Entry 308: Blast From The Past- Part 29

Up till now these Blast From The Past entries have been in chronological order. I told the story of my path to getting work in comics and into the early years of my career. In the last entry I finally reached the point when I started this blog, which is kind of like the end of the line. Everything after that is already talked about on this blog. So I've decided to start skipping around to talk about some random projects that I've never talked about or just have more to say about. So, here's a pretty good one.

Entry 305: Blast From the Past- Part 28

In 2007 I went clear-line style for a few issues of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I went from rendering everything completely in gray-tones in my first Star Wars issues, to scaling back a little, and now I was jumping to pure clear lines with no rendering.

Entry 304: Blast From The Past - Part 27

So after the King Kong comic I jumped onto Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. We're going back to 2006 in this Blast From The Past Entry. 

Entry 297: Blast From the Past- part 26

In 2005, after I did the King Kong 8th Wonder of the World Mini Book, Dark Horse asked if I wanted to draw the adaptation for the upcoming Peter Jackson King Kong movie. I said yes. I like Peter Jackson and I was looking forward to that Kong movie. I'd heard doing movie licence stuff could be a pain, but I thought, "how bad could it be?"

Entry 294: Blast From the Past - Part 25

This is the short King Kong entry before the long King Kong entry. The simple and pleasant entry before the frustrating mess entry. The calm entry before the storm entry.

Entry 289: Blast From The Past - Part 24

hmmmm

I was just thinking: I've never had to suffer trolls on the internet. I've never been harassed by haters... One time some people got in a stupid argument in my comments and it made me so happy that I had to say that I appreciated it and encouraged them. I think I spoiled the mood because that put a stop to it.

Anyway, that really has nothing to do with anything. Welcome to my blog. Today I thought I'd take another walk down memory lane and visit... with the memories.... Won't you join me?

After that beginning, I'd understand you not reading any further, but if you stop reading now you'll miss out on all the sci-fi/western drawings I've dug out of the ol' Art Vault for this new Blast From The Past entry!

So now, I take you, like the Ghost of Christmas Past back, but stupidly, not to your past, but to mine!!!!!!

Entry 287: Blast From the Past Part-23

Have I really done 22 Blast from the past entries? That seems like too many. I never expected these entries to go on so long. I seem to want to share everything I've ever done. I know some artists really hate their old work. They act like they'd like to bury it so no one could see it again. I mean, I understand looking at your work and seeing all the mistakes, but honestly that's something that happens to me a lot more when I'm working on a thing. It often takes some time for me to see what I did well. I enjoy reassessing old work. Each time I do I see new things, some good and some bad.

Entry 285: Blast from the Past Part- 22

Hi. How's it going?

I'm doing fine. I'm settling into working at home. We've almost got everything done on Bebop and Rocksteady Destroy Everything, which is weird. To be done with a 5 issue series before anyone has read any of it is a new experience. It's nice actually. And, as always, there is the ever present possibility that I could, at any moment, tell you that S.H.I.E.L.D. is coming... (sorry to say that I can't say that yet)

Oh, man! I just realized that by the time I write an entry about the last issues of Shield, it'll have to be considered a "Blast From The Past" entry. It's been well over a year since I wrapped up the final issue and years since I drew the second to last issue... They'll come out... It'll happen.

There are some other exciting developments on the horizon, but I'm not here today to talk about the future. Today, once again, I dig into my box of past works and old sketchbooks to share with you yet another chapter of my creative development.

In 2004 I made a sketchbook to give to people at the San Diego Comic Con. I didn't have a table and I had no intention of selling copies of the sketchbook. I made them just to give to other professionals. I think. It's hard to remember why I did it. I guess I'm telling you what I ended up doing.

What you see above was the cover to that sketchbook. And here are some pieces that were in it.

Entry 281: Blast From the Past- Part 21

This blog hasn't become exclusively about my older work. I swear I'm working on new things. I've got like three projects that I'll be able to talk about real soon. There are exciting times for any fans of my work right around the corner. But while we wait, let's get another Blast from the Past entry done.

At the San Diego Comic Con in 2004 I was back to spending some amount of my time there trying to get work. I stopped by Lee Bermejo's table to say hi and he told me that there was a new editor named Jeremy Barlow at Dark Horse working on Star Wars Tales and that he was looking for artists. He suggested I show my work to him. So I did.

I soon wrapped up my work on The Tenth Circle. I had also moved out of my Grandparents house and was now living with a girlfriend. I was working on my Wildcats pitch and issue 4 Assassins Guild  pages. I was out of money. I started drawing pieces to sell (I'll show that stuff next time).

