Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Entry 131: S.H.I.E.L.D. Vol2 #3


HEY!-
It's me, Dustin Weaver. I got back from the New York Comic Con the night before last and I'm still recovering. I had a fantastic time. I want to tell you all about it, but first I gotta talk about S.H.I.E.L.D. Vol2 #3.

IT'S OUT.

I wanted to do a preview  last week but I was so busy getting ready for the convention I didn't have the time. Better late than never though, right? Besides, if you haven't gone out and bought it (and I bet many of you haven't) then I'm not to late. So, for those of you who haven't seen it yet, this is a preview. For those of you who have seen it, this is a post-view, And for those of you about to rock, we here at Dustin Weaver's Blog salute you. Me and my staff, that is. And for those of you who stopped reading this paragraph a while back, well done. Good call.

Preview time!

 What? More words? Sorry. I just wanted to say that the cover posted above is my variant cover for this issue expertly colored by our series colorist, Sonia Oback.

Here's Gerald Parel's amazing cover. (side note: Met Gerald in NY and he is a really nice guy. I couldn't stop gushing over his work. He's got a new blog dedicated to his art at http://geraldparel.com/ Seriously, go check his stuff out.)


 Since the book is out and you can go to your local comic shop and check it out in it's finished state I might as well show you some of the pages in their black and white state.

Here's Page 1


 Page 3



This issue was hard work. Nearly the whole issue is the Giant "Star Child" Celestial destroying the city with everyone trying to stop him. As you can see, this is detail heavy stuff. I was running myself into the ground trying to stay on top of the deadline with this one. On a few pages in this issue I ended up having to call in some back up. My buddy, Aaron McConnell, lent me a hand at drawing windows on buildings in a few shots. You're looking at some of Aaron's handy work in that second panel on page 3. I drew in all the buildings and let him put windows on most of them. It's not using his talents to their fullest. He's a talented artist and he was very cool for helping me out with such a tedious task. Check out Aaron McConnell's blog.

I've never used any assistance in my work. It's a new thing for me and it makes me a little uncomfortable. I think I only asked Aaron to help me on like 4 or 5 panels. I'm a control freak I guess. I should have used him more. Like on this shot.


Pages 16-17



I owe more than a little bit to Otomo.

Here are pages 5, 6, and 7




And here's page 10


If you're wondering what panels Aaron helped out with, they were Page 3 panel 2, Pages 6-7 panel 3, and Page 8 panels 1 and 2.

And finally here is my variant cover in black and white followed by the cover sketch.


Next time I'll do a post all about the New York Con which will include all of the commissions I did.

4 comments:

  1. Those pages are epic, Dustin!
    Man...hard work is understating it. Looks like you poured a ton of emotion into these pages.
    Otomo, yes, but I have to say, the sheer scale of this also brings to mind classic Kirby, when he was really killing it on FF & Thor.
    I think the changes in perspective work really well on these pages also. They have a great feeling of movement to them.
    I won't see the whole issue until Saturday, but...sheesh...this may top all of the great stuff you've done previously on this book.
    What do you think?
    That variant cover is gorgeous, too. Hell, I'd buy it if it was just the b&w version.
    (And I do love Parel's stuff, too. Can't they pair one of you guys with a crappy cover artist instead of each other?)
    Must crash now...I was all set to wind down, then I came here, saw these pages, & it was like a shot of triple-espresso.
    Thanks, man!

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  2. Hey Frank, Sorry for the delayed response. I just wanted to say thanks. I hope you liked the issue once you were able to get it.
    Yeah, Jack Kirby was certainly another big influence in this stuff, especially with how he captures scale. I mention Otomo specifically only because that 2 page spread with the celestial forming the energy orb around it is kind of a visual reference to the scene in Akira where Akira blows up the city. There is also some Big Guy And Rusty influence in this issue. I even looked at Moebius's Silver Surfer Stuff.

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  3. Question: do you know if your penciled Starchild saw an actually printed release?

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