Wednesday, May 21, 2008

You call him Doctor Jones, doll!

This weekend Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull opens and I'm pretty darned excited. I love the Indy movies. My parents took me to see Raiders of the Lost Ark at the theatre when I was a kid. Usually we saw movies at the Drive-In so it was a real treat to sit in a proper theatre to watch a film. Raiders just blew my mind. I loved every second of it (and still do). The face melting scene at the end and the ghosts terrified my mother. She was sure we'd get nightmares from it. I didn't. But I did gain an undying curiousity in the art of movie making. Long before the internet and giant chain bookstores, I had to get all my info from what magazines I could find at the used bookstore and the corner shop. I still love figuring out how an effect is done...something that's lost a little mystery with all the green-screen business going on. I'm way more interested in a practical effect than something digital.

Which brings me to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...I'm a little nervous to see another Jones movie. I trust Spielberg to make a fantastic movie but Lucas...oh, Mr. George Lucas seems to have suffered some kind of debilitating head trauma when it comes to writing a good story. I'm a little nervous about his part of the movie. That and I've seen a few commercials on tv and there are certain scenes that look really, really green-screen fake. The truck chase in Raiders is so great because it's really happening on a dirt road. The Kingdom chase through the jungle that I've seen in clips looks fake, fake, fake.
Enough about the movie. These sketches were done for a t-shirt that I have yet to make. I just can't settle on an Indiana Jones that I want for my shirt. Do I want the trademark smirk or the mystery man in the fedora (below)? Do I want a straight-up Indy or beefcake him out a little more? I just couldn't decide so I've let the project sit to the side for a while now.

Best,
j.


Monday, May 05, 2008

If the Sub-Mariner reaches the water, he'll become INVINCIBLE!

Final Namor pic in retro-colour! Recently I've been working on a few pin-up type images recreating some of my favourite scenes from comics past. This is sort of the cover image from Fantastic Four #4...although I didn't actually find that cover until I'd finished the inks on my own version. I knew the scene I wanted to draw but looked only in the essential collection for a panel of Namor kidnapping Sue...I don't know how I missed the cover until too late but that's the way it went.

To tell the truth I'm glad I drew more from memory than directly copying. This way it feels more like my own thing rather than a Kirby re-do.

Eventually I'll be sending my pin-ups to my art dealer Albert Moy. I've finally added a link to his site over on the right. Dunno why it's taken me so long to advertise my association with Mr. Moy!! Crazy. Check out his site if you're interested in any of my comic book work. There are some nice Wolverine pages drawn by Darwyn that I inked and some of our Spider-Man work, plus all the Spirit pages.

best,
j.