Most of my friends can tell you I don’t like talking about a thing until it’s a thing. It’s a stressful policy for two reasons; I’m excited to talk about it and worried it’ll leak before I do.
So here goes.
I’ve started a newsletter on Subs-- wait, can I say that here?
The…
Sit back kids, I’m going to tell y’all a story.
Years ago, during the early days of my tenure as Marvel’s Editor in Chief, one of our competitors decided to get extremely aggressive about poaching our talent by throwing some serious cash around.
After years of not drawing Batman, I may have overcompensated with 23 on one piece.
For those wondering why some versions were omitted, there are two reasons, none of them having to do with the amazing story.
1- I couldn't fit anymore if I wanted to.
2- I was really tired.
This is just a small piece of Mike's legacy and why people love and miss him so much. Yes he was one hell of an artist and storyteller, but he was also a class act.
A little Spider-Man for today. In case you can't tell, hands are one of my favorite things to draw. You can express as much emotion and action with hands as you can with the expressions on a face or the tilt of a character's head.
I posted this about 5 years ago today. One of the highlight of my professional life. In the end, I made friendships that will be with me forever as well as discovering a fan base outside of comics with a passion for this character that surpassed my own.
Because I know they'll never say it themselves: this morning, the Hero Initiative reached out to a creator, unable to work at all because they are currently battling cancer, to tell them to focus on getting better, and that their next four mortgage payments will be taken care of.
Just released variant cover for The Last Jedi
#1
. I drew this piece at the same time as my Force Awakens
#1
cover and meant to be a bookend image. My daughter loved Rey so much that I wanted to create two pieces she could hang as posters in her room.
That’s the kind of man Mike Wieringo was.
I don’t resent the other creators who took the deals and had to break their commitments, but I will always remember Ringo as the ONLY creator who kept his.
Only a small group of individuals can claim that they have effected and redefined, not just an industry, but popular culture worldwide. Steve Ditko was one of those few who dared to break molds every time his pencil and pen hit a blank sheet of paper.
It’s ALIVE!!! How’s is it that 3 days after a heart attack I’m the one who looks like he needs a hospital stay? Love this guy more than words can express and beyond thankful his sorry ass is still with us.
Just two more days and I hope to see you all on the left coast to celebrate the life of one of the creative giants of the modern era while also supporting a great cause.
IN all the excitement, I forgot to post the other day during the awesome Captain Marvel movie frenzy. This cover is out but here it is in black and white.
We were beyond fortunate to have you play the role. A true master of the craft, and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, playing the most multidimensional and machiavellian villain in the Marvel Universe. You made an incredibly challenging role seem effortless.
I walked in off the street & was hired on the spot by DC as a penciler off of my first attempt at sample pages. I did 3 months of coloring at Valiant that they never asked, knew, nor cared about and my track record as a penciler was a single Nintendo pin up! Yeah, it happens.
@ComixFanboy
@NathanielTalon
@GailSimone
In the kindest possible way, this is ignorant twaddle. I was hired by DC having not published any comics yet, with 3 published short stories to my credit. I’d journalism background so they knew I understood deadlines. But they liked my pitches+my enthusiasm, & they took a chance.
The Marvel family gets a bit smaller and the world loses a brilliant talent. She could do it all, a brilliant illustrator, cartoonists designer and colorist. Godspeed Marie Severin.
Sometimes you just walk by a building in NYC and by the design of the fire escapes you know that there's a nighttime masked vigilante type living in one of the apartments.
I want to send a special thank you to the Save Daredevil crew. Sorry I missed you all and thanks for the amazing book you left behind. Your passion and love for the show, cast and crew is unlike any I've ever seen, but I get it because I feel the same. Long live Daredevil!
I've been pecking away at a project and keeping it on the down-low. But, I think in 2022 I'll start posting some small bits and pieces. Here's a hint, it involves Marvel superheroes and lots of stuff happens!
The next day I had lunch with Bill and we both agreed, even though we couldn’t match the original offer we gave Mike a raise that day. Mike was so incredibly appreciative but not nearly as much as were we with his loyalty and for continuing to share his amazing talents with us.
One more for today.
My variant cover for Batman
#133
, with brilliant art by Mike Hawthorne and Adriano Di Benedetto, and written by...
Actually, you know what?
It doesn't matter.
