R.I.P. Al Williamson

We lost another great legend in illustrators of amazing art.


AL WILLIAMSON




If you have not seen his work I suggest you check it out!



He was an amazing artist in his own right and a legendary inker.

KREATIV BLOGGER AWARD

I have been given a "Kreativ Blogger Award"!
Good old Benito Gallego, from blog Callaghan's Inn has sent to me the nice award that you can see at the top. Thanks man, I really appreciate it! It must be because of that nice interview I did with him last year. ;-)

Now it's my turn because this award has its own rules.

Let's see:

(1) Thank the person that nominated me. (It's already done.)

(2) Copy the award and put it on my blog. (Done.)

(3) Link back to the blog that nominated me (Done.)

(4) Name seven things about myself other people might find interesting. (See below.)

(5) Nominate seven other Kreativ Bloggers. (Also below.)

(6) Leave them a comment so they know they have been nominated. (will do)

Seven things about me..



1.)Been married for over 10 years

2.)Train in Full Contact Bare Knuckle Karate(www.enshin.com)

3.)Never Broke a bone(at least not yet.)

4.)After not playing RPG's for many years I have recently gotten back in with some retro action(www.swordsandwizardry.com)

5.)I love Subaru's

6.)I have a large collection of Transformers from G1 to Movies

7.)I do not draw as much as I should!





Nominations....


http://warlockshomebrew.blogspot.com/

http://tomscioli.blogspot.com/

http://www.comictwart.com/

http://pulpsunday.blogspot.com/

http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/

http://www.arcade-hunters.com/

http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/

Pulp Anthology coming soon....

I am good friends with the gentleman behind http://www.indieonlycomics.com/

We have been talking about my pulp story lately and how he might ink it for me.

Turns out he has a story he would love to do as well!

Bang! Anthology to be made.

Hopefully in time for the 3rd Annual Tucson Comic Con 2010.

Look here for some more info soon!

RIP Dick Giordano

1932-2010


A legendary artist,a pioneer.



A friend to many other artists and an insanely good inker.



You will live on for fellow illustrators and comic fans for eternity.

http://www.dickgiordano.com/

The Art of Mike Powell

So after some delay I finally got this one ready.


1.) Who has influenced you over the years and are there any that hold your interest over time more than others?

In the beginning, Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee. But over the years I've broadened my horizons to include many others. Jack Kirby, John Byrne, Frank Frazetta, Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, John Buscema, John Romita,John Romita Jr, Frank Miller, Erik Larsen, Norm Breyfogle, Mark Bagley, Ryan Ottley, Mahmud A. Asrar, Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard, Chris Samnee, Ivan Reis and Mike Norton. I know I'm forgetting someone. That's not to exclude the writers who have inspired me. I'm a huge fan of Robert Kirkman, Jay Faerber, and Geoff Johns.



2.) I notice you like to do a lot of Golden Age characters? Is it that they are out of copyright or just to do something different?

In the last few years I've been fascinated with the concept of the public domain, properties and works that have lapsed in copyright over the years and are availabe for anyone to re-imagine in their own style. In the near future some characters with heavy basis in the public domain will make appearances in my stories. I have plans for several figures from world mythology to appear as well.

Lately I've been sketching a public domain Golden Age character every night for my sketchblog (http://michaelpowellsketchblog.blogspot.com). I always post a panel or cover from the old days for comparison. Most of the time I don't make any changes to the design, but there have been times when I have.



3.) What tools do you use to work on your art? Paper stock ? Pencil's , Pen's , Brushes?

I'm pretty low tech, actually. For sketching I use regular white copy paper. For commissions and sequentials I use card stock. My inking tools are a regular pencil and kneaded eraser, PITT artist's pens, a bottle of black ink, and a brush.

5.) You have created some original characters,any plans for some stories about them?

My principal characters are Sovereign (the "Superman" analogue in my universe) and Ominus (my "dark knight" analogue). Sovereign is featured bi-monthly in the Arcadia Comics Anthology, now available from Indyplanet . The second issue is wrapping up in the next two weeks, and it should be available in March.



Ominus won't make his official first appearance until that issue, but earlier in his career he was known as Revenger. I've started a weekly webstrip featuring those adventures. You can read it from page one at http://www.drunkduck.com/Revenger/index.php?p=654185 .

6.) Can you tell us about any of these ideas?

Sure. Let's talk about Sovereign, since he's the heaviest hitter.

A while back I wrote a summary of exactly who he is and what he's about.

It goes...

"Imagine the archetype of the mighty superhero, the other worldly savior of humankind, faster than a speeding bullet and able to soar higher than any plane."



Now imagine his female counterpart, the immortal warrior princess from a far away land of myth.

In a bygone era they represent justice, and on many occasions they join together to protect the planet against unimaginable threats.

Now imagine what goes on behind the scenes.

A passionate love affair ensues, and unbeknown to the the mighty superhero, a child is conceived.

The princess disappears, determined to raise her child in secret, away from the violence and injustice of mortal man's world.

The child is named Aleksandr. He is raised by his mother in an island paradise, ignorant of his lineage, or the real reason he is so powerful.

