Daily Sketch #51

More Dead Inspector

Here's a quick one I worked up this morning of Steve doing some questioning at a local barber shop. I'd actually originally laid out this shot from the opposite angle, but then thought it might be cool to reverse it and have it inside the barber shop instead of outside.

Also as a Friday bonus, here's some panels in development from a new page I'm working on. JC decided to change up the three panel motif we'd made standard in "DI" to date by throwing a 9 panel page at me. I'm callin' his bluff!

Have a good weekend, all! I'll be bustin' out the XBox360 this weekend for some quality time.

Daily Sketch #50

Another unrealized idea

Here's a quick sketch of another character sketch for yet another unrealized idea. It's been floating around in my head for a number of years, but actually crystalized somewhat recently and even seemed relevant with current events. It's an ensemble cast, but here's the grizzled old military leader figure. Just playing around with some visuals and doing something different than the typical crew cut look.

Oh, and check that out - 50 Daily Sketch posts. Pretty cool:)

Daily Sketch #49

My Name is Wally West...




When I was a teenager reading comics, one of my favorite long runs was Mark Waid's run on the Flash which started with issue #80 or #82 for me. Mark used to always start every issue with "My Name is Wally West and I'm the Fastest Man Alive". He made every issue exciting and also easy for a new reader to pick up. On the first page you got a complete encapsulation of who the character was. At WizardWorld Philadelphia it was announced that Waid would be coming back to write Wally on the Flash again. I'm curious to see if you can go home...

Anyway, in tribute to that great run here's a quick Flash doodle. Forgive me for any costume inconsistencies I drew it from memory. I tried to give Wally a runner's physique, which now being a runner I can appreciate more.

Also, yesterday The Darkness video game arrived in stores. I can count the number of times I've "geeked out" in the last few years on 1 hand. After working in your chosen field for a few years you lose quite a bit of the hero worship you may have had before. But seeing my name in the instruction manual of a game which sold out at not one but two Targets and 1 Gamestop I went to get the game from was pretty fabulous. I finally found a copy at Best Buy. I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but I'll post a review of the actual game play when I do. Please note this prompted the first video game system I've owned in about 7 or 8 years. Oh, and I picked up Guitar Hero 2 as well. Because... well, it just kicks major butt. And I came to rock.

Daily Sketch #48

More Alec King


Another quick warmup sketch of Alec King, the star of Forever Man. Still working on getting this project off the ground, so more on it later.

My apologies for the lack of sketch yesterday, I was off at the American Library Association show in Washington DC. The book and library shows definitely have a different vibe than comic shows, so it was an interesting experience. I had a good time and got to hang out with my buds Joe Keatinge ("I'll have a fancy blue drink with a star fruit in it"... that's me. In case you were wondering), Jim Demonakos, and Alan Payne. Jim did a doodle of me at dinner last night and for your viewing pleasure here it is -

I did one of Jim as well, so check out his blog later this week to check it out. Plus his blog is more entertaining than mine.

Daily Sketch #47

Sketch, thumbnails, vacuums, & pure rock

Sorry about the lack of sketches this week. I got back from Wizard World Philadelphia and then on Wednesday took off again out of town to visit my boy John in North Carolina. The reason for this 5.5 hour impulse drive? Rush, one of the most kickass classic rock bands of all time, was playing near Raleigh-Durham and John had an extra ticket. The two of us have been wanting to see Rush live since we were wee high to a grasshopper and heard "Roll The Bones" for the first time. Getty, Alex, and Neil did not disappoint.

Today's sketch is of one of my characters Alec King, the Forever Man. More on this later.

And as a bonus to make up for my lack of post, here's a look at some thumbnails from Dead Inspector. I don't usually give a look at this part of my process, so I thought it'd be a cool extra today. Oh, and we just bought our Dyson. It totally lives up to the hype. Totally. It turns out years of research really does build a better vacuum.

Daily Sketch #46

Bermuda Jackie

An alternate look at Top Cow's Jackie Estacado...

Back from WizardWorld Philadelphia, where I had a really good time and the company had a kickass showing. We brought the noise and the funk, as did the dueling Marvel booth and clothing company with the DJ behind us. It was great to hang out with industry friends and I even managed to do the few things I wanted to in Philly - all you can eat sushi and running up the stairs at the Art Musuem like Rocky while "Eye of the Tiger" blared on my ipod. All and all, good times, but an exhausting show particularly the four hours of tear down I did solo and the hour of traffic I ran into outside of Chester, PA on the way home. Which is why there was no post yesterday... I just needed to rest.

