Happy New Year!

I'm spending New Year's Eve at the art table, penciling and inking like a madman, but I did want to take a moment and say, "Happy New Year!".

2010 was a good year for me. I got to work on IDW's Doctor Who comic book -- my all-time favorite character -- which led to not only doing more art on the book, but even getting to write and draw my own Doctor Who story for the 2010 IDW Doctor Who Annual. Definitely a career highlight for me. Not to mention, I also got to write a prose story for the 2010 Witchblade Annual, my first professional credit as a prose writer.

Speaking of Top Cow, I'm closing the year working with my old friend Ron Marz on two issues of Witchblade, which is a thrill. We haven't worked together since our days at Crossgen, and it's good to be a team again, if only for a couple issues.

And I even got to do one last project with Ben Abernathy at WildStorm before they closed their doors for good -- a few pages from a FRINGE graphic novel/motion comic they've been serializing on their Facebook page. Always a thrill to work with Ben.

So, yeah... it's been a good year. And there are lots of things either already on my slate or currently in development for next year. So here's to 2010, and to whatever 2011 will bring.

Have a great 2011, everyone!

Random Bits and Pieces

Just hit the halfway point on the first of my Witchblade fill-in issues, so still buried under work, but two nice things happened this week --

IDW Publishing's DOCTOR WHO comic made MTV Splash Page's Best Comics of 2010 list as "Best Licensed Comic", with a nice mention of the work Tony Lee and I have done on the title. Big thanks to Rick Marshall and the Splash Page crew for including us in such heady company.

And the first reviews of the 2010 Witcblade Annual (which features my short illustrated prose story, "Witchblade: the Devil's Due") are coming in and seem positive so far, especially a fun review from Graphic Policy, where the reviewer ended up enjoying my story despite finding a prose story in a comic book a little jarring.

-- Both nice ways to round out the year for me. I hope to have a few 'End of Year' posts up in the next couple of weeks, and maybe even a holiday image if I can get around to actually doing one at some point. In the meantime, I hope you are all enjoying a great holiday season.

On The Nightstand

MYSTERIES OF THE DIOGENES CLUB
by Kim Newman
Monkey Brain Books

It's a working weekend for me, but I wanted to make sure I mentioned the book currently sitting on my nightstand, Kim Newman's MYSTERIES OF THE DIOGENES CLUB. Anyone who knows me know two things about me -- I like Doctor Who and I love Kim Newman's books. This is third collection of Kim's incredible short stories featuring various incarnations of the Diogenes Club.

I first encountered Kim's take on the Diogenes Club in a series of inter-connected stories in Stephen Jones' excellent DARK DETECTIVES anthology, and I've been hooked ever since. Those stories are actually in this collection, which is nice, since I'm a little afraid to touch my DARK DETECTIVES hardcover after getting it signed by both Steve and Kim a few years ago. It holds pride of place in my office, along with my signed HERETICS OF DUNE, SHADOWLAND, and my shelf of random signed F. Paul Wilson novels.

Needless to say, I highly recommend this latest collection, along with the previous Diogenes Club collections, THE MAN FROM THE DIOGENES CLUB, and SECRET FILES OF THE DIOGENES CLUB. These stories hit all the right notes for me, and each time Newman puts out a new collection, I feel a powerful urge to grab people on the street and tell them to go buy a copy.

So, yeah... go buy a copy.

On The Shelves: 2010 Witchblade Annual

Buried under work right now - please forgive the lack of updates here on the blog and the lack of any developments on the Act Three Project - but I wanted to poke my head out and let you know that the 2010 Witchblade Annual, with my short story "Devil's Due" in it, hits shelves today.

(I'm actually kind of nervous about this one, since it's a bit of a departure for me, not to mention my first professionally published prose story. Here's hoping everyone gets a kick out of it and the illustrations I did to accompany the story.)

I'll be back to regular updates on the surprisingly large number of projects I've got going on right now just as soon as I've caught up on the one I'm currently working on.

Act Three Project Update

As you know, I've been working on a secret project over the last week -- now revealed as a short prose story for the 2010 Witchblade Annual that comes out next month -- so there hasn't been much time to work on what I've been calling the Act Three Project, the personal project I'll be working on next year on top of my other assignments. Hopefully I'll be posting short story pitches for the two concepts that I've posted art for here on the blog. There's also a chance I'll be adding a third option, but I haven't quite come to a decision about that, just yet. I'll try and make up my mind about it one way or another before this weekend, but either way, keep an eye out later this week for some more posts about the Act Three project.

Upcoming Project News: Witchblade Annual 2010

Happy to announce one of the secret projects I've been working on -- a short story for this year's WITCHBLADE Annual from Top Cow. It's a prose story in the style of the old Pulp magazines I love so much, and I've also done some Pulp-y illustrations to go with the story. Definitely a challenge, but tapping into that old style of bare-knuckle writing was a lot of fun, and it's been a long time since I've written anything with an honest-to-god fight scene in it.

The Annual is slated to hit shelves some time in December, and along with my story, there's a great 'Witchblades Past' tale by Ron Marz and Tony Shasteen, some pinups, and a fabulous Tom Feister cover (which I've posted above).

I was thrilled to be asked to participate, so a big thank you to Ron Marz, Filip Sablik, and Phil Smith for making it happen. Here's hoping everyone likes the story as much as I liked doing it.

Sneak Peak: Skeleton Tree logo

As I mentioned earlier, one of the possibilities for the personal project I'm planning on doing next year is to publish it myself, digitally at first, and then in a limited print edition, if possible. I've been considering setting up an imprint through an established company for a while now, but with the advent of digital publishing, it's easier than ever to do it on my own. So I'm in the process now of forming a company that can handle my personal comic book projects, along with a few creative odds and ends that I'm considering putting out there myself. It's still in the early stages, but I threw this logo together for fun earlier today and thought I'd give you a sneak peek. More news as things develop.

Sneak Peek: THE OCTOBER GIRL

And here's a sneak peek at some concept art from THE OCTOBER GIRL, the second of the two personal projects I've been developing. I'll post short pitches for this and for the NIGHT FOLK project and see which one of them people like better. Look for those later this week.

