jbacardi

Messing around today, trying to color in Photoshop. Not the best sketch I've ever done, but hey- it's inked! I did the pencil sketch several months ago, I saw the perspective shot somewhere and wanted to try it.

Cusick the Tuscarora and Doot of the Wawenoc, the lead characters from the short-lived mid-80's Epic/Marvel Comics series Timespirits. Created by Steven Perry and Thomas Yeates, it became a fast favorite of mine and remains a series I'll dig out and reread fairly often...and am engaged, even moved, just as much in 2009 as I was in 1985.

A few weeks ago, artist Steve Bissette posted something that upset me greatly; Perry has terminal cancer and is destitute, with very little money to live on, let alone to pay hospital bills. He asked if anyone could find it in their hearts to send some money Perry's way, to help things along for him. Now, I'm hardly destitute, but I just don't have a lot of extra money to pass along to anyone, and I started trying to think of what I could possibly do to raise some cash...and wondered if I were perhaps to do a Timespirits illustration and auction it off on eBay, well, first, I wondered if anyone would even bid on the thing, then I wondered if I could raise enough to make it worthwhile...but I realized that I had to do something for the fellow whose work gave me such a charge, and this was as good a plan as any.

Of course, I've procrastinated, and haven't really had a lot of time to sit and draw anyway thanks to work and home and whatnot...but after a few doodles, I came up with this, what I feel is the best of the prelim sketches I've done, and I thought I'd share it here with all of youse.

Wish me luck on getting this done...

Here we have a request. A nice young lady messaged me out of the blue over on my DeviantArt site, and asked me if I'd be interested in drawing one of the characters she's created. I thought "Sure, why the hell not?", so I replied in the affirmative, and she provided links to several of them. The one I picked out is called "Vyxin", and no, I don't have any particular reason why I chose her. For comparison's sake, here's where you can find her as done by her creator, "xhathawayx".

A few days ago, I mused out loud on Twitter about creating a new blog in which I drew a different fictional character- comics, literature, movies, whatever- a day and posted it. Thought it might help me exercise my atrophied drawing muscles. I got several excellent suggestions about who I could draw. Now, while I'm not quite ready yet to create yet another blog to let lie fallow, I am still using this one as sort of a sketch blog these days, and today, when I took a break from typesetting church programs, I drew one of the requests- the Phantom Stranger. Now, this isn't the classic 70's Stranger, with his swingin' medallion and turtleneck shirt, nor is it the Guy Davis-inspired Vertigo Hobo looking Stranger either. I thought it might be fun to run a newspaper to draw him as he was in his earliest appearances; when he wore a trenchcoat and tie, before Neal Adams redesigned his look. And don't get me wrong, it's a fine look that no one's really improved on 30 + years later, but I wanted to do him up all different-like. And here he is.

A sketch of Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, done during a slow period at work. He's jumping down on tiger or gorilla soldiers which are just out of the picture (because I don't have any visual ref handy for them).

It's funny- in the 70's, when the Kirby run came out, I didn't buy many issues of Kamandi even though I liked other Kirby DC titles such as Mister Miracle and The Demon. Something about the storylines and ideas Kirby used seemed kinda recycled and second-hand. Of course, I was missing the point, and seeing many of those old comics posted here and there on the Net makes me want to get a collection and read them from beginning to end, because now they look like a lot of fun and balls-out action.

Another pencil sketch of Poison Ivy, this time pitching a product that would seem to be a natural for her.

I was having a good time hunting up pics of Batman villain Poison Ivy on the Intarwub yesterday, and posting them on my Tumblr site...and apparently that inspired me to do one of my own that I now share with you. Hope you like.

For Dave Lartigue, here's a commissioned drawing of Space Cabby (or "Cabbie", if you will), another of DC's "only in the Golden Age"-type characters, who operated under a simple premise: in the future, in outer space, people will need transportation from one planet to the next, and what better than a cab? And that's what our boy here did. Now, I've only read one or two of the stories, so I don't know if he was a solo operator, or if there were fleets of celestial cab drivers, or if they ever revealed his real name. But the stories were fun, and I plan on reading more in the future. It would be NICE if DC would collect them, but I won't stand on one leg waiting.

I really wish I was a better inker- I had a good idea, but my incompetent inking skills have made this pretty hard to look at, for me anyway. I can also see a couple of lines I should have extended farther back, stuff like that. But hey- perhaps I'll get better with repetition, so if you would like to take a chance on me (like ABBA once sang) and commission me to do something for YOU, send me an email or comment! You'll find I'm disgustingly cheap. And I don't charge much either.

