bentonsblog

Work In Progress ( part 1 )

2012-01-31T21:18:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd show you some stuff I'm working on. I'm doing an original piece of art celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Rocketeer. Cartoon Art Professionals Society is auctioning off original artwork to benefit the Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation and CAPS activities.

This will be the first time I've done a finished piece of art with real ( not digital ) ink in a couple of years.

I started off with a few quick doodles to get the basic idea. I did a few more sketches to refine the poses and gestures of the main figures.

I finally refine a final rough of The Rocketeer and Betty.

Here is the next faze moving towards the final pencil drawing:

I make a photocopy of the pencil drawings and I do a few practice runs on the inking style using my trusty Pental brush pen. I find it's a good idea to figure out the lighting and brush style in advance.

Next posting I will get into the final inking. Hopefully, I won't screw it up!

"It's A Christmas Miracle."

2011-12-20T19:01:00.000-08:00

So a painting I did for the NBC television series "Parks and Recreation" aired recently. It portrays the character April ( played by Aubrey Plaza ) as a barbarian woman who has just vanquished the band "Black Eyed Peas". In the episode, April receives the painting as a Christmas gift and drolly states, "These are the Black Eyed Peas, and I finally killed them. It's a Christmas miracle."

It was a fun painting to do, and the fans seemed to love it.
It's even been getting a little press.

You can watch the entire episode here. It's episode 410 "Citizen Knope".

It's not the first thing I did for the show. I was also asked to do line drawings for a couple of murals that appeared on the show. I didn't do the painting part, just the initial sketch. Those paintings appear in episode 409. Thanks to art director Jeffrey Mossa for the fun work!

Al Jaffee Honored At The Annual CAPS Banquet

2011-11-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

Legendary MAD Magazine artist Al Jaffee was honored with a Sergio Award in Woodland Hills, CA on Oct.29. Every year, CAPS ( Comic Art Professional Society ) honors a cartoonist and holds a dinner in his/her honor. Al is most famous for his "fold-ins" for Mad Magazine and is it's longest running contributor. I remember marveling at his fold-ins since the early 70's, when I saw my first MAD. It's al Al's fault that you can never find an old copy of MAD in mint condition. Al looked great for his 90 years. It's amazing that he's still working and producing great work. It was a privilege meeting him at the banquet, and seeing the many luminaries who came to honor him as well.

My Interview at Film Sketchr

2011-10-27T12:36:00.000-07:00

A bit late here, but check out the interview with me that came out in Maurice Mitchell's blog Filmsketchr this past week. Includes some boards from Pirates4 and more.

Odin's Underwear

2011-09-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

Odin in his royal drawers

Once in a rare while, I get to work as a costume illustrator. I had a brief two week stint on THOR. I was tasked with doing some ceremonial and casual costumes for Odin. Usually, I start by taking a "paper doll" approach starting with a version character nude ( or near nude ) and build variations on top of that base. Sometimes I do this with pencil sketches. In this case I used photoshop. I built the base Odin with pieces of bodybuilder photos I found, twisting and skewing limbs til they fit the pose that I want. Most of the face was hand painted. His beard was built from a clump of hair I cloned til it worked as a full beard.

I did a version of Odin in his ceremonial robes. I wanted to really create an epic look for Odin. I wanted to create a Kirbyesque feel of vast, god-like power! All of the elements I made radiate toward Odin's face. I made the shoulder elements and parts of his helmet, wide and tall to the extreme. I still wanted to ground him in the Marvel Thor world by echoing the circular plates on his chest--only giving him more than his son. I took elements from another painting and flaired out his cape to accentuate his magnificence.

Odin in full regalia

It was a fun project. Would love to do more of this type of work.

Hulk SMASH!

2011-08-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

So I was checking out the filmsketchr blog and realized that I had worked on several live-action versions of The Hulk over the years. In fact, the only one I haven't worked on was the new Avengers version.

The first version I did was a bid that ILM was doing to get work on a 1997 version of the Hulk. This one was to be directed by Jonathan Hensleigh and feature The Absorbing Man amongst other monster types as the bad guys. We did quite a few pencil sketches to get an idea of what he might look like.

I did an "expression chart" as well as a photoshop comp to give an idea of what the green guy might look like.

This version never got made. However, with the CG technology getting better and better, there was no doubt that someone would try it again. Lo and behold, Ang Lee threw his hat into the ring a mere four years later. Again, ILM put in a bid to work on it and had the art department put together an art presentation. I didn't get to see the script at that point, but on a lark, put Hulk in a scene chased by helicopters in the desert ( there happened to be a scene like that in the script, after all )

I did a version of Hulk that was kind of neanderthalish. My idea here being that Hulk should be to Banner, what a kitten is to a lion.

I also did a photoshop version with Billy Crudup as the Hulk. Early on, Crudup was slated to play Banner before changing his mind and dropping out of the project.

In 2007, I went to Toronto to work on Louis Leterrier's version. I wasn't involved in the design of the Hulk, but worked as a storyboard artist. Oddly, most of the sequences I worked on ( mainly the favela sequence ) involved Bruce Banner and not the Hulk. Below was a sequence I worked on that did have the Hulk.

Hope you enjoyed my trip through Hulk memories!

San Diego Comic-Con 2011

2011-07-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

San Diego Comic-Con 2011 has come and went.

As I am currently working in New Orleans on GI Joe 2, I had to cut a couple of days off of my normal week long comic-con stay. I didn't want to take more than 2 days off of work. Fortunately, I had Deana and Anson manning the table for me during my absent days. Unfortunately, I didn't have anything new to sell this year. It seems like a lot my fellow artists who regularly have a new product this time of year have taken this year off. For some it's financial, for others, they just weren't able to find the time. So this year was spent selling off "old stock". So I've finally sold out of all four of my 24 hour mini comics. Which leaves me mainly with remaining copies of Art of Crime #1 and Striking Works for sale, as well as some Fanny McRollo prints.

I must say DeviantArt really stepped up to the plate this year by sponsoring Artists Alley. They added carpet beneath our feet and new padded chairs beneath our hardworking artist bums. They also added two large video screens overhead, displaying the work of Artist Alley artists. They also added a computer kiosk with several large screen monitors so you can draw on the computer in front of fans, or display your work via your website etc. Thanks DeviantArt! You're our new best friend!

I spoke on one panel this year for the good folks at Monsterverse. As I've mentioned, I have a story in this year's Halloween issue: Bela Lugosi's Tales From The Grave # 3. Dan Brereton and I were late arrivals to the panel ( literally) but we made it just in time to help pitch the projects we were working on. Sam Park and Kerry Gammill have gathered a tremendous group of art and writing talent. The fans seemed excited about the work. Check out the latest Monsterverse projects coming to a comic store near you!

And speaking of Dan, he was nice enough to give me a copy of his ultra cool, full color art book, The Goddess and the Monster.

Didn't buy that many books this year ( at least for me ). I spent my bucks on original art this year. I was happily surprised to see that the legendary Jordi Bernet had an Artist Alley table this year. He had a portfolio full of original Torpedo 1936 and Jonah Hex pages as well as sketches and doodles for sale. Having lost out on an opportunity to buy a Torpedo original once before, I didn't want to miss this opportunity again.
Below is a copy of the page I bought. The original page has no lettering on it. As you can see, it's a beautiful piece, and it's MINE, MINE, MINE!!

I also picked up some nice books from Kevin Dart, Nathan Fox, and Adam Hughes. Another lovely find was at Stuart Ng's, where I bought a copy of The Art of Butch Lukic. Nice sketchbook by a former director of The New Batman Adventures. Nice package with a firm, squarebound, paperback cover, 60 pages of color sketches throughout. And best of all, only $10 for a really impressive package. When I looked inside, I realized that it was put together by my friends at Art of Fiction. A couple of guys run this indy comics publisher through their comic shop in Burbank, House of Secrets.
In fact, I've done some work with them on their first book, Five Color Comics #1. I also did a couple of illustrations for their forthcoming Five Color Comics #2 ( expected for the 1st quarter of 2012 ), so keep an eye out and order yours soon.

Seems like this will be a rebuilding year in terms of my self-publishing/comic-con ventures. I want to shift gears and create more thoughtful and higher end projects. Hopefully, I can juggle this and my regular work, and put out some quality stuff. Stay tuned...

R.I.P. Gene Colan

2011-06-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

It with great sadness that I 'm posting about the death last night of one of the great comic books artists of all time, Gene Colan. I grew up on Colan's work, admiring his mood lighting and the realism in his figures. I poured over his Tomb of Dracula and Dr. Strange runs. He was a major influence in the way I learned how to draw. I was lucky enough to have had a brief conversation with him via Skype at a CAPS dinner honoring him in 2009. We talked about his comics work and we talked about visual effects. He told me how he was amazed by visual effects, but even the old films could fill him with a sense of wonder--citing the 1936 Clark Gable film San Francisco ( about the 1906 earthquake ).

Ironically, my next post was going to be about Gene Colan. I had recently been admiring a period in his career that doesn't seem to get a lot of ink, but I found noteworthy. During the 50's, he did a bunch of short war stories for several of Atlas Comic's ( now Marvel ) war anthologies like Battleground, Battlefront, Battle Action and Battle. He also did war comics for St. Johns and DC Comics around the same time but a lot of that stuff was inked by other artists, and barely looked like Gene's work. It was obvious he was having the most fun with the Atlas stuff. They seemed to give him freer reign creatively. Not only did he ink his own work in these, but most of his stories led off with a striking splash page ( which no one else seemed to be doing in the anthology books at that time )and inventive layouts.

If you have a chance, look for some of his work outside his superhero output for DC and Marvel which has already been very well documented. You'll find he was an amazingly talented and versatile artist whose work continued to change and evolve til the end. He did some wonderful romance comics, as well as some great horror work as well.

Gene died in New York at the age of 84.

I'M BACK!

2011-05-30T19:53:00.001-07:00

I hope you all will forgive me for the time I've taken away from my blog. It's been a loong time and I want to get back into the swing of things.

I have been quite busy. I am currently on location in New Orleans working on a film. New Orleans is a beautiful and vibrant town. I hope to get some sketching done while I'm out here.

I'm posting a page for a short Warren style comic story called Second To None that I both wrote and drew and will add color to. It will appear in Bela Lugosi's Tales From The Grave#3 for Monsterverse. It will be out around Halloween this year. I would love to do more short stories like this. The 8-10 page story is probably my favorite format as a cartoonist. It gives you an opportunity to write a story that has a beginning, middle and end that can be in any place time or genre. Anthologies of this type that support short comics stories apparently don't do well in the comics stores. However, historically they are often looked upon fondly in retrospect, when you look at great anthology books like Creepy, Eerie, Blazing Combat, Two-Fisted Tales, the EC horror books. I've been looking at a lot of old horror, war, crime and romance anthology books from the 40's, 50's and 60's lately. Theres so much great art that has gone completely unrecognized. ( I could do a whole post on Gene Colan's war comics he did for Atlas. It's a whole period of his career where I think he was doing some of his best work! FANTASTIC stuff. But I'll save that for another day ). Anyhoo...enjoy the page. I'm hoping be back to my monthly schedule so stay tuned.

