a mirror image... : Batman

Batman Sketch Card!

Jason Embury — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:02:00 GMT

Finished up this sketch card of Batman while watching election returns the other night. About a half hour, done mostly in watercolor, with some ink, black prisma marker and a bit of colored pencil. You can follow the link below to the ebay store and bid on it if you're interested. Hoping to get a few more sketch cards done this week yet, but I've got a cover to finish for Zenescope and a 10 page short due before next Friday, in addition to some color studies and some submission pages. Going to be another busy weekend! :D

Batman Sketch Card on ebay!

Happy Days.

Jason Embury — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 14:05:00 GMT

So yesterday I got 4 boxes worth of comp copies in here, 2 boxes of the hardcover collected trade of the original Hero By Night mini-series, a box of the first issue of the new ongoing Hero By Night comic, and a box of the KISS 4K KISSmas special one-shot. I'm going to run through my thoughts on them real quick here.

Hardcover HBN trade- Where to start. This is admittedly my very first trade collection, or graphic novel, of any kind. Thus I was prepared to be critical, as I always am when I see any of my work in print. What I wasn't prepared for when I cracked open that first case of books yesterday, was to be COMPLETELY blown away by how awesome it looks. I have several hardcover collections already from Marvel and from DC, and I've seen countless others on shelves in comic shops and at conventions. This HBN hardcover not only stands up there right next to anything DC or Marvel has done, but it surpasses a lot of trades that are out there. I know that the ONLY collected work I own that is nicer, was the oversized Absolute Batman HUSH hardcover that DC put out, complete with that thick black cardboard slipcase and dust jacket. The gold foil HBN logo is NOT obnoxious at all on this thing, and neither are the blue foil flames. The printing and design of the spine of the book is great, and will look wonderful on my shelf of books. The interior page design and layout is spectacular. Zach Pennington, and everyone over at Platinum Studios, REALLY, TRULY, did everything in their power to make this book beautiful. Zach's design work is wonderful. They even included a cover gallery of all the covers from the original series without any text or logos on them, and used a previously never before seen version of the issue 4 cover that didn't make the final cut. Very cool stuff to see all in one package like that. A nice introduction by DJ at the front of the book, of course the 5 pages of extra epilogue content we did just for this edition, creator bios, and a great ad for our ongoing series. Kudos to everyone involved in putting out such a great product are in order. DJ and I work hard to not only deliver great work each issue, but we're continually pushing each other to do better. I really feel that is evident from the time you turn the first page of this book, until you get to the last page of the epilogue. It's only getting better, and I'm extremely energized and excited to see this all come together in such a fantastic way.

Hero By Night #1 (ongoing series)- This won't count as one of the first official reviews since I'm biased. But, this book looks even better than just about any of the pages from the mini-series. Lots of reasons I think for that, going back to how hard I think DJ and I push each other to get better, and how hard we push OURSELVES to not settle for good enough but to strive for maybe one day approaching something that resembles really GREAT work. Thinking back, just doing pages, and more pages, and then doing webcomic work, and more webcomic work, and more pages over the last year, we've started to really become comfortable with working in the world of Hero By Night, and it's starting to show. When you turn the cover and stare at page one I think you become IMMEDIATELY immersed in this new book. Starting with page 1 and continuing through page 4, you're looking at this huge fight scene between HBN and a LAVA MONSTER deep in the heart of a volcano. How cool is THAT? And if that wasn't enough action for you..well, one of the all time favorite characters from the Hero By Night webcomic, makes his first official debut in print. It's funny to think that characters makign their debut in an issue 1 already have a fan base, but with over 250 UNIQUE pages of full color work that we've done for the online webcomic in the last year, there is just this enormous backstory to this book already. Tons of characters and plot lines from the webcomic that ALL tie directly into the books that are being printed. I mean, there are now 110 pages of story in print, plus all the webcomic stuff....so what, close to 400 comic pages worth of material in about 12 1/2 months. DJ alludes to it in his intro to the trade collection, but what readers and fans and kids that have been following Hero By Night, or might just be picking it up for the first time, what everyone is seeing happen RIGHT NOW, is a new hero being born. Everyday for over a year I've spent a good deal of time, up to my eyeballs in Hero By Night. I'm making a living now using things that didn't exist when I first started reading comics, working on a superhero that wasn't around then either. But in the space of a year, there is so much story, history and nostalgia behind HBN, that it really feels like the character has been around forever. I'm proud to say that I'm a part of something that is probably much bigger than DJ or myself. These are stories that are telling themselves for the most part. What our job is artistically, and we've often times reminded each other of this fact, is to let the story tell itself, to do what is demanded by the characters on each page, to not take shortcuts for the sake of taking shortcuts (for evidence of that, look back to the original webcomic of the HBN journals, sometimes as much as 4 to 5 hours being put into a DAILY webcomic the NIGHT before it's supposed to be posted-and that's just on MY end) I think part of what makes HBN so special to me, is the fact that the creative team of DJ and myself both believe in the same type of things when it comes to storytelling, and producing comics. You don't dictate what goes down on the page, the story and characters do, it's up to YOU as a penciler, inker, or colorist, to do what is required of you by the story so that you add something to it, make it something more than just another comic page. You won't always succeed of course, but more often than not you'll end up with something you can be proud of and you'll know that you really have put your heart and soul into producing that page or book. When I look at this first issue, I can see vast improvements on both of our parts, and I can say with confidence that we have both put our souls into this book, and it shows. It may not be a book that is to everyone's taste, whether it be the story or the art, but it truly IS a book that is FOR everyone who loves comics and who loves superheroes.

