DARK REIGN YOUNG AVENGERS TPB

Another comp copy just arrived. This collects the whole mini series in one compilation. The majority of my inking work started from the middle of the book to the end. Here's the cover to the volume.

Open up the cover and you see this on the first page. Remember this page? It's one of the splash pages I inked that I blogged about a while back. To read that blog and to see the image in black & white, click here. Nice surprise to see it also being used for the first page of this volume.
This book is out in stores now.

DEADPOOL CLASSIC VOL.3 TPB

Another comp copy just showed up. A trade paperback collection of some Deadpool stuff I worked on many years ago. At the time, the penciller, Pete Woods, and I were the regular fill-in art team on Deadpool. Or was it the regular rotating art-team? It was a lot of work and it kept us busy for a long time. Marvel recently released a trade paperback compilation reprinting some of our earlier Deadpool books. Here's the cover to the volume.

When Pete and I were working on Deadpool, we would add easter eggs in them. Little things drawn into the art here and there. Here's a picture with one. See if you can find it.
Not yet? Okay... Let me give you a clue. It's in this panel... See it?
Great! You see something, but aren't quite sure what it is. Lets zoom to that pink colored image. That's supposed to be a bag of potato-chips that had the name "Wacky Wong".

This was one of the first Marvel books Pete and I worked on together. Before we worked on Deadpool, Pete asked me if I would like to ink his pencils over at Marvel. I was happy to and we were both excited to be working with each other. I specifically remember working on this page. In fact, it was one of the first few pages Pete and I did for Marvel. Anyhoo, when I saw the words Wacky Wong, I called up Pete and told him that was cool. He said he was stoked about working with me and drew that there for me. Nice gesture. But due to the magic of computer lettering, it got obscured. Now it reads "Wackid Wo".
DEADPOOL CLASSIC VOL.3 TPB is in stores now. Get more info by click here.

Speedball Super Black India Ink

The fine folks over at Speedball Art Products sent me a free sample. A two ounce bottle of Speedball Super Black India Ink.

I've never used this brand before. Looking forward to trying it out and seeing how it compares to some of the other inks I've used in the past. I like the name Speedball, maybe it could make me ink in super speed.

DARK REIGN SINISTER SPIDER-MAN TPB

Another complimentary copy I got today from Marvel Comics, which I did some inking work on. DARK REIGN SINISTER SPIDER-MAN Trade Paper Back. I was going to buy this volume even if I didn't do any work in it because I enjoy looking at the Chris Bachalo's work. He's the penciller of this series. Here's a picture of the book.

It was nice to get the whole volume for free. Especially since I only worked on one page. I was also given credit as one of the inkers in there. Sweet! Here's a picture of the page I worked on.
I posted inks of this same page when it was first published as a comics before this compilation. You can read more about that posting by clicking here.

This book is in stores now and you can get more info about it by clicking here.

SUPERMAN: MON-EL VOL. 1 HARD COVER

I get a small package today. I opened it up and said "What's this? I don't remember working on Superman Mon-El. Did I order this and forgot about it? I took a look at the credits pages and I see my name. Yet, I still don't remember working on anything Mon-El. Here's a picture of the Hard Cover book.

Then I flipped through the book to see if I recognize anything. Whoop, there it is! I DID do some work in here. I recall inking the page on the left which took days. At the same time, I also remember inking the numbers "7734" in panel two on the opposite page, which took seconds.
I flipped a few more pages and I see more images that I worked on. Originally, I believer the work I did for this was published under ACTION COMICS. Now it's collected along with some other books for this hardcover.
You can find out more of SUPERMAN: MON-EL VOL.1 by clicking here.

52 random Inks I've done

Not actually 52 random pieces, but one piece for 52. Confused? I'll explain below. Here's a oldie but goodie. It's a double page spread of something I done last year. Or was it the year before that? Maybe three years ago? I don't recall. Seems like yesterday. As usual, you can click on image to expand it.

This was used for a comic book titled "52" published under DC Comics. Pencils by my partner in crime, Justiniano. Two pages attached together. The left with a lot of characters drawn and the right not so much. Wanna take a guess which side too me longer to finish? **Ding!-Ding!-Ding!** Winner-Winner-Chicken Dinner!!! You're right! The left side took me much longer to ink! Five times longer than the right side. But the right side has more ink. Almost a Yin-Yang feel to it.

Since you got the answer correct, here's your prize. A full colored double page spread of that same image.

Hey! I just noticed that Justiniano and I signed this piece on the bottom right and dated it 2007. Guess this was three years ago. Time seems to zip on by with a blink of an eye. ZOOM Zoom zoom.

THE SPIRIT BOOK 5

Just received comp copies of THE SPIRIT BOOK 5. This trade paperback compilation includes a a trio of issues I inked over Justiniano's pencils. Here's the cover to this volume.

Below is a picture of the books with one volume opened up to a couple of pages I worked on. Anything look familiar? The page on the right with the lady sitting on the stool singing with a microphone? That's the first image I've ever posted on this blog site. First things I've blogged about. Check it out by clicking here.
This volume is out in stores now and to find out more about The Spirit Book 5, click here.

