Looka These Pretty Pictures!

If you work in comics long, chances are good that somewhere along the way you’ve been given some artwork. Today I thought I’d show off some of the weird sketches I’ve accumulated over the years.

Before I get into it, I will say that during all those years I worked for DC, I had a policy of not asking artists appearing at our booth for drawings. It was a personal decision, and the result was that I collected a lot fewer pieces than I might have.

So, let’s go waaaay back to the mid-1970s for the first one. My uncle had a coin and stamp collectors’ shop back then, and when he saw how into comics I was, he expanded in the direction. He also befriended a few people who worked in the field and lived in northern New Jersey, including DC president Sol Harrison, good-girl artist Bill Ward, and Golden Age Flash artist E.E. Hibbard. Here’s a drawing by Hibbard that I’ve had since that time. (Sorry, I never saw any Ward art – probably for the best.)

Next up, we have this lovely drawing of Batman and Captain America by Paris Cullins from 1980, which was about when Paris was breaking into the field. This was a gift from my younger brother, who bought it from the artist at a convention.

Fast forward a few years and we have Iron Man’s foe, the Controller, as drawn by Fred Hembeck. I believe I told Fred that the Controller was the villain of my first Marvel comic, Iron Man #28. Pretty sure I got this from Fred when I was working on Marvel Age Magazine.

A few years after that, artist Ken Steacy sent me this radical drawing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Michaelangelo (note the nunchucks!) as a thank you for assignments during my tenure as editor of the TMNT magazine.

Moving into the DC years, we have this piece by Ty Templeton from the time I went to FanExpo Toronto. I had been chatting with Ty at the end of the show and told him how much I loved Stig’s Inferno, the short-lived comic from Vortex by Ty and his buddies. As a reminder, Stig ends up in Hell with no pants. Here’s how Ty responded to my compliments…

Now we get into some unexpected territory…not long after September 11, 2001, DC and other publishers were rushing projects into print to raise money for first responders and others, and Paul Levitz mentioned to me that he was writing something for DC’s book. I offhandedly asked him if he ever did any drawing, and he said, “Only schnauzers – top and side views.”

Fast forward to the Eisner Awards the next summer. Paul was sitting at the DC table near me, and I picked up this doodle he did on the program. Of course, I had to keep it – wouldn’t you?

Another Eisner Awards-leave behind – a sketch by Gene Ha of everyone (besides himself) sitting at the DC table. Left to right, it’s me, Charlie Kochman, the person Charlie was dating (and married, I believe), Scott Dunbier, Scott Peterson (I think), not sure, and José Villarrubia.

From the cover page of a print-out of DC’s monthly catalog pages, it’s Rorschach by Mark Chiarello. We used to print out dozens of copies of the catalog – 96 pages per month! – because certain people did not believe an internally distributed PDF would not end up leaked. It was a good day when that policy ended.

Possibly the weirdest piece in this group, from New York Comic-Con in 2010…I was guarding the end of Jim Lee’s signature line; Jim was sitting at one table with another table next to him that was empty except for some scrap paper. There was a blank signature board on that table with splotchy gray tones on it, and when I reached Jim I picked up that board and exclaimed, “I didn’t know this guy was here!” He laughed and then drew a quick Batman on the board. Later I found out that the board had been left behind by Francis Manapul, who used it to dilute his ink for sketching. Francis had a laugh too, then added Robin and the hint of a cityscape.

A couple of pieces from Comic-Con International: San Diego 2013 – these were both left behind at the DC booth and far too good to toss in the trash! First we have John Constantine, Zatanna (I think), and Swamp Thing (wearing antlers for some reason) by Gene Ha. This was not long after the launch of The New 52, when these characters got integrated in the DC Universe, much to their chagrin.

Also from that year, this lovely sketch of a woman and a coyote by Steve Leialoha.

Last one – a rough sketch by Jim Lee for a cover concept for the Batman: Three Jokers series, left behind by Jim at a meeting. For no particular reason I was the last person to leave the room, and I could not believe it was still sitting there when I got up to leave. Sorry, Jim!

That’s it for today! What crazy sketches do you have?