Happy Birthday, Jack Kirby!

Jack Kirby was the undisputed King of Comics. Nobody before him or since has rivaled the intensity of his output or his feverish creativity. Most of what we know and love in comics is either derived from or came directly from his hand. We all salute this man, who was the paragon of our craft.

This is the design sketch for a little tribute to Kirby that i stuck into my run on Punisher: Franken-Castle, which is the stained glass window from the monsters' church, featuring Kirby's monsters and his vision of God himself, based on several drawings he had done, which may look familiar to readers who remember another iteration of God I have drawn in some comics.

Cynthiana, KY to celebrate THE WALKING DEAD DAY!

On August 6th, 2016, my dear ol' hometown of Cynthiana, KY is celebrating THE WALKING DEAD DAY, to honor the the series and its creators, Robert Kirkman and myself. Fans of the comics will know that not only do Robert and I hail from there, but it's also the site of the opening scenes of THE WALKING DEAD, and the home of Rick Grimes himself!

There will be a sign dedicated to us at the edge of town, as well as a massive zombie apocalypse street festival, complete with signings and photo ops with me and Robert, and a fantastic special reprint of THE WALKING DEAD #1 sporting a brand new exclusive cover featuring the the town of Cynthiana!

Click here to learn more about THE WALKING DEAD DAY!

Sketch of the Day! DEADMAN

I've had a fistful of these Copic-rendered sketches sitting on deck for months now, so i figure it should start posting them. I'll put one up every Friday until i've posted all those 5-minute requests. That should carry me through a few more weeks.

I've always had a soft spot for DC's supernatural characters, and Boston Brand is one of the coolest. Here's my ghoulish take on DEADMAN.

8.5" x 9.75, inks & acrylics (w/ Raphael brushes) and Copic Marker on chipboard.

The original art for this piece can be found over in the STORE.

Sketch of there Day! FESTUS ROTGUT

Last week, i did a broadcast where i sketched up a big pile of 5-Minute requests.  This one features FESTUS ROTGUT, ZOMBIE COWBOY! Some of you may recognize him as the star of the Arcade Brewery Six-Pack Stories comic/beer project by myself and the legendary Jason Aaron.

8.5" x 11", inks on card stock.

The original art for this piece can be found over in the STORE.

Limited Edition STIMPY LOG LADY Pin

My inspiration comes from a lot of places, and this pin pays homage to two of my biggest influences, John K's Ren & Stimpy and David Lynch's Twin Peaks.

This is a 1.5" hard enamel pin with antique gold plating, comes with a standard butterfly pin back.

Limited Edition of 100 pieces. When it's gone, it's gone. You can find it while it lasts over in the STORE.

Sketch of the Day! MORBIUS

Last week, i did a broadcast where i sketched up a big pile of 5-Minute requests.  This time it's another drawing of my crackhead rendition of MORBIUS, THE LIVING VAMPIRE!

8.5" x 11", inks on card stock.

The original art for this piece can be found over in the STORE.

Sketch of the Day! THE MAXX

Last week, i did a broadcast where i sketched up a big pile of 5-Minute requests.  This one features Sam Kieth's groundbreaking THE MAXX.

8.5" x 11", inks on card stock.

The original art for this piece can be found over in the STORE.

Sketch of the Day! MADMAN

The other day, i did a broadcast where i sketched up a big pile of 5-Minute requests.  This one features Mike Allred's awesome & influential creator-owned MADMAN.

8.5" x 11", inks on card stock.

The original art for this piece can be found over in the STORE.

Sketch of the Day! RAT FINK

The other day, i did a broadcast where i sketched up a big pile of 5-Minute requests.  This one features Big Daddy Ed Roth's RAT FINK, which i revisited for a couple minutes with the pen for a little extra grunge.

8.5" x 11", inks on card stock.

The original art for this piece can be found over in the STORE.

Sketch of the Day! DEATHSTROKE

The other day, i did a broadcast where i sketched up a big pile of 5-Minute requests.  The first one up was Deathstroke, which i revisited for a couple minutes with the pen for some shading.

8.5" x 11", inks (w/ Raphael brushes) on card stock.

The original art for this piece can be found over in the STORE.

Sketch of the Day! ARSEFACE

Pucker up for everybody's favorite lovable scamp, ARSEFACE from Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's PREACHER comics, now a new hit show on AMC!

