Everybody Knows a burrow owl lives in a hole, in the ground.

Hey man, what ever makes Jesus happy.

John Jesus Lennon

"Imagine all the people living for today" -John Lennon

"So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today" - Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 6:34)

Jesus Christ

Wow. Not sure we could have covered a more interesting subject this week for the sketches. This headshot is decidedly less "white" than what's traditionally seen in most artwork and film. I hope you enjoy it.

Ecce Homo

Young Yeshua and Miriam

Pretty quick sketch this busy, busy week. Drew this is a soft cover, thin Moleskine notebook that I only use Brush Pen with. Straight drawing, no pencils. Usually the drawings are done whilst waiting for food or watching soccer practice or talking with people. This was drawn while watching my daughter roll around the Roller Dome for the first time with friends and no help.

When it came to the subject I like to consider the man, and in this case the boy before he became the man. We need to know more the childhoods of people sometimes. What kind of trouble did he get into running around between the huts with young Miriam, to be called Mary? Is that a hammer or sling?

Jesus: Earth's Mightiest Messiah!

So Kevin had this week’s pick and while I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, it also has the potential to be a bit inflammatory. But, who cares? Art is supposed to make you feel something—even if it’s hatred or anger. And, while I certainly respect people who are genuinely religious, I am not a religious man. So a goof on ancient mythology sounded fun to me anyway.

I also thought this was a perfect time to step a bit outside of the box, both in how I looked at the subject and how I approached my piece. (As an aside, isn’t funny how I as a writer am getting REALLY into the process and thought behind each of my rather mediocre pieces?)

A little background on why I decided to draw Jesus, the Messiah, the way that I did: About a year ago, I left a voice mail for the 11 O’Clock Comics podcast where I impersonated Stan Lee. In the voice mail I, as Stan, made the outrageous claim that Stan had invented Jesus as a goof on how Stan will flat out steal any credit that’s not nailed down. As part of the story, I described how Jack Kirby had done the original, but ultimately rejected, design for Jesus.

So thinking back to that rather infamous moment, and thinking about this piece, I decided to visualize what Jack’s Jesus may have looked like. What you see above is the result. In true Kirby fashion, there is a great big “J” on the belt buckle. As most Kirby fans know, Kirby-designed heroes are often not complete without their first initial somewhere on their costume. I sorta tried to mix some of my favorite Kirby costume elements, and it ends up being part Eternal, part Galactus, part New God. 

The piece was done in pencil and then inked with a Pentel Color Brush. I filled in some of the larger black areas with a marker and colored it digitally. Incidentally, this the first time I’ve colored anything digitally. I am surprisingly pleased with how it turned out. I tried letter it with "Jesus: Earth's Mightiest Messiah," but I just couldn't get it to turn out quite the way I wanted to, so I dropped it.

Also, my apologies to Tom Scioli, whom I pantently stole this character pose from. I swiped the pose from one that he used for Adam Archer in issue #14 of Godland. I love Tom's art and hopefully the look I was going for is an appropriate homage to him and Jack.

If you are interested in hearing the episode of 11 O’Clock where I called in as Stan, you can find it here: 11 O’Clock Comics: Episode 110