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!