JLA / Witchblade

Here's an oldie.  Something I've inked many moons ago.  This was a crossover book between DC Comics and Top Cow with characters from the JLA and Witchblade.  It was for a prestige format comic with about 48 pages of story.   Here's the inked black and white cover along with the printed comic.

At the time, penciller, Mark Pajarillo, and I was the fill in art team for JLA.  Anytime the regular art team needed an break, we stepped in.  When JLA/Witchblade popped up, we were asked to do the book.

Around that time, Pajarillo was freelancing for DC Comics as well as working in house for Top Cow Comics.  Him working with other inkers on Top Cow books such as Darkness, Tomb Raider, and Witchblade.  Speaking of which, Pajarillo and I also worked on a Witchblade/Tomb Raider #1/2 comic around the same time. 

Anyhoo, he wanted me to ink his pencils with the same look that Top Cow comic was publishing at the time.  Sending me copies of other inkers and what they did.  

Along with that look, everything was inked with a quill.  Very edgy, angular, and crisp.  Take a look at the hands in the third panel below.  You can imagine how I bounced the quill all over the place to ink that one panel. 

Then we get to this page.  Talk about inter company crossover.  Pencils by Mark Pajarillo up top on Wonder Woman and Dave Finch below on Superman.  This Superman was Finch's first ever published Superman Drawing which I inked.  Mark needed help on the deadline and just handed the page over to Finch to help him out.  Finch didn't get credit in the book as Pajarillo requested.  Looking at Supes, you can tell it's drawn by Finch.

Good times working on this crossover book.  Publishers working together to publish a comic.  Characters from different universe meeting up in the same book.  Artist from different publishers working on the same book.  Then we get Wonder Woman wearing the Witchblade.  Crossover Galore!  

AGE OF HEROES #4

Here's another Age of Heroes issue I worked on.  I inked eleven pages over Shawn Moll's pencils for this issue #4.  Here's the cover to the issue...

The story is about Lady Black Panther.  Here's the opening page with Aim Agents getting a can of whup-ass. I went all out with the tapering of lines in the last panel.  Having too much fun.

Lady Black Panther slaps Aim Agents faces, except with her feet.

 Another page.  America's Top Model!  Then... foot to the head!

 Same page with pretty colors.

This issue is in stores now.  More info here.

Rogue commission piece over Arthur Adams

Another commission piece I did over Arthur Adams' blue pencil drawings.  Not Blue-Line printouts, but and actual hand drawing that Arthur did with a blue pencil.  

All of this was inked with different tip sized microns.  I spotted the blacks with a brush.  Like the other Art Adams commission pieces I've inked in the past, I referenced how he would ink some of his own backgrounds.  A time consuming cross hatching texture.  The pencil sketch didn't have any backgrounds.  I wanted to give it a background to look as close to the pieces that Arthur would draw himself.  

My thought process was to leave some whites in the background because I didn't want it to mesh with the blacks that was on the figure.  Areas on the figure that was white, I let the cross hatching background touch the figure.  Areas on the figure which were black (like the front of her hood and bottom of boobies), I left the background white.  At the same time, doing a fade from black to white with the background so it transitions better.  The extra details on the hair, tapered lines, and cross hatching, I referenced other work that Arthur has done.  

Lots of planning and referencing before inking.  I even lightly pencilled in areas to show myself where I want certain details to be.  In a way, it's almost like doing finishes.  

Here's how it looks when I got the piece.  Lightly drawn in blue pencil.  Still beautiful as with any and all of Arthur's work.  Hard to see, but enough for me to work with.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: TEAM HISTORY

Just got publishers copies of another book I did some work in.  Hardcover for Justice League of America: Team History.  My inks over Mark Bagley's pencils.

 Here's a inset panel I inked.  The panel was then inserted into a full page that someone else inked.  Not sure exactly which page.

 Here's one of the few pages I worked on in this volume.

More info here.  In stores September.

Purgatori Commission

Here's a commission piece I've inked over Al Rio pencils.  One of the characters from Chaos Comics named Purgatori.

It's actually from a preliminary drawing for a cover where the original art size was 7x10 inches (as shown below).  I was requested to ink this in full 11X17 size.  Took the high-res scan, blew it up to 11x17 on Photoshop,  digitally touched up some of the unnecessary rendering and lines, and printed it out on Blue Line for inks.

