Welcome to the best month of the year, even if this is likely to be the worst best month in some time for far too many people.
I'm going to try to add a panel to the Experiment project every day this month for Halloween. If you're new here, the Experiment is a work in progress consisting of comic panels done on index cards, drawn directly in ink (and often corrected with white ink, and redrawn, because I'm someone who really needs to pencil first. But this is part of the experime...
2020-10-02 04:33:02 +0000 UTC
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Some of you may have followed a few threads on Twitter recently about the 2004 Metal Men series I was writing for DC, which would have been penciled by Mike Allred. It was a six-issue series edited by Bob Schreck, canceled by incoming EIC Dan Didio while while I was finishing up issue #3. Although we were behind on our schedule, the reason we were canceled was that the series was apparently considered "too goofy" by Didio. Projects approved by the previous regime are often impacted as the new...
2020-09-28 01:51:55 +0000 UTC
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Hmmmm. Thoughts swirling around a bit, connecting a few images. Not exactly connecting plotlines, though. Let it ferment.
The cubbyhole baby keeps showing up, along with the two kids who are ostensibly main characters. And there's a town. And there are various...things. And there is blood.
2020-09-25 03:02:57 +0000 UTC
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The fourth and final issue of Bill and Ted Are Doomed has been solicited online, so here's the fourth and final Bill and Ted Are Doomed cover process post.
Up top is the final cover art, colored by Sarah Dyer.
Then in order below, the raw inks (meaning "as is" after I finished working on it, before being digitally cleaned up by Sarah), the pencils, and the rough layout sketch. The rough was drawn on an index card to try and keep things simple. Originally I was going to...
2020-09-23 23:48:28 +0000 UTC
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2020-09-19 20:10:13 +0000 UTC
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Trying to get caught up some on the Patreon commissions list so folks have theirs before the holidays. I must be getting old (I am, duh) because the marker fumes are spinning my head something fierce these days.
2020-09-18 09:30:56 +0000 UTC
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More images from wherever this is taking place.
We know there are two boys, a young woman, several disturbing objects along the path back, a number of distorted people, some ropy phenomena, something affecting the blood, some other wrong things.
2020-09-16 23:42:17 +0000 UTC
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This is the pitch I turned in to editor Andrew Lis at Marvel in 2002, for a four-issue series that would be part of the "Startling Stories" series being planned at the time. "Startling Stories" was probably a response to DC Comics' Elseworlds line of non-continuity takes on their universe of characters and an updated version of Marvel's own "What If?". I wasn't originally part of the Thing project, Andrew and artist Dean Haspiel asked me on board to flesh out some ideas Dean wanted to bui...
2020-09-14 03:46:15 +0000 UTC
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Time flies when you're alive.
Thanks for being a backer while things ain't what they're cracked up to be. Always appreciated.
Things are nuts this week, so apologies for the lack of a post these past few days. I've been dealing with an abscess tooth that's blowing up my gum and doing the things an abscess does, which I would have liked to have never learned about from experience. The infection brought a fever on and I'm trying to get a dentist appointment -- but our insurance plan...
2020-09-10 02:05:27 +0000 UTC
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These are all the Murder Family pages I have left for sale, the rest are long gone, and I'm keeping the title page from the last story.
The pages are $175 each, NOW INCLUDING FREE SHIPPING ($25 off the art list price). I'll also throw in a Beasts of Burden poster, and an index card sketch of a character of your choice from my books (M&C = 1 character).
To buy a page please drop me an e-mail at evandorkin@gmail.com. If anything sells I'll update the post accordingly.
<...
2020-09-06 03:36:26 +0000 UTC
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XXXX -
Thanks a lot for the letter, it was nice to hear from you. And thanks for the kind words.
And -- congratulations on your comic. That's a great feeling, and something to continue to build on.
I think I know the feeling you're describing, because when I was pretty young a friend who was writing fill-ins and things for Marvel took me on a round of interviews to try and get us some work at places. The early interviews were demeaning and demoralizing on the who...
2020-09-03 20:45:48 +0000 UTC
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Her'es what one of the scripts looked like for the entries in the Comic Book Guy's Book of Pop Culture. Enjoy, and please, stay in your seats until the end of the post. There's an extra after the script is over.
BRUSHES WITH GREATNESS - 2 pages
(INTRO) As both pop culture connoisseur and purveyor, I often rub elbows with the leading lights of film, television, graphic literature, and, of course, horror movie makeup. Here’s but a sampling of th...
2020-09-02 05:06:29 +0000 UTC
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Sometimes you end up working on a project that none of your fans ever mention to you, no one seems to know it exists, you never see it in shops, no one brings it to be signed at a convention -- a project that's even more obscure than the obscure stuff you usually do.
Some of these projects are understandably obscure -- they're less deep cuts and more like barely noticed scrapes. Early comics in fanzines or indy anthologies, a cover for a VHS tape of metal videos, gag panels in a P...
2020-09-01 04:01:36 +0000 UTC
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As mentioned earlier, I've been going through old notes written back when I'd be asked to give talks about comics at schools or libraries (and the SF club at New York University, which I signed up for as a student, but was too scared to actually attend any of the meetings). These notes weren't intended for any kind of print project. I cleaned a few things up here and there for clarity, please excuse any typos I missed or any less-than-stellar grammar. Anyway, here's the first post in this...
2020-08-26 07:11:39 +0000 UTC
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I can do a lot of these. I'm sure folks in any corner of the entertainment industry can, even the barely-swept alcove where the longboxes are.
