ARES ARISE! Guest Post #8-- Ellen Lindner!

The eighth in a daily celebration by awesome cartoonists of the much-maligned god of war himself, Ares, on the occasion of the publishing of Olympians Volume 7, Ares: Bringer of War.  Today's entry: Ellen Lindner!

 

Ellen Lindner spends a lot of time looking at the back of George's head at the studio they share in Gowanus, Brooklyn, Hypothetical Island. She's working on two projects at the moment: The Strumpet, a collection of comics by ladies (the new issue is out now!), and The Black Feather Falls, a flapper mystery set in Jazz Age London. You can check both out at her website, littlewhitebird.com

ARES ARISE! Guest Post #7-- Dean Haspiel!

The seventh in a daily celebration by awesome cartoonists of the much-maligned god of war himself, Ares, on the occasion of the publishing of Olympians Volume 7, Ares: Bringer of War.  Today's entry: Dean Haspiel!

 

Dean brings us an awesome, superheroic (or is it supervillainic?) iteration of the God of War. I don't know about you, but the combo of bold colors, super-slick art and a cool logo leave me hankering for a Dean Haspiel helmed Ares comic.

Emmy award winner and Eisner, Harvey & Ignatz Award nominee Dean Haspiel created BILLY DOGMA, illustrated for HBO's "Bored To Death," was a Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, is a Yaddo fellow, a playwright, helped pioneer personal webcomics with the invention of ACT-I-VATE.com and TripCity.net, and is the co-founder of Hang Dai Editions in Brooklyn, NY. Dino has written and drawn many comic books, including The Fox, Spider-Man, Batman, X-men, The Fantastic Four, Wonder Woman, Deadpool, Godzilla, Mars Attacks and collaborations with Harvey Pekar, Jonathan Ames, Inverna Lockpez, Jonathan Lethem, Mark Waid, and Stan Lee. Dino steeps in psychotronic movies, cosmic electronica, and Jack Kirby pulp. Check out more of his stuff at http://deanhaspiel.com/

ARES ARISE! Guest Post #6-- Peter Violini!

The sixth in a daily celebration by awesome cartoonists of the much-maligned god of war himself, Ares, on the occasion of the publishing of Olympians Volume 7, Ares: Bringer of War.  Today's entry: Peter Violini!

I first met Peter when he was an intern in Hypothetical Island, the studio in Gowanus I share with several other cartoonists (including Thursday's Reilly Brown). Peter quickly impressed us with his fully realized style, prodigious work ethic, comics biz savvy, and ability to move hulking pieces of furniture with ease. I was especially impressed with his knowledge of cryptids, and encourage anyone who shares that interest to check out Peter's series Sisters, the first issue of which features none other than the Mothman. Peter described his work as Supernatural, Sci-fi, and Samurai extraordinaire, a description which I'll agree with. Check out his tumblr for more of his stuff.

ARES ARISE! Guest Post #5-- Leland Purvis!

The fifth in a daily celebration by awesome cartoonists of the much-maligned god of war himself, Ares, on the occasion of the publishing of Olympians Volume 7, Ares: Bringer of War.  Today's entry: Leland Purvis!

 Leland brings us his own distinct and terrifying depiction of the god of war, an ageless, haunted, almost skeletal figure brandishing the weapons of many eras and bearing the weariness and scars of untold battles. I kinda think, if Ares is still around out there, he just might look like this. At least on a bad day.

Check out more of Leland's stunning work at his website.

ARES ARISE! Guest Post #4-- Reilly Brown!

The fourth in a daily celebration by awesome cartoonists of the much-maligned god of war himself, Ares, on the occasion of the publishing of Olympians Volume 7, Ares: Bringer of War.  Today's entry: Reilly Brown!

 

 Reilly brings the power to this imposing portrait of the god of war. Reilly has worked on a whole slew of Marvel characters, but he's probably best known for his work on the Merc with a Mouth, Deadpool, where he co-created Bob, the Agent of Hydra. In addition to his many Marvel gigs he has his creator-owned digital comic Power Play,  draws the Fred van Lente written St George for Dark Horse, and is the current artist on DC comics relaunch of Lobo. It is also alleged that Reilly sleeps at some point, though, even after sharing a studio space with him for years, I've seen no evidence of that occurring. Check out more of his stuff at his tumblr.

ARES ARISE! Guest Post #3-- Jerzy Drozd!

The third in a daily celebration by awesome cartoonists of the oft-maligned god of war himself, Ares, on the occasion of the publishing of Olympians Volume 7, Ares: Bringer of War.  Today's entry: Jerzy Drozd!

Jerzy transformed Ares into a Masters of the Universe Figure that I Absolutley! Must! Own! One day! Are you listening, Mattel? Mr. Drozd and I have talked extensively about our mutual love of MOTU, as evidenced in this interview here (just look at that backdrop! All MOTU!):

Jerzy Drozd is one of the artists of The Warren Commission Report: A Graphic Investigation into the Kennedy Assassination, published by Abrams ComicArts. He is currently creating a webcomic about a bear, a bird, and metal-gobbling mineral girls at http://boulderandfleet.com

ARES ARISE! Guest post #2-- Tim Hamilton

The second in a daily celebration by awesome cartoonists of the oft-maligned god of war himself, Ares, on the occasion of the publishing of Olympians Volume 7, Ares: Bringer of War.  Today's entry: Tim "T-Money" Hamilton!