Political Cartoons

2010-10-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I entirely missed September, but I promise to make up for it with multiple posts this month.

A couple of months back I did a posting about a book I worked on called The Adventures of Unemployed Man. I pencilled, inked, lettered, and colored an origin story page as well as a few faux ads, including the one below.

The book will officially be released on October 18, but It's already in a few book stores now. The authors, Erich Origen and Gan Golan are doing various book signing events, including a kickoff at Phoenix Books in San Francisco ( see their site for details ). There will also be events coming up at Skylight Books and Book Soup in L.A. ( I will try to attend at least one of those ).

It's a funny, perceptive look at the current financial crisis. Buy this book!

Unemployed Man is not the only politically themed project I've been working on lately. I recently did some comic strip style artwork for the Los Angeles Democratic Party on a flyer promoting voting by mail. If you're in L.A., you can probably pick up copies of the flyers by visiting their offices.

Below are some samples of some of the work I did for that project.

Belated Post Con Post

2010-08-03T15:39:00.001-07:00

So San Diego Comic-Con has come and gone. Aside from all the cool stuff to see and buy,
I see comic-con as a place to see people I haven't seen or a while, or don't get to see
that often. Below is a picture of me with friends Tim Burgard; Dave Duncan; and Warren Drummond; as well as my fiancee, Deana and my brother Anson.
I also sold copies of my "Striking Works" sketchbook and my new "Art of Crime" mini-comic, which got a nice review here.

There were also a few "celebrity sightings" in and about my Artist Alley table. Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson came by, as well as one of my former college instructors, movie poster artist Drew Struzan. Drew's former college roommate Alex Tavoularis hung out with us a bit. ( Alex was one of the first storyboard artists on the original Star Wars movie ).
Comedian Patton Oswalt wandered by and we grabbed him for a quick picture. We spotted Wesley Snipes around artist alley ( I had a meeting with him about a potential project only a couple of weeks before ) and he came by our table to say hello.

I also had the opportunity to speak on a panel on behalf of the ADG along with a few other film illustrators Robin Richesson and Phil Saunders and members of the costume illustrators union,including Brian Valenzuela and Christian Cordella . The panel was well attended and had between 615 ( 15 minutes in ) to 1000 attendees ( by the end ) The panel was moderated by effects legend Harrison Ellenshaw.

Although I didn't get to wander far from m table this year, there was definitely plenty to buy! The "must get" item for me was Marcos Mateu-Mestre's "Framed Ink". This is a great book on composition that will inspire anyone who does comics or storyboards. Louie Del Carmen
sold out of his Steel Noodles #1 with good reason. It's a beautiful book! Of course I also picked up Adam Hughes new coffee table book on his DC cover art as well as his new sketchbook "Slayboy". I also picked up Battle Milk 2 featuring beautiful color artwork by Wayne Lo and his talented colleagues. When I first met Wayne, he was an intern for the ILM art dept. Now he's a designer on the Clone Wars animated TV series. Also worth looking at was Chris Sander's Sketchbook 4, Michael Golden's Sketchbook 2, and last, but not least, Jamie Baker's color Sephilina book. Great color collection of his
Nauti Girl stories that made an early appearance in the "Babes in Space" anthology. It also has a gallery of Sephilina drawings by different artists, including one by me. Also check out Jamie's con report.

Comic-Con 2010

2010-07-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Boy, the year sure went by quickly. It's already time for San Diego Comic Con! Once again, I will have an Artist's Alley Table ( DD23 ). This year, they seem to have put the Artist's Alley tables on the far left wall of the main hall ( if you are entering from the main entrance ). I have a new FULL COLOR book this year called ART OF CRIME that collects my crime comics as well as some new material. And of course I will still be selling copies of last years STRIKING WORKS sketchbook, as well as my 24 hour comics, and Fanny McRollo prints and some original artwork.

I will also be part of a Saturday afternoon panel on film illustration/storyboards etc.

The skinny:

4:00-5:00 The Design Process for Film and Television— The making of a film or television show is a collaborative process. Costume Illustrators and Concept and Storyboard artists, serve a key position in the web of communication that is essential to filmmaking. This panel highlights the fundamental importance of illustration, as well as the seamless creativity between the key conceptual departments on favorite feature films and television productions. Moderator Harrison Ellenshaw, (Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back), hosts Costume Illustrators from CDG, Local 892: Christian Cordella (The Last Airbender), and Brian Valenzuela (Star Trek 2009), and Artists from ADG, Local 800: Benton Jew (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), Phil Saunders (Iron Man 2) and dual member (CDG and ADG) Robin Richesson (The Last Airbender). Indigo Ballroom, San Diego Hilton Bayfront

Hope to see you all there!

Racist Casting: Will "Airbender" be the Last?

2010-06-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

Today The Last Airbender premieres in movie theaters today. Ironic that a film so blatantly antagonistic towards Asian people opens on the weekend celebrating the founding of one of the most culturally diverse nations on earth.

I know you've heard the story. M. Night Shyamlan's adaptation of Nickelodeon's Asian-inspired animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender" has raised the hackles of many in the Asian community because of the casting of mainly Caucasian actors in the primary roles.

I've discussed this issue with many people, and I must say that although most people are with me, I'm pretty shocked at the resistance I sometimes get.

So, were the hiring practices employed in this film racist? I believe so. Here are some of the most common arguments I hear from the other side, and my counters to them:

It's just a movie! What's the big deal?

It is a big deal. Asian-American actors have been the victims of discriminatory practices for most of the 20th century, and it still is continuing on to this day.
Hollywood seems to have done triple backflips in order to avoid hiring Asians whether it be by the use of make-up, ignoring the racial context of a story, or changing the story to exclude the Asian part. The excuses are many:

"There aren't enough Asian actors"

"There aren't enough GOOD Asian actors"

"This role doesn't call for a kung fu master, Chinese waiter, computer nerd, etc,",

"Asians don't do well at the box office",

"Whites won't watch movies with Asians in the lead roles".

All of these are just bullshit excuses, of course. In fact, if you look at the history, films that do the "yellow-face" thing have done miserably in the box office ( John Wayne's "The Conqueror", "Remo Williams", "Dragonball" anyone? ), while the few that have been made with the actual Asians are relatively successful ("Enter the Dragon", "Crouching Tiger" )

This film continues a tradition in America, of avoiding the hiring of Asian-Americans or Asians in films that Asian American actor were completely qualified to work on. This aversion to hiring Asian-Americans has either been remedied by the use of "yellow-face", that is dressing up a non-Asian with prosthetic make-up ( Mickey Rooney in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" ), changing the context of the story to fit the needs of a white cast ( "21"), changing the story to be about a bi-racial person ( "Miss Saigon", "Kung Fu" ).

In the case of "The Last Airbender", where the cartoon source material was so heavily intertwined with Asian culture and philosophy, that casting actors who were anything other than Asian seemed ludicrous, the filmmakers chose to completely ignore the connection between Asian culture and Asian people. In "The Last Airbender", Asians are relegated a token villain roles and background characters.

It's not ok to work in a restaurant and put all African-Americans working in the back, and all Caucasians in the front. Should the film business be any different?

We need to fight discrimination wherever it occurs. This is the 21st Century for cristsakes.

It's a fantasy world! Who's to say they aren't white?

Sure, it's a fantasy world! But it's a world based in Asian culture. The original creators have said as much! In the cartoon, they eat with chopsticks, write with Asian characters, espouse Asian philosophy, walk in pagodas, wear Asian clothing. Similarly, Middle-Earth in the Rings trilogy and Conan the Barbarian's Cimmeria are fantasy worlds based in European culture. Yes, they are fictional worlds, but no one ( and rightfully so ) would think of the main characters in those worlds as anything other than European. Simon Yuen as Gandalf? Bolo Yeung as Conan? Can you imagine the outrage if Peter Jackson or John Milius had made those casting choices? Good! Then you know how we feel!

The cartoons are done in an anime style, with big round eyes! Of course they're white!

The anime drawing style is a stylization based on copying western drawing styles. That doesn't mean all anime characters are "western". And who's to say that the round abstraction used to represent eyes can't represent Asian eyes as well? ALL eyes are round! The characters in Isao Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies"( based in Japan at the end of WW2 ) all have round eyes, but there is no doubt they are Japanese.

There aren't that many experienced Asian actors around. What could they do?

That's another sad part about the casting of the film. Since a majority of the cast were kids, no one is expected to have a lot of experience. Young Asian actors could have been hired and the fact that they didn't have a long resume would have been a moot point. There are 13.4 million people of Asian descent living in the U.S. There are 2.4 million Native Americans and Alaskan natives. I can't believe that there are absolutely no talented actors that could have filled the appropriate roles among those numbers. Not to mention the large amount of actors they could have hired from Asia. This was a terrible, missed opportunity for Asian-American actors, who usually can't find work because they are told that there are no roles for Asians. Now, once there is a film with lots of roles for Asian-Americans, those roles were opened up to white actors as well. Can someone say "double standard"?

It's about the box office. They need big names in the leads!

Noah Ringer? Nicola Peltz? Jackson Rathbone? Yeah, those are names I would run to the theater to see!

The world should be color-blind! Everybody should be up for any role!

In a perfect world, anybody should be be up for any job they want, and let the best person win. They truth of the matter is that we don't live in a color-blind world. Race dictates a lot about who a person is, their history, their standing in society, their cultural values. That said, there are "race neutral roles" ( roles that should be open to anybody, regardless of race) and there are "race specific roles" ( roles where the character's race plays a part in the story or character ). It would be ridiculous to have Nicolas Cage play the Marvel's Luke Cage, just as it would be ridiculous to have Chow Yun Fat play George Washington. Clearly, the original source material in "Avatar: The Last Airbender" was based in Asian cultures, with Asian characters. Anyone who says otherwise is either willfully ignorant or completely blind.

This is just a fluke! It won't happen again! Why worry?

It's the 21st century and it's happening more than ever! There are several films on the horizon that are doing the "yellowface" thing. In fact, John Millius has proposed a movie about Genghis Khan starring Mickey Rourke! Are you kidding me ? And you thought the days of "Amos and Andy" were long gone! Below is a picture of the real Genghis Khan, followed by some pictures of actors who have played or have been considered to play him. Notice that in fifty years, Tadanobu Asano was the only Asian to play the role. Certainly a much better choice for the role than Steven Seagal and Channing Tatum, who were also up for the role. The film,"Mongol" ( a Russian production ), was nominated for an Oscar. John Wayne's "The Conqueror" can't make the same claim. However, even after all that, Hollywood still hasn't learned it's lesson, returning to the mindless yellowface of yesteryear. Mickey Rourke as Genghis Khan? Really?

