Draw! 31 at the Printers

DRAW! #31 (80 FULL-COLOR pages, $8.95), the professional “how-to” magazine on comics and animation, busts some new moves, Philadelphia Freedom style! It features how-to's and demos by Philly area artists JG Jones (52, Final Crisis, Wanted, Batman and Robin) and Khoi Pham (The Mighty Avengers, The Astonishing Spider-Man, The Mighty World of Marvel). Plus regular contributor Jamar Nicholas gives his reviews of art supplies, and we finish this jam-packed issue with Jerry Ordway (demonstrating the "ORD-way" or drawing) and Comic Art Bootcamp by Draw! editor Mike Manley (another local Philly resident) and Bret Blevins. Grab a side of cheese fries, and enjoy this artistic belly buster!

DRAW! 23 Now Shipping!

My two shipping clerks just opened the my comp boxes of DRAW! Magazine NO. 23 which means its shipping into stores next Wednesday and subscription copies are in the mail.

Draw! #23 (84 pages with COLOR, $7.95) gets webbed up with top flight penciler Patrick Olliffe, as he demos how he produces such comics as Spider-Girl, his recent revival of Dark Horse's Mighty Samson, and digital comics for Marvel. Then, Jorge Khoury presents a comprehensive look at the career of Al Williamson, as the man and his work are remembered by Angelo Torres, Bret Blevins, Mark Schultz, Tom Yeates, Alex Ross, Rick Veitch, and others, including an examination of Al’s working process. Plus, there's another installment of Mike Manley and Bret Blevins’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by Bob McLeod, product and art supply reviews by "Crusty Critic" Jamar Nicholas, and more!

See  a Preview and Order Your Copy Here

Dr. Solar

I posted a bunch of pages from my run on Dr. Solar over on my DRAWMAN BLOG

Draw! Nominated for an Eisner Award

Draw! Magazine along with our sister publications has been nominated for an Eisner Award Under the Best Comics Journalism heading TwoMorrows Publications/ Alter Ego edited by Roy Thomas, Back Issue edited by Michael Eury, Draw edited by Mike Manley, and Jack Kirby Collector edited by John Morrow

Draw! 22 is Shipping Now!

Draw! 22 hits the streets and is on the stands now! Get a preview here.

Transformers Comic

I posted up a bunch of pencils from my first job at Marvel over on my Draw! blog.

DRAW! 21 Update

Draw! 21 is heading into layout and should be heading to the printer soon!

Superman-Batman layouts

I posted several new layouts from Superman/Batman Worship on my Draw! blog

Lobo Layouts

I've posted a bunch of layouts I did for a Lobo job with finishes by Jerry Ordway over on my DRAW! blog.

Draw! 20 Update

Draw! 20should be at the printers by next week so it should be on the street soon afetr, I'll post a Street date when I get it from John Morrow.

More Magnus layouts

I loaded up more layouts over on my DRAWMAN blog

More Magnus layouts

I just posted some more Magnus layouts over on my DRAWMAN blog.

Magnus Layouts

Here are some layouts for the third issue of Magnus Robot Fighter that I did for Dark horse and that Bill Rienhold did finishes over. This issue is out on the stand this week and you can see more of our colaboration over on my other BLOG

Darkhawk pencils

Here are a few pages from the opening of Darkhawk No.9, and these pages are around 20 years old now--hard to believe! At least for me, in some ways it seems long ago and some ways it seems not that long ago at all. This was also from the time when the Punisher was a hot character and was appearing in just about every Marvel comic, so why not old DH? I also got to draw Savage Steel a character that I co-created with DH writer Danny Fingeroth. Comics were cheaper and I think more fun then, there was a lot more story it seems in the average comic then so I think the reader got more bang for your buck, this was also before computer coloring became all the rage. It was really a different time. I can't tell you how many times in the past few years I have had people come up to me and tell how much they loved this character and series--which I find a bit surprising in some ways, but i also realize that this was really the last time there was an influx of young readers into comics, the early 90's was the last feeder generation of readers for the industry. These fans read--not just collected. It was before 'certificates or authenticity" and the crazy, crazy times of speculators and collectors which basically tore the business down.

I was also younger then and earning my stripes as they say, and DH was the first book I got to start from scratch, so I felt I had a lot to prove every month.

I remember thing of the opening of this issue almost like a movies and so I wanted to get that cinematic feel to some of the panels by using the horizontal panels. I was also very influenced by Williamson, Romita Sr. and Garcia Lopez at the time.

