New Sketches up on Top Cow Blog

Hi Everyone,

Sorry about the bunch of weird posts recently, I've been trying out a service called Ping.fm which updates my status on a variety of social networks and didn't realize it would post them as blog posts on this blog as well. I think I have that fixed now. 

Also I wanted to let you there's about 2 weeks worth of new sketches up on the Top Cow Blog as part of my new series called "Graze Anatomy: Sketches from the Publisher". Here's a link to look at just the sketches, but I definitely encourage you to subscribe to the entire blog.

Filip

Daily Sketch #213

Velocity

We've been planning out a Velocity series here at work (one of the winners of the 2007 Pilot Season event), so my faithful readers, you get a Velocity sketch.

Daily Sketch #206

Darkness Design

Just messing around with a random design for The Darkness. And you are the first to see it! 

Sorry about the delay in posting lately, San Diego Comic-Con is an evil, brutal mistress. It's over now and we had a fantastic show. There's plenty of news across the net, but the highlights included the casting announcements for The Magdalena film, the director announcement for the Witchblade film, and the announcement that we're doing a comic with Heroes' Milo Ventimiglia and his production partner, Russ Cundiff called Berserker. Personal highlights included seeing old friends, meeting Randy Couture and separately meeting Megan Fox, dinner at Ruth's Chris with the best editorial crew in comics, and tacos at Fred's. 

Check out my national televised debut on G4's coverage of Comic-Con. I think it came out really well.

Daily Sketch #201

Another Day, Another Sketch

Interestingly enough from the way my computer sits on my desk at work, the beach actually is "that way". Results may vary on your screen.

G4 is coming in today to film a segment for their San Diego Comic-Con coverage this year, so we're all a titter here at the office to show off our company in the best possible light. I'll update here if it looks like I'll be on TV sometime soon.

Daily Sketch #195

Dodgeball Hangover

I went and played dodgeball up in Hollywood last night and it was a ton of fun (despite my arriving late). I even got home at a relatively decent hour and headed to bed. For reasons beyond my comprehension, I could not fall asleep last night. I was tired, I was in bed, but my brain would not shut down. Perhaps I was running dodgeball plays in my head... who knows.

In any case, it's a good thing I did a bunch of sketching this weekend, because I'm far too tired to generate anything of any quality this morning. Instead enjoy this rather solid Darkness sketch!

Daily Sketch #194

Bevy of Sketches

I spent the weekend in Hollywood at the Gnomen Live event at the Gnomen School. The Gnomen School is a technical school focusing on training artists for movie production, story-boarding, special effects and animation, and video game production. Rob and I sat in the recruiting room and checked out portfolios and talked to attendees about Top Cow. It was good fun and one of our artists, Kenneth Rocafort, was a guest of the event and did a presentation and live art demo. He brought the awesome. All of this coupled with some quiet moments during the seminars let me whip up quite a few sketches. Here's the first of a week's worth I got done at the event.

It's Joe Davis from one of my projects coming soon. I owe my penciler a script, which I've been working on this weekend. Probably would help if I didn't keep re-writing it...

Daily Sketch #190

Secret Scribbles

I did a super fast thumbnail sketch for work this week to flesh out an idea for a cover. It's top secret, so I've cropped out my little notes. But you get to enjoy the scribblings anyway. Shuusshh, don't tell;)

Blog Sketch #183

Memorial Day Thumbnail

So I'm at work on Memorial Day, but it's a good relaxed day. The only thing that really sucks is that the building management turned off the A/C. What's that about?

In any case, here's a really quickie thumbnail sketch I did today to show an artist what I meant in revising the composition of a cover image. Not too shabby.

Plus check out the Russian trailer for "Wanted". I gotta say, it's even cooler than the US version. I can't understand a word, but it looks super sweet!

WARNING: Violence/gore level high. May not be safe for work.

Daily Sketch #181

The Last Cheat!

