Matt Kindt - Super Spy

Writing and Commissions...

2012-01-17T16:17:00.001-08:00

I started writing a monthly book for DC last week. I've written shorter pieces for Marvel and DC in the past but this is kind of monumental (to me anyway) because it's the first monthly book that I've been able to write. Writing for an artist is really an interesting process. Kind of liberating in a way and it has a fire-works kind of feel to it, in that the script I write is like lighting a fuse and then you get to sit back and enjoy the show that the artist puts on. Kind of a unique feeling. Horrible if it goes wrong - but amazing when the artist surpasses your imagination and the script. Anyway, having a blast this month - can't wait for DC to announce it so I can talk more freely about it. In the meantime, here's a commission I did over the holidays...

Cover Process

2012-01-10T17:38:00.000-08:00

Peter Bagge, Gilbert Hernandez, and myself are doing a "cover-swap" on our new Dark Horse series coming out in the Spring - so there will be a "variant" cover for each series. Gilbert did my cover and I got to do Peter's.

I usually end up throwing away most of the process stuff and keeping the final product only but got too busy to clean my desktop so actually saved all of the steps accidentally!

Here's the process -- 1. Thumbnails: I gave Peter 3 to choose from - the last one being a sort of Conan-esque cover which is the one he liked best.

2. Pencils: I scan this in so I can see how the logo/type will look over the top of it and for editorial approval.

3. Ink/color: This is the raw image - the original art. I try to do as much at this stage as I can so I don't have to spend a lot of time on the computer.

4. Photoshop/design/logo: I stick the logo on and adjust the color, etc. depending on what the piece is and how it looks with the logo colors. In this case, the background was way too light so I darkened that up and also had to fix the skin of the girl kneeling down (she's not white).

New Giant Man Stories!

2012-01-05T08:33:00.000-08:00

In April, Dark Horse is publishing a 24-page collection of 3 Giant Man short stories I did for their Dark Horse Presents Anthology. These are short stories that take place during the same time period as Part 2 and 3 of my book 3 Story. Here's the cover! Also -- this comic is going to have a sneak preview of my new on-going series MIND MGMT that starts in May. More on that soon!

Top 10 Movies of 2011

2012-01-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

It's been a while but I'm going to try to update my blog again on a weekly basis! Lots of new stuff going on this year. To kick it off...here's a list of my favorite movies of 2011. It was a pretty good year for movies.

TOP 10

1. The Artist

2. Tree of Life

3. Tintin

4. Hanna

5. Planet of the Apes

6. Moneyball

7. Drive

8. Captain America

9. Thor

10. X-Men First Class

ALMOST TOP 10

Sherlock Holmes

Hugo

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Mission Impossible

10 HOURS I'LL NEVER GET BACK

Pirates of the Caribbean

Sucker Punch

Green Hornet

Super

Gainsbourg

EVERYTHING ELSE I SAW

Transformers

Super 8

Green Lantern

Conan

Rango

Rio

Battle LA

Kung Fu Panda 2

Bridesmaids

Adjustment Bureau

Source Code

Gnomeo and Juliet

Your Highness

Puss in Boots

Muppets

Midnight in Paris

30 Minutes or Less

Super

I Saw the Devil

Dolphin Tale

Attack the Block

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold

The Descendants

Young Adult

You Are Wild Dog!

2010-10-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

Finished up the last of my commissions for a while -- until I finish penciling Strange Crimes. I'm 120 pages into Strange Crimes with about 80 pages to go. About half-way through the pencils though, I came up with an idea to an extra chapter I want to do -- which is probably another 10-12 pages so it may end up a little longer. That's the part of the comic writing process I love -- the fluid nature of it -- the ability to come up with ideas along the way and just fold them into the finished product.

Got a great Wild Dog commission -- a character I liked back when I was younger -- and sort of strikes me as the pre-Punisher. Also did a pin-up for a good friend of mine Chris Schweizer who does a series of books "Crogan's Adventures." Highly recommended -- he'd told me the idea for his series years ago in San Diego when I first met him and I knew that if he had the guts to back up his words -- he'd be doing an incredible series of books -- and he is.

Criterion Collection!

2010-08-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

Had a fun project this week - an illustration for a poster to promote a new film festival that Criterion (the best DVD publisher/designer out there) is promoting next month. I had a tough choice - choosing between Repulsion and The Night of the Hunter. I ended up doing the Robert Mitchum movie only because I immediately thought of an image to draw even though I think I like Repulsion as a movie a little more. After I was done I really regretted not coming up with an image where I could have drawn Robert Mitchum's face. Next time.

Also - over the summer I've written more pages of comics in a shorter amount of time then I ever have before. Since the spring I've written and thumbnailed 1200 pages worth of comics and written full-lenth pitches for two on-going series ideas. Waiting to hear on the on-going series stuff but the other 1200 pages will be turned into graphic novels over the course of this fall, winter and spring for 2011. It's nice to be in a place where I know what books I'm doing next but I also have the plots and layouts completely nailed down as well. The hard work is over - time to just plug away on drawing until it's all done. See you in the spring!

Mad Man.

