Dustin Weaver

Entry 138: Back in the Saddle.

2012-02-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

Hi. It's me- Dustin. Thanks for reading this! You are a wonderful person. I mean, this is a whole blog entry you're embarking on by reading these first few sentences. Do you think you can make it to the end? Has the Internet completely ruined your attention span? Can you commit to anything?

Sorry. I don't mean that as a challenge or attack on you. It's really about me. I've been putting a lot of stuff on my Tumblr lately. (Most of it has appeared on this blog, some of it is new.) But it seems like a place that caters to low commitment and short attention spans. All you are expected to do is press a button that says "like" or not do that. I find myself looking at an image for all of 2 seconds and thinking- "yeah, it's good but... no like." It's fostering the most superficial evaluation of art. My positive spin on it is that it's gut level. It's a more true evaluation... but I don't know. Just because it's good doesn't mean that I'll like it, right? But, if I don't like something, how do I know it's good?

Is the internet evil? Do I have a spiteful bias against most things I see, or just good taste? Are all the people who are not liking my stuff doing it on a gut level and revealing the truth of it not being that good? What's going on? Who am I? Why are we here? Is there a god? And if so, can I follow her/him on twitter?

At any rate, if you are on Tumblr please follow me and, for god sakes, like my shit... You don't have to like my shit. Like it if you like it. I don't want to have to add to the list of questions in my head- "are they just liking it because I asked them to?" So like it if you like it.

Anyway, I'm back in the saddle again... Kind of redundant. "BACK in the saddle AGAIN." Makes it sound like I've been out of the saddle before. How bout this- Once again I've returned to being back in the saddle again. Do the math on that.

So yeah, I'm back to drawing again! I spent a few weeks there just taking it easy and I gotta tell you it was nice... Did you know that I have slippers? That's right. I've also got some very comfortable pajama pants. I have CASHMERE SOCKS! I didn't even know that. All of that, along with my bed and a borrowed Kindle Fire made those 2 weeks not bad. The pain killers were also good. There was a moment there where I thought- I could see why someone might want to do this all the time. But really, I'm super happy to be back to working. To be back in the saddle again, once more, for the 7th time.

The image above is my cover for Astonishing X-Men #49. It's the first thing I did after my 2-week break. I wanted to do a cover image that wasn't the ol' "running at you looking fierce" or the "standing there looking fierce" or the "jump attack on an unseen foe... looking fierce" (which was my cover for #48). If you look at the history of X-Men covers most of them will fall into one of those "fierce" categories, which, at best, only tell you who's in the issue. I ended up doing the "hero in danger at hands of villain" cover, which is just another super hero cover trope, but it's one with a bit more storytelling to it. The problem is that you just don't get a lot of info on what's in the issue when making these covers. It's hard to get specific with the storytelling of it, and make it a better, more compelling cover. You end up getting a lot of covers that are characters standing there, looking fierce, on a pile of rubble or rocks, with a dusty hazed out background... Which brings me to my cover for #50...

Till then-
blogged and blogged

Entry 137: gallbladder ATTACK!!!!!!

2012-01-05T22:17:00.000-08:00

Oh, hi. I didn't see you sitting there. It's okay, you're not bothering me. Sure I'll tell what's up with me.

Well, you see, it all started about 6 months ago. I was sitting there at my desk in Periscope Studio one bright Portland afternoon drawing my little heart out when out of the blue I was struck with the worst pain I've ever felt in all my life. At first it felt like a gas pain just under my ribs, but within no time the pain had grown to consume my whole abdomen through to my back. I twisted and stretched trying to undo the pain. I paced, I pressed my muscles onto the corner of the wall for a deep massage. There was no escaping it, there was no massaging it away. At that time I was under a very tight deadline. I was stressed. I had been working long hours and not sleeping much. I was essentially running on caffeine. I figured I needed rest.

That episode did pass within a couple hours and I went on with my life not thinking too much of it.

Months later it happened again. The circumstances were similar. Deadline, stress, tired, caffeine. This time it happened just as I was waking up and this time I threw my guts up. And I threw them up hard. Nachos. That's what I had eaten the night before. A big plate of cheesy black bean covered nachos with sour cream and jalapenos. And after a whole night of being in my stomach it was still recognizable. Gross, I know, but clearly my digestive system wasn't working right.

A friend of Lauren's had said she had had the same kind of pain happen to her and that it had to do with the gallbladder. When I had had only the one attack, I thought the gallbladder thing was a possibility but I didn't think much more about it. After the second attack, I took the idea more seriously. Then Travis Charest posted on his blog that he just got his gallbladder removed after a trip to the e.r. due to what he could only describe as "unspeakable pain".

That's when I realized, "oh shit, this could get real". And, my friends, REAL it did get.

2pm on New Years Eve- I was struck with that horrible gallbladder pain and what was a nice day became the crappiest of crappy times. I twisted, writhed, gritted, threw my guts up, whimpered, meditated, achieved a state of calm, threw my guts up again, decided to believe in god for someone to beg to, dry heaved, started sweating, felt the need to remove my clothes and climb onto the ceiling like some kind of gecko. At 6pm we decided to go to the hospital. Why did I wait so long? Well, I don't have health insurance, plus, I really wanted to wait it out so that I could go to Steve Lieber's New Years Eve party.

Lauren and I had our new years kiss in the e.r. while my head was swimming in dilaudid. I was in the hospital for 4 nights. I didn't eat during that time (unless you count a little chicken broth one night). I had a lot of pain meds, i.v. fluids, and watched a good deal of junk t.v. They found enough evidence to cut my gallbladder out and that's just what they did.

I hurt now. I'm spending a lot of time in bed. I'm catching up on seasons 1-4 of Doctor Who. (I've only seen seasons 5 and 6) And I'm really looking forward to hitting the drawing board again.

The piece at the top of this entry is the cover I recently did for Astonishing X-Men #48. I was working on the Astonishing X-Men #49 cover when this all happened to me. I was really happy with how it was coming out. I can't wait to finish it up so's I can show it to you.

Hopefully we'll qualify for financial help with the medical bills. You might see me start to sell off a bunch of artwork in the next few months. We'll see.

Now back to my aching abdomen, oxycodone, bed, maybe some tea, and Doctor Who.

Love
Dustin

blogged and blogged

Oh, here's the sketch I did for this cover.

Entry 136: S.H.I.E.L.D. Vol2 #4

2011-12-12T13:30:00.000-08:00

That's another great cover by Gerald Parel.

After this issue there are only 2 issues left and then we are done! SHIELD will be over. No more of Newton's shenanigans or Tesla's hijinks. I know it's sad, but it's true what they say: "all good things must come to an end" because if they don't come to an end they become bad things. Indeed, ALL things must come to an end, but the good ones knew when too.

But we're getting ahead of our selves. We still have 3 issues before it's all done, and the first of those 3 is out this week. S.H.I.E.L.D. Vol2 #4!

It's preview time, my babies.

This issue was done weeks ago, and, as I understand it, went to the printer weeks ago. I'm not sure why it's taken this long to come out. Is this issue coming out late or not? I honestly have no idea. All I know is that I worked super hard to get this issue done on the deadline. It was the hardest I've ever worked. Not because this was a hard issue to draw, but because the month of October was a complete cluster fu... love making... sesh. (I decided to clean up the language there. no reason) First of all everyone in my family was getting super sick. Lauren, my fiancee, got laryngitis. She actually couldn't talk for 8 DAYS! Then there was the NY Comic Con. This took up a big chunk of time. There was also my birthday. Lauren's kid's choir that she runs did a couple performances which means those are days I spend watching Lucy. Script for 15 of the 20 pages was late. Then I got sick again. It was horrible. There came a point when I had 2 weeks left on my deadline and very little drawn. I drew faster than I ever have and worked very long hours. It was hard!

Despite all that, I think it came out pretty well.

You may have noticed that I didn't put my variant cover at the top of this entry. Well that's because I didn't do one. It doesn't have anything to do with time constraints. It has more to do with not enough people wanting variant covers to justify creating them. It was kind of a bummer, but ultimately not that big a deal to me. It means I have some more time to put into the issues themselves, and we've already done a cover for almost all the characters in the book. Really the only person left to put on a variant cover is Leonid. I was saving him for last. There is still a possibility of there being a Leonid variant for the last issue. We'll see.

I did, however, do a sketch of a variant cover for this issue. Here's that sketch.

This would have been fun to complete, but it's still a lot of fun like this.

Blogged and Blogged

Entry 135: Blast From The Past- Part 10

2011-12-07T16:25:00.001-08:00

Oh hello! Dustin Weaver's blog here and that amateur looking page that I've posted could only mean one thing! It's time for another BLAST FROM THE PAST!!

This time we are heading all the way back to the year 2001. The days of bell bottoms and big hair, slap bracelets, hyper-color underwear, and the kids couldn't get enough of that rock and roll... No? Maybe it was just me then... Like no one else wore hyper-color underwear!

Read more! I promise it's not all idiotic.

Last time we did one of these posts I had gone to the San Diego Comic Con with a full portfolio and an open heart. I got a good response to my work but no jobs. I did make some good connections. And after the convention I got to work on submitting more work to those connections.

During that convention, in line to show my work to some publisher I met Camilla D'Errico, who has since become a bit of a big deal, but at that time was just like I was- trying to get work. She told me that she was going to do some stuff for a company called Committed Comics and that I should look into them as well. Months later I eventually did look into them and I submitted my work. I ended up agreeing to do 3 stories 10 pages each for them. They weren't paying, well there was some promise of a small percentage on the back end. Essentially money that probably wasn't going to happen, but I was desperate to draw comics so it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The first story I drew for them was a western. Here's a look. None of these stories were writen by me, by the way.

This work was sparse compared to what I had been doing up to this point. I wanted to use these stories as chances to take some stylistic departures from what I had been doing. With the western I wanted to do away with any hatched gray tones and just make it black and white.

The second story was a Sci-fi set in a virtual Tron-esque Internet world.

With this story I wanted to try out a kind of Moebius clear-line style.

The third story was about a kid who tries to become his favorite super hero's sidekick.

With this one I wanted to do something more cartoony.

I would delve into each of these styles more and more over the years and I feel like they, along with the Jim Lee influence and the Travis Charest influence, have become the foundation of my illustration vocabulary. There are a few things I do that you wouldn't find in these styles, but most of what I do can be traced to these.

Two of these stories were published by Committed Comics in a book called Threads. The Sci-Fi one wasn't.

This work is some of my leased favorite stuff I've done. I was stepping out of my comfort zone a little and I just wasn't as good at these other styles as I was with what I had been doing. But it was worth it. I think shifting art styles is a good thing to do. Broadening your artistic vocabulary means that you can say things that you couldn't if you were limited by your style.

Next time on "Blast From The Past" I get into drawing my first full 22 page comic. In fact, I'll talk about drawing my first 3 comics. It's going to be a big post!

Till then,
Blogged and blogged

Entry 134: Tumblr

2011-11-30T11:37:00.001-08:00

I'll tumble for ya. I'll tumble for you!

That's right! I'm now on tumblr! I did it. I'm branching out... a little bit.

I've been so resistant to all the social networking avenues. I did myspace back in the day and it was exciting for a second and then it made me real sad. So I never did that again. Never did facebook. Never did twitter.

My philosophy with my online presence has always been to give the people who know and like me something extra, NOT to try to get people to know and like me. I have not been using the internet for self promotion at all. This blog is not here to raise awareness of me and what I do. It's here for people who become aware of me and want to know more about me and see more of what I do. And believe me, I really don't get a lot of traffic here. I've kept a low profile and I'm totally fine with that. In fact, I've taken comfort in that.

But, as I look into the future, I realize that I will need to change my ways. In the not too distant future I'm going to start a web comic. I'm hoping I can get fans of my Marvel and Dark Horse work to follow me onto that, but if my blog stats are any indication of the interest that that fan base has in my online content, then my web comic wont do so great. So I think I need to branch out a little. Tumblr seems like a nice "little" step. It's really just a different kind of blog. We'll see what good it's worth.

It's actually going to be a load of fun! It will just be art work with almost no talking, and I'll be updating it like everyday! You'll see lots of stuff that wouldn't get put here.

So please check it out. It's called Dustin Weaver Draws His Little Heart Out. If you are on tumblr, please follow me:)

There you go.
Blogged and blogged.

Entry 133: Blast From The Past- SPYGLASS

2011-11-16T00:40:00.001-08:00

Hola. Bienvenidos a todos mis amigos hispanohablantes. La verdad es que no hablo español. Mi esposa es la que lo habla, y le pide que me ayudara a traducir todo esto. Espero que ella haya sido fiel a mis palabras y que no haya aprovechado esta oportunidad para hacerme lucir como un idiota. Ella puede escribir cualqier cosa y no lo voy a saber... Estoy empezando a pensar que esta idea no fue muy buena. ¡Yo no puedo leer ninguna parte de esto! ¿Qué dice? ¿Tonterías? ¿Mis secretos mas íntimas? ¿El opuesto exacto de todo lo que quería decir? Bueno, ¿sabes que? No lo puedo permitir. Lo siento mucho, mis amigos hispanohablantes, pero lastimosamente no puedo confiar en mi esposa. Estoy casi segura que me va hacer lucir tonto. Espero que les gusten mis dibujos. Si quisieran responder en español, está bien. Mi esposa me ayudará a leer lo que escriben. (Pero, es posible que a Uds. también les haga lucir tontos, uno nunca sabe.)

Okay! Back to English! That's right, folks, I was totally talking in Spanish up there. Bet you didn't know that I'm bilingual. Oh yeah! I'm all kinds of lingual. (If you can read Spanish, you'll know how full of Shit I am right now.)

Moving on!

Dig, if you will, the picture:

This is an oldie. I did this back in July of 08. I guess that makes this entry a "Blast From The Past" entry.

In my last entry I mentioned working with Rob Williams on a pitch. That pitch was called "Spyglass" and this image was part of that pitch. We had just finished working together on Star Wars Rebellion and we had just found out that Rebellion was no more. I was kind of in limbo. I didn't know what my next job would be. I was trying to be very careful about what I did next. I wanted to make sure I was taking the right steps for my career. I knew I could get work, but I wanted to make the right choices. Ultimately I took the job doing X-Men Kingbreaker for Marvel, but in that space of time Rob and I did this.

At this time, you might remember, AMC was working on their remake of The Prisoner and apparently they wanted to do a web comic to go with the show. It's kind of strange what they wanted. They didn't want it to connect or have anything to do with The Prisoner, continuity-wise. They just wanted something that was sort of like The Prisoner in tone and theme. Other than that they wanted an original idea. Rob somehow found out about this and asked me if I wanted to put a pitch together with him. I was, and am, a big fan of the original Prisoner show and was very excited by this idea. We started shooting ideas back and forth and ultimately had a story that I really liked and had had a lot of input on.

Here are some more concept sketches I did. I wanted to do a sci-fi world infused with 60's mod touches inspired by The Prisoner. It was going to be super fun. (These sketches were colored in Photoshop with a mouse.)

The people at AMC seemed to be really into it. We went back and forth with them for a while. Eventually I had to make a decision on what I was going to do next. AMC didn't look like it was happening and I took the job at Marvel drawing X-Men Kingbreaker.

In the end, I didn't feel too bad about it because the Prisoner remake that they did sucked, in my opinion, and I'm glad to have had nothing to do with it. But now Rob and I have this pitch that I think is really cool just sitting there doing nothing. I've held off on putting this stuff on-line thinking that maybe something would come of it. Maybe something still will.

Entry 132: NYCC Report

2011-10-23T16:41:00.000-07:00

ALRIGHT!
D-WE here, and this is my New York Comic Con report.

This was my first time going to this convention and over all it was a really great time, but I've come to a realization. I need to do this convention thing better. I'll explain, but first I want to point out that there are two sides to comic conventions. There is the show it's self and then there is the after show stuff.

The after show stuff consists of the dining, the hanging out, and the partying that happens each day after the show. I enjoy it because it's a chance to talk face to face with people that I've worked with and a chance to meet new people who are in the industry that I don't know and get to hear their perspective on it.

For the NYCC, I have to say that the "after show" aspect went great. I had diner and went drinking with my editor at Marvel, Nick Low. I finally got to meet Rob Williams in person, who I worked with on Star Wars Rebellion and the Indiana Jones comic (before I was kicked off it) and who I even co created a pitch with. (I'll have to post more about that some day) I got to hang out with my ex-colorist on Shield, Christina Strain, who introduced me to Adrian Alphona, who is really nice and really talented. He and Christina did an art book together that is soooo pretty. And during the show I took a little time to step away from my table to meet Gerald Parel, the cover artist on Shield, who was way to humble for how good he is. I wish we could have hung out more. I want him to teach me how to do what he does. As for people I met that I didn't know before. It would be impossible for me to name all of them, but I will say that the best time I had was singing karaoke with Charles Soule, Jim Zub, and my buddy Jeremy Barlow.

So, the after show stuff was great. The show it's self was a different story. Not that the show was bad. It's an awesome show. It's just that I don't think I did a very good job doing the show. Everyone else in artist alley has these pretty banners with their art on them and stuff to sell. They've got fancy carrying thingies for their art supplies. They look so professional and prepared. They've got it down, while I'm sitting there with an old Crown Royal bag of dieing markers and a pad of paper as a drawing board. My heads down working on a commission that I took before the show. I do have a portfolio with some original art for people to look at, but none of it's for sale which disappoints people. So I'm not taking commissions, I'm not doing sketches, I've got nothing to sell, even if you know my work you wont know it's me because I have no sign, and since I'm so busy working, people feel guilty talking to me... What am I doing here? What's the point of me at this show?... These are the questions that I'm asking myself. And as person after person passes me by to look at somebody's stuff with a pretty banner I start asking myself, who cares about me? It's interesting how, in this state of mind, in this setting, everybody else's art looks so good. I look around at the banners and the prints and the stuff and I start thinking, is everyone in this industry better than me? What the fuck? How can so many people be so good? I suck! What chance do I have? My self confidence plummets. My mood spiralling out of control. Does this happen to other people? Is every creator going through this but just playing it cool? Will getting one of those banners help?

Here's a picture of me at my table. I shared a table with Jeremy. His half is the half with all the books and fun stuff for sale. Mine is the half with the sad dude behind it.

It really wasn't all bad though. I was able to pull myself out of the dumps a bit. With each commission that I finished and liked I was reminded that I can do this. Also, when I saw my Red Wing cover blown up huge on a banner over at the Image booth that made me feel pretty good. A banner of your work made by someone else is much better than one you made yourself, right?

So, in the end, everything was okay. I had a great time. The convention screwed with my head a little, but I recovered! I felt alright in the end.

