Artist of the Day - Drew Struzan

Drew Struzan seems to be a natural pick having covered Robert McGinnis yesterday. Struzan is best know for his poster work for films like Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but like McGinnis, he's also done paperback covers and even a few comic book covers. His technical and composition skills are fantastic and he does a great job of recreating the mood of the film or book he's covering. His sketch work is also worth studying in great detail.

Struzan's Portfolio Website
Bio and more info on Struzan
Buy Struzan's art book 'Oeuvre' at Amazon.com

Filed under: Artist of the Day, News, Art

Artist of the day - Robert E. McGinnis

The passing of Alex Toth came up today in a conversation online with a few friends that had never seen or known of his work. That got me thinking that there are great artists in comics and outside of comics that have inspired and influenced me that may not be very well known. And there are likely thousands of artists with amazing work I have yet to discover.

In a quest to inform and educate (including myself) I'm starting an "Artist of the Day" post here on CreatorDirect.com. I'll make no promises to never miss a day, but you've got my word that I'll do my best to keep up, deadlines permitting. I'll also try and make sure there are images available online for each of the artists I choose. If none are available, I may scan an image now and then with the hope that some new discovery might be made. Well know, unknown, modern, golden age, I'll do my best to mix it up. The only rule is quality.

I'll try and keep it short and sweet, providing a link to biographies and galleries instead of recreating them here.

First up is Robert E. McGinnis, one of my all time favorites and often unknown in the comics world. He was a very prolific illustrator and is credited with completing over 1200 paperback covers in his career. I've always admired his incredible control of limited color palettes and gritty textures. Mark my words, someday I will own an original McGinnis paperback painting.

Online gallery
Official website
Biography


Filed under: Artist of the Day, News, Art

Alex Toth, respect and thanks.

As most comic fans have already heard, Alex Toth passed a few days ago. Toth was a big influence on my own work and he'll be missed. For all those that haven't experienced his work, his Zorro work is some of my favorite, and worth picking up on Amazon.

Here are some related links:

Official Toth website and gallery

Well written piece of Toth's contributions to comic art

Steve Lieber's analysis of selected Toth work

Alex Toth info on Wiki

Official Toth website and gallery

Tribute thread on Newsarama

Tribute thread on The Pulse

Se7en and the burden of sin

I'm fortunate enough to be writing, along with my brother Adam, one of the issues for the upcoming series Se7en. Zenescope Entertainment will be publishing it in association with New Line Cinema.

Each installment in the series will focus on one of the seven deadly sins. The one we're tackling is Lust.

To truly capture the spirit of the movie I had to get into a very dark frame of mind. The character we're dealing with, John Doe, is a deliberate man who feels everything he does is right. His purpose is strong.

Ok, that much we know already. We saw what he did to make his point. But how did John Doe's conviction come to be? It surely didn't happen overnight. Well, that's what we're going to delve into...

Image Book

Things have been utterly insane. My wife and I moved to Redmond, Washington on April 17th, and I started my job as Editorial Manager at Gas Powered Games the following week. It's an amazing job, and I absolutely love it, but it keeps me super busy. So busy I haven't had time to do much with my various projects.

Now that things are calming down, I'm getting back on the horse. Here is a preview page from my new Image series. It's monthly and the first issue ships at the end of October. The art is by Nick Postic and Nick Marinkovich (who also did IDW's adaptation of Underworld).

I'll be cranking on this book for the next few months as we ramp up to its launch, and I also be working to get a few other things off the ground. All in all, it's looking like a busy summer!

Keith Giffen breakdowns for 52 are online

Spotted this on Newsarama. Keith Giffen posted his breakdowns for the first issue of 52 from DC Comics. It's a great look at the process and there's a wealth of storytelling information in these very simple sketches.

Have a look at the breakdowns here.

It's been so long...

I know, I know - it's been AGES, but it's been a bit busy, darlings. Anyway, The ever lovely and wonderful and did I mention lovely jen Contino of The Comicon Pulse has foolishly allowed me to post a report on the Bristol Expo on The Pulse Website HERE.

