I have a habit of making doodles of The Joker, and trying different styles and looks when I do. This is one.
017 – Joker
016 – Maxwell Smart
Even before I started posting everyday, I had been watching the show Get Smart on DVD as I draw. I recently started on Season 2. I still don’t particularly like the show, or find it all that funny, but I find it really pleasant to have on while I work.
I also noticed, while looking at photo reference, that Maxwell Smart/Don Adams shares a lot of physical similarities with former Justice League International benefactor and current DCU boogeyman Maxwell Lord.
Just sayin’.
015 – Aztek
Today is my friend Joe Grunenwald’s birthday. I’ve known Joe for over 10 years or so. We worked together briefly at Maverick’s, our local comic shop. He was still in high school, and I was otherwise unemployed, recently fired from my first “career” job out of art school. I always liked Joe, but for whatever reasons, it has only been within the past year that we have actually hung out with each other beyond the occasional run-in at the comic shop, and my life certainly is the better for it.
Joe is quite possibly the funniest human being I’ve ever met and has an encyclopedic knowledge of most things comic book and geeky. Hanging out with him is always a joy and talking with him is always a pleasure, which is why I eventually asked him to be the co-host of my second podcast, League Night, in which we are watching every episode of the Justice League cartoon and talkin’ about ’em. He has also been a guest on, and guest-hosted an episode, of my first podcast, Gutter Trash.
One of the many, many things Joe and I have in common is a shared love for Grant Morrison, and Aztek in particular. Aztek was a book that Morrison co-wrote with Mark Millar and lasted about 10 issues. It’s hard to imagine a world where that would happen, but there you go. This also happened around a time when DC Comics published some of the greatest books they have every published – every single one of them canceled within a year. The lucky ones made it roughly two years. Morrison brought Aztek into his run on the JLA comic, and sacrificed him in his final storyline, making Aztek one of the rare superheroes who have never returned to life.
A long time ago, when I was taking requests for characters to draw for the blog, Aztek was among the many characters on the long list that Joe G. gave me. So Aztek is scratched off in celebration of Joe G.’s birthday.
Joe is a writer currently showing off his talents on the blog he shares with his wife, Jennie, Joe and Jennie in the Morning!, where they are reviewing numerous television shows, including X-Files, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and Sports Night. Check it out and check out League Night.
Happy Birthday, Joe!
014 – Owl
It’s an owl.
013 – Rollins Power Sauce
Henry Rollins essentially saved my life. 10 years ago or so, my girlfriend at the time dumped me and I was pretty sure there was no point to anything anymore. My friends all did their best to make sure I stayed busy and helped keep my mind off the situation, but I had to be alone at some point. One such friend gave me a bunch of Rollin’s spoken work tapes, and another friend gave me some Black Flag records. For about two months, I’d say that’s pretty much all I listened to, and it helped me get through the rough patches and eventually move on. It also made me a huge Rollins fan.
Henry turns 50 today. Happy Birthday, Rollins.
Ok, PANIC!: Romance Comics
I put together this parody comic cover-recreation for the “Romance Comics” topic. With great apologies to Don Heck. Less so to Vince Colleta. The big swinger may or may not reflect my own personal opinions of fashion. Original cover below.
You can even check out the lead story at this blog!
012 – Here there be Dragons
Part of the whole daily thing is that I want to try to do different things with the sketches/art. Whether I fail or not is inconsequential.
By the way, I chalk this up as a failure.
Anyhow, Savage Dragon. When Image Comics first started, Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon quickly became my favorite out of the bunch. I had loved Larsen’s work on Spider-Man, and was eager to see his own creation. Not to bash the other Image founders, but you could tell that Larsen loved what he did, and loved Dragon far more than the other guys did for their own. I think the simple fact that, almost 20 years later, he’s still doing his own book, let alone one of the only ones even still actively making comics at all, speaks for that.
I stopped reading Savage Dragon about six, seven years ago. Something changed – either in myself or in Larsen’s creative approach – and found I simply wasn’t enjoying the book anymore. Despite that, I don’t think I can put into words just how much respect I hold for Erik Larsen as a creator and an artist, and how much of an influence he is on me. Obviously his influence is limited, otherwise I’d have motivated myself to produce actual work over the past decade.
But that’s my problem, not his.
011 – Masked Man
Post-it note sketch done in ball-point pen. I think it’s supposed to be Mister Miracle. Maybe. It wasn’t my initial intention. Maybe.
010 – Prince Namor on the tube
Tried to do something loose with pen and marker, added the color in Photoshop.
As a bonus, I’ve added another Namor drawing I did a few years back.
I drew this one drawing night to make my friend laugh, and it led to a short-lived series of sketches of “Superheroes if they looked more like real people”. Obviously, not in the static, lifeless, stoic Alex Ross kinda way.
009 – Eradicator
This drawing was inspired by Dennis Culver. On his blog, he’s been redesigning DC characters to fit into the whole “Batman, Inc.” thing. They are fantastic designs and ideas (seriously, DC Comics, you need to wake up and do a Wally West as Batman of Keystone series. NOW.). Anyhow, I just wanted to play in the sandbox for a minute, so I came up with E-Bat-icator you see above (Eradicator as Batman of Metropolis, I suppose).
The thing about Dennis Culver, though, is that up until a week ago, I’d never heard of him, and had never seen his work. He design for “Captain Batarang” was picked up by Project: Rooftop, which is where I first stumbled onto his blog. After being amazed by his art and designs, I noticed that he was posting a daily sketch/drawing. I’ve seen tons of other artists do it before, but for some reason, looking at Culver’s site, it really clicked for me, and I decided to do this daily thing as well.
So yeah, go look at his work, he’s great.