The Smurfs

I loved The Smurfs as a kid. I listened to too many Post-Modern art history diatribes on how the entire world of Peyo was anti-Semitic so I kinda forgot how much magic and imagination there was in their world.

Now my kids want to see the new movie.......

Get Smurfed. Read Comics.

a very subtle PSA this week.

Sex Smurf

Isn't it Smurf

Luring disco Smurfies to a life of Smurf.

Grumpy Smurf

He's grumpy, bub.

Smurfius Destructus

Done in Photoshop.

Smurfs

I grew up watching the smurfs....I always wanted to see Gargamel catch those little blue pains in the ass. This was done with sharpie and copic marker and some white paint.

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.

Jesus vs. Zombies

A few weeks ago at the Pittsburgh Comic Con I had the chance to sit next to Stephen Lindsey creator of Jesus Hates Zombies. What a great guy, and a great book. So that was the inspiration for my choice this week. A bad ass Jesus that does what he wants.... and bashes zombies with a baseball bat! This is done in pen and ink with some white paint. I did not have the chance to finish this completely.....but I think it gets the point across.

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?

I Am

"And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Hamlet (act 1 scene 5)

For a while now, the subject of this challenge has been a favorite source to pool doodles from. While at one time these drawings were more satirical (fat Jesus, zombie messiah, etc) in the last year they have taken more of a intricate and visually confusing tone.

The pattern in this character's body was inspired by some of the data that has come out of the physics experiments that are seeking to discover the origin of everything.

I used a red ballpoint pen on moleskin paper.

M

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

Guest Columbo Piece!

This very special Columbo piece is from guest artist Paul McCall!

About the piece from Paul: 

"I watched the occasional Columbo when it was first run (yes, I'm that old, I was in high school then, at least sometime during his run). I liked them but the thing about watching Columbo was all the old movie star guests from the 40s that were favorites of my parent's generation. And watching Peter Falk piss them off!

My piece is a gentle caricature done with Copic markers on Canson sketch pad paper 11" x 14""

You can see more art work from Paul at http://www.PaulMcCall.com

Check out my Story in Oz/Wonderland Chronicles - Jack and Cat Tales #2

The folks at Buymetoys.com recently published issue #2 of Oz Wonderland Chronicles - Jack and Cat tales, which features a great short story by Ben Avery and yours truly.

Buy a copy HERE.

Columbo by Ben Tiede

I'm happy with how Cartoon Columbo turned out! I hope you are too!

Columbo

Columbo

Columbo

This is my stab at Lieutenant Columbo, done in Photoshop on a Wacom tablet. I think it has just a hint of Dick Tracy to it. Hope you likey!

Columbo

art: Mr. Kevin Meinert

My very quick sketch of one of the greatest character actors ever.  Done in pen and marker, with a little white paint

Yes, Lieutenant? ...sigh.

Columbo...

There were two shows I was introduced two by my father at a very young age, The A-Team and Columbo. I remember him as the funny detective that imagined would protect me from the monsters under the bed. I also remember thinking if a monster did come out from under my bed and confront him, he'd ask the bastard "just one more thing" before he would take him away to monster jail.

I used a ballpoint pen on Moleskin paper.

M

Columbo Contemplates His Lost Keys

Gotta admit: I don't know much about this guy other than a few episodes I watched on a little RCA TV with one of those UHF/VHF dials and rabbit ears at my Grandma's. I'd prolly like it, the character is interesting visually, but, you know how these things go....

Brush pen, with some PS toning. I left the scanned sketchbook rings in homage to the whole P.I. thing. It might be cheesy, though....?

Greedo

So a battle with the flu got me a little behind on our sketch challenge, but I managed to finish a simple headshot of Greedo. Enjoy!

Ya know what botha's me, sir?

So it was my turn to choose the subject for this week's sketch challenge. I had an idea for a comic book character that I wanted to do, but then I changed my mind and went with one of my genuine, fictional, heroes; Columbo. 

Not only is the good Lieutenant one of the greatest television characters of all time, he's one of my fondest childhood memories. The first time I saw Columbo I was in, maybe, 6th grade. I was home sick from school and happened to catch an episode that was being re-run on A&E. From there I was hooked and I have seen every episode and made-for-TV movie more than once, if not more than a dozen times. I can't help it. 

Peter Falk's insurmountable portrayal of the character made him a hero to me and one of my favorite characters in any medium, and any genre. 

