The Uncanny (and fabulous!) X-Women

Life is still crazy here in the lab! Cranking away on the final issue of Madame Frankenstein, while Issue #3 arrives in stores on Wednesday. Storyboards continue to flood in. Friends' wedding programs need illustrating. And I've gotten confirmation that I will be at both NYCC and Comikaze in October! Details to follow on those two shows but if you're planning to attend either, make sure to stop by Artist Alley and say hi.

In the meantime here's some eye candy from a recent commission, featuring some of the women of the X-Men. This was a fun project to do because my introduction to comics was through both the Knightfall saga of Batman, and the early 90s X-Men. So drawing the X-ladies as they appeared when I read the comics (with the exception of mohawk-era Storm, of course) was a bit of fun nostalgia.

Elizabeth's Canvas

Whew!

The last two months have quite literally been the busiest since I began freelancing back in 2012. Between the sudden onslaught of my "day job" storyboard projects, and the release of Madame Frankenstein (#2 hits stores on Wednesday!), I have been at my drawing table nonstop with a few breaks to eat, sleep, run, and occasionally sneak off to yoga to stretch myself back out of a permanent hunchback shape.

So it comes a bit late in the game that I share with you guys my newest project, contributing art to a short story in the IDW anthology "Elizabeth's Canvas".

I was introduced to the project by Jud Meyers and Scott Tipton of Blastoff Comics, where I spent Free Comic Book Day last month. You can read a bit about the idea behind this book over at Bleeding Cool. I was immediately drawn to the mission of the organization Elizabeth's Canvas---to provide creative outlets for cancer patients through free classes in art, writing, dance, and other forms of creative expression. The idea is that art can be a very powerful form of therapy during cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.

The most exciting and humbling part of this is that the story I'm drawing is that of Elizabeth herself, whose personal battle against breast cancer and discovery of self-expression and healing through her art inspired her son to create this organization. The script is written by Chris Ryall and Scott Tipton, and I'm a few pages away from completing pencils. It's been a great opportunity to do the kind of work I feel I'm best at---highly emotional character work---and to hopefully help expose a larger audience to the work that the great people at Elizabeth's Canvas are doing.

Stay tuned here and to my Twitter feed for more news about this project!