Winging It

Got a call to do a couple pages for NIGHTWING #151, scripted by Pete Tomasi. Not a great deal happening on these pages and I jumped on them without any real warm-up, but it would've been fun to do more on this title, before it was cancelled. Pete was spinnin' a good yarn!

Monster a la Mode

Looking for a gift of apparel for that special creep in your life?
Look no further than Monster a la Mode!
My wife got our clothing line up and running at Etsy.com.
Swing by and take a looksee!

Out With The New

As is usually the case, I can't really talk about (or post work from) stuff I'm working on until it's announced. As a result, there hasn't been much posting around here.
However, here are a couple sketches from something that had been in the works since around March and was announced, but I've since been informed that the licensor has decided to go a different direction with the art (and writing).
I've got some covers, pin-up stuff, and some interiors that all turned out pretty cool and I'll post, down the road, after they are solicited, etc...
These sketches were my designs, published in a preview comic, awhile back. Actually, I think the ship sketch was just outright rejected, but the dude with the scars was in there.

Out With The Old

It's been awhile since I've posted, so here's one from the archives that I thought turned out pretty nice. This was from my first issue of OUTSIDERS.
Inks: Kevin Conrad

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!!!

Finally got with it this year and threw together something to scare the trick 'r treaters, while handing out candy. It had the desired effect.

En Taro Adun, Executor!

Seeing as how this cover has been kicking around the internet for about a week now, here's a shot of my pencils.

The final piece features inks by superstar Doug Mahnke (above) and colors by Wes Hartman.

BTW, the post linked above is not entirely accurate, as the art wasn't really "leaked", but rather it was featured on the flip-cover of a preview STARCRAFT/WOW comic at Blizzcon '08 and was given away in a "goodie bag".

Edit: Found a scan of Doug's inks and my initial cover concept sketch.

Speaking of Ebay

Here's one of the sketches I did for the MCBA sketch card collection up for sale on ebay. A dealer purchased it from somebody who got it in the lottery and he brought it to me later to throw some color on it.

It's Out There

For those of you who've put up with my vague answers when you've asked what I'm working on, here's something that I see hit a few messageboards over the weekend.

From Blizzcon '08.

And another shot of the "goodie bag".

I see a large number of these goodie bags are on ebay already.

MCBA FALL CON FUN!

Another successful MCBA Fall Con comes and goes. Nick and the gang put on another great show! Spent the weekend sketching, chatting with comic fans and hanging with my boys, Doug, Tom, and Pat, in addition to our friends from out East, Pete Tomasi and Keith Champagne. A great time was had, with a whole lotta laughs. Thanks, guys!

On a related note, the MCBA had an entire set of sketch cards done for the event. MCBA sketch card gallery.

Here are scans of my contributions.

20th ANNUAL MCBA FALLCON!!!

Hey, Gang! Check this out!

20th ANNIVERSARY MCBA FALLCON COMIC BOOK CELEBRATION

October 4 & 5, 2008 - 10AM to 5PM Both Days!
Minnesota State Fairgrounds - In the Grandstand!
1265 Snelling Avenue - Saint Paul, MN 55108

E-Mail
MySpace
Website

It looks as though this year Fallcon will play host to over 225 creators!

Hoo-ah!

Ab-Originals

Finally got back some SHE-HULK originals from Marvel. Sent a bunch of scans from issue #24 to my rep and they will be available for sale as he updates the gallery with them. Booyah!
Inks: Olazaba
*EDIT* There is currently no longer any "gallery" for original art. Anybody interested in a particular page can contact me either by posting a comment here on the blog or Private Message me on Twitter.

Amazing Aunt May

Marvel Solicits for August:

Your Spidey-Senses are about to tingle a bit more with the debut of Amazing Spider-Man Family #1! Exploring the lives of Spider-Man and the rest of his Brand New Day cast, this brand new series kicks off with 104 pages of friendly neighborhood action! What happened the day after Uncle Ben died? J.M De Matteis & Alex Cal have the answers! And what was life like for Mr. and Mrs. Parker before May “Mayday” Parker was born? You’ll get he answer, courtesy of Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz! Take a look back at the origin of Venom and a special Aunt May Story by Keith Champagne & Shawn Moll! Plus, your first look inside the Marvel Apes universe, as Karel Kesel & Ramon Bachs, the creators behind September’s simian sensation, reveal the secret origin of Spider-Monkey!

Wrapped up in a jaw dropping cover by Adi Granov, Spidey fans can’t miss the all new Amazing Spider-Man Family!