On The Nightstand: The Mostly eBook Edition

A pretty eclectic batch of books on the nightstand right now, and for the first time the majority of them are ebooks. It took me a while to embrace the whole idea of reading on an electronic device, but since I picked up an iPad in order to play with some of the new comic book reading apps, it was only a matter of time before I found myself downloading books onto it as well. What can I say? I'm a book junkie.

And while I have a number of complaints about ebooks -- careless formatting, a ridiculous number of typos in some books -- my main issue has been the limited number of titles available, even from the more widely adopted Kindle store. Most of these issues will work themselves out over time, but in the meantime, I've been reading a few things that ARE available that I never got around to reading in print editions...

First up, RIVERWORLD by Philip Jose Farmer. Never got around to reading it, though I was a big fan of sweeping Science Fiction epics that dealt with metaphysical questions when I was a kid (DUNE being one of my favorite books, after all). And as a Doc Savage junkie, I've read all of Farmer's new Doc books put out by Bantam. I liked those, but never read any of his own work. RIVERWORLD (a new edition that includes the first novels in the RIVERWORLD series) hits a lot of notes that I like and asks some big questions about religion and the afterlife, wrapping them all up in an interesting Sci-Fi package. I enjoyed this one a great deal, though the prose would probably be considered a little wooden by current standards. And I'll probably pick up the other books in the series once I'm caught up with some of my other reading.

And as an Anglophile, I'm surprised I've never read John Wyndham's THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS (which is better known as the basis for the classic film, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED). I've read several Wyndham novels over the years, including the classic DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, and loved the admittedly dated, low-key, but always entertaining feel of them. They're terrifying without hitting you over the head with blood and guts. His books are hard to find over here, and I've never gotten around to ordering a copy of this from the UK, but now it's available (along with DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS) as an ebook in the States. There's an unfortunate recurring typo in this edition (no doubt from a faulty conversion of a printed copy into digital text), but it's a good old-fashioned gripping read despite the annoyance the muddled text.

I've got another 20 or 30 ebooks sitting on my iPad waiting to be read, including Mark Gatiss' Lucifer Box novels and a stack of Arthur Machen books I've always wanted to read but could never find (Machen influenced both Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard so how could I NOT want to read him), but I wanted to mention one of the actual printed books that's on my nightstand, the new collection of Manly Wade Wellman's John the Balladeer stories, WHO FEARS THE DEVIL.

The John the Balladeer stories are legendary in Horror writing circles, but nearly impossible to find. I'd been hearing about these stories for years before I came across a reprint edition of some of them in a used bookstore here in Saratoga. I snatched it up and tore through the stories as soon as I got home, and there's a reason why they're legendary. I'm not sure I've read anything like them before, and in a funny way, they're very similar to my Fade stories. I've tried to hunt down the other John stories that weren't reprinted in that collection, but without much success. Luckily, there's a new collection of them from Planet Stories. I can't honestly say that the mix of backwoods magic and folklore is going to be for everyone, but these stories really take my breath away. Well worth checking out, even if they don't set your mind on fire the way they do for me.

One last thing, I know most people come to this blog to check out glimpses of artwork and news on new projects, so I hope you don't mind indulging me yapping about what I'm reading. Long before I was ever interested in writing or drawing comics, I was a book junkie, so I like to talk about books. I've posted these On The Nightstand pieces pretty sporadically, but I'm going to try and do one every Sunday, schedule permitting, and I'd encourage you all to talk about what's on your own nightstand in the comments section. Consider it a kind of Book Junkies Anonymous, but with more coffee.

And I'd be very curious to hear how many of you are reading books or comics on an electronic device. One of the possibilities for my personal graphic novel project will be to publish it electronically (at least at first), so I'm interested in what people think about the experience of reading on the computer, iPad, Kindle, or whatever device you're reading on.

A Short(ish) Autobiographical Interlude

Newsarama blogger David Pepose asked me on Twitter about my obsession with Captain Britain. My response was, "How much time do you have?". To explain it properly, I have to drag in a lot of other bits and pieces of my childhood, like Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes, and I have a feeling the 140 character tweet limit might pose a bit of a problem. Like most creative people, I get more than a little long-winded when I get talking about my creative obsessions. But here's a short(ish) version...

I've told this story so many times I'm not entirely sure if it's true or not, but as I remember it, I wasn't allowed to watch a lot of television when I was a kid. My father worked in (and now teaches) broadcast journalism, but he and my mother were pretty strict about watching TV on school nights. As a result, I never saw the shows my friends at school were all talking about, like Knight Rider, The A-Team, and Manimal. Alright, I admit it, Manimal sounded pretty cool to me when I was a kid. Never actually saw an episode, which might have been for the best.

What I WAS allowed to watch were shows like Masterpiece Theater and Mystery! on PBS. As a result, while my friends were all watching Travellers (does anyone remember that show?), I was watching Alec Guinness in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes adaptations. Somewhere along the way I inevitably became what you would have to call an Anglophile. I'd already been an avid fan of Doctor Who since I was 6 or so, and I'd read all the Holmes stories nearly as soon as I'd learned to read, so it was only natural. Now, throw in the fact that I was a comic book fan as well, and you just might see where this is all heading.

(I could talk about how being exposed to so much British television (and the specific programs that made it across the Pond, which tended to be the best of the best) effected my creative interests, and it DID, but that's another story entirely. But I should point out that there's no question that this is where my obsession with drawing people in overcoats came from. Seriously, nearly everything I've ever drawn involved somebody in a cool overcoat.)

Now let me just say, while my parents never entirely approved of the whole comic book reading thing, they did seem eager to encourage my constant drawing as a child, and when I started drawing a lot of comic book characters, one of them went out and bought me a copy of How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way. Still have that copy actually, and I still refer to it constantly when I need some technical advice (particularly with perspectives... there's a great section on how to draw perspectives). And hidden in the pages and pages of examples and drawing lessons, there's a section 'how to draw an actual comic book page' that features Captain America, Red Skull and a character I'd never heard of before...Captain Britain.

