JUSTICE LEAGUE:GENERATION LOST #8 goes on sale this week, both in stores and digitally from Comixology. I always liked the idea of Checkmate, and thought that modern black-ops knights were a pretty cool idea. Our gang has broken into the Checkmate HQ, but it looks like they didn’t really have an exit strategy. It was suggested that I go with wanted posters of the JLI, but I thought it’d be cool to see them hopelessly surrounded by these faceless soldiers. The chess theme is too strong to ignore, so placing them on the board worked both as design and story element. I think the sketch is stronger for its bolder thicker lines, so it lost that in translation, but I’ll have to remember that for the future. Also, all those agents took FOREVER to draw. Click on the image to see the original sketch, ink and final.

Star Wars, I have learned, is a pretty small world. Questions have been asked about my inspirations for the recent Star Wars prints I did for Acme Archives, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to show you guys what goes on in my head (I know it’s crowded in there — please ignore the clowns and circus music). It’s not always clear where inspiration comes from, and when you deal with something finite and popular like the Star Wars universe, there are a lot of common elements shared by the illustrators so some overlap is bound to happen. Any similarities to other Star Wars art are absolutely unintended, particularly in light of Lucasfilm’s rigorous screening and approval process, and I hope it becomes clear where I got my ideas from and how and why I combined them.

I’m pretty new to the Star Wars art scene, so I haven’t been to any of the Celebration conventions (though I was invited to attend this year), and had only heard about them after my friend, Mark Chiarello, painted a brilliant recruiting poster as an exclusive Celebration print (see images below). I find the whole idea of an Imperial recruiting poster to be pretty funny, considering how many anonymous Stormtroopers are casually killed off in the movies. The only way they could recruit is by presenting a very romanticized image of the Empire and service. The US Navy’s longtime recruiting slogan was “Join the Navy and See The World,” which sounds like a pretty good offer. I had seen a recruiting poster for the British Royal Navy which I quite liked for its unintended humor (hey kids, imperialism!) and the style, which was not unlike French Art Deco travel posters. I’m also a huge fan of fashion illustrator Rene Gruau and his use of big, bold shapes pushed me towards using close-ups of the Stormtroopers. After all, their helmets are the best part of the uniform and the most distinguishing characteristic. I also admire the great Royal Air Force posters for their flat graphic design, which also influenced my “big head” design choice. So I adapted the Navy slogan to fit the Star Wars universe, and used the different types of troopers to illustrate the variety of locales they’d be “visiting” (i.e., getting their asses shot in), and continued the traditional Deco use of flat color. I’d already done a grouping of Imperial types in my “Enlist Today” poster, and really liked the idea of just focusing on the different kinds of stormtroopers. Lining up the troopers was the best way to show the different variations, as well as harken to Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda work. It’s a subtle nod, but fascism=evil and I did want to present a darker side to this sunny view of Imperial service. Knowing that Star Wars propaganda and travel posters had been done before, I made the effort to google “Star Wars recruiting poster”. Nothing similar came up so I proceeded with my design.

As one of the franchise’s most popular characters, a Boba Fett image had to be in my set of prints. The concept was to show Boba Fett as an action star, to pitch a movie that cast him as a hero trying to bring his bounty to Jabba the Hutt while fending off his fellow hunters. I’m a huge, unapologetic fan of Robert McGinnis and his iconic James Bond movie posters. There are so many classics, but the ones that really seemed appropriate for my piece were Thunderball, Casino Royale, and Diamonds Are Forever (of course). The recurring images of a dashing, gun-toting hero surrounded by beautiful exotic women seemed fun and appropriate. Oola, the green slave girl, is the obvious choice, as she is the most attractive (sorry) and distinctive,  and she gets the most screen time. Plus, she’s a slave girl, so it’s not a stretch to think of her grabbing on to Boba Fett, begging him to free her from Jabba’s palace. The Casino Royale image also provided some ideas about her pose as well, though the tradition of “girl at the feet of hero” was certainly present from Star Wars‘ beginnings in the movie poster by Tim Hildebrandt. Initially I’d gone with a white background in my piece, similar to the Diamonds Are Forever poster, but moved to yellow as a symbol of Jabba’s physical and psychological presence. Also, it kinda reminded me of the Attack of the 50ft Woman poster, too. I had drawn Fett pointing the gun at the viewer, a la the classic Bond gun barrel shot, but opted in the end to raise the gun to make it more recognizable. In the end, I think it’s a fun piece that quite blatantly acknowledges its origins.

Ultimately, we Star Wars illustrators are all fans playing with Lucasfilm’s toys, trying to explore and combine elements in an effort to regain the magic of what we all felt watching the original films. It’s a fun game to play, but perhaps because we don’t own these trade-marked characters we might sometimes feel too much ownership over ideas that all have their basis in a shared pop-culture environment. If anything, maybe it’s a call to create new worlds and stories of our own.

Justice League: Generation Lost #7 is on sale this week, both in stores and digitally on the Comixology app. This is the first time I’ve gotten a chance to draw the whole team. As with the last issue, the sketch for this really needed to be in color to accurately show the silhouette effect. Click on the image for the sketch, inks and final.

Somehow, Comic-Con feels bigger and bigger every year. Lots of old friends to track down and new ones to chat with, so unfortunately, fewer sketches this time around. I may scale back on the list next year, since other shows seem to be a better place for me to concentrate on drawing. Still had a great time, especially with my boothmates Jill, Fabio, Gabriel, Cris, and Rafael. Next stop, Baltimore!

