New Art... Hellboy

It's been forever since I posted anything here. Work and family take up just about every second of my time (sports watching and video games take up the rest). When I do have time (be it at my desk at work, or at home) I still like to pick up the pencil and doodle.

Here is a Hellboy picture I drew last year during my 60 days of art. I never inked it, and then felt like a failure after only hitting like 45 days in a row. I had free time back in December at my desk, took out piece, and laid the inks down.

Pencils were done pretty quickly, inks were pretty laborious. It's definitely a piece I'm happy to finally have up.

New Art... Spider Jerusalem

OK, so it's been forever since I last posted. I've never taken a break this long before. There has just been too much going on. Birthdays, holidays, an expectant wife, new schools, work (work and more work), and just general overall life have made me way too busy to post.

Anyway, I've been drawing a ton of late, I won't be able to share what I've been drawing for a little over a month, but I will post lots of images once that project is wrapped up. With lots of work art needed, I've been trying to do some personal warmups which also double as holiday art.


Here is a piece I put together for my fellow art director here at Maxim. She was a huge fan of Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan. This piece took about 15 minutes of pencil time, about 30 minutes of inking (all done at the office, score) and then 5 more minutes of grey toning. All in all, a little less than an hour. For a slowpoke like me, thats practically a record breaking pace. I was pretty happy with the piece, the perspective was interesting, and Spider Jerusalem is a character I've never drawn. A win all around.

My wife is awesome...

Last week we had a long discussion about Flashpoint #1. Talking about everything from pacing, new and different characters, and Andy Kubert's (Lee-inspired) pencils... a little while later, we turned topics to Scott Joplin's Entertainer... yeah, she kicks ass. There's no one like her.

Goodbye

Saying goodbye to a pet is always hard. Pets quickly become an integral part of the family. They start out as little hair balls you really have no connection to, but turn into family members you can't imagine life without. Saying goodbye is not my thing at all. I absolutely abhor it. Worse so, when the goodbye is finite.

Yesterday, we had to say goodbye to our beloved Cupid. To say it was hard would be an overwhelming understatement. In fact, I think I'm still in denial that he's actually gone. My eyes still hurt from crying. I'm hoping that signing on, and writing my thoughts down will help me deal with it.

Cupid became a part of our family in August 2007. Right after my love and I returned from our honeymoon, and I picked up Scrappy, we decided to go to our local pet store and take a look at the pets. We simply went to look, we had no intention of getting a pet, I repeat, we simply went to look. As we looked at all the barking dogs we turned around and saw the cats. Now I'm not a cat person at all (or so I thought), but my love (who is a cat person) instantly fell in love with the siamese cat who shared a cage with a little furry cat. When the sales rep came over and suggested we sit with both cats in the little family room, I knew we were done. Not only were we getting the gorgeous siamese, but we'd also be getting his little furry friend.

My love and that siamese, who we named Cupid because of his February 14th birthday, quickly became best of friends. He was basically her shadow. Wherever she went, he was at her side. If she went into another room, he waited by the door. It was as close a relationship as I'd ever seen between pet and person. It really was beautiful to watch. In fact, to be completely honest, there were more than a few occasions when I was jealous of how much time he was spending with her. Cupid had great love for my wife, and she reciprocated that with him.

The love affair between the two of them never subsided. They may have spent less time together (because of pregnancy, then having to deal with the new baby) but their love remained the same. Whenever he could squeeze in next to her on the couch or get in her lap, or simply sit near her while she did anything, he took that opportunity. They loved each other dearly, which made the end even more difficult.

Cupid seemed to be suffering badly his last few days. He just didn't have that zeal which made him such a special cat. I will always be happy for having that last night with him. When although I was sure he was in pain, he spent hours in my wife's lap. It was his favorite spot in the world, and when I think of him, I'll think of the love the two of them shared, and how he loved to just sit in that lap.

One of the things i'll miss most is my morning routine. I'm very much a creature of habit. I love my rituals. Every morning (especially in the old apartment), I was the first person up. When I got out of the bedroom, Cupid was always there to greet me. He'd be sitting on the counter waiting for water. Before I would get in the shower, I would rub his head, grab his bowl, fill it, set it back down on the counter, and then rub his head again. It seems silly and trivial, but i'll definitely miss it. My mornings, my life simply won't be the same.

Cupid was the most gorgeous, loyal and loving cat I've ever met. I'm incredibly sad to see him gone. His life may have been short, but he left a mark on us that will last is a lifetime. Goodbye Cupid, I'll always love and remember you.

Supergirl & Streaky

My daughter loves Streaky our cat. Whenever she's over, Streaky is generally with her.