 You know what's refreshing about inking over blue lines?  No erasing necessary.  Don't even need to touch the eraser.  Once I'm finished with the inks, it's DONE!  FINITO!

TEAM-UPS OF THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD VOL. 1 Hardcover

Artist copy of Team-Ups of the Brave and the Bold Volume 1 in which I did some work over Justiniano's pencils.  Here's the cover...

Below is one of the page for this volume where I used templates to ink in all the background including each and every bottle... not to mention each bottle's labels.  Crazy... I know.  

Lots of time spent on that page.  When it comes to minute details like that, I like to make sure everything's in there and nothing's left out.  Every inked line has to have a reason for being there.  Every stroke of the ink has a beginning and a end.  That said... fun with spotting blacks and cross hatching.

More info here.  In stores now.

FINAL CRISIS: REVELATIONS tpb

Final Crisis: Revelations trade paperback.  Just got this in the mail.  I've inked the cover for this issue as well a few interior pages in the earlier part of the book over Philip Tan's pencils.

The inks for the cover.

In stores now.  More info here.

AGE OF HEROES #3

Age of Heroes #3.  In stores now.  I inked an eleven page story over Brad Walker's pencils.  Didn't get any comps for this issue, so I'm pulling the image for the cover from Marvel's website.  The cover...

Some of my inks for this issue.  Here's Absorbing man.

Now we have Marie Hill, Sharon Carter, and Victoria Hand, the three Avengers Liasons.  How do I know who they are?  I pulled that info from here.

Inking Absorbing Man was fun.  Every time he absorbs something he touches, his body would become that texture.  Which gives me the opportunity to play with inking textures.  Throughout the pages, I've inked Absorbing Man with different tools (brushes, technical pens, quills, micron pens)  just to give them each a different look.  Here's a stone sandy texture where I used a brush and technical pens.  

Below is Absorbing man with a more organic texture in panel 1 and part of panel 2.  Inked those with brushs and microns.  After he gets hit by a chandelier in panel 2, he absorbs and gets the jeweled look and I went in there and inked him with a quill pen.  Notice in panel 2 where he's smashing the chandelier, I've inked his body with a brush, then with his left arm, I've inked with a pen.   Giving that arm more angular chiseled feel along with the rest of the panels following.

Finally, here's our friendly neighbor Spider-Man.

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, Does whatever a spider can, spins a web, any size... Just so he can lie on a hammock.

BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #4

Batman!  The Return of Bruce Wayne!!  Numbeeeer... 4!!!  I inked this whole issue over Georges Jeanty's pencils.  A whopping 32 pages!  Great fun!  Here are copies of this issue...

I was also sent variant editions of the same comic.  Different cover... same Bat Channel.

Interior pages I worked on in all it's glory...

Working with Georges on this issue, we were already under a tight deadline stepping into it.  Georges told me it's going to rain on this whole issue.  I just assumed he meant the deadlines were going to be very tight and it'll be a lot of hard work.  You know...like the terms.. 'rain on your parade' or 'bring the rain'.  Just gotta be up to speed with the work.

 

Well... when the pages starting to show up on my door step, one by one, I realized Georges meant that literally...  It's going to rain on this whole issue.   Almost every page, it was raining.  I even added more rain just because.   Some rain here, a little over there, white rain on top of black inks.  Even more raind to this double page spread...

Yes, that's Jonah Hex on panel two of the double page spread above.   In the rain.

As the pages kept rolling in, I was rooting for better weather.  Cloudy, partly cloudly, or even sunny.  I started to tune into my local news to see what the forecast will bring.  As usual, they're predictions are never correct.  More rain!  Inches of water!  Rain drops and puddles everywhere!

Still, Batman looks cool under the rain.  "I'm Batman..."

Whip in some colors, give it a crack of lightning for the background, throw in some crecits, and this is what happens...

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #4 is in stores now.  More info here.  

BATGIRL #12

Batgirl #12 is out and in stores now.

I've inked seventeen pages for this issue.  All of which were over Lee Garbett's pencils.  Here's the first page...

Same page as colored by Guy Major

Here's a beautiful splash page with so many elements happening.  In the raim, Batgirl lands on a parachute creating a splash on the ground in the shape of the Bat Logo....which will be used to place the credits upon publication.

 Same page in color.

Here's a splash page where Batgirl just escapes from the chaos.

And this here, is the last page I inked in this issue with Batgirl in it.

More info about Batgirl #12 here.