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Superman/Flash
Superman raced the Flash several times in the 1960's, but this time he's racing Jay Garrick, the original, golden-age Flash. The hardest part of drawing this cover was the little buildings in the background. They were covered up by type anyway.
Green Lanterns
Alan Scott, the original Green Lantern meets Hal Jordan for the first time. The background color was changed by the DC art director. I think he's right, the bright green looks better than the gray I picked. Choose your battles.
Superman/Lobo
The Man of Steel battles the Main Man. Biker meets Boy Scout on an alien landscape. Some friends expressed surprise that I could draw a convincing Lobo. Adam Hughes gave me some pointers that helped with the background textures.
Batgirl/Joker
The very first meeting of two icons of the DC universe. My favorite of the series. DC tinkered with the background color. The change is minimal and I didn't even notice it at first.
Catwoman rough
Preliminary sketch for the illustration below. It's rough, but it gives me all the information I need to move on to the next step. The important thing in a sketch like this is to get the gestures and the compostion worked out. Details come later.
Catwoman pin-up
The new, improved Catwoman squares off against the same old Batman. The blood red sky was lifted from the Batman cartoon. It works because of the contrast with the dark gray colors on the figures and buildings.
Adventures of
Superman 608 Pencils
The first in a series of Superman covers. This one features the "Atomic Skull". You can see that I often leave a few things unresolved when I go from pencils to inks. I originally had Superman striding toward the reader. DC wanted him flying.
Adventures of
Superman 608 finished
The inked and colored version of the "Atomic Skull" cover. The colors were changed by the editor so that the radiation wouldn't be confused with Kryptonite. I still think the green works better but I understand their concern.
Adventures of
Superman 609
Superman surrounded by some Marvel Comics clones. I drew the emblem on his chest with an outline and filled it in digitally. I'm not crazy about changing the look of these iconic characters.
Action Comics 795
My kind of cover...double-lit shadows and a ton of gray. I wanted to make Superman look as edgy and grim as possible. The lighting is really more suited to Batman.
Adventures of
Superman 612
Superman fighting with "Action" Superman from Action Comics #1. We'll see how this prints. I tried putting large "Benday" dots in the old Superman's face. The rendering on the modern Superman's face was drawn as black lines on the original art.
Adventures of
Superman 613
Funky Flashman is peddling bootleg Superman merchandise. He's one of my favorite Jack Kirby characters. DC insisted that he not resemble Stan Lee. The background color was... oh, never mind.
Adventures of
Superman 614
Superman finds himself in Heroville and isn't sure what's going on. This cover was full of stuff that I really love to draw: Old buildings, old people and a fire hydrant. I put way too many hours into it, but I was having fun.
Adventures of
Superman 615
An attempt at an ersatz J. C. Leyendecker effect in the background. I even tried to emulate a little of his rendering style in some of the highlights on Superman's costume. I didn't go very far with it, but it was another interesting Photoshop experiment.
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Adventures of
Superman 616: B&W
This cover started out with a large, tightly rendered pencil drawing. The idea here, was to preserve as much of the hand-drawn textures so the final piece would have an old fashioned, antique look.
Adventures of
Superman 616: color
Next, I turned the gray pencils lines to pastel colors in Photoshop and did a little freehand airbrushing. I tried to resist the tempation to clean up the artwork as I worked over it. Little mistakes should add to the organic look I'm trying to create.
Adventures of
Superman 616 finished
I borrowed an old typewriter from my in-laws and my wife's aunt agreed to be my hand model. The original photo is actually in color, but we all agreed it would be more effective in black and white. The beautiful "Corona" emblem had to be removed for legal reasons.
Legends of the DCU 39
A large acrylic painting for the DC series. It's scanned in several pieces so you'll have to forgive the distortion of the image. I really enjoyed doing this one. I'm doing fewer paintings now that I've discovered the wonders of Photoshop.
Batman and Catwoman
Drawn in December 2002, just for the fun of it. Unpublished. I hope to do a color version of this at some point. Batman's cape is just too much fun to draw! As you can see, I love doing feathering with a sable brush. If you find a good one, they're almost foolproof.
Frankenstein and Vampirella
A marker drawing for a friend's sketchbook. I did some work in photoshop after I scanned it. Strange subjects for a "Pieta" but it works for me. (This is from 1998)
Jack B. Quick
The cover of Mike Manley's splendid publication for and about comic artists and cartoonists: DRAW! magazine #4. When I made the seps, I turned some of the black lines in Jack's face into colors... with mixed results. If I had it to do over again, I probably would darken them up a bit more.
Jack and Batman
The flip cover for Comic Book Artist #25. The editor, Jon Cooke wanted Batman on the cover with Jack. My buddy Robert Jewell suggested the hand-made flying machine.
Adventures of
Superman 619
A very simple, iconic image: Clark Kent changing into his working clothes with some assistance from Lois. The hardest part of this cover was figuring out the background color and textures. I added an outline to make sure it looked like a poster shot and not an actual scene on the street. Pencils.
Adventures of
Superman 620
The companion piece for The Adventures of Superman 619. Again, a very simple image with a lot of thought going into the colors and values. The idea here is that Superman is soaking up sunlight like a battery and using it to power his heat vision. Step-by-step.
Adventures of
Superman 621
This one was a lot of fun. All of these covers with Superman in odd or humorous situations always remind me of the old Mort Weisinger, Otto Binder stories that I grew up reading. Superman makes a pretty good straight man.
Adventures of
Superman 622
Superman is doing his best to keep two amorous "angels" apart. By far, the toughest part of this cover was the composition. I started over from scratch several times before I got a layout that worked. The bright background color was requested by DC. I started out with a warm gray.
Adventures of
Superman 623
This is the last of my covers for the series. Icons on top of icons. The Santa panel started out as a scene of Superman lifting a freighter out of the water. DC asked for the change and I think it was a good call. The obvious approach would be to have them both smiling. I made them a little grumpy and annoyed. It seems funnier to me that way.
Original art for sale:
From time to time I'll be offering some original art for sale. This month I have a few pages from Superman: Blood of My Ancestors. You can also check my eBay listings under the seller name bunker101.
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