Shannon Smith

(As they say on teh intronets, click to enlarge.)

As long as time allows, I try to throw in a free sketch with the comics purchased on my online store. The image above is a pencil sketch I did this week based on a couple of images in a Jack Kirby 2001 comic. It's basically just an exercise in copying The King's style. There is absolutely nothing original about it but it was fun to draw.
This is a random sketch of Saul from the Old Testament. I think he is one of the most interesting people in the Bible. If I ever had the time I would like to do a comic about him so I've played around with what he should look like several times over the past few years. I don't think this is it. Far too handsome.
To get your own free sketch you can either buy my comics or play Mailcon. Getting stuff in the mail is awesome.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

(Image from my Small Bible minicomic by me.)

So, a week or so ago my aunt says to me, "I read this thing in the New York Times about this underground comic book guy turning the Bible into a comic book and I thought he was stealing your idea". I immediately knew she was talking about R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis and explained that no, R. Crumb was not stealing from me. What he has done is a literal drawn translation of the book of Genesis. What I did was take the Old Testament and break it down into nine pages. Totally different goal. Totally different result.
(The cover of R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis. You should buy one copy for yourself and one copy for me. Really, you should seriously buy me a copy.)

Still, there are some similarities between the two. Not at all to compare myself to the greatest living comicbooktoonist and one of my heroes but I do find it interesting that we came to similar conclusions on some things. We both decided to use the exact text and make things literal. The way I came about that decision was somewhat painful. I was making minicomics and I was a Sunday school teacher and I was trying to think of a way to merge the two. I wanted to do a small summary of the Old Testament that could be passed around easily and cheaply. I set about trying to write a summary of the Old Testament. I went through draft after draft over a period of a few years and finally threw it all away. I decided that you can't re-write the thing. If you change it at all it is not the real thing, it is your thing. I decided the only way to be true to the thing is to let it speak for itself. From the interviews, I've read, it seems that Crumb came to the same conclusion. To just lay it out there as is and let the readers interpret it for themselves.

The big difference is that his is an exercise in representing the entirety of one book of the Old Testament. Mine is the opposite. Mine is about subtraction. Breaking the thing down to it's most essential. The minimal amount of info that gives a representation of what the Old Testament is. In short, the minicomic version of the Old Testament. It's basically minicomic versus graphic novel. Two totally different things.

I've not been able to read (or own) Crumb's book yet but I've seen bits of it online. I spent a lot of time researching for my comic so I'm always interested in how someone else handles the visual elements of the book. Especially when the artist is R. Crumb. One interesting difference I've noticed and thought about is how he chose to draw Angels. I think the difference is clearly a generational thing. Crumb grew up on those epic historical and Biblical movies of the 50's and 60's. I grew up on epic sci-fi films of the 70's and 80's. My Angels are much more sci-fi and his are much more, well, traditional. I think both are technically consistent with the descriptions in the text but they look totally different. Which, is kind of the point in doing a visual Bible. The Bible is different to every reader and I think that is the way it should be.

You can read a color webcomic version of my Small Bible here and buy the original minicomic here. You can read what critical types thunked about my Small Bible here.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

I love Halloween and usually try to draw some Halloweenie art but I've been way to sick to push a pencil this month. My daughter Kassidy draws all day every day though. Above is a Halloween pic she did. I helped her with the skeleton though. Have fun trick and or treating everyone.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

It's that time of year again where I start worrying about where the money for my kid's Christmas presents is going to come from. Well, hopefully it will come from my basement. As in, I need to sell everything in my basement. Now what does that have to do with you? Everything. You are the ones that need to buy everything in my basement. Now I could just post this stuff on eBay but I want to avoid that. I've been selling stuff on eBay for a long time and I always, always, always loose money. eBay sucks folks. All your money for your prized possessions goes to eBay, Pay Pal and the post office. So, I'm thinking about just posting stuff on here and letting my pals make me offers on it and they buy the stuff straight up. Yeah, you can still pay by Pal Pal and I'll still be paying the post office but at least we can cut out eBay right? One out of three ain't bad.