2010-08-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

I finished an 8-page Madman story for Mike Allred a few weeks ago -- for a to-be-published collection of Madman stories by various creators. I'll update more when I know the details of the when and where. Needless to say, one of the high-points of my career in comics. Back in 1991 I'd just graduated from high school and had this Madman black and white poster hanging on my wall -- a long vertical poster with the flip-book corners from the books -- of Madman dancing. I met Mike in 1991 at a local comic show and bought the first limited series from him. Nicest guy. So, years later -- this year, at a party in Portland that Top Shelf had put together to celebrate me and Jeff Lemire being in town, Mike shows up. First time I'd seen him since 1991. I said "I was a huge fan of yours." And his reply: "'Was?'"

Needless to say, I still am. Got the offer to do anything with any of the characters in Snap City and couldn't resist the beatniks. Here's a teaser panel from the story...

Pre-San Diego Comic Con 2010

2010-07-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

I'm in Los Angeles this week doing a book signing and my first ever book reading for Revolver. I'll let you know how that goes (if it goes well). I had a glut of commissions before San Diego that I'm hand-delivering -- that's what these are this week. I've never drawn or even looked that close at Enemy Ace but his mask is pretty awesome.

I'll be signing at Dark Horse, Top Shelf, and Vertigo this weekend (a record amount of signings for me) and I'll be at the Vertigo panel on Saturday as well so if you're in the neighborhood of any of that come on by!

New Studio. New Books.

2010-06-27T11:25:00.001-07:00

I think I've written more comic book pages this year than I have in my entire career combined so far -- 1200 pages of script that will be my next 3 books: Super Natural, End of the World, and Strange Crimes. It feels good to have these books "in-the-can" story-wise so now it's just a matter of production. Drawing, inking, painting. To celebrate (or at least to help me get it all done) -- my new studio is finally done being built! Here's a photo...can't wait to start drawing. [Also pictured -- my mom and daughter.]

Catching Up

2010-06-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

I've done a ton of commissions during the gap of me not blogging. So I'll try to catch up a little bit here. Also if you're buying any Vertigo books this month there's a preview of my Revolver graphic novel in the monthly books. I think that there's a short column I wrote as well describing the book and the inspiration for it. So check out some monthly books this month. Keep floppies alive! Next month I'll be doing a daily Vertigo blog with notes, preliminary sketches and more regarding Revolver so stay tuned.

Wild Things Happening

2010-06-08T16:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long delay in blog updates. It's been a busy few months and I probably won't be caught up until 2012. But, lots of new things to report. A movie option for 3 Story and four new original graphic novels due to come out between now and 2012. First is REVOLVER from Vertigo which arrives July 14. Then it will be THE TOOTH for Oni in the Fall and Spring of next year. After that THE STRANGE CRIMES OF RED WHEEL BARROW for First Second. And finally the Super Spy sequel SUPER NATURAL which is written and just waiting to be penciled and inked. I promise to keep the updates coming on a more regular basis.

Thanks to everyone that came by the table at Heroes Con this year in Charlotte. It was a great show again. Here's a commission that I did for that show. One of my favorite books as a kid and one of my favorite kid's books as an adult.

Lucca Italy Comic Festival

2009-12-09T08:17:00.000-08:00

In September I went to the Lucca Comic Fesitval in Italy and had a great time -- Super Spy was just published over the summer in Italian. One thing I've always done is try to come up with a different sketch every time I sign a book. But truthfully I end up cycling through 15 or 20 different sketches that I've come up with. But for this show I thought it would be fun to come up with a different sketch for every single book I signed. Well, it ended up being about 300 sketches over 3 days. Tons of fun. What I didn't realize until the second day was that my wife was taking pictures of the sketches as I was doing them. Didn't get photos of all of them but here's a sampling....

I'm really curious as to what other artists do at cons. To me, there's a strange kind of fun to work with ink in a book without penciling anything first and having that kind of "danger" of screwing up every time and still coming up with a drawing you haven't drawn before. It's as close to any kind of performance "improv" I'll ever get and I really enjoy it.

If you look closely, there are a few where I started doing 3 panel stories in the front of the book -- each different and written on the fly. I think I only did 3 or 4 of those -- the writing and drawing just took too long for people waiting to get their books so I went back to straight sketches.

SPX Next Weekend!

2009-09-21T09:30:00.001-07:00

I'm getting ready for SPX 2009 this weekend. Should be a good show. I sold out of 3 Story last weekend at Windy City Con but should have a Twhole new stack of books for SPX so come by and check it out! I'll be doing commissions all weekend as well. And again, here are a few new commissions I did this week as well as a sketchbook commission from this weekend (The Flash).

3 Story is out, Revolver is in the can and being lettered by the awesome lettering dept. at Vertigo as I type this for a release this spring/summer. In addition, I'm currently plugging away on a fun 70s style Marvel comic with Cullen Bunn called "The Tooth" and laying out pages for the Super Spy sequel "Super Natural".

Thanks again to everyone that came by and talked to me in Chicago this weekend. What a great show!

Commission Time!

2009-09-18T08:11:00.000-07:00

My new book 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man is out this week! Check it out please! Also if you want to get a signed copy you can order it directly from me at my newly redesigned website. Take a look! And thanks to everyone that ordered books and art from me -- it is much appreciated!

