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David Burton did this wonderful pinup of the Marquis in the clutches of a devil back in 2001, it was originally reprinted in the back of the Marquis: Hell's Courtesan #2. Unfortunately since the book was printed on b/w newsprint, I wasn't able to show off the cool sepia colors he painted it in until now.

David Burton

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Another weekend Diableries starts off with this cool drawing that Tyler Chin-Tanner sent me. With sword and pistol at the ready, the Marquis is on the prowl as a full moon rises over Venisalle! (and in fact there's a huge full moon out tonight as I post this!~ weeird!)

Tyler Chin Tanner's Wave Blue World

An unused Midwife~

While digging around the studio I came across the original version of the Marquis and the Midwife cover I planned for the Humanoides French edition. The focus was on the Midwife hidden by the armies "mask", but pouring out from below while the "horsemen" lurk behind. But before I went to inks I decided it was too dry and drew up the final cover of the Marquis dueling the children of the Midwife, which you can see in earlier blog posts below.

Final Color Cover

Cover Progress

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Talk about tight pencils! Tone Rodriguez's pencils are tighter than my inks! He did this great drawing of the Marquis being lurked by a devil's shadow back in 2000! You can see more of his sharp pencils and finished artwork on his website!

Tone Rodriguez

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A double dose of Diableries for Sunday! First up is this wonderful fluid drawing of the Marquis tipping his hat with sword in hand by the amazing Andy Lee. Andy did this a few years ago with sumi ink on rice paper~ which wrinkled over time, but it sort of looks like the Marquis is aglow. You can learn more about Andy's work and style at his website!

Andy Lee PaperBrush Studios

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The always talented Alex Sheikman (Robotika) sent me a few wonderful drawings of the Marquis over the years, the first one I showed in the second Diableries last year. Above is another great drawing of the Marquis and lurking devil by Alex ~ but that's not all, and I'll be showing his third drawing in an upcoming Diableries!

Alex Sheikman Moonstruck

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Spencer Goldade did this cool poster design a couple years back, of the Marquis surrounded by a blizzard of the damned! Because of the logo being on it, I've been credited as the artist on this drawing from a few places that pulled the image for write ups on the series~ but lets give Spencer his well deserved credit where credit is due!

Spencer Goldade Monkeyslunch!

Wigs and Cravat

Some character and costume design for the upcoming Marquis and the Midwife graphic novel~ the "rich scared couple" only show up for three pages, and since their main purpose is being "scared" I worked up that expression in the sketches first. Next I came up with a couple costumes designs that I was lucky to like on the first pass~ so those designs stuck and I went to final pencils above.

I don't reference clothing much anymore, I poured over so many clothing styles to the time period during the Inferno stories that I have a good basic idea of 18th century styles and can use that as a basis to build up on and make some designs more fanciful for the Marquis' world. Which usually means huge or bizarre wigs, lots of layers and cravats for everyone.

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Keeping with pinups from 1997~ here's a cool drawing of the Marquis haunted by the skulls of the damned by the talented Dave Ulanski ( creator of Mr. Nightmare's Wonderful World ). Sorry, I couldn't find a website to link for Dave~ but will update it when I find out.

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Another cool pinup from the early days of the Marquis, this time from the wonderful Scott Rosema (Space Ghost, August, Tiny Toons) who drew me this poetic version of the Marquis in his flowing robes way back in 1997.

Scott Rosema

Herzoge and Planchet~

A peek at some more pencils to the upcoming Marquis and the Midwife~ as General Herzoge and his second hand, Planchet look for clues to the mysterious "markings" found about the city of Venisalle.

I was never happy with the original designs for Planchet, in the Inferno stories he was a pretty nondescript face. Since the focus was usually on Herzoge I didn't really flesh him out, but since he plays a bigger part in the later books starting with Midwife I was able to rework his design to give him more character.

Midwife Sketchbook 2

Sometimes sketches work with the first go and other times they'll get worked out after a few passes and then get shelved in the end. In the upcoming Marquis and the Midwife, I had to design a "thug devil" for a later chapter in the book~ above are direct scans from my sketchbook showing everything on each page as I worked it out a couple years back. I never liked to sketch with pencil, so I just start scribbling out ideas straight with a pen to see what I come up with~ that way when something isn't going in the direction I want I'll just redraw it. Keep the bits I liked from the first go and add some new things with each drawing.

1) Was just playing with some shapes and ideas for a multi-jawed face. Stereotypical big lumbering shape, but weak design and not interesting to really look at. I liked the idea of the goat legs hanging from the rib cage and carried those over.

2) I always liked the idea of the devils in the Marquis having bits that matched the possessed human form, so the idea of a huge bicorn hat becoming the top of the devils head like a venus-flytrap stuck with me. The eyes were goofy looking though, so I got rid of them and made the devil blind. The body shape still matched a lot of what I had sketched earlier.

3 and 4) I worked up details to the design from the previous page~ the devil had to feel like a fighter, so I figured it would have big club like arms and the goat legs in the mid-section would kick out in a fight. With a final design for the body I liked, I added some marker greys to flesh it out.

5) I still liked the idea of it being blind, but instead of having a barren face I decided to make the face pitted with holes like a rotted nasal cavity in a skull.

But in the end, I didn't like the feel of it for the character I had planned and reworked the entire idea into something stronger. But this "thug devil" might get another pass and show up in a different Marquis book down the line.

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Rounding out the holiday Diableries is this cuddly version of the Marquis made by my lovely and talented fiancee, Rosemary Van Deuren. This was a surprise gift for my Marquis editor at Dark Horse, Rachel Edidin~ and it looks like Vol is wandering about the desert in the photos!

Rosemary Van Deuren

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2010 starts up with another year of Diableries ahead~ first up is this great drawing of a well-wishing Marquis by the always amazing Javier Olivares, who sent me this a few years back (but it seems fitting for any new years!) Another wonderful Marquis by Javier can be found in an earlier Diableries too.

Javier Olivares Black Blog News