I have a lot of British friends who shudder at the idea of an American actor taking over the lead role on Doctor Who. I’m sorry, my friends, but the time has come. Just as Superman ("truth, justice, and the American way") as now been immortalized by an Englishman, it’s time for your icon to be reinterpreted by one of us.

However, having the Doctor speak with an America accent would just be silly. Henry Cavill used an American accent for the Man of Steel and whatever American takes over as the Doctor should use an impeccable English accent. With that in mind, I think the best choice would be Michael McKean reprising his This Is Spinal Täp role of David St. Hubbins as the Doctor.

English accent? Check. Wacky persona? Check. Colorful fashion sense? Check. Philosophical outlook? Check.

And he goes to 11.

Convention Commission Preorders

I'm accepting commission preorders for C2E2, April 25–27. I'm not sure if I'll be doing more than penciled headshots at the shows, so if you're interested, please consider lining up a commission before the show.

If you're an art collector that prefers to have commissions done in your themed sketchbook, you can mail me your sketchbook and I'll be glad to bring it to the show.

If you're not going to either show, but want a commission, feel free to order one now, too!

PRICING
$50 for an inked single-character piece on 9 x 12 bristol board. Additional figures, email me for a quote. (Plan on $5 for Priority Mail shipping if you won't be picking up the piece at the show.)
Order a 9x12 Commission NOW!


$100 for an inked single character piece on 11 x 17. Again, for additional figures, email me for a quote. (Plan on $10 for Priority Mail shipping if you won't be picking up the piece at the show.)
Order an 11x17 Commission NOW!

(Ink wash, drybrush, etc added at artist's discretion...let me know up front if there's something you really, really, really have your heart set on.)

If you have any questions, please email me at atomictikistudio at gmail dot com

Commission Pre-Orders: C2E2 and Appleseed Comic Cons

I'm accepting commission preorders for C2E2, April 26–28 in Chicago and for Appleseed Comic Con on May 11 in Ft. Wayne, IN. I'm not sure if I'll be doing more than penciled headshots at the shows, so if you're interested, please consider lining up a commission before the show.

If you're an art collector that prefers to have commissions done in your themed sketchbook, you can mail me your sketchbook and I'll be glad to bring it to the show.

If you're not going to either show, but want a commission, feel free to order one now, too!

PRICING
$50 for an inked single-character piece on 9 x 12 bristol board. Additional figures, email me for a quote. (Plan on $5 for Priority Mail shipping if you won't be picking up the piece at the show.)
Order a 9x12 Commission NOW!


$100 for an inked single character piece on 11 x 17. Again, for additional figures, email me for a quote. (Plan on $10 for Priority Mail shipping if you won't be picking up the piece at the show.)
Order an 11x17 Commission NOW!

(Ink wash, drybrush, etc added at artist's discretion...let me know up front if there's something you really, really, really have your heart set on.)

If you have any questions, please email me at atomictikistudio at gmail dot com

Creator-Owned Day: Undead or Alive

Another creator-owned feature I've been working on is Undead or Alive: Paranormal Bounty Hunters. The first two installments have run in Hoax Hunters #6 and 7 from Image Comics, with the entire arc scheduled to run in eight parts. I believe that issue #8 of HH runs with no back-up, so our feature will resume in issue #9.

I'm writing Undead or Alive, with Jason Millet (who did a spectacular job coloring Athena Voltaire) providing stunning full-color art. UoA is a love letter to monster comics and we hope to spin it off into a full-blown series eventually.

Creator-Owned Day: The Black Cobra

Creator-Owned Day (#CreatorOwnedDay) is a celebration of comics that are owned by their creators, rather than large corporations. I have a number of creator-owned books I'm working on, and thought I'd share them throughout the day.

First up is The Black Cobra, a generational story (1940s and 1960s) of a masked vigilante passing the mantle along to his son. The cover image, above, is by me with colors by Chad Fidler. The interior pages are pencilled by Erik Roman, inked by Mark Stegbauer, and will be colored by Peter Kuebeck, with scripts by me.

Donors Choose: Graphically Cool!

Donors Choose is a wonderful funding platform that allows teachers in underfunded public school systems to appeal directly to citizens for help in funding special projects. Since 2000, they have raised more than $100 million to fund classroom projects in public schools across the country, reaching more than 6 million students. Donors Choose is a 501c3 organization, meaning your gift is tax deductible.

My girlfriend, a grade school librarian, has launched a campaign to expand her school's graphic novel section. They already have a good-sized GN section—especially considering that the school is in a high poverty district. But her students, a mixture of native English speakers and native Spanish speakers, can't get enough of our favorite art form! To try and meet demand and increase her graphic novel section, Kerrie has launched a Donors Choose campaign. I'd love it if you could check it out:

https://secure.donorschoose.org/project/graphically-cool/960151/?utm_source=dc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=teacher_favorite_new_project_notification


From now until February 18, Donors Choose is running a matching program, Enter the promotion code HEART and they will match your donation!

There's a wide variety of all-ages comic material on the list, and I hope you will choose to fund the project. Any amount you can spare will help. As an added incentive, I'll give away some artwork!

If you donate, you will receive a receipt from Donor's Choice within minutes of making a donation. Forward that receipt (it includes the amount you donated, but no personal/financial information) to this address: stevebryantart at gmail dot com.

For every $10 you donate, I'll enter you in a drawing for the original art to Athena Voltaire: Flight of the Falcon #3 (pictured at the beginning of this blog post). The artwork measures 11x17 and is ink and brush on bristol board. In fact, it features some of the best drybrush work I've ever done! So if you donate $10 to the campaign, you're entered 1 time. If you donate $20, you have 2 entries. $30 will get you 3 entries, etc...

(I had considered contributing an original commission, but I have a backlog of folks that I plan to take care of later this month/early next, so offering an existing piece seems more fair).

Thanks for considering this! Hopefully, you'll join Kerrie and myself in inspiring a new generation of comic and graphic novel fans!

Remembering the Work of Joe Kubert

I must have been nine or ten when I first encountered a comic featuring a Joe Kubert cover. Truth be told, I thought it was some of the worst comic art I'd seen—and at that time, I considered myself an expert in the artform.

I'd been raised on a steady diet of Jack Kirby's statuesque demi-gods and John Buscema's powerful matinee idols. And most of my favorite work had been embellished with the slick brush lines of Joe Sinnot or Mike Royer, or occasionally inked with the lush rendering of Tom Palmer.

To my eye, Joe Kubert's work looked rough, sketchy and unfinished.

Flash forward eight to ten years: I found myself in my first life drawing class and experienced gesture drawing for the first time. Everything was about capturing a movement (hence the name, gesture drawing) and recording it. Motion, vitality and spontaneity were king.

It was around this time that the lightbulb went off.

What my untrained 10 year-old eye saw as "rough," was actually boldness. What I thought was "sketchy" was actually immediacy.  Where I had previously seen the work as "unfinished," I now saw it as fluid and dynamic.

From that point on, I checked out all the Kubert work I could find. I learned that he was more than just an expert at creating movement. Joe's compositions and storytelling were downright amazing.

I never met the man, but he was my guide on adventures on WWII battlefields, and through primeval jungles. Our expeditions took us from prehistoric earth to unknown galaxies in the far-future. And at every stop along the way, I learned something about art.

Thanks, Joe.