Manic Wednesday!

Welcome back! It's Manic Mon-...Wednesday! Well, it's also Christmas recovery time, so it actually doesn't feel that manic around here, the opposite actually. The presents are opened, the family(ies) are hosted and the kid is happy. Life goes on though and 2012 is just round the corner. Time's a'wastin'... let's do this!

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How was everyone's Christmas? Things went pretty smooth around these parts. My wife had the genius idea of avoiding the malls to get all her shopping done. I wish I'd gone the same route. -sigh- Never again, San Diego malls, never again!
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My wife got a me (among other things) a swanky case for a tennis ball that I caught at the 2008 US Open. It was hit into the crowd after Roger Federer won his match, and it's still maybe my favorite sports memory. I never got a proper case for it while in New York, and then we moved out to San Diego and it stayed in a closet until remember by my wife. It's got a purdy, new home now and it makes me smile when I look up at it from my desk.

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Anyone see Hugo? Was it as good as everyone is saying it is?

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Speaking of good stuff, how the hell did I miss Jimmy Fallon and Bruce Springsteen doing a cover of Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair"?!? How, I ask you, how?!? My god, it's amazing. It's here, go check it out. You're welcome.

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I'm working on Hatchepsut day and night right now, and hacking away at it as best I can. The first page is now penciled and lettered, and , well.. here ya go! Thoughts, comments, the highest of praise... all of it is welcome. Mostly. ;-)

Manic Monday!

Man, the holidays are insane! And we've still got two weeks until Christmas! Time's a'wasting! It's Manic Monday, let's do this!

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I've been writing for Giant Fire Breathing Robot for over a half a year now, and the guys and gals there have been great. If you haven't checked it out you should! If not for me, then for the other awesome writing on television, comics, movies, games and all things geek.

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One of the best television shows on the air right now has to be CBS' The Good Wife. It is incredibly nuanced, dynamic, involving television and the entire cast is stellar. They really know how to set up a good narrative for the season, explore it, twist it and then break it to find something else inside. Lots of shows will upset the status quo and shift directions season to season, but none currently do it with the heart and conviction of The Good Wife. Go stream an episode and check it out for yourself.

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Speaking of television, I'm still liking Glee but damn... that show has been all over the map this season. Good great, some horrendous episodes and most dancing in the middle.

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Over at Comics Should Be Good, one of the Internet's best comic sites (after GFBR of course!) I've got a piece in a contest to become a new sketch artist for the site. It'd be very nifty if you would head on over there and vote for me. It's super easy: The link is here, find my name, check it, click okay and you're done! And I'm happy. :-)

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Work continues this week on my Egyptian graphic novel. Here's a taste of the intro I'm working on. I've been able to get incredible feedback from friends and family, comic and non-comic readers, and they've really helped me nail the feel and direction of this project long before I'd even gotten to the boards. This page will probably pop up on this blog again later this week, after it's done and I've got a day to place it in. Till then... Egypt!

Manic Mon-... Thursday!

Welcome back to my artblog. I've slowly but surely gotten this thing back up and running. Drop me a line, leave a comment, all caps and really angry if you want... I love it all!

It's Manic Mon-... er, Thursday now. There's art to get done, comics to be read and a kid to be entertained. Let's get this show on the road!

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I finally got around to watching "Horrible Bosses" this week. We had a free evening (what with the kid having a sleepover with her meme) and we had a nice meal, and wanted to have a low-key movie to round out the evening (Melancholia, which I do want to see, was naturally discounted). I'd heard good things about "Horrible Bosses" so we decided to give it a try. It was entertaining, and I think the whole cast did a great job. Colin Farrell, Jennfire Aniston and Kevin Spacey all did great jobs as the 'bosses', and Aniston in particular did a hilarious job with the script that was given to her. I'd recommend it if you're looking for an easy, entertaining comedy.

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Rolling Stone has now come out with its annual list of Best Albums and Best Singles for 2011. Predictably, Adele is topping both of those lists. I can't fault "Rolling In The Deep" at all; that song rocked and had some major staying power. The album itself I haven't listened to enough to judge whether its top spot was worthy or not. Thoughts?

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It is cold lately! Well, for San Diego anyways. Just sayin'.

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Second round is up for Comics Should Be Good's The Line Is Drawn Tryout! (Holy Crap in a basket, that's a mouthful) (That's what she said) ....Sorry, too much coffee there.. .Anyways, yeah, go check it out. My contribution to this week's theme of Mash-Ups is The Spirit meets Batman (specifically the old cranky Bats from Dark Knight Returns). The voting is happening here.

Go vote for me! ...Please?

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Speaking of the Spirit, in looking for reference I stumble upon this awesome article discussing the way-ahead-of-its-time title modifications of the book by creator Will Eisner. It's a great article with some phenomenal art. Go get your art on.

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Speaking of art, here's the aforementioned Batman/ Spirit piece. Lots of fun with this one.



See you tomorrow!

Egyptian Thursday!

Welcome back to my artblog. I've slowly but surely gotten this thing back up and running. Drop me a line, leave a comment, all caps and really angry if you want... I love it all!

Anyways, today is Egyptian Thursday and that's when I show you a piece of a bit of a piece that I'm working on that deals with Egypt in some way. Ancient Egypt anyways, no Tahrir Square pieces on Thursday, sadly. I've started work on a graphic novel set in Egypt's pharaonic past and focusing on Hatchepsut, Egypt's first female pharaoh. It's been a blast so far, script to thumbnails and now the pencils.

The section of the story that this page comes from deals not with Hatchepsut directly, but with the Myth of Osiris, Egypt's god of the underworld, which is a fascinating read all by itself. This particular page is the big climax, when Osiris descends to the underworld to rule forever and his wife Osiris gives birth to their son Horus, who will become the new king of Egypt.

