THE EXPATRIATE #5

As yet unpublished, the fifth issue of THE EXPATRIATE was set to kick things into some awesomely strange new directions. Here's a direct scan of the top half of a page from that issue, which Jason Latour gave to me some time back. I'm a longtime Beatles fanatic, which he's well aware of.

I should mention that the Beatles poster wasn't just there as an homage. The Beatles appearance in Washington, D.C. during the time of the story was an important piece of the puzzle...

Click HERE for a larger look.

ANTHEM headers

A bit ago I posted a link to an earlier blog entry on Twitter, featuring Toby Cypress's original designs for ANTHEM (which became BATTLE HYMN after Roy Thomas complained about the title, and when Jeremy Haun stepped in to revamp the concept with me). I actually have three inked sample pages from Toby, but the only copies I have are from badly scanned faxes. Still, here are two tiers that show off his take on things.

Nick Derington's Destroyer

This one isn't in my Timely sketchbook. I pulled it from an earlier book, but it's pretty sweet. Nick Derington (who drew the second issue of HAWAIIAN DICK: THE LAST RESORT) contributed it some years back. Nick's a pretty amazing talent. Wish he did more comic work:

http://www.nickderington.com/

So, this one time I was in INVINCIBLE...

Back when I worked full-time for Image, Benito Cereno and Nate Bellegarde worked me into one of their brilliant INVINCIBLE back-up strips:

Long after it became clear to Nate that I lacked the financial wherewithal to pay him what the original page was worth, he was nice enough to gift it to me. If you see Benito or Nate's name on a comic book, buy it. No questions asked.

Coffin!

Andy Belanger (Andy B.) and I agreed to collaborate on a project a few years ago, and things have always stalled out (usually on my end). We did chat about it in New York again, and if I can get the damn thing written, I think Andy would be game to wrap it up.

Lately Andy's been tearing it up over at Zuda.com with Bottle of Awesome: www.zudacomics.com/bottle_of_awesome

So here are the cover inks for THE MAN CALLED....COFFIN!, followed by a couple of finished pages (click on the cover and the last page for massive views):

Hawaiian Dick Debris: Bone and Latour

The rarely seen original Hawaiian Dick sketches by J. Bone, who was intended to have been the original artist. He also did a great little color sketch that I've somehow lost. If you read the backmatter in the first Dick trade, you'll notice Steven asking me in an early exchange whether or not he should stick to Bone's take, or go his own way. Ultimately, he went his own way.


Jason Latour drew the "second printing" cover for the latest HAWAIIAN DICK #1. Here's his mockup of the cover (he conceived and completed the cover in a day), followed by the published version:

Finally, here's a little rough that Latour did a while ago. I get a kick out of it:

Robbi Rodriguez does the Bat

A killer con sketch Robbi gave me in Texas back in 2005. Golden Age Batman.