Daily Sketch #94

Steve Introspective

Just a quick warmup sketch of Steve from Dead Inspector. This one was done straight with pen, no under drawing.

Daily Sketch #93

Ashley Isn't Happy

I'm not sure why, but she does seem to be unhappy or upset about something. Maybe David's being a jerk or maybe a new story isn't coming together.
Columbus Day today. D is off from work and downstairs working on school work for one of her post-grad classes. Me? I'm up here working. Trying to make comics better (to quote my buddy Larry).
Have a good week all!

Daily Sketch #91

Networking Woes

Computers are great... when they work. So I had Verizon Fios installed in the house this week. So far the service is great but as with any transition there have been problems. One of the biggest and the reason there was no post yesterday is it has screwed up my network file sharing. I thought I had it fixed last night... but I was wrong. So the fun continues this weekend.

Here's a quick sketch I did pretty much straight with a brush pen to play with a loose gesture.

And here's another bonus sketch since I missed yesterday. It's a piece I did for a wedding gift for my friends, Marc and Shelley who are getting married this weekend. Congrats Marc and Shelley!

Daily Sketch #91

Quick Bill

Here's a quick sketch of Bill from "Dead Inspector". I usually take way too long on my sketches, but this one's a good example of just getting the idea out on paper quickly.

In other ramblings, "Reaper" seems like it might actually be a decent show after 2 episodes. It's a bit formulaic but overall very entertaining with as they say 'a young likeable cast'. Which probably means it'll be cancelled soon.

Oh, and Verizon Fios comes to my house today. I'm very, very excited not have to deal with Comcast soon. So excited.

Daily Sketch #90

I Have No Idea...

Who this guy is or why I drew him. But sometimes with a warm up sketch your hand just starts moving and something starts to come out of a few random lines. Is he a zombie, a tough guy, or just under some weird lighting? You tell me.

Daily Sketch #89

It's October?!

Wow. The year moves way too quickly. Really, just way too fast. It seems like just the other day it was the dead of summer filled with oppressive heat and for me running from one city to another for trade shows. This morning I got up to go for a run and realized it was still pretty much pitch black outside at a time when a few weeks back the sun would be coming up.

The weekend was gorgeous though and I managed to get a bunch of yard work done on Saturday. While I really enjoyed the time spent outside in the cool Fall weather, I couldn't help but notice how quickly the weekend flies by when you basically spend a day doing chores. Welcome to being an adult I suppose.

I saw "The Kingdom" over the weekend and thought it was an enjoyable and clever movie. Sure it had some flaws, but overall it was enjoyable and thought-provoking. I also saw "Fracture" on DVD over the weekend and thought it was a pretty mediocre murder mystery. I fell asleep during the tail end of it. Take that for what you will.

Anyway enough blabbering and here's the sketch. Steve from "Dead Inspector". Have a good week, all.

Daily Sketch #88

BIFF! BAM! POW!

David from "Dead Inspector" gets rocked.

Daily Sketch #87

Ashley is Worried

Ashley from "Dead Inspector" is a bit concerned. I'm not sure why, but it's probably that dangerous line of work her boyfriend David is in. Just a quick warm up sketch done on backing board this morning.

In other news, I bought two things during a trip to Best Buy yesterday - a webcam & headset and a copy of Halo 3. First, the webcam. It's a sweet Logitech notebook pro webcam which came with a carrying case and a headset. Pretty easy to set up and it worked well with Yahoo Messenger (supposedly works with AOL and Windows as well but I haven't tried it). The pictures below were taken with the webcam. But they really had me at their "easy to open" packaging. I HATE those plastic electronics packages where you need a circular saw and blowtorch to get the product out. This one just had a label which said "pull at this corner" and when you did it snapped that corner open easily. Genius!