You can watch a replay of me drawing this piece on Periscope, under my twitter handle @TonyMoore, and stay tuned for upcoming live-streams of future sketches, as well!

8.5" x 9.75, inks & acrylics (w/ Raphael brushes) and Copic Marker on chipboard.

The original art for this piece can be found over in the STORE.

The Evolution of FRANKENCASTLE

I was looking through my old sketchbook and happened across this rash of drawings which chronicled my early time at Marvel, just after my run on GHOST RIDER with Jason Aaron. Specifically, they were the birth of the idea of PUNISHER: FRANKENCASTLE, and the process of fine tuning it to be both what I wanted, and something that the high-ups at Marvel would get behind.

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Rick Remender and I have worked together for many years, and we were trying to cook up a really big and really weird event with our pal Jason Aaron. Rick had some ideas for a gigantic war with Dracula, with a handful of rough-and-tumble headliner superheroes, and we had concocted the idea for Dracula's secret weapon to be a newly rebuilt Frankenstein's Monster, powered by Ghost Rider's Spirit of Vengeance. I though it would be really cool to make his body like a locomotive, with a big furnace and and a greasy engine belching smoke and fire.

I was doodling around trying to flesh out this hotrod idea and i thought what if Frank Castle's ruthless and well-trained brain was put into this monster to make the ultimate weapon? In a flash of brilliant idiocy, the name "FrankenCastle" popped into my head, and I immediately called Rick. He was all about it, and informed me that he was about to have an opening in PUNISHER that could allow us to retrofit a lot of this pitch for use in the main Marvel universe book.

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Meanwhile, i was simultaneously trying to cook up a take on Deathlok, because i liked the character, and we were all trying to cook up as much shit to throw at the wall as possible, to see what would stick. This was my first pass, mainly focusing on the head:

Shortly afterward, i cobbled together this ramped-up full-body shot. i basically tried to take every element of the existing old Deathlok design, and crank it though a filter of my influences, from horror to Lobo and 2000AD comics. The arrangement of all the elements of his original design stayed intact, but i tried to give each one a new interpretation.

Axel Alonso was the PUNISHER editor at the time, and he loved to go against the grain. Rick pitched him our ridiculous idea and he ushered us aboard. Through some confluence of perfect conditions or divine providence, we had found the exact right ears to hear our ideas, and had the perfect lead-in to put them into action! Axel saw my concept drawings and said for it to work, it definitely had to feel like Punisher first and foremost. So, i set forth on cobbling together some of these ideas into something visually cohesive and polished enough for the book.

My first draft leaned much more toward the Monster side of things. The costume was classic Frank, but the man inside was lanky and dessicated, not to mention heavily augmented, as i had cannibalized most of my Deathlok design for the project at hand. I merged the electrical insulators with the hotrod engine from my earlier monster design, and more or less transferred all the other elements directly over to Frank.

Marvel liked the direction i was heading but felt i needed to go way more toward the Frank Castle everyone knew and loved. I toned down the death in his face considerably and bulked him up a bit, trying to strike a better balance between Frank Castle and the monster. At their request, i ditched the massive robot claw. I hated to do it, but i agreed that for him to ever heal and return to normal, it made sense (as much as any of this can make sense) that he not be missing entire limbs.

They much preferred this version, but still did not want to see Frank's face so disfigured. So, i cooked up one last version that kept his lips intact and struck what i ultimately believed was the balance we had all sought.

They still expressed concerns about his lankiness, and wanted a more squat bodybuilder physique. I assured them i could do this, and proceeded to purposefully ignore the request, drawing it as I saw fit for the rest of the time, with no regrets on my part or complaint on theirs.

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The villain of the series was originally intended to be the late Ulysses Bloodstone, only partially recovered from his long-ago death by volcano, but so angered by Frank and the monsters that he had to jump into action early. For reasons still not entirely clear, we were disallowed from using Ulysses, and instead cooked up an analog replacement, a brand-new old monster hunting cohort of Bloodstone's. In his human form, he was basically a Victorian mad scientist by way of Hammer's Peter Cushing. In his current fighting form, however, he was a charred corpse healing in a vat within a gigantic steampunk robot, who had conveniently also come across a shard of the magical healing artifact, The Bloodstone. I used the furnace, engine, and smokestack elements from my initial iterations of FRANKENCASTLE, with a healthy dollop of Victorian steampunk filigree and flair, heavy on the locomotive angle.

