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The story goes that legendary Uncanny X-Men scribe Chris Claremont discovered Malaysian-born artist Sonny Liew at a comics convention and got him his first big break into comics, landing Liew a gig illustrating Iron Man for Marvel. It was a small gig, just one illustration, but it set the stage for Liew’s bright future in comics! In 2004, Sonny Liew won the Xeric Award(an award for excellence in self-published comics) in 2004 for Malinky Robot. Later, he would go on to illustrate such titles as Slave Labor & Disney’s Wonderland series, Marvel’s Sense and Sensibility adaptation, and collaborate with artist/inker Mark Hempel on DC/Vertigo’s My Faith in Frankie.

Before studying illustration at Rhode Island School of Design, Liew attended college in Singapore(where he currently resides) and in the UK. His work has been featured in the critically acclaimed anthology Flight and he’s served as editor of the Southeast Asian comics anthology Liquid City.

Liew has been a celebrated artist at home, winning Singapore’s Young Artist Award in 2010, but recently he’s found himself in a bit of controversy over his latest book, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye. The grant that supported the making of that book was withdrawn by the National Arts Council for containing sensitive topics. You can hear more about this story from the man himself at this book sharing session.

Right now is a great time to become a Sonny Liew fan, because he’s making some of the best comics art of his career on the newly relaunched Doctor Fate series with famed DC writer/editor/former-president Paul Levitz! I see that more people are catching onto this series, now that it’s up to issue 5, so hopefully that will continue to happen and we’ll get a nice, long Doctor Fate run out of Liew!

If you’d like to see more art and learn more about Sonny Liew, check out his blog here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

I remember being really impressed by the shots in the original Matrix film back in 1999, but I had no idea, back then, that a little known Spider-Man artist first helped bring that movie to life with pencil & paper. Steve Skroce previously worked with Lana and Andy Wachowski on an obscure horror comic book called Clive Barker’s Ectokid, which was his first major work as a comic-book artist. Before his time as Matrix storyboard artist, Skroce worked on a number of high profile superhero comics, including Cable, Gambit, X-Man, and Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood with comics legend Alan Moore. 

Today, Steve Skroce is putting out some of his best artwork yet on the creator-owned series We Stand On Guard with superstar writer Brian K. Vaughan. The story takes place a 100 years in the future and follows a group of Canadian citizens(Skroce is Canadian) defending their country from an invasion by The United States of America. The 4th issue just hit the stands and it appears that the first volume will wrap up with issue 6.

Skroce has drawn many storyboards for movies, including many more with the Wachowski’s. Some of those films include The Matrix Trilogy, V for Vendetta, Speed Racer, and Cloud Atlas. He also found time to make more comics, with a memorable 4 issue stint on Wolverine(2000) for Marvel and the independent series Doc Frankenstein(2004-present), which he co-created with artist Geof Darrow, for Burlyman.

Steve Skroce apparently doesn’t have much of a social media presence(he’s probably just too busy drawing!), so here’s a link to his wiki-page, if you want more information.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

I love the character and attitude that artist David Lafuente puts into his comics pages! This week saw the release of the fifth and final issue of Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. Assassin, which features another deliciously dynamic cover by Lafuente. David Lafuente is from Spain and currently lives in London where he’s working on his next big project, a creator-owned series for Image Comics called The Ludocrats with fellow creators Kieron Gillen and Jim Rossignol.

Lafuente first cut his teeth in the mainstream comics world on the 2008-09 Hellcat mini-series with writer/artist Kathryn Immonen, then worked with Brian M. Bendis on the Ultimate Spider-Man relaunch. Some of my favorite art by David Lafuente is his interior work on the All-New Doop series in 2014 with Doop’s creator’s Peter Milligan & Mike Allred; check out those beautiful pages above!

Other notable works include Batman Eternal, Batgirl, Neli Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, and The Runaways.

You can follow David Lafuente and see his art process on his tumblr page here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

Since her beautifully delicate line-work graces the cover to the latest issue of Swords of Sorrow this week, we shine a light on the work of “renaissance woman” Tula Lotay! Working up her artwork in multiple layers of hand-drawn, hand-painted art, along with digital color/inks, Lotay spoils comics readers with an extraordinary amount of moody texture. She’s been contributing cover art and interiors to many books the past few years including Elephantmen, Zero, Rebels, American Vampire Anthology, The Wicked + The Divine, and Dynamite’s Swords of Sorrow.

Lotay is probably best known for her recent collaborations with writer Warren Ellis(Supreme Blue Rose, Blackcross; as cover artist, and their upcoming book Heartless), and her role as founder/organizer of the yearly Thought Bubble Festival in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which celebrates sequential art in all its forms.

If you like what you see, you should go follow Tula Lotay on her twitter page here!

