FANTASTIC FOUR #601

In stores today - Fantastic Four #601 by Jonathan Hickman, Me, Rick Magyar, Paul Mounts, and Clayton Cowles, Panel mashup below!

Fire Burning

I decided to try adding a little animation to the last painting. Very crude, but it was fun to play with.

Quick sketch

A quick digital landscape sketch done in Photoshop.

FF#12 Cover

Out today - FF#12 written by JONATHAN HICKMAN Penciled by JUAN BOBILLO Cover by STEVE EPTING Fantastic Four 50th Anniversary Variant by SKOTTIE YOUNG 'ALL HOPE LIES IN DOOM' Part One The beginning of a 4-part arc that runs parallel with FOREVER in the Fantastic Four. We've teased it for years, now find out exactly how Doctor Doom and the Future Foundation will save us all. 32 PGS./Rated T+

FANTASTIC FOUR #600!

Today the massive FANTASTIC FOUR #600 goes on sale featuring 96(!) pages of all new material! In the words of Tom Brevoort "You'll need a forklift to carry it home! Chock full of 50 years worth of epic goodness!" So join me, Jonathan Hickman, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Leinil Yu, Farel Dalrymple, and MIng Doyle for the 50th Anniversary of the one and only FF! Panel mashup below!

FF #10 and #11 Covers

I'm really behind posting here on the blog, but here finally are the covers to both FF#10 and FF#11. When joined together the covers form a single image, presented above. FF#11 is currently on the stands, with the massive Fantastic Four #600 to follow in a few weeks!

Sentinel

After a long break from the digital paintbrush I finally set aside an hour or two for a sketch in Photoshop. Hope to do it again one day!

FF #9

Out today from Marvel Comics - FF #9, by Jonathan Hickman, Me, Rick Magyar, Paul Mounts, and Clayton Cowles.

Dune Buggy

(click image to enlarge)
Another old speedpaint from the archives.

FanExpo Canada 2011

I'll be at FanExpo Canada this Thursday through Sunday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Here's the rundown of my schedule for the show:

STEVE EPTING Table # P 15 (Full 4 days)

Panels-
TEAM SPIRIT: FF
Thursday August 25, 7:00pm Room # 717

Sketch Duel EPTING AND MALEEV
Saturday Aug 27 – 11:30am Room #716

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER: THE COMICS
Sunday Aug 28 4:00pm Room # 716

Signings-
Thursday Aug 25 Area CC 4:00-5:00pm
Friday Aug 26 Area CC 1:30-2:30pm
Friday Aug 26 Marvel Booth (#743) 5:00-6:00pm
Saturday Aug 27 Area CC 2:30-3:30pm
Sunday Aug 28 Area DD 1:30-2:30pm

Any time I'm not attending a panel or a signing I'll be at my table doing sketches (my table is #P15-look for the banners below). The sketch list fills up quickly so find me early each day if you want to get on it. Looking forward to a great show and seeing everyone in Toronto!

August 21 - Hellboy Day!

Another year, another August 21st, and another Hellboy sketch. Following my yearly tradition, I'm celebrating the 4th anniversary of my inaugural post with a sketch of Hellboy. This is painted over an old commission I did where I believe the goal was to base the drawing on a photo of Ron Perlman in his Hellboy makeup and try to exaggerate it some to make it look more like Mignola's version. Hellboy is, of course, TM and © Michael Mignola.

As always, thanks to all subscribers, commenters, and casual readers who just happen to drop by. Year 5 starts tomorrow!

FanExpo Spider-Man variant cover

Hey! I'll be at FanExpo Canada in Toronto for the big 4 day show August 25-28. One of the exclusive premiums for the show is a variant cover for Amazing Spider-Man 666 which is an altered version of a splash page I drew in FF#1. By removing the Empire State Building, changing the distant background to Lake Ontario, and adding in the CN Tower and the Skydome (not mention the subtle Canadian flag draped across a skyscraper), New York is transformed into Toronto for the occasion. I've been to Toronto a few times, but this is my first time attending FanExpo and I'm really looking forward to it.

Knight 3

This is another digital sketch of a knight I did back around the same time this one and this one were done. Not sure why I never posted it but better late than never I guess. Done in Photoshop.

Seen at Heroes Con 2011

At Heroes Con a few weeks ago a fan dropped by and showed me this tattoo based on my cover to Captain America #4. He incorporated the image of Cap and the tombstone with a tribute to the victims of 9/11. Though I've been told this cover is a popular tattoo subject, this is the first one I've actually seen (apologies for the crappy photo).

Gene Colan 1926-2011

Sadly artist Gene Colan passed away last night at the age of 84 following months of declining health. You can read more about it here at Cifford Meth's blog.

I'm sure in the days ahead people far more eloquent than I am will be writing tributes to his art and career, so I'll share a small personal story instead.

The above picture was taken in San Diego in 2009, where I was fortunate enough to get the chance to spend some time with Gene over the course of the weekend. In fact, at a dinner Marvel hosted one night his wife Adrienne came to my table and told me that Gene wanted to meet me. It turns out he had been referencing issues of Captain America that I had drawn while he was working on issue #601 and wanted to tell me how much he admired my work. Needless to say I was (and still am) floored by this. I sat and talked with him about art and sequential storytelling for longer than I probably should have, but he was still so enthusiastic about what he was doing and saw something of a kindred spirit in me I suppose, particularly in the way we both approached shadows and spotting blacks. I could never hope to be in Gene's class as an illustrator or storyteller, but I can try to live up to the praise he gave my work, even if he was being overly generous in giving it.

I doubt he knew how much it meant (and still means) to me.

Thor Covers Part 3

Well, I got sidetracked for about a week there, but here finally are the final 2 Thor covers from the series I did in 2004.

Thor Covers Part 2

Here's the next two in a series of Thor covers I did back in 2004. Issue #81 and Issue #82-

Thor Covers Part 1

Since there seems to be quite a bit of buzz around Thor right now (I think there's a movie coming out this week or something), I thought I'd present the seven Thor covers I've done in the original black and white. Back in 2004 I was asked to provide the covers for the six issue arc that would end Thor's (then) current series. The arc featured a Ragnarök (the final destiny of the gods) themed story by Michael Oeming and Andrea DiVito and I jumped at the chance to do the cover art for each issue.

The first two issues, numbers 80 and 81, both featured guest stars. Issue #80 showcased Iron Man alongside the Thunder God and issue #81 boasted Marvel's big three from the Avengers - Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man.



Two more covers tomorrow!

New Avengers Sketch Cover Auction

The sketch cover I did for the the Hero Initiative's New Avengers project is up for auction on eBay. There's only one day left to bid and hopefully it will bring in a nice sum for this worthy charity. You can see (and bid on) the auction here.

Tentacles

Photoshop CS4.

Captain America Movie Poster

The first poster for the upcoming Captain America movie has been released and it bears at least some resemblance (even down to the color scheme) to a cover I drew several years ago:



I don't know if the poster was inspired by the cover to Captain America #4 or if it's just a coincidence, but at least some of the concept art appears to have been based on drawings I did during the course of my run on Cap (see below), so it's likely that it may have been the inspiration. Either way, I think the poster looks great and am looking forward to the movie!

D Day

Fantastic Four #587 goes on sale today.