I Cornered NAMOR THE SUBMARINER... Twice

Another piece submitted to the great blog, Cornered, where artists reinterpret the spot illustrations that appear on comic book covers. Check it out for some really great pieces.

--B

The Red Ghost And His Super Apes

Brilliant Soviet scientist Ivan Kragoff, with his three trained primate buddies, gained super powers from cosmic rays while attempting to beat the Americans to the moon. Kragoff finds he has the ability to become intangible, while his gorilla gains super strength, his orangutan the mastery over magnetism, and baboon the ability to shape shift. Adopting the colorful name the Red Ghost, Kragoff and his Super Apes have long become a thorn in the Fantastic Four's side.

MAY-VEL continues all month long, a drawing challenge tackled by myself and Pedro Delgado. To see his superb rendering of the Red Ghost, go here.

--B

Luke Cage Repaneled

Taken from the fifth panel of page eight of Luke Cage, Hero For Hire #8, another piece submitted to Repaneled. Go check out other great work there.

--B

Sad Robot

Quick sketch. Sad robot is sad.

--B

Thundra

Everyone's favorite Femizon from a distant, alternate future: Thundra! And her boy toy, Ben Grimm. Continuing on with the MAY-VEL drawing challenge with Pedro Delgado, check out his sweet version of the muscular maiden here.

--B

5-Minute Marvels: The Inhumans!

Friend Tim Miner hosts a great blog called 5-Minute Marvels, where he, along with his daughters Grace and Cate, spends five minutes drawing a Marvel comic character (though not just) to be posted on their blog. Over time they have amassed a fine collection of talented web-followers who join them in cranking out five-minute drawings, an impressive roster of names at that. I recently threw myself in the mix. Tim knew I had a love for all things Kirby and suggested we draw the Inhumans, specifically the characters referenced on the cover of FF #54. So I went to work and tried to do a quick rendition of the Attilan Royal Family. I decided to do a longer inking job and an even longer coloring job to post here. Check out Tim and Grace's great Inhumans pieces, along with mine, here. Thanks for including me, guys, let's do it again real soon.

For a little process view of how I draw in Flash, see below:



1. I begin by sketching each character on a separate layer in Flash. The different colors for the figures is only so I can tell them apart when drawing each one together in a composition. I pulled them all apart, as seen on the right, to illustrate how they were drawn separately. Each character was sketched out in less than 5-minutes individually to keep with the project's essence.



2. Wanting to finish the piece for my own purposes, I threw down a quick ink on yet another layer. After erasing the sketch layers, I export the piece to Photoshop.



3. I start coloring in the CMY channels over the black ink layer. Here's the initial coloring. Adding effects and filters and elf dust, I turned this colored piece into an "aged, newsprint comic book" illustration as seen at the top of the post. Done!

--B

Teaching Comic Strips At The Museum

I had the chance to meet a bunch of great kids at the Newport Art Museum today for a birthday, where the birthday boy wished to learn about drawing comic books (I had these prepped to teach about comic strips, but could easily translate the concept into comic books. He is a Marvel fan). I prepared the above pages and created Bugging Out yesterday to help teach about making comics. All the kids were really cool and did some great drawings, and a few inked and colored some sketches I did for them. Overall, we all had fun and I really enjoyed interacting with them all.

--B

Luke Cage, Hero For Hire

Who would bust into the Baxter Building, toss around the Fantastic Four, ask to borrow a rocket, fly to Latveria, and then proceed to put a smack down on Dr. Doom until he pays up the $200 he stiffed you for a job? Sweet Christmas, Luke Cage would, you jive turkey. Another MAY-VEL piece coinciding with Pedro's, which you can check out here. Up next? Thundra, baby.

Yesterday's post and comments are gone due to a Blogger snafu. I guess during a maintenance or new design run, they knocked out all service and deleted yesterday's doings affecting everyone with a blogger account. Too bad, that Hulk cover was getting decent traffic and was featured on another blog, all of which, at this moment, is gone. Hopefully they will get those restored.

--B

I Got It COVERED: The Incredible Hulk #197

I submitted this piece to Covered, a blog that invites artists to submit their interpretations of comic book covers. I had fun doing this one, a Bernie Wrightson Hulk cover featuring Man-Thing. It was posted today, and I hope to do more when I get the time. Maybe just a series of Man-Thing getting punched through the chest, like this beauty. Enjoy.