I'm going to get one of those banners. I'm not sure what I'll put on it, but whatever.

I think the commissions I did turned out pretty good. Wanna see them? Well, okay.
Commission time!

Most of these were pictures taken with my crappy camera phone under bad light. So forgive the blurriness.

Asgardian Storm 9x12

Magneto 11x17

Isaac Newton and "The Star Child" 11x17

Newton detail


G.I. Joe's Dusty 9x12- I had photo reference for the tank and A-10

Batman 10x14.75- This was a thank you to my fiancee's aunt who let Jeremy and I stay at her place.

Magneto & Doctor Doom 11x17- This is a scan.

Phoenix 11x17- This is a scan

That's it.

Here's me at the top of Rockefeller Center.

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

2011-10-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

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.

Entry 130: New York, New York

2011-10-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

Start Spreading the News!
Hey, everybody-
Dustin Weaver here, you know the guy who "writes" this blog you're reading right now, just wanting to let you know that I will be in New York City this week for the New York Comic Con. (Also, what do you think of my new catch phrase, "start spreading the news." Catchy huh?) That's right, I want to be a part of it, and I will. I'll have a table in artist alley that I'll be sharing with my friend, Jeremy Barlow. We will be located at table L13. If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere. That location, L13, seems as good as any. I'll also be signing at the Marvel booth from 11am to 12pm on Friday.

Please come by our table and say hi. I'll sign comics. I'll have some comics I can sell to you. I'll talk to you. I'll be nice. I might be able to do a sketch for you, though my commission list is already booked up. Sometimes I can squeeze in some sketching. Jeremy will bath. It will be nice.

So come on by. Tell them that Dustin sent you, and by them I mean us. It will freak me out for a second until I remember writing this blog entry.

Anyway, I'm excited. These vagabond shoes are longing to stray! Same with my vagabond socks.

So, see you there!

Here's a page from SHIELD Volume 2 #3 which is out this week!

Entry 129: Mini-Blast

2011-09-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

Here's a mini "Blast From The Past" entry.
Last week's Periscope studio sketch challenge was "favorite Musicians". I didn't have time to participate in the challenge, in fact it would seem that no one had time to participate since there were no entries for the week, but it got me remembering this drawing I did of Lou Reed back in 2002.

I'm a big Velvet Underground fan. I got a best of cd in 1999 that I liked a lot, but in 2001 I got the box set and that's when I really fell in love. Around the time that I did this piece I was listening to them a lot. It was a pretty lonely time for me and listening to the VU was like hanging out with a good friend. There were times, in the middle of the night when the world outside my apartment was asleep and the light on my drafting table seemed like the only light in a sea of dark, where it felt like Lou Reed was singing just to me across time and through my headphones.

When I did this piece I had just bought my first set of Radiograph pins and I was so amazed with how fine I could now draw lines. This drawing was done in a 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 sketchbook.

Here's another musician piece from that same sketchbook done around that same time.

Elvis Costello was a big deal to me in high school. He's never had the kind of life changing impact that the Velvet Underground had on me, or like that John Lennon Anthology box set had on me. But I've always been a big fan.

That's it.
As my two year old daughter would say- "Catch you on the flippy, alligator."

Entry 128: Trekker and Dear Creature

2011-09-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

Oh, Man! I've got so many blog entries I want to do right now I don't know what to do first.
Here are the choices:

-"Sneak Peek of S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume 2 #3"- I put a lot of work into this issue and I want to show you what I did.

-"Blast From The Past -Part 10"- Going back to the year 2001. I get one step closer to my dream of becoming a comic book artist, but does a drug addiction nearly bring it all crumbling down. It doesn't. Or DOES it?... no.

-"My Favorite Things- Part 4: The Metabarons"- I talk a little bit about why I love the Metabarons, show you some pages, and highly recommend it.

-"I Read Comics- Part 1" This would be a new kind of post where I just talk about stuff I'm currently reading... I'm actually not to sure I want to do this kind of post. I nether want to do real reviews of the things I'm reading because it would take to long for me, nor do I want to scan pages from everything I'm reading... Maybe this could just be a feature I put into other posts where I simply state what I've read and give a very brief review. I don't know.

What else? I guess that's it. Let me know what you think my next entry should be.

At any rate, you might have noticed that there is an image at the top of this entry. "What is that image about," you might ask. "Why that there is a drawling of one Ron Randal's character, Trekker," I would answer because that's the way I talk. You didn't know that? Yeah I talk way different then I write. I'm a cowboy who doesn't know how to properly say the word "drawing". Anyways- TREKKER! A long time ago, or what I call "back in the day", Ron created the sci-fi bounty hunter “Trekker” in the pages of Dark Horse Comics. Through the years, the character has appeared in various short stories, her own Dark Horse series, and other independent, single-issue stories. Now Ron's bringing her back as a web comic! He's starting by posting the original stories in order, and then continuing with new adventures. I whole heatedly support Ron in this endeavor. And this week for the Periscope sketch Challenge the whole studio is lending it's support to Ron by doing Trekker sketches.

So GO. Reed Trekker. http://trekkercomic.com

And check out the other Trekker Sketch Challenge pieces here http://periscopestudio.tumblr.com/tagged/Trekker

Then there's this guy. Jonathan Case. Jonathan is another artist here at Periscope studio and his first Graphic novel "Dear Creature" is out on October 11th, it's going to be in stores across the country. Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Powells, comics shops, etc. And let me tell you, you should GET IT! Get it. I'm not joking around here. It's good stuff. Here just take a look at this-

This is the first page followed by a short sequence that happens a few pages in.

I don't know where Jonathan gets off being so good. And you know what else, he's really nice. He's genuinely good natured towards everyone and it freaks me out a little. You don't know this about me but I'm angry. I struggle with jealousy and resentment and I think that deep down everyone is just like me in that they have those same problems. They cover it up with politeness and they've restructured there mental processes to bypass the ugly stuff and appear to not have the ugly stuff but it's there, and I can hear it back there, behind all the nice, and it's screaming at me FUCK YOU!... But not with Jonathan Case. With most people I want to say cut the crap. Tell me what you really think. Give me the truth. Out with it. But with Jonathan, the niceness seems to be real. He's some kind of freak as far as I can tell. Ether that or he's got some sophisticated processes by witch he hides his ugly side. That's probably it. At any rate, I like him. I like genuineness. I trust him, I'm intrigued by him, and I resent him a little because he's Mr. Perfect and because he has written and drawn his first graphic novel and it's really good. Go buy it.

See more of Dear Creature here and learn more about Jonathan Case. http://www.dearcreature.com/

Entry 127: Interview, L'Enfant, Barlow

2011-09-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

If this is your first time visiting here: Hello and welcome. My name is Dustin Weaver I draw comics and this is my blog. I hope you enjoy it.

If you're a regular visitor: Hey... me again. Wanna see some more drawings? No? Well, I haven't got anything else. It's pretty much all I do.

Moving on!

-My first order of business: I recently did an interview at Multiversity Comics. Please go check it out! Multiversity Comics Interview
Let me know if I sound like a dick.

-Second order of business: SHIELD got a review on the Geek Dad blog, and they were very nice! That's a super great sight and you should check it out. You can find that review here Geek Dad's spotlight on SHIELD

-Third order of business: Speaking of being a geek dad, I suppose I qualify as a geek dad and I'm currently developing a project that draws a lot of inspiration from my daughter.

Jeremy Barlow and I are in the early stages of developing another short story for another Image anthology. Jeremy and I last collaborated on They'll Bury You Where You Stand!, a short western which appeared in the anthology Outlaw Territory volume 2. In that story we were ably to express our love for European comics and spaghetti westerns, and we continue our Euro comic love with this new short story tentatively titled L'Enfant D'Etoiles.
L'Enfant D'Etoiles well be an epic space sci-fi along the lines of books like The Metabarons- but with a baby. And yeah, my daughter is a big inspiration for this character.

Here's a look at the design for L'Enfant with different color schemes. Look at them. Tell me which one you like. I should say that though my daughter is a girl, L'Enfant is a boy... Well actually, one might assume he's a boy. I'm not sure if we'll be confirming that or not.

-Fourth order of business: (am I still doing this "order of business" thing) They'll Bury you Where You Stand! -you can now read in it's entirety right here on this blog. Check it out. You can find the link to the page on the right side

-Which leads into my last order of business: Jeremy Barlow has a new blog! Check it out. Obviously, he is a friend of mine, we collaborated on TBYWYS! and now you can find out a whole lot more about him. Jeremy Barlow's Blog!

On his blog you can read another short story that he did with Ben Bates, A guy I have also mentioned here on my blog.

Here are a couple pages from that.

Find more of Ben Bates's stuff on his sight at bbates.com/wordpress He's the best thing to happen to Sonic The Hedgehog comics in ever.

I'm still working on issue 3 of Shield v2. Jesus, is this a hard issue. When you see it I think you'll know what I mean. We'll talk more about it then, provided I survive it.

Entry 126- Starwatcher

2011-08-10T13:42:00.000-07:00

Brandon Graham has started a kind of redraw cover meme. He did a sketch of his own version of Moebius' famous Starwatcher piece and challenged other artists online to do the same. Here's the original Moebius drawing.

Here's a link to Brandon's blog Brandon Graham

And here's were you can see all of the different takes on the Starwatcher.

Entry 125: Edward Scissorhands

2011-08-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

This is a sketch I did as a birthday present for a friend, who is also my hair stylist... Is that the right term? Hair Stylist? It makes me sound fancy to say that I have a stylist... Barber? That doesn't seem right. Why do I picture an old man when I think of a barber?...

At any rate, hair cutting person, Edward SCISSORhands. See the connection. He's got scissors for hands and hair is typically cut with scissors. That's one of the things Edward Scissorhands, the guy with scissors for hands, does. He cuts hair. He also prunes hedges. You know what, just watch the movie. Also, go get your hair cut. If you haven't done those things then your just not going to get it.

She also likes Edward Scissorhands.

Entry 124: S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 is STILL coming

2011-07-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

I realized that in my last post I didn't say WHEN Shield #2 was going to be here. I only said that it was coming. Real good, Dustin. What a maroon.

Wed, August 3rd

That's the day.

2011 for you future people. You missed it, future person. Where were you? You're only just now reading about this? This is old news. Where you even born yet when this issue came out, future person? At any rate, I'm sure you can find it somewhere.

Hey, if all of you people who aren't future people want to become future people now, just read my old posts.

Check it out. Another preview. This time with words.

Entry 123: S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume II # 2 Is COMING!

2011-07-28T16:57:00.000-07:00

Hello, folks. How's it going? Are you doing good? What do you think of parmesan cheese? Somebody told me if I want to get more responses on this blog I should ask more questions. So, what's going on with you? See any good movies lately? What about crushed red pepper, you like that?

I'm not really trying to drum up more responses, but I do actually have a question for you. So this is a brand new blog. I'm still working on it, I guess... So what do you think? Is there anything that is just bugging you about it, something that looks bad. Should I change the fonts? Was it worth leaving live journal for. I'll tell you this, just 2 days after my last post on live journal a bunch of my LJ posts were spammed. That helped me feel justified in the move.

What do you think of the slide show thingies on the side over here on the right? I still want to make ones for my Star Wars stuff, X-men stuff, and even my King Kong stuff. Oh and I want to put all of "They'll Bury You Where You Stand!" on there too.

And what about SHIELD? Do you like SHIELD? Specifically SHIELD Volume II #2? You haven't read it? Well allow me to show you some pages from it. Actually, you know what, it's really not up to you. I'm going to show you the preview whether you like it or not.

Just click the "read more"... do it.

Thank you. Was that so hard.

Now, the preview

Here's Gerald Parel's freaking great cover!

Here's My cover with colors by Sonia Oback!

Here are some pages.

If you'd like to see some of these pages in black and white check out the SHIELD slide show on the right.

And finally, my gray tone sketch for the cover followed by an alternate version that I also really liked.

Entry 122: The Face of Leonardo Da Vinci

2011-07-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

This is a sketch I did a while back of my version of Da Vinci without the beard. I thought it would be interesting to see him this way.

With all the character designs in Shield I'm not really aiming for a true likeness to the real person. It would be a little pointless for most of these people anyway since the only depictions of them are paintings or drawings and are already another artists interpretation of them and they vary from image to image. So I've tried to create my own take on these characters, kind of in the way an actor playing a role another actor has played tries to create that role for themselves. Of course, I do research and get reference. I try to base my version on what there is for me to see, but ultimately they are my versions of these people. I think it helps to think of them that way. It means I can loosen up. I only have to stay consistent with myself. I don't have to continuously refer to photographs and I certainly don't need to achieve any photo realism.

With Da Vinci, the first image I thought of was this.

A self portrait he did as an old man.

The first drawing I did of Da Vinci was him as an old man, but as I learned more about what was needed for the series it became obvious I needed him to be younger. Here's a look at that very first sketch and then the younger version that came next.

This is almost there. The flying pack is pretty much unchanged from this drawing. From here I began to think of him as more heroic and powerful looking. One thing that helped me to think of him differently was this Ted talk.

After the first issue came out, because it dealt a good deal with the renaissance period, it called to some people's minds the game Assassins Creed. I have never played the game and I know very little about it. I did become aware of it when I was getting reference together for Shield, and I did find a lot of the designs inspiring. But I had not seen their take on Da Vinci until much later. It seems to be pretty different from the way I went with him.

When I saw this it made me insecure about the way I had approached Da Vinci's design. I was never aiming for historical accuracy, but this seems pretty different. Maybe I was way off.

Shortly after I saw that I found this manga all about the life of Da Vinci.

Their depiction of him is very close to my take on him. Though I can't reed it, this book is a great resource. Check out these scenes of Da Vinci and Michelangelo working hard to out do one another.

Their take on Michelangelo is different than mine, but I'm cool with that.

Then there's this, which had me questioning everything.

Just kidding.

Actually, here's a page from François Boucq's Pioneers Of the Human Adventure where he does a short story with Da Vinci. It's totally absurd and not meant to be historically accurate but it's really great.

Seriously this book is fricking great!

Entry 121: New blog!

2011-07-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome! to my new Internet home!
It'll take some getting used to, but I think it's going to do nicely.
I've moved everything over. It was an ordeal. I actually have a back log of posts I've wanted to do. So lets not waist any time. Let's just get to it.

Here's a piece I just did for the Periscope Studio sketch blog.

The subject for this week is Harry Potter.

I like Harry Potter. I've read books 4-7 and I'm looking forward to seeing the last movie. For me it's been good entertainment. But I never would have given any of it a chance if it wasn't for the Prisoner Of Azkaban movie. I guess it's where the story starts building into something bigger and gets more intriguing, but what really did it for me was the direction by Alfonso Cuaron. It's just good exciting movie making. The movies that have followed have been pretty good too, I especially liked Deathly Hallows Part 1, but for my money Prisoner of Azkaban is the best of the bunch. So, my piece is a tribute to that film.

These sketch challenge pieces are a lot of fun for me, and with each one I try something new. This piece was colored in a way that I've never colored before. There was no flatting done. I just rendered in gray tones and then threw some overlay layers on top of that. Also, the inking style is not something I to do to often.

Check out the other Periscope Sketch pieces here.

There you have it. First post of the new blog! I'll be putting up more soon.

Entry 120: THE RED WING

2011-06-14T04:52:00.000-07:00

Hi, friends-
Did you see that? The image that I put just above this bit of text you're reading now? Or are you like me, where you skip over all pictures and get straight to the words, the sweet sweet words. Well maybe you've never heard that a picture is worth a thousand words... I bet you feel foolish now. It's okay, you can easily scroll back up, view the picture, get you're thousand words worth, and meet me back down here.
So that image is a variant cover I just did for Johnathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra's new Image series The Red Wing. And I mean I JUST did it. I finished it just a second ago... It doesn't matter when you are reading this, it will always have been just a second ago. My finishing that image exists in a dimension of time that is infinite and just one second off from the dimension of time we exist in... Time dimensions. Doesn't m-theory include 11 dimensions of space. What about other dimensions of time... I'll have to look into that- whether or not there are other dimensions of time. I'll figure that out this after noon and get back to you. Easy.
I was excited to do this cover for my buddy and co-creator on Shield, Jonathan. This series is just my kind of thing. I like sci-fi and I have a real fondness for time travel, which this story has. It's going to be pretty cool I think. Plus I like any opportunity to do a complete image myself.
Here is the official press release:

Berkeley, CA – 13 June, 2011 – The debut issue of Jonathan Hickman's new creator-owned miniseries THE RED WING will welcome S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Dustin Weaver to the fold as he joins Hickman and artist Nick Pitarra with a special one-time variant cover.

"I'm fortunate in that I get to work with a lot of extremely talented artists, and one of my favorites is my partner in crime on Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D., Dustin Weaver," said Hickman. "When I asked him if he'd be willing to contribute a cover for our debut issue, and he responded with this little slice of heaven, well, we were all pretty excited."

THE RED WING #1 (MAY110423), a 32-page full color comic book for $3.50, will be in stores July 6. The Dustin Weaver Variant Cover (MAY118022) is available for order now.

But that's not all! There is more to this entry. There is this:

That's right, I drew Snow White.
This was for the weekly Periscope Studio sketch challenge. The challenge was simply "Disney Princesses." I'm not a huge fan of the Snow White film. There are other Disney films I like better, but Snow White is the most Iconic Disney princes, in the fact that she was the first but also in her design. The short black hair, the red, the yellow, the blue... She's Super Man basically. So based on the fact that she's such a great looking character design, I went with here. You can see all of the work from this challenge here.
That's it. Catch you on the flippy

Entry 119: My Work Space

2011-05-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

Check it out! This is my work space.

I've always wanted to do a post like this, where I put up a picture of where I work. But I've been putting it off because I want to paint the walls and get another book shelf and it's just not how I want it yet. But screw it, here it is as of right now.

If you're wondering what the things are that I have surrounding me at this moment, here is a guide.

