Sesame Street's 40

Brought to you by the letter W...W for Walden.

Elmo: Hello Boys and Girls. What day is today?
Walden: November 10, 2009. Why? What's up??
Elmo: Hee Hee! That's right Boys and Girls, it's a special day today!
Walden: Huh? What's so special about today?
Elmo: Today is Sesame Street's 40th Anniversary! Yeappie!!!
Walden: .....

Elmo visited my studio today. He told me it was Sesame Street's 40th anniversary and started teaching me how to sing the letters to his name, E-L-M-O, to the beat of the Village People's song, YMCA. I said sure, only if you'll go and do some inking work for me.

Elmo: Okie Dokie! hee hee! I'm grabbing your pens and brushes! Where are those pages? tee hee hee!



So Elmo and I were talking about Sesame Street. Reminded me of the times when I was younger watching Sesame Street on television. Back then, Kermet the frog was the mascot for Sesame Street. You could find toys of him everywhere. Kermet dolls where you can stick you hand up his butt to make his mouth move. Today, it's a red fur ball named Elmo. Everywhere, Elmo. Tickle me Elmo or do whatever to Elmo. Why did they name him Elmo anyways? Does he have a sibling with black fur and fingernails named Emo? That would be funny. Anyway,as a kid, right after watching Sesame Street, there was another kiddie education program called The Electric Company. Here's the theme song to it. This brings back memories for me.



Which reminded me... HEY! That's my first exposure to Spider-Man! Here's the clip to the introduction of Spider-Man on The Electric Company.



And how about those comic book episodes. Sure, we all sort of remember our first comic book. My first exposure to comic books was on television. Comic Book on TV! Funny thought... In today's world, publishers are putting out comic books where you can download into you ipod or computer. They call it webisodes with comic book characters that move. Well, looking at this clip, it's been done many decades ago. Ain't no new thang!


Finally, did you recognize one of the characters in that Spider-Man Introduction to Electric Company? How about the narrator in the Comic Book TV? No? Well, that's Morgan Freeman. He was a regular on The Electric Company where a lot of kids use to watch back in the day. All of the kids back then are adults now. Probably explains why ever movie that Morgan Freeman appears in, is good! Gives us a sense of comfort to see someone who we've seen when we were kids. Take a look at this Episode.

Elmo: All done!!! hee hee! You got another page for me to ink?
Walden: What?!! You ink faster than me? Let me see... That's chicken scratch. Get outta here!!!

MARVEL ZOMBIES: EVIL EVOLUTION #1

Sometimes I get comps weeks in advance where I can blog about them a bit earlier before it's released. Other times, I'll get them months later or none at all. So I really don't know when a certain comic will be out unless I keep tabs on them. Keeping tabs on what will be coming out three months later while working on them is too much brain work. All I'm doing at the time is concentrating on the deadlines. When I'm done with the deadlines, I usually forget about it. Thanks to friends, I've been told another one of my books was recently released. Here's the cover to MARVEL ZOMBIES: EVIL EVOLUTION #1. Nice cover design. Here's the first page that I worked on. It's actually a horizontal page. In the book, it'll be published vertically and to see it the way I post it, you'll have to turn the book 90% clockwise. I believe this page will have credits on the top of it (or rather, the left of it when viewed vertically). Click on image to zoom up!
Here's another page. I've inked a total of fourteen pages in this issue over Adam DeKraker's pencils. I've worked with him before on a Spider-Ma'am project where his pencils was more cartoony. This time, it was more detailed and the pages turned out nice.

This issue is out in stores now and you can find out more by clicking here.

Bristol Boards and PULSE OF POWER COVER

Every now and then when I need to ink something in Blue Line, I would need bristol boards. DC and Marvel comics are great because they'll supply me with boards to work on. Board from both publishers are high in quality and doesn't bleed. There's nothing worse then having to ink on a board which bleeds. For example, when you ink a line on a lower quality board, you won't get a smooth stright line. Instead, you'll get what I call caterpillars. A line with hundreds of small legs on the side... Just like a caterpillar.

