Sunday, September 27, 2009

Oriental heroes


Still thinking about that Dragon Tiger Gate. I had to draw something for it. The first comic book I ever bought was Oriental Heroes #5. The cover just blew me away. I had never seen anything like it before. Where American comics were using inks and press colors, Jademan was doing effects like airbrushes, dynamic colors over straight pencils-without inks on the covers. This was the attention grabber. I had to know what these characters were doing. And lo and behold they were fighting! Yes! My kind of book.


Oriental Heroes was the American version of Dragon Tiger Gate- a long running popular chinese kung fu comic. You could tell it was made in the 70's because of the style of clothes and cars and stuff. But since it was already published the American version was 2 of their issues condensed into one. Which made it a longer read at 64 pages. All of their titles at this time were doing that- Oriental Heroes, The Force of Buddhas Palm, Drunken Fist (these were drawn by Tony Wong) and Blood Sword (by the amazing Ma Wing Shing). Blood Sword Dynasty was 32 pages. But I think that was running at the same time as it was in China. Or sometime later since Blood Sword was the story about Hero, and Blood Sword Dynasty was the story about his son- Kim Hung.


Anyways here's picture of Tiger Wong- kicking, Gold Dragon (or Turbo Shek) with the scar on his face, Guy- monk dude, Red Whale- big guy with mohawk and beard, Jaws-other guy with mohawk, Fiery Fox- lower right corner, Jupiter- dude with headband at top, and Foufth Dragon Commander- next to Jupiter.

Thursday, September 24, 2009


This may be a bit apremature but I feel the need to post this.
Coming soon.
Well not that soon. I got a shit loald of stuff to do. Like practice inking.

Monday, September 21, 2009


Bucky Cap. I think the costume is wrong but oh well. It's the markers that I had fun with.

Ok I did this before I moved to my new place. I can't wait to set up shop here. This is Lion-o from the Thunder Cats. Still learning the basics in photoshop so it's still coming slowly.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Dragon Tiger Gate

Ok I just saw this movie and I wanted to talk about it.

These are the things I lied about the movie;

The action is great. Donnie Yen does an awesome job with the fight choreography and the wire work in most sequences look good. Except for a few instances where it looks clumsy, but I have yet to see a martial arts movie that doesn't overdo the wire work.

There are little details for the fanboys of Oriental Heroes that they put into the movie. One of my favorites is the Gang of Four having face time- Baldy, One-Eyed Draco, 4-Eyed Ming, and Heartbreak Kid. Tony Wong even has a cameo in the movie. I was looking for Guy but unfortunately he wasn't in there.

The actors do a great job bringing these characters to life. NIcholas Tse plays Tiger Wong, Donnie Yen plays Dragon Wong, and Shawn Yue plays Turbo Shek (or Gold Dragon).

I was really impressed at Nicholas Tse's performance as Tiger Wong. He really brought the spirit of what makes Tiger Wong unique in the comics to the movie.

Shawn Yue really played up the likability and playfulness I remember from Gold Dragons character or Turbo Shek. I even heard that both he and Nicholas weren't true martial artists at the time but were trained by Donnie Yen for this movie. I wouldn't know the difference if not for the commentary.

And Donnie Yen plays Dragon Wong. I have nothing to compare that to so I really wouldn't know from a comics perspective if it's acurate or not but he really takes over the movie as the main character, I'll get to this later.

This is what I didn't like.

The story was, well? not badly written but they could have done better.

First of all they're making a movie that has created a huge fanbase from the comics and they should have given the audience what they wanted. The main characters of the comics are Tiger Wong and Gold Dragon. Here they put the emphasis on Dragon Wong, a character who dies early on in the series. The plus side to this is that now that they've got this out the gate it's a perfect set up for a sequel which I hope they'll make and this time get it right. This is what I'd do. I'd hire Donnie Yen as the choreographer and give him a cameo in the beginning as he dies setting up the story for Tiger Wong and Gold Dragon to take down the Lousha Gang (Global Cult). He could have the gnarliest death scene ever. This would bring out the acting chops for Nicholas Tse and Shawn Yue.

The next thing I didn't like was the writting didn't do much for the climax and conclusion of the story. It doesn't do a good job of building up their bad guys. There's a disconnect when Shibumi shows up. He's not developed enough. They give too much time to Tiger and Dragon Wongs relationship. They should have invested more time into making Shibumi dispicable and vial so when the ending battle takes place the audience wants him to be beaten.