So in conclusion, I'm asking you to avoid "The Last Airbender" at all costs. Don't pay money to see this thing, because doing so will only encourage this behavior. Early reviews are pretty negative, so you probably aren't missing anything.

Good Grief! The Making of a Comics Page

2010-05-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

I recently was asked to draw a comic page for a book called The Adventures of Unemployed Man . It's a satirical look at the current troubled economic times by the creators of the New York Times Best selling book Good Night Bush, Erich Origen and Gan Golan. Some of you out there might be interested in my process, so here we go:

It starts with a script page. Co-author Gan sent me a script and reference for a one-page story about a character named Good Grief, a school psychiatrist in a world of superheroes during troubled economic times. Gan, also an illustrator, sent me this thumbnail of what he wanted the page to look like:

Gan mentioned EC's Psychoanalysis comics as a stylistic reference point. I wanted to work out some storytelling and compositional problems, so Gan allowed me to create a slightly tighter thumbnail. I changed panel 2 to a lower, more heroic angle, to show the group in their happier, glory days. I was having problems with panel three as originally roughed out, because the adult characters somehow felt crowded into the frame, so I changed their positions in the panel. Panels 5 and 6 as thumbnailed weren't working for me because that type of panel arrangement wasn't very common during the 50's. I changed those panels to a more vertical format, which not only read smoother, but also accentuated the height from which the "jumper" was jumping.
I also changed the last panel to a high angle. This way it subtly suggests Good Grief looking back at her "jumping" student from the reverse angle, even though she is not actually looking back at him, it shows he is in her thoughts.

At this point, I had scanned my pencil sketch into Manga Studio Debut (which I got for X-mas). I added the lettering to make sure the spacing of the panels worked ok. I even found an EC style font online.

I did a tighter rough pencil to work out a few of the kinks. Changed panel 3 again to an "X" kind of composition, which seemed to balance the panel out a bit.

Since I'm inking myself, I decided I didn't need to go to a tighter pencil stage. And since this was digital, it's easy enough to make changes anyway. Besides, I was itching to try Manga Studio's ink tools. Gan felt that in that last pass, panel 2 had lost some of power of the low angle and the human touch in panel 3. His comments were right on, so I incorporated those changes into this inked pass. I also wanted to make "the jump" more imposing in panels 5-6, so I made the figure smaller.

I like Manga Studio's inking tool ( once you learn to adjust the brushes ). Also the line tool works a lot better for my purposes than the one in Photoshop. Still haven't quite figured out Manga Studio's panel function yet. Also, the display lettering function is a little limited in MS, so I saved the display lettering on panel 1 for Photoshop.

I took it to Photoshop to color. We agreed however, that this version looks "too modern" with the saturated color and the gradations. It had lost that "retro" flavor.

So I went back and took out the gradations in panel 5-6 and did the transitions by hand. I also desaturated the color layer and pixelated it to give it an old halftone look. I also added a paper texture and I "yellowed" it a bit to make it look aged. I'm pleased with the results and the final result is below. The client seemed happy as well. Look for the book to hit stores in October.

Alternate Visions

2010-04-30T09:19:00.000-07:00

In the storyboard biz, you will work on a film for months with a director and try your best to help him/her, visualize their vision of the script. Occasionally, for whatever reason, the show gets shut down, and the film you worked so hard to help visualize goes away forever. Sometimes, you find that the film has come back, albeit with a different director, crew and storyboard artist. It happens all the time in Hollywood, with storyboard artists being among the few who "see" the film as visioned by a different director. This changing of directors has happened on several films I've worked on: Sahara, The Golden Compass ( although the original director returned after his replacement left the show ). Most recently, I worked on The A-Team movie with director John Singleton, who was later replaced by Joe Carnahan. I always wonder what the films would've been like if the original director had stayed aboard.

Below is a sample of boards I did for director Jonathon Mostow ( Terminator 3 ) for a film called Tonight He Comes, which would later be renamed Hancock and was directed by Peter Berg.

Writing with Invisible Ink

2010-03-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

What is Invisible Ink? Read this Book and find out.

My friend Brian McDonald is an extremely talented screenwriter and teacher who has just

released his first book, Invisible Ink: A Practical Guide to Building Stories that Resonate .

I first met Brian through friends Derek Thompson and Brian O'Connell at various comic conventions ( Brian has also written comics ). Deana and I shared a cabin with him and the crew of his hilarious short film White Face, when it was playing at the Slamdance Film Festival in Utah (where it won the audience award for best short ) and I was showing my short film, The Collector at the NoDance Film Festival.

Brian would later write the indy horror film Inheritance. I provided some storyboards for the film that can be found here.

Brian would also do story seminars at places like Industrial Light & Magic and Pixar. Those seminars were great. They broke down the story making process down to it's purest components and made them easy to understand.

Wanna write stories? Read this book!

Retro Comics Retreads

2010-02-14T12:01:00.000-08:00

Oddly, there seems to be a sudden curiosity about a piece of art I did for ILM back in the 90's called "Attack of the Nitpickers". I was asked to do this piece as announcement of ILM's yearly halloween party. It was made into a postcard along with two other EC inspired ones created by my fellow art department colleagues Brian O'Connell and Scott Leberecht. All three pieces were also made into giant banners that were used as decorations at the party. A limited amount of my "Attack of the Nitpickers" piece were printed up and sold as high quality posters.

The "nitpickers" piece seems to really resonate with my computer graphics artist friends. One friend has told me he recently started building the piece as a CG model. Back when it first came out, it somehow got into the hands of someone at "Aint It Cool News" who wrote:

"Well, you all saw those tickets to the ILM HALLOWEEN PARTY, well, a cool ILM dude or dudette sent the following work of coolness to further exhibit the hilarious and quite artistic merits of the jokesters at ILM. Man, looks like somebody needs to draw a few EC comics to me. NEW ISSUES!!! WOW"

Of course it wasn't the first time I had been asked to do something in an "old retro comics style". And it probably won't be the last.

I did this one for Rhino Record's collection of Newcleus. WIKIWIKIWIKI....

This was a CD cover for two all-girl punk bands named "Shug" and Cockpit". My friend Darren Wong did the graphic design. This also included a short comic book and color character bios inside.

This was done for Fat Wreck Chords for the punk band Screeching Weasel. Frontman Ben Weasel said he had a thing for the movie "Caddyshack" and he wanted the concept to refer to that film.

I did the one for the ska band "Undercover S.K.A.". One of my fellow ILM art dept. colleagues was married to one of the band members and recommended me for the job.

This is the front and back covers for a CD compilation of superhero theme songs.

"Tales of the New West" by Hernandez/Jew

2010-01-30T18:31:00.000-08:00

I've been slowly cleaning out my studio lately. I've been going through lots of old work that I haven't seen in decades. I came across this comics page I did in 1988. I was just finishing up in art school and was soon to embark upon my film career at ILM when I did this. This page was one of a handful I did for "Tales of the New West", a project written by Mario Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame. I was ( and still am ) a huge fan of all three Hernandez Bros, so I was extremely excited when Mario asked me to help him out on the project. Unfortunately, with my fulltime school load among other things, I wasn't able to commit my full attention to the project at the time and it never got off the ground. The story was a quirky, imaginative adventure story and I would have loved to see were it would've gone.

Happy Holidays!!

2009-12-23T17:22:00.001-08:00

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to everyone!

Relax and make merry!

See you in 2010!

-benton and deana

Belated links to some interviews I did...

2009-12-06T11:41:00.000-08:00

In November, I had an interview posted on the website AARisings, a site about Asian-Americans in the entertainment industry. Here is a direct link to the interview.

Here, I appear briefly in a video interview conducted at San Diego Comic Con about the whole Last Airbender controversy. Go to the Racebending site to find out more.

A Pair of Giants

2009-10-31T16:36:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days I've been lucky enough to be in the presence of two of my comic book heroes.

Last Saturday, I went to a CAPS dinner honoring Gene Colan. Although Gene's doctors wouldn't allow him to travel to California, we were able to link up with him at his home in Brooklyn via the computer on SKYPE. Mark Evanier, Gerry Conway, and Marv Wolfman were among the guest speakers. Wolfman had commented on how Colan had made him better writer because Gene's naturalistic figures made it impossible for him to get away with writing bad dialogue. It was great that he and his wife Adrienne could share the moment with us despite being 3000 miles away. I was lucky enough to get a few minutes of one on one time with Gene at the end of the event.

On Thursday night, I saw a rare appearance by Robert Crumb at UCLA's Royce Hall. I felt lucky to get in because the reclusive Crumb rarely makes public appearances. The talk was moderated by Francoise Mouly ( The New Yorker, RAW ). Crumb talked about his life growing up, his current life in France, and his most recent project "The Book of Genesis Illustrated". This project was four years in the making for Crumb. He originally expected it to be a year and a half project, but 40 pages in he realized this was going to be a much bigger project. The work is amazing and the Hammer Museum is displaying every original page from the book from Oct. 24-Feb. 7. More info here.

Some Costume Work

2009-09-20T19:32:00.000-07:00

Been putting up a lot of comic stuff lately, so I think I'm going to start posting a bit more of my film work.

Here are a few costume illustrations I did for G.I.Joe: Rise of The Cobra. It was a fun gig. I was originally only supposed to be on the show for a few days during an emergency push, but it expanded into a much longer gig. The show really employed a who's who of concept illustrators in town. Some really amazing work was done for both the art and costume departments. I've only had a couple of opportunities to do costume, and find it to be a lot of fun. I worked with the costume designer before and there always seemed to be great work coming out of her crew. The other costume illustrators, Ed Natividad and Christian Cordella, did some amazing work. I've posted a couple of sketches I did of Scarlet and a photoshop comp I did of a Cobra Trooper.

Has 30 years made any difference?

2009-08-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

So as I mentioned in a previous posting, I was going to redo the Tarzan drawing I did when I was a teenager in 1979. I redid it under similar "battleground conditions" as I had done it in 1979. I had no pencil sharpener, no eraser, no rulers or templates, no computer or internet, no reference ( except a printout of the '79 drawing ), and only an hour to do it in ( I did the original drawing in a junior high school art class ). I kind of went into this thinking I would blow my old drawing away, but surprisingly, it wasn't that easy. I had a hard time drawing the tiger completely out of my head ( Yes, I know there are no tigers in Africa. Didn't know that back then!) How did I ever survive without Google Images! The main difference I see is that I work a little more methodically now. A little neater and less careless. It was an interesting experiment. I may try it again soon, only allowing myself the luxury of my pro equipment and reference etc. Otherwise, I'll try this again in 2039!

