OLYMPIANS POSTER! A complete walkthrough

The upcoming Olympians poster is as finished as it's gonna get. I thought you might like to see this step-by-step process of how it was made, from the finish all the way back to the sketch.

finished color

finished inks

pencils

sketch

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #68

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks every day until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from February of 2007.

Today's sketch is a sea of Zeus faces, with a early appearance by Heracles right in the middle. It was interesting to me to note that Heracles apparently emerged fully-formed out of the ether-- this is the earliest sketchbook appearance by him I could find, and he looks pretty much exactly as he will in Hera: The Goddess and her Glory.

warm up sketch: Heracles vs the Lernaean Hydra

I do a daily warm-up drawing with the members of my studio in Brooklyn. Occasionally, the topic turns to a matter mythological, and I'll post the result here. Today's topic was "The Lernaean Hydra"

In the swamps of Lerna, during the age of heroes, there lived a great and poisonous serpent, a monstrous offspring of the union of Typhon and Echidna. The destruction of this beast, called the Lernaen Hydra,  became the second Labor of the greatest of all Greek Heroes, Heracles. Every time the Glory of Hera knocked off a head of this creature, two more grew to take its place. It was not until his nephew, Iolaus, had the idea to cauterize the stumps that the son of Zeus was able to vanquish his foe.

Believe it or not, today's topic was not chosen by me, but rather by the lovely Natalie Kim, whose drawing can be found here. For this piece, I recycled my own designs for both the Hydra and Heracles from my upcoming book Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory (coming out in July!) but the drawing is all new-- took me about a half hour, from pencils to scan. Consider it a preview.

Mega Post part 2! Classics and Comics cover final artwork

So last week I told you all about a cover I recently drew for an upcoming book from Oxford University Press called Classic and Comics. The idea was that I drew several pastiches of famous superhero covers with the superheroes replaced by Olympian deities. I showed several such sketches, as well as their inspirations, but we finally went with Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman.



And below here we have my quickie sharpie marker sketch for my take on the cover, with Supes replaced by his inspiration, Heracles, and the various assorted random thugs replaced by various assorted random superfolk.



After we all decide that this sketch was the way to go, I penciled the image on a piece of Bristol paper. It's now a bit tighter than the sketch, and a few elements of the composition, like Herc being bigger, have been tweaked.



From there I went into the inks. This was inked with pen nibs and brush. I work from pretty loose pencils, as I like to do most of the actual drawing in ink-- keeps it fresher for me. Once again, there are a few changes at this stage-- like, where did that loose tire go? Folks thought that tire was confusing, as the car being smashed by Herc still seems to have all its wheels. I will point out, however, that is a detail from the original cover. Maybe Superman had a sidekick from Krypton who was a tire and got cut from the final story?



Finally, after I inked it, wonder-intern Evan Petersen did some color flatfills (basically tracing out shapes) for the piece in Photoshop, and then I went in and did the final color. And we're done!



Notice that the final piece has a lot of extra color space around the edges-- that's bleed room for when they print it up. I also left plenty of room for type elements, which the good folks at Oxford University Press will be handling. Hope you all enjoyed this exhaustive look at how I work!

Sketchbook Sneak Peek: It's Hot as Hades Today!

In honor of the old saying and the fact that the temperature has been in triple digits here in NYC, I thought I'd share this double page spread from my sketchbook, with doodles of an armored Hades, a thoughtful Demeter, and a drawing from behind of a certain demigod who may have been surprised to find himself in the Underworld.

Cut off a head, two more take its place!

Another preview page from Olympians Book #3: Hera. Heracles learns a little something about the Hydra. This is not quite finished color, but its close enough that you should all get the idea.

Progress report: Cerberus

Heracles, taking the dog for a walk. I'd hate to see the pooper-scooper for this guy, especially since with three heads, he can eat three times as much, if you know what I mean...

Progress report: Hydra

I posted this on my other blog as part of a lame joke I made there. But I figured I'd share this with you all (seeing as how I scanned it and all already). This is Heracles facing off against the Hydra, a monster who, every time a head is cut off, two more grow in it's place. As you can see, Heracles has been pretty busy. Enjoy!

Progress report: The Glory of Hera-- wedding of Zeus and Hera

Update on Olympians Book 3: The Glory of Hera-- at least , that's the title for now. The higher-ups at First Second, my publisher, want to include Heracles's name somewhere in the title. In a sense, the book is completely named after Heracles-- Heracles is a title that translates as "The Glory of Hera". But they want something a little more apparent. So far, we have ideas along the line of "The Glory of Hera: The Twelve Labors of Heracles". What do you think? Any ideas?

Above we have a page of finished black and white art from "Glory of Hera", a scene from the wedding of Zeus and Hera. I was very happy, after their (mostly total) absence from Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess, to have the opportunity to draw Titans again. I do so love the Titans.