KISS 4K: Merry KISSmas one-shot- not sure where to start with this book. A week ago almost to the day I got a phone call at 4 in the afternoon, and was asked how many pages I could color overnight, because the book had to be AT the printer the following morning. I'm not entirely sure they believed me when I said I could do 13 pages overnight. So after firmly stating I could, and convincing them that I wouldn't let them down, I proceeded to sit down at 5:30 pm and not get up from my workstation except for a bathroom break or to get more coffee until 11:45 am the next day. I worked straight through. I owe some shout outs to a few people that helped me along the way by flatting a few of my pages, and by FINDING me a reliable person to do 3 of the 6 pages I needed done at the VERY last minute in the WEE hours of the morning. So big thanks to Michael, Alex, Chris and Daniel. You guys rock. And you made me not only meet my deadline but look like a badass in the process :D Taking that into consideration, I really don't think that you can tell I did so much work in so little time. The pages look GREAT. Would I have made a few changes here or there if I had more time, you bet. But it turned out great, AND the book was NOT late. A large part of that is due to having wonderful line art supplied by Tone Rodriguez. It was written by THE Chuck Dixon, and I have to say, I laughed my butt off a few times while reading it. Chuck really paced this book out nicely, and it's really a great read. I would definitely recommend it for any KISS fan in your life, or for just a sheer fun read (since I colored the first few issues of the actual KISS 4K book, I will also say with confidence that this one-shot is a MUCH better read)

So to recap, the Hero By Night hardcover is GREAT, go buy one today, you can find them on ebay, you can buy them from the Platinum Store in a week or so, or you can have your local comic shop back order you one. The new ongoing HBN series kicks BUTT, so go get your hands on that as well, and make sure to check out the HBN webcomic where we've got an absolute TON of stuff for you to read for free. Have a Merry Kissmas, and all that jazz. I'm headed to make more coffee, grab a few sticks of incense to burn, and get my butt coloring this morning. If my new set of prismacolor markers come today in the mail, I plan on playing with those for a bit, and tonight, is buddy night with my son while the girls are out having fun. Which means playing some pool, darts, video games, popcorn, coke, and maybe some more episodes of Smallville.

Back with a BANG! New interview sneak peek!

Jason Embury — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:34:00 GMT

I seriously doubt that I'm throwing too many spoilers out there for this, but I did an interview recently that will be appearing in the Platinum Studios releases for the month of December. Here's the special edition, EXPANDED interview from that for all the rabid fans (probably mostly friends and family actually) that read my blog on a daily basis, enjoy! More indepth answers you won't find anywhere, as well as a BONUS question that didn't end up getting used because of space constraints. Be sure to check it out in the back of Hero By Night issue 1 landing next month!

What was your first job in the comics industry?

I started out inking a book called Zombieopolis, drawn by some guy named DJ Coffman, and written by a guy named Bob McDeavitt. It was supposed to have been a mini-series published by a fairly small publisher in the late 90's. We did like the first 2 issues or so, it ended up getting cancelled, so DJ self-published it in graphic novel format just to get the book got out there. That book actually got me some inking work on some small press stuff, I inked a story in the very first issue of Digital Webbing Press which was probably my first work that got onto shelves. Then I sort of went through a period where I just got out of comics for about 4 years, after banging my head against the wall as an inker, working for peanuts, and getting a lot of "close, but not quite there yet" stuff from most of the major publishers. Actually, it was funny because when I DID get back into comics, I was inking a book for a guy and he was having a REAL hard time finding a good colorist for our cover. So I had bought a Wacom tablet a few months prior, and after seeing the results he was getting back from various people, I just kind of told him, "you know what dude? Let me try this coloring thing out." Not only did it look pretty good, but I think it showed me in just one page, that I should probably be focusing on coloring and painting, than on inking. It was just a lot more natural for me to see the finished product, than just working in black and white.