Got caught up on a TON of commissions this week. I put the finishing touches on my Vertigo book "Revolver"which including actually writing footer "scroll" text for the bottom of every page of the book that was specific to the action of that page and...also contained the page number in the same text. Hard at first but by page 100 I figure it out. There's actually a whole other book if you just read the text at the bottom. Really fun to work on. Here are all the commissions I finished this week! Going to Chicago this weekend for the Windy City Con -- come say 'hi' to me there!

Aquaman

2009-08-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

This is a commission I did a few weeks ago -- maybe my daughter's favorite one I've done so far. Still plugging away on a few new projects and waiting for 3 Story to hit the store shelves on October 2. I'm also doing balloon layouts for Revolver right now which is a first. I've lettered all of my books until now so I'm excited to see how this one turns out. I think lettering is one of my weak points generally, so we'll see. Should be good! But I still snuck in a few hand lettered sound effects.

Super Spy Revisited

2009-08-17T10:22:00.001-07:00

Here are some character sketches for a new Super Spy project that I'm working on. I'm also starting pencils on a new book called "The Tooth" that I'm doing with Cullen Bunn and Shawn Lee. I'll be posting more on that as I go along. It is going to start as a free on-line comic.

I have about three more commissions to get done this week and then I'm also going to start on the Super Spy sequel "Super Natural". It's written, I just need to start penciling that as well. As I type this I realize it's sounding more like my to-do list. Well, I guess it is. More art and info next week!

Giant Man Short Story

2009-08-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

Here is the first of two Giant Man short stories I've done for Dark Horse Presents. They'll be collected later this year but for now you can read them free online HERE! And don't worry about spoilers for the graphic novel. These stories were designed to stand alone and they don't appear in the graphic novel at all so this is the only place to see 'em.

Vertigo Book Announced

2009-08-06T09:23:00.001-07:00

The book I've been working on the last couple of months has finally been announce. "Revolver" is a new Vertigo original graphic novel -- 192 pages. It won't be out until spring but you can see a little preview and read a little about it from my editor here.

Also -- my next release 3 Story is going to be out on October 7th. And if you're in the St. Louis area make sure to come by the official book release party at Subterranean Books in U. City from 7-9pm. I'm going to have every page of the original art on display as well as sketchbooks and scripts and other fun stuff that ties into the book.

In the meantime, here are three recent commissions that I did at Heroes Con and San Diego...

San Diego Comic Con Schedule

2009-07-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

Just finished the second 8-page Giant Man short story for Dark Horse today. Here's the first panel/half-page. This should be appearing on their site in August.

Only a week until San Diego Comic Con 2009! I'm going to be there every day and I can't wait. I'll be taking commissions from now up until Saturday at noon so if you have a request let me know via email or talk to me at the show. Look forward to seeing a bunch of familiar faces!

Here's my schedule:

Wednesday: Top Shelf Booth

Thursday: Top Shelf Booth

Friday: 1:30-2:30 After the First 1,000 Pages - Panel discussion with Gene Colan, Becky Cloonan, Zander Cannon, Roger Langridge and myself.

After that I'll be at the Top Shelf booth again.

Saturday: Dark Horse Booth 3-4pm signing a preview comic with excerpts from 3 Story in it as well as limited edition Giant Man prints.

After that I'll be at the Top Shelf booth again.

Stay tuned for more updates -- I'm also on a Vertigo panel but I'm not sure what time/place that will be yet...

Strange Tales

2009-07-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

I finished my next book this week (the book AFTER 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man) which I still can't talk about -- but it will be announced at San Diego Comic Con so after that I'll be blabbing non-stop about it. In the meantime, here's a panel from an 8-page Black Widow story I just finished for Marvel. That series comes out in September. Here's a link to more info about it. I'm going to be in issue #2 -- keep an eye out for it!

Giant Man. Short Story.

2009-06-25T13:01:00.001-07:00

Dark Horse is really getting behind my new book and as a result for July and August they are premiering two new short stories that tie in to my new book 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man. The best part is they are free on-line. You can read the first one here.

Also, I was lucky enough to be picked for the St. Louis Magazine A-List 2009. Click on the photo here to read it...! If you look closely at the photo you'll be able to pick out a few 3 Story spoiler images...

I'm also 15 page from finishing my next graphic novel which I just found out will be announced at San Diego Comic Con in a few weeks. Can't wait to start talking about it since I've been working on it for the last 4 months.

Heroes Con this weekend!

2009-06-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be at Heroes Con this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. There's a really nice crowd and a lot of creators that I'm a fan of will be there so it's doubly good. Also I'll be doing a LOT of commissions, so the time is going to fly by. If you are at the show, make sure you go to my panel on sunday at 1:30 for a discussion of Historical Comics and comics with a little history stuck in 'em. Jason Lutes and several others will also be talking. I can't wait.

Here is a scan of one of my commissions I'm doing in advance for Heroes Con. Classic Aquaman. I'm going to watercolor this today and I'll post the color version when it's done. Aquaman was one of my favorite costumes and probably the best set of under-oos I had as a kid because the green shorts and orange shirt actually felt like his costume. Spider-Man and some of the others didn't quite pull off the same effect but Aquaman was designed like a real costume.