First off, here's the thumbnail. It's pretty tiny; the sketch book it's in is no bigger than a moleskin. The size doesn't really matter for me when it comes to thumbnails; more, it needs to effectively tell the story and convey the emotion intended. I had my "Aha!" moment with this page when I drew upon (no pun intended) my Catholic heritage for that central image. The rest just fell into place afterwards.



The penciled page as it stands looks a lot like my thumbnail. Sometimes a page is just right, and this was one of them. So far at least, I'll find something I hate about it tomorrow I'm sure! The next step will be tightening a couple areas and lettering it, and then eventually inking it. I'll keep you posted.



Let me know what you think, or just drop a line to say hi. See you tomorrow!

The Missing Ink

It's the Missing Ink! Yeah, it's been -ahem- missing for a bit (along with the whole blog really). But it's back! I've been working on something that I'm not really supposed to talk about yet, but I just finished a patch panel and I thought I'd share it with you fine folks!

Anyways, here it is. The penciler is Jeff Edwards (his DeviantArt page is here) and as you can see, his pencils are pretty damn tight. Still, he's left a little bit of wiggle room, for one; and also, throughout our working together we reached a point where I'm comfortable pushing some stuff and adding little bits here and there. (The penciled panel looks wider because of the trim line, which I left in)

Hopefully I'll be able to talk more about this project soon. Regardless, glad I could share this little bit with you.

See you tomorrow!

Manic Monday.. er, Tuesday!

Greetings my blog readers (or is it reader? I've been negligent, I don't expect there's many of you out there right now). It's Monday and the Thanksgiving week is over. I am about forty pounds heavier (thanks to Pre-Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving and various other get-togethers) but a lot more rested. It's Manic Tuesday, let's do this!

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Did you see that Jim Lee and Geoff John's Justice League #1 is going to a fifth printing? Eegads, that's a sizable accomplishment! I cannot for the life of me remember the last issue of any comic that went to five printings. Congrats Jim Lee and Geoff Johns, and to DC Comics. The 52 experiment is looking less experimental and more rock-solid every day.

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I saw the new Muppets film this past week (I told you I was busy!). I went with a few friends and my daughter. I thought the movie was pretty damn good, and my daughter loved it. Seriously, she did not move the entire time, and she's three! At one point I tried to hug her and she shooed me off, saying "Dad, Dad, let's just watch the movie."

Parents, you will always lose to Kermit. Always.

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George W. Bush, I just learned on Rachel Maddow, has been photographed a lot rubbing bald men's heads. I don't really know what to make of that, other than the fact that I never ever want to be bald now, especially in Texas.

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Your art piece for this late start of the week is a funny little take on a classic comic cover. The cover is Thor #337 (you can find it here) and I decided that the world should see what that cover would look like if we subbed in the musical artist Prince instead. So I did. Here we go!




Pretty fun. Might just have to try this again sometime.

See you tomorrow!

Manic Monday!

It's Manic Monday! The sun's out today but it's been raining a lot this month. It must be fall (what can I say, it's San Diego; we measure the seasons like that) and the pile of work on my desk is beckoning. Let's make this return a good but fast one!

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Holy crap, it's been awhile! I've had a LOT going on lately (all of it good, so no complaining there) and the blog kinda slipped through. But I'm back in full effect. (Famous last words right?)

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How's the DC 52 launch been working out for you? Retailers, readers, casual observers? The two comic stores that I frequent have have had most stuff in stock, but it's all been moving briskly. I still don't have a Justice League! Forth printing anyone?

One of the stores is charging pretty inflated prices for scarce issues and I'm not sold on the idea. I understand supply/demand (I'm an artist, but there's some non-art smarts bumping around up there. Somewhere) but for a line of comics designed to be a massive jumping-on point it seems short-sighted to make a quick five extra bucks now but maybe lose a loyal reader of that book who would be spending that extra three a month.

Is it just me?

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Last week was a lot of thumbnailing, which is not that much fun to see, and a studio renovation, which I guess isn't really that much fun to see either... Productive though! I'll start rolling out the pencils for you to see as I get 'em done. Get 'Em Done!

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I just recently saw the 1984 re-release of Fritz Lang's classic silent film Metropolis. Metropolis is generally thought of as the first sci-fi movie. It was released in 1927, but in a heavily-edited version that left out a lot of back story, elaboration and cool stuff. Over the years, snippets are found here and there, in random warehouses and film lots and they're re-added and re-released in theaters. The 1984 edition of Metropolis is WAY more than just that (though it does have footage not in the original release). The '84 release had a musical score, sound effects and limited colorization all overseen by disco impresario Giorgio Moroder. In addition, songs for the film were done by Bonnie Tyler, Pat Benatar, Adam Ant and Freddie Mercury.

Holy. Shit. It was amazing! Your mileage may vary, and vary WILDLY, but I thought it was a brave, exciting, and well-executed modern take on the classic film. Like Picasso riffing on Goya, it's a bold statement of inspiration and indebtedness. Amazing. I saw it at a local art film theater, but it's available now on Netflix Instant Streaming. Check it out.

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One of my more exciting projects recently was a caricature piece unlike any I've done. I was contacted to do a caricature of a guy and his girlfriend where he "hires me" (quotes will make sense very soon) to draw them together in the park as a cool thing to do. I meet with them, draw the two of them, and then turn the drawing around....

...and it's actually a drawing of him down on one knee proposing to her.

It was an awesome idea (why didn't I think of that?!? Haha) and I had a blast doing it. The day was beautiful, she was genuinely surprised and everything went as planned.

And yes, she said yes!

Here's my initial sketches for it



He liked 'B' a bit more (I'd agree) and I drew that up with their features roughed in.



I then did a finished drawing of them, and left the background for the day of, so I'd have something to do while I pretended to draw them! I gotta say, it's not easy pretending to draw. "I'm an artist, not an actor Jim!" Anyways, enough yapping. Here's the finished piece! (And congrats again to the happy couple!)

See you tomorrow everybody!

Egyptian Thursday!