I hate drawing rainy scenes-I love drawing rainy scenes-I hate drawing rainy scenes-I love drawing rainy scenes-I hate drawing rainy scenes-I love drawing rainy scenes-I hate drawing rainy scenes-I love drawing rainy scenes-I hate drawing rainy scenes-I love drawing rainy scenes
What a great Drink and Draw with Larry Hama tonight. Some of the best comic industry stories you'll ever hear. Here's my Snake Eyes from tonight's stream.
ATTENTION TRUE BELIEVERS:
I’ve got some awful news, this is going to be a fairly long thread so bear with me.
It’s true, it’s all true! Marvel is only producing a very small handful of straight up super hero adventure stories.
Been a little under the weather of late, and I didn't get a chance to thank everyone for the kind responses to my Batman covers. I wish I could show you some of the others, but why push my luck?
I also want to thank
@JimLee
,
@mariejavins
, and
@Ben_Abernathy
for the opportunity.
Catching up with commissions today. The lead is still warm on this one.
When asked to draw Weapon X, I cringed because it meant I would have to endure the inevitable bought of unworthiness paging through Barry Windsor Smith's story for reference.
Damn, that man can draw!
Hey, everyone.
Like so many, I’m leaving Twitter (who left the lights on?).
But I found a fantastic new social app, and I hope you'll join and follow me there.
I’ll be standing on a milk crate on the SW corner of Union Square, screaming at anyone that walks by.
He had made a commitment to Marvel, his writer and editor which would only take a couple of months to complete at which point he'd be all theirs. They told him no, either now or it’s off the table. He walked away.
Last bit of business on Batman 135/900 for today.
Thank you to Bat Editor Ben Abernathy for allowing me to go crazy.
And here's the character map I sent to
@KevinNowlan
and Richard Isanove to help them make sense of it.
This was created over my layout, which I later penciled.
Like all the others before he was told that he’d have too quit right then and there, but he happened to be in the middle of a Fantastic Four arc that he needed to finish and told them that if they really wanted him they would wait.
Here's my MJ entry from last night's
@Drink_and_Draw
. I'm onl posting it because I find
@urbanbarbarian
so incredibly annoying and I submit easily to peer pressure.
This creator received the big offer, it was a lot of money. He called and asked me if we could match it, I checked and called back and told him that it was too rich for us but before I could finish he said he appreciated me trying but not to worry he wasn’t going anywhere.
Why? Because as a publisher you wouldn't want the same done to you but also because freelancers rely on their reputations and keeping commitments is an important part of it, as is talent, timeliness, ability to work with others, etc. You get the picture.
It broke what was traditionally an unspoken gentlemen’s agreement that If you offer someone a better deal and they take it, you allow them to finish whatever's left of their commitment with their current publisher.
I just read House of X
#1
before it headed out to the printer today and it's hands down the most revolutionary take on the world of mutants since Grant Morrison's run. I'm still trying to process how incredible this book is and how it will change everything in the MU.
These “new” offers however came with a unique caveat...
Take it or leave it.
A creator had to leave Marvel right then and there and in most every single case these creators were right in the middle of commitments with us (FYI this was the beginning of the exclusivity wars).
Words cannot express what Denny meant to me and so many others. I learned more in the short span of time that I was fortunate enough to work with both He, and Archie Goodwin, than perhaps the entirety of my years in the biz.
Now don’t get me wrong, if someone can pay a creator more and lures them away, all’s fair in love and war. But there was a big difference with this particular methodology that I found utterly distasteful and something I’d never seen before in the comics biz.
To all the Marvel and comic book faithful out there, Have the best Christmas and Holiday ever! I can't begin to tell you how much your love and support is appreciated, this and every year.
Wishing you lots of cheer and a safe holiday for you and yours.
I noticed that the finished version of this piece has been circulating the last couple of days. Here are the pencils so you can see how much better
@KevinNowlan
and Richard Isanove make me look.
Nights Before Knights: 1994 - This was my dad's TV corner in his home in Miami. Every book I worked on or article I was in he’d frame and hang on the wall in front of him. When I visited I’d spend hours in this room sitting on the rocker next to him watching bad TV or drawing.
In each case, knowing the answer (because we were just coming out of bankruptcy), I would go back to our Publisher Bill Jemas and ask if we could counter. We lost a lot of talent at that time because not a single creator said no to those offers...
Except for one.