Author: beyondforward

PERSONAL WORKS APRIL 2024 –

In some alternate universe, I hope there’s an older version of me that worked at Marvel during the 1980’s. Because that’s my favorite era in comics. But, since that’s not the case in this universe, I thought it would be fun to create a non-existent cover from that period, featuring a team that never got their own title. I imagined this Freedom Force as a subversive group of government sanctioned operatives, not smart enough to realize they secretly function as puppets for a sinister shadow government.

I’m also attempting something new here by mocking up the art on a bagged comic book, just to give it that extra layer of believability.

SR

PERSONAL WORKS MARCH 2024 –

Back in 2021 I wrote a spec script for Marvel, when they had the Conan license and were publishing a number of Conan comics. Although I had some inroads into the editorial dept at the time, the timing wasn’t right and so this project was shelved. Since Conan has been on my writers bucket list for many years, I had decided to follow through and complete the 2-issue story arc and produce cover art for both issues. That year, I posted the first issue script here along with the cover, with the intention of posting the second issue script as soon as I completed the second issue cover art. However, this labor of love project kept getting pushed to the back burner, as other commitments took priority. Issue 2 cover sat unfinished on my drafting table for a very long time. Fast forward to now, I finally completed the cover art and am re-posting both scripts, along with both covers (since issue 1 is now buried deep in the news page archive). The thought has occurred to me to rework the story and create a new character to fill Conan’s leather skin boots, thereby turning the entire thing into a creator-owned endeavor. But I think I’d rather keep this story intact and release it as it is intended: an homage to one of my favorite characters.

SR

I just finished the first issue of my next comic mini-series, a sequel/prequel to Saga of a Doomed Universe. It’s planned as a 3 issue series, each issue weighs in at a whopping 54 pages. This first issue took me almost exactly one year to complete, so I’m looking at either a late 2025 or 2026 release date for the entire series. I’ve been dropping clues here and there over at my social media channels, in the form of works-in-progress and this post is no different, really. Even so, I’m taking a 2-month break from the project, because I like to step away between issues of whatever book I’m working on and decompress and recharge a bit before diving back into the next chapter. Here’s a snippet of several completed pages:

In the meantime, I’m opening up my commissions list for March and April, so if you’d like an illustration of your favorite comic character(s), now’s the time. I haven’t done any private comic commissions in a very long time, so I’m looking forward to this. Go here for details.

SR

Here’s my 2nd painting of 2023, because all of my energy was directed at comics this year. You can download a high res here.

SR

PERSONAL WORKS NOVEMBER 2023 –

The last time I inked and colored a Jack Kirby illustration was probably back in 2008, a Superman drawing that I found somewhere online. I think this one was inked traditionally (with brush and pen) although I could be wrong about that. There was a period during those years when I was inking with adobe illustrator, so it’s possible this piece is also entirely digital. Regardless, I’m back at it again this month with an inking/coloring treatment over another great Jack Kirby drawing. For this Thor drawing, I inked and colored it with clip studio paint, on my ipad pro. I also applied a halftone effect over the inks, similar to the old zipatone films used in the pre-digital days of comic art.

SR

PERSONAL WORKS OCTOBER 2023 –

I have an ever-growing list of personal art projects that I’m slowly chipping away at, but these tend to see movement only when I have a window between paid work. Honestly, I don’t really have much downtime lately, but I recently purchased an ipad pro, and am finding a little time in the evenings to wind down with some digital drawing. Which brings me to this piece. At the moment, I have a Jack Kirby pencil scan that I’ve finished inking and am finalizing its color study. You’ll see that here soon. And then there’s this: a pencil scan of Hulk, by the ‘Michelangelo of comics’, big John Buscema, which I’ve inked, colored and logo treated. Because I didn’t break into comics until 1993, most of my heroes, like Buscema, were nearing retirement. It goes without saying that I had no opportunity to work with him while he was still alive and active. But that hasn’t stopped me, obviously. I’m posting Buscema’s penciled art along with my finishes, because I think it’s important to honor his work first and foremost. For a closer, more detailed look, download the high-res for free.

SR

Thanks to the fine folks at Yancy Street Comics for inviting me as guest for their Free Comic Book Day event on May 6! I spent the day meeting old and new fans and the other amazingly talented guests there. The turnout was incredible, and I was so busy signing and selling copies of Saga of A Doomed Universe and Hark that I didn’t get around to sketching until the afternoon. Here’s pics of a few commissioned sketches from the day:

Tina and I were guests at the world premiere of Antman & The Wasp: Quantumania yesterday and it was pretty spectacular! This film introduces Jentorra, a character I co-created during my writing stint at Marvel and perfectly portrayed by Katy O’Brian. Also, this movie is great.

The filmmakers visually re-imagined Jentorra, and even from the trailers it’s clear that she’s been through a lot since her first appearance in the comics. If you haven’t delved into Jentorra’s origins or the most recent iteration of the Marvel Comics Microverse, a good place to start is my story arc in Realm of Kings: Son of Hulk.

PERSONAL WORKS  –

As usual, these sort of projects tend to take a lot longer than usual, because of other commitments. But I finally made it happen: a full tilt homage to the original Micronauts. This concept started as a commissioned sketch at C2E2 in July, and I liked the composition so much that I decided to recreate it as a larger illustration later. You can download a print-ready high res of this over at my patreon page.

The third and final issue of Saga of a Doomed Universe is currently available for pre-order from PreviewsWorld! When I started planning the cover variants, I quickly realized there were a multitude of iconic 1980’s era covers to choose from. But I wanted to make sure that these homages also had a direct link to the story itself, and I was pretty lucky in finding covers that related pretty closely to key scenes in the story. I plan to post all of those together at some point soon, but in the meantime, here’s all of the cover variants for issue 3!

SR