Welcom back! It's Thursday and that means it's time to get in some Egyptian Art! A little while back I did a pretty well done drawing of Heket; I thought it was about time I went back and did another anthropomorphic female deity.

Cuz you know, there's just so many of them.

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Taweret is the Ancient Egyptian goddess of birth and fertility. She's a pretty fearsome looking god, with the head and body of a hippopotamus, the back of a crocodile and the paws of a lion. Taweret basically combines fierce, protective animals into one being. She also sometimes is shown with seven stars running the length of her back, in connection with her identification with the constellation the Big Dipper.

There's a lot there for an artist to play with. Let's see what we can come up with.

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Not a lot to go on...yet. Gonna work on this a bit more on the weekend. See what I can get it to. Pretty fun, this hippo-woman-lion thing...

The Missing Ink

It's the Missing Ink! Yeah, it's been -ahem- missing for a bit. But it's back! For the last few weeks I've been posting updates abut a small comic I was doing for the ACLU. Fun stuff. Much different than what I usually do, but that's the fun of something like this.

Anyways, it's all done now and I thought I'd go ahead and post it in its 'raw' state; raw of course meaning that the logos aren't in place nor a band of graphics runnning along the background of the upper right quadrant.

I really enjoyed the inking. Knowing it needed to be easily read meant I needed to not get to fussy with it. Kept me honest.

Anyways, here it is.

See you tomorrow!
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Manic Monday! (Okay, Tuesday)

Hope everybody out there had a good Fourth of July. It was rockin' around the Nunez house: neighborhood parade early in the morning, small group of friends over for BBQ and beer in the afternoon and then a night of Trivia, hosted by my team. (We rocked it, I gotta say)

Now? Back to the grindstone and all that.

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A couple new posts are up at Giant Fire Breathing Robot by yours truly. One is an opinion piece about comics and movies and the funny dance they do with each other. The other is the first in a continuing series I'm doing about Uncollected Classics; comic book gems that haven't been re-released since their publication. There's a lot of great stuff out there that still goes unrecognized. I'm hoping to spotlight as many of them as I can. First up, a Gene Colan drawn issue of Secret Origins.

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I love a handful of pizza places here in San Diego, but I always end up missing New York City pies. Damn you NYC and your impossibly high standards.

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The same can be said of bagels, but multiplied by... a bajillion, we'll say.

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I can't think of a more "fun" series in the 1980's than DC's "DC Comics Presents", a team-up book that paired Superman with various other heroes. It generally had a high level of talent, on average. Totally worth looking for in a quarter bin at your local store or comic convention. I'm writing about one of my favorite issues of the run for my next installment of "Uncollected Classics". I'll keep you posted.

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Here's a sample of a caricature I'm working on at the moment. This is a rough, but at this point it's important to start getting the likenesses down and to make sure the composition is suited to the project.

See ya tomorrow!

Manic Monday!

Things have been piling up, but this week we get this train back on track.

It's Manic Monday, let's do this!

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Lady Gaga's album has been out for over a month now and there's definitely some high spots and definitely some low spots for me. One of those high spots right now is "The Edge of Glory", which is also the third official single from the album. It's been receiving attention too because it was sadly one of the last recordings made by saxophone legend Clarence Clemons before he passed away. The video's out for the song here.

It's very stripped down, by Gaga standards, but I like it and the juxtaposition of the intimacy of the video (featuring just her and Clemons and a New York City soundstage row of brownstones) with the bombast of the song.

My favorite moment's got to be at 4:01; it's in the middle eight and Gaga bends down and kisses the sidewalk like a lover or a loved one. It completely and emotionally encapsulates the relationship between an artist and the city-as-muse, especially and personally New York City.

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The line-up for the DCnU Justice League seems to have been released; randomly it was first spotted on a cup on Facebook. I'm not sold on the character redesigns, at least in this image. I don't imagine that the intricacy of...well, everything... is going to last. It can't really. The extra lines on the Superman and Batman uniforms, the needlessly complicated boots for Superman, Batman and Flash, Cyborg (all of him!)... none of that is feasible for a wide range of artistic styles to try to keep straight.

It's a start, I guess.

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I know have more bourbon than I know what to do with. Seriously. I got a lot of bourbon for my birthday. A lot. I'm not complaining of course! I just never thought I'd have a bourbon collection going. New favorite? Maker's Mark 46. Shit's good.

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Comic legend Gene Colan recently passed. He was a true legend, and an artistic that could tackle anything. I've got a post up at Giant Fire Breathing Robot if you want to read some more.

R.I.P Mr. Colan.

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My ACLU comic is just wrapping up. Here's a finished panel from the thing. I'll see if I can post up the whole thing when it's done; I've gotta check with them on that. Till tomorrow!

Manic Monday!

It's cloudy here in Sunny San Diego. It's gotta happen at least once a year, right? There's work, work, work on the desk for today, but this weekend was fun, fun, fun. The batteries are charged and ready to go.

It's Manic Monday, let's do this!

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I downloaded the original cast recording for "The Book of Mormon" this past week. (Legally of course; thank you Amazon!) It is...amazing. I generally enjoy listening to scores and soundtracks while I'm working, but this one might not be such a good idea. I was stopping every minute or so to laugh. F'ing brilliant work.

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Grant Morrison will not be leaving Batman with the reboot of the DC universe in August. Huzzah! It wasn't ever really in doubt but-...why does this sound so familiar. Oh yeah! I wrote about this in my newest article over at Giant Fire Breathing Robot. (Go!Go!Go!)

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The Graphic Novel Project at High Tech High Chula Vista has launched their newest venture. May I present... "Dino In Dino"! Check it out, more to come soon.

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I'm still in the midst of various assignments. Good thing. My ACLU comic is going smoothly. There's been a correction needed on part of it, but nothing big. Shifting and moving of various pieces. Here's a sample of where I'm starting today. I'll try to get a finished version of this live for tomorrow.

Manic Monday!

