Thing sketchbook, part 26

Has this Thing sketchbook approached legendary status yet? I think so. We're all anxious to see the next sketches of Benjamin J. Grimm, so let's go for it:

Franco - New York Comic Con 2019

Franco and Art Baltazar shared a table at this show, and I was able to get very fun crayon sketches from both of them. The simple lines make it look effortless.

Steve Becker - New York Comic Con 2019

I caught up with my pal Steve Becker at his booth at NYCC. He asked to see the sketchbook, then agreed to draw the Thing in exchange for a new orange marker, which is a deal I'll take any day. Steve actually drew this menacing-looking Thing on a sticker, which he then stuck to the page. Note the street sign signature at the top left!

Craig Rousseau - Rhode Island Comic Con 2019

I was lucky enough to get an invitation to appear at the 2019 Rhode Island Comic Con, where I met Batman Beyond and Impulse artist Craig Rousseau (who, as it turns out, is also a big Weird Al fan). Craig's got a style I really enjoy and I think it stands out in this head sketch.

Howard Chaykin - Rhode Island Comic Con 2019

Howard Chaykin is an industry legend, and I had to build up the courage to ask him to draw in the sketchbook after sitting near him for most of this show. He delivered with a classic Thing. I also love his signature.

Rafer Roberts - 2020

This barely merits mentioning, but 2020 was a tough year on a lot of people. At the time, I couldn't have known that RICC in 2019 would be my last show for quite a while. With most of the country on lockdown and comic conventions naturally on hiatus, I took a chance with the USPS and mailed my book out to a few people that I felt I could trust not to lose it.

First on my list was Rafer Roberts, a pal and a writer/artist who has seen some much-deserved comic book success in recent years. I knew that Rafer's style was suited to a different type of Thing, and so I asked him to draw the character as he appeared very early on, as a lumpy, misshapen monster from the first few issues of the Fantastic Four title. The trench coat, angry stare, no teeth and "Bah!" word balloon bring this all together for me.

We're deep into this sketchbook now. Look for more installments soon!

Planet Comics #2 is now on Kickstarter!

 

Last year, the first issue of Planet Comics met its goal on Kickstarter, and last month, I was able to print the issue and start sending it out. Here it is! It exists!

I've decided to press my luck and make a second issue, and now the campaign for this book is on Kickstarter! This one runs until the last week of March. Let's take a look at what we'll find for the second issue of the new Planet Comics!

Like the first issue, issue #2 comes with two cover, a regular cover by Adrián "Bago" Gonzalez...

...and a Kickstarter exclusive by Andrés Muños Setz! This one is a companion piece to the exclusive first issue cover by Matthew Dow Smith.

The Bulwark returns for a second chapter as the lead story of this issue.

Andrea Schiavone once again provides the art for this story! I'm excited to have a story that continues from one issue to the next! Most of my stories have been single-issue tales so far, so it's nice to write one that stretches out over a few issues.

I'm really excited to have the opportunity to publish an original Grumble story from Rafer Roberts and Mike Norton. Grumble just ended its run with Eric Powell's Albatross Funny Books and to have it continue here is a big deal.

Jeff McComsey's "The Old Man and The Sea of Love" continues in this issue as well!

Another new feature in this issue is "Badges O'Keefe, Canine Time Thief" with Dani Grew and your friend (and mine) Larry Franks! I love working with Dani on pretty much anything (Larry is okay), so I'm really excited about this story. There's also a reward where you can have your dog drawn into the book!

See?!

There are a bunch of rewards this time around, from other comics to shirts and pins to social media profile art.

I launched the project two days ago, and we're currently a little over 50% toward the goal. This gives me hope! If we reach the goal, I'll have stretch goals that I'll announce soon, but will most importantly include more content for the book.

I hope you can check out, support and/or share this project and help me make another issue of Planet Comics! Here's the link! Look at it! LOOK AT IT!! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffmcclelland/planet-comics-issue-2?ref=creator_nav

"Black Terror: Social Insecurity" campaign on Kickstarter

I've got a new comic that is currently up and running on Kickstarter - Black Terror: Social Insecurity!

A few years ago, Rafer Roberts and I created the short story Black Terror: Wednesday at the Diner, and the basic concept was this: old, Golden Age superheroes meet up at a diner and talk about their problems. It was a lot of fun (and Rafer is really good at drawing old people), and I've wanted to do more with the concept for a good long while now.

