Just thought I’d pop in a few pages from the final issue of Dark X-Men coming out in just over a week on March 10. You can see the cover on the Marvel catalog site right over here.
However, I thought that I would also toss in a couple of pages from an eight page Venus story for issue #3 of Avengers vs Atlas coming out March 17.
I also drew a variant cover for an upcoming issue of Marvel Zombies, but I’m not allowed to show that one yet, as well as a two page Captain Britain story for an issue of The Avengers…. I think. I’ve been working on so much stuff over the past couple of months, it’s hard to keep it all straight. Next week, I get started on my next project for Marvel…. which I’m also not allowed to mention, just yet. The big reveal for that will be at the Chicago Con in April. Sadly, I won’t be there. I’m attending another convention the following week in Calgary.
Newsarama has posted a preview of the first few pages from the next issue of Dark X-Men, due out on the shelves next week. Just click on the picture above to go have a look.
I’m rather excited about #3 as I am inking the final three issues of the series myself, starting with this one. I think my work on #4 was better but #3 turned out okay, in my opinion. I should be wrapped up with #5 by the end of the month, well within schedule. Then I will be drawing an 8 page Venus story for the Agents of Atlas vs The Avengers series. After that, I will begin my next “ongoing” gig for Marvel, which I’m not allowed to talk about just yet. Sorry.
I will only say that it has something to do with mutants.
Now the topic of profiling airline passengers has risen again with the attempted destruction of a jet flying to Detroit by one Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who had the genius idea of wiring explosives to his dick. I’m already reading comments on the internet (where else) about how profiling is a great idea and how it’s something that should have started long ago. Now you would think, from the tone of this statement, that I am opposed to profiling. I am not. Profiling is an excellent means of weeding out potentially dangerous passengers before they get on the plane. Profiling is not the problem. Training is.
What we need is better training for security at airports and better communication between various security departments in the government. Without those, profiling is little more than a meaningless exercise to make everyone FEEL better about air travel. Without proper training and equipment, profiling will do nothing more than delay and piss off travellers with accents, odd clothing and darker skin.
For crying out loud! The underpants bomber was basically a repeat of the shoe bomber, Richard Reid. Both travelled through European countries. Both bought one-way tickets to destinations THOUSANDS of miles away. Both paid cash. AND BOTH DIDN’T HAVE ANY FRIKKIN’ LUGGAGE!! THIS is what should have been spotted! Airline security AND government security have learned NOTHING! Reid tried to blow up flight 63 in December of 2001. Eight goddam years ago!! Eight goddam years and people STILL don’t know what to look for?? Oh, and lest I forget, there was also that other terrorist incident that took place in the air in 2001… The one that allegedly changed the world and would usher in new security measures that would make flying safe for us all … What was it called again….?? Oh yeah! 9/11!
To hell with the new rules telling people that they can’t get up to go to the bathroom during the last hour of the flight or that they can’t have anything on their laps. Profiling isn’t just about race and culture. It’s about everything. If anyone with half a brain had been doing his job and noticed that someone had purchased a one way ticket across the globe in cash and travelled with no checked baggage, this idiot might never have been allowed on the plane in the first place.
Not to mention the teeny-tiny little fact that the CIA was notified, in person, by the jerk’s OWN FATHER that he may be a terrorist risk AND THEY DIDN’T THINK TO TELL ANYONE ABOUT IT!!
I haven’t posted anything in a while. So, rather than wait until I have a little more time to scan some recent artwork and stuff, I decided to share a little something I tossed onto someone’s page on Facebook. Somehow, the topic of the TV show House came up and I felt like mentioning how I had stopped watching the program because the writing was so god damn formulaic and predictable. It got pretty frikkin’ boring. So now, for your education, here’s how you write an episode of House…
1 - Someone get’s sick and goes to the hospital.
2 - Genius Dr. House diagnoses patient, prescribes treatment and then says something to piss off everyone in the room.
3 - Patient gets worse.
4 - Everyone works hard to come up with an answer. House has his own idea and says something to piss off everyone in the room.
