CROM! Count the moustaches.

Everyone expected me to draw the Beastmaster, but you know what? I just don't feel like drawing ferrets tonight. More of a cool-down sketch than a warm-up, since it's almost midnight!

So the western Roman Empire, back in the early AD's, did it's best not to succumb to the Barbarian hoards that encroached on it's borders. Not to spoil it, but they didn't do a great job of it! There were a lot of political and social changes that led Europe into medieval life. I think a big catalyst in this transition was the fact that Romans didn't have a word for 'mustache' in the Latin language.



Totally true! And here's a Visigoth from my sketchbook. Let's call him "Alaric." :D Enjoy!

Tars Tarkas of Mars!

Here's that damned four-armed barbaric Green Martian from the John Carter of Mars books.

Oh, I'm a Brooklyn cartoonist who's done lots of stuff, including a story for the recent Shadowline-Image Comics hardcover anthology book, Fractured Fables.

Ti-bar!

Right arm hatchet sword! Left arm Tiger. All bad ass.

Barbarian: She-Ra

What is best in life? Conan

Take this! And this! And this!

Kind of a no-brainer, considering today's theme. I was actually going to draw Red Sonja at first, but I've been drawing a lot of babes lately. I thought I should take a break before I became the new Frank Cho or something*.


* Sorry to pick on Mr. Cho. He's incredibly talented, I just want to see him branch away from drawing uber-babes all the time.

Barbarian - Red Sonja

I may have taken a little longer on my 'sketch' this morning, so sue me! I have very fond adolescent memories of Red Sonja, specifically as drawn by Frank Thorne. I had to personally best Becky Cloonan in unarmed combat for the privilege of drawing her here this morning. While I won this time, I fear that it's only a matter of time before Red Becky exacts... her revenge.

todays theme...Barbarians

Vertigo: Red Rose

This summer I was in Scotland and dropped into a used bookstore. I bought FABLES: Storybook Love. I sat on the damp grass in some park and read the whole thing in one sitting. Red Rose barely makes an appearance but I liked her character.

Vertigo: Sonya from "CUBA: My Revolution"

Dean's new book "Cuba: My Revolution" has some pretty hot female characters, and I won't let the chance to draw them pass by! Although I don't know much about DC/ vertigo editors, it is sad to see people who had worked on so many different projects for so long let go. Wish them all the luck in the world! We need editors like them to continue seeing interesting and eclectic mix of comic books in the stores.

Dean Haspiel's Vertigo contribution

Deep 6 Member Dean Haspiel contributed this self-rejected cover for his current Vertigo offering, "Cuba: My Revolution". Here's what he had to say, after numerous corrections to his spelling and grammar *, about his piece.

"Here is an abandoned sketch I did for the cover to Vertigo's CUBA: MY REVOLUTION, an original graphic novel I drew; written by Inverna Lockpez, colored by Jose Villarrubia, and edited by Joan Hilty."

* not true. I made that up.

Vertigo: Abel from House of Secrets

What can I say, I've always been a sucker for old horror comics. Here's my Abel. Cain anyone?

Arseface & Cassidy by James Smith

James Smith, frequent Deep6 guest artist and fellow act-i-vate.com member draws everyone favourite failed suicide and oirish vamp.

John Constantine by Nathan Schreiber

Nathan does another one on the move. Ain't technology wonderful!

Damn it feels good to be a Sandman.

George picked today's theme, Vertigo! There are so many characters to pick from, and so many amazing original titles they've published over the years, I went back and forth on who to draw, since George drew Death I went with her brother Sandman.

Vertigo: Death

Well, you know someone was going to pick this one.

Neil Gaiman's Sandman was (and is) an incredible important comic to me. It was one of a handful of comics that I read in the 90's, a time when I felt that a lot of what was being published left me cold. That being said, even the first few issues of Sandman didn't really grab me. It wasn't until issue #7, "The Sound of Her Wings", which was the first appearance of Dream's older sister Death, that I was really hooked. My little drawing pays tribute to that story's pigeon-feeding centerpiece, with Death contemplating one of her flying friends. Hope you enjoy!

Tribute to Vertigo

Now I am very well aware that Swamp Thing was not a Vertigo title, however while Vertigo is very much the house that Sandman & Preacher built, it's soul and inspiration is much more verdant and elemental.

I read Swamp Thing at an impressionable age, it blew my mind in a way that drugs couldn't and didn't. See you in the Green.