--B

NES Super Mario Bros. Box Art

It's a me. A Mario. I did this piece to submit to the great blog called Palette-Swap, a site run by Rusty Shackles, who invites people to submit their interpretations of old video game packaging. Now I'm a child of the '80s who grew up in the warm glow of Mother Nintendo, and Super Mario was a fave. This is one of a series I plan to do featuring the old "black" boxes from back in the day, here's the original inspiration for this piece. Keep your eyes peeled for Ice Climber next.

--B

The Rampaging Rhino

Continuing with the drawing challenge known as MAY-VEL, here's the rampaging Rhino. I think he's off to get a cheeseburger. Check out some sweet Rhino action over at Pedro's blog. We're both off to the next character, a certain Mr. Luke Cage. And maybe a cheeseburger.

Pedro is doing some amazing work, so I added the second image, inspired by his work.

--B

Free Comic Book Day At Annex Comics

Here's some pics from Free Comic Book Day at Annex Comics, here in Newport, RI, as well as the Thor cards I did special for the occasion (still a stack at Annex if you wants one). I also make an appearance in a local news blog that covered the event here. That's where I swiped these pics, taken by Kirsten Ferguson.

--B

I'm With Jack

I reworked this bad boy and reposted. I've yet to nail an iconic Thing that I really like. And you all should know who Jack is.

--B

Thor, God Of Thunder

Well, since Pedro did such wonderful work on his Thor sketches for our ongoing drawing challenge he has termed MAY-VEL, I throw this one in the ring in addition to my Thor Week piece. Just saw the movie today, and despite my usual minor gripes, I enjoyed it. Seeing Thor knock around some Frost Giants with Mjolnir was worth the admission price alone. But, I digress.

This image I will be using for a free trading card give away today at Annex Comics here in Newport. May 7th is Free Comic Book Day around the nation and I'm giving away this puppy, as well as sketching in the shop for anyone who wants to drop by for one. So come down and score some free comics and other goodies. Annex Comics is located at 314 Broadway in Newport, RI. It is conveniently located across from a liquor store.

--B

Thor Week: Loki

Day 6 of Thor Week brings us the runty Frost Giant offspring, adopted son of Odin named Loki. Yes folks, evil wears bright green and yellow with a ponytailed helmet. Beware!

--B

Thor Week: Thor!!!!!

The man of the hour shows up on the most appropriate day of Thor Week: Thursday! The very day named after him. This drawing is the fifth piece of the Thor Week drawing challenge and also acts as the first piece in another drawing challenge known as MAYVEL! A pal of mine, Pedro Delgado, who you might know as my co-collaborator on March MODOK Madness, decided he would draw a few Marvel Comics characters this month, and I suggested we both take a stab at the same characters. So follow us all month for a multitude of mighty Marvel madness this May. One drawing for two drawing challenges, isn't that kind of lazy, you're asking? Absolutely. However, Pedro makes up for it with 2 great sketches of Thor at his blog. Check them out.

--B

Thor Week: Odin

Day four of Thor Week brings us to the All-Father Odin! He says, "Thou must talk to mine hand!" Snap.

--B

Thor Week: Heimdall

Thor Week continues with day three's Asgardian: Heimdall! I had a little trouble locating images of Heimdall I liked on the internet, as reference was a bit spotty, so I combined costume looks from different sources through the ages and present this drawing. Heimdall is a cool dude, standing ever-ready on Bifrost to defend the gates of Asgard, never taking a pee break. Now that's dedication.

--B

Thor Week: Lady Sif

Continuing the Thor Week character pin-up pieces: Sif! She is Thor's on-again-off-again girlfriend, when the thunder god isn't cruising Midgard for some mortal company. This character was suggested by Nico, who has started a Sif of his own. As for me, let's say Heimdall is next here at Thor Week on the ol' blog.

--B

Thor Week: Volstagg the Voluminous

Inspired by a friend's post of Volstagg, I decided to draw the jolly giant because it looked like fun. I proposed a larger scaled concept. As this Friday, May 6th, the movie Thor premieres in theaters, I suggested that we do a drawing challenge consisting of Thor characters, mainly Asgardians to celebrate the occasion. However, I think Nico will be a might bit busy, as I've learned his lady has gone into labor and soon he will be a brand new papa! Congrats, from Volstagg and me!

--B

Behold! Thy Name Be... Dude Fromage-- !

Here's a cover I drew last weekend, inspired by Tim and Grace Miner's creation at 5-Minute Marvels. I saw the design and knew I had to create the cover for Tales of Culinary Catastrophe issue #5. Hit the 5MM link above to see this mountain of muenster's info. I went with a Kirby look and was inspired by his amazing cover to Fantastic Four #51. Enjoy.

--B