Monday, February 27, 2012

Entry 139: Astonishing X-Men #50

"WHAT IS WITH THESE X-MEN COVERS, MAN? Where is S.H.I.E.L.D. # 5?... I needs my Shield V2 #5, man. I need it! I NEED MY FIX!"

That was the voice of an imaginary Shield fan in my head who really likes Shield. To him I say: "Hang in there, ol' chum. You'll get your Shield V2 #5, and it's going to be so good. It's going to make you forget there was ever a time when you didn't have Shield V2 #5. In fact, it's going to make you forget ALL your problems."

Does such a fan really exist? I don't know.

There is another Shield fan that lives in my head and he sounds something like this:
"Shield? Oh yeah, I remember that book. I liked it. Whatever happened to that? Hey look, A SQUIRREL! Did you see that? He ran right up to me! I totally could have grabbed it. I'm pretty fast, you know. I once snatched a fly right out of midair. I immediately let it go because it grossed me out, but still. Hey look, A FLY! I'm going to catch it!"

To that fan I say: "WHAT? Hey, I'M STILL HERE! SHIELD IS COMING! IT'S COMING! Hold on! It's coming, you dummy! Oh, you stupid, stupid dummy. YOU'RE NOT GOING TO CATCH THAT FLY! JUST COME BACK! Great, now your chasing the squirrel again. Jeez!... That's  it, he's gone! What do I do now? Maybe Shield needs more flies and squirrels in it. Yeah, that's the answer."

Oh, you guys. I amuse myself.

Anyway, the answer to where Shield is has to do with the fact that Jonathan Hickman has a lot on his plate. You might have noticed that Marvel is - in love with him. They love him! They've got him writing a lot of things and some of these things are tied in with big events and they've got him co-architecting the whole Marvel Universe along with his fellow "Marvel Universe Architects". They're apparently building some kind of structure with domes and columns and a complicated system of structural supports... but with super heroes punching each other. Shield has been put on the back burner for a little bit, as it is not really tied into these bigger plans.

I'm totally cool with that. I'd prefer for Jonathan to be able to dedicate some focus to writing these last two Shield issues rather than squeeze them in and have the writing suffer for it. And Marvel has been really cool about it by giving me some cover jobs and even an X-Men issue to work on while I waited on script.

Here's a little sneak peek at that X-Men issue-
 I'm trying something completely different with this stuff. It's a lot of fun! I think this is going to be a very unusual X-Men issue... So, there's that to look forward to.

What else? I'll have some more covers for you guys to see soon.

Oh and the cover in this entry is my cover for Astonishing X-Men #50. That's right, I like drawing buildings... That's not really accurate. I actually like drawings of buildings, so I draw them despite how unpleasant it is to do so.

Here's that cover with Rachelle Rosenberg's colors followed by some sketches for alternate versions of this cover.


Blogged and blogged

17 comments:

  1. Man, i love your art. Your Northstar rule!!!

    One question

    Do you like Northstar or is only a coincidence you draw him on a few comics (nation x and astonishing x-men)

    and a comment: the star on the hip is on the wrong side that is aurora's star side.

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    1. Thanks, frinaldi-
      Damn, I hadn't noticed that Northstar's star was on the wrong hip. I can't remember what image I was going off of for reference. It seems like his costume is constantly changing in little ways and I'm always getting something wrong.
      Northstar being a regular on my X-Men covers has just been a coincidence. He's been a focus in the issues themselves, so the editors have asked me to include him on the covers. I don't mind drawing him though.

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  2. Northstar seems very much in the center, do you get any sort of direction on where he should be on the page?

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    1. In the case of this cover, yes. They wanted Northstar to be the focus. He was also the main hero on the last cover as well. And wait till you see the next cover... I hope you're a Northstar fan. Actually, I'm super excited about the next cover.

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    2. Yep, Northstar and Gambit are my faves, looking forward to the cover.

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    3. Me too. I like Northstar since the cameos on the 90´s x-men.

      when will you post a preview of the cover? (astonishing x-men 51 is it?)

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    4. BTW: do you have a deviant art page?

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    5. OMG:

      http://www.icv2.com/articles/article_image.php?ig=20587

      WILL Northstar be married?

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  3. Here's the blog comment Aaron McConnell tried to leave here but couldn't so just e-mailed it to me...

    POST: That new technique is working well for you, Dustin! And I imagine you're making your colorist quite happy doing all the heavy lifting with the values;) Glad to see you "back in the saddle" again. I'm a fan of this blog! (I do miss Lucy's corner, but we all know you can't force poetry...and now I imagine you standing over Lucy with a belt saying, "No more excuses! Daddy wants a poem!")

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    1. Thanks for missing Lucy's Poetry Corner. I was wondering if anyone liked that feature as much Is I did. Yeah, Lauren , I mean Lucy, hasn't been into the magnetic poetry as much lately. Apparently she has more important things to do. What could be more important- I say.

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  4. Just put in an order for the poster. Now if only Marvel would be kind enough to do the same with the previous AXM's you've done...you're really knocking these out of the park.

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  5. Yes ,that SHIELD fan is me :( I have been waiting for soooooooo long :( When is it coming out?

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  6. The cat is out of the bag:

    SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    http://www.newsarama.com/comics/the-view-gay-marriage-northstar-x-men.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed28Newsarama.com)

    http://i.newsarama.com/images/AstonishingXMen_51_Cover.jpg

    Dusting weaver, you are my hero!!!! i just need some sketches and i´ll be even more happy.

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  7. Hahaha. Thanks, frinaldi. I'm glad you approve. I'll be doing an entry about the wedding cover a.s.a.p.

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    1. I LOVE IT!!!! some of my favs x-men (Long live the queen STORM :D) are here and everyone look so happy (even aurora). I CAN´T WAIT TO JUNE!!!! I´m hopping it will be made a poster.

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