2020-08-25 02:33:05 +0000 UTC
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I need to try to lay down a few less dramatic images for this thing to let things "breathe" a little.
Except the creepy ones are more fun to draw. And this is clearly where my head's at these days.
The fourth panel with the "leech" has been sitting unfinished almost since the beginning of the project. I was adding texture detail to the figures every once in a while and finally tossed in a background element last night. It's a weird one!
2020-08-24 02:21:09 +0000 UTC
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For new backers, the "experiment" posts are individual panels drawn on index cards, largely improvised and drawn directly in ink. A few of the panels link to others -- or could link to others --but there isn't a clear narrative or script here. The hope is that at some point they'll all build into a story, which I'll draw the "connecting tissue" for, and work out the text during that phase.
I'm enjoying working on these things, not giving them any real weight, something to do for f...
2020-08-20 05:40:22 +0000 UTC
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Welcome!
I hope the experience chills you a little, and thrills you a little.
To quote the Mysterious Traveler.
2020-08-18 21:46:40 +0000 UTC
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The solicitation for BILL AND TED ARE DOOMED #3 is pretty imminent, so here's an exclusive preview for you folks of the cover Sarah and I did for it.
THE ROUGH (click the second image up there to see it): As with the first two covers, I pitched the cover idea with an index card scribble to keep things simple and avoid unnecessary noodling. I have the tendency to overwork roughs, but in the last few years I finally figured out that editors and publishers hire me knowing wh...
2020-08-18 21:11:34 +0000 UTC
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Six cards/card lots available to backers at the "art sale offer" level. These are all standard index cards, 3' x 5", defaced in ink, white ink, and sometimes colored pencil.
The rules:
- First to claim a card/lot in the comments below gets dibs to buy. Give card # and/or description. If a sale falls through the next person in line gets a shot, etc. Please only claim if you intedn to buy, thanks.
- One item purchase per person, i.e., you can only buy one card or set. If anyth...
2020-08-14 20:39:04 +0000 UTC
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Hmmmm.
2020-08-13 19:53:57 +0000 UTC
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2020-08-10 19:05:43 +0000 UTC
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I'm way behind on the last Bill and Ted script, having two power outages in the last few days from the east coast storms certainly did not help the schedule any. As is usually the case, I wish I could get an extra page or two to wrap the series up a little nicer, but that's the way it goes.
In the original outline pitch for the story I had sent Death, Joanna and Elizabeth home in issue #3, but as things developed I decided to have them stick around. The ladies get little enough to...
2020-08-09 00:21:19 +0000 UTC
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I finished up more of these over the last few weeks. Here's a few of them.
It's likely that the second and third cards are of a sequence.
More soon.
2020-08-03 16:45:18 +0000 UTC
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The solicitation for Bill and Ted Are Doomed #2 has appeared online, so, here's the process scans I have that led to the final, pictured above (colors and assembly by Sarah Dyer).
The original rough sketch was done on an index card, my chosen way of working lately in order to keep things simple. I roughed out the first three covers in a few minutes and was happy enough to send them, and they were accepted by Dark Horse and whoever owns the Bill and Ted property these days.
2020-07-28 21:05:19 +0000 UTC
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I've been working on this 15" x 17" piece in fits and starts for a couple of weeks and finally finished it up today. It'll be put up for auction for a charity I have yet to pick, as part of an interview I did with a new comics-related podcast called Drawn and Cornered. I talked so much during my interview it will be chopped up into two or three episodes, and I barely got any of the pin-up penciled while babbling. I can't draw while talking, the brain shuts down all operations outside of my mo...
2020-07-23 18:19:43 +0000 UTC
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Been sick, now me am busy catching up!
Here's more of that old nerd list:
41) The average comic shop
42) Roy Thomas's ego (EDIT: Just a start, let's just say I'm not a fan, also, see #48)
43) “Realistically” painted superhero comics (EDIT: They can look fine, although they're not really my idea of fun. And too many painted superhero comics need to be filled with narrative captions to let you know what the hell is going on. Big so...
2020-07-23 14:10:07 +0000 UTC
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Bill and Ted Are Doomed #1-2 are done. Roger Langridge is on inks for #3. I'm finishing up the script for #4. It's looking really nice, I hope folks enjoy what we're doing.
Benjamin Dewey is finishing up the fourth issue of Beasts of Burden: Occupied Territory, the series so far is looking absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately, the comic is pushed back to next year. No go-ahead yet on the Beasts of Burden series of one-shots I was starting to work on when...
2020-07-20 03:57:06 +0000 UTC
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Welcome, welcome, welcome aboard. And hello to everyone else, of course, of course.
Since we have some new backers, I thought I'd do a new post to thank everyone. And it's a super-nerdy, embarrassing kind of thing, because guess who found a file of old writing I never posted/finished for my old LiveJournal account. I think this goes back....ten years? Probably longer, going by some of the references, I have no concept of time in the best of times, which these aren't so I can't pin...
2020-07-18 03:38:30 +0000 UTC
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I started a commission, and in an e-mail exchange with the customer, realized their commission had to be started over (not a huge deal, the commission is a gift, and there was a request for M&C to be holding something specific, unfortunately, I had already inked the broken bottles, so...). I finished the one I'd already begun, had some fun putting some extra touches into it for a mini-pin up, and it's up for grabs.
6" x 9" on bristol, brush pen and rapidograph, AD markers and a touc...
2020-07-17 17:30:03 +0000 UTC
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