SCUD: The Disposable Assassin

Back in 1993, before I started working professionally in the comic book industry, I made my first of many trips out to the San Diego Comic-Con. I had spent a couple months preparing my very amateur portfolio so I could hand it off to prospective comic book companies at the convention. I had an agenda of comic book publishers and artists that I wanted to meet. One of those publishers was Fireman Press, the publisher of Scud: The Disposable Assasin. I didn't really have any idea how big of a publisher Fireman Press was, but I figured if they were able to put out a book they might have a position for me. So, I dropped off my portfolio with someone at their booth and I went about my day meeting with all of the other people on my list.
The next day I decided to go back to the Fireman Press booth to see if I could meet the artist of Scud, Rob Schrab. Fortunately, he was there and I was able to talk him into doing a sketch of Scud for me. I paid him $20.00 and he told me to come back later to pick up the sketch. I stopped by a couple hours later and waiting for me was a beautiful sketch of Scud leaping off of the page. Rob really liked the sketch he had done and asked if I would send him a copy of the drawing. I quickly ran over to the Kinkos which was located in the lobby of the convention center, made a copy and brought it back to their booth. Rob seemed pleased that I got him a copy and that was the last I saw of the Fireman Press guys during the convention. The sketch that Rob did for me eventually was turned into the Scud poster "It's Cool to be a Robot".
About 2 months later, I got a call from Rob Schrab asking if I would be interested in doing a pin-up for an upcoming issue of Scud. I was very excited and honored to have been asked. This was a very exciting time for me in my comic art career, all of the companies that I had met with started to contact me and offer me work.


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The image above is the first pin-up that I did for Scud. It appeared in Scud #8. I came up with the idea while I was working at my one night a week job at the local comic shop. I scribbled the idea on the back of Chick-filet napkin.

A couple months later I was asked if I would like to color the 2nd printing of Scud #1. Scud was primarily a black and white book with color covers. Rob wanted to provide the fans a little something extra by adding color to the 2nd printing. Rob provided me the color guides, and my coloring assistant Eric Wiese and I got to work. We had to remove all of the zip-a-tone from the pages in order to do the coloring, so there was a lot of prep time with the 27 page book. We had a real good time working on this project and we were very happy with the final product.


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The image above is the pin-up I provided for the color reprint. This is the first appearance of the "Cheerleader" character that I always seemed to draw in the pin-ups I did for Fireman Press.

Next up on my plate from Fireman Press was to color "Drywall: Unzipped!". At this time in my life, I had just been offered a full time position at Chaos! Comics and was in transition between closing down my coloring studio and moving to the Chaos! compound in Scottsdale, AZ. I had lost my coloring assistant Eric Wiese to the world of animation, so I ended up coloring this book by myself. Half the book was colored in Denver, and the other half of the book was colored down in Scottsdale.


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The image above is the pin-up I provided for the Drywall issue. I was really happy how this one turned out. Drywall is one of my favorite characters of the Scud universe. I had a great time coming up with an image to draw of Drywall and my cheerleader character together.

After Drywall, I was asked if I would be willing to draw "The Drywall and Oswald Show", a two issue mini-series. At first it looked as if I would have been able to draw the series, but it ended up that my obligations at Chaos! made it impossible to do the book. Fortunately, they were able to get Trent Kaniuga, the artist and creator of the comic "Creed" to draw the book.


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The image above is the only page I was able to pencil for the book. They used these pencils as "teaser" art to solicit the series.

With my workload at Chaos! my time became very limited and I was only able to work on covers and pin-ups for Fireman Press.


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The image above is from the cover of "The Drywall and Oswald Show" #2. Rob provided me a color guide and the direction of "make it look like the beginning of the Scooby Doo cartoon".


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The image above was for "Tales from the Vending Machine" #5. The art is by Jorge Pacheco the color is by me. If I remember correctly, he was an artist for the "Garfield" comic strip.

It has been about 10 years since I have talked to Rob and the Fireman Press crew. Rob had moved from Milwaukee and the chores of writing and drawing Scud to Hollywood to focus on his career of being a famous writer and director of television and movies. About two months ago, I noticed an announcement on the comic news website "Newsarama" that stated that Rob had decided to finally finish the Scud story by writing and drawing issue #21, the final issue of the series. I immediately sent Rob an email to see if he needed a colorist for the cover. He responded saying that he hoped to do the coloring himself..... but it would be fun to "get the band back together".
Currently, Rob is writing and directing the "The Sarah Silverman Program" for Comedy Central. So, his busy schedule was not going to permit him to color the cover image and I was fortunate enough to receive an email from Rob asking if I was still interested in doing the color. My answer was a big YES!


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The images above are a "before and after" of the cover art for the new "Scud OMNI-BOOK". Rob did a very kick ass job on the black and white art giving me a wonderful structure to apply my color work. This new Scud book will reprint and collect the first 20 issues of the Scud series, it will also include the brand new issue #21!!! it should also have a reprinting of the Drywall: Unzipped! issue in black and white.
Look for the new and exciting Scud OMNI-BOOK this summer, coming to you from Image Comics.

For more information, please go to Rob Schrab's website:
Rob Schrab