JUSTICE LEAGUE:GENERATION LOST #6 is on sale this week, both in stores and digitally from Comixology. Who doesn’t love Saul Bass? I needed a graphic way to show the story of a man lost in time, and when the idea of time periods in concentric circles seemed like it would work, I couldn’t resist a nod to Bass’ iconic Vertigo poster. I began with a grayscale sketch, but started playing with a 70′s kind of palette which really helps sell the vibe. Click on the image for the sketch, inks, and final.

Can you believe it’s that time again? I’ll be at my usual spot, BOOTH #1320, with my friends Jill Thompson, Gabriel Ba, Fabio Moon, and special guests Rafael Albuquerque and Cris Peter. I will be taking sketch commissions, and I’ll also have the remaining copies of my 2010 sketchbook. It’s 48 pages of creamy grayscale goodness for a mere $15 — check out some of the sample pages above! I’ll have a different book next year, so now’s the time to pick ‘em up. In addition to the books and some giant art prints, I’ll have a few copies of Greendale with me, and anyone who buys one gets a rare promo poster that Vertigo sent to radio stations. I’ll also have a few cool items around the show. I’ve already mentioned my new Star Wars pieces, but my Threadless t-shirt will be sold starting Thursday at the Threadless pop-up shop located here and online, and they’ll be throwing a party that evening to celebrate. Register here for party tix. The pop-up shop won’t be around all week, so try to make your way over there on Wednesday and Thursday.

Here’s my signing schedule for the week.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 21
8-9pm: SIGNING @ DC booth (#1915)

THURSDAY, JULY 22
4-5pm: SIGNING @ DC booth
7:30-the break of dawn: party at the Threadless shop!

FRIDAY, JULY 23
5:30-6:30pm: PANEL � Vertigo: On the Edge (Room 6DE)

SATURDAY, JULY 24
1-2pm: SIGNING @ DC booth

SUNDAY, JULY 25
11:30am-12:30pm: SIGNING @ DC booth

Okay, I’ve been sitting on this for a while, and it’s been killing me. Based on the popularity of the Star Wars propaganda posters I did earlier in the year, Acme Archives, one of the premier sellers of original production art and limited edition movie art, asked me to produce a set of 3 new Star Wars images. I was honored, but also a little terrified. Those original 3 posters really said everything I wanted to with that approach. Better to throw the mic down and walk off stage, right? So it took me a while to nail down new concepts, but I think I like these even better than the previous efforts. We have an Art Deco-inspired Imperial recruiting poster, a Chairman Mao-style Rebel poster, and a 60′s spy film poster featuring the galaxy’s slickest bounty hunter (and a few others). Click on the images for the full versions. If you’re at San Diego Comic-Con, Acme is at Booth #5629 and they’ll be selling signed prints and framed editions of these pieces. Online, the editions will be on sale at Acme’s site next week. Printed on gorgeous fine art paper, these are limited to 100, so get ‘em while you can. Hopefully I can get a set to display at my booth (#1320)!

Birds of Prey #3 is on sale this week. Editor Janelle Siegel asked me to help out for this cover, and after hearing the story behind it — Penguin-ized versions of our heroines — I was in. All the monocles and tophats made me think of Alan Cumming in Cabaret, though I don’t know if I really captured the seedy feel as I wanted to avoid any burlesque comparisons. Still, it was a fun cover! Click on the image for the original sketch, inks, and colors.

Originally posted June 9, 2010. After more than 4 years in the making, Neil Young’s Greendale goes on sale today in comic shops. It’s hard to believe that I’ve spent nearly 2 years working in some form on this book, and it’s now finally in print, available for people to read and hopefully enjoy. I’ve talked about this project quite a bit in the last few weeks, mostly to newspapers and websites which I’ll link to in the coming days, and there’s not much left for me to say that you can’t read somewhere else. So I’d like to simply express my gratitude and admiration for all my collaborators. Thanks to Karen and Pornsak for their generosity and patience, to Josh for his energy and collaborative spirit, to Todd and Dave for their skill and experience, to Pamela and David for their tireless efforts, and lastly, to Neil for his vision. It’s been an honor.

Greendale will be available in comic stores this week, and in bookstores on June 15th. Please come back tomorrow, when I’ll post some of the character sketches I did in preparation for the book.

There will be a special Greendale signing and art show on Friday, June 18 at Rocketship in Brooklyn.

New York Times readers, you might be looking for these 12 Inch Remix pieces mentioned in the article.

NEWS UPDATES:

• The New York Times interview with Neil, Josh and me.
• Wired’s article on Greendale.
• We made a Greendale playlist for Largehearted Boy.
• The Huffington Post has an exclusive 13 page preview.
• Newsarama has put up 2 interviews with Josh and me.
• CBR interviews Josh. I’d definitely draw a Bowie book!
• Techland posts a 3 page preview.
• Comics Alliance previews another 3 pages.
• Amazing reviews from The Seattle Times, Sundance Channel, CBR, CraveOnline, and Newsarama.

Though haunted by bloody dreams and possessing a supernatural control over nature, 18-year-old Sun Green is very much your typical high school student, unsure of her destiny and what the future will bring. In the midst of her turmoil, we meet The Stranger, a man in black who may or may not be the devil himself. He likes to play games and push people’s buttons. One ripe target for him is Sun’s cousin, Jed Green. Orphaned at a young age, the now 30-year-old Jed was raised by and still lives with his grandparents, who surely wouldn’t approve of his side-job running pot down to Los Angeles.