1. Photo Copy of a page from Akira Club by Otomo.
2. Photo Copy of a page from Mad Woman of the Sacred Heart by Moebius.
3. Photo Copy of a page from Incal by Moebius.
4. Photo Copy of a page from Akira by Otomo.
5. Photo Copy of a page from Approaching Centauri by Moebius.
6. Photo Copy of a page from Wild C.A.T.S./X-Men by Travis Charest.
7. Photo Copy of a page from Brutus Magazine by Otomo.
8. Photo Copy of a page from The Long Tomorrow by Moebius.
9. Photo Copy of a page from Nasicaa by Hayao Miyazaki.
10. Photo Copy of a page from Mad Woman of the Sacred Heart by Moebius.
11. Photo Copies of pages from Space Girl by Travis Charest.
12. Print of a page from Fantastic Four Giant size Adventures #1 "Thing Thing" by me.
13. Print of Axe Cop pin up by me.
14. French pressed Stumptown Coffee on a cup warmer.
15. Double lamps so that I never have to see the shadow of my own hand.
16. Photo copies of all my Shield pages for quick reference.
17. Where the magic happens.
18. A bunch of Manga books.
19. Books that I did.
20. Masamune Shirow's Appleseed book 2 out for inspiration.
21. S.H.I.E.L.D. Hard Back and issue 1 of volume 2
22. Neon Genesis Evangelion Vol. 3 and 4 which I'm reading.
23. The Metabarons single issues 1-4 which I am re-reading.
24. A borrowed dvd set of Avatar the Last Airbender book 3. I liked it!
25. Vhs copies of The Prisoner show brought in to loan to Ben Bates.
26. Transformer Alternator toys: Rollbar, Ricochet. Mirage, Sunstreaker, and Prime.
27. Book shelf full of books that inspire me or that I've recently purchased.
28. My portfolio that I use to take pages home in.
29. Various art books and old sketch books.
30. A giant Chincha beetle from the Andromeda Galaxy.
31. My weapons of choice, a set of Rapidograph Pins.
32. Trash can.
33. Buddah by Osamu Tezuka vol.1-3 I've read vol. 1. Need to read the other two.
34. A snow globe with a pop art "BAM" in it. It was a gift From Jodi Picoult given to me during The Tenth Circle book tour.
35. Quimby The Mouse figure.
36. Window that looks directly at other office windows only 15 feet away.
37. Back to The Future Hotwheels DeLorean.
38. Metal Batwing toy.
39. Inky cup...?
40. Periscope Studio jerks... I kid.
41. Jeremy Barlow's Book shelf.
42. i-tunes

And if you'd like to see what's in my book shelf here you go.

I did my first ever podcast recently. I've debated whether I wanted to post about it here or not. I was pretty nervous about it and I felt really awkward. I don't think I did a very good job. But, what the hell, I'll go ahead and post it.

Here it is:
Comic Geek Speak: Talking S.H.I.E.L.D. with Hickman & Weaver
I promise to do better next time.

Entry 118: S.H.I.E.L.D. IS BACK!

2011-05-27T04:57:00.000-07:00

On JUNE 1 S.H.I.E.L.D. Vol 2 #1 hits stands!

We did the first 6 issues, which are now collected into the S.H.I.E.L.D. Architects of Forever hard cover, which has actually spent a few weeks on the New York Times best selling graphic novels list! Which I'm really excited about. Everyone reading this blog has bought it right? Please check it out.

So here we are starting another 6 issue run.

Gerald Parel's cover for this book is kick-ass and text on this cover says it all.

"The beginning of the end"
That's right, we will be ending this story with this 6 issues. Stuff is going to happen, shit is going to go down, it will also be hitting the fan. So hang on lady, we going for a ride!

Here are some preview pages

With this 6 issues we no longer have Christina Strain on colors. She did a really great job on the first 6 issues of this series and I'm sad that she's no longer doing it. I believe she's taking time off from coloring comics. I think she mentioned doing a web comic. I'm not sure. Once I know more I'll let you know, but I wish her the best of luck.

I can't tell you how important good colors are to a comic. A colorist can make or break a whole comic. Having my work colored by a new coloristis is a scary thing for me. There were a lot of e-mails back and forth between me and Nick, the Shield editor, about colorists and who would be right on the book, and I think we found just the right person for the job. Sonia Oback. She's so good and she's doing a fantastic job.

Here's another preview shot, just for you guys.

And here is the black and white version of my cover, followed by my sketch.

Entry 117: FCBD sketches

2011-05-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

I don't have as much to show you from this Free Comic Book Day as I've had in the past. Last year and the year before I spent the whole day signing and sketching. This year I was only there for a few hours, so I was only able to do a few sketches.

Still, it was a lot of fun.

I enjoyed signing the Shield hardback books for people. I also was doing quick head sketches in the inside of peoples books. Here are a few of those.

Here's a sketch that I like. It was for an Eve themed sketch book, as in: Adam and Eve.

And I did a few Star Wars related sketches.
The first is of Celeste Morne from Star Wars: Vector.
And the second is of Anakin and Obi Wan. I didn't have any reference on hand for this so I was winging it.

Aaaannnd... That's it.

Entry 116: Free Comic Book Day

2011-05-04T03:54:00.000-07:00

Hey! So, this Saturday is Free Comic Book Day and as you can see I will be signing at Things From Another World on Sandy Blvd here in Portland.

Check it out. Also signing at that location on free comic book day: My friends and studio mates Ben Dewey, Paul Tobin, Steve Lieber, Paul Guinan, David Hahn, and occasional studio mates Terry and Rachel Dodson.

But it doesn't stop there. Periscope Studio people will be signing all around the Portland area. Ben Bates will be in Beaverton, Ron Chan and my co-creator of They'll Bury You Where You Stand! Jeremy Barlow will be in Milwaukie.

You could run all around town and meet all of them.

So, I had a couple left over commissions to do from this past Emerald City Comic Con that I was finally able to get done.
Check them out-

I've been experimenting lately with creating screen tones in photoshop and printing them into a drawing and I'm really liking the results. I've always been a fan of zipatone and this is a way to accomplish that look in a fairly simple way.

Anyway, if your in the Portland area this weekend I hope to see you on free comic book day. Maybe I'll draw a sketch for you. It won't look as nice as what you see above, but it will be cool, I promise.

Entry 115: S.H.I.E.L.D. Architects Of Tomorrow!

2011-04-21T09:52:00.000-07:00

Hey, everybody-

Guess what comic I got today.

Yeah, yeah, Bakuman and Mister Wonderful, but what I'm actually talking about is the S.H.I.E.L.D. Architects Of Forever hard back!

Pretty exciting, huh? Check it out.

Every issue of SHIELD, so far, put together into one shiny slick book.

What's that? You want me to show some pages from Bakuman and Mister Wonderful? Damn it, I need to stop taking pictures of my books along side vastly superior books.

Speaking of which.
Remember this picture

Go Buy Outlaw Territory 2!

Check it out, we got mentioned on Fresh Ink.

That was my art they showed!

Here's what Ain't it Cool News had to say about mine and Jeremy's little story:

"Possibly the most whacked out, bug nuts story is “They’ll Bury You Where You Stand” by Jeremy Barlow and Dustin Weaver. This one takes the cake as far as the most hauntingly insane story of the first half as a stranger rides into town to save the day. Cliché? Sure. But what happens next certainly isn’t. Dustin Weaver’s unconventionally detailed panels make this story a standout. Just a fantastically warped tale!"

In that photo of the Outlaw Territory book you might have noticed a piece I was working on. Well here that peace all finished.

This is the cover of SHIELD Infinity.
I only did the cover of this one.

Here's the black and white version and the sketch version.

Thank you guys! Till next time.

Entry 114: My Favorite Things- Part 3: AKIRA

2011-04-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

After my last post, I thought it was time I did a "favorite things" post about the AKIRA manga series.

This is my third "favorite things" post, but the other 2 posts were really just warm-ups for this post, because my favorite thing, truly my very favorite comic ever-- there are a couple contenders but I'm pretty sure this one is the winner-- is Akira.

I first read an Akira comic in 1995 I think. I was in a comic shop called Bosco's in Anchorage, Alaska with my buddy DJ when he suddenly pulled down an issue of Akira from the shelf. We were both big fans of the movie, but I had no idea there was a comic. We were pretty excited about the find. Since he found it, he bought it, but I was able to read it before he took it home. It was one of the Epic Comics issues colored by Steve Oliff. I can't actually remember which issue it was, I think it might have been 29. Whichever issue it was, it blew my mind. It was clear to me that the story went far beyond what was in the film. I was so intrigued to know what was going on and I had this urgent need to go out and buy up every issue I could find. This was some of the most fun I've ever had collecting anything. I'd end up getting 1-3 issues each time I visited a comic shop. I read the series almost completely out of order. Each book I got filled in some hole in the story and each, without fail, rocked my world. I was so amazed by the consistent quality of both the art and the story and the epic-ness of it all. I can remember finishing each issue and sort of sitting there stunned. I was inspired, energized, even giddy. It changed my idea of what kind of comics I wanted to make.

Jesus Christ! just look at that spread!

This is just one of many iconic images in the series. From Kaneda's bike to the grotesque bloated baby Tetsuo, to Akira sitting on his broken throne, this book is filled with iconic imagery.

If you haven't read the manga series, you're probably at least familliar with the Akira film. You probably know the basic premise of the story. And the film and the manga both start in almost the same way, so I'm not going to get into explaining any of that. I'm just going to show you pages.

These scenes are ones I picked almost completely randomly. It's impossible to find stand-out scenes in Akira because, literally, everything in it is good.

Akira is known for its amazing cityscapes and scenes of epic destruction, but a lot of the scenes I like are the smaller ones.
Here's a really fun action sequence.

I really like how Otomo does action sequences. This is kind of a complicated bit of action to try and depict but he does it by taking his time and telling you exactly what you need to know.
Here's another cool scene.

I like how he cuts to Kei's point of view outside the window.
Speaking of cuts--

I love the cut away to the guy sneezing outside.

God damn it! I'm not even showing you how amazing this series is. You know that this book has the most amazing explosion sequences ever depicted EVER? That a satellite crashes into an aircraft carrier? That even the moon suffers massive destruction? You know that it's loaded with action, big and small? That it's crazy good?

Entry 113: Tsunami Relief

2011-03-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

The subject of this week's Periscope Studio sketch challenge is Japan. The idea is to have a week of pieces that we can auction off and have the proceeds donated to tsunami relief.

Edit-- This piece is now sold.
Check out other pieces up for auction from other Periscope studio members here. All of the pieces are for tsunami relief. (I might bid on Aaron McConnell's piece myself.)
And a big thanks to everyone who bid.

I had pretty much told myself that I wouldn't be participating in many more Periscope sketch challenges for a while because I need to be focused on work. But when the idea of doing a Japan week was suggested I was immediately on board. There are probably a lot of artists who feel this way, but for me this is a chance to give a little back to a country that has given me so much. Many of my greatest artistic inspirations are Japanese. Which brings me to the piece itself.

I considered doing a piece directly related to the tsunami and everything that's happened there but it seemed so depressing. I turned to the idea of Japanese pride. I thought about all of the amazing and super cool things Japanese culture has brought to the world. I actually felt as though Japan itself was going to look at what I did and judge whether or not it was in the right spirit... I'm not sure what that means, but it made me think of the end of Akira (the manga).

---Spoiler Alert---

At the end of Akira, after Tetsuo has been killed and the UN can finally reach the shores of the devastated Neo Tokyo with supplies and medical aid, Kaneda is there. He's clearly assumed a leadership role-- after all, he was always a leader-- and he tells the UN essentially to beat it. We don't need your help. Just then Kei rides up on Kaneda's bike. Kaneda hops on, they ride off into the city, and you get to see these two strong characters finally joined together. Maybe things are going to be okay. What can stop these two? The ghosts of Kaneda's friends, Yamagata and Tetsuo, appear riding along side them. They zoom out ahead and vanish and we see the city start to rebuild itself. The last shot is of Kaneda and Kei riding into a perfectly reformed Neo Tokyo as the last bits of debris fly back into place. It's a beautiful and hopeful ending.

Akira is my very favorite comic series ever. The only thing that challenges it's #1 spot for me is Tezuka's Phoenix, also a Japanese book.

Click over to the Periscope Studio Tumblr to see the other pieces that will be available.

Thanks,
Dustin

p.s. click the "japan love" tag for past Japanese related posts.

Entry 112: Blast From The Past Part 9

2011-03-18T11:08:00.000-07:00

Hi-
I'm overdue for a new blast from the past post. So lets all step inside the time machine and take a little trip back to 1999... Or maybe it was 2000. I gotta be honest I don't know what year we're going back to. I thought that the first year that I went to the San Diego comic con with my portfolio was in 1999, but when I count backwards each year, it has to be in 2000. I'm missing a year!

You know, it doesn't really matter. At that time I was living by myself in Dallas TX, working at Blockbuster during the day and drawing all night. I was lonely, generally sad, and I had roaches. There was a period there when I listened to all of Anthony Robbins's tapes, and you know what, they helped and I felt better and was more motivated. But my point is that these years were NOT great and if I have somehow lost one of them I'm really not that sad about it.

So this must have been back when I was 20 or 21. I had gone to the San Diego Comic Con for the first time with a fully armed portfolio. I had a lot of stuff to show and I got a lot of really good reactions. I also made some contacts that would eventually lead to some major steps in my career.

Easily the most important contact I made that year was with Dark Horse Artist/writer/editor/rocker Chris Warner. Chris was doing the portfolio reviews for Dark Horse. He really liked my stuff, and was very encouraging. At the time I didn't know this but I had actually copied some of Chris's Predator art back when I was 13 years old. I might have acted a little more like a fan boy, had I known who he was. He gave me his card, which I believe I still have. This would lead to my first payed work almost a year later.

After the convention when I contacted Chris he told me to do some "Star Wars-y" pages and some Buffy the Vampire Slayer pages because Star Wars and Buffy editors were always looking for new guys. So I set to it.

I started by doing some "Star Wars-y" pages. I guess you can't do Straight up Star Wars pages because then the Editors can't even look at it for legal reasons. It has to do with them being accused of stealing your ideas.

At this time I was really into Jodorowsky and Gimenez's Saga of the Metabarons series. I was actively absorbing that into my influences and I feel like you can see that here. Posting these blast from the past pages is like a chance to revisit old stuff, and in the spirit of that I've gone in and added the stars and planets I always wanted there but until now have just been blank spaces that said, "black with stars."

After I did those pages and sent them off I did some Buffy pages.

There is some wonky weirdness with this stuff. That 2 page spread is crazy.

And last: I'm not really sure when I did this, but I believe it was around this time. It might have been before I did the Star Wars-y thing. Anyway, it's a couple Darkness pages. I believe the editor at Top Cow that I showed my stuff to gave me some sample script to try my hand at and send back to them. I think it was the first couple pages of a Darkness issue. I wanna say it was issue 34, but I have no idea. I've never read that series. Here's a 2 page spread from that batch.

That fish eye shot felt super ambitious to me and I struggled so much with it. Looking back on it now, I don't think I really got it, but I can tell you, I learned a lot on this.

Well that's it for now. I now return you to the year 2011. Till next time.

OH WAIT! I keep forgetting.
LUCY'S POETRY CORNER!

CLASSIC POETRY CORNER

Entry 111: Portland Comics Interview

2011-03-11T17:29:00.000-08:00

I recently did an interview with fellow Portlander, Doug Dorr. The interview is now on his Blog, Portland Comics, which is solely about the comics scene here in Portland. Yes, there are enough comic creators here in Portland to have a regularly updated blog about it.

Check out that Interview Here Portland Comics- Questions- Dustin Weaver

Now you might be wondering- what is with the movie poster?
Well, it has absolutely nothing to do with the interview.

I didn't want to use an entry just to tell you about the interview without providing you with a little content. So I thought I'd tell you about Ghost Party.

Years ago there was something called Myspace and my buddy DJ and I created a myspace page dedicated to the Whuddist religion. The movie poster seen above was created for that myspace page to go with this myspace blog entry. Enjoy:

Whudda's new favorite movie.

Current mood:quixotic

To all of my followers. Every whuddist should see this movie! I just rented it from the local library and, whammo! I was slapped in the face with a truly sincere look into the heart of filmmaking glory. No I'm not kidding. Some of you out there (rightly so) will not venture into the unexplored woods of the cinematic jungle unless you have sample it's fruits and moss specimens. That is why I am giving you a full summary of the film's plot. It's called Ghost Party. It opens with a glorious shot of the Wyoming landscape circa 1865. Neon credits flash to the swelling score of "Some Like it Hot" as we see a tribe of North American Indians harvesting their crops. The first half hour of the film tells the story of the final years of Wakanawe, a Klickitat indian. I was truly touched by this compassionate and authentic portrayal of native american life. But wait, there's more! After Wakanawe is given an honorary indian burial we follow him into the afterlife as a ghost! Decades pass and Wakanawe's burial grounds are turned into a suburban neighborhood. Potential home owners are frightened away, one after another, by the remaining specter of Wakanawe, who ironically just wants to be left alone to read an old literary classic. Eventually a quiet and lonely man settles into the house who turns out to be a psychotic serial killer. He goes out, night after night, slaying necking teenagers and bringing their corpses to his suburban home. Unfortunately for Wakanawe, this ongoing killing spree fills the house with a bunch of rambunctious teenage ghosts, and you can guess what happens next: GHOST PARTY baby! Scenes of adolescent mayhem are juxtaposed with gruesome and bloody killings. Poor ole Wakanawe can't get a page read for the life (I mean DEATH) of him. Finally, the noise caused by the teenager's antics leads the serial killer to be evicted from the household, and all of the ghosts of his teenage victims along with him. Wakanawe is finally able to read his book as the camera watches him reading NONSTOP, page after page, silent without any narration until on hour later (in real time) he finishes the book. We then see the landlord going through the serial killer's left over belongings as he comes acrossed the victims corpses. The landlord get's turned on by the lifeless body of a hot teenage girl and approaches the camera, zipping down his pants. The screen fades to black and the credits roll to the tune of "Louie Louie". Now come on folks! If you consider yourself a true wuddhist you will go out immediately and rent this film. Feel free to ask me any questions about this cinematic masterpiece if you can't hunt it down.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now go check out the interview if your haven't already, and, as always, check out DJ's blog

Entry 110: ECCC commissions

2011-03-08T04:25:00.000-08:00

Emerald City is now over. I survived. It was rough, but I made it through. And it's back to real work now.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and said hi. I signed a lot of Shield books and a lot of people had some really great things to say about the book. I really appreciated all the kind words.

I'm sorry to anyone who came up and wanted a sketch or a commission that couldn't get one because I was booked up. That's the first time that's happened to me. This was the first show where I actually had to make a real commission list. In fact, I over booked myself and I now have to get a few of those commissions done at home. I'm really sorry to you guys who have to wait a little longer.

Anyway, enough jibber jabber, to the art.

Here are a bunch of commissioned pieces I did get done. Most are pictures of the piece at the show. A few of them (like the one above) are scans.

That's it for now. I'll post the last couple pieces once I've done them.

Thanks again everyone.

Entry 109: ECCC

2011-03-01T02:31:00.000-08:00

Sometimes Dustin goes to the Emerald City Comic Convention in Seattle. In fact, that's what he's doing THIS WEEK!
This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday! Come by and say hi.
Maybe Dustin draws for you. Find out at the Emerald City Comic Con.