Vertigo

Today the theme at Drawbridge is, unfortunately, again a sad one similar to
last weeks. Vertigo, an imprint of DC Comics, let go of three of their long
time editors this week and it appears (I don’t know all the details) that Vertigo
will reduce it’s out put in general.

Good luck to Pornsak Pichetshote, Jonathan Vankin, and Joan Hilty!

As for today’s theme, I first thought I should pay homage to all the above
editors somehow. Then I realized that would not be a sketch, that would be
a poster that would take all day. And I can’t pick one and dis the other two!

So I’ll just point out some of the great books they've put out:
THE UNWRITTEN, CUBA ,HOW TO UNDERSTAND ISRAEL IN 60
DAYS OR LESS,THE QUITTER, INCOGNEGRO,
and REVOLVER

Rather, moving forward, I draw your attention to a book that I hope
survives anymore belt tightening. “Scalped” by Jason Aaron,
and R. M. Guéra is book I quite enjoy. Enough said.

Geronimo is NOT in scalped by the way. I… just like Geronimo and
Scalped is set on the Prairie Rose Indian Reservation. It was
that or a hot babe next to a casino sign and who
wants to see that?

Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

So when I was a kid there was a Faber & Faber book of children's stories on my bookshelf. There was a story inside about a hunter going to kill Lions ( a pretty screwed up story BTW and completely unacceptable to a modern audience ) In the story there was a scene where a Lion lept at the hunter. There was an illustration to accompany it that frankly terrified me out of my wits. This image of a Lion leaping towards the reader was so powerful that I could not open that book for fear of seeing it. Not only that but I developed a prejudice against Faber & Faber books because they all had the same spines at that time.

This Tyger is drawn in homage to that Lion.

Tiger Tiger...

When I heard it was Tyger Tyger...I immediately thought of golf.

Tigra Tigra, Burning Bright

Tim, in his weirdly wonderful way just whipped off his below Manga Tiger masterpiece before anyone had officially named a DrawBridge topic for the day. His mini-strip was so nice that I had to post-nominate "Tyger Tyger burning Bright" as our theme to accommodate Sr. Hamilton.

In a shameless bit of cheesecakery, I went with Marvel Comics character Tigra for my piece (inspired by a post on the excellent Scansdaily  all about her I read yesterday). In my drawing, she initially had her tongue out, but I decided to pull it back in the interests of decency everywhere. Besides, if you're getting off on ladies licking their furry forearms, you should really be frequenting other sites.

Tyger Tyger burning Bright"

That's the theme...

ah... ah...

That's all you get. No choo for you.

The Wrong Stuff

Achoo!

This has never happened...but I imagine it will...someday.

Ah-choo

Sitting around with an end of the summer cold inspired today's theme at Drawbridge which is..."ah-choo!" Spelling my vary.

Atchoo!

I come to work on the train. 100s of people squashed together in a steel tube...trying not to breath...

poped!

Hello, for Paul Pope's birthday this weekend I did a sketch of Pope's child-defender, Battling Boy! He gains the power of whatever's on his t-shirt, so I put Gonzo on there - the world's his oyster!




I actually colored the first forty-something pages of this book, and while I couldn't tackle the rest of it I will miss looking at Pope's gorgeous artwork before anyone else. I met Pope in Baltimore a couple months ago - great guy, tells me he works with a 000 Brush! (!?!?!?!?) still don't know whether or not he was yankin my chain

WTF!

That brushpen was in really bad shape.

WTF

Simon wanted Saturday to have the theme of "WTF" for some reason.
Thus, I give you sketches from my new children's book, WTF?

Werewolf girl

Since the theme is werewolves(kinda) and it's also my daughter's first birthday, I thought I'd finish a sketch I'd started a while ago...

Thanks!

Steve

High Moon

High Moon

This is Nathan Schreiber's High Moon inspired warm-up. He's out wandering in uncharted territory for this weekend so I'm a-posting it for him. Enjoy!

High Moon or the High Road: The Marlboro Wolfman

pronounce it "Marlboro Woof-man". It's funnier that way.

So it's with a solemn tip of the hat that we pay homage to former Hypothetical Islander (back when we were Hugs and Kisses) Steve Ellis, who with his compadre David Gallaher made the webcomic "High Moon" a staple of DC's recently departed web comic site, Zuda. The brilliant concept-- werewolf cowboys. Nuff said.