Striking Work!

2009-07-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

For the past year or so, the film industry has been rocked by threatened writer and actor strikes. This has meant a slowdown in film production. The resulting down time has allowed me to explore some more comic-related work.

Thus came the title of my new 2009 sketchbook, STRIKING WORK! It's making it's debut at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con. It's perfect bound, with 40 black and white pages. Limited to 300 signed and numbered copies. Some of the work has been seen here on the blog, but I've also added some oldies but goodies that you probably haven't seen, as well as 20 brand new sketches ( made exclusively for the book! )

So if you're in San Diego, please come by my table at Artist Alley ( EE02 ) and pick up your copy. In addition to STRIKING WORK, I'll be selling the 20 original art pieces I did for the book. There will also be copies of SECRET IDENTITIES and ROB HANES ADVENTURES #12 for sale. There are also very limited quantities of my four 24-Hour Comics and BABES IN SPACE.

And while you're at it, check out my brother Anson's cool new aptly titled color artbook, SHOW ME THE BODY! It's got figure drawings, monsters & robots, drawing tips, and even an animated flipbook! His table is right next to mine at EE01.

I will also be at two panels at the convention:

SATURDAY
10:30-11:30 Film Illustrators— Films, graphic novels, and comic books: what does it take to work as an illustrator in this ever-changing, challenging world of imagination? Meet the professionals who work with the writers, directors, producers, and production designers in the dynamic craft of creating iconic images for films and comics from the words on a page. Panelists are Tim Burgard (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), Trevor Goring (Waterloo Sunset graphic novel), Gabriel Hardman (Heathen Town graphic novel), Benton Jew (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace), and Phil Saunders (Iron Man). Moderated by Geoff Boucher of the Los Angeles Times. Room 10

SUNDAY
2:00-1:00 How-To Session: Benton Jew— Benton Jew is a storyboard/concept illustrator and comic book artist from Los Angeles. He began his career in film at George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic, where he provided artwork on The Mask, The Mummy, and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. He has also done some comic book work and has recently contributed art to Secret Identities: The Asian-American Superhero Anthology, Rob Hanes Adventures and Marvel's Agents of Atlas and Hulk Family. Benton will present more information on the creative process from storyboarding on major motion pictures to independent publishing. Room 18

Below is a list of booths and tables you should visit. This list will grow, so if you want me to add you, drop me a line.

Anson Jew (Artist's Alley EE-01)
Benton Jew (Artist's Alley EE-02)
Sho Murase (Artist's Alley GG-01)
Wayne Lo (Artist's Alley LL-07)
Bosco Ng (Artist's Alley KK-04)
Steward Lee (Artist's Alley KK-10)
Vaughn Ross (Artist's Alley GG-02)
Dan Panosian (Artist's Alley II-15)
Gene Yang (Artist's Alley AA-04)
Gene Colan (Artist's Alley AA-16)
Russ Heath (Artist's Alley AA-14)
Tony DeZuniga (Artist's Alley BB-04)
Derek Thompson, Ted Mathot (#1215)
FLIGHT /Kazu Kibuishi, Sonny Liew(# 2329)
Pixar artists: Scott Morse, Jeff Pidgeon, Ronnie del Carmen, Enrico Casarosa (#4800)
Stephen Silver (#H6)
Sam Hiti (#1831)
Kevin Dart / Fleet Street Scandal(#1316)
Paul Briggs (#4039)
Martin Hsu (#G-02)
Secret Identities (#1735)
Randy Reynaldo (#S14)
Abismo/ Nerve Bomb ( #1329)
Dean Yeagle (#1037)
Christian Alzmann Studios (#4916)
Stan Sakai (#4906)
Steve Leialoha (#I06)
Sergio Aragonés (#I07)
Sean "Cheeks" Galloway (#2544)
Stuart Ng Books (#5012)
The Blvd./Trevor Goring, Bernard Chang etc (#1821)

More coming. And with links...

It's almost July....

2009-06-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry. I've almost gone through the entire month of June without posting!

I recently did some artwork for the first ever Kiyama Awards. The award is for the first Asian American ComiCon that will be happening in NY soon. To see the artwork ( which will be engraved on a glass tablet ), and to find out more about Kiyama, the Kiyama Awards, and the Asian American ComiCon, go here or here

I'm currently trying to get a sketchbook out for San Diego Comic-Con. I know I'm cutting it close. The sketchbook will be called Striking Work and will be available at my artist alley table (EE02). Here is one of the images from the book, which I've colored for the blog ( the sketchbook will be black and white ). More info on the sketchbook, and what I will be doing at the convention coming soon!

Drawing From My Youth

2009-05-28T00:04:00.000-07:00

At a recent CAPS ( Comic Art Professional Society ) meeting, we had an interesting assignment--to bring a piece of artwork you created as a kid. It was fun digging through all that old stuff. It was interesting to see drawings I hadn't seen in years, and how that work shaped my abilities as an adult.

One of the oldest pieces I found was drawn in the back of one of my first art books. It was a well worn copy of "Drawing the Head and Hands" by Andrew Loomis that was handed down to me from my mother. There were a bunch of doodles that me and my brother did in the blank back pages of the book. Of note was this one I did around 1975 ( age 11 ) of some famous celebrities of the time. I vaguely remember referencing a book of TV stars I got from Scholastic Books to do this. Clockwise from upper left: John Shuck, Rock Hudson, Susan St. James ( the cast of MacMillan and Wife ), Elvis Presley, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (from F.B.I ), James Brolin (from Marcus Welby ), and singer John Denver.

I also found this drawing of Tarzan I did in August of 1979( age 15 ). I believe it was an art class assignment. I'm thinking of redoing this drawing for my August 22nd post this year. It would be a thirty year gap between the two drawings. Hopefully, I've learned something since then!

Below is one of a series of little quick sketches I did of boxing matches. I had developed an intense interest in boxing at the time and would try to recall the moves I saw on TV. This exercise not only taught me a lot about boxing, but drawing and choreographing the figure in action. I did tons of these little doodles. Many of these drawings were recreations of big fights of the time, including Sugar Ray Leonard beating local boxer Pete Ranzany, Wilfredo Benitez, as well as some pages with Muhammed Ali. This drawing was probably done in the late 70's or early 80's.

Below is an X-men mini-comic I wrote and drew called "Attack of the 50 foot Mutant."

This was a project I did in my senior year of high school for my printing class. It's an 8-page mini-comic I had planned to use as part of my portfolio to get into Marvel Comics upon graduating. It was quite an ambitious project. I had to shoot negatives of the art and burn plates, run them on the big Heidelberg offset press, fold and staple everything. It didn't get me into Marvel, but it taught me a lot about the printing process.

As a teenager I got involved in the whole fanzine thing. I was a member of NYAPA ( The New York Amateur Press Alliance ). Every other month I would write movie reviews, short stories, and comics and staple copies of this xeroxed mini-zine together and send it off to a "central mailer" who collected all the other mini-zines from around the country and distributed the collated piece to the rest of the membership. We would then comment on each other's little 'zines. It was really kind of a forerunner to blogging. I did several comics features this way. One of note was a romance strip I did. I was intent to not just focus on superheroes and monsters beating each other up ( although I did plenty of those too ) but to learn how to do drama as well. Odd thing for a high school aged boy to draw at the time, but it taught me a lot. Below is a page from "Deb", written by fellow NYAPA member Tom Muck.

After seeing this challenge to draw yourself as a teen, I thought of doing one, but realized I already had done one. "The Filler" was a little autobiographical 1-pager I did in my late teens. There are all kinds of inside jokes in this piece that were specifically geared to the NYAPA membership, so they won't really make much sense to anyone else. It's a pretty accurate portrait of how I looked back then. Big hair and glasses, and all of 117 lbs at 5'11"!

THE CHALLENGE: It was fun going through this old stuff. It's a bit embarrassing to show this old stuff, but it was also kind of enlightening as well. It really showed me where I've come and gone as an artist. I'd love to see some of the childhood drawings of some of you out there, especially some of you high-fallootin' professionals out there. It would also be nice to see you redo a piece and put it side by side with your original childhood drawing. I will do the same and I will collect all the links here. C'mon artists! Lets see it! Don't be shy!

Secret Identities Revealed to the Public TODAY!

2009-04-15T14:33:00.000-07:00

Secret Identities: The Asian-American Superhero Anthology is out in stores today!

If you can't find it in your local comics store, request it! Apparently, it's been hard to find in some areas, so if you find it in a store, please let me know so I can post those locations here.

Above is a drawing I did featuring characters from the 8 page story I did for the anthology called DRIVING STEEL. Written by Jeff Yang, it's kind of a supernatural western taking place during the building of the transcontinental railroad. Apparently, pages from the anthology will be auctioned off for charity at some point . As my pages were done digitally, there were no "originals" to speak of, so I did this original pin-up separately for the auction. I did this with real pen/brush and ink on standard comic paper. It's the first time in a while that I've done something non-digitally and at that size ( if I do any real pencilling these days, it has to fit in my 8.5"x 12" scanner ). Boy it was hard going back to analog... I kept wanting to "undo"! I added color in Photoshop for the blog, but the black and white original can be yours at a future date. Stay tuned for details!

DRIVING STEEL:Character Sketches

2009-03-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

Here are a few sketches I did for Jeff Yang's "Driving Steel" story in the upcoming anthology Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology. Out in stores April 15!

Why Is This Man Angry?

2009-02-20T09:22:00.000-08:00

Here's a color pinup I did for SECRET IDENTITIES:The Asian American Superhero Anthology.

SECRET IDENTITIES is an anthology book featuring Asian-American superheroes by Asian-American creators. It is the brainchild of editor-in-chief Jeff Yang ( who wrote the books Eastern Standard Time, and I Am Jackie Chan:My Life In Action ), editor Keith Chow, managing editor Parry Shen ( lead actor in Better Luck Tomorrow ), art director Jerry Ma, and

senior artist Jef Castro.

The character pictured is named "Jimson", from a short story written by Jeff Yang and drawn by me called DRIVING STEEL. DRIVING STEEL is a supernatural western that takes place during the construction of the transcontinental railroad.

I had originally submitted a story of my own that took place during that same period, but it was rejected. Fortunately, Jeff ( who is the editor-in-chief of the book ) had written DRIVING STEEL, but there was no artist assigned to it, so I was able to step in. I had already done quite a bit of research on that time and setting, so I'm glad it was not wasted.

I'm still planning to do my own Chinese western at some later date. I always thought it would be a great idea to do something akin to Bruce Lee's original television concept The Warrior, ( a whitewashed version of which would later become Kung Fu ) in comic book form.