The story starts off great with 2 back to back action scenes that rock, but after that the story kind of stalls in places. It gets choppy and the pacing suffers because of it. There's a long draggy area between the beginning and the ending with some cool things in between, but I think they could have paced it better just for balance. I think it's an asian thing but the emotional scenes are really heavy handed. I know it's the same for American movies as well and they serve to connect us to the characters, but here there's just way too many flashback scenes for Tiger and Dragon Wong. Then there's some flashback scenes with Dragon Wong and his girlfriend when they're young too. I see no reason why they had to do that, Dragon has so much screen time and Donnie Yen (to me) does so much with so little. His expressions, his mannerisms suggest so much more than bares saying. Being that he's a martial arts actor I usually don't take him for a serious actor but here he does a great job conveying things without saying them.

There's really no reason to care for ( or remember) the story. I mean there's the whole plaque deal, the gangs and anyone who knows anything about the comics will know that the gangs play a huge role in the story, and then the Gate. But the main point to the story is weakened because Dragon clearly looks and feels out of place in the gangs, so does Kun and his daughter. Here you have 3 good people on the wrong side of the fence. They're given a plaque to continue working with the Lousha Gang who's the top mafia style gang. Our heroes take the plaque, Dragon gets it back and Kun gives the plaque back to the Lousha Gang after having a change of heart. Why the hell is this interesting to us? Who cares just get to the fighting.

With that said though, this story is probably a hundred times better than the comics that would introduce new characters just because and they'd fight on and on and on with no resolution for long periods of time. I wonder if Tiger Wong and Chan Ou Wan ever fight, Does he get his revenge? Or is it like the rabbit and Lucky Charms- if we give him what he wants there's no reason to keep going on with the story. I don't know the American version Oriental Heroes cuts off at issue 55 and just leaves us hanging.

I still loved it. Tiger Wong and Gold Dragon on the big screen with todays technology and level of development. If you're a fan of the series you gotta watch it. Or if you're a kung fu movie fan it's a decent movie. Hopefully the creators will make a sequel that will give the fans who have been faithful to the books what they want- Tiger Wong and Gold Dragon front and center. Bring in Guy, White Sect, Red Sect- Jaws, Red Whale, Fiery Fox, Skeleton Secretary, and Chan Ou Wan and we're in business.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

My computer is down and I'm so pissed. Nothing to show because all my stuff runs off the damn computer.

Thursday, May 28, 2009




It's great to be back in action. My family was down for 2 weeks. Actually my wife got sick first the first week. So that left me to fend for her and the kids. Then the next week they all got sick and I had to fend for all of them. All sick. That sucked I couldn't do anything for 2 weeks creatively. My wife was a trooper though.

But I'm back now!

I just got off CB Cebulskis twitter page and so inspired. Apparently Marvel just hired an artist that did test samples for them but each time he would take in their crits and advice, thus improving each time. I finally have cleaned the sleight from all other obligations just yesterday (for now anyway) and can now focus on the sample scripts CB gave me after I met him in Seattle. Hopefully I get better each time I give him a sample. It's all a matter of really listening to what they say while staying within the sweetspot of how I do my thing. And if I need to expand that sweetspot then that's how it is.

Right now I'm looking at one particular script CB gave me and it's nothing I'm comfortable with. It's so far away from what I have done so far but I feel the need to break out of the mold. Even if it takes me away from my comfort zone and makes me look bad this is the kind of thing Marvel is doing so I have to be able to go the same route as them.

On a seperate note I just finished a double page splash that was so much fun to drawbut took me literally 2 days to put together in photoshop because of mistakes and trial and error yada yada yada. So along with that I'm post the other 2 pages along with it for The King Who Ate Men.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

So we got an article in the Honolulu Advertiser running today. Tim called me last week and got this whole thing rolling. It was really fun doing the interview with Treena. I have yet to see the article, my wife bought a few copies and I'm waiting for her to get home.

Here's a link to the article
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090428/LIFE/904280306/-1

The article is watered down compared to the long talk we all had over the phone but that's to be expected. I actually learned alot about Tim because Treena would ask him questions I never thought to ask. Pretty sure it was the same for Tim too. Tim has been awesome the whole tiime I've known him.

Tim you da man!

Sunday, April 19, 2009


I was supposed to draw this for my nephew like 2 months ago. But I just kept forgetting. So I did him a good one.

You know what's really gonna suck?

He's either gonna lose it, rip it, ruin it, or maybe even something worse (god knows only he can) before the end of the day.

That's why I scanned this bad boy!

