The unpublished cover to The Book of Lost Souls, issue #7 from Marvel Comics’ Icon line. The first six issues are available in my SHOP in a graphic novel collection.
Pen and ink, of course. My friend, artist Sandro Kopp, modeled for the character in the middle.
I don’t think we will continue this series. Author J Michael Straczynski went on to do some very high profile projects elsewhere, including the BAFTA nominated screenplay for the film The Changeling, as well as a very popular new Thor series, also for Marvel.
The Book of Lost Souls was one of my all-time favorite projects, and I was so disappointed not to be able to continue. Since I’m also working on other important gigs, I shouldn’t complain too much! Four graphic novels in one year is enough work for anybody.
I don’t think you can display more of a stylistic range than I have shown over the last few posts! The drawback of this range is that a variety of styles can confuse clients: they don’t know what to expect from you. I try to limit what I show to my clients to what I think they want for a particular job. Then again, if a client sees your work on a particular job – those manga pages I posted last week, for instance – they tend to think that’s all you can do. Targeting your portfolio to the right client is tricky business.
I’ll be running other unpublished pages from this issue. JMS gave me permission to do so on my old (now deleted) blog, and I am happy to repost here. The work is © J Michael Straczynski.
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