(ONE) HAMMER OF JUSTICE

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD TEAMUP THAT NEVER HAPPENED...

I know I tweeted about this; but for those of you not following, this page was from an issue of BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD that was prematurely canceled before I could finish. I was having a lot of fun designing and drawing Animal Man for this incarnation of the character.

The word on the street is this title will be restarted at another publisher. No word yet on whether I'll be asked to contribute. I sure hope so, it was so fun to work on and with people like J. Torres and Dan Davis, to name a few.

"NEW COMICS DAY!!!" ***UPDATE***

After a week of unemployment/daddy duty, I finally made it to HOUSE OF SECRETS comic shop in Burbank...to discover DC switched my issue #17 of Batman: Brave and the Bold!? It was NOT our Aquaman story, as solicited.

What gives, DC??

"NEW COMICS DAY!!!"

Yay! My Batman Brave & the Bold issue #17 comes out today! Written by the uber talented J. Torres and inked by Dan (the man) Davis.

Above are a few digitally penciled pages from the interior. Pages 12-15 respectively.

I think this was the first completely digital issue I had done. I'm aware there's zero page resell value, but wanted to at least experiment, weighing the pros and cons to apply for future endeavors. Jury's still out...as the next issue I worked traditionally (on board), but am currently working all digitally with DOC BIZARRE M.D.

I've been wanting to show off some traditionally penciled pages from the Animal Man team up, but thought it best to wait on a confirmation if the book is going forward or not: half-way through I was told to stop all work on it, as the future of the title was then undecided. So, if you like this book, write into DC or make sure you have your shops order them. It's a shame more kids aren't reading comics these days.

"I'M AN ANIMAL!"

Just working out some designs for an upcoming issue of BATMAN BRAVE & THE BOLD. I guess it's obvious who Batman will be teaming up with this time...

I love this character! Knowing Jame Tucker and Co. like to go retro, I sketched out the above STRANGE ADVENTURES version with the scales. That being said, the modern version below is one of my favorite DC costumes of all time.

I made the mistake of thinking the super-animal rights-hero's jacket was leather.

Which version did they decide on? You'll have to wait until the issue comes out!

ANATOMY OF THE COVER

Since I posted the final version of the cover in the previous post, I thought it would be interesting to show the process that went into it. Above and directly below are tiny thumbnails to run past the editors. More or less variations on the same idea.
They went for this one; with the minor note of having Batman and Aquaman reflected in Ocean Master's crystal, versus eyes...
Pencils and...ink:

*In response to a recent comment posted, this cover and all of my Batman Brave and the Bold, Gym Partner and Charlatan Ball pages are available for purchase. To see more, just click on the link in the left hand column (under the teeshirt ads), or just go here.

BATMAN COVER

I just saw this solicited for release sometime in May; it's apparently issue #17 of BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD. It was the first time I not only got to do a cover for the book, but inked it as well. I'm not sure who the colorist was, but assume it was Heroic Age or whatnot. I hadn't known DC wanted it inked as well, so in the timespan of just over an hour, I ran home from work, inked it, came back, had it scanned and emailed. Good think there wasn't much detail. All in all I was pretty pleased, but realized too late that I messed up Aquaman's eye with a shard of crystal. Here, let me point it out for you...hahaha

FINALLY...

I've recently received almost all of my original comic pages back from DC Comics' BATMAN BRAVE & THE BOLD, MY GYM PARTNER IS A MONKEY--as well as CHARLATAN BALL from Image. CLICK ON THIS LINK, or the one at the bottom of the "SHOP ANDY" column to the left. I'm still uploading and organizing, so please bare with me and check back often. Of course, any questions and inquiries, don't hesitate to contact me at:
andy@asuriano.com

MORE COMMISSION FUN!

Another commission I did recently. Scott, the recipient should have received by now...
Well, the cleaned-up final version below--not the rough above! Just thought it interesting that the roughest, most scribbly sketch ever, turned into one of my tightest inks:
"Look! Superman's pal, Jimmy Olsen's got a new iPhone!"

Then here's a Batman and Kid Eternity team-up I did in my sketchbook, purchased by the incredible J. Torres:
I could draw 'the Kid forever--or I should say, an Eternity! (rim-shot)

BRAVE AND THE BOLD: "ETERNITY!"