Halo 3 - I enjoyed Halo and Halo 2. Halo 2 dominated many a week night for me and my roommate at the time. Halo forged and nearly ruined friendships during long night frag parties. But my time for video games is limited these days and I've yet to finish the last three games I got so originally I wasn't going to buy Halo 3. But then the talk started. Talk of how awesome it was going to be and X-Box Live get togethers. And dammit I don't want to be left out. So I went out at lunch during the launch day and picked up a copy. The funny thing is there was no huge line or shortage at my local Best Buy. A nice big display up at the front of store, but plenty of copies available. I got the special edition, not because of the extra "bonus" materials but because of the disc that promised to help set up my X-Box with my new HDTV for optimal performance. Which it did. Apparently I had my X-Box set up on the normal TV settings. That alone was worth the money spent because now my graphics look UNREAL. I put in about an hour on the game last night (a sign of maturity that I can pull away from a game in favor of sleep) and so far the graphics and interaction live up to the hype. They are stunning. I haven't noticed any big improvements in the game play itself, but it was a nearly perfect 1st person shooter in that respect to begin with. Some new weapons which are cool, but it's the graphics and story telling where the biggest leap happened. If anyone wants to hook up on XBox Live my handle is "Frutti Di Beppo". That's right. Respect!

Daily Sketch #86

Profile Steve

More work on "Dead Inspector" this morning and this was just a quick warmup sketch of Steve. Dig it.

Daily Sketch #85

Eastern Promises

I saw "Eastern Promises" over the weekend and thought it was a great movie. After Lord of the Rings I think I'd watch Viggo in just about anything, but the combination of him and director David Cronenberg is incredibly solid. The movie had a number of great visuals including the Russian prison tattoos and mafia "captain stars". Those inspired the sketch below.

I also saw "Shoot Em Up" this weekend. Which was awful. Just plain bad, bad, bad. Why Paul Giamatti? Why?

Daily Sketch #84

Check Out My Thing

Sorry... couldn't resist a little juvenile humor on Friday morning. I thought I'd do a fun superhero sketch for the end of the week. The Thing and Hulk are probably two of the characters I've never been able to render in a way that made me happy. For some reason messing with the proportions to get their size and mass down never quite worked for me. Still not completely happy with this take, but it's better than most of my previous attempts.

In other news, if you have any disposable income right I encourage you to go on Ebay and check out the Hero Initiative's Mike Wieringo Tribute auction to raise money for the worthy charity in Mike's name. I donated an original page of Mike's for the auction.

Hangin' In Ann Arbor

Sorry for the lack of sketch yesterday and this morning, but I'm out of town again! This time I'm in Ann Arbor, Michigan just outside of Detriot visiting Borders. I had a pretty great dinner last night with the buyer and my sales rep over at Diamond Books at a local steak house called "Knights". It was like a country club out of the 70s complete with carpeting on the upper level walls, but the food was pretty awesome. My petite filet was quite tasty and tender. Apparently they own a butcher shop down the road where they butcher their own steaks. Mmmmm... so fresh, still bleeding! Back to your normal sketch update tomorrow AM.

Daily Sketch #83

More Prep Sketchin'

Another prep sketch to warm up for working on a Dead Inspector page. A boy getting his haircut at a barber shop.

D and I watched the season finale of "4400" last night. It rocked. Hard. While it felt like they tried to jam a little too much into the final hour, the team over at 4400 managed to once again advance the larger story and change the status quo of the series for the next season. I love that this show is not afraid to take chances and shake things up. Highly recommended.

I'm also diggin' the new Rilo Kiley album "Under the Blacklight". The single is awesome and the rest of the album seems to live up pretty well.

Daily Sketch #82

Old Man Hardcore

A good Monday morning to one and all. I thought I'd kick off the week with a sketch for a new project I'm developing and will be writing. Here's one of the main characters and the focus of the initial one shot launching it. More to come...

D and I hit the Carroll County Wine Festival this weekend. It was good fun, but I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that Maryland and Pennsylvania don't so much make the good wines. I'm a wine snob, I know.

Daily Sketch #81

David's Back

After a short absence David from Dead Inspector makes a return to the daily sketch. He's checking out some new case info... or thinking... or sleeping. Your pick.

BTW, shout out to everyone I saw at the Baltimore Comic-Con and Retailer Summit. Awesome to hang out with the Diamond crew, Mark and Joe from ASP, Scott, Jim D, Joe K, Ron, Michael, Kenneth, Matt B, Nicky, Joe R, Alan, and everyone else. It's been a long week but a fun one.

