Pencils; Jack of Fables ONE

Well, all the feedback on JoF#1 has been really good! I've read at least 20 reveiws(most of them linked via the Fabletown Community, thank you Cindy McShane) and they're very positive. All I can say is, "Man, just wait!"
Here are the first tentatvie pencils for the series. Strange how one becomes "seated" over the course of drawing a featured character. Jack began, with no gentle prodding from my Editorial Deity, Shelly Bond, to capture the essenced of a particular badboy on a certain network show which has an "L" as it's leading letter. OK. This after I had already made some stabs at the look of Jack. I've drawn him before, in an entire unpublished issue of "Fables"... So I had tackled with Mr. Horner before.
Eventually, Brad Pitt became a sort of mental-picture mantra, generally, as I drew the book. Now, finishing issue number EIGHT of the series, Jack has taken on more of a Matt Dillon mookishness, than the Pitt "Legends of the Fall" rebel.
At any rate, enjoy the scratchings below.
For some reason, it was very urgent that I complete Page 5 first. Something Bill requested. I'm fairly methodical and linear when I work from a script; I like running from page one through twenty-two. Only deviating from page sequence if there's a snag with the layout approval or if I git just plain yeller before some insane request from Matt and Bill; which, I know, is my faoult for encouraging them by going all out when they ask for something, "OMG, this fool will actually DRAW a field of thousands of sunflowers singing!"
(Don't even think about it you two)
So, we start with page 5.
WTF is up with the suspension on that van!?
Ah! Note the switch-out of Jacks' ubiquitous briefcase. Originally the crew (Bill) wanted something unique and unsual for Jacks' journey. Then we (Bill) decided to go with something more standard..It was a good call, no? I mean, what are those bellows on the sides? Jeez.
One of the great things about "Fables" is the l'petite motif features that Bucky adds to the layouts; the themed accents that trim the pages or harbors the page number. Astounding stuff, right?
Well you're never ever going to see that in JoF. Just forget about it. I tried; see? There at the bottom? The reel of film, decoratively unravelling? Enjoy THAT because that little nuance is EXTINCT after this page. Hats off to Bucky, though.
There's taht case again. I really am glad that the decision was made to have it be a standard briefcase. We thought that Jack would collect this like travel labels and such,. I mean, WHAT the hell kind of Samsonite crap was I thinking?
OK that cloud thing starts here...Fred Schiller claims that they're Chuck Jones Sheep without the little black legs and faces. I'll buy that. Prince Charming is shown circa 1840. I do a shitload of Googling to find authentic costume. Oh, Bill and Shelly didn't think I could pull off Bigby blowing out the Fabletown conflagration while in his lupine morphology...and LOOK! See what I can accomplish when I'm not on the sauce?
OK, now we're talking. This page rolled out well enough; Pris is still unfamiliar to me...
...but I love how familiar she is with the Sig Sauer here, particularly panel two.
This early in a book, pray for these happy accidents. Watch the "cloud thing" starts over these next pages; a cross between Portugese Men-o-War and molars.
Heh,...Idiot move, no? I love it!

So what's wrong with you neck?


So notice here that Jack does not have that X-RAY dealie happening with his arm yet. That's something Bill and Shelly requested later. His face here in panel 4 is a little ferretish..mmm
Here's more testimony that it takes a village to draw a comic (sometimes)...We could'nt be sure of what type of facial hair the Pathetic Fallacy would be sportin'...Matt initial reguested, per the character document, that PF would be like a college math professor complete with goatee. Everybody hmm'd and haww'd for a week until we decided to nix the lip-throw; the nose-coaster; the filtrum-filter; the two-caterpillars-snoggin-over-the-tunnel...
(See Below)

Ah..here, here we start with the phuckin' chain-link fences!!!
Bill SWEARS that he has a map of the Golden Bough; it's penned by pixies on the thigh of Thai Princess. Seriously.
So now in the GB, we start to see the kind of facility this is; some of the individuals in the background are just wags at characters; unusual enough to pass for fables but vague enough to invite speculation and possible character assignment later. There's the Tinman, of course...Not too close to the MGM character.
When first told about the Golden Bough Trustee, Old Sam, I thought to draw from (muse over, not actually draw in likeness) Morgan Freeman's character in "Shawsank Redemption". Everyone thought that was a good enough call. So I imagine Freeman's cadance in speech and motion when I render Old Sam.
In Panel One, per the script, that's the starving street urchin of Victorian England, Little Tommy Tucker and the Cat and the Fiddle (geniune 11th century fiddle). I know, what's up with the Cat in the Kilt? Hey, I just draw, lady.