In a moment of tragedy he learns the truth.

And so Aleksandr, now a man, ventures to the outside world in search of the father he never knew existed.



But he soon discovers another disturbing truth...
His father, the savior of humankind, once known the world over as Sovereign...is dead.
Lost forever to his mother's land and people, how does he find his place in a strange new world?

What does he do with himself? How does he honor his father's memory?

The answer...He continues the fight where his father left off."

So in a nutshell, "what would happen if Superman and Wonder Woman had a love child?" I wanted to tell a story like that to play with those archetypes. And I'm really looking forward to getting it off the ground.

Mike Powell



Thanks to Mike for giving his time! Check out his links below!

www.michaelpowellart.blogspot.com
www.powguero.deviantart.com
www.twitter.com/Mpowelljr
www.facebook.com/Mpowelljr

Slump

I have hit a wall with my drawing lately and it is effecting the blog.

I have another interview to post up soon.

Benito Gallego

Interview with Benito Gallego [http://benitogallego.deviantart.com/]

I found him on Deviant Art and he just screamed to me a student of John Buscema. That can’t be a bad thing!

1.) You have a style very reminiscent of John Buscema? Can you tell us more about that.

Since I was a little boy I loved the Buscema Conan books and when I read other heroes like Ka-Zar, Thor or The Avengers it was always John Buscema's version the one I felt the best compared with the other artists. So when I started to try to draw I would imitate Big John's style. I just wanted to draw as good as the best.

Now I'm older and many of the ideas and concepts that I used to rely on when I was a child have proven wrong but others I'm still certain. Among the few that I still manage today as an adult is the strong believe that John Buscema is simply the best you can get in comic-book art.

2.) Besides Buscema, what other artists have influenced you? Also why do you stick to a more "traditional" style compared to alot of "modern comics"?

I could name a lot of artists that I admire like Joe Kubert, Wally Wood, Neal Adams, Jordi Bernet, Frank Frazetta, Will Esiner, Carlos Giménez, Víctor de la Fuente, Mike Mignola, Adam Hughes, Lee Weeks... and many others. At some point they all have had some influence in my work and I'm continually finding guys whose art I enjoy.
And yes, it is true that my style is quite "traditional". Maybe because when I move away from it to try to develop a "modern" approach I feel like I'm losing something. So why do I have to eat a hot-dog when I can have a "paella"?

3.) Do you prefer hand drawing/inking or digital or a combination of both?.

I used to hand draw-ink and color but since the new technologies have developed and we can have software and computers that can help an artist's task it would be foolish not to take advantage of it. Today I use digital tools mostly for coloring but also sometimes for making sketches and even inking depending on the subject and style that I'm working on at that moment.

For me the most important advantage is that even when you use a traditional method for drawing or inking you know it is always so much easier now to make corrections digitally using a computers program than it was before.

4.) What particular Tools do you like to use for penciling,inking and programs?


If we are talking digitally, first I have an A3 size scanner that allows me to scan my drawings on the first try. You safe a lot of time when you don't have to join two or more parts when using a small scanner. Then I use a wacom tablet which is way faster and versatile than the traditional mouse. The programs I use are Photoshop for coloring and making sketches. And for inking I use Illustrator.

When using traditional methods I prefer an ordinary pencil to a propelling pencil. And for inking I use a quill to make the main lines and a brush to fill the blacks. I don't usually use markers or felt-tip pens which I find too hard and inexpressive except for making straight lines. And for coloring an illustration I use watercolors combined with crayons, markers and gouache.

5.) What inspired your Zuda story? How do you think it went?

The idea of a race of people dwelling in the underground "like beasts, in caves where no sunlight ever entered" is a recurrent theme that appears in "The Lost Race", "Worms of the Earth", "People of the Dark" and other tales by Conan's creator Robert E. Howard. I took that idea and thought what if there were such a race in our modern-day cities? I thought that they probably would live in the sewers and could be called something like "The Children of the Sewer". If you put a hero (or anti-hero in this case) in this context you have a lot of posibilities of building an epic tale of adventure, fight, fantasy and horror.

At first I didn't have much expectations to win the contest. I just wanted to participate and expose my work to see the public's reaction. But when you see that people seem to like your work and you are getting near the top you cherish the idea that "Yeah, I can make it, I'm really close to win". So t was a bit dissapointing when finally I didn't win although a second place is not bad at all.

6.) Any other current projects in the works?

I hope to retake Roy Thomas' ANTHEM and CAPTAIN THUNDER & BLUE BOLT series soon. Meanwhile I have been contacted by Gerald Cooper from InVision Comics ([link]) and hopefully I'll be doing some work for them in a near future. I have also a story about gypsies, tartars, kosacks and zombies! that I wrote some time ago and that I would really love to draw.

7.)Any other websites that feature your work other than here at DA?

You can take a look at my gallery at comicartfans ([link]) although most of the pieces are also on DA.
I'm also developing my own website ([link]) that I hope to have finished in a couple of months. I think I said something like that a year ago!!

That’s it for the first one. I would like to thank Benito Gallego for taking his time to answer my questions. Stop by his Deviant Art page.

http://benitogallego.deviantart.com/