Inking: Before and After

I am taking a break from actual comic work for a bit to prepare for my wedding later this year. So in the mean time I will continue to post some works from the past and present as I fish them up from the depths of my hard drive. I always show my final inks for the work that I have been done and almost never show the original piece I started from. Here are the originals to these great covers by some great guys. Ryan Kincaid, Joel Gomez and Daniel Campos did a great job on these covers and it was a blast to do these. These can also show you how much an inker can really push on a piece. Some of these I stayed very true to the originals and some show where I was encouraged to go farther from my editor. Perhaps after this break that I have taken I will get back into inking more samples and covers.

Into The White.......

Here are the pages from the Pixies inspired comic book Break The Walls. I was very fortunate to get a chance to work with my best friend and long time collaborator Gerrad McConnell. I do not usually illustrate the stories myself but rather tend to ink as I have fun adding my abilities to far better story tellers. But in this case I illustrated the entire story. There will always be parts where I can feel it need further work, but in general I am happy with the final outcome. It has the large cinematic feel I was going for. I also liked how we kept the main characters face unseen so that the reader can better embody themselves into the experience. Also this helps to to illustrate the idea that this person has been unnoticed and ignored most of his life so who would notice if he slipped from existence all together. At least that is what we were going for. You the reader would have to tell us if we did our jobs right. Pick up a copy and let us know what YOU think.

Been a long time, been a long time, been along time...

Well it has been far too long since I have posted. I thought I would take a second and post some of the covers for Zombies vs Cheerleaders #7 plus a cover for last years ECC exclusive. I was pleased to get to work with Matt Hebb, Ryan Kincaid, and Pasquale Qualano. It is always a lot of fun inking over new artists on these covers. For me the best part is seeing the finished result. I love working in comics because it is a team effort to come up with the best final product we can. I just hope the other artists think so too.

Zombies vs Cheerleaders #6 inks

Cover A

Cover E

ZvC #6 is on the shelves and I can clearly show the inks I did for this issue. I had two covers again that I inked for this issue. Cover A is drawn by Daniel Campos and marks the third time we have been paired up on a cover and I love it every time! Daniel has an amazing way of getting the right feel out of his characters and zombies. I really get excited when I get a chance to ink over his work because I know it will be a strong illustration.
The second cover is Cover E by Kate Ferguson. This was a fun challenge as Kate has a super clean line to her work which can be intimidating. But I never shy away from a challenge and I am really happy with the results. The style is very reminiscent of the simple solid illustrations from the 70's mixed with the great acting of the romance comics I love.
All in all these were great projects to work on and I am pleased to contribute to another issue of ZvC.

Triple Threat!

Cover C

Cover D

These are two covers I did for Zombies vs Cheerleaders #5. I was lucky enough to have inked two covers on this issue PLUS we did the lead story in it as well! It was a lot of fun and a pleasure being able to ink over Ryan Kincaid and Ben Hanson. I was lucky enough to not only ink on these covers, but I was asked to draw the 5 character heads on the Kincaid cover. So I tried to pull stereotypes of the high school experience and capture them as best as I could . I am actually pleased with how the heads came out. If you see me at a convention I will most likely sign next to the one that described me in high school.
I will talk about the fun interior story we did in my next post.

A tribute and a pleasure

I don't know why I haven't posted this sooner!
This was the cover of Raven Gregory Tribute book. I was super stoked that Mike Debalfo asked me to ink this for him. This was a great opportunity and I jumped on it. Since then I have been lucky enough to ink over some of Mike's sketch covers at conventions, and it is always a pleasure.
I do ink other artist sketch covers as well. So if you see me at a Convention and want to get a piece inked, let me know. We might be able to work something out. ;)

Punishing image

I got this commission at a signing for Zombies vs Cheerleaders at Drawn to Comics here in Glendale, AZ. The client wanted a gruesome image of the Punisher with a baseball bat. He asked if he could pick it up at the Tucson Comic Con.
I knew I had to do the character justice and in my mind the one and only Punisher artist is Mike Zeck. Hopefully I brought out that influence in this image. It was a lot of fun and the client was more than pleased. I look forward to the next cover commission as these are always a fun challenge.