As a young but dedicated Anglophile, just the idea of a proper British superhero was incredibly exciting. I had no idea who he was, what his powers were, or ANYTHING about him, so I naturally assumed he was a combination of all my favorite things, like Holmes, the Doctor, and whichever character from the Legion of Super Heroes seemed the coolest to me that month. And since you couldn't find a Captain Britain comic in the States, I had no choice but to come up with my own version of who he was and the kind of adventures he would be involved in.

I've thought a lot about what causes Anglophilia since then, and I've come to believe it's the same impulse that has driven kids to embrace Manga when they won't give American comics a second glance. We're naturally attracted to the exotic, the different, the thing that isn't like everything else out there. Personally I think that's a wonderful impulse, especially in the creative environment so prevalent in the States, where people like things to fit into neat, tiny boxes.

Years later, in middle school, I discovered a stack of imported Captain Britain comics in a comic shop. These were the Alan Davis Captain Britain issues, when CB actually got his own title for a little while. I bought every one of them, read them again and again, and copied nearly every drawing of Captain Britain in those issues. To this day, whenever I draw a fighting sequence, I find myself emulating poses from those Captain Britain stories. And along with the cool art, there were these wonderful mentions of previous adventures (which I learned later were references to the classic Davis/Alan Moore run) and all of it just sounded so damn British, and so damn cool.

I was hooked, and if I had one goal in life other than to write and draw comics of my own, it was to finally read those Moore and Davis issues, something I wouldn't be able to do until well after my comic book career had started and Marvel finally collected those CB stories into a nice trade.

Now, I've always been more of a DC guy (much to the shame of my Marvel reading friends), but since that first exposure to Captain Britain, I've made an exception to my reading habits for anything CB appears in. And when I had the chance to pitch a project to Marvel in the wake of my Nightcrawler mini-series, there was only one character I had any real interest in -- Captain Britain. As I mentioned in my WHAT IF? post, that project fell apart, but not after I'd had a chance to combine everything I'd liked about the character as I had imagined him as a kid with the way he'd been portrayed by Alan Davis, Alan Moore, and a host of others done the years.

He's still a character I'd work on at the drop of a hat, the only Marvel character I can say that about. Captain Britain is up there with the Doctor and Holmes for me, an idiosyncratic piece of my childhood that led to me working in comics and helped develop the kinds of stories I wanted to tell.

And c'mon... that lion on his original costume... that's just cool.

Sneak Peek: NIGHT FOLK

Here's a sneak peek at a concept piece for NIGHT FOLK, one of the personal projects I mentioned a little while back here and on Twitter. I'll be posting art from this and another project called THE OCTOBER GIRL, along with blurbs about both of the stories, and asking for feedback on which project I should work on in-between my other comic book assignments. Look for art from OCTOBER GIRL in the next few days, but in the meantime, hope you like this piece.

WHAT IF?: Captain Britain

The theme last week on the ComicTwart blog was WHAT IF?, where the artists all drew something from a project they'd do if they ran Marvel Comics. It was such a great theme I couldn't help but try my hand at a piece along the same lines, featuring one of my favorite Marvel characters, Captain Britain.

As I mentioned in my long post yesterday, I spent a lot of time early in my career pitching projects that I could write to anyone who would listen, and the closest I ever came to getting one off the ground was a Captain Britain mini-series at Marvel, with Guy Davis on board as the artist. This was right as Marvel had put Grant Morrison on the X-Men, and they were open to a lot of new directions for their stable of characters. And Guy and I had planned out a pretty radical new direction for Brian Braddock.

Unfortunately, our editor was suddenly let go before we started work on the first issue and the project got dropped, but Guy had already turned in a radical redesign of CB's costume that would have played in perfectly with our plans for the character, which included him finding Excalibur and becoming tied directly to the Arthur legend.

Years later, Paul Cornell played with some of the same ideas in his much-missed Captain Britain and MI:13 series, but I'd still love a chance to write the story I'd developed for Guy. The chances of that ever happening are slim to none, but in honor of the ComicTwart gang, here's my own rendition of Guy's Captain Britain redesign.

The gloves look way cooler when Guy draws them.

p.s. And this is the second time I've been involved with a redesign on Captain Britain. The first was for the TimeSlip project spear-headed by my old friend, Jim Krueger. When he asked me to submit an alternate universe redesign of any Marvel character I wanted, there was only one character I wanted to do -- Captain Britain.

A Career in Three Acts: A Kind of Declaration

As any writer knows, the best (or at least most accessible) stories follow a three act structure. There are a wide range of opinions about what those three acts need to have to make a good story, but for me the three acts at their most basic boil down to "Introduction", "Development", and "Conclusion".

And as most writers also know, real life is rarely story-shaped. Real events almost never fit into a neat, tidy, three-act structure that will satisfy an audience.

But looking at my career so far, it does seem to have at least two acts, as well as a short prologue.

I started out writing and drawing at Caliber Comics, doing stories for NEGATIVE BURN and occasionally providing art for other writers' projects like DOMINIQUE. I've come to think of this as my Prologue. Act One began when I moved up to doing art at companies like DC, Marvel, and Dark Horse, starting with a fill-in on STARMAN, running through working on HELLBOY and drawing NIGHTCRAWLER at Marvel, and eventually leading to me getting hired on as a staff artist at Crossgen. This period of my career ran about 8 or 9 years and ended with Crossgen declaring bankruptcy and me leaving comics. End of Act One.

I spent a lot of energy during this part of my career trying to convince people to let me write something. I was annoyingly persistent about it, even in the face of constant rejection. It was partly pure ego, but also a feeling that I had something to say. But after a couple of years as a writer/artist at the start of this whole story, I'd become known as an artist alone, and while I got close to launching a few projects I could write myself, I never quite got the chance.

After Crossgen, I stayed away from the industry for a few years, licking my wounds and starting the long, strange process of learning how to write prose. I thought if I couldn't write a comic, maybe I could write a novel. Talk about pure ego.

Then, as I've said before, life intervened and I found myself drawing comics again, first at Wildstorm, and then at IDW. I came back with a different attitude towards the industry and to drawing in general. The idea that drawing was a job had finally gotten through my thick skull and I put more effort into getting the work done. What can I say? I'm a slow learner.

