Randy's Sketchbook: San Diego 2003 by Randy Lander Another year, another Comicon International at San Diego. As always, I've returned with any number of new comics, T-Shirts and other goodies (like Stikfas!), but my real treasure are my sketchbooks, laden with new work from a variety of artists. In what may well become a tradition, I'm showing off these new images here. I can't thank the artists who contributed these pieces enough, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. I found Cameron Stewart alongside Chip Zdarsky, Kagan McLeod and Ben Shannon at the RAID booth, and proceeded to spend more money than I had intended and less than I wanted to (I was trying to stay on-budget) on their variety of wares. Royal Rumble, their comics anthology, was a great read. The reason I had sought out Stewart, though, was because of his phenomenal work on Catwoman, and he was kind enough to do a Slam Bradley sketch for me. I'm honestly not sure what Stewart will be up to after finishing out his Catwoman run, but he might have a creator-owned project, The Apocalipstix, in the works, which was previewed in Royal Rumble. One of the two co-creators of Image comic Rex Mundi, Eric J drew me a sketch of the spooky, malevolent Man in White from that book. If you're not reading Rex Mundi, a story of crime, horror and suspense set in an alternate 1930s where the church still remains in power and magic is a reality, you should be. I saw the pencils for issue six, which is both the finale of the first arc and, impressively, a jumping-on point, and anyone who has heard the buzz should check out that issue rather than waiting on a trade, which might not come if sales don't nudge upwards a bit. After two years of missing every signing he's done, I finally got to meet Francisco Ruiz Velasco at this Con. Folks probably know him best from his beautiful work on Lone Wolf 2100, but my favorite project that he's done was Battlegods: Warriors of the Chaak, a strange blend of Central American mythology and futuristic fight video games. So I was thrilled to see an announcement of Battlegods II, a new four-issue mini coming from Dark Horse, and also thrilled to get this quick sketch of one of the characters from Battlegods. Coming in August from Image is Hellhounds, the story of super-powered bounty hunters (to go exceptionally high-concept) by writer George T. Singley and artist Joe Abraham. I met both guys at the Image booth and was intrigued by the leave-behind that Singley had created and the artwork that Abraham had done. Abraham kindly consented to do a sketch for me, providing a rendition of Shock from Hellhounds. Possibly the best graphic novel I've read all year has been Maria's Wedding, an Oni graphic novel by Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir and Jose Garibaldi. I got to meet Jose at the Oni booth and pick up Ragtag, an anthology he had done with a number of other creators. He gave me a sketch that is very different from his Maria's Wedding style, showing off his versatility and sense of humor. Expect big things from Garibaldi in the future. Starting off with his self-published series Hysteria!, Mike Hawthorne has picked up a higher profile lately with his work on Oni's Three Days in Europe and some of Beckett's Terminator 3 comics. His impressive skill grows with each project, and I saw pencils from his newest work at Beckett, Ruule (Mongolian bikers in a post-apocalyptic landscape is the short version) and some work from his run on Queen & Country, and they both looked really good. Hawthorne acceded to my request for a drawing of one of the characters from the upcoming Ruule. Sean Phillips has done a lot of work for Marvel, Vertigo, Wildstorm and DC proper, but my current favorite of all his works is Sleeper with Ed Brubaker. Phillips provided me with a sketch of Holden Carver, the lead character in Sleeper, and though that series will come to a close with issue 12, he and Brubaker are already talking about another creator-owned book from Wildstorm. Phillips is also plenty busy with other work, including his work on Marvel's Kingpin. I've been a fan of Steve Epting's work since his Avengers, but he's gotten even more impressive lately, from his work on Jurgen's Aquaman to his amazingly detailed work on Crux. However, El Cazador, his new pirate book with Chuck Dixon from Crossgen, looks like it's going to set a new standard for his artwork. Below is a sketch of Lady Sin, the lead character in El Cazador. After putting in an impressive run on Young Justice, Todd Nauck is striking out on his own with the new Image series Wildguard, about a super-hero reality show. It's a great idea, and Nauck's twist, that readers can vote on characters through the website, is a really neat one. Nauck did a terrific sketch of Red Rover, one of the Wildguard characters, for me. This year, I also began a new theme sketchbook. The theme is: Monkeys, Pirates, Ninjas and/or Robots. Why? Well, I like the comics cliches, and I thought this would be kind of fun. To kick off the sketchbook, I went to the guy who has done one of the best sketches I've ever gotten and too many books to list, Scott Morse. Morse has a number of projects coming out soon, including Barefoot Serpent from Top Shelf, Southpaw from AdHouse Books and a six-issue run on Sam & Twitch: Casefiles with Marc Andreyko from Image Comics. Given that the third Barry Ween mini-series was subtitled "Monkey Tales," I figured that Judd Winick would be all for the theme. In addition to a fourth Barry Ween mini, Barry Ween in Space, that is in the works, Winick writes some of my favorite DC comics of the moment, notably Green Arrow and The Outsiders, with Blood & Water having just wrapped and hopefully being scheduled for a trade paperback as we speak. In addition to being too cute and nice for words, Christine Norrie is a remarkable talent, whether it's her work on Jen Van Meter's Hopeless Savages, her original Oni graphic novel Cheat or other projects, such as the Kung-Fu Space Girls, who make an appearance in her contribution to my new theme sketchbook. In addition to finishing up Too Much Hopeless Savages, Norrie will be doing art for the new DC mini-series Bad Girls and I believe is working on another graphic novel for Oni. If you haven't picked up Scurvy Dogs, you are missing one of the funniest comics out there by artist/writer Ryan Yount and writer Andrew Boyd. The book has also started a popular catchphrase, "Pirates are the New Monkeys," which adorned many a T-shirt in San Diego. In addition to working on more Scurvy Dogs, Yount is the third man and in-house letterer at San Francisco-based publishing powerhouse AIT/Planet Lar. Ken Knudtsen is the man behind the twisted and funny My Monkey's Name is Jennifer from Slave Labor. That's Jennifer in the pirate costume standing on the beat-up corpses of a robot and a ninja, in what might be my favorite piece in this sketchbook so far. The trade paperback of My Monkey's Name is Jennifer just came out from Slave Labor, and it is excellent. Though he's going to be one of the regular Avengers artists for a while, I first became a Scott Kolins fan thanks to his work on The Flash with Geoff Johns. In particular, I thought his work on Gorilla Grodd was fantastic. One look at the sketch below and I think you'll see why. Closing out the new theme sketchbook (and this feature) is Jim Mahfood's sketch, the last one I got at the Con. I love Mahfood's art, and when I saw him drawing a Birds of Prey commission for a fan, I told him that if I was ever rich, I was going to give him a couple thousand dollars, a sketchbook and a copy of the DC Universe, because his style makes even the oldest icons look fresh and cool. Of course, his original creations look great too, whether it's the sketch below or his work on Grrl Scouts or Stupid Comics, the latter of which has a new issue due out in October from Image. Email Randy Lander comments about this column, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.