Evan Dorkin's Blog, page 30
August 10, 2011
Back in the Day: Skeleton Key Pin-Up
Drawn for one of Andi Watson's Skeleton Key collections published by SLG in the 90's. Sarah and I were big fans of the book and as it happened we ended up developing a pitch bible for Sunbow Entertainment when they were trying to sell SK as an animated series. Or, I should say, we re-developed the bible, as there were two previous goes at it if I recall correctly. Sarah came up with the idea that solved a major problem in the earlier approaches, after that we set to world-building, using as many of Andi's original elements as possible. We turned in a pretty extensive bible for which Andi worked up a lovely set of character designs. Most of the characters were from the original comics, there was a small set of new characters we came up with, villain-types, mostly, and it was extremely cool to see Andi's designs for them.
Nickelodeon bought the series for development but sadly nothing came of it -- it fell victim to in-fighting between the east and west coast offices (west coast wrested it from the collapsing east coast, who had made the deal for it and seemed to be behind the concept as we pitched it). Apparently there was a misguided attempt to turn it into an overly-innocuous little kid's show, making the characters younger, and pretty much gutting the things that made the project appealing enough for Nickelodeon to go for it in the first place. It seemed like a dismantling -- a pretty witless and smug one, to boot -- and at some point Sarah and I realized that we didn't want to have anything to do with Nickelodeon if we were asked to work on the pilot as originally planned. I don't think things got very far, actually, although Andi would likely know more about the way things went down after things started to go south. I still wonder how things would have gone if the east coast office was able to develop the project.
I think they blew an opportunity, Andi's series was, and is wonderful, the characters were swell, Harry Potter mania was still building at the time and it seemed a good time for solid, imaginative, good-looking fun magical kid stuff -- we always thought a Skeleton Key series as envisioned stood a good chance. We still have all the bible materials and incidentals filed away, I really, really loved that project. And a show on the air couldn't have happened to a nicer guy than Andi. Oh, well.
Anyway, I hadn't meant this as a plug (or a recollection, I was only going to post the pin-up but as usual I opened up my big mouth, as it were) but since I'm on the subject I should mention that there will be new Skeleton Key stories running in Dark Horse Presents shortly. I'm really looking forward to them.
August 6, 2011
Midtown Comics Book Club: Beasts of Burden
I will be appearing at Midtown Comics on August 26th for their next Book Club meeting, which will spotlight Beasts of Burden. The event will be held at the Fulton Street store in downtown NYC, and starts at 6:30 p.m. I'm not sure how these things go, I assume we'll be talking about the book and the series and future plans for same (including the Dark Horse Presents trio of stories beginning in September), and I expect to bring some of my script notes and roughs to show if anyone cares about process and that sort of thing. Should be interesting. Gets me out of the house, if nothing else.
More info here. Hope to see a few folks there.
More info here. Hope to see a few folks there.
August 4, 2011
MC Frontalot:: Solved
MC Frontalot's new CD came out recently, which I happened to do the cover art for.
Colors by Anthony Clark (webcartoonist and colorist for Dr. McNinja). Thanks to Frontalot for asking me to do the honors.
More info on the album and MC Frontalot can be found here at Nerdcore H.Q.
Over and Out.
Colors by Anthony Clark (webcartoonist and colorist for Dr. McNinja). Thanks to Frontalot for asking me to do the honors.
More info on the album and MC Frontalot can be found here at Nerdcore H.Q.
Over and Out.
August 1, 2011
Make Mein Marvel Commissions
Two Marvel character commissions for a customer who asked for me to draw them along the lines of a Hulk sketch I did a few months back.
The Hulk sketch was something I knocked out as a gag in about fifteen minutes, using colored pencils and a regular pencil, maybe a 3B, I don't remember exactly. I only remembered sketching in blue pencil, going over it in red (as I often do when comping something), and then doing some other stuff with it and adding some dialog. I never worked like that before so when I was asked to work in that style for the Thing and Thor commissions I kind of choked a bit during the process, when I do use colored pencils it's over inked outlines, here I found myself working everything over a lot more than the Hulk piece, heavier lines, more detail, but still trying to retain the rough look that was asked for. The Thing took a while, afterward Thor was easier because I had a better idea as to what I was attempting to do.
