Daily Sketch #62

I'm Back!

Did anyone notice I was gone?

So yeah, I totally failed in providing you guys with sketch content while I was in San Diego. I'd planned to get some sketches done the weekend before leaving and then posting them one per day while I was at the con. As it turned out I ended up working most of the weekend preparing for the con and sketch just didn't happen.

San Diego was a crazy whirlwind, filled with a ton of work, lots of fun, and more drinking than I do any other time of the year. It was great to hang out with friends at the show. Shout outs to Madeasy, Phil, Josh, Alyssa, Matt, Brandon, Mandy, and Adrian - you guys kicked butt at the booth. More shout outs to Marz, Mel, Rob, Al, Jim D, Malve, Blair, Troy, Susan, Jonah, Michael, and everyone else I forgot to mention. We had a great panel at the show, probably the best we've had since I've came on board. I didn't make it up to the diner with peanut butter burgers. There's always next year.

The sketch today came together pretty organically, I just started drawing a gesture not sure what I was going to do. It evolved into a picture of Mowgli from Fables stalking some prey. I read two Fables trades on the plane ride back catching myself up on the series. Mowgli played a significant role in the first one "Wolves".

Daily Sketch #61

Die Hard David

Here's a quick sketch of David from Dead Inspector channeling some John McClane from Die Hard (no, I haven't seen the new one yet). I did this one entirely in ink really quickly without any real under-drawing in pencil.
D and I finished 4400 Season 3 last night and it was AWESOME. Seriously this series keep getting better and better with every season. Part of me is thinking that the other shoe has to drop at some point and they're going to jump the shark like every other serial TV series I've watched. I can't wait to start Season 4 though, we thought ahead and started Tivoing it a month or so back. Woot!

I'm off to NYC for a quick visit to Barnes and Noble today and then back tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to upload a sketch tomorrow upon my return. Then a short weekend and I'm off to LA and San Diego. Whew... I've determined I'd love traveling a lot more if I could teleport places. That would be sweet. Although I have to admit I enjoy being on a plane for 5 hours and not having anyone able to reach me. There's a certain freedom in that isolation.

Daily Sketch #60

Page in Progress

Here's a look at a page currently in progress for Dead Inspector with a couple of panels going from my sketch stage to tight pencils.

Daily Sketch #59

Why You Do This?

David from Dead Inspector wants to know. Another panel from a final page from Dead Inspector.

Next week I'll be in San Diego all week for Comic-Con International: San Diego. It's going to be a whirlwind endurance test, it is every year. Tons of fun, but a ridiculous amount of work for me as well. If you are at the con, stop by and say hello to me at booth 2329. I'm going to attempt to get sketches done in advance which would allow me to post new sketches every day on the road. Not making any promises, but it's part of the plan.

Daily Sketch #58

Steve Scopes Out a Very Important File

A bit of a cheat today folks. This is a panel from the upcoming Dead Inspector rather than a daily sketch. I'm going to try and break out an extra page or two before San Diego on this project so JC and I have more to shop around. So you may get some of these sneak peeks rather than daily sketches.

In other news, definitely check out my buddy Larry Young's Black Diamond series over at Ait/PlanetLar. The first two issues are out now with issues #3 and #4 available soon. I admit I'm a bit baised, my first written and drawn short story will appear as a back up in issue #4.

Get Fed!

Howdy!
I decided to make viewing my blog a little easier by signing up with Feedburner to allow anyone who would like it, to get my updates via their favorite feed reader or in your email. It'll save you looking on this site on a regular basis and ensure that you see the new daily sketches when you want. Enjoy!

Daily Sketch #57

David is Stunned

I'm not sure why he is but he is. Just a quick warmup sketch of our hero from Dead Inspector. Happy Friday.
p.s. Does anyone know how to slow time down? I sure could use more of it!

Daily Sketch #56

This is a Monkey

I know, he looks like a cat but he is in fact a monkey. Do not be fooled by his innocent look sleeping on top of a box of thank you notes.

Daily Sketch #55

Rough Day at the Office

Here's a sketch of Steve from Dead Inspector unwinding after a rough day at the office. And for my new friend Justin, he's wearing his sunglasses at night. Maybe I'll add David tomorrow.

As a confessional bloggy side note, I don't have that many rough days at the office anymore. Few days where I end the day thinking "what's the point?" In fact, I'm happy to say that after almost a year at the new job, I'm still loving it. I get pretty psyched about what I'm doing every week and get fired up when something works out the way I envision. I feel like I have an impact in my place of work and like my employer values me and my overall happiness. That being said, the job can get intense, so there are days when I find myself craving a beer to unwind like Steve. End confessional bloggy side note.

Daily Sketch #54

Image Comics & Making Good

Sorry for the lack of posts on Friday and Monday. I was up in Saratoga Springs for a wedding this weekend and my lack of planning ahead precluded my posting on those days. I should start planning ahead and delivering instead of apologizing.

