Dan Slott gets his name writ large!

It's Big Time Danny Slott. I knew him back in the day...

I did a Spider-Man issue with my buddy Dan Slott (# 657) that came out about four or five weeks ago, and it did well enough to go into a second printing, which is nice.  And since the issues just before it and just after it ALSO did well enough to go into a second printing, the fine folks at Marvel have decided to create a set of alternative covers JUST to give Dan Slott a giant-ass tribute.

The original cover looked like this:

It's poignant-alicious.

and the new cover, part of a series, is going to look like THIS:

Click on the image to make it bigger.

…which I’m fairly sure is the physically LARGEST cover credit any writer has ever gotten in comics history.  So large, each cover only gets TWO letters of his name.  Our cover is brought to you by the letters “N” and “S”, and the number “657”, for those of you who miss Sesame Street.

I’m sure to pick up a set, and I’m encouraging you all to do the same thing.  Dan is such a quiet, shy fellow who rarely comes out of his shell, so this will give him that tiny moment of quiet satisfaction he so rarely gets, simply by doing his dream job, day after day.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Here now, your Dan Slott / Ty Templeton slightly obscure Spider-Man moment:  A one-pager Dan and I did for the AGE OF HEROES mini-series last  year.

Is it just me, or are these GREAT colors on this page? (I didn't color this, I just drew it...)

Spider-Man, Dan Slott and Ty Templeton! Together again!

I’ve got a bunch of pages in next week’s Spider-Man issue (Amazing Spider-Man #657) written by Mr. Slott and penciled/inked by your humble blogger.  They’re a bit of a sequel to the original Spider-Man/Human Torch miniseries the two of us did a couple of years ago, as it is, once again, a flashback sequence drawn in a silver-age type of style.  There’s previews up at CBR, so it’s okay to show off a couple of the pages here that are up at CBR.

–

–

Dig those olde tyme costumes and colours, gang!  ‘Tis 1975 all over again!  Except of course for those of you too young for that…then it’s merely an Essentials Comic with colour.

Look for the issue next Wednesday at your local shops.  And while you’re there, MAKE them order a NORTHERN GUARD #3 from Moonstone.  I don’t want Spider-Man to think I only love him.

Ty the Guy OUT!

Look for this cover by Marcos Martin…sad but yummy.

Spidey-Torch

Issue 2, page 1  Spider-Man and the Human Torch, “I’m with Stupid”,

written by Dan Slott, pencilled by Ty Templeton

Keiren

Monday Marvel March Madness Merchandise

Spider-Man Human Torch “I’m with Stupid”

Issue 3, page 21, pencils by Ty Templeton, inks by Tom Palmer

8

Ty decided to fill up the shelves in the Art Store a bit today…and found some more of his Spidey/Human Torch pages (from I’m with Stupid). Each issue was drawn in a different style to represent a different era of Spidey (something a lot of reviewers didn’t quite figure out…even after two or three issues!  Every comment about how “old-fashioned the art looks” triggered some bombast around these parts!)

Ty and writer Dan Slott still muse about the possibility of a second mini (if Dan could fit it in–Marvel is keeping him a busy, busy writer-boy). Right now, they’re working on a little something together…but for now, here’s some more from one of their previous projects.

A couple of today’s pages (the one at the top of the page, for starters) were inked by one of Ty’s inking heroes–Tom Palmer. Ty was thrilled to hear that Tom was doing ’em–more thrilled when he saw the final pages. I’m sure he’ll have something to say about that when he posts later today.

Keiren

Spider-Man Human Torch, “I’m with Stupid”

Issue 5, page 19, pencils by Ty Templeton, inks by Drew Geraci

SOMETIMES, THE ROUGH…and another of the increasingly late Hoverboy Fridays!

Clearly, I’m mad, I tell you.  MAD.

I’m one of those guys who spend their lives liking the rough sketch better than the final art.  It’s a curse.   I have a fondness for the scribbled, eccentric, humanistic and unembarrassed linework of a rough sketch.  There’s a lovely connection to movement and thought in the first contact with the image to muscles and paper,  often softened unbearably by turning it into a final illustration.   As a professional drawer-boy, I’m always fighting between “cleaning it up” and “letting it live”.

The Batman sketch from an old, old Adventures cover, (which I just found in a box yesterday, and hence this post) is less than three inches high.  It’s drawn in pencil and a thick pentel marker which was clearly drying out, as the background becomes less dark to the right. But the sense of danger, the monster, and the expressions on everyone’s face works for me in a way the final doesn’t.

My Pekar’s AMERICAN SPLENDOR work last year did the same thing to to me.  I was going for a very sedate, “realistic” Curt Swan type of storytelling for Harvey, since that was the basic feel of this particular script…but the rough layouts had a Kirby-like energy to them, with a lively and playful sense of proportion that I wish had fit the story.

( for more Harvey online, click here)

Again, these layouts are about three inches tall, and the final art is fifteen inches high…so the movements of your hands vs. the movements of your shoulders are going to be different.

I just got through reading an issue of Marvel’s new “STRANGE TALES” comic, with folks like Peter Bagge, and James  Kochalka doing very indy looking work on Marvel super-heroes.  Astoundingly great fun, and some of the pages have the same feel as my rough pages do…before I clean myself up.

If only I hadn’t seen so much Harvey Kurtzman while growing up.  I could rid myself of this demon of liking the roughs.

AND NOW—

FOR THOSE WHO DEMAND THEIR HOVERBOY FRIDAYS ON FRIDAY, I GIVE A FIE TO THEE!  A FEE FIE!

Hoverboy Fridays continue to wander the calendar, and we find one barging into Sunday.  I’m only making this rare exception to move Hoverboy Fridays from its regular spot on Tuesdays, to this weekend, because the most recent update is topical!  It has to do with Hoverboy’s very tenuous connection to Sesame Street, which celebrated it’s 40th, or 45th anniversary this week, I wasn’t paying enough attention when Wolf Blitzer mentioned it.

Go to the Hoverboy museum and read more about this astounding connection between Kermit the Frog and The Boy Who Hovers.

www.hoverboy.com (for those who don’t hyper link well).

Ty the Guy.  AWAAAY!

New Pages!

starting now…

first up, a couple more of Spidey/Torch, including a Gwen Stacey page.

A video box cover from the 90s X-Men series.

And a couple from the story Ty did for the GLXmas Special Ty did Dan Slott.  (Grasshopper–will he die or won’t he?)

And, pages from one of Ty’s favourite projects:  Mad Dog!

New Pages!

Just finished putting up some new Spidey/Torch pages, some New Batman Adventures pages…a couple other things.  Will be posting more tonight and tomorrow, including some Dark Claw Adventures.