When I'd hit a wall on the commissions I'd take out some typing paper and rough out some head shots to loosen up with. Some were only in blue pencil, several went into File 13, these two I scribbled color on to see how they'd look.
One unexpected outcome of all this was that while working on the Thing drawing, my daughter Emily became intrigued by the Fantastic Four comics laying around my work space. To make a long story short, she's now read the first two Fantastic Four Omnibus volumes as well as two follow-up FF Masterworks (and four Amazing Adventures comics featuring The Inhumans). She hasn't read #62-#82 (iirc) because we don't have them, but even so she pretty much tore through most of the Lee/Kirby run in a few days. I haven't even read all of those issues yet and I'm 40 years older than she is. I say thee no way!
Anyway, excelsior and all that stuff.
The Hulk sketch was something I knocked out as a gag in about fifteen minutes, using colored pencils and a regular pencil, maybe a 3B, I don't remember exactly. I only remembered sketching in blue pencil, going over it in red (as I often do when comping something), and then doing some other stuff with it and adding some dialog. I never worked like that before so when I was asked to work in that style for the Thing and Thor commissions I kind of choked a bit during the process, when I do use colored pencils it's over inked outlines, here I found myself working everything over a lot more than the Hulk piece, heavier lines, more detail, but still trying to retain the rough look that was asked for. The Thing took a while, afterward Thor was easier because I had a better idea as to what I was attempting to do.
When I'd hit a wall on the commissions I'd take out some typing paper and rough out some head shots to loosen up with. Some were only in blue pencil, several went into File 13, these two I scribbled color on to see how they'd look.
One unexpected outcome of all this was that while working on the Thing drawing, my daughter Emily became intrigued by the Fantastic Four comics laying around my work space. To make a long story short, she's now read the first two Fantastic Four Omnibus volumes as well as two follow-up FF Masterworks (and four Amazing Adventures comics featuring The Inhumans). She hasn't read #62-#82 (iirc) because we don't have them, but even so she pretty much tore through most of the Lee/Kirby run in a few days. I haven't even read all of those issues yet and I'm 40 years older than she is. I say thee no way!
Anyway, excelsior and all that stuff.
July 22, 2011
Signing at Midtown Comics Tomorrow
As mentioned here before, I'll be taking part in Midtown Comics "Not at Comic Con Party" tomorrow at their downtown location on Fulton Street.
Here's the signing and events schedule:
12:30-1:30: Larry Hama & Evan Dorkin Signing
2:00-3:00: Trivia Contest
3:30-4:30: Rebekah Isaacs & Amy Reeder Signing
5:00-6:00: Costume Contest
6:30-7:30: MC Chris Signing
More information on the event can be found here.
I'll be happy to sign anything anyone brings or buys, and I expect to be doing freebie sketches as long as folks have something for me to draw on. I don't know how long I'll be there after the scheduled signing, I'm not sure if we're supposed to be hanging out a while or if we're being kicked to the steaming hot curb once our stint is over. If the air conditioning there is better than what we have in our house -- and it should be -- they might not get me out of there until closing time.
Anyway, hope to see a few of you there tomorrow.
Here's the signing and events schedule:
12:30-1:30: Larry Hama & Evan Dorkin Signing
2:00-3:00: Trivia Contest
3:30-4:30: Rebekah Isaacs & Amy Reeder Signing
5:00-6:00: Costume Contest
6:30-7:30: MC Chris Signing
More information on the event can be found here.
I'll be happy to sign anything anyone brings or buys, and I expect to be doing freebie sketches as long as folks have something for me to draw on. I don't know how long I'll be there after the scheduled signing, I'm not sure if we're supposed to be hanging out a while or if we're being kicked to the steaming hot curb once our stint is over. If the air conditioning there is better than what we have in our house -- and it should be -- they might not get me out of there until closing time.
Anyway, hope to see a few of you there tomorrow.
July 13, 2011
Updates For You And Yours And Theirs
I've seen the first 12 pages of art from Eric Powell for our Goon #35 collaboration. Holy zoinks, it looks swell, and it hasn't even reached colorist Dave Stewart for his contribution. Looking forward to this one, and I already know the story. Always a good sign. August 31st, save the date.