Daily Sketch #45

Investigatin' in Hard Ink

Here's another look at David and Steve investigating the scene of a crime, now in more detailed ink rather than pencil. Not quite happy with the way David's face turned out, but over all not a bad little sketch.

I'm off to Wizard World Philadelphia for the weekend, so likely no sketch on Friday. If you're at the show, stop by and say hello!

Daily Sketch #44

Damn that little girl is freaky...

D and I have been watching the 4400 lately on DVD. Well kind of. We actually started with the first season back in January and ran through it pretty quickly because it was only a 1/2 season. So we added Season 2 to our que on the fabulous Blockbuster Online. I guess they only have 1 copy in stock because it took us 5 months to get the first disc. We almost lost interest, but that was quickly rectified when we popped disc 1 into the DVD player. The series is very, very smart sci-fi and highly under-rated. The most unique thing about it is that it is never afraid to go to in the unexpected direction and make big changes in the status quo. And the good guys don't always win. The above sketch is of Maia, the precog little girl from the show.

Here's the Reader's Digest summary - 4400 missing persons mysteriously and suddenly re-appear in a ball of white light near Seattle, Washington. They are all exactly the same age as when they disappeared, whether they went missing in 1930 or 1999. Some of them come back with greater than human abilities...

Highly recommended.

Daily Sketch #43

Detective Work


David and Steve do a little detective work at the scene of a crime. Today's sketch is a little light because I received some new pages of script in and wanted to jump on working out the layouts.

I'll be in Wizard World Philadelphia this weekend, so stop by and say hi if you are there.

And finally I leave you with further proof that John Mayer is hardcore. First Chappelle and now Kanye. Heck yea. Check out the bling.
(props to my buddy Jim D who found this first)

Daily Sketch #42

File Morgue

David from Dead Inspector hangs out in the dead case file morgue at the Pittsburgh Police HQ. Good times.

In real life good times - this weekend I saw the most kickass 80s tribute band, The Legwarmers at my favorite indoor concert venue in the area Ram's Head Live. They put on a pulse pounding, non-stop fun 2+ hour show and by the end of it I thought I'd lost my hearing and my voice from singing along. Highly recommended if you live in the Baltimore/DC area! They're playing again in Falls Church at the end of the month. This might be a must do activity for ALA.

Daily Sketch #41

Exhausted Reporter

David's girlfriend in Dead Inspector is a smart, tough reporter named Ashley. Sometimes all that research and investigating wears ya down!

Daily Sketch #40

Second Verse, Same as the First

David and Steve are back today this time wearing some sharp new ink threads and looking very detective chic.

My buddy and writer on Dead Inspector, JC Vaughn gave me a nice plug on his Well-Defined Productions blog, so I thought I'd return the kindness. JC has a ton of cool stuff in the pipeline including a new series from Moonstone called "Zombie Proof" and his weekly strip from Antique Trader, "Antiques" was nominated for a Harvey Award.

Oh, and my day job received 5 Harvey nominations which is pretty excellent. Make sure you get out there and vote (but you have to be a comic professional to vote)!

Daily Sketch #39

David and Steve Ready to Throw Down



The detective partners from Dead Inspectors strike an iconic pose and let the world know they're ready to rock n' roll. I'm thinking I might add some ink and tighten this one up tomorrow.



Side thought for the day, I was listening to the radio this morning as I was getting ready for my day and heard a commercial for a deluxe massage for Father's Day. Okay, I can see that. But it was immediately followed by "everything for your Father's Day gift needs including botox". What?!

Who gets their dad botox for Father's Day?

Daily Sketch #38

Clark Kent by request

Following my All Star Superman inspired sketch, I thought I'd post my take on Clark Kent at D's request. I don't think it's my definitive take, but not bad for my first crack at it.

I just got back from BEA in New York and I had a fabulous time. It was my first time at the show and I took D with me. She did some sightseeing in Manhattan on Friday and checked out the show on Saturday (resulting in us lugging around an extra box of free books to the train station). We had a great dinner at Del Posto on Friday night and another fun one at Carmine's on Saturday night with some of the awesome Image creators that were at the show.