THE MARVELS PROJECT Hardcover

The Hardcover collection of THE MARVELS PROJECT came out this week collecting all 8 issues of the mini series I did with Ed Brubaker. It's available with three different covers to choose from. The two variants are covers I did for issues 6 and 7, one featuring the titanic battle between Namor and the Human Torch and the other showcasing the Red Skull (with a cameo appearance by Hitler naturally). You can check them out in the Marvel catalogue here:

HUMAN TORCH/NAMOR VARIANT
RED SKULL VARIANT

FIGHT! New print now available!

For those of you who have expressed interest in buying the new Captain America print, It's now available in the sidebar over to your right -------->

Check the pull down menu for various discount options if you would also like to purchase the 2009 Sketchbook, The Captain America #600 print or all three items.


One day I'll get an online store set up properly but for now this will have to do. Also, I should mention that this is for US orders only (another thing I have to work on for the future).

All prints ship priority mail, but I'll only make the trip to the post office about once a week, so don't be alarmed if it doesn't show up right away. Okay, commercial's over. Back to regular posting next time.

Fantastic Four

As you may have heard yesterday, I'll be following up The Marvels Project by working with Jonathan Hickman on Fantastic Four. You can read various articles and interviews with Jonathan and me at the following links:

Artist STEVE EPTING Talks Cosmic FANTASTIC FOUR & "3"

UPDATE: The FANTASTIC FOUR Become a Terrific Trio in Sep

Jonathan Hickman welcomes artist Steve Epting to FANTASTIC FOUR

HICKMAN AND EPTING'S FANTASTIC "THREE"

And here are the original drawings that were composited together for the teaser images that ran with the announcements and articles. These are my first real drawings of most of these characters as a professional aside from a trading card I did back in the 90s. If I can dig it up I'll post it later.

Heroes Con and New Print

Hey everyone, I'll be at Heroes Con this weekend in Charlotte NC at table AA-301. You can see a seating chart here. Come by and say hi if you're in the area. I'll be doing as many sketches as time allows and have sketchbooks and prints for sale. Speaking of prints, I have a new one featuring Captain America in a WWII style propaganda poster. If you can't make the trip and still want a print, don't worry. I'll be making them available for sale here on the blog just like the other items are. Look for them to be available next week after the show.

Hope to see some of you there!

THE MARVELS PROJECT #8 Cover

(click image to enlarge)
The final issue of THE MARVELS PROJECT comes out tomorrow, wrapping up the eight issue mini series. I had a great time working on the book and will miss drawing all those Nazis. In the meantime, I'm at work on my new project for Marvel, which should be announced soon. Have a great week everybody!

Click here for a preview of THE MARVELS PROJECT #8.

Modesty Blaise - Good News, Terrible News

I hate having to break this news now, of all times, but the 17th volume of Modesty Blaise reprints - Death in Slow Motion - is now out from Titan Books and I'm thrilled to say I contributed an article and some artwork. The book features three complete stories: The Balloonatic, The Alternative Man, and Death in Slow Motion, which was the first Modesty Blaise story I ever read. For this volume I wrote an article about Modesty Blaise artist Neville Colvin and contributed an inked drawing of Modesty and Willie Garvin. This is a thrill for me because I've been a huge fan of the strip ever since I first read that story over 25 years ago, and in the time since I've managed to read every strip and every novel - all of which were written by the great Peter O'Donnell.


Which brings me to the terrible news - Peter passed away over the weekend at the age of 90. Ellie Graham at Titan Books broke the news today:

“Titan Books is hugely saddened to report the passing of writer Peter O’Donnell, who died over the Bank Holiday weekend at the age of 90. “Peter O’Donnell was respected as one of the greatest writers in the comics medium today and had a devout following amongst comics professionals and fans alike”, says Titan’s Managing Director, Nick Landau. “I am honoured to have known him – and published his greatest creations, Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin – for almost 40 years.” Born in South London in 1920, O’Donnell had a long and illustrious career, the highlight of which was his creation of classic crime character ‘Modesty Blaise’. The smart and sassy comic strip ran daily in the Evening Standard newspaper during the 1960s. O’Donnell retired from writing in 2001, but had continued to oversee Titan’s release of more than a dozen Modesty Blaise collections, contributing introductions and commentaries to his classic stories.“


O'Donnell wrote Modesty's daily strip adventures from 1963 to 2001, and also penned a series of 13 novels and short story collections beginning in 1965. If you've never read Modesty Blaise, I highly recommend it, particularly the first 7 years or so of the strip which were drawn by the incomparable Jim Holdaway. I place these as my all time favorite adventure strip, even edging out Prince Valiant and Terry and the Pirates. In the words of Chuck Dixon - "O'Donnell is in a very, very small club of writers who were masters of writing clear, concise, compelling action." I believe Titan has 4 volumes scheduled to come out this year (in addition to the 16 already published), and for my money you can't go wrong with any of them.