Whew! This past weekend was the Rock N'Roll Marathon here in Sunny San Diego. Yours truly took part in it (for the second year running, no pun intended). It was a lot of fun, and it's always an awesome atmosphere. There was an Elvis Impersonator running, and well; he almost beat me to the finish line. I'd passed him up around mile eight, but as I started to hit the wall he passed me around mile twenty four. "Fuck you Elvis!" became my ralying cry for that last couple miles.

And yes, I beat him.

It's Manic Monday, let's do this!

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The most awesome book of all awesome books is quite possibly "Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E.". Really, it's amazing. I'd read the book in its monthly installments back in 2006-7, and I'd always look back fondly on the zaniness. I decided to get the softcover "Ultimate Edition" of the book, which collects all twelve issues, along with all the Q-and-A's and letterpages. It was impossible to put down.

It's on loan to a friend, and then to another friend after that. So...get in line. Or, get your own. Now....Read the Book!

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My new article's up over at Giant Fire Breathing Robot. It's about Grant Morrison taking over the reins of Superman, and what questions and ponderings that's inspired. Morrison's got a long and varied history with Superman, having written the most critically acclaimed Superman story of the last thirty years (All-Star Superman) as well as the most exciting pitch that never happened (the Superman 2000 Proposal, alongside Peyer, Waid and Millar).

Check out my article here.

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I am still sore. Still so very sore...

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What's everyone's favorite tracks from the Born This Way album? Lately I've been rocking the country/rock ending trifecta of "You & I", "Edge of Glory" and "Born This Way (Country Road)". Lot of punch in those eleven minutes.

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I'm in the middle of an ACLU project of the moment. Here's how it's coming along. Enjoy the week!

Wednesday Update

No 'Missing Ink' piece for today. I'm in the middle of a comic for the local branch of the ACLU and that's where my energy's going. Fun stuff. Well, I don't know that fun is the word, but it's reallky interesting to work on something, as an artist where the majority of what I'm doing is conveying information. Stuff's supposed to look "cool" of course, but that's a distant second to the necessity of the instructions, information and contacts being provided.

Here's a peak:



See you tomorrow! We'll see if I don't have something a little more 'kewl'. Haha...

Turnaround Tuesday!

(Intro if you're new: Turnarounds are a great way to get a feel for a character and to see if you can get a handle on their look and personality, even more than a pin-up. The fact that you're drawing them in three fairly static poses means that the defining elements of the character have to be displayed in small, subtle ways. And they're fun!)

This week's turnaround, as I mentioned yesterday, is from the Green Lantern section of the DC universe. His name is Saint Walker, and he is more or less the diametric opposite of the last character I did one of these for, Larfleeze.

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I wanted Walker's turnaround to work in a juxtaposition with Larfleeze. Open arms holding nothing instead of a closed grasp of a power battery. A slight smile instead of a sneer. That kind of thing. I think that my version looks pretty 'on model'; the original design (I think by Ethan Van Sciver) was a little complicated, but was then streamlined by either Doug Mahnke or Ivan Reis. It's a good costume, though I wish there was a greater concentration of the blacks of the costume on his lower half instead of upper. Just a personal preference, but I feel like the blacks on bottom would help the character look a little more weightless.

Maybe. I could be wrong. Hope you like it. See you next week!

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Manic Monday!

It's the middle of the French Open, it's Memorial Day (formerly Decoration Day; who knew?) and I've got a lot on my plate (most of it art related, which is great). Let's do this!

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Speaking of the French Open, I was watching Novak Djokovic the other day and I started thinking about comics. (Know me long enough and it's bizarre combination I'll often find myself making) Novak Djokovic, for those of you that don't know (and why don't you?) has been on a tear in tennis lately. 'Tear' actually doesn't do it justice (it's been five months now) and that's not the part of it that's intriguing to me.

It's always interesting to me when athletes, musicians or artists make what seems a leap in their progression. Steps are so often incremental and invisible, much like trying to notice a child growing. Sometimes though there's a point where you go, "Man! That guy's different from last week!" Just interesting.

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Summer in San Diego is like the museums, events and art in New York. You pay for the culture in New York City (and do you!) and in San Diego you pay for the weather (sweet, glorious sunshine!) Having a kid makes me value the later in a way I haven't, ever.

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Have you been over to Giant Fire Breathing Robot yet? Awesome-ness.

What? Why yes, I am writing for them. And yes, I'm still totally impartial about their awesome-ness. Completely.

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Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" is an amazing albums. Not without its faults, of course, but a great work of art. I think I'm even going to do a full length post on it. Kinda rambling, kinda fun, kinda Jesus, kinda Madonna.

Later this week.

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I'm working on some pages with Supergirl and Batgirl right now, which I've loosely adapted from an old 70's story where they fight Cleopatra. Yeah, pretty awesome. Anyways, here's a couple pages of roughs till I get something more substantial going.

Egyptian Thursday! (Hetek)

Here's a piece that I've finally finished inking! (It wasn't that long ago that I penciled it, but it slipped down the list of priorities a bit when it came time to finish the damn thing!)

The lady's name is Heket (Ms. She Who Hastens The Birth if you're nasty) and she was the head midwife of Ancient Egypt. Interestingly, one of her titles was 'I Am The Resurrection' and this led to her being at least respected by early Christians; they often used amulets depicting that phrase and her image.

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This piece started off pretty clear in my mind. I did a little, and very rough, thumbnail in my sketchbook but I more or less knew exactly how it was going to look. I don't know if any of it's clear but heres it is.

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At this point there's kind of two options I give myself in dealing with photo reference for something like this. I can either find something close and adjust the picture and composition accordingly, or I can allow for a greater amount of time looking for a photo that looks 'just right'. I decided to go with the second option here. I'll lean towards the former in cases where I feel like my idea isn't all the way there; the improvisation of a change in my layout can be exciting. This time though the image was so solid in my mind that I decided to stick with it.