Now the next matter of business. What do I have for sell. I think a better question would be, what do you want to buy? Simply put, if it was made for nerds between about 1978 and 2001 I've probably got it in my basement. Toys, comics, junk etc. You tell, me. What are you looking for. Seriously, if there is some nerd junk you need I might just have it. Send me an email and we'll work it out.
Here's some random junk I have down there just to give you an idea:

I'd also consider selling my prized possession. A 1989 American Standard Fender Stratocaster. Yep. That's right. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best guitar ever made. Right before they went to those gosh awful satin necks. It is American made, Olympic white with a pearloid pickguard, maple neck and a lace sensor in the bridge. It's got some nicks and scratches that's because it's a real guitar that has been played. Those give it character. Seriously. I'd rather jab out my eyes than sell it but no one is buying eyes. (Just let me know if you know anyone that is buying eyes. The dang things have brought me nothing but trouble.)

So yeah. Like, buy my stuff. Seriously. I'll cut you an awesome deal. If you are looking for any of these awesome nerd items or any other junk I might happen to have, just shoot me an email. Oh, and I make comics and sell them too. Great stocking stuffers for children 18 and older.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

A while back my mom was doing some cleaning and came across a box that had a lot of my art and writing from when I was a kid. What I'm posting here are a bunch of notebook drawings I did instead of paying attention in school. If I had it to do over again, I would have payed a lot less attention to school and a lot more attention to drawing comics. Education has done absolutely nothing for me. Just ask my paycheck. These all seem to be from 1988 and 1989. I would have been fourteen-ish I guess. Comics nerds err... aficionados well versed in the 80's will recognize that I was just imitating images from popular comics. (Which is pretty much how the pros have been making comics for the past seventy years.) I was big into the Marvel stuff at the time. The Excalibur drawing up top is a combination of pencil, ball point pen, magic markers and some sort of chalk. It was wrapped in wax paper to protect the chalk so it did not scan all that well.

This is from some Inferno era X-Men comic. The anatomy is all wonky but I dig it.

I think this was the cover of an issue of Uncanny X-Men.
Copying Frank Miller's Wolverine.
I think this one and the next one are from when John Buscema was doing the first Wolverine solo series stuff. Something about his drawing really spoke to me at that age. It was so much more gritty than the clean stuff all the Byrne and Adams clones were doing at the time.

Conan from, ya know, some Conan comic. I was big into Conan. Especially the big black and white magazines.
Some werewolf dude? No idea.
Batpants. Nice butt Batman. I don't remember being into Batman at that time but I did a lot of drawings by request back in those days. I was usually pretty booked up during study hall and lunch hour drawing stuff on the back of other kid's notebooks.

Most of my back of notebook drawings were of metal band stars like this drawing of Slash from Guns N Roses. I think I drew the Appetite for Destruction cover on the back of more than one notebook.

Looking at these, it is apparent that I had no idea what I was doing. All of the drawings are pretty small as opposed the huge size the "pros" draw at and the pens and paper were just whatever was lying around at the time. Which, now that I think about it, is still pretty much how I make comics now.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

(As they say on teh intronets, "click to enlarge". From Batman and the Outsiders #1.)
I mentioned this page in the comments section of my last post about my daughter's Batman and The Outsiders comics. Drawn by Jim Aparo and written by Mike Barr, this page is a great example of the one page origin re-cap you used to see in comics. It's from the first issue of what was a new series so, I guess, there is a possibility someone reading the comic back in 1983 might nave needed a Batman re-fresher. Probably not. Who cares? It's a great page of comics either way. It captures not only his origin but how it shapes his character and how that makes him different from the other heroes. Aparo uses iconic imagery from old Batman comics and makes them his own. And, it smells really, really good.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

Or at least that's what my kid is into. Hi there blogoverse! I've been real busy in case you missed me (and I know you did). I won't get into why I've been busy because it's all a total downer. Let's talk about happy things instead. Like comics! Any time I take my seven year old daughter Kassidy with me to a comic book shop I usually let her pick out some cheap comics from the back issues boxes. Recently she picked out a bunch of old Batman and the Outsiders comics from the 80's. These comics had colorful girl characters like Katana and Halo so I'm sure that is what jumped out at Kassidy. Plus, we likes us some Batman. (I'm sure The Outsiders showing up on Batman The Brave and the Bold also helped.) I never read these comics back in the day. I was much more team Marvel. I've been reading them when Kassidy is looking the other way and they are pretty cool. Lovely Jim Aparo art. They are so 80's team comics in that they try to touch on real world issues but, ya know with a crazy cast of misfit characters. Ah the 80's when all the heroes were either damaged goods or misfits. Kind of just like the 00's.
Here is a drawing Kassidy did of Katana. To see more of Kassidy's drawings click here. You'll even find some Spongebob art from little sister Alana.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

(Steeplejack wallpaper version. Click to enlarge then right click and "set as desktop background" in most modern computers and browsers. Can't figure out how to make it your desktop background? Send smoke signals to the nearest witch doctor and see if they can come help.)