Oh, boy. This is the last cheat from Calgary Expo. It means I have to start putting pencil to paper and drawing again. A bit nervous, but I think I can make it work if I can just get the scanner at work hooked up:)

The mascot for the Calgary Show is a "cowgirl" wearing this Canadian cowboy hat. So for the charity auction in Calgary, Stjepan did Sara as a cowgirl, his wife Linda drew Ian Nottingham as a cowboy, and I drew Dani as a cowgirl. Sort of a three piece interpretation of Witchblade through the eyes of Calgary. I was pretty happy with how my piece came out. And our group of drawings fetched almost $500 for the charity organization.

Daily Sketch #180

Two in a Row! Can He Keep It Up?

Okay, that's a bit misleading because it's another sketch I drew at Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. Photo courtesy of my iPhone. 

On a sadder note, a giant in comics retailing and one of the "good guys" - Rory Root - passed away yesterday from complications following surgery. I knew him better than some, less than others and was always amazed how well he lived by the "golden rule". RIP Rory.

Daily Sketch #179

Hello, Internet? Are you there?

So it's been a long, long while! End of February from what I can tell. Sheesh... this move really messed up my schedule more than I thought. Part of the problem is that I hadn't set up a convenient place to draw or scan until very recently. 

I'm just getting that situated so I thought I'd start up the blog again. The first couple of these posts are kind of cheats:) They're pieces I drew while I was at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. I drew this picture of Dani from Witchblade on the plastic covering one of our tables. Our booth shipment never arrived so we had a lot of empty space since the only product we had was what I brought on the plane with me. Still not too shabby and we had a great time at the show!

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 #164

Unlike David We Get No Sleep

Another page in progress update from "Dead Inspector" as David 'listens' intently to his girl Ashley. Not that I endorse this kind of behavior or ever engage in it...

So this weekend we have D's sister and her infant neice visiting us. We're loving spending time with both of them and of course the little baby is the center of attention where ever we go. D is fighting a pretty severe sinus infection, so between coughing, trouble breathing, and crying baby in the wee hours of the night - sleep has not been a friend the past couple of nights. The strange part is I don't remember wakening a lot during the night, but still feel exhausted when I wake up. It's a nice little insight into future parenthood.

Also... Sarah Silverman is awesome. Enjoy.

And enjoy the new "Wanted" trailer which aired during the Super Bowl last night. I'm baised but I think it looks badass.

Daily Sketch #146

Samurai Chic

I pulled this sketch out of the mindscape ether (i.e. I have no idea where it came from). Just a cool female samurai with a dragon motif. It probably stemmed from some Witchblade related thing I was thinking about at work.

Yesterday was crazy on the email as folks were dropping lines left and right to congratulate me over the job change. It was nice to hear from everyone and have folks be so positive. As my buddy Mark Britt said, "Bask in the glow" and I have been. Well, when folks haven't been hitting me up for a job. It cracks me up, as if there's some lottery where if you are the first person to email asking for work - you win! (There's not.)


D and I watched "Queen" last night and both thought it was incredibly well acted and compelling. We also watched a made for TV version of "Picture of Dorian Grey" from what looked like the late 70s, which was neither well acted nor compelling. Pity.

Daily Sketch #145

Sitting at the Big Boys Table


The biggest piece of news in my professional career has just been announced - I've been promote to Publisher at Top Cow. I'm incredibly stoked about the opportunity and excited to make the most of it. You can read the CBR exclusive interview or the official PR on Newsarama. Thanks all of the folks who've already dropped me a congratulatory note. I'm feeling the love and hope I can live up to everyone's expectations!



The other big news last week was the internet wildfire over the end of Spider-Man "One More Day". Basically at the end of it (SPOILER ALERT)...











The devil splits up Peter Parker and Mary Jane and makes it that their marriage never existed in the first place. Today's sketch is inspired by the event.