Distinguished Competition

2009-05-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

I've been inking a TON of pages the last couple of weeks -- breaking any kind of record I ever had before by inking 30 pages this week for a new book that will be out sometime in 2010. I can't announce the title or publisher or anything about it until they tell me I can. But it can't hurt to show one crazy page out of context for a story I'm not describing!

Also -- 3 Story: The Secret History of Giant Man is available now for pre-order HERE.

In addition to the full length graphic novel I'm doing two short stories that will appear in July and August on Dark Horse's myspace comics page. I've already written them both and inked the first one and started to paint it. Here are a few panels from the first story...this is what my original art looks like before I letter it and clean it up or add the background old-papery effects that I used on Super Spy and parts of 3 Story.

And finally...I did a short comic strip for a friend of mine that does a weekly strip called SubCulture. You can read my contribution here.

TCAF and Jeff Lemire

2009-05-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

Just got back from TCAF (Toronto) on Tuesday and had a great time. Met a lot of people. Thanks to everyone that came up and talked to me at the show! Also a BIG thanks to my good friend Jeff Lemire and his wife for letting me stay at their house. I was up against some big deadlines on monday so Jeff and I hit the Beguiling to get some comics and then spent the rest of the day inking pages and filling in blacks. We also did a couple fun experiments -- with me penciling and him inking and me inking his pencils. The images here are my pencils with Jeff's inks. The color images are Jeff's inks and my watercolor. For more of our crazy comics jam definitely check out his blog HERE to see his pencils that I inked...always a fun experiment -- not quite him or me but a crazy mash-up of both of our styles.

TCAF and the Spirit

2009-05-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited about going to Toronto this week -- my good buddy Jeff Lemire is going to be there and show me the sites and then I've heard nothing but great stuff about TCAF. If you're up that way, stop by the Top Shelf booth and say 'hey'!

Another busy couple of weeks but I've been throwing things in a folder to add to the ol' blog. I just finished all of the last of the production on 3 Story, finished the back cover art and all of that. Also finished the inks and tones on the first 15 pages of my new-new book that I still can't announce yet so that's been taking up most of my time.

Also -- did an illustration for a French magazine that is doing a tribute to Will Eisner's Spirit (the picture above). First time I've drawn the Spirit -- and still feel like I haven't drawn him. Oh well -- it was fun drawing P'Gell anyway! Oh yeah -- see if you can spot the hidden 'Spirit' in the drawing...

Emerald City Wrap-Up

2009-04-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of fun in Emerald City -- toured the Dark Horse offices and Oni Press and talked to a lot of people. Also sang 'Goldfinger' at the Dark Horse party. I was also interviewd by iFanboy at the con which you can watch here.

I also did several commissions at the con -- one was for a boy and a red umbrella, a Batman, and a Punisher...

3 Story is done and I'm already two new books -- one is the 'to-be-announced' project I'm waiting for permission to announce and the other is for The Tooth -- a book that I'm working on with my buddy Cullen Bunn which is starting out as an on-line comic in July and will be collected early next year. I'll post some art next time...

3D Postcards in Seattle

2009-04-01T05:52:00.000-07:00

I finished a set of 5 postcards that I'm taking to Seattle to help promote my new '3 Story' book. I know it's early -- the book doesn't come out until September but I wanted to have something new for the show. Thanks to my dad for helping me convert these images into glorious 3D. If you have the red-blue standard 3D glasses they'll work on screen.

I'll be in Seattle -- Emerald City Con!

2009-03-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be at the Emerald City Con in Seattle this weekend -- April 4 and 5. For more info about the convention go here! I'm trying as hard as I can to finish a 32 page giant-man mini-comic for Seattle as well as new sets of 3D Giant Man cards -- but we'll see. It's going to be a hectic week.

Also if you haven't picked up this month's Comic Foundry magazine -- you should! It's the last issue but also has a 3 page feature on 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man with new art, etc.

GQ Super Spy

2009-03-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

This is probably the only way I'll ever get into GQ Magazine -- but if you pick up this month's issue they have a list of the 20 Graphic Novels to read after Watchmen and they stuck Super Spy on the list. Here's a link to the article.

Also -- I've set my calendar with convention appearances and here is where I'll be:

Emerald City Con - March 3-5
FX Con (Florida) - April 17-19
TCAF (Toronto) - May 9-10
MoCCA (New York) - June 5-7
Heroes Con - June - 19-21
San Diego Comic Con - July 23-26
Wizard World Chicago - August 7-9
Windy City Comic Con (Chicago) - September 19
SPX - September 25-27 (3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man Debut)

For the FX show I did a piece that will appear on playing cards -- all for charity with an auction of the original art, etc. Here's what the art for my card looks like -- final size is super small -- 2.75" x 1.5".

SCAD

2009-02-25T05:53:00.001-08:00

I'm off to SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) to talk about comics and walk through my creative process -- so if you're in the area and can hurry up and enroll in the school (if you haven't already), stop on by and say 'hi'!

Part of the process I'll be talking about his design -- so for this week the images here are the steps of creating the Super Spy cover. The two concepts I came up with, and then the original water color cover and then finally the solid colors-cover that I brightened up on the suggestion of Brett Warnock (the publisher) which I totally agreed with after I saw it finished. And then the hardcover 'variant' cover for the limited edition version.

