Entry 293: ECCC 2017 Commissions

Last time I had a table at a convention was in 2013. At that time I decided that I wasn't going to do another convention until I had a book of my own to promote. And with my creator owned series, PAKLIS, coming out this May, I finally have reason to get back on the comic convention train. So this year I went up to my favorite con, Emerald City ComicCon in Seattle, and of course I did some commissions. There's one just up above, and here are some more.

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 278: Back to the Future, Ogun, Wolverine, Alabaster, & More

Back in Entry 268 I talked about the mostly frivolous activity of thinking about what I would do if I were to take on an existing property. The Challenge goes something like this: "You have to create a comic book series based on (blank). You can do it however you want. You have total freedom. What is it? What do you do?" I don't go to far with it, just get a rough direction.

Entry 182: Comic Con' France

That is a picture of me eating snails, which could only mean one thing. I'm going to tell you all about Comic Con' France!

It's actually been a few weeks now since my trip to Paris and I'm sure everyone on the entire Internet has been waiting with bated breath to know how my trip went? Well un-bate your breathes because it's time for my full Comic Con' France report, complete with photos and my commissions! Plus I have an extra bit of something as a bonus. So strap on your strap-on's and lets get this party started.

Entry 168: Avengers #7 PREVIEW!

Just popping in to give you the latest, up to the minute, Dustin related news.

Some preview pages from Avengers #7 just hit the internet.

I'm excited to show you, the readers, these pages. Let me know what you think.

Blogged and blogged.

Entry 166: Avengers Covers 8,9,10

AVENGERS COVER #9

That's what you are looking at there. Which can mean only one thing-- That's right, it's me Dustin Weaver's blog here again with another BLOG ENTRY! And once again, I've got 3 covers all at once to share with you.

So lets waste no time, and I mean NO time. Let's not spend a split second more than what is necessary and get straight to the art. I mean your time is valuable. My time is valuable. TIME IS MONEY! We'd be stupid idiots to just let it go to waste. I mean we might as well sit around lighting our cigars with one hundred dollar bills. So seriously, everyone, when I say we shouldn't waste any time then I mean we shouldn't waste any time.

Entry 159: Avengers Covers 1,2,3

Welcome, everyone, to another blog entry by me, Dustin Weaver.

If you've looked me up because you saw my Avengers covers and thought, "Who's this jerk?" Well, that jerk is me. Hi. If you thought, "There's only room for one Dustin in comics and that is Dustin Nguyen!" Well, you're half right; there IS only room for one... I'm coming for you Nguyen... And if this post has google-alerted Dustin Nguyen, then hi, Dustin. See my last post for an explanation.

And that's what I'm talking about in this post. Dustin Nguyen. NO! AVENGERS COVERS!

Entry 157: THE AVENGERS

This just hit the internet!

I will definitely be posting more about these covers soon.

I hope people like them.

The colors are by the super good Justin Ponsor.

More later:)

Entry 148: Astonishing X-Men #51

Marvel has been teasing this for months now, but now the cat is finally out of the bag!

Northstar is getting married to his boyfriend, Kyle!

Entry 147: Astonishing X-Men #53

Wolverine DONE GONE ATE A BOMB!!!

"...We got your x-ray back from the lab, Logan, and we think we know what your problem is. You done gone ate a bomb, dinja? DINJA?

... Oh, and also your skeleton is all effed up. You shouldn't cover it with metal like that. It's really bad for you. I know you have a "healing factor" and all that, but I'm guessing that healing ability and immunity of yours is supported by blood cells and lymphocytes both of which are created in the bone marrow which you have completely shut off by coating your bones IN METAL!"

RELAX, imaginary doctor person. Wolverine's a mutant. Maybe he creates blood cells in a different part of his body. What am I saying, of course he does.

Anyway. Thanks for looking at this and reading these words. This is Dustin Weaver's blog and that image is my cover for Astonishing X-Men #53. That's right, we've skipped over previewing #51 and #52. We skipped #51 obviously because it's a big secret and Marvel has big plans for it's unveiling. And we skipped #52 I don't know why. Marvel hasn't put it out for preview. I'd like to show it to you, but I guess I'll wait.

But who needs those other covers when you've got Wolver-bomb!... Bomb-verine? I'm going with Bomb-verine.

This is the most conceptual and graphic cover I've done. I've been wanting to do something in this vein recently (more on that when I talk about the cover of #52) and with the idea of "Wolverine as a bomb" I saw my chance. The editor, Jeanine Schaefer, suggested a bomb schematic idea, which is a good idea. I put it all through some problem solving and came to the idea to do it like an x-ray. I got really pumped on the idea of drawing Wolverine's x-ray. I've only just imagined how his skeleton really looks. Now I would find out-- by making it up.

 I also had to make up an x-ray of a bomb... I am certain that I'm flagged by the FBI now for all the bomb-related searches I was doing.

Here's the black and white version. I actually drew all the x-ray stuff negative to what you see here. So it was black on white rather than white on black.

And here's my sketch. I don't typically do my sketches in color, but the colors were important to this image coming off right.

And before I go-

I DONE GONE BLOGGED!

Entry 137: gallbladder ATTACK!!!!!!

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 110: ECCC commissions

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.

Entry 76: X-Men: Nation X Cover

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

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 65: Wolverine 100 Project

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 30: Jelly of February

I haven't done a Jelly of the Month entry since October partly because of Holidays and how busy I've been but mainly because none of the subjects for Nov-Jan have inspired me. The subject for February was Marvel Comics, how could I not do something? Wolverine is probably my favorite Marvel character and Barry Windsor Smith's Weapon-X is definitely one of my favorite Wolverine stories. So drawing Weapon-X was a natural. I did this piece really quick with very little laying out. It was fun to just let her rip.

Once again, check out the other artists take on this subject at the Jelly of the Month blog.