Wizarding Wednesdays: The Boy Who Lived

This time is the eponymous hero himself, Harry Potter. Yeah, he's whiny, but he's a teenager. Teenagers are whiny. Plus his parents got murdered. Cut him some slack, why don't you?

True Grit Drawing #5: A saucy manner does not go down with me

Liz and I watched the new Coen Brothers version last night. I got it for my birthday, and hadn't seen it since its opening weekend at the theater. Though I had the actors present in mind while reading the book, I was not prepared for how strikingly different the film version of the characters would be from my interpretation of them, at least in delivery and mannerisms.

TRUE GRIT #1: Everything is Against Me

This week: TRUE GRIT! Also, probably, Sherlock Holmes. I did a bunch of Sherlock Holmes drawings, and as I'll be seeing the new movie tonight with a batch of comic folk I may be in a Sherlocky mood. But I've just read Charles Portis' TRUE GRIT, then reread it as an audiobook (wonderfully narrated by Donna Tart), and am on road to reading it again, between rereading my Annotated Sherlock Holmes. TRUE GRIT is a darn fine book, and I'm not ashamed to say that it was the Coen Brothers' excellent adaptation that finally got me around to reading it. It's becoming a favorite, and my first pick as a gift for any preteen girl relatives who like reading (I just gave up one copy, and ordered a couple more in reserve).

 Anyway, I did a batch of pictures of some of the characters, based as close as I could to the descriptions offered in the prose, and figured on posting them up.

Wizarding Wednesdays: Hagrid (a 20-Minute Color Sketch)

As part of my (kind of) new 20-minute color sketch challenge, I'm gonna be posting a Harry Potter character every wednesday for the forseeable future. So why am I posting it on Monday? Because I'm visiting family and haven't taken the time to do anything BUT Harry Potter characters, and I didn't want to leave the blog undone. I'm gonna post this'n, and maybe something else Wednesday, and then by Thursday or Friday I'll be back on a regular schedule. Also, I went to a great charter school in North Carolina this morning and had a lot of fun talking to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.

20-Minute Color Sketches: Teen Boxer T.R.

Today's sketch is one of my very favorite historical figures! 

20-Minute Color Sketches: Sherlock

If you're not watching the new(ish) BBC series Sherlock, you should be. I wouldn't have expected a modern Sherlock Holmes series to be true to the subject matter (of which I've been a huge fan since reading an abridged version of Hound of the Baskervilles in first grade), but the series is, along with the first season of the Jeremy Brett Granada TV series, the most faithful to the Doyle stories, and easily the most fun. It's on Netflix Instant, so there's no reason NOT to watch it. You folks who enjoy TV Mysteries or procedurals, I GUARANTEE you'll like this one. Promise me you'll watch it if you haven't already.

20-Minute Color Sketches: Santa

Ho Ho Ho!

20-Minute Color Sketches: Mudman

Today's 20-minute color sketch took 23 minutes. Sorry. I gotta get back on the ball, and quit being so ambitious with the compositions.

Today's sketch is of MUDMAN, Paul Grist's new comic series. It's fun so far, and I have high hopes for the series. Grist has two other projects with which I'm familiar - Jack Staff and the oh-so-very-very-good police drama Kane - and they're both top notch, leading me to always want to check out what he's working on. He also did a great story in that Anniversary issue of Captain America last year.

Click image for a slightly bigger version

Anyway, I don't know if Mudman has the power to thrust his arm into the mud and make a giant mud hand come out and grab people, but I sure hope so. Also, as some folks asked for it, here's a group shot of the ewoks from last week.

Click it for a high-res version. Don't sell it or anything, but otherwise do whatever you want with it.

ADULT BARTENDER KANEDA FOREVER

20-Minute Color Sketches: Robocop

This will probably be the last 20-minute sketch for the next week or so... I'm doing 13-16 hours a day of inking, which doesn't leave the half-hour (which includes doing updates like this) required for 'em. On the plus side - I'm still on schedule to be done at the end of November! 34 pages to go!

20-Minute Color Sketches: Some Old Cowboy

Another 20-minute sketch, this one an old cowboy. I threw a color hold over the line art because I like the way that looks when Dan Hipp does it, and I figured ‘d give it a whirl.

Speaking of old cowboys, I watched the second episode of AMC’s “Hell on Wheels.” The first episode was truly awful, but the second one was not too bad. I’ll give it four episodes, I think - if it continues to improve, I’ll likely keep watching. I’m a sucker for Westerns.

20-Minute Color Sketches: Watchmen

Another 20-minute color sketch: Watchmen! Or as many of them as I could do in 20 minutes without reference. Alan Moore's basic thesis when writing Watchmen was that if superheroes existed in a "real world" they'd all have to either be delusional or sociopaths, and it would be impossible to escape the adult themes that, once introduced, would tear the narrative's world apart. Everybody reads it and thinks "hey, let's write superheroes as if they existed in the 'real world' and introduce adult themes!" It's like when Upton Sinclair wrote that book to get people to concern themselves with the horrible working conditions for children in the meat-packing industry, and everybody was like "ew, look what's in a hotdog," only worse.

20-Minute Color Sketches: He-Man

Today's sketch: The Master of the Universe...

Today's the last day of school for the year. I love teaching and I love working with my students, but I also love uninterrupted studio time and wearing shorts, so these breaks are always welcome.

20-Minute Color Sketches: Wolverine vs Sabretooth

When I was a kid, I had Marvel trading cards and some of 'em depicted "famous battles." This is like that, only quicker. 

20-Minute Color Sketches: Abe Sapien

Here's another of those quick sketches. Drawing and coloring both, I'm putting a cap at twenty minutes max for these. That'll ensure that I can produce at least one a day without infringing on my CROGAN ADVENTURES work. So know that you can check in every morning (barring the ones where I'm out of town at cons and the like) and there will be a new drawing up, like this one, ABE SAPIEN:

Abe is, of course, from Hellboy and B.P.R.D., hands-down my favorite serialized comic.