HERO New Avengers

Hero Initiative have announced their new series of sketch covers, and it's The New Avengers. I was fortunate enough to be included again this year so here is what I did, darkened in photoshop. Hopefully it brings in some decent money for this great charity.

I Love(ed) the X-Men

I started reading comics in the mid 80's. I would pick up random issues of Spider-Man and other Marvel titles to start out with. I wasn't picky with what Marvel book it was, but early on I only read Marvel. The first title I started following regularly was Uncanny X-Men sometime around issue #214. I later went back and started buying back issues like a fiend. The artists who rotated in and out of the X-Men is an all-star team. Barry Windsor-Smith, Art Adams, John Romita Jr., Paul Smith, Alan Davis. I was in love, I think I even bought an X-Men shirt. But my favorite X-artist of all time was Marc Silvestri. When combined with Dan Green on inks, that team was dynamic and amazing. They had great action, sexy girls and powerful heroes and villains, everything an 11-year old boy wants out of his comics. I still think Marc's stuff then is better than his newer work, just a personal opinion as I'm sure others would disagree. I had a chance a year or two back to have dinner with two of my artistic idols, Silvestri and Jim Lee but I didn't really talk to either of them, but 16 year old me was in heaven at the time. I stopped reading X-Men after Joe Mad's run but the book had already been going downhill for years at that time.

Here are two of my favorite Silvesti covers from his run and a recent Colossus vs. Juggernaut commission I did. I threw a little Shadowcat and Wolverine in there for fun. Click for full size. (I'm still very much open for commissions if anyone is interested.)

UFC 118 Main Card Predictions

and here we go.................... Winners in bold.

Edgar VS Penn - I don't think we saw the same BJ Penn that decimated Diego Sanchez when he fought Franikie Edgar at UFC112. I think Penn took Edgar lightly and I think there was a nagging injury or sickness there too. The best words Frankie Edgar ever heard were "and NEW UFC lightweight champion....", followed a few days later by the worst words he had ever heard, "instant rematch with BJ Penn." I know I always pick BJ to win and I'm a BJ superfan, but the guy is insane when he's on his game, and I think he's on his game for this fight. He's been trying to stand and be a kickboxer in his last couple fights but I'd like to see him work some of his bjj and ground and pound in this fight. BJ by submission.

Couture VS Toney - Unless James Toney connects perfectly with Randy's chin as Randy goes for the takedown, he's not coming close to winning this. I think Randy will take a few moments to gauge his distance and Toney's timing then throw a jab or two to keep Toney on the defense before taking him down and beating the shit out of him. Couture via TKO, ground and pound. Toney will probably call Randy a homo afterward.

Maia VS Miranda - My three favorite jiu-jitsu guys are on this main card (Penn, Maia and Diaz) and I honestly do not know anything about Mario Miranda. I'll take Maia via submission for the safe bet.

Florian VS Maynard - I like Kenny Florian, I think he's a much better fighter than he showed when he fought BJ Penn the first time. He's a very complete fighter and if he really did train his wrestling with Georges St. Pierre as he claims then he's going to be able to nullify "The Bully's" attack, at least enough to win a decision. I think Florian wins via TKO and then the UFC has to try and promote Penn/Florian II, which should be closer than their first fight from a year ago.

Diaz VS Davis - Nate Diaz has always been fun to watch and Marcus Davis has gotten his bell rung a couple times in the last year or so. I loved it when Ben Saunders lit him up with his knees in their match-up. Diaz does not have knockout power but he can use his jab as a way to set up his jiu-jitsu and put Davis to sleep. Diaz via submission.

And yes, I am well aware I picked all the betting favorites. They are favorites for a reason.

Updates!

Spent last weekend relaxing in Minnesota visiting. One of the highlights of the trip was going to Lee's Liquor Lounge and actually getting to meet and hang out with the bar owner (Lee, obviously). He's owned that corner for over40 years, was a childhood friend of Herb Brooks (Do you believe in Miracles?!) and was very cool. He gave us a private tour of the building and all that jazz. Can't recommend that joint enough.