Over the weekend I read quite a bit of George Khoury's book from TwoMorrows' Image Comics: The Road to Independence. It's a really good read and interesting for me as someone who's comic youth was during the big 90s boom and now as someone who works for Top Cow. Reading the founders' interviews along with other people who were in the thick of it during the heyday is pretty fascinating. And the main thing Khoury does incredibly well is get across that good or bad results, the Image days were a revolutionary and pretty magical time. Yes, these guys made some mistakes but they certainly aren't to blame for the "downfall" of the industry. They made widespread creator independence a reality and their legacy will be felt for years to come. Inspired by this I did a quicky sketch of Ripclaw channeling the new look Tony Moore and Jason Aaron have developed for the new Pilot Season issue.

And a bonus "make good" or "I'm sorry" sketch of Bill from Dead Inspector. I think he might be in a coffee shop, writing and enjoying a hot cup of java.

Daily Sketch #53

Happy Fourth of July (belated)!

Sorry I missed posting yesterday, but it was a day full of cooking out and hanging out with friends to celebrate the birth of our nation. My beautiful grill performed admirably in its first full cookout effort and everyone had a grand old time. We ended up skipping on fireworks because of the on and off again rain, but D and I closed out our night by rocking out to some Guitar Hero II.

Oh, and David from Dead Inspector wants to hand you a very important file. Very important.

My Girl's Birthday!

My lady Danielle is celebrating her birthday today. It's a very special day. Be sure to wish her a happy birthday today.

(Plus my younger brother and dad stopped by last night to stay over because he has an interview at John Hopkins this morning, so no daily sketch this morning. Maybe I'll get one up later in the day)

But more importantly...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY!

Daily Sketch #52

The Darkness video game


I had a chance to finally play The Darkness video game (the first game with my name in the credits) this weekend and enjoyed it quite a bit. The story is compelling and Starbreeze did an awesome job establishing mood and setting. I'm not terribly far into it yet, but I'm enjoying it. One of the cooler little tidbits in the game is when you utilize your "creeping dark" ability to scout ahead, you can actually turn back and look at Jackie (you play most of the game in first person mode). When he's using this power, Jackie kneels over and is shadowed with Darkness tentacles coming out of his trenchcoat. It's an incredibly cool visual. I tried to capture the basic gesture in today's sketch.

I watched two movies this weekend - Pulse and The Devil Wears Prada. The Pulse turned out to actually be a pretty decent concept and theme - that the technology we use to make communication easier actually pulls us further apart. Pretty ironic from a guy posting on a blog. The Devil Wears Prada was a D pick, but I have to say I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. It was funny and interesting and Meryl Streep was great.
And check out my buddy Jim Demonakos' blog for his recap of his trip to Washington, DC which includes my drawing of him (his drawing of me is posted a few posts back).

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.

Daily Sketch #37

False Starts

I had a number of false starts on today's sketch this morning. I think this is the third or fourth one attempt of the morning. Some days you just have more trouble getting the hand and the brain to connect I think. So here's another quick look at David's partner Steve from "Dead Inspector".

Oh and if you get a chance check out my buddy Andy's blog - www.pickabattle.com. Pretty entertaining stuff!

Daily Sketch #36

Superman Again

I finished reading the All Star Superman Hardcover the other day by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. I'd read most of the issues in single pamphlet format before but it was great to re-read them in one sitting. Not only do the stories have a great timeless quality and fabulous characterization, but Quitely's artwork is some of the best of his career. His Superman has an awesome Greek god quality and his Clark Kent is oafish and timid, but they still are obviously the same person to the reader. A really skilled bit of visual characterization.

Daily Sketch #35

Happy Memorial Day

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend and enjoyed the long weekend. We ran a bunch of errands but also spent some quality time at the neighborhood pool. Last night we watched "Flags of Our Fathers" in rememberance of the veterans that the day off is in honor of. Very well done movie, the story telling technique Eastwood utilizes is a bit confusing, but the story is fascinating.

Daily Sketch #34

My Favorite Superhero...

Is Superman.

He's the original, the first, and I've always enjoyed that being the most powerful guy is not what makes him super. It's the man raised in Kansas by Johnathon and Martha Kent. Never really been able to draw him in a way I find satisfying though. This one is no exception.

On another note, we watched the season finale of Lost last night. And I gotta say I thought it kicked ass. I found it pretty interesting because during the season I was WAY more excited about Heroes and kind of luckwarm about Lost, but when it came to the season finale's Lost gave us a much more satisfying ending. And Charlie is awesome. That is all.

Daily Sketch #33

Iggy Chillin'

I've been trying to come up with a decent concept for this week's Engine Remake/Remodel which is an obscure Captain Marvel character. But the original is just SO off the wall I can't think of anything decent. So instead, you get Iggy. Relaxin', probably in an alley somewhere.

On another note, I HIGHLY recommend "American Born Chinese" by Gene Luen Yang. I finally got around to reading it (after having it on my stack for about 8 months) and it is suberb. Really great stuff.