Who were some of your influences and inspirations growing up?

I'm grown up? That would be news to my family and friends. Seriously though, when I was younger I bought comics for about 6 years I think, religiously, in the late 80's early 90's. Pretty much before the advent of computer coloring. I'd have to say that I have a strong liking of guys like Neal Adams, Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane's loose style, and I think Kirby was a great storyteller. I follow a FEW colorists in the industry today, people like Brian Haberlin, Alex Sinclair, Rod Reis, Dave Stewart, Richard Isanove. Stewart and Sinclair are probably my biggest contemporary influences I think in terms of comics. Jim Valentino also taught me a LOT about comics when I was first starting out. I've always drawn a lot more inspiration and knowledge from classic masters like Rembrandt though. I'm a HUGE Rembrandt fan. Also, I've been getting into a lot more painting and digital art, including 3D lately, which has opened my eyes to a massive number of inspirational artists and really taught me a lot more about being an artist and really understanding art than comics probably ever could. I'm more a traditional guy though, so I kind of like to look at the NATURE of art and not really focus on how it's created. I mean, we've got ALL theses tools today, that are really just extensions of us as artists. So it's more about what you want to accomplish, rather than how you get there you know.

How were you brought on to Hero By Night?

I was finishing up work on my last issue of Shadowhawk over at Image for Valentino at the time. I've known DJ now for going on 10 years almost. I knew he had won the Comic Book Challenge, and I think I called him a few days after he got back from San Diego, just to tell him congrats and wish him luck. He called me back a few weeks later I think, maybe it was a month, and asked how Shadowhawk was going, and if I'd have time to maybe fit in his Hero By Night book. Shadowhawk had actually just wrapped up over at Image like a couple weeks beforehand, so I told him I'd love to come onboard. I had a lot of fun working on a superhero book, and DJ liked what I was doing at the time and thought I would be a perfect fit for the look he was after.

As a colorist, how closely do you work with the rest of an art team or the writer on a book?

Well, in terms of Hero By Night, it's sort of a different situation because until James Patrick came onboard, there were only 2 people producing that book. DJ and I talk multiple times just about every single day of the week and weekends, either on the phone or we'll instant message each other. I think as a creator, you need to understand that you have to have someone, or a tight knit group of people, you can trust to bounce ideas off of. DJ and I have the sort of relationship where he knows he can run stuff by me and I would tell him if it sucked or not. We're always talking about HBN back and forth, not in a way where I'm really doing anything with the plot or storylines, but you know, I'll have an idea now and then of something I may want to do, or add in, and I can run it by him and usually we work out something that might be even better than what we were after initially. There is a respect I think that comes from familiarity, that I don't have with other books or creators really. He knows that I'm a creator too, that I'm also a pretty decent artist in my own right, and that I understand the entire comic making process from conception right through to getting your books printed and distributed by Diamond. Other books, I have pretty set guidelines of what I have to do and I can't stray from things very much. Books that I've colored straight from pencils, almost everyone that I've done, the editors or publisher has realized early on, that I can clean up the pencils and fix things that might be off, fairly quickly and easily, so I go in and make things look their best. I mean, I'm technically the LAST stop for the artwork, and it really comes down to just putting the best product on the shelf at the end of the day that you can.

If you could color any book in comics today, which would it be?

I'm already coloring it aren't I? Outside of Hero By Night though it would be a tough decision. For a long time my favorite character was Spiderman. But right now, I'd have to say hands down, it would be Batman. I would love to color just about any Batman book out there.

What's on your plate next?"

I'm currently working on the graphic novel Hotshot and Mighty Girl coming out early next year from Platinum Studios Comics, as well as the new ongoing Hero By Night series. I've got some other books and personal projects I'm currently working on as well, when I get some time in between deadlines and coloring of course. One is a fantasy based online type of project incorporating digital painting, another is a darker, murder mystery type of graphic novel project that I've just started writing in the last month here that I'm really excited about, and I have another project that I'm doing a rewrite on at the moment that is sort of a suspense/thriller type of story.

Revving up the engine!

Jason Embury — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:56:00 GMT

With the prospect of being involved with a project or two to submit to the new ZUDA Comics venture by DC when it goes live in the fall, and Wizard World Chicago coming up here in the next month, I've been gearing up my old portfolio in the last month or two with some relevant DC related material. Here's 2 of the 3 pages of unpublished portfolio work in this Batman sequence from HUSH, pencils by Jim Lee, and inks by Scott Williams. 3rd page is almost done too, and I'll post that when I'm finished as well, but deadlines have once again creeped up on me. And I don't make excuses for anything, and have never missed a deadline before, but having just sprained my wrist on Monday...I'm finding it slow going here to get things done. oh well, no one ever got what they wanted without a little sacrifice right? :D