THE SLAIN KING

Pen & Ink  on 11x15 Bristol
Original Creation Date: Feb 23, 2005

A few years ago I attended a nearby comic convention, a bit of an outsider but with a small portfolio of stapled handout sheets ready to be distributed. Early into the day I was offered an unpaid gig as a contributor to  an anthology book from Angry Dog Press, and later that week I took it, mostly just to prove to myself that I could do it, to earn a published credit to my name, and to see what I could learn from the experience.

The final result was "THE SLAIN KING," a 10-page story about Viking lore. I learned a good deal about myself, my technique, and my speed while knocking out ten pages of original script, pencil, inking, and digital lettering and packaging.

I won't waste the bandwidth involved to display all ten pages, but along with Page 1 I've chosen to display these three sequential pages. I'm pretty surprised to see how well the compositions and pacing hold up after all these years, if not the font-crazed lettering.

And I'll finish with this final page. I'm pretty happy with the inking in here, especially in the giant's furry tunic and the girl's cloak.

WEREWOLF

Pen & Ink on Standard Stock
Original Creation Date: May 21, 2014

I have a concept for a graphic novel... It's somewhere between the final plotting and scripting phases of completion. To be completely honest, the sheer idea of a graphic novel is one of the most intimidating things I can think of; the scope, the massive scale of work, and most importantly, the huge sacrifices necessary to make it happen. And to do it right.

So, for the time being, I'm inching closer to the day where I have to decide: do I shelve the whole book, or do I sit down and start drawing?

At any rate, this book would indeed be a werewolf story... but one that never has been told like this.

The above was an ink test for what would most likely be the title character.

COMPULSIVE DETAIL vs. RESTRAINT, or INKING ANGELS AND DEVILS

Yes, that's a picture of me inking, with a devil of sorts on one shoulder, and an angel on the other. If you look closer, however, you might realize that one side of the drawing is inked in an entirely different manner than the other. The devil, or my inking devil, as it were, is Arthur Adams, probably the single biggest influence on my entire pursuit of comic book illustration and just a huge influence in general since his big-league debut in Longshot #1.

Arthur Adams's Man-Thing

Arthur Adams is a beast for detail, to the extent that he's developed it into its own medium-- he seems to use ludicrous detail the way other artists wield acrylics or oils. He's taken it to an entirely different plane over the years. And, not surprisingly, he's had a reputation of sorts for not getting his books in on time.

Now I'm not going to go so far to presume that I draw, ink, or even wield detail to the extent that Mr. Adams does. But his work, and my longtime fascination with it, has inspired me to develop a style that really puts down a lot of ink, usually in small, and not always clean lines in hatching.

My Own Daredevil, with plenty of hatching

In the Daredevil piece above, you can see me sort of getting carried away with the inks, almost not knowing when to stop. The hatching is intended to develop form and promote the illusion of mass in his body, but very often I'm only flattening things out. In other words, I ink to the point of excess.

And I've recently acknowledged it, and am trying to stop.

--

The inking angel depicted above is, sadly, a real angel. The super-talented and super-nice guy Mike Wieringo tragically passed away in 2007 in the midst of a celebrated career as a comic book artist, and left a multitude of loyal fans to wonder what might have been. I met Mike in Baltimore a few years before his death, and I found him to be friendly, accommodating, and honest.

Mike Wieringo's Fantastic Four

Mike's own style certainly had its share of detractors, but he was also on my short list of artists to watch and be inspired by. And unlike Arthur Adams, Mike's style was greatly reserved and simplistic. There's no hatching, no heavy and laborious working, and seemingly no effort. Quite simply, he's the day to Arthur Adams' blackest india ink night.

Since I've gotten back into this style of artwork just a few short months ago, I've really struggled to find my own voice or signature style as an inker. I love the Adams look but certainly don't want to just mimic it-- plus I worry about becoming an artist who just can't work quickly enough because of all the detail. On the other end of the spectrum is Wieringo, who draws so differently than I do that I'm not sure how good such a simplistic style would look over my pencils. Either way, I think there's a fine balance between the two to be found, and I've spent some time recently exploring that balance.

My Own Flash, with no hatching whatsoever

In the Flash piece above, I laid down the law to myself:  NO HATCHING. NONE. And I think I still tried to cheat in a few places. But, as a professor, one of the greatest things I've learned in art projects is that by withholding certain practices or techniques, a student can learn to appreciate, execute, and better identify the need for other techniques. So I turned the tables on myself here, and learned quite a bit from my temporary ban on hatching. Mostly I learned how natural it was for me to just overwork things, and HATCH FOR THE SAKE OF HATCHING. Not good, and certainly not necessary.

I anticipate this to be an ongoing battle as I settle in to a more comfortable style. But I thought it might be worth sharing the struggle between the angels and devils.

PORTRAIT OF THE YOUNG MUSICIAN

Pen & Ink on 50lb Stock

Original Creation Date: Feb 22 2005

This was to be the cover image for my first manuscript, a work of historical fiction centered on a rock & roll band in the 60's. This central character, singer Tim Quinn, received a seemingly supernatural inspiration for his music in a series of bizarre, lucid dreams... and he was forced to live with the consequences of having no pride in or control over his seemingly genius creativity.

Of course, to develop a story's premise is one thing, and to craft it into a worthwhile novel is something entirely different. "The Evergreen Dream" was in fact finished but wasn't really all that good, and the whole thing pretty much fizzled out from there. However, this sketch, fittingly unfinished, has always seemed to have a more permanent legacy in my creative catalog than the book itself.

NOOTOO

Pencil on 50lb Stock, Digitally Enhanced.
Original Creation Date: Apr 29 2010

I've often said that if I were to live in another era, it would undoubtedly be in the colonial times. The French-Indian War. Something
about seeing the Eastern United States woodlands, which I call home, in a wilderness state just calls to me in inexplicable ways.

This is actually an illustration for an original story that never quite got off the ground. But the
character may turn up elsewhere some day.

SANTA'S FLIGHT

Pencil on 25lb Stock
Original Creation Date: Dec 11 2004

This original composition was created to be dissassembled into pieces and used as a puzzle promotion for the
newspaper I was working for at the time. When finished, I actually framed the drawing and presented it to my
grandmother, who helped in many ways to foster a love of Christmas in me when I was a boy.