Yes, these pages are from the same comic as below. I was trying to combine the genre of heroic fantasy with some of my own experiences living in Seattle during the early to mid-nineties. Were I to finish it now it would actually be a historical piece. Just goes to show you; life goes by slow when it is happening, but you look back at it all in a twinkling of an eye.

And here we have page two. You can see I was feeding of guys like Simon Bisley and Bart Sears at the time. I would definitely do some things differently if I did this now, but I think you can tell how totally into this stuff I was, and to some degree still am.

Here we go into the way back machine to continue my re visitation of my old graphic novel proposal. This was my opening page. I forgot how much I was into detailed imagery. There is nothing wrong with that of course, but sometimes simpler can be better. The years of boarding I have done since then have forced me to break drawing down to a more structural and compositional (is that even a word?) nature. It would be interesting to compare these early comic book pages to the ones I did last year for a more recent published story. Perhaps I will do so after I've posted some more of these old ones.

So, since I am determined to blog more regularly for those small handful of people that might actually check back here every so often, I have decided dust off the cobwebs off an old piece. Directing is the hardest and best job I've ever had, and since my current gig should take me into the later part of this year, I may be posting some older stuff more often. I will try, however, to add a new piece here and there.

This is a character I conceived back in the late 80's, and developed on and off into a comic book proposal all the way up until the mid-90's. I was living in Seattle and listening to a lot of grunge and metal, so naturally this is where my head was at. Long hair, leather jacket's, Doc Martin's with the steel toes, and being a tortured artist was my cup o' tea back then. Funny how things change. Still like my sword wielding barbarians though. Seeing 300 recently reignited my love for the whole genre, so that is partly what made me recall this illustration. With all that I am currently involved with, I don't know when or even if I will come back to this project as much as I would like to. But I may decide to post more of it here in the near term future.

Another somewhat generic image I non-the-less had great satisfaction drawing. One of my favorite art books as a wee lad was "The Book of Fairies" with illustrations by Alan Lee, and it obviously was an inspiration here.

Okay! So I am blogging again. And I am going to attempt to do so with a bit more regularity despite the fact that my life is nearly overwhelmed with directing on season 5 of "The Batman". I have another project on the side, much of which cannot be seen until it is published, but I felt this image was generic enough to post, and shows where my brain has been lately.

Amazing what some free time will allow. This was based on an original sketch I did a few years ago, but just never got a chance to realize. I love the whole bloody, over-the-top feel of the Warhammer universe, and I had a lot of fun with this one.

I'm intending the final version of this to be in color.

Boy-Howdy has it been a long time since I updated, thanks in part to an unrelenting work schedule on "The Batman". I'm planning on taking some time off to travel and work on some personal projects, so hopefully I'll be doing this more often.

This piece (second image) was done a few years back for Erik Larsen's "The Savage Dragon". Don't know if it ever saw print, but I've been wanting to redo it for a long time. Compositionally the giant female wasn't doing what is was supposed to. Also, the boarded up windows in the foreground were too big in the original. Your feedback is welcome. Let me know what you think!

Brandon, this one is for you, buddy!

Here are some compiled sketches of subjects that interest me. Two of them were drawn on post-its!

Did I mention I'm a die-hard Conan, fanatic? Yes, it's true. Ever since I first laid eyes on a collection of Howard short stories titled "Conan of Cimmeria" with a breathtaking painting by Frazzetta depicting everyone's favorite barabarian looking more wild and savage than the ape he is fighting, I've been hooked. That was about twenty years ago, and I've been feeding my brain a steady diet of Howard inspired works ever since.

Man, I miss those summer days when I could walk into a 7-11 and pick up a copy of "The Savage Sword of Conan" off the shelf to read back home while I drank my slurpie. It was guaranteed 80 magazine formatted pages of decapitating, blood-letting fun.

Recently a dream came true, and I had the opportunity to work on a feature length Conan animation titled "Red Nails". It was a blast, and I look forward to seeing it finished. This sketch was done purely for fun while I waited for my assignment, and is not connected in any way to the final product.

Did I mention that I love giant robots? Yeah, they are mighty swell. Here's a sketch I did of one, generic though it may be.

This predates my color piece of Cap, going way back to my days working at Sony animation. Me and a producer dreamed of launching a Captain America cartoon. Mostly I was just having fun, and I realize that he is probably too anatomically detailed to animate for T.V., unless he was constructed for computer animation.

Hey, now there is a thought!