So what do you do when you don't have DC or Marvel baords around? A few months ago, I went to a art store and saw something that Canson released called Fanboy Comic Art Boards. "Fanboy", I said to myself. Must be for fans. It was sitting on the shelf next to the more popular Blue Line Pro Comic Boards. I don't have a good impression with Blue Line Pro boards. In fact, I have quite a few pads in my studio which are useless to be because they bleed. What the heck, I'm gonna buy one of these Canson Boards and see what happens. It's cost less than Blue Line Pro and Starthmore Comic Boards which I blogged about earlier. My only grip about Canson is that the boards are in a pad. All twenty two boards are attached on the top where you need to pull apart. Once you pull an individual board out, there's these residue stuck to the top of the boards. Not that big of an issue because you can pull and rub them all off. There are also these pre-ruled blue lines on the board if you're planning on drawing sequential pages with them. For me, I use just the back of the board to print out my own blue lines to ink on. Doesn't make a difference to me if they have pre-ruled lines or not. It's the A3 sized bristol board that attracted me. Another note about these boards. Once you rip off a page from the pad, there's these ridges on the top of the page. Those can get annoying if they were on the bottom of the board you're inking on. If I have to give it a description, it feels like gliding your arm across a strip of sand paper. That said, when I print my blue line boards out, I make it a point where the ridges are on top of the page. To my surprise, this board is actually very nice to work on. It doesn't bleed at all. Not even a little. It's a little thinner then Blue Line Pro and Strathmore. But it's the same thickness as a DC comic board. So if you're using a printed that rolls the baord around up top to print, thsi would be perfect! I took one of the boards for a spin. Here's the results...

This is a cover to a book called Pulse of Power which will be published by Dabel Brothers Publishing. It's pencilled by Brett Booth. If you like to see the pencils, Brett has it posted on his blog here. Dabel Brother Publishing contacted me a few months ago and had me ink this cover. I still haven't see solicitations for it yet. You've seen it here first!!! If anyone sees solicitations for this cover, let me know.

Anyway, the majority of this cover was inked with a crow quill, hunt 102 nib. If a bristol board is bad, it'll bleed all over the place. As you can see, it didn't bleed with the this cover I inked. It's a nice board for the price and it does it's job. If the Strathmore Bristol Comic Board cost too much for you, I recommend getting this one.

PREDATOR #3

Another comic that I did some inking work on, PREDATOR #3. Here's the cover to the comic...
Here's a page that had a lot of spotting blacks. With a spot here, and a spot there, here a spot, there a spot, everywhere a spot spot, Old Mac Donald had a farm E-I-E-I-O. Here's a page with more line work. Look at the first panel. Alcohol Bottle sat near a wall, Alcohol Bottle had a great fall, all the kings horses, and all the kings men, couldn't put Alcohal Bottle back together again.
Predator #3 is in stores now and you can find out more by clicking here.

DARK REIGN: THE SINISTER SPIDER-MAN #4

Another book which I did some inking work on. Here's the cover to this issue.
I've inked over Chris Bachalo on Blue Line. As usual with Blue Line, I download a high resolution pencil file, convert it, and print it light blue onto a bristol board. Before anyone gets too excited... I only helped out on inking one page. Just one... UNO! Here it is...

Still, it was exciting for me to work on it since I admire Chris Bachalo's work. Here's a fun fact: Did you know Chris Bachalo appeared in a few episodes of a television game show called Win, Loose, or Draw that aired from 1987 to 1990. Like the board game, Pictionary, he would draw images and team mates would guess to win the point.

This book is in stores now and to read more about Dark Reign: The Sinister Spider-Man #4, you can click here.

On your mark, get ready, get set, GOOOOO!!!

Every now and then, people ask me how long does it takes to ink a page. And I respond by saying it really depends on pencil details. I've inked as little as one page in three days because pencils were really intense. To as much as four pages a day on pencils that are simpler. On the average, a comfortable speed would be a day a page. Of course that really depends on deadlines... If you have it or if you don't. I've never really timed myself in the past. So just for kicks, I timed myself for this splash page which was used for Dark Reign Young Avengers #5. I broke it down by the hour to show my process. As usual, you can click on any image to expand it.

9:40am. First off, I get an High Resolution e-mail of the pencils from Mark Brooks, who pencilled this splash page. I download the file, clean it up a bit, convert it to blue line, and print it out on a full size printer which I can feel bristol boards into. First thing I do is ink the boarders.
10:40am. Here I inked both the heads. Faces are very important. In some case, I would use the magnifying glass that's on one of of my two drawing table swing arm lamps. I used the glass to magnify the faces on the bristol board while referring to the high resolution image of the same page on my computer screen blown up for clarity. Doing it this way, I can get a much more accurate line for the faces. Keep in mind, images pencilled more lightly and drawn smaller would just dissappear when printed in blue line. I like to do all that extra work so I can maintain all the lines from the pencils. 11:40am. Here I pull out my rulers and stencils to ink in all non organic lines. At the same time, I think about line weights. Using stencils and technical pens, you only get a dead flat line. To compensate, I would go back once or twice on certain lines to create perfect non organic lines with line weights. Line weights aren't always done just on the outside of the characters, I also ink them on the interior of the characters. Some of my comic friends think I'm crazy to do this because it takes so much more time than just free handing it in. I like to think I'm putting my best work out there so it's got to be as perfect as I can ink it.

