Tuesday, January 10, 2012

New Adventure!

Okay, I'll admit it -- I've not paid as much attention to this blog as I should have lately.  But I do have a rather snazzy announcement to make.  As of January 29, the art on the Sunday episodes of The Phantom newspaper strip will be by me!  Paul Ryan will continue to draw the daily strip (as he has for a good many years now) -- but the Sundays are mine. 

As a long-time fan of Lee Falk's  "Ghost Who Walks," this is a dream assignment for me and I'm thrilled to join writer Tony DePaul and colorist Tom Smith in continuing this classic feature.  I'll post links where you can see the strips once they start appearing.

I can't show you any of the Sunday strips yet -- but I can show you this quickly knocked out sample drawing I did, which caught the attention of King Features.  I'm drawing the strip a little "grittier" than this -- and while that's a good looking wolf -- I must admit it doesn't quite look like Devil -- but I'll make sure he looks right when he next shows up in the strip.

My original Batman Adventure samples weren't quite on model, either -- but that didn't keep me from getting it right once I was on the books -- and I stuck with that for eleven years.  I wonder how long I will draw The Phantom...?


In other news, I'm illustrating the next book in Max Allan Collins' "Jack and Maggie Starr" series for Hard Case Crime.  Glenn Orbik has painted the cover -- but I'll be doing the same comic-style panel chapter headings as the previous series entries.  More on that when we get close to publication.

Max and I are also hammering out the details of the Ms. Tree reprint series and new graphic novel slated to come from the new First Comics.  This has been a long time coming and we want to make sure we do it right.

In personal news, we are a few weeks away from adding a new member to our family -- and you can be sure I'll announce the details here when baby arrives.

For now -- see you in the funny papers!