Giant Video

2009-02-17T08:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I started penciling my next book this week -- 176 pages graphic novel that I can't officially announce yet but should be able to talk about soon. In the meantime, here is a video of one of the last pages I painted for the Giant Man book. It took me a month to paint 190 pages which is quicker than I thought but now I'm sick of water colors. That usually happens though -- I get sick of inking too but by the time I'm done with all the design and production I've forgotten how much work the rest of it is and I go into the next book just as excited. Short memory is a good thing sometimes.

Giant Advertisement

2009-02-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm about 2 full work days from finishing "3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man". I'm doing the production on the book now along with color correction and a few last minute designs for the interior pages. I'd designed 4 or 5 pages to act as ads that the main character appears in to endorse products. Here's one of the ads. I'm almost there! Click on the thumbnail to read the text...

Next week the book will go to my editor and then I'll be able to cut my hair -- I vowed not to cut my hair until this book was done and I am looking pretty shaggy.

Giant Man Preview Pages

2009-01-24T12:47:00.001-08:00

Haven't had time to post anything lately because I've been spending the last month painting my Giant Man book. I'm nearly done. I've been painting an average of 4 to 5 pages a day so I can finish by the end of the month. It's been fun -- I've been watching/listening to a lot of television this month while I work which keeps it interesting. I should be able to post the cover next week so stay tuned! The colors turned out kind of dark compared to what the final print version will be -- part of what happens when I change them to jpegs.

Also there will be some exclusive preview pages in the new issue of Comic Foundry magazine which hits the stands sometime in February/March and I should have the cover posted here next week. Stay tuned!

Wolverine Commission

2008-12-09T16:45:00.001-08:00

Just finished a Wolverine commission I'd been sitting on for months. I just couldn't think of any image of Wolverine that hadn't been done before a million times. Then I thought it would be cool to have a cross section of Wolverine with little diagram bubbles to explain what was what under his skin -- and then by the time I inked it I dropped the diagram bubbles because they seemed redundant and I thought it would be more interesting if in the 'reality' of the piece Wolverine was posing with his skin cut open for the picture -- and then healed up a few minutes later. That sounds really strange as I type that out...oh well -- that's my thought process for better or worse!

Incidentally, this piece was for Brett of good ol' Top Shelf -- and he has a great blog here -- this week he posted some photos of sketchbook drawings I did at some conventions over the summer as well as a bunch of killer sketches from Jeff Lemire.

The three images are the thumbnail (drawn in bed the morning I thought of the idea), the pencils and the finished color/inks.

I've finished catching up on all my commissions and the last of my freelance jobs for quite a while (a children's book -- 30 pages of full color art) which has slowed me down on Giant Man and my other books. So now it's full steam ahead on graphic novels for the next 3 months.

I'm designing the cover for my Dark Horse book this month so I'll post the thumbnails and art as I go.

Lost Dossiers

2008-11-17T09:22:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm nearing completion on 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man -- and also 20 pages into pencils on another soon-to-be-announced book for a major publisher. I'm waiting on the official word to announce it though and I'm dying to! But until then -- it turns out as busy as I am on these books, the first book to arrive in 2009 will probably be Super Spy: The Lost Dossiers -- it's a few of the short stories that I didn't include in the Super Spy book for various reason -- mostly because they didn't fit the flow of the book and had characters that only appeared one time -- and Super Spy had enough characters floating around in it that I thought taking these out would tighten everything up.

Anyway, those stories are in here but then about 70% of the rest of the book is the Super Spy Treasure Box story -- which I sold as a box set at conventions last year. It took too much time to assemble those but now they're in a book -- for the reader to (hopefully) assemble.

Also there's the pop-gun with directions and a story include as well as a small section of my personal sketchbook that I kept while making Super Spy...and finally -- a section of page by page and panel by panel annotations for Super Spy. I've had this book done for a while but I nearly forgot about it and it had to wait its turn in Top Shelfs publishing queue.

Hopefully another big announcement soon and some art that I can post on what I'm working on now. In the meantime, here's the cover to The Lost Dossiers...

That Man is Giant!

2008-10-13T07:22:00.001-07:00

I'm about two weeks away from finishing the inks on "3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man" and I did a few sample color tests to work out some of the details. The book is broken down into three eras -- 40s, 50s and 60s so the color will be slightly different for each section. These images are the first pages from each of the three sections. It's been fun to get back into inking. I remember last summer after I finished Super Spy I thought I'd never want to ink another page in my life because I was so burned out. Well, it's fun again. I just needed a little break....

Back from Baltimore...

2008-10-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Baltimore Con was a really good show! Seemed about twice as big as last year -- very well attended. I didn't have any cyanide mints left to sell or prints so I just brought original art and did commissions non-stop for 2 days. I say by Jeff Lemire and the time flew by. I stayed with Jose Villarrubia who has got to be one of the nicest and most knowledgeable guys in comics. Back to work on my Giant Man inks this week. In the meantime I took a few blurry photos of some of the commissions I did in Baltimore. I had some fun requests this time. Also -- a photo of fellow Top Shelf compatriot -- Andy Runton (Owly)-- who was busy until the very last minute of the show on convention sketches -- they started breaking down the tables and took his table away so he was drawing on his lap, trying to get that last commission done!

