Monday, December 07, 2009

20 Time!

The big issue 20 comes out this week. I know finally, right? For those keeping track this issue was originally supposed to come out sooner. Hopefully the wait will be worth it. For those who liked the jatpacky goodness of issue 19, I think this issue will have some similarly cool bits. I have been drawing lots of pages lately ( though not all of them for Wolf-Man, more on this in the coming months), and I have been working super hard to both improve and get pages done quickly. I question the "either/or" logic some people tend to apply to things. In reference to art I often hear things like "you can either have it fast or good". Can't we have both? I understand that spending more time allows for more refinement and detail, but there exist artists whose work is awesome and they also get work done on a quick schedule. So shouldn't that be the goal? Sometimes I think artists give themselves an 'out' by saying either/or. So while I am neither as good or as fast as I want to be, I am trying for both :)

Here is a link to a 5 page preview of issue 20.
http://imagecomics.com/fivepagepreview.php?title=theastoundingwolfman20&page=cover&doubles=

And finally the cover. First the sketch, you may notice the parallels to this cover and the cover issue #1. That was intentional and awesome as it saved me the time of drawing a new background.
Now the final. Buy every comic you see this Wednesday that has this cover on it!

Friday, November 06, 2009

19 Pencils and stuff

Sorry I am slow with this, but I am finally getting a chance to put up some of my layouts/pencils for issue 19. This issue was way fun to draw.


I also have a couple smooth links for you. This first one is to a short story I drew for my good Buddy Paul Sizer's book Little White Mouse. I drew this several years ago, and he is now putting it up as a web comic. So if you want to see some of my old stuff, or just check out his cool book, click away- http://www.webcomicsnation.com/paulsizer/littlewhitemouse/series.php?view=single&ID=163540

Second is an interview with me about stuff- http://whoissaintjames.com/2009/11/02/jason-howard-talks-to-saint-james

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

19!

Issue 19 comes out today. This issue is a little bit of a departure from recent issues, and it was a ton of fun to draw. After looking through a copy my son said "daddy, this is the best episode of Wolf-Man you've ever written". So there you have it, a glowing review from a 6 year old.

Here is the cover so you know what to look for.


And to show some process stuff, here is the rough sketch for the cover.

For those who missed the con in Baltimore last weekend, you missed a great time. What a fun show, tons of cool artists for me to drool over (their work, not them as a person) the show had a great vibe, and seemed pretty busy for everyone. I met tons of Wolf-Man fans, did some sketches and hung out with the rest of the Kirk-crew (Ryan Ottley, Cory Walker & Nate Bellegarde). Thanks to everyone who came by and said hi.

Also, here is a link to short video interview that was done with me at the show about the upcoming end of Wolf-Man- http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0910/14/howard.htm

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Cons and Stories!

A virtual grab bag today.

Thanks to those who have bought sketchbooks, you all are the bestset. If anyone else want to be the best, just click on that pretty girl with guns over to the right there.

I have a couple convention appearances coming up.
- Saturday, September 19. The Windy City Comicon http://www.windycitycomicon.com. I was at this conventions inaugural show last year and it was great. The cool thing about it was that they took the part I like best about conventions (artist alley) and made that the whole show. This year their guest list has expanded and it looks like even more fun. Smaller shows like this give the fans a great opportunity to meet and talk to creators. In fact I am looking forward to going just so I can meet some of my favorite artists. If you are anywhere in the Chicago area you should come.
- Saturday & Sunday, October 10-11. The Baltimore Comic-Con http://www.comicon.com/baltimore/. It looks like I will be at Baltimore this year. I have never done this show before, but I hear good things and am looking forward to it.

