What if Comic Twart ran Marvel?

Hey all!

So, the fellas on Comic Twart got the idea to devote two weeks to the theme of us all taking over various Marvel books. I expect great things from the boys.

I've picked two books, one for each week. This week I chose The X-men. I had planned to paint this but CONAN is calling. So you'll have to settle for the pencils till I can either paint or ink it.




Here's the rough version with all the construction drawing done in red-


Best,
Mike

PS - After I started this I noticed I forgot to add Beast, so here's a piece I did of him for a pal a while back.



PSS - I shoulda' added Rogue too! Drat!

CONAN Road of Kings #1 preview

Dark Horse ran a five page preview of CONAN #1, with inks by Mr. John Lucas, so I figured I'd show the pencils here.


Issues one and two are available for pre-order, so let your local comic shop know to reserve you a copy.

Best,
Mike

SHAZAM!

I drew this Captain Marvel for Comic Twart's ketchup week. If I can find the time I want to color it.

Best,
Mike

CONAN Road of Kings #1 available for pre-order

Hey everyone,

The first issue of my run on CONAN with writer Roy Thomas is available for pre-order. Ask your local comic shop to reserve a copy for you.


(pencils by me, inks by John Lucas)


Here's some info on the issue, along with Doug's amazing cover.

Best,
Mike

Come meet me at the Capital Bookfest Sept. 18th!

Hey everyone!

I'll be speaking at the Capital BookFest Harrisburg this weekend in the PA state museum. Mostly I'll be talking about the process of getting a comic made, from script to art. I'll also have a question and answer segment at the end of the talk.

If you're anywhere near the Harrisburg area, please consider stopping by. Looks like it's going to be a ton of fun, with many great guests and lecturers.


Here's some info:

Saturday, September 18, 2010
10a.m. – 6p.m.
State Museum of Pennsylvania
300 North Street - Harrisburg, PA 17120
(717) 787-4980

THE CREATESPACE (INDOORS)

10:30a.m. – 11:30a.m. Panel: Getting Published
Marsha Blessing – Book Publishing Firm
Kevin Wayne Johnson - Give God the Glory Series
Charisse Nunes – Publisher & Children’s Book Author
Mike Hawthorne – Author

The schedule is here.

Hope to see you there!
Best,
Mike

Fear Agent 29 in stores!

Hey everyone,

Just a quick note to let you all know Fear Agent #29 is finally in stores! Go check it out, and here's a review for the issue. (Watch out for spoilers!)

Here are some of my pencils from the issue-





Here's a preview for the issue.

Finally, for you process junkies out there, here are some older posts showing some pencil to ink comparisons.

Best,
Mike

Fear Agent 31 advanced preview

Hey everyone,

Rick posted some sneak peek pages for Fear Agent 31, so I figured I'd share them here too.

I've also heard 30 ships next week. Not sure why it's late, as it's been finished for some time, but that's life I guess.

enjoy,
Mike

LONE WOLF & CUB on Comic Twart

Lone Wolf & Cub is easily one of my most favorite comics ever. One of the most amazing accomplishments I've ever seen in the medium. Here's my Twart for the week.




And here it is with the rough pencils visible.



Best,
Mike

SANDMAN by Mr. Hawthorne

Just posted my SANDMAN for this week's Comic Twart. Done with white ink on black paper. Had hoped to do something a little more elaborate, but have been under the gun deadline wise.

Anyway, hope you dig it.

Thanks!
Mike

Comic Twart - FRANKENSTEIN!

This week's character is Frankenstein's monster, who I love drawing. Here's how I did it.









Mike

Fear Agent art for sale!

Hey all!

Well, Fear Agent #28 is in stores now and I hope all of you enjoyed it!

I'm now offering the pencil art from the issue over on my store, at very reasonable prices. Roughly half of the pages are up for sale, with the second half going up later this week. Swing by and check them out. You might want to give one a good home ;)

Best,
Mike

Comic Twart - Maggie of Love and Rockets

Hey all!

I'm excited because this was my week to once again pick the character for Comic Twart.

I picked one of my all time favorite comic characters, Margarita Luisa "Maggie" Chascarrillo of Love and Rockets.

After reading comics for a few years as a kid, and deciding I wanted to draw them, I quit reading them. At the time I just felt I needed to get away from comics if I wanted to draw them well. When I finally did come back around, some time in college, it was Love and Rockets that helped me fall in love with the medium again.

I'm a huge fan of Jaime Hernandez, who is arguable one of the best draughtsman and story tellers in comics, and just know I'm not doing Maggie justice, But here is my humble tribute to a comic that I love.




In the pencil stage I had planned on putting myself in the piece holding a sign saying "¡Gracias, Xaime!", but it felt too presumptuous. So I changed it to the mystery hand calling Maggie off page. You figure out who it might be ;)




5 comments:

She Hulk

This is a "thank you" gift for a gentleman who brought some wonderful wine from the vineyard he works at to the charity cookout a few weeks back. Never drew She Hulk before, and not entirely sure I got her right...

