Dark Phoenix Sketch Cover

A thousand feet above Central Park, 1980. For sale.

Sketch Covers

I've just started getting into doing sketches on these blank comic book covers. So far I'm digging it, but it really depends on the quality of the paper stock. I learned that not all blank sketch covers are created equal. I loved the Avengers and X-Men stock but that Wolverine was a bear (can a wolverine be a bear?) to work with. It would not take markers nicely and when I tired to erase pencil marks it took ink along with it. Anyway, I hope to keep doing these and I hope you like them. The Black Widow was a private commission but the others are for a sale. Drop me a line if you're interested.

Gillian's Heart

Here are some pages I did back in 2008 that never got published, or technically, are still waiting to be published. I never posted them because I kept thinking the project would come through one day. But, when I found them all on the writer's website (including the first two pages the colorist worked on), I thought I might as well post them too. It's called Gillian's Heart: Diamonds Are a West African Warlord’s Best Friend. It was supposed to go in an anthology called Less Than Three (get it?), and maybe it will someday, but I'm not banking on it.

It was a fun story to work on, but looking back at it almost three years later, there is a lot I would do differently. My art is a bit clunky in places, and I think (I hope) I've improved since then. Anyway, here it is. Catch the cameo of my (always lovely) wife and I in the first panel on the bridge way in the background (you can't really tell it's us). It's a nod to the bridge I proposed to her on in Central Park.

Lost Grooves Cover

Here is a cover I just finished for writer Chad Lambert. The book is a collection of some of his previously published short stories, including one I illustrated back in 2008 called "Kissed by a Muse". This was a lot of fun to work on. He told me he wanted a cute girl listening to old records and tapes and let me go from there. I also designed the logo.

If you're curious about what albums and tapes I put on the cover. Here's a close-up and the list.


Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
The Specials - The Specials
Elvis Costello - My Aim is True
Iron Maiden - Piece of MInd
LL Cool J - Radio
The Cult - Electric
Prince - Purple Rain
KISS - Love Gun
Run DMC - Run DMC
Eric B. and Rakim - Paid in Full
Public Enemy - Yo! Bum Rush the Show
3rd Bass - The Cactus Album
The Clash - London Calling

"Chew" Pin-up

A commission piece I just finished. The characters Tony Chu and John Colby from the comic book "Chew" by John Layman and Rob Guillory. This is one of those great looking books that I haven't had a chance to read yet. And after doing research for this piece, I think I need to pick this bad boy up. Seems like printed greatness.

I like how people have posted online who they think should play the characters. I saw a lot of Miles and Sawyer from "Lost", which I have to say I agree with from what I've seen of these characters. I showed this drawing to my lovely wife and asked her who she thought should play these characters and that's exactly who she said. Anyway, I digress. I hope I did them justice even though I wasn't super familiar with them. Apologies to Layman and Guillory if I missed the mark.

2010 Goals - Scorecard

Around this time last year, I went public with my goals for 2010. I think it’s only fair that I publicly acknowledge whether or not I met those goals. So, here goes.

Some of them were accomplished and some of them were not. But I can say with all honesty that the reason I wasn’t successful with some were do to my success with others. I was amazingly (thankfully) busy this year. As you can tell from my blog posts alone. In 2009, I had 84 post, as of right now I have 123. So, I was crunched for time, but I did try. Here we go…

Redesign my website. Started out big at the beginning of the year and then fizzled out. Lately I’ve just been directing people here since it’s more up-to-date.

Spookytown. Yikes, this is my biggest disappointment. I didn’t even finish drawing it much less scanning, coloring and lettering. I did take them to set up the lettering for every page, so there’s that.

Sketch Cards. My biggest success. I started the year never having been on a sketch card set. I finished the year having been on eight. Dead@17, Empire Strikes Back, P’ups, The Pro, Mixtape, Hack/Slash, Clone Wars, and Domino Lady / The Spider. And already in the works for 2011 is Lady Death, Bettie Page, Thor, Captain America and Marvel Beginnings. Part of that goal was to get in sets for DC, Marvel and Star Wars. Two down, now to get DC.

