Tag: art

MALICENT BLACK work-in-progress! DOCTOR STRANGE #450 final order cutoff! And should I maybe start numbering these things..?

Hey, welcome back (unless this is your first time reading one of these newsletters … in that case, thanks for taking the plunge!)

So there’s a variety of things going on … let’s see how many I can get through. This newsletter is, as usual, brought to you by coffee and stress, the freelancer’s best friends!

First … the final order cutoff for DOCTOR STRANGE #450 is upon us! I drew a story in this – written by J Michael Straczynski – and I really enjoyed this one. If you’d like a copy, it’s a good time to let your comic shop know! I’ve had a chance to read the entire thing and it’s a proper celebration for one of my favorite Marvel characters.

Next, more MALICENT BLACK! A few things … while I’m still inking those interior pages, I also decided that the cover I did a few months ago didn’t quite hit all the notes I wanted to hit. I actually like the piece of art on it’s own, but I’m not sure it’s quite the right piece to grab newcomers on Kickstarter. So yeah, I decided to do a second cover. I love to do extra work! I guess that previous one will be a variant. Anyway, here’s a look at the sketch for the new cover…

I’m also writing (yes, that’s write … er, right) a prose story to go in the next issue of Malicent. I really, really enjoy writing (heck, I only started drawing my own comics as a kid so I could tell the stories I wanted to tell), but I make my money drawing, so I have to take my shots when I can. Drew was originally going to do another prose story for this issue, but he’s been extremely busy with The Gamer and a few other things lately, so I decided what the hell.

It’s a fun story (well, I think it’s fun but it’s actually kinda dark) and it sets up something for the THIRD Malicent Black book that Drew and I are really, really excited to get to. I was going to include a peek at it here, but … I dunno. Should I?

Oh what the hell. Here you go.

…

The thing that was Malicent Black and yet was not Malicent Black stood still in the quiet room, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. Thin tendrils of ink touched by magic crept out from her, seeming to taste the stale air before returning to their mistress. Finally, Not-Malicent stepped forward, walking over broken glass and dead bodies. As she reached the only dim light in the room, she bent and picked up a small clear cube. It seemed to be filled with constellations of stars. And one of the stars in the bottom back left corner of the cube was pulsing with a slow red heartbeat.

Not-Malicent smiled and left the room.

…

I’ve also decided to go and put a proper store on my website. I knew I’d have to at some point, but didn’t take the time to do so when I first set it up simply because I wanted to have the site ready to roll as quickly as I could. It’s a character flaw, I know. I tend to push something I don’t want to do off for as long as I can, but then once I decide to do it, I act like it has to be done RIGHT NOW. Sigh.

On an unrelated note, my wife is a saint.

Anyway, yes, one of these future newsletters will have an update on the store. Honestly, I have way too many things I’m trying to get to this week, and I’m beyond stressed about most of those things, so the webstore won’t be ready right away … but it is coming.

Speaking of stress … apparently one of the ways I manage (or more likely, just ignore – again, I have character flaws, okay?) stress is to work long hours and then stay up way too late playing, say, Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

I have a big love for turn-based strategy games, and then when you add in about a million of my favorite Marvel characters, well, yeah, it’s like this thing was kinda made for me. And while I can go weeks (or months) without playing, it’s kind of become a cozy home away from home I enjoy getting back to from time to time. As long as I’ve had this game (and as much as I’ve played overall) I’m just into the beginning of Act 3 and having a great time.

I also just finished reading this book…

That classic Englehart/Rogers/Austin era was over and done with by the time I really discovered monthly Batman comics, so it’s been a newer revelation for me, and I really didn’t know much at all about Marshall Rogers’ work before I picked this up. This book does a very nice job of taking you back to that time and showing you just how influential that (amazingly brief) Batman run was, and gives you some insight into a talent that left us way too soon. It seems like we say that sort of thing far too often when it comes to comicbook creators, doesn’t it..?

Alright, I think that’ll do it this week … but I’m gonna leave you with one last thing. I showed off the beautiful Cully Hamner page I bought a few weeks ago, and decided I should also start sharing some of the other art that hangs in my office. I don’t have a ton of stuff, but I like what I have…

Here’s a Big Barda that I got from Gary Frank when we met at a con in London in 2016, I think? Time flies. I actually wanted to buy a piece of art from him, but Gary insisted on an art swap instead. Clearly, I made out on this deal. But he knew I was a huge fan of Kirby’s New Gods (yes, we’d just met, but since I introduce myself “Hi I’m Lee Ferguson and I love Jack Kirby’s New Gods how about you?” I guess somehow he figured it out…

Best,

LF

SO … HOW WAS HEROESCON..? And what’s next..?

I couldn’t wait to get to my drawing table today.

Yeah, I’m pretty tired and sore from the con grind, lugging all the portfolios, books and drawing supplies around, talking to WAY more people than I’m used to in the course of a weekend…

But … man am I ENERGIZED.

There is something magical about getting together with other people who love this crazy medium. I can tend to be a bit of a hermit, sitting at my drawing table for far too long, earbuds in, scribbling away…

And I love that part of it, by the way. I love that you can create a story (heck, a world) just by putting the time and effort in. I think it’s what drew me to start making my own comics back when I was four or five years old.