12:40pm. I continue with the ruler work on the background as well as organic lines around and inside the body. The speed lines in the background, I would concentrate on which lines I need to make thicker and thinner. Organic lines, I would ink freehand.

1:40pm. I usually have some sort of pattern of inking. Sort of like working in an assembly line. Ink hear first, hands, spot blacks, and so forth. That usually saves me time from switching from one tool to another. With this splash page I'm inking, all that assembly line method goes out the door. I'm just inking the page to see how fast, or how slow, I can finish it. Which means I'm swapping inking tools constantly. Now, I go in there to spot some blacks as well as taper some of the lines going into the blacks. 2:40pm. I continue spotting the blacks and tapering all the areas of the characters with a brush. This process usually takes up most of the inking time because I'm concentrating on where the tip if the tapered line starts as well as where it'll end when the opposite end of the tip meets. I like both ends of tapered lines to be starting and ending in a pattern and not chaotically random out of whack.

2:41pm -3:45pm. I take a break. Eat lunch and look out the window at something far to adjust focus. It's always good to step away from your work to prevent eye strain. Some say you should look away and focus on something far every twenty minutes. I usually get into a zone and forget about doing that. Now, I get back to the inking table refreshed and recharged.

4:45pm. I finishing up inking both figures with a brush and quill. Some of the halos, I would ink around. Other times, I would use white ink and create that halo which separates objects from a black background. I usually wait until everything is done in black ink before I even think about using white ink for halos or effects. If I make a mistake, I'll pull out the white-out and correct it. Very rarely do I need to pull out the white out to fix corrections. Unless I sneeze in the process of drawing a line or something.

5:45pm. I work on the tapered speed line in the background. Only this time, I'm not using a brush to taper. I'm using a crow quill to whip these lines in because it needs to look non organic. I think of it this way... Non organic objects has to be perfectly straight, rounded, and arched. Organic objects has to be more natural and free flowing, more forgiving.

6:05 pm. At this point, I'm all finished with using the black ink. I double check to see if I'm missing any lines or blacks which needs to be spotted. Nope... All done. I take out my white ink, give it a shake to have a better mixture, and start using that. Since this is blue line, I would just take the white it and shake it up. Now if this was original pencils, I would usually double task. How? Check this out... I take an eraser with my right hand and hold it like how anyone would hold a eraser. Then I put the bottle of white ink in between my index and middle fingers and hold that above the eraser. While I'm erasing the pencils underneath my inks, I'm also shaking up the white it for a better mixture. Two birds with one stone! That's one of my time saving secrets for ya! All right, back to the finished page. Once the white ink is nicely mixed, I go in there and add more halos and effects where needed (like the scales on the outfit or the halo lines between armour pieces). After that, it's all done! Finito!

For this particular splash page, it took me a little over eight hours to complete.

I scan the inks onto photoshop at a resolution of 600 dpi full size. Once that's done, I upload the file to Marvel's FTP site. Then I take the same high resolution file, shrink it down to 100 dpi and save it as a jpeg file so I can e-mail it my editor to view. The below file is the actual jpeg that I used to send to my editor. Enjoy.

DARK REIGN: YOUNG AVENGERS #5

Here's a sneak preview of DARK REIGN: YOUNG AVENGERS #5 which I did the inking work on. As usual, you can click images to expand it. This is the last issue of the mini series. Lots of action in this issue. I'll post some of my black and white inks soon. In the meantime, enjoy.

This is in stores October 28. And you can click here for more info.

Went to a Pumpkin Patch today. Pumpkins everywhere! If you're not careful, you could walk on top of a pumpkin and roll over. Here's a picture of the Pumpkin Patch with a couple of kids in costume. Dragonball costumes.
That's not the point of this blog post. While I was looking at all these pumpkins, I had a crazy idea. I looked down on the ground to pick three pumpkins for myself. The SIZE of the pumpkin had to be just right. Not to big, not too small. The STEM of the pumpkin had to be just the right length. Not to long, not too short. Why...?

So I can have a picture looking like this...

I should have made the Pumpkin on the bottom with the stem pointing upwards. But strangers were already looking at me funny. Had to cut it short.

Flooding at VIZ Media

This past Monday, without notice, there was a storm that hit San Francisco. The weather was nice all morning, then around 2:00pm in the afternoon, it came out of nowhere. So much rain that it started to flood certain areas. Manholes started bursting with water because there was too much rain. I saw this footage from a local news station and notice the manhole was right down the street from VIZ Media (publishers of Dragonball, Pokemon, etc). I didn't think anything of it until I got an e-mail from VIZ today that the the building was closed all this week due to flooding.