My friend Scott Godlewski is doing that art on a new Dracula book from Boom that came out this week, try and track it down, it's got some beautiful comic book goodness inside. There's a nice little review here.

Here are some sketches I've done recently, they are both available for sale in my Etsy store as well as a Trevor Bruttenholm sketch I did. New pages are popping up weekly over at the Jesus Christ: Name of Gun comic I'm doing. Not everyone is digging me on the art, but I'm not everyone's cup of tea, I understand that. I'm going to try and do better on the next chapter of pages. Thanks for stopping by.

Suits!

For the rest of the year as part of my daily sketch challenge over at the Sketchjam!, I am going to try and focus on problem areas I have. First up is people in suits. I've always had a problem with collared shirts and suits, so I'll be doing a bunch of them to try and work it all out.

35 min. Pencil & Ink. This sketch is also for sale in my Etsy shop.

Influence Map

click for full size

This was started on deviantArt but I thought I would post it here as well. This is a visual sort of map to who I feel influences me. You'll notice mostly comic artists on there. I never consider myself a fine artist so I tend to think in terms of how "this guy handles this" and this guy "brings this" when I draw comics. So that's why most of my influences are other comic guys. Some are very obvious, Kirby, Oeming and Toth. Others you might question. Marc Silvestri drew (to me) the most exciting run of comics I ever read when he was on X-Men. Rob Liefeld, for all the hate he gets, was super exciting and new and really made me want to be an artist in the first place. Other guys on there are fairly new (in terms of comic artists) but I am always thinking about how would Eric Canete draw this or how would Cory Walker ink this and make it looks simple and dynamic at the same time. When I color I tend to try to think a little outside the norm, and nobody does crazy palettes and makes it work better than Rico Renzi in my opinion.

So anyway, there it is and feel free to ask questions or comment away.

Fantastic Four

This is a recent commission featuring a bunch of really awesome characters. This was a whole lot of fun. If you want a commission of your own feel free to order one on the paypal sidebar to the right.

UFC 117 Main Card predictions

My picks this month are going to short and sweet. -

Junior dos Santos vs. Roy Nelson - JDS via TKO

Matt Hughes vs. Ricardo Almeida - Almeida via decision.

Clay Guida vs. Rafael dos Anjos - The Carpenter Guida via decision

Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves - This is a tough one. I'll go with the wrestler in Fitch.

Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen - Silva takes this any way he wants. Hopefully by vicious knockout.

Unpublished pitch

Along with RISE I was also part of another pitch last year that was sent out to publishers. "Blackmail" was the working title and it was written and co-created by writer Mark Sable. Mark has written books including Grounded and Hazed at Image comics and Unthinkable at BOOM!. The idea behind Blackmail was that a vigilante and a crime boss face off against each other from behind masks, only to be best friends in real life. It was all about hidden lives, sacrifice and of course, Blackmail. We showed it to a couple different publishers but it never gained a foot hold anywhere. We're hoping to work together on something else soon. Meanwhile, pre-order his new book RIFT RAIDERS from Kickstart Productions.

I really tried to reign in on my cartooning on these pages to convey the darkness and mood that we wanted. I'm still pretty happy with these, which is extremely rare, and yes, on page two that guy does piss himself.

X-Men Villains!

Over on the Daily Sketchjam I have been drawing a series of quick sketches, all X-Men Villains A-Z. I'm on N so far. Here is what you have been missing. Adversary, Bishop, Callisto, Death, Emma Frost, Fabian Cortez, Garrok, Harpoon, Iron Patriot, Juggernaut, Kierrok & Lady Deathstrike. (Click for full size) I've also added a Paypal button to the right sidebar for anyone interested in getting a commission. Thanks for stopping by.

Not @ SDCC event.

I will be out at Atomic Comics tomorrow selling $5 sketchbooks and I'll also have some copies of Villains with me for anybody who still doesn't have one and wants one. Free, quick sketch with any purchase. I will also be doing $10 commission sketches (similar to this) and donating 50% of those proceeds to the HERO Initiative charity. So if you're not going to be out at San Diego Comic-Con, come hang out with us.

