Superman Challenge

Last week Warren Ellis tried something a little different on the REMAKE/REMODEL challenge on the Whitechapel forum. The idea was:

" You are an artist/designer. You have to put together the cover for a comic called SUPERMAN. It is issue 1 of this book.  You have been told that Superman is a man who dresses predominantly in a shade of blue, and wears a red S symbol. You know nothing else about the character. The cover must include a logo and the text THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE DARING EXPLOITS OF THE ONE AND ONLY SUPERMAN. It's up to you what kind of company you're at. What kind of comics you make. How you translate that description of Superman. What era you're in. Who you are, even. Go nuts with it."

How awesome is that for a challenge? Here's a small sample of some of the incredible artwork the thread generated.






Covers above by Alberto J. Silva, Bryant paul Johnson, David Bednarski, Tom Muller, Thomas Perkins, Gaston, Chris G. Team Mummy, Anthony Brennan, Mike Rooth, Paul Milligan, Jorell and Dean Trippe.

See the whole thread here.

Now there's a new challenge up and this time it's for 2000AD. The idea is the same - you've been given a brief to design the cover for an anthology you know very little about and it's up to you to interpet the idea. I think there will be some great stuff coming out of this one too.

Superheroed!

As if the idea of a superhero themed club night wasn't enough fun by itself, it also has the most amazing posters: superhero remixes of 80s record covers designed and drawn by Cliff Chiang. It makes me kind of jealous of all those lucky new yorkers.

I'm not sure whether all of these were drawn for the party, but Chiang seems to be having fun doing them and says he's got a few more ideas for other album covers. Awesome!

www.cliffchiang.com
www.myspace.com/cosmicpowernyc

Super person of the week: Alex Ross

Alex Ross was probably the first artist to "paint" a comic (certainly the first one in the mainstream circle) and today is considered one of the world’s most preeminent and well-respected comic book artists around. His first big project in the comic industry was "Marvels", the book through which I discovered this work and was totally blown away by its hyper-realistic quality and how well it worked on the comic book format.

Over 15 years after the "Marvels" debut, his work has been on dozens of book covers and pages on several publishers including DC, Marvel, Warner, Dynamite and Wizard.



www.alexrossart.com

Iron Man sketch cards

Aw, how cute are Eric Merced's new set of Iron Man sketch cards?


View the entire set here.

www.ericmerced.com
stickfiguredancer.deviantart.com

Ulises Farinas' awesome lego superheroes

New York based illustrator and cartoonist Ulises Farina has drawn both the DC and Marvel universes LEGO style. Click on the pictures for the original sizes.

www.ulisesfarinas.com

via lego diem.

Danny Zabbal

I have been meaning to post about Danny Zabbal for a while - He is the author of the weekly webcomic Journey in the Sixth Dimension and a freelance illustrator and cartoonist. His flickr set of oddball superheroes puts a smile on my face anyday.

www.dannyzabbal.com
www.flickr.com/photos/dannyzabbal

Brian's Hellboy Sketchbook

When doing a google search for a specific Hellboy cover the other day, I came across Brian's hellboy sketchbook flickr set. As the name suggests, the picture gallery is a personall collection of Hellboy commissions by lots of great artists like James Kochalka, Dave Crosland, Skottie Young, Cameron Stewart, Humberto Ramos, Erik Larsen and lots lots more.

Thank you to Brian Hall for sharing his collection on flickr.

www.flickr.com/photos/transmission3000/sets/72157602065053540

Nuno Platis

It's always very refreshing to see well known characters drawn in a totally different way. That's one of the reasons I love Nuno Platis' work. Super-stylized goodness!!

nunoplati.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/nunoplati

Super person of the week: Ryan Ottley

Ryan Ottley is best known for his work on Invincible, the first and most popular superhero tittle on Image Comics. Invincible was created and originally drawn by Cory Walker, but Ottley assumed the art duties on issue 8 and has been pencilling ever since.

He is also the artist and co-creator of  Ted Noodleman: Bicycle Delivery Boy, which started as a webcomic and got published in 2005 (and through which Robert Kirkman discovered his work and got him on board Image Comics drawing Invicible), OZF5: Gale Force, and the much more recent Death Grub, a one off story also on Image.

His website is updated regularly with lots of drawings and sketches, both of stuff he's working on at the time as well as lots of random bits and pieces he draws just for fun.

www.ryanottley.com

Super person of the week: Chris Giarrusso

Chris G is the creator of G-Man, a fun new superhero comic on Image, and Mini Marvels, featuring the good old Marvel heroes as kids, which has appeared as back up features in many of their comics and has recently been compiled into two books of their own.

Have a look at his website for loads of strips, drawings and sketches. Superheroes have never looked this cute!

www.chrisgcomics.com

Super person of the week: Humberto Ramos

I discovered Humberto Ramos a couple of years ago and have been following his work ever since. He has done a lot of work for marvel in the past years and I particularly love the way he draws spider-man (probably my favourite rendering ever). Gotta love new-school!

www.humbertoramos.com