Autumn Sketch Fest XXX

Autumn Sketch Fest XXIX

Lakes Sketches IV

Fin Fang Finale

Rounding off the Fin Fang Four posts, here are my roughs for the first three pages of the original one-shot. I actually like these a lot.

Fin Fang Follow-Up

I promised you some more of these. Our initial pitch was for a four-issue series, so there are a couple of characters represented here we never had a chance to do anything with; our story was crammed into one single issue to go with the "Marvel Monsters Month" they were doing. These are scanned straight from pencils, I believe.

Fin Fang Frippery

Another forgotten tidbit from the hard-drive sort-out: some of the initial drawings I did for the pitch Scott Gray and I originally sent to Marvel for our original Fin Fang Four one-shot. When I look at how much work I put into these drawings I guess I must have really wanted this badly – for financial reasons partly, but I think part of it was also so I could tell people I'd ticked Marvel off the list. It's the sort of credential it's nice to have under your belt. And I really wanted to get Scott writing comics again, which is not something he was doing right then. He's one of the very best, in my humble opinion.

There are some more of these to follow tomorrow.

Thor-oughly Collected

The work I did on Thor: The Mighty Avenger with Chris Samnee and Matt Wilson is apparently available now (or any day now) in a nice collected edition - all nine issues (including the FCBD one-shot) in one lovely package. I have issues with Marvel over their treatment of certain of their founding creators, and writing a Thor book is not something I would do now for that reason, but I'm really proud of the work I did on this book - and especially grateful for the opportunity to work with Chris Samnee, who is one of the all-time greats in the making, in my opinion.

Vigil of the Mad

Here's a little oddity I did for some X-Men Halloween thing a couple of years ago. The brief was to do something inspired by a famous horror movie - not being much of a horror fan, I was stuck for an idea until Nate Cosby, the editor, suggested doing a riff on Village of the Damned. I can't remember why I threw in the Edward Gorey pastiche but I'm glad I did.

Muppet Show "Four Seasons" will be published!

In Italy, that is - although I read on the interwebs this morning that Marvel will be reprinting it. I haven't heard anything from Marvel about that, though, so you know as much about that as I do. But yes! I've been working with Disney Italy on a few things they wanted tweaked (they needed Gonzo's nose redrawing), so presumably that's where Marvel are getting it from. I'm not sure yet when the Italian edition is being released, but Marvel's English-language version will be coming out in July, according to the (totally-unconfirmed) news reports I've seen.

If anyone from the appropriate department of Marvel is reading this, I can send you my scripts if you want, rather than translating from Italian back into English. (I remember reading British Disney comics as a kid where Carl Barks' dialogue had been totally rewritten and it made my teeth hurt.)

From Mars to Bethesda

First things first: the first issue of John Carter: A Princess of Mars comes out today. Thrills! Romance! Martians! I honestly don't know what else you could want in a comic book. Written by me, drawn by Filipe Andrade, published by Marvel - you know you want to. And unless I'm very much mistaken, my new 200-page book of older material from Boom Town, The Show Must Go On, will be out any day now as well. Two reasons to get down to your local comic shop that have nothing whatesoever to do with the number 52!

So. Just got back from SPX yesterday and have been pretty much catching up on sleep ever since. My thanks the SPX crew and to Boom! Studios for arranging for me to attend; my congratulations to the Ignatz winners and nominees; my condolences to friends of Dylan Williams, whom I knew a little but wish I'd known better. And thanks to everyone who stopped by the table and bought something, or even just said hello.

Some abiding memories:

• Being detained by US Customs on entering the country and spending an hour and a half in a little room full of crying Chinese people while somebody grilled me about why I was coming to the USA and how I earn my living (had to explain how royalties work, which involved explaining how publishing works all round, which I'm only barely able to understand myself). Off to the side, in another room, a customs official was yelling at some poor guy that in America, the government loves everybody. It was like being in a Kafka novel. I'm cutting them some slack here because it was the lead-up to the anniversary of 9-11, but even so. What a start!