Atomic Comics Mesa - 11am to 3pm, Saturday, July 24th!!!

Dark Horse Comics is pulling out all the stops to provide a party for comic fans who were unable to attend San Diego Comic-Con. The Red Bull Wing Team will be present with cars, girls and all sorts of stuff and RED BULL! There will be special live cell-phone feeds and online chats with the Dark Horse team at the San Diego Comic Con. We'll have prize packages throughout the day and have local artists such as Ben Glendenning, Daniel Bradford, Brandon James and Ryan Cody stop by to do sketches.

Among the prizes to be given away:

• Hellboy figure + graphic novel box sets
• Buffy Supernatural Defense Kits
• Star Wars Clone Wars graphic novels
• Umbrella Academy magnets
• Red Bull swag

My current project.

For the past few weeks, and for the next few months, I will be handling the art chores on a comic called Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun. Volume 2. Volume 1 came out last year and seems to have a few bit of people who enjoyed it. It will initially be put up online, a new page each Tuesday & Thursday and then collected into a print trade later this year. The first page is up here. Now, to preempt any backlash I may (and probably will) get from working on this project, I will do a quick FAQ here.

Q: How did you come up with this idea, was it glorify or denigrate Jesus, God or the Bible?
A: I did not come up with this idea. I am just the artist.

Q: How can you depict Jesus doing things like fighting monsters and smoking and swearing?
A: The same way I can depict the Hulk smashing rocks or a guy flying with a jetpack. I draw them in pencil and ink. I'm not drawing this book as a believer or as a non-believer, I'm drawing it the same way I would draw any book.

Q: Do you worry about offending anyone?
A: I'm sorry if I do, but it's not my responsibilty to manage each person's sensibilities or beliefs.

Q: What would you say to people who have a problem with you drawing a comic about Jesus?
A: If it bothers you, then don't read it.

Q: What are your religious beliefs?
A: None of your business.

Q: Don't you think you should not be mocking Christ?
A: I'm not mocking anybody. I'm drawing a comic book. It's action-adventure, not a biography.

The bottom line is, I thought it was a fun read and it's a fun story and there's plenty of action and it's a gig. Those are the things I look for in a project. I don't try to preach or push my beliefs on anyone and I don't want anyone pushing theirs on me. Fair enough?

RISE

I've always thought my best strength as an artist was being a storyteller. I like to take an idea and expand it as far as I can, having as much fun as I can with it but I also including a message or purpose to the story. I've never been a big fan of my own artwork so I thought I would try to develop a story with me as the writer and bring in another artist. So last year I developed a pitch with my friend Scott Godlewski. It's basically my take on our planet that has 3 super-powered individuals. No superheroes, or villains really, just a small group of people with the ability to hold an entire word hostage if they chose to. The main character has been held in a military bunker and kept sedated for the last 5 years, since he went a little berserk. At the beginning of our book he is freed from his restraints and must take out his nemesis before an end-of-the-planet scenario occurs. It's an idea that has been done before as most have, but I also tried to infuse a lot of political and social ideas into the story. One guy is not good and the other is not bad, they just see things differently, all the while governments are trying to control them both. I pitched this around to a couple companies and essentially heard crickets back from them. The ones I did hear back from shied away because it was an indie superhero comic. I never thought of this book as a superhero book personally and was really bummed it never went anywhere. Scott and I both enjoyed working on it and would love to do it one day if we found the right publisher. He's pretty busy kicking ass over on some Boom-Studios books for the foreseeable future and rightly so. There's no telling when or if we'll ever be able to do this, but it's been laying around on my hard drive for a while so I thought I would post the pitch pages.

Written, colored, co-plotted & lettered: Ryan Cody
Black and White Artwork, co-plotted: Scott Godlweski
Cover pencils by Scott Godlewski, Inks and Colors by Ryan Cody
*click on images for larger view

My favorite comics, or Oh gosh Oh Golly Oh Wow!