But just then Jeremy Barlow and Dark Horse came through for me. I'm not sure how much my connection to Chris Warner and my having done a little fill-in on Alien Vs. Predator played into my getting a job through Jeremy, but I think it must have a little.

Entry 280: Blast From The Past- Part 20

In my next Blast from the Past entry I'm going to finally talk about my first Star Wars comic. It'll be the start a of a whole new phase in my professional progress. But for now, I've got one last thing to talk about from my days at Wildstorm.

So, once again we go back to 2003 when I was interning at Wildstorm studios. I've done a bunch of entries about this time period so I wont rehash, but when I was there I learn that Wildcats Volume 3 was coming to an end. As a long time fan of Wildcats, I get it in my head that I should pitch a relaunch. That's right, I thought there was some possibility that they would let me write and draw a new Wildcats series. It's only their flagship title and I was the intern, but I thought, "why not try?" I figured if I present something that is good enough, my lack of experience and career status wouldn't get in my way. It just had to be real good.

I talked to my friend and collaborator on many ideas since 7th grade, DJ Bryant, about the idea of tackling this. DJ has a fantastically creative mind and I knew, I've always known, that having his creative powers in on a project is an advantage. Also, both DJ and I were fans of Wildcats when we were young and just getting into comics. This collaboration would be a lot of fun for us. So, I asked him to develop something with me and we both got pretty pumped on it.

(DJ is currently working on a book to be published by Fantagraphics. You can see his work here http://sequentialmonitor.blogspot.com/ )

The image I've posted above is from early on in this ambition. I did this while working on The Tenth Circle. It looks a lot like Tenth Circle stuff to me. So that means it was probably done in early 2004. I eventually used this image for the cover of our pitch. Most pitches don't come with covers but, then again, most pitches aren't nearly as long as what we ended up producing. We wen't way overboard.

Entry 279: Blast From the Past- Part 19

Anyone read Warren Ellis' and Cully Hamner's comic "Red"? I haven't, but I did read a little bit of a script for one of the issues, and I drew some sample pages from it.

What you see above is a layout I did based on that "Red" script. In 2003-2004, in my post Wildstorm internship days, when I was still visiting Wildstorm regularly and still trying to get work in comics, I was given this script. I think it was then Wildstorm editor Ben Abernathy who gave me this script and told me to submit it to DC editor Will Dennis.

I drew four pages from that script. The first one I did like this.

Entry 273: Blast From the Past- Part 18

Hey hey. This IS another entry of old stuff, but let's start off with a little current news.

Infinity Gauntlet #3 came out a few weeks ago and I really appreciate all the positive response. #4 should be coming out soon and I think it's super fun. 

In S.H.I.E.L.D. news: I've seen the colors for the final issue and they look so amazing! Sonia Oback is doing such great work. Still no word on the release date for the last two issues. All I know is that it has to happen after all the Secret Wars stuff. 

With that out of the way, here we go, back to 2004, with another Blast From The Past entry.

This is a page from Assassins Guild #0. That's right, number zero.

I talked about working on Assassins Guild #1,2, & 3 in Blast From The Past- Part 11

While I was working on The Tenth Circle and trying to get other work in the comics industry I was also continuing to chip away at Assassins guild, the comic series I had been working on before my internship at Wildstorm.

The page at the top of this entry is the first of the five pages I did for Assassins Guild #0. I had chosen to do The Tenth Circle in a kind of intricate and labor intensive style. AG#0 was a chance to take a break from that style and do something much looser.

Here are the other four pages I did for AG#0

Entry 272: Blast from the Past- Part 17

In my last "Blast from the Past" entry I talked about working on The Tenth Circle back in 2003 to 2004.

In this entry I thought I'd give a little supplementary material to that last entry in the form of some concept art.

What you see above was my initial concept art for the Devil.

Here are some more concept pieces.

Entry 245: Blast From The Past- Part 16

Towards the end of my internship at Wildstorm in 2003 Jim Lee told me he had a friend who needed some illustrations for a novel they were writing and he asked if I wanted to do it. He had no other information about it. As far as I could tell it didn't sound like a comic book job, which was what I wanted to be doing. And the fact that he was offering it to me, the intern, made it seem to me that it wasn't a very desirable job. Also, who was this "friend" writing a novel? I guess I was skeptical of this being a good job and the right step to take in my career. But, it was Jim Lee asking me if I would do it. I said yes perhaps with the hope that it would earn me some points with him and perhaps lead to him getting me some work.