(I’d like to brag that I was MAKING MONEY doing comics at four or five years old … my grandmother gave me a quarter for each of ’em. So I’ve been a pro for a looooooong time 😉 )

BUT!

But then you go to a con, especially a show like HeroesCon, where it’s all about the comics, and you remember that there’s another great thing about all this, beyond the creative freedom … the sense of community. I can’t speak for everyone, but I think most of us are here, no matter which side of the table we’re on, because we came across that one comic, the story that sunk hooks deep into us and wouldn’t let us go. Just something that happened, unplanned, unexpected maybe … a comic that crossed your path and led you down a new road.

For me? That comic was this one…

I mean … sure, that’s a hell of a comic to start with, especially as young as I was, but also … how could you NOT be hooked on Spider-Man at that point? And from there…

Anyway, as far as HeroesCon … I had an amazing time. I can’t begin to list all the highlights of the weekend. It would take me a few newsletters to get through everything, and I’d probably still miss a bit.

But here are just a few things…

First, I was tabled next to the amazing Amy Chu https://www.instagram.com/amy_chu/ on one side and Dastardly Drew Moss https://www.instagram.com/drewerdmoss/ and my old buddy Marc Deering https://www.instagram.com/marcdeering/ on the other, and had a GREAT time. I couldn’t have asked for better convention neighbors 🙂

I also got to meet and speak with Kevin Nowlan for the first time. Anybody who knows me knows Kevin is one of my absolute art heroes. I’ve loved his work from the very first time I came across it. But here’s the thing about Kevin Nowlan. Not only is he a master artist, but he’s unbelievably nice! You always hope that the people whose work you admire so much will also turn out to be kind people, but that’s not always the way it goes. Heaven knows I’m a huge jerk. But Kevin? He’s aces. I missed out on the raffle to buy a sketch from him, but it’s okay … just getting to chat with the man made my weekend. No, I’m not exaggerating. Even if you took away everything else, this would have been enough!

But then Cully Hamner took the time to chat with me about art and how he approaches the work, and really helped me get my head around a few things. I’ve gotten a bit tired of working digitally (I like the feel of pencil on paper, and I like having real live artwork too), but I’ve been sort of hesitant to really go all in with my inks. Maybe trying to do some things that I “thought” I should be doing vs finding my own way. But after looking at Cully’s amazing pages up close and talking to him, I have a few things I’m excited to get to…

And I finally met Mark Chiarello in person! Mark used to be DC’s art director, and was instrumental in setting me up with work there back in the day. Not only that, but Mark is an incredible artist himself. So finally getting to say hi in person was very nice.

SO MANY other wonderful people I met over the weekend. I wish I could list them all. I wish I had gotten pics with everyone. I’m terrible about that. So many great conversations about the business, about the medium, about … well, about comics, you know? And this con, more than any other I’ve ever been to, was about comics. I can’t lie … I was a bit melancholy when that last day wrapped up, even as tired as I was. I didn’t want it to end.

Oh! And it was also (naturally) my first time attending the art auction. What an amazing display that was! Holy cow. Inspiring and a bit intimidating 😉 Since I was a late addition to the show and didn’t really know much about the auction, I didn’t do a piece specifically for the show, but I did hand off this Superman piece to Marc, who inked and submitted it…

I do have plan’s for next year’s piece, though, and it’s pretty ambitious. =)

I could go on and on, and maybe I’ll drop a few more bits in the next newsletter, but for now…

WHAT’S NEXT?

Well, this week I’ll start inking the second issue of MALICENT BLACK. I know I’ve said this before, but I’m really, really excited about this one. To say anything about the story would be unwise, but … well, you’ll see.

I’m also going back and forth with my pal Chris Ryall for the next story we’re doing together. I don’t think I should say too much just yet, but it’s probably not too hard to look at the calendar and figure out what we might be up to 😉

And I’m really wrapping my head around this minicomic idea I’ve been chewing on for a while. I picked up this minicomic from Jesse Lonergan (https://www.jesselonergan.com/) at C2E2 and then talked with him about it a bit at Heroes…

See, I’m in love with the idea of just making a comic and then selling it to people by hand at cons. Something immediate and visceral and real. Something that doesn’t wait months after finishing to go through printing and distribution. You know … the way I used to make those comics that my Grandma so kindly gave me some money for back in the day 😉

So I haven’t quite figured out what I’m doing for this (I have ideas, plenty of scripts and plots and outlines and what have you sitting around here, but I’m not sure any of those things I’ve already written are the right story for what I want to do here) but I’m pretty sure I have to go for it. I think I may have mentioned this a couple of newsletters back when I talked about Mike Hawthorne’s great ONE MAN GANG ashcan.

(As a side note … Mike Hawthorne? Don’t believe anything Drew Moss says about him. Mike is a great guy who doesn’t actually murder kittens. We met up quite a few times over the weekend and no, I don’t know why Mike and Drew have such a hatred* for one another)

Anyway … yeah. So I’m gonna do a minicomic. And while I’m keeping things kind of under wraps as far as the next Malicent Black book goes, this might be the place where I share some work in progress stuff on the minicomic…

Alright … I tried to keep this as short and sweet as I could, but it’s still pretty long! I gotta wrap up. I’ll leave you with a few more pics from the con and call it a day…

I’ve got comics to make 😉

Best,

LF

(*No, Drew Moss and Mike Hawthorne do not in fact hate each other … despite their best efforts =)