Looking back over recent posts it seems that I have not written much other than to promote various things I have coming up. So I thought I would pass on a fun story from my trip to the San Diego Comic Con a few weeks ago.
I arrived at the airport in the afternoon, as usual in San Diego it was a beautiful day. I flagged a taxi and we set off to my hotel. The cab driver was chatty and once we got past the typicall "how great the weather in San Diego is" part of the conversation it came up that I was from Michigan. This led into some sports talk, and then things got quiet for a couple minutes. After a while the cabbie said "So what about that doctor?", I had no idea what he was talking about, so I said "What Doctor?". He replied "You know that doctor that kills people". "Oh, Dr Kevorkian" I said. Keep in mind that Kevorkian was big in the news, oh about 15 years ago, so he is not fresh in my mind whenever anyone mentions "doctor". But I guess the fact that he was from Michigan also, the cabbie thought I would have an opinion. So we discussed the pros and cons of physician assisted suicide for a bit and then things got quite agian. After a few minutes of quiet the cabbie spoke up again, "You know, I wanted to kill myself". At this point I became more than a little nervous about the person who was driving me and responsible for my safety. But I offered what encouragement I could and tried to avoid mentioning anything that might make the cabbie decide that NOW was his opportunity to drive off a bridge and end it all. As we spoke more the cabbie assured me that he was past those dark times in his life and things were good now, but it didn't provide me much assurance and I was quite relieved when we finally arrived at the hotel.

And now some art. The cover and some process stuff for Wolf-Man 21. He's back!


Saturday, August 22, 2009

Sketch Books for Sale!

I finally got my act together. Over to the right you will see a brand new link for my Gun-Play art books. They are 20 pages of full color, comic sized finished drawings of girls with guns. I have a somewhat limited supply so if you are interested click the link and order one. They are $20 plus shipping, more details in the link. Thanks! If you have any problems/questions with your order e-mail me at jhowardhoward@yahoo.com .

Also, for those who live in the northern Michigan area I will be in Traverse City on August 29-30 for the Cherry Capital Con www.cherrycapitalcon.com . Come by and say hi and all that good stuff. I will have Wolf-Man trades and Gun-Play sketch books for sale. I'll probably also be doing sketches and chatting about the Lions pre season and whatever else comes to mind. Should be fun! Here is a T-Shirt design that I did for the show.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

18 & iPhone

Hey peoples. Tomorrow is the big day, issue 18 should be in stores and it is a good one. With the prison arc wrapped up last issue, this one begins to set the stage for big new things, and some big old things. And some medium sized and even small things. All sort of things really. So check it out. This months variant by Frank Cho (he's so good).

EDIT- Actually this issue is supposed to come out NEXT week, August 19. Sorry for the mix up.

Also, for those of you with an iPhone or iPod touch be sure to check out the "Comics" app in the iTunes app store. I have really been into comics on my iPod touch, and in my opinion this app has the best reading experience. If you havent tried it yet give it a shot. Plus this is the place to get Wolf-Man comics. The Comics app is $.99 and comes with the first issue of Wolf-Man and many other titles for free. You can then purchase subsequent issues from right within the app. Come on, step into the future.

For those waiting, I should have ordering information on my sketchbook up here soon. I have been super busy the past couple weeks catching up from Comic Con. I know, whine whine.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Back from Con with news.

San Diego was great. Thanks to anyone who stopped by the table. Lots of fun times and cool announcements came from the convention but there was one somewhat sad one (at least for me). Robert announced our plans to wrap up Wolf-Man with issue 25. You can read all about it here-
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=22212

But don't be too sad. We have tons of awesome coming up in the remaining 8 issues. Plus this points out one of the cool things of creator owned comics, we can decide to wrap up a story at a logical end point and leave the character at a good place rather than have this type of decision made by a publisher who may or may not have the best interest of the story in mind. Anyway, while I will miss drawing Wolf-Man and company, I still have 6-7 months of work to do on the series and I am committed to make them the best issues that I can. I can't talk yet about what I will be doing after Wolf-Man, but Robert and I have been developing a new project for over a year and I cant wait to get started drawing it... Its going to rock!

Here is the cover for issue 25, I think there will be some fighting in this issue :)

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Comic Con!

Just a note to let everyone know that I will be at the big San Diego Comic Con next week (July 22-26). I'll be sitting at the Image booth, sharing a table with Jon Sommariva and just over from Ryan Ottley So look me up and say "Hi". Seriously if you are reading this and then you see me in San Diego and don't say hi, it will make me sad.

