Vertigo Redux

Okay, so I can't not do another Vertigo post. I just recently read Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man and loved it. Very cool stuff. Do read it.

Of all the DC Nu52 titles launching in Sept, I'm most excited about this book. Even though it'll be under DC proper, it'll still be written by a Vertigo man, Mr. Jeff Lemire.

Mononoke

So, I've watched quite a bit of anime over the years and very few have really stuck. It's just not my thing. I did, however, not hate Princess Mononoke. It's got a cool grand mythic thing that works really well for it.

With Comic-Con this past week, I didn't think I'd have time to draw this, but with people like Adam, Dove, and Zach pumping out great work week after week, I couldn't just skip a week. So, here we go. An hour = Princess Mononoke.

I got PWNED-YO!

So I did this mainly for my sons, they LOVE Ponyo. Like, watch it continuously, love it. Thank God it's an awesome movie because that means I have to watch almost as much as they do. So I wanted to do something they could hang in their room. It's all traditional media, ink, copic marker (and copic airbrush system), watercolor, and acrylic paint. Also two years ago I had the once in a lifetime honor to actually go to Ghibli studios, talk about a jaw dropping experience, and in the pic below is L-R Youichi Watanabe (of Studio Ghibli), and Koji Takeuchai (president of TMS Animation), me, Ray Goto, Sharon Sakai, David Duncan, & Stan Sakai.
dove

Princess Mononoke

I don't know why this movie gets so much crap, its my fav Miyazaki movie by far. evil super powered Ninjas, demons, sword fights, giant talking wolves, constant dismemberment - what's not to like, esp for guys.

Girls of Miyazaki

In 1998 I first heard of Princess Mononoke coming to theaters. While it wasn't anywhere close to me, I went out and rented it as soon as it went to Blockbuster. I was into Anime, but I hadn't seen anything yet. I'm a converted Miyazaki-ite. Whenever I talk to people who have never seen any Anime, or who seem skeptical, I tell them to only give it a chance if it has "Hayo Miyazaki's" in the title. Mononoke was the first and my favorite for the longest time--Kikki's is lower on my list, but I got such an urge to draw her. Enjoy--and if you haven't seen any of his films, repent.

The Witching Hour

Most of you who are Comic Book fans out there might take a look at my stack of comics andshake their heads--it's pretty small. I's very picky about what I get. Usually it's a comic that totally bawls me over and one I'll want to have forever. That is the case in Jeff Loeb's 3-part Graphic Novel "The Witching Hour." It is still one of my favorite comics ever and might always stay that way. I remember reading it as a teenager and then sitting down and wanting to write the screen adaptation of it. In any case, of all that vertigo has to offer--and I'll have to be honest, I haven't read much--The Witching Hour is the one I'll espouse to anyone looking to give comics a try. To be honest, my illustration of White is bugging me--can anyone help me out with that?

The other Spider-man

Did this as a post for CGS super show.

desert flower

WHICH disney princess had a tiger as a best friend?  This one?  Yeah.  Yeah.  There's just nothing that ISN'T awesome about that.  Not that she wasn't a pretty awesome lady all by herself.  But tigers.  Tigers are the shiz.

say hello to my little SVEN!!

First up we have Swamp Thing, I've only read bits and pieces of the book but I loved the cartoon when I was little although it is no doubt the most ungodly pile of crap ever this guy is still loads of fun to draw!
SVEN THE RETURNED! This is bitter sweet and bit of a tribute to the awesomeness that is SVEN! Northlanders is being cancelled and if you haven't been reading it you're seriously missing out! Even though he only appears for the first book and a one shot, he is no doubt the heart of the series and everything that makes it bad ass. So that being said to SVEN good luck in the great beyond, hopefully you'll get that viking funeral you've always dreamed of.

The Berger Suspects

With Comic-Con coming up this week, I've been busy prepping my portfolio, but I had to step away for an afternoon. I'm a BIG Vertigo fan. In fact, they scarred me for life. When I was 4 years old, probably one of the first memories I have of a movie was watching Swamp Thing with a babysitter one night. Scared the living hell out of me. I'm talking "wake up screaming" scared. Flash forward ten or eleven years, and I'm living off Preacher, 100 Bullets, and Hellblazer. There were SO many great Vertigo characters to draw, that I just had to take a sample.

Basically, if you're not reading Vertigo - you're missing out on the best comics in the industry. Go pick up Y the Last Man, Scalped, Preacher, 100 Bullets, The Witching Hour, Swamp Thing, American Vampire, or We3 - I guarantee you'll like them.

