By the Pricking of My Thumbs...

Like most artists (I imagine), I have folders full of ideas that never seemed to come to fruition.  That doesn't mean they're bad ideas (well, not all of them, at least), just that they're ideas for books, stories or paintings that I never get time to finish.  Life, it is said, is what happens when you're busy making other plans.
One such idea that still looks attractive after a few years was that of doing an Image Comics style "update" of some classics of literature, starting with that most bloodthirsty of Shakespeare's works, "MacBeth".  This was inspired by seeing some of Travis Charest's work in a Green Lantern Quarterly, making me realize that the aesthetic of guys like Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld could really be rendered in a beautiful way.
Being a longtime reader of Shakespeare, I thought a great way to introduce the Image generation to classic literature would be to render it up in the modern style, but retain the original dialogue.  I thought, and still do think, that the play would translate well with a good set of pictures to show the considerable action.
Below are some of the concept sketches I did for that book that never really got started, let alone finished.  It probably never will be, now that I see someone has beat me to the punch with an anime version.  Still, these old sketches are interesting and fun to look at.

First, we have a rendering of Duncan, the old king, much inspired by John Gielgud (the only actor I've ever seen admit to making up Shakespeare dialogue on stage because he forgot the lines):

Next, there's Lady MacBeth, in Big Barda inspired couture, with hips and thighs that only Jim Lee could love....

 

Finally, there's the man himself, in all his clanky finery.  I had the idea that Scotland could be recast as a space colony, with energy swords, spaceships and all manner of science fictiony folderol.  Naturally, he'd need Captain Marvel wristbands and shoulder pads by Youngblood.  The only thing I failed to give him was the gratuitous waist and thigh pouches that Rob Liefeld stuck on his characters at every opportunity.

 

 

Somewhere, I've got a copy of a cover mockup I did for this book.  If I can find it, I'll scan it in later.  Meantime, I'm off to work on my reimagining of "Jane Eyre" done as a Vampirella-style pinup book.

Image is Everything!

Back in the early days of Image Comics, some of the creators ran "fan art" pages in the back of their books. Readers were encouraged to send in their renditions of characters, with the best ones being picked to be printed. As this was in the prehistoric times before email was common, this naturally had to be done via snail mail. Being an ardent buyer of Image at the time, I produced a couple of drawings, but by the time they got where they were going, the books had stopped running those features. Nevertheless, I think the drawings were pretty good, and still hold up now. Here, then, is my take on a couple of favorite Image characters.

First up, Spawn himself. Arguably the most successful Image creation, and certainly Todd McFarlane's best work (while he was still doing it all himself). Spun off to a movie, cartoons and no end of merchandise, the character is proof of the potential that lies in comic books, if there's a good business mind behind the pencils.

Next, naturally, there's Spawn's nemesis, Violator, in Danny DeVito evil clown mode. This guy is just pure fun to draw, as he's somewhere between a leering gargoyle and a bigfoot cartoon. To this day, I have no idea why someone thought John Leguizamo was a good choice to play the character in the movie. Anyone care to enlighten me?



Finally, a couple of WildC.A.T.S. characters, Warblade and Voodoo. This is a series that has been brought to life by some of my favorite creators...creator Jim Lee, artist extraordinaire Travis Charest and so-brillint-I'm-conviced-his-head-is-full-of-stars writer Alan Moore. The 'Cats was the Image series I kept reading long after I had quit all the rest. While it has not reached the marketing potential of Spawn, it seems to have held to a more consistent vision, making it more of an artistic triumph...well, as artistic as you can get with a group of "underwear perverts", anyway.
Here, Warblade rebuts the possibility that his morphing metal claws bear any resemblance to a certain adamantium-laced X-Man:


Maybe one of these days, I'll be fortunate enough to have a book picked up by Image. It would be a fanboy's dream come true to be counted among such a talented group. Meantime, I'm content to mess around in their sandboxes when time allows.