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In the end, not everything ended up where i had thought it would, but with some tinkering around, not much was left on the cutting room floor, and i was able to cook up some pretty cool (if not headache-inducing to draw repeatedly) designs for FRANKENCASTLE, which Rick and i will forever be proud of as our best effort to produce a damn fine run on the PUNISHER.

If you've never read it, you can pick up your very own copy of this massive collection over in my STORE!

Columbus! WIN THIS BOOK!

For every $5 you spend with me at the signing, you get one raffle ticket, which is a chance to win this super-rare hand-painted blank variant 11"x17" The Walking Dead #1 Artist's Proof Edition!

The Laughing Ogre in Columbus, OH. Feb 2nd! The winner will be chosen at the end of the signing, and you must be present to win.

Each stop along the TOUR will have a new painted book like this one! Come join us in a city near you!

Cincinnati! WIN THIS BOOK!

It may not be quite as nice as the Powerball, but you've got a much better chance of winning! For every $5 you spend with me at the signing, you get one raffle ticket, which is a chance to win this super-rare hand-painted blank variant 11"x17" The Walking Dead #1 Artist's Proof Edition!

Up Up & Away Comics in Blue Ash, OH. The winner will be chosen at the end of the signing, and you must be present to win.

Each stop along the tour will have a new painted book like this one!

Midwest Signing Tour 2016

Join Colonel Tony Moore on his Midwest Signing Tour! He'll be hitting 10 cities, with a variety of merchandise and art prints, including a signed and numbered limited edition silkscreen tour poster (only 10 available per shop!), Walking Dead #150 cover prints, and a raffle to win a super-rare painted Sketch Variant Walking Dead #1 Artist Proof Edition (only 1 per shop!). Tony will also be sketching, signing books, kissing hands, and shaking babies.

1/13 - Cincinnati, OH - Up Up and Away (Blue Ash)
2/01 - Pittsburgh, PA - New Dimension Comics
2/02 - Columbus, OH - The Laughing Ogre
2/03 - Lexington, KY - Collectibles, Etc
2/04 - Louisville, KY - The Destination
2/06 - Chicago, IL - Challengers Comics
2/08 - Oshkosh, WI - House of Heroes
2/10 - Chicago, IL - Chicago Comics
2/11 - Indianapolis, IN - Downtown Comics
2/12 - Muncie, IN - Aw Yeah! Comics

Visit the EVENTS page for more information on a stop near you, and tell your friends!

Get 50% off CINCY COMICON tickets now!

As you my know, i am one of the founders of CINCY COMICON, a fantastic old-school comic book convention where fans can meet the comics industry's top creators, get work from amazing artists, and geek out in all ways with their fellow readers.

This Christmas, we've teamed up with CincySavers.com to offer you 50% OFF on all kinds of admission packages! If you've go a super-fan in your life, this is the perfect gift!

http://www.cincysavers.com/deal/cincinnati/cincycomicon-3-options-for-2016

Sketch of the Day! HELLRAISER'S PINHEAD

i love HELLRAISER. I love PINHEAD. So, the other night on Periscope, when someone recommended that i draw him, this is what i came up with. 

You can watch a replay of me drawing this piece on Periscope, under my twitter handle @TonyMoore, and stay tuned for upcoming live-streams of future sketches, as well!

8.5" x 9.75, inks & acrylics (w/ Raphael brushes) and Copic Marker on chipboard.

The original art for this piece can be found over in the STORE.

Sketch of the Day! MR WILSON

A few years ago, on a tattoo trip to Grants Pass Oregon, i became friends with a fan named Brant Boersma, crowned prince of Dutch Bros coffee. He invited my family to his house, and there i met a wise little dog who stole my heart. His name is Mr Wilson.

8.5" x 9.75, inks & acrylics (w/ Raphael brushes) and Copic Marker on chipboard.

The original art for this piece is not for sale, but many others can be found over in the STORE.

DEADPOOL #7 Cover

i haven't done a Sketch of the Day for the last couple days, because i've been neck deep in putting the full finish on this crazy DEADPOOL #7 cover! Hope you dig it!

Sketch of the day! JARJAR BINKS

OMG you guys, did you know there's a new STAR WARS coming out?

8.5" x 9.75, inks (w/ Raphael brushes) and Copic Marker on chipboard.

The original art for this piece can be found over in the STORE.