I’ve done so much of them that I have to cut back. I already reluctantly turned down Sheena for 5finity because f time restraints. So, I think this year you might see less of them from me.

Publish a sketchbook. Done and done. I was very pleased with myself for this one. I had wanted to do it for some time. It was a lot of work to compile and I think the end result is pretty nice. Hey, you can buy it online you know.

The Complete Shades of Blue. Goal un-achieved. I thought Jim had the lettered files from all the issues, but it turned out that he didn’t. But, he’s actually having them re-lettered (and colored) to put them online. So maybe you’ll hear something about that later.

So there you have it. Two for five. But I can proudly say that the failed ones weren’t failed to due to laziness. And like I said I a year ago, even if none of these silly things got accomplished and my family was still healthy and happy and was able to support them, the year would be a success. Unfortunately, we lost a family member this year, my cousin Aggie, who we all miss. We also lost our 12 year old cat Frankie. But mostly 2010 was kind to us and we appreciate. Look for my 2011 goals coming soon.

Sneak Peek

Here's a little teaser of a comic book cover I'm working on.

Back in Town Again

Spookytown that is. It’s been many, many moons and a plethora (would you say I had a plethora?) of posts since I’ve given any update on Spookytown, the graphic novel I’m working on. Why the delay? The just-mentioned plethora of posts of course. Too many other things have taken priority over the book. Many of those things are paying things and they will always outrank my pet comic book projects. I wish I had an extra four hours a day. That’s all I ask for, I’m not greedy. Just four.

But I am making a conscience effort to work on it every day, even if it’s just drawing face. Anything to move it forward. So if you’re interested in the book and it’s progress, I am working it. It’s not dead. Undead, maybe, but not dead.

If you’re unfamiliar with Spookytown, just visit the website.

My Influence Map

On deviantART, fox-orian started an "influence map meme" and they’ve been popping up all over different artists’ websites. I don’t really put the “me” in “meme” that often, but each time I saw one of these, I couldn’t help but think how nice they looked and how cool it would be to do one myself. I know I’m bit late to the game, but I don’t care.

I knew it would be fun to make but I didn’t realize how hard it would be. Man, narrowing this group down was a challenge. Some harsh, harsh cuts were made. I could’ve done one three times this size.

To make it easier, I decided just put in people (or groups) that create. Not creations. For example, Matt Groening instead of the Simpsons. So that helped by eliminating particular movies and TV shows. And I decided mainly to focus on art and only have a few musicians and directors. Mainly it's comic artists and cartoonists.

I turned mine on it’s side to fit monitors better. Hope you like it. Make one for yourself if you haven't already.

Dallas Comic Con Wrap-Up

Once again I had a great time at the Dallas Comic Con and as always I have Mark Walters and Ben Stevens to thank for it. Guys, thanks for inviting me and congratulations for putting on such successful show. If you’ve never come out to one of their conventions, you really should. They have Shatner coming to the next one, hopefully I can get to be a part of that one too.

Unfortunately I could only do Saturday this past weekend as I had my boy’s 2nd birthday party on Sunday, which was also a great time. Maybe I can get Shatner for the next one of those? But even just doing the con for one day, I did a ton of drawing. Thanks to everyone who came by my table to either commission me or just to say hello, I always appreciate it. There are a lot of great artists at these shows, so I’m honored that anyone would choose to spend their hard-earned dollars on my work.

Here is a look at some of the pieces I did. There are several characters I’ve never drawn before in my life, but I like that. It’s something new and gets me out of my comfort zone. I like the Jaguar and Caveman Batman a lot and really enjoyed doing the "Breaking Bad" one. The guy who commissioned it gave me a choice of that or Gorillaz!


Here is a video someone posted about the show. At the 1:54 mark, you can see your's truly actually doing one of those pieces. If you want to see that hot BSG gal, then start a few seconds before me.

My Gail Simone Collaboration

Cal Slayton is the least famous comic book artist to draw a Gail Simone Story.