If you watch the video, you'll see the red brick building down the block in the center of the video. That's the VIZ Media Building. The tan on the right building belongs to the USPS. Just those two buildings on that one side of the block. I hope it didn't do much damage. If you walk in the first door at VIZ, right next to the USPS, it goes one level down. That would hold a lot of water. Man... all those comic books, ruined!!! Just wait for the commercial to end if it pops up. The local news station put that there and I can't get rid of it.

SUPERMAN: RED SON DELUXE EDITION HARDCOVER

Complementary copies again! It's always nice to open up a package delivered to me when I'm not expecting anything. Feels like opening up presents. Except it's not wrapped in colorful wrapping paper packed with nice tissue paper inside... just a plain crushed brown box with bubble wrap where you can make annoying sounds by popping them.

I crack open the box, make some annoying popping sounds and see what's inside. Seven copies of SUPERMAN: RED SON DELUXE EDITION in hardcover that I did some inking work. All still sealed in plastic. I ripped open the plastic seal on one of the books to check it out. I remove the dust jacket and notice the hardcover in black with a gold foil logo of a Hammer and Sickle. You know what could have been nicer...? The hardcover being in the color red with the hammer and sickle inside a diamond like Superman's logo. Still looks nice. Aside from the regular Superman: Red Son that's been published, collected, and reprinted numerous times, this Deluxe Hardcover version has a little something extra. There's about fifteen pages of sketch book art material that's never been seen. Here's a few of those pages...

As usual, you can click on any image to expand.

There's also colored sketches, drawings of how the logo was developed, commentaries, and so forth. Fun stuff to look at.

Finally, I look at the credits page...

According to the credits, it says I only inked Killian Plunkett on his part of the book. That's true, but I also inked quite a few pages over Dave Johnson which the credits didn't list. It should have been "Dave Johnson with Andrew Robinson & Walden Wong". But that's okay... I can see how it could get confusing for people to read that. Besides, if that did add my name right after Robinson, then my name would appear twice. Nah... after all... "Two WONGS don't make a right." :)

This book will be on sale in stores November 11, 2009 and you can click here for more info.

DEADPOOL #900

I usually buy my comic books by mail, ordering them with a Previews catalogue that gets sent to me. I would flip through the whole comic store catalogue to see what I want and order it. When the books are published 2-3 months later, it'll be sent to me.

Anyways, every so often when I find myself near a actual brick and mortar comic book store, I would walk in to see what's new for the week. This past weekend, I found this little nugget. DEADPOOL #900. I always had a heart for Deadpool because he's was one of the first Characters I worked on when I started inking for Marvel Comics. When I picked it up, my thought was "Nine hundred?? How did Deadpool get to issue number 900? Did I miss something in between? Was there a lot of mini series with different issue numbers where Marvel decided to add them all up and release this issue #900?" So I took it to the counter and bought it. Here's how the cover to DEADPOOL #900 looks...
I picked it up and give it a quick flip through. Found out that it's a special issue which reprints some older previously released Deadpool stories. The numbering was a selling gimmick. Good gimmick because it got me to pick it up. It's a thicker book with 104 page for a $5.99 price tag. Not bad considering some of the comics these day are $3.99 with only 32 pages. As I got towards the middle of the book, I saw this reprinted cover...

HEY!!! That's the book I worked on over a decade ago. One of my earlier inking gigs for Marvel Comics. DEADPOOL TEAM-UP STARRING DEADPOOL AND WIDDLEWADE. They reprinted the whole issue. This was a nice surprise. How do I know I worked on this over ten years ago? I can actually tell you the exact month and year. In the art, you can see Pete Woods' name, my name, and the year written in kanji. A little Easter egg I put in there. At the time, the penciller, Pete Woods, wanted to have kanji characters written on some of the background art. He drew something there, but it didn't really look like kanji. I spoke to him over the phone and asked if it's cool for me to fix it. He gave me the green light, I did some research on kanji characters that sounded like both our names and wrote/drew that into the art along with the year we did it. Below is a scan of the two pages from the comic that has those kanji characters. I circled it in green. You can also click on to the image to blow up it up. Both pages has Pete Woods and Walden Wong written in Kanji. On the left page, it had the year 98 in Kanji and on the right page, 97 in kanji. Which means, I inked the page on the right on 1997 late December, then I inked the page on the left in 1998 early January. In the middle the New Years I believe.

Seeing this reprinted is a nice surprise. Hum... I wonder if I'll get royalties on it. DEADPOOL #900 is in stores now and you can read more about it by clicking here.

Loma Prieta

For people who were in San Francisco on October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. They'll most likely remember what they were doing. Not just a vague memory of that day, but a vivid memory of what happened that exact second. That was the day when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit with a 6.9 scale moment magnitude. The earthquake lasted for 10-15 seconds. Today's the 20th anniversary of the earthquake. A lot of people were reminded of that day especially since there were events for the anniversary and all the local news were talking about it.

