Patriotic Pen and Ink: An Orphaned Commission!

Perhaps it's all the deep divisions right now in this great land of ours, or (more likely) my own perverse prankishness, but when a collector contacted me about doing a commission over the weekend with instructions that he wanted me to be me, this is the idea I woke up with this morning. So, I let 'er rip. Unfortunately, at the pencil stage (below), said collector balked, informing me that he was "really not a Marvel fan." Okay. So I went ahead and inked it anyway.

Princess Diana and Mary Jane: Some Recent Commissioned Drawings

Wonder Woman and Spidey's Girl Friend are among the subjects of several recent commissions (a couple below are older and may have been posted before, but well worth revisiting).

For some reason I never warmed up to Harry G. Peter's original version of Wonder Woman; like Steve Ditko on Spider-Man, I grew up on a different, later version of the character, and it is only in maturity that I recognize the originality in their respective versions. I also have come to appreciate that Peter was attempting to do a kind of classical antiquity thing with the drawing, aping Greek figure vases by way of early twentieth century pulp illustration. I also like the early Wonder Woman's mid-thigh-length pants, which have recently come back into style as biker shorts or yoga tights (I never cared for the Linda Carter high-cut thigh look, personally).

Anyway, below are a few recent drawings along those lines, along with some other characters that are obviously not owned by me.

Wonder Woman repels the Cheetah, in a homage to an early H. G. Peter splash page.

Princess Diana takes a jog in the high-heel boots that become more or less standard early in her career.

Wonder Woman in her Art Deco hairstyle and Neo Grec ribboned sandals.

Apropos of nothing, a topless Mary Jane Watson and Spidey (pencil rough).

Spidey defends (pointlessly) Mary Jane's modesty; inked on vellum.

Wonder Woman in the more classic panty bottoms, but losing her fine featherd bustier, which chooses to fly the coop. Wonder Woman is the property of whatever corporate interests own Hollywood at the moment, but Megaton Man™ and © Don Simpson 2018, all rights reserved.

Inked version in pen and ink on Strathmore. Megaton Man™ and © Don Simpson 2018, all rights reserved.

Watercolor version. Megaton Man™ and © Don Simpson 2018, all rights reserved.

Megaton Man as the sidekick and Stella Starlight as the Captain in a sketchbook commission. Megaton Man™ and Stella Starlight™ and © Don Simpson 2018, all rights reserved.

For more racy (or at least weird) convention sketches from the past, proceed to the previous blog post.

Please consult my Commission Price List and contact me if you are interested in acquiring an original custom drawing for your private gallery!

Drawing Blanks: Variant Covers, That Is

Here are three recent drawings created on blank variant covers (a phenomenon I am only barely acquainted with, but apparently dates back to DC's Wasteland #6, which is the only issue of the series I don't appear in). Depending on the paper stock, I used India ink, either with a sable brush or crowquill pen, and Dr. Martin's dyes. Each of these paper stocks offered a different quality surface, better or worse for pencil/inking/coloring, and therefore a unique challenge -- but it's a poor craftsman who blames his materials! Enjoy.

Crowquill and ink with Dr. Martin's dyes.

Sable brush and India ink with Dr. Martin's dyes. This is the first time I've drawn this character.

Sable brush and India ink with Dr. Martin's dyes. The composition is a riff on Jack Kirby's iconic cover for Captain America #106 (October 1968), except that I have Cap in shredded army fatigues, as if he was just revived in Avengers # 4 (March 1964).

Don Simpson does not discriminate on the basis of universes, companies, or eras of comic book fandom. Don Simpson is an equal opportunity cartoonist.

Captain Amegatonman and Bucky Barrage: A Recent Commission

A recent commission request from Mark Martin's personal art dealer and consigliore Michael Beaver, who informs me that he collects sketches of old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles artists who had work published by Mirage Studios back in the 1980s (which I somehow qualify as, although it was so long ago I forget exactly how!). His theme: Captain America! So Michael has compiled a sketchbook of various turtle artists drawing the red, white and blue Avenger. No problem! So the sketchbook arrived last week by armored car, and this is what I drew:

Here is the double-paged extravaganza I produced, with Stella Starlight (The See-Thru Girl as Cap) and Megaton Man as Bucky. I thought the white leggings on Stella balanced the arms (I never understood why Cap had white arms), and she is blond like Steve Rogers, so it made a certain amount of sense. Changing Megaton Man's cowl to white is a choice I'm less certain about, but I thought it would get lost in all that blue otherwise. I should have made Bucky's buttons more like those on Meg's cape!

I suppose Captain America is one of my favorite characters (although he is so iconic I tend to think of him more like Santa Claus or Uncle Sam, and hence, not a "character" at all in that sense), if only because three of his more important artists - Jack Kirby, John Romita, and Jim Steranko - were so utterly influential for me.

Mike also enclosed a couple of items to be autographed: the first collection of Megaton Man #1-4 from Kitchen Sink Press (1990), and Shell Shock, an anthology of TMNT by Mirage (1989), which features the first appearance of Bizarre Hero Pteranoman (the entire story appears here). So I had to add appropriate sketches.

Here is the pencil sketch of Stella I drew on the largely-blank dedication page of the Megaton Man Kitchen Sink collection. In the past such things would escape (as far as I was concerned), never to be seen again, but today it is easy to snap a photo as documentation, so why not? Now, instead of a personal experience for Michael, I can ruin it by posting it on the Internet!

Here is the ballpoint pen sketch of Pteranoman that I drew on the Shell Shock table of contents page (the title page was already filled with autographs from contributors to the anthology). My contribution, "Teen Techno Turtle Trio," was the first appearance of what Michael aptly describes as "the Paleo Dark Knight."

My thanks to Michael Beaver for letting me a part of his personal Sentinel of Liberty on a Half-Shell menagerie, and for allowing me to reproduce the above images!

Please note: I have done a number of commissions in bound sketchbooks as comic book conventions over the years, where fans will leave their treasured books with me in artist's alley and pick them up later (this is fraught enough, if only because in the melee of conventions it is sometime difficult to locate these fans later, especially in the closing hours of an event). When working remotely, at home, as I do in the case of Internet requests, I prefer to draw commissions on loose, quality paper stock of my choice, not bound sketchbooks that already have numerous and irreplaceable masterpieces by famous artists already contained therein, if only because of the enormous emotional strain of drawing under such nerve-wracking conditions! I only undertook this commission because Michael had armed guards standing over me the whole time to make sure I did not drip ink on any of the other sketchbook pages!

Please note further that if your commission request involves a bound sketchbook, it will entail additional surcharges just for insurance and catering the armed guards!! Thanks for understanding.