SABERTOOTH MADMAN!

SABERTOOTH SWORDSMAN by the incredibly talented Damon
Gentry and Aaron Conley is finally out tomorrow!  This book will
BLOW YOU AWAY!  I did this lil' pin-up for my pals (Did an Eerie
story with Damon and It Girl covers with Aaron) from a place of great
respect and affection.  This book gets my highest praise!  Go grab it!

SANDMAN 25th ANNIVERSARY ART EXHIBIT!

http://www.floatingworldcomics.com/main/2013/10/19/the-sandman-25th-anniversary-art-exhibit-a-benefit-for-doernbecher-childrens-hospital/

Here is the piece I did for the SANDMAN 25th ANNIVERSAY ART EXHIBIT 

starting November 7th at FLOATING WORLD in downtown Portland, Oregon.  

This original artwork, and others could be yours with 100% of the proceeds going to 

Doernbecher Children's Hospital.  An exciting event and worthy cause at a great venue!

Please visit the link above to learn more.

FF NO.16 COVER ART!

Here's the last (and my personal favorite) cover to FF.  So bittersweet to
see this come to an end.  I had so much fun working with my great
friend Matt Fraction, finally doing something long-term together
(though not long enough).  And I'm fighting back tears of joy fulfilling
the childhood dreams of working on a Marvel title with my big brother
Lee.  Huge hugs for pal Joe Quinones and his amazing issues as well!
And the great Tom Brevoort, and right-hand man, the awesome Jacob
Thomas for herding us cats! I'm currently wrapping up the art on no.15
and eager to jump on to the GRAND FINALE Lee has scripted with
his genius brain that still amazes me to this day (Mark Waid is the only
other person I've ever met that seems to have "The Complete 
Encyclopedia of Comic Books"stored in their skull).  When concluded,
if you don't agree that Matt and Lee have crafted a timeless masterpiece
(that I'm doing all I can to illustrate worthily) then yer KWAY-ZEE!!!

Hey!  Who is that Silver dude in the upper right hand corner?!

THE GEAR & THE DANDY WARHOLS!

On October 27th THE GEAR (my band where everyone has the
same last name.  No, not The Ramones) will be part of an acoustic
set of DANDY WARHOL covers at the famous Hollywood
Theater in Portland, Oregon. All this in celebration of our pal's THE 
DANDY WARHOLS 13 SONGS IN 13 PLACES video Premiere!

Other performers include members from 1776, HIGHWAY, THE 

UPSIDE DOWN, BUZZYSHYFACE, THE SHIVAS, THE GENIUS

POSITION, DAVE'S KILLER BREAD, & a contest winner who 

will get to perform a DANDY WARHOLS tune!  A rare Q & A with 

the band!  Gonna be a blast!  Come to Portland where bliss is guaranteed!  

SILVER SURFER!

The hardest thing about working on something you love so much is 

having to keep it a secret.  But it's not just an incredible relief when a 

project is finally announced, it's a powerful thrill!   So, today the 

SILVER SURFER series I'm doing with the equally jazzed Dan Slott 

was officially announced today at NYCC with great enthusiasm and 

the response has been wonderful.  This project means too much to me 

to even attempt explaining here without writing an entire chapter to my

life story (which would be of questionable interest).  Suffice to say 

I'M OVER THE MOON!  This is gonna be OUT OF THIS WORLD! 

RAD!

Ya just gotstah love this teaser! There have been some crazy guesses as to
what exactly this is.  And some have been right on.  All will be revealed
October 12th in NYC.  Then I should be able to post some art soon after.

FF NO.15 COVER ART!

Now this qualifies as one of my favorite covers.  I always selfishly set
out to entertain myself hoping that others will enjoy what I'm doing too.
 Then I get a big kick when Laura digs what I've drawn and has fun
coloring it.  Then, of course, it's encouraging when my collaborators
(writers, editors, letterers, publishers, etc) get excited.  And hope against
hope, fingers tightly crossed, folks are willing to part with their hard-
earned cash when it hits the shelves in the ol' local comic shop.  Awards
and other modes of praise are nice too.  But ultimately, it all starts with
an act of pure selfishness as I play in imaginary worlds hunched over
my humble drafting board in my super neat-o studio/play room.  And
for whatever reasons, this cover is among my top five faves for the series.
But the next one (no.16), our last, is my very very favorite.  I could not
be happier with how we are wrapping up our epic tale.  As soon as
Marvel releases the final cover I'll post it here.  But for now I'll give you
a hint:  It might be a little familiar for those familiar with my very first
piece of FF art.  It makes for a nice bookend.

BTW, compare this version to the final printed version when it comes 

out.  "NO-PRIZE" opportunities abound!

FF NO.14 COVERS!

Okay, this takes some 'splainin'.  I needed to get a cover in and did
the "Doom-centric" cover first (below).  I was happy with it, but as
Lee and I nailed down the specifics to the plot I just felt more and
more that the cover didn't serve the spirit of this particular issue.  PLUS
I had an image in my mind that I was compelled to illustrate.  PLUS
I was looking for any opportunity to get Medusa's main squeeze on a
cover.  Black Bolt has always been one of my most favorite characters.
I didn't finish my preferred version in time for solicitations, but here it is now.