Issue #6 of BATMAN BRAVE AND THE BOLD came out this week. Up top Batman teams up with Hourman; then a few pages later, solicits the aid of...KID ETERNITY! I was so stoked! Kid E is actually one of my favorite Golden Age characters as well as Grant Morrison's revamps.

I really appreciated reading this Newsarama.com blog referring to me as, well, you can read it: "...Writer J. Torres and pencil artist Andy Suriano, the strongest of B:TbntB’s pencil artists, would have to work really, really hard to make this anything less than awesome."

So, only for you loyal readers of my humble blog, I present to you my pencils for this issue in their entirety:
Want to buy one of these pages? You can! Let me know which page--and I should have it available in a few months after print.

"A BRAVE & BOLD...COMMISSION"

For those of you that forgot my recent post, I've been accepting commissions. This has been a really fun, low-pressure way to draw some of my--and your favorite characters without being limited by a storyline or panel breakdowns.

More commission information can be found HERE.

Thanks Van, this was a fun one!

"CHARLATAN BALL'S CAESAR IN BATMAN BRAVE & THE BOLD!?"

Truth be told, there really is only a certain number of ways you can design a "mutant Easter bunny", but my ego would like to think it wasn't just coincidence. This was, by far, one of the best episodes.

Check it out! The Calender King's creations...and Chuck Amok's sidekick:

COMMISSIONS!

Recently I've been getting quite a few email requests for commissions. Not having considered it before, I took this one on as a test and discovered I really enjoyed it. If you'd also like a piece of original art like this, go ahead and let me know!
MY COMMISSION RATES are as follows:
LARGE B&W--11"x14" (on comic page; as shown above) is $100 for a single character, $50 for every character after that.
SMALL B&W and SOME COLOR--8.5"x11" (on comic book backing board; like the ones I send out with my tees and books) is $50, usually only one character.

Your best bet is to allow me to let my imagination loose, but won't think less of you if you ask me for a specific character! hahaha

All money is in USD; payable to my PAYPAL ACCOUNT. I'm still figuring out what shipping will be and the best way to ship. Feel free to contact me with questions and hopefully your requests: andy@bighairproductions.com

ALSO: If there's a particular ORIGINAL COMIC BOOK PAGE of mine you'd like to hang on your wall or use as a place matte; let me know. I'll try and post about this soon. In the meantime, sift through your issues of CN BLOCKPARTY, BATMAN: BRAVE & THE BOLD and CHARLATAN BALL to pick out which pages you want!

Thanks!
A

"GREAT NEPTUNE'S TRIDENT! CAVE MERA!?"

BATMAN: BRAVE & THE BOLD #4 comes out tomorrow, so I thought it safe to post some pencils from the issue. Make sure to check it out: super-surprise guest stars in the cold opener! You'll NEVER guess. Swear.
Also supposedly coming out tomorrow is the new JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR #52--in which myself and Joe Casey are interviewed!!!

A TALE OF TWO ("PRESIDENT") BATMANS...

This has been a big week for me, comic book-release-wise; bigger couple of weeks, if you include CHARLATAN BALL #6, two weeks ago! Along with CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #55 (cover image above), BATMAN: THE BRAVE & THE BOLD #3 (cover also depicted above--it should be noted I did neither), came out this past Wednesday. Pretty neat!

I'll post some of my MY GYM PARTNER IS A MONKEY pages next week, but wanted to show you some rough pages from this latest Batman issue. You'll notice there are a couple versions of each--with one small, but major alteration...
In this story, Batman assumes the identity (by way of hologram) of the President of the United States. In the current comics climate of slapping Barrack Obama's mug on every funny book out there, DC decidedly didn't want to follow the current trend...and while my first take wasn't exactly our new Prez, he definitely wasn't different enough. So revisions were made and this is what ends up in the final printing.

I sort of think he ended up looking like the dad from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

I've been digging the 2-page openers...

This was a cool sequence: Batman fights Congress!


That being said, I've been loving working with Rachel, DC Comics and drawing Batman, writers like Matt Wayne and J. Torres, being inked by Dan Davis (who's working overtime on all the extra line work I've put into issues #4 and #6). I feel like I'm just starting to loosen up and bring a little warmth to my designs and panels. It can be really tough and at times, paralyzing, following someone else's designs--especially translating one medium to the other. But challenges can be fun too; it inspires growth and I'm definitely learning with every issue.