Tim Hamilton is a Brooklyn writer / artist with clients such as The New York Times, Cicada Magazine, Marvel, DC Comics, Mad Magazine, Nickelodeon Magazine, ABC Television,
Holiday House and Fast Company Magazine.

In 2010 
he adapted Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 into a graphic novel which was nominated for an Eisner award.
Children's books he has produced include The Big Fib, But! and the upcoming Is That A Cat?

 

ARES ARISE! Guest post #1-- Hazel Newlevant

The first in a daily celebration by awesome cartoonists of the oft-maligned god of war himself, Ares, on the occasion of the publishing of Olympians Volume 7, Ares: Bringer of War.  Today's entry: Hazel Newlevant!

Hazel Newlevant is the cartoonist and publisher of many comics, including the Xeric Award-winning mini-comic Ci Vediamo and If This Be Sin, recipient of the the Prism Comics Queer Press Grant. She is the editor of Chainmail Bikini, the anthology of women gamers, to be released in March 2015. To see more of Hazel’s work and to keep current on upcoming projects, visit her tumblr.

In addition to the above, it's worth mentioning to all you mythophiles out there that Hazel and I will be tabling together at this years MoCCA fest, where she'll be selling this sweeeet map of Greek mythology. I own one and it's pretty much the ginchiest thing ever.

Ares Guest Artists! ARES ARISE!

To commemorate the release of volume seven of Olympians, Ares: Bringer of War, I wanted to host a celebration of the oft-maligned god of war and asked a whole slew of my comics pals to contribute their own interpretations of him. Check back everyday for a brand new artistic vision featuring the murderous Greek god of battle frenzy by a bevy of the greatest cartooning talents in the world. Here's a list of whom to look for:

-->

 Tuesday, January 27^th: Hazel Newlevant

Wednesday January 28^th:  Tim Hamilton

Thursday, January 29^th: Jerzy Drozd

Friday, January 30^th: Reilly Brown

Saturday, January 31^st: Leland Purvis

Sunday, February 1^st: Peter Violini

Monday, February 2^nd: Dean Haspiel

Tuesday, February 3^rd: Ellen Lindner

Wednesday, February 4^th: Michel Fiffe

Thursday, February 5^th: Danica Novgorodoff

Friday, February 6^th: Nathan Schreiber

Saturday, February 7^th: Simon Fraser

Sunday, February 8^th:  Robin Ha

Monday, February 9^th:  Khary Randolph

Tuesday, February 10^th: Andres Vera Martinez

Wednesday, February 11^th: Greg Benton

Thursday, February 12^th: Nick Bruel

Friday, February 13^th: Jason Chin

Saturday February 14^th: Joan Reilly

Sunday, February 15^th: James Smith

Monday, February 16^th: Nick Abadzis

Tuesday, February 17^th: David Klein

Wednesday, February 18^th: Sara Varon

Thursday, February 19^th: Jason Little

Friday, February 20^th: Christa Cassano

Saturday, February 21^st: Lara Antal

Sunday February 22^nd: Douglas Einar Olsen

Monday February 23^rd: Evan Petersen

Tuesday, February 24^th: Maggie Scarlett Breen

Wednesday, February 25th: Michael Horwitz

Thursday, February 26^th:  Mike Cavallaro

 Friday, February 27th: Nick Bertozzi

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

As promised, more lil Olympians

Dug up some sketches to share...

Aphrodite warm up

So I'm at about the halfway point with the artwork on Aphrodite, and, I'm not sure if I got some bad nibs, or the quality of the paper I use changed or what,  but all of a sudden the last few days my pens have become gloppy and my pages keep getting torn up (you can see a great big glop from one of those nibs on my warm up drawing today). I changed out all my nibs this morning after that glop, and did some doodling to break them in a bit. Here's what I drew, an Ares, a Hephaistos, and a couple of Aphrodites.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #46

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 each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from January of 2007.

Nothing much to say about today's sketch, except for that I think this shot of the God of War is pretty kick-butt.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #33

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 each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's piece is a couple of scary and nightmarish studies of the Frenzy of Fighting himslef, Ares. He hasn't had all that much to do in Olympians so farm but once he finally gets the chance to strut his bloody stuff, this is how I'll be depicting him.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #25

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 each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's sketch is a near-complete assemblage of the gods. Unfortunately, as you can tell, I drew this across the spread of my sketchbook, so we have a big ol' crease running down the middle. From left to right we have Poseidon, Dionysos, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaistos, Hera, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes and Athena. At this point in time I was toying with the idea of Hestia not having a human form at all, but just being personified by a hearth (that's her in the middle). Eventually, I compromised and made her a humanoid figure composed of flame. Conspicuously absent is Big Daddy Zeus himself-- that's because this drawing is done from a Zeus eye view. We're viewing this family get-together from his seat at the table.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #22

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 each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Takes dat! Pow! Today's sketch is a goofy little piece showing Goddess of War Athena totally decking God of War Ares with a very loud punch. Elsewhere on the page, a dark-haired Zeus looks taken aback by the proceedings. He must not like it when his kids fight. This drawing really popped out to me as I skimmed my old sketchbooks due to the sound effect. Shades of my first picture book Kapow!

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #16

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 each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's sketch is of Ares, bloodthirsty god of war, and a favorite of little boys everywhere (though Athena could totally kick his butt, and in fact does in The Iliad). I've done many school, library and bookstore appearances in support of Olympians, and met many young fans who share names with an Olympian. Strangely, I've met way more Ares than any other. Go figure.