Friday, September 14, 2007

Un-men at Newsarama, me on Fanboy Radio

hey all,

Newsarama.com just posted an interview with me about the book. Thanks to Micheal Lorah for having me, and for doing such a good job.

  • Check it out


  • Don't forget to also check out #2, in comic shops now!



    Also, I'll be on Fanboy Radio this weekend. Tune in this Sunday 9/16 at 7pm / 6pm Central for me and Open Lines Comic Talk LIVE!

  • Fanboyradio.com


  • Call up and say "Hi"!

    Best,
    mike

    Wednesday, September 12, 2007

    Un-men #2 out on 9/13/07






    Hey all!

    Un-men #2 ships this week, so I thought I'd give you guys and gals a sneak peek of the book. These are a couple of pencils, and unfinished inks for that issue.

    Be sure to check the book out and ask your local shop to carry the book.

    best,
    mike

    Tuesday, September 11, 2007

    More Sweet Science




    Working on more Sweet Science prints, in between breaks on the Un-men. I have a few more penciled, and will get them scanned and uploaded shortly.

    Best,
    mike

    Sunday, September 09, 2007

    Umbra at the Harvey's


    Hey all,

    As you may have heard, we did not win the Harvey awards for best writer and best series. BUT, Steve and I were treated to a great dinner and the award show was plenty cool!

    Thanks to EVERYONE that got us nominated in the first place, and thanks to everyone that voted for us to win. Murphy and I appreciate the hell out of your support, and we're honored that you all thought we were good enough to compete.

    ALSO, special thanks go out to Marc Nathan for having us out and for putting on a great con!

    We were both set up on Saturday and got to meet some great fans. The prints were a huge hit with folks too! So thanks to everyone that came by!!

    Best,
    Mike

    Wednesday, September 05, 2007

    Ape-law sketchbook PT.4



    Just wanted to wrap up the last of the Ape-law sketchbook, so it's all on here now.

    This last batch is pretty good. There's a How-to page for the Hysteria FCBD cover below as well as a pencil to ink breakdown of an Exterminator page and even some designs for Un-men and The TMNT.

    Portait of my daughter at age 2
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  • Hysteria FCBD How -to
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  • Turtles designs
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  • Extermiantors pencils and inks
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  • Un-men designs
  • Page 104


  • Best,
    mike

    Tuesday, September 04, 2007

    Sweet Science Finals






    Hey all,

    Ok, so the printer here is working on the prints. I got back two proof's which came out beautiful!

    The prints will be 12" x 18", full color on a really nice heavy stock paper. I'll be selling them for ten dollars, signed. I'll have a small batch available at my booth in Baltimore and will be selling them through the site a week or so after that.

    I'll also be doing some painted commissions and selling original art from my comics.

    Hope to see you there!

    Best,
    Mike

    Monday, September 03, 2007

    Sweet Science PT. III



    Here's the other print I'm working on for the con in Baltimore this weekend. This one will be 11" x 14". Again, still working on it so it may change a bit when I'm done. I'll post the final here later in the week.

    Happy Labor Day!

    mike

    Sunday, September 02, 2007

    Sweet Science PT. II




    Here's the second print I'm working on for the con. This still needs a little tweaking, but I thought you guys might like to see it so far.

    Mike

    Saturday, September 01, 2007

    Sweet Science



    I love my job drawing comics, but I gotta do stuff on the side to let me stretch my legs in ways I don't get to do in comcs. One of those "side projects" is a series of full color prints called "Sweet Science". All boxing related drawings, with a twist ;)

    I'm hoping to have two prints ready for the Baltimore con this coming 8th and 9th. Here's a link for more info on the con
  • Baltimore Comicon


  • I'll be there as a guest of the show and set up with UMBRA writer and my pal Steve Murphy.

    I think I'll also be doing a panel for Vertigo. Come by and check us out.

    Mike

    Wednesday, August 29, 2007



    More goodies from my past Ape-law sketcbhook (covering 2004 and part of 2005), including some life drawings, Batman sketches, and some How to stuff on inking.

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  • Best,
    Mike

    Monday, August 27, 2007

    Ape-law sketchbook PT.1



    I'm in the process of replacing the ape-law sketchbook (see http://www.ape-law.com) with this sketchbook blog. The ape-law one was getting to be too hard to maintain, so I'm hoping to consolidate the two here. In an effort to have all the content from that old site here I'll be posting links and art from that old sketchbook every so often. Hope you enjoy the flash back ;)

    mike

    Sketchbook entries from 2002 and 2003 -

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  • Monday, August 13, 2007

    Goodbye, Ringo


    Mike Wieringo, Ringo for short, was a buddy of mine and a damned fine artist. He just passed away at way too young of an age, which makes me damned angry at the universe right now.