Tonight I'm off to celebrate my two year anniversary with my love D. Our actual anniversary was actually this past Sunday, but in maintaining her title as coolest girlfriend on the face of the planet she let me throw a work related party at the house. People keep telling me I am TOO lucky and I'm inclined to believe them. D, I love you and I can't wait to celebrate.

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 #79

Superman & Wonder Woman

A friend of mine from the old Diamond days is getting married this Fall and is putting together a very cool program booklet. He asked me to contribute by featuring his favorite childhood superhero and that of his future Mrs. - Superman and Wonder Woman. I thought it'd be fun to play with the composition and create a heart in the negative space between the two characters.

Baltimore Comicon

The Baltimore Comic-Con was great! I had a great time and the show went really well for us. Michael and Kenneth were gracious and tireless in their efforts to interact with the fans. Regular sketches will resume tomorrow morning.

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 #77

Ultimate Hawkeye



Started reading Ultimates2 Volume 2 Trade last night by Mark Millar and Brian Hitch last night. The Ultimates is excellent as always and by reading it in trade format I avoid the frustration of waiting for the next issue when delays hit the series. I've decided that the most creative and badass reimagining Millar and Hitch did was of Hawkeye. They turned him from a quip dropping, Errol Flynn and Green Arrow wannabe into a effective Die Hard military special operative that makes Bullseye look like a girl. Out of weapons and getting tortured? Just use your fingernails as projectile weapons. Take that John McClane.
And as a movie side note - "Blades of Glory" was much funnier than I expected. Very entertaining.

Happy Labor Day to All

No sketch today, off enjoying the long weekend. Happy Labor Day!
My long weekend included visiting my baby "nephew" for the first time, eatin' crabs, and remote detonating a jury rigged fireworks display. Fun all around!

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.

Daily Sketch #75

Workin' on Pages

Sorry about missing a post yesterday, the day got away from me a little bit. I'm working on more Dead Inspector pages in preperation for the Baltimore Comicon. Here's a look at a panel in progress with David and Steve doing some of that detective work referenced in the title of the series.

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 #73

Back From LA

D and I made it back from LA last night around 11pm. Which means that it was midnight by the time we got home and after 1am by the time we got to bed. Whew. Bit worn out this this morning, but the trip was well worth it. Ross and Johanna's wedding was beautiful and very intimate. The ceremony was at a church on Mulholland Drive which meant we got a great view of the hills and Valley. Plus it afforded D the opportunity to meet her very first celebrity - Colin Ferguson from "Eureka". He was incredibly friendly and nice even when we bugged him for a picture.
It's shaping up to be a very exciting week or two. While I was in LA, I was able to get two creative projects at work greenlit and I believe secure two artists for side projects of my own. I'm trying not to get too excited about any of it because experience says it could all fall apart during the process. Nonetheless the potential level this week is HIGH.
Oh, and new sketch of Steve from Dead Inspector.

Daily Sketch #72

All You Need Is Love
A good friend of mine from the Diamond Days, Eric Hitchcock, is getting married this Fall and asked me to participate in a really cool sketch project for his wedding. I've started doodling some ideas for the sketch and here's the first "superhero" inspired sketch since Eric's in comics.

Today's update from Los Angeles - I had a great time at Happy Hour with the crew from Top Cow and took full advantage of the "2-for-1" drink special from 5-7. Rob and Alyssa joined D and I for a trip out to Hollywood and Pink's Hot Dogs. The line was about 30 minutes long and the hot dogs kicked butt. I had two - the Chili Kraut Dog and the Bacon Chili Cheese Dog. Yum!

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 #70

Freeze Perp!

David from "Dead Inspector" shows some perp his shield and is ready to throw down. He looks a bit worried though doesn't he? Wonder why?

D and I are off to LA tomorrow morning (bright & early) through the weekend. I'm going into the home office for the rest of the week and D will be enjoying all that Venice Beach and Beverly Hills has to offer. We've got a wedding on Saturday (congrats, Rosss & Johanna!) and then it's back to the East Coast. It's D's first trip to California, so I'm curious what she'll think. And for once faithful reader, I have actually prepped from sketches in advance for the remainder of the week. That's right, you'll still get your daily dose of my amateur doodles. Just on West Coast time.