That's probably a true statement, but I haven't really done the research to back it up. And I probably won't ever get around to doing it anyway. Can you dispute it? Imagine not. But I can say I did collaborate with her. Back in 2003, Dan Taylor, creator of "Super Hero Happy Hour" (and that's back before DC and Marvel made him drop the "Super") asked me if I would draw a four page back-up story written by Gail. "Gee, hmmmm ... let me think about that." Of course I did, what am I, crazy? Anyway, it was fun to work with her, she was so cool and I think it turned out pretty nice. Here is the story from "Super Hero Happy Hour #4"....

Comic Book Girl Pin-up

Here is a new commission piece I did for someone who will be giving it as a Valentine's Day gift. They requested a girl with glasses wearing button up shirt and panties reading comics. I hope I delivered. They ask for the original in black and white but I scanned and colored a copy for my own amusement. Forgive the hack 20 minutes coloring job.

Dallas Comic Con - This Weekend

Don't forget to come out this weekend to the Dallas Comic Con, Saturday and Sunday at the Richardson Civic Center. Other comic creators in attendance include Tim Sale, Adam Hughes, Michael Golden, Mark Brooks, Todd Nauck, Pat Broderick, Jim Mahfood, Mike Huddleston, Tom Feister, Matt Sturges, Brian Denham, Kerry Gammill, Kez Wilson, Joe Eisma, Brent Peeples, David Hopkins, Paul Milligan, Harold Ledoux and whole lot more.

Click here for more information

My Jack Kirby Black Panther Page

File under "Too Cool Not to Share". My original Jack Kirby page from Black Panther #11 (Sept. 1978). Inks by Mike Royner. I was taking it out of it's frame to put it in a new one and thought I should scan it for others to enjoy. Note the cut off corners. They used to tape the pages down to shoot them and then to save time, and not have to pull off the tape, they'd cut them.

Tiki Joe Mysteries Sketch

Here's another piece I recently did in trade for a Spookytown pin-up. It's for my friend and fellow comic book creator Mark Murphy. It's a character from his book Tiki Joe Mysteries. If you haven't checked out this book, you should. I mean seriously, I told you to a year and a half ago! What are you waiting for? Buy it already.

This was fun piece to work on. I love Tiki stuff. There is actually a scene in Spookytown that takes place in Tiki bar. I'm looking forward to drawing those pages. Anyway, this piece came together really quickly for me. A lot of times I labor over poses and layouts, but this one popped in my head, I doodled a thumbnail on a Post-it note and I was on my way. I wanted a retro feel, so I went monochromatic with the color scheme. It's done with pen and markers. Hope he digs it.

Ignacia from Wildguard

Here's a new sketch I did for the amazing Todd Nauck. It's his character Ignacia from Wildguard. Todd has graciously agreed to trade for a Spookytown pin-up. Can't wait to see what he comes up with, I'm sure it will be incredible. He did a Shades of Blue pin-up for me back in the day, which was really cool. Hope you (and he) like this.

2010 Goals

This year I hadn’t planned on having any resolutions, but then I thought that maybe I should. Help keep me in check, you know? But maybe they should just be “goals” instead of resolutions”. I always have a ton of things I’d like to accomplish in my daily life, whether big or small, and getting them done usually falls down to how much time I have. Spare time is a remarkably foreign thing to me. I never have nothing to do. Ever. I can’t recall the last time I twiddled my thumbs or tapped my fingers on a desktop.

So here are five things I’d like to do in my professional life in 2010. By the way, we are calling it “Twenty Ten”, right? Just want to make sure I’m down with the cool kids.

Redesign my website. Ugh. Most of the content on there is 3 or 4 years old. Except for the comic book page, which I updated it in 2008 (Go me!). Good grief, in my bio I don’t even have a kid and we still have 3 cats. Currently, I have an illustration site as well as a design site and my plan is to merge them back together. The good news is that I’ve already started on this project and my hope is to have the new site up by the end of the month. Side note, did I just use two Charlie Brown phrases in this paragraph? Ugh and Good Grief? I ‘m pretty sure I did.

Spookytown. This year: Finish drawing it. Scan it. Color it. Letter it. Publish it or get someone else to. Not too lofty, right? I should mention that I have Ideas for other books pinballing around in my noggin. A monster story based in WWII, a crime drama, a 60s era space program story mixed with a love triangle, and series based on characters I’ve had since the late 90s. And I can’t even start any those until I get Spookytown out.

