Alan the Alen

 

Hey look at this Allen the Alien I drew.

Since the cover for the Invincible New Edition Vol. 4 is out there and available to public eyes, I thought I would post some process stuff that is not very process-y because it's not a complex concept and not very process intensive but there were sketches that vary slightly from one another so check them out ok.  Please.  

So this is obviously just an alternate lighting take on what became the final.  Also here, you can see hints of the Kanzlok that I had originally toyed with the idea of including on the cover.  Ultimately though it didn't really support the threatening vibe we were going for.

And here is an option for a closer crop, which was obviously too much.

Going even further backwards, here's the earliest sketch of what would be the final, minus the Kanzlok.

Along with that first sketch, I had also done a more friendly approach, again with the Kanzlok but this didn't feel right. As much as I love a grinning goofball the more dramatic option felt like it would be more of an attention-getter. 

bye

Six Thousand Is a Crowd

Hey look at this flap-headed space gladiator I drew.

Hard to believe, but Invincible (the comic) ended with issue #144 six years ago today on Feb 14, 2018, but since then a lot has happened with Invincible (the...thing? beyond the comic. you get it) and I'm looking forward to seeing what more happens with Invincible The Thing in the next six years.

I don't have a lot of behind the scenes stuff to share that hasn't been published/seen already, so I will just talk briefly about this spread that I did for issue #144.

Believe it or not, I didn't have a good time drawing this.  I think I was already behind, as ever, and just couldn't visualize what I wanted the space to look like etc etc etc etc.  So working on it was miserable but in the end, I am happy enough with how it turned out (thanks in no small part to the color magic of Nathan Fairbairn).  Part of my problem was that I zoom in too far when drawing digitally, so I have this crowd that wasn't worth spending as much time on as I did because they probably printed too small to even perceive. SO! I thought it would be fun to put some shots of them on the ol' blog so y'all can take a look at them and maybe even like one or two of them.  Sound cool?  Ok nice let's do it.

Ok was this fun?  

Oh. 

ok bye then

 

This Place Is a Dump

Hey look at this guy I drew.

I don't do this type of thing often, but I thought it would be a fun way to exist briefly by posting a little dump of doodles and sketches that I kinda liked when looking back through my files from the past few years.  

Maybe more posts soon!

bye

 

New Year

 

Hey look at this guy from Fortnite I drew.

Anyway, it's 2024 now so I thought I would make a little post and this self-rejected sketch for a thing was the only guy that felt post-worthy and even then it's a stretch but I don't care, because no one does so it's fine.

Ok well that's it.  In the immortal words of Steve Perry, "Don't stop, be leaving."

Catch you next time.

Balls Of It

 

Hey look at this cover I drew for FirePower #29.  It's kinda boring in black and white, but don't worry they added color and words and stuff later.

That's right I did a variant cover for a comic book that you can buy, TODAY (Wed, Nov 29 2023) 

Obviously you don't have to buy it, but it's a cool comic made by comic cool guys Robert Kirkmans, Chris Samnee and a slew of other comic cool folks also as well.

It's a comic book that I like and even read the words of and we're quickly approaching the FINAL ISSUE, so get on the FirePower train and toot the horn.  You won't regret it.  I mean, you might.  But you shouldn't.

Ok.

Final cover with colors by (the fantastic) Matheus Lopes

It's That Time Again

Hey look at this nice man I drew.  You can go see what he's all about now, it's pretty cool.

 

Key Ingredients

 

Hey look at this key art for the upcoming second season of the smash-hit animated cartoon program "Invincible" from Amazon's Prime Video streaming service.

Yeah, by now you've almost certainly already seen this.  Maybe on the internet, or even on a billboard if you're a person who keeps their stuff in the greater Los Angeles area, but you know what you HAVEN'T seen? (relating to this image, I mean. I'm sure there's a lot of shit you haven't seen.  Not to say you don't get out much or are uncultured or anything like that, it's just that there's a whole shitload of stuff out there, y'know?  You've probably seen more than me, even.  I don't get out much)  You haven't seen the amazing final piece stripped of all the heavy lifting done by my employee Dou Hong and the supremely talented Dave McCaig, to reveal only MY contribution.

Until NOW, anyway. Look:

My line art with guides for shadow/highlight/blood. 

Is that cool?

And as a bonus,

my initial rough.

Ok!  We've hit our limit for today.  See you next time.

As Promised

Hey look at this fella I drew.  Cool, right.

This past weekend I was in NY (New York) for an Invincible screening/q&a at PaleyFest 2023, and during the q&a (moderated by Perri Nemiroff) I was asked about any designs that I may have done for the first season of the critically acclaimed and wildly popular Invincible animated cartoon show on Amazon's Prime Video, and the only thing that really came to mind was this gnarly (though not quite as gnarly as I remembered) first pass at a character who was internally referred to as "ManKong" (I know, we could have done better).  Dude has been stapled together with ape bits and is wearing little undies and that inner thigh is MAYBE just a tiny bit sexy?? Anyway, dude does not look like he would be participating in super hero tryouts, so some adjustments were made and I think in the end, he was probably still too stupid, but oh well what can you do.

Enjoy that!

Dog... Something... Flies With Honey (??)

Hey look at this weird little guy I drew.

