Well-- I took a shot at drawing BETTY and VERONICA for today to go with Monday's takes on ARCHIE and JUGHEAD. Looking at it now, though-- it's not very successful. I was happy with the way the guys came out, but this sketch just looks like a couple of overly-sexualized girls-- one brunette and one blonde-- with nothing to tie them visually to the source material. I tried to add some subtle touches like separating the two girls depth-wise.... placing VERONICA in the foreground, exuding her haughty, rich and overconfident sexy attitude that drives BETTY so crazy with frustration at how all the boys fall for her. And I gave BETTY a longer skirt and bit of a scowl to try to keep her in character. But the beauty of the timelessness of Dan Decarlo's designs just can't be matched. That's what made him such an amazing artist and why he was so influential on so many folks.
Maybe if I had a couple of boys from RIVERDALE HIGH in the background drooling over VERONICA, it would have set a better scene.
Ah, well.... it was an attempt, anyway. And it's a sketch-- and this IS a sketch blog... so at least it serves its purpose, ultimately.
OK... sorry the post is so late today.
This is Entry 321.
Mike
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by Mike Wieringo @ 3:17 PM
Wednesday, January 3
HAPPY NEW YEAR....!
Well-- the first day of 2007. We're living in the future, y'know. Remember BLADE RUNNER-- the scenes in which Deckard would talk with people via 'vid-phone' screens....? I can do that now with buddies who also have iSight-- a program that runs on MAC OSX that allows you to have video chats with people via a webcam. And on the newer versions of the flatscreen iMac G5s, there's a built-in camera.... so it's very innocuous. And with the latest version of OSX, you can chat with 4 people at once. It's amazing. Like I said--- we live in the future.
A couple of weeks back, NEWSARAMA ran a story about the folks at ARCHIE PUBLISHING updating the look of the RIVERDALE gang. I don't know how well received this will be-- or how successful the redesign will be, sales-wise. I have a hunch that the success of the ARCHIE line is that people love the safety and comfort of a sure thing. They have a timeless quality that might be hurt by a more 'modern' slant on the characters. But-- what do I know... I could be absolutely wrong. Over on THE DRAWING BOARD, Stuart Immonen-- a brilliant artist and all-around class act-- started a thread inviting folks to present their own 're-imagined' versions of ARCHIE and the gang. Typically, Start draws a sketch that is just amazing and sets the bar so hight right out of the gate that there's not much point in jumping in--- but it's such a fun idea for a thread, I had to take part.
So for my first sketch of 2007, I did my own take on ARCHIE and JUGHEAD.
Have a great NEW YEAR'S DAY, folks.....
This is Entry 320.
Mike
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by Mike Wieringo @ 1:32 PM
Monday, January 1
FAREWELL, 2006...
It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone. The old idiom about the older one gets the faster time seems to fly by is absolutely true. As a kid, time seemed to just crawl by-- days seemed to stretch on almost indefinitely... and years seemed like eternities. Now that I'm a middle-aged, grey-haired man, time seems to flow by like mercury. Time has especially become rather oppressive for me in that I'm always battling against it to meet deadlines. I find myself looking at the calendar constantly and fretting over how quickly the days seems to slip by as my deadlines loom ever larger. I don't remember feeling that overwhelming sense of dread that hits me on occasion back early in my pro comics career. I was always cognizent of when assignments needed to be finished, but I never stressed out over them as I have over the past several years. I always feel as though time has become my enemy lately-- it's an odd feeling.
2006 was an strange year for me. After 3 years of relative security in my assignment working on FANTASTIC FOUR with Mark Waid (I'll just ignore the whole 'firing of Mark Waid' fiasco entirely), this year has been a bit more tumultuous. Some of it is my own doing. While I was more than a bit dissatisfied with the creative aspects of working on the FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN title-- I certainly couldn't argue with the sales success of the book launching a major SPIDER-MAN crossover-- and the lucrative repercussions of that crossover. I really haven't spoken much about why I left the title in the past year-- but some times a creative team really clicks... and some times they don't. I just never felt comfortable with the kinds of stories that I was having to draw with the book-- even after the OTHER crossover ended-- and so I moved on. The last half of the year was an odd smorgasbord of assignments. I had the opportunity to work on a Stan Lee plot with the STAN LEE MEETS THE SILVER SURFER comic. Beyond the novelty of being able to say I drew something written by "The Man" himself-- it was also, without a doubt, the briefest sketch of a plot I'd ever had to work with. It gave me a minute idea of the kind of loose creative process that must have been the norm back in the birth of the Marvel Universe (I've heard stories of entire issues being drawn by Kirby, Ditko, et al after only a quick phone conversation with Stan). That book was followed up by two issues of MS. MARVEL-- a character that I've never had the opportunity to work on-- and so I can add her to the litany of creations I've had the experience of drawing in the length of my career to this point. It has become quite a lengthy list. And probably the oddest-- and least expected--of that list would be THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-HAM. Not only did I get the chance to draw that anthropomorphic analogy of SPIDER-MAN on one of the dozen cover variants I did during the OTHER crossover event-- but I got to draw the cover and a chunk of pages for the ULTIMATE CIVIL WAR SPIDER-HAM CRISIS (FEATURING WOLVER-HAM) #1. It's the kind of thing that if you'd told me I'd one day be working on back when I first got in the business, I'd have thought you were nuts. But that's the thing about this industry-- and really, life in general-- you never know what's around the next corner.
