The Small Press Virgin

'T' is for...

...Typhoid Mary, Tank Girl and Timberwolf!

Tank Girl seems a little generic to me. Could just be any little girl, not enough of that punk flavour in my blood I'm afraid. Still, it's not terrible though.

One of Daredevils toughest adversaries, Typhoid Mary had hornhead all wrapped around her little finger untill he had her committed...although he did sleep with her one last time before sending the mental health folk round before she woke up. That's just cold DD, very cold.

and Timberwolf (or Wolverine as he's more popularly known) is a feral member of the legion of superheroes. He has a great new design on the cartoon show, I wish I could make it work in my style - alas, it wasn't to be so I drew the classic version.

Take care all!

-Rob

'S' is For...

Superboy, Solid Snake and The Scarlet Spider!!!

I changed my choices this time round at the last minute in order to get another themed post going. Anybody have any guesses?

Give up?

ok I'll tell: They're all clones! and actually Scarlet is dead, Superboy is dead - - Solid Snake is dead too...or was that Big Boss, or Solidus? Clones....can't tell 'em apart. :-)

I miss the old SB series. Karl Kesel was great, Grummett was better. all ages fun, you should look it up.

Scarlet Spider weren't bad either, well Ben Reilly wasn't. A fun, single Spider-man with money/girl trouble AND a married Peter Parker on hand as moral support and as the voice of experience. Best of both worlds. What went wrong?

and Solid Snake, America's best soldier and star of the Metal Gear series of games. He's a clone of Big Boss who starred in the Third MGS game but now Snakes back in MGS4 and I can't wait to get it. (I'll wait for the cheaper used copies to come around) My Metal Gear Solid codename is Artificial Piranha btw. Not bad. Better than Liquid Snake anyhow.

That's all for now

Take care

-Rob

'R' is for.....

...Renee, Reyes and Red. Bit of a funny one this time as Renee Montoya should really be under 'M' while Durham Red should be under 'D' - - - but as I said before, I make the rules! :-D

So, Renee Montoya from the Gotham City Police Department, Cecilia Reyes, the mutant doctor of the X-Men and Durham Red, a vampiric mutated goddess from an apocalyptic future. -ahem- uhh yes, all very down-to-earth. ;-)

(Very disappointed with this drawing actually, I think I'm getting worse)

'Q' is For...

...Jonny Quest, Johnny Quick and Quicksilver!

Big John Neal chose these characters for me, loooove the name connections. Gotta try that again sometime. Thanks JMN, hope it's good enough for ya, although we can admit that Quest is slightly 'off'- he could probably do with another go over, but hey, this is only a sketchy. :-)

Quite a while since the last post...I'm sure you're expecting the standard bloggers quote of how 'real-life' has intruded and blah blah blah...but I'm not gonna give you that. You can make up your own excuses :-D !!!

now, here's a couple shots at an MP's uniform from the 1950's. They may be showing up in the pages I'm supposed to be working on now. yay!

Onto 'R'!!!

-Rob

'Q' is for....

...Quick post something!

so this is a little throwaway panel from the comic that this blog was supposed to be detailing. About time I started showing more of the work on that book.

Vaccinations suck. I just got Yellow Fever, Typhoid and Hepatitis A and it's left me feeling like I've got flu, only without the runny nose. ugh.

The 'real' Q sketch will be coming when I feel better. :-)

-Rob

'P' is for...

...Powerman, Phantom Lady and The Abominable Dr. Phibes!!!

wow, so who woulda thought I'd still be going on this? Even I was expecting something else to get in the way and make me quit before we finish the alphabet. Only 10 more, Bavi my boy!

These choices were chosen by John Morgan Neal, the man who is writing the story I'm supposed to be working on right now. (In fact I just received the next scene and should be thumbnailing it today or tomorrow!) He's a great friend and very knowledgable about comics - one of the first webguys I managed to connect with and we get on well to this day. Some great choices here John, thanks!

The abominable Dr. Phibes played by Vincent Price in the film and *almost* illustrated by Jack Kirby in the comic. If you ever need to torture someone to death and are running short of ideas this is the film you need to rent!  

"The most terrifying motion picture you'll ever see!"

Take Care All

-Rob

'O' is for...

...Oberon, Obi Wan Kenobi and Dr. Octopus!

Michael Hutchison, writer of Metro Med (the hospital for superheroes) and Web-guru of Monitor Duty.com is the one who chose these characters. They're people I would never have drawn if left to my own devices, which is what this exercise is all about...drawing stuff I never drew before.