While "Wednesday" was a short story, "Social Insecurity" is a full-length story that follows all of the Diner crew into a new adventure in geriatrics, such as the Black Terror's quest to keep his government benefits without giving up his secret identity.

Rafer helped us out with a new cover (the first image in the video at top), and artist Ryan Howe has jumped in to do the art on the new story, with Tomas Marijanovic on colors.

Ryan brings a classic style and some smooth lines to these 80-year-old characters. I'm very excited with what he's been able to do so far! The book collects the Wednesday at the Diner story, in addition to the new, full-length story, plus some other material that I'm hoping to add if the campaign is successful.

I've also got some rewards lined up for the campaign. Let's take a look at one of 'em:

I'm really happy with how these enamel pins turned out - they're big and shiny and really high quality. They're designed by my friend Dani Grew, based on the original cover icon that showed up on a lot of early Black Terror covers in the 1940s. This pin is about 1.5 inches big, which is hefty for a pin.

I've also got stickers, prints, and bookplates set as reward for various tiers in the campaign.

I'm trying to raise enough money to make it possible to print the books and pay our various artists for their work. Kickstarter is a way to make that happen and I hope that it's successful. If it's REALLY successful, well, more books will follow, but right now I'm just hoping that we can get this one book (and various rewards) finished and printed.

If you're interested in a the book, I hope you'll take a look at the campaign and pledge if you'd like! You can get to the main page by clicking...well, almost anything that's clickable on this post, but here's a direct link, too: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffmcclelland/black-terror-social-insecurity?ref=creator_nav

Lastly, I'll leave you with a Black Terror commission that I got from Ramona Fradon, one of my favorite artists, who has been working in comics since 1950 - almost as long as the Black Terror has been around!

Pictures from the 2017 New York Comic Con, part 2 (Saturday, 10/7)

The time has come...to look at the rest of the pictures I took at the 2017 New York Comic Con! All of these pictures are from Saturday, October 7th, the second of my two days at the show.

After leaving Penn Station, I was greeted by these obviously (obviously) Futurama-inspired signs.

The first event on the docket for Saturday was Amazon's Tick panel, which filled up fast. I managed to squeeze my way into, I guess, the third row. We all got a look at the upcoming episodes, which appear on February 23rd! They also handed out even more free swag in the form of posters upon entering. It's great how the entire cast has shown up at these big events - they all really seem to care about the series.

After the panel ended, I left the convention hall for a bit, and on the way out, I saw a few costumes, including this one, whatever it was. Video game characters, maybe??

The medieval Spawn character is, interesting story, not actually owned by Todd McFarlane. Another interesting story: after taking the picture, I found out that the person in the costume is the same gentleman who dresses up as Silent Bob every year at Comic-Con in San Diego. Neat!

While outside, I visited the recently completed High Line Park, which was a really incredible experience.

The High Line is a park built on an old elevated train line. It runs for about a mile and a half and is 30 feet above street level, which makes for a stark departure from the rest of Manhattan.

I just happened to be walking under it on my way back to the convention center and decided to climb the stairs to see what it looked like. It was crowded but was absolutely worth visiting. It's a must-see on my NYC list from now on.

Walking from one reality to another, I was greeted upon returning to the Javits Center with the image of someone dressed up...as the Javits Center. Not bad.

Even HawkPeople have to take a break sometime.

I visited the DangerBoat a few times while at NYCC. I had to get all of the Tick pins. Here's a nice shot of the outside of DangerBoat.

This is probably the best costume I saw at the show. Look at how yellow this guy got his arms!

These were pretty good, too.

New England Comics had a small booth on the show floor, and I signed some copies of the new Tick #1 there on Friday and Saturday, and a number of Tick luminaries stopped by at different points. Here's writer and producer David Fury, one of the main driving forces behind the new Amazon show. Fury also had a role in "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog", which I talked with him about just a bit.

Check out these costumes! These guys put a lot of work into them.

That Captain America shield is really great, too!

After the main floor closed, I spent a little bit of time in Artist Alley until the show ended. The Javits Center is under some construction, and will be for a few years, as I understand it, so all of the featured artists were stuffed into a smaller-than-you'd-expect conference-type room as opposed to the usual separate hall. I'd hope that next year they could get a better location, but you never know with NYCC. In the meantime, check out what Geoff Darrow drew all over his table!