I wanted to put together a Supergirl and Streaky piece for her to be able to color and play around with. The lines had to be open and clean. Not a lot of shading (again, a departure for me as I love my shading). I came up with the above piece. The pencils on this piece were pretty quick. About 30 minutes or so. Inks about the same. After drawing these months ago, I just got around to printing a few for her to color. I'll post what she comes up with next week.

Reading Time

(originally published in ADW #46)
We read a lot in Casa Vega. Not only comics and weekly magazines, but lots and lots of books. We make bi-weekly trips to the library where we check out multiple books as well as utilize the wonderful public library online system to request books that our tiny branch doesn’t carry.

One of the books I recently checked out was the Pulitzer Prize winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay written by Michael Chabon. This is, simply put, the best book I’ve ever read.

The story is a great tale of a Jewish family in Brooklyn that opens their doors to a cousin whose gone through quite the ordeal to flee Nazi-invaded Prague. Josef Kavalier (the recent immigrant) finds a kindred spirit in his cousin Sam Klayman (the Brooklyn native), and they quickly strike up a lucrative partnership in the burdgeoning comic book scene.

Love, family, friendship, loss and war all follow in this beautifully written yarn. This is a book for everyone, and hands down the greatest book I’ve ever read. Chabon has crafted an absolute masterpiece. I love the book so much that I’ve decided I have to buy a copy and keep it on Kal’s shelf so he can discover it himself when he gets older.

Another book, this one I actually own, is quite possibly the most important book in my collection. Year’s Best Comic Stories: 1981 was the very first comic book my oldest brother ever gave to me. It was Spring 1982, and this book changed the course of my life.

I read the very first story “To Kill A Legend,” an alternate Earth Batman tale where the Phantom Stranger comes to Batman and tells him that his parents will be killed the next evening on an alternate Earth. Batman decides against Robin’s urgings to go to this alternate Earth and stop the murder of his parents. Absolute brilliance ensues.

As a child I loved it. Every inch of this book. The great stories, the amazing art. It all sealed the deal. I had to be an artist. Without this book, Lord knows what my career path might have been. As mathematically gifted as I was, this book was the guiding light of my career. This book let me know that a perfect marriage between words and images was truly a work of art. It’s because of this book I am here today. I owe it and my brother so much. It really did help open my eyes to a whole new medium, and a whole new way of expressing myself.

Zoinks

OK, I apologize. This is the longest I've ever stayed away from this site. It's been almost 6 weeks. I hope you accept my apology.

With that out of the way I just want to say I have been writing very regularly in ADW. I'll post some of those pieces over the next few days. I've seen some comic films, which I'll write reviews of. I've drawn a few pictures (not nearly as many as I'd like) which I'll post. I've bought a few toys and comics. My son is now 8 months old, a paid child model, has two teeth and is sleeping in his own crib. My daughter just took her state wide english and math tests (fingers are crossed) and is getting ready for her dance recital. My wife is still amazing, she astounds daily. Plus I started a new job that I'm extremely excited about and keeps me plenty busy.

So check back over the next few days for plenty of updates... who knows, I just may break my record for consecutive days posted.

Reasons I LOVE My Wife

Because she can type the following statement on one of her blogs...

Is she a Gungan? She cannot possibly be Hispanic. She seems to have a mish-mash of "not Middle America" dialects. Which makes me think that, like Jar Jar Binks, she is a poorly conceived, more-horrifying-than-funny minor character who would cause anyone in her right mind to shut the book and throw it in the trash.

...make absolute sense. God, I love this woman.

Holiday Art 2009

I didn't put together a lot of holiday art this year. I think I actually may have done more pieces for myself than for anyone else. Here is one piece I put together for my sister, on request. After drawing pictures of my younger nieces and nephews, she asked "Why haven't you drawn a picture of Joe". I took that as her request for a gift. I had to completely fabricate this piece of him as action shots of him playing basketball were pretty hard to come by. While I'm more of a comic artist that a portraitist, I happen to think I captured his likeness pretty well. The piece suffered a little when I went to inks, but it worked overall. Stay tuned over the next few days as I post some of the other pieces I've worked on recently.

What A Season

What a season 2009 proved to be. My wife went into the hospital to deliver our son on September 10, the same night the Steelers kicked off the season against the Titans. We came home on Sunday the 13th, just in time for the Cowboys kick off against the Bucs. The Cowboys went on to win the opener, then the NFC East, and their first playoff game in 13 seasons. While the image to the left was taken while the Vikings smacked around the Cowboys in the playoffs, it was still a great season. I think next season will be even better.