Which brings up my memory of that say. The following pictures, I snatch online from Google. On that day, I was working at Jack In the Box. It was one of the first jobs I've held many years before I started working in comics books. Just a couple of months working there before the Earthquake. This picture is the actual location and building I've work at. Searching Google maps online with street view is amazing! I was inside the building working the Fryer which looks like the picture below. Only, the commercial deep fryer at the building was twice a long eight frying baskets instead of the four you see here. I was dropping french fries, onion rings, and preparing tacos. Notice the wheels on the bottom of the Deep Fryer. Those wheels are there so during cleanup, it's easier to pull the whole frying station out and away from the wall. It's never bolted down and you can move it around like a shopping cart full of groceries.

Then the Earthquake hit! Luckily, I was preparing Tacos on the far left station of the Deep Fryer which didn't have any scalding hot cooking oil. It was just a flat preparing station for Tacos where it held cheese, lettuce, and taco sauce. Because when the earthquake hit, I saw something similar to this... Of course, this is just a tidal wave from the ocean. I saw a tidal wave of hot cooking oil spilling over because the whole frying station was waving back and forth due to the earthquake. Those wheels under the fryer made the whole station roll out of place and hot cooking oil was splashing all over the place. Then all electricity was out. Customers ran out of the building. There was even money on the counter where someone paid to buy food, but was left behind.

I quit that job very soon after that. The Earthquake made my experience working there suck. I've never been a fan of that restaurant since. When I see that restaurant, I would call it "Jack-Off in the Box."

I got it for the articles!

First time buying one of these. Playboy Magazine!!! Why did I buy this? Because of Marge Simpson of the cartoon show, Simpsons. Today's the first day of release. I went to a few stores and they didn't have them. I could have bought one off EBay, but didn't feel like paying over $25 to get a copy from the secondary market. Besides, I wanted to see it now! NOW NOW NOW! After a few more shops, I finally found one and bought it. Look that it... all sitting there by itself in the "Adult Interest" section. Here's a close up photo. This is really a Playboy Magazine. No joke. I bought this because I wanted to see how Marge Simpson looks in her birthday suit.

Apparently, the cover is an homage to another Playboy issue from October of 1971 where they first had another person of color on the cover with an extreme hair due. Why do I know this? No, I don't have a collection of Playboys in my attic. I know because it was on the news a week earlier where it was mentioned it. That's what made me want to buy it in the first place. Anyway, I rip open the polybag and flip to the table of contents so I can find Marge Simpson quicker. "Page 52 The Devil in Marge Simpson". Flipping pages can't flip fast enough.

I quickly got to page 52. Bingo! There she is! You can't see it, but I'm smiling ear to ear.

There's an interview with Marge Simpson as if she was a real person responding to an interviewer. If you want to read it, just click on the picture below and it'll expand. Haha. "Springfield's Sexiest Celebrity Reveals All". Every part of that sentence is so make believe.

Here's a closer look at the splash page on the right. Look at Homer Simpsons shadow in the background. Such a nasty man. I also notice a subliminal drawing around Homer Simpson's crotch area. That can't be an accident. It's a drawing. Every line is drawn there for a reason.

I notice Matt Groening's (creator of Simpsons) signature on the bottom of the page. Of all the people to draw Marge Simpson, I would expect it to be by the creator for this. Anybody else drawing Marge Simpson for Playboy would be the same as looking at fake breasts. Just not original. I want the real deal.

I turn the page and it's the pull out image. I'm thinking AWESOME! THIS IS COOL! A CARTOON CHARACTER TOTALLY NAKED! Gotta turn the magazine sideways to get the fill effect.

Not much of an effect at all. Here's that pull out page. Wasn't what I was expecting. The image is just two pages tall. The top page is the interview page which we already saw. Aren't these Playboy pull out images supposed to be three pages long? Nice can of Duff Beer near her butt. What's up with the donuts? Is Marge Simpson supposed to be seducing some police officer? I turn the page and it's the Model Date Sheet with all of Marge Simpson's stats. If you like to read it, click on image to expand. Funny stuff especially her measurements. 26,26,26...

stright as a pipe. Nothing sext about that. Funny though. After this page... That's it!!! There's other naked pictures of real people, but I don't buy this magazine for that... I wanted to see more Marge Simpson in the buff. I feel gypped. No totally naked boobies of her either. Just a see through blouse. For all I know, that could be a white blouse with boobs painted on. Seriously, wouldn't it be easier to draw totally naked breasts? It's just two half circles and a couple of dots. So this is as close as any of us will ever see. For Homer Simpson's eyes only. *sigh*

You know... I never imagined her nipples would be colored like that. I thought they would just be black dots... same as Homer Simpson when he runs around topless in the cartoon show.

