Art Reversal

With my wife having inked my work recently, we decided to go for a little reversal. What if she drew an image and I inked it.

After tossing around a few options, we decided on a Superman piece. Not just any Superman piece, but a Jim Lee Superman. My amazing wife can do anything. From drawing in the style of Jim Lee to shooting top of the line fashion. Nothing is beyond her. She is a constant inspiration to me. There is nothing she cant do.

A week after inking my Gambit, she decided to lay down her pencils on Superman. Scrappy and I would be out of the house, so she would have the house all too herself to draw. Drawing in isolation is my preferred method of drawing. My love's line work was very strong. The piece had quite a bit of cross-hatching (a Jim Lee staple) so it was a difficult piece to both draw and ink.

Below is the third consecutive collaboration between my wife and I. I was little heavy handed in my inking (as is my style), so a lot of the intricate line work my wife created was lost. While I feel this is still a strong piece, I think the pencils were stronger than the inks. This marks the first time I've ever inked someone else's work. I'm sure the next time around will be better.

Family Gambit

Early in May, I dragged my wife to see the wretched X-Men Origins: Wolverine. While not nearly as bad as X-Men: The Last Stand (which is one of the worst comic movies in recent history) this movie was pretty bad. Liberties were taken with the source material (Paul Jenkins great Origin, Barry Windsor Smiths equally great Weapon X) to the point that the story was ridiculous, to the point of comical. The special effects were also pretty subpar. The scene were Wolverine pops his claws in the bathroom of the Hudson and cuts through their sink looks amatuerish. I feel like I could've put together better effects on my Mac. Deadpool was ridiculous as an amalgamation of mutants... he was much better as the wisecracking mercenary from earlier in the film. I will gladly pass on his solo film. Besides Iron Man (and the Incredible Hulk to a lesser degree) Marvel has been on a pretty bad streak of movies. Hopefully this changes soon. In what has been a good summer movie season, this easily stands out as the worst movie I've seen so far.

With all that said, The Wolverine movie inspired comic great Jim Lee to have a Gambit challenge. On the WildStorm blog site there was a video of Jim Lee pencilling and fully inking an image of Gambit in under 8 minutes. 8 minutes... are you kidding me. Not only did he draw it quickly, but he drew it amazingly. He is a true genius in the comic art medium.

With my comic idol drawing and inking a Gambit that quickly, I figured I would try and draw a Gambit image as quickly as possible. The below image was pencilled in 17 minutes (or twice as long as it took Jim to draw and ink). While I had to run some errands with my daughter the next day, my wife gamefully handled the inking for me. The inks took her a little over an hour and are distinctly her. They have a softer, lighter touch to them. The affect of the inks give the finished product a sketchier feel. While my pieces tend to have starker blacks when I ink them this piece serves as a nice change of pace. Another collaborative piece we can both be proud of.

Valuable "Phil" In

One of the Yankees most successful pitchers of the past few seasons has been Chien-Ming Wang. He's posted a career record of 54-21. Last June, after coming out of the gate strongly (8-2) Wang hurt his foot running the bases in an inter-league game. Wang did not require surgery, but the extensive rehab caused him to miss the rest of the season.

With the injury apparently behind him Wang started the season as the Yanks number two starter. Once the season started, it was easy to see that this was not the same Wang. His mechanics seemed wrong. Which tells me he may not be over the injury that cost him most of 2008. His release point was off, therefor causing is sinker to stay high in the strike zone and get clobbered. With a favorable early schedule, the Yanks decided to send Chien down and have him work on his mechanics.

With most teams, the loss of a number 2 starter would be considered catastrophic. Starting pitching is one area where the Yanks have a few viable options down in Columbus. That option in this case, is Phil Hughes. As a Yankee fan, I feel like I've been hearing (and waiting) for Phil Hughes for a few years now. After a pretty successful (but injury shortened) rookie season in 2007 all of New York was abuzz with expectations. The Yankees thought Hughes would be a cornerstone of the rotation in 2008. After some initial struggles, he was sent down to the minors, where he stayed for most of the year.

With the Yankees 2009 investment in starting pitching, I wondered if Hughes would have to sit for another year in the minors. I also wondered if the Yanks should keep him on the club as a long relief man in the pen (something I think will eventually happen). Then Wang struggled, which left the door open for Hughes. Now I try not to get to excited about individual games in a long season, but a very poised Phil Hughes stepped up to the challenge and pitched a gem of a first game. Has the kid finally put it all together. I think he has. I think he's ready to contribute mightily to the success of the Yankees. So much so, that I think the Yankees can take their time with Wang as they have a young pitcher who will pitch well in his place.

The Incredibles

If I was putting together a list of my favorite movies of all-time, The Incredibles would be high on that list. In fact, I'd be hard pressed to pick just one Pixar film. Everything the folks at Pixar do is great. To me, though, The Incredibles was the best of the bunch. Amazing CGI animation, a wonderful story by Brad Bird, (channelling his inner Stan Lee... I mean seriously, this is the best Fantastic Four story ever told) who also wrote the underrated Iron Giant, with amazing voice acting by Craig T. Nelson (in his best role since Coach), Holly Hunter and Jason Lee.

The above figures were released as Disney store exclusives shortly after the release of the film. They all contained movie accurate sculpts, as the turnarounds for the film were used for the sculpts of the figures. As an added action feature, Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl and Dash contained LED logos on their chests that lit up when pressed. Elastigirl came packed with Baby Jack Jack and Violet came packed with a translucent "invisible" Violet (pictured left), which was by far the coolest and hardest to find of the bunch. Each of the figures also came packed with an Incredibles logo ring (way too small to fit on my finger but Scrappy loved them), as well as art deco style trading cards in the style of the art on the closing credits of the film.

