I saw David Lynch speak at USC last night. He's on a tour to launch The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. He was joined by quantum physicist Dr. John Hagelin, and neuroscientist Dr. Fred Tarvis they all spoke on the benefits of transcendental meditation while Lynch covered that as well as storytelling, his films, creativity and his creative process and how meditation relates to all that. It was very interesting, educational, and inspiring as well. My friend and I also saw Omar from the Mars Volta afterwards as well as John Frusciante. Frusciante and Lynch are my friends favorite artists so it was an exceptional night for him. I did some sketches of Lynch and Dr. Hagelin, as well as the hairdo of a woman in front of me. I wasnt really able to capture the key elements I wanted to of Lynch's face but I didnt have my sketching pen, that's my excuse.

Jack Lawrence and I have been made to eat our words.


What am I talking about?


Well, during the creative process for Lions, Tigers and Bears v1, Jack and I agreed to never do variant or alternate covers for the series.


Sometimes you should really never say "never."


We had the wonderful opportunity to have Mike Wieringo create a cover for v2 #3 and, being as we're not complete idiots, we jumped at the chance. With that underway, Jack put his talents to the task and worked out a great cover, based on the pin up that inspired the series.


However, fates being the grand conspirators that they are, Mike's schedule bucked the plan and suddenly his schedule opened up for him to create a gorgeous cover for #1, instead of #3.

Suddenly we found ourselves in the enviable position of having two excellent covers.

We firmly believe that after you feast your eyes on them, you'll agree we did the right thing.

The top piece is all Jack, inspired by the pin up entitled "Snowy Wastes".

The bottom is Mike's. Rumor has it, Mike's was inspired by unbridled imagination and an undying sense of wonder. But, you know how rumors are...

Either way, look for these covers to grace the first issue, which should land on store shelves in March of 2006.

Check out my Image Christmas cover featuring the lovely and talented Brandy and gang.

God I hope I'm doing this right. You would think that after posting on my own website for over 8 years, I would know how to make a blog work.

I thought I would test this thing out by posting the cover for PvP #24 I just completed. This doesn't come out until...January? February? Who knows? Somewhere around there. I have it written down somewhere.

Extra props if you recognize the original piece this art is an homage to.

The only thing I drew by hand in this was brent. The chair I constructed using Adobe Illustrator and shaded in photoshop.

The wall behind Brent is a gradient with an overlay of a concrete texture I downloaded off the net.

And I created the bullet holes directly in photoshop using the lasso tool and filling in differnet shapes with color.

Enjoy.

just some unlettered pages from SG 12

Detroit, Michigan has gotten a bad break. Over the years, I've heard more than my share of Detroit crime jokes and listened to people rail against the '89 Pistons basketball team, the Devil's Night fires and assorted generalizations regarding what they've heard and what they know about the city of Detroit. Never mind that seventy percent of them have never so as bought a car MADE in Detroit. What most people don't talk to me about, however, is Detroit's rich musical history, the successful industries grown in and around the city and overall, everything that is good and positive about it.




Though I may have long ago abandoned the town for the high life here in New York, Detroit is and always will be my hometown. I grew up in Detroit, attended colllege there (Wayne State U - right in the heart!), visited my first museum there, learned to draw and developed my love of comics there. My family is there and so are my memories. From the thrills of watching the Tigers win the pennant as a kid in '84 to cruising Woodward Avenue during this past summer's annual Dream Cruise, checking out dozens of vintage automobiles. I learned to appreciate hockey in Detroit and developed an air for music by Aretha and Ray within its city limits.

One of the greatest thing about being from a larger than average city that isn't New York, LA or Chicago is reading books or watching film/tv set in your hometown. I watched ROBOCOP, GROSSE POINTE BLANK, 8 MILE, OUT OF SIGHT, ACTION JACKSON and BEVERLY HILLS COP mostly due to the fact that they were set in Detroit. I read books by Mitch Albom and Dave Barry - mostly because I got hip to them through their columns in the Detroit News and Free Press.

But comics? How many comic books have been set in Detroit?




Back in the day, of course, the Justice League of America was based in the Motor City... but I wasn't reading the book at the time and had to catch up to all that with back issues (and to be honest, those stories could have been set in Pittsburgh or any other industry level town. Plus= VIBE.). Rumor had it that Hawkman's Midway City was the DCU equivalent of Detroit and, of course, we could always read about Detroit's seamier side in James O'Barr's CROW. Here and there Detroit would pop up in a comic book but for the most part, my 4-color heroes stuck to New York, L.A., Gotham, Metropolis and the like.