So, thanks Michael.

Take care all

-R

'N' is For...

...Night Raven, Nevada Smith and Negative Man!!!

A Marvel UK creation, Night Raven was a throwback to those pulp-era, trench-coat and fedora wearing vigilantes such as The Spider or The Shadow. One of my most-read comic related books "How to Draw and Sell....Comic Strips" featured a short, silent story by Parkhouse and Lloyd. It was meant to show how a story should be perfectly understandable even without dialogue. That was a great book, sadly destroyed through constant thumbing through. I hear there is an updated third edition now, I might have to replace this one! :-)

Negative Man was...a guy who did a thing with....that power....you know the one, in the Doom Patrol. I really am only familar with Larry Trainor: The Negative Man through the Doom Patrol's appearance in JLA: Year One. A former Jet-jockey pal of Hal Jordan who later went on to become Green Lantern, Trainor had a cameo in the New Frontier movie for eagle eyed viewers only. Blink and you'll miss 'im!

Steve McQueen is the king of cool, we all know this. Back in the 60s a 35 yr-old McQueen's coolness was so intense that he could play a 16 yr-old half Indian and nobody would notice. I've got to find this film on DVD - I want it so bad.

Speaking of Nevada Smith, I went to see Indiana Jones yesterday. I don't wanna spoil anything but I loved how the film started to blend 1950's sci-fi film influence's into the familiar adventure story we all enjoy. I'm glad to see some progression in the series rather than the same old, same old that my local geeks are yearning for. It's a shame Karen Allen appeared to be on the Happy Juice for most of the film - perhaps she's just glad to be getting work again.

This also, was the first time in years I've seen a cinema sold out. (God, back on the first weekend of Kong and I shared the cinema with three other people!) Everyone seemed to like it, even the noisy kids didn't need to be told to shut up this time. So all's good in the world. LOL

Take Care All

-R

'M' is For...

...Matter-Eater Lad, Madame Hydra and Michelangelo!!!

That could be ANY turtle but trust me, it's Mikey. Maaan, I was crazy for those guys when I was little. Turtle Power!

Another strangely powered teen from the 31st Century. Matter-Eater Lad could eat anything and enjoy it - much like someone else I know ;-)

Finally, we got Madame Hydra, or Viper as she's commonly known these days. Why do the bad guys always get the hottest chicks? I bet Sharon Carter was nowhere near as wild as this gal - Captain America, you chose poorly. 

SOme great choices, interesting designs and who doesn't love an anthromorphic turtle, a psychopathic sexpot and a crazy future boy?

All chosen this time by everybody's friend, Erik Burnham of The Downside fame. Erik was also a big part of Shooting Star comics - where we originally met - and where he created Nick Landime. He's a funny guy and one of only two people who have asked me to draw in their sketchbooks! yay!

Thanks Erik!

Take Care all.

-Rob

'L' is for...

...Lois Lane, Loki and Lawdog!

These characters were kindly chosen by Chuck Dixon, who's Epic Comics character is pictured above. For those that don't know Lawdog was an Inter-Dimensional Highway Patrolman whos job was, in his own words "Whatever don't belong goes back to it's home reality or I waste it."

I've only got the first few issues of this which I got recently in the....sorry, Chuck....25p boxes at my local mart. Great, crazy, over-the-top bullet dodging, muscle car driving action.

Oh man, the car! 8-o what a vehicle! 

next up was Thor's devious half-brother Loki. The trickster was a lot of fun to draw - I loved acting out his sneering expression. "grrrr, I'll get you next time brother"

Great choice Chuck, I figured classic look is best for this guy.

Last but definitely not least is Lois Lane. I'll take Timm's animated Lois over the soft-headed movie version, she even edge's out Smallville's Erica Durance for the win. Fantastic design and inspired voice casting. Dana Delany is the narrater in all my dreams ;-)

Thanks for choosing for this boy with no imagination, Mr D.

Take Care All

-R

'K' is for...

Krypto the Wonder Dog, Rosa Klebb and Misty Knight.

Another Bond Girl to measure up to Jinx from the last post. Although I'd not want to wake up next to this one. Ruthless, cold, humourless and rather unpleaseant to look at, Rosa Klebb was one of Bond's greatest adversaries. She almost killed him, in fact in the book she did just that. Fleming decided to revive him for another adventure in his next book.