I plan to be doing sketches and I'll have the first 2 volumes of the Wolf-Man trades for sale, as well as 12X18 prints of some of the covers.

I will also debut my new 'sketchbook' at the con. Its not really a sketchbook, as it contains finished pieces and not sketches, so I guess it is more of an art book. But it is the same size and binding as a regular comic, not all thick and book-like. Its called Gun-Play and the theme is girls with guns. I think I have posted an image or 2 here in the past. It is 20 pages, full color, and all the illustrations were created specifically for this book. The print run is limited to 100 copies. I haven't decided on the final price yet but it will probably be around $20. If I have books left after the show I plan to offer them for sale online. I'll give more details when/if this happens. Anyway, I put the cover up here, so even if you don't want to buy the book, you can look at the cover for free

Monday, June 29, 2009

He's only 17

Its going to be a good week! Out on Wednesday, the big issue 17. This issue is part of our variant cover run, this months is by Ian Churchill. It is awesome for me to see a character I designed drawn by other amazing artists. So far in the run of the book we have had Wolf-Man covers or pin-ups done by super talents like- Ryan Ottley, Art Adams/David Williams, Kelsey Shannon, Chris Giarrusso, Dale Keown, Ian Churchill and coming up by Frank Cho and maybe some others!

So anyway, be on the lookout for these covers this week.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

16 inks, 20 cover

Finally getting a chance to show a couple behind the scenes pages from issue 16. I love drawing Mecha Maid (the robot chick on page 10). I tend to like drawing roboty things, so if you mix robots and girls well that pretty much makes the most fun drawing ever. Speaking of girls, I also have the cover for issue 20 here. For those who remember the very first issues cover, you may notice some similarity. That was intentional and I think its kinda cool that we have enough issue out to allow us to make fun references to the design of issue 1.




Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Sweet 16

Issue #16 drops tomorrow (new comics come out on Thursday this week, due to the Memorial day holiday). Finally the big Zechariah Wolf-Man throw down. Here is the cover so you can look for it.

This issue also has a variant cover by the great Dale Keown. He's so good. If you see this cover you may want to pick it up as it was a 1 in 25 variant and not too many were printed...

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Convention!

Just a quick note to let those in the Michigan area know that I will be at the Motor City Con, May 15-17.

http://motorcityconventions.com

For those with money that they no longer wish to keep, I will have both Wolf-Man trades for sale, as well as copies of most issues to date (all at cover price). I will also have prints made up from various Wolf-Man covers and I will be doing sketches. The prints are $10, and I typically charge $40 for a con sketch. But even if you don't want to buy anything feel free to come by and just talk about comics, or art, or what the Pistons need to get good again.

And so that you have some art make your stop here worthwhile. Here is something from my sketchbook.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Big week.

Coming this Wednesday to finer comic shops everywhere.

Issue 15, featuring more prison fighting and other big time drama.


And Volume #2 trade. This collects issue 8-12, plus issue 57 of Invincible (the crossover issue), plus some sketch book stuff and fine commentary by Mr Kirkman and myself.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Cover 18 Process

Here is the cover for issue 18. A fun action shot of Mr. Wolf-Man and company. Plus I included a more detailed than normal step by step process thing. I think the images are pretty self explanatory so I'll spare you my commentary. Thanks for checking it out!

Friday, April 10, 2009

New paint.

Hey, hey! You may notice I changed the look of things around here a bit. It was long overdue. I hope you like green!

So too avoid a post with no art. Here are a couple recent non-comic projects that I have done. It is kinda fun to mix things up a little, but nothing really gives the satisfaction of finishing a comic page.


Wednesday, April 08, 2009

14- Behind the scenes

Back again. Here are some side by side comparisons of my layout and the final inked art for some pages from issue 14. My current process (which seems to be changing regularly if you compare to older posts on this blog) is to do a rough layout (shown below) scan it, enlarge it and print it in light blue on to the art board. Then I tighten up the detail a bit in pencil (not shown below) and ink it (shown below). Then scan it again and its off to Fco for colors.


Wednesday, April 01, 2009

14!