I've caught The Surrogates fever and have been inspired to draw some "fan art". For those that don't know, The Surrogates is a really good comic book/graphic novel and there is also a movie version coming out in a few weeks. The Surrogates comic book/graphic novel is written and created by a pal of mine, Robert Venditti. Rob and I used to work together but I actually first met him through comics around the time he started working with Top Shelf. Rob is a real swell fellow and that is plenty of reason to hype up his books but they are also really really good. I'm a pretty big fan of both The Surrogates and it's recent prequel The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone.
If there is any one nerd genre that makes my heart all a flutter it is sci-fi. Now, I'm not talking about post-Matrix-advertisements-for-high-powered-automatic-handguns-thinly-disguised-as-sci-fi or ugly-cgi-robot-advertisements-for-auto-manufacturers-thinly-disguised-as-sci-fi brands of sci-fi. I mean real sci-fi with like a plot and stuff. The Ray Bradbury, Frank Herbert, Phillip K. Dick kind of sci-fi. The Surrogates falls under that later real kind of sci-fi that I love so much. And that's a special thing in comics because you don't see much of it these days. So, when the first Surrogates comics came out it was a real breath of fresh air. Another thing that made it a breath of fresh air was the art by Brett Weldele. His style is far from what you would see in mainstream comics and not what I would expect in a sci-fi comic but it worked perfectly. The Surrogates is also part crime fiction and Weldele does a great job of setting the tone of each scene with light, shadows and a really clever color pallet. His drawing can be understated and subtle but can also erupt with a lot of kinetic energy in the dramatic moments. He's really good at energy and motion which is probably best displayed in the action scenes featuring the Steeplejack character. I recently read Flesh and Bone and that inspired me to re-read the original comics and that in turn inspired me to start the Steeplejack drawing featured in this blog post. I set up the second image as a free wallpaper because I'm awesome that way. Oh, and Steeplejack is totally the property of Robert Venditti and I have no bidness drawing him at all other than, ya know, it's fan art.

And because I'm a total nerd for "how to" blog posts, here is a look at the pencil drawing for the image. I love Weldele's original version of the character in the comics. His Steeplejack is all about shapes, shadows and motion. The story is a suspense thriller so I think Weldele did a perfect job. I went in a different direction. I guess the vibe I was going after was to re-imagine it as a late 70's early 80's Howard Chaykin sci-fi comic. Not sure I pulled it off but that was the seed planted in my brain at the moment I started the drawing. These things always grow in directions of their own choosing though. I just kind of watch them happen. I still draw in plain old lead pencil. I know, I know, all the cool kids draw with those non-photo blue pencils. I've tried them and I just don't like the feel of them. Too waxy. I think I'm just to heavy handed for them. Some artists sketch their way into the drawing. They build it up in the blue line and then ink the good bits. I just don't draw that way. I don't so much draw as I carve the thing into the paper. Each line I put down is pretty much there to stay. Plus, they don't sell those fancy blue pencils at the local Stop & Shop and when I asked Floyd if he had any at the barber shop he had Barney escort me out of the place. I'm willing to try the blue pencils again if someone wants to give me about a hundred of them for free.
Here are the inks. In retrospect, I probably could have put all the Kirby Krackle in via Photoshop but it would not have been as much fun. I debated not inking the thing at all and just boosting up the blacks on the pencils in Photoshop instead. The main reason I inked it is that sometimes it is easier to ink over your mistakes than to erase them. I'm glad I inked it. The blacks needed to be bold and fluid in a way you can't easily get with lead.

And since I'm in the middle of my Surrogates fever blog post, I may as well brag about how I was the first guy to ever pay for a copy of the comic. It's true. Doesn't that make you think I'm awesome? It should!

Now, as far as this movie goes I'm pretty hopeful. I've seen the trailers and saw a TV commercial earlier tonight during Monday Night Football and it looks pretty good. It looks like a real movie with a plot. I like real movies with plots. I also like Bruce Willis. Especially in sci-fi flicks. Love him or hate him you have to admit that he has that rare quality that allows him to pull off action but also be human. He can be both John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. Not a lot of guys can pull it off. And since I'm talking Bruce, I'll just throw it out there that if you have not seen him in Lucky Number Slevin... you should. Good stuff.

