a few months back, just post TCAF, i and a handful of others webcomics creators were approached to develop some ideas for new webcomic content for zuda based on existing dc comics properties. we were given free reign as to who to choose from… so i naturally chose my favourite dynamic duo of mr. miracle and big barda! if we had been given the green light i would have been weaving tales on a weekly basis starring perhaps my all time favourite kirby creations! the stories would have been short arcs outside of continuity.

an awesome idea, nay, dare i say BRILLIANT!

but, unfortunately, like most brilliantly awesome ideas it never saw the light of day.

but if you think the idea has legs feel free to write the fine folks at dc, y’know dan didio or jim lee, and tell them you want ramon perez penning and illustrating the adventures of mister miracle and big barda. hell feel free to tweet them (@jimlee00)a link too!

for another idea left to the cutting room floor visit the talented cameron stewart’s blog.

[click for larger image]

My career began with RIFTS, well not quite exactly – there were a few tiny local freelance jobs here and there to pay the bills – but it was Palladium Books’ RIFTS and the kindness of Kevin SIembieda that really catapulted my career and allowed me to make my life what it is today. Kevin also allowed me so much freedom that i became spoiled for future freelance work. I never had to run a rough or concept by him. He trusted me. He allowed me to write and illustrate my own story set in his world based on a rough premise i pitched him… the man is too kind!

Well it’s now RIFTS’ 20 year anniversary… and i couldn’t help but lend my talents to the man, and world, that gave me my humble beginnings…

SO my idea, was a set of three limited edition prints that would capture what RIFTS was to me. To do this i would also utilize my last stamp on the RIFTS universe; Machinations of Doom. The cast of MOD; Johnny, Anika, Bodakhan, Shakes, OJ, Moses, Bowie, and Doc Heston; hold a special place in my heart. it was my first published graphic novel, and the characters were mine. Well, they belong to Kevin, but you know what i mean

As the tale was told, MOD was only part one. Part two involved the cast confronting Dr. Desmond Bradford and having an all out battle with the Coalition. When the trade collection of MOD came out in 2007 a lot of “what if” storylines were presented… now, with this print set, i’d like to present snapshots of where i would have taken things.

i’ve roughed out two of the prints which, as i said, focus on what RIFTS meant to me.

THE BAZAAR, is the first. The abundance of alien races in RIFTS always made for a good time when wanting to draw up some fun characters. There were millions to choose from – and if some didn’t fit the bill you made up your own. Though Kevin wasn’t to keen on the latter (jokingly of course) as it meant he then had to stat the race out and find a place for them in the world. I was happy to leave behind some fan favourites to pepper the universe before i left my RIFTS days behind me. Well this scened gives me a chance to set up the MOD players in a scene peppered with the multitudes of races…

THE BATTLE, would be the second. One thing i always liked about RIFTS, which ran similar to what i loved about the Star Wars universe, was that of the underdog vs. the empire, David vs. Goliath if you will. With all their machines and armies, will all their power, the Coalition still ran up against rebels, freedom fighters, mercs – people fighting the oppression of their militaristic government of the new world – and succeeding!

Each print catches a moment in time in a story that was never told.

but what of the third piece to round out the batch? i’m still not sure about that one – perhaps the release of the omega beasts? Another thought was to illustrate a cover (pictured at top of post) i designed and sketched out back in 2001 for the series that never happened… anyways, as the project progresses i will share bits and pieces.

what are your thoughts?

ps/ the doodles below (click to enlarge) are my original concepts, which i then scanned into the computer and did tighter digital sketches over. i don’t usually work this way, but with the complexity of the pieces this allowed me to more easily play with the staging. once satisfied i will then print out the tighter roughs and lightbox them onto a larger piece of bristol and begin penciling away….

work wise things were a bit busy as i was building up the coffers for the home purchase – but now are dying down just a little. on top of my max finder monthly gig, of which i will share some are eventually, i worked on a chapter book of a series titled rink rats for scholastic canada – it was fun doodling our unofficial national sport as i have never played it outside of on the road between passing cars. as well an interesting little gig popped up as well, actually make that three, for marvel; a two page sequential sequence for a aafes (army & air force exchange service) history comic starring captain america and the avengers, four pages for an aafes colouring book, and finally a two page sequence featuring logan and the winter soldier for a hulked out wolvie and cap comic currently on the shelves!  on top of all that last month, the icing on the cake was a cover and interior piece for a insurance magazine… for which i decided to dust off the watercolours and do wash painting, the results of which are up top.

whew.

as i said things are winding down. yesterday i was able to sit and start roughing out the end of kukuburi volume 1, for which i am pretty excited to wrap up… a special thanks for all my readers and their patience. i plan to illustrate and finish most of the pages before i begin updating again so there will be no more interuptions!

kukuburi aside i also received a call from one of my favourite editors, mr. abernathy of wildstorm comics, to ink the book kane and lynch over chris mitten’s amazing pencils. chris’s pencils arrived today and i’m truly looking forward to the challenge of inking them.

my most exciting new though, i can’t quite share yet, a writer of awesomeness whom i admire very much requested me as artist for a project slated for next year some time. i wish i could say more… maybe i can? …best to play it safe for now… i’ll share when i can

thank you one and all for coming out to the fan appreciation event this past weekend. it was a late decision on my part to attend the show as it was my birthday weekend… so i did the best thing ever, i slept in on saturday post birthday fun and went to the show on sunday and shared the table with phenomenal studio mate and talented maestro andy belanger, check out his kill shakespeare series if you haven’t yet!

