Something that hopefully both sides can enjoy.

This was going to be a page for a minicomic that I was doing; but eventually, I decided that the best thing to do would be to focus on school. Still, as a splash page, I think it's kinda cool, and just basically wanted to share it as a complete illustration on its own.

I was going to just basically hand it out to random people at APE, but I'm not even sure I'm going, and I don't have a booth or anything. I think it would be more valuable to just go to the various workshops they'll be offering. That and the indie mini-comic and a story of a superheroine fighting a giant mechanical ape just don't go together.

Let this serve as all that remains of a really wonky mini.

It's been a while since I uploaded anything. Heck, I didn't even brag about how I met Stan Lee at Comic-Con. Well, in any event, here are some character designs I came up with for a minicomic I'm planning to finish by the middle of October. Nothing major, it's really kind-of like a local band toting around their EP or something. By the way, why the Hell was that all underlined and now I'm suddenly in a different font?

Chip Kidd at Cartoon Art Museum

As many of you know (or as many of you would know if I had a large following), I am a volunteer at the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. Last night, we were fortunate enough to host a presentation by Chip Kidd, author of Mythology: the DC Comics Art of Alex Ross, Batman Collected, and most importantly, Bat-Manga: the Secret History of Batman.

As someone who considers myself fairly knowledgeable about the Caped Crusaider--i.e. not, "he's cool cuz he's dark and doesn't have powers," and Robin-bashers--this was an eye-opener.

In 1966, as the Batman TV series with Adam West hit around the world, the comic book material was very much in-demand. In every other country, this meant repackaging original American DC Comics material. In Japan, however, Manga was already on its way to being considered a "true art form," and a Batman manga was produced in Japan by artist Jiro Kuwata, best known for a series called 8th Man (of whom Robocop is something of a ripoff, according to Kidd).

The series, according to Kidd, didn't seem to take place in either Japan or America, but some amalgam thereof (at-least when it came to the tropes). Batman and Robin were depicted as using guns, at-least in promotional material, and no origin was ever given; and while his designs for Batman and Robin stayed faithful, the villains they battled were largely original. They arguably bear more of a resemblance to villains who might be introduced today. One such villain was Lord Death Man, whose power was to die and resurrect himself at will.

The series died in about a year, and was largely forgotten. So obscure was it that while it was licensed by National Periodical Publications--which is now DC Comics--Kidd's discovery of the Manga was news to Paul Levitz--President of DC Comics as of 2002 and superhero enthusiast--who authorized the book chronicling the Bat-Manga, but wouldn't lend any company assistance with the research.

Kidd's book is available in stores (he did a signing after his speech) and while not complete, should give readers a sense of what the series was like.

Kidd topped his speech off with an announcement that should be of interest to fans of the Bat-Manga. Buuut, I think I'll keep my mouth shut.

Manga Final

Page 2 removed because I felt part of it, while small enough to be ignored, was--so-to-speak--on the wrong blog.

Here's the first page to my Children's Book Illustration final. I really enjoyed that class, and my heart has been warmed to the wonderful world of... gad, can I get any cornier?

Here are some pencil samples I did recently. They're from Brian Michael Bendis' script for House of M #2, which can be found at http://www.comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/?page_id=3

All characters TM & © Marvel