That said, here's a picture of Matt Groening and myself. Yeap, This is the guy who created the Simpsons.

After that Playboy issue with Marge, this picture of us makes me feel so guilty inside. Like I saw a father's daughter in the nude. *yeesh*

UPDATE: Just read in the magazine that the Marge Simpsons illustrations were drawn by someone else. Which means Matt Groening's name was slapped on. Great... Fake Boobs.

TRINITY VOL. 3

Got a comp copy for TRINITY VOL. 3 which I did some work in. Here's a picture of it.
It's out in stores now and you can read more about it by clicking here.

It's been a while since I posted more Comic Con pictures that I took. So here we go. Here's a picture of the Marvel booth. They got these Iron Man Backdrops. Every so often, people dressed in costumes would go up there and pose. I JUST noticed Captain America up there when I uploaded this. You see him? I thought it was just the four Iron Mans when I took the picture.

When I was in the booth, there was this lady that walked up to me. Asked me if I wanted to apply for a job. What the hell?? Apply for a job as an artist? She hands me this business card (the one she's holding). On the card, it reads "Stark Enterprise" and on the back, it has an address and phone number to apply for a job. Stark Enterprise is a company owned by Tony Stark, AKA, Iron Man. Fictional character and company. So I ask her, "this is fake, right?" What if I really called this number? Will they hire me? Then she replied, "well, if you know heavy machinery and weapons of mass destruction, you can quality for a job". She's so into character at the convention. Had the ID Stark Enterprise badge and all. Must be Tony Starks fictional secretary.

Then I saw her red colored Day Planner. I asked her to let me see what's inside. She let me take a picture of it. I told her, "Wow, you're all into character, huh? That note pad is empty, you want my phone number? Give me a call? Have a good time?" And she just smiled.

More pictures from the show. This is Red Sonja and some guy in a red outfit. I've seen that red pirate costume, I just can't quite place who he's supposed to be. Doesn't matter, I didn't take this picture for him. Hell, I didn't even notice he was there.

Another picture. Again, Didn't notice the guy when I was taking it. Too busy noticing a couple of other things.

Here she is. Red Sonja without that red guy.

Poof!! The red guy is now replaced with a red girl. Much nicer for my eyes.

Spoke too soon, Red guy pops back. He wanted to be in the pictures. Again, didn't notice him. Too distracted by looking at a pair of.... um... girls.

Packages and Comp Copies

Yesterday, I stepped out for a moment only to come back to see my door with these tags. Shipments from three different carriers. When pencillers send me pages to work on, I would know in advance that I'll be getting a package so I hang around for it. Other times, I would get unexpected packages of comp copies, art returns, or whatever it is. Every once in a while, I may get one door tag. This is a first for me. Three tags in one day.
At least one of packages was left behind. In it, were these Comic Books wrapped with a packaging list from Marvel. Very nicely organized.

There was this one packaging list that didn't include comics. Just a stamp that reads "Out of Stock". I wasn't expecting any comp copies, so getting anything is always nice. Getting this "Out of Stock" packing list is like someone saying you won the lottery, but they ran out of money so you get nothing. This could have been left out of the package and I won't be the wiser. But it did tickled me funny.

Here's all the comics in the package. Comp Copies of Comics that I did some inking work a long while back. Three copies of each title.

Below is THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN FAMILY #6. There's a bunch of different stories in there. I worked on two of the stories. On the right are pages from the different stores I inked. One story was pencilled by Tim Levins and the other by Adam DeKraker.

Here's MARVEL APES GRUNT LINE SPECIAL. I opened up one of the books to the double page spread in which I inked over Reilly Brown's pencils.

This here is DARK REIGN YOUNG AVENGERS #2. On the far right is the FIRST page I've ever inked over Mark Brooks who pencilled the book. I remember being asked to help out on three or four pages over a weekend because of deadlines. That weekend came and I ended up helping out on eight pages. Everybody, including Mark, was so impressed with the way I work that I got to do more issue later on. Working with Mark is a blast! This one is for MARVEL APES SPEEDBALL #1. Again, two pages from the interior over Chad Hardin's pencils.

The comics above, I inked on Blue Line except for the Speedball Special which I inked over original pencils. These books are out and in stores now.

Catfight?

So this made big news in the SF Bay Area just because someone filmed it and put it up on youtube. All over the news, front page in newspapers. How about the bombing on the moon that just took place? Or Obama getting the Noble Piece Prize? Nope, just a catfight.

Strathmore Comic Boards

In the past, I've bought a lot of Blue Line Pro boards. Pad after pad they always seem to bleed on me. When I say bleed, what that means is when I'm drawing a line with pen and ink, that line starts to look like a caterpillar with all those legs because of the bleeding. I actually still have quite a few pads that are useless to me for inking. I buy a pad, pull out a page and ink one line, then it bleeds. Which makes the whole pad useless for me.