Here is where you can find him! Me.
I'm Dustin. I don't know why I'm talking this way.

SEE YOU THERE!

Entry 108: SHIELD #6

2011-02-18T04:40:00.000-08:00

This week the final chapter of SHIELD VOL. 1 hit the stands. Which means that soon there will be a collection of the first 6 issues in a single book. There's going to be a hard back version which is really exciting to me. This will actually be the first graphic novel to be published completely drawn by me. I can't wait to have it in my hands.

So, for all you trade waiters, the wait to read Shield is almost over. And I hope that you're not like me in that I say that I'll wait for the trade paper back and then forget. Then much later I think, what was I going to buy as a trade? And when I remember, I can't remember why I cared. And then I go back to bed.

It will be called "S.H.I.E.L.D.: Architects Of Forever" And it will be in stores April 6 2011. It is available for pre-order if you are the type of person who like to feel like you bought something.

Here's maybe what it will look like.

I bet it will have a title on it. That's just the image on the Marvel sight right now, but it gives you a feeling of just what this book will be like. The shape, the hard backness of it, an illustration that looks like it's on the cover, it's in perspective so that you can see about how thick it may or may not be.

SHIELD #6 preview time

Here's Gerald Parel's very kick ass cover, followed by the black and white version of my variant cover, followed by the sketch I did for my variant cover, followed by a photograph?

So can you guess what I have?
That's right! Moebius's new Arzak book! And I'm very excited about it.
No. I'm actually talking about Outlaw Territory Vol. 2 which contains my and Jeremy Barlow's western comic "They'll Bury You Where you Stand!" This is a comp issue that was sent to me. It seems this book will finally be out next week. Feb 23

Just look at that Arzak book over there. Bet you wish I was flipping that open.

I Realized the other day that I completed this western story 2 years ago. It's very nice to see it finally out, and it printed really nice. The whole book looks great. Please check it out.

Now Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeee'ssssssss Lucy's Poetry Corner!

Entry 107: Super Powered Lucy/ Mad Men

2011-02-10T11:55:00.000-08:00

Hello again! and welcome to another Live Web-log by me, Dustin Weaver.
As you can see, Lucy has begun to manifest her mutant X-gene powers. Normally they don't kick in till puberty, but she's an exceptional kid. The doctor says it's perfectly normal in some cosmic energy manipulating omega-level mutants. That's right "cosmic energy." All I can do is make my eyes glow, which only looks cool. But guess what, when they're lit up, I can't see. Completely sightless!

Moving on.
This week on the Periscope Tumblr we are doing Mad Men pieces. No, not pictures of crazy and or angry guys. Pictures related to the popular TV show set in the early 60's, Mad Men.

I must say that I had never seen the show when I saw that we were going to be doing a week on it and I defiantly thought to myself, "Screw that!" "I don't watch that show and everyone who does must be stupid." But then I thought, "Wait. not everyone who watches that show could be stupid. In fact, logic dictates, that there is likely some percentage of that shows viewers who are smart. That means that I could watch it too and I don't have to feel like I'm stupid for doing so." So I'm giving it a try. I'm a little more than halfway through the first season and I like it.

Here's my piece
This show makes me want to smoke.

Check out the other Mad Men pieces at the Periscope Studio Tumblr.... if you dare.
...It's not scary. I know people say "if you dare" when it's something scary. If I scared you away from doing it, I apologize. Seriously, nothing bad is going to happen when you click on that link. It's not some kind of thing like in the movie The Ring where you'll get a message telling you that your going to die in seven days. It's nothing like that. It's just pictures inspired by the show Mad Men. So click on the link. It's fine.

Once again, it's time for the corner that is taking the world by storm! The corner that is making everyone say, "I didn't know a corner could be so good." Lucy's Poetry Corner!!!!!!!

In closing, I would like to share with you a revelation I had the other day: Justin Bieber is the bizzaro Dustin Weaver... Think about it.

Entry 106: Periscope Weekly Sketches

2011-01-22T06:24:00.000-08:00

Hello, friend.

The past few days I've had the chance to get caught up with my pieces for the weekly Periscope studio sketch blog. The first week was where everyone did a Spider Girl sketch. I posted my Spider Girl in the last entry of this very live blog.

Week two the subject was the Thunderbolts. Here's my contribution for that.

This is the first time I've done anything with half tones. I wanted to make it look just like zipatone. It doesn't. But it's close.

Week three's subject was Miyazaki.

My favorite Miyazaki work is his Nausicaa manga series. I like it because, well because it's phenomenal. But everything he's done is phenomenal. What makes Nausicaa my favorite is simple. It's a comic, and as a comic maker there is so much I can learn from it; and it's a much bigger story than anything he could tell in a movie. There's just a lot there to like. But my first Miyazaki love was Kiki's Delivery Service. Kiki was the first think of his that I saw. It totally amazed me. For me it holds a special place. So, I decided to do a Kiki piece rather than a Nausicaa piece, and here's how it came out.

This weeks sketch subject is Mario Cart. I'll sit this one out. If it weren't specifically Mario Cart and instead just Mario I'd be tempted. But I have drawn Mario before. You can see that Mario piece in this old post. Entry 9: Past Jellies

Now, go here to the Periscope Studio Tumblr to see all the sketch contributions and so much more.

In other news my best friend, D.J. Bryant, who was the subject of my post two entries ago, has got a brand spanking new Live Journal blog. Check it out at djbcartoon.livejournal.com Friend him, bookmark it, make it your home page, you won't regret it.

That's it. Over and out.
...no poetry corner this week. They're there on the fridge, I just haven't taken a picture of them yet. Next time.

Entry 105: S.H.I.E.L.D. # 5

2011-01-05T05:31:00.000-08:00

HELLO and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

That's right, Happy. This whole year be happy. Ya think you can manage that? You know what, maybe lets just take it one day at a time.

Anyway, SHIELD #5 is out! Please go get yourself a copy.
read more for a preview of the book and more...

First here's Gerald Parel's cover:

Cool, Huh?

Here are some pages.

Also, here at Periscope Studio we've starting a sketch blog. Each week or so everyone does a piece on the same subject and it get's posted on the blog. This week the subject is Spider Girl. Paul Tobin, a fellow Periscoper, is currently writing the new Spider Girl series. I supose that might be how we chose the subjects for the sketches, to highlight a project some one in the studio is currently working on.

So here's my contribution. And check out all the other contributions at Periscope Studio Tumblr.com

Now, once again it's time for everyone's favorite part of this blog. Everyone's talking about it. It's......... LUCY'S POETRY CORNER!

Wow! Okay. You call that a corner?

Entry 104: What Ever Happened To D.J. Bryant?

2010-12-04T08:39:00.000-08:00

A few months ago Mome 19 came out. It's an anthology book put out by Fantagraphics full of what you could call "alternative comics" by both new and established artist. And if you picked up #19 you were probably struck by one story in particular: A story inspired by Steve Ditko's "Driven to Destruction" called "Evelyn Dalton-Hoyt" by D.J. Bryant.

It's a fantastic piece of work. The level of craft that DJ demonstrates in these 21 pages is amazing and humbling. It causes me to look at my own work and wonder, "what the hell am I doing?"

Here's the first page.

As you probably know, if you've been following my blog, DJ and I go way back. REALLY far back! We met when we were 12. He's my best friend. I hesitate to bring this up right now because I don't want my opinion on his work to seem biased. I'm recommending you pick up Mome 19 just for DJ's story and I want you to know that it's not because he's my friend. It's because it's really good. I would just as soon not bring up our friendship, but... how do I not bring that up? My friendship with DJ gives me insight into his work and him as a creator that I don't think anyone else could have.

I could tell you a lot about what inspired DJ in creating this story, and about his process and stuff like that. I could point out that every car in the story is based on a first generation Transformer. But that's not what I mean when I say that I have a unique insight. First, as a fellow comic artist I can recognize the craft that is in the work. He has an incredible attention to detail; every article of clothing the characters wear, every prop, is thought out and works together to create his world. The thoughtful and creative story telling, even at it's most experimental, manages to always work for his story. I can also tell you, knowing DJ personally, that he's some kind of genius. There's a lot more where this story came from. He is thoughtful about his artistic choices, and he's very knowledgeable about the comic book medium. He has a large story-telling "vocabulary" and he uses it very well.

I've been checking out reviews of this book around the internet and here are some of the things people are saying about DJ's story:

"The real prize here is DJ Bryant... It might be necessary to clear off the mantelpiece and yell at the moon for a little while, because now there's another reason to get a little bit ecstatic about comics for a moment."

"Mome’s editorial staff excavates some undiscovered diamond in the rough and this summer, they struck sequential art gold. D.J. Bryant’s vibrantly perverted take on “Driven to Destruction” is less an update and more a revisionist move... However, Bryant doesn’t rest on the dubious laurels of simple envelope-pushing; he is a startling talented draftsman who easily proves himself the equal of a Ditko homage."

"Hold onto your hats for the precipitous plunge that is the tale of "Evelyn Dalton-Hoyt." Within this work's 21 tumultuous pages, author/artist, D.J. Bryant has penned a demonically deft deconstruction of "Driven to Destruction."

"D.J Bryant has some serious chops... A really impressive introduction to a talent I wasn't aware of."

"That D.J. Bryant story was the star of the show for me."

"Evelyn Dalton Holt’ by D.J. Bryant delivers a witheringly painful, sexually explicit neo-noir psycho-thriller that will delight all fans of hard-edged fiction."

"D.J. Bryant, whom I'd never read before, blew me away with "Evelyn Dalton-Hoyt", an appreciation of fear of death and emasculation that takes the form of a Lynchian crime/sex thriller. Bryant's drawing looks like a full-grown hybrid of Brian Bolland, Charles Burns, and Daniel Clowes; he'll be famous if he keeps doing this."

I noticed that some reviewers mention how DJ has no presence on the internet. It's true. I suppose it only adds to his mystique. He did have a Live journal page a while back, some of you in LJ community might remember, called Snar-fled and Friends, but it's been almost 2 years since he posted on there. So where is he?

Well, his computer crashed and he's only just recently been able to do anything about it. As I understand he'll be back up and running with an all new Live journal soon. Until then I strongly encourage you to go back and check out the Snar-fled site. There is a whole lot of goodness there.

And once again: Lucy's Poetry Corner!

"LUCY'S Poetry Corner?" You ask. That's right. It's Lucy's corner now. I've been coming home to find these Poems on the fridge and I've just been assuming that it was my fiancee, Lauren. When, in fact, it has been my 15 month old baby, Lucy. Which makes sense since Lauren works with kids and wouldn't even think up these dirty poems, much less allow me to post them on the world wide Internets. So, it's now Lucy's Poetry Corner. Apparently she forms these poems by complete chance by randomly sticking words together. Unbelievable! no?

Entry 103: BATMAN-DIABOLIK

2010-11-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a page from the ol' sketch book that I decided to through some quick colors on. I think it would be cool to do a crossover between Batman and the Italian comic character Diabolik and set it in the 60's. I've never read a Diabolik comic so my idea of him is completely based off the movie Danger Diabolik. He seems to me to be a lot like Batman, but he's a bad guy, and his sidekick is his hot girlfriend, Eva. I would want Batman to be a "cool version" of the Adam West Batman. Think the Adam West kind of look with a animated series kind of attitude.

Another DC comic, European comic crossover that will never happen, but that I think would be really cool: Superman-Metabaron

And here's Lauren's Poetry Corner!

Entry 102: SHIELD #5 is coming Plus AXE COP!

2010-11-22T04:47:00.000-08:00

Hello, friends.

I make it a point to never start a post on this live journal by apologizing for taking so long to put up a new post. For one thing, it just feels a little presumptuous of me to think that you're waiting on my posts. Also, when I read those kinds of apologies on other blogs it makes me feel like the blogger is losing interest in their blog and it's like if they're not that into it why am I reading it.

But, guess what, it's been a while since my last post. But I want to talk about my reason for taking so long. Since starting Shield I've developed a pattern. You guys don't know this, but I get each issue of Shield done just in time for it to come out. I finish it and then in a couple weeks it's on the shelf. The book comes out only every 2 months and I'm just fast enough to meet the deadline and it never fails that in the last week or 2 before the deadline I find myself having to crunch a lot of work in. I pull all-nighters, drink energy drinks, get sick, and when it's over I crash. I'm exhausted and need to recover and, instead of getting right into the next issue to avoid this situation again, I rest. And the cycle continues. Also it's during this rest period that I post on my live journal.

So that's where I'm at right now. Recovering from issue 5 and about to get started on 6. I think I did a good job on issue 5. I can never really tell what I think of something I've worked on till it's printed and I can read it all put together. But right now I feel pretty good about it.
How bout a little preview:)

With this page I threw some quick tones on it to help Christina out with deciphering the crazy jungle details.

Here's another Preview.

So, have you heard of Axe Cop? It's a web-comic by brothers Malachai and Ethan Nicolle. Malachai comes up with the ideas and the story then Ethan draws it. And oh yeah Malachai IS 5 YEARS OLD. That's right, the world finally has a comic written by a 5 year-old and it is glorious. All the wild imagination and idiosyncrasies of a 5 year-old boy translated perfectly by a skilled comic artist. The Nicolle brothers have created a genuinely absurd silly universe.

Clearly, I'm a fan. So much so that when I heard that Dark Horse Comics was going to publish Axe Cop as a graphic novel and that they would be including pin ups by other artists I thought, how do I get in on this. Since I'm exclusive with Marvel, it took getting legal permission, but they were cool with it. I think Axe Cop has some fans in the Marvel offices.

So here's what I did

I had so much fun drawing this stuff because it's crazy fun stuff.

Seriously, you need to check this out. Go to Axe Cop.Com, read the comic, then buy it when Dark Horse releases the collection on December 22nd.

Also, Ethan tells me that the details haven't been worked out yet but it looks like there's going to be a release party here in Portland at Bridge City Comics and that both him and Malachai will be there. I'm going. It's going to be sweet.

Another bit of news: Out Law Territory has been delayed! It was supposed to come out October 6th, hell, it was supposed to come out like a year and half ago. It's getting to be ri-god damn-diculous. It's now set to come out December 28. So if you can manage to maintain any interest in seeing They'll Bury You Where You Stand till then, god bless you.

One last thing, I'm going to try out a new feature. I'm calling it "Lauren's Poetry Corner." My fiancee Lauren does some really nice refrigerator poetry and I just think it needs to be seen. So here it is:

Entry 101- Out Oct 6!

2010-10-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

How-be, Popners-

This week SHIELD #4 hits the stands PLUS the long awaited Outlaw Territory Volume 2... Well, long awaited by me at leased. It's exciting. I can't wait to see how they both look in print.

Here's a look at the covers. Just in case you're thinking of picking one or both of them up. This is what to look for.

If you'd like to see some preview art-

Here's look at the always great Gerald Parel Shield cover followed by some preview pages.

Of course, once again, colors on Shield are by Christina Strain and, as always, she's doing a fantastic job.

But here's a look at the black and white version and a look at my gray scale sketch.

Entry 100: Blast From The Past-Part 8

2010-09-29T06:36:00.000-07:00

Hello again, and welcome to another installment of "blast from the past." And Hey, it's my 100 ENTRY! How bout that?

Anyway, in this installment I've got some submission pages that I did in 1999. That's right, I'm on part 8 of these posts and I haven't even reached the 2 thousands. I really have to speed this up.

So here we go.

These pages were really exciting for me, because these pages were actually requested by Marvel. I was in the middle of drawing my Wild Cats pages (see blast from the past- part 7) when I got a letter from Marvel in response to my previous submission pages (see blast from the past- part 6). They said that my work looked good. They thought I had a good grasp on story telling and they said some other things that I can't remember. And there was a sample script that they wanted to see what I could do with. This was great! I dropped the Wild Cats thing I was drawing and immediately got to work on the Marvel script. The script was a 6 page Spiderman script that I later found was commonly used by aspiring artists. It's always fun to see how other people have approached this script.

After I finished the Spiderman script and sent it off to Marvel I went back to my Wildcat's pages. Eventually I got a call from Marvel! That's right, a CALL from MARVEL! This was a big deal. The call was from whoever was working as their submissions editor at the time. He asked for a few changes. So I quickly made the changes and mailed him new copies. When he got those he called me and told me that they looked great and that he'd get them in front of all the editors there and that in the mean time, it wouldn't hurt to do some more Marvel submission pages to follow up with. So that's when I did these:

After I sent him the Punisher pages he told me again that he would show them around. I was starting to get the sense that this call from Marvel wasn't exactly the big break I thought it would be. I talked with the Marvel guy a few more times but it really seemed like he wasn't getting anywhere with the editors. And he was being less and less encouraging. I figured I'd continue sending him stuff but really it felt like a dead end.

Around this time (still in 1999) I think I kind of lost interest in creating pages for submitting. Making up a story and then drawing 3 or 4 pages of Punisher or Batman was starting to getting old. I wanted to be creating comics! So I thought I would do something that I wanted to do whether it was submittable or not. So I started working on a short story.

The story was inspired by what I was feeling and going through at the time, but instead of making it about me, I made the character a girl. I did this to help myself avoid making an autobiographical comic. Also, it's more fun to draw girls.

I had only done 3 pages of that story when the San Diego Comic Con rolled around.

It had been 2 years since my first time at the comic con and this time I was way more prepared. I had loads of artwork to bring from all the submissions I'd been doing. So I packed a bunch of it into my portfolio and headed to San Diego.
I worked that convention for all it was worth. I did just about every portfolio review I could find, and it seemed to be going really well. Well, sort of. Everyone was loving my stuff. It was a real confidence booster. The only thing was that nobody seemed to have any work. Everyone I showed my stuff to would say "This stuff is great, what are other people telling you?"

I made a few good contacts that year that eventually led to some things. I'll talk more about those next time, but there was one review I got that didn't lead to anything but was still really memorable. Jay Lee was doing reviews for Marvel. Why? I have no idea, but it was still pretty cool. I had admired his work ever since the Wildcats trilogy he did and particularly liked his Hellshock stuff. He was really complimentary and encouraging. He seemed certain that I'd be getting work at that con. I think the experience of that convention and in particular Jay Lee's comments helped me to not lose heart and keep believing in myself.

I hate to end this on such a sappy note, but that's where I'm ending it.

Actually, I'll leave you with these pages also from that short period just before the Comic Con when I had lost interest in submitting work.

Entry 99: They'll Burry You Where You Stand! IS COMING!

2010-08-19T05:31:00.000-07:00

That's right, big fat guy, something IS coming!

Finally, Mine and Jeremy Barlow's short Western story, They'll Bury You Where You Stand! is coming out. It will appear in Outlaw Territory Volume 2. Here's the ad that I believe was in Previews with a look at the cover.

