Supe du Jour X: Superman's Back

0 days...UP, UP, AND AWAY!

Supe du Jour IX: If Looks Could Kill

1 day...

Supe du Jour VIII: Cape Fearless

2 days...

Supe du Jour VII: Family Crest

Last week, Slashfilm posted this handy infographic describing the history of Superman's emblem. 

Naturally, this made me want to design my own:

What does your Super sigil look like?

3 days...

Supe du Jour VI: Jok-Er

4 days...

Supe du Jour V: Red Son Day

5 days...

Supe du Jour IV: Ceyeborg Superman

Has anyone seen the design of the new Cyborg Superman? Personally, I don't think they went far enough. Here's my take on The Man of Mostly Steel:

 
6 days...

Supe du Jour III: It's a Bird, On a Plane!

 
To Superman, everything has a thin candy shell.

7 days...

Supe du Jour II: The Man of Twomorrow

Day two of my Superman sketch-a-day was a no-brainer: Two-Face. My Harvey Dent will always be Billy Dee Williams.

I'm kind of surprised nobody's done this gettup for ol' Dent Head.

8 days...

Supe du Jour I: Three Point Stance

With just over a week before Man of Steel comes out, I think it's time to do a Superman sketch-a-day countdown, or "Supe du Jour."

A lot of people give superheroes grief for constantly landing in a three-point stance. To them, I say you try plummeting from the sky at supersonic speeds and landing on two feet!

9 days...

How Does He Shave? (Theory II)

How does Superman shave? The "active volcano" theory:

Pro: it gives Clark Kent an excuse to visit Hawaii every morning.
Con: he has to draw on his eyebrows. 


11 days...

How Does He Shave?

The Man of Steel trailer shows a bearded Clark Kent and a clean-shaven Superman, which has caused quite a stir. Conan O'brien, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and the folks at Gillette are all abuzz with the question, "How does Superman shave his Kryptonian beard?" I think the answer is clear:

Talk about some serious gazer burn.

15 days...

The Death of Superman

Remember when Superman died and came back to life? I always thought that was the perfect opportunity to reintroduce him as Superlich.

He could have a glowing green Kryptonian skull. It would be rad!

If not reanimate him as the flying dead, at least rebuild him as a cool cycloptic man-machine. I mean, death's gotta come at a price, right? You can't just come back with longer hair.

In case you're wondering: yes, there are many more Superman sketches to come! And no, they're not all as ridiculous as these.

30 days...

Man of Steel meets Man of Iron

 

If I was Iron Man, I'd consider installing a rocketpack just to cut back on the RSI.

31 days...

Steel Arrow

"Hey, Superman. BOW before Hawkeye. Heh heh, get it? You look mad. Wait a minute, waitwaitWAIT!"

32 days...

Warm-Up Sketches of Steel

Getting in the mood for Man of Steel. Just over a month up, up, and away!

Above is a rather Reeve-y version of Supes. Below is my take on Zod, Bizarro, and Bruce Wayne. Bruce is the one bottom-center, of course.

Bruce really has it easy, as far as rogues go. There's a reason Penguin doesn't go sailing his umbrella into Metropolis.

Though I would like to see Supes take on some better villains. Maybe Middle-Earth would offer a greater challenge to the Man of Tomorrow!

Especially is Smaug has a Kryptonite-breathing cousin.

38 days...

Super! Boy!

Everett threw down the challenge to redesign Superboy yesterday over coffee. Because, let's face it, jeans and a t-shirt aren't a superhero costume. All we had was our iPhones, so the sketches are particularly breath-taking. Here's mine.

I decided to bring back the underwear in the most dignified way. Below are Ev's emo Superboys.

Superboy is played here by a young Jared Leto.

And, as promised, the rest of the super sketches from our Marvel game.

 

Venom has to be my favorite Spidey villain, but it turns out Carnage is fun to draw too!

Cap and Webhead chew the fat:

Alright, that's enough supers for now. I should probably be drawing Leperchauns or something.

Happy Kilt Friday!

16 days...

Funny Bunny

I know this is out of season, but when Steve Niles posted this image on Twitter, I couldn't help but imagine the next shot of the scene.

I've always thought Joker v. Superman was just as good a foil as Joker v. Batman, and this is eggsactly what I'm talking about.

22 days...

The Rogues Gallery

There's been a lot of Marvel/DC movie news on the interwebs this week and it's had me on a superhero drawing kick.

I've always been a fan of Spidey's black outfit. Better silhouette and a lot more arachnid.

Of course, the outfit looks even better on Venom.

It's a shame they put a mask on Willam Dafoe. He'd have been much scarier with just a little bit of the Weta orc makeup.

The Vulture. Keep calm and carrion.

Your mind would be warped, too, if your diet consisted primarily of roadkill.

My second favorite superhero, The Man of Steely Gazes.

I think this was an inadvertent rip-off of an Alex Ross piece.

I'm surprised no one's done Bizarro in a feature film. He'd be a terrific tragic villain...

...especially if he has the proper backing.

Who wants to see this buddy comedy?

Killer Croc's always fun because, like The Lizard, he's basically half way to drawing a dinosaur.

They're like an old married couple, aren't they?

Two-Face. Who says he has to always be pissed off?

And finally, the distinguished Mr. Cobblepot. He uses his bird conservation efforts as a front for his criminal empire, but the truth is he can't stand birds. "There's bird shit everywhere! It's like nature's white out!!"

Hope you enjoyed this deluge of drawings. Happy Labor Day everyone! Three day weekend coming up, and that's cause for a cigar.

4 days...

The Long Con

Part I of II: Stars, Stripes, and Animators
It's been a whirlwind week of nerdery! Rather than dump all my Comic Con pictures on you in one mega post, I thought I'd break things up into Con and pre-Con shenanigans. It all started Tuesday with the red carpet premiere of Captain America.

Marvel talent manager George Beliard (who gave me my "I am Captain America" cover job) was kind enough to invite Ronnie, Bill, Bobby, and myself to the event. Ronnie and Bill were the first Marvel/Pixar synergy artists, contributing Iron Man covers last year, and Bobby and I had Captain America covers released this month.

Ironically, I had to ask Superman for directions to will call.

The event was a sea of stars and stripes, and these stars travel in style.

The next morning, it was on to the California State Summer School of the Arts with Erik Benson and Emma Coats to teach high schoolers a little something about animation. Erik, Emma and I all share the same CSSSA to CalArts to Pixar path, so we can  definitely appreciate someone like Martha Baxton (below), who has been working to guide young animators into the industry since the Eisner era!

Another stalwart member of the CalArts staff is the cafeteria guy. Ten years since I first strolled through the lunch line and this guy is still working the kitchen! And I still don't trust his taco bar...

Being back at my alma mater to teach exactly a decade after being a CSSSA  student myself was trippy  because I was hit with two flavors of flashback. Like a scoop of CSSSA on a CalArts cone. It's especially weird when artifacts of my CalArts tenure are sprinkled throughout the department, like Pat McHale's poster for our Senior year Producer's Show.

I can't wait to see what comes of this new generation. After personally critiquing all of their sketchbooks, it looks to me like the future of the animation industry is in good hands!

After CSSSA, it was onto San Diego for the main event! But before rampaging into the convention center, I paid a quick visit to my grandparents in Vista to show them the Captain America cover I was bringing to the Con. My grandpa, a fellow artist, was more than happy to accept a copy!

My grandma's casserole was as tasty as ever, though I'm not sure she's as interested in comic art as grandpa.



Stay tuned for tomorrow's instalment of the Long Con where Cap and I will invade Hall H (because we know the H stands for Hydra).

6 days...