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

Hades has been nominated for a ReadKiddoRead award!

...so I made this comic about it.

You can vote for me here. It literally takes seconds, and if you vote for me, and tell me, I'll make more zany comics like this. Also? I'll be your best friend.

Hades on the NYTimes bestseller list!

Long time, no post, but this I had to share: the latest volume in Olympians, Hades: Lord of the Dead, just appeared on the NYtimes bestseller list! Wahoo!

A big thanks to everyone who helped make this happen. Give a click here to see the list, and to read a brief Q&A with yours truly about it.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #75

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 April of 2007.

Today's drawing is an early design of the invisibility-causing Wolfcap of Hades, as well as a shot of a Cyclops holding said helmet. The scene of Hades and Poseidon receiving their weapons from the Cyclopes had to be trimmed from Zeus: King of the Gods due to pacing; I had hoped to include that scene in the upcoming Poseidon: The Yet to be Subtitled but just had to trim it as well. This little sketch might end up being all you ever see of my version of these events.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #70

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 April of 2007.

Well, I took a day off yesterday. IT WAS A FEDERAL HOLIDAY, SO SUE ME! I was actually busting my hump on a cool Greek Gods comic project that is not Olympians that you'll hopefully be seeing soon. But I digress. Here's a drawing of Hades and his dad.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #39

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.

Initially, while I was working on Olympians, I had the idea that each of the covers would be a close-up portrait of the god in question (don't believe me? Check out this post from March 2008 of my original cover idea for Athena). Today's piece is a rough idea for the Hades cover, as well as a proposed subtitle (since renamed Lord of the Dead) and three myths I might retell in the volume (and of these three, only one made it into the final. Who can guess which one?).

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #28

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.

Wow, look at that! 28 days in a row! If this were February, that'd be a full month of sketchy Olympians goodness! Today's piece is an early, rather haughty looking Hades. He's a bit doughier here than he looks in the finished books, but aside from that I'm amazed how on-model he looks for such an early date. Speaking of Hades, I just got first proofs for the upcoming Hades: Lord of the Dead this past Friday, and it looks swee--eeet! You folks are gonna love this one.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #17

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.

This was a very fun find for me. I had remembered it taking a very long time for me to find the look of my version of Hades, but I was evidently mistaken, as here was this doodle of the Lord of the Dead, looking very much like how he appears in Olympians, in one of my earliest sketchbooks of Olympians related material. Added bonus was Hades giving the heavy-metal devil sign, and an even addeder bonus was the drawing of a super-early design of Kronos the Titan (before I figured out to make him all enormous and shadowey). Fun stuff.

Progress Report: Yet another finished colored page from Hades: Lord of the Dead

It's been a whirlwind of posted finished colored pages 'round here lately! Here's one from the book's central action scene, where the Lord of the Dead himself carries off young Kore to the Underworld. This page is part of the same sequence that these two almost finished pages I posted awhile ago belong to, and I also had previously posted the black and white artwork for it as well. And now it's done!

Progress Report Hades: Finished Color Page

I'm beginning the final step in coloring on Olympians Book 4, Hades: I Forgot the New Subtitle. That means lots of finished pages! Here's one-- the first view we get of the titular god himself.

Hades: Persephone in the Land of the Dead

Another sneak peek of a page from the upcoming Olympians Book 4, Hades. The Lord of the Dead is giving his bride-to-be a tour of what will be her kingdom. They're wandering through the Fields of Asphodel, where the anonymous shades dwell, when Persephone encounters the Fates (in their aspect as the Furies). They deliver a warning unto her" Whoever eats the food of the dead must remain in the Land of the Dead."

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.

Sketchbook Sneak Peek: The Gloomy Lord and Dread Queen of Hades

Today's Sketchbook Sneak Peek is a profile of Hades himself, and a portrait of Demeter's daughter Kore, after her transformation into Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. Hope you all likey.

Sketchbook Sneak Peek: Hades

For the past few weeks I've been hard at work on Olympians Book 4: Hades (tentatively subtitled The Wealthy One) so lately I've been logging a lot of sketchbook time trying to cement the look of the titular bad boy himself, Hades. I've drawn him before of course-- he plays a fairly prominent role in Zeus: King of the Gods, for instance-- but this is his first time stepping into a starring role, and as a result he has to look just right. Here are a few of my more recent, more successful depictions of the gloomy god of the Underworld.