Venoms costume, like most of Marvels characters, is simple in design, but getting the blacks right is a different story. I'm still learning my shading but I had so much fun with this one.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Ok so here's the inks for the newest SPY 6TEEN promo. I'm still not too comfortable inking but there's something about inking that solidifies the art and says this is the end of the lineart. Only colors can come next. A real inker would probably make this piece really zing. But I'm living and learning and enjoying it in the meantime.

Thursday, April 16, 2009


Some new characters from SPY 6TEEN. Cool huh? I really had fun with the James Bond looking dude and the bass player. More so the bass player because I also play music in a band but I play guitar. My brother plays bass. And he's pretty damn good too!

I need to work on that cheerleader and the geeky dude though.
OK I just got an e-mail from Tim saying he needed another promo. Well he actually told me way earlier. I just forgot. He said dynamic pose and this is what I came up with. I'll show you the inked version when I'm done.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

SPY6TEEN poster colored


Ok so here's the poster colored by Lisa Moore who'i doing the colors for Spy16.
Again, if you haven't please vote for SPY6TEEN at the zuda competition this month.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Captalizing on the convention

Yes! So I just got a reply back from CB Cebulski and he sent me a bunch of sample scripts to look through. So I'm gonna look over the scripts and see which one would be the best do do.

Wish me luck.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Ok so I'm also in the zuda competition this month. I'm working with Tim Simmons, a writer who grew up here in Hawaii but now lives in California where he works as a writer for the TV show My Name Is Earl. Cool huh? He's a blast to work with too. The colorist for the project is Lisa Moore, who is crazy good with colors. And lettering this is my buddy Brant Fowler who I swear I'm gonna meet in person one day. Brant is another awesome guy.

So if you really like my work please vote for Spy6Teen here http://zudacomics.com/node/1128 so we can all get a hand up. And quit our daytime jobs and be working as professional comics creators. That would be awesome.

This is a promo I sent to Tim that he didn't get. So I had to resend. Lisa has a way with colors. I want to see this after she's done with it. But here it is.

Emerald City Comicon

Whew! Ok so I just got back from Seattle. It was great. I went to show off my portfolion but more so to gauge the comics culture. I met some great people there. The ones that really stick out in my head are CB Cebulski, Alex Grecian, Chris Castillo, Bob Schrek, this one advocate/agent type- Quentin Shaw and an upcoming artist who's last name escapes me but his first name is Zeka.

So I get into the convetion and it's just a maze to me and my wife (who is awesome for supporting me from the get go). But we end up navigating through and this guy running a gay comics booth asks me to see my portfolio. So I show it to him and his crits are fair, and constructive but for the most part the vibe I get is more of a social thing, to me it felt like he wanted to socialize , but it was good because that was the first person ever to see my work. And I needed to get that first one out. But basically I walk away with 3 things I need to have an establishing shot in each page, I need to vary my camera angles, and my pencils are way too dark. Then he tells me I need to see Bob Schrek.

So then we make our way to a a well dressed gentleman drawing on an artboard. I read his name and it's Dennis Calero who's name I recognized off the ECCC website, he drew the cover to the program guide. So I ask him for his opinion on my portfolio. He looks at it and he reiterates the pencils being too dark. But he also sees something that I've thought all along. He says that with these pages 'It's almost as if there's some good stuff underneath what is going on in these pages' And you know what I've always felt that way too. In the layouts when there's no pressure on I feel free and I can do what I want. But when I blow it up and lightbox from there, all the good stuff is covered up, you know? But he really didn't like how dark it was. He tells me to walk around and look at some of the other pencils by professionals, which I end up doing later. He also reiterates on the establishing shot on each page because you never know where the ads will be placed. And he tells me I need to work on my backgrounds. Too empty. And in closing he tells me in a year if I keep at it I should be ready. So from him I take with me a few things; too dark (that's 2), establishing shot on each page (2 again), to try to embellish the backgrounds way more, and to keep at it for another year, which he doesn't tell anyone very often.

We find Bob Schrek doing portfolio reviews and the attaendant tells us to come back at 3:30.

Then we make our way to this booth where a tall black man and a tall slender skater type dude are. They turn out to be Quentin Shaw and Zeka ( I forgot his last name). SO they both are blown away by my portfolio, that immediately told me that they weren't at the same caliber as Dennis Calero or the other guy but hey what the hell my ego is blown up at that point. And judging by the portfolios layed out on their booth table, they're about at the same caliber as myself.We got to talking with Quentin and Zeka on a more friendly level. They're both impressed. Zeka really liked one of the character designs I came up with and Quentin really just liked my artwork.