We recently learned (from Twitter of all places) that our hombre Steve will be riding off into the sunset for greener pastures than New York City can provide. Vaya con dios, Mr. Ellis.

High Moon: WereSteve-Ellis

HighMoon

Today we nod our heads to former Hypothetisicks studio memember Steve Ellis
with the theme "High Moon." This being the name of his and David G's popular Zuda book of course. Said book involved... yes...werewolves...

The Life Aquatic: Jelly fish

I find jelly fishes so mesmerizing and terrifying at the same time. Whenever I go to the aquarium, I spend the most time in front of jelly fishes, hypnotized by their fluid motion.

They are also my favorite side dish, it tastes great all chopped up with sugar and vinegar.

-Robin

the Life Aquatic

My favorite part is when they yell "You forgot your dog, idiots!", but I couldn't think of a way to sum it up in an illustration.

The Life Aquatic:Mermaid

Sometimes a guy just wants to draw a hot mermaid, y'know?

The Life Aquatic: Bill Murray

Triggerfish

Some years ago I used to dive regularly in the Indian Ocean. It's an amazing thing to do and I recommend it to everyone. I saw many incredible things. One of the ones that sticks in my mind was this one Triggerfish that decided that it wanted me to leave it's territory and to emphasize it's point it decided to attack me! Despite our enormous size difference this thing would NOT back down and kept swimming at me then darting away at the last moment. I had time to take some ( very poor) photographs of this happening. I eventually retreated to a safe distance as he was probably protecting his young or something and I was starting to feel guilty that he was spending so much energy on trying to frighten me. I remember thinking at the time it would be amazing to be able to sketch this.

This drawing was done in 35 minutes flat using a sharpie marker and Photoshop. I'm trying to get quicker at this sort of stuff.

The Life Aquatic: LOVIATHAN!

King Llyr of Atlantis, from my ACT-I-VATE webcomic, LOVIATHAN.

The Life Aquatic

The Life Aquatic is the theme today.
I was in a gag mood.
Even if it's a "meh" gag...

Life Aquatic: Cherish!

I know, this looks like some wicked queer polo ad (not that there's anything wrong with that!), but hear me out. Today's theme of Life Aquatic was George's idea, and the first thing that popped into my head was Madonna's Cherish video- u know, the one with the mermen?! Yeah, you totally remember it. Anyway this is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE PART (if you watch the video, it's at the 2:20 mark). I love how it looks like someone was just like "YO MERMEN" from off screen, and they all turn to look. Heheh.

So yeah. This was just a warm-up brush sketch, but I'm so giggly about it I feel like drawing a comic based on these guys, haha! So funny.

Wildstorm: Gen 13

In tribute to the end of Wildstorm, today's daily sketch was to do a drawing of one of their comic book characters. I chose Fairchild from Gen 13, which was one of my favorite books as a kid.

WildStorm: Tom Strong

So long, and thanks for all the Grifter!

A tribute to WildStorm. WildC.A.T.S. was a huge part of the comics I read growing up, so when I thought of what character to draw out of all the amazing books they published over the years, I decided it just had to be Grifter, because he was on the cover of the first WildCATS book I ever picked up. Which was I think the first WildStorm book I ever picked up! Thus the circle is complete. And my brush is pretty much dead after this one...

Thanks to everyone who worked at WildStorm, drew and wrote, lettered, designed and read these books.

Goodbye Wildstorm - Jenny Sparks

From the Authority, the bolshy bitch herself.

Intergalactic Planetary, Planetary Intergalactic

Just pencils for me, thanks.



So it was Becky Cloonan's turn to choose a warm-up topic today. To honor yesterday's dissolution of the company, her edict was: draw a Wildstorm character.

My first reaction was images of WildC.A.T.s and other uber-90's fare, but after seeing Tim Hamilton's post, I remembered just how varied and cool some of what Wildstorm published was. I went with the core trio of Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's Planetary series, a book I highly enjoyed (though, honestly, drifted away from as the wait between issues got progressively longer. And longer) . Even my girlfriend really dug Planetary. After drawing this, maybe I'll go and finish up the series in trade.

Good bye Wild Storm

Becky Cloonan chose today's "Theme" to pay tribute to
the publishing imprint known as Wild Storm which is
sadly no more if you read the news yesterday.

My favorite Wild Storm book?
Ex Machina

And I tried to get back into the spirit of these
being "just" warm up sketches by doing mine on
a piece of scrap cardboard.