Monday Morning Pickled Sketch

I got the urge to sketch during today's morning meeting, so I drew this..... I just penciled some random circles and then started cross hatching. I was not really sure what I was drawing.........


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...... then I added some color..........


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Enjoy,

Jack

WOLVERINE ON THE CRAPPER

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Here are the original pencil and ink drawings of Wolverine on the Crapper I created for Wizard Magazine. I really haven't thought about this version of the drawing for quite a long time, I really wasn't sure if I had still kept this art in my archives. So, tonight I decided to do a little digging around in my art pile to see if I could find it. After about a half-an-hour of searching, I was able to find both the pencil drawing and the ink drawing......

When I drew this version of Wolverine, I was so sure that Wizard was going to use it, I went from pencils to inks and then to color without getting editorial approval. To my amazement, Wizard wanted something completely different, a more calm, exhausted and worn out from taking a dump Wolverine..... I was a little disappointed that they did not want to use this version because I thought this version had a little more humor and action in it.... reluctantly, I went back to the drawing board and came up with the version you see in the "Wizard Magazine #200" post below.

Enjoy,

Jack

Great Review on Scud the Disposable Assassin #23

Another great review by Michael Goldberg from "Criticize This". Michael always seems to give a well informed and educated opinion about what he reviews.

Enjoy,

Jack

Wizard Magazine #200

Many years ago..... about 1998 or 1999, I was hired to illustrate various comic illustrations for Wizard Magazine. I was usually called upon to illustrate the more "humorous" comic illustrations to run with their articles or features, I was also called upon to illustrate a lot of Pokemon characters (let me tell you, there were a lot of them) for their sister magazine "IN Power".

A couple of months ago, I was contacted and interviewed by Wizard Magazine for a feature they were going to be running in their 200th issue. This feature was about the best artwork they had ever commissioned for their magazine. I was honored to have three of my illustrations choosen for the feature. Below are the three images that they picked.
Also, pictured below is the Kevin Smith illustration with glasses that I had originally submitted first to Wizard. I thought that the image with the glasses captured the likeness more than without the glasses. But the editors at Wizard disagreed, and I was directed to remove the glasses for the article.

I have talked about the "Wolverine on the Crapper" and the "Bugs and Homer" boxing illustration in my past blog postings, so I won't go into detail about those here.....

I really miss doing those illustrations for Wizard Magazine, I had a great time drawing the popular characters in many odd and funny situations. I am also very proud of the fact that I am one of the few that has actually gotten paid for drawing Wolverine taking a shit.


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Enjoy,

Jack

Scud the Disposable Assassin #21 and #23

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Now appearing at a comic book store near you are issues #21 (2nd printing) and #23 of Scud the Disposable Assassin. I contributed the cover art for the 2nd printing of issue #21 and also contributed a pin-up for issue #23.

The black and white illustration was completed first. Rob Schrab asked if I would be interested in doing a pin-up for one of the new issues, and I was more than happy to provide an illustration. When I came up with the idea, I wanted to somehow create an image that incorporated the feeling I get from looking at all of the old "Ultraman" pictures and television episodes. I was also very aware of Rob's affection towards Ultraman and his favorites being the episodes that are dubbed. Taking all of that into consideration, I thought that I would do the illustration in sort of a movie-poster style using an iconic pose for Scud that was pure Ultraman and then working in my Cheerleader character that has been with Scud in all of the illustrations that I have done of him so far. I also asked my wife to translate things like "sureality just got funky", "Scud the Disposable Assassin" into Japanese. She said it would be difficult to get an exact translation, but she would give me something that would be very close to the same meaning.

About a month after I sent the image to Rob, he asked if I would be willing to create a color version that would be used for the cover of the 2nd printing of issue #21. I got to work, colorized the image and did some re-illustration on parts of the image. I also wanted to make sure that we kept all of the Japanese text on the image. I thought that it would be "authentic" to keep that kind of thing intact in the image.

So, after all of that work...... both of the images are still basically the same thing, the only differences are:
.....One illustration is in black and white and the other illustration is in color.
.....I changed the color illustration by replacing my "Cheerleader" girl character with Rob's character "Black Octopus". (The thought behind this was that would give the cover image more relevance to what was going on in the series.)
.....Adding the large Japanese version of the Scud logo behind Scud.

I had a lot of fun illustrating this. It suddenly hit me that it has been over 10 years since I was working in comics industry full time. Once I started working in advertising industry, I really haven't had the time to do comic work. It was really nice to do something like this again and the best part was getting to work with Rob again. As Rob said, "it was great to get the band back together".

Thanks again for the opportunity Rob!!!

Enjoy,

Jack

P.S. I just finished working with Rob doing the design for the Scud the Disposable Assassin Omnibus, "The Whole Shebang!". The book is going to be beautiful and I promise that you will not be disappointed. Make sure you buy both the softcover and hardcover versions that will be coming out in June 2008 (hopefully in time for the San Diego Comic Con) from Image comics. This is going to be one GIGANTIC book containing all 24 Scud issues, Drywall: Unzipped and Black Octopus: Sexy Genius.

Also, I have been fortunate to see the ending of the Scud series. I just have to say that Rob has written a wonderful ending that will definitely satisfy the most die-hard Scud fans. It will even tug at your heart strings while you are reading it. Definitely a great ending to a great series.