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

This week’s Island #2 comics anthology features cover and interior art by the great Emma Rios! I first noticed Rios’ art on Marvel titles like Cloak & Dagger: Spider Island, Osborne, and the Firestar 1-shot. Now, Rios is taking her artwork to the next level on her new Image series Pretty Deadly, with Osborne collaborator Kelly Sue DeConnick on writing duties. It’s a supernatural tale that follows Death’s daughter, as she rides through lush and horrifying lands, seeking retribution.

Emma Rios is a Spanish comics artist and illustrator who has made a name for herself here in the States as well as Europe and beyond! She broke into the American comics scene in 2008 with the Boom Studios series Hexed, then worked with writer Mark Waid on the Dr. Strange series “Strange” for Marvel. I see that one of her earlier works is a comic called APB, but apparently that’s not available here in the U.S.

You can see the latest art and follow Rios on her twitter page here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

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Quietly, one of the best current super-hero series being published is Nathan Edmondson & Phil Noto’s run on Black Widow. I first noticed Noto’s work on Marvel’s Uncanny X-Force, a few years back. His work brings a nice combination of fine art & design aesthetics to mainstream comic books. One of Noto’s earliest and most frequent collaborators was writing team extraordinaire Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti; starting off with a number of issues on their classic Jonah Hex run in the mid-2000’s, then projects like Superman/Supergirl: Maelstrom and Trigger Girl 6 for Image’s Creator-Owned series.

Phil Noto and writer Gerry Duggan received an Eisner award nomination in 2011 for their original comic series The Infinite Horizon, which tells a post-apocalyptic war story inspired by Homer’s Odyssey.

Phil Noto has worked for Disney Animation, as well as a concept artist for video games, including the mega-hit BioShock. Noto continues to be one of the most sought after cover artists in comics. He recently created a series of classic magazine inspired covers for Marvel.

You can follow the latest Noto news and see the newest art on his tumblr site here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

It was a rare “event week” for me at the comics shop with the much anticipated release of the new comics anthology Island! Brandon Graham, the creator, editor, and cover artist for Island is our subject this week. Graham’s work is inspired by classic European and Japanese(manga)comics. He started off drawing comics for Antarctic Press & Radio Comix, some being pornographic(see Milk! #7, etc.).

Graham would go on to work with the infamous Meathaus collective and to creating his own independent titles: Multiple Warheads and King City. I was fortunate to meet the super-friendly Mr. Graham back in 2012 during his Multiple Warheads: Alphabet Tour and he was kind enough to contribute to my convention sketchbook!

Brandon Graham is part of a new age of Image Comics, which has overtaken the “Big 2″(Marvel/DC) in the original content department. Recently, Graham, along with artist Simon Roy, “re-imagined” Image Comics co-founder Rob Liefeld’s Prophet to much critical acclaim.

Island #1 is an over-sized comic magazine published by Image Comics and features work by Brandon Graham, Marian Churchland, Emma Rios, Kelly Sue DeConnick, and Ludroe. You can check out a preview here. The series will be released on a monthly basis.

You can see the latest news & art updates for Brandon Graham here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

This week we celebrate the Popeye-obsessed, Metal-warped mind of Tom Neely! His new series The Humans, with his pal Keenan Marshall Keller, has become a sleeper hit for Image Comics and is the perfect vehicle for Neely’s action-packed, skull-rattling artwork!

I first picked up some of Neely’s comics(The Blot, Your Disease Spread Quick, a Melvins comic book) at San Diego Comic Con about 10 years ago and I have to say that his comics career has been one of the most interesting to follow. Tom Neely has shown great range & versatility as an artist, from creating the cult-classic underground series Henry & Glenn Forever with The Igloo Tornado artist collective to his time campaigning for, then drawing for IDW’s new Popeye series(a life long dream of his) and then his recent 228-page graphic novel The Wolf, a beautifully raw, bloody acid trip of a story!

With The Humans comic book Neely has(hopefully)found his long-term happy(biker-ape-loitation)home to stretch his ink brush arm in!

Neely earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the University of Tulsa & Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. He was born in Paris, Texas and now lives in Los Angeles, CA.

His 2007 graphic novel The Blot won him the Ignatz Award that year and was named one of the “Best Graphic Novels of the decade 2000-2010″ by The Comics Journal. He’s done many illustrations and album covers for the music industry including Green Day’s Demolicious, last year.

You can check out more of Tom Neely’s website here, and for fresh updates on The Humans go “like” the official FB page here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

French illustrator Stephanie Hans has been painting some of the most striking covers of late for Marvel’s version of Neil Gaiman’s character Angela and other titles. Hans first started making a splash at Marvel with some of her Journey Into Mystery covers, that featured famed Thor/Avengers nemesis Loki. You can see the range that Hans has an artist with her interior line-work on the new Marvel Secret Wars crossover, 1602 Witch Hunter Angela. Hans’ strong painting skills and obvious appreciation of classic art is a welcome addition to today’s mainstream comics scene!