First I found a couple images and cobbled them together to get the body. The lighting in the photo on the left particularly appealed to me.



Next I needed a frog model. Haha. It did feel a bit like casting. Normal when you're using people, but a little...weird... when you're dealing with a frog.



And then of course, frogs. Lots. Of. Frogs.

Then some more.

(I'll leave those off, there's too damn many of 'em)

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I penciled, and then inked the piece. Here's what she looks like.

I'm officially over frogs! lol No, I'll end up using them (and her) again.

I'll need to to justify all the reference I dug up!

Manic (Not) Monday!

It's Monday! Er... okay it's not, it's Friday. But I'm trying to get my blog something like on schedule. It's beautiful outside, Go, Diego, Go!'s on in the background, the peoples are running around for Memorial Day and the coffee's brewing. Let's do this!

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I've got a new computer! It arrived a couple weeks ago now. It's one of the new iMacs. I'm incredibly excited. I'm going to start dipping my toe into the digital production end of comics. I'll let you know how the experiement goes. In the meanwhile, here's a book recommendation: The DC Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics. I know, not the most catchy title. But everything else is great about this book. It's a huge resource of how to create comics digitally, and also on how to adapt a traditional (pen and paper) workflow to something somewhere in between traditional and digital. Written by Freddie Williams II and priced at a little over twenty bucks, it's a great investment.

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I'd seen such a wide range of opinions on the new Thor movie that I had absolutely NO idea how the movie will actually be. After seeing it I'm very in the middle. Many things were done really well, some were done not so well, but there was plenty that was closer to the former and that makes me happy. Oh, and this.

I think I'll have something more of a review soon. Maybe.

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What's that? I haven't talked about "Genius, Isolated", the new book about Alex Toth, yet? That's because I already have, suckers. Go read my review over at Giant Fire Breathing Robot, where I'm a regular contributor (at least until they kick me out).

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Speaking of which, Alex Toth inked by Vince Colletta is the most bizarre idea anyone ever had. But it happened! In Hot Wheels #3 (1969). I don't know what's more amusing, picturing Dick Giordano (who was editor) when he realizes what's about to go down, or Toth, when he (I'm positive) stormed into Dick's office, demanding Vinny never touch his pencils again.

Man. Comics, everybody.

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I'm busy at work on my next turnaround. It's a recent character, and another one from the Green Lantern universe.

A preview:

Turnaround Tuesday!

(Intro if you're new: Turnarounds are a great way to get a feel for a character and to see if you can get a handle on their look and personality, even more than a pin-up. The fact that you're drawing them in three fairly static poses means that the defining elements of the character have to be displayed in small, subtle ways. And they're fun!)

This week's is definitely fun. A little while ago I drew Lucia as an Orange Lantern. I had so much fun with that one that Lantern I figured I might as well continue the trend! This week's turnaround is Larfleeze, the original Orange Lantern. Man, he's fun. He's basically an id gone wild, gluttony and appetite and greed and obsession... really, pick any two of those things and you've got a fun-to-draw character. He's only been around for a few years now, but there's been a few artists who have drawn him already. My favorite, by a margin, is Doug Mahnke.

Doug Mahnke is the artist on Green Lantern right now, and the man is a stand-up example of consistent quality art. He's done the vast majority of the last two year's worth of issues on the book, all while keeping a (more or less) monthly schedule. His work has a slightly grotesque or macabre feel to it, which really works with the strange creatures he's called on to draw. His Larfleeze is bizarre, comical, scheming and melodramatic. Milton's Satan with a power battery, basically. (Here's some Mahnke goodness)

I wanted to keep that energy going in this piece. I got pretty close IMO. Check it.

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Manic Monday!

It's an amazing San Diego day and it's hard to stay indoors right now. Let's get through this Manic Monday, manic-lly!

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I have seen paradise and it is Genius Isolated, a book just put out by IDW. It's about Alex Toth, and yes, know I've posted about it before, but I just got my copy in the mail and dammit I'm excited! Really, it's amazing. It's bigger and thicker than I thought ("That's what she said") and the production value of the thing is astounding.

I can't recommend the book more. Well worth it. (The link up there is to its Amazon page, where it's only thrity-two bucks right now)

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Beyonce's got a new single out. "Run This World (Girls)" is classic Beyonce. And by that I mean, awesome, ass-shaking and just bizarre enough to keep you engaged through the coming years. Her discography is seriously aging well, better than most wines. Honestly I think she tacked the parenthesis-Girls-parenthesis onto the title to be nice. We all know who runs the world, Miss B, but thanks for extending the royal hand.

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I've got another, semi-serious writing gig coming up. I've just, just started, so I'm going to keep it light and not jinx it. I'm excited about it. More to come soon!

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Progress on my Egyptian Frog Goddess has been made! Not quite done yet, but the inking's moving along nicely. Here ya go!

Manic Monday!

Well, it's another Monday. It was a busy, crazy weekend here and Easter's come and gone (and I've got no bacon left in the house!). Fun, fun, fun... now let's see what's been going on in the world.

It's Manic Monday, let's turn this mother out!

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Yeah, I went there. Deal with it. You know you love it.

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I think that the greatest untapped market right now is 'Easter songs'. I mean, besides "Here Comes Peter Cottontail", what is there? And yet, look at the market! That's a simple issue of supply and demand, my friends. Nothing in sight.

Well, except for this gem. My god...

Ya know what? Nevermind, no Easter Songs. We're obviously not advanced enough yet as a race to get them right.

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So the highly anticipated (at least by me) book about Alex Toth, "Genius, Isolated", is due next week. I cannot recommend this enough. Having seen some preview pages and read some of interviews, its' an amazing look at one of comics' certifiable legends.

It's going to be a series of three books, looking (roughly) at his early, high, and late career. This is one of those books that I think is a no-brainer purchase, whether you're a fan of comic books, animation (Toth created Space Ghost and had a big hand in the Fantastic Four and Super Friends cartoons) or just great art in general.