Here's the blog post from Midtown Comics for the "Not at Comic Con Party" event taking place Saturday, July 23rd at their downtown Manhattan location. I'll be doing a signing that day with Larry Hama, other guests are Amy Reeder, Rebekah Isaacs and M.C. Chris. Apparently there will be costumes and trivia contests and whatnot so it acts like a mini-convention. Maybe they'll have overpriced hot dogs and Teamsters yelling at everyone to complete the experience. Their Facebook page for the event can be found here. Hope to see you there. Save the date!
Sarah and I finished up a script for Bongo. Right now there's no date for you to save on that one.
The Milk and Cheese hardcover should be available for pre-order the week of August 12th or so. Need I remind you to save the approximate date? Pre-order this magnificence and be the envy of some weird person on your block.
We're pretty much done with our end of things on the book, we have to figure out the "bookplate" design and I'm finishing up an afterword that I'm doing as a one-page comic. What a haul this has been. Most of the M&C work was pre-digital, and I no longer have a lot of the original art for some of the issues. Ditto most of the covers, the t-shirt designs, the older pin-ups and the like. Sarah's put in a lot of hours to help make this the best book possible, and I'm really happy we're finally done bringing all that old comic book chaos to order. Now it's the DHC production department's nightmare.
Speaking of DHC, here's the official Dark Horse PR for the HC. Same basic stuff you've already seen, only with a dopey quote I provided. I really hate coming up with PR quotes, it always sounds forced, because it is, even more so when writing about your own project. "I like this. I hope people like this. I'm so excited...derrrr."
Maybe I should have sent that in as the quote.
Here's the blog post from Midtown Comics for the "Not at Comic Con Party" event taking place Saturday, July 23rd at their downtown Manhattan location. I'll be doing a signing that day with Larry Hama, other guests are Amy Reeder, Rebekah Isaacs and M.C. Chris. Apparently there will be costumes and trivia contests and whatnot so it acts like a mini-convention. Maybe they'll have overpriced hot dogs and Teamsters yelling at everyone to complete the experience. Their Facebook page for the event can be found here. Hope to see you there. Save the date!
Sarah and I finished up a script for Bongo. Right now there's no date for you to save on that one.
The Milk and Cheese hardcover should be available for pre-order the week of August 12th or so. Need I remind you to save the approximate date? Pre-order this magnificence and be the envy of some weird person on your block.
We're pretty much done with our end of things on the book, we have to figure out the "bookplate" design and I'm finishing up an afterword that I'm doing as a one-page comic. What a haul this has been. Most of the M&C work was pre-digital, and I no longer have a lot of the original art for some of the issues. Ditto most of the covers, the t-shirt designs, the older pin-ups and the like. Sarah's put in a lot of hours to help make this the best book possible, and I'm really happy we're finally done bringing all that old comic book chaos to order. Now it's the DHC production department's nightmare.
Speaking of DHC, here's the official Dark Horse PR for the HC. Same basic stuff you've already seen, only with a dopey quote I provided. I really hate coming up with PR quotes, it always sounds forced, because it is, even more so when writing about your own project. "I like this. I hope people like this. I'm so excited...derrrr."
Maybe I should have sent that in as the quote.
July 9, 2011
Now --The Secret Can Be Told!
The House of Fun is pleased to present its latest secret project.
This is the cover:
And this is the solicitation from Dark Horse Comics:
MILK AND CHEESE: DAIRY PRODUCTS GONE BAD HC
On sale Dec 21
B&W/FC, 240 pages
$19.99
HC, 7" x 10"
A carton of hate. A wedge of spite. A comic book of idiotic genius. The Eisner Award-winning dairy duo returns in this deluxe hardcover collecting every single stupid Milk and Cheese comic ever made from 1989 to 2010, along with a sh*t-ton of supplemental awesomeness. This has everything you need! Don't judge it—love it! Or else!
“Evan’s calcium-rich creations are guaranteed to spread lactose intolerance everywhere.”—David Mazzucchelli (Asterios Polyp, Batman: Year One)
Some additional notes:
- The book will feature over 80 pages of comics that have not been collected before.
- There will be a 24-pg color section featuring all the color M&C strips, a cover gallery, pin-ups, merchandise art, trading cards, etc.