5 - Cuddy calls House into her office. House makes a sexist comment, pissing off Cuddy as well as anyone else who happens to be in the room.
6 - Everyone decides to give House’s NEW treatment a chance. After all, he’s as confident that it will work as he is the remaining 72% of the time when he turns out to be WRONG!!
7 - Episode is only half over so, SURPRISE! SURPRISE!… House is wrong again.
8 - Back from the commercial break, House is beginning to become genuinely concerned that he might lose his patient. When someone points this out, House immediately says something that not only pisses off everyone in the room but also crosses the line into actionable slander.
9 - Eventually, House figures out the problem but no one, including the patient’s family, will allow House to treat him because he has been such an ass, saying things to piss off everyone in the room.
10 - House does an end run around everybody by pulling some stunt that could get the hospital sued for millions of dollars…. BUT successfully manages to treat the patient.
11 - Everyone is happy, except for House…. who proceeds to say something that pisses off everyone in the room.
12 - Roll credits.
I ended up having to do a quick 8 page fill-in for the first issue of Nation X which will be hitting the stores in just a couple of weeks. It’s a good thing I managed to finish it on time (just barely) as it’s the first story in the issue. Now that that’s done, I can hop back onto Dark X-Men. Thankfully, I was already way ahead of schedule so taking on the extra work wasn’t so bad. Trying to finish it, however…. penciling and inking eight pages in a week while still doing a signing at a comic shop on the weekend was a nightmare…. but some of the work didn’t turn out too bad, if I do say so myself.
And I do.
Anyway, here are three of the pages all inked and colored for your preview amusement. Enjoy.
After an unplanned hiatus, I have decided to start taking requests for commissions again. In the future, you will be able to send your requests through The Artists Choice website. For now, you can reach me at l.kirk@yahoo.com or on Facebook and I will tell you where to send your money.
My rates are: $100.00 for 8 1/2″ x 11″ inked drawing $225.00 for 11″ x 17″ inked drawing
These prices are higher than what I would normally ask for sketches I do at conventions. However, these commissioned drawings will have more detail, can feature up to two characters AND include FedEx delivery to anywhere in the US and Canada. Below, are links to some samples of other commissions I have done this year.
Those of you who know me will not be surprised by my personal opinions about organized religion in general and fundamentalism specifically. Live and let live is my credo but I am sick and tired of right wing policy being influenced by religious beliefs. I am also sick and tired of listening to the ultra-right-wing-ultra-conservative-fundamentalist-NUTJOBS as they reject science, reject history and do their damndest to raise a new generation of unquestioning, uncritical, unthinking and uneducated automatons proudly living a life of dogmatic ignorance.
WHEW!
Anyway, Frank Schaeffer says what many of us have known for the longest time and I am just itching to run out and grab his book.
I don’t really have much more to say than that. Enjoy the video.
It ain’t my BALLS but at least it’s something. After wrapping up the penciling on my first issue of Dark X-Men, the other day, I was getting a little bored waiting for the next script so I decided to whip up this.
(Naturally, Star Trek, Captain Kirk, etc… is all copyright and trademark Paramount, blah, blah, blah… and stuff like that.)
Just another quick little update to let everyone know that the cat has FINALLY been let out of the bag. The Dark X-Men mini-series was announced at Wizard’s Chicago Con this weekend. I will be working with Paul Cornell and Jay Leisten again (my Captain Britain cohorts) and I cannot be more pleased.
I’m still not entirely sure just how much I’m allowed to say about the project. So, for now, I will defer to discretion and simply post a couple of links to interviews that Paul and I did for CBR and Marvel. There will be another one from Newsarama which I will probably add later today or early tomorrow.
You will notice that Marvel is still being rather “hush-hush” about this so the only artwork that has been released so far is an edited cover. Oh well. They pay me so I don’t ask too many questions. In the meantime, enjoy the interviews and I will post more as I’m allowed. I’m really happy with how the first issue is turning out and I can’t wait to share some of it with you.
February 28th, 2010
