Rock Solid Marvel

I finished doing the inking honors atop this lovely front cover piece by the talented Jay Willson of Phoenix, Az., for the next issue of Comicopia, the world’s best (and one of the longest running) APA. Jay’s style is very solid. And he has Captain Marvel busting through this wall. I could only think of bricks and mortar and concrete. So I reduced the size of this to actual printed size, and pulled out my big fat square A-5 nib, to play up the big, solid feel to the whole piece. After that it was all drybrush the rest of the way. I also changed the captain’s expression in a very subtle fashion. Jay’s version of the big red cheese was a large, uber-powerful Captain Marvel. I loved that, and so I tried to give his expression a classic feel (I kept thinking of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Johnny Weissmuller, for some reason, a big hero from my childhood). I’m really fond of how this turned out. Thanks for giving me such a sweet piece to ink, Jay!