Suddenly, Act Two of my career was underway and I was busier than ever, going from amazing project to amazing project until I found myself drawing my dream book, DOCTOR WHO. I was still pitching story ideas, but most of my writing energy was spent developing what eventually became the FADE novel, which I'm working on as we speak. Learning WHAT to write was just as hard, if not harder, than learning HOW to write, and in the end I went back to my earliest stories at Caliber, dusted them off, and started re-developing a few that had gotten lost in the shuffle when I started working as an artist for DC.

(A side-note: The Evan Fade character was actually one of the first characters I ever created back in the early days of my career. I'd even written a Fade story for issue 2 of my WALK THROUGH OCTOBER mini-series at Caliber, but sales on the first one were so weak we never got another. Eventually I did get a chance to do that story, with only minimal changes, for the relaunch of the NEGATIVE BURN anthology a few years ago.)

Most creative people don't get a second act. We come on the scene, do our thing, and either become stars of various sizes or disappear back into obscurity. I count myself pretty damn lucky to have had a second act at all, especially considering some of the huge mistakes I made in my first act. And boy, did I make some mistakes.

Act Two has been going on for about 6 years now, and in a funny way, drawing DOCTOR WHO got me thinking about a third and final act for my career. When I finished the "Fugitive" storyline with Tony Lee (issues #3-6), I joked that I wasn't sure how I could possibly top it as an assignment. I've been a Doctor Who fan since I was 6 years old, and as I see it, after getting a chance to work with that character, my only options were to draw more WHO or start writing and drawing my own material again. Anything else would feel like a step backwards.

In the end I got to draw more WHO, even getting a chance to write and draw my own WHO story for IDW's DOCTOR WHO ANNUAL, and while I'm slated to return for even more issues next year (and have promised to draw DOCTOR WHO any time they want me on the book), I am starting to lay the groundwork now for what's going to come after that.

As pretentious as it might sound, I've decided to give myself a third act, and it involves picking up the threads from my prologue and tying them up in a neat little bow. When I started working in this industry, I didn't really have a plan, but after drawing comics off and on for 17 years, I think it might be time to actually come up with one. For me that means returning to the kind of stories I got into comics to do and building a foundation for more writing in the future, leading up to the FADE novel and hopefully beyond.

I've still got a number of projects on tap for Act Two (including re-teaming with my long-time friend and former Crossgen collaborator, Ron Marz), but I've started laying the groundwork for Act Three, beginning with developing a personal project I'll be working on on top of or during the downtime between my other assignments. In the coming weeks, I'll be posting the ideas I've been developing over the last few months and getting your feedback on them. For now I'm calling it the "Act Three Project", and I'll need your help picking which idea to carry to fruition, but in the meantime, all I can say is that it's going to be an interesting (and very busy) year.

Upcoming Appearances: To Kill a Saturday

My friend and fellow comic book creator Ron Marz and I will be taking part in a day-long reading of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD this Saturday (Nov. 6th) to help raise money for Literacy NY of the Greater Capitol Region. The event is being held at the Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza and starts at 9:00 AM and features a host of local celebrities, journalists, and area luminaries.

Ron is scheduled to read at 7:40 PM, and I'll be reading at 8:20 PM (provided we haven't gotten to the end by then). If you're in the area, stop on by, and if you're interested in donating to Literacy of the Greater Capitol Region, visit their website: http://www.literacynycap.org/donations.cfm.

Cheers to Times Union blogger Kevin Marshall, who is setting this whole thing up.

On The Nightstand: DRACULAS

DRACULAS by Blake Crouch, Jack Kilborn, Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson

It's been a while since I've posted about what books I've been reading, primarily because I've been racing deadlines and working on the FADE novel, but also because I've been busy researching digital publishing and the growing digital comic book market in my remaining downtime.

As a writer and as an artist, I find new formats fascinating, and I tend to look at these things less as a threat than as a new way to reach readers who are less likely to go into bookstores or comic shops. I'm already putting together a couple of digital projects I hope to put out next year either through a pre-existing service like Comixology or Graphic.ly, or on my own.

Of course, not everyone is as enthusiastic as me when it comes to this stuff, and there are a whole new set of issues - including illegal downloads - that have cropped up with the new format, but it's hard to ignore the reality that within a few years or a few generations nearly all new books and comics will be published digitally (though I suspect print will never truly vanish, only become even more of a niche). It's simply the nature of technology and society, and the sooner we figure it out and take advantage of the expanded audience and creative possibilities, the better.

Which brings me to Mystery writer J.A. Konrath. He's been at the forefront of authors embracing the new digital publishing options (even signing a deal with Amazon where his books will now be published on the Kindle first, with a print edition following at some point). Konrath has been talking a lot this year about the promise of digital books, the pricing of his eBooks, and even publicly stating his sales figures to back up his claims. I've been following his journey from traditional publishing to digital closely as I began my own research into it, so I was deeply curious to hear about the new book he was putting out, a vampire novel called DRACULAS co-written with F. Paul Wilson, Blake Crouch, and Jeff Strand.

(And in case you're curious, J.A. Konrath wrote the book under his Jack Kilborn pseudonym, which he seems to use for his non-Mystery novels.)

It's exclusive to the Kindle for now, and I'm not sure if or when it will be available in a print format, but it's well worth reading. My short review -- fast, gory, and fun. It's not my usual sort of thing (I'm more into what you might call Quiet Horror than the gory stuff), but I ended up enjoying it a great deal, no doubt thanks to the high level of writing. Konrath and Wilson are both favorites of mine, and Crouch and Strand are both well-regarded by writers I look up to (including Konrath and Wilson, actually), and they clearly hold their own here.

Creatively, the book is a success, and I'll be watching and waiting to see how it performs. Should be an interesting and public test case for eBooks. For my part, having finally started to read eBooks, I've already accumulated a surprisingly large 'to be read' pile, nearly as large as my print edition 'to be read pile'. And they're a lot easier to carry around. Just saying.

Sketchbook: Style Experiment

A quick style experiment. I'm trying to re-incorporate some of the looseness of my early work back into my style, as well as play with different ways to use photo-reference. I used an old photo of myself as reference for the shadows on the face. Not sure how I feel about the hair, but I'm pretty happy with the shadows. More experiments tomorrow.

