It's Raining Men

Hallelujah!

So my buddy Wheeler is starting a new themed sketchbook.

A themed sketchbook, for those of you who don't eat, sleep, and shit comics, is a book fans (and occasionally non-drawing professionals) will use to collect sketches and commissions by artists, all adhering to a single theme. Such as Green Lanterns, or jungle girls, or monsters, or occasionally, a more rarified choice, like the Royal Tanenbaums, or in the case of Wheeler's sketchbook: Gender bent superheroes, specifically, female to male.

The whole thing kind of arose out of a conversation we had about the way I'd approached gender bending the JLA in a Superwoman/Batwoman one-shot I did a few years back. Redesigning a male superhero costume for a female is so elementary, you  barely stay awake while doing it. But going the other way, from female to male presents some interesting challenges, since so many female heroes' costumes are designed to accentuate and emphasize their (female) sexuality.

They wouldn't let my male Black Canary wear the short shorts I'd given him. They made me give him long pants, and I'd even done away with the fishnets to show what a good sport I was... They did let me have my stalky, hirsute, bearded Wonder (Wo)Man though.

I had the honor of inaugurating the book with Man-Storm, maybe the only female to male gender bent character with less clothing than his female counterpart.

A bit of context for the less-than-obsessed.

More Wheeler fun here and here.

And Along came a Gambit

X-23 #5 comes out next week, and that made me realise I haven't breathed a word about the fact that I'm the new regular cover artist on the book.

I couldn't be happier with this gig for a ton of reasons. Most notably though, because it puts me squarely in my favorite corner of the Marvel U:  Mutant Land, and because it reunites me with my NYX partner-in-crime Marjorie Liu.  And speaking of NYX, there's a nifty kind of NYX synergy here dontcha think?

Oh yeah, also? I get to draw Gambit.

Out of the Void

Surprise surprise, he's back.

I know what you're all thinking: All the neglected blogs get a brief flurry of activity in early January. This is only because New Years forces everyone to confront the aspects of their lives they could have tried a little harder on.  There's never any lasting change.

Don't worry. No promises here. I'm not turning over a new leaf. I'm not a different guy. Drawing things will always be my first priority. Posting things... well, that's a different number on the list.

But I do have this piece of cover art to show you from Soldier Zero #6.

Maybe in a few days I'll show you another one.

Art, in fact

It is the time of new cover gigs and here's another one: cover art to Artifacts #3 from Top Cow.

I got to choose the subject of my cover, since this series involves pretty much everyone they got. Surprised I picked Nottingham? I think he's a badass, and he gets no love, because everyone's always distracted by the boobage.

Not on this cover, baby, no boobage to distract you here...

Countdown to Zero

Check it out, I have a new regular cover gig on BOOM!'s Soldier Zero. Based on a concept by Stan Lee (Yes, that Stan Lee) and designed by Dave Johnson, I think this one's gonna be cool. You can find out more about it here.

Hawk Brains

I humbly offer up the next two R.E.B.E.L.S. covers for your perusal and (one hopes) enjoyment. These would be for #17 and #18, respectively, one featuring hawks and one featuring brain(iac)s.

I guess the argument could be made that every issue of R.E.B.E.L.S. features Brainiacs, but this one features 3 (count 'em 3!) generations of 'em.

More Warring Stars

I contributed some illustrations to the Star Wars RPG game book Unkown Regions. Now that the book is out, I can show you.

If you're a Star Wars fan, you can use this promotional coupon for Gamestop for some gear and save.

I don't say this nearly enough, but thank you for visiting my blog. Yes, I mean you, you are awesome.