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Wow, THIS is going to be an interesting week...
The pitch from Warren Ellis:
"So here's the deal:

You are an artist/designer. You have to put together the cover for a comic called SUPERMAN. It is issue 1 of this book.

You have been told that Superman is a man who dresses predominantly in a shade of blue, and wears a red S symbol. You know nothing else about the character.

The cover must include a logo and the text THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE DARING EXPLOITS OF THE ONE AND ONLY SUPERMAN.

And that's it.

It's up to you what kind of company you're at. What kind of comics you make. How you translate that description of Superman. What era you're in. Who you are, even. Go nuts with it.

You have one week. Go."

Decided to whip out the type-fu for this one, go all Swiss on it.
Worked really hard to keep it simple, and assume nothing more than exactly what was given.

Here's a bunch of recent stuff that's been posted on Warren Ellis' WHITECHAPEL forums in various places. Gotta be true to my commitment to keep making 2010 a year of MAKE.

After a short hiatus, the REMAKE/REMODEL thread is active at Whitechapel. Here's this week's challenge:

"Skyrocket Steele was a hero in the year X. He was assisted by Sari Marston and Invex the Invisible Man. His nemesis was Vance Roy.
Skyrocket Steele was the first character created by Bill Everett (the guy who created the Sub Mariner."

So here's my take on it:
"Skyrocket" Steele, the most highly decorated pilot of the French Negro Air Corps of 1923. His daughter Sari served as his mechanic, and the corps were funded by the "invisible" Invex Corporation, a secret group of investors.

Been screwing around for a few days with some freeware called ALCHEMY. Very cool, randomized sketching software, more dedicated to the chaotic creation of forms rather than straight up representation. Not sure how it's best used, but it's a nice distraction and brain clearing exercise. Check out the website for download and sample work, along with the designers showing how it can be used. Very cool!

Here's a desktop design I did last night, again just messing around, but some cool directions may come from this.

Lots of stuff in the hopper right now, and lots of things on the horizon. Good stuff. Fun stuff. So here's a catch up on some art posted on the Ellis boards for some of the recent REMAKE threads:

My "remix" of the #1 issue of SPIDER-WOMAN from the late 70's was the featured entry on the "very cool and filled with amazing art" blog COVERED

I had a soft spot in my heart for this cover, in that it was one of the first #1 issues that I was able to buy as a kid collecting comics, along with MICRONAUTS, SHOGUN WARRIORS and GODZILLA, all from Marvel during their late 70's binge of licensed comic series.

Here's the cover on its own:

All right, this is getting weird, in that "OK, what happens next?" level of good things popping up.

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A few months ago, I find out that my musical hero Thomas Dolby ("She Blinded Me With Science" is what everyone knows, but in some ways it's the least of what he's done as a cool musician) is holding a competition through his blog for fans to design a t-shirt for a special one-off gig in Ilsington, England, that is called "Thomas Dolby and Friends: Circumnavigating the Flat Earth". It will include many cool musicians that have worked and collaborated with Dolby over the years, and is meant to be a celebration of a lot of the music he's made with them. Sounds pretty cool, so I activate my design tools and go to work. From the outset, they say that they can't pay really for this, that the rewards are having done it, and that's about all they can promise. Still cool with me.

So, I design and submit. Others do as well on the forums. As with all things, it takes time, as it's around the holidays.

Last night, I get an email, from the moderator of the boards, alerting me that Thomas has looked over all the entries, and mine has been picked for the winner.

This morning, I get another email. From Thomas Dolby himself, thanking me for the design, and apologizing that he can't fly me over for the gig, but saying I have a "rain check" for when he tours the states for, as he puts it, "The VIP treatment".
That's what kind of nice person he is.
If you heard a distant pop this morning, it was my head exploding, many miles away.

Here's the design that will be produced:

Here's some recent work that I've posted to various threads on the WHITECHAPEL forums, one of the things that's kept me artistically honest over the last year, and kicked my ass to ramp it up this year.

My version of THE ACE OF SPACE, molded by me getting the box set of original Fleischer POPEYE cartoon shorts:

Some current drawings of people from the DRAW EACH OTHER thread:

Hey, it's finally live, but I won a contest (through Warren Ellis' WHITECHAPEL forums) to design the new logo and identity for a UK fiction writers blog/site called WEAPONIZER.
WEBSITE
BLOGSPOT

Here's the identity on it's own. The head editor likes retro space pistols, and wanted them incorporated into the design.

Alrighty; new year, new decade. 2010. NOW it's the Future.

2009 was a lot of mending the nets, polishing the tools, and sharpening the skills. It was also a year of planning, of sketching, of thinking and over-thinking. So now this is a time to change. A lot of seeds have been planted in the last year, creativity-wise speaking, and I'm really ready to see if things are ready for harvest. Some things need more time to grow and come to the surface, but some stuff is ready to happen. I can feel it.

So, as "Make" happens, I will post about it here. This will keep me honest. How long will I keep this up? We'll find out, won't we?