When Jim Valentino approached me to write THE INTIMIDATORS, a new monthly series from Image/Shadowline, he left it to me to decide where the book would be set. The overall idea is that (eventually) the book will be set EVERYWHERE but we still needed to give the team a base of operations. One that wasn't New York or Los Angeles, and one that they could go crazy in, causing more property damage than a natural disaster.

I'm sure you can guess where I chose. I figured - well, most folks' general idea is that Detroit is a dump, a wreck of a town... so that'd be the most obvious place for the government to put a team like this: out of the way in a city filled with crime and due for urban renewal.






Here's the trick, though: We get to showcase the city that's my hometown. Show readers Detroit through MY eyes, the eyes of one who's been there... one whose memories live in the streets and buildings. We're going to show you the Main Art Theatre and hipster village of Detroit's Royal Oak suburb and the thriving, renovated Theatre District just to one side of Comerica Park, the new stadium where the Tigers baseball club showers after every game. We're going to show you exactly how close to Canada we really are by staring across the Ambassador Bridge from the GM Building (which was the Renaissaince Center back when I was a college senior). We're going to go to Dearborn, Warren, Oak Park and Highland Park and watch how these multicultural communities interact - especially in the face of race riots that haven't been since in Detroit since the sixties.




We're going to do what urban planners can't - figuring out ways to put the abandoned Tiger Stadium at the corners of Michigan and Trumbull to use. I'm going to breathe new life into the Pontiac Silverdome, where the Lions used to play football before they moved into downtown's Ford Field. Villains will live in one building, heroes in another.





Oh sure - there will still be crime and action and comedy and blood on hockey sticks, but there's also going to be a lot of the Detroit Rock City that I know.

And Irish midgets.

Hope you'll check it out!

Neil Kleid
Writer, THE INTIMIDATORS

--As you've no doubt noticed (if, in fact, you notice such things) Savage Dragon hasn't been coming out all that often of late. One of the many excuses I like to roll out is the number of cover sketches I've done for other books over the last few months. Here are a couple handy examples:

Sure, lots of writers are releasing script books these days. But I'm not writing half Marvel's catalogue yet, so you'll have to make do with one page until I am.

This is Page 10 from ShadowHawk #7, with art by Ted Wing III, lettered by Jim Keplinger. My original script for this page follows.

Just thought those who don't get to see it very often would be interested in seeing how an artist translates a script. Hope you dig it.



PAGE TEN - (5 Panels)

PANEL 1 - EXT. NY JAILHOUSE - NIGHT
Luke Hatfield, Jr. (better known as Hawk's Shadow) is leaving through a locked gate of a NY jail house. A guard stands watch at a small guard station just inside the gate. This is in the city, so it's not a prison. It's just a tiny inner-city jail. Luke is wearing a business suit and walks with assured confidence. His lawyer Martin - a gentleman of 50 with dark hair and a few early wrinkles, and also wearing a suit - greets him outside a limousine.

LAWYER
Hello, Luke. I see you're none the worse for wear.

LUKE
Interestingly enough, I'm somewhat of a cult hero behind bars. I was treated like royalty.

PANEL 2
The two shake hands.

LAWYER
Yeah well, I told you without that ShadowHawk person to testify, I'd get the charges against you dropped.

LUKE
I don't pay you nearly enough, Martin.

LAWYER
I won't argue that.

PANEL 3
Angle. They're walking toward the limo.

LAWYER
Apparently, your reputation on the outside hasn't suffered any lasting effects either.

LAWYER
Stocks have risen sharply, and we're getting calls from all the major talk shows looking for an interview with "Hawk's Shadow."

LUKE
Set them up. Once Nocturn delivers the impostor's identity, there'll be no better place to expose ShadowHawk for the fraud he is than national television.

PANEL 4
They stop outside the limo as the lawyer opens the back door for Luke.

LAWYER
I'll have an itinerary for you by noon tomorrow.


NOCTURN (off)
You may want to cross that off the agenda.

PANEL 5
On Nocturn, perched on top of the limo. He's slick and quiet. He got there without Luke or his lawyer hearing him. The lawyer is in the foreground, frightened out of his wits.

NOCTURN
Disappear, "Martin."


ShadowHawk #7 is due out sometime in November.


Scott Wherle
Writer

A Steven Griffin HAWAIIAN DICK teaser (click it!):

Here's a peek from issue #2, which comes out in January. Thought it would be cool to see the process from pencils (Josh Medors of Fused), to inks (Ryan Wynn of Hunter-Killer), to colors (Jay Fotos of Spawn). And the story rocks, too!

So as a few people have been asking what my next project is (following last month's LONG HOT SUMMER), I thought I'd share a couple of the teaser pieces I've been working on.





That would be Laura and Dave, the two main characters in SUBURBAN GLAMOUR. It's going to be a graphic novel of around 150 pages, and I hope to have it finished by early next year.

More art later in the week.