- There will also be a 24-pg B&W supplemental section featuring pin-ups, t-shirt designs, and other art, etc.
- The only M&C-related comic that will not be in the collection is the M&C/Pirate Corp$! strip from Munden's Bar Annual #2.
- Some very swell folks gave us some very nice back cover quotes.
- The book should be hefty enough to hurt anyone hit over the head with it.
- The book should be pretty freaking awesome.
There will be more information on the book next week as more formal PR rolls out from Dark Horse -- I think I'm doing some interviews over the weekend and those should be posted pretty quickly, among other things. That being said, the greatest PR Milk and Cheese ever had was reader word-of-mouth, so I'm hoping some of the M&C faithful out there will take it upon themselves to spew the good word about the Dairy Products Gone Bad all over the god-damned, stinking internet until it chokes.
Onward to Mayhem!
July 6, 2011
Smash and Gab
First off, here's a link to a new interview that I did with Comic Book Resources regarding the Beasts of Burden film option and the upcoming stories in DHP.
Secondly, here's a pin-up of The God-Damned Rhino:
I posted a rough sketch of this hooligan several months ago and mentioned that I tried to draw a finished piece based on it. I wasn't happy with either penciled attempt and they've been sitting in the studio gathering dust and feeling sorry for themselves. I bought some Copic Multiliner brush pens at Heroes Con to try out and needed something to try them out on, so I grabbed one of the Rhino penciled jobs and threw some ink on it while letting the ink dry on the Team Cul de Sac piece I was working on at the time. I still like the rough sketch better, but there's something going on with this one I kind of like. Maybe it's the rocks. I dunno. FYI: this pin-up will likely be tossed onto eBay or our art for sale list, that's where pretty much all of these Marvel and DC character pieces are ending up (which reminds me, thanks to the folks who bid on our recent set of auctions, including the J.J.J. Spider-Slayer robot pin-up. Always appreciated).
I think I like working with the Copics more than the Pitt brush markers I've been using for the past several years to complement the Hunt 102 and 22. I'll still use both kinds for a while (I'm not going to throw anything out, art supplies is expensitive!) on the commissions I'm slowly working through and see which brand "'wins".
Finally, one of our secret projects is almost done. At least our part of it. Fingers crossed.
Secondly, here's a pin-up of The God-Damned Rhino:
I posted a rough sketch of this hooligan several months ago and mentioned that I tried to draw a finished piece based on it. I wasn't happy with either penciled attempt and they've been sitting in the studio gathering dust and feeling sorry for themselves. I bought some Copic Multiliner brush pens at Heroes Con to try out and needed something to try them out on, so I grabbed one of the Rhino penciled jobs and threw some ink on it while letting the ink dry on the Team Cul de Sac piece I was working on at the time. I still like the rough sketch better, but there's something going on with this one I kind of like. Maybe it's the rocks. I dunno. FYI: this pin-up will likely be tossed onto eBay or our art for sale list, that's where pretty much all of these Marvel and DC character pieces are ending up (which reminds me, thanks to the folks who bid on our recent set of auctions, including the J.J.J. Spider-Slayer robot pin-up. Always appreciated).
I think I like working with the Copics more than the Pitt brush markers I've been using for the past several years to complement the Hunt 102 and 22. I'll still use both kinds for a while (I'm not going to throw anything out, art supplies is expensitive!) on the commissions I'm slowly working through and see which brand "'wins".
Finally, one of our secret projects is almost done. At least our part of it. Fingers crossed.
July 2, 2011
Busy Times Means Regular Updates
- Going through the just-released Diamond Previews for September comic releases, you'll find two HOF-related releases:
First up is the afore-blogged Dark Horse Presents #4, which will run a Beasts of Burden short story by Jill Thompson and myself, along with work by Steve Niles, Howard Chaykin, Sergio Aragones, Carla Speed McNeil, Steve Parkhouse and an interview feature by cover artist Geoff Darrow.