    I won't go into what a fantastic human being he was, or how much I learned from him. I'll just say that we'll miss him.

    http://www.newsarama.com/Chicago_07/Ringo.html

    Mike

    Sunday, July 22, 2007

    Un-men #1 color preview

    There's a cool preview/interview for my new Vertigo book, The Un-men, over at the Pulse.

  • Check it out.


  • Best,
    Mike

    Tuesday, July 17, 2007

    Hulk commission





    I almost never do commission, but made an exception for a buddy. Thought you might like seeing the process.

    Mike

    Wednesday, June 06, 2007

    UMBRA up for two Harvey Awards!!

    Hey all,

    Sorry for the lack of posts here lately, just been busy getting The Un-men ready for the launch of the series in August (ask your local comic shop to order it for you in the new Previews).

    BUT, I got some great news this week! My Image book, UMBRA, is up for two Harvey Awards this year!!

    BEST WRITER

    • Ed Brubaker | DAREDEVIL | Marvel Comics

    • Grant Morrison | ALL-STAR SUPERMAN | DC Comics

    • Steve Murphy | UMBRA | Image Comics

    • Don Rosa | UNCLE SCROOGE | Gemstone Publishing

    • William Van Horn | WALT DISNEY COMICS & STORIES | Gemstone Publishing

    • Brian K. Vaughn | Y: THE LAST MAN | DC/Vertigo

    BEST CONTINUING OR LIMITED SERIES

    • DAREDEVIL | Marvel Comics

    • LOCAL | Oni Press

    • THE SPIRIT | DC Comics

    • UMBRA | Image Comics

    • WALT DISNEY COMICS & STORIES | Gemstone Publishing

    http://www.harveyawards.org/index.html

    Thanks to everyone who supported the series, and if you're voting this year please remember us. We're up against some stiff competition and can use all the help we can get!

    Best,
    mike

    Tuesday, April 10, 2007

    Portraits and Color

    My last blog post had a couple of paintings I had done in college. They got me thinking about how I've essentially stopped painted after I graduated and have focused almost exclusively on illustrations. I don't have many paintings from those days, most of which I just abandoned or trashed, so I can't look back too much and examine what I was doing. I did find an old study I did of a room mate I had while in college. This was done on a small (about 8.5" x 11") piece of masonite, as was just a study for a larger painting I never got to finish. It's interesting to look at and wonder at what I'd have done had I gone to the actual painting. I loved pushing paint around on a surface, making it describe forms, and I can see that joy in this small piece really clearly. Takes me back...


    Then, an old filmaker/photographer friend of mine came to visit from NY and we talked all night about projects we're both working on and ones we WISH we were working on. One of the subjects we touched on was how I need a headshot for the back of all those fancy pants books I make. The idea of posing for them makes me uncomfortable,...just makes me feel fucking vain and dirty. After he rolled back to NY, I began thinking about how much of my painting career was focused on portraits and how I did many self portraits during that time.

    That made me starting thinking of my work now, and how most of it is in black and white. I think black and white works a different part of my brain then color work, but it still feels like I can push ink around like I used to push paint. I did this little ink study between pages.I'd like to get to work with more color this year, and that reminded me of this short style test I did a few months back. I wanted to see if I could do a fully fleshed image in under a half hour using rough inking and computer color. Not perfect, there are PLENTY of drawing and color problems with this, but it was an interesting exercise.

    Think I got this done in under 20 minutes, not including scanning.

    Anyway, no more rambling. Back to he grind.
    Mike

    Sunday, December 31, 2006

    Monday, December 11, 2006

    How to make a Christmas card pt.I

    Worked on our annual family Christmas card this weekend. He's some of preliminary sketches, and a first run at the final.











    Not done, yet. Some stuff I still have to tweak.

    Mike

    Wednesday, December 06, 2006

    The chase

    In keeping with the "works in progress" title, here are more roughs from Hysteria: One Man Gang. I'm keeping it as fluid as possible, to try and avoid the trap of a very rigid/slick car chase.









    Unfortunately, I can not give an answer as to when this will be done. I have to do it on the side, when not working on Un-men. I also refuse to just rush it at this point. To date, after six+ years of working in Hysteria stories, both self published and for various publishers, I've NEVER seen a DIME of profits from the book. So if it aint for money then it's for love. And you don't rush love ;)

    mike