Guess who's a R.E.B.E.L. now?

Above is the cover art to R.E.B.E.L.S. #15. It's notable for a couple of reasons. First off I tried a new (to me anyway) technique here. After drawing Starfire the usual way, in blue pencil and pen on bristol, and scanning the line art, which looked like this:

I printed it out again, smaller, on some nice paper and laid down the skin tones using a brush and inkwash, which looked like this:

Yeah, I flipped it at this point, thinking it worked better, but was asked to flip it back for final. Which is what you see up top, digital colors and hand painted tones married together, huzzah.

Secondly, this cover features *wait for it* the return of a signature! Or, if you're a purist about such things, the return of a name. Aren't you glad you read all the way to the bottom for that tid-bit...?

The SIEGE That Almost Was

Today sees the release of the first part in Marvel's new geekstravaganza, Siege. Now I say that with love, I ran to the store today to get my copy, just like I do on any Wednesday where there is new Olivier Coipel art out.

In honor of this happy day, I'm gonna share with you the ghosts of a Siege promotion that never quite came together...

The concept was to have 3 full page illustrations, I guess to run in Marvel titles a month or two before the event as teasers, showing Thor's hammer, Cap's shield and Tony's armor, ravaged, burned and/or blood soaked.

It only got as far as these roughs, however. Shortly after the first sketch got approved, Marvel marketing decided to go in another direction for the promotion. These things happen, and I was paid for my time, but now I have this little piece of Siege apocrypha on my hard drive...

Aaaaand Action!

Picked up a bonus cover gig this month, Action Comics #887, just to add a little extra sparkle to the holiday season. The bonus to the bonus? Getting re-teamed with my Checkmate compadres Rucka & Trautmann.

I'm kind of embarassed to admit this, but drawing (and coloring) the Kryptonian crystals, at all kinds of sharp contrasting angles, like how they were in the movie (the good one), gave me nerd chills.