Leakin' some Heavy Liquid

I remember back in my touring musician days, going into a little comic store in a town where we were playing and finding these crazy books in the quarter bin. It was Paul Pope's "Heavy Liquid". The series totally blew my mind. It was a mix of hip culture, sci-fi, graphis design, and rock style, and it was colored in just two colors,...cool. It also opened the possibility of doing comics in a different way, and having the audience come to me. Plus it just looked so cool. Thanks Paul Pope, you rock. Dove.

The Taxman Cometh

Favorite Disney Movie: Robin Hood

Favorite Disney Animator: Milt Kahl

Thought I'd pay tribute to both with this one. So much fun, I tells ya. After being absent from the blog for a few weeks, it's good to be back. Hope you folks enjoy this one.

He's the Pauper of the Surf!

For a long, long, LONG time Jack Sparrow was officially 1st in my list of "'Cool' Things I Liked." But if you had told me seven years ago that I would be more excited about a Michael Bolton song than a 4th addition to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise? HA.

Oh, Walt...

The first film I ever saw in the theaters was The Little Mermaid. It is still my favorite Disney film. I could have done a lot of Disney things, there were a lot I was thinking about, but I felt that I should just pay tribute to the magic of Disney and the man who started it all--though I should really add the Nine Old Men as well.

Disney Big Pimpin'

Okay, so to say I'm a Disney fan is an understatement. I got to grow up during the second renaissance of Disney animation (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Best, Aladdin, Lion King, etc). This piece was going to be small originally, but it just kept growing and I spent too much time on it, but who can blame you when it's Disney.

Originally I was just going to do Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine surrounding Jeffrey Katzenberg on a chair, but I felt that limited what Disney was (though I'd still love to do it). I also went more Disney style and less J. Scott Campbell style.

NOTE: I saw Adam's a month before I even drew mine, so *his* pic inspired mine (even though I got mine posted first).

Cowboys Vs Aliens, Toy Story Style

Toy Story 4,...directed by Ridley Scott! I just wanted to see what these two might look like as real people. I'm not even that big a fan of the movies. Pixar counts as Disney right? Look, it's summer, cut me some slack. Enjoy, dove.

Tarzan

Glen Keane is the man, along with Chris Saunders.

Nextwave....finally

I got a chance to do this with my daily sketch challenge here

http://www.robertatkinsart.blogspot.com

But this was a theme  we had on periodic heroes that I hadnt had the chance to do yet. so here ya go!

Tetsuo

Better late then never

One scary Broad

When I was about 9 or 10 I came inside one Saturday from working with my dad and I turned on the Sci-Fi channel. Back in those days they had what was called "Saturday Anime." I had just discovered it two weeks before and me and my friend Stephen were really interested in this new thing. The movie that was playing was Akira, and my life has never been the same.
But, as much as I liked the movie, I fell in love with the 6 phone-book sized graphic novels that Dark Horse re-released about ten years ago. My favorite installment was Vol. 4 which focused mainly on the world of Tokyo after Akira destroyed it a second time. It's post apocalyptic, and Kaneda isn't even in it (not a single motorcycle!) However, Kei and her hardcore, gun slinging, warrior aunt Chiyoko made up for it. This is Chiyoko as she's trying to save one of the frail telepathic children, Kiyoko, from Tetsuo and Akira's "Great Tokyo Empire."
Sorry, that was long. Here's another sketch I did of Tetsuo doing his tantrum. Enjoy.

TETSUO!'s head?

Akira blew my mind when I saw it. So I did this as a dedication to the whiniest people in the story. And yes kids, that real zip-a-tone. It was a perfect manga-e occasion to bust out the ol exacto, and go to town. Dove.

Blowing off some Steam!

Sorry this is a bit late but, Steampunk robot army! Yeee-Haaww. Need I say more?
dove

KANEDA!!!

Literally one of my favorite things of all time! the anime and the manga are just beyond words.

TETSUO!

So I love this movie even if every time I watch it, it leaves me scratching my head quite a bit, but given the size of the manga I'm sure the movie is just an abridged version of it. In any case I love Tetsuo's giant puss arm, and it was a lot of fun to draw.

The Classic Akira

Okay, so, yeah. I'm a cliche. I drew Kaneda and the bike. It's the Classic Akira image. Though I can make almost no sense of the anime, I'm still a fan of Akira (even if I never watch it again). It's classic. It was my first.

I spent much more time on this than I initially planned, but I owe massive thanks to my insanely-talented brother, Adam, who gave me some guidance as I tried to put this thing together. Though I can't seem to get through the multi-phonebook Manga for this series, he loves it. So give it a try.

Red Moto Suit

never could stay awake through this one, but like how the inks came out.

DC Universe mech

This is some of the work I did on the DC universe game. The script said, "just some big robot" I was like, WhAT? if Im doing this, Im designing up something cool.

So here ya go.

Wham, Bam thank you Mam!  Shazam -1,  Robot - 0

Edit: I've added the inks.