Or, maybe if you're lucky, I'll let you borrow mine.

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A couple links for your Monday perusal:
* Awesome San Diego food blog Sasha Eat World ,with great photos and wit. What more do you want?!?
* I've linked to it before, but if you're not reading Agent of S.T.Y.L.E., I have to wonder what's wrong with you.
* Slightly off the 'pop culture' beat, if you want an accurate, honest look at American politics, Glenn Greenwald is your man. He makes most mainstream 'journalists' look like high school reporters.

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Last week (or so) I started on this piece on Heket, Egyptian frog goddess. Here's step two in the process.

Tick tock, tick tock...

New Gods Update! (The Missing Ink)

So, here's an update on the New Gods page I've been working on. (The roughs for this bit of it can be found here )

The lettering turned out great, if I can be so bold; you can tell by the roughs that, for this page, I really considered it a crucial part of the layout. The 'fun' of this has been the roughs (a lot of quirky storytelling challenges, many self-imposed) and the lettering (which helps overcome some storytelling problems and is just plain entertaining). It's a bit of work now to get to the finish line with this one, but I really want to see this done (not always a given) so rest assured true believer...done it will be!

Soon.

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The Missing Ink!

Well, it's Friday, not Wednesday, but I finished this piece today and so it's going up now.Our penciling selection for this installment of "The Missing Ink" comes to us from Phil Jimenez. Phil (I had him as a teacher, and we're Facebook friends, so I can refer to him by his first name if I want! lol...) is known for a wide berth of projects he's worked on (Tempest, X-men, Infinite Crisis) but he's probably best known for his run as writer and artist on DC's Wonder Woman.

Phil's work is very line intensive, detailed and carries with it a great deal of emotion, even in this piece, which is theoretically a skecth. I'm not sure where I pulled this Wonder Woman drawing from; I found it online and that's about all I know of it. Ask Google!

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Working on this (the first time I've tried inking Mr. Jimenez) I realized that I would need to switch things up. Usually I'll ink hair in brush, not nib or pen; this makes sense, as you generally want the organic, soft line of a brush for something soft and organic. However, I started inking with the brush and realized that the sketchy line (it is a sketch, I guess!) needed a line that would firm it up a bit and give it a solid volume. I switched to nibs and pens, and I'm glad I did.

I think it turned out alright! (Phil's pencils are on the left, and my inks are on the right)

Stuck In The Middle (Here I Am)

[Updated: I'm on schedule!]

So, starting a new page featuring Wolverine fighting Mystique (more on that to come) I realized that the last panel, one of the biggest on the page, wasn't really working

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It's a tricky thing, in that the panel or image looks fine, but that's all it looks. There's two purposes in a panel, to 'inform' (communicate effectively the information, i.e. that guy's got a gun, or "Damn, she's anatomically perfect!") or to 'entertain' ( make something look good or give the reader their money's worth).



This panel was doing the former fine (she just beat up Wolverine and is now standing there looking victorious) but just wasn't cutting it for me in the later category. She's kinda just standing there.

I've decided to lean a bit more towards entertainment. We'll see how it goes.

Stayed tuned!

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UPDATE:

So, I managed to get the revision in today and decided I'd post it before polishing it up. Here ya go!



It's interesting. There's not too much that's different. I did shift the hips a bit and of course adjust the head and arm, but more than anything else it's a commit to pushing the decision I've made. Going with a kind of pin-up within a page means pushing it.

I think it works, but we'll see tomorrow. Artists are a cowardly and superstitious lot.

Manic Monday!

It's Monday, and as my daughter would say "A new day has come!". (She's really into Dora The Explorer and someone said that once. Or something.)

Let's do this!

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You heard Lady Gaga's new single "Judas" yet? If not, go listen then we'll talk.

Back? So, what'd you think? Here's my review: I'm enjoying it, though I'm getting neither the immediate sense of satistfaction or surprise (as I did with "Bad Romance" and "Poker Face") or delayed, 'A Ha!' enjoyment (as creeped up on me with "Telephone" and especially "Born This Way") The criticism against "Born This Way", that was a retread of area mined by Madonna, is a more accurate descriptor of "Judas".

To me, it sounds incredibly similar to "Poker Face" and "Bad Romance"; the stuttering, high dance beat of the former mixed with the time changes and aural atmosphere of the later. The middle eight/ bridge is great (the spoken elements contrast nicely with the clear, 'clean' chorus). The gothic feel is also nice, but again feels so similar to the world created to "Bad Romance" as to be not surprising.

Perhaps it's context. If this had been a B-side to "Bad Romance" or another single from "Fame Monster" it would be much more of a standout, but as something that is carrying the new album in the wake of "Born This Way" it feels a little bit like Gaga's treading water.

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Another Trivia Night has come and gone. We didn't do so well, but what can you do? Besides drink another IPA of course.

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I just picked up a book on the Super Friends cartoon. Yeah, that Super Friends. You know when Super Friends doesn't suck, and I'm sorry to fans out there but it mostly does? It's when you've got comic legend Alex Toth involved.

Legend is a word, like genius, thrown around to often and mostly applied to people who just do particularly good at their job. Legend and genius are words, especially in a young medium like comics, that need to be saved for special instances. Kirby. Eisner. Adams. And Toth. This book is just picked up has some Toth pieces, both written and drawn, about the Superfriends cartoon and the process of creating it. This model sheet is from the cartoon, but not from the book. Imagine if that pretty crappy cartoon had had this much effort and life behind it?




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On my artistic shelf this week: I'm listening to the Beach Boy's "Pet Sounds" (better than every Beatles album except Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's), starting a novel "City & City" that I'm borrowing from a friend, and finishing up a fascinating book on the various social classes in Ancient Egypt. Research, that one, but still really interesting. Nice when those two sync up!

