2019 Fandemic Tour Supreme colors by Daniel Dahl

As previously mentioned, Gilbert “Beto” Hernandez's sketch for the jam had a light touch, so Evan Dorkin helped to fill out some of the details. I still wanted Supreme to be a bit meatier, especially standing next to Linsner's Spawn, and that effort would ultimately fall on the shoulders of the colorist. I attended the last Fandemic convention in Houston before COVID, but I was out of pocket from a trip a couple months earlier. I don't recall if I had a specific reason for going, or if I even went both days, but I wasn't rolling heavy into this particular show. While browsing tables, I came across the work of Daniel Dahl, visiting from Minnesota and seeming to specialize in sketch cover variants. I liked his line work, but wasn't really in the market to start new pieces while I still had lingering jams to finish. However, he was particular good with the color work, using it to add depth and weight to his pieces. He felt like a perfect fit for what I was looking for in Supreme, and while Xerox scans are notoriously bad at capturing subtlety of color, I think you can still see that he knocked it out of the park. I loved his work so much, I got him to do a couple characters, as you'll see in the future...

Daniel Dahl

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2017 Heroes Convention Image Comics 25th Anniversary Jam Background Rough Layout by Evan Dorkin

As previously discussed, I knew that I wanted Evan Dorkin to be part of the jam, both for his being an independent comics creator that predated Image Comics, but also because he'd successfully transitioned between indie projects and work-for-hire at Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and even Bongo Comics. It's a bonus when the artists didn't have any particular association with Image, even though the whole thing started with Linsner, and Alan Davis did a fair amount of Wildstorm work. Anyway, I was introduced to Milk & Cheese through one of their hilarious Slave Labor Graphics specials, then moved on to Instant Piano and DORK!, though today he's probably best known for The Eltingville Club, Beasts of Burden, and his TV work for shows like Space Ghost Coast to Coast. He's a long time favorite with a cult following and a shelf full of Eisners, Harveys, and Ignatzs. Ignatzes? Is Ignatz already the plural of Ignatz? I know it's a z, but it has an s-ish sound, right?

My buddy Fix has had a massive Milk & Cheese piece for decades that I've always been envious of, so even without the jam, I'd have wanted to get something from the artist. As with Howard Chaykin, I was intimidated on approaching Dorkin, known for an acerbic, withering wit. Also like Chaykin, he turned out to be a delight, so I needn't have worried. My girlfriend and I talked comics, movies, et cetera with Dorkin, and he put up with all my comings and going to navigate the piece and determine his role in it. After passing on Shadowhawk and debating options, we settled on the Savage Dragon as the best fit. However, with all of the Heroes Con elements finished, I went back to Dorkin and asked "How would you like to ink Neal Adams?"

In truth, he wasn't exactly enthused, but the Pitt layout was exceptionally loose. After some discussion, it was decided that Dorkin would "finish" the piece, providing needed embellishments, extensions, and background elements to round out the art in total. Besides doing Dragon and tightening Pitt, we primarily talked about adding a bunch of Isz from Sam Keith's The Maxx and random EXTREME! '90s elements. Despite his self-deprication, Dorkin never does anything halfway, so before long we were both researching additional characters to squeeze into the margins. Above is a heavily contrasted scan the artist used to show me his general course before we'd really gotten to talking. You can see that even at this early stage, there's a huge improvement in making everything feel interconnected, rather than a collection of toys bunched together in negative space...

2017 Heroes Convention Image Comics 25th Anniversary Jam WIP

While never the most reliable show in our stable (are any of them?) Spawnometer really derailed in May. Blame falls on both co-hosts getting swallowed up at different times so that we could never align long enough to knock the next one out. That said, Frank does all the art posts, and has had plenty of opportunities to maintain the blog on that front. But hey, it wouldn't be an Image Comics project without interminable, unexplained delays, right? I had a kid and moved back to the Philippines after proposing to my girlfriend via a three page comic strip while building a recording studio for my band! What do you want from me?

As an apology, let me finally offer the incomplete jam where it was left at the end of Heroes Con. This is far from the finished piece, as you'll begin to see next week, but so far as what got done at the con, this is fully representative. It's a shoddy photo though. I'm going to try to pin Fix down and do a few episodes in coming weeks to hopefully return to a regular schedule in August. So, from one "A" month to another?