You can click on the image above to download a PDF of the pages. You’ll enjoy it more if you read the blog post first.

In addition to self-publishing mini comics and sending those off to publishers as a way of promoting my work, I also had an idea for Captain America and worked on a few things with other creators.

I’ve always liked Captain America, though I’m not a fan of when he’s written like the ultimate American patriot. As a Canadian, that really doesn’t resonate with me. But when he’s written as an adventurer who represents decency, honesty, justice and good leadership – the American way without the propaganda – I’m on board. Steranko’s few issues were great, and Roger Stern and John Byrne’s much-too-short run on the book in the Eighties was magnificent.

The Republic started out as the costume concept sketch above. The golden-age costume with its unattached mask and traditionally-shaped shield was always very cool, and I reversed the gloves to be short and boots to be long. The pony tail was very 1992. At least it wasn’t a mullet.

The story is more than a bit derivative of a lot of other stories, and too preachy/idealistic with its conclusion, but it could have been very fun visually. With the depictions of robots having come a long way since the early Nineties, Bucky could be something other than the R2D2-inspired design here by being articulated and able to take on stairs (Daleks take note). 1996, scanned from original art, with a new layout for the proposal.

I’d update this proposal a couple of times. When I sent it in to Marvel in 2002, Scott Elmer the submissions editor responded with a letter that was part canned response and part personal comments. If I was a submissions editor, that’s exactly how I’d do it. It’s included after the proposal. It’s a role I think is vitally important, even if they’re inundated with a lot of substandard samples from kids. It goes a long way to building each generation of new professionals by investing your time in them. I’d gladly take that job at one of the bigger publishing houses.

Byron Black was a fellow member of the United Fanzine Organization and he did a great book called The Steppenwolf Chronicles. Just brilliant stuff. So I did a piece based on one of the book’s enforcers, the Nekromekkon. One of my favourite drawings from the period. 1996, scanned from original art.

I met Bryon Carson at the San Diego Comicon in 1988, and I could tell you about staying in the Hotel San Diego and cockroaches with Bryon sleeping on the floor in my room, but I won’t. Bryon was drawing Dinosaurs for Hire for Malibu Graphics and I thought he was cool because he was good looking, hip and black and getting published.

He sent me two Captain Marvel pages to ink as part of a sample package he was sending off. I wish I had added more blacks now, but his stuff looked so good, I didn’t want to change a damn thing. It made me a little tentative. 1996, scanned from photocopies.

Derek Mah ‘introduced’ me to Marc Fleury. He’s a Canadian writer and was putting together a package for a character of his called Diamond Anvil. I liked doing these three pages, but looking at them now, the drawing was a little lazy and uninspired. This was also during the time when my inks were becoming simpler, but I wasn’t paying enough attention to the pencilling or making the ink linework sing and so it’s all getting too heavy. 1997, scanned from original art.

JK Carrier produced my favourite mini comic, Fantasy Theater. Being the black-costume-I work-at-night kind of fan, his Reaper character was a natural for me to pick up on, and I did this pinup as a way of saying, “If you write the story, I’ll draw it.” As you can see, this first piece was a little too chunky, and I’m fudging anatomy. 1996, scanned from photocopy.

By the time I drew the story, I was recommitted to bringing care back to my drawing and produced one last, good story before life and work took me in a different direction. I achieved finer detail in my inkwork by moving away from tech pens for small details and picking up crow quills once again. It meshed well with the brush work and made the work more expressive overall with a good balance of blacks. 1998, scanned from original art.

You can also read “Arms Race” in colour over on Catspaw Dynamics eBooks in the Comics section.

J Kevin Carrier is on the web as well.

I think I knew John Migliore – based out of Hamilton, ON – through my time doing Nightmark for Alpha Productions. He asked me to draw a one-pager for his Dracula vs. The Grad one shot. Sounded like fun. It was. 1998, scanned from photocopy.

I revisited Black Scorpion for my later anthology mini comic Drawing Board. This was done with white pencil crayon and Graphic White on Gator board. I’m not the painterly type, mostly because I’ve done so little of it and the results weren’t encouraging. And this one has some pretty goofy drawing underneath it. 1999, scanned from original art.

Nick Johnson was a kid who produced his own 8½ x 11 saddle-stitched comic with a fully-laminated cover. I think his Dad paid for it. It’s the only waterproof comic I own. That’s the Mist and the main villain. Nick has gone on to become a very good artist. 1999, scanned from original art.

I like the idea of the Hulk with a huge body and itty bitty feet. Like a Warner Bros. cartoon. But what’s with the hernia? 1999, scanned from original art, pencilled some years before.

The web really opened up the amount of material you could find. I took a printout of a rough Mike Grell sketch of Warlord and inked it on vellum. If I had access to all the pencils from the Grell issues that Vince Colletta inked, I’d seriously consider making it part of my life’s work to live up to the single issue Josef Rubinstein inked just before that run. 1999, scanned from original art.

I got into The Phantom and connected with Ed Rhoades of Friends of the Phantom (FOTP). I did this piece for him as a thank you for all the reference material and information he provided. The faces are more than a little odd in this one, but overall it’s still a strong piece. 1999, scanned from photocopy.

The second Phantom piece was for another FOTP member, but I was going through the disintegration of a relationship (more on that next post), and it’s no where near what the piece for Ed was. 2000, scanned from photocopy.

Ed sent me some photocopies of George Olesen’s pencils for the syndicated Phantom strip, and I inked it on a vellum overlay. I think I could have been a good letterer and inker for him if I had been able to get the gig. 2000, pencils scanned from photocopy, inks scanned from original art.

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