Sketching barbarians

Felt like sketching a certain barbarian..you know, for fun.



Enjoy.

Mike

Fear Agent on CBR pt. II

Rick did an interview about the final arc of Fear Agent over on CBR, with a few finished art previews. Swing over and check it out.




And tell your friends :)

Best,
Mike

PS - Check out previous Fear Agent posts here. Lots of art!

ARCHIE & the GANG

Last week's Comic Twart subject was ARCHIE & his gang. Here's the piece I posted.

To be honest I was going to skip this week, as I didn't think I had any good ideas for the ARCHIE gang. Then it hit me, I could reinvent the comic as a prison drama :)

There's a made up back story here, and a bit of an expansion on Andy Kuhn brilliant piece. Teen age pregnancy caused Archie's life to start to slide into the wrong direction. Veronica, coming from a wealthy family, was pressured into an abortion. Betty gave birth to Archie Junior. Archie would have to skip college, and take menial jobs to get by. Reggie would rub it in every chance he got,



which would lead to a fight with Reggie. Archie would end up killing him in the process.

Jughead, not being able to bare the idea of his friend going to jail, tries to help Archie hide the body. When they're finally caught, both were given long jail sentences for Reggie's murder. In prison Jughead and Archie would expand on their volatile relationship.



Jughead would also come to understand his issues with women once in jail.



"Moose" Mason's size and clumsy strength would lead him to a career as a correctional officer, but the murder of Reggie would affect him on a personal level. He'd hold it against Archie, but would secretly envy his friendship with Jughead.



Betty, now a single mom, continues to pine for Archie while raising their son. Archie Jr. would begin to develop psychological problems from his father's incarceration, leading to overeating and an attraction to gangster rap music.

Veronica would finally move on and leave Riverdale, which was always too small for her anyway.



Unfortunately her past would follow her when the rumors of her hidden abortion would come to light, based on tips from an "anonymous informant".


It's all a very sad affair ;)

Best,
Mike

PS -I found these images on a cool blog called Bully Comics. Special thanks, and props, to Bully! :)

"Raising Crazy" on Twitter

After tons of requests to start this, I finally gave in and began a Twitter feed for my son's crazy antics. It all started with me posting funny things he'd say or do on my own Twitter page, but has grown into plans for a web comic. For now I'll be posting all his nutty adventures on his own Twitter feed, "Raising Crazy", and eventually I'll use the material for the comic strip.

Anyway, enjoy...and if you're on Twitter please follow along :)

Best,
Mike

ARCHIE work in progress PT.I

This week on Comic Twart, Ramon picked ARCHIE & his GANG. Which, I'll be honest, I didn't like at first. I was ready to bow out this week, for the first time. But then the bestest idea ever hit me! I could do a revamp of the characters, set in the future a bit, after ARCHIE's life has gone terrible wrong.

The funny thing is that the brilliant Andy Kuhn kinda did the "Year One" of what I wanted to do. Teen pregnancy leading up to where I'm gonna take ARCHIE and his gang makes perfect sense!

My piece is gonna have almost the entire gang in it. This sketch has ARCHIE, JUG HEAD, BETTY w/ LIL' ARCHIE (expanding on Andy's idea), AND MOOSE. You can't see it yet, but VERONICA is in there too. I'm was hoping to have MR. WEATHERBEE in there as the warden, but he may have to be cut.

Anyway, if I pull this off then you will all crown me king of Riverdale! Or Warlord. Haven't decided which I want to be yet.

Mike

Dan Dare

Here's my piece for DAN DARE week on Comic Twart. Check the rest of the awesome pieces out here.

Best,
Mike

Fear Agent sneak peek PT3

Rick just posted a sneak peek of John Lucas' inks for this page on Twitter, so here is the pencil version from me.

Best,
MIke

DC Sketchbook PT. I

Every year DC Comics sends a cool gift out to freelancers for Christmas. This year was a cool little sketchbook. I've been exclusively doing Batman sketches in it. Just feels right.

Here's a few of them.







Best,
Mike

Comic Twart art blog, JOHN CARTER of MARS pt. I

Between sessions of work I've been whittling away at this. Now, usually I post the process for my Comic Twart pieces AFTER they're complete, but in this case I'm not entirely sure this is right. Which is why I'm posting it here unfinished. I have a LOT of work to do this week, and will have to work on this in bits and pieces, but something tells me this will change a great deal before the final is done. I'll post bits and pieces here as it proceeds...hopefully :)

Anyway, check it out.

Mike

Comic Twart art blog, week seven - CLARA DE NOCHE

I got to pick last week's character, and chose another Jordi Bernet classic - CLARA DE NOCHE.

I have a little back story on this piece, and the character, over on the Comic Twart blog. While there, be sure to check out all the awesome renditions of CLARA. You'll love them ;)

Best,
Mike

Game Changer part V

Started the inking on my "Game Changer" book a few weeks back, but I'm taking a quick break from it to work on another project, so I figured it's a good time to post more teaser art.





Previous "Game Changer" posts here.

Enjoy :)

best,
mike

Random sketches PT6

Just a quickie sketch on a piece of chip board from last week.

best,
Mike

BLACK BEETLE process

Some process behind the BLACK BEETLE piece.





The flat colors for an aborted digital painting of the BLACK BEETLE. Just didn't have enough time to finish it last week.



Switched over to an inked version of the piece.



The last minute second BLACK BEETLE piece. Painted with white acrylic on black paper, with some white pencil here and there.



Enjoy,
Mike

Comic Twart art blog, week five - the BLACK BEETLE

Just posted new art over on Comic Twart. This piece is one of two up on the blog.

I'll post the process later next week.

Best,
mike

PUNISHER breakdowns to final page PTII

For those of you interested in how to make a comic, here's more on the process behind PUNISHER #13.

My breakdowns
Version one


Version two


Tony's and Dan's final art.





Enjoy!
Mike

G.I. ROBOT process

Sorry for the hold up on this post. Been meaning to post it all last week, but got too busy.

Anyway, a lot more went into this one than normal. Just couldn't nail down which I liked better. In the end I went with the strongest idea from early on in the sketches.

Hope you dig it.

best,
Mike

G.I. ROBOT on Comic Twart

Hey everyone,

If you're not checking out Comic Twart, you're missing out! This week the character is G.I. ROBOT, and the entries so far are incredible! You gotta go see them. :)

Here's my entry.



As usual, I'll post the process later this week.

best,
Mike

PUNISHER breakdowns to final page

So, the issue of the PUNISHER that I worked on with Tony Moore is out (#13 if you missed it). Tony and I have been working like this on and off for a few years now, on different books, but it's always cool to see how far he takes the basic breakdowns I provide.

My breakdowns:



Tony's crazy final line art colored by the amazing Dan Brown:



Pretty cool, huh? ;) If you folks are into it, I'll post more.

Check out some reviews here and here.

Best,
Mike