Since making the decision to get back into doing comics two years ago, it had always been my intention to start pursuing mainstream work once WAHOO MORRIS was back on track. While many opportunities have come up in that time that have kept WAHOO MORRIS from getting to where I want it to be, I started working on some mainstream samples back in September (those samples are still in the unfinished stages because of the increased workload I’ve been under lately, but that’s another story!).

But, back in late October, in anticipation of having those new samples to show, I emailed a link to my existing portfolio to every editor I could find an address for, and got a number of positive responses. So when Mark Paniccia at Marvel Comics emailed me in late February, asking me to do some sample sketches for their new MARY JANE series, I was pleasantly surprised but I didn’t put two and two together.

See, on January 31st, the cut-off date for email entries for Marvel Comic’s talent search ChesterQuest, I sent CQ a link to my on-line portfolio as well. I’d actually forgotten about it, but about 15 minutes after receiving the email from Mark Paniccia, I received an email from C.B. Cebulski himself letting me know that I had made it into the semi-finals of ChesterQuest. Needless to say, I was thrilled!

So, I ran out and got some reference for Mary Jane, did some sketches and sent them in.

And then I waited. And waited. And waited.

Two days before I was leaving on vacation, the suspense got the better of me and I emailed to ask if they were close to a decision. Unfortunately, the reason I can now talk about this whole experience is that the decision was not in my favour. They chose to go with one of the other artists under consideration. You win some, you lose some.

I will admit that I was second guessing myself from the moment I sent the sketches in that I shouldn’t have drawn the characters so “on model” of the original artist’s style, and instead drawn them more in my style. Who knows… I’ll be very interested to see what the art looks like when the book comes out.

Obviously I’m disappointed that I didn’t land the job. I think it would have been a fun gig, but, there will be other opportunities. I’m still pretty excited that I made it as far as I did. I believe there were something like 1200 entries world wide, so it’s pretty encouraging that I made it into the top 30 and was being seriously considered for an assignment.

Anyway, I’ve been bursting at the seams since February 25th wanting to tell the world the news!

Lastly, a big “Thank you!” goes out to C.B. Cebulski, Mark Paniccia, and Marvel Comics for the opportunity!

This is a piece I drew as a potential cover for Wahoo Morris, back before I decided to stop publishing singles and go with a direct to trade paperback publishing model.

I was a little frustrated with a Work For Hire project I was working on, and got some bad news about another job I was waiting on, so i decided to to sit down and ink this to clear my head. It took about 2 hours in one sitting.

I might end up using it as spot art in the next Wahoo Morris book.

That set of fill-in comics I did for Microsoft way back in January? Well, they finally ran last week so I guess it’s okay to post them now, with a link back to the main site.

It’s interesting scrolling through the archives. The art style changes every week, and sometimes multiple times during the week. I’ve been reading a lot of the comments and most of the complaints are about the characters look changing.

When I did the three day’s worth of strips, there was almost no reference material for any of the characters and I imagine that was the same for most of the art teams as I believe they tried to get several weeks worth of buffer by using a number of artists and studios simultaneously. I was given the first 7 days of pencils, beautifully drawn by Rich Burchett, and that was it. After I had drawn my three days I was then given a character sketch each for the other two characters. I tried to stick as close as I could to the look he initiated. How successful I was is up for debate.

All things considered I think the strips turned out nice.

I finished up the final page of the final week of The Mighty Motor-Sapiens about half an hour ago.

I must say I’m a little sad to say good bye to the characters. I’ve been working on them now for well over 6 months, and the past 9 weeks pencilling them as well has been one of the most fun gigs of my career! It’s going to be weird going to work next week and not having Gigs and the crew to draw.

My thanks go out to Mark Wheatley for the opportunity, as well as the whole team including co-creators Bob Tinell and Daniel Krall (along with Mark), scripter MJ Butler, colourist Jerry Carr, and interim penciller Matt Plogg. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten anyone!

I am working on the pencils to the Mighty Motor-Sapiens week 28 right now – the final week! The weekend and next week will be dedicated to my story for the Tori Amos anthology from Image Comics. After that, unless something else comes up, I have a few weeks free until I start storyboarding in mid April for probably the rest of the year. I’m going to do my best to get caught up on Wahoo Morris in that time!

Anyhoo, here’s the roughs for week 27 of Mighty Motor-Sapiens for your viewing pleasure!