Daily Sketch #227

Last Mortal update

Here's a sketch of Alec King, The Last Mortal. You may remember Alec from previous posts when the title was called "Forever Man". We settled on "The Last Mortal" and the project is moving along at a very nice clip. We have 2 issues completely written and the 2nd issue is halfway drawn. We're tightening up the third issue script and hope to have that ready to draw as soon as the artist is finished with issue #2. 

Check out the artist's website if you have a second for some behind the scenes sneak peeks - Thomas Nachlik.

Daily Sketch #208

For My Guy Thomas

Who's been hard at work on The Last Mortal, our project together, which will hopefully be out soon. He's been plowing through pages and making massive improvements. It's awesome to be continually impressed by an artist you are working with. Anywhoo, here's a shot of Alec not obeying gun safety tips.

Daily Sketch #189

More Project in Progress

Another sketch inspired by one of the projects I'm working on right now. Not bad:)

Spent the past couple of days working and hanging out with my old roomie and one of my best buds, Lee who was in LA for business. It also gave me a chance to make it up to the Griffith Observatory which was a really cool LA site. I'll hopefully have some photos in the near future to show off.

Daily Sketch #187

Workin' on projects

I'm really trying to barrel down and finish up scripts for a pair of projects you'll be seeing shortly. They're both properties I've mentioned on the blog before, but this is the closest they've been to actually coming to fruition and both I and the artists are mucho, mucho excited. Now if I can only find time to write the damn things...

Here's a sketch I sent one of my artists as a jumping off point for a new character. I rather like the way the face came out.

Daily Sketch #176

I'm Gonna Be On TV, Mama

Well, perhaps. I'm headed downtown this morning to Fox 45 Baltimore with my good buddy and uber-talented writer Ron Marz so he can be interviewed and promote the signings we're having locally for the Witchblade trade paperback. There's a chance I'll get to be on TV with Ron. I'm setting the Tivo just in case:)

If you live in the Baltimore area come on out to one of the two signings tomorrow.

11 A.M.-2 P.M.

Cards, Comics, and Collectibles

100 Chartley Drive

Reisterstown, MD 21136

(410) 526-7410

4-7 P.M.

Phoenix Comics and Toys

Lansdowne Shopping Center1

9340 Promenade Drive

Lansdowne, VA 20176

(703) 437-9530

You should also check out the new webpage for my artist on the Forever Man project, Thomas Nachlik. He's the cat's meow.

Your sketch for today is another panel in progress from Dead Inspector (surprise!).

Daily Sketch #143

So This is The New Year

I'm kicking off the New Year with a sketch of Alec King, from the Forever Man which should hopefully play a big role in 2008 for me (and my partners John and Thomas). We'll see if later blog posts in the year make this prediction true...

My story in Black Diamond #6 entitled "The Curse" should be in stores this week, so make sure you swing by and check it out. A special thanks for Larry Young for giving me the chance to write and draw my own story for publication and to Nick Senior for helping me out with some awesome colors.

New Year's Eve was good times as D and I engaged in my yearly tradition of ringing in the New Year with a group of my college friends. We've been having a party with rotating hosts for going on eight or nine years now. They went from wild college drinkfests in the old days to much more subdued get togethers. Everyone contributes food, we do a hilarious Secret Santa exchange, and we've graduated from beer and shots to wine for the most part. Although jello shots still make it into the picture every year. I also drank a bit too much champagne and rocked out hard on Guitar Hero. My favorite gift this year was this bizarre gag gift from my friend, Stacy. I can't believe a publisher actually put this out.

One day I hope to have a moustache as manly as Tom Selleck's.

Daily Sketch #131

A New Page Begun

Check out this panel of David from "Dead Inspector" at the scene of a recent crime in the most recent page of "DI" I'm working on. I like the expression and body language being conveyed here.

In other news, I saw the latest page from the "Forever Man" project last night drawn by Thomas Nachlik and it is scary good. I got giddy when I saw it. Giddy, people. Can I show it to you? No. I know, I'm a tease. But trust me, it's awesome.

Daily Sketch #106

Long-winded Post... But Lots of Pictures!

Here are some thumbnails of a page I'm working on currently for Dead Inspector. The final panel is the first close up of Captain Miller and as you might be able to tell my initial inclination was to make him a younger Asian guy.

In related news, my good buddy and publisher at Ait/PlanetLar, Larry Young sent me an early Christmas present in the old email. He forwarded me a PDF preview of my first published work as a writer AND an artist. It's a 5 page backup in his series "Black Diamond" (well worth reading) entitled "The Curse" which will appear in issue #6, due out in December. It was a great feeling to see something I'd crafted from start to finish. My boy Nick Senior pumped out some wicked colors for the piece. Here's a sample page.
Plus I'm very happy to tease that the Forever Man project is moving along incredibly well. John (my co-writer) and I were incredibly lucky to hook up with the mad talented Thomas Nalchik. Thomas is pumping out page after amazing page and I can't wait to show it off when the project is ready to be seen. In the meantime, a small teaser image... What can I say I'm in an image happy mood this morning.