and i’ll have to say this had been one of the best shows to date and a kicker for a summer start off to the convention season! for those still interested in star wars originals from the clone wars series – there are only a few pages left after this show. i will post them to the store as soon as possible!

speaking of star wars, above is one of my favourite sketches done this past weekend inaugurating a new sketchbook…

this is a very late comictwart.

when i think of the Thing the first thing that pops into mind were the days when he would don his extra large overcoat and stingy brim fedora. ben grimm is one of my all time favourite characters (which is funny though, cause i’ve never liked the fantastic four), however my first exposure to him wasn’t through comics but the cartoon show from the late 70s and early 80s…

<— for the big picture just click the image on the left.

the original napkin sketch —>

with my schedule of late i’ve fallen to the shadows on comictwarts. but i hope to catch up… there have been so many great selections of characters that i am annoyed that i haven’t had time to finish my contributions. i have here a half pencilled bellit, clara, archie and friends… and hellboy. hopefully in the coming weeks i can finish most of them and get back to contributing on a regular basis.

{edit} there seems to be a deluge of people inking my thing sketch or colouring the pinup. i’ll post them all when i can… but here are the first few: steven finch, skottie young, francesco francavilla.

it’s been a hectic past few weeks here and updates have been a bit sparse, so i thought it best i share a little somethin’.

up top, in today’s spotlight, we have a page from marvel’s DAZZLER one-shot special (available may 26th) that became a part of my life in a bit of a whirlwind event. the book is written by jim mccann with the first half illustrated by kalman andrazofszky while i tackle the second half. specifically pages 14-24. i tackled the inks a little tighter than i normally do to evoke the superhero feel set out by kalman in the first half. i had a great time on this project – so, if you see it, pick it up and enjoy, the story is loads of fun…. and tell marvel how much you love me

here i am talking about dazzler, so you might ask why on earth do i have an inset of the thing in this blog post. it’s a napkin doodle i did as a warm-up for my THING pinup contribution for the COMICTWARTS art-blog. the final image has only been pencilled, but give me a couple days and i should have a nice finished rendition of our rocky friend to share…

this past weekend saw me at attend the new C2E2 (chicago comic & entertainment expo) convention in chicago and, damn, did i ever have a good time! the show itself seemed a healthy start to what will hopefully be a yearly show. the convention centre, mccormick place, was gorgeous, spacious, airy and bright with a great view of the waterfront. i took a couple extra days to myself before the show to explore chicago and see the sights. i didn’t get to see much as decompressed from my prior work week… but i did manage to wander around downtown and visit a few of the northern “hip” neighbourhoods. the highlight, outside of the show was have a few drinks and enjoying the live show at kingston mines! a fantastic blues venue, so good in fact i hit it twice that week.

thank you all who made it out, and paid a visit to me, at c2e2… you truly made it a memorable and exciting experience.

above and below are a few sketches i did, of many, at the show. these were the only ones i remembered to take a snapshot of!

a couple of years ago i was commissioned to illustrate a “war time pin-up girl” as part of a promotional campaign for the video game Gears Of War. i was pretty excited as it was a) Gears Of War, and b) a pin-up girl, the kind to get you to support the troops and all that! i worked up a rough sketch for the art director based on the flavour i had in mind. which you can see in the rough below, however – to my surprise –  this wasn’t what the company had in mind, they wanted something more cartoony and supplied the pose that they would like to see the girl in. they referenced my new (at the time) comic “kukuburi” as the source of inspiration. a little saddened that i wouldn’t be able to draw the pin-up girl i originally imagined i followed the template provided and giving it my all as, at the end of the day, i’m here to make the client happy.

i’m quite satisfied with the girl i handed in at the end of the day – she was just a lot different than what i had expected when i signed on. i’ve include the rough of the second girl as well for comparison’s sake.

it’s interesting where your mind will take you when you sign onto a contract compared to what the client wants. usually i’m quite on the ball when handing over my concepts to art directors and editors, but sometimes they’ll surprise me and come up with a concept or direction that i wouldn’t have gone. but that is the nature of the beast.

i still quite like the original pin-up girl design. i think i’ll dust it off , finish it off, and post it to She’s My Kind Of Girl.

also, if you haven’t noticed the post below, please look again and take heed that i will be attending the chicago comic & entertainment expo this coming weekend! i will be doing sketches/commissions, selling original pages from various comic runs, and have a few giclée prints on hand; a couple of the last kukuburi and bns ons i have on hand, plus the new “blood money” giclée print limited to 200 units.

hope to see you all there!

in a couple of weeks fellow tx’ers cameron stewart, scott hepburn, and myself, will be attending the chicago comics & entertainment expo. the expo (c2e2) is being held at mccormick place from the 16th to the 18th. we will be located in artist’s alley in row row F tables 3 & 4 *. there will be sketching and a variety of swag – swing on by if you can!

[ * updated: formerly row H tables 11 & 12 ]

i wish i had more time to doodle even for the simple fact that i would have more things to share with you on this blog/gallery of mine! the above image of zorro, or i guess more accurately; zorro’s victims was originally done for the comictwarts blog. it was the first call to arms of the comictwarts, a bunch of talented guys that tackle a chosen character each week. unfortunately i’ve been a tad too busy of late to participate every week. however after a three week absence i will be returning this week with my take on archie and the gang – which i will cross post here.

stay tuned true believers!