• Seeing a bunch of people I know and like, and meeting some new ones. Big shout out to Adam Staffaroni, Chip Mosher, Lawrence Derks, Carol Thompson, Tom Neely, Jerzy & Ann Drozd, Nick Abadzis, Jim Dougan, Julia Wertz, Craig Thompson, Kasey Van Hise, Mike Dawson, Alex Robinson, Jim Rugg, Robyn Chapman, Alec Longstreth, Greg Means, Phil Jackson, Sara Turner, Rick Parker, Dustin Harbin, Craig Yoe, Gary Groth, Kim Thompson, plenty of others I'm sure I'm forgetting.

• A good conversation on Saturday night with Nick Abadzis and Tom Neely which I'm really glad we had.

• Being able to see my Harvey Awards at last when they were kindly handed over to me, as I was unable to attend the award ceremony last month. (They're now on the mantelpiece.)

• Having my new book, The Show Must Go On, in my hands at last!

• Meeting an art collector, Richard Greene, who was kind enough to show me and Rick Parker his dog-themed collection of original art. There were some fantastic pieces in there, including some original work by TAD Dorgan and Basil Wolverton. Quite amazing.

I brought my camera, and even remembered to take a photo or two, although ninety per cent of the time I forgot I had the darn thing. Here, though, are the pictures I remembered to take:

The Boom! Table - editor Adam Staffaroni and interns Carol Thompson and Lawrence Derks 

 

Dinner on Sunday night - always a pleasure to catch up with the Drozds.

A Basil Wolverton original (top) and a Pete the Tramp daily. 

All around, this was one of the most enjoyable SPXes I've attended, and I've been to a bunch of 'em. Time to start planning for 2012!

The Mighty Fighting Avengers!

Today is Free Comic Book Day, the day where we celebrate the time when the baby Jesus was given a comic book. Or something. Anyway, one of my efforts is available to comic book shop patrons this fine day, absolutely free: Captain America and Thor, the Mighty Fighting Avengers! I'm not responsible for the jaw-breaking title, but the rest of the words are mine; the pictures are by the marvellous Chris Samnee and Matthew Wilson. Basically, it's the Thor: The Mighty Avenger team reunited one more time. I honestly don't know if FCBD is observed outside the USA and Canada, but if you're fortunate enough to live near a participating store, why not head out and pick one up - and spend a few dollars while you're there, why don'tcha?

Postpourri

A few random things to cover this time.

First, and I'm as surprised as anybody about this because I only found out about it by reading about it on the internet, it looks like Marvel will be re-issuing my old Muppet Show comics in some form or other. There you go - now you know as much as I do.

Second, there's an all-new, all-digital, all free issue of Tripwire available, including a nice fat piece on Boom! Studios and three, count 'em, three pages of comics by Yours Truly. So that might be worth a look.

Last but not least, I did a bit of logo design a few days ago. I'm quite pleased with it.

Whatever Happened To...

So by now I expect everyone who's got a horse in this race knows that Marvel will be publishing the Pixar books that Boom used to do from now on. So far, so groovy - they have the technology, the expertise and the resources to do a great job... if they want to.

So where does that leave the Muppet comics?

To be honest, I have no idea. As far as I understand it, the unpublished work I've done for Boom isn't technically Disney's until it's published, and obviously Boom can't publish it without a license. So it's in a kind of limbo right now. In the best of all possible worlds, I'd like to think that Boom and Marvel can come to some kind of arrangement whereby Marvel can eventually release the work. I'm only a cartoonist, real business stuff makes my brain hurt, so I'm not sure how that would work - I guess Disney/Marvel buys the rights from Boom or something. Or maybe they have to go out into the woods at midnight and bury Kermit in effigy with some chives in order to break the curse. Something like that. However it happens, I would very much like for it to see the light of day eventually.

Until that happy day, which I look forward to with a smile on my face and a song in my heart, I guess it can't hurt to share some of the pages here. This arc would have been called The Four Seasons, hence the seasonal theme - these few pages would have been from the Winter/Christmas issue. (Appropriate for pages that are in cold storage for now.)

Roll on Spring...

Buy Early, Buy Often

First item: Thor the Mighty Avenger Volume 1: The God Who Fell to Earth is out this week, collecting the first four issues of the comic written by me and drawn by the phenomenal Chris Samnee. I'd just like to remind people one more time that decent sales on this item could have an effect on whether or not Chris and I will get an opportunity to finish our originally-planned 12-issue story arc (the series' cancellation seems unavoidable, but we're crossing our fingers that a final four-issue mini-series might not be out of the question), so please consider picking this up if you've been waiting for the collection. And, if you already have the individual issues (thank you!), maybe consider giving one as a gift this Christmas to someone in your life who likes a good romance story. Or a fight.