Also part of this extremely exclusive line were Frozone, Syndrome and young Mr. Incredible. I own all except for Syndrome.

NBA Playoffs

I love the NBA playoffs. My favorite squad (the Lakers) is safely on to the second round, but I must ask, has there been a more entertaining series in recent history more exciting than Bulls-Celtics?

Every game has been tight (save 1). Every game has been an instant classic. A classic series for the ages. As I write this Game 5 is in overtime... amazing

Old Man Indy

As a disciple of George Lucas, I'm a huge fan of the Indiana Jones series. I've thoroughly enjoyed all the films... including last summers Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The announcement last year that Hasbro would finally be making good mass market Indy figures (as opposed to the exclusive Disneyworld figures) brought smiles to toy collectors worldwide. With that announcement and the release of the new movie, we all knew that KOTCS figures would soon follow the initial wave of Raiders of the Lost Arc figures.

Hasbro did a great job of releasing classic figures alongside figures of the latest film. The best of the classic line will be seen in my top figures of 2008 post. Above is the best of the new movie line. An older, grayer Indy without hat. He did come accessorized with a gun, crystal skull, whip and satchel. The figure came articulated at the neck, shoulder, elbow, hands, waist and knees. The paint scheme did a great job capturing the fact that this was an older Indy. Great job all around.

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today"

In 2004 Mezco Toyz released a brilliant line of action figures based on the Popeye the Sailor Man cartoons. This line featured brilliant sculpts and accessories as well as cartoon accurate color schemes, This was one of the best action figure lines of all time.

Wimpy, was generally the straight (but often lazy and scamming) man to Popeye's over the top hero. Wimpy also had a love of burgers almost as big as my own. Wimpy came packed with burgers to hold in his hand, as well as a full plate of burger goodness. Also packed with Wimpy was the magical dog Jeep. Jeep was a gift from Popeye to Olive Oyl, and one of my favorite animated characters growing up. This figure perfectly captures the simplicity of the Jeep' look in the classic Max Fleischer cartoons.

Baby Nephew

What better gift on the holidays, than the gift of original art. Especially when funds are tight. Some hard work from the heart and a great frame = a great gift (at least in my eyes).

My younger sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy last June. He is an absolutely adorable, big baby boy. This drawing was done from a picture my wife took at my niece's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. He peeked over her shoulder at just the right time, and I instantly knew this is the photo I wanted to use.

G.I. Joe Resolute

I watched the latest rendition of G.I. Joe this morning. The new G.I. Joe Resolute cartoon shown on Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network premiered last night. All in all, I must say I was very impressed. Save for a few bits of story telling I didn't agree with, I highly recommend it to any Joe fan.

The animation and voices (while a limited cast) were top notch. Not as cartoony as the 80's cartoon. I believe the animation was done by a Japanese studio. It was a far better animated Joe than the previous Sigma 6 effort

The needless elimination of major villains (Major Bludd, Zartan and Storm Shadow all killed) and Scarlett picking Duke (major tool) over Snake Eyes (total badass) were slaps in the face to true Joe fans. Any one who has followed Joe continuity for as long as I have knows Scarlett belongs with Snake Eyes, period. In comcs lore, he lost his face and voice protecting Scarlett, therefore tying them together for life. Simply put, they belong together. Those minor complaints (and the somewhat lukewarm ending) aside, an excellent effort by Hasbro and all individuals involved. I hope to see more adventures in the Resolute format.

McGuiness Style World's Finest

As I've clearly stated time and time again, Ed McGuiness is one of my favorite artists in the industry today. He had a classic and iconic take on the Man of Steel. With his art, there was no question as to the fact that Superman was the strongest man on Earth. Ed has a thick, bulky manga/anime inspired sensibility. His bold line work was a welcome change to the status quo we have seen over the years with the art on Superman.

This piece below was a piece I put together for my oldest brother for the holidays (zoinks, I can't believe I haven't posted regularly since then). Its a back to back piece of the World's Finest... Superman and Batman. That's the way I like to think of my big bro, right there by my side.

Watchmen

Okay, so I saw the Watchmen movie a few weeks back and absolutely loved. It was quite possibly (IMHO) the most faithful comic adaptation of all time. There was a huge change to the ending of the original story which I actually though worked better than the original ending. It made for a tighter story on screen. The essence of the story remained the same while providing many of the iconic visuals from the stunning artwork of Dave Gibbons.

Dave Gibbons has basically been the only artist who ever even attempted drawing the Watchmen. The Watchmen is one of those books that is absolutely revered by the comic community. You would be hard pressed to find a bad review of the original book-especially from the comic fans.

When the buzz for this film started to build (around the time the first trailer hit with the Dark Knight last summer) the brilliant artists at Wildstorm drew a thumbnail that they would later turn into a jam piece. I decided that this would be a great opportunity to take a crack at characters I've loved for a long time as well. In addition, this turned into a jam piece of my own.

Any one who truly knows my art style, knows I dont draw hands or guns very well (or cars for that matter). With a large gun and a few sets of hands featured very prominently, my lovely wife decided to pitch in and not only draw hands and the guns of the Comedian, but she also did an amazing job on drawing and inking Archie (Nite Owl's ship).



This piece was a definite change from what I've been doing lately. I've been focusing more on single character pieces. Drawing this large of a cast was a definite challenge. Basically drawing 7 characters (if you count Archie) was a definite daunting task. Not only is this a piece I loved working on, but a piece that I will always hold very high regard for as it was a jam piece between my wife and I (thats her signature under my initial box)... thanks my love.