I remember being twelve and I had just started buying comics. A Spider-Man book here and there, maybe an issue or two of Punisher but I never followed or collected a series seriously and I never paid any attention to creative teams. I remember going to House of Armand comics in Oceanside, CA and walking the aisles, smelling the newsprint and spending hours in there. I loved it. One day I stumbled upon Excalibur #1, a new and expensive book from Marvel. It was one of Marvel's first $1.50 books. After one glance at the cover, I knew I had to have it.



I knew who Nightcrawler and Shadowcat were vaguely, but I had no idea why they were not with the X-Men (I had not read the Fall of The Mutants storyline yet). I did know that the guy in the Union Jack costume was totally awesome and any story that took place somewhere outside of New York or Gotham was new to me. To this day I think this cover is perfect, and this is how I was introduced to one of my all time favorite art teams of Alan Davis and Paul Neary and the first writer I ever knew by name, Chris Claremont.

As seen in the original Prestige Format one-shot prior to Excalibur #1, Shadowcat and Nightcrawler were recuperating on Muir Island after being injured in the Fall of the Mutants. Captain Britain and Meggan were shacking up in a lighthouse (best headquarters ever) and I forgot how Phoenix came into play, I think she was fighting the warwolves in London and that attracted the rest of the members to come to her aid. After their first mission they banded together to be the X-Men of Europe, Excalibur. The first 9 issues or so were absolutely perfect and it was easily, far and away my favorite comic. They sort of lost me when they did a twelve issue story arc where they bounced around time and space. Excalibur turned me onto X-Men and from there New Mutants and forward from that. If it wasn't for this specific cover, I don't know if I would be drawing comics today honestly. So thanks to Marvel, Alan, Paul and Chris for untold hours of enjoyment.



Shadowcat (Kitty Pride) has never been handled as well as she was with this team, in my opinion.


I forgot to mention the time traveling head-thing Widget who was part of the team, as was Lockheed the dragon. If I had a chance to do my version of the team I think I would go with the original line-up, minus Widget but add a Pete Wisdom.

UFC 116 predictions

Here are my thoughts on UFC 116 going down tomorrow night in Las Vegas. I'm only picking the fights I feel are interesting or I have a rooting interest in.

Kurt Pellegrino vs. George Sotiropoulos (155lbs) - I think Sotiropoulos is on the rise, in his last win against Joe Daddy he displayed beautiful grappling and BJJ technique. Pelligrino annoys me to death as well, so I'm picking Soto here, hopefully with a submission against another BJJ black belt, but most likely he will win a decision. Sotiropoulos via unanimous decision.

Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski (205lbs) - K-Sos was winning their last fight when it was stopped by a bad cut caused by a headbutt. Either way he would have taken that fight I think and I believe he takes this one as well. Bonnar has never impressed me. Soszynski via unanimous decision.

Matt Brown vs. Chris Lytle (170 lbs) - I've always liked the Immortal, and this fight with "Lights-Out" has fight of the night bonus almost guaranteed. They both like to tee off but I think Brown may be more technical although Lytle could pull off a submission as well. I'll go with the guy with the better nickname and say Matt "The Immortal" Brown by split decision.

Chris Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama (185lbs) - Neither guy excites me. I like a slugfest as much as the next guy but Leben relies on haymakers and Akiyama didn't impress me in his last fight with Alan Belcher. Leben is taking this fight on short notice and just fought 2 weeks ago, he has a solid chin but two fights inside of 15 days may be a bit much. Akiyama is the favorite, I think he takes it by TKO.

Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin (UFC Heavyweight Championship) - With only 12 fights under his belt, Carwin has almost 3 times as many as Lesnar. Lesnar has fought an over-hyped Frank Mir twice and split those two, an aging and undersized Randy Coutoure and Heath Herring who is no longer with the promotion. Not exactly a murderer's row. Carwin is in the same boat though with only Gonzaga and Mir as top-tier competition. Mir has faced them both and was knocked out by them both. Both has wrestling credentials and both are almost the same size. This is a very tough fight to call. I'm picking Carwin, I think his boxing is going to be slightly better and that is going to make the difference in this fight. I don't know if Lesnar even gets it to the ground without eating a few shots first and that may be all the difference. Shane Carwin by TKO, round 1.

