British comics writer/artist/inker/all around awesome guy Andy Lanning drew this headsketch of Nova for me. I love how he was able to add some silver Sharpie squiggles, adding an awesome effect to it. But what was equally awesome about Andy was the face that he took the time to answer all my silly questions about his writing practices and habits. I was a fan before, but he certainly made a fan for life out of me!
More fun from my New York Comic Con 2012 sketchbook! I got this awesome sketch of Venom from Declan Shelvey! The Irish artist is super awesome and I had a discussion with him about the city of Philadelphia, the setting of his Venom series! You can check out more fun stuff from Declan at his blog.
I was also able to get this awesome sketch of Deadpool by Shawn Crystal, book-ending the awesome Cable one that I got from Reilly Brown. He’s a great artist and you should check out his DeviantArt ASAP.
One of the best things I read in 2012 was Mark Waid’s Daredevil. Not only was it well written, but the art was amazing and you can thank Paolo Rivera for a lot of that. You can check out more of Paolo’s work here.
I’m on vacation this week so we’ll be posting some quick stuff, mostly sketches I picked up at New York Comic Con 2012 starting with this one of Cable by Reilly Brown.
Reilly is an awesome artist and I really loved his work on the Cable and Deadpool series. That said, getting a sketch of Cable from him made me super excited. You can catch up on his current projects on his Tumblr. You should also check out his own project Power Play which I highly recommend.
So while cleaning up my desk, I found this gem of a sketch of Archangel tucked away in a folder of important paperwork. I think I’ll skip my artistic dreams and stick to whatever it is I do.
One of the best things about going to comic book shows is getting sketches from artists. Not only do you wind up getting a unique piece of art, but its a great opportunity to talk with your favorite comic creators. I’m going to share the story of my first comic sketch, and how it wound up being Nightwing wearing Thor’s helmet.
I remember it like it was yesterday; it was Wizard World’s Philadelphia show in 2004. At the recommendation of a friend, I set out to get sketches. The first stop was Tom Raney who was signing and sketching at the DC booth. I was a fan of his then-current work on Outsiders, as well as his previous work on Thor.
As I waited online for a long time, I started wondering what sketch I would ask for. After all this was very important; it’s my first sketch. I decided that I wanted a Brother Blood sketch; after all he was a prominent villain in the first couple issues of Outsiders. Before I knew it, I was next in line and then things got weird. I’m going to write this out like a script so you can get the full effect.
Raney: (finished signing everything) So what would you like a sketch of?
Me: Brother Blood would be awesome.
Raney: Do you have a reference? Chris did those issues.
(Now I’m embarrassed, because I confused his issues with another artists. Eep)
Me: (mutters something intelligible and feeling really awkward) Ahh….could I get Nightwing wearing a Thor helmet?
Raney: Sure!
And then Tom crafted the above sketch, which is just flat out awesome! It was very nice of him to do something that was so ridiculous.
And that’s how I got my first comic sketch. You can see more of his work at his blog or his DeviantArt.
Ridiculously Awesome 