A babies vs X babies

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Glenn

so one day i was doing all of nothing, easily translated to poking around on the internets, and i came across an adorable illustration by the incomprehensibly-talented-it-makes-me-want-to-weep Skottie Young…

so i sent the link off to the lady because who doesn’t want to procrastinate by looking at comic art? instantly she wrote back, “you should do something like that!” which developed into a multi-email exchange. the scope of the piece went from cute jam illustration of characters we liked, to a poster, to a poster that can get chopped up into iPad skins. that resulted in this…

so for the uninitiated the rundown of characters, not including zombies, daleks and cybermen, goes like this left to right: Kaneda (AKIRA), the Hulk, Dr. Horrible, Captain Hammer, Tennessee (our dog), Wolverine, The Iron Giant, Daisy Steiner (SPACED), Stabuck (BSG), Jess, three Vipers from BSG, Nightcrawler, the 10th Doctor, the Medic (TF2), Coach and Ellis (L4D 2), the TARDIS, Tim Bisley and Mike Watt (SPACED), Jules, the 11h Doctor, Olive (our new puppy), Megaman, the Scout (TF2), me, Bruce Lee, Batman, the Punisher, Spidey, Tetsuo (AKIRA), and the Nerdist guys, Jonah, Chris and Matt.

so that was fun!

enjoy!

-g

papercut halloween part 2!

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Glenn

here’s the four page comic i knocked out for the little halloween-ers looking for candy.

and here’s a little gallery of the work in progress. i hammered it out but i’m pretty happy with the end product. hope you enjoy it as much as i did making it.

-g

papercut Halloween!

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Glenn

here’s a cover to a little four page comic i’m doing.

a year ago we moved to a quieter part of town where we can stretch out, ride our bikes safely and not have to worry about the all night revelers that passed underneath our windows or the lunatics that lived upstairs. so the place we found has schools nearby, families all around and a little league park not far away. the kind of place where kids play in yards and wave to adults and dogs.

kinda like the way i grew up.

halloween is jess’ favorite holiday by far and is always giddy to decorate with the bales of hay, hanging skeletons and the pumpkins, lights and spooky fun stuff. so with all the comic work that i’ve done this year i wasn’t ready to put that part of my brain to bed. in the spirit of the season i decided i’m gonna whip this up and give it away in addition to all the chocolate and candy for the hopefully many trick ‘r treaters that we expect to come by.

these characters are my own and i’m writing and drawing a bunch of stuff with these little guys and i’ll post more on the development process as it goes.

enjoy!

-g

p.s. yes, you eagle eyed nerds. the title is a loving reference to SPACED

skip to the 2 minute mark or just watch the whole damn thing ’cause you should. it’s on netflix instant watch too!

Marvels and Monsters part 2

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Glenn

so THAT happened. the MARVELS AND MONSTERS show debuted at MOCA last Thursday and it was a great turnout. the space is gorgeous and the people in attendance were excited and genuinely interested. i got to see SVA pals, Jerry Ma and Ken Knudtsen, and say thanks in person to Jeff Yang for giving me a shot at not one, but two stories in the new anthology. that book will be coming out in early November, but if you’re at NYCC then swing by the Epic Props booth and pick up a copy there. from what i understand it’s 216 pages of funny book goodness.

but back to the show.

i got a chance to walk around with the fam and see some great artwork and brush up on the less glossy side of comics. we kinda live in a geek world with a very shiny, happy and safe face to comics, but like a lot of things that reaches back in to american history there’s a sad, twisted and mean through line. it’s just what it is, and despite the sometimes regretful underpinnings to the medium i’m quite happy with this little warts-and-all celebration.

specifically, the spotlight on Larry Hama. while all the artists and writers showcased are worth their weight in gold, Larry has had a profound geeky influence in my life. this is the guy who created the GI Joe line up from the 80′s. storm shadow, snake eyes, the baroness, the little bio cards that you’d cut out of the toy packaging, all Larry. as a child of the 80′s that cartoon had carved out a niche in my after school schedule. small fallen branches were laser rifles and nobody could vault over the neighbors’ shrubs into a tight tuck and roll better than me and my friends because we spent hours storming COBRA strongholds. we begged our folks for the five bucks for a new figure and we’d display them carefully when not burying them in some perilous scene in my mom’s garden.

jeez, shows like that created by people like him are responsible for nerds like me and the other contributors in SHATTERED and MARVELS AND MONSTERS. i’m gonna let that sink in for a bit. meanwhile, get to the show if you can. it’s up until February 24th.

after 20-something years it must be gratifying to know your characters are cool as hell to new generations.