And despite what the picture might indicate, I was happy to chat with Rafer Roberts for a little while before the show ended.

NYCC 2017 was a lot of fun, and the weather held up long enough for me to spend some time outside, which was a departure from previous years. I hope they continue to find ways to branch out and relieve some of the crush that seems inevitable with a convention this size. It's a nice way to end the convention year for me!

The Black Terror by Ramona Fradon and Duane Redhead

Perhaps you recall my Black Terror: Wednesday at the Diner webcomic/comic strip/mini comic/whatever that Rafer Roberts and I worked on a few years ago. It's been a while, but I'm slowly putting together some new material on that front for an eventual book, and two cool pieces of that recently came together from two great artists, so I thought I'd share them here!

The first is an image of the classic Black Terror from Golden Age artist (and personal favorite) Ramona Fradon. Fradon is an underrated legend in the comic book industry, and I'm kind of stunned that I was able to commission her in the first place. She's been drawing comics for almost 70 years and might be best known for co-creating Aqualad and Metamorpho for DC Comics. What a thrill it is to work with her in even the slightest capacity.

Our next piece is from a familiar source, Mr. Duane Redhead! Duane took some time from drawing the Tick to pencil and ink this lovely image of an elderly (but still muscular, check out those biceps) Black Terror and Mr. Q. The backdrop for this image is the city of Cleveland, because Cleveland is just kind of a funny place.

I'll update this page with more info on my take on the Black Terror in the future. For now, I'm excited to see these images.

Remembering Fantastic Four artist Paul Ryan

Earlier today I learned that one of my favorite artists, Paul Ryan, had passed away at the age of 66. I haven't read anything about a cause, but I was stunned to learn this not only because Ryan was still relatively young, but also because I grew up reading his run on Fantastic Four with Tom DeFalco. Ryan is one of the reasons that I love the FF so much, and his years-long stint on the book is still the third-longest in the title's history, behind only Kirby and Byrne. In fact, I learned today that Ryan's first Marvel work was as an inker on the '80s Thing series!

Ryan drew in a classic style that I've only become more appreciative of as I've gotten older. It was the perfect amalgamation of Kirby, Byrne, Swan, Anderson, and other classic, steady styles of the Golden, Silver and Bronze ages. Back when the extreme (and silly) art styles of 1990s Image Comics were all the rage, Ryan's art was a consistent, solid presence on one of comics' greatest titles. He's known for his work on Superman, Flash, Avengers, Iron Man, DP7 and currently the Phantom comic strip, but he'll always be a Fantastic Four artist to me, and one of the greatest. The above cover to issue #370 was the first issue I bought with my own money, back in '92 at the Uniontown Mall.

I was very fortunate to have the chance to work briefly with Ryan a few years ago, when I contacted him about a commission and some original art. I purchased this page from Fantastic Four #390 for the paltry sum of $100. I decided to press my luck and was able to get some comics signed and, for a little extra, I got this Thing sketch card mailed to me:

The thing I'm most thankful for, though, is that I actually got the chance to commission an original Teddy and the Yeti cover from Ryan. His website said that he wasn't taking commissions at the time, but after talking to him for a little while, he told me that his website developer simply hadn't updated the site and that he was indeed taking commissions.

I jumped at the news and a few weeks later, he sent me the original art that you see here, including a rough sketch and full-size pencils.

The cover was eventually completed by Duane Redhead (inks) and Karin Rindevall (colors). I'm so happy that I had this done when I had the chance. It's a real shame that there won't be any more work out there by Ryan after his run on the Phantom strip ends, but he has a legacy of decades that still holds up and will for years to come.

At a FUBAR signing in 2013, I asked Rafer Roberts to draw a version of the Thing with his helmet, a trademark of '90s Fantastic Four. After I brought up the idea, he immediately said, "oh, you mean Paul Ryan?" Rafer, I think, has a similar understanding of '90s FF and he cranked out the lovely rendition that you see below. I'll miss Ryan and his work. I'm glad that I had the chance to interact with him in a small way.

Pictures from the 2015 New York Comic Con, part 2: Saturday (THE THING, KFC comic, Valiant panel, Small Press Commandos and more!)

