Venom

Here's a Venom I drew at the Montreal Mini ComicCon last weekend. He's got to be one of the easiest villains to draw, he's doesn't really have a face. Looks kind of like a Mexican wrestler crossed with a dinosaur, I can see why kids like him so much. I've always thought of him as Spider-Man's old pants, but I still love him.


The new Venom series by Rick Remender (and a raft of artists including my good buddy Tom Fowler) is great, by the way. If you're not reading it, it's got a nice mix of crazy alien monster action and heartfelt human emotions. The human half of Venom, Flash Thompson, is a total trainwreck of a human being and it is glorious to read.

Trypticon

Been playing a bit of Transformers: War for Cybertron after the family goes to sleep, and it's pretty fun stuff. I particularly like Trypticon, the Decepticon City, who is the final boss of the game and is basically a Godzilla transformer. He's pretty great; I'm a big fan of blatant shout-outs in my media, I guess.

Trypticon (what a name! so good) stuck in my head so much that I doodled a sketch of him while watching some Luther last night. Colored it last night (instead of playing the game!) and here it is.


As always, my webcomic That's So Kraven! updated today. I am ending the strip at 75 episodes, so there's only two more to go after this. It'll be a blessing to no longer have to watch That's So Raven.

BioShock again

Can't get enough of drawing BioShock stuff. I bought a new sketchbook the other day, and I decided to have some fun throwing down some messy ink and tossing some devil-may-care Photoshop behind it all. Try out some textures. Experiment, experiment, experiment.

None of these characters will make sense unless you're familiar with the video game BioShock. Here's the trailer (warning for violence). Hopefully you'll think that the drawings are cool nonetheless.

Big Daddy Bouncer w/ Little Sister

Baby Jane Splicer

As always, my weekly webcomic That's So Kraven! is updated. I announced last week that I am retiring the strip at 75 'webisodes'. However, I will be launching a new webcomic in the new year and I'm very excited about it.

Blackbeard's Treasure Map

I have a nephew. His name is Dane, and he is awesome. He and I both share a love of pirates, those scurvy crooks who lie and cheat their way across the Caribbean, and the last time I visited Saskatchewan I made Dane a little pirate map. I scribbled the map in ballpoint pen on a ragged piece of bond paper, and we scoured the house looking for treasure. Since Dane's mom Terri is also awesome, she drew an 'X' on the shower door and put some candy in a little cup for us to find... Dane's Lost Treasure!

It was Dane's birthday a few weeks ago, so I put a package in the mail with some things for him; some Marvel Megabloks, some Lego, a couple of Transformers and Batman toys... and an honest, for-real Blackbeard's Treasure Map.


This morning, Terri sent me a video of Dane's eyes lighting up as he opened the map for the first time, and it made my day. This is what Dane had to say: "A long time ago, there was a pirate ship and it sunk and they swam back to the pirate ship and found the treasure under the sea where no one would have been and they fighted and they fighted and they fighted and went back to their ship for grog."

Isn't he the best?

Your uncle loves you, Dane, and he's very proud of you. Go have some adventures.

Darwyn Cooke's Richard Stark's Parker

A complicated title for an uncomplicated man.

Parker (no first name) is a thief and killer introduced by Donald Westlake (writing as Richard Stark) in 1962 in the action thriller The Hunter. Shot and left for dead by his partner (and his wife), Parker cuts a swath through New York's underworld to retrieve his money and have his revenge.

Westlake would go on to pen nearly twenty-five Parker novels (ending in 2008 with Dirty Money) and each one has a clever heist, interesting supporting characters (including the charming actor Grofield, the loyal Handy McKay, and the sultry Bette Harlow), and brutal violence.

The books themselves have been adapted to film sporadically over the years. The finest adaptation is probably Point Blank, the fantastic John Boorman adaptation of The Hunter that starred Lee Marvin and Angie Dickinson.



 

However, the series has been given a serious shot in the arm in the last few years by the immensely talented Darwyn Cooke. Shortly before Westlake's death, Cooke began adapting The Hunter to comics. It was a fantastic book (the first adaptation to use Parker's name, too) and successful enough to warrant a sequel. Cooke has indicated that, besides his already-completed versions of The Hunter and The Outfit, he will adapt The Score and Slayground. I can't wait.

It is Cooke's adaptations that inspired me to draw Parker himself earlier this year. I colored the piece, and here it is:



For more information on Parker and his bullet-riddled adventures, I highly suggest the indispensable Violent World of Parker website.