Coming Soon: DOCTOR WHO #16

DOCTOR WHO #16 hits the shelves next week, wrapping up the 'Final Sacrifice' story-arc, as well as David Tennant's run as the Doctor in IDW's WHO comics. Once again, the story is by Tony Lee, art by myself, colors by Charlie Kirchoff, and yet another amazing cover by Paul Grist.

This issue also marks the end of this series of DOCTOR WHO from IDW. The title relaunches in January with Tony returning as writer, new cover artist (and my former studio-mate) Tommy Lee Edwards, and rotating art teams including Andrew Currie, Richard Piers Raynor, and Mark Buckingham. There will also be some special variant covers from Kelly Yates and one of my new favorite artists, Chris Samnee.

As always, I'd like to thank the team at IDW -- Chris Ryall, Ted Adams, and Denton Tipton -- for giving me a shot at working with my favorite character, and Tony, Paul, and Charlie for their incredible work on the book with me.

NYCC 2010

Got back from this year's New York Comic Con a few days ago, and I've been too busy writing follow-up emails and sending out samples to unpack, much less blog about the show, but it was a great convention for me. Lots of fans, lots of great creators, and lots of industry announcements.

I'll post some photos later, but I wanted to take this opportunity thank all the fans who stopped by my table in artists alley to say hello and to get something signed, and to everyone who turned up at our DOCTOR WHO signings at the IDW booth. I signed a lot of WHO comics this weekend and got an incredible amount of positive response to my work on the title. I'll be joining a number of talented artists for the next series of IDW's DOCTOR WHO comic when it relaunches in January, and hopefully the new work will be received just as warmly.

On the personal side, I got to meet some of my favorite artists and writers, make a few new friends, and to finally meet some old friends in the business whom I've only spoken to by email or phone. There was also a strong contingent of former CrossGen-ers in attendance, and it was good to catch up with everyone and find out what they were all up to these days.

A big thank you to everyone I met and spoke with, and to the organizers of the show. I had a great time.

And just a reminder for everyone in the Albany area, I'll be attending the upcoming Albany Comic-Con on October 24th. If you're going to be in the neighborhood, stop on by.

Upcoming Appearance: NYCC Update

Currently swamped under preparations for New York Comic Con this weekend, so no new art to show for a little while. But in the meantime, here's an update on my NYCC schedule...

I'll have my own table in Artists Alley this year, table R-14, and I'm happy to announce my friend and fellow WHO artist, Blair Shedd (who drew the "Don't Step on the Grass" storyarc in the DOCTOR WHO Ongoing), will be at the table next door -- R-15 -- with our mutual friend, Ian Struckoff (the mastermind behind the new Black Label line of comics).

There are also two DOCTOR WHO comic book signings at the IDW booth with Tony Lee, myself, and a host of others. The first signing is on Saturday from 1:00 - 2:00, and the second is Sunday from 1:00 - 2:00.

I'll be signing comics and selling artwork at my table all weekend, so please feel free to stop by and say hello.

Hope to see you there!

Work In Progress: Strange Heroes Samples, Part 6

And here are the pencils for the 5th and final page of the "Strange Heroes" art samples I've been working on this week. Now on to the inks...

Work In Progress: Strange Heroes Samples, Part 5

And here's a look at the final pencils for page 4 of the "Strange Heroes" art samples. I'll post more tomorrow.

Work In Progress: Strange Heroes Samples, Part 4

Here's a sneak peek at the rough pencils for page 4 of the "Strange Heroes" art samples I've been working on. Still a lot of work to do in the final pencil stage, especially with the explosion in the first panel, but as you can see, I have the major shapes and page elements in place. I like to work all of those out before penciling too tight, just to make sure the page is going to come together the way I want.

More samples soon, including the first inked pages, and the pencils for the next - and final - page from this sequence.

Work In Progress: Strange Heroes Samples, Part 3

And here are the final pencils for the page 2 & 3 double page spread. More samples tomorrow, including the inked page 1, and the rough pencils for page 4 of this story.

Work In Progress: Strange Heroes Samples, Part 2

More sneak peeks at the new art samples I've been working on, including the final pencils for page 1 of the "Strange Heroes" opening sequence (above), and the rough pencils for pages 2 and 3, which make up a big double page splash image (below). When I finish penciling the spread, I'm going to launch into the inks on page 1. I'll post the results of both when they're done, before moving on to the final two pages, which include an explosion. 'Cause, you know, drawing big exploding robotic octopus thingys is fun.

Work In Progress: Strange Heroes Samples, Part 1

Here's a sneak peek at the rough pencils for the first page of new art samples I'm working on to show editors at the upcoming New York Comic Con. Another slight variation in style from my DOCTOR WHO and SUPERNATURAL work, focusing again on more traditional superhero material. I'm currently working on a five page sequence from an old project of mine called "Strange Heroes" that I pitched a few years ago but never sold. The above is the first page from what I'd always intended to be the book's opening sequence. Tomorrow I'll post the final pencils and the inks.

Work In Progress: Wonder Woman, part 3

And finally, here's the inked piece I'm donating to the Wonder Woman Day V auction. I'll post all the details when I have them, but it's a great cause, and I highly recommend checking it out. In the meantime, a big thanks to Andy Mangels for inviting me to participate.

Work In Progress: Wonder Woman, part 2

And here are the final pencils for the Wonder Woman piece. I don't usually pencil this tightly, but I decided to use a slicker style for this pinup, a look I developed a while back for superhero projects, but rarely get to use. So I worked the lines a little harder in the final pencil stage then usual to get the look I wanted.

Next up, the inks...

Work In Progress: Wonder Woman, part 1

It's been a while since I've been able to post any of the art I've been working on, but I'm starting in on some pieces that I will be able to post, and here's the first of them -- a Wonder Woman pinup I'm doing for the fifth annual anti-domestic violence Wonder Woman day put together by Andy Mangels. Here's a sneak peek at the rough pencils for the piece. I'll post the final pencils tomorrow along with the inks.

Upcoming Appearances: New York Comic Con

Just a reminder that I will be appearing at the New York Comic Con on October 8-19 at the Javits Center in New York City, along with DOCTOR WHO Ongoing writer Tony Lee and WHO artist Blair Shedd.

