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Steven Jones just let me know that our 1994 Sherlock Holmes miniseries has been re-released by Gary Reed (formerly of Caliber Press), through his new venture, TransFuzion.  Sherlock Holmes:  The Cases of the Twisted Minds is a new graphic novel available on Amazon that includes Adventure of the Opera Ghost.  You can also order direct from the TransFuzion site, which also has a few extra sample pages up.

An attempt at caricature here. I tried to be a little less concerned with photorealism and anatomical structure in favor of expression. I also took a looser, more painterly approach to color. Drawn with Sketchbook, painted in Photoshop.

The editors and crew of Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology hit the Los Angeles area this past weekend, making appearances all over the place.  The weekend culminated in book signings/parties at the Japanese American National Museum on Saturday, and Giant Robot 2 on Sunday.  Although my old bones were unable to make the Giant Robot event, I did show up for the night at JANM.  Here’s me with the lucky winner of my drunken sketch of what has been dubbed as “Asian Aquaman”, which was raffled off as a prize.  I’m sorry I don’t remember your name, lucky winner, as I wasn’t quite sobered up yet!  If you’re around and see this, post a comment and I’ll namedrop you accordingly.

6/9/09 Edited to credit Rachel Bieber as the lucky winner of Asian Aquaman!

Thanks to Bill Ho for the pic.

Drawn with Sketchbook.

Another contribution to Whitechapel’s Remake/Remodel thread–this week, the Octopus.  I’m including Jess Nevins’ description of the character here for its fun oddness:

One of the more outré of the pulp characters—and given the genre, that’s quite saying something, believe me—the Octopus was actually the villain of the piece in his single issue, The Octopus v1 #4, 1939, written by…well, it’s not exactly clear. It might be Norvel Page, or it might be Ejler and Edith Jacobsen. A rather over-the-top mad scientist, the Octopus worked from a big city hospital and plotted world conquest. His appearance might explain his desire to dominate the world; he’s sea-green, with four “suction-cupped weaving tentacles” set above “hideously malformed” legs. He wears a small mask, and behind it can be seen two enormous, luminous, purple eyes. He was the leader of the Purple Eyes, a cult bent on world domination and mass destruction. The Octopus’ chosen method was an “ultra-violet ray” which devolved men and women and turned them into deformed, life-hating monsters hungry for human flesh and glowing with “ultraviolet purple.” Against the Octopus was set Jeffrey Fairchild, a young millionaire philanthropist (he eventually stopped the Octopus, of course). He had three identities. The first was Jeffrey Fairchild, hospital administrator. The second was was kindly Dr. Skull, the old man who made a practice of helping the poor in the slums. (His good works didn’t help him when everyone thought that he was the Octopus, however) In his other identity he was the “Skull Killer,” who fought crime and left a skull-imprint, ala the Spider, on his enemies. Fairchild was assisted by Carol Endicott, Dr. Skull’s nurse.

And this is what I ended up with, created with Sketchbook and Photoshop (click on the thumbnail for full size):

Episode 4 is really my favorite among the first six episodes scheduled to air this spring. I think it’s one of the more successful scripts to capture that Arrested Development style.

[Edited 6/9/09 to remove dead Hulu link.]

To mark the release of Dynamite’s new Sherlock Holmes series, I’m posting work from 1994’s Sherlock Holmes: Adventure of the Opera Ghost mini from Caliber Press.  Written by Steven Jones, Holmes meets the Phantom of the Opera, and it was a gas to be able to draw those iconic characters.

Pencilled,  inked and lettered by me.  These scans are from the printed comic book, so apologies for the quality.  I had long ago sold all of the original art to a collector of Holmesiana.  Click on the thumbnails to see full-size scans.

The third episode of Sit Down Shut Up for those who may have missed it due to Fox switching the airtime to 7pm on Sundays, which means I wouldn’t bet the rent on renewal at this point. Still, the show begins to gain its footing despite the network’s lack of faith–next Sunday’s episode is particularly good, of the remaining three to air during this sweeps cycle.

[Edited 6/1/09 to remove dead Hulu link.]

And now, the candy-colored conclusion, painted in Dr. Martin’s watercolors. Eagle-eyed viewers may notice that the linework on this drawing isn’t the same as the previous posts. That’s because I had to redraw the picture every time I repainted. This final version of the pin-up took about three tries before I ended up with something I was halfway satisfied with. This is why I prefer working digitally, because those extra steps can be avoided due to digital’s non-destructive nature.

If I were a better painter it wouldn’t be a problem to begin with, but, like Clint Eastwood once said, a man’s gotta know his limitations.

For your enjoyment, the inked page. I’ve left the background elements un-inked because I intend to paint it in, although I may add a color line for definition.