And speaking of whitewashing, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the casting of M. Night Shylaman's The Last Airbender. Based on the animated series, this film screams "asian-ness" , but they have decided to cast all caucasian actors in the lead roles. We've seen this type of thing throughout the history of film, whether it's white actors dressed in yellowface, or a blatant disregard of the character's Asian ancestry.

We're nearly a decade into the 21st century, we've just elected the first African-American president, yet the makers of this film still believe that audiences can't handle the idea of actual Asian actors portraying Asians and would rather see caucasians playing Asians. It's based on the mistaken belief that people won't buy tickets with Asian faces in the lead roles. This is complete and blatant discrimination against actors of Asian ancestry. In no other profession would this complete and blatant discrimination against actors of Asian ancestry be tolerated.

The filmmakers can try to hide behind a claim of artistic interpretation, but if you look at the source material, the race of the characters is obvious. It's hard to believe that there were absolutely no qualified Asian actors for the roles. We always hear Asian actors talk about the lack of roles for Asians, and when there are roles, they are given to caucasians or the roles are altered to accommodate caucasian actors. This type of casting discrimination needs to end. Write a letter to the makers of this film to show your disapproval. More on this subject can be found here, here, here and here.

Inauguration Week

2009-01-24T14:28:00.000-08:00

Just got back on Thursday from Washington D.C. where Deana and I attended Barack Obama's swearing in as the 44th President of the United States.

We started our first full day in D.C. on Monday, picking up our will call tickets for the Southern Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center, then getting some breakfast in Chinatown. After a short walk around we headed for the Kennedy Center, where Aretha Franklin was going to give a free concert. On the way out of the subway station we bumped into a group of guys who had created and were selling their own Barack Obama card game . They were cartoonists also, They genuinely seemed like a nice group of guys, and it was nice meeting people who had similar interests. They have a cool website, with a great little blog that chronicles their inaugural experience. Proceeds from the game helps at risk children, and supplies are limited, so order your copy today!

We got to the Kennedy Center at about 1pm. Although tickets weren't supposed to be available til 4pm, we didn't want to miss a chance at those tickets. Unfortunately, people had been lining up since 7:00am that morning and we had already missed our opportunity for live tickets and had to settle for overflow tickets. It was an friendly group of folks and and we got to know the people waiting in line with us. The mood was surprisingly upbeat considering folks had been waiting for hours in the cold ( 27 degrees! ). At one point, some guy literal stood up on a soapbox and started preaching to the crowd with some angry political rhetoric. But the crowd wasn't having it. They wanted this week to be about celebration. There was plenty of time for protest another day, but the crowd wanted to keep the mood upbeat. After a few attempts by some by telling him to "shut up", a group of girls decided to drown him out by singing "This Little Light of Mine". Others joined in, completely drowning him out. He eventually walked away and moved farther down the line. Not surprisingly, he was met with the exact same response and eventually gave up!

The next day we got up at 6am ( with little sleep I might add ) for the swearing-in ceremony. Despite the early hour, the subway was completely packed. By the time we arrived at L'Enfant Station, the people were wall to wall. If you've ever seen L'Enfant Plaza Station, you know that it's a huge station, but we subway riders were packed in from one end of the station to the other like sardines. It was actually a pretty dangerous situation. There really was way too many people in that station, and people could have easily been trampled to death, but the crowd looked out for one another, and there was a pretty positive vibe throughout the place. Spontaneous chants of "OBAMA" and "YES WE CAN!" broke out, lifting the spirit of the crowd. A group of Brazilian girls sang some songs they had made up for the occasion. The mood made a potentially bad situation, a good one. This was a good thing too, as the journey from the subway to the street took an hour and half, where it would normally take 3 minutes to walk across.

Once we got on the street, it was obvious that there was no preparation for a crowd of that size. Things got a bit confused and chaotic at times, but we finally made it to Capitol Mall. We weren't able to get into the closer ticketed section, but all things considered, I think we got a pretty good positioning. We had a good view of one of the big screens, although the actual capitol was tiny from our vantage point. We were pretty much dead center of the mall, a few block lengths in front of the Washington Monument. But it really didn't matter. We were all witnessing history and a new beginning after 8 years of suffering through one of the worst presidencies in recent memory. There was a shared feeling of optimism and patriotism. It was a very moving moment.

Later that night we went to the Southern Inaugural Ball. Neither Deana nor I are from the South, but they were the only tickets still available. We had a great time, as both Joe and Jill Biden, and the President and first Lady made an appearance.

The next day we slept in and later went to the Portrait Gallery to see the original art of Sheperd Fairey's ubiquitous "Hope" poster. We also went to the Hall of Presidents to see portraits of all the U.S. presidents. There was also a show showing portraits of the vice-presidents. I was pleasantly surprised to see the work of Anders Zorn, Norman Rockwell, Pat Oliphant, Jack Davis, and Everett Raymond Kinstler represented.

...More Wolverine:Agent of Atlas pages

2009-01-16T00:39:00.000-08:00

This is the last of this for a while, I promise! Here's some more pages from part 2 and part 3 of the Wolverine and the Agents of Atlas story. All free! You can also see the rest in print in Agents of Atlas#1. In comic stores Feb. 4th!

Wolverine: Agent of Atlas

2008-12-29T17:08:00.000-08:00

"Wolverine: Agent of Atlas" will premiere at Marvel's website on December 31, 2008. The first episode is free. Here's an ad Marvel
mocked up on their site from some of the art in the story. Written by Jeff Parker, art by me, colors by Elizabeth Breitweiser

My Marvel Debut

2008-12-10T00:08:00.000-08:00

It was always a boyhood fantasy of mine to draw comics for Marvel or DC. This summer, I finally got my chance! I did an 8-page story for HULK FAMILY:GREEN GENES#1, a one-shot that was out in stores on December 4th. Actually, it wasn't the first time I got a paycheck with Spiderman on it. WAAAY back in 1983 and 1984 I did a couple of spot illustrations for MARVEL AGE magazine. I did those between finishing high school and starting art school when I was 18 or so. I had always wanted to do comics as a kid, but somehow those drawings, and all the samples I did never translated into work for any of the mainstream comics companies at the time. After art school, I had moved on and made ( and still make ) storyboarding and concept art for film my career choice. I'd dabbled in indy comics and self-published comics in my spare time, but really hadn't thought too seriously about doing mainstream superhero books. I bumped into fellow Tothfan Jeff Parker at comic-con and he asked if I would be interested in doing some stuff for Marvel, and I said "Why not?"

So here it is. I've included a sample page from off the Marvel website. It's page 2 from the story "Daughter of Hulk" ( sans the lettering ). It's written by Paul Tobin, pencilled and digitally inked by me, and colored by Moose Baumann ( panel 4 is a lift from a different issue and drawn by someone else ). Go out and buy it! I've even included a scan of the cover ( by Marko Djurdjevic ) so you can find it in the stores!

Also, I did a 12-pager Jeff wrote that will be serialized in 3 parts as part of Marvel's new wave of original online comics. It's got the Agents of Atlas, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara. and some guy named Logan. The first episode will premiere for free on December 31 ( more info on that later ).

It's been fun doing these. It's a nice change of pace to do these once in a while, when the opportunity presents itself. Let me know what you think.

Rob Hanes Adventures Cover

2008-11-18T10:40:00.000-08:00

I recently did a cover for ROB HANES ADVENTURES #12. Rob Hanes is a character created by my friend Randy Reynaldo. I first came across Rob Hanes and Randy at the Alternative Press Expo during the 90's ( when APE was still in San Jose ). Randy has been steadily self-publishing the Rob Hanes character for close to to 20 years. Randy does beautiful black and white work in the tradition of Milton Caniff, Noel Sickles, Roy Crane and Alex Toth. His storytelling and drawing skills are solid as a rock! If you
aren't familiar with his work, make it a point to pick up a copy ASAP!

Randy asked me to do a cover for issue #12. Here's the black and white art, but I like the color version better. You can see the color version at Randy's cool blog

Dead Space Web Comic

2008-10-22T15:45:00.000-07:00

In a rare professional collaboration, my brother and I helped illustrate a web comic for the E.A. game
DEAD SPACE. I did the drawing and Anson did the coloring. It's pretty short, with a small amount of
limited animation. There's some scary stuff on the website. The website is here or go directly to the web comic here

Dream

2008-09-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

I did the poster above for the MANIFEST HOPE online art contest put on by Shepard Faireyso I figured I'd post it here. I was lucky enough to get a chance to go to to Denver for the convention. Deana was able to score
both a reasonably priced place to stay ( she found a flat to rent at $250 a day, whereas many places where jacked up to $900 a day! ) as well as score tickets to Obama's acceptance speech ( which were nearly impossible to get, especially if you didn't live in the Denver area ). It was pretty amazing and inspiring. The crowd was quite fired up!

It was heartening to see Obama do so well at last nights debate. We're a step closer to getting the change this country needs
after 8 years of Bush. It's obvious McCain would be a continuation of that same outmoded thinking.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy on a lot of COMICS stuff this year. I did short 8-pager coming up for HULK FAMILY completed, as well as a short 8-pager for SECRET IDENTITIES, an anthology of Asian American comics. More details to come.

Post Con Post

2008-08-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

Here's my belated post-San Diego Comic-Con post. This year was the only the second time in several years of comic-con, that I came as an exhibitor. A few years ago, we had a table to promote the BABES IN SPACE anthology book. This time I exhibited my work at Artist's Alley. I sat next to my brother Anson, who had a pretty sweet corner spot near the main flow of traffic. One of the coolest parts of the convention for me was meeting so many of you folks out there who come visit my blog as well as seeing folks whose blogs I regularly visit. It's nice to put a face to the name/art. Also sold a few books, prints and even a commission or two. The good thing about having to man a table, is that it prevented me from hitting the floor and spending too much ca$h. I was a lot more selective about what I did buy this year. Kind of avoided the big ticket items and went more for the smaller, short-run, sketchbooks and such. Picked up some nice sketchbooks from Adam Hughes, Bosco Ng, Louis Del Carmen, Paul Adam, Robert Valley, Rodolphe Guenoden, Antonio LaPone, Denis Bodart/Mike Weringo, Derek Thompson, Michael Golden. Some other highlights were the Dave McKean children's book/graphic novel "The Savage". Beautiful drawings here. Another surprise was Travest Charest's "Space Girl". His stuff always seemed a bit stiff to me, but this mini comic strip book seemed a lot looser--more fun. "Cora" showed that artist Ted Mathot, has one of the most cinematic eyes in comics. Other stuff to look for? Check out "Who is Rocket Johnson? ", "Buscema: A Life In Sketches", "Battle Milk" . One more book to plug, which wasn't even at the con, but a contributor's copy arrived at my doorstep shortly after I returned from the con. "Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles" should be hitting the bookstores soon. This is a MASSIVE volume with the complete Scorchy Smith comic strip run as well as Sickle's illustration work. I contributed a scan of a Sickles original I own. This is a beautiful volume and a must have for any illustrator. At $50 for over 390 pages, it's a real steal. Look out for it!