I've never been a big Spidey reader other than Ultimate Spider-man (which I think is genius), so I don't have a great personal opinion on the subject. Neither have I read OMD, so it's not like I can speak intelligently on the story merits itself. I have read Joe Q's interview on CBR and bunch of the outrage posts by fans and retailers over the event. I can certainly see the validity of both points of view. What I'm most curious about as a industry pro is if the Marvel diehards that are dropping Spidey and/or all Marvel titles (as some reports indicate) will pick up other titles from other publishers or if they've been burned and take their dollars out of the comic market entirely. I'm hoping it's the former.

Daily Sketch #139

Chimera Design


I've been working on a project in between working on my main art and writing efforts tentatively called "Project: Chimera". The sketch below is a development sketch of one of the main characters - a retired badass general. I wanted him to look old and grizzley, but I think he ended up looking Asian somehow. Still, I like the drawing.

I took Ender back to the vet yesterday and unfortunately his claw wasn't getting better with the antibiotics. So I had to leave him at the vet so they could perform a surgical amputation of his one claw to prevent further infection. I felt horrible about it, leaving the poor little guy there and the thought of taking one of his claws. I can't imagine what it must feel like to make choices like that for your kids. The good news is that I spoke with the vet yesterday afternoon and Ender was doing quite well, the surgery went great and the vet believes there were signs that the claw had broken which would have explain the infection. He was confident we made the right choice to remove it and said Ender was resting comfortably. While he was out we also gave him a thorough teeth cleaning so he should have fresh kitty breath upon his return. I'll be headed over later today to pick him up and bring our little man home for some seriously needed TLC.

My good friend and ex-professor Jose Villarubia is the subject of a "My Baltimore" video. A great look at my friend and the city of Baltimore. Check it out HERE.

Lastly, if you are a comic fan you should definitely head over to www.myspace.com/pilotseason where Top Cow is letting fans decide which two characters will get their own series in 2008. Voting is open until mid-January and fans can vote as many times as they like American Idol style.

Daily Sketch #137

Painting in Progress

I started working on the painting for my mom of her dog, Toby (look back earlier in the blog entries for preliminary sketches). Here's a shot of it in progress.

Not too shabby. I think I may have laid down some of the darker colors too early, but cut me some slack I haven't painted in about 8 years. I think this will end up being a mixed media piece. Right now it's mostly acrylics.

D and I are off to LA until Tuesday for the Top Cow Christmas party. Woot! Looks like we picked the right weekend to go out of town, it's supposed to snow and be in the 30s all weekend here on the East Coast. In Cali it's going to be a comfy in the mid 60s. Right on.

Daily Sketch #119

WizardWorld Texas and Jackie's Back

Greetings all from lovely Arlington Texas!
Today's sketch is of Jackie Estacado sporting his new Central American look since we're giving out a ton of The Darkness First Looks at WizardWorld Texas and debuting the new The Darkness trailer.

Yesterday was a long day starting at around 3:30am to catch my flight out, but a good one. I got to visit the flagship store for Lone Star Comics in Dallas. It's an awesome, clean, and well stocked store and I really enjoyed chatting with Chris Powell, the general manager.

Daily Sketch #110

Another Sneak Peek

Here's another look at a panel in progress from the current page of "Dead Inspector". This one is of Captain Miller who's made a bevy of appearances on the blog recently.

Also make sure you check out www.wantedmovie.com to see the first official trailer for Top Cow's Wanted film (coming out March 28, 2008). We're all pretty stoked at work about this project. You'll also be able to see it this weekend when you go to "American Gangster" starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe.

Daily Sketch #76

Masane

The day job is ramping up for the release of Witchblade Anime on DVD from FUNimation on September 25th. I'm not a huge anime guy by any stretch but I've seen the first 5 episodes (of 24) and they are actually really good. I suppose I shouldn't expect less from Studio GONZO. For more info check out the official site. One of the cooler aspects of the project is that FUNimation commisioned a number of our artists to create pieces in their individual styles for the DVD slipcases. Here's my take on Masane, the new Witchblade bearer from the series.

My current favorite track - "New Friend Request" by Gym Class Heroes. "This is not a LOL matter". Heh.