Baltimore Con!

2008-09-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention in the last post that I'll be at the Baltimore Comic Con this Saturday and Sunday, September 27 and 28. If you're in the area it's a fun show and definitely worth checking out! Here's a link to the website:

http://www.comicon.com/baltimore/

I went last year and had a really good time -- and I'm really excited to see Baltimore this year after having watched all 5 seasons of The Wire -- I really want to take a "Wire" walking tour but I doubt they offer one. We'll see!

More Commissions and 3 New Books!

2008-09-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while but I'm trying to adjust to my new schedule of doing comics full time! Which is really exciting but I had a TON of extraneous freelance jobs I had to wrap up so I could get going on comics -- which left no time for blogs or email answering. Anyway, now I'm free -- I've finished the scripts and layouts for two new graphic novels -- Giant Man for Dark Horse and another Super Secret 176 page graphic novel that a Different Publisher won't let me announce yet -- which is driving me crazy to keep secret but I don't want to mess up the marketing, etc. so I'll keep my mouth shut until I'm told to open it. But I'm writing and drawing both of these books. ALSO I'm going to finish up the script for the follow up to Super Spy -- "Super Natural" by the end of the year so I should have that finished for 2009 (from Top Shelf) as well.

That's my work update -- I'm inking Giant Man now and I'm averaging about 4 pages of inked pages a day so I should be done in 4-6 more weeks.

In the meantime -- here are some images from some commissions I did at San Diego Con this summer. San Diego was a blast -- had dinner with editors and writers I've always wanted to meet and talked to TONS of people and did lots of drawings. I'll post more of those in the next few weeks until I have some more finished Giant Man art to preview.

Zatanna!

2008-06-04T18:48:00.001-07:00

I know it's been a while since my last post. I'm literally in the middle of penciling "3 Story: The Secret History of Giant Man" right now. I have about 100 pages of the 200 pages penciled and should be done next month some time. In the meantime, I got a few more commissions -- this one is for someone at MoCCA! MoCCA is this weekend so if you're going, stop by and say 'hi'! I've got my own table on the first floor by the windows near Christine Norrie and crew.

Anyway, Zatanna -- always liked her but never realized how hard it is to draw her without making her look like a total tramp. Well, I tried not too. I also wanted to have a her saying a spell without using a word balloon so I used the background poster to make it look like she sort of has dialogue. Also -- the story is that she's being attacked by the demon in an alley -- the same demon that was supposed to appear in her show (advertised on the poster behind her). Not sure if that comes across, but that's what I was thinking.

Also -- the penciled Zatanna is my preliminary drawing -- which I accidentally started doodling on the back of so some weird brushstrokes bled through...sorry!

That's it this week! I'll post some penciled pages of the Giant Man story soon....

Gay Interest

2008-05-06T16:25:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since my last post -- I just finished 32 pages of a comic art for a kids book that I'll announce later this summer closer to the time of it's release. But it took up all of March and some of April. But I'm back on track. I finished the script for my Dark Horse book "Giant Man" and it's been approved by the editor so I'm starting on pencils for that this week. But in the meantime, I had two really fun commissions this month that I squeezed in, in time to take to the Emerald City Con in Seattle this weekend. Princess Bride -- this was a pretty open request for anything Princess Bride so I did my favorite scene -- probably one of the best sword fight scenes ever. And what is now probably my favorite Justice League cover ever -- I hadn't seen it before this commission request and now I just love it. Batman and Superman holding hands AND the Justice Society. Doesn't get any better!

Spider-Man Annual!

2008-03-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

The last post was super dry and black and white, so here's a recent commission I did (actually last month). A Spider-Man annual homage and the hardest commission yet only because there were so many freaking characters. A couple firsts though -- never drawn Mysterio or Sandman or Elektro before so kinda fun.

Giant Man Script

2008-03-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

I'm working on two graphic novels simultaneously so I'll be switching posts back and forth -- from Super Natural (for Top Shelf) to Giant Man (for Dark Horse). This week I finally finished the script and thumbnails for the entire book -- it clocked in at around 160 pages not including a section of annotations at the end written in the voice of one of the characters. I'm posting the thumbnails for the first nine pages and the working script below. Usually the script is hand-written as well -- and usually I only write dialogue if there is any, but in this case, working with my favorite Dark Horse editor ever, I wanted to make sure everything was clear and easy to understand so I fleshed out and detailed the script a little more than normal. Working for Top Shelf, I usually just pencil everything and send them the scans to look over and in the case of Super Spy, I just finished the whole thing and then they proofed it. But, with a new editor and publisher I was a little nervous and didn't want to take any chances. Once the book is finished, I'll post the entire thing but for now I don't want to blow any of the plot turns, etc.

Here's the script:

Three Story: The History of the Giant Man

Working Script, March 2008

Page 1
Marge is old, staring at flowered wallpaper and last panel is of fingers playing trumpet.

Marge VO: The Louis Armstrong song on the radio starts to bring it all back and for a minute or a second, helps to dull the pain.

