Not Branded Yet! Stuff You Won't See in CRAZY!

Followers on my social media know I was lucky enough to get an email from Marvel Entertainment senior editor Mark Paniccia back in May asking if I'd like to contribute to a 40-page one-shot revival of CRAZY! I teach college writing during the fall and spring semesters, and school had just let out, and I was a little rusty at the ol' drawing board, but I said, "Why not?!"

Webs and Shreds (and Thunder!): Three More Recent Drawings

Here are some more commission-like drawing (they're like what I would do for a convention or commission drawing, but these aren't sold yet!). The first is a Spidey pose traced from a 2005 sketchbook drawing I always liked, with the addition of a goofy Hulk figure. It's 11" x 14" on Aquabee sketchbook paper, colorized in Photoshop (although I could accomplish much the same effect physically with Dr. Martin's dyes).

Spidey Stampede: A Decades-Delayed Office Dash!

This is a drawing I just completed in pen and ink on 11" x 14" Aquabee sketchbook paper (nice stuff that takes pen and ink really well; it's almost like Bristol board). I had this pad for ages and decided to cut the spiral-wire binding and use it for warm-up drawings and convention sketches.

SpideyCat and the Chopper Cube: Marvel Samples Then and Now!

I started reading comics in earnest at the age of ten in the summer of 1972. The first comics I devoured were from the Marvel Comics Group with the cover date of September. Virtually the last comic book on the spinner rack at Howard's Drugs at Six Mile and Inkster Road in my neighborhood of Livonia, Michigan--with a Marvel banner that I hadn't read already--was Amazing Spider-Man #112, which I bought somewhat reluctantly. I don't know what it was that turned me off of Spider-Man; maybe it was the awful Ralph Bakshi Saturday morning cartoon of some years before, with the dreadful theme song that still haunts the current Marvel movies.

Two Orphaned Drawings from Personal Appearances

Update 12/12/14: Watch videos of me drawing this Spidey! See final colored Spidey drawing below.

Ms. Megaton Man, from Genghis Con, Cleveland, Nov. 30, 2014.

I will part with no drawing before its time! Here are a couple of drawings I began at recent personal appearances (Ms. Megaton Man at Genghis Con in Cleveland, Nov 30, 2014 and Spidey at the Frank L. Melaga Art Museum in Brownsville PA, Dec 8, 2014), but ran out of time to complete them on-site. I later finished inking them, including making minor corrections, at home.

There is nothing more tragic than a homeless cartoon drawing, especially during the holidays! If you can provide safe, warm shelter for works of art like these, please contact me. Or, if you would like to commission a completely new, custom made drawing of your favorite character, please visit my commission rate page. Thanks, and have a happy holiday season!

Spider-Man colored in Photoshop.

Ms. Megaton Man is ™ and  © Don Simpson 2014, all rights reserved. Other characters are ™ and  © their respective creators/owners.

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.