Marvels and Monsters

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Glenn

so the fine folks responsible for the Secret Identities anthologies are putting on a show with MOCA, the Museum of Chinese in America, highlighting the relationship of Asian American in comics. the show runs from September 27th to February 24th and if you’re interested head on down and take a peek. a couple of my in-process comic pages from Secret Identities: SHATTERED will be in the show along with original art from other contributors to the book.

but don’t take my word for it. here’s a fancy thing with which to tell the world…

Doctor Who

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Glenn

i’m not helping my street cred (i have street cred???) by posting about Doctor Who, but damn it I’m excited about Doctor Who coming back on BBC America! i caught up on the series over a few months thanks to Netflix and the fellas at Nerdist who kept blah, blah, blabbing about it. i finally caved to the curiosity and i’m hooked. i was bummed when David Eccleston left but David Tennent took over and he was instantly brilliant. i was devastated, yes devastated, when Tennent left but was quickly endeared to Matt Smith’s 11th Doctor. so in my anticipation of the seventh series premiering tomorrow here’s a Doctor illustration for kicks.

i did another with the same back ground but just wasn’t feeling the look of the Doctor. here it is anyway…

and here’s some Doctor Who related stuff and zombies for a project that i’ll be showing off here when it’s done…

and to make certain so you know, that i know, i never had, nor will i ever have street cred.

OH! and if you want to see some more Doctor Who illustrations please go to Lydia Butz’s deviantart page. another artist I don’t know, but she’s a phenomenal illustrator and deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.

Only the good die young

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Glenn

A writer I’ve worked with commented on an illustration recently that I had posted on Facebook.

It’s a bit a fan art I did of a couple of characters from the video game Army of Two. Just a fun game me and my pal played online when we had some downtime and no inclination to be around other people. So Parry asked if I had done that for the game development and sadly, no, I did not.

It made me think that if I had a hand in it how great would it have been to work on a game that I enjoyed as a fan. More than that though, how great would it have been to work with Clement Sauve? He was a concept/character designer based in Montreal that did designs for Ao2 and the new short lived G.I. Joe (also a childhood fave) animated series. He and I exchanged a couple of pleasantries on Facebook and chatted about his art and work. I never got a chance to meet him and sadly he passed away from cancer early last year.

The subject title is merely a song lyric, as the comics world also lost Joe Kubert recently, a luminary in the funny-book making industry. Every upstart nerd to hold a pencil and with dreams of one day drawing comic books owes Joe a deep debt of gratitude. Clement was one of those upstarts that made good. He was a dude that cranked out a ton of designs and comics. His mechanical designs are gorgeous and way out there while still recognizable. His characters have weight and the copious amount of gear he outfitted them with pulled them down even more. As far as I know he never made a big splash like Jim Lee or Joe Mad. He didn’t seem to have the well-deserved heat Sean Murphy is enjoying now. He was a production guy. A behind-the-scenes guy. He was, in the parlance of THE DEPARTED, a worker.

And sadly now he’s gone. His work however is not.

Go check out his deviantart page or an art fanpage blogspot site, both of which are maintained lovingly by fans or family and friends. He needn’t be celebrated or continued to be mourned, but he shouldn’t be forgotten either. As freelance artists eking out a living we are infinitely lucky to be doing what we do. As independent contractors we’re keenly aware of it all going away at any point. As human beings we are sometimes reminded that we’re all on our way out… So act accordingly.

Do what you love. Do it well. Clement and Joe did it that way. We should all follow suit.

GLENN URIETA

freelance illustrator and comic book artist in NYC