Entry 238: Blast From The Past- Part 15

What you see there is my one collaboration with Jim Lee. Jim drew the characters and asked me to draw the background. I have no idea what this was for. I think it was just some concept art. If I recall correctly, this was done not long into my ten-week internship at Wildstorm. I was super nervous about doing this background. I really wanted Jim to like it.

We're going back to 2003 in this, the 15th, Blast from the Past entry.

One day I was working on a drawing. (Not the one you see above.) And Jim Lee came and told me to use a lot of vertical lines. I had no idea how that bit of advice could have applied to what I was drawing, but I just said, "Okay," part of me wondering if he was just messing with me. Only much later did I realize that he wasn't talking about the drawing I had in front of me, he was talking about this drawing, the one above. By the time I realized that I had already finished it. After putting a lot of effort into it, when I gave him this drawing with my background he seemed blasé about it, even a little confused. Later when I realized that his "vertical lines" comment was for this drawing, I wondered if I had not put enough vertical lines in the buildings for his tastes. But now I think his reaction didn't have to do with the vertical lines at all. He always responded to my work that way.

Entry 199: Blast From The Past- Part 14

Hi Hi Hi, my friend.

It's me, Dustin Weaver, back with another of my blog entries where I reach into the past to bring you some of my old works.

Many of these works have never been seen by anyone. They have mostly been works that were not published and were never meant for publishing. But now we've finally reached a point in the chronicling of my career where that changes.

I'm going back to 2003. This was back in my internship at Wildstorm. At this point I had done some pin-ups that had been published, but not a whole comic book. I had drawn 3 issues of Assassin's Guild, but they hadn't been published yet. But during my internship at Wildstorm I pencilled (over layouts by Ale Garza) my first comic to be published-- GEN 13 Volume 2 #11.

This "Blast From The Past" entry covers one aspect of my Wildstorm internship, the work I did as an assistant to Ale Garza.

Entry 175: Blast From The Past- Part 13

Greetings, False Skeptics!

Dustin Weaver here. It's time again for another Blast From The Past entry, and this is an important one. In this entry I'm going back to 2003, back to when I quit my job at Blockbuster, moved from Dallas to San Diego, and started my intern ship at Wildstorm studios. This period of time was exciting, surreal, and, well, frustrating. Sounds like fun, huh? Let's do it.

Entry 155: Blast From The Past- Part 12

My fellow dudes and dudetts,

I bring you another Blast From The Past.

Last time I did one of these entries I talked about my first comic book series, "Assassins Guild," which I did back in 2001-02. I also talk about how during that time I got an internship at Wildstorm studios. That internship started in early 2003, but before I get into talking about my time at Wildstorm, I've got a bunch of random drawings I want to show you, all done bettween 2000 to 2002.

Entry 145: Blast From The Past- Part 11

Previously on "Blast From The Past":

"I want to grow up and draw comic books just like Jim Lee." "Wow, my first convention." "Good stuff kid." "Not what we're looking for." "I'll submit my stuff to everyone I can." "Another rejection letter?" "I'm surprised no one has hired you yet." "Will I ever catch a break?" "There's a company that's just starting out. You won't get a page rate but it will be experience and your stuff will get published." " I guess I'll give it a shot..."

And now the continuation of "Dustin Weaver's Blast From The Past"

2001, Dallas TX: We open on a small, dark apartment living room. It's just after 1am. A 22 year old Dustin Weaver enters the apartment still wearing his Blockbuster Video uniform, a 7-11 coffee in hand. He changes his clothes, puts on a movie and gets to drawing. The drawing he starts working on is that of a man standing on the corner ledge of a sky scraper looking up into camera with the city plunging down behind him. With a gun in each hand, no where else to run, he looks into the sky at an unseen foe, who could be god himself for all we know, and the look on his face says, "Bring it."

Have I built this up too much?... Shit. Here's the image.

This is a recolored version of the cover to the first comic book I ever drew, Assassins Guild #1. (Eventually this comic was published and this is not how the cover ended up looking, but this is how I had always intended this image to look. I really wanted to recolor this cover before it was published but I didn't have photoshop. So I used colored pencils on a photocopy to try to communicate to another colorist what I wanted. It was never recolored, but I kept that color penciled copy. This is actually a scanned and cleaned up version of that colored pencil photocopy. You can see the way the published version was colored in my cover gallery.)

Until I did this comic I hadn't drawn anything longer than 10 pages. In this "Blast From The Past" entry I'll be talking not only about this first issue, but also about Assassins Guild #2 and #3. This is going to be a big entry, but it ends with me getting a call from Jim Lee himself and landing an internship at Wildstorm Studios... Spoiler alert.

Entry 135: Blast From The Past- Part 10

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.