Stuff for San Diego Comic-Con 2008

2008-07-13T12:27:00.000-07:00

I'll be at San Diego Comic-Con July 24-27 at Artists Alley with some new mini-comics and a print to sell. I'll also be selling sketches. The mini comics I have for sale are all my 24-Hour Comics for the past four years. I still have a few copies of my first 24 hour comic YETI-HUNTER, left from Alternative Press Expo a few years back and will be offering those for sale. I will also be offering up my last three 24-Hour comics, each with brand spanking new, full-color wrap-around covers. THE LAST SHOT, is a zombie/gangster tale. SASQUATCH is a story about a little girl's encounter with Bigfoot. JUST VISTING is an alien abduction story. I'll also have a new FANNY McROLLO print for sale. I'll be sitting with my brother, Anson at Artist's Alley. He will be at table EE01, and I will be at table EE02. Please, drop by and say hello!

And It's Not Even 24 Hour Comics Day....

2008-06-08T18:30:00.000-07:00

I've been participating in 24 Hour Comics Day since it began in 2004. Last year was a busy year for me, so I missed doing one for 2007. I'm planning to self-publish a collection of these for San Diego Comic Con this year but I wanted to have a nice thick book with at least 100 pages, so my better half suggested, " Why don't you just do your 2007 24 Hour Comic this year?" So we set May 24 as the date to work on my fourth 24 Hour Comic. We got my brother, Anson in on the act as well and we worked on it at his place. You can see a few pages of his 24 Hour Comic here

Above is the third page. One of the first rules of doing a good 24 Hour Comic is to get proper rest before you start. In this case, I didn't. I didn't feel 100% and my concentration wasn't there. The first page I did ( page 2 ) was really a stuggle. I usually try to be very disciplined and give myself a self-imposed deadline of 45 minutes per page ( which means 15 minutes per panel for me ). I had spent so much time stuggling with that first page that I found myself behind schedule by the time I got to this page. The last panel here is a bit of a cop-out, but it bought me a little bit of time to catch up.

Another way to save time is the splash page! Whenever I get in trouble, I stick in a splash page when appropriate. Here we have the flying saucer blowing up our heroine's car. Good riddance I say! I was having a real problem drawing the car. If you can't draw it, blow it up I say! I find it very difficult to draw anything requiring perspective in photoshop. Kind of a hassle to draw a straight diagonal line, even with the Cintiq.( Anyone have any tips on an easy way to do perspective drawings in photoshop? ) All in all though, I'm pretty happy about the way this page turned out.

There's that lame 3rd panel again. Laziness prevails!

Thank God for explosions and smoke clouds! They're easy to draw and take up a lot of space! I thought it would be fun to do some shots from the flying saucer's point of view.

I actually like the mood of this page. Gives a good feeling of the terror of being chased by a UFO! The drawings I feel, were pretty successful as well. When you do a page you like, it kind of gives you a boost. I felt a little better going into the pages following this one and I think it showed.

Again, I encourage any cartoonist to give this exercise a try. I'll be doing another 24 Hour Comic on the official 24 Hour Comic Day on October 18, 2008. I always find I learn something when I do one of these, so give it a shot!

Hey, Bo Diddley...

2008-06-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

Rock & Roll,/blues pioneer Bo Diddley ( Elias McDaniel ) passed away today at the age of 79.
I've been a big fan of his for some time and you really can't miss with his distinctive sound and beat, but for the uninitiated, I strongly recommend his debut album Bo Diddley (1958) and Go Bo Diddley (1959)

Bomp-de-bomp-debomp, de-bomp-bomp...

Black and White Golden Green Guy

2008-05-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

I commissioned Michael Golden to do this beautiful Hulk drawing for me earlier this year at Wizard World Con L.A. Talk about a piece that would be fun to color! His use of lighting to clearly delineate all the different planes and surfaces on the face is truly phenomenal. Mr. Golden will be making an appearance at Super-Con on May 17th and 18th ( this weekend! ) at the San Jose Convention Center South Hall in beautiful San Jose, California. I will be making the trip up north to check it out as Super-Con seems to be good about getting the best artists as guests. In addition to Mike Golden, a rare appearance by Jordi Bernet!!! Also Adam Hughes, Frank Cho, Travis Charest, Sanjulian, Dan Brereton, Esteban Maroto, Alex Nino, Bill Pressing, Dean Yeagle, Joe Jusko, and many others. Could be worse ways to spend a weekend...

Supergirl in Living Color part 2

2008-05-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

Three brave folks took the challenge to color my Supergirl sketch. They are all beautifully done, but what's really surprising is the variety you can get from a single image. My flat lighting doesn't offer a lot of opportunities, but there still is a lot of variety.
Beautiful women can be especially hard to make interesting under these circumstances. My brother Anson's contribution took a softer, airbrushed look, yet with bolder color choices, reinforcing her feminine features. Kevin Levell suggested a low light source with pinpoint highlights. Suggests some sweatiness after a particularly grueling fight! Brian O'Connell offered a more sculptural approach, defining the planes of the face and figure. Also neat was the knocking out of the black line with color.
These are all really beautiful and unique! Thanks to all who participated. Great work!

Supergirl in Living Color....

2008-04-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a sketch I did of Supergirl. It's for CAPS ( Comic Art Professionals Society ) group entry for the program book at this year's San Diego Comic Con. This year's subject is "The Legion of Superheroes". The Legion of Superheroes holds a special place for me in my childhood. When I was in the first or second grade and I realized I might have a knack for drawing, some of my classmates would encourage me by paying me a nickel to draw them a picture of their favorite "Legion" character. This would eventually devolve into requests for me to "draw Supergirl naked". It certainly helped improve my figure drawing! The drawing for the book will be printed in black and white, but I decided to do color for the blog. Admittedly, I'm a horrible colorist and did a few versions that I'm not 100% happy with. So if you want to test your own coloring chops, I've provided the black and white version for you to give it a stab at. Just email me the file and I'll post it up here.

See my brother's colossal contribution here

R.I.P. Dave Stevens 1955-2008

2008-03-11T18:14:00.000-07:00

Sad news today. Dave Stevens, creator of "The Rocketeer" died today after a long battle with cancer. He was 52 years old.

Ah, The Good Old Days...

2008-02-21T09:59:00.000-08:00

This was the first of many rock posters I did with my friend Darren Wong during the 90's. He'd do the graphic design part, and I'd do the illustration. I'd also do a lot of "retro 50's comic style" art for several album covers, posters etc,( Screeching Weasel, Undercover S.K.A., Newcleus ) in those days. The Trashwomen were a great little surf band to see live. Aagh, I noticed I did this 13 years ago! Feeling old...

The Skegs

2008-01-12T13:44:00.000-08:00

Last year my friend and former co-worker Larry Chandler contacted me about doing a CD cover for his band The Skegs. Larry worked with me in the art department at ILM, doing incredible work with animatics and such--he's also an excellent guitar player! His band The Skegs are an excellent surf/rockabilly/lounge band.
I'm a big fan of the great surf guitar bands of the 50's/60's ( like Link Wray, Dick Dale, The Ventures ) and the neo-surf bands that came out of the 90's/2000's ( Man or Astroman?, Bomboras, Satan's Pilgrims ). The cover was a lot of fun to do and I like the way it turned out ( surf babes, noir--how can you go wrong? ).

Please check out The Skegs at a Bay Area venue near you. And pick up their CD ( contact them at their MySpace page linked above ) or download some tunes. Great music to draw or drive to!

Ruff Stuff

2007-11-27T17:13:00.000-08:00

Heres a couple of scribbles for a little personal project I've been playing with. Love the old high contrast boxing photos from the 50's. Trying to sort of recapture that look. Though these are just roughs, I think they are successful in capturing the feel I'm looking for. As usual, the struggle will be to make the finished pages as vital and energetic as these roughs. I'm a big boxing fan and film noir fan and this project will combine those two loves. I'm going to keep quiet on this project for now, but I hope you enjoy the sketches...

Fanny Wins!

2007-11-13T15:53:00.000-08:00

Fanny McRollo was the top vote-getter at the Fist-A-Cuff Arena-Girl Challenge! Thanks to all who voted for her! There is a new illustration of Fanny ( in the official FACA swimsuit! ) at the fist-a-cuffs site.

Also did a quick sketch of Fanny in celebration of her win ( she looks like she's copping a bit of a Hollywood attitude-- )

Been trying to loosen up my drawings a bit. I often have a tendency to overwork a drawing and lose the spontaneity. Though my drawings tend to get a bit stiff at times, I also feel a need to rework stuff so everything is in the right place. The need for accuracy, and the need for spontaneity are always at war. Something I need to work on--somehow bringing the two together in harmony.

This series of drawings shows the loose initial sketch progressing to the eventual tighter one.

Fist-A-Cuffs: Last Chance to Vote for Fanny!

2007-11-04T15:04:00.000-08:00

It's your last to chance to vote in the "Fist-a-cuff" ring card girl competition! Just click on the link on the right ( you need to have a blog profile to vote ). I believe the voting ends when the actual FACA fighting competition starts on the 5th. So here is my last plea to vote for "Fanny McRollo" before the competition is over.

Below I'm listing my top 17. My criteria was being a poised and well drawn beauty. I tended away from the over the top creature stuff, as I see that as more of the domain of the actual FACA competition, but didn't exclude them. It was pretty tough to come up with this list as there was a lot of good material to work with. You will find my final top ten on the "Fist-A-Cuff" site.

Here they are in alphabetical order:

1. Athena, Queen of the Arena-Kagan McLeod
2. Barbary Ann-Andy Ristaino
3. Connie Tiki-Guy Davis
4. Hoopnotica-Bobby Pontillas
5. Jane Smith-John Hoffman
6. Jenna Toejam-Paul Adam
7. Lady Plush Blush-Nathan Fox
8. Layzie Slawth-Ted Mathot
9. Love Ginger-Flaviano
10. Miss Elizabeth Provensen-Javier Olivares
11. Miss Tria-Dale Hayward
12. Oh Canada!-Joe Quinones
13. Priya Priddy-Cal Wong
14. Purple Hildred-Ethan Spaulding
15. Queen Melee's Ghost-?
16. Satansa-David Rubin
17. Wartina-Kristen McCabe

Rush Hour, Rise on book and dvd...