Hilarity DEFINATELY ensues...
h.e.
Tony

WOW! The JACK OF FABLES Fanvid is on the Shelves!!!

Kelsi Parker has been VERY busy!
Thanks, Kelsi!!!

Kelsi Parker's Fables Fan Vid

Kelsi is a regular contributor to the Fabletown Community. Go, GO! Check this out.

JACK of FABLES #1 Review Threads

Well, JoF has been out for just over a week, now.
The numbers are really good; up in the low hundred thousand. Click on the title of this awesome entry and you'll be taken to the Fabletown page containing the reviews. While there, feel to chat. Seems Matt Sturges is ALWAYS awake and doing the admin thing. Bill? Bill is Zeus. He just sits back a laughs at us foolish mortals. And when I say "us", I mean you.
BHWAH HA HA HA HA!
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Kneeling to the Moleskine God

This really wasn't what I was expecting to happen. I tried to offset the trauma by the little racist bug in the corner; I think it worked, no?


Harry Eyeball Hits the Road. He seems to be somewhere in Pennsylvania as pants are optional throughout that state.
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Harbor Egress Noxum Mandus

I Live Yet.
Between 247A and 341A, my 3rd time wandering from bed sleepless, I sat down to the old Moleskine for solace.
In half sleep I was finding it easier to break away from the tried and tired things that normally ramble through my head and find their way onto the page.
The ferocious deity on the left hand page kinda wigged me a bit...So out of some sort of ad hoc piety I left the opposite page open for him to write my destiny.
Christians; NEWSFLASH..."No GOD Before ME" means precisely that.
When confronted by crazy, meet it head-on.
My friend Mike calls these days, "The Shank of Summer"...
It's 100 degrees out. Jehovah's Witnesses are bursting into flames in mid-salutation.
Winter is Kindred; un cour en hiver.
Summer kills is all I'm saying.
Sigh.
So who's going to the Con this weekend?
Notice that I'm blogging?
Rereading Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age".
Pretending that I'm living 40 years in the future and I'm fortunate enough to be granted temporal license to revisit these days; it seems to help.
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How They Remade Jor-El

This is freaky and cool all at once. Mouseclick the title of this entry.
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This Is My Raygun! This Is My Gun!

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Gaming Haze, er...Daze. DAYS!

More virtual hardware from our friends at Chewy Software. These are concept sketches for the ingame assets used and bled for by players. Basically, I'd thumbnail ideas on anything, napkins, typing paper...sometimes in an actual sketchbook.
Do a little refining, nothing too involved to...OH! Fireworks over the lake. Hang on!

OK, then I'd use 20%, 40%,60% grey Ad Markers to begin the actual drawings on marker paper (the reverse side of the paper takes the dye better). 20% for the initial sketch then detail and resolve the drawing with 70% or black marker.

Had to design assloads of random shit. The art asset list was phuckin' endless. This is a fraction of the stuff we thought of to kill/cheat death with; sniper kits, body armor; counter measures...even burning bags of doggie doo.

I don't recall what exactly this boot does; leaves a print in ass possibly.

Fuel pods..

More Fuel Containers..

This is your Mama.
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Jim Woodring On Blogspot!!!!

Man, oh man! I really enjoy Woodrings' art and, um.."stories". I try not to think too much about it because sometimes I find myself fending off things like charging, luminous, sabre-toothed kangaroos (or, fuck, maybe it was a Wallabee, idunno) in my dreams. Yeah. THAT happened Wednesday night, thank you. I woke up yelping. Normally E. pats me soothingly during a nightmare; that night she just half-rolled over and said, "Shut-UP!" I thought the dream was so absurd (and yes, cool/awesome) that I fell back to sleep chuckling.
Yes, the title is a link. GO FOO-EL!
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Boilerplate; Nominee For Eisner Award

My good friend and colleague, Paul Guinan has been nominated for an Eisner Award in the "Best Painter" category. He and his lovely muse/wife Anina Bennett have worked together since the late Devonian; they are dedicated and prolific comic creators. Paul and I have collaborated in the past; Aliens:Colonial Marines and Andrew Vaachs' "Hard Looks", both under the Dark Horse banner. Click on the title to be taken to their website BIG RED HAIR.