I'll have a table set up in Artists Alley with some comics and original art from Doctor Who and other projects for sale, so stop on by if you're in the neighborhood.

There will also be two Doctor Who comic book signings at the IDW booth that weekend (Saturday from 1:00 - 2:00 and Sunday from 1:00 to 2:00) featuring Tony, Blair, myself, and hopefully a number of other Who creators.

On top of all that, IDW will also have a special Sneak Peek 2011 panel on Friday at 5:45 with lots of announcements about DOCTOR WHO and their many other projects.

Resurrections & Endings

With the news yesterday that DC Entertainment would be closing down the WildStorm and Zuda imprints, I wanted to say a few words about working with WildStorm and repeat some of the good things I've had to say about them on my Twitter stream.

Flash back to a few years ago - 2005, 2006, somewhere in there - when I was still struggling to find work in the wake of the collapse of Crossgen, where I'd been one of their stable of staff artists. The market was suddenly flooded with amazing talent looking for work, and a handful of us had fallen through the cracks in the race to sign up the big names who were now free to work at the Big Two again. Not a complaint, mind you, just the reality of the comic book industry.

(Given a choice between hiring Butch Guice for a book and hiring me, I'D even hire Butch.)

So I had gone back to working full-time in a bookstore while drawing projects for smaller publishers, and starting to think about developing my writing skills as a way to get out of the comic book industry and find a new way to be creative and make a living at the same time.

And then life intervened. After a string of calamities, I was in desperate need to pick up some paying comic book work to help with a flood of bills and expenses that the bookstore job just couldn't cover. Which is how I ended up sending emails to nearly every editor I still knew asking as calmly as I could manage if there were any fill-in issues or mini-series sitting around that they might be willing to give me a shot on.

One of the people I contacted was Ben Abernathy, who I'd worked with on the HELLBOY short stories I'd done with Mike Mignola. Ben had gone from Assistant Editor at Dark Horse to the head Editor at WildStorm. Like most freelancers I know, I really like Ben. He's always been very positive about my work, and an incredibly nice guy to boot.

I didn't know it at the time, but Ben was looking for an artist for a comic book based on the show SUPERNATURAL and he wanted someone who was a little different and not afraid of using shadows.

In other words, someone like me.

They tried me out on an issue of STORMWATCH:PHD first, and then asked me to draw the first SUPERNATURAL mini-series. And suddenly, my career was alive again, and stronger than ever. I've been working pretty much non-stop since that issue of STORMWATCH, even getting a chance to work on DOCTOR WHO, which has always been my dream job in comics. And none of it would have happened without Ben Abernathy and the rest of the folks at WildStorm.

So I'm a little sad to hear that WildStorm will be shutting down. I liked their books (some of which we're assured will be folded into DC's lineup), and I like the people who worked there (some which we're assured will be folded into DC's other divisions). They took chances with the material, whether it was putting an artist like Sean Phillips on WILDCATS, or giving creators an unprecedented amount of space to create amazing projects like PLANETARY. I sincerely hope the WildStorm spirit will continue on, even without their logo on the books, and that everyone who works there lands softly on a well-playing cushy job, whether at DC or elsewhere.

WildStorm is dead! Long live WildStorm!

So let me just say a public thank you to Ben and the gang for bringing my career back from the dead, especially Hank, Kristy, Scott, and of course, Jim Lee. They were all a pleasure to work with, and I hope to do so again.

FROM THE FILES: Doctor Who

The incredibly talented gang at the Comic Twart blog did a series of Doctor Who pieces last week which are well worth checking out. If you don't know about these guys, you're really missing out. They're some of the most talented artist working in the business right now.

In honor of their amazing takes on Doctor Who, here's a random piece from my files featuring both the 10th Doctor and the 11th. Just a quick pinup I did for fun while I was waiting to start work on the "Final Sacrifice" storyline that is currently on the shelves, but if memory serves, it was my first attempt at drawing the Matt Smith Doctor.

On The Shelves: DOCTOR WHO #15

DOCTOR WHO #15 hits the stores today, the second to last issue featuring the 11th Doctor, and the 3rd part of the "Final Sacrifice" storyline by Tony Lee, Charlie Kirchoff, and myself. Not to mention another cover by one of my heroes, Paul Grist. Here's a preview.

On The Shelves: DOCTOR WHO #14

Part two of IDW's final 10th Doctor story, "Final Sacrifice", hits shelves this week, with art by me, script by Tony Lee, colors by Charlie Kirchoff, and a cover by the great Paul Grist. I've been a fan of Paul's work since his KANE days, so it's been a real thrill to have his covers on these comics. If you aren't reading his WEIRD WORLD OF JACK STAFF (from Image) you're missing out.

On The Shelves: DOCTOR WHO #13

My first issue as the regular artist on IDW's DOCTOR WHO comic (issue #13) comes out today. It's the beginning of the end, as they say. This issue starts the final four-part story arc for the 11th Doctor, "Final Sacrifice", as well as the final few issues of the current series before we relaunch with a new #1 and a new Doctor.

Once again, Tony Lee is handling the script, I'm penciling and inking, and Charlie Kirchoff is handling the colors.

And while I'm at it, a big public 'thank you' to Chris Ryall, Denton Tipton, Tony Lee, Gary Russell, and the rest of the gang at IDW and the BBC for asking me back on a regular basis. I hope everyone enjoys the final 10th Doctor issues as much as I've enjoyed drawing them.

Necon, Reviews, and Other Things

Back from my annual trip to NECON, a writers and readers conference/convention held at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. It's one of my favorite shows, filled with some of my favorite people in the entire world, including F. Paul Wilson, Tom Monteleone, James A. Moore, Christopher Golden, and more people than I can even begin to name here. As usual, I was joined by my NECON posse, Ellen Williams and Dan Waters, who understand and share my geekery for all things book-like. Thanks as always to them and to all the other attendees, especially fellow former Borderlands Boot Camp attendees like Brian Hatcher, John Buja, Kyle Steele, Shelby Rhodes, and Michael M. Hughes. Horror authors Brian Keene and Joe Hill made surprise appearances this year, and I got a chance to talk to them a bit about comics, which is always fun.