Congrats to the Saints and the Colts for a well played Super Bowl. New Orleans played like a true champ all season. It'll be interesting to see them defend their crown next season. Which I look forward to watching with my son, daughter (even if she is playing her DS) and wife while he have famous buffalo wings. I can't wait.

SuperMen

I worked on this piece of art back in September. I finished inking it back in October and it saw print in ADW shortly thereafter. I put this together right before my son was born. I wanted to do a piece that had both Superman and Superboy. I was naming my son after Superman, so I wanted to do a piece that had both the man and the boy.

Right around that time the art for Adventure Comics #1 hit. It was drawn by Francis J Manapul and had Superboy flying through the middle of Lex and Superman. I simply cut out Lex and voila instant Superman/Superboy image. The pencils took me a little over an hour and a half. The inks about 2 hours. Needless to say I'm extremely thrilled with this piece.

On the subject of being thrilled, I wanted to talk about how much joy my son brings to my life. A simple smile or stare absolutely makes my day. It is absolutely the best feeling. I love that little guy so much.

Lack of Posts

There have been a severe lack of posts lately. I'm thoroughly enjoying being a Dad again, and am slightly sleep deprived, so I havent had a ton of time to dedicate to the CCG. I have 5 more Top 20 Toys of 2008 (while I'm starting to prepare my 2009 list) as well as two new pieces of art to post (both family/comic related). Stay tuned to the CCG it should be a good week.

Super Baby

How can you put into words something that makes you so incomprehensibly happy...

There's been a huge gap in my posts lately because my son was born. Each time I try and sit down and write how that makes me feel, I simply don't have the words. There are no words to describe how he makes me feel. Euphoric is the word that comes closest, but even that doesn't do my feelings justice.

With a severe lack of words to describe how I feel, I will simply say I'm ecstatic to have a son. As my daughter said "Our little family circle is getting so big now". Our family has grown... I simply can't wait to take him to his first Yankee game, or on a comic run, or to toss a baseball around, or to simply dance around the house crazily... I simply can't wait for any of it.

How can I love someone that small so much?

As you can see from the below picture he's already a fan of the CCG (he's not sleeping because he's bored with the content, he's sleeping because there was so much that he fell asleep reading it all).

300

I was getting ready to jump on the old blogging machine (um... the laptop) and type a few lines about some of the shows I've been loving lately, or a great match I saw, or some more great toy shots by my wife. As I signed in and went to post I realized that this is my 300th post... not just any post will do. So I decided to write about the most exciting thing going on in my life right now, the impending arrival of my baby boy.

As readers of this site know, my wife is amazing. She is my best friend, my constant muse, my shoulder, simply put she is my everything. There is nothing she can't do (design, illustrate, paint, web design, cook, clean... um, she does it all). Never have I been more amazed by her as I have been during our pregnancy. She simply hasn't slowed down. She does everything she always did. With little to no slow down. Every time I think she's ready to slow down, she goes off and amazes me again. Simply astonishing.

Our son will be here any day now. Our due date is September 14th. On a recent doctors visit, the doctor told us the baby was 3.5 kilos. We didn't realize that meant almost 8 pounds. Did my wife panic, nope. She simply rolled with it. Never once in these 9 months has she freaked out or showed anything other than confidence.

I can't wait to meet this little guy and welcome him to our family.

Surprise Shower

The fine folks at my current workplace (oh no I'm not supposed to blog about that place) invited me out for a burger tonight (at the wonderful Wall Street Burger Shoppe) where they had set up a impromptu baby shower for my wife and I.

We received a great Superman outfit for the baby (cape and all) as well as an awesome Yankee outfit... does my future son need anything else to where. I don't think so. Long live Superman... long live the Yankees.

Thanks to my co-workers who helped me forget my rough day with fine beer, great burgers and their great company. I was very touched, and thank them greatly.

P.S. As we get home, we found 3 packages from my wife's family in Chicago. So many more adorable outfits... I can't wait for that little guy to be born and home.

Family Baseball

As I've done the past 2 seasons, I purchased MLB The Show for the PS2. Again, I built a team of backups and number 5 starters. I compile my list during spring training, so there are usually players who end up having a big impact on their teams who started the spring as backups or backend starters (Carlos Pena in 07, Jacoby Ellsbury 08, this year Edwin Jackson). There is one major change from the last few years.

Last year on the 4th of July, my wife, daughter and myself decided to play a homerun derby. I was clearly the worst of the swingers (even though I play the game the most). My daughter and wife easily outdistanced me. But that is only a little part of the story. My wife crushed me. She hit a Josh Hamilton like 28 bombs in a single round with Ken Griffey Jr. We joked for the rest of that season that I would let her hit for me when I was in a slump.