There you have it. October 6th is the date. 240 pages of old west goodness.

I posted about this story some time ago and why it's an important project to me. You can check that post out here. Entry 68
Jeremy and I worked closely on this thing. If you're not familiar with Jeremy and his work. You should check out his sight at Jeremy Barlow.com. He's a talented writer with a lot of great ideas. He's also very versatile. He's primarily known for his Star Wars work, but I hope this story shows that he's got a lot more to offer.

Here's another page.

Entry 98: S.H.I.E.L.D. Extras

2010-08-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

The image above was drawn for Shield #2. There was a scene where we have a strange electrical explosion and we can see, extending infinitely, alternate reality versions of one of the characters. All of this happens in a hallway were a battle has just taken place. I knew that I wanted the setting of the hallway to be warping and becoming distorted with the explosion but I wasn't sure just how I would make that look right. So I decided that I would draw the background completely separate so that I could drop it into the background and manipulate it in photoshop. That way I can have complete control and I could tweak it and untweak it to get it to look just right. I ultimately drew a lot of background that I then completely obscured. The original unwarped, unobscured background, on it's own, is an illustration that I like.

This next group of illustrations were for the variant cover of issue 2.

In the dungeon like well that Nostradamus is locked in in this issue we decided that it would be cool if Nostradamus could have scratched into his sell walls predictions of the future. And we thought it would be cool if those predictions related to the Marvel universe. So this group of illustrations were concepts for what he might have drawn. One trick to this, besides the fact that I don't think Nostradamus was a visual artist, is that his predictions were cryptic and open to interpretation. I tried to approach it with some symbolism rather than literal. I found this is tricky. When you want to put a lightning bolt in somebodies had to show power it gets confusing in a world where there are literally people with lightning bolts in there hands.
The things that I was trying to depict in these illustrations are: Mutants, The X-Men, Mutant persecution, The Fantastic Four, Cival War, The return of Captain America, The Scrull invasion, and the birth of the mutant messiah.

In each of the Shield issues Jonathan Hickman has put in 2 extra pages of supplemental material. In issue 1 it was about the Human machine, stuff that will become more and more important in this series. In issue 3 it was the correspondence between Galileo and the pope, and in issue 2 it was an extra scene. Jonathan asked me if I could do a quick sketch of Da Vinci and Leonid walking down these stairs. I said sure, but ultimately I wanted to do something a little more than just a sketch. The way that Jonathan took this piece and made it work in his layout was great. With these extra pages of his he gets to remind us that he's a kick ass graphic designer as well as a kick ass writer.

Here's something from issue 3

The Quiet Math. Throughout issue 3 we see Isaac Newton working out some complex math problems. I wanted the math to actually look like it could mean something, so I decided to work out how it would look in my sketchbook. The symbols in the equations are astrological, alchemy, and some are just made up.

I knew the ultimate equation that Newton needed to arrive at so I tried to make it seem like the equations were really leading to that ultimate equation. As I worked on it, it started to actually feel like I was solving some problem, and when I reached the end I felt like I had my answer. I guess the experience wasn't to different from creating a page.

And here's the last thing I'll post: The uncensored Newton Deviant sex scene.

There. Do you feel scandalized, offended, disturbed? Well you should. He's having sex with a monster. It should be disturbing, gross, a little sexy, and then that much more disturbing. I wanted it to be perfectly clear what was going on. I think Marvel wanted it to be vague. Now sometimes being more or less explicit about a thing can be a choice made for storytelling purposes, but I don't think that's what this was about. I don't blame Marvel for being sensitive about this sort of thing. I just find it depressing that we have to be sensitive to this sort of thing. Sex is a part of life and I think we need to just grow up about it. On top of that sex is all over comics. Many super hero comics are down right pornographic. In my opinion, the shot that I've drawn is tame in comparison to the tits, asses, and crotches that are being thrust directly in your face on a regular bases in comics, but because it's not pretending to be anything ells someone will surely get upset.

I actually made the changes myself. I thought it would be better to do it myself than leave it up to someone ells. I'm not trying to rock the boat or make some kind of stand against censorship. I can make compromises and be a team player. That doesn't mean that I like it.

Entry 97: SHIELD #3 preview

2010-08-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

Hey, guess what's out this week...
S.H.I.E.L.D. #3

Click here to see a preview:

Above is the variant cover that I did with Christina Strain on colors.

With all the paintings on the wall I was inspired by Max Ernst's "Une Semaine De Bonte" Its a surrealistic novel in images. It could be considered a graphic novel. The images in the book are collages constructed out of wood engraved illustrations and they are so fantastically mysterious and unsettling. I wanted the paintings in this image to have a bit of that.

Here's Gerald Parel's cover for the book.

And here are some preview pages.

And here's another one. Just for you.

Once again, with the cover of this issue I did a gray scale sketch so that Christina could see what I had in mind for the lighting. Unfortunately, I sent it to her well in advance and when she actually sat down to do the colors she had forgotten that I had sent it to her. She ended up doing her own interpretation of how the lighting should be. She's a great colorist and what she did works, but I still prefer the way I had intended it.

Here's my gray tone sketch.

Entry 96: My Favorite Things- Part 2: Six Hundred And Seventy-Six Apparitions of Killoffer

2010-07-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

Here we go, My second "Favorite Things" post. Last time I posted about Gyo. If you checked it out based on my recommendation, I hope you weren't disappointed.

This time I'm posting about Six Hundred And Seventy-Six Apparitions of Killoffer by French artist Patrice Killoffer.

The first time I looked through this book at my buddy D.J.'s I knew at a glance that it was something that I wanted and I quickly shut it as not to spoil it. The work is just so great looking, and when I finally got a copy for myself I found that it doesn't just look good. This is some masterful comic making.

The character in the book is Killoffer himself. He's visiting Montreal, his dirty dishes still in the sink back home in Paris, festering. He is a man with urges. Every attractive woman he sees he wants. He's ravenous, and these urges Begin to take on lives of there own. Literally! He sees a beautiful woman and suddenly there are two of him, one that goes about his business and the other who drops everything to act on his urge and pursue the woman.

The idea of all of these doubles of him spontaneously appearing comes about so naturally in the comic book format since a comic page usually contains multiple images of a single character existing on a page simultaneously. This simultaneity is even more apparent in the montage style pages that Killoffer uses in this book. When Killoffer divides there's no suggestion of how this happens physically, it's merely the comic character taking two different paths, existing on the page simultaneously.

With every depraved thought that Killoffer has taking on its own life, soon there are hundreds of Killoffer doubles. And they all seem to be the worst of him, horny violent slobs. Needless to say things get ugly fast. The last scenes in this book are not for the faint of heart. It's savage, disturbing, and to me, thrilling.

This is Killoffer's first work to be translated into English and I have to say, "please, more Killoffer." This book is so great, I'm anxious to see more from this guy.

Entry 95: S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 Fourth Print and Ben Bates

2010-07-22T05:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is starting to become ridiculous. Shield #1 sells out again and goes to a FOURTH print! What are these print runs like? Seriously, retailers, this book is doing better than you keep thinking it will. Order more copies.

I guess these reprints are good press. And obviously people buying the book is a great thing, but we are running out of things to put on the covers!

No really. Daniel, the assistant editor on the book, called me up and told me that we were going to a forth print. Great news! "But we don't have anything to put on the cover," he says. He mentioned the idea of putting a big image of the shield, and then asks if I have a big image of the shield. "Nope," I say. He says, "we'll have to think of something, let me know if you think of anything." And we hung up.

That's when Ben Bates came to the rescue.

Ben is a studio mate of mine. He's just getting started with his professional career in comics and he's doing a fine job of it.
He was recently interviewed on Newsarama for his work on S.h.o.o.t. First featured in Dark horse presents. He's also penciled issues 217 and 218 of Sonic The Hedgehog, which will be out in September and October. And he's currently working on more Sonic. Here's a link to his sight.

So after my conversation with Daniel, I got to thinking about the forth print cover and I thought it would be cool to have the shield with a reflection of Da Vinci in it. I asked Ben if he would be willing to help me out with getting it done since I was desperately trying to make a deadline and couldn't do it myself. I've helped Ben out a number of times, so he kind of owed me, and he agreed to to it. And he did a great job! He created a perfect version of the shield, colored it, and together we worked on dropping the Da Vinci reflection in.

Ben has helped me out once before, back when I did the 2 page Thing Thing story for Fantastic Four Adventures. He did a lot of the color flatting and made such good color choices I hardly had to do anything since almost all the colors are flat colors.

Just for fun, here are those 2 Thing Thing pages. I posted panels from this but never the whole thing.

Entry 94: Astro Boy Fan Art

2010-07-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

Looking through my sketchbooks I realize that there are fewer and fewer drawings done for fun and more and more drawings that are for work. It's making my sketchbooks less interesting. Less fun. So I thought I'd have a little fun.
I've been reading a lot of Astro Boy lately. I've got Astro on the brain right now and once I got it in my head that I wanted to draw him it became an itch that I had to scratch.

Entry 93: Massive Sketch Dump

2010-07-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

Like the subject reads, this is a massive convention commission/sketch post. I've done a few shows over the last couple month and I've managed to take pictures of a lot of the drawing that I did at those shows using my crappy phone camera.
So without any further ado-

the end

Entry 92: S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 second print

2010-06-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I used a pathetic picture of my baby daughter to guilt trip everyone into buying S.H.I.E.L.D. #1.

It was a joke. She's doing fine. She's great! She is.. Partying as if it were her birthday. Sipping Bacardi as if it were her birthday. And you know what, it isn't her birthday. Yeah, she doesn't give a hoot.
Just look at this picture.
Happy Baby-

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that issue 2 has sold out and is going to a second print. While this is really great news, I just wish I could believe it was for right reasons. Not to save my baby's life, but because people actually like the comic. Oh and she isn't sipping Bacardi like it's her birthday, that was another joke.

Here is the cover for the reprint.

Entry 91: S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 IS COMING!

2010-06-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

Hi. How are you? I've got some SHIELD #2 preview art for ya.
Above is my variant cover. And here is Gerald Parel's fantastic painted cover followed by the first 5 pages.

That's right, it's got everything, a reinvention of the type writer, a super close up of an eye, an old guy with glowing tats, Kirby crackles, a gross monster woman with boobies, and so much more.

This hits stands Jun 9th. That's THIS WEEK!
I hope everyone likes it. It's different than issue 1 but there is so much in it that I think is cool.

Speaking of issue 1: It is going into it's 3rd print. That's right! Sold out again! I honestly don't know what to say about this. It's crazy. Thanks to everyone who's bought it. Everyone involved on this book is putting everything they've got into making it something special, and I think, if you stick with it you wont be disappointed. It's going to be a wild ride.

Here's a look at the 3rd print variant cover.

It's a lucky thing I laid the 2 page spreads out the way that I did with the central focus being on the right hand side. It almost seems like I meant for them to be wrap-around covers.

Here's a little behind the scenes of my cover sketches for the first 2 covers.

I decided to render them in gray scale so that Christina and I could be totally in sink with the lighting. I think it's worked out really well. She dose great work and always manages to think of something that I wouldn't have thought of that makes things better.

I'll leave you with my Nostradamus sketches.

Entry 90: Blast From The Past-Part 7

2010-05-29T04:45:00.000-07:00

Well it's high time I did another blast from the past post, and as you can see it's more WildC.A.T.S. stuff. (see even older wildcats stuff in blast from the past part 4)

Why Wildcats? Well it's obvious that the Wildcats were a kind of X-Men rip-off, but since they were new they didn't have all the convoluted continuity that the X-Men had. They also seemed a little darker and cooler than the X-Men. It was one of the first series that I collected starting with issue 1. During it's first few years it was my favorite comic book. And as I mentioned in past posts, Working for Wildstorm and drawing Wildcats had been a goal of mine from the age of 13, and at this point I still hadn't shaken that desire. This was in 99, so I was 20. It would be several more years till I actually realized my dream of working at Wildstorm and eventually worked out my Wildcats fandom with a very ambitious pitch. (things to come in a future blast from the past post)

At this time Travis Charest's Wildcats volume 2 was just getting started. I was excited by the prospect of the relaunch and it inspired me to do this story. I figured I could use these pages to submit to companies as I went along.

So, I think I'll do a little commentary on these pages. Here go's: At this time the Wildcats were kind of disbanded. But of course they would be getting back together. The idea of this story was that Maul and Spartan have been working on a new MIRV (the teams aircraft). They might have been trying to convince Warblade to join up again. I think Warblade had quit the team after his girlfriend died. He's still sad about that. In panel 4 on page one I think Grifter was saying something about there not being enough action and missing the good ol' days. Anyway they decide to take the new MIRV for a spin even though the work on it was not finished, for instance the weapons are not online yet.

Unfortunately for our guys a Daemonite/ Coda duo are somehow hip to the unfinished aircraft and plan on hijacking it. How they know about it, I don't know. How are they sitting there waiting right at the right time to see the guys take it for a test flight, ether I can't remember or I never had it worked out. The latter is more likely.

In panels 6 and 7 I think I had some banter in mind about Maul having lived with Voodoo while the team was split and if that ever lead to any naughty stuff. Then Grifter finds some excuse to go to the back. Maybe he has to use the bath room.

Grifter always had some personal stuff going on on the side. While he's back there he sees something following them. He calls to the front to ask if Maul has got anything on the radar. By the time Maul sees them it's to late.

Spartan says something like, hold on to your buts, as he tries to shake them. It doesn't work so Warblade decides to go take care of things himself.

In the last panel here Maul would have been calling back to Grifter to check out a loss of cabin pressure in the cargo hold. The room that Grifter is in is based on a scene from the end of Wildacats volume 1 issue 4. It was used again by Travis Charest in the Wildcats special.

In the last 5 panels on this page I had this Daemonite reveal to Warblade that he was one of the Daemonites that killed WB's family. And the coincidences continue. And are you looking at how many panels are on each of these pages? A lot. I guess I just didn't want this little story to take to many pages.

Maul can see on a monitor what's going on with Warblade and the Daemonite up top and says something to Spartan about how Warblade might need some help.
Back in the Cargo hold the Coda has disarmed Grifter, but because she knows who Grifter is and that Grifter has been trained in the Coda fighting styles she wants to fight him and kill him as a coda. So she gives him a sword, naturally! Make perfect sense.

Anyway back to Warblade verses the Daemonite.

So the Coda beats Grifter in a fair fight, but of course Grifter don't play fair. Grifter walks back to the Cockpit letting everyone know that there is a coda assassin tied up in the cargo hold. Asks what the hell happened to Warblade and then says something smart ass as they pull back into the Halo building. I honestly can't remember what it was he said.
So there you have that.
There's more blast form the past stuff where that came from. Next time.

Entry 89: Free Comic Book Day 2010

2010-05-02T04:34:00.000-07:00

Hi.

Yesterday I did a signing for Free Comic Book Day at Tony's Kingdom of comics in Keizer, Oregon. It was a lot of fun and I did a lot of sketching. This post is all the sketches I was able to get pictures of, but first I just want to take a little moment to tell you some other appearances I have scheduled.

First I'll be at Madness Games & Comics at 3000 Custer Road #150 Plano TX on Saturday May 8th.Then I'll be at the Spokane Comicon on Saturday May 22. Then I'll be at the Florida Supercon in Miami on June 18-20. After that I don't have solid plans, but it's not unlikely that I'll be doing San Diego this year and I'm determined to make it out to New York for a show. So if you want a sketch similar to the ones you see here you can get one from me at one of those shows.

All of these were drawn on glossy backing boards so the gray tones were a little hard to control.

The Wolverine, Wonder Woman, and Joker were ones that I didn't end up selling. They look a little nicer than the others because I was able to bring them home and scan them rather than taking a picture with my crappy phone camera. I'm thinking of selling these 3 on the Periscope Studio Etsy store.

This Green Lantern was done for a guy who also came by last year and got this Rouge sketch from me.

Last year I did this sketch for the store owner, Tony.

It's him as Thor. This year I did him as the Silver Surfer and I gave him a more true to life physique. I'm not happy that the face is almost unreadable in this photo, but you get the idea.

Entry 88: S.H.I.E.L.D. 2nd printing

2010-04-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

So apparently my last post really worked! People DID buy S.H.I.E.L.D. #1. It sold out!... Now I feel a little guilty about using my daughter to get sympathy sails. I didn't actually think it would work. You guys should know that Lucy is fine. She's not hungry or unable to see a doctor and we're actually considering home schooling. So, sorry if you went out and bought the comic really fearing for the life of my baby. I didn't know you cared so much.

What I've posted above is the cover for the 2nd print of issue #1. It will be a wrap-around cover. Pretty sweet! I'm excited. The book is doing well and everyone seems to like it. It sold out really fast. I think if you look through my posts you can see that I've been pretty uncertain about it. I mean, I thought it was cool but I wasn't sure if everyone ells would like it. I was fully preparing myself for it to totally bomb and to take a beating from reviewers and fans. Part of me is still waiting for the other shoe to drop. There's still issue 2 and 3 and so on. People could turn on me at any moment. But as things are right now, I actually feel good about myself.

Here's the marvel announcement of it selling out-

Marvel is pleased to announce that S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 has sold out at Diamond (though copies may still be available at the retail level) and will return with S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 Second Printing Variant! Eisner Award nominee Jonathan Hickman teams with red-hot artist Dustin Weaver on the book that peeks behind the curtain and unveils secrets of the Marvel Universe! With the craziest inventions from history’s greatest minds, S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 Second Printing Variant features jaw dropping interior art from Dustin Weaver on a new cover!

Critics are raving about S.H.I.E.L.D.!

“This is a top-notch debut, and I wish all superhero comics were this good. Highly recommended.”
-Greg McElhatton, ComicBookResources.com

“With gorgeous art and near-lyrical writing that cuts to the secret heart of the Marvel Universe, this is an opening issue that really does deserve all the hype.”
-The Best Shots Team, Newsarama.com

“…after only one issue I'm already comfortable calling S.H.I.E.L.D. the boldest, most creative and exciting Marvel comic on the stands.” – Dan Phillips, IGN.com

So thanks to everyone who bought the issue. And thanks to everyone who went online somewhere and posted something positive about it. I read a lot of those comments. I can't help but check out message boards. It has hurt me in the past, but I just got's to know.

I'm going to keep doing my best and this is just the beginning.
Thanks!

