Daniel Strickland and his StrickArt

Please Give a Warm Welcome to StrickArt’s Very Own

Mr. Daniel Strickland

*applause*

Um, hi. How are you? I’m Daniel. You may also call me

Strick, Strickie, Danimal, Danislaus, or Big D if you’d like.

Just please don’t call me Dan …or late for supper.
(All art clicks to view larger)

Moving on. I was born in the marshy primordial bog of

 Baton Rouge, Louisiana back when He-Men and G.I. Joes

roamed the earth. I became an obsessed comic book aficionado

 at a very early age and began crafting my own characters

 as soon as I could fit a pencil into my wee left hand.

 Yes, those were the years I created such cherished childhood

favorites as “Robot-Man” and “Guy With Daggers For Eyeballs.”

 Ah, those were the days…

Some time had passed and, in the year 2000,

I began my attendance at the Savannah College of Art & Design 

to further explore my love for the comics medium.

At SCAD, I had the great pleasure of learning directly under a few

noted industry professionals including George Pratt (Enemy Ace),

 Scott Hampton (The Life Eaters),

and Mark Schultz (Cadillacs & Dinosaurs).

 I graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sequential Art

 (i.e. funny books), Summa Cum Laude.

Since then, I have obtained work doing book cover illustrations,

 mini-comics, posters, portraits, web-comics, an inking gig,

and the occasional graphic novel.
Let’s see. One of my proudest recent comic outings has been
the honor of penciling and inking the web-strip saga entitled
M.O.P.S. (The Martial Organization Protecting Sanitation)
for the kindly folks at ICON Studios.

Working with creator/colorist/graphic designer Heath Tullier,

 writer/letterer/web developer Patrick Rills,

and writer Sean Jandle is always a veritable blast.

To read the fully-colored and lettered strips, please visit

http://www.wefightdirty.net/. If you like what you see and want the

 M.O.P.S. adventures to continue, forget writing to

your local congressman, please write to Heath and Patrick!

Tell them how much you enjoyed the series

 and that you want it to keep going!

Inking other pencilers is a skill I practice honing whenever I can.

I learn so much by doing this. I think inking gets a bad rap

in these days of Photoshop-darkened pencils and whatnot.

 But, I’m gonna tell it to you straight:

IT’S JUST NOT THE SAME! IT’S NOT JUST TRACING!!!

If you’re still skeptical, just print out any large

professionally-penciled comic page you can find on

 Google Images and try it out for yourself. You’ll see that it’s HARD!

 The old-world craftsmanship of inking with a brush

 is all about embellishing forms through use of varying line weights,

 emphasizing focal points, enhancing textures,

and composing in black and white. It’s a noble craft indeed

 and it’s a real shame to see it currently going the way of the dodo.

 

These sample pages are from two different Star Wars books

put out by Dark Horse Comics. All rights reserved.

If you do like what you see and want to hire me to

 ink your next project, please shoot me a line at

dstric21@bellsouth.net.

I’ve also been known to delve into Pin-Uppery.

Just for the heck of it.

I plan on drawing more single images of

classic character favorites and bodacious ladies when time permits.

 If you have any character requests and would like a Pin-Up,

 I am available for commissions. Just write dstric21@bellsouth.net.

 Serious inquiries only, please.

Next is a project I’m super-jazzed to be currently working on

 called Fisher-Cat. It’s a collaboration with Erik Van Buren 

of the Baton Rouge Cartoonist Society (BRCS)

for their latest anthology book.

I’m pleased as punch to be working with him on it.

 Tell Erik how much you liked it here.

Lastly, but definitely not leastly,

 there’s my secret project: GODSPEED.

It’s a character and story I’ve been forming off and on

 for years now. My wonderful girlfriend and art partner

Chandra Potopsingh helped me flesh out this initial story.

 It will be included in the upcoming BRCS  Pipe Dream collection.

 Here’s a sneak peek:

Thank you so much for reading this and a BIG thanks to

 Comic Creators United for having me.

Graciously, Daniel

In summary:

Cool stuff……………………………….................………www.comicspace.com/strickart

Oldish stuff………………………………............................…………..www.strickart.com

If anyone still uses this……………………………….....……www.myspace.com/strickart

F word....…http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Strickland/1557676520?ref=search

M.O.P.S. awesomeness………………………………..…………….www.wefightdirty.net

Web-comic comrades………………………………..........................www.iconstudios.org

Mini-comic comrades/Anthologists..…………….……http://www.comicspace.com/brcs/

Serious inquiries………………………………...........................…dstric21@bellsouth.net

Thanks to you Daniel. That's a lot of top-quality artwork.

CCU can't wait to see more "GODSPEED" and expects

you to come back when it's up to full speed.

Drop him a line folks. I don't think he sleeps.

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Whole Lotta' love

Love is in the air. Happy "V" Day.

Love is also in the comics. Because of the February the 14th

holiday, your android buddy pulls from the Big Box

examples of comic love run amuck...awwww.

From DC's "Catwoman" 1989.

So sweet I think I'm gonna be sick...nope just a hair ball.

From the sweet to the strange.

DC's "The Question" out of 1989.

The question is, why isn't Riddler smiling?

He must have seen this cover art.

Marvel's 1983 "Avengers" shows us some lovin in the mail room.

How many heroes does it take to lick a stamp?

Hawkeye is a dog...and "the man".

Same book. Wasp and Yellowjacket manage

get hitched. Still weird.

This is even weirder.

DC's "Tails of the Legion of Super-Heroes" 1984.

Blok gets a kiss from Phantom Girl.

She's gonna loose a thooth.

"Avengers" 1976

Vision is a fellow android and Scarlet Witch is holding

a cool green snake/brain looking thing. 

I see nothing wrong here. let's move on.

 

DC's "The Adventures of Superman" 1991

I don't quite know what to think.

It is a very nice cover. I bought the book, so it worked.

It's the tombstone. The maker of this marker

 must have been paid by the letter.

Of course we have this. Pete and MJ.

That comes to us from this whole storyline...

 Ah, well. Marvel in the 80's.

At least it's not DC in the early 90's. See below.

1993 saw DC produce "Star Trek" in it's normal

"good cover bad interior art" format.

This panel is something else though.

He loves his engine room and its toys. That's cool.

But, do they really expect us to buy that accent?

That's it, you lover of comics, you patron of the printed art.

Settle into bed with your loved one and a good book.

You win.

Read more »

Dennis M. Sweatt

Artist, Web master, Comic book creator, Father.

Yes, my last name is really Sweatt.

Dennis M. Sweatt  

http://sweattshop-graphic-artist.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=350386095161
http://twitter.com/sweattshop
http://www.comicspace.com/sweattshop/

Bio: Male, 44, father of three college age children
currently living in Tracy, California.
My mother still has a drawing of a cow, no bigger than a quarter,
 that I drew when I was 8.
I have wanted to become an artist for most of my life.

When our hippie cousins from Germany stopped by
 while traveling the world, they showed me part of their
comic collection listed on index cards.

I was enthralled by the attention to detail and the way they treated
 each comic as a piece of treasure.

Comic books and art are my true passion.

I have no formal training, just what I have picked (up)

along the way to here. A majority of my time is spent over at

 Outcaststudios.com as a moderator.

This forum has really helped me advance and given me

 an opportunity to make friends with some great people.

Two members of Outcast are animators with credits ranging

 from Disney to Marvel.

Many members have gone on to publish their own works.

Outcast has assembled six creative teams to produce a comic

 to be printed at Ka-Blam.com.

My contribution is being drafted this week.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my work with you.

Thanks Dennis for a great post and welcome to the CCU family.

We're looking forward to the upcoming project.

Check back and let us know when it's ready.

We'll preview and promote it. No sweat.

Read more »

Coming Soon: Daniel Strickland

COMING SOON: The Art of Daniel Strickland

Watch for it.

Read more »

Beetles and Squids

Your resident Android digs back into the Big Box for you.

This week I've unearthed a bug beating on a mollusk

followed by a Question.

Blue Beetle 

Modern Comics: No.1, 1977

"The Blue Beetle...Bugs the Squids"

Script:D.C. Glazman   Pencils/inks:Steve Ditko 

Lettered:A. Machine (really, it's in the credits) 

This should have been an easy one.

 When I pulled this issue out I got all excited. Not so fast.

It's not really a BB#1. It's just a Modern Comics reprint of a

1966 Charlton Comics BB vol.4 #1. 

For the record (and because I think it's cool)

 here's where Blue Beetle started out.

Blue Beetle (Volume 1) FOX 1939 

Then he showed up in:

Blue Beetle (Volume 2) Charlton 1964

And he ends up at:

Blue Beetle (Volume 2) DC 1986

But some time in between Charlton and DC He showed up at

Modern Comics in reprints.

The book I hold in my alien hands is one from a polybagged 3-pak.

(Captain Atom #83 and Judo Master #93) 

It's a simple story but a solid one. I rather enjoyed this mag.

We get to know the wise-cracking Blue dude and the sweet ride

he calls "The Bug". Ted Kord aka Blue Beetle is revealed to us

after his first go-round with the bad guys known as "Squids".

 

He is of course conflicted between telling the cops and his lady

what happened on Pago Island and keeping his hero secret.

We don't find the Pago secret out in this issue.

The Squids move on to plan "B" robbing a charity costume ball

 held on a yacht owned by Todd Van III. Yes, he's the head Squid.

The evil plan works as the Squid squad uses a goon

 to pose as Todd Van while he leads the robbery.

Enter Beetle and they fight again as BB jokes the whole time.

When the gun fire starts Beetle bugs out and follows them in "Bug".

After grabbing the boat and holding it steady

BB moves in for Squid #1.

It's over. Blue Beetle wins and the police arrive.

Check that last panel. What a classic way to end a first issue.

I can see why BB has survived through the years.

He's fun, looks cool and has that giant bug at his command.

It's a wonder kids didn't make him more of an icon in his time.

At least he's still around.

There was a second story in this issue as Ditko would do.

Question

Newscaster Vic Sage alias, The Question.

The "?" fights a gambling ring and

finds unexpected ties to a do-gooder.

Classic Ditko. Classic hero.

Top rate artwork all throughout this comic. If you can find it, read it.

Find the collected works, find reprints, find it on-line.

 You will have fun.

I can't help it.

How could I not show this?

Read more »