Oh and today is a Woot Off at woot.com. If you like gadgets and tech, you must know Woot.

Last but not least, Crutchfield has the best customer service of any company I've interacted with in the last year. Hands down. I ordered an ipod interface from their online store and not only did they have great pricing, free shipping, and free instructions and technical installation support but when the part turned out not to be the right one they helped me find an alternate solution and met me halfway on the price difference on the my brand new Sony in dash CD/radio/ipod interface. Chris @ Crutchfield, you sir are a scholar and a gentleman.

Daily Sketch #80

Old Man On a Bench

It's been a crazy busy week with the Baltimore Comic-Con, Retailer Summits, and DBD Sales Conference. I've been in and out of the office all week and it has played havoc with my schedule. But I started to get back into working on Dead Inspector this morning and warmed up with a sketch of an old man sitting on a park bench. It's a bit on the peripheral side but served as a good way to loosen up this morning.
In other news, I've now seen a mostly complete page 1 from my new artist on the Forever Man project and I am blown away! More to come...

Daily Sketch #78

Forever Man Evolving

I keep getting cool new character designs from the new artist working on my Forever Man project and each one progressively blows me away. It's very exciting to see the characters evolve and go in new directions that I did not envision. It's becoming quite the collaborative process and I'm very excited about it. I'm not ready to show off the his sketches yet, but the process did inspire me to sketch up a new version of Alec. His cowardly aspect shows through a bit more here, I think. More on this as it develops.

Plus as a bonus my Black Diamond story is about to see print and I thought I'd show off the rad colors by my good friend Nick Senior. Here's page 1! Look for it in the back of Black Diamond #4 from Ait/PlanetLar.

Daily Sketch #74

Forever Man

A new sketch of Alec King from Forever Man, one of my side projects that looks like it will finally take off. The artist is phenomenally talented and is going to add a ton to the project. I can't wait to see what he comes up with for character designs, layouts, and so on.

In other news, after 45 minutes of whining for food my lovely female cat Valentine decided the meal she just digested wasn't for her... and promptly threw it back up. Sure the concrete basement area where her food is would have been fine, but the basement carpet was so much better. This is Tuesday morning...

Daily Sketch #71

Introducing Brian

I've been working since San Diego on the possibility of restarting a stalled project I've written currently with a working title of "Forever Man". One of the main characters is Brian, a slick affable sidekick character. He's a quick sketch I worked up of him in order to have some reference & inspiration for the artist I'm talking to. I thought I'd share it.

Update from Los Angeles - D and I arrived yesterday morning after getting up at 3:30am to catch our flight. We had breakfast at Good Stuff with Matt that was awesome and then I went to work while D explored Beverly Hills. Last night D and I wandered down to Santa Monica Pier and rode the famous Ferris Wheel. It was great fun and we finished off the night at Sushi Roku in Santa Monica. Good times.

Daily Sketch #67

Chicago Con Report & Sad News


I'm back from Wizard World Chicago! I had a great time at the show. It was my first time in Chicago or more accurately Rosemont, IL. I had my first taste of legitimate Chicago style deep dish pizza at Giordano's (twice!) and a couple of great meals at Gibson's and Red Light. I even made it downtown a couple of times and saw some of the Chicago landmarks. Dark Knight Returns and Wanted were both filming in town this past weekend and D managed to get a few pictures of the Dark Knight filming during a boat tour of the city.


On a much sadder note, I just learned that artist Mike Wieringo died on Sunday from an apparent heart attack. He was only forty four years old and by all accounts exercised regularly & ate healthy. Mike was one of the first pro comic artist I met as a young fan in a tiny hotel show in Roanoke, VA and gave me my first con sketch. His was the first piece of original art I purchased. Mike was ALWAYS one of the nicest, most humble creators at any show. He handled himself with dignity, an open kindness, and had an obvious love of comics. His sketch blog produced pieces that were more beautiful and fun than many finished works. In many ways he was one of the guys that inspired me to pursue a career in comics. I know I wasn't the only one he inspired.

Some of Mike's friends wrote much more eloquently than I what he meant to the world and you can read their words here, here, here, here, and here. In looking at Newsarama, I can't think Mike would have been genuinely surprised to see he prompted 27 pages and over 600 response posts. None of the rest of us are surprised in the least. My heartfelt and inadequate condolences to his family and loved ones. You will be missed, sir.

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.