Oliver's First Post, Yeah!

[Nome]

Hi everyone, Oliver here with my first blog post. I won the "WildStorm Talent Search" from last year and have been busy working at WildStorm Studios in beautiful La Jolla, California with Jim Lee and crew. (You can check me out in this month's "Wizard Magazine" #185!)

Anyhoo, I posted a sample of what I've been working on recently and an "Authority" sample that won me the internship too.

This experience is a dream come true and I've learned a ton in the short time I've been here, working closely with my fellow artists: Alé, J.J., Ryan, Carlos, Rich, Sandra and of course, JIM.

Enjoy!

Juggs, Blobbo & Pyro

[Eddy]

Here's a fun piece by JJ "Juggernaut" Kirby, Christian "Blob" Uche and Dan "Pyro" Norton. JJ also finished the roughly 8.5" x 11" piece with his colorful marker skills.

Kirby adds, "It was an honor to touch characters I grew up loving. I always wanted to do a third (Secret Mojo Wars) installment too."

"You talking to me?"

[Eddy]

Ryan did this con sketch of Grifter back at the Los Angeles show in December. And what you don't see are the VAD PP30s that were his weapon of choice during Ryan's run on the title, but the long trenchcoat and moody eyes are still there.

Anyone remember what Grifter's codename was during his Team 7 days?

Thanks to Don for sending in a nice big scan and look for more of Ryan's con sketches at this year's shows.

Friday Night Monsters are BACK.

(entry ricH)

I did this piece about 6 weeks back but it fits into my old Friday Night Monster sketches so lets get this rolling again. I got together about 15 pieces along these lines, for something "special." I can't really talk about it honestly but it has nothing to do with my current comic work. Occasionally you need to pad out your portfolio. I wanted to add something I wasn't seeing a lot of which was hard to put my finger on. I needed to just attack it visually. To me it always goes back to my fascination with album cover art for some weird reason. That stuff just really stood out to me as a kid.

These were essentially prelims or mock ups for paintings, possibly even something for film or animatics. The one thing I knew was I did NOT want them to be hand drawn. The only way I could see them done by traditional methods would be sort of photorealistic paintings/which I am generally not a fan of. This worked fine and got the basic idea across for what I needed to show.

anyway, I thought of this one as an HP Lovecraft moment. The mad scientist toiling away in his laboratory.....and then.

BAM.

He did it.

But 'it' wasn't what he thought it was going to be..

Happy Friday.

:)

ricH.

2007 reboot

(entry ricH)

I wanted to first say Happy New Year to everyone who stops by here. It's been...I don't even remember it's all been such a blur. 2 or 3 years we've had this blog? It's always been a lot of fun for me and I hope this new year is just as cool. To me it's what you make of it and I've always tried to balance some dumb fun stuff, with I guess some artistic "shop talk" and as much art as possible.....whether it's something I like, something I've inked...or something I've drawn myself...I try and keep it interesting.

I basically learned to draw here as many of the old school lurkers and posters probably remember. It's been 3 years I've been tooling away on my penciling...or whatever weird thing I've gotten involved in (photography, mixed media, abstract, band drawings...). I hope my little attempts at different things continue to keep people wondering "what the hell is wrong with this guy, whats he doing?...or.... when is he going to draw a book?"

My current workload includes inking Whilce on Batman and Wetworks for a few more issues...although some personal stuff for me knocked me off inking Wetworks for 2 issues(I think issues 5 and 6)....and I am working on a pitch now for a brand new book....I'm starting it up as a grass roots thing. But I can say it would be a work that I would write, draw, and color. (and not ink funny enough..but more about that later)

you'll just have to wait and see. It's a different approach...but honestly I wouldn't do it any other way.

:)

So yeah, I wanted to say a proper Happy New Year to everyone here. I hope you all had a great Holiday season(enjoy your machaca plate) and I say now....let's get to work.

best

Richard Friend.

(pic is by JC Leyendecker)

Machaca

(entry ricH)

A recipe for a hearty breakfast including meat and eggs that will keep you satisfied until lunchtime

INGREDIENTS:

3 eggs, beaten, 1/4 cup machaca* (a deliciously seasoned shredded beef), 1 small tomato seeded and diced, 1/ 4 cup onion coarsely chopped, 1 teaspoon serrano chile finely diced, pinch of cumin, pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon lard*

PREPARATION:

Heat the lard in a medium skillet. Saute the onions and serrano chile for about 20 seconds. Add in the machaca and continue to heat for about 1 minute. Mix in the tomatoes and seasonings and remove mixture from pan and set aside. In the same pan, cook the eggs, constantly stirring and scraping with a wooden spoon or spatula to make them scrambled. When eggs are almost done, remove from heat and fold in tomato and machaca mixture. Let eggs sit in hot pan for an additional minute to finish cooking.

*You may substitute shredded beef for the machaca and oil for the lard.

Serve with either corn or flour tortillas.

enjoy.

:)

ricH

Garza - Skye Runner #5 pg. 1

[Eddy]

Just a quick note that I posted some new BATGIRL and SKYE RUNNER pages on eBay, so check 'em out if you're interested in Alé's original art.

By the way, the final issue of SKYE RUNNER hits stores next Wednesday, Jan. 17th!

Wonder Man - Before and After

[KirbyColors]

Drawing Wonder Man gave me the chance to go crazy with his anatomy. Hope you love it too.

Benjamin - Grifter and Midnighter #1 pgs. 2-3

[Ryan]

Grifter and Midnighter #1 - I love working on this book. When I was working on this double-page spread, all that was in my head was, "kick his ass!"

I tried to lay out a page that pulled the reader from left to right, but take up a lot of space so I wont have to draw a lot too. :0 This was actually my third time drawing the Midnighter character...ever! I'm sure the keen artist can see the influences. A lot of slime and flesh tearing movements.

Anyway, there should be more pages coming out soon so look out for it on my MySpace and deviantART too.

And to a question asked earlier, comics is an industry I will never leave. It took me to this point in life and I will always respect my peers and industry for that, especially the ones who got me here. Film production is another aspiration I have and I want to explore that industry too. Not for the money, but for the love of expression.

Art is a medium that can be expressed in many ways and my new sketchbook will define that more clearly.

Charest - WildCats Vol. 2 #1

[Eddy]

Wow, a lot of great picks for the Best WildStorm Cover, but the final came down to a three-way tie with:

Deathblow Vol. 1 #2
Gen13: European Vacation TPB
WildCats Vol. 2 #1

So to break the tie, I went with Travis Charest's WildCats cover.

Out of the three, that cover just blew me away when I first saw it. Not only did he take his art to another level, but I loved the way he put his own spin on each character. It got me so excited about how and why each character looked the way they did and to me, that's exactly what a great cover should do.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who voted and just to start the new year off right, I'll send each person who posted a little something in the mail. Just e-mail me your username and mailing address at gelatomettista@yahoo.com and you'll get something like a postcard, a signed comic or even a sketchbook!

I also took a quick poll around the office and here are some other favorites:

Deathblow Vol. 1 #1 - Carlos "Most memorable!"
Gen13 #13ABC Collected Edition - Sandra "Tinkerbell Roxy!"
WildC.A.T.s Vol. 1 #25 - Joel "Shiny!"
WildCats Vol. 2 #1 - Ryan "Travis!"
WildStorm Universe '97 #2 - JJ "Golden!"