Entry 87: Please Buy S.H.I.E.L.D. #1

2010-04-06T02:48:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to have to do this but... Her name is Lucy Fitzgerald Weaver, she's 7 months, and, other than a nasty headbutt and an ability to latch onto hair and not let go, she is completely helpless. She's a baby who's only mistake is being born the daughter of a comic book artist. She's lost in an unforgiving world where one day is the same as the next. I know you've thought of getting one of her father's comics, put it on a nice to-do list of things to do that are nice, but somehow you never got around to it, even though the comic shop is right there. Maybe you forgot because you were picking your nose, maybe you're stupid, but Lucy doesn't have till the 12th of never or even the 23rd of soon. No, she has only to the first of now. When you buy S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 this Wednesday you'll know she has a school to go to. You'll know she has a doctor to see so she wont DIE like thousands of children did last night. Now I've got your attention. Do something wonderful, buy S.H.I.E.L.D. #1. It's the best thing that can happen to 3 dollars, 3 quarters, 2 dimes, and 4 pinnies. God knows they don't wan to be in your wallet against your ASS. Ever think about that.

Seriously, thanks to anyone who picks up anything that I do. I feel like sometimes I joke or try to play it cool when I've got something coming out, but honestly, it's amazing to me that anyone buys comics that I drew. I'm really grateful that I get to do this for a job.

Entry 86: Dath Revan

2010-04-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a little something for the Star Wars Kotor fans.

This is a commission I did not long ago. I don't really do commissions from home. I'll do them at conventions but I'm not into doing it at home. It has a lot to do with not knowing how to charge. I guess when I'm not doing work I don't want to be doing a commission. I want to be spending time with my family or working on something for myself. It's hard to know how to charge for something I don't want to do and don't necessarily need to do and make it worthwhile. It's a dilemma.

This commission I did because the guy hung in there a long time. He continually e-mailed me, was polite, and eventually I thought I should do something for him. Also, what he wanted (Darth Revan) I knew I could have a little fun with, since when I was working on Kotor I was anticipating drawing this guy and never really got to.
So now, here he his, Darth Revan.

Entry 85: My Favorite Things- Part 1: GYO

2010-03-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

I'm trying a new kind of entry. Well new for me anyway. I've always posted about my work and what I've got coming out or what I did a long time ago and I think it's time I started posting about other peoples work. Stuff that I really like. My favorite comics. So here goes.

Over the last year I've become a big fan of Junji Ito's work. It all started when my buddy Jeremy loaned me Ito's Uzumaki, which is fantastic. Just recently I read GYO and it was a blast. It begins when a teenage couple on vacation begin smelling something horrible and see a strange creature that they can't manage to get a good look at. The creature turns out to be a fish with legs. And that is just the tip of the iceberg for weird in this story.

(read right to left)

I like how we just get to see that extreme close up of the fish eye.

Later the boyfriend manages to smash the thing behind a dresser.

I like this sequence.

I don't want to spoil it so I'm not going to show you any more, but trust me this gets really crazy really fast. Crazy in ways that I couldn't see coming. Ito creates some of the most bizarre, grotesque, and horrifying shit I've ever seen, but, it's also absurd and sickly funny. It's sometimes easy to overlook the absurd humor in his work, but it's never been more apparent and thrilling than it is in GYO.

It's only 2 volumes and you also get 2 short stories in volume 2 one of which is particularly fantastic. I know there are some people who are horror fans and are attracted to anything in that genera. I'm not one of those people, but I do like good comics and that's what this is.

Entry 84: S.H.I.E.L.D. IS COMING!!!

2010-03-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

S.H.I.E.L.D. IS COMING!!!

April 7 is the day. So uh, you know you should pick it up. No really. It would mean a lot to me... I'll be your best friend. No really. I WILL be your best friend. We'll hang out, have a sleep over, do each others hair, play board games or dress up, or maybe we'll just go walk around the mall. Whatever you want to do. As long as it's one of those thing. Just get the book and all that can be yours.

I'm pretty excited and a little scared. Jonathan and I have been working on this thing for a while and we got Christina Strain on colors, who is really kicking ass. We've all put a lot of work into this and I think it will actually be good. And the truth is, sales gotta be good on this or we might not get the chance to see it through to the end. It's true. Not to guilt trip you guys. Don't make me post a picture of my baby.

Look more pages!

And also- Marvel put a Shield sketch book on their web sight and it's free to check out. Here's the link: S.H.I.E.L.D. Sketchbook.

And remember...

Entry 83: Only The Lonely SWORD!

2010-03-05T03:51:00.000-08:00

This is something that I photoshoped based on a dream my friend D.J. had. It makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Anyway I just needed an excuse to post some links to a couple interviews that Jonathan Hickman has done recently where he talks a lot about SHIELD.
Hickman interview 1
Hickman interview 2

Entry 82: DA VINCI

2010-02-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

Step aside Spiderman. Talk to the hand Ironman. Go EF yourself Captain America. There is a new hero in town- Leonardo Da Vinci.

Hello again, and so soon after the last entry.

That's right this image recently appeared in Previews magazine. This is a variant cover for SHIELD #1 by yours truly.

Apparently Marvel has decided to do a black and white variant version of this issue, which, if it's true, is pretty damn cool! I try to make my pages feel complete without color and I think my work is sometimes stronger left in black and white. It will be exciting for me to see the issue like this.

Marvel was apparently working with a earlier version of this image because this is not the final version...

This is-

Entry 81: SHIELD art

2010-02-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

Hello!

This image is from a little book I'm working on called SHIELD. The book has recently been solicited and there have been a few promotional images. I realize that Marvel wants to let their fans know that this book will pertain to the Marvel universe and have characters they know and love, that it's a "Marvel" comic. And, yes, it does pertain and it does have Marvel characters in it, but I worry about the fan who checks this book out wanting more of the Marvel they're getting in every other Marvel book. Most of the characters are completely new and it has things that I haven't seen in any other Marvel comics. I also worry about the person who AVOIDS it because they think it will be a typical Marvel book. This could end up being something good that doesn't quite reach the right audience. So, I ask you to check it out, whether you're a Marvel comics reader or not. I think Jonathan and I are coming at this both as fans of the superhero genre but also as creators interested in doing something different. As I said three posts ago, "I'm getting to be creative in ways I wouldn't have thought possible in a Marvel comic." This is not fanfic (which is what I feel like most superhero comics are these days: officially commissioned and published fanfic).

Anyway, here are a couple more image. The first is a concept drawing and the second is from the book.

The series will have covers by Gerald Parel with variant covers by me. Here's Gerald's fantastic cover for the first issue.

And as great as that is, I personally prefer this sketch version. As you can see, the difference is that the final version includes Galactus. My guess is that the sketch didn't let the fans know that this is a Marvel book. I think Gerald's original sketch has a more pleasing composition.

I think, and it's hard for me to tell, having been working on it for months now, but I think that this book is going to be pretty damn cool.

Entry 80: X-Men X-Mas at Excalibur

2009-12-12T18:42:00.000-08:00

Hi

This is a sketch I drew today while doing an X-Men themed signing at Excalibur Comics here in Portland. It was an X-Men Xmas. Along with myself there were some other local X-Men Creators, Matt Fraction, Tod Orzechowski, and Terry Dodson. There are probably a lot more creators here in Portland who have contributed to the X-Men, in fact I know there are. You can't throw a rock in Portland without hitting a comic creator (and that comic creator's name is Jeff Parker. He's everywhere) But I guess you can only fit so many of us into a comic book shop.

Anyway, here are some other sketches I did.

Entry 79: Nation X #3

2009-12-04T16:48:00.000-08:00

Hi!
Here is my third Nation X cover. Like the other 2 this was colored by Morry Hollowell. I had actually imagined this as a day scene, bright, sunny with the ocean shimmering in the background. But night works.

Here's the black and white version.

This cover references the first Nation X cover. I liked the idea of exploring the island through the covers. They're also staking claim to they're territory much like the X-Men on the first cover.

Unfortunately, I won't be doing the 4th Nation X cover. I really wanted to do all 4 covers but it had to make way so that I can focus completely on SHIELD! Since I'm currently having a lot of fun doing SHIELD I don't feel to bad about it.

Entry 78: SHIELD!

2009-11-25T19:10:00.000-08:00

Check this out. Last night on Attack Of The Show Marvel announced my new project with Jonathan Hickman.

Here's a clip!

Seeing my art on TV and hearing my name was a strange experience. It was both exciting and it freaked me out a little. This book is (and I'm certain) the most important thing I've worked on. And I feel a lot of pressure to do the best work I can. So hearing this announcement made me feel the pressure that much more.

What makes SHIELD so important? Well for starters it's a new series with a lot of new ideas. I'm getting to be creative in ways I wouldn't have thought possible in a Marvel comic. It's original. This book has things in it that I've never seen in a Marvel comic. They're taking some risks here and it feels like Jonathan and I are being given a lot of freedom to let our imaginations go wild. This book is also really demanding. It deals with different time periods and there is a lot of stuff to design. It's also a lot more work than I've done. I've never done more than 4 issues in a row on anything and with this I'm going to do well more than that. Also, this book is cool! Jonathan Hickman is writing some really cool stuff here and I really want it all to live up to its potential. It's firmly in the Marvel universe but it's a superhero comic unlike one that I've seen. To put it simply this will be the best book I've gotten to work on and I want to do my best work.. So that's why this book is important for me to and why I'm feeling some pressure. It's exciting though.

Here's a link to a Comic Book Resource article where Jonathan talks more about it.

I'll be posting some preview art and concept art in the weeks and months to come so check back.

Entery 77: X-Men : Nation X #2 cover

2009-10-20T17:43:00.000-07:00

Hi.
This would be the cover for Nation X #2. This is a 4 issue mini series and it looks like I'll get to do all 4 covers.

I had a lot of fun drawing this cover. It's kind of a strange assortment of X-characters. It was particularly fun getting to do my take on Jubilee. Jubilee's outfit back in the day was pretty 80's and I thought it would look dated now. So I wanted to change it but I also wanted her to be recognizable so I didn't want to change it to much. Luckily there are a lot of retro 80's trends out there right now. So I could get away with keeping her style intact and still give it a current feel. My hope is that it now looks like she's consciously being retro rather than dated... Though, has a bright yellow trench coat ever been in style?

Once again Morry Hollowell did a great job on colors.

Here's a look at the black and white version. You can see that I was referencing a dated version of Northstar's costume and had to change it from what's in the original.

I recently did an interview for Jazma Online. Check it out here: Dustin Interview

A few weeks back I went up to Calgary for the Calgary toy and Comic Expo. It was my first time in Canada. I liked it. I got to hang out with Craig Rousseau, Norm Breyfogle, and show owner Stephen Fuller and I gotta say it was a lot of fun. Stephen is a great host treating us artists to dinners and to a trip out to Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum which was really cool! I'm a fan of dinosaur museums and exhibits and this place was the best I've ever seen. It's in a town called Drumheller where there is a Dinosaur statue literally on every corner.

The Show was pretty great to. I did a lot of sketches and talked to a lot of cool fans. But the best part was meeting Peter White who has created a fantastic Zayne costume from Knights of the Old Republic. I didn't design Zayne's costume but I did give it a lot of personal touches and defined a lot of the detail. It was very cool to see that Peter had really studied those details. Here's a picture of me and Peter.

And here's a sketch I did for Peter along with a version that he colored himself.

Entry 76: X-Men: Nation X Cover

2009-09-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

This is a cover I recently did for a new X-Men mini series called Nation X. I pencilled and inked it. It was colored by Morry Hollowell.

When I was 11 I had a Jim Lee X-Men door poster. You remember the image.
That poster is burned in my mind.
Getting to do this cover was so cool for me. It was like getting to do a new take on that Jim Lee door poster. (except my take isn't as much fun, in my opinion)

Some thoughts on this cover:
It is strange to do these big team shots because it's kind of hard to imagine why the characters would all be standing there like that.
In this shot the X-Men are on an island that used to be Asteroid M. The only distinguishing characteristic that was portrayed with any consistency that I could remember was that big arching window. So I had to include that.
I purposefully didn't draw Wolverine with his claws. It just seemed so obvious that he'd have his claws out. In fact I cropped him at the wrist. His claws could be out, but I've chosen to focus on the man not the claws.

Here are my original un-colored piece and my sketch.

The sketch might be my favorite version.

Entry 75: Blast From The Past-Part 6

2009-09-14T07:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've done one of these posts. This is part 6 in my "blast from the past" posts. I know, real original and creative name. It's a stupid name. It doesn't even make sense. It has the implication that you might remember this stuff. Like, "hey, everybody, remember this one? It's a real blast from the past. I'm having a blast just looking at it. Aren't you?"

Anyway, whatever.

If you're interested, here are links to the past entries. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5.

The idea is that I'm chronicling my journey from first deciding that I wanted to draw comics to actually becoming a comic book artist and then all the way up to the beginning of this live journal. Each post represents a time period and whatever step I was taking at that time to get closer to my dream. It's a lot of material to get through. So here we go, another post.

In 1998 I was sending samples out to every company I could think of. I was sending Hiro pages, and Morph-man pages (see Blast from the past Part 5) This is when I decided to draw something that might appeal to both Marvel and DC and combine my 2 favorite super heroes, Batman and Wolverine.

The sample was 4 pages long. It began with Wolverine waking from a Weapon X dream. (Don't you hate those, Weapon X dreams I mean) Anyway, He and Jubilee are in Gotham for some reason and Batman has been following them, investigating whatever it is they're doing. Then they have a confrontation.

From these sample pages, the Hiro pages, and the Morph-man pages I got a lot of form-letters of rejection. I didn't mind. I knew that it was part of the proses. In fact I remember the day that I got my first rejection letter. I was actually excited about it. The only letter I ever remember getting where someone had taken the time to respond to what I had sent came from Marvel. I can't remember who wrote it. All that I remember about it was that the guy pointed out to me a few places where my storytelling wasn't very clear. He was right, and so I went back to the drawing board.

These pages I believe where done in late 98 to 99. So I was 20 years old. I had reached a point where I felt that I really needed to work from a script. I searched the internet for sample scripts and found one I liked. It was from this nothing little independent comic company's web sight. The script was 8 pages, and by the time that I finished it the company I got it from no longer existed. But the reason I liked the script was because it was generic. I could send it to any companies I wanted.

Again, I sent these sample pages out to everybody I could think of, and, again, the only one to give me a proper response was Marvel.
I'll talk more about that in my next "Blast From the Past" entry.

One little note about these pages: I actually left the last page in the copy machine at Kinko's. I went back for it but it was gone and the employ hadn't seen it. Maybe it's out there somewhere. Who knows. Ever sense then I check and recheck every copy machine or scanner I use to make sure I'm not leaving anything behind.

Entry 74: Aeon Con Sketch

2009-08-27T07:16:00.000-07:00

I found this on line. It's a convention sketch I did at this past Emerald City convention. I remember the guy was doing a sketchbook where he asked the artist to just do a piece related to their favorite Sci-Fi. There were only 2 pieces in it and they were both Blade Runner.
I'm a big fan of the Aeon Flux cartoon series. Back when it was just the short cartoons it was the only reason to watch Liquid Television. If I watched an episode of Liquid Television and there wasn't an Aeon short I was very disappointed. Then when it was a cartoon series I recorded almost every episode and watched them again and again. I highly recommend the dvd set. Aeon Flux isn't my absolute favorite Sci-Fi and though the cartoon and the original shorts would make my top 10 list of favorite sci-fi's I could have easily gone with something ells. But I just wanted to draw Aeon.

Entry 73: X-Men Legacy Annotated-Part 1

2009-08-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

In this post I'm showing you all the penciled pages for X-Men Legacy #226. And I'll be talking about just what went into each page. It will be like a dvd commentary. So here we go!

Coming into this issue I decided that I wanted to do a very clean layout style. In X-Men Kingbreaker, the series I did just before this, on almost all the pages the panels bled off the page. It was kind of an experiment. I had never done a comic like that and I just wanted to try it. Some how it felt appropriate for Kingbreaker, but with this, I wanted a layout style that didn't call attention to it's self.
When I laid this scene out I had Rogue wearing her costume with the jacket. When the editor told me it needed to be the green cloak look I was a little disappointed. I much prefer the jacket.
If you compare Pixie's expression in the pencils to the actual comic you'll notice her face is less smiley in the comic. I had to change it because the situation needed to seem more serious.

I was really excited to draw San Francisco in this comic. Having done a lot of stories that take place in space or in a historical period, getting to do something that takes place in the real world of today was a nice change of pace. It gave me an opportunity to do something that I've wanted to do for a while, be as accurate to a real place as I possibly can. I wanted all of it to ring true to anyone who lives in SF. A great resource for being completely accurate is Google maps street view. You can see everything! In this scene I actually used Google Earth to find a good rooftop to suit the story telling needs with just the right view. The actual roof top that they are on is at 20 Grant Ave. All of the buildings are almost exactly where they would be in real life.

I liked using the 0 point perspective for panel 3. They removed the Macy's sign from the building in the printed comic.

In the script this splash seemed to describe the running crowed as being the real focus. So there was a layout version of this page that showed more of what was going on around the fight. It seemed more relevant to the story, but the editor felt that this should focus on the fight it's self. It really doesn't have much relevance to the story in this comic but it looks cool, I guess. I tried to give a lot of background to help keep it in context. Forcing the perspective helped get more in there. This scene takes place in the intersection of Powell and Sutter facing the NW corner

Just before starting this comic I drew The Adventures of Thing-Thing, a 2 page homage to Tintin. In the Tintin comics Herge does a lot of little panels where the figures aren't that big in the frame. It's a style that works great for telling a lot of story clearly. That style was still lingering in my mind when I laid this issue out and to me it's most apparent on this page.
I added panel 5 to break up the action and keep the story telling clear. I often add panels that weren't in the script. There are a few different reasons I do this. In this case it was because I wanted to be more explicit about the action. When you do this it can add a kind of slow motion effect to the pacing.
This scene takes place at 262 Geary St. facing Union Square. And slipped in is an UP billboard into the background of panel 5.

This is one of the few scenes that isn't based on a real place. It's just some alley.
When I start a comic I like to think of the look and feel that I want it to have and then I think of what artists achieve what I'm looking for. Then I try to focus my inspiration to those few artists and use them like ingredients. With Kingbreaker the ingredients I wanted to use were Jim Lee and Moebius. With this they were Otomo and Brian Hitch. Now of course, a lot of other influences get into the mix. There are some influences that always crop up in my art in little ways.
You can see that I used a lot of action lines in this comic. That's that Otomo Manga influence. Again I broke up panel 4 into panels 4 and 5.

On this page I added panels 1 and 2 to create a smoother transition from the previous page.
I did a major change in Ariel's costume here. Before she had this ridiculous 80's pseudo glam look that I don't think looked very good. So I wanted to change it but I also wanted to keep her looking like the same character with the same sensibilities. I ended up basing almost this entire costume on something Victoria Beckham once wore. It just seemed to work.

This is my take on an X-Men safe house in San Fran. It's been a little trashed.