It'll be interesting to see what 2007 has in store.
I hope you all have a wonderful NEW YEARS celebration. And be safe, most of all.
This is Entry 319.
Mike
- posted
by Mike Wieringo @ 10:46 AM
Friday, December 29
CHRISTMAS BREAK
I'm leaving this weekend for my parent's' house for the Christmas Holiday. Whatever holiday you celebrate... or even if you DON'T do holidays... I hope you have a great weekend and I'll be back next week some time. The posts might be pretty light. I might not be back until Wednesday night or Thursday morning... so I might not get another post up 'til Friday. I suspect you'll all be recovering from whatever festivities you engage in... so there'll be no harm done.
See you next week...!
This is Entry 318.
Mike
- posted
by Mike Wieringo @ 9:35 AM
Friday, December 22
LINK
Over on my forum (that's right.... don't forget I also have a message board if any of you'd like to communicate/chat about stuff other than this blog) someone suggested I draw a sketch LINK and/or any other characters or settings from the wonderful LEGEND OF ZELDA video game series. I was grasping for ideas this morning, so I thought I'd go ahead and draw LINK, even though I usually don't take on suggestions very often for sketch ideas. I've always wanted to own a newer generation NINTENDO system-- mainly to get some of the updated ZELDA games. I used to play ZELDA all the time when I was in college... it was very addicting. I also thought that for the sketch today, I do it all in blue line... I like just drawing with the Sanford COL-ERASE blue pencils... they're kind of waxy (but not TOO waxy) and it makes it fun to do shading and rendering with that slightly waxy feel.
OK... that's it for today. I've gotta keep it brief.
Have a great day.
This is Entry 317.
Mike
- posted
by Mike Wieringo @ 11:30 AM
Wednesday, December 20
FOOTBALL FATIGUED
I couldn't think of anything topical to draw today, so I thought I'd just warm up with a good ol' fallback with SPIDER-MAN jumping off a rooftop that, now that I look at it, is very, very similar to the cover I did for FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #1. Well, when it doubt, repeat yourself.
Well, yesterday's experience was a lot of fun... very TIRING... but very fun. We arrived in Charlotte a little later than we should have, I think.... because I had no idea how huge the tailgating atmosphere was in the city before a game. We had to park about 5-6 blocks from the stadium because every lot nearby was absolutely filled with folks grilling, drinking, and partying. As it turns out, many of these folks don't even go into the stadium.... they're just there for the festive football tailgating experience. And there were some very experienced, professional tailgaters there, believe me. I saw some very impressive setups on the walk to and back from the game. For our part, we had one little old grill that we sat on the ground-- and we sat on coolers and the back of my KIA's hatch (although I did a nice fold-out chair with me that I relaxed in on and off). It's a very friendly climate, with people sharing food and drink back and forth... and it was all very cool. I was the designated driver, so I stayed away from the alcohol except for a beer during the game-- but it was one of those little beers in the plastic bottle that sports stadiums are selling these days.
As for the game itself-- there were as many Steelers fans there as there were Panthers fans... and I THOUGHT that the Panthers would play up to the playoff atmosphere that was permeating the area since if they lost this game, any chance of them making it to the post-season would be gone. Unfortunately, the Panthers played in a very sluggish manner-- almost like they didn't care. Maybe without the injured Jake Delhomme in to play quarterback they just gave up. I dunno. But they certainly didn't play with any urgency, so they were soundly trounce by the Steelers 37-3. Oh, well... it was still great to watch my first pro football game, even if it wasn't much of a competitive affair.
So-- I loved the experience... but I was very happy to get back home last night. I got up at 5:30 AM to get the day started... and I got back home right before 10 PM. I went to bed as soon as I got in.. I was numb. I was really feeling my middle-age by the end of the day yesterday.
OK.. that's it for today.
This is Entry 316.
- posted
by Mike Wieringo @ 10:36 AM
Monday, December 18
ANOTHER FIRST
I'd like to thank Royce Thrower for sending me a nice scan of the sketch I did for him at the PARTS UNKNOWN one-day show back on the 9th of this month. I was only able to do two sketches that day-- and both of them were for the Thrower bros. I liked the way this SERRA sketch came out (and thanks for asking for one of my favorite characters to draw, Royce)-- so I asked for the scan-- and thought I'd share it here with you.