A package of Strathmore samples was sent to me recently. That was very kind of Strathmore. They started making Bristol boards with pre-ruled blue lines with comic book dimensions on the boards. So I inquired about the boards and they sent me these samples. Here's what was included.

Two packets of 11x17 bristol boards, 200 series and another I'm not sure of. A smaller pad of Bristol boards in the 500 series surfaces. A pamphlet/comic called Attack of the Sequential Artist with different artists testimonials about strathmore products they use and how they like it. A folder of Bristol & Illustration Board which consist of small swatches of different boards, thickness, smooth and rough. This will come in hand in choosing which boards to buy and the difference of each. And finally, a sample pack of Illustration for Wet Media.

The quality of Strathmore boards are up there when using it for pen and ink. The ink won't bleed and drys faster on these boards. In the past, I would buy these big pads of Strathmore drawing boards for pen and ink. I would cut them down to size to match comic book boards. The extra cut up boards, I would just throw away. Seems like a waste of money because Starthmore boards can get expensive compared to other brands out there.

I'm glad Strathmore is producing these comic book size boards. Not only are they already cut to size, they also have the blue lines mark ups for print. And the good new... They don't bleed.

JUSTICE LEAGUE of AMERICA #37

Got three comp copies of JUSTICE LEAGUE of AMERICA that I did some inking work in. I inked two pages. Pictured here is the actual issue and each page I inked.
Below is the page for "Epilogue the First" as seen above.

This one is for "Epilogue the Second". Both of these pages are the last two pages of the book.

You may recall this last page with the gun on the last panel. This is the same page I blogged about when FedEx damaged the artwork. If you haven't read that blog, you can click here for it.

This issue is out in stores now and you can read more about it by clicking here.

Commission and Sound Effects

No... This isn't a a cover to a comic book called SHINE. I finally finished this commission piece of Colossus, Wolverine, and Nightcrawler. Scanned it and decided to add some special sound effects. Here's what happened when I added those effects to this piece. We all know when Wolverine pops his claws, you hear the sound effect, SKINT. When Nightcralwer teleports, you hear BAMF. I was going to type FART because that effect was right under his butt. Then decided to just go with BAMF to give each character their own distinctive sound effect. As for Colossus, he doesn't have a special effect. Didn't want to leave him out, so I gave the effect SHINE behind him. Is that even an a sound effect? How does SHINE sounds?

Below is my completed inks without any lettering. Well... I did letter my name by hand. The scribble that I do.

This piece was pencilled by Mike McKone which I printed out in blue line. Before I printed everything out in blue, I used photoshop to only print McKone's signature in black so I won't have to ink that. Everything came out blue except for his signature. Then I scribbled my own name under his.

Can't touch this.

This video gave me a couple of smiles. Can't touch this! Hammer Time!

Desktop Monday

This is what's on my drawing table this very moment. Had a little bit of spare time so I started a commission piece of Colossus, Wolverine, and Nightcrawler over the weekend. Pencils by Mike McKone printed out on Blue line for inks. The only thing left that needs to be inked are the speed lines on the bottom of Nightcrawler. That part may seem like something that can be whipped out quickly. On the contrary, it's going to take longer to ink than the rest what I've already done. Nice part about working on commission pieces is there's no deadlines. So I'm going to put it aside and come back to it later when I have a bigger chunk of time to spare. I'll post the completed image when done.

Michael Jackson's THIS IS IT movie

Here's a movie I'm looking forward to seeing/hearing in theatres. Sitting right in the center with all the surround sound speakers blasting.

Kanye got me!

I went to check out one of my websites and saw this... No kidding. He's there on every page! Check it out for yourself by clicking here. Then he got me again while you were reading this. Click here to check it out.

Commission Piece

Another commission piece over Mark Brook's pencils on Blueline. Spider-Man and Vulture. There was hardly any blacks to fill on this piece except for Spider-Man's eyes. So I decided to thicken up the holding lines around Spider-Man and the camera around his neck to pop the perspective more. Normally, pieces that hardly have any blacks to fill are faster for me to ink. In this case, it took longer because of all the detailed buildings in the background. All of that back there took much longer to ink than the characters itself. For this piece, I used microns, tech pens, brushes, crow quill, templates, and a ruler.

WARLORD #6

Just got a bunch of comp copies for WARLORD #6 that I worked on. I threw all of the comps on top of the original artwork and for it and snapped this picture.
I inked half of this issue. Eleven pages. Below are a couple of double page spreads from this issue that I worked on. Double page spreads are two 11x17 pages attached together which gives it an 22x17 art area to draw on.

