Kirby Avengers
I love Jack Kirby's work. Once I start looking at it, I can't get enough of it. Sometimes, I get the urge to ink over some of his pencil scans, which can be found all over the web if you look hard enough. www.kirbymuseum.org has quite a few, for starters. I found this page in a random google search. I'm posting the final cover art, Kirby's original pencils, and my humble attempt to re-ink and re-color it. Just to be clear, I don't think the original needed re-inked or re-colored. That cover for Avengers #151 is superb already. It's perfect. But inking Kirby is like a crash course in comic art 101. During the process, I learn something new and valuable every single time. And it's fun.


  ¶ Thursday, January 28, 2010 0 Comments Links to this post

  Uncommon Heroes
Possibly the most unlikely team ever. I considered adding Ego the living planet in the background as a 5th member, but didn't want to overdo it.  ¶ Friday, January 22, 2010 0 Comments Links to this post

  Conan The King

Conan is generally thought of as just a sword-wielding barbarian, but there's a lot more depth to him, if you give the guy half a chance. Nearly his entire life is chronicled in the original short story novella's, beginning as a 16 year old runaway slave, and culminating as a King, in his 60's. Between those original Robert E. Howard pulp fantasy tales, there are hundreds of other adventures in various forms. I think many of the best ones exist in comic book format, particularly the magazine-sized Savage Sword Of Conan.

The other great thing about the character is that he's a giant barbarian with simple needs...you know, 'crush your enemies, see them driven before you, yada yada...' he invariably finds himself caught up in situations that would normally be outside his expertise; namely, facing off against supernatural forces, which happens to be the only thing that he actually fears, or super-intelligent wizards, bizarre demon-spawned monsters and an occasional political conflict or scheme between warring kingdoms. In these cases, Conan's role is usually as a hired sword who ends up somehow caught in the middle, uncovering a deeper plot, and then slashing and brawling his way to victory. And he always gets the girl in the end, regardless of whether she's a beautiful princess, priestess or common bar wench. Like I mentioned, simple needs.

Anyway, these are my favorite kind of Conan stories; where Conan must reach beyond himself and not only out-fight, but out smart those who consider him little more than a savage. It's a formula, but when done right, it doesn't feel much like a formula. Thomas almost always stuck to those themes, and brilliantly managed to make it interesting every time.

But conveying all of this visually is quite challenging. Very few artists, and I am not one of them, can give Conan that perfect balance between powerful savagery and quick intellect. John Buscema was unparalleled when it came to this sort of thing. His Conan looks almost panther-like, graceful but with a tremendous weight and power in his stance--and he drew Conan's face with such subtlety, combining a barbaric crudeness with the perfect hint of cool calculation behind those brooding eyes. Buscema was just such an amazing talent, and I'm now getting a little depressed thinking about him and then looking at my own illustration here. But whatever, right? It's the effort that counts.

This is an illustration I completed earlier this week (probably my last one for 2009), a snapshot of Conan in his later career, as an aging King who is still at the forefront of battle. I also applied a gray shading to this, in honor of those great black and white Savage Sword magazines that I grew up with. Larger version here.  ¶ Monday, December 28, 2009 1 Comments Links to this post