Without getting too much into it, I think that the Starfire controversy last year was partly due to a failure in the writer and artist to properly convey the nature of the character and not so much in the skimpiness of it all. Koriand’r shouldn’t be covered up like a nun, she’s an alien princess and she should be more Dejah Thoris than Lilandra, which is what I tried to capture in my redesign.

I tried to elevate the “princess” aspect of the character, making her a bit more regal looking and I braided her hair because I thought it looked ridiculous otherwise. Hopefully, this version of the character can convey a sense of strength, presence and confidence in spite of the skin that’s showing which, in my eyes, keeps the Tamaranean true to the character that George Perez and Marv Wolfman created.

PS: Is the background too tacky?

The announcement of the oft-rumored Watchmen prequels, officially titled “Before Watchmen,” has taken the comic book world by storm in an understandably polarizing fashion. Alan Moore, unsurprisingly, has been quick to make a stand against the prequels saying that it’s “completely shameless” and “I want this not to happen.”

I’ve been sitting back, taking all this information in, reading some of the interviews and I think I’m ready to make an educated view on where I stand here.

The first point I’d like to get out of the way is that Straczynski’s Superman analogy is flawed. The comic book creation process and “agenda” in the 30′s (when Superman was created) was much different than it was in the 80′s (when Watchmen was released). Superhero comics were initially written as unending periodicals with an unchanging status quo and stories that would run for as long as they were lucrative. Watchmen was written with a clear beginning, middle and end in mind and it’s a story that feels absolutely complete. It’s an apples to oranges comparison.

So where do I stand? Well, I understand the financial motives behind this and with such an amazing array of truly top tier talent (Adam Hughes on interiors!) there is no question in my mind that these will be great reads and great comics. In that sense, DC was smart to announce the creators of these books right out of the gate because, ideally, the prequels won’t float on the brand recognition alone and they’ll be strengthened from a creative standpoint by all this talent. The main issue I have is one that, incidentally, comes from a creative standpoint. It’s a simple, monosyllabic question: why?

Watchmen was finite and, as far as I know, nobody was clamoring for a follow-up. I’d love to be proven wrong here, but I just don’t see any conceivable way in which these prequels will add to or embellish the original series. I suppose it’s enough that they’re readable and that they respect its source material but, again, what’s the point? Alan Moore’s analogy (which is much more sound than Straczynski’s) is that nobody is trying to make a prequel to Moby Dick and I agree with that sentiment. There’s no need for a Moby Dick prequel, there’s no need for a Citizen Kane prequel, there’s no need for a Maus prequel and there’s no need for a Watchmen prequel. Even with Alan Moore at the helm, I don’t think I’d be completely behind the idea of a Watchmen prequel. There’s a purity in certain works of fiction, a lightning in a bottle-quality to them that doesn’t need to be expanded upon.

Brian Azzarello is writing a couple of these prequels. He’s one of my favorite comic writers bar none and, though it may sound hypocritical, let’s be honest here, as with most of his work I am interested in his “Before Watchmen” titles (as well Darwyn Cooke’s) and if the buzz around his books is strong then yeah, I’ll read it. But my question to Azzarello is: what if 25 years from now somebody wanted to make a 100 Bullets prequel? What if somebody wanted to make a book expanding on what happened in Atlantic City before the (coincidentally enough) Minutemen were deactivated by Agent Graves? Would it add to 100 Bullets? Would it be necessary? What would be the point? Why?

I trust in the talent behind these prequels but I just can’t seem to get that stench of fan fiction away from these titles.

Expensive, high quality fan fiction.

Having Tetris blocks about to crush Mario was the obvious thing to do here because, well, what else would they do? A little more difficult was coming up with a way to make them threatening so I crushed Mario’s hand to make the stakes a little more clearer.

Also, after my previous Mario fights, it was nice to do something that a little color to it.

Progress animation below.

I started this sketchbook way back in October of 2010 and, about a month ago, I finally completed its final page. I was filling pages at a good pace and was aiming to have it completed by early fall ’11 but, as it inevitably seems to happen, I was forced to slow down towards the end of the year and I finished it much later than I had originally anticipated.

My newest sketchbook is well underway and I will, of course, be posting scans for it sometime over the next few weeks.

But before that, let’s wave my Orange sketchbook goodbye.

The full set of scans for this sketchbook can be found here.

My first piece of the year.

Apologies for the lack of updates but the Holiday season was a busy time for me. I’m starting to get back into my routine and catching up with some of my commissions so, hopefully, the updates will be a little more frequent from now on.

This particular piece started out as something completely different but I just wasn’t happy with where it was going. Then I watched REDLINE (which I recommend for the beautiful animation alone) and it kinda guided the direction I ultimately took this piece in.

The Avengers has the perfect mix of ingredients, The Hobbit has the pedigree and Dark Knight Rises has the edge of the unknown and the unexpected.

Ridley Scott’s Prometheus has all of the above.

Its trailer is easily my favorite out of all of the above films and after many months of vagueness regarding the film’s ties to Alien, I think it’s safe to say now that there are definitely a connection to that franchise. The throwback to the Alien title sequence as well as the quick shot of the Space Jockey and the general aesthetic of H.R. Giger’s work clearly points towards that direction. Ridley Scott’s film career has been fairly ho-hum outside of Alien and Blade Runner but this trailer has gotten me pretty pumped up about the film and it’s gonna be interesting to see what Scott can do with a science fiction story using modern special effects instead of rubber suits.

I’m extremely hopeful but a small part of me fears it could be another case of the Star Wars prequels.

Either way, they’ve got my money.

As the year draws to a close and with potentially no new artwork from me until early in the next year, I quickly threw this up to send the year off.

2011 has undoubtedly been my most productive year yet. I tried to show my various attempts at dipping my toes in different styles rather than showing my progress in handling a single method.

September was the hardest month to pick. Some of my best work from the year can be found there.

You can find the template for this meme (done by DustBunnyThumper of deviantART) here.

Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to everyone!

And so ends the Holiday season.

New Year’s is just around the corner and I have two sets of Sketchbook Updates before I actually dive into my current sketchbook (which is looking pretty empty at the moment, I admit). I’ve been very busy over the last few weeks with real life stuff (the good kind thankfully) but, hopefully, after some time in January I’ll be able to get back into drawing all kinds of good stuff.

The full set of scans for this sketchbook can be found here.

I thought the Hadouken effect was gonna give me trouble but it turns out it was everything else that did.

This isn’t my favorite but I really sank some time on it and I refused to put it down until I was satisfied with what I had, so much so that I added the hobo bag even after I had uploaded everything, which is something I never do. I think the composition is a little too similar to Mario vs. Master Chief and Mario vs. Cloud (I realize that the more of these I do, the harder it will be to not repeat myself but still) and I worked a lot on the background but I don’t think it’s quite at the level I wish it were.

As for the piece itself, I like to think that the set-up is that Ryu walks up to Mario and then Mario takes off his shoes and rips off his sleeves like a badass before they get into it. I need to play with the outfits some more.

Progress animation below.

I’ve started at least 4 different pieces over the past week and every single one of them I’ve deleted due to “going nowhere” syndrome. I decided to look through my sketchbook and pick out something that I liked and use that as my starting point (which would be the blonde on the right) and everything just kinda went from there.

I tried to keep it simple and focused on the figures and making the reflection seem accurate enough.