THE WEB #4

The cover to THE WEB #4. I did some interior art work for this issue.
Below are the comp copies I received with a couple of issues opened up to the pages I worked on. I did finishes over Roger Robinson's pencilled layout for this issue. Finishes is when I get a page that's not completely pencilled. I go in there and add more details to finish off the rest of the page with inks. With this issue, there are twenty pages for THE WEB's story arc. Hilary Barta did finishes on the first ten pages and I worked on the last ten. There's also a Second Feature story about another character with a whole different art team. When I received the pencils, some of them looks like the image below. I'm posting this page because it's one of my favorites when I was done with it. Not to mention that it too me the longest to complete finishes on. I don't recall exactly how many hours, but it was the longest of the ten pages i worked on.This page called for a lot of mirror images. According to the script, The Web was talking on the phone in a House of Mirrors. With the first four panels, I did some stat work. Meaning I duplicated the bodies for each panel. Then for all the panels on this page, I copied each head, flopped it, and duplicated them on the background for the mirror effect with photoshop. I also had to halo (adding a white line) to separate each mirror side by side, otherwise you can't tell they're seperate mirrors. Just when I thought everything was done, the last panel where The Web is on the phone, it calls for a iPhone. I went online to find iPhone references so I can do finishes on the phone. All the details on the phone took a while and are real iPhone screen buttons in there. Not made up.

It took a bit of time. Doing finishes over pencilled layouts as well as Photoshop work for all the duplicate mirrored images. Below is another page that wasn't as intensive as the one above.

For more info about this book, click here.

Commission piece

Another commission piece I've inked over Clayton Henry's pencils. Printed out on Blue Line. Spider-Man giving the Hulk a helping hand to crack up the concrete floor. Hum... I wonder which Hulk this one is. Green? Grey? Red?
HULK: "Me Hulk MAD!!! Spider touch Hulk shoulder. Hulk no like. Must break floor, scare spider." *ROAR!!!*
SPIDER-MAN: *TWHIP-THWIP-dudd-dudd* "Oh no! I'm out of web fluid! Lets see if I can shoot the web out naturally like a real spider." *fart-fart-fart*

How to scan comic art for Production and Viewing

I've had quite a few people asking me how I scan comic book art. I may as well post how I scan my work. My step by step process on scanning.

Here's how I scan original art for production as well as for e-mail and web posting. First I turn on my scanner and place the artwork onto the scanner. It's always good to have the scanner on before firing up Photoshop. Depending on which version of photoshop you use, sometimes Photoshop won't read a scanner if you already have Photoshop running before the scanner is turned on. Keep that in mind so there's no frustration on why your computer equipment isn't reading each other.

In Photoshop, there's a TAB menu as pictured below. I'll keep referring to this TAB every so often for this post.On the Tab Menu, go to FILE, then scroll down to IMPORT. Once you're on IMPORT, you'll have another menu on right of it which lets you select your scanner. Choose that scanner you're scanning with. Some versions of Photoshop won't have the name of your scanner. Instead, it'll have something called TWAIN. If so, select that.

Once you selected the scanner, The below image will pop up. When I scan artwork for comic production, I usually scan them at 600dpi and in BLACK & WHITE. Some other versions of Photoshop and/or scanners will have the Scan Type listed as Lineart instead of Black & White. In any case, they're both the same. Select it. Make sure your Document size fits the size of your artwork. I have a Fill Size scanner which can scan a 11x17 page, so I just do choose custom for the full bed scanning (If you have a smaller scanner and you're scanning artwork in 11x17, you'll have to scan the top, then bottom, and paste them together in photoshop). When ready, click START and this startd the scanning.

After scanning, I'll want to save my image. Go back to your TAB menu and select FILE and choose SAVE AS. This will open a window as pictured below. I'll usually save the image as a Tiff file. Name your file, select Tiff, and save away!

At this point, I'm done with my scanning and the file can be sent to publishers. Each publisher has different scan size specifications. Keeping that in mind and scan accordingly. Scanning in 600dpi should be more than enough. You can always shrink down from 600dpi. Not a good idea to blow up from a 100dpi because that will get pixelated. Scanning larger is better.

Now onto how I convert that image for e-mail and web posting. The reason I do this is because a 600dpi Tiff file is way too large for e-mail or web posting. I usually like to convert them to a smaller JPEG format for easy viewing. JPEG is the same type of file as digital photographs which people used to e-mail and web posting.

Using that same Tiff file, I go back to the TAB menu. From there, I select IMAGE, scroll down to MODE, and select GRAYSCALE.

This window below will pop up. Have the size ratio remain as "1" and click on OK.

Once that's done, got back to your TAB menu, select IMAGE, scroll down to IMAGE SIZE, and click on to that.

An Image Size window will pop up as pictured below. From there, I change the Resolution to 100dpi by typing the numbers 100 in there (When the files is click on for viewing, this will be a nice size which fit perfectly on a computer monitor screen left and right). Click OK.

You're all set! Now to save the file as a JPEG. Go back to your TAB menu again, select FILE, then SAVE AS. Name your file as you wish and choose JPEG as the format. Save that file and you're good to post that file on the web as well as e-mail.

And that's how I scan artwork for production and viewing. It may seem like a lot to take in at first. Once you get the hang of it, it'll be fast and easy.

X-MEN: LEGACY #231

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Now here's another comic I lent my inks on. X-MEN LEGACY #231. I only worked on two interior pages over Clay Mann's pencils printed over Blue Line. Helping out on deadlines. Here's the cover to the comic.
Here are the two pages. This one is page 2. Cyclops, Psylock, and a few other characters.

And here's page 4. The first panel with the buildings was enjoyable to ink.

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