The BoilerPlate work is astonishing, to say the least. I constantly fret over the abandonment of wet media for digital, but this is a very good argument for the latter. A few years back I ran into Pauls dad, Bob Guinan. "Have you seen Paul's article in US News and World Report?" No. I found a copy and saw that the Boilerplate page of Pauls website had taken an assload of hits by actual "experts" in history and "shit" wanting to know how and where Paul had uncovered the existence of a steam-powered robot.


LOL, Paul, is very diligent and thorough about his research. By grounding the fictive elements of the site with a convincing strata of history, copious links to some relevant and authoritative pages and MAD-ASS Photoshop skills to pull of some photographic tricks, Boilerplate became a hoax of note; although, inadvertently. Paul never intended to pull the wool over anyone's eyes; he simply wanted to create a seamless backstory. Done and done.
Cheers to Boilerplate; and I look forward to seeing Paul and Anina at San Diego...Eisner in hand.

Here's a Pin-up I contributed to Hearbreakers before Boilerplate made the team. Carnage is such fun.

X-Men 3: The Last Stench

I'll TELL you what I won't stand for; I will not tolerate the energy of one more photon being expended so that the same images I saw flickering across the screen this evening can stimulate the rods and/or cones of some other unfortunate moviegoers' retinae.
"Retinae", plural, right?


OUTRAGE!
the "Last Strand" is more like it.
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"What Did You Do In The Gaming Industry, Daddy?"

What?! Who the hell are you? I ain't your daddy! Gaming? Bes' step awf, peewee. I've got some gaming stuff from our friends at Chewy Software...but not today. So gape at this page from last years sketchbook; lol, I sound so bitter! I should pity these poor moops that are slaves to their biological impulse. Don't get me wrong, I love kids...just keep them out of my way, and quiet while I'm enjoying my promenade, yo. I actually saw two babies battling from their respective strollers, like phucking age of sail men-o-war passing on the high seas. The parents just had that stunned, overwhelmed look that I so enjoy on the faces of parents. Did I mention that I get NINE HOURS of sleep a night? Muhwhahahahah!!!! Well, like I said. I love kids...I'm just smart enough not to have any. Not making a judgement on those of you who do! But GOD KNOWS some of you idiots should have been sterilized at puberty...keep you from spreading your demon seed...God help you.

Here's an example of what Brian Azzarello makes me do; "I want you to draw this...." Fine. Now I have this artifact. Enjoy.

Oh, here's something righteous; this is a design from what would have been my tenure on "Rune". Don't ask.

Cu-cu-ca-choo.
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Go Apeshit, Young...Ape

Way back when, I was working on a series of covers for a Planet of The Ape line of comics. I can't recall who the publisher was then. But whoever you were; here's what the next cover would have looked like had you not gone under. The first cover saw the light of day and can be seen in a previous blog; it's more of a "traditional" or standard theme for them bad monkeys of the future. For the cover shown here, I somehow got to do this wild-assed Western theme....
I don't remember the story or writer at all; the editor probably just talked me through what was needed over the phone.
If I had my 'druthers, I'd work this bad boy up. Man, how can these guys open so many cans of Whup-ass without opposable thumbs?
Huhn...go figure.
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Franky and the Martlets

I've about recovered from seeing "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow". One day I may even find it in my heart to forgive.
In the meantime, here's a nice shot of Franky in formation with her flight of Martlets.

...and this is another grab from my pile of sketches; a non-conventional configuration for a prop driven fighter done long before the film. It's nothing earth-shattering, anyone that has a reasonable grasp of aircraft from the period would have stumbled along the same design eventually. I just enjoy the similarities the film display to my design, even down to the Commonwealth roundel forward of the cockpit. Of course my aircraft NEVER go aquatic.

...and here's a REAL Martlet. Salute!!!
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