The Surrogates comes out on September 25th. I don't get out much and I've not been to see a movie in a theater since The Dark Knight but I hope to catch it as soon as I can.

Further recommended link clicking:
Robert Venditti's blog.
Brett Weldele's site.
Top Shelf Comix. (Currently having a big sale!)
Purchasing The Surrogates and The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone.
The Surrogates movie site.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

p.s. Rob is not the only celebrity I've worked with.

I've been super busy and kind of slack on updating this blog with links to junk on my other blogs. I recently posted a review of the side B anthology here at file under other.
I also continued my twitter reviews of Wednesday Comics. I'm only up to #5 so far. I have #6 and #7. Maybe I'll get them covered soon. Maybe. Check out #5 at file under other.
I also have acknowledge the birthday of The King Jack Kirby. I think Patrick Dean sent me the above image of Jack (with Frank Zappa) in an email a while back for no reason at all other than it's awesomeness. I saved it on the computer knowing it would come in handy. I've been reading a lot of Kirby lately. He was above and beyond. I've really been enjoying Bully's tributes to the King. Check 'em out.
Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

I've been thinking about Howard Chaykin a lot and so has the rest of teh intronets. I keep seeing Chaykin mentioned in all kinds of blog posts, interviews, comics history articles and news items. I think that teh intronets are currently being puppeteered by people about my age that read a lot of the same comics during the time when Chaykin was really shaking things up. Another reason I've been thinking of Chaykin a lot is because I recently unearthed a lot of his comics in my basement. Plus I found some old comics magazines with articles, interviews and advertisements relating to some of his comics from back in the day. As a writer/artist, sometimes the ideas I come up with for a story or gag can be tedious and/or painful to draw. I've been trying to find ways to draw that are more fun and feel less like work. I want drawing to be a joyful experience. When I think of joyful drawing I think of sitting on the floor as a kid drawing space battles inspired by Star Wars and other sci-fi comics. A lot of which were drawn by Chaykin. So, I've been looking at his stuff a lot and trying to re-inspire myself with his magic.
At some point in recollecting on all of that junk I just blabbed on about I invented a game I call Six Degrees of Howard Chaykin.
The game is just like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon thing only with less Bacon and more Chaykin. Instead tracing actors back to Bacon based on movies they co-stared in, Six Degrees of Howard Chaykin links comics creators back to Howard Chaykin through comic books they mutually worked on. And to clarify, I'm thinking comic book titles, not just characters. With team books and cross overs, lots of guys have drawn the same characters. I'm talking about being a credited creator on a comic book by the same title. Here is an example. Just think of any comic creator that comes to mind. How about the late great Mike Wieringo.

1) Mike Wieringo drew Fantastic Four.
2) Jack Kirby drew the Fantastic Four and Challengers of the Unknown.
3) Howard Chaykin drew Challengers of the Unknown.

See? Easy. But wait, that is too easy. Kirby messes up everything because he worked on so many books with multiple publishers. So, let's have a rule I call the Kirby Clause. You can't use Jack Kirby. Let's try again. Gene Colan has also been on my mind lately. My laptop's desktop currently features a nice piece by Gene Colan I stole off teh intronets. Let's try him.

1) Gene Colan drew Daredevil.
2) John Romita Sr. drew Daredevil and Amazing Spider-Man.
3) Gil Kane followed Romita on Amazing Spider-Man and also drew Green Lantern.
4.) Neal Adams drew Green Lantern and also drew The Flash.
5) Carmine Infantino drew The Flash and also drew Star Wars.
6) Howard Chaykin drew Star Wars.

Wasn't that fun?! Exclamation point!

Kids, DO try this at home. Think up comics names and start playing now. It can be writers, inkers, pencilers etc. Underground creators will be hard but not as hard as you think. You can post your game results or here using the comments field.

And now, for almost no reason at all are some random Howard Chaykin images I stole from teh intronets. I'll get ya back teh intronets. I promise.

Your best pal ever,
Shannon Smith

p.s. Both Mr. Chaykin and myself have our birthday's in early October. Start shopping now true believers.

UPDATE:

I linked myself...

1) Shannon Smith was in Fluke Anthology with Johnny Ryan.
2) Johnny Ryan was in Pete Bagge's Sweatshop.
3) Pete Bagge was in Bizzaro World with Kyle Baker.
4) Kyle Baker is in Wednesday Comics with Walt Simonson.
5. Wal Simonson drew Star Wars which was also drawn by Howard Chaykin.

You can see some other folk's attempts here.