Scud the Disposable Assassin #21 and #23

(click on image to enlarge)

(click on image to enlarge)

(click on image to enlarge)

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.