- Also solicited for September is Bart Simpson Comics #63, which will feature a 10 page story I wrote and drew called "Model Behavior", which details the epic fail that occurs when Bart, Milhouse and Martin attempt to build a Radioactive Man Rocket Roadster model kit. Sarah provided the colors, and I think we did a nice job on it and I hope folks will check it out. Going by the solicitation text it looks like we'll be sharing space with Sergio Aragones and others. And can I just say, it's always super-cool to have your work in the same comic as Sergio Aragones? 'Cause it totally is. (FYI, Bongo also solicited this year's Treehouse of Horror, and one of the guest creators is none other than Jim Woodring. Yes.)
- DHC recently released a collection of Jill Thompson's Scary Godmother black and white comics, including a short strip she did for the late, lamented Action Girl Comics.
- Hey, Mad magazine now, finally, has a blog/web presence.
- Here are nine of the ten Milk and Cheese sketch insert cards I contributed to the CBLDF Liberty Card set project:
Supposedly these suckers will be tossed randomly into the trading card packs along with sketches by a number of other comics creators. Maybe you'll find one. Maybe no one will find them, and they will sit forever in foil-sealed darkness.
- A recent commission, Robotman from DC Comics Doom patrol.:
- Speaking of commissions, at the moment I'm not taking any new art orders as I have a full dance card to get through, including some barter pieces from way back that I'm trying to finish before I'm sealed in a foil pack and planted six feet under. I always appreciate being asked, but if you're looking for something, I probably won't be accepting commissions again until later in the year.
- And finally, speaking of art, here's a final reminder of our current eBay art auctions, which end tomorrow. All bids are welcome, all bids are appreciated.
All for now. Hope you're having a more fun holiday weekend than we are.
First up is the afore-blogged Dark Horse Presents #4, which will run a Beasts of Burden short story by Jill Thompson and myself, along with work by Steve Niles, Howard Chaykin, Sergio Aragones, Carla Speed McNeil, Steve Parkhouse and an interview feature by cover artist Geoff Darrow.
- Also solicited for September is Bart Simpson Comics #63, which will feature a 10 page story I wrote and drew called "Model Behavior", which details the epic fail that occurs when Bart, Milhouse and Martin attempt to build a Radioactive Man Rocket Roadster model kit. Sarah provided the colors, and I think we did a nice job on it and I hope folks will check it out. Going by the solicitation text it looks like we'll be sharing space with Sergio Aragones and others. And can I just say, it's always super-cool to have your work in the same comic as Sergio Aragones? 'Cause it totally is. (FYI, Bongo also solicited this year's Treehouse of Horror, and one of the guest creators is none other than Jim Woodring. Yes.)
- DHC recently released a collection of Jill Thompson's Scary Godmother black and white comics, including a short strip she did for the late, lamented Action Girl Comics.
- Hey, Mad magazine now, finally, has a blog/web presence.
- Here are nine of the ten Milk and Cheese sketch insert cards I contributed to the CBLDF Liberty Card set project:
Supposedly these suckers will be tossed randomly into the trading card packs along with sketches by a number of other comics creators. Maybe you'll find one. Maybe no one will find them, and they will sit forever in foil-sealed darkness.
- A recent commission, Robotman from DC Comics Doom patrol.:
- Speaking of commissions, at the moment I'm not taking any new art orders as I have a full dance card to get through, including some barter pieces from way back that I'm trying to finish before I'm sealed in a foil pack and planted six feet under. I always appreciate being asked, but if you're looking for something, I probably won't be accepting commissions again until later in the year.
- And finally, speaking of art, here's a final reminder of our current eBay art auctions, which end tomorrow. All bids are welcome, all bids are appreciated.
All for now. Hope you're having a more fun holiday weekend than we are.
July 1, 2011
New Beasts of Burden Pages
You can see three new pages from the first Dark Horse Presents Beasts of Burden short story here.
Just FYI, the PR going around with the new pages incorrectly states that I will be at SDCC this year. I was wondering why I was getting requests to be interviewed at the convention. Anyway, I'll be at the Midtown Comics signing that weekend as mentioned before.
Enjoy the pages, I think Jill did another bang-up job on them.
Just FYI, the PR going around with the new pages incorrectly states that I will be at SDCC this year. I was wondering why I was getting requests to be interviewed at the convention. Anyway, I'll be at the Midtown Comics signing that weekend as mentioned before.
Enjoy the pages, I think Jill did another bang-up job on them.
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