I'm pretty excited about this upcoming weekend. I told you about going to see my first pro baseball game back during the BALTIMORE COMICON thanks to the generous John Higashi buying an entire block of tickets for the pros attending the show to go to the game where the Orioles took on the Yankees. Well, this weekend, I'm going to be attending my first pro FOOTBALL game. Joe Oaks, a guy I work out with at the gym, got a bunch of tickets for this weekend's home game between the Carolina Panthers taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Someone that Joe works with is a Panthers season ticket holder-- and isn't planning on attending this game, so Joe, me and a couple other buddies will be heading down to Charlotte on Sunday to catch the game. I'm really excited about this. I've always wanted to go to a pro football game... and now I'm going!
OK... I'm gonna keep it brief for today. Have a great weekend, all.
This is Entry 315.
Mike
- posted
by Mike Wieringo @ 10:09 AM
Friday, December 15
TYROC and the LEGION OF SUPER-SKIN
Looking back through my DC LEGION ARCHIVES once again, I came upon one collection that is entirely made up of the heart of the Mike Grell era as LEGION artist... and I remember buying those issues way back then. I was initially very disappointed when Grell took over as LEGION artist... because I had been so enamored with Dave Cockrum's wonderful work on the title. It didn't take long, though, for Grell's work to quickly grow on me. There was a very raw energy to his drawing that was appealing-- and there was this 'cool factor' that his style brought to the title with his long, lithe and dynamic figure-work. One of the things that ALSO marked Grell's work on that period of LEGION was his design work on the characters' costumes that showed a lot of skin. A LOT of skin. And that sort of hit its apex with the introduction of the character TYROC in issue 216. His costume has got to be one of the skimpiest costumes for either a male or female character in mainstream superhero comics that I can remember. It's funny to look back on those costumes with their 70's sensibilities and lots of exposed flesh. I guess maybe the new redesign of the WHITE QUEEN in X-MEN might be more skimpy... but not by much.
I've had a MYSPACE page up for some months now. It's a phenomenally popular site that has millions and millions of users. So I thought it would be good to get involved with the site to try to use it for self promotion. Well, now there's a similar site just for comic book enthusiasts called COMICSPACE. I have signed up for a COMICSPACE page as well. If you're interested in either or both of those kinds of 'community' sites, add me to your 'friends list'.
Yesterday, Marvel released the solicitations for their books shipping in the month of March. I thought I'd nab the cover image for FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #18 I drew (and was wonderfully inked by my old TELLOS artistic co-hort Rob Stull) and post it here for you to see. I started doing covers for the title again with issue 17.
OK... that's it for today.
This is Entry 314.
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by Mike Wieringo @ 12:18 PM
Wednesday, December 13
R.I.P. MARTIN NODELL
News of the passing of Golden Age artist Martin Nodell hit this past weekend. I saw Marty at almost every show I ever attended... and he was always such a sweet, cheerful man who was very proud of his creation of the Golden Age GREEN LANTERN character. Marty's wife Carrie was always by his side, cheerleading and sharing in the adoration his fans bestowed on him at shows. They were always so grateful and wonderful to the fans that would get Marty to sign and sketch for them. Carrie passed away back in 2004, and it seemed to me that a large part of Marty died with her. He seemed to have lost some of that spark he had when she was with him-- he didn't seem like his old self at the few events at which I saw him after her death. I spoke with him briefly at many of the shows we were both attending.... but I only had one opportunity to spend a large chunk of time with him. I was lucky enough to be at the same table with Marty and his wife at an after-con dinner party one year quite a while back, and it was a delight to hear him talk about not only his time as a comic book artist in the 'old days'-- but also hear tales about his work as a commercial artist.... and as the guy who designed the PILLSBURY DOUGH BOY. When I heard him talking about that, it blew me away.
Two characters... from two completely different worlds... that have stood the test of time, created by one delightful fella.
Rest in peace, Marty.
This is Entry 313.
Mike
- posted
by Mike Wieringo @ 10:31 AM
Monday, December 11
FRANK MILLER'S 300
There a new trailer up on YAHOO MOVIES for Frank Miller's 300 film. It looks absolutely amazing. I went to see SIN CITY when it debuted... and I was impressed by the visuals of the movie... it was beautifully done. The dialogue, however, left me cold. I know that it was totally faithful to the comic... and that the comic itself was used as the storyboards for the film. But that was the one problem I had with the film-- the dialogue. It was so faithful that what sounded cool in my head when reading the book sounded very hokey when I heard it out load coming from the big screen. I know it was meant to be reminiscent/inspired by the film noire, hard boiled stories that Miller grew up reading... but it just sounded bad to my ears.
300, however, has me very excited. I've read the comic... and I think that Miller's dialogue in this movie is going to work very well... and visually, it's just mindblowing to see so far. I have very high hopes for this film. I know that the story is rather light in concept-- very simple. But that's fine with me. This movie is based on a singular event in the history of the world... and it's going to be a high intensity testosterone-filled, bloody film. It's very exciting to me to see Frank Miller making such inroads with his properties in Hollywood. And that they're so very faithful to his vision-- even when the dialogue sounds odd to my ears as with SIN CITY.
