, he tries to make it in showbiz and gets cocky until he finds out his uncle was killed, then goes after the burgler only to discover that he could have stopped the killer who was committing a robbery during one of his shows. This is at-least 22 pages and it's paced so deliberately that nothing @#$% happens! I know they're writing for the trade. I accept that. But I do expect something to happen when something is hyped that much!

Anyway, something I'm thinking of adding to my blog is music sketches. I had a lot of fun doing my Led Zeppelin sketch on 11/11/11 (which was not only National Metal Day, but also mere days after the 40th Anniversary of the fourth album) and I felt like doing more music-themed sketches. I also did a Michael Jackson sketch around the same time. I think the idea of listen to a popular album, and do a sketch of the artist around the same period sounds fun, and who better to start with than the King of Rock n' Roll himself? Sunday being the Big E's would-be birthday, I did a sketch of him while listening to his 2nd album.

Finally, here's a flyer I drew for my friends' band. They're playing at the Moose Lodge on the 28th, so check 'em out.

Hoo! Strange times...

My life is getting a little weird. I mean, just last night, a couple of my former bandmates said we should do a reunion gig Saturday night, but just hours ago, I was told there would NOT be a reunion at all because another band on the bill dropped out.

Hard to explain.

Anyway, I admit I've been kind-of going astray, but that's because there are so many projects I want to do, but it's hard to say where to begin. I did an editorial illustration for a corporate presentation, and here it is. This one, I did each part pretty much over night as far as the penciling went, then inked it the following night after seeing if any changes were mandated.

That was a fun gig. I really enjoyed it. I actually think I might go back and print it up and paint it on watercolor paper. Y'know, old school style (in fact, they still do that sometimes).

This assignment came at a time when I was really starting to worry about where things were going, so I'm so glad I got this assignment done in a timely manner and it came out as well as it did. I'd love more editorial gigs.

I did this sketch of the gorgeous Dina Meyer a few nights ago. I'll never forget when I was 14 and I saw her in Starship Troopers, which was a great movie anyway, but about 1/3 of the way in came the shower scene featuring naked people of both male and female persuasions. In she comes and she just throws off her shirt. I was in heaven until her character died at about the end of Act II. I cried. Okay, no I didn't, but her dying still sucked, especially since it seemed like she almost got the guy.

Flash forward several years: I noticed she was on Twitter, so I Tweeted her with it and she said, "Nice!"

I'm glad to be alive.

Misc Mondays 4

I can't remember if I ever uploaded this to the blog, but it's the inks for a Star Wars mock cover I did to go along with some pencil samples I did that were my little reenactment of the end of Empire Strikes Back. I thought about taking the logo, banner, thing that goes in the corner (where they'd have a little Luke or C3P0 and R2D2 like comics used to) and just treat it as if Star Wars was a regular comic book series.

In the pencil samples (which, in retrospect, aren't that great, but I was proud of them at the time), I didn't go for a super-duper likeness of Mark Hammil, but tried to make him more of a Peter Parker type with a rather lanky body. More importantly, I wanted to adorn this cover with captions that say things like, "WHAT STARTLING REVELATION DOES THE DEMONIACAL DARTH VADER HAVE IN STORE FOR US!?!" and "WILL LUKE SKYWALKER BECOME AN AGENT OF THE DARK SIDE!?!"

Then would come the question of whether I wanted to treat it with affection or more of a satirical look when it comes to the coloring: should I go old school and do all of this by hand or do it in Photoshop? Should I have a desaturated cool scheme, or Make Mine Marvel with a red background and a blue Vader? I never found the answers, and really, that's that.