Sketch Cards. I started doing sketch cards recently and I found that enjoyed it. I want to get involved in that community and get into some actual card sets. I can tell you that I’m participating in an upcoming one, but can’t say who it’s for just yet. Stay tuned. But I also want to get into a set put out by big players. Marvel, DC or Star Wars. To have my work in an officially licensed product from any one of them would be a dream. I have some contacts; I just need to work on more samples. If anyone reading this would like me in one of their sets, let me know.

Publish a sketchbook. With on-demand printing sites, what’s stopping me? Only time, as mentioned above. I would love to have a book to sell at shows. Draw a bunch of new pin-ups, gather up past ones and put ‘em in a book man! Sounds simple enough.

The Complete Shades of Blue. This is something Jim Harris and I have talked about doing for a while now. Putting everything Shades of Blue into one big book. Every issue, the DWP shorts, the unpublished Devil’s Due short, the mini-comic, pin-ups, web strips, ads, everything. And we’ve toyed with the idea of a new story to go in it as a bonus.

Of course, there are also personal and family goals. Keep providing for my wife and kid is pretty major. Getting back to the gym is cliché at best, but since Junior came along it’s been hard for us. Also, little things like organizing and developing the hundreds and hundreds of photos we’ve taken since, oh I don’t know, MAY of last year. Man, when you have a kid, the camera is always clicking. Going to Colorado didn’t help either. Reorganize my studio. And in area of low-budget films, my buddies over at Dog Food Productions and I want to participate in the 24 Hour Video Race again, get our past stuff on dvd and produce at least one other film.

Well, there they are. We’ll see how I do as the year progresses. Oh yeah, I just want to go on record as saying to 2009 was pretty good to us overall. I’m thankful for a happy and healthy family. And if I can still say that at the end of 2010 and not even one of my silly professional things gets done, then this year will have been just fine.

Spookytown 2009 Resolution Report

A year ago I made a resolution. It was to work on Spookytown everyday in 2009. No matter how small. Even if it was just drawing a face, as long as I did something each day to advance the book closer to being done. I even printed out monthly calenders to mark my progress. Well, I think I did pretty good. I had 5 pages done a year ago and now I have 45 pages completed. I failed on 14 days throughout the year. Most of those days I just got too busy with other things (work, freelance, being a dad, being a husband) and forgot to get to it. A few of them I might have actually been sick though. I did allow myself a break when I went on vacation, so those days aren't in there. I figured I deserved them with all the work I do.I'm not doing it again this year, officially at least. But I will attempt to finish the book this year. Just 25 more pages to draw. Then scanning them, coloring them and lettering them. One thing I've already done is set up all the lettering into separate Illustrator files. Each piece of dialogue is broken out, I just need to create the speech balloons and put them in place. So, I think it was a successful resolution. Here is a sneak peek at some miscellaneous panels form the book.

Dash Bradley Pin-Up

Here is a new piece I did for my friend and fellow comic book creator Paul Milligan. Paul foolishly agreed to do a swap for a Spookytown pin-up. Who's the winner here? Me, of course. This is of Paul's character Dash Bradley. Who is Dash Bradley, you ask? Well, as his Facebook page explains....

Dash Bradley is the world-reknowned author of the Race Radford series of adventure novels. Unbeknowst to the public at large the true inspiration for Race Radford's unbelievable fictional adventures is the author himself, who has worked as a special agent for the U.S. Government since 1928. Since that time he has traveled to the four corners of the earth and beyond, battling Nazis, Communists, Martians and book editors to keep the U.S.A. safe and sound.

I did this one in black and white using markers to give it an old movie serial feel. And I left the background uncolored to help the figures stand out more. I really like how this on turned out. I don't think the scan does it justice. As always, I hope you dig it.

New Comic Work in Stores

As I previously mentioned, I contributed a page to David Hopkins' anthology comic book "On Night Stand" and tomorrow it arrives in stores. I received my comp copies in the mail the other and the book looks great. There are lot of cool artists in this book, doing some really interesting and different stuff. My story is called "Come Hither", written by David, as are all the stories in the book.

Go here and scroll down to find a store in your area.