Warner Brothers Animation Background Notes

Back in the 90's between seasons on storyboarding for WB animation on such shows as Superman and Batman, I switched for a while over to doing background designs. I think Tv animation was at a peak then as far as the look and craft of shows. My stint as a comic artist also really helped me in doing backgrounds as that's something you do a lot of in comics. When I started besides being sent a huge pack of BG designs, background supervisor George Stokes sent me along these notes which I kept. George was a great guy to work with. They were on fast fading fax paper so I scanned them in and thought I'd share them.This gives you the idea of how they went about breaking down and approaching the style of the shows. I did background designs on Batman Beyond, Superman and Batman. It was a fun gig, I'll dig out and post some of my designs soon.

More layouts from Green lantern

Here are two more pages from green lantern #49 that I helped Jerry Ordway out on by doing layouts. It's always interesting to see what little changes are made, and of course since I am only laying it out any changes Jerry would see fit to make would be A OK with me since he's far more familiar with the current DC crossover material. I think we make a great team and look forward to doing more with Jerry if the opportunity comes up.
My layouts are much closer to full pencils than the example by John Buscema below. They look simple, but only the very best artist could break a drawing down so simple and still have everything needed on top of great dynamic storytelling. Simple isn't easy!
Buscema was the King of doing these looser pencils, everything is there, and not one line extra, if you are a skillfull enough inker who can draw, this is all you would need. In the case of most of the Silver Age greats like Palmer or Sinnott, Giordano, Giaccoia or the great artist from the Philippines like Nestor Redondo, Alfredo Alcala or Rudy Nebrse to name but a few artist who were master draughtsmen, but maybe without the dynamics Buscema brought to the page.

Marvel even had a whole system of penciling at once time, from Shakedowns ( very, very loose pencil, really just breaking don the story into panels with the loosest placement of figures or elements) , breakdowns to full pencils ( which had all of the blacks spotted in or indicated) all based on what the Buscema brothers would do as pencilers on books. This way they could churn out several books a month as the storytelling skills and dynamics, speed and drawing they brought to the table couldn't be beat. Put a good inker over them and you had a good comic books. The business has really moved away from this way of working in the past 15-20 years. Now detail is King. There will never be artist like the Buscema brothers again, nor workhorses like Gil Kane as the industry doesn't require or demand that type of work any longer.

Green lantern layouts

Here is a page from another collaboration I did with Jerry Ordway last year on a Green Lantern back up story, once again I did layouts and Jerry did finishes. one of the hardest things for me was the nature of the plot and being unfamiliar with the current story lines, the plot came in a few pages at a time and I was unfamiliar with the whole cross-over DC had going at the time, so Jerry helped me do a lot of catch-up! the splash was simple enough, but I'll post more pages to show how complex it got.

More Authority

Here is the double page spread from Authority 12, you can see my layout for the page below Jerry Ordway's finished pencils. My goal was dynamics and flow of the eye through the page as the layout artist, since I knew no matter what Jerry would come through with great drawing.

More Authority

Here are a few more pages from Authority 12 by Jerry Ordway and me.

Secret Authority

I'm kicking off the re-boot of the Draw! Magazine blog with a look behind a job I did early this year that went uncredited at the time. I've been buddies with Jerry Ordway for a while now, and Jerry is really one of the best artist not only working today, but of all time in comics. Jerry's what a real great comic artist is all about, great storytelling and great drawing and he can draw anything--his version of Superman is a classic, right up there with Curt Swan and Neal Adams. he makes anything he does worth getting and is one of the few artists working today I always follow. Since his deadline was short on this issue of Authority, ,Jerry asked me to help him out by doing layouts for him on it, which I imediately agreed to do. Our deadline was pretty short as I think the book was behind schedule and DC was trying to get it back on track, and at the time Jerry asked me if I minded doing it without anyone knowing and i said sure, I mean I'm helping a buddy out, and working with jerry should also be fun.

Now I don't think I had ever read an issue of Authority, but maybe scanned it in a comic shop if the art caught my eye so i was pretty unfamiliar with the characters. But the added bonus was that kevin Nowlan was going to ink it--so that should be a real treat for the eyes--how could I say no!?

Jerry forwarded me the script by Keith Giffen and some little thumbnails to give me an idea of where to go along with a ton of reference material. from looking through it all it seems as if they styles and costumes were always changing, nobody drew them the same.

below you can see my layouts and then Jerry's pencils from them. Kevin has some inked pages on his blog so you can see how they turned out under his brilliant inks.


There was a real freedom here for me as i felt that like a good infield whenever I picked up the ball and tossed it we were sure to have a wining relay. I was always thrilled to see what jerry did, and then Kevin. Now since this was a layout job there would naturally be spots where jerry would want to alter or change things and after all, it's his job so it's his right to do so. i felt my main job as acting, dynamics and storytelling, to rough out the construction and let jerry finish it his way.

So here follows a few pages from Authority NO. 12!