He loved Louis. I didn’t care for him but I could see why Craig did – something rough and kind about him all at the same time.

Page 2
Young Marge and Craig embrace – his face is dark and then comes into focus – they speak but the words are fuzzy from memory

Marge VO:Funny now how I can’t imagine his face exactly. And his voice – I can remember the rhythm of it but not HIS voice. More just the things he said.

Page 3
1. Marge’s feet in kitchen
2. Marge walking to kitchen table
3. Marge sitting at kitchen table

Page 4
1. Close up of Craig’s army trunk
2. Empty living room with glass trinkets on shelves.
3. Marge in kitchen alone with letter on table.

Page 5
1. Craig proposing to Marge.
2. Embracing.
3. Closeup of black and white photo.
4. Long shot of wedding black and white photo.

Marge VO: I try to think -- no -- try not to. I wasn’t here just to bring Craig Jr. into the world. But who would know? There’s nothing left of me or him. Not really.

Page 6
Marge VO: A dozen roses. He sent them from who-know-where in France. Amazing to me really how a world away – he could do that. It almost seemed like magic.
1. Roses on kitchen counter.
2. Craig in burned out WW2 city.
3. Craig walking through burned out city.

Page 7
1. Door inside burned out building.
2. Craig kicking door in
3. Craig getting shot at by hiding german soldier
4. Craig shooting the german soldier
5. Walking up stairs of building.
6. Walking up to roof of building

Page 8
1. Roof of building
2. Craig and Other Guy walking onto roof
3. Craig and Other Guy looking around for more soldiers and sniper

Page 9
1. Other Guy in foreground – Craig behind yells “sniper!”
2. Other Guy: Where? Craig: There!
3. Bullet plunks off of Other Guy’s helmet
4. Craig takes a shot at the sniper

How to Make Comics Video

2008-03-01T20:35:00.000-08:00

I did this video over a year ago as an aid in teaching a "how-to" class on making comics. I'd forgotten that I posted it so here's a link if you haven't seen it yet. The panel I was working on was panel 1 page 135 from Super Spy.

It starts out with rough thumbnails, then pencils, then tightening the pencils and then inking and finally the orange is a colored india ink that I used to add the tint to most of the pages in Super Spy. It was bright orange so I could easily select it and separate it in photoshop and change the color (to fit the location that the story took place).

Comics = Work?

2008-02-24T09:04:00.000-08:00

Well, this is the first year of working in comics since 2000 that I'm actually doing more comics then any other kind of work (freelance design, illustration, etc.). And it's fun. If you do anything long enough it starts to seem like work but so far I can't seem to work enough. Can't remember if I posted this yet or not but I just signed a contract with Dark Horse to publish my next graphic novel "3 Story: The History of the Giant Man" which is all about a guy that keeps growing and growing until he's three stories tall. It's told from the point of view of his mom, wife and then daughter and spans the 1940 through the 60s. I'll post some art and preliminary sketches when I get a chance.

Also I'm busy finishing the writing on my next graphic novel for Top Shelf -- official title now IS "Super Natural". I posted some preliminary sketches earlier but I've changed a few things and finished the first 12 pages or so of the art. Full color, etc. Haven't done any of the lettering yet but here's some of the raw art so far. Houdini under water!

And just realized that I need to have about 500 pages of comic art done by December of this year. I'll probably be panicking by October but right now I can't wait to get everything going.

Adventure! Intrigue! Nathan Fillion!

2008-02-06T15:11:00.000-08:00

My friend Brian and I are working on a new untitled project in our spare time. It's a straight-forward (kind of) adventure strip. We're plotting it together and I'm scripting, then he pencils and inks it and I water color it and we're done. Here are a couple art samples that we did to hone in on the style and look of the series. Should be fun -- and kind of a bonus book that we will eventually finish between our other big projects.

Also, last week I went to the FX show in Florida. It was a blast. The most fun convention I've been to this year and the nicest people running it. It was also very surreal -- our hotel room was right next to Adam West (who ate dinner in the same restaurant as us). We shared the shuttle to the convention with a bunch of different celebrities: a woman from Law & Order who I didn't know, The Soup Nazi, etc. Also met Nathan Fillion who was super-nice and very tall.

Cary Grant

2008-01-15T09:20:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over and I'm not sick anymore -- and believe it or not I've been working on a LOT of stuff but haven't had time to scan anything in and pull it together for the blog. I'm thick in the writing of my next book (tentatively titled 'Super Natural') so I'm writing and doing a lot of research since I'm using real people from history (Harry Houdini, Amelia Earhart and Morgan Earp) so it's taking a while but I've got the first 20 pages written and laid out. I'll start posting that process once I get a little more done. In the meantime, here's a drawing I did of Cary Grant using some new colored inks I got over the summer.

Mary Marvel?

2007-11-20T19:55:00.000-08:00

Yep -- first Mary Marvel drawing...ever. Kinda fun -- also had a few other commissions this week (actually a couple weeks ago but I'm way behind). X-Men #1 re-imagining and my favorite one this week was just a "detective guy in an office". Sometimes the more vague the better. I spent a lot of time thinking about that one and came up with this. Kind of my homage to Edward Hopper really. While I was working on this one it gave me a really neat idea for this art show that's coming up here in St. Louis next month. Stay tuned to see what it is (and if I can get it to work right) -- it involves light boxes and multi-layred drawings!

