The Weed of Crime Bears Bitter Fruit...

My first Shadow commission, and boy was it fun! The inclusion of the autogyro was inspired by Dave Stevens' Shadow stand-in character, Jonas, from the Rocketeer mini-series, Cliff's New York Adventure. In my mind, Cliff Secord is piloting that whirlybird.

The Shadow's a blast to draw. Speaking of pulp heroes, I need to try my hand at Doc Savage some day, I think...

Comics Now! #2 in stores, well, NOW!

The second issue of Comics Now! hit stores this month. Based on the first issue, it's a top-notch magazine that I can't recommend highly enough.

Issue 2 sports a stunning cover highlighting an in-depth look at villains. Additional features focus on crime comics and pulp heroes.

Of interest to readers of this blog, is that the pulp heroes article talks about Athena Voltaire.

I haven't seen a copy of this issue, but I'm really looking forward to it.


So remember to go to your local comics shop and tell them "I want my Comics Now!"

Some More Canterville Ghost Artwork

I wanted to post these sooner, but there were a few rounds of revisions.

It's shaping up to be a fascinating project. It's a period that I haven't illustrated much of, so I'm definitely learning a lot.

COMMISSIONS

I'm frequently asked if I'm available for commissions. The answer is yes—especially if you're patient. I don't do this full-time (yet), so I balance my time between my day job, freelance work, creator-owned material and commissions.

I don't do work that's sexually explicit, or gorifically violent but everything else is fair game. Simply email me at atomictikistudio at gmail dot com. If your request is something that I can't feel I can do justice to (it's happened a couple of times before), I'll let you know. Better to save you money and me time, than for both of us to be unhappy.

Here are a few examples of my pencil and ink commissions.

PRICE LIST

Single Character with minimal/vignette background
Pencils $85 (each additional character $50)
Inks $150 (each additional character $100)

1-4 characters are drawn on 11 x 17 two-ply bristol board
5+ characters on 14 x 17, 12 x 18, 17 x 22 or 18 x 24 two-ply bristol board (my choice of size, usually depending on composition)

Single Character with full background/montage
Pencils $150 (each additional character $50)
Inks $250 (each additional character $100)

1-4 characters are drawn on 11 x 17 two-ply bristol board
5+ characters on 14 x 17, 12 x 18, 17 x 22 or 18 x 24 two-ply bristol board (my choice of size, usually depending on composition)

For pencil work, I'll email you a jpeg of the completed piece for your approval. Tweaking is doable at this stage. Payment is due at the time of approval. I'll UPS the piece off within 1-3 days of receipt of payment.

For ink commissions, I'll email you a jpeg of the pencils before I start inking. Upon approval, I'll ink it and send you a jpeg for approval. I 'll UPS the piece off within a 1-3 days of receipt of payment.

Shipping and payment procedures don't apply if we have a predetermined arrangement regarding picking up at a convention, etc.

Commission Gallery

More from The Canterville Ghost

Here's another page from the Canterville Ghost adaptation I'm working on for Classical Comics.

It's been slow-going at first as I find the feel for the characters and the story —no amount of preliminary work ever seems to prepare me for the sense of "stage fright" as I start on a new project. This one is no different.

But it's starting to come together.

And every page I sit down to draw is met with an increased sense of giddiness.

I love it when that happens!

Over at both the Athena Voltaire Blog and the Ursula Wilde Production Diary, I'm still basking in the news that AV will return. Updates to happen tomorrow.

Peace in Our Time: Athena Voltaire Returns!

Paul Daly and I have settled our differences and have resolved to go our separate ways. The bottom line out of all of this is that Athena Voltaire will return!

Coming this Summer, we'll release the trade paperback collection of Flight of the Falcon.

Later this year, I'll be releasing the first of a series of standalone one-shots, graphic novellas, if you will. They'll be somewhere between 48 and 64 pages, perfect bound, and each one will be its own mini-trade. If you're the type who waits for the trade, you won't need to wait. If you're the bagging-and-boarding type, this is what you'll be getting, as well. I'm shooting for a $7–8 price on each volume.

Why the change? With the creator fallout between Paul and me last year, many retailers and readers alike don't know what the hell happened to our favorite aviatrix. If I produce complete done-in-one volumes, on time, I hope to earn back the consumer and retailer confidence we lost when the entire Mu-King miniseries was postponed and then eventually canceled.

The major change is that I'll be writing and drawing the adventures of our favorite aviatrix. Paul will continue to produce his webcomic, Terranauts, but will no longer be involved in Athena Voltaire. Paul's departure has resulted in a "taking his toys with him" scenario, so there will be some story modifications when the first one-shot releases. However, I can say that along with myself, editor Molly McBride and color artists Chad Fidler and Jason Millet are all happy with the tweaks to the comic and we're dying to share it with you.

Watch the skies! AV is back!

Dave Stevens 1955–2008

I didn't want my first post back to be something like this. I've been caught up in a lot of personal stuff (good stuff, but more on that tomorrow).

I never really met Dave Stevens. Oh, sure, I took stuff up to have him sign it at a bunch of San Diego Comicons. I gushed about how much I loved his work. He was always incredibly gracious and modest. However, I never had the guts to show him my work. I never felt it was good enough.

That's a shame. Given what I know about Mr. Stevens (from accounts by his friends), he probably would have been very kind and generous looking at my awkward attempts to emulate his work. And by all accounts, he was always sincere in his compliments of other people's work—even those less-talented than him (which is about 99% of the artists working in comics).

But I was a wuss. And I regret that.

Lately, I had been studying a lot of Stevens' work. A lot. Trying to understand the expressive nature of his brush line. Trying to figure out how he so perfectly balanced juxtapositioning a slick, controlled line with loose, lush, rendering lines.

My mind still boggles at how perfectly he managed it.

I'd also been looking at his work in an attempt to do justice to a Rocketeer commission for my friend Matt. Pictured here are the pencils.

I'm really daunted to try and ink this.

Thanks for everything, Dave.