Guest Artist Gallery: Dean Haspiel

Well, I suppose I should start this installment of Guest Artist Gallery with a disclaimer, that the character pictured is copyright the Marvel Comics group. Mr. Dean Haspiel has chosen his depiction of the greatest of Greek heroes, Heracles, to be based on the classic Jack Kirby design of the character Hercules as he appeared in The Mighty Thor, The Avengers, and other classic Marvel Comics titles.




Here's what Dean "The Mean" Haspiel has to say about his mighty drawing above:

"It was Jack Kirby and Stan Lee who taught me everything I knew about Norse and Greek mythology. Sure, I read some Bulfinch and steeped in movies like JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS and CLASH OF THE TITANS, but, little did I know that those awesome Marvel Thor vs. Hercules fisticuffs were fan-fiction of the highest order. Still, what is mythology but a good yarn, anyway? So what if it was made up. And, who better to fudge the legends of gods and monsters than a bunch of cartoonists who have managed to grab the story-making baton and honor our original heroes by extending their stories? A baton I hope to grab -- soon!"

Always gregarious, frequently shirtless, Demi-God Dean Haspiel is a native New Yorker and the creator of the Eisner award nominated, BILLY DOGMA, the semi-autobiographical, STREET CODE [at Zuda, DC comics online comics ubersite], and the webcomics collective, ACT-I-VATE. In his fabled youth he was apprenticed to a veritable who's who of influential comics gods, such as Bill Sienkiewicz, Walt Simonson, and Howard Chaykin, among others. If you work in comics and do not know Dean, then I am sorry-- you are mistaken. You must be doing something else, and are suffering from some sort of psychotic delusion. I recommend rest, and lot's of it.

Dino has drawn comics for The New York Times, Marvel, DC/Vertigo, Scholastic, Dark Horse [where he drew Michael Chabon's THE ESCAPIST], Francoise Mouly and Art Spiegelman's Toon Books, and other publishers. He is best known for his semi-autobio collaborations with Harvey Pekar on THE QUITTER and AMERICAN SPLENDOR, and with Jonathan Ames on THE ALCOHOLIC, as well as HBO’s “Bored to Death.” This Fall, Dino's new graphic novel, CUBA - MY REVOLUTION, an original collaboration with Cuban writer/painter, Inverna Lockpez, will come out from Vertigo.

Dino is also the curator of COMIX BLOCK for Cousin Corinne's REMINDER, and is a founding member of DEEP6 Studios in Gowanus, Brooklyn, where he can be found toiling at his drawing table, beneath the bridge, like a common troll. Dean is plugged in to the internet 24/7, even while sleeping, and has a diet comprised of 75% MSG due to what could only be described as an heroic intake of Chinese take-out(the other 25% is probably roughage in the form of pencil shavings). Check out his website at www.deanhaspiel.com.

Can you draw, paint, operate a camera, sculpt, etc.? Have a desire to capture the essence of your favorite figure from Greek myth and see it pictured here on this site? Send me a scan of your work, a few words about yourself and the piece, and I'll put it up!

Progress report: The Glory of Hera--Pin-up

Some of the first finished black and white artwork I did for Olympians Book #3, The Glory of Hera, was the pin-ups for the bios at the end of the book. This is my drawing for Heracles ( influenced by the Farnese Hercules), who in a funny sort of way, is actually the title character of this book. Don't get me wrong, this is definitely the story of the Queen of Gods, but the name "Heracles" translates as "The Glory of Hera". Hera and Heracles have quite a complicated history, and the story of their conflict makes up the lion's share of Glory of Hera

Sketchbook Sneak Peek: Heracles and the Hydra

Because I'm doing finishes of this battle now, here's an old sketch book study of Heracles fighting the Hydra.

Antique of the Week: The Farnese Hercules

As it came time to create this week's installment of Antique of the Week, I've been hard at work on Olympians Book 3, The Glory of Hera. Obviously the Queen of the Gods herself steps up to take center stage in this chapter, but the book also focuses in large part on Heracles, the super-strong demi-god son of Zeus. In fact, in a way, the book is even named after him-- the title "Glory of Hera" is a translation from ancient Greek of Heracles's name.



So the statue we're looking at here is of Heracles, the famous Farnese Hercules. Heracles gets his Latin name here because this statue was created for Ancient Rome, and was located in the Baths of Caracalla (possibly a future candidate itself for Antique of the Week). The Farnese portion comes from when the statue was rediscovered in the sixteenth century and was promptly snatched up by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, nephew of the Pope. Nowadays the sculpture is on display at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, which is where I took these photos.




This statue is my favorite depiction of Heracles/Hercules from ancient sources, and my own depiction of the hero in Hera owes a lot to this sculpture. Things I particularly like-- his exaggerated musculature,and the weary, tired expression on his face and posture. I also really like the way that the sculptor worked in so many of Heracles's symbols-- tired, he leans against his olive wood club, around which he has draped the skin of the Nemean Lion- killing and skining that lion was Heracles's first Labour. Then, around his back, we see that he is holding a couple of the Apples of the Hesperides-- Golden apples from the private garden of Hera herself, which for his eleventh Labour Heracles was sent to fetch.