A quick one, while he (the boss, that is)'s away. A pencil sketch, done at work while supposed to be engaged in productive labor, of someone I'm surprised I've never drawn before- the official mascot of the JB Show, SUPER-HIP!

I think I should work this up a little bit more at some later date.

John Ostrander and Tim Truman's GRIMJACK, for tomthedog , via the request meme I posted a week or two ago. This guy's ensemble is a BITCH to draw...I'd go batshit insane if I had to draw it 20 pages a month 12 times a year...no wonder nobody's publishing it right now!

For hipsterdad , here's Doonesbury's Zonker Harris, relaxing and sipping a tall cool drink on the beach.

Other promised sketches coming forthwith.

Here's Pandora Arcana again, still in her winter coat and boots, looking all reflective as she sits on a big stone (or ice) throne. Just something that came to me this afternoon as I was trying not to do any productive work. Plus, I promised Ken Lowery a drawing and thought it might be a good idea if I drew her again (it's been a while), just to warm up.

 

The other day, I posted that sketch request meme type thing, and actually got a couple of responses...so here's the first. For justbringit , here's Power Girl. This is the first time I've tried to draw her, and it was fun. I'm no Amanda Conner, but I didn't hate this one.



This one's for hipsterdad . I think he was kidding about this one, but I got this in my head so why the hell not. Next up, his "real" request, Doonesbury's Zonker Harris.

I'll do one for you too, if you ask!

It's a sketch meme, found via dewline:

The first three people to ask for 'em gets sketches of any character. You may want to provide references if you're not sure I know the character, and if I've already drawn a finished version of the character you may want to pick someone else. If you wish to continue the meme, post this italicized bit in your own LJ.

So whaddaya say?

Tell me that you love me, Junie Moone.

Above is DC's character called the Enchantress; June Moone is her real name. Since it's Halloween today, thought it would be appropriate. She was created by Bob Haney, so you just know she was groovy weird in that 60's DC way back in the day; I don't think I've read more than a couple of her adventures that appeared in the appropriately titled Strange Adventures comic. She shared the book with Animal Man and (I presume) inventory scifi-horror type stories. Anyway, she's now a member of the Shadowpact, wearing a much less kicky quasi-Roman sort of imitation White Queen kind of gear now; fine I guess but nowhere near as cool as her original look with the pointed hat and all. This look was from around the time that she was appearing in the Suicide Squad book, different from her early apps. but a little less kitschy. I liked it.

Happy Halloween, y'all.

Byrd and Kahami from the Hawaiian Dick series, which you should all be buying.

I'm kinda thinking about doing another one of these, a little less rushed, with more detail in Byrd's shirt and to try and make Kahami look a little less caucasian. I should have put Byrd's big bud Mo in there too, but hey- it's a quickie sketch, done at work when I should have been, well, working. Whaddaya expect?

Got a good one for you today...back in 2001, I was approached by a friend of my son's who was in a rock band, named "Jhelom" (I'm not sure where that came from; I think it was a D&D wizard's name, I swear, but I forget) and they needed someone to do graphic design for the whole project.

( Click here for the REST of the story, and more pictures )

Submitted for your approval: Zoe (Kinetix) Saugin and Jenni (XS) Ognats, two conveniently-forgotten-in-current-Legion-history characters that I've always had a soft spot for, especially Zoe, whom I've had a MAJOR soft spot for. Downright mushy, that spot. So has my new best friend Bill of Trusty Plinko Stick renown, who actually commissioned this from me!

I'd love to do one for you, too. I'm disgustingly cheap, you know, and I don't charge much for a sketch either!

(Click to see bigger)

Sometime in the late 90's-early Aughts, I forget (and it's probably noted somewhere in the text), I self-published an eight-page minicomic with a handful of my Pandora Arcana sketches and a boatload of text which laid out the story as it was in my head then. Then, in a colossal act of hubris, I printed (on company time, yet...no wonder they downsized me) out about 25 copies and sold them at the LCS for a quarter each. And I actually sold a few, too!

These are laid out in printer's spreads, because I was too lazy to separate them into single pages. Apologies in advance. If you should be courageous enough to try to read these, bear in mind that most of what I wrote in the mini no longer applies, since I've changed and changed and changed again the story about a thousand times since she came to take up residence in my head. Actually, this is closer to the "official" version as it is right now, but I've reconsidered even that in a few places.

Anyway, the other page spreads are under the lj-cut. Hope you like 'em, and as always, feel free to comment!


( Read more... )

Remember the pencil sketch I posted aeons ago? I finally inked the damned thing. And while it's one of my typically hamfisted inking jobs, I don't think I bludgeoned it so bad that I killed it, so that's a minor victory as far as I'm concerned. Hopefully the Fatalysia guys will like it too.