Second item: Thank you to everyone who has expressed their good wishes after last week's announcement that I'll be moving on from the Muppet Show Comic Book. I've been genuinely overwhelmed. You're the best.

More on Thor

Bit of an update on Thor stuff. Firstly, can I just say the last 48 hours or so have been insane? In a good way, I mean. I'm blown away by the affection for our little funnybook that appears to exist out there. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And you. And you.

There's an interview with me about the whole business, and Thor: TMA in general, over at iFanboy right now.

There's a "Save Thor the Mighty Avenger" Facebook page.

And Chris Samnee has quite sensibly pointed out over on his blog that the best, most useful, most productive thing you can do if you want to see the story continue is to buy the darn thing. If you've been waiting for the collection, please consider pre-ordering it. If you know somebody else who might like it, why not get one for them as a Christmas present. And there's three more issues to go before the doors close - your comic shop is waiting to take your money. Marvel is, after all, a business, and that's the sort of thing that can make a difference.

Again - thank you, everyone. You've made an old man very happy.

Thor the Cancelled Avenger

It's been officially announced now, apparently, so I can mention here at last that Thor: The Mighty Avenger has been cancelled - issue #8 will be the last one. Thanks to everyone who bought the book - it's been such a great experience working with Chris Samnee on this thing; his artwork consistently exceeded my expectations. He and colourist Matt Wilson made that book the best-looking one on the stands.

Chris and I were four issues shy of wrapping up the mega-subplot we'd been setting up since issue #1 - if we'd reached issue #12 a lot of questions would have been answered and the series would have been tied up with a nice little bow - so if you're Twitter-enabled and you'd like Marvel to publish those last four issues at some stage, let them know.

Update: Some commentary from around the internet...

iFanboy: A Note for my Boyfriend Thor
The Comics Reporter
Newsarama
Digital Spy
Bleeding Cool
Comics Alliance
Robot 6/CBR

And perhaps most intriguingly...

Thorsday!

Thor: The Mighty Avenger #1 is hitting the comic book stores this week! I urge you to run down to your comic outlet of choice and ask -- nay, demand! -- that said periodical be placed in your hot little hands. Wonder at the sophisticated brush stylings of Chris Samnee! Ogle the chromatic enhancements applied by Matthew Wilson! And there's words in it, too!

Thor!

I've been sitting on this news for a while, so I'm thrilled that I can finally reveal the new book I'm going to be working on with the amazingly talented Chris Samnee for Marvel. It's called Thor, the Mighty Avenger and you can read all about it here and here. I'm now officially a two-books-a-month guy!

Pet Avengers Assemble

I was recently asked to do a cover for the Marvel comic Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers. Here's a step-by-step snapshot of the various stages, because I've recently been asked about such things.

First I did a couple of roughs...



The one selected for developing into a fully-rendered cover was the second one, so I then drew it in pencil on a piece of letter-sized paper.


Finally, I scanned the pencils and blew them up to finished art size, printed them out as a blueline (light blue lines which can be inked without reproducing, so only the inked lines are visible), and inked everything with a No 2 sable brush and a Hunt 102 dip pen.


Ta-dah! Wyatt Wingfoot's your uncle.

When Worlds Collide

It's been a while since I posted one of my illustrations for Inside Soap magazine, so here's one I did this week with a vague connection to my current comics work. The scenario was suggested by the editor and I'm pretty sure he's not aware that I'm doing Muppets and vaudeville puppetry elsewhere, so this is a complete coincidence. But it felt nice to think that all my work had a kind of thematic coherence for a brief moment.


Always with the puppets, Langridge. You want to get out more.

Oh, yes - while I think of it, it looks like the first of my Captain America short stories is out now, in Marvel Adventures: Super-Heroes #8. Lead story scripted by Scott Gray, backup scripted by me, all beautifully drawn by Craig Rousseau. Further installments to appear at three-month intervals, so I think that makes the next one issue #11. Anyway, cover reproduced below for your convenience.


Coming up in the next installment: PRODOK! How's that for a teaser?