Anyway, thought you might like it.

Best,
Mike

1960's Nick Fury

Trying to catch up on some old Comic Twart subjects so I can jump into this weeks, a tribute to the late Harvey Pekar.

Last week's was 1960's Nick Fury. Been feeling kinda "cartoony", so I ran with it. Hope you enjoy.




best,
Mike

Little color sketches

These were done in blue, black, and white ink. Minimal pencils. The Beast sketch is a gift. Can't think of the last time I even drew him...

The one on the right is for fun, and no character in particular. It occurred to me after I did that people will assume it's Avatar inspired, which is wrong. Never saw the movie, and this was inspired by the fact that i had blue ink in the studio. Simple as that.

Best,
Mike

More Llttle sketches

More of those small card sized sketches.

Mike

Little sketches

I do these from time to time to warm up. Little card sized sketches, usually straight to ink with no pencils.

Enjoy,
Mike

RIP Harvey Pekar

The comic's community got a bit of terrible news this week. Independent comics legend Harvey Pekar passed away. Even if you never read his comics, you may have heard about the film based on his life.

I didn't really know him very well, but I did get to work with him once. I remember the "script" he sent, which was a hand drawn layout of sorts with stick figures and dialogue above them. It was all fleshed out, but still left wide open for me to interpret as I saw fit. I think the script had 6 panels on page one, and like 13 on page two! I laughed and went ahead and made the comic 6 pages and added some visual gags including a bit with a giant inhaler and some sharks. I was very worried that this wouldn't jibe with how Harvey's books traditionally look, but he was completely open to how I told his story. It was truly a colaboration.

I really enjoyed working with Harvey and saw first hand how unique a comic creator he was. In a world where so many creators are interchangeable as cogs, Harvey was truly his own man. There won't be anyone to take his place, and comics is a sadder place now that he's passed.

If I can dig up his script, I'll post that too.

Rest in Peace Harvey. We'll miss you.
Best,
Mike

*Edit - Newsarama.com asks "What was your favorite Harvey Pekar moment?"

Last Zombie release party & charity event thank you!

Hey everyone,

The Last Zombie release party was a big success, with fans of my pal and writer Brian Keene's coming out in force! Everyone brought out donations, and the Comix Connection guys did a great job of hosting the whole event.

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that came out to support Brian, his new book, and the York Rescue Mission! We really and truly appreciate it!

Here's some pics from the event.



Check out all those donations! (Sorry for the trash can, there wasn't anything else big enough to hold all the food people brought!)




Winner of the "Who wants to be a Zombie?" contest, Diane Marquette! This fine lady brought in well over 40 pounds of grub for the food bank!




Me working on the Zombified version of Diana, the world's first smiling Zombie! She requested the popped out eye ;)





And here's the lovely Susan Scofield who won the impromptu "OMG! You got me a cigar!" contest! (Made that one up on the spot, after Susan surprised me with a wonderful Don Thomas candela wrapped cigar! NICE!)




While at the signing I did a Zombie sketch in one of Brian's novels, which he will be auctioning for charity soon. I'll keep you posted.

You can see more pics of the event over on the Comix Connection Facebook page.

Brian's site is here.

Best,
MIke

Fear Agent 28 previews (again)

For those that may have missed it, Newsarama.com and IFanboy.com both have previews of the upcoming Fear Agent #28 - (which I penciled, despite what the Newsarama post says in the credits :)

If you follow the blog, you've seen these before, but I'm going to post them again for those that are coming to this late. You fans of the art process can compare them to Tony's and John's finishes. I always personally get a kick out of seeing the pencils vs the inks.







Enjoy,
Mike

Who wants to be a Zombie?!

This weekend is the release party for my pal and fellow Yorker Brian Keene's new zombie comic, "The Last Zombie". If you're not familiar with Brian, he's a popular horror novelist and comic writer (More on him here and here.). The man is a Horror master, and his new comic is gonna knock Zombie fan's socks off!

Back to the party. This weekend the fine folks at Comix Connection are hosting the release party for the new series, and I'll be there later in the day to show my support AND to help Brian and the Comix Connection guys collect canned food donations for the York City Rescue Mission. The idea is similar to what he do at the Comix Creator Cookout every year.

This time however instead of just giving out a piece of art for the person with the heaviest donation, I will be drawing a characature of the winner as...(wait for it)....a ZOMBIE!

So if you've ever wondered what you'd look like if you died, and came back after a bit of rotting, then bring as many canned goods as you can carry and come out to the Comix Connection in York this saturday. More details here and here.

Thanks!
Mike

Comic Twart, Asterix

Here's this week's character, Asterix.

Maybe I took too many liberties with this, as Asterix is supposed to me a Gaul and not a viking. But I couldn't help myself. Sorry :)

best,
Mike