While I was away, we started to see some reviews for the DOCTOR WHO ANNUAL 2010, including some incredibly kind comments from Comic Book Resources about the "Big, Blue Box" story that I wrote and drew. If you haven't picked it up yet, DOCTOR WHO editor Denton Tipton has a preview on his blog, From The Tip. There are a couple of pages from the "Blue Box" story, along with pages from Jonathan L. Davis and Kelly Yates, and Al Davison.

And now that I'm back, I'm starting in on issue 16 of the current series of IDW's DOCTOR WHO, which is the last issue to feature the 10th Doctor, not to mention the last issue of the series before we relaunch with a new #1 and a new Doctor, the familiarly named 11th Doctor, Matt Smith. I'm looking forward to drawing him, but a little sad to see the David Tennant Doctor go. He was a great Doctor, and I really liked drawing that long, brown coat.

On The Shelves: DOCTOR WHO Annual 2010

I'm off to Connecticut this morning to visit with my friend Dan Waters before we both head over to Rhode Island for our annual trip to Necon, but in the meantime, IDW publishing's DOCTOR WHO Annual 2010 comes out today. I drew two short stories for the annual, one that I wrote myself, and one written by my DOCTOR WHO Ongoing Series collaborator, Tony Lee, that ties into the final 10th Doctor story arc we're working on now, "Final Sacrifice", which begins in DOCTOR WHO #13. There are also stories by Jonathan Davis and Kelly Yates (who also drew the cover), and Al Davison. I got a chance to read Al's story a while back, and I have to say, it knocked my socks off.

On the Shelves: DC Digital Comics

The big industry news this week is the announcement that DC has jumped into the digital comic book business with both feet, doing a deal to bring their comics to both the PSP and iPad. I've been lucky to work with the folks at DC's WildStorm imprint off an on for the last few years on a number of different projects, including the MIRROR'S EDGE mini-series with famed game writer Rhianna Pratchett. And now I'm proud to say that the special #0 issue we did is currently free to download through the DC's digital comic app. You can also download issues 1-3 for a small fee. I'm incredibly excited to have a project I worked on in this first wave of digital comics, so a big 'cheers' to the gang at WildStorm and at DC Comics proper.

Sketchbook: Hal Jordan (Updated)

One last color experiment before I launch into the next issue of Doctor Who, this time featuring the Silver Age Green Lantern, Hal Jordan.

UPDATE: As Mike pointed out in the comments, it would seem I got the color of Hal's boots wrong. They're supposed to be green. In my defense, I think they look cool white. If I get a chance I'll fix the color. Like most comic book artists, I'm kind of compulsive about that sort of thing.

Sketchbook: Wolverine

A quick sketch and color test for a Wolverine pinup I wanted to play with. Doesn't work quite the way I thought it would, but that's why it's a sketch and not a final piece. If I ever get around to doing an actual pinup, I'll post it here.

Sketchbook: NEVERMEN

A quick sketch and color experiment featuring one of the Nevermen from Guy Davis and Phil Amara's THE NEVERMEN. I've been an admirer of Guy's work for a long time now, and I constantly refer to projects like THE NEVERMEN and his own THE MARQUIS for story-telling inspiration. No one packs a lot of story-telling into a page better than Guy.

Sketchbook: Evan Fade

Another quick sketch of my character Evan Fade from NEGATIVE BURN. As many of you may already know, I've been working on a novel featuring Evan in-between my comic book art assignments. Switching back and forth between the art side of my brain and the writing side isn't always easy, so when I get stuck, I like to draw something from the story to help me get back into the swing of things. I did this one this afternoon as I sat down to work on the manuscript for a little bit.

ComiCONN 2010

I hate to say, but I've had to back out of appearing at this weekend's ComiCONN due to health issues in my family. My apologies to the organizers and the fans. I'm a big supporter of shows like this one, so I hope to appear at the next one. And if you're in the area, stop by and say hello to my friend Ron Marz and the rest of the amazing talent they have lined up.

Work and Other Things

As you can no doubt tell from my lack of sketching and/or posting lately, I'm deep into work on issue 13 of IDW's Doctor Who comic, my first as the regular artist. Times a little tight, but sketching will resume shortly. I'm planning to take a shot at some of DC's supernatural characters.

In the meantime, we're planning out my convention schedule for the rest of the year (so far, the only ones I can confirm I'll be attending are NYC Comic-Con in October, another Albany Comic-Con around the same time, and the ComicConn in Connecticut on May 15th), fighting to find time to do some reading, and prepping my FADE stories from Negative Burn for a revised reprinting with more chapters that have yet to see the light of day. More news on that later, I hope.

And a big 'thank you' to everyone who came out to Albany Comic-Con and my Free Comic Book Day appearance at Comic Depot at the Wilton Mall. Great to see all of you, and I appreciate you taking the time to stand around and chat, or as is more often the case, listen to me prattle on about comics and Doctor Who.

Upcoming Appearances: Free Comic Book Day

This coming Saturday (May 1st), I'll be appearing at the Comic Depot store in the Wilton Mall in Wilton, NY (just outside of Saratoga Springs) for their Free Comic Book Day event. If you're going to be in the area, stop on by and say hello. I'll be there from 10 AM to 4PM.

Upcoming Appearances: Albany Comic-Con

Just a reminder that I'll be appearing at the Albany Comic-Con this Sunday, April 25th. Another great batch of guest this year, including my old friends Ron Marz and Terry Austin, sculptor Paul Harding, Fred Hembeck, Joe Staton, Lee Moder and a host of other talent from the world of comic books and beyond.

If you're in the area, stop on by and say hello. And we'll have copies of Magdalena #1 with the Albany Comic-Con convention variant cover I did with Terry Austin.

Sketchbook: Fade

I've been busy penciling and inking the week, not to mention my quick appearance with Ron Marz at the Empire State Book Festival, so I haven't had a chance to do much sketching lately. But I did a quick headshot of my character Fade this morning as a warmup for today's batch of inking.

Upcoming Appearances: Empire State Book Festival

I'll be appearing at the first Empire State Book Festival this Saturday, April 10th. My friend Ron Marz and I will be doing a panel on comic books and graphic novels, and signing books at an author meet & greet, along with an incredible array of New York State authors and artists.