2007-10-16T11:10:00.000-07:00

A couple of things came out this year with my work in them. First off, a book titled "Rush Hour: Lights, Camera, Action!" came out this summer. It covers the making of the three "Rush Hour" movies. I've been a Jackie Chan fan since the late 70's and it was a kick to finally get to work on "Rush Hour 3". There are a bunch of my storyboards, sketches, and photoshop art in the book. I'm including a small sampling here, including a color piece I did that was erroneously credited to another artist in the book.

Also out is the DVD of the low-budget horror flick "Rise: The Blood Hunter". There is a storyboard to film comparison with my storyboards in it.

Oddly, I didn't get a screen credit on either of these films, but it's nice to see my work recognized in SOME way....

Fist-A-Cuffs

2007-09-25T01:16:00.000-07:00

Check out this cool site: http://fistacuffs.blogspot.com/
"Where drawings are voted to the death and the streets run black with ink." I've sent a FACA Arena Girl of my own named "Fanny McRollo". I guess she likes extreme rollerblading.

The Shadow Returns

2007-09-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

I don't normally redo work that's "finished", but I felt compelled to do so this time because I never quite felt satisfied with the way the piece turned out the first time ( see my April 28 post ). The new piece is a lot closer to what I had in mind originally. This time I did it all digitally, and made it more painterly as well as bolder in terms of design. I definitely wanted to play more with hiding him in the shadows etc. I even considered adding a Chrysler building style eagle gargoyle on the far right frame, to mirror the Shadow's profile ( who knows, maybe I'll do it in another version again in another 4 months! )

"Working Methods Pt. 2"--My "Paddy" pages

2007-08-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

Here are the first three pages I did for Scott Hampton's "Paddy" story as I mentioned in my August 24 post. I took a slightly different approach than Hampton or Levins in that I decided to stretch the story out over nine pages total ( the script only calls for three pages ). Although I would never do this in a professional setting, I thought it would be fun to take the liberty of doing this for purposes of storytelling.

My approach was to limit myself to only three panels per page. I personally prefer to do pages with not more than four panels, and I find anything over six panels to be kind of cluttery. There are exceptions of course, but the main idea is that each page should represent a "beat" in the story. It should represent a single idea that has a begining, middle and end. Too many different beats slows down the reader. It also diminishes the importance of each "beat". I like the Japanese "manga" approach to storytelling. They believe you should only spend a few seconds per page. The action in manga feels closer to "real time" because they don't try to crowd too many "beats" into a page, they allow the story to unfold ( of course, they can afford this luxury as manga have a much larger page count than American comics ).

Did this all on the computer in Photoshop. As much as I love my Wacom tablet, it's still a little weird to look up at your drawing on the screen while your hand is somewhere else. I developed a pain in my neck/shoulder from doing this for so many years. I was going to buy a Cintiq, but now I'm sort of looking at the new ModBook. I love the portability factor. Especially considering how much I traveled this year. Once I do that, my drawings will look a little less shakey and struggled over ( I hope ).

Anyhoo, it's been a fun exercise so far. It'll be fun to see other versions by different artists. Check out the book and try it yourself!

On DVD: Simplicity: The Life and Art of Alex Toth

2007-08-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

Another plug I forgot to mention...You must, MUST go out and buy the Space Ghost & Dino Boy DVD. In it there is an 80 minute long documentary called "Simplicity: The Life and Art of Alex Toth". This is an excellent documentary on the life of one of the greatest comic book illustrators of all time. Through photos, rare artwork, interviews with family, friends and colleagues ( including everone from Irwin Hasen, to Joe Kubert, to Paul Pope ) we get a revealing portrait of the man and his art. This is no fluff piece, this really reveals a lot about the man and who he was. It's probably one of the best documentaries I've seen yet on a comic book artist outside of "Crumb". Run out to your local DVD store and buy it today!!

Working Methods

2007-08-24T12:51:00.000-07:00

Once in a while someone comes up with a book with such a great but simple idea, you wonder why it hadn't been done a long time ago. John Lowe's "Working Methods" is one such book. Although it is one of many "How to draw comics" books that have been written, the twist here is that he compares and contrasts the working methods and styles of some very different professional comic artists by having them work from the same sample scripts. Actually, three different scripts in three different genres, by eight different artists--including Scott Hampton, Tim Levins, Jim Mahfood, Pat Quinn, Sean Murphy, Mark Schultz, Chris Brunner, Kelsey Shannon. It's interesting to see how different artists tackle the same material. I've provided examples of two different artist's take on "Paddy", a gangster story written by Scott Hampton. I got so jazzed at the idea of this that I started a version of "Paddy" on my own ( I will post these here in a couple of days ). Lowe is chair of the Sequential Art Department at Savannah College of Art and Design. This book should be a great little textbook for his students and will make a great addition to any prospective comic artist's library.

$an Diego Comic-Con 2007

2007-08-02T15:41:00.001-07:00

So I went to Comic-Con this weekend and as usual, spent $$$ on sketchbooks, comic albums, and original art. Flew in directly from Toronto on Friday morning after finishing my two month stint storyboarding "The Incredible Hulk". I usually buy at least one piece of original artwork at the con. Picked up a couple of original comic strip dailies. An original "Johnny Hazard" daily by the legendary Frank Robbins and an original "Friday Foster" daily drawn by Jorge Longaron. Got each one for under $90. Of course I made my pilgramage to Stuart Ng Books and bought a few great books including "Torpedo Integrale", a MASSIVE book collecting all the Torpedo stories, written by Sanchez Abuli and drawn by Jordi Bernet ( and the first one, done by the late, great Alex Toth ). It's a beautiful volume--hardcover and nearly 2" thick--in dazzling black and white! Also picked up albums by European comics veterans Alfonso Font and Carlos Gimenez. If you aren't familiar with their work, GET WITH IT! Look them up and see true masters at work! Also picked up another nice sketchbook by Pierre Alary. Other books of note: A political primer by Dreamworks Animation artist Jakob Jensen called "My First Imperial ABC". A gorgeous little sketchbook by Gabriele Pennacchioli. Great poster art book by Kevin Dart and Chris Turnham. A new collection of work by my friend Trevor Goring and his collective known as "The Blvd". A beautiful collection of cartoon girl drawings by Pixar artist Bill Presing called "Belle du Jour". A great little mini-comic called ""Steel Noodles" by Louis Del Carmen. A nifty hardbound collection of art called "Grab yourself a handful of Cheeks" by Sean "Cheeks" Galloway ( who was one of the designers on the upcoming Spectacular Spiderman cartoon! ) Of course my friend Jamie Baker had his great little elephant book, "Elephants In The News" and new mini comic, "Jock" out. "Gorillaz" artist Robert Valley had a nice thick new color collection out called "Massive Swerve". "Lilo and Stitch" co-director Chris Sanders had a beautiful little sketchbook and vinyl toy out. Dean Yeagle put out a nice, hardcover, over-sized "Mandy" collection as well as a "Designing Mandy" DVD! I also picked up new books on comics legends John Romita, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, Michael Golden and a new book on Paul Pope

Greetings From Toronto!

2007-06-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

I've been doing a lot of work on location this year ( I've spent a total of about one month at home in Los Angeles this year ) I spent a little over four months in Wilmington, NC--- storyboarding the biopic "Bolden". Currently, I'm working on a sequel to a big, green, blockbuster superhero movie in beautiful Toronto, Ontario ( Canada! ). I gotta say, I really love this town. There's restaurants and bars on every corner servicing every taste-- upscale or downscale, anytime you want. It's a very international city. You can find food from every corner of the globe here. I also like that it's a "walking town". You can casually stroll down any street and find something interesting. It's like a big U.S. city--only cleaner and safer. As much as it is like the U.S., there's a few subtle differences ( They've got Catsup-Flavored and Roast Chicken-Flavored Lays Potato Chips here! ) TV is similar, but slightly different. They have their own version of the Cartoon Network that carries some local product I've not seen in the US. One show I've noticed is an animated cartoon called "6Teen". Although geared to the teen set, it's intelligently written and beautifully designed. Kind of like "Friends" for the younger crowd, and rendered in in a stylish, geometric style, without outlines. As a major book and DVD hoarder, I've gotta say this town seems to have more video stores and book stores than any city I've ever been in. In the first couple of days I found half a dozen or so good comic shops. A few worth mentioning: THE BEGUILING is a great little store with a nice variety of books. There's a section with a good selection of European comics as well as a nice selection of independent books. And of course theres the mainstream stuff upstairs. There's also THE LABYRINTH nearby. This store just opened recently and it is FANTASTIC. Similar to what you might find at Stuart Ng--there are tons of art books and sketchbooks with an emphasis on animation and manga. Lots of European albums and self-published sketchbooks as well as art books from Asia as well. For those of you into the oldschool stuff, there's DRAGON LADY PAPER NOSTALGIA. At one time, they were Dragonlady Press--putting out great stuff like collections of old Frank Robbin's Johnny Hazard strips and such. The've got lots of old comics and magazines. A great collection of old Saturday Evening Posts and Life Magazines. ( I was finally able to find an old Noel Sickles illustrated article from a 40's era Life Magazine ). And of course there's also SILVER SNAIL COMICS. A bit more mainstream than the others, but has a little bit of everything there.

Every Thursday is PUB NIGHT after work. A group of my co-workers get together at a different Toronto watering hole and consume large quantities of alcohol ( I guess the weekend starts early here! ) Being inspired by THE DRINK AND DRAW SOCIAL CLUB book (http://www.drinkanddraw.com/) I convinced some of my fellow artists to bring in their sketchbooks and add doodling to the mix. I've posted a few of my contributions to that effort here.

The Shadow Knows

2007-04-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I'm still out here on location in Wilmington, North Carolina. Last week I took a little roadtrip
and visited Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Durham, and Greensboro. While in Greensboro, I visited John Hitchcock's "Parts Unknown" comic book store. Last year, John wrote a book collecting his correspondence with comics legend Alex Toth. The book, "Dear John: The Alex Toth Doodle Book" is published by Octopus Press and is nominated for an Eisner award. If you haven't got this book yet, go out and pick it up. It offers great insight into the mind of one of greatest comic artists ever. John showed me ( and my friend and fellow artist Alex Tavoularis ), some great pieces from his collection of original art. He then introduced us to some great, authentic, North Carolina barbeque. I did this little Sharpie sketch of "The Shadow" for John. I've always thought "The Shadow" was one of the most visually interesting characters to come out of the pulps/comics. I loved Frank Robbin's version for DC in the 70's. I've heard that Sam Raimi is planning a new movie version of the character. IMHO, they MUST get Adrian Brody to play the lead. He's definitely got "The Shadow Nose"

Reality vs. Memory

2007-02-12T17:33:00.000-08:00

Some "girl art" for you all. The color piece is one I did entirely from my imagination in photoshop. The other is a charcoal drawing I sketched from life. There are things I like about both of them. Obviously, the charcoal piece has a lot more life and character to it. You get the feeling she is pensive or worried. The color piece seems a little dead in the face. The thing I want to learn is how to give a drawing done from imagination the same character and emotion that you would get if you had a model in front of you.