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Here at the Nunez house we've had a return of the gophers from last year, and I think I scared them off (i.e. killed them. Sorry.) with some strategically placed pieces of Juicy Fruit. Really works, it's true! (That saccharine crap's good for something!) I decided I'd honor my worthy foes by creating a super-villain in their names.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Gopher! I promise to pass on any royalties to their gopher families.

Egyptian Thursday!

So, the post on this one's going to be brief. This is Heket, Egyptian Frog Goddess. Early goings here, with the drawing and posting to be continued tomorrow...

FROGS!

New Gods Page

So, the Green Lantern page that I started last week was taking a bit long. Which isn't, in and of itself, a problem, except for the fact that I'm trying to go a little quicker with these one-off pages. So... we're putting that one aside and moving on for now. I'll get back to it, sooner rather than later I'm sure. It's been fun so far, and I'll make sure to post it once it's done.

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The new page I'm starting on is taken from a random DC comic from the early eighties, "Super Team Family". Catchy title, right? The cover is really what drew me in (no pun intended). Here it is, by artist extraodinaire Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez:



Great, right? It's actually way better than the art inside. The story is pretty basic. Orion of the New Gods is growing really, really big, and that's apparently really, really bad. Couple characters are trying to save him.

It's a serviceable plot, but the art is journeyman and doesn't bring much to the script. That's not a criticism of the art as such, just an observation that there's a lot of room in the work for more energy and individual artistic style.

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The next step was finding a page to work with. I chose one of the early ones. Two superheroes standing on an ever-expanding version of a third? I'm there!



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It's been a lot of fun so far. Here's a sample of the roughs (or some of them, at least). I've decided to go ahead and letter this one. I'll explain why as I wrap it up, some time in 2012.

Joking, joking...



You can see all the panels from the original reflected in these roughs. There's some experimentation going on right now, so I've added stuff, taken out stuff and moved other stuff around.

Stuff.

See you tomorrow!

Manic Monday!

Well, we're almost on schedule (this post is only a few days late now, as opposed to a month!) Let's get crazy (put your hands up). It's Manic Monday!

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It's the Inkwell Awards! Recognizing the best inkers in the comic industry. Have you voted yet?

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Your song recommendation of the week: Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi - "Two Against One (ft Jack White)". It comes from a Spaghetti Western inspired album titles "Rome" which is out later this year. It rocks. Hard. (YouTube link here)

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A month or so ago I started on a picture of Lucia as an Orange Lantern, which is a group of comic characters. (They're motivated by self-preservation and greed, and if that doesn't (sometimes) fit young kids to a tee I'm not sure what group does! Anyways, I wanted to do a more traditional caricature of her, so that's what we're doing today.

The photo was chosen by me, but Lucia insisted that she be Tinkerbell. In fact that was the second thing she said when she saw her Orange Lantern self ; "It's me!", was quickly followed by "I want Tinkerbell!".

Everyone's a critic!

So, here we are, and here's Lucia Nunez as Tinkerbell!

Sandman Page! (Wacky Week of April 4th)

[Updated]

Man, this was a beast!

I mentioned a couple weeks ago my intention to do a different comic page a week, just to keep different art muscles in shape. For my first one I selected a page from an issue of Sandman, Neil Gaiman's excellent and indispensable series. He worked with a host of collaborators on the book, and the arc that I drew (no pun intended) this page from was originally drawn by Kelly Jones, an excellent artist.

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I found the actual script for this page online, and so I was able to avoid 'starting' from where Jones had left off. It can be difficult, in the case of a very strong artist, determining your own blueprint. It can seem so natural, the storytelling choices that've already been made, and you run the risk of just reinterpreting the printed page, rather than drawing your own version of it. It's a fairly thin distinction but I believe it's a crucial one.

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I am happy with how this turned out. The pencils are incredibly tight, but I wanted something that looked 'done'. I got to get a little Art Nouveau and P. Craig Russell (there's a large overlap between those two, really) in the art. It was a lot of fun.

Hope you like it. See you Monday!

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Update

Here's a link to the Comic Script archives. Look for Neil Gaiman, and the Sandman script's the only one listed for him. It's a Word doc; I used page 24, which is the very last one.

Foto Friday!

And...we're back!

In trying to keep moving forward, as I wrap up my Sandman page, I'm also starting on another.

Switching gears almost completely, I decided that this time I'd do a Green Lantern page. It's fresh in my mind, and perfect for this kind of thing; it's from a recent issue of Green Lantern Corps. It was originally drawn by Tyler Kirkham, an artist with very different sensibilities than I have. That made this very easy. I knew that (depsite the original being cohesive and energetic) I could find my own 'voice' for the page fairly easily.

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It's in the early goings, but here's a panel that I've been working on:

First, some reference-



(There's also some photos of me grimacing, to get the lighting right, but it's much too early to embarrass myself that much. Sorry)

And here's what I've gotten from that-



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So far, so good I'd say.

See you next week!

The Missing Ink

As I wrap up my Sandman page (to be posted tomorrow) I thought I'd share a little bit more of my process.

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Sometimes, even with an image 'clear' in your head and a rough that's pretty complete, I find that it can be helpful to spot some of the blacks. That's a little bit of comic talk there, sorry; basically, what I'll do sometimes (and what I've done with the subsequent rough) is go in with a black marker, and determine some of the black areas or shadows ahead of the penciling stage. I find this can add a bit of cohesion to a panel that's lacking it.

I thought this panel was working, but I thought a little bit more of an 'oomph' could be wrung from it if I went for a little more heavy contrast in the lights and darks. Figuring out these lights and darks ahead of time obviously makes a lot of sense. I shudder at working through some of these problems on the board!

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My initial rough's in lead (grey) pencil, second step's blue and some fixes in red. I was initially going to do a little brickwork or something to make the building these characters are in look like a building, but I decided that the characters themselves should be the focus, and so I've reduced everything to a stark black-and-white.

See you tomorrow!

Turnaround Tuesday!

I started this one a few weeks back for St. Patty's Day, but various things got in the way. It's Banshee!