So Quentin hooks me up with another review. I forgot that guys name too. He spots some unnecesary cropping, where the readers would get confused. But he also spots something. See there's 3 different samples I'm showing, a DC 5 pager, a Marvel 5 pager, and a 9 pager of a script I'm working on. So he spots fatigue in my work. Which was true. See I had to work my fulltime job before I went to Seattle and I live in Hawaii. So I had to compensate for the time I would miss at work and work extra prior to leaving. So the Marvel script was good, and by the time I get to the DC script I'm fatigued. And I kept telling my wife my brain was fried, with working extra hours and then drawing up until I got to the con that day. So I walk away with this- give myself more time, embellish backgrounds, and he tells me Marvel and DC are going a different direction- more realistic. Which I later find to be true. I have a carttony style and I guess that style has run it's course for now.

So then Quentin takes me over to CB Cebulski. I know who he is, his name is all over the internet so I was excited. So CB looks at it and asks who my influences are- I tell him Joe Mad, Ed Mcguiness, Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, and a few more- which he sees. I actually felt that he got my work. That he understood what I was trying to get at. I saw something there. I felt a connection. He went over how to make a page really hit home. How the little details really bring the page to life. Like Supes and Bats capes being cropped off. How to emphasize visually on what is important. Then he went to the crits which were- the cropping (again) backgrounds not being enough (again) and then his observation took on story telling- he said when I worked from the script the story telling was better than when I did my own. He liked my stuff and he too said one more year and I'd be ready (again). But he offered to send me some sample scripts to work on, which I intend to do. He then gave me his info and told me to e-mail him.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009






So I started with the Marvel submission since I was a Marvel zombie growing up. I knew the characters and the stories and such.

I didn't even bother sketching or warming up. I just went straight to layouts. Here's the 5 pages laid out.

At this point I decided I wanted to do Cap and some female character in a one page talking scene, escalate on the next page and the next 3 would be a consecutive action sequence that hangs off the pages before and after it.

At this point I haven't even decided who the female character was yet but I could just as easy plug in pretty much any character there. I decided I'd use Dr. Doom, who would turn out to be a Doombot.

So on page one, panel one I have my establishing shot, could be anywhere, any big city in the US but it's probably New York since I'm using Cap.

Panel 2- I'm singling out that one building that hopefully stands a bit more prominently then the rest when I get to the finished pencils.

Panel 3 the female lead enters her office with what looks to be Cap, or Steve Rogers waiting for an appointment. Why? Who knows.

Panel 4- Your coffee Mr Rogers.

Panel 5- Thank you mam.

Panel 6- Phone rings

Panel 7- Hello

Page 2 easy- P1- It's a bomb! Or something. P2 Get down! KABOOM! P3 Ok hot female office lady is a super heroine in disguise!

Page 3- Voila! Dr Doom and he's come to destroy the entire world- you first Captain America-

Page 4- But before that happens super hero girl decides she wants to kick Dr Dooms arse. But actually she can't, because he's impervious to pain! Or just numb

Page 5- So it's up to our Start spangled avenger to finish the job! And the reason he's impervious to pain or numb is because he's actually a doombot.
Last panel- Are you ok Miss (whatever your name is).

Emerald City Comicon

Ok so I'm going to my first comic convention next week at Emerald Citycon in Seattle. So I decided I want to do some samples and let some people in the industry have at it and truly gauge myself in terms of readiness. Why Emerald City? Because I have a brother who lives there. I live in Hawaii. I'm not used to travelling outside Hawaii. And then there's cost. It cost me 1100 bucks for me and my wife to fly there. SO my plane fare and room is taken of and my brother offered to be our taxi. Yay! For once in my life I get to be the tourist. I'm used to seeing tourists around town and now I'm gonna be one.

Well honestly I wanted to do a portfolio review. But later on I find out Marvel and DC don't do reviews there, they only do em at the bigger shows. I was so pissed! And that is truly a struggle for the people out there in the world who don't live on the continent of the US. There is the internet again but then if you're not savvy with it (LIKE ME) it won't get you very far.

SO the whole idea of me getting on a plane to go to a con was to jockey for a job. Then I find out I can't. I either have to go to San Diego or New York where they do portfolio reviews.

WHY?

Dammit!

And of course I find this out after I buy the tickets. But oh well. What can you do about it. So I decide I'm still gonna do the 5 page samples. One for DC and one for Marvel.