Good Old-Fashioned Pencilled Storyboards

2007-01-22T14:31:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Thought I might add some samples of my old storyboard work. I did these about 5-6 years ago, but I still kinda like them. Done the old-fashioned way with paper and pencil, but then later manipulated in Photoshop. I must say I still like the look of pencilled storyboards ( and so do a lot of directors ). I've planned on abandoning the pencil altogether in my work as it's much more convenient to just do it on the computer. My apartment is overflowing with old original pencil drawings, and packrat that I am, I just can't get myself to toss them. Keeping things in the digital world seems to be the best answer. I like the versatillity that I get doing boards in photshop, but when I look at these old-school boards I kind of long for the variation of gray and line thickness as well as the snap of the pencil stroke etc. So here's the question--anyone out there have any "recipes" for making computer art look and feel more like traditional pencil?

R.I.P. James Brown (1933-2006)

2006-12-25T00:10:00.000-08:00

The Godfather of Soul has left the building...

The Forgotten and the Foreign#2: Richard Williams "A Christmas Carol"

2006-12-24T21:38:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, this Oscar winning, animated version of Charles Dicken's classic "A Christmas Carol" aired on ABC during the seventies. The style and beauty of it had a huge impact on me as a kid. The scritchy-scratchy lines, the moody color and design. They stopped airing it for years, and I didn't see it again until I found a copy on VHS in the 90's. Master animator Richard Williams directed, and the legendary Chuck Jones produced --in my mind, the definitive adaptation of Dickens story.

Some Old Character Design Stuff

2006-12-17T16:27:00.000-08:00

Because of a combination of being ill, busy and having problems with my internet service, I haven't posted in a while. I'll try and post more often if you've been missing my posts. Thought I might post some of my film related work as I haven't posted much of it. Here's a few examples of some of my character design work. Included are some examples from an abandoned all-cg project ILM was working on several years ago. Theres a couple of pieces I did for ILM for the two Mummy movies, and some unused costume concepts for Riddick. Most of this stuff is pretty old, but I still kinda like them.

More Sasquatch pages

2006-10-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

Here's pages 5-9.

My new 24 hour comic this weekend

2006-10-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

I'm posting the first 4 pages to my story "Sasquatch", my contribution to 24 Hour comics day for 2006. I actually went over my time limit by 3 hours this year. I suppose it makes up for finishing an hour early in the previous 2 years. This year I did the entire piece in photoshop and added tone to the whole thing. I'm very pleased with my piece this year. I feel like I made some kind of breakthrough. I recommend the 24 hour comics challenge to any cartoonist, but especially to those of us who can never seem to get their books finished on time. It's an incredible learning exercise that forces you to face your bad habits and overcome them. I've found that if I pace myself with the goal of completing 1 page every 45 minutes, I can usually finish the book on time. I found that if I allow myself an hour per page I will fall behind ( as I did this year). I usually become a bit discombobulated by around the 19th or 20th hour. The pages that you build up in the beginning when you are fresh will make up for that. I've also learned this year how to better compose with simple shapes. It made the panels look better AND go faster. Anyone else out there done a 24 hour comic? Had any similar/different experiences or suggestions?

24 Hour Comics Day Is This Saturday

2006-10-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is 24 Hour Comics Day. The challenge is to do 24 comics pages in 24 straight hours. For info got to www.24hourcomics.com/. I've done one every year since the first one in 2004. Today I've posted a couple of pages from my first one from 2004 called "Yeti Hunter" and a couple from my 2005 entry "The Last Shot". I'm planning to collect them all together and self publish them at some point. This year, I'll probably do it on the computer and post some pages here on my blog ( that is, if anyone cares to see them ).

The Forgotten and the Foreign #1: Alberto Breccia

2006-10-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

The first installment of The Forgotten and the Foreign is Alberto Breccia. You can read a bio of him here: http://lambiek.net/artists/b/breccia.htm.I'm particularly a big fan of his earlier, more traditional work. I've posted up a few examples. I've posted up a panel for his most famous work--Mort Cinder ( 1962 ). I 've also posted 2 pages of the sci-fi themed SHERLOCK TIME. Can you believe he did this in 1959? The man was way ahead of his time! I've also posted 4 pages of a British digest-sized western called DANGER MONEY.

Some Marvel Love For Ya....

2006-10-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a couple of Marvel Comics related pieces--by request! One is actually a piece I did when ILM was bidding on Ang Lee's Hulk movie a few years ago. FX houses often put together "bids" to get a production interested in using their services. This often involves lots of exploratory artwork and this was one of the pieces we used to entice the Hulk production team to use ILM. This was actually the second time I did bid artwork for a Hulk movie for ILM. Years earlier I worked on a completely different version in which Jonathan ( The Punisher ) Hensleigh was attached to direct.

The Silver Surfer piece is another I did straight to computer with my Wacom tablet. I'm begining to enjoy drawing this way more and I'm happy to not have to deal with ink or scan stuff in anymore. The brush strokes are less spontaneous, but it's fun to go back and forth with the black and white and work both subtractively and additively.

This will be my last bit of superhero stuff on this blog, at least for a while. I don't want to look like a big advertisement for the mainstream comics industry! I'm mainly going to post my own creations for now. It's fun to get nostalgic and all, but anyone that knows me knows that my taste drifted away from mainstream comics decades ago. Even when I was heavily into mainstream comics, I generally bought them based on who drew them. I'm mainly a lover of the medium of comics in all it's forms. I'm also interested in the many different creators who've influenced me over the years. Sooo...in addition to my own art, I'm planning an ongoing series of posts about comic artists and illustrators who have been an inspiration to me. Not just the usual suspects, but talent that is either not seen very much in this country, or was forgotten through time, or for some reason was not fashionable. I'm going to call the series "The Forgotten and The Foreign" , and will start with the next posting.

Open Season

2006-09-28T22:20:00.000-07:00

Just saw a screening of the film OPEN SEASON--the first all CG feature by Sony Pictures Animation. Saw this one in 3D on an
Imax screen. A fun family film with lots of fun characters and a few good laughs. I must say--this has some of the BEST animation design I've seen in a CG animated film. From the character design, to the shot layout, to the use of color and lighting... this film really exels. The film strikes a perfect balance of abstracted, exaggerated simple shapes with the painterly use of color and texture. They were fearless in the character design. A great example is the male deer herd. All neck and chest with tiny little legs formed with simple curves and straights ( they kind of reminded me of primitive cave drawings in their simplicity ) Just based on their silhouette you understand their character. The design aesthetic of the film was initially inspired by Eyvind Earle, the old Disney guy who designed Sleeping Beauty. Directed by Roger Allers, Jill Coulton, and my old compadre from ILM, Tony Stacchi. Jew-Bob says check it out!

Look Out! It's Raining Giant Tires!

2006-09-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

By request, here is a Superman sketch. Don't really know where the idea came from. This is one of those extremely rare times when I did a line drawing completely in Photoshop. It's one of the weird things I've found about drawing in the computer...it's
actually easier in a lot of ways to do a fully rendered painting than a simple line drawing. When painting, you're dealing with blobby shapes more than you are with precise linework. You can hide and fuss your shapes till they're right. With linework it's
different. It seems like my shaky handwork is amplified by the wacom tablet. It required a different approach that is less dependant on a flashy line. Instead of trying to make my lines look good, I designed my drawing in a way that avoided a lot
of linework--the forms being brought out by contrasting black shapes against white/white against black. The black against
white thing was present with Alex Toth on my mind a lot lately. I hope to do more of this type of drawing in the future. Perhaps doing my next comic this way. This will be helped once I buy that Cintique tablet, which will make it much easier.

Bat-fella

2006-08-07T17:13:00.000-07:00

Feelin' nerdy. Here's a Bat-sketch for y'all...

-benton

Some samples of my comics work

2006-07-24T16:38:00.000-07:00

Here's some recent samples of my comic work.

Alex Toth tribute at comic-con

2006-07-20T23:49:00.000-07:00

There will be a tribute to comics legend Alex Toth
today at the San Diego Comic-Con at 6.00pm.
Sunday, there will also be a display of Toth's work at the
Omni San Diego Hotel Room 5 form 10am to
3pm Rm. 4.

The photo here is one of the last known photos of
Alex during an interview with him on May 8, 2006.
Pictured from left: Benton Jew, Alex Toth, Anson Jew.
Picture was snapped by Paul Power.

Jordi Bernet At Super-Con

2006-06-05T19:16:00.000-07:00

On May 20-21 I attended SUPER-CON in Oakland.
It was a small convention, but it had some very
good artist guests, among them ALEX NINO,
ADAM HUGHES and SERGIO ARAGONES.
I had the opportunity to meet one of my long
time favorite comicbook artists JORDI BERNET.
Jordi was there promoting and signing the
new english language collection of his strip, called
THE BEST OF JORDI BERNET'S CLARA
( published by Auad Publishing/ Big Wow Art ) He was also
doing sketches for fans who lined up in a small,
but steady line. I had him do a couple of sketches
for me, including this full figure of his most
famous character, Luca Torelli from TORPEDO 1936.
The man drew with amazing confidence. He just
zipped through that drawing. Apparently, he
will be doing a three issue run of DC Comic's
JONAH HEX. If you're not familiar with his work,
by all means search him out. DC's recently defunct
SOLO featured a rare offering by the man. His work
to me looks the way ALEX TOTH'S work might have
looked like if inked by JOE KUBERT. In fact, Jordi is
a big fan of the aforementioned Mr. Toth, who passed
away on may 27.
And speaking of the legendary TOTH, I had the
opportunity to participate in what what was probably
the last interview with Alex, a couple of weeks before
he died. Storyboard artist PAUL POWER, my brother
ANSON JEW and I conducted a couple of hours worth
of interview with him on May 2 and May 8. I'll have
more info on that at a later date.

welcome to bentonsblog

2006-05-18T16:38:00.000-07:00

Hello there!

This is my first blog.

I am an illustrator living in Los Angeles. Mostly
doing storyboards and concept artwork for films.

Spent most of my career working at Industrial Light & Magic
working on such films as Ghostbusters 2, The Mask,
Men In Black1 & 2,The Mummy 1 & 2, Terminator 2,
Hulk, The Phantom Menace as well as scores of commercials.

Left ILM for the greener pastures of Los Angeles, where
I went freelance and worked on Terminator 3,
Chronicles of Riddick, Bad Boys 2 and many others.

This blog will cover illustration, films, popular culture
and politics. Here is a sample of something I've been
noodling on and off in my spare time. Swamp Thing
vs. RoboBear!