You can follow Stephanie Hans on her tumblr site here. There’s a nice painting process post on there, if you scroll down.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

Paul Pope is one of the indy comics/small press stars to emerge from the 1990’s. Premiering in 1994, his self-published comic THB is the futuristic story of a girl living on Mars with her super-powered, inflatable bodyguard. It’s hard to categorize Paul Pope’s work. I see that THB often gets lumped in with other genre indy comics of that era, like Jeff Smith’s Bone and James A. Owen’s Starchild. I see his work fitting better in the alternative/small press sphere, at least stylistically speaking. Maybe that’s just a testament to the uniqueness of Pope’s work; his fluid line work and stark sense of design.

Paul Pope has been living and working in New York City for most of his career. He’s created comics for many of the major comics publishers, including the multi-Eisner winner Batman 100 for DC Comics.

Recently, Paul Pope created the graphic novel Battling Boy for First Second, with the follow-up titled The Rise of Aurora West.

You can keep up with all things Paul Pope on his website here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

I’m having trouble finding background information on Stacey Lee, so I’m mainly going to be sharing links to her social media presence. She’s new to me, but I think her work on the new Marvel series Silk is exceptional, so I thought I’d share some of her work here. Lee is from Boston, currently lives in New York, and specializes in graphic design and illustration. I hope her run on Silk is a long and memorable one; she’s doing great things with that character!

Stacey Lee’s website.

Her art blog and twitter.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com – Andy Yates

George Bletsis provided this week’s stunning Adventure Time cover, so he gets Comics Illustrator of the Week honors! Bletsis brings his carefully constructed drawings to life with rich, bold colors and seems to have a real knack for field of depth & space in his work. Working and living in Southern England as a freelance illustrator for print media and as an artist for the film/video game industry, Bletsis has collected quite an impressive list of clients thus far including Jamie Oliver, BBC, Penguin, and The Royal Academy of Dance, to name a few.

You can find more art by George Bletsis, including some pages of his own comic strip, on his blog here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates

I’m so impressed with artist Dan Mora’s work on Michael Alan Nelson’s Hexed, that I had to share a sampling of it here with all of you! The little bit that I can find out about Dan Mora on the web is that he lives in Costa Rica, he’s done graphic design work & many illustrations for numerous print/online publications, and loads of concept art/character design work, as well. In it’s previous incarnation, Hexed introduced the great artist Emma Rios to the world, and now it’s Dan Mora’s turn to find legions of new fans.

Hexed, published by Boom Studios, is up to issue 9 now; it will be interesting to see if Mora sticks with that series a while longer or if one of the “Big 2″ scoops him up. Either way, I’ll be following for the good arts!

You can find more of Mora’s artwork, and see many revealing artist process posts, on his “Behance” site here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates

The Hernandez Brothers, Gilbert, Jaime & Mario, are trailblazers of modern graphic storytelling. Premiering in 1981, their personal comics anthology Love and Rockets spawned from healthy doses of classic superhero/Archie comics, undergrounds like Zap, and punk rock music of the late 1970’s. Their stories are character driven, semi-autobiographical, complex, and sometimes surreal. They are their own 3-man “Miramax” of the independent comics industry, cranking out bunches of original, unconventional material each year.

This week marked the release of Love and Rockets Volume 3 #7, published by Fantagraphics Books. After the original run of 50 magazine-sized issues, and a 20 issue, comics sized Volume 2, fans now get to look forward to a new 100 page soft cover book each year. Most stories from the series end up in their own collections(usually with extras), like with Gilbert’s epic Palomar story-line, and Jaime’s chronicles of Maggie & Hopey.

The influence of Los Bros. Hernandez can be seen throughout the U.S. and abroad at the multitude of comics conventions, and zine-fests. As Kirby, Ditko, and Eisner laid down the foundation for modern mainstream comics, so has The Hernandez Brothers’ work done for the modern independent cartoonist.

You can follow the latest updates on what’s next for the Hernandez Brothers, and Love and Rockets at their facebook page here.

Also, Gilbert Hernandez has recently started a new weekly comic strip at VICE.com here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates

Just like in professional sports, comics often recruits talent from outside the U.S. Case in point, Marvel’s “gun for hire” Gabriele Dell’Otto. The Italian native started doing work for marvel’s European division in 1998. He officially began working for the core Marvel Comics line when he was brought on to draw & paint Secret War, written by mega-popular writer Brian Michael Bendis. After that, Dell’Otto produced a bunch of covers for the Annihilation crossover, and illustrated the mini-series X-Force: Sex & Violence.

Currently, Gabriele Dell’Otto is one of Marvel’s top artists, and you can see his work on