In stores today. Buy it! Lots of cool prisony stuff this issue, plus the introduction of a major new bad guy in poor Wolf-Mans life.

Friday, March 27, 2009

MSU Comics forum.

Late notice, but for those of you in the Lansing, Michigan area I will be at the Michigan State University comics forum tomorrow (Saturday, March 28) from 11:30 am - 4:30 pm. Check more info here- http://www.comicsforum.msu.edu/

Monday, March 09, 2009

13 Pencils

Not much time to write stuff tonight, but really is that what people want to see? I say "No", anybody can write stuff. What you want to see are rough scribbly and occasionally (often ?) crappy behind the scenes sketches and stuff. So here you be, some of the rough pencil pages for issue 13. Go!

Note on page 1, panel 3 changed a bit on the final art. I like the scope of this panel, but Robert thought it might be better to zoom in so that we could actually SEE the characters. That Kirkman is a smart dude.
Note that on this page a dude gets punched.
These next 2 page spreads were some of the most fun things to draw for the whole issue.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Cover 17 process

Howdy. Cover process time! This cover for me was all about getting the right design. Robert discussed with me what would be happening and his idea for a cover for this issue. Based on this I did sketch A. This sketch came right away and I really liked it and thought it would make a cool 'in your face' cover. But Robert wanted to see something different. So I worked up some other sketches which i didn't like so much. I just couldn't get into them, mainly because I felt I had already solved the design with version A. After discussing these with Robert and letting a little time pass, I came back and did sketches F- H. We agreed on G, and I banged it out. I literally spent more time on the sketches for this cover than I did on the actual drawing of the cover.

As usual I forgot to scan my finished pencils.But the process went like this. I enlarged my sketch to about 4" X 6", tightened up the drawing on another sheet of paper, then I scanned that enlarged it to full comic page size, converted it to light blue color and printed to directly to the comic board. The I added detail and fixed things up a bit in pencil. I inked over that mainly using a brush on the figure and pens on the sword and ground.

After it was inked, I scaned it and using my good friend Photoshop added some color. I love coloring the covers, particularly as I now am no longer coloring the interior pages to the book. My goal is to pick a color scheme that I feel will pop, and make the image stand out.
And that is all.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

13!

So, I have been a little slow on posts lately. Sorry. Not to make excuses but I have been drawing like a crazy person and just haven't had much extra time. Anyway, issue #13 comes out to day. Big things are happening in the world of Wolf-Man so check it out. I'll be back soon with some pencil pages and other goodness.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Things

A couple cool things today.

First. Last week The Astounding Wolf-Man volume 1 was named to the American Library Association's list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens 2009. We didn't make the top 10, but still making the list at all is pretty cool. Check out the full list of books here- http://tinyurl.com/djzhgh

Second. I finally have a gallery over at Deviant Art. If you have been following this blog for a while, most of the images over there will not be new to you, but there may be a couple things that you haven't seen. I will of course continue to keep up this blog. I am not sure but I am thinking that I will probably share more of my process and behind the scenes stuff here, and only put the finished stuff on DA. We'll see how it works out. Find it here- http://jasonhoward.deviantart.com/

Third. So as not to have a post with no art, here are a couple pencil pages from #12.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

12 Today

Issue #12 comes out today. I have yet to see a printed version, but I am sure that it is smashing. Here is the cover so you can look for it. I find it a little odd to realize that I have drawn 12 consecutive issues of a comic book (technically more, but only 12 issues are out). I clearly remember a time in my attempts to make comics where just finishing 1 page seemed like a major accomplishment. And now I am going on almost 300 pages of comics just for Wolf-Man. Thats pretty cool. Anyway, I am not sure why I am telling you this. Unless you are struggling through difficult times in trying to reach a goal that you have, then I guess the message would be to stick with it. Anyway, bye.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Cover 15

Here's another sneak peak at an upcoming cover. Its a prison riot! The first 2 sketches were a little simpler and designy. But we felt that something showing more of the guards, and the prison would be cool. This led to sketch C, which with a few little tweaks became the design of the final cover. Enjoy!