Monday mornin

Late on Sketch

Been working on the regular pages for "Dead Inspector" this weekend so I didn't have a chance to work up a Monday morning sketch. I figured I'd still post something. How about a weekend recap?

Friday: Superbad is superawesome. Funny as hell. Rude, crude, filled with filthy geekery. As my buddy Jim would say "Awesomeness level HIGH".

Saturday: I scored a perfect score in Guitar Hero 2. Sure it was on Easy, but I'm still braggin'. Also 2 weeks on the road make for a grueling bit of yardwork. And my push mower doesn't fare well against 6-8 inch weeds.

Sunday: Breakfast for dinner rocks. "Big Love" on HBO is great and under-rated. If loving Bill Paxton is wrong, I don't want to be right.

JC Vaughn and I met for a lovely Saturday morning breakfast to discuss "Dead Inspector" and we're pretty excited about how the project is coming together. Expect to see the first 12 or so pages on display at JC's table at the Baltimore Comicon. Curious publishers, please stop by.

And lastly, I leave you with a drawing from the late, great Mike Wieringo. Newsarama has a beautiful collection of creator and friend eulogies - http://www.newsarama.com/general/Ringo/RememberRingo_01.html

Daily Sketch #69

Iggy's Back

Sorry I missed posting yesterday. I got caught up with work and even though I had this sketch prepped I forgot to get online and post it. D'oh!

So here's a sketch I really like of Iggy from Dead Inspector.

Daily Sketch #68

In Memorium

The death of Mike Wieringo this past weekend has been weighing on my mind over the last day and it inspired this sketch. The Flash was always Ringo's signature for me, probably because it was the character I first saw him draw. We'll miss you Ringo.

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 #66

One Bad Mofo

Steve from Dead Inspector is one bad mofo, or so D told me last night when she glanced at the sketch. One of the interesting problems I'm running into with the Dead Inspector sketches is trying to come up with new themes to include in the drawings of Steve and David without giving away parts of the story. Guess I better hurry up and finish some more pages, huh?

I forgot to mention that over the weekend I had the pleasure of making it to the Virgin Fest in Pimlico for the second year in a row. It was hotter than Hades, but still a ton of fun. My only real complaint was that the main stage featured acts which were largely mellow. They all performed phenomenally including Amy Winehouse, Ben Harper, and The Police, but didn't really get you pumped up. My favorite act from the entire show was LCD Soundsystem over on the South Stage. They rocked hard. The dance tent was pretty cool too and we managed to catch Sasha & John Digweed and Felix the Housecat. Good times.

Daily Sketch #65

Sometimes It Gets Rough in Pittsburgh

David from Dead Inspector has apparently gotten into some heavy $h!t in Pittsburgh and is in the process of dragging himself up some stairs. Or something like that.

Watched "Hot Fuzz" last night with D and some friends and it was wicked funny. The team from "Shaun of The Dead" worked the same magic on cop action movies. There's a priceless "Point Break" moment at the end that's well worth seeing.

Daily Sketch #64

Invincible Friday

I'm taking a day off today, a mental health day to recharge the batteries from the drain of San Diego and steel myself for the trip out to Chicago next week. The plan for the day is complete relaxation - sitting by the pool and reading, listening to music, and swimming and maybe fit in some movie watching and drawing. But that's about it. Just going to be a lazy bum today.
I was reading my buddy Robert Kirkman's latest issue of Invincible last night and it inspired a quick crack at the character. I'm so impressed and proud of Kirkman for how well he's done and what great creator owned characters he's established.

Daily Sketch #63

Stone Cold Steve

Here's another sketch of Steve from Dead Inspector looking all bad and stone cold. Don't mess with this dude.

I whole heartily recommend everyone run out to your local comic shop or book store and pick up my friend Mark Haven Britt's graphic novel "Full Color". I went to school with Mark and we've been buds for about 7 or 8 years. It's been really cool to watch him evolve as an artist and a great personal thrill to see him realize his vision in this graphic novel. Anyone who's struggled to find their place in life, to grow up, with a dead end job will appreciate this great piece. Check out Mark's official website and buy it on Amazon at a discount.

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).