Green Arrow & Black Canary #13 is on sale this week. Date night! This is one of those covers that didn’t come together until the end.  I added the black sky and the burning fires in the background and suddenly there was a lot more depth and interest. Right before going to press, we also threw in some missiles to add to the mayhem. Note to self: explosions = good. I’m like the Michael Bay of comics. Boom!

Secret Six #2 is on sale next week! When I turned this one in, I also gave them 2 options for cover copy:

1. i can haz batmobile?
2. i’m in ur batcave stealin ur costume

We’ll see which one they go for…

I’ll be attending the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend.  I’ve heard nothing but great things about this show, and the guest list is incredible. Plus, Jim Lee is throwing out the first pitch at the Orioles game on Friday! I’ll be drawing and signing comics all weekend, and doing a special signing with Indigo Ink Printing, complete with limited edition art print,  at 4pm on Saturday.

Also, this week sees the release of the Green Arrow & Black Canary Wedding Album, which collects (among other things) my first 4 issues of GA&BC.  This is my first hardcover collection and I’m eager to see how it turned out.

UPDATE: Looks like they pushed the book to October 8. Not my fault! I turned all the pages last year, I swear!

Green Arrow & Black Canary #12 is on sale this week. I had a couple different ideas how to show Black Canary’s cry, but in the end I went the most direct.  There was a more graphic version with lots of concentric rings, but it kinda made me go cross-eyed and into seizures.

Secret Six #1 is on sale this week.  I was only able to do the first 2 covers, but it looks like interior artist Nicola Scott has the cover gig after that (as she should!).  This group of characters has had wonderful covers from JG Jones and Karl Kerschl, so I was pretty flattered when I was asked to help kick off the new series. If you look over here at my message board, you’ll find the original and unused cover sketches too. Best of luck to Gail and Nicola!

Green Arrow & Black Canary #11 is on sale this week and we find out the real story behind Connor’s shooting. This cover was mostly about the color for me, playing the acid greens against the darker forest green of the suit, and all the contrasting warm tones.

Hey, if anyone is interested in picking up the upcoming Green Arrow & Black Canary Wedding Album hardcover (collecting the wedding special and issues 1-5 of the series), you can get it for a great price at Khepri.com. Act quickly though, as that’s the pre-order price and will go up a little by the release date.

Green Arrow & Black Canary #10 is on sale next week.  It’s always fun drawing Batman, and here I wanted to try and push my usual approach to the character.  I went more graphic with his cape, and there are slight touches to the mask that I like.  When you have an icon that’s been interpreted by so many great artists, it can be difficult to figure out your personal take. I think I’m getting closer to it.

Green Arrow & Black Canary #9 is on sale next week. This cover was a tough one. I know everybody loooves Plasticman (those Jack Cole and Kyle Baker stories are great), but he usually works best in his own world, with his own rules. I didn’t want to do a straight-up gag cover but hopefully, Black Canary and Green Arrow catching some righteous air is fun without being too hokey. The trees were more complicated than I had anticipated, and I had to add a few branches digitally to get the right amount of depth. Click on the image for pencils and inks.

Obey! Here’s the cover for Green Arrow & Black Canary #8, on sale next week. I tend to like doing more graphic covers, and luckily this issue really lent itself to this idea. The poster background was a lot of fun to draw, with that slick, high contrast style. Click on the image for pencils and inks.

Nick Magazine recently published their annual cartoon issue, and I got to do this small illo on superheroes. While the finished piece called for a different approach, I did get a kick out of the little iconographic sketches I did for the editor. It’s one of the rare instances where I actually liked the sketches on their own.