So when I was thinking about who or what to choose for my sketch challenge subject, the thought of an artistic ode to my hero and his rumpled rain coat, his cheap green cigars, his battered Pugeot, his quirky behavior, and absolute genius made me smile. 

It's certainly a non-traditional choice for this sort of thing and I hope the other guys have as much fun with it as I did. I can't wait to see the results!

About the piece: I did a rough pencil sketch, then used an ink brush for the line work and then colored it with water colors. I used the water colors for two reasons: 1.) I thought it would help cover up my shortcomings as an artist with it's looser nature and 2.) Using water color on the type of paper that I did created a ripply feel that I thought nicely complemented Columbo's rumpled rain coat, and frumpy demeanor.

Thanks for coming to look at it! 

your pal,

zack 

Sketch Challenge: Columbo

Peter Falk played the role of his life as Columbo. The show is formulaic and the legality of Columbo's method is questionable at best, but I love the show. It's a reverse murder show. We see the murder, means, and motive in the first 15 minutes, then we get to watch Lt. Columbo slowly unravel the twisted web of violence. It challenges the comic book storyteller in me. How could you do a Columbo comic in 22 pages, and have Columbo show up on the 3rd page? Murder montage? I'll give it a try sometime, I'm sure.

Some trivia for you, just to get to watch an episode sometime if you haven't (it is streaming on Netflix after all). Peter Falk's performance was unique to him. His good natured politeness and bumbling were what he used to get to his suspects, unnerving them to the point that they'd crack. To get the best out of his guest star murderers, or perhaps just to be a jerk, Falk would ad lib and talk over the guest's performance to get them to actually dislike having scenes with him. So, when you have Leonard Nemoy yelling at Columbo on screen, he probably is actually frustrated with Falk.

More trivia, which explains the dead Batman in the background. Adam West's Batman show went from 1966 to 1968. Columbo one month before Batman's last episode aired. The world's greatest detective passed the torch to the world's most annoying.

(artist Kyle Latino has a blog at www.ktino.com, follow him on twitter @kylelatino)

Greedo's Last Bad Choice

Almost missed this one with all the busy-ness of this week! Glad I didn't! Using the time my wife is taking a nice long Mother's Day shower to post this up.

You know, after all these years of being a Star Wars nerd, I've never really considered wether or not Han actually shot first. I was always just into the whole unpredictable cowboy/rebel thing of Han's and thought it was cooler than whiny Luke. Does it matter? Probably not. Not sure I would have waited either.

Plus, Han was more funny.

The Life and Time of Julius Destructus Teaser Trailer

Music ©2011 GraveRobber

Greedo

Here's mine! I hope this one was a fun one to start off with! It looks like it y'all got some good ones done this week! Noice.

Greedo Driver

I think this about as far as I am going to be able to get this week... fledgling attempts with Manga Studio. Thought a Taxi Driver/Greedo Mashup would be fun. Are you talkin' to me?!

Greedo

by Kevin Meinert!

Greedo's last stand

Fear not true star believers, as soon as our man Greedo went to check the safety on ol' betsy, he was sure to notice his faux pas.

Sketch Challenge: Greedo

You know, Greedo, like any bounty hunter that shows up in Star Wars, is talked about a lot by fans. Like, he was the baddest dude ever, and only the great Han Solo could kill him. I always thought of him as a screw up who was always going to get shot while trying to act tougher than he was. But still, he is one of the many memorable and well designed characters that made Star Wars seem so alive, when I was a kid.

(artist Kyle Latino has a blog at www.ktino.com, follow him on twitter @kylelatino)

A CGS Super Show Comic by Matt, Zack, and Ben

this comic was drawn by me, Zack Kruse and Matt Gross at the Comic Geek Speak Super Show 2011! It tells a true and harrowing adventure of our return home to Indiana...

Sad Greedo!

GREEDO! One of my favorite Star Wars universe characters. Not only do I just think he's cool bounty hunter and scoundrel, but with one shoehorned in jump cut he single handedly turned Han Solo into a pussy.

So Ben finally got us started on our weekly sketch posts (thank god) and picked Greedo as our first subject, which, like I said, is a great choice. Really, though, I'm mostly just excited to see what the other guys come up with for their sketches.

Being a writer, and not an artist, I hope that you'll forgive my crude drawings, inability to properly use perspective and so on. Looking at my submission from this week, I see plenty of flaws. But I try to make up for them with comedy, so please forgive this lowly writer for his poor cartooning skills and enjoy all of the submissions from the real artistic talent in Summit City Ink.