In Panel 1 you can see the name Barlow on the side of the gun. It's a little shout out to my friend Jeremy Barlow, writer of They'll Bury You Where You Stand.
Barlow firearms is the supplier of all of H.A.M.M.E.R.'s weaponry. "Barlow Firearms"- When you absolutely, positively got to kill every motherfucker in the room, accept no substitutes.

The inset panel frame was something I picked up from Georges Bess in his work in Son Of The Gun and in White Lama. If you haven't read those books, I highly recommend them. Jodorowsky and Bess are geniuses.

This was an interesting fight to try to choreograph because one character can go intangible. In the script Mike Carry described Moonstone's fighting stile to be a martial art specialized to her power of "phasing."
Most of the time when it comes to fights I have to create it all on my own. I think this page came out being 3 panels longer than how it was scripted.
I think the close up of the feet was something I picked up from Shiro.

Here we go. My most blatant homage (not rip off) to Otomo. The shot I use in panel 1 is almost exactly like the shot in Akira when Kaneda is in the school, running from the Colonel, and he jumps out the window. When I tried to imagine this scene that shot in Akira was all I could see. So why the hell not just use it.
Another thing of note on this page: Rogue's bra. For some reason one of the things I see on message boards talked about the most from this issue and the next is Rogue's bra. Super heroins get their costumes ripped all the time but you never see that they're wearing a bra underneath. To me, the bra makes it sexier.

This scene is set at 418 Castro St in front of the Castro Theater.
I was disappointed with how this scene came out in the colors. I make it a point on this journal to never talk bad about the work done by the inkers, colorists, and writers that I work with, but in this case I know that the colorist was really crunched for time, which was partly my fault. I know he could have done better if given more time.

Panel 2 on this page was an add.
In the script it was supposed to be a wall that falls on Aries here, but in using a real location there are no walls that are just there for the falling. So I decided to use the US Bank facade. It's a Bank crumbling on top of the god of war. It's seemed kind of funny to me.

On this page I kind of like how the figures in panels 1 and 2 form up like a chain leading you through the page.

On the marquee of the Castro Theater I have a Jodorowsky film festival with El Topo and Holy Mountain... I just like Jodorowsky that's all.
Also in Panel 1 the positions of Rogue and Aries with the energy vortex kind of thing between them is a reference to Michelangelo's God and Adam.

The script called for them to be taking a Humvee but I thought that was just too boring. So I made up this big tank/truck thing for them to take. I just wanted something more visually interesting. Plus it's fun to design new things.

On this page I added panel 2. I just wanted the close up of Aries pissed and probably wondering what just happened.
I actually thought Aries would be coming back in the next issue because of the cover for the next issue that was solicited with him on it fighting Rogue.
Just to illustrate that this tank thing is better than a Humvee I have it just flipping one out of the way.

And there you have it, X-Men Legacy #226. Next time X-Men Legacy #227
Thanks.

Entry 72: X-Men Legacy 227

2009-08-22T14:11:00.000-07:00

X-Men Legacy 227 IS OUT!
Pay for it. Then have it.
If you like to own things that you didn't once own, this is the comic for you.
Here are some preview pages.
Click- View big- judge!

Entry 71: Ghost Riders Heaven's on Fire #4

2009-08-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

Alright! My first cover for Marvel is done and here it is.

This will be the cover for Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire #4.

I've done a few sketches of GR in my sketch books over the years but I've always wanted to do a finished piece. He's a great looking character. He's so simple and pure. Leather, spikes, chains, motorcycle, and a flaming skull, it doesn't get more bad ass than that. If you tried to get more bad ass than that, then you'd be trying to hard.

I'd really like to do more GR covers but I'm about to dive into a project that is going to be pretty demanding. So I can't really do it right now, but here's hoping there are a few more Ghost Rider pieces in my future.

These were the sketches I submitted to the editor. I don't normally do sketches with any rendering like this. This was a first. But I did find it helpful as I went into the final piece.

Entry 70: The DW Check List

2009-08-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

The title of this entry says "Check List." I presume everyone who visits here is trying to get everything I've ever done. I can't blame you, it's all pretty awesome.
Seriously though, a lot of times, when I'm looking at an artist's blog or web-sight I find, if I like their work, that I want to know where I can find their work in print and what I should be looking for specifically. Seeing stuff on the internet is fine but it's not like having it in print. I also like knowing when in their career an artist created a certain piece. I like putting it in the context of their development.
So I thought I would put up a list of everything that I've had published in the order of when I did it rather than when it was published and include a little note about each thing. So, though I don't presume that you'll be checking things off this list, I do presume that it's somewhat interesting. Of course I make that presumption every time I post anything. So here you go.
A lot of this stuff will eventually get covered in a "blast from the past" post on this Live journal.

Entry 69 dude: Life Drawing

2009-07-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

Here's something a little different for this Live journal: Life drawing.

I don't do a lot of life drawing. By "life drawing" I mean drawing naked models. When I was about 19 I took a life drawing class for the first time. It got me drawing from life more than I had ever done and more than I have since. We had to do a drawing from life in our sketchbooks every day. Then there was drawing from models. It's great because you get to really examine and draw something you don't see everyday, naked people. They're interesting to draw and then they make for interesting drawings. But for me, I was far more into the drawings we had to do in our sketchbooks in the real world. Trees, buildings, people walking, talking, wearing cloths- these things seemed far more useful to me. I wasn't in life drawing for the sake of life drawing. I wanted to learn to make better comics, and there are far more clothed people in comics than there are naked- at least in my comics. Don't get me wrong, I learned a lot from drawing the models. I knew a lot about anatomy before I took the class, but drawing from the models helped me put all those pieces together. And it showed me how light and shadow describes those pieces in ways I couldn't have thought of before. No doubt, I learned a lot by drawing from the models, but ultimately I realized that the world is full of models. They're sitting in cafes, walking down streets, they're everywhere and more importantly they're free. Sure they're clothed, but, like I said, that was useful to me.

About a year ago. Before I had joined Periscope Studio I visited a few times to do some life drawing. For a while they were organizing a session each week. It was a good way for me to meat the studio people and see if I could join. It was a lot of fun. It's good to keep in touch with how things really look, even the things you can't see. And, eventually I joined the studio, so it worked.
So these are some of the drawings I did during one session.

Entry 68: Preview-They'll Bury You Where You Stand!

2009-07-23T08:39:00.000-07:00

I am not going to comic con this week, but if you are and you happen to run into Jeremy Barlow you might have an opportunity to see a sneak peak at our western comic, They'll Bury You Where You Stand!

It's a short story that will be published in Outlaw Territory Volume 2, which doesn't yet have a release date.
This story is an exciting project for me for a few reasons:

For starters, It's the first thing I've worked on in my professional career where I've been involved with it's creation from the start. Everything I've worked on up to this point has at least had a story and script done before I get to put my stamp on it. TBYWYS! has my stamp on it from the very start.

Second, it's the first story I've done that I've colored myself. From the inception of this story color played an important part. In fact I knew how I wanted to color it even before there was a story.

Third, I got to collaborate with my friend Jeremy. He got me into Spaghetti Westerns. I was a fan of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly but I really hadn't delved into that genre until Jeremy started suggesting titles. And in general, western stories have been an ongoing topic in our friendship. So when the opportunity to do this story came up we booth jumped at it.

Another reason I'm excited about this story is that I think it's pretty cool. We really wanted to do a western that was different than any western we've seen. I think that we were able to make it everything I was hoping it would be.

I'll have a lot more to say about it when it comes out. When I know the release date I'll let you know. I'll be excited to hear what you think of it.

Here is a page from They'll Bury You Where You Stand!

Entry 67: X-Men Legacy 226- out next week.

2009-07-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

From The Adventures of Thing Thing to this. X-Men Legacy 226 will be out next week, July 8! Here's a peek at the first 5 pages in black and white.

These pages were faithfully inked be Ed Tadeo. This issue was my first time sending my penciled pages over the internet to the inker for him to then print out and ink. Which means I get to keep all my original penciled pages. It's booth cool and not so cool. On the one hand I get to keep all my pages and not have to split them up with an inker, but on the other hand none of them are inked, and I like ink. Also, that means there are 2 originals, one in pencil and one in ink. I suppose, for a collector it would be really sweet to have both the pencils and inks side by side.

Here are the same pages in color with text.

Entry 66: Fantastic Four Giant-Size Adventures #1

2009-06-25T07:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple more panels from The Adventures of Thing Thing which is now OUT! The issue is 42 pages long and only 2 of those pages are by me and are Thing Thing, but I'm really proud of those 2 pages. I'm currently working on a couple X-Men Legacy issues right now that will be out soon, but frankly, I'm more excited about Thing Thing being out. It's just a more personal project. It's also the first published work of mine where the art is completely created by me. I've worked with good inkers and good colorists, but nothing beats getting to do it all yourself. (I should thank Colleen Coover and especially Periscope intern, Ben Bates, for helping me out with flatting) Of course, my contribution isn't the only reason to pick this up. There are 40 other pages that contain some really nice work by a few of my fellow Periscopers, Rich Ellis, Colleen Coover, and of course it's all written by Paul Tobin.

Here's what the book looks like.

Entry 65: Wolverine 100 Project

2009-06-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

Down at the Periscope Studio Steve Lieber and Jeff Parker got some of these Wolverine: Weapon-X #1 sketch covers from the Hero Initiative. If you don't know what the Hero Initiative is, it's a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to helping "yesterdays" comic book creators in need of emergency medical aid, financial support for essentials, and to provide an avenue back into paying work.

Apparently, there are 100 of these blank sketch covers out there with a hundred different artists sketching em up to be auctioned off to benefit the Hero Initiative. Steve and Jeff got 4 of them. That meant there were 2 up for grabs for anyone in the studio to sketch on. Colleen Coover got one and I got the other. I figure someday I'll be yesterdays comic book creator. So it's probably worth supporting these guys. Plus, I will jump at any opportunity to draw Wolverine.

Wolverine was the first comic series that I ever collected. It was the comic that made me a comic book fan. But my favorite Wolverine story was Barry Windsor Smith's Weapon-X.

You can check out my fellow Periscoper's pieces at there respective sights Here: Steve and Colleen. And you can see Jeff's preliminary sketches Here: Jeff. And you can see some other artists' pieces here.

Here's my piece.

Entry 64: The Adventures of ThingThing- The Blue Cheese Affair

2009-06-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

That's right, this post is called ThingThing. It's what happens when Ben Grimm eats a whole wheel of blue cheese and reads Tintin before going to bed. Or it's what happens when Paul Tobin has 2 extra pages in Fantastic Four Giant-Size Adventures #1 and asks me if I want to do a short homage to Herge.

Paul is a studio mate of mine at Periscope Studio and has written a whole lot of Marvel books including: like ALL of the Marvel adventures books, or something like that. I don't know. He writes a lot of them. And since I joined the studio he and I have found we have a mutual love for European comics. He has one of the best graphic novel collections I've ever seen.

When Paul mentioned the idea of doing The Thing as Tintin I thought- that is a strange and fantastic idea, and, despite the fact that I already had my hands full with X-Men, I said yes. I had to do it... I couldn't let someone ells do it, right? An opportunity to draw Tintin meets the Fantastic Four doesn't come along to often. Another thing I liked about the idea was that I would get to ink and color it as well.

So I did it, and it was a blast. It's short but I really tried to chock it full of comic book goodness. I hope people check it out. The issue is Fantastic Four Giant-Size Adventures #1 and it comes out June 24. You can see another little sneak peek of it at Paul Tobin (Dot) Net. Check it out.

On a completely separate note I want to thank Robin Bougie for posting about me on his Live journal several weeks back and getting a bunch of new people to start following my LJ. That's pretty damn cool of him. And thanks to all the people who read his post and checked out my stuff. I've been wanting to respond to the comments left on my last entry but haven't been allowing myself much Internet time lately. Anyway, thanks again.

Entry 63: When there's touble you call DW

2009-05-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

I think I had just started Kingbreaker when Randy Stradley at Dark Horse asked if I could do a Dark Times cover. He said it would be a Doug Wheatley layout and that I had months before it was due. Since I had such a long time to get it done and Doug was already doing part of the work and since I like Doug's work, I said yes. While I was working on KB 2 I got an e-mail from Randy's assistant wondering if I had the cover done yet. I didn't. I hadn't even started. I thought I still had a long time before it was due and so I was focusing on KB which was behind schedual. So, thinking that they needed the cover right away I took a couple days break from KB to do it. Only now are they soliciting the cover. I probably could have waited till I was all done with Kingbreaker before doing it, instead of getting myself even more behind. Oh well. It's all behind me now. And I like how the cover came out. It will be the cover for Star Wars: Dark Times #16.

I worked pretty closely from Doug Wheatley's layout on this. Sometimes when you're working over another artists layouts you end up wanting to change a lot, but when I saw Doug's sketch for this cover I wanted to retain as much of it as I could. He's a really great artist and I encourage you to check out his work in Star Wars: Dark Times. Also, check out his blog here.

The title of this entry is from the theme song to the Disney cartoon DarkWing Duck. The line has staid with me all these year. You know, because my initials are DW... I wonder if Doug has had the same experience...

Anyway, here's Doug's sketch that I turned into the piece you see above.

Entry 62: Kingbreaker final thoughts

2009-05-08T18:52:00.000-07:00

Well, X-Men: Kingbreaker is behind me now and I've moved on to new things, but now that it's over and I can look back at it, I can really see just what I think of it. During the course of drawing it there were times when I was really enjoying myself and feeling confident, then there were times when I hated every line that I put on the page and questioned my ability to do anything of value. At times it was kind of rough. Maybe it was the pressure I felt to deliver on my first Marvel job, but Kingbreaker kind of effed with me. And only now can I look at it with a little objectivity and really determine how I feel about it. And I kind of like it, despite some real regrets.

Obviously X-Men is a superhero genre book, but it's always had a sci-fi edge to it and it was that aspect that I wanted to emphasize. And with this story taking place in space, emphasizing it as a space sci-fi was a natural.

You might be wondering what I mean when I say that I wanted to emphasize the space sci-fi aspect of the story. Isn't the story just what it is? If the writer writes a sci-fi then it's a sci-fi? Well, yeah, but sci-fi's, especially space and futuristic sci-fi's, have a particular way of depicting things and telling story. Think of Star Wars, or Blade Runner, or Alien and think of the big moments that you are meant to pause and soak in, the big impact moments. Those moments are giant amazing space ships, flying cars zooming over expansive cities, strange ship interiors, they're settings, they're things you've never seen, they're the world. Now think of the big moments in the Superhero genre. They're one guy punching another, the villain once thought dead has returned, the hero is facing death at the hands of the villain, the big moments are characters, they're action. One genre emphasizes the world and the other emphasizes characters and not just characters, but the power and violence of characters. Not to be confused with emphasizing character, which is something the better superhero comics do a bit of. But over all, with some exceptions, the world superheroes inhabit isn't made to be very important... I wanted to make the world in Kingbreaker important, emphasize places and things... On the other hand, I also wanted to definitely have those superhero moments... It was a constant balancing act.

By the end of Kingbreake the focus was clearly on the power and violence of the characters. There was no denying it was a super hero book.

When an issue that I've drawn comes out I've always liked to keep up with the message boards and see what people think. When people like something I've done it gets me pumped and excited to hit the drawing board and produce more. For Kingbreaker issue 1 the reaction was overall favorable. But when Issue 2 came out it was a different story. It wasn't the message boards that were so bad. It was the review CBR did. It was not a good review. I read the review the morning on the day the issue came out without having seen the issue yet. It kind of killed me. I hadn't read a review like that for any of my previous work. It really knocked the wind out of my sails. At that time I was just starting issue 4 and it took me a few pages to get my confidence back. I don't really like the first few pages of that issue, but once I recovered from that I started to like drawing again.

Here are a few pages from issue 4.

I was glad when Newsarama gave a good review of Kingbreaker #4.

Over all, Kingbreaker was a lot of fun. It was exciting to do my first work in the X-Men universe, the universe that got me into reading comics. And despite my spirits getting killed and the regret of not being able to finish all of issues 3 and 4, I like it. And I like issue 2.

Here are some more sketches. Also, the piece at the top of this post was a commission I did at the Emerald City Convention last month. Thanks to Eduardo for e-mailing me a copy.

Entry 61: Emerald City Comic Con

2009-04-03T03:10:00.000-07:00

Right now I am packing up to go to the Emerald City Comic Con and I'll be hitting the road in a few short hours. I wanted to get on here sooner and say that I'd be there but It's been a busy week. Anyways, if you're going too, please come and find me. Say Hi. I'll be at table F-07 and I'll be doing sketches and commissions. I'll also have some sneak peeks at stuff I'm working on.

The convention has put together a charity art book called "Monsters And Dames" and the piece you see above is my contribution. From what I've seen of the other pieces this looks like it will be a really great book. I really want to get my hands on one. There are only 850 copies so we'll see. I'll also be donating my original piece for the charity auction to benefit the Seattle Children's Hospital.

I'll be back next week to do a post about X-Men Kingbreaker #4. That's out you know?

Entry 60: X-Men: Kingbreaker #3

2009-02-26T18:29:00.000-08:00

X-men: Kingbreaker #3 came out a couple weeks ago now, so this post is a little late but oh well. If you see this post and want to go get the issue, I'll bet you could still go get it. So I'm not too late.

Unfortunately, with this issue we had to bring in another artist to help finish it on time. I ended up only doing 13 of the 22 pages, but, to make it a smooth read, the pages are cleverly divided between me and the other artist by scenes. I think it works pretty well and I'm happy with the work I was able to get done, but I really wish I could have done the whole issue myself. The scenes that I didn't get to draw would have been a blast. When I first got the script I didn't know that I wasn't going to get to do the whole issue and I ended up sketching one of those scenes that I wouldn't end up getting to draw. I thought I would share that sketch with you so here you go.

I probably would have ended up doing something really close to this sketch. I think I would have shifted some things around, changed some proportions, and added more ships on the left side, but really it would have been a lot like this.

From the very start this series has been really tight for time. I can remember seeing the solicitations for issue 1 before I had even started. Things started really coming down to wire in issue 2. I never rushed or "hacked" a page but with that issue another inker and colorist had to be brought in because I just hadn't left enough time for Jaime, the inker, and Nathan, the colorist, to do their thing. Then there were the holidays. Holidays and conventions always hit hard on the productivity. So, yeah, I just couldn't keep up. But in a way, I'd rather do 13 pages I like then do 22 that are all crap.

With this issue I finally get to draw Polaris in costume. This was my preliminary sketch of her. And here are my sketches of the new guard characters. Last time I showed you "The Strontian" and here are some more.