Fast forward to this season. With the team not hitting well and lacking big time power I was up against Brandon Backe of the Astros. He had dominated earlier this season, pitching a complete game 2 hitter (Nick Swisher hit a homerun to get us on the board) where the Astros beat the Cubs (my team for the year) 3-1. As I was complaining that I simply didn't pick up the ball from Backe, my wife says "Let me take some swings". She of course goes on to score 9 runs on 16 hits, thoroughly dominating the Stros. Thus making something of a super team. My wife's hitting with my pitching.

We've gone on to play almost 30 games this way (19-11) and have played really well. I'm looking forward to playing the rest of the season this way.

Heineken party

I lifted this piece from ADW (only the most amazing publication on the market... you don't know about it, you should) it was written by my lovely wife.

With my brother-in-law’s Heineken themed 40th birthday party looming on the horizon, my husband and I wondered what do you get the man who’s failed to install your dishwasher? Then it hit LV: An Andy Warhol-style pop art piece featuring Heineken.

LV is convinced I know how to paint because of the finesse I showed with a Crayola watercolor paint brush four years ago. While I actually have no idea how to paint, I was up for the challenge. It seemed like a good chance to exercise these fantasies I have about how the nursery will be decorated. One day. When I get around to it.

After some online research, a purchase of a six-pack and some acrylics, a few photos, and some changes to the hue in Photoshop, I set to work. (I didn’t know it was necessary to say “Brewed in Holland” so many times on one bottle.) Two days later, LV loved it. His brother loved it. And I have now painted.

Super Father's Day

My wife and I are both huge Tim Sale fans. One of our favorite books, is Superman For All Seasons. Written by Jeph Loeb and beautifully painted by Tim Sale this book is a great look at the rearing of a young Clark Kent and how it helped shape him into the great hero he is today.

With some time, a canvas, and some extra paint my wonderful wife decided a Tim Sale inspired Superman piece would be a great last minute Father's Day gift. Oh boy, was she right. I absolutely love this piece. It hangs proudly at my workspace.

Incredibly, this is only the second piece my wife ever painted. She is some kind of rare natural talent. There is absolutely nothing she can't do when she puts her mind to it. I am a lucky man, if I may say so myself. I'm hoping she breaks out the paints and brushes again soon.

Punishing Art

During my niece's Communion lunch, my brother and I started talking comics and art. He then says "You should work on a Punisher piece for me". I instantaneously knew which he style he wanted, as we are both huge John Romita Jr. fans. With a request in hand, I decided to do a little research.

John Romita Jr's Punisher work isn't vast, but it is memorable. He launched the comic Punisher War Zone in the early 90's when the Punisher was at the top of the Marvel charts with 5 different titles. In my honest opinion, I think he is the best Punisher artist of all-time. Which is saying something, because all time greats like John Buscema, Jim Lee, and Mike Zeck all had historic runs on the character. I knew I wanted a moody piece, with heavy blacks and at a interesting angle. I knew the War Zone run would be the place.

This piece was quite the challenge. Pencils took roughly an hour and a half. Lots of intricate details with the jacket, guns and bullet bursts. The inking took roughly twice as long. At almost 5 hours it is one of the longer pieces I've put together.

I'm a huge fan of JRJR, so it was truly an honor of mine to put this piece together. I like to think it is a nice homage to a true comic great.

Iron Fist

I've been drawing a little more over the past few months. What I haven't been doing is blogging about it. Working on a weekly magazine (and weekly newsletter) and also preparing for the baby boy hasn't left me with a lot of time to myself.

Iron Fist was a piece I drew about 2 months ago. I remember working on it during the final episode of ER.

Iron Fist had been getting a lot of pub and a relatively big following with his current title. Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction brilliantly write the comic with great moody pencils by David Aja. Iron Fist is a character I remember being a favorite of my Long Island brother. L.I. brother wasn't a huge comic fan, but he had a handful of favorite characters. Danny "Iron Fist" Rand was amongst them (Iron Man, Shang-Chi and Howard the Duck being a few others).

Iron Fist had been on my short list of characters for a while. I saw the stunning cover to an issue in the current series and knew I really wanted to take a stab at the piece. The pencils took me a little less than 30 minutes to do. The inks considerably longer because of the amounts of blacks. The original piece actually colored in the building as well, but after roughly taking an hour to inks I was a bit tired.

All in all, a nice stab at a character I had never attempted.