Blowing Off The Dust

Doing some housekeeping on my harddrives and found these pages from a "project that almost was". These are the first six pages I drew for the WildStorm "Starcraft" series written by Keith Giffen and inked by Doug Mahnke, before we were all removed from the book, for whatever reason. I don't know why I only have the three scans of the black and white art, so I've included some of color previews that I had. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have any record of who did the colors. :(

Pull Back The Covers

Got a copy of an upcoming Starcraft HC collection, the other day, and it reminded me I hadn't posted these yet.

Inky Dinks

Getting settled into my new digs and realized I haven't posted anything lately. I had to dive into some of the inking on my last couple issues of WildCats. These are a few of those pages.

Battle Scene

One of those big shots, where you have to get almost everybody in...
Funny bit: It wasn't until after the book was on its way to print, that I happened to be reading something and realized that when the script referred to Slayton's "energy whips" they were actually supposed to be some kind of psychic energy and not actual whips. Nobody said anything different to me, so I had no idea. My previous exposure to the character was in TEAM ZERO. I only knew he was immortal and had a bionic leg!

WildCats #15

Various pages of pencils from WildCats #15.

Wildcats #14

Couple shots from Wildcats #14!

Revealing

Wildcats and Marlowe.

Still Storming

A few pages of my pencils from WildStorm's WILDCATS #13 on sale now. Favorite bits: the way the bad guy's hands are folded in the panel where he's sitting in the chair, Lynch's profile in the last panel of the last page, and... I got to draw a werewolf!

Wild Ride

I see WildStorm released some preview pages from upcoming WILDCATS. Gives me an excuse to post something. Here's pencils from a couple of the pages floating around out there. It's been pretty nuts trying to get used to all these characters. Still feel like I'm getting my feet under me, but overall, it's a blast.

Back Up

Here are a few pages from the Team Seven backup stories for WildStorm written by Christos Gage.

Coverness

High time for a new post!

Here's one of the variant covers I did for WildStorm's STARCRAFT series.

I wasn't thrilled with how I inked the woman's face in the end, but overall... iconic, moody, gritty... I dug this one.

Edit: Just came across some of my sketches for these covers and added one here.

Edit: I see this cover is being solicited as "by Shawn Moll and Doug Mahnke". FWIW, that's inaccurate. Doug had nothing to do with this one. Here's the cover Doug inked! Hoo-ah!

Storming onto Newsstands

WILDCATS #10

Written by Christos Gage; Art by Neil Googe and Shawn Moll; Cover by Neil Googe

Majestic's Hawaiian utopia is everything he advertised it to be and more! Yet there's something sinister just beneath the surface that the team can't pin down. Also, a former team member returns...but on whose side?

And in a special backup, Christos Gage and Shawn Moll (She-Hulk) bring back the group everybody's been waiting for – Team Seven!

On Sale April 22, 2009

http://www.dccomics.com/wildstorm/comics/?cm=11525

....and....

THE AUTHORITY #10

Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and Christos Gage; Art by Brandon Badeaux and Shawn Moll; Cover by Simon Coleby

When the world ended, the Authority and the rest of the population were caught unprepared and suffered the consequences. Find out what happened in those crucial moments following the destruction of Earth and how it affected the Authority...as well as Rendlesham!

Also, the conclusion of the Team Seven backup!

On Sale May 6, 2009

http://www.dccomics.com/wildstorm/comics/?cm=11622

As Requested...

As requested in the Comments section, here are a couple more concept sketches I did for a Starcraft comic.

Note, however, when it's related to a project, I will typically only post stuff that has either A) already been published or B) has been outright rejected or C) was just something I was doodling around with when I was coming up with ideas and doesn't give anything away ahead of time.

In this case, this is the original page from my sketchbook of Nuura, that was used in the published preview that is already floating around the internet.

The ship was an earlier version that I was dinking around with. When I was working on it, somebody had asked for "something like Serenity" and this was deemed "too much like Serenity". I think it must've been the rotating thruster things on sides. I think they're pretty cool, in general, but they certainly aren't exclusive to the ship in Firefly, as I think you can see similar design elements in Star Wars, Bladerunner and various other sci-fi. Either way, I guess ya gotta start somewhere.

As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, they opted for another direction with the book and the original creative team is no longer involved, but down the road, when the new book does hit stands, I'll post more of the art that I did when I was on the project. I've seen colored versions of some covers and pinups that I drew that I thought turned out pretty sweet, so I'd think you might be seeing some solicits before too long.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Mother Of All Evil

Here are a few of my favorite pages from FRIDAY THE 13th: PAMELA'S TALE for WildStorm.
In these pages, Pamela Voorhees, the mother-to-be of Jason, exacts her revenge on her abusive shitheel of a husband.
I worked from a plot-only style script on these books, which gave me a great deal of freedom with the pacing and storytelling of the pages. I was still subject to a few changes from New Line Cinema, but overall, it was a pretty darn good time.
Edited by Ben Abernathy, Written by Marc Andreyko, Penciled and Inked by Yours Truly.

The Boys

Here's one from some time ago, just for fun. The perspective fell apart a bit in the lower left, but it was still a fun piece to pencil and ink. I love the idea of Midnighter and Apollo. The contrasting characters -- the shining paragon to the twisted, almost psychotic maniac.

It's Always The Quiet Ones...

My first crack at Jason Voorhees, while I was getting warmed up for a Friday the 13th book at WildStorm.

I went "comicbooky" and buff for this one. He's obviously "compensating" for something...