Comic Book Project Revealed

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Frequent readers may remember that this summer I posted a couple of sneak peaks of some comic book character sketches that were part of a larger piece I could not disclose info about at the time. Well, the book in question is shipping next month, and it’s being advertised as such from multiple sources, so I guess it’s safe to post the artwork. See above.

The art is for the cover of Ryan Sohmer‘s Absolute Ultimate Gutters Omnibus Volume 3, which is described thusly by the fore mentioned sales teasers:

The Absolute Ultimate Gutters Omnibus Volume 3 is the newest collection of the wildly popular Gutters comic. Written by Ryan Sohmer (Least I Could Do, Looking For Group), Gutters is a series of standalone pages that parody the comic book industry and the heroes and characters that dwell within. Each page is penciled, inked and colored by a different artist, varying from industry veterans to newcomers. Volume 3 is an over-sized full color (and glossy) printed book. With a cover by Tom Richmond (of MAD magazine fame) and a forward by C.B. Cebulski (Marvel comics wunderkind), this is a book that your customer will love.

The Gutters is a really clever collection of satires, parody and commentary about the world of comics… everything from its creative content to business practices. The production values of the books are really amazing, with hard covers that have embossed sections of text and parts of the images, and pages featuring not just the artwork but rough sketches, artist bios and notes from Ryan. They are also huge, coffee table-sized tomes.

Ryan’s cover concepts are takes on famous historical images. The first was by Darick Robertson, based on the famous “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” photo. The second was by Tim Sale, based on “The Last Supper”. Mine is of course based on the famous “V-J Day in Times Square” photo.

I just did the black and white, inked art. Ed Ryzowski did the color. Here’s the biggest image of the color cover I could find online, and it’s not the complete wrap-around image:

Looks like a really fun book. I am looking forward to getting a copy next month. Here was that original pencil sketch in full:

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