I think I'm finally done with convention pictures after this batch. That is, until the next con rolls around. Professional badges for Comic-Con in San Diego are up for grabs tomorrow...so I'll be glued to the computer for a while in attempts to grab a few. Wish me luck. (I said do it!!)

These pictures are from the Saturday at New York Comic Con. I apparently took a lot more pictures on this day than the day before! There were just a ton of great costumes to be seen - maybe not quite reaching SDCC levels, but it was close. NYCC impressed me this year. Let's take a peek.

For a cartoon about a man with a horse head, Bojack Horseman is one of the darkest shows I've seen in a while. It's really deep and at times incredibly depressing. And there are jokes, too! Princess Caroline here did a great job with her costume.

Here's a lonely picture of Gambit.

I hear that this version of Angela won the top costuming award in at least one category later this night. It's easy to see why - this person did a fantastic job. Really well done.

If you ventured outside the convention hall, chances are that you saw what appears to be a TSA repository for the magically inclined. No one was really safeguarding any of these, either. Anyone want a Captain America shield?

I assume that these were taken from people who tried to enter the show because they might have posed some kind of hazard...though I saw plenty of people inside with swords and other big, potentially dangerous items. Who can say?

I loved this silver age Brainiac and Lex Luthor combo!

RIIIICHAAARDS!!! The Fantastic Four costume fragment was a nice touch.

The Lich with some light reading material. 

Jean is kind of blocking Scott here, but that's okay. These costumes are mostly comic accurate, except for Wolverine, who just shows up uninvited all the time anyway.

Here's some more X-Men. Jubilee's finger sparklers are a good solution!

This Jurassic World display was the bane of my existence. They brought out animatronic raptors every hour and people swarmed the display. They had fog at times, too, which made it even more annoying. I guess you gotta use the space that's available, but man!

Check out zombie Cap's teeth. Nicely done!

The entrance to the show was re-done with the Jurassic World branding, too. Not as annoying.

Oh, did you know that there was a guy who dressed up like THE THING at the show? He wasn't the only guy, either. What a terrific costume. I bet it was hot as all get-out in there. But this guy suffers for his craft, and for that we're all grateful. Oh yeah!!

Of course, I had to get a picture with Mr. Grimm here. It looks like he took some battle damage. That's okay...I'm sure he came out a winner.

Tom Servo!

Supergirl and alternate universe Supergirl.

This costume had wings that retracted and expanded.

Gorilla Grodd! Complete with gilded human skulls.

DC, which hasn't had floor space the last two years for some weird reason, set up at one corner of the convention center. It took me forever to find this place, because who sets up in the lobby? I was looking for this:

...which I understand is completely ridiculous, but I had to get this stupid promo comic from Kentucky Fried Chicken, especially after picking up KFC's offering at SDCC. This one had nothing to do with the earlier one, which was a shame. Also, Flash's new outfit is terrible. The story inside has an evil Colonel Sanders from - no kidding - the Crime Syndicate's Earth 3. I'm still happy that I was able to find this book.

One of my last stops during the show for the day was at a Valiant Comics panel. Everyone's good friend Rafer Roberts is writing the upcoming Archer and Armstrong relaunch for the company, and this was one of the first big brouhahas surrounding that.

After the panel, Rafer had a signing at the Valiant booth (with Jody Houser)! Really happy for the guy.

Artist alley stays open for an hour after the show floor, so I spent the last hour there. It seemed that it cleared out pretty quickly, though, for whatever reason. Once again I ran into Karin Rindevall and managed to cajole her into drawing in the Thing sketchbook! We squatted at the table of an A-list artist who left early (a legend, really) and Karin left her mark on the book. I've scanned 'em all in and will show them off soon...maybe the next post?

Afterwards, it was a Small Press Commandos dinner at a local Irish Pub with Jeff McComsey, Will and Michael Perkins, Andrew DelQuadro, Oliver Mertz, Dom Vivona and others! It was a great way to end the night...

...but then I decided to walk six miles at night though the streets of New York City to find some Mug Cream Soda. But find it I did, and boy, was it good.

NYCC stepped up its game in 2015. And with the upcoming expansion of the Javits Center, I hope that it will only get better. I'm looking forward to the 2016 version already!