In the next few installments I'll walk through the whole process from start to finish.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

The whole comics chasing thing. You really gotta want it. There's just no other way in. It'll be years before you smell any money. Forget about the money. It has to be a burning desire inside you that keeps you going.

And this is coming from an artist.

I take my hat off to every writer who throws his (or her) hat into this arena. Brian Bendis said he had mental problems. I have to agree. You gotta be that stubborn about it. You can put countless hours, days, weeks, months, years into it and nothing. People will take a gander at it and just pass it by.

I used to post a whole lot at DW but nowadays, I save myself the grief. I mean I still post, but not like before. Before I'd get so excited posting something on-line, waiting for a response. That's a trip. Mostly because everyone has an opinion. As dumb as they might be. Posting on-line at a web hosted forum exposes you to criticism. And there's alot to be learned from crits. It keeps you on your toes. It opens your eyes to a whole slew of mistakes you never even knew existed. It teaches you how to be sensible for different things.

But then there's the other side of the whole thing. Persona's getting into the mix. See, some people are just obnoxious. And they totally take advantage of your post to be so. And at first you want to seem like you've got the thick skin it takes just to make it as a pro, so you just take it. And after after a while as you keep at it, you keep seeing the same names. And most of them keep saying the same ol thing when you realize they're pickin nits ' Hey man if you can't take it don't post it up on-line'. And that there opens a whole new can of worms. Flame wars. Because by now you've done your research on them and realize they're no better than you are. They have even more flaws than you do. Maybe they're jealous and can't contain themselves.

You can tell a lot about a person by what they say. Even on-line. See when we write, a bit of our true selves are exposed. And you find a hint of jealousy behind all those words. And then you end up not liking the person. And they probably don't like you either but you both realize you both still want to play at the same sand box so you stay out of each others way. Maybe until the next time.

But the worst thing about posting stuff on-line is when your precious work that you've spent hours and hours on. And you wanted to show your growth as an artist. You wanted people to see how you've improved on the mistakes you used to make, but now they're no longer there. How your sensibilities have opened up to new things. And..... and....and.... nothing. Nothing. No replies. No comments. No crits. No advice. Nothing. And it may be because you yourself haven't commented on anyone elses posts either.

But as an artist you want your work to speak for itself. And it did. And that's what it had to show for itself, that no one gives a damn!

This could be a precursor for things to come if you ever become a pro. Brian Bendis said (somewhere I'm not sure where and when) that he's spent a whole bunch of time working on something and nobody cared. Can you imagine your dream finally comes true and it's tainted now? Because the celebration you're supposed to have isn't going to happen because nobody cares. The moment you've dreamed of for so long is now reduced to some life lesson like " Don't count your chickens before they hatch" or something dumb ass saying like that.Don't get your hopes up high.

Me? Everything in my being hopes that things don't happen that way for me. But judging by the way things have gone so far? I'm gonna prepare myself for that one too. Just in case.

There's a lot of negative burn involved in having the job you always wanted. So much to endure. And when you just want some encouragement most times you'll just get knocked back down. Get the whole reality check speech. You'll go through things by yourself. No one else cares about your dream but you. The mental stress. Not being able to create when and how you want to. You might feel that life itself is a distraction. The frustration of having checked everything off your schedule and finally have time to to get some work done only to be bombarded last minute. People looking looking at you like you've just walked out of a flying saucer saying "You wanna do what? What are you a fuckin kid?" All that stuff, you gotta go it alone. All an internal journey that no one will ever see. But you'll be better off for it.


Lately though DW has been great. There's even a new thread where Cary Nord is going over some good lessons in perspective. And other people are chiming in to help.

And that's where I take solace. Not just in learning new stuff. But in the work itself. Just keep my nose at my desk and keep drawing. That makes me happy. Knowing that I can escape this shitty world and jump into my own with just a pencil and some paper. Knowing that no matter what happens I'll always have that. I'll always be able to get to that place and be at peace when I'm working. It doesn't matter that no one will see it or not. I just do it for the way it makes me feel while I'm doing it. And when I finish? For me there's no better feeling than when I get a full page done. That feeling of accomplishment is heaven for me. It brings me back to reality. All the insanity that was overflowing out of my brain, into my emotions, into my fists (side note: my wife even bought me a punching bag, and let me tell you -it works.) All that craziness built up inside of me is released- creatively. When that page is done, all that is gone. And I'm happy. I want to see that my wife is happy too, that my kids are happy. That since I'm feeling great everyone else should be too. So the work and the feeling you get after a good days work is what I look forward to.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Pono Loa









This has to be the easiest project ever. Living in Hawaii is a disadvantage to an artist. There's no big bustling cities to look at right outside. No good real life references. I mean the internet is there but still, sometimes a script calls for something mundane and ordinary, you know real common knowledge but I won't know what it is. But this project takes place here. Where I live. I can look outside my door for real life reference. It's my own culture. Things that are common knowledge to me is all in there. No need for research. Research for a project can really pull a project back a few notches. It takes time and you need to know how to do it right. Use the internet, magazines, books, movies, all that stuff.