Misty Knight, that baddest, toughest Bounty Hunter in all of New York. She's got a great look but I didn't do it justice here. The original rough looked much better, I'll have to revisit this at some point.

Krypto. Superman's dog. Super fast, strong, heat vision and able to fly. I don't know where he came from if his planet blew up leaving Clark Kent the last Kryptonion around. All I know is I wouldn't want to be the one carrying his pooper-scooper. :-)

Take Care

-Rob

'J' is for...

hnh. I really thought I posted 'J' last week. Obviously not. :-)

The Jays are Joe Fixit, Jonah Hex and Jinx:

The grey Hulk is another of Bruce Banner's multiple personalities that emerged during Peter David's run on the title. This Hulk was a tough vicious mob enforcer working out of Las Vegas under the alias 'Fixit' during the 80s. Goodfellas is his favourite movie, probably. :-)

Jonah Hex. The ugliest Bounty Hunter to walk the wild west. I'm very bad at drawing hats, gotta work at that ;-)

Die Another Day might not have been the farewell Pierce Bronsnan deserved but it did excell at one aspect: Bond girls. Three of the best. Peaceful Fountains of Desire, Rosamund Pike and Jinx Johnson! I really wanted to draw Halle walking out of the sea but thought it'd be too obvious so I went for something different. Not sure how well it worked out.

Take care all

-Rob

'I' is For...

The Invisible Kid/Man/Woman. My first total themed letter!

The Invisible Kid (Lyle Norg) was a member of the Legion of Superheroes. His costume, although butt-ugly, is actually the best looking one he's had over the years. There's an innocent charm to it. Didja know he was voted leader of the Legion at one point? I always thought that Saturn Boy, no wait - Meteor Boy, Ultra Boy....crap...The one with the bluey-white outfit with the round things on his chest. I thought he was the perpetual leader, the top dog in the 30th century. Goes to show what I know.

The Invisible Man, played by Claude Rains in the 1933 film based on HG Wells' book.  Even an invisible killer can still enjoy a good vintage brandy. :-) One of Universal's great horror characters brought to life by Prince John from The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)!

The Invisible Woman from Ultimate Fantastic Four. Not the 'real' Sue but a nice, if slightly diluted xerox of her. I still like the character and if I had a choice of super-power - I would pick hers. :-)

Take care all!

-R

'H' is For...

Huntress, Heihachi and Howard The Duck. "WAAUGH!!"

Another Tekken character pops up here. This time the baddest 75 Year Old Karateka ever to enter the ring. And yes, he is wearing a nappy.

We still play Tekken 4 round here and I looove to pick Heihachi in this outfit as most blokes can't resist a cruel jibe about adult diapers as the fight starts - As they're making with the funny I'm making with the Wind God Fist.  "Incontinence trouble Heihac-?" SMAKSMAK!!!

I'm not the best so any little advantage I can get is vital ;-) "That'll teach you to pick Steve again!"

 For the uninitiated check out the Intro movie for Tekken 5. Father and Son fight back to back for probably the first time. Great animation, they really should make the Full-length movie like this. I do prefer the song over the second half of the vid - makes me wanna go kick someone's arse.

The Huntress turned out.....not quite as I wanted. I rushed the hair and cape (I really should know better by now) I do love the body position and quite enjoy crouching my characters like this - maybe I should stop hiding from anatomy eh?

and finally a belated Steve Gerber tribute. Howard The Duck. One of those characters I knew about without ever having read their adventures, strange how that works. But we all love an ill-tempered cigar chomping Duck so here he is.

Take care all

-Rob

'G' is For...

Ghostbusters, Giant-Man, Guy Gardner!

Only one Ghostbuster today, these are supposed to be quickies afer all, and it's the best one - Egon Spengler. I was a bit rushed so I think the drawing suffered for it but it he is a distinctive looking fella and I look forward to drawing him again.

Guy Gardner, Warrier, Green Lantern. I was just reading up on him and it seems he is now Green Lantern #1 out of all 7200 in the universe - quite an achievment for someone who started out as Hal Jordan's understudy.

Giant-Man - heh heh - I kinda cheated on this one. I wonder what he's looking at through that window?

These characters were chosen by Micheal Hutchison of Metro Med and Monitor Duty. He also is the world's biggest Elongated Man fan - perhaps I should've let him have 'E'!!!

Thanks for taking part Micheal. Hope you like the outcome.

Take care all

-R

'F' is for...

Fox McCloud, Forge and Fred Chyre!

