Saturn Girl senses…a Holiday Art Sale in progress!

I need to thin the herd again, so it’s time for another art sale! This time, beginning today and running until December 31 (or until I run out of pages–whichever comes first), I’m selling all of my artwork for 50% off the price shown on the art sales page of this site. Every single page–even the ones that are cheap enough already–is 50% off. If you’ve been hesitating to buy a page, or would like to pick up a holiday gift for a comic fan you know, this sale’s for you! If you want to own a piece of a story that hasn’t been published yet or snag a page or character design that will never be published (like the piece above), there are plenty of choices! The purchasing info is at the bottom of the art page. I’ll do my best to answer every query as quickly as possible.

Thanks for looking!

–C

Yet Another Action Comics #14 Post…

On Thursday of this week, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York and guest star in the Action Comics #14 backup story I drew (just in case you missed my last few posts), invited a group of reporters to his office to explain how and why he came to be involved in the creation of the comic. The meeting is detailed at Slate.com, but what I really enjoyed was the following photo that accompanies the piece:

Also, Space.com has posted Superman Meets Astrophysicist, a gallery of images from our story which includes three full pages in color plus the following caption which amused me greatly:

Tyson said he was pleased with the finished comic, especially because the artists were able to honor his one request in portraying him. “I said, ‘If it makes no difference one way or the other, could you shave a few pounds off me?'” he recalled. “They said, ‘Dr. Tyson, these are the comics. Everyone looks good.'”

If you’re a fan of having the ending of a story spoiled before you read it, check out the DC Comics official blog today to see what happens at the end of Action Comics #14!

And, finally, there’s a really, really nice review of our little story over at PopMatters.com, but I would urge you not to read it until you’ve read Action #14 (or clicked on the DC link above).

Behind the scenes trivia: most of the images seen on the computer monitor screens in our story (including the final page, which is shown at the DC Comics link above), as well as some of the data streaming in front of Superman’s face in one panel on page 7, was provided by the Hayden Planetarium staff and Neil deGrasse Tyson himself…

–C

Bonus: Neil deGrasse Tyson’s tweet about the story

…and an NPR piece on Action Comics #14 (with audio).

Even More on Action Comics #14…

Comic Book Resources has posted an interview with Sholly Fisch, writer of the short story I illustrated in Action Comics #14. Click HERE to read the interview and learn more about Sholly and about how Neil deGrasse Tyson came to be involved in the project.

–C

More Action Comics #14…

I’m pretty happy with how the Action Comics work has been turning out, so I thought I’d share some more pencil art from my first story, this time focusing on two non-Neil deGrasse Tyson pages. Action Comics #14 is on sale today, in both digital and physical formats (and even in a polybagged printed version with a download code for the digital version included). Also, I’ve recently added a few fully-finished pencil outtake pages from my first two Action stories to the art sales page…

–C

Action Comics #14 Press

From the official DC Comics press release:

World Renowned Astrophysicist Makes Guest Appearance In ACTION COMICS #14 And Helps Pinpoint Icon’s Home Planet In Our Known Universe

 BURBANK, Calif. (November 5, 2012) – Fact and fiction merge in the newest issue of DC Comics’ ACTION COMICS #14, bringing real world implications to the iconic Superman story. In the explosive back-up story for ACTION COMICS #14 titled “Star Light, Star Bright”, world-renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson helps Superman find his home planet of Krypton on its final day of existence. Today, Dr. Tyson announces an actual location for a Krypton-like system in our known universe. ACTION COMICS #14 hits stores on November 7.

…and that back-up story was written by Sholly Fisch, drawn by me, inked by Karl Story, and colored by Jordie Bellaire. You can see some pencil art above and below. This was a fun project, even though the deadline was a killer for all concerned–thanks for going above and beyond, Karl and Jordie!

The press release has been picked up by some other news. entertainment, and comics sites. Here are my favorites:

ABC News.com

The Washington Post

Discover magazine.com

Space.com

National Geographic.com

The Guardian.co.uk

MTV.com (features a full page of artwork from the story)

Comic Book Resources.com

Newsy.com via YouTube (a video report)

And if you remember the days when every story about comics in the mainstream press began with “Biff! Bang! Pow!” or “It’s a bird! It’s a plane!” you can get a nostalgia fix with the following:

The New York Post.com

–C

Legends of the Dark Knight

As mentioned in previous posts, one of the many projects I worked on this busy year is a 30-page story for the “digital first” Batman series Legends of the Dark Knight. Today, the official DC Comics blog posted some artwork and announced digital publication dates. I’m borrowing the preview jpg for this post (above) and adding the pencil art for the same piece (the cover art for the physical print version of the story) below. This story was written by David Tischman and inked by Karl Story.

In case anyone reading this is still reluctant to take the plunge into the world of digital comics, I would recommend giving it a try this year. There are a several great platforms for reading digital comics available now, including larger-size phones and too many tablets to count, all in a wide variety of price ranges. I find comics on my phone’s display to be a little too small to read comfortably, even with all the zoom features, but I enjoy reading them on my 7″ e-reader tablet. I think the optimum viewing experience would be using a 10″ tablet, since the pages would be displayed pretty much at actual print size. Luckily, this year there are several larger tablets on the market, everything from the expensive iPad down to 9″ or 10″ e-readers that won’t break the bank. And then there are the comics themselves: check around online–virtually any comic currently in print and anything published in the past is available in one form or another, including non-U.S. series that are nearly impossible to acquire physically. I recommend the Comixology app for reading new comics on Android devices, iPads and computers, and I use an Android app called ComicRack to read .cbr and .cbz files on my tablet.

–C