FAILSAFE FINALE!

Plus, my IMAGE VARIANTS!

This week BATMAN 130 and DAREDEVIL 6 come out in comic shoppes all across this great land. BATMAN is a relentless issue, our finale to the FAILSAFE arc, though I don’t like framing things as “arcs” as the story is definitely not over. Jorge is king of everything and he’s now off to draw some stupid book for giant dummy Mark “Netflix” Millar because Mark had, like, compromising pictures or something? Anyway, he’s doing a NEMESIS miniseries next but then is BACK on Batman!

I wanted to give a special shout out this week to Canadian pal Ryan North, who is the smartest person I know, so I had him help me with some of the science/math parts of this Batman issue. I wanted to give him a special shout out in the credits, but DC said that if we did that he would own Batman, so I’m shouting him out here in my wildly successful newsletter, which he now probably owns pursuant to the relevant “shoutout laws” of our province.

And DAREDEVIL 6 is a very fun issue, if unpacking trauma and trying to become a better person in the face of your own violence is considered “fun”! Matt does his best to help the wayward, while Elektra gets all political. Rafael is back and delivers some excellent work while I deliver some work!

CLASSIC CHIP

CLASSIC.

So, last week I talked a bit about the Marvel variants I’ve done over the years. Today it’s Image! Look, the Marvel ones were fun to do, but with Image the sky is the limit since you’re basically making these covers for other comic creators. Which meant I had a lot more freedom with them.

I think the first one I did was for the cool and creepy NAILBITER book back in 2014 by Joshua Williamson and Mike Henderson! The fact that Josh took a chance on “the funny guy” from SEX CRIMINALS for his much darker book was really cool and I rewarded him by making the logo for his book the size of a fingernail.

This was also my first time interacting with Third Eye Comics, one of the best comic shops in the world.

This one was for Third Eye Comics as well, when Jim Zub and I did a truly wild signing at their shop in Annapolis. Jim let me do a super design-y approach for the cover, still one of my favourites!

I’ve done a couple of covers for my friend Ray Fawkes, who writes beautifully unsettling stories. When would I get a chance to do a nice drawing of a bird for Marvel or DC? A Hawkman cover??

This was such a fun series! CITIZEN JACK was about a politician working with a demon to become President. Sam Humphries is a pal from ye olde internet days so this was a no-brainer to do and I got to use all of my stock chart-making talents from my newspaper infographic days!

SOUTHERN BASTARDS was one of my favourite books, so, again, a no-brainer. This was painted with oil on wood so I could play with the wood texture for the baseball bat. I still have the original in a drawer and I keep meaning to send it to Jason Aaron but I am lazy.

It’s very intimidating to do a cover for the king of variant covers, Mr. Skottie Young.

Another favourite! A lot of times with these covers I think about NON-comic books and cover design when I tackle them. Like, what would look good and intriguing and different in a bookstore? I’m happy the UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY team let me play with the logo here.

And now the Image variant I get asked to sign more than any other. It turns out people love it when I deface my work and my friends! This piece feels dated because Jamie now insists that he does NOT love One Direction.

I later got to draw Kieron and Jamie again for THE WICKED + THE DIVINE Comedy Special. In a lot of ways they’re my muses.

As always, I spent too much time on the background posters:

I’d see all those bands though.

Okay! How do I end this rambling newsletter? Easy!