The Grim Gondolier

A recent commission. I was asked to draw "any Seaguy character" and instead of doing the obvious ones I chose Death:




I hope he doesn't mind.

Action!

Looking over the posts from the last few weeks I realize this is in danger of becoming a blog about people standing still. Here's a few action pages from the next issue of Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye, on sale May 6!

Seaguy 2: Process

I get frequent requests to show the pencils for my artwork and I'm unable to do so for one simple reason - I almost never use pencil. Over time I've gradually moved away from doing pencilled artwork, since I always do my own inks and doing tight pencil drawings seems redundant and time-consuming. Drawing in pen or marker is actually now much more comfortable for me than drawing in pencil.

In the past I did small layouts in pen on regular bond paper, two comic pages per sheet. I found that I would waste a lot of paper though and so recently I've switched to doing my roughs digitally. Below is an example of one of my layout pages, drawn in Photoshop with a Wacom Cintiq tablet:



Once these are complete enough for me (and my editor) to read clearly, I then enlarge them to 11 x 17 standard comic artwork dimensions, turn the black roughs into light blue (done by going into the channels and deleting Magenta, Yellow, and Black) and printing them onto bristol board.

Then comes the tricky, scary, and exciting part - I start inking. Most of the final drawing is done at this stage, I add much more definition and detail to previously vague scribbles. It's risky and I often have to go in and make corrections with white ink but this is happening less and less. It's enormously satisfying for me to work without the safety net of pencil and produce final artwork on the fly. (Long ago I read that Sean Philips worked directly in ink and I was perplexed at how it was even possible - now I know the key to doing it is equal parts practice and confidence). Below is the final page.



Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye begins in April!

Seaguy 2: Slaves Of Mickey Eye #1

On sale April 1st, 2009 at all decent comic shops.





SEAGUY: THE SLAVES OF MICKEY EYE #1

Written by Grant Morrison

Art and cover by Cameron Stewart

In 2008 alone, superstar writer Grant Morrison killed Batman, put the entire DC Universe through its FINAL CRISIS and concluded the unanimously beloved ALL-STAR SUPERMAN. But what does a writer who’s written every significant Super Hero do when he can create any Super Hero he wants? The answer, of course, is SEAGUY! Morrison (THE INVISIBLES) rejoins original SEAGUY artist Cameron Stewart (SEVEN SOLDIERS) in an all-new adventure starring the cult-favorite character!
In Seaguy’s cartoon future world, everyone is a Super Hero and no one dies. It’s absolutely perfect...Or is it? In this follow-up to the cult 2004 miniseries, Seaguy resurfaces with a sinister new partner, a hatred of the sea and a rebel restlessness he can’t explain. Why are Doc Hero and his ex-archenemy Silvan Niltoid, the Alien from Planet Earth, whispering strange equations? Why is Death so useless? And can that really be the ghost of Chubby Da Choona mumbling uncanny warnings and dire prophecies of ultimate catastrophe?
When the grotesque powers lurking behind the corporation known as Mickey Eye and the Happy Group attempt to erase Seaguy’s entire existence, can he possibly get it together in time to save a world so far gone it can’t even imagine the horror lying in wait? Find out here in Morrison’s own personal reframing of the Super Hero concept for the 21st century.

On sale April 1 • 1 of 3 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • MATURE READERS

Oh, I Can't Help It.

Dave's colours make me giddy so here's another spread.

Seaguy 2 pages

Here's some pages from the upcoming first issue of Seaguy 2: Slaves of Mickey Eye. Colours by Dave Stewart (no relation).

Seaguy 2 Art Preview

Here's the first three pages from next year's Seaguy 2: Slaves of Mickey Eye. These will eventually be brought to respectable life by Todd Klein lettering Grant Morrison's script, and the wonderful Dave Stewart (no relation) on colours.

Doc Hero

Another Seaguy 2 model today, this time Doc Hero, the retired superhero. Since the defeat of Anti-Dad and the rest of the supervillains he hasn't had much to do other than ride the Eye-Go-Round at Mickey Eye Park, so he's stopped wearing his magnificent golden armour and dresses more casually. I changed the design of his helmet slightly, influenced by the mask of rapper MF Doom.

Seaguy 2 Models

The Seaguy model I posted a few days ago has already started making its way around the web, but looking at it now there's a few things that are wrong with it, which prompted me to do another pass at it. Here's the revision, and some of the other characters from the story.

Seaguy's costume has had a few changes from the original series. Grant Morrison has said that if the first series was the "child" Seaguy (naive, full of curiosity and wonder, prone to trouble), then this is the "teenage" Seaguy (knows too much to return to ignorant bliss, but still hasn't defined who he wants to be). His costume is less colourful this time - still keeping with the blue, yellow and black colour scheme, but black is now the dominant colour, and the blue is a much darker shade. I dropped the belt so he looks less like a toy superhero, and more like he's wearing a wetsuit. The "SG" logo was the trickiest part, I was never happy with the yellow oval of the first costume and so I spent almost a full day sketching dozens of variations until I found the "wave" design, which is still a callback to the previous costume design but more modern and nautical.

She-Beard has had a complete redesign, again, still keeping with the colour scheme of the original for visual continuity but otherwise entirely new. Her only real description is "Red Sonja. With a beard."

Seadog, whom we found out at the end of the last series is also the villain Lotharius, keeps his yellow stripey shirt, but I gave him white pants and boat shoes, which calls to mind the citizens of the Village in The Prisoner.

And finally Death, the Grim Gondolier, who claimed Seaguy's pal Chubby Da Choona as his own in issue 2 of the previous series. He still can't find anyone but Seaguy to play him at Chess...

More to come.

Adventure Ahoy

It was recently officially announced at the New York Comic Con that after 4 years of dwelling in Limbo, Seaguy by Grant Morrison and myself is finally returning. Seaguy was always intended to be a trilogy of books but unfortunately the first volume, The Wasps of Atlantis, underperformed and the remaining volumes were cancelled, leaving many readers understandably puzzled at the conclusion of the book. Despite the apparent low sales of the first volume, Seaguy fans appear to be everywhere, as it's always one of the most common books people bring for me to sign at conventions, and to this day I'm frequently asked about the other books in the series.

Finally, the wait is over and Vertigo has given the green light for the complete trilogy to be created. Slaves of Mickey Eye and Seaguy Eternal are to be published back to back in 2009. I have the first script and have begun preliminary work. Unfortunately I cannot reveal any plot details here, (but you wouldn't want that anyway, would you?), but I will be posting some of my costume sketches (most characters will be receiving makeovers) and other assorted drawings pertaining to the series, leading up to its release.

First up, Seaguy and his unpleasant replacement sidekick/familiar, Lucky El Loro.