Greatest console ever: Nintendo 64.

Greatest Action Game ever: Starfox 64

Starring Fox McCloud as the leader of the intergalatic problem solvers Starfox, the game has you coming to the aid of General Pepper of Corneria against the evil of the exiled Andross' attack on the Lylat system. Take care of those wingmen! 

Classic!

Next is Fred Chyre. I suppose he should've come under 'C' but I makethe rules so nyah nyah nyah. Fred was one of the supporting characters from Geoff Johns' Flash run. The only 58 year old beat cop on the Keystone Police force thanks to his anger issues. He's one of those big bruisers with a warm heart deep underneath the tough shell. Plus I have an affinty for those ugly-looking characters. Read into that what you will :-)

Where is Forge these days? How often do we see a Native American vietnam vet with a genius intellect, and he never seemed to be on of the X-Men's A-listers. Perhaps if Storm had married him when he asked then maybe we'd have seen him in the Movies. I always thought he was a pretty cool character - one question though...when he lost his hand, how did he build a replacement with only one good hand able to hold a tool?

Christ, I can't even tie my shoelaces with one hand!

Take care all

-R

'E' is for...

Eclipso, Ego the Living Planet and Eraserhead. (click for a big 'un)

Today's characters were selected by John Morgan Neal of Aym Geronimo fame - Thanks John!

I'm a little disapointed that the scan made the pencil shading on Eraserhead appear much harsher than it is, perhaps I'll find a good scan setting for soft pencil one of these days.

Call me Mr No-Imagination but these were three characters I would never have thought of doing by myself. Some great choices today.

So, this is the new Eclipso. The wife of....umm, one of the DC heroes...The Atom I think. Anyway, shes evil now and that's all I know. ;-)

Ego the Living Planet. What's there to say bout this fella. He's a planet that's alive. I've only read about him during the Exiles series when he implanted the Earth with his seed with the intention of making it sentient to act as back-up in some fight he was having. Why he chose Earth and not one of the bigger planets I can't figure out. heh.

By all accounts Eraserhead is a surrealist horror film that has become a cult classic even though most viewers seem baffled by the narrative, or lack of. I've been reading some of the interpretations and it seems to make no sense to me! David Lynch followed this up with The Elephant Man which, co-incidentely was my original choice for 'E'.

ok, gotta get to cooking my dinners for tomorrow.

Take care all

-R

'D' is For...

Dracula, Dazzler and Dubbilex!

hmm - Dubbilex looks like Daredevil. Ah well, both Ds so it can count! :-)

This time, I had some input from Blue Spider who selected Dracula as a character. Hope you like it, Chris.

Just a quickie today.

Later

-R

'C' is For....

Cypher, Catwoman and Captain Britain (Click for the fullsize!)

Cypher was tired of the fight against the machines - all he wanted was to be plugged back into The Matrix. I know I feel like that sometimes...."just plug me back in!!!"

Captain Britain. A used-ta-be drunk, a muscle bound buffon and insanely jealous...there's no doubt he's an Englishman. ;-)

And Catwoman - in her Animated Series outfit. Why I drew that and not the black leather version I don't know. Whatever.

Back in real life: The new Terminal Five is a disaster - everything fell apart. Add that to the fact that British Airways handlers are the most useless on the airport and you get 15,000 lost suitcases in the first day of T5 opening.

My company's Manager, as helpful as ever, told BAA that "my boys can handle it" and now we've all been forced to do at least one shift overtime everyweek for the next two months to pull BA's fat lazy arse out of the slop it's landed in.

I suppose it's kinda transparent that I'm annoyed about having to give up my freetime for another companies F-up and go in for 60+ hours a week. I seriously could not give a flying fig about this job anymore.

I think I need a beer.

or three.

-R

'B' is for...

Batroc, Batou and Beast Boy! (click to enlarga!)

I think I missed a trick here.

I should have drawn Batroc, Batou and Batgirl. An all-BAT post. -sigh- next time perhaps.

Batroc is the only one I used phot-ref for but it turns out to be the one that looks most odd. How does THAT work? 

Beast Boy is so far off-model it aint even funny but at least I enjoyed doing it. :-)

And now I'm in trouble, see I'm on shift tomorrow at 0700 meaning I have to drag my bones out of bed at 0530 BUT (here's the pain in my arse) I didn't wake up till 1300 today. So I gotta somehow force myself to sleep after being awake for only 9 hours otherwise the next 12 hours at work will be a killer.

