Green Lantern Pages - Colored by Me

While waiting for my partner in crime on The Wind Up Child to get back to me, I colored these three pages from Green Lantern, issue 3 (which is currently in comic shops). I've met Doug Mahnke (the artist who pencilled these pages) several times and he's as nice as his art is gruesomely awesome. Mark Irwin (the artist who inked these pages) is a name that is new to me, but he's clearly got some crazy skills, as evidenced by the art on his Deviantart account. Click for a closer look:

The (Old) NEW Teen Titans

I'm hard at work on "The Wind-up Child," but I still find time to draw other stuff for fun. Today's "for fun" subject is based on one of my friend's favorite 80s superhero teams - The NEW Teen Titans (and since they were 18 years old in 1980, I suppose now they'd be the "The OLD Middle-Aged Titans").

Profiles, sans Changeling (click for a closer look):

and a gesture of the whole team (click for a closer look):

Cover Concepts

You have seen the interior thumbnails, now you can see the cover concepts. Here are the four I came up with:

Option 1 - leaving home, afraid:

Option 2 - chess piece come to life, confused:

Option 3 - chess piece being manipulated, terrified:

Option 4 - a combination of 1 and 3, a little more subtle, mysterious, ominous:

I'm not sure which I like best ... I guess I should be asking which would be more appealing on a comic stand. I'm thinking 3 or 4.

22 Pages of Thumbnails

Well, the first issue of "Wind-up Child" is officially laid out. For those who don't know, it's common practice for a comic artist to draw small "thumbnails" of pages before drawing them at full size. This allows me to compose the page, deal with perspective issues and generally plan things out. Working small means it's easy to see the page as a whole, and it's easy to quickly dash out (and redraw) ideas. But they're also quite rough, and I'm not sure you'll be able to interpret what's going on ... so you'll have to BUY a copy when it comes out ;)

The Wind-up Child Logo

Part of my current comic collaboration is branding and packaging the comic (I've also been working on thumbnails for our first 22-page issue). Part of me doesn't want to be distracted by the branding side of things and stick to drawing (because that's what will hold or loose our readers), but part of me is excited by the design challenge of creating a comic logo. Besides, if the logo doesn't do its job, potential readers won't understand the content and will be less likely to give our book a chance.

Enough theoretical discussion, let's look at what I've come up with:

Obviously, the name of our book is "The Wind-up Child." It features genetically-engineered, super-powered teens who are being used and sold as slave mercenaries. "The" and "Child" makes perfect sense, but "Wind-up" is a little more open to interpretation. It might mean "Old time-y technology," or (as it turns out) it might be more metaphorical, representing something give an input and it follows a predetermined course. There's a definite sci-fi aspect to our tale, so I wanted to move people away from the "Old time-y" interpretation and stress the futuristic nature of the story. I also wanted the word "Child" to be charged with a sense of tension, danger. The uneven x-height and inconsistent ends of the letters help contribute to this ... or at least that's what I intended. I'll be curious to hear peoples' reactions to this logo.

Paper bag drawing

... or rather a drawing ON a paper bag, not of one. This one is from last night's life drawing session. I think life drawing skills are essential for a comic book artist because spandex is the uniform of choice for many super protagonists. Besides, life drawings are fun!

Click for a closer look:

Back ... From Outer Space

Actually, I was out of town (and away from my computer) working on my OTHER job. The job I do so I can continue to eat and not sleep outside. Anyway, I was away from my computer, but I was NOT away from my sketchbook. Here's a little more from my upcoming comic project. Starting this week, I'm going to start working on this in earnest, so expect exciting things!

First up is the Mercury logo design. At first I wanted to make it look like old money - the kind of logo a company that has ALWAYS existed would have. I thought their logo should look old, but classy, so the Roman god Mercury is a natural choice.

Not sure about the MERCury (Merc = Mercenary? get it?), that might be a little on the nose. I actually like the last logo (at the bottom) rather a lot. It's even imposing the way I wanted the logo to be. But I decided it wasn't right. This company genetically modifies children and sends them out on assassination missions. This company should be forward thinking, or at least it should perceive and resent itself that way. So I sketched this tiny, tiny version and I kind of love it. Instead of the god Mercury, I've taken my inspiration from the element Mercury.

Even in this tiny, rough concept form, I think you get the idea. And that got me thinking, "A company with this logo wouldn't send out their commandos in standard military gear." So, I had to redesign the kids' costumes. The new costumes needed to be cutting edge, slick, and I also wanted to throw in a little teenage style.

My first instinct was to color them in black, grey and yellow, but that would make them look WAY too much like X-men knockoffs, so I went with black and three-tone grey, with white details.

... oh, and I have heard art teachers say, "If people cut figure drawings off at the ankles, they probably can't draw feet." I can draw feet, honest. I just didn't plan these drawings out very well. I'm still not sure what I want to do with the shoes. Trainers to emphasize the youthful style? Combat boots to give the uniforms a little more edge, tooth? Hmmm ...