Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Drive


The Violent



Yesterday Image Comics solicited The Violent, a new ongoing crime series written by Ed Brisson, illlustrated by Yours Truly, with colours by Michael Garland, and design and finishes by Tom Muller.

The Violent is in stores December 9th, so please, please ask for local comic shop to order you a copy. You won’t want to miss this!

Assassin's Creed #1

colours by Jason Lewis

Titan Books has a new Assassin’s Creed title coming out and I, along with colourist Jason Lewis, illustrated a variant cover for the series’ first issue.

I love the work Jason has done here. The book takes place in San Diego, and here the main character is leaping off the iconic Hotel St. James rooftop sign.

The book is being written by my pals Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery, and I’m excited to see what they have in store!

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Dead Drop

The final issue of Dead Drop is out on comic shelves today, Valiant Entertainment's four-part mini-series written by Ales Kot, drawn by Yours Truly, and coloured by Mike Spicer, with outstanding covers by Raul Allen.

I completed my work on the book in late July, and at the time it felt anti-climatic. I'm not one to stand on ceremony, but for a project I'd been involved with since January 2015, the kind words exchanged in e-mails between the creative and editorial teams felt rather pat. Finishing the project was a new pinnacle for me professionally and I felt a desire to shake hands with my partners on the book, raise a glass in toast and commiserate on the journey we had taken together. But that's not how comics work. So we expressed our thanks and gratitude and congratulations when all our work was finished and instead of handshakes and drink I took my daughter out for lunch to celebrate. We went shopping, bought skateboards, goofed around. It was a beautiful day.

Now the book is out and I'm excited all over again. The finale I've waited for everyone to see is on shelves. Dead Drop has it's share of supporters and tough critics alike, but through it all I've felt nothing but positivity and appreciation for my efforts on the series.

In the time I spent working on this title, my life has changed in some very unexpected ways. Some very good, some pretty darn lousy. Through all those times I had my work on this book as my constant, the thing that kept me focused and moving forward. Now here I am, in a time and place I both worked hard to arrive at and yet feel unprepared for; awaiting the imminent birth of my second child and beginning my own ongoing series. It's surreal.

As I've said before, but cannot say enough, I'm grateful to my collaborators on Dead Drop: Ales Kot, Mike Spicer, Raul Allen, Kyle Andrukiewicz, and Warren Simons.

Thanks to Valiant Entertainment for bringing me into the fold and exposing my work to the world.

Thanks to all the die hard Valiant fans for strong support of my work and your honesty and your vocal demand for more. You guys are awesome, so I'm sharing some behind the scenes are just for you:

Dead Drop #1, page 4 process: in my original draft I unwittingly created a new ability for X-O 

Dead Drop #1, page 9 process: mapping out X-O foot chase with the mysterious hacker

Dead Drop #1, page 10 process: keeping it clear for editorial
Dead Drop #2, pages 12, 13 & 14 process side by side
Dead Drop #3, page 8 process: designing the alien for "Neville's" big reveal

DR1VE #1 variant cover

colours by Mike Spicer

Friday, May 8, 2015

Dead Drop #1 Cover Process

colours by Tamra Bonvillain
Dead Drop #1 hit stores this week and has been incredibly well received by reviewers and readers alike. I can't adequately express how great that feels. I'm really enjoying the work I'm doing with Ales, Mike and Valiant, and I guess that must show in the finished product. It's not often where I look back on my art and want to nit-pick and change things.

The first issue had four variants, one of which I had the pleasure to draw. The cover was my first task after taking the assignment, and apart from a premise and brief synopsis, I knew very little about the series. Heck, even the title wasn't finalized when I came aboard, which is why my first mock-up for the cover glibly reads AWESOME BOOK by Awesome Writer / Awesome Artist (my mom thinks I'm funny).

Colours for the cover were handled by Tamra Bonvillain, who I feel really to have worked with because she's doing some really excellent work right now on numerous titles.

If you haven't checked out issue one of Dead Drop, man, you gotta get on that!