It's pretty much what everyone remembers, but I thought I'd just let you know....

Better update by the weekend.

Been a while...

Graduate school is a bitch. God, will I ever be through? Why did I choose a 72 hour masters program?!?!

Here's a page penciled by Mark Robinson (New Mutants) for our upcoming BloodRayne mini-series.

Chris: I've been enjoying Lost Squad! Your new idea sounds interesting, t00. Hey, I've also been meaning to ask you: After Lost Squad wraps, are you and Alan moving on to another project together? Yes, I want to snipe Alan from you like a bastard!

Welcome, Christian.

Kody & Josh: When the shit is PUNKS coming out? I'm about ready to read that mofro!!!

Christian Beranek in the house!

Christian Beranek has been added to the blog. Please, do your best to give him a hard time.

Lars.

I've been working hard on a few projects and gearing up for San Diego. I thought I'd toss up a few preview images from the various projects.

This is Lars.

I'm a HUGE fan of the crime genre and I've had this idea knocking about in my head for over six years - a sort of cross between Raymond Chandler and Cheech and Chong (if you can believe it).

It's called TRIGGER HIPPIE with artwork by the fabulous Marcelo Di Chiara.

Lars is the Samoan muscle who ends up playing sidekick to the main character, a SoCal neo-hippie weed head named Paul Trigger (Trig to his friends). They're first meeting goes like this:

Trig: Lars, huh? Shouldn't you be...I dunno....more...Nordic?

Lars: My Father had a real fucked-up sense of humor.

More to come.

Kody's cover variant for Tag #1

Here's a new cover I did for my new book at BOOM! Studios with writer Keith Giffen (Lobo, 52, JLA, etc). This is for an exclusive cover I'll be selling at conventions and in-store signings. I also did the logo for TAG on this one. Hopefully the book will be in stores within 4 or 5 weeks.

Cover variant for Tag issue 1 by E.M. Gist

Just spotted this cover variant for Tag issue 1 over on the BOOM! message board, my new book with Keith Giffen. The art is by the amazing E.M. Gist! Have a look at his site here.

Keating Talks Coloring

Over at my blog there's a great little IM interview I did with Keating as he's finishing up the last few pages of Elk's Run #8. It's pretty educational for the 'artistic' side of coloring. About how you can tell a story in subtext picking and choosing colors.

Read It Here

BOOM! Studios has a new forum!

Check out the new BOOM! Studios forum and help us get it started. Just went live a few days ago and we're spreading the word. There's a TAG forum already up and I just posted the cover for issue #2. Have a look, post some feedback or comments and tell all your pals.

Free Comic Book Day plans...

I'll be hanging at And Books Too on Johnston Street for Free Comic Book Day in Lafayette, LA. Here's the shirt I'll be pimping. If you're in the area, please drop by. I'll have the full Punks pitch to show, and all the original art from Tag issue 1 and some 30 Days of Night stuff too.

I'll be sketching, talking comics and whatever else comes up.

Easel, Samba and Magazines.

I bought an easel on eBay last week and it showed up yesterday. It's a great addition to the studio since I've been trying to do some painting and fighting with various cheap flimsy easel set-ups. This one has a nice paper towel holder, a few brush buckets and a great rack for holding the canvas or drawing board. I'll post some paintings now and then to show some progress, but mostly I just wanted to be able to do some experimenting and make a few pieces for my gallery wall space I rent at a local arts market. Here's a piece I did a while back using nothing but a spatula just to see if I could do it. Came out pretty good and it sold for a few hundred dollars. This is one of my cats, Samba.


I'm real close to finishing my caricature illustration portfolio to send out to the magazines. Some of you may remember the Howard Stern caricature I posted when the Blog first started, I'm doing a few more in that style and hopefully I'll get some hits from the mags. I'll post those as soon as they're colored.

Filed under: Art Work and News