Another double page spread with a panoramic first panel.

This issue is out in stores now. Find out more by clicking here.

Japanese Spider-Man

I found this Japanese Spider-Man clip online and it cracked me up! Even more funny with the sound turned off. Really... What is Spider-Man doing? Fighting crime? Or is he doing some kind of Spider Dance? Mating call? Spider-Aerobics.

That's from an actual show made in Japan. Here's the theme song for it. Can't understand a word, yet still entertaining.

Spatter and Splatter

What is this??? Every so often, I would pull out the white ink and do different techniques with my inking work. Sometimes I'll use the white ink and ink with it. There are also times where I can use the white ink to cover up mistakes. Then other times, I'll use the white ink to spatter or splatter. *SPLAT SPLAT!*
Here's a effect that I did with white ink. I take a toothbrush and spatter it on top of the inked artwork. Here's the trick. When I hold the toothbrush directly on top of the art and do the spatter effect, I get perfectly round dots. Some big, some small. The distance where you hold the brush to the art also determines how big the dots will be. When I hold the toothbrush in an angle and do the effect, I get directional splatter. Splatter with an "L". It gives the effect more of an action sense. In this case, I've done both. On top of that, I've done both the spatter and splatter above an inking technique that I often do. It's sort of a cross hatching/blooping thing. I've been told that I'm the only inker who can make that effect look like that. Nice compliment. I'm sure there are others who can do the same.

And that's how I got that cool effect. Below is the page where I did that effect on, last panel right side.

This page is from the comic, Dark Reign: Young Avengers #4 (see blog below).

DARK REIGN YOUNG AVENGERS #4

One of the books I've worked on, Dark Reign: Young Avengers #4, is out in stores today. I inked the whole issue in Blue Line over Mark Brooks pencils. I didn't get comp copies for this issue, so I clipped an image of the cover to that issue I found online and pasted it on top of a picture I took of all the original artwork that I worked on underneath.
Here's a splash page from from this issue.

And here's another page with the current Wolverine whom I didn't know much about from my earlier blog. There's also Hawkeye, Iron Man, and a bunch of of other characters.

To learn more about this issue, click here.

909090909

What's this image you ask?
It's my blog post at 9:09am on September 09, 2009. Which is also "909090909". So I made a banner for the occasion using the HEROES eclipse logo again. This time slot doesn't happen every day. It'll come back around in another century. This is what I did at that time. Created that banner and blogged about this. What did YOU do at that time? Here's a fun fact. Take 9 and times it buy any single digit from 1 thru 9 and when you add the single digits of that answer together, it'll give you 9. For example, 9x3=27 then 2+7 =9.

Sunday Streets in SF

This past Labor Day weekend, San Francisco had it's last Sunday Streets event for the summer until next year. This time, they closed off the majority of Golden Gate Park along with The Great Highway to major traffic so people can ride their bicycles and do whatever with out having to worry about cars. Along with that, there were vendors, booths, and all sorts of stuff I've never seen. Here's a picture of a carousel run by people. Literally... If you look in the center, there are four people peddling bicycle contraptions that spins it. So if kids wanted to ride it, their parents had to work it.

For the parents who didn't want to peddle, they can bring their kiddies to a marry go round which requires them to work it themselves.
I find this amusing because at the event, there were a lot of kids already riding their own tiny bicycles on the streets. When they saw this merry go round, they got off their own bike, park it, stood in line, only to ride a bike that only spins in circles. Can't they do that with their own bike? All of a sudden, I hear really loud obnoxious music. I turned around and I see some guy who parked his bicycle which had speakers and a sub woofers.

I hear people talking about a "Tire Race". I thought to myself, "What the hell is a Tire Race?" I go look and I see people running in a race while dragging big tires that's harness to them.

Then I see The CW. You've seen it on TV. They used to be WB, now it's CW.

For those whom never been to the West Coast, pictured on the right is Golden Gate Park with all the green. On the left where you can't see shit, is the Pacific Ocean. Can't walk any further than that unless you can walk on water. That's me holding the CW. I stole that from the CW crew to snap this picture. Speaking of holding stuff. More pictures from SDCC. Here's some booth babes holding some crap when I took their pictures. Why do they do that? Small little flyer she's holding. Can we really see or read what their holding in the pictures?

Here's one holding a comic book. I think it's a comic book. Just not sure of what.

Love the black "Monster" drink boots that the girl on the right is wearing. Must have been something left over from her last promotional gig. Below is a picture of another holding lady holding something bigger.Okay... At least in this picture, I can sort of tell she's holding a calender. It's a calender, right? She could be reminding people what day it is. Or she's looking for dates. Maybe she time traveled and forgot what day it is. One looks like she's from the past and the other from the future.