So! As you know, I went to the San Diego Comicbook Convention in sunny San Diego, CA and had a cool time seeing old friends and walking the floor and meeting Invincible fans in their cosplay and also not in their cosplay and what I mean is they were just dressed like regular people not that they were in the buff.

ANYWAY.  That stuff isn't all I did!  You know about the Atom Eve special episode but did you also know that we did a panel to discuss 20 years of Invincible and I was on it and didn't even die of embarrassment?  And during that panel I brought up a little factoid about how I had drawn a dog for Oliver in Invincible #85 and Robert hated it and threatened to have me killed if I didn't erase it from the print files NOW.   But he didn't say anything about erasing the dog from the jpgs! So you get to see them here and can compare them to the printed pages in your own time or even just don't do that it's fine.

For your viewing pleasure or maybe displeasure, here's Inv #85 pages 04 and 13.  Featuring what would have been Oliver's flying dog companion (and yes obviously it was inspired by my little old baby, HeatVision the dog).

Oliver's stupid face smh

 

Catch This

Hey look at this line art I did for the poster promoting the SURPRISE Atom Eve special episode that dropped by SURPRISE on Amazon's Prime streaming service Friday the 21st.  It was extremely cool to be able to help out with this key art and even extremely cooler that the episode is out and to see how much people are enjoying it.

SDCC was cool and it was nice to see old friends, make new friends, and meet so many Invincible fans.

I also helped out a little with the Invincible Season 2 poster, so you can look at the final product here, even though you've certainly already seen it.

November 3 will be here before you know it.  And maybe I'll even make another post before then. 

C U!

 

You Got to Cool It Now

Hey look at this Atom Eve cover rough I did for vol 3 of the NEW EDITIONS of the Invincible trade paperbacks to be released in a 6x9 format.  Nice.

I say "rough" but this is more or less the pencils for the cover which I blew up and finished on my computer screen.

Anyway, I'm sharing this because unless you're reading this from the past, the first volume of the NEW EDITIONS is out now!  And not only can you see the final version of the above drawing in the back, but also, the cover for vol 4 as well!  Lucky.  I mean, they're printed small, but you still get to see them.

I dunno if I'll post again before the event, so I'll take this opportunity to mention that I will be at ComicCon in sunny San Diego for the first time since before the plague and I'm looking forward to celebrating 20 years or whatever of Invincible.  There will be panels where we'll talk about the comic and also maybe even the future of the juggernaut smash-hit Amazon Prime animated cartoon show.

Dunno if I will be involved in any signings or anything like that because let's face it who wants that no one that's who but if you see me, no you didn't.  

Just kidding.

bye-bye 

 

Make an Ass Out of You and Ma

Hey look at this Asuma Sarutobi I drew.  I dunno.

Bonus Yamato:

 

SPOON! etc

Hey look at this old Tick page that I drew.

2006 strikes again, with another throwback to times that were different from what they are now. This was a single page featured in The Tick 20th Anniversary Special Edition #1, for you trivia buffs out there. Written by my cool pal Benito Cereno, drawn by me (cory) with questionable color choices by also me (cory).  Maybe someday I'll tell you who lettered it.

I *think* I was approached to work on this project and couldn't think of a cooler pal than Benito to write it, so I asked him and he said "yes," enthusiastically I'm sure. 

Benito even went on to write a man-sized pile of other Tick comics, which was excellent and The Tick and Invincible even did a team-up.  Pretty cool right?

Ok, that'll do it for this.  Maybe next time I'll have something NOT from 2006, but I refuse to make any promises.

bye

 

Draw Three

Hey look at this Hellboy('s crotch) I drew for an UpperDeck card set (which I think was a game??) wayyy back in 2006.

You ever draw something and have ZERO memory of it?  Yeah, that's my relationship with the three pieces you see here.  I drew a total of four cards for the set (I think), the fourth of which I DO remember, but only because it has an accompanying story that makes me wish I was just completely dead and gone forever, never to lose another second of sleep thinking about it ever again.

Anyway, here's some stuff I don't remember having drawn and their presence in my email is the only real evidence that I did.

L8R

 

 

This is MY WORK! MINE!

(c walker/d mccaig)

Hey look at this cover for Image 20th Anniversary Anthology #12 that I drew, expertly colored by Dave McCaig.

To be released April 26, 2023, Image 20th Anniversary Anthology #12 contains the continuation of Science Dog's tale in spectacular Image 20th Anniversary Anthology style!  But that's not all! There's also other stuff, so don't go thinking it's just a few pages of Science Dog for $5.99 US, you get WAY more bang for your buck than that.  Like, WAY more.  More than you bargained for, tbh.

Ok. Enjoy it.

You're Not Sick Are You

Hey look at this Immortal I drew.  I know it's not much, but I felt like I had been neglecting the ol' blog and "not much" is better than nothing.

Someday I'll figure this guy out and draw him consistently, but so far it's been a real struggle for me.  All the way back to the early days of Invincible I couldn't draw him the same way twice. Between you and me I think that carried over to the wildly popular smash-hit Amazon Prime animated cartoon show "Invincible" where maybe the materials I did for him later in the production don't quite look like the same guy I drew at the start.  

I guess I could post these kinds of scraps more often and keep this place interesting, right? Is that something you'd like? Let me know in the comments.

G'Bye!