Wednesday, September 30, 2009

le Marquis layout

While going through some old sketchbooks I found the original designs for the French edition of The Marquis: Intermezzo cover. For the Danse Macabre cover I went through a few different designs before the settling on the final version, but with Intermezzo I got lucky and figured it out with the first sketch. The backcover was pretty close too, but almost matched the english version (lower right). The b/w line work to the French Intermezzo cover can be found here.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Intermezzo back cover

For the 2003 Marquis: Intermezzo collection (that reprinted Hell's Courtesan and A Sin of One), I did this drawing of the Marquis and the escaping devils of Hell for the backcover~ which became clearer when reversed out and colored (but ended up being covered by a lot of text copy). The stories from "Intermezzo" were reprinted in the new Marquis: Inferno collection, but there wasn't room to include this piece in the sketchbook section.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

THE MARQUIS DIABLERIES 24

The first Misere of the Diableries! Storyboard artist, Steven Macleod offers up this amazing and cinematic look at the Misere facing off against the Marquis!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

THE MARQUIS DIABLERIES 23

Kevin Mc Namara sent me this cool drawing of the Marquis with pistol and sword at the ready for another weekend Diableries!

Monday, September 21, 2009

The devils escape from Hell~

In 2001 I did this drawing representing the devil's escaping from Hell to be used as end papers for the first collection of "Danse Macabre", with the printed artwork reversed and the linework toned grey. For the new Marquis: Inferno collection, I wanted to use as much of the existing art as possible and reused it for the title page spread.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

THE MARQUIS DIABLERIES 21

I've been a fan of Nathan Fox for awhile, his art is full of life and it was a thrill to see his energetic brushwork on this drawing of a sure footed Marquis dealing with some rooftop devils!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Marquis in pieces!

Dark Horse added a Marquis jigsaw puzzle to the games section of their website~ you can vary the number of pieces for more of a challenge, or time yourself with eternal damnation of your soul on the line!!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Le Marquis and the process~



When I got back in contact with Javier Montes who colored the cover for the French volume of The Marquis and the Midwife~ he also sent me a few files I had lost that showed some of the process to the finished cover.

Top is the pencilled version of the cover that I sent to Humanoides before I went to inks. But before I sent in any coloring notes, Javier sent along the mockup (center) for a color scheme he had in mind. This was sharp, but too similar in tone to the Intermezzo cover. After getting the notes I sent he did the quick color test (bottom), which was closer to the final "white" cover but the tones needed to be colder for the Marquis' winter world and with the next pass he nailed the final cover!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

THE MARQUIS DIABLERIES 20

Rounding out another weekends Diableries is this cool drawing of the Marquis fending off the approaching tentacles of Hell by Gary Deocampo ( and it's also his birthday today~ cheers Gary!)

Saturday, September 12, 2009

THE MARQUIS DIABLERIES 19

The weekend Diableries starts off with this cool drawing of the Marquis by the talented Graeme Reid~ you can see the pencilled version of his pinup on his site too!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Le Marquis and the Colorist

Back in 2006 when I did the advance cover for the French Marquis and the Midwife for Les Humanoïdes Associés, they had the image fully colored. I wanted this to be the "white" cover to set it off from the other French Marquis tomes (Danse Macabre was the black cover and Intermezzo was the red one)~ and the colorist did a wonderful job of giving it a hazy winter feel too.

Unfortunately, I don't remember who the colorist was on this and Humanoides couldn't find their contact info either~ so if the colorist happens to find this blog, email me so we can give credit where credit is due and get you back in contact with Humanoides.

UPDATE: Thanks to FHNavarro for figuring out that the colorist is the talented, Javier Montes!

Monday, September 7, 2009

The Marquis and the Midwife ~ "Les Pencils"


With the Marquis and the Midwife underway, I'll show some peeks to the progress of the upcoming new graphic novel over the upcoming months. First up are a couple pencilled pages to the "Les Preludes" chapter which introduces the "Midwife" herself. I'll post progress on these two pages as I get to the inks stage and then the final page with grey tones in place.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

THE MARQUIS DIABLERIES 18

Next up on the weekend Diableries is this cool drawing by Pablo Díaz Mencía of the Marquis framed within something devilish!

Saturday, September 5, 2009

THE MARQUIS DIABLERIES 17

The amazing Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl) did a couple incredibly detailed Marquis drawings for me awhile back~ I wish I had his eyesight and steady brush hand! Here's the first one he drew of the Marquis fighting a murderous devil!

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Marquis Art Show starts tonight!


Just a reminder that the Marquis: Inferno Book Release party and Art Show starts Sept. 3 from 6-10pm at Floating World Comics in Portland, OR. I won't be able to be there in person, but I sent along a stack of signed Marquis posters and Dark Horse will have other promos and surprises on hand! They'll also be offering show posters through mail order for anyone interested but not able to attend~ contact Floating World through the above link for info!

The art exhibit will include pages and illustrations from The Marquis along with B.P.R.D and other work I've done for Dark Horse Comics. The art exhibit will run through Sept. 28th~ if you're in the area, please stop by to check it out!