HERO

I haven't done much in my short time in comics, not nearly as much as I have wanted to, but I still have plenty of time fortunately. Next to having my first book ever picked up by a publisher, released and optioned for a movie (VILLAINS from Viper Comics), the thing I'm most proud of is my work with the HERO Initiative. I've talked about them here before, I tend to do sketches for them every Free Comic Book Day and I have also done sketch-covers for their series of art books in conjunction with Marvel Comics. They are a wonderful organization that helps comic creators with financial and medical needs. Jim McLauchlin runs things over there and recently wrote an article for Wizard magazine about Wally Wood. He posted the article on their blog and was kind enough to send out an email about it. I'm glad I took the time to read it and I hope you do as well. If you read my blog then I assume you are a comic book fan as well and this is a wonderful and sad article about the life of an amazing artist. Wood's work was beautiful but his life was not perfect, much like the rest of us.

Click here to read the whole article.

The HERO Initiative

Please, when and if you can, think about donating to The Hero Initiative.

What am I worth?

If we are talking about the value I bring to the world around me in terms of pleasantness, then my net worth is probably right around $-2.33. But I am talking about my art, or more specifically my comic/cartooning artwork. I don't really consider myself an artist, I never mastered painting or sculpting or any other fine art discipline. My work will never hang in a museum, but some of it does hang on people's walls of their studios or homes, and that's pretty cool.

Sometimes I get paid to draw comics, sometimes not, but the real value of my art comes in the form of how much someone will pay for it. I hope I don't sound greedy or anything, I know my place in the pecking order of comic book artists currently working out there today. I often draw for fun and for free, but if it's my goal to make a career, I need to be paid for my work. An aspiring plumber will only unclog so many septics for free until he feels he should be rewarded for his work. Same rules apply here. I attended a con last year and I did free sketches for kids. I was happy to do it, I have kids, some of them are neat little people. In the end though, the majority of the drawings I did ended up being for infants or toddlers, with the parents proudly proclaiming they wanted a sketch of Wolverine. Somewhere between crapping himself and drooling, I doubt that kid asked his Daddy for a Wolverine sketch (yellow costume no-less). I didn't mind the sketching, it was a challenge and I agreed to do it. Over the course of the 2 days however, not one parent offered to buy a commission, a comic or a con sketch of their own. My point is, because I was doing sketches for free, I was given no value by the people.

So instances like the one above cloud my view about what I should be asking for my work. At conventions I do sketches for $15. I think that's a fair price for my 20 or so minutes worth of work to provide the buyer with a unique piece of art. Sometimes I get people who say I should charge more and actually force more money into my hands, sometimes I get people who make faces if I don't do a free sketch for them. I do include a free quick sketch if they buy a copy of my comic or sketchbook, but that would still cost money and they are not interested in that. I usually take on commissions ranging from $30-$50 and I sell most of my original art for only $10-25 bucks. This is a very fair price I think, and I always appreciate the customers who come back every year and support me.

I guess what prompted this entire hot-air filled post was that earlier today I was thinking about lining up some customers for some custom sketchcard art. I have a total of 4 artist return cards from work I did for 5finity cards that I am looking to sell so I tried to gauge my value and check eBay. It was then that I noticed a card I did for a panel at the Phoenix Comic-Con, a card that was raffled off and given away for free was posted up there for a $150 buy-it-now. The person who owns the card has every right to sell it of course, but they are seriously over-estimating the value of my art. So I estimate it at more than free, they obviously have a much higher opinion of me, god bless them. I have a strong feeling that this person would never buy any work from me at a convention however, but I hope they get something for their hard work in setting up that listing.

Okay, the little bit of curiosity and self evaluation is over. All that said, I am currently taking commissions for full size pieces and sketchcards. Let me know if you are interested. super75comics(at)gmail(dot)com.

