Entry 149: Uncanny X-Men #14

UNCANNY X-MEN #14      BOOOOM!

That's right, 13 year-old me. You did it. You have now drawn an Uncanny X-Men comic. You're a winner, dude. A winner. Start shitting your pants with happiness now, bro. You earned it. 

Actually, everyone, I have to get something off my chest. 13 year-old me isn't with us anymore. He's dead. I killed him about a year ago. That dummy just had some stupid ideas and he had to go. There is no 13 year-old Dustin anymore. THERE IS ONLY 33 YEAR-OLD DUSTIN NOW! LAHAHAHAHAHAUGH LAHAHAHAUGH!  (THAT'S HOW I--I mean--That's how I laugh now-- by saying "lahahahaugh.")

The issue comes out on 6/20/2012. If you are reading this the day I post it, that's next week it's coming out! Mark it on your calendars.

Here's "superartist" Stuart Immonen's very nice cover for the issue.

 As you can see, this is not your typical X-Men comic. No, this is an all Sinister issue. The story stands on its own. I took a totally different artistic approach, and it's weird.

I think, even if you are not an X-Men fan you could enjoy this issue. In fact, if you are a reader of this blog, and you like my work at all, you should definitely check this issue out.

After S.H.I.E.L.D. #4 it was decided that we would take a hiatus till Johnathan could find the time to focus on the scripts for issues 5 and 6. So the editors at Marvel were cool enough to keep me working by giving me things like the Astonishing X-Men covers and that Castle cover and also this Uncanny X-Men issue.

At first I was a little bummed. I was so pumped to be wrapping up Shield. When I finished issue 4 I was ready to charge into issues 5 and 6. I've really enjoyed the series, but reaching that finish line was so exciting. I want to have that compete collected Shield book in my hands. So finding out that I wasn't going to be reaching that finish line for a while was a real bummer. Switching gears and mustering up the enthusiasm for a different project seemed impossible.

Kieron Gillen's script for this Uncanny X-Men issue was good, but it was also a story that was going to require a lot of hard work. There was a lot of world building, designing, and period reference to be done. (Like Shield actually. Maybe that's why they gave me this script.) Luckily, it had a pretty far out deadline. So I had the time to put the work in. It also presented an opportunity for me to try something different artistically.

 I decided to not ink it, to just leave it in pencils and render it with gray tones in photoshop. I've been wanting to do a comic this way and this was my chance. I learned a lot by doing this. I learned some new methods for getting what I want out of photoshop, and I also learned some things about the ways that I create forms and how I can do them better. It was also loads of fun! It felt good doing away with the sometimes tediousness of inking and getting instead to feel the pleasure of creating a more complete image where I've determined every lighting and composition choice.

Here is a page that I like with colors by Jim Charalampidis.

 I think Jim handled working with the gray tones really well and the result is a look that I really like.

You can see a preview of the first 3 pages with color and text here.

And I will be giving you some S.H.I.E.L.D. news soon! People keep asking me about it. It's not cancelled. It will be coming back.

Thanks for reading all of this... RIP 13 year-old Dustin. You meant a lot to 30 year-old Dustin, but you had to make way for 33 year-old Dustin. Don't worry, 45 year-old Dustin will be Frankensteining you back to life... I'm going to see if 22 year-old Dustin wants to get a drink. He could use it.

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