Maybe I deserve it for being so lazy.

Have a nice week everyone!

-R :-)

'A' is for...

...Absorbing Man, Arrowette and Adon. (clicka to enlarga!)

My original Absorbing Man from the last post I felt was a bit weak. Even though this one is a bog-standard pose it feels like a better drawing.

I've been trying over the last few days to try and understand better the concepts of art,design and composition. Sometimes I read a long text about ,for example balancing an image, get to the end and realise I didn't understand a word of it!

It's like trying to read a foreign language, I occasionally understand some words but most of it is gobbledeegook. (wow, what a word - gobbledeegook, I wonder if the cool kids say that these days)

-sigh-

I regret not going to Art school now.

-Rob

Thufferin Thuccotash!

FINALLY!

My internet is back on. When it goes down, it goes down hard and not a thing I can do about it. But it's back.

Anyway - here's the Absorbing Man. What a beautiful face. ;-)

(I timed myself on this. 17 minutes)

-R

What's up with me?

I haven't drawn a thing since I finished page-number-whatever of THEM. Nothing since my last post on here.  :-(

I even had a company contact me - how often does that happen? - about working for them. I just need to complete a submission page but even that aint getting me moving.

Just pick up a pencil, man!

What's in a kiss?

This is a panel from one of our pages set back in 1899.

We've already met Ethan on this blog - but now meet the mysterious Starsha.

And yes, she's supposed to be green...and bald. The book is black and white but I wanted to see how it looked with a nice big sunset behind them.

:-)

-R

First 'mess around' on my new tablet

So, the next thing I need to do is not to draw with the pencil tool!

It completely threw me for a loop at first, looking at the screen and not at the 'paper' in front of me but it's definitely something I'd like to learn more about.

Here's to new discoveries!

Be The Best...Join The Grontz!

The Galaxy's premier Military Force coming to an invasion near you soon!

Watch your back. ;-)

_______________________________________________

I came back from work today to find a parcel waiting for me, inside was my first graphics tablet! Yay!

I ripped that sucka open and plugged it in but then remembered it's Valentine's Day. Goddamn it all to Hell!

I'm taking the old gal away for the weekend - a forest lodge by a lakeside - so now I can't even try this tablet out till Monday evening. It's going to be hard to be patient till then!

AND then I've gotta go to work on Tuesday, so it'll have to wait another day. So unfair. :-(

Take care all you lucky singletons ;-)

yesterday's warmups -sigh- better luck next time.

A terrible costume re-design. At least it's not a Chun-Li rip-off anymore - god that was shameful.

and a terrible rendition of Willie Garvin - what happened was that I paid no attention to the lines I threw on his face. With some thought it's easy to see how a well-weathered, rough-around-the-edges face should look. *Maybe* if I was to ink it I'd fix him up and do Holdaway proud. :-)

-Rob

A spattering of panels from some recent pages...

....hmm, should it be a spattering or a smattering of panels?

Whatever works. These came from pages 4 and 5.

(these aint in story order btw)

-Rob

Page composition thoughts...

I hope this shows up well enough...It's from a photo rather than a scan of a page I was roughing out.

I've been trying to recall half-learned lessons I've read or heard somewhere in putting these pages together.

Stuff about drawing the eye into the panels and leading the reader down the page. I hope I'm getting it right but i'm showing these ultra rough roughs just in case someone better educated has any pointers or guidelines to follow! :-)

Happy Monday everyone! :-)

-Rob

Some more of 2007's work...

This time we've got, from the pages of Spider-girl, Peter Parker's failed clone Kaine!

From what I hear, a lot of people think of that era as one of Spider-man's worst. But not me, no sir.

I came into US comics right at the end of the clone saga so perhaps that's why I still look at those guys in a good light - I mean, I liked the Scarlet Spider and was jazzed when he took over all the Spidey titles (for all of 2 issues!!!). Kaine, the death of Aunt May, The Great Game (El Toro Negro, Joystick et al) and then Ben Reilly's new supporting cast when he took over as Spidey fulltime, they were all responsible for dragging me into Marvel Comics and taking all my hard-earned money.

I got just £21 a month from washing cars -- it musta all gone on comics back then...not only Spidey but, well...maybe I'd better sketch up some other memories of that time,eh? ;-)

ps. speaking of Spider-girl - here's a pic of the main girl herself. Quite possibly one of my favourite titles of recent years, at least before the reboot anyway. (One too many blatant swipes put me off of Frenz for now)

-R