On a side note: for you fans of my Star Wars stuff. In regard to this issue, (X-Men: Kingbreaker #3) I will refer you to a past entry on this live journal. Entry 19... And that's all I'm going to say....

Just for fun, here is another black and white page.

Entry 59: On A Personal Note

2009-02-08T15:55:00.000-08:00

This journal is about my professional career in comics. I don't do a lot of talking about my personal life unless I think it pertains to my career. And well, I've got some personal news that I believe will have an impact on my career. I'm going to be a dad! That's right! I'm very excited. My fiancee, Lauren, is pregnant and it's pretty freaking awesome.

I'd go on about it but I think I should just direct you to Lauren's Live Journal page. She's just posted about our baby and I encourage you to click over and read her post. It's a great post, a much better post than I could write. Here's the link. Lauren's LJ

Also, if you're checking out her journal be sure to scroll down and check out her past entries. She's selling a damn good recreation of the Raptor shirt the Enid wears in the Ghost World movie. In my opinion, it's a must have for fans of that movie.

Entry 58: KingBreaker Black and White

2009-01-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

As a comic book artist I always like seeing the black and white pages of other artists before they're colored, so I thought I'd post a few of my own pages from Kingbreaker in black and white for anyone who's like me and likes this kind of stuff.

If you look back through my work you'll see that I like to switch up my style with each new story. With Kingbreaker, it's probably obvious that I'm shooting for a kind of Jim Lee look. I'm a big fan of the old Jim Lee/ Chris Claremont X-Men issues, but it's not my only reference for this stuff. I'm also getting a lot of inspiration from some of my favorite sci-fi artists like Moebius, Juan Gimenez, and Masemune Shiro. Jaime Mendoza's super slick inks give it all a modern American stylized finish.

Here are a few more pages from issue 2.

What was really exciting for me in issue 2 was getting to create the New Guard characters. It's great to get to contribute to the X-men universe. Here is my concept sketch for "The Stontian." In the actual book I tried to make her a little more buff than this.

And finally, here is a costume design for Marvel Girl. I really wanted to recall her old look as Phoenix.

Entry 57: This week: X-Men Kingbreaker #2

2009-01-18T04:09:00.000-08:00

Hey, babies. Got some Kingbreaker #2 for yo ace. That's right, I said "ace." For you X comic fans the first issue was a little bit of a recap. With this issue things really take off. If you have evan an ounce of coolness you'll get this book. Seriously this issue is going to make issue 1 look like issue dumb. And make issue three look like issue pee. That's how good it is. Am I making any sense? Just get it. Do it for the children.

Once again, a cover by Brandon Peterson (so shiny):

Entry 56: Blast From The Past- Part 5

2008-12-25T19:56:00.000-08:00

(continued from entry 49)
In 1997 I had gone to my first comic con, the San Diego comic con, and I had had my first portfolio review and it had gone well. I had an editor for Wildstorm's business card and things seemed promising. So I started to draw.

I thought I would work on one of my own ideas not related to any comic book properties and, as I went along, use my pages to submit to editors, particularly the editors at Wildstorm. The idea I worked on was a surreal futuristic espionage story called Hiro. It was a mix of Aeon Flux, Brazil, Batman, and Blade Runner (I know every futuristic sci-fi is compared to Blade Runner, but I don't care, it was like Blade Runner)

I started sending the pages to the editor at Wildstorm in 98 thinking that he'd see them and within a few months I'd be called upon to move down to La Jolla and working at the studio. Instead I was told that my stuff was to dark, not superhero-ie enough and more suited for some of the independent publishers of the time like Caliber and some other companies I can't remember now. He said that he thought I was a good artist, but what I was doing now wasn't like what he saw in my portfolio review. Well of course it wasn't, I thought. This was very different subject matter, and was it really so different? And, if I can draw, what difference does it make that what I'm currently drawing doesn't look exactly like what they were publishing?

Maybe I'm kidding myself though. I know that I've gotten a lot better since these pages but I still think they're pretty good. Maybe they aren't as good as I think they are and they were right to not have hired me. Also, what I didn't know then was that the industry was crashing hard after the huge sales of the early nineties. It would be less than a year later that Wildstorm would be bought by DC comics. I guess in hindsight there could have been some reluctance to take chances on someone new, but I also know that around this time Wildstorm took on several new interns... so, I don't know.

At any rate, I decided to try something different. I decided to do something "lighter" and more superhero-ie. I remembered an idea that my buddy DJ had once told me about. Apparently when he was little he had come up with a superhero called MorphMan who could transform into a motorcycle. I really liked the idea so a stole it. It was just for the purposes of a 5 page submission, so why not.

I submitted the pages and got nothing. I realized that I was barking up the wrong tree and that I needed to expand my horizons. My goal of getting hired by Wildstorm right out of the gate was not going to happen. They were just not interested.

Entry 55: Chris Yost on X-MEN KINGBREAKER

2008-12-17T16:55:00.000-08:00

So X-Men Kingbreaker is out NOW!
Here's are the first 8 pages. Click to enlarge.

Entry 54: Periscope studio and Kingbreaker is coming!

2008-12-06T17:48:00.000-08:00

For a while now I've wanted to get a studio space outside of my home to help me separate work from the rest of my life. The problem with working at home is that I end up getting distracted... a lot. I'll draw a figure then sit back in my chair and think to myself, "I wonder if i have e-mail," or, "a snack sounds good," or, "I should do the dishes." And what ends up happening is that all these little distractions and small breaks add up and cause my work to take much longer than it should and leave me with no time for a personal life. In essence my personal life becomes checking e-mail, snacking, and doing dishes. So, it has seemed to me that if I could separate my work from my life then I could actually have a life, and I've figured having a separate place for working could really help me do this.

About a year ago I did a search for comic art studios here in Portland and fond that there's a pretty great one called Periscope studio. I emailed them about my interest in joining their studio but at that time they didn't have room for anyone new. But eventually some room opened up and I jumped on it. I've been working there now for a few months and just in time. This X-men project that I'm currently working on is really demanding. Having the studio to go to has been a big help with getting work done.

Check out the Periscope studio web sight here.

Speaking of that X-Men project, X-Men: Kingbreaker, The first issue will be out THIS MONTH on December 17!
The image above is from that first issue. Here is the cover by Brandon Peterson and a description of the issue.

The X-Men have been defeated. Havok , Polaris and the Starjammers are being held and tortured in the most secure prison in the universe. Marvel Girl, Korvus and Lilandra are being hunted by the Imperial Guard. Vulcan is Emperor of the Shi'Ar Empire and his expansion has begun. No King will stand when Vulcan and his armies are done. Join Christopher Yost (X-FORCE) and Dustin Weaver (Star Wars:KOTR) as they spin the story of a fight against insurmountable odds. Do not miss this mini-series that will change the shape of the Universe and pave the way for the War of Kings.

Check out more preview pages here.

Entry 53: Out Yesterday

2008-10-30T06:16:00.000-07:00

Star Wars: Legacy #29--Vector part 10

Writer: John Ostrander
Penciller: Jan Duursema

Inker: Dan Parsons
Colorist: Brad Anderson

Cover: Dustin Weaver
With his bounty-hunter pals and a team of Imperial Knights, Cade Skywalker plans to assassinate the Sith Emperor Darth Krayt. The first step in their scheme requires a risky attack on a remote Imperial outpost in hopes of drawing Krayt away from Coruscant.

But even if that works, members of the team are divided in their feelings about their "secret weapon"--Celeste Morne, an ancient Jedi Knight of the Old Republic who is in possession of--and possibly possessed by--the powerful Muur Talisman.
As we plunge into the final chapters of the yearlong "Vector" crossover, the power of the Talisman threatens to shake the galaxy to its foundations!

Publication Date: October 29, 2008

Format: FC, 40 pages

Price: $2.99

Entry 52: From the Land Beyond

2008-10-01T04:31:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went down to Sacramento for the "From the land Beyond" Sci Fi and Horror convention. Me and Lauren had a great time chatting with fans and our table neighbors. I want to thank all the Star Wars comic fans who stopped by and said hi.
Though the show wasn't a big draw for art collectors and sketch and commission seekers I did do some sketching just for fun while I sat there. These are the sketches I did.

Entry 51: Kingbreaker

2008-09-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a few weeks now since Rebellion 16 came out and my name isn't on any of the solicitations for up coming Star Wars comics. So just what the heck am I up to? Well, I took a little time after Rebellion to work on a short story with Jeremy Barlow (writer for Star Wars and former Editor at Dark Horse). The story will appear in Outlaw Territory: Volume 2 from Image next year. It's a story that we've created together and I think it's going to be really cool. I also developed a creator owned story with Rob Williams (writer of Rebellion and Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods). The story was developed as a pitch to become an online comic for a television network. It's fate is still up in the air. And I've been trying to figure out what my next project will be.

It seems that, for the first time, I'm getting to make decisions about what to do next. It's a nice change. Before now I've just taken what I could get. My goal is to eventually have the freedom to do just creator owned stuff. So I've had to consider what is the next step towards that goal.

So the step that I've taken is I've started working on an X-Men 4 issue mini series called X-Men: Kingbreaker. The story deals with Havok, Polaris, Marvel Girl, and the Starjammers in the Shi'ar empire up against Havok's brother, a former X-men and now Shi'ar emperor, Vulcan. It's got epic space battles, aliens, super powers, and a lot of action. It's really not to different from what I've been doing in Star Wars. It even has a guy with a glowing sword.

I'm pretty excited to be working on this book. The first comic that I bought that really pulled me into comics and made me a comic fan was Uncanny X-Men #277 which was the last issue that Jim Lee and Claremont did involving the Shi-ar and the Starjammers. Those issues are still some of my favorites and are very nostalgic for me. So to be creating and working in that universe feels really good, and I hope I can capture even a fraction of the magic of those old issues.

Given the connection this material has to my becoming a comic fan and its similarities to what I've been working on for the last couple years I think this series is a great fit for me and a natural next step.

Hopefully some Star Wars fans will check it out and hopefully the X-fans will be gentle with me. Wish me luck!

The piece I've posted is a sketch I did of Vulcan. It's just my first go at the guy and I'm still feeling out these characters and their looks. He may end up looking a little different in the comic.

Entry 50: Out Today!

2008-08-27T04:28:00.000-07:00

On your trip to your local comic shop today be sure to check these out: Rebellion 16 and Knights of the Old Republic: Volume 4--Daze of Hate, Knights of Suffering TPB. And if you didn't get Rebellion 15 last month check that out too. Those 2 issues really tell a complete story on their own that you can read without having to get all the Vector issues.
Kotor Volume 4 contains issues 19-24. Issues 22-24 were my contribution. I talked a little about those issues and posted preview pages back in entries 7, 11, 19, 20, and 21 of this journal, if you want to go back and check those out:)

Entry 49: Blast From The Past- Part 4

2008-08-18T06:53:00.000-07:00

Back in Entry 25 I posted about Rat Bastard. It was a short comic I drew in my Senior year of high school. This time I'm posting something I drew almost right after that.
These pages are from a short 4 page WildC.A.T.S submission I did and they mark my first real attempt at drawing something to appeal to a publisher. Of course the publisher I wanted to appeal to was Jim Lee's company, Wildstorm. If you go back to Entry 8 you'll see why working in Jim's studio was my goal from the age of 13.
The story for these 4 pages involved Grifter and Voodoo undercover in a restaurant where a Yakuza deal is going down, but of course they're not just Yakuza they're Daemonites. It wasn't a very complex story or a very good story, but it didn't need to be.
I sent this to Wildstorm along with a copy of Rat Bastard but I don't recall ever hearing anything back. I honestly think I got the address wrong. But less than a year later I got a chance to show it directly to the editors at Wildstorm when I went to my first comic book convention.

In 1997 when I was 18 I moved with my dad from Alaska to Orange County CA. After the move I started drawing a short story that took place in Anchorage. I wanted the story to be in real places that I knew so I used photos I had taken for reference. I ended up kind of making Anchorage look a lot more interesting than it is. I guess living there I i liked to imagine it being a lot more interesting than it was and I think that came threw in my depiction of it. Thees scenes were inspired by Tardi's Manhattan story that was printed in Raw magazine. I didn't own the book, I had only seen it because my buddy DJ had it, but it made an impression on me.

Now that I was living in Orange County I was only 2 hours away from the San Diego Comic Con. So in 1997 I went for the first time to a Comic Convention. I really just wanted to show my work to someone but really didn't know how it worked. I went just for one day and had time to only do one portfolio review. So it was this short WildC.A.T.S story and these few Anchorage story pages that I showed to Wildstorm editors Scott Dunbier and John Layman. I got a really good response from them and John Layman gave me his card. It seemed really encouraging. How naive I was...

Entry 48: Rebellion 16 Preview, Comic Con, EU Cantina interview

2008-07-31T14:40:00.000-07:00

Star Wars: Rebellion #16-Vector part 8
Writer: Rob Williams

Artist: Dustin Weaver

Colorist: Wil Glass

Cover Artist: Dan Scott

Darth Vader successfully lures Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia into a trap that could cripple the Rebel Alliance, as "Vector"-the most important Star Wars event of 2008-concludes its third arc, setting the stage for the final galaxy-shaking showdown in Star Wars: Legacy!
On the dark surface of a desolate moon, Luke and Leia meet their first Jedi since Obi-Wan Kenobi, only to realize too late this Knight of the Old Republic is far different than their fallen friend--twisted by the Sith's Muur Talisman and enraged by Darth Vader! Together, Luke and Leia must make a choice with far-reaching consequences, not just for themselves, but for the fate of the entire galaxy!

Publication Date: August 27, 2008

There you have it. Rebellion #16. It's the last issue of Rebellion for a while so check it out... after checking out #15 of course.

So I got back home to Portland from the San Diego Comic Con the other night. What a great show it was. It was crazy as usual. Most of my time was spent face down doing commissions, which I wouldn't have any other way. I really wanted to thank everyone who stopped by my table. I really enjoyed talking comics and art with everyone. I also wanted to thank Christina Strain for being an awesome artist alley neighbor, and of course my lovely fiancee, Lauren, for helping me at the table.

While I was busy trying to keep up with the commissions a guy came up to me and asked for a quick head sketch. I was in between commissions and I knew I could do a quick head sketch before starting the next commission so I said sure. Then he busted out a video camera and told me he would post it on youtube. So no pressure right? I was torn the whole time I drew it with how finished I should to make it. I also wanted to do it pretty quick so that it was watchable on youtube... Anyway here it is.

I've also done an interview with EU Cantina.net that you can check out here: EU Cantina Interview
... So there you go. Lot's of stuff:)

Entry 47: Rebellion #15 OUT TODAY

2008-07-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

This baby is out today. So go pick it up, why shouldn't you? The Travis cover alone makes it worth it. If you're not convinced here's a preview of some interior pages... still not interested in picking it up. Well, what if I said please. It's the magic word. Does the magic word do anything for ya?...

Entry 46: Jelly of the Month

2008-07-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

This month's Jelly of Month subject is Hanna-Barbara. I considered doing a Scooby piece and even a Jetsons piece, but ultimately I decided to do something not as well known, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder and Blue Falcon. Thees characters being super heroes puts them right up my alley, as I am a comic book guy. I drew these guys in high school along with characters like Inspector Gadget and fantasized about revamping them for comics. It was really fun revisiting them now. You can check out the other contributions at the Jelly of the Month

Entry 45: Legacy #29 cover

2008-07-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

Solicitations for this issue have Brad Anderson credited for this cover, but in fact, it was little ol' me who drew it. If you look closely at the stripe on the floor you can see my signature in white.
This is the cover for Legacy #29 Vector Part 10 (of 12). This marks my first time doing anything for Legacy and my 4th Vector cover. It's pretty cool to get to do a little work on these other Star Wars eras. The only era I haven't gotten to draw now is the Dark Times era.
I actually did this page from start to finish in 4 and a half days, which is really fast for me. Randy (the editor) called me up and asked if I could do a cover in 4 days. I said I would try and I almost made it.
So... I wish I could have taken more time. there are a few things that I don't really like, but over all, given the constraints, I'm pretty pleased.
This comes out Oct 29.

Entry 44: Out this week

2008-06-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

I think I've covered about as much of the title as I could possibly get away with.

Entry 43: The Tenth Circle Movie!

2008-06-14T04:34:00.000-07:00

Back in 2003 I got an opportunity to work on a really cool book called The Tenth Circle. How this opportunity came about is something I'm saving for a future "blast from the past" post, but I will say that it was the first substantial job I got in comics. Ironically it wasn't a comic. It was a novel.
I drew, inked and lettered a 35 page comic that is broken up into 4 or 5 page chunks that appear at the beginning of each chapter throughout the book. The story in the comic is meant to be written and drawn by the novel's main character, Daniel Stone, and it serves as a metaphor for what's happening to him in his life. It was written by Jodi Picoult. She's written a lot of books and is very popular. In fact in 2006, when it was released, The Tenth Circle debuted at #2 on the NY Times bestseller list and was ranked #1 on the Wall Street Journal and Publisher's Weekly bestseller lists! How many other other comic book artists have bestselling books?
And now it's becoming a movie! Well, a Lifetime Movie but a movie none the less. I know that its being a Lifetime movie doesn't sound too promising but Jodi's seen it, or at least an early cut of it and assures me that it's good. She says it doesn't feel like a Lifetime Movie. She also tells me that my art is prominently featured! So I'm in the movies now. Pretty cool, hu? Hopefully the cut she's seen is what will air.
It airs on the Lifetime network on June 28th at 9pm et/pt. Here's a link to the info on the Lifetime website. They actually have a good portion of the comic on the sight. Check it out.

Entry 42: Rebellion 15 Preview

2008-06-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

Everytime I post any kind of preview for an upcoming Star Wars issue I usually ask the editors at Dark Horse first if it's cool to post what I want to post. Sometimes they say no, like in the case of Entry 39 where all I could post was a costume design for Luke. But, it seems thees 2 pages have been posted by Rob Williams on his blog already. So I assume he got permission to post them.
Something to note on these pages: they were drawn at a reduced size almost at the size they will be printed.

Star Wars: Rebellion #15

Writer: Rob Williams
Artist: Dustin Weaver
Cover Artist: Travis Charest
Colorist: Will Glass
The biggest Star Wars event of 2008 has reached the Rebellion era. Now, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and Chewie will have to deal with "Vector" as it crosses their paths and changes the galaxy!
It has been twenty years since Darth Vader's encounter with the power of the Muur Talisman. As the power of the Rebellion grows, Vader's thoughts turn to the ancient Sith relic: though he was unable to harness its power, might it be used as a weapon against the enemies of the Empire?
Luke and Leia are walking into a trap, one which may close on both sides!
Publication Date: Jul 30, 2008