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Banshee is one of the characters from the 'second wave' of X-Men which made its debut in 1974's "Giant Size X-Men" #1. (This group also famously included Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler and others) Banshee had made his debut in "X-Men" years earlier, as a hero forced into villainy by that dastardly Magneto.

He hung around for the first year or so of the 'new' X-men, but since then more or less remained in the background, or at least among the second tier of X-men.

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There's a fine line when designing vaguely nationalistic heroes. You can get either the 'clone of Captain America' look (see Captain Canuck, Germany's Vormund or Russia's Red Guardian) or you get the 'stereotype of the country as a costume' look (see Saudi Arabia's Arabian Knight, Spain's Aguila or -oy- Ireland's Shamrock). I think that the later is much easier to get wrong. Just look at them! Shamrock's name is even Molly Fitzgerald! Why not just name her Leprechaun O'Guiness?

Banshee somehow managed to stay out of that stereotyped caricature of a country 'zone'. I think it's because his name implies a connection with Ireland, without any implicit 'banshee' imagery, and his costume, in its green and yellow color scheme, says 'Ireland' without knocking us over the head with explicit flag imagery. He also tended to have subtle character traits that said 'Irish': curly, red hair, longer sideburns and a pipe. He walks on that tightrope, but I think it works.

The costume itself is great too. You've got a streamlined costume with just a collar for distinction; he's a flier and needs to stay unencumbered. And those wings. Man, I remember loving those crazy wings ever since I saw him in a comic back in the early '90's.

Great costume. I think I did a decent job here. Join me tomorrow for more art goodness!

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Manic Monday!

It's Manic Monday! You may have noticed that the last couple weeks were a bit of wash here at Pop/Life. I bit off.. not more than I can chew, but a piece that took a little bit longer to chew, if I can be allowed to stretch that metaphor to its legal limit.

I started trying to get done an extra comic page, in addition to my blog stuff and my usual motley crew of assignments, and it's taken a little bit longer than I'd anticipated to integrate into my schedule. Let's see if this week we can get back on track, yeah?

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It's no secret, here on this blog or to anyone that's talked to me for more than five minutes, that one of my absolute favorite comic artists is Kevin Nowlan. Nowlan is a thirty year professional in the industry, and he's one of those rare talents that's on the short list for mastery of penciling, inking, coloring and lettering. He's really, really good.

It's pretty rare anymore for him to take on penciling jobs (he's spent more time doing covers and stellar inking jobs over guys like Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez) but Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy, has somehow lured him into doing a Hellboy one shot. This highly anticipated book is due next month. Kevin Nowlan's really gone all out on this one: he's doing the pencils, inks, letters and colors. I'm incredibly excited. Yay for comics!

There's a brief but interesting article over at Newsarama on the project (and dig those sweet pencils!)

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I don't know what I'd do if I didn't own an espresso machine, I really don't.

Okay, that's a lie. I'd go to the excellent Lestat's Coffehouse, here in Normal Heights. I'm just a block away, and I feel lucky.

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I'm always interested in how other artists produce their work, and what steps they take and when. Along those lines, there's a great process article about a recent Venom cover by Joe Quesada over at Comic Alliance. Go check it.

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So, the Sandman page I promised on Friday is not done yet. BUT. I've got a nice looking panel to show you! Last week (or the week before that, really) I posted a rough I was working on for the page. Well, the pencil-ness is done for that one. Here ya go!




See you tomorrow!

Manic Monday!

It's Manic Monday, and I'm somehow caught up! Let's not change that now. Tally ho!

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My comic book recommendation of the week: Night Music by P.Craig Russell. Man, this stuff is good. Russell is one of my favorite artists. He's really got an amazing way with both pencils and inks. His pencils have a lush, Art Nouveau-tinged quality to the work; there's a degree of precise but delicate draftsmanship that he's been able to maintain for over thirty years now. Just astounding. His inking is much more common than you'd think. He's inked a wide variety of guys, including Mike Mignola, Rick Leonardi, Kelley Jones and Michael Golden.

Night Music is a small number of issues (eight? nine? ten? I forget...) published by Eclipse in the eighties. It's an assemblage of small one-off stories and some larger multi-issue works. There's a lot of stuff to like in it; it's a treat to see an artist this good cut loose and do a varied selection of genres, styles and lengths.

It's highly recommended. Go get it!

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I mentioned on Friday that I've started a goal of tackling a different comic page every week. I'll be posting this first one (from Neil Gaiman's Sandman) on Friday.

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The recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophes in Japan have been incredibly awful, surreal and beyond my scope of imagination. I really recommend, if you haven't, donating to the Red Cross. Every bit will help.

I've also found Rachel Maddow's recent segment on the nuclear reactors (and their possible meltdown) very smart and informative. With stuff this big and potentially destructive I find it helps me to listen to people that really know what they're talking about. Maddow explains everything that she can clearly and concisely, and the stuff that she can't she has other smart people on to talk about.

I'm a big fan of television that doesn't dumb itself down. Bravo Rachel Maddow Show.

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Your non-comic book recommendation of the week: Harold Bloom's "The Book of J". This fairly easy read (not always a given with the erudite Bloom) is an intriguing look at the the possible writer of the first 'version' of the Old Testament, and a commendable attempt to recreate that original first document as well.

These stories (if you'll forgive my referring to text sacred to millions of people as such) are so culturally embedded and almost unconscious remembered that it can be hard to look at them with a fresh, and in this instance literary, eye. Bloom has made a very strong case for the early works found in the Torah/ Old Testament as a beautiful piece of literature, and has taken them out of a moral context, something I would never have thought possible with the Bible.

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Time to get a'crackin' on the day. Your art today comes from my comic page mentioned above. It's another rough, subject to change before I get to the finish line. I gotta say, I love the way the the colored pencil takes to the page. It's a nice, albeit temporary, change from the normal monochromatic palette the penciler (or inker) works in.

Enjoy!