DAVID MARQUEZ

just stuff

All-New X-Men #6 Artist’s Proofs

All-New X-Men #6 is out TODAY!  

To celebrate the release of my first issue of All-New X-Men, I’ll be making giclée Artist’s Proofs of my digital work from the book available for sale tomorrow, Jan 17.  Below you can see the Artists Proofs from several pages of the book that have already been released in online previews.

About Artist’s Proofs

In order to produce my highly precise and technical style, I draw the majority of my interior artwork digitally at nearly four times the resolution of an actual comic page.  As part of this process, I then create black and white giclée proofs to judge the quality of the finished art, printed at the same incredibly high resolution as it was created. 

 When each book is released, I will make a single Artist’s Proof of each page available for sale.  

These Artist’s Proofs were made in Austin, Texas using an Epson Stylus Photo 1400 printer on 11”x17” Strathmore 500 Series Plate Bristol.  Each Artist’s Proof is signed and labelled by the artist.

ORIGINAL ART

While I work primarily digitally, from time to time I still draw a few pages – typically splash pages and covers –  using the traditional tools of brush, ink and pen.  These rare original pages are available for sale on my Online Store.

ARTIST’S PROOFS

Since making the transition to digital several years ago, I’ve developed a habit of printing out high resolution proofs of my work to confirm the quality of the finished art.  Beginning in January 2013 I will be making these one-of-a-kind giclee Artist’s Proofs of my digital work available for sale.

2012.

2012 has been a huge year, both professionally and personally.

My first major project for Marvel, Fantastic Four Season One, made the New York Times bestseller list. I spent most of the year drawing one of the most progressive and exciting new characters in Comics, Miles Morales, in Ultimate Spider-Man and developed a great working chemistry with a writer I’ve admired for years, Brian Bendis.  Signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, granting some peace of mind to what is normally a very uncertain freelance profession.  And as of today am nearly half way through drawing my first creator-owned graphic novel, in collaboration with RJ Ryan, a great writer who is also one of my dearest friends.  

But, more than any of this, after six wonderful years I became engaged  to the love of my life, Tara.  

2013 is sizing up to be an even better year with new projects, moving to a new city, and, most of all, getting married. I feel incredibly fortunate and grateful for all the friends and family near and far, and look hopefully to an even bigger and better tomorrow.

Top 50 Monthly Comics for 2012 To Date

Like many creators, I keep an eye on comics sales charts every month just to see how my books and the industry as a whole are doing.  Compared to past decades, 21st Century comics sales are rather dismal and with the global economic slowdown of the last few years, the market has taken a severe hit.  But things have been looking up over the last 18 months or so, thanks in part to DC’s New 52 initiative in 2011 and Marvel NOW! in 2012 (not to mention the Image resurgence).  

The November sales numbers have just been released by ICV2.com, revealing a heartening increase (at least at the top of the list - more about that later).  To be sure I wasn’t just imagining things I went back through all of 2012’s sales numbers and put together this quick chart comparing numbers for the top 50 comics for each month. I was particularly interested in noting how many comics fell above certain thresholds: 100K+, 75K+ and 50K+, and have color coded each to give a sense of the overall performance of this sector of the market.  

I’ve published the chart here: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0ArNsRWnoguVqdDIxYnluRzJYMWdEYTBiMU5hRXk4dGc&single=true&gid=13&output=html

(This isn’t intended to be an in-depth analysis of the market.  It only covers the top 50 comics for the last 11 months, and as such leaves a lot of very important ground uncovered.)

Obviously, the numbers for Nov 2012 are bolstered by the Marvel NOW! launches, so I’ve also included the top 50 for Sept 2011 (The first full month of DC’s New 52 launches) to provide something of a like comparison.

It’s good to see more titles landing in the 75-100K+range (10 titles over 100K, 18 over 75K!), though many will drop back down as the new titles find their true audience size.  Still, here’s hoping this shot in the arm to the market has some lasting positive effect.

kierongillen: I’m surely late to this, but Akira the Don blogged Matt Black’s Goya Galactus (from  kirbymuseum). Black’s charcoal homage on Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son is fantastic stuff. In the same way as Saturn in the original, it’s all in the expression. Galactus’ sense of hunger feels mythic and desperate here in a way which it rarely does in actual comics. Galactus keeps his dignity, and here we dig beneath it. Er… pseud-alert, etc.

kierongillen:

I’m surely late to this, but Akira the Don blogged Matt Black’s Goya Galactus (from  kirbymuseum). Black’s charcoal homage on Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son is fantastic stuff. In the same way as Saturn in the original, it’s all in the expression. Galactus’ sense of hunger feels mythic and desperate here in a way which it rarely does in actual comics. Galactus keeps his dignity, and here we dig beneath it.

Er… pseud-alert, etc.