Ron does a better job describing the details on his own blog, and you can also visit the Empire State Book Festival website for more information.

As I understand it, there will be copies of the new Doctor Who collection, Supernatural: Origins, and Mirror's Edge on hand for me to sign at the author meet & greet.

On The Web: The New Website

The redesigned matthewdowsmith.com is now live, with an expanded gallery, an unpublished Fade prose story, a number of new links, and all sorts of unseen art sprinkled around the pages.

A big thank you to Claire Stancampiano, who set up the original site and helped put together this redesign.

If you get a chance to visit the new site, let us know what you think.

Sketchbook: Doctor Mid-Nite

Another color experiment, and another Golden Age DC character, this time Doctor Mid-Nite.

Sketchbook: The 10th Doctor

When I posted the mockup of my website redesign yesterday, my editor on Doctor Who -- IDW's Denton Tipton -- was quick to point out the lack of any Who art on the homepage. In his words, "Where's the WHO love?". So when I sat down to do a warmup sketch this morning, I had no choice but to do a quick 10th Doctor to add to the other sketches I'll be using for the website homepage.

Work In Progress: Website Redesign

A quick sneak peek at the new design we're putting together for my website. Still in the mockup stage at this point, but we're hoping to have it completely redesigned and online over the course of the next month. I put this homepage mockup together using the color sketches I've been working on the last few weeks. We're also planning to update the gallery with additional artwork from Doctor Who and some of the other projects I've worked on sent the site first went up.

Appearances: The Doctor Who Podcast

Another podcast interview I did while at the Gallifrey One convention in L.A., this time with the Doctor Who Podcast.

Sketchbook: Golden Age Sandman

Another quick sketch and color experiment, this time featuring Wesley Dodds, the Golden Age Sandman.

Appearances: The Happiness Patrol

I recorded a wild, fun, wide-ranging interview with the folks at the Happiness Patrol this weekend. We pretty much covered the entire gamut of entertainment -- Doctor Who, Doctor Who comics, and homunculi -- in a long afternoon over the internet. Most fun I've ever had in an interview, so cheers to Lewis, Dale, Tara, and Lela for having me on. They've just posted the - thankfully - edited down version on their blog, if you'd like to hear it.

Work In Progress: ACC Magdalena Cover, part 3

Ron Marz just added a look at the colors for the Magdalena cover I did with Terry Austin for the upcoming Albany Comic-Con to his blog. The colors are by Virgin Comics artist Patel Saumin.

Check it out, and if you're in the Albany area on April 25th, stop on by the show.

Sketchbook: Golden Age Starman

Another sketch, another Starman character. This time it's Ted Knight, the original Starman.

Sketchbook: Batman

A sketch in honor of the great Dick Giordano, who has passed away. The character I always think of when I think of Giordano -- Batman.

Work In Progress: ACC Magdalena cover, part 2

Ron Marz has posted a sneak peek at Terry Austin's inks on the Magdalena convention variant cover we did for the upcoming Albany Comic-Con on his blog.

And according to his post, he's planning to post a peak at the colored cover, as well.

Sketchbook: The Shade

A quick companion piece to yesterday's Jack Knight, and another experiment with color, featuring The Shade from James Robinson and Tony Harris' STARMAN.

Sketchbook: Starman

Another sketch, another one of my favorite characters -- James Robinson and Tony Harris' Starman.

Sketchbook: The Wretch

Another quick sketch and color experiment, this time featuring Phil Hester's The Wretch. Phil's one of the nicest, most talented people in the industry, and The Wretch, his creator-owned series at Caliber Comics, was one of the best things they ever put out.

Sketchbook: Sandman

Another quick sketch and color experiment, this time featuring Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Gaiman's work on the SANDMAN title was another reason I got back into comics when I was in college. And some of the artists he worked with on the book remain some of my biggest inspirations to this day.

Sketchbook: Kane

After sketching Jack Staff, I couldn't help but take a crack at another one of Paul Grist's brilliant creations, Kane.

Sketchbook: Jack Staff

Yet another quick sketch and color experiment in-between my other work. Thought I'd try my hand at a brighter (well, brighter for me, at least) palette this time around, and there's no character that screams bright, fun palette to me more than Paul Grist's character, Jack Staff.

Sketchbook: The Marquis

A quick sketch and color experiment featuring Guy Davis' The Marquis.

Sketchbook: John Constantine

Another quick sketch and color experiment. Photographer and writer Ian X and I have been talking about John Constantine a lot lately. One of the few magical characters at DC I've never gotten a chance to draw professionally. He's one of my all-time favorites, and HELLBLAZER was one of the books that got me back into reading comics when I was in college.

Sketchbook: Hellboy

Another quick sketch and color experiment, this time featuring Mike Mignola's Hellboy.

Work In Progress: ACC Magdalena Cover

Ron Marz has been posting the layouts and pencils for the Magdalena cover I did for the upcoming Albany Comic-Con on his new site, www.ronmarz.com. If you're interested in the process of putting something like this together, you should check it out.

And keep an eye on his site. You might just get an early look at Terry Austin's inks and the final colors before the show on April 25th.

Publish Post

Sketchbook: Lobster Johnson

A quick sketch and color experiment featuring one of my favorite characters, Lobster Johnson.

Upcoming Appearances: Albany Comic-Con

I will be appearing at this Spring's Albany Comic-Con, along with my friends Ron Marz, Terry Austin, Fred Hembeck, Joe Staton, Joe St Pierre, John Hebert, Paul Harding, and a host of other talent from the local area and beyond. The show will be held on April 25th, at the Holiday Inn on Wolf Road in Colonie.

Once again, we'll be doing a special Albany Comic-Con convention variant cover that will be available at the show. This year it's a variant cover for Top Cow's new Magdalena series, written by convention guest Ron Marz. I just finished penciling the cover, and I'm thrilled to say it's going to be inked by one of my heroes, inking legend Terry Austin.

Don't want to give the whole image away, but here's a little sneak peek at my pencils for the cover:


A big thanks to Ron, Terry, John Belksis, and everyone at Top Cow for giving me another crack at a Top Cow cover, and for supporting a great local show.

If you're going to be in the area, stop by and say hello.