Sketchbook 017

C2E2 Cancellation

Unfortunately, some unforeseen personal issues have arisen and I have to cancel my scheduled appearance at this weekend's Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. My apologies to all who were hoping to get at sketch at the show. I know a good time will be had in Chicago and I regret that I won't be there to be a part of it. For anyone who's going - have fun and be safe. Maybe I can join you next year.

Sci Fi Scene

(click image to enlarge)
As I mentioned in my last time, I have a few more warm up/speedpaints to post. Most of the time when I start these, I have no idea what they will turn out to be and I just make it up as I go along. This one ended up as some sort of Science Fiction Blade Runner riff. Definitely a change of pace from the various knights I've been painting (although I have another one of those waiting in the wings).

Knight 2

(click image to enlarge)
Another quick warm up painting from earlier this week. I've got a few more I'll be posting next week.

THE MARVELS PROJECT #7 Cover

(click image to enlarge)
The Marvels Project #7 hits the shelves in two short weeks on March 24th. What will you find inside? From Marvels' online catalog:

Cap meets Bucky! The origin of the Destroyer! The interrogation of the Sub-Mariner! And it's all leading up to the Nazis' conspiracy to bring the US into World War Two!

Below is the original cover sketch. It's obviously very rough, but it does its job in that it shows essentially what the basic elements of the actual cover painting will be. As you can see, quite a bit of compositional shuffling went on as I worked on the final image, but this was submitted with the understanding that it's a basic framework that I'll be working from, not an image set in stone that I'll follow slavishly. After so many years working with my editor, I can get away with a pretty rough sketch for the approval process, since he trusts me to turn it into something that's actually printable. Incidentally, the top portion of the sketch is left blank because that area will be covered by the banner logo.


(click image to enlarge)

Color test

(click image to enlarge)
Here's a quick color experiment I did using a panel from an upcoming issue of The Marvels Project. That's the original Union Jack fighting in the trenches during WWI. Strangely enough, despite all the digital painting I've been doing over the past few years, I don't think I've done any coloring of black and white line art. It's something I'd like to try to do more of.

THE MARVELS PROJECT #6 Cover

(click image to enlarge)
THE MARVELS PROJECT #6 ships next week (Feb 24th) and features an epic battle between the Human Torch and Prince Namor in the skies of 1941 Manhattan. As with the previous issues, this one has three variant covers, and I think this is the first time mine has been shown. Hope you all dig it!

Sketchbook 016

Hey look - I drew in my little pocket sketchbook again! It's been a while but I plan to do more of this in the future. Hopefully I'll have a page like this to post at least once a week (and hopefully they will be better than this one). Click on the image above to see it actual size.

Zero Hour

(click image to enlarge)
Here's a little teaser from an upcoming cover. I painted this on a separate layer (painting in Photoshop) and decided to post it just as a snapshot of what I'm working on at the moment. I'll be posting the entire finished cover soon.

THE MARVELS PROJECT #5

(click images to enlarge)

In stores tomorrow from Marvel Comics - THE MARVELS PROJECT #5.

Click here for a preview.

Face Time

(click image to enlarge)
I wanted to try to get one more post in for this year, so here's something I did a while back to practice painting faces. Have a great 2010 everyone!

Origins Of Siege

(click image to enlarge)
Out this week (today actually) from Marvel is Origins of Siege - a one shot giveaway that serves as an introduction to the upcoming "Siege" event. Included in this free issue are several one-page origin stories of the key characters in Siege. I was asked to draw the Captain America page and since I have a long standing policy of never turning down an opportunity to draw Cap fighting Nazis, I was happy to do so. Have a great Christmas everyone!

THE MARVELS PROJECT #4

(click images to enlarge)
THE MARVELS PROJECT #4 hits the shelves this week. In addition to the pages above, you can see a preview here.

Frankenstein

(click image to enlarge)
It's a little late for Halloween, but hopefully you'll enjoy this shot of Frankenstein's monster anyway. Not that it means anything, but this is the first painting I've done in Photoshop CS4. I haven't noticed a whole lot of difference from CS3, other than the rotate canvas feature which is completely awesome (even though I don't think I ever used it on this particular piece).

And just because I kind of liked the way it turned out, here's a detail of the face: