Image Gallery by Randy Lander I have returned from the wilds of San Diego after having attended last week's annual Comicon International, and I brought back enough comics, T-Shirts and assorted goodies to fill two extra bags on the return trip. As always, though, my most precious cargo is also my most portable, a pair of sketchbooks in which various artists have seen fit to draw a little something for me. At Don's suggestion, I'm premiering those images here before moving them to my online sketchbook at my personal website. I can't thank the artists who contributed these pieces enough, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. Below you will see Christine Norrie's rendition of Skankabelle Zero Hopeless-Savage, from Oni's Hopeless Savages mini-series. Norrie is currently working on Cheat, a 64-page original graphic novel for Oni Press. Moving on we have Batman, from new talent Cliff Chiang, fresh off his stint on "Josie Mac" with Judd Winick and moving on to the Vertigo mini-series Beware the Creeper with Jason Hall. I saw some of Chiang's design sketches for that project, as well as his art for Golden Streets of Gotham, and trust me... they're going to be good. Darwyn Cooke contributes a Catwoman sketch based on his classic new design, although the Toronto-based artist defers credit for the costume largely to Ed Brubaker and his wife, noting that it was their suggestions to give Selina the aviator-style helmet and Emma Peel style catsuit. DC just released (and sold out of!) Cooke's original graphic novel Catwoman: Selina's Big Score, and expect to see more from Darwyn at DC and elsewhere in the coming year. Though he's probably best known for his work on Earthworm Jim, Doug TenNapel has created a weird and fun graphic novel called Creature Tech that will be released very soon from Top Shelf. I read and enjoyed it on the plane ride back to Austin, but before all that, TenNapel gave me a nice sketch of the cartoon/game star that he designed. A bit of a depature, Dwight Williams is a long-time Internet acquaintance who happened to be at the Image booth while I was waiting for a sketch from Jeremy Haun. He offered, I accepted, and as you can see, I was glad I did. One of my current favorite artists, Eduardo Risso wows me every month with his work on Vertigo's 100 Bullets. His sketching skills are no less impressive, as he has a mastery of blacks and shadows that has to be seen to be believed. In addition to his monthly 100 Bullets work, some of Risso's past work in Europe will be released this fall from Dark Horse's Venture imprint. J. Bone has become the go-to guy for animated style artwork at Oni Press, most recently teaming up with Paul Dini to create Mutant, Texas. A student of martial arts himself, Jeff Johnson has shown off his knowledge in the fluid combat and action sequences of Crossgen's Way of the Rat. Johnson said that he plans to stay on Way of the Rat as long as Crossgen will let him, and with art like this, it's hard to see that ending anytime soon. Coming your way soon is the weird slice-of-life/mystical/comedy book Paradigm from Image. I loved the first self-published issue, and went out of my way to track down creators Matt Cashel and Jeremy Haun to tell them so. Haun gave me this lovely sketch of a character who will feature in an upcoming issue. Though I haven't had the chance to review a lot of his stuff, I'm quite a fan of Jim Mahfood's work. He contributed this fun piece of G.I. Joe-inspired art at my request, but he's best known for edgy (and funny!) strips in his 40 Oz. mini-comics and for Grrl Scouts and Stupid Comics, both of which will see new installments this year and next from Image. Joshua Middleton was a talent to watch at Crossgen, but his fully-painted work on Sky Between Branches and his delicate style on X-Men Unlimited #37 has taken his work to a whole new level. Look out for more of Sky Between Branches from Com.X in 2002 and beyond. Michel Gagne is one of a growing number of animators to make the jump into comics. Along with his strange and beautiful illustrated storybooks, he has created Zed, the story of a cute young alien who accidentally causes galactic disaster. The trade collection of Zed was released just in time for San Diego. Last year, Phil Hester graced my sketchbook with a classic Ollie Queen, the character he helped revive alongside Kevin Smith, Ande Parks and others. This year he acceded to my request for a Connor Hawke. In addition to continuing work on Green Arrow, Hester will be illustrating the wrestling/super-hero book Holy Terror for Image and writing Deep Sleeper for Oni Press. One of my favorite new cover artists, Phil Noto has recently joined with Jimmy Palmiotti to create Beautiful Killer for Black Bull. In addition to finishing that out and providing cover artwork for Birds of Prey and other books, Noto will also be doing the artwork for a new Danger Girl project in the future. Pia Guerra provided the art for one of the best first issues I've read in a long time, Brian Vaughan's Y: The Last Man from Vertigo. She graciously drew Colonel Tse-Elon, the hard-edged Israeli soldier from Y, and will no doubt be providing art on that book for a long time to come. It's impossible to nail down all of what Scott Morse has done, so I'll name a few of my personal favorites: Ancient Joe, Soulwind, Volcanic Revolver and the beautiful full-color series that inspired this piece, Elektra: Glimpse and Echo from Marvel. The remaining three issues of Glimpse and Echo will be out this year, and Morse will no doubt provide more work for Marvel, Oni, Dark Horse and various others as well. We close out this feature with a look at one of my favorite mini-series from this year, Oni's Pounded. Steve Rolston provided this sketch of Heavy's ex-girlfriend Missy after her "punk transformation." Rolston is currently working on Wildstorm's Mek with Warren Ellis, and the pencils for the first issue are jaw-dropping. Email Randy Lander comments about this column, or discuss it on the Fourth Rail message board.