Girl with Guns

2007-11-05T16:27:00.000-08:00

One of the most challenging but fun things that I started doing this year was convention sketches. Commissions via e-mail are pretty easy. I'm at home and I can take my time and work the sketch out and relax. At a convention you're usually on the spot, someone is either waiting for you to finish it or actually standing over you and watching you draw. I don't mind it though -- I like to imagine I'm performing or something like a musician making the stuff up on the spot and improvising. Sometimes it works out great, other times you wish you could get the drawing back. Well, when that happens usually I scrap it and start over and nobody sees it (unlike a live musician). Anyway, I did this convention sketch in Chicago over the summer and forgot to snap a photo -- but luckily the person I did it for, posted it on-line and I found it. The request was for a "girl with guns".

Mystery Commission

2007-10-24T18:40:00.000-07:00

Another commission this week for an anniversary of a mystery couple who I'll keep anonymous. While I was working on this my daughter (4 years old) was (unbeknownst to me) copying my drawing as I painted it. When she was done she showed it to me. I asked her where the guy was and she said she left him out because she doesn't like boys. But if you look close you can see that she has the woman, the window in the background and some of the letters from the neon sign. In a few more years maybe she'll be able to ink my backgrounds....

SPX Fun Time

2007-10-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

Late on my post this week. I had a 13 hour drive home on Monday complicated by a flat tire so it took me a little longer to get back. But it was worth it over all. Sold out of all the copies of Super Spy at the show and sold some original art and other little things. It was the first time I have been to SPX and it really was one of the better conventions of the year. Nice "intimate" (small) space with tons of hand-made and silkscreened comics. Really fun to see it all. I also took the train up to D.C. and visited the Spy Museum. All photography was prohibited which seemed like more of a challenge then a rule, it being the Spy Museum and all, so I snuck a few super-secret photos -- one of James Bond's Aston Martin (that actually worked -- the guns popped out and shot, etc.) and a real Enigma Machine (also pictured). Also finished another commission this week -- a re-working of Amazing Fantasy #15 with the first appearance of Spider-Man.

Fantasic Four!

2007-10-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

It's been a little crazy around here since I started doing commissions. It's good though, to keep my brush warmed up while I'm writing on my new projects. This came in last week -- a request to re-draw Fantastic Four #1. It was fun to do -- especially the Human Torch who I've never drawn before. Heck, I don't think I've drawn any of the FF before this week. But I liked the idea of the Human Torch maybe leaving a smoke trail instead of just flames...that's my deep thought for the week.

Heroes Part 2 (Bonus Post)

2007-10-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

One more Heroes commission finished this week. This is the last of them (I think)! I used some new materials this time -- some super-bright Dr. Martins India Ink that was really fun. The india inks are waterproof too, so I'll be experimenting more with that and mixing it with watercolor, etc. It was really interesting to layer the colors because they are mostly transparent so when I laid the yellow down and the magenta on top it all turned orange. Fun, but there's definitely a different (longer) thought process when inking to anticipate the effect of the next layer of color.

Heroes

2007-09-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

I got a commission last week from Jesse Alexander -- one of the writers and producers of Heroes and Lost and Alias. Great guy and I had a fun time coming up with his paintings. He wanted Hiro, the Cheerleader and Peter from the Heroes TV show. The 3rd cover -- Hiro -- was my idea for a fun flashback issue to the 1940s where I imagine a Hiro from another timeline became a WWII sword-weilding hero that would help his future self out somehow in some sort of time-traveling brain bender story.

Sketches

2007-09-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready to do a big batch of commissions but I truthfully haven't inked anything other than convention sketches and book signings since summer began. I was burned out after finishing Super Spy and I needed to take some time off. SO, instead of just starting to ink on these commissioned pieces I decided to loosen myself up a little and ended up just going out and drawing strangers in my sketchbook. All ink and brush and water color with no pencils first. I started doing that after about 40 pages of Super Spy -- going to figure drawing classes and just working with ink and brush straight on the page and it really helped me out. Anyway, here's one of the drawings I did...

Ghost Stories

2007-09-17T19:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm officially blogging with my second entry of the month. I'm going to attempt to post at least once a week (on Mondays) starting this week. So, here's what I'm working on -- a historical ghost story set in the 1950s. My take on the "supernatural" will be a little different and there will definitely be more stress on the historical. That's it! I'm fleshing out the story and script this week and I'll post more when I've got it.
Here are a couple images of some of the characters -- there identities I'll leave to your imagination so as not to blow the story. What I will say though is that since ghosts don't technically age and it's set in the 50s, the characters can (and will be from many different time periods).

That's it! I'm fleshing out the story and script this week and I'll post more when I've got it.

First Super Spy Blog Entry

2007-09-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

I'm setting up my new site with a new shop and all the Super Spy gadgets and hand-made items I've been selling at the cons all summer. I'll be posting sketchbook pages and photos as I go along. Here's a photo of some Super Spy Mint-Flavored Cyanide Capsules that I recently made for conventions.