But what really makes this project even easier is the creator- Stephen Smirl. This guy actually gave me some books to read up on. He's been a blast to work with. And he even pays me. First paid gig- yipee!

This particular group of pages are from Pono Loa: The King Who Ate Men. The main character in this book is the main antagonist in the main Pono Loa story line that's being pencilled by the talented Renae Deluz, and inked and colored by Ray Dillon. The dynamic duo. I wish my wife would ink and color my work. The letters here were done by Stephen Smirl.



Having some fun with perspective. I like doing mideval castles and stuff. You don't really need a ruler. The rules aren't so set in stone. It just has to look right. Hopefully I'll get to use this in my dream project Exillion: Legen of the Storm Runners.



This was the first project I took seriously and actually finished. Man if I could take that first panel and apply some basic perspective there I'd be a little happier about it. But oh well live and learn. And I did. This was a 12 page anthology written by Howard Wong called The Knight and the Samurai Sword. I did pencils and inks. I know the inks are hard to look at. I'm still learning the whole concept of translating pencils and the inks are heavy handed.

The upside to this whole story was that I found out that Steve Leialoha was a relative to my wife. He's a cousin to my wifes grandmother. I met him at their family reunion in 2007, he was doing drawings and sketches for all the kids. At that point I was introduced, I knew who he was from his work at Marvel. Long story short, we met up at a Starbucks in Hilo, a few months later, while he was on vacation. He took the time out to look at my work and give me tips and advice on how to go about what I needed to improve on. I started this journey in late 2004 and the biggest boost I got was on that meeting. Alot of things I needed to know he brought to light for me. I hope one day I can meet up with him again. Just to say thanks.




Finally getting into some action! This bunch of pages were so much fun. I'm still learning about inks and wish I had access to some pro really doing it in front of me so I could see it first hand. I seriosly need to learn how to draw water.


I had so much fun with these. I finally got to do the action stuff I've been craving to do since I started but I never got this far on a project. I didn't like the last page. It's way too rushed for me but we only had 12 pages to do it and I couldn't change the writing. All in all I was very happy about the way the project turned out. Having met Steve Leialoha really taught me alot. I'm glad he had a look at the layouts, without that I'd be far behind.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Midnight Studios
















2005 was a tough year for me. I was working as a plumber daytime and trying to draw at night. But the job was too much for me. It took too much out of me. But I was still very new to the whole comix thing. At that time I had made Midnightstudios my home. It was a small little community where I had met some good people. Brant Fowler, Howard Wong, and Niels Van Eekelen. I had done a whole bunch of pin-ups, sketches, concept designs, character designs, and all the stuff you don't see in comics. It takes place first, then the sequentials go off of everything you create there for consistency.
It wasn't sequentials which is what you need. But it was still good because I was learning and growing. Learning about drawing, but more importantly learning how long the whole process took, especially when working off the internet.
This was a cover I did for another of the Death Lurker X anthologies by written by Howard Wong. Death Lurker X:Gold.
Colors by Guiseppe Pica. I did pencils and inks. I still like it. It was my first piece that was colored. This was done in late 2004.

Death Lurker X: White


This was a promo from the first Image submission I did. The story was written by Brant Fowler. I did pencils and inks. This was me trying my hand at inking. Terrible huh? The book was called Death Lurker X: White. It was supposed to be part of an anthology that was called Death Lurkers where each different story was represented by a different color. We had White.
We did an 8 page submission that got rejected when Erik Larsen was the head at image. But he gave me some great pointers and tips on how to improve my work.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Early stuff

This was done in 2004. I had just found digital webbing and wanted to show off my stuff. It's funny no one even posted a comment on the Dark Phoenix piece at DW.

















This one of Cap was fun as well. Note how off the background is. I had idea at that time what perpective was. LOL. I can laugh at it now.


I had no clue how to compose an entire page yet.