Daily Sketch #32

Cheat Day

I had to take care of another kitty uh-oh this morning which pretty much killed my time to do a morning sketch, so I'm going to cheat a little today. Today you get a detail sneak peek of the first promo art piece for Dead Inspector.

We're starting to scan in and clean up the original art to prep it for lettering and coloring and it's pretty cool to see how much material we have already.

Daily Sketch #31

Back to Dead Inspector

Jumping back to a "DI" sketch today. It's David's younger brother Bill. Bill's a writer in the series so I thought I'd try to capture a bit of that in this sketch.

Heroes Chapter 1 wrapped up last night. It was good, but the problem was that the rest of the first season was AWESOME. So in some ways it felt anti-climactic and a little disappointing. I'm wondering if they could have made a final episode that would have lived up to my anticipation. Just in case I didn't delete it from Tivo after watching it. Might have to go back and rewatch it for a second impression. For anyone that hasn't watched it though, I highly recommend renting it when it comes out on DVD.

Daily Sketch #30

Chef Duff

I'm a big Food Network geek. I watch way too many cooking shows and Iron Chef America. This season I also started tivoing "Ace of Cakes" because I noticed that it was based out of Baltimore. I don't know why, but I get a big kick out of seeing all of the local landmarks and places I recognize on the show. Plus Chef Duff Goldman and his staff seem like really cool, fun people. So today's sketch is a quick doodle of Duff done while I was watching last week's new episode.
And as a bonus, a little sketch of my cat Ender. Poor guy had a long weekend, his paw got infected due to an allergic reaction to the killer pollen in Baltimore this spring. The vet over at Northwest Animal Hospital took awesome care of him on Friday though and he's on the mend. But this morning he decided his breakfast didn't agree with him and ejected it all over the carpet in my living room... right in front of the couch. I suppose I should be happy it wasn't ON the couch...

Good Monday morning to all...

Daily Sketch #29

Madame Mirage Duex

Another quick sketch of Madame Mirage, Paul Dini's new character through Top Cow that's been building some very solid buzz online and in stores.

Congrats to my little bro Tim who's graduating from Loyola College tomorrow. I can't believe it's already been 4 years! Way to go Tim!

Daily Sketch #28

Watchin' TV and a Bonus

I asked Danielle what I should sketch for the blog last night and she joked "Draw me". So despite her protests, I worked a quick one up of her watching TV. The cat came and sat down about halfway through ready for his close up, but I didn't include him. He was not pleased.

And as a bonus, here's a panel in progress from "Dead Inspector". Or it's another bit of insight into my morning ritual with the coffee cup. The one with Chuck Norris on it. Don't be jealous.

Daily Sketch #27

KHAN!

So, feeling a little cranky this morning and decided to recreate this famous scene from Star Trek II starring me. It's my own fault really, it all started with me deciding to quick chill a can of soda in the freezer yesterday afternoon... and then forgetting about it. Yup, I'm a genius!

Daily Sketch #26

Remake/Remodel: Carnacki The Ghost-Finder

Another Engine remake/remodel project, this one a fun 1900s Ghost Investigator. Check out the link for more info on the original and then let me know what you think of my take. Kind of fun I think.

"An occult investigator using the cutting edge of Edwardian technology to exorcise London homes"

Daily Sketch #25

Wow... 25!

25 daily sketches. I gotta admit I'm pretty proud of that! They're not all fantastic, but I'm really enjoying doing them and I think the act of doing a daily sketch is more important for me than how they actually come out. Not even sure if anyone is looking at these and again I'm not sure it matters. For those of you looking - thanks!

Oh, and David from "DI" has a gun. And he thinks you look kind of shifty.

Daily Sketch #24

Iggy Wins

Dead Inspector writer, JC Vaughn and I had a great meeting last night over a couple of beers to strategize our plans for launching DI. I came out of the meeting pretty excited about this little project we're cooking up. We fleshed out some more story concepts, planned out our time table in more detail, and determined that our "mystery character" will take the Iggy Pop look rather than the Big Lebowski look I was playing with. Before JC arrived I was sketching out another Big Lebowski head sketch, but it seemed wrong to put it up by itself now that I know that the look won't be used. So I did a quick Iggy head sketch this morning as well. Two daily sketches for the price of one today - Iggy wins.

Daily Sketch #23

Remake/Remodel: Buck Rogers



Over at the Engine, this week's Remake/Remodel is Buck Rogers. I thought I'd take the classic sci-fi futuristic hero and put a current spin on him. Buck Rogers wakes up in a world where global warming has gone unchecked and the world is largely covered in water as glaciers at the poles have melted at increasingly alarming rates. Humankind has finally switched from fossil fuels and Buck's soldier uniform is powered by solar and hydro power and gives off no polluting gases. The intense sun requires him to remain completely covered from head to toe and special goggles are required to go out during the day. A breathing unit protects him from the toxic air. Fun!

Daily Sketch #22

Take Two

Here's another concept for my "mystery guy" from Dead Inspector. More Dude from Big Lebowski than Iggy Pop.