Projects that never happened....

Here is a list of projects that I blogged about roughly four years ago or so. Most were unpaid, some offered great opportunity I thought and others just seemed fun. I thought it might be fun (and sad) to go back and update these projects now. Original list in red, current status in bold.

October 2006
- 10 page bonus story for the Villains trade
Finished & included in Villains:Thick as Thieves TPB
- Compose and put together Villains trade – Deadline November 1
Ditto.

November 2006
- Illustrations for Actionopolis book. – Deadline November 30
Never went beyond a handful of illustrations, mostly my fault for not being able to really supply what they wanted. Would have been fun to work with Shannon Denton & Doug Moench.
- Legendary Anthology Project Pages – Deadline January 1
I turned in my story but the anthology never got picked up anywhere, I eventually ran my story in the Hollow one-shot I put out through my Super75Comics brand.

December 2006
- "Jackpot” pitch*
Never got picked up, I was just a hired gun on this one.
- Unnamed Alter-Cody pitch
I can't even really remember what this was, Grant and I shot around so many ideas. Probably no art ever done for it.

January 2007
- Launch Top-Secret web-comic - I did launch a very short lived web-comic called Coral City Aeronauts but I burned out on it. I plan to go back to it someday as a series of short stories.

Projects waiting to hear back from publishers -

Empty Glasses – Written by me, Art by Federico Milella
This one had legs. A couple US publishers liked it and an Italian publisher was interested as well. The artist got bogged down by work and it sort of lumbered off into limbo. It was shame.

The Society of Modern Vengeance – by myself and others, tentatively scheduled for a 2008 release. Again, I had a publisher interested initially but it never really took off, still an idea I like and a title I LOVE. Developed with Adam Cogan, the writer of Villains.

So this just goes to show how often projects fall through, that why I have learned not to talk about them too much until I can see a realistic release date. With that said, I just wrapped a new pitch that I think has a good shot and I'm about to move on to illustrating a new graphic novel for a small publisher, but one with an established fan base so hopefully that all works out accordingly. Don't forget to check out My Daily Sketchjam for all my daily sketches, I've recently posted a few teasers, some Legionnaires and a bunch more.

Thanks!

So I got a big spike in visits yesterday and some new followers to the blog, I assume many of you found your way over here thanks to Dark Horse comics re-tweeting (what an odd world we live in that I just typed that) my B.P.R.D piece I did yesterday. Anyone that knows me has heard me say that Hellboy is one book I would probably draw for free. I think Mignola created the best character since the golden age and it's no surprise that he has been around almost 20 years and is still insanely popular among fans and creators alike. He just works, design wise and story wise. The B.P.R.D. is just as great and I hope someday I get to work on those characters in some capacity so if any of you have any pull with Scott Allie, you know I will appreciate it. Here is that BPRD piece and some random Hellboy sketches I have done over the last couple years.

My Favorite Artists

Every once in a while I like to write about things that I like. Chicken katsu, Irish car bombs (the beverage, not the terrorist act), beer, things like that. I also occasionally write about artists that I am currently in love with. I love their art I mean, although many of them are fine upstanding citizens, no doubt about that. I rarely, if ever, buy comics anymore and haven't in a while but I will buy certain comics because of the artist involved. Today's artist is someone I am lucky enough to call a friend, but don't let that turn you off, he's the real deal. Scott Godlewski is the shit, the bees knees, one of the best of the new guys. His work is mainstream enough to fit any DC or Marvel book without being a carbon copy "house" style ripoff. He is realistic enough that his characters and settings all look real without being so realistic that it looks flat. Most of all, his stuff is exciting. He's currently in the middle of a series for BOOM! comics called Codebreakers and then he's moving onto their new ongoing Dracula book this fall. I would otherwise never read or buy a comic about Dracula. Check out his gallery on deviantArt.com or his website.



If this kid isn't on an X-Men, Avengers or Batman book within 2 years I will have lost all faith in comic editors and fans. He is part of what is good about the new wave of artists.