FF NO.13 COVER ART!

Just wait'll ya see where the gang is here!  If you can guess what material 

they are traveling through, you might just could win a big fat "NO-PRIZE"!

FF NO.12 COVER ART!

The just released issue which marks my big brother's (Lee Allred)

Marvel scripting debut.  A childhood dream come true for the both of us!

FF NO.11 COVER ART!

Keen eyes may see subtle differences between this and the final printed version.

FF NO.10 COVER ANIMATED!

I hope this works...

FF NO.9 COVER ART!

This is my big brother's fave FF cover (Lee Allred is scripting the final 

leg through the climax of our run).  Matt Fraction was inspired to get 

welovefine.com to make a t-shirt out of Tong.  The shirt says "It's ya girl 

TONG!"Just waiting on approval from Marvel and you can get one too!

FF NO.8 COVER ART!

If you've ever seen an AL JAFFEE MAD Magazine fold-in, you might 

imagine how my brain popped when Tom Brevoort challenged me to do 

a fold-in for for FF. Our house had been broken into (one of the main 

reasons there's been such a big gap in blog entries here) and I had to do 

something super cool...but fast.  Deadlines didn't stop while we regrouped 

re-building our studio.  I'd like to try this again with something a bit more 

complicated and ornate.  But still, I was happy with this baby just the same.

FF NO.7 COVER ART!

This was a big love letter to Big John Buscema's cover for FANTASTIC

FOUR no. 109.  Matt Fraction wanted to see what we'd do with a 

"Jack Kirby style" outer space collage, and this was the result.

FF NO.6 COVER!

Very happy with the reaction this cover received. In fact, Marvel made

do-it-yourself masks available from the "Thing Face".  Big fun!

FF NO.5 COVER!

I gotta thing for black backgrounds.  But I got an even bigger thing
for Medusa, my first comic book crush.  So it should come as no
 surprise that this is one of my very favorite covers.  It's also around
this time that I started crushin' on She-Hulk.  I hope Medusa understands.

FF NO.4 COVER!

It's kinda hard to tell, but this idea was originally inspired by the cover 

to Fantastic Four no.82.  The original art consisted of three overlays.

Got a lot of love for this one from "SHULK" fans.  "The Jen!"

FF NO.3 COVER PROCESS!

I was happily surprised that my hand-lettering to the cover to FF no. 2
survived all the way to publication. What didn't survive was a darker
noisier attempt which just "didn't feel right, and was replaced with
the sky-blue version.  Also a homage to the great Carmine Infantino,
which I neglected to share on the cover.  Here's to you Carmine!

FF NO.2 ORIGINAL ART!

I try to get as much on the page as possible.  I wish I had the time
and skill to hand-letter everything, if only for ultimate cohesion.  I'd even
want to hand-color every page if I wasn't color blind, as well as living with
the world's greatest comic book colorist (howzat for a plug to marital bliss?)!

FF NO.2 COVER ORIGINAL ART!

FF NUMERO UNO!

FIRST FF ORIGINAL ART !

As we round the corner to completion of our run on FF, and have just 

one cover left to reveal, I thought it would be fun to post all the covers

as they looked before hitting production with logos and stuff.  But first

I wanted to share the first FF image I completed which shows slightly 

different costumes, most noticeably She-Hulk's.  I also drew a logo on 

this piece which our super swell editor, Tom Brevoort, and the Marvel

gang liked enough to have me polish up for the official logo.  The tiny 

figure in the upper right corner would become significantly prescient as well.

I also want to publicly thank our great pal, Matty Fraction, for the wonderful

wonderful trip.  I've never had more fun on a book!  Or a greater challenge.

The cast has grown into one of the larger team of regulars in a comic and

I love every single one of them!  I'm pumped to see the reactions to our wrap up.

MR.SHOW ATE AT OUR HOUSE! AT OUR HOUSE-ZAH!

Here's another blast from the past when the MR. SHOW gang came

to our house for a BBQ and all agreed that Laura made the world's

greatest mashed potatoes. Mixed in with a bunch of Allreds, Bloomfields, 

and a Huberd, are familiar faces like John Ennis, Bob Odenkirk, 

David Cross, and some comic book writer by the name of Brian Posehn 

(who made this little get together happen).  Plus Josie the wonder dog! 

They are going on tour again right now.  DO NOT MISS 'EM!

 ME & BATMAN WHEN WE WAS JUST KIDDIES!
Just dug out this snap of me (Doing my best Jason Lee from Mallrats impersonation) and my pals on the CHASING AMY set. Ben has done all right since then.  I'm still waiting for my Oscar.  Happy to have what we have (Harveys, Eisners, Inkpot, Wizard Fan, Barkster, VMA, etc.) adding to the clutter on our shelves since then.  But I've yet to start my EGOT.  Everybody likes an encouraging pat on the back. Look what my encouraging Ben has done for him.  Your welcome!  Strange and fun to look back every so often.  I guess this was a long time ago by some measurements.  Just doesn't feel like it.