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN FAMILY #1 (JUN082310)
Written by J.M DEMATTEIS, TOM DEFALCO, KEITH CHAMPAGNE & KARL KESEL
Penciled by ALEX CAL, RON FRENZ, SHAWN MOLL & RAMON BACHS
Cover by ADI GRANOV
RATED A…$4.99
FOC—7/17/08, On-Sale—8/6/08

Rampaging Rough

Long time, no post. To all two of you that check this blog, I apologize. :)

Got out and caught THE INCREDIBLE HULK today and dug it, so I thought it a good enough excuse to sit down and post this rough. One of my favorite bits in the movie: The Rickson Gracie cameo.

A buddy of mine has been waiting for a Hulk drawing, since somewhere right after high school, I think. I've had 3-4 false starts on the piece over the years. I'll start one and just realize I'm not digging it and it goes into the "unfinished" pile. A couple years later, I'll start another. Rinse and repeat. I did this one not long ago and may stick with it. We'll see after I finish inking it.

Merry Mahnke Inks!

My man Doug slathered his juicy inks all over this piece. How cool is that?!? I love the way this turned out. Original post with my pencils here.

Grit-O-Rama

Here's a little experiment where I wanted to play around with ink, texture and grit, and going right from a very loose rough right to ink. I was fairly happy with the results.

Yet Again...

Another Jason Voorhees sketch from the archives. I did a bunch of these so New Line could see how I would approach the character for the Wildstorm comics. The funny thing is, the "iconic" version of Jason isn't even in the issues that I drew! HA!

MONSTER DUMP!

Some more random play from my sketchbooks. Monsters!

Some may question my sanity or maybe figure I had a bad childhood, since my doodlings quite often drift toward the grotesque or disturbing. When I finally gave it some thought, I think I know where most of it comes from.

When I was a tiny kid, my uncle and I used to stay up late and watch horror movies on a show with Dr. Sanguinary. The stuff would scare me absolutely silly, and I would lay in bed at night with the sweats, holding my breath. The ghouls were just outside the window, peeking in, or under the bed, or there, in the closet. Monstrous noses, bulbous eyes, and cadaverous hands boiled from the thick, black dark, until I'd finally pass out, either from exhaustion or just lack of air. However, I just couldn't get enough. So many sweet childhood memories of my uncle in the chair, eating popcorn, laughing at me, while I huddled behind the footstool, stealing glimpses of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, jr. or The Blob. So, thanks Unc!! HA!

Some of these sketches were for projects that didn't go anywhere (particularly the nazis) others were just for fun.

Dream gig = Generating this shit for Hollywood money!

Enjoy!

Angels Ink

Tattoo design for a friend. Archangel St. Michael, patron saint of paramedics.
Favorite bit: The way the caduceus worked into the sword and armor.

Killer Clown

Here's a piece from a few years back. This was just me playing around with how to approach a story that a friend and I have been messing with since the mid-90s. I suppose we'd better "pull the trigger" one of these days...

Mimetic Poly-alloy

Here's a little "behind-the-scenes" for ya. The first image is the final pencil version of a page from #26. The second image is what I had drawn originally. In the script, Peter had written "flat like a spear" to describe her hand. Since Jaz is a shape-shifter, I mistakenly thought he was making a reference to TERMINATOR 2, so that's how I drew it. He was actually asking for a good, old-fashioned "spear hand" or "kwan soo" from martial arts, to illustrate how badass our girl Jaz was.

Also notice that I'd screwed up and drawn pants on She-Hulk in the last panel, originally... Thankfully, he caught that, too.

I was moving pretty fast when I did this page, but ultimately, it had some stuff I really dug. Favorite parts of this page include the cold look on Jazinda's face when she impales him and then panel 3 when she walks past the soaking wet, stunned Jen and tells her "I'll be in the car." Oh, and Jaz's hand on his shoulder in panel 1.

Bearly Legal

Some pencils from issue #26. That bear was fun to draw. The page description was something about a big "grizzly", but in the dialogue, Jen was talking about "black bears". So, I just went somewhere in between with a generic comic book bear. I particularly liked his big, flabbery lower lip. It didn't come through in the scans, really, but I had a bunch of drool whipping off that lip, too.

Just Law

Here's another sketch from back when I was playing around trying to decide how I would approach Shulkie.

More process

I thought this was kinda cool. Here's another example of some behind-the-scenes of how I work, sometimes. The script called for Jaz to be scanning some FBI files or something with this holographic/projection of a sort of 3D computer screen, so I blocked in floating screens in the pencils and then mocked up a separate version of the page with how I thought it might look cool. All kinds of layering of "greeked" text, images, symbols, etc... floating in front of her, glowing and translucent. I haven't seen the printed version, so I don't know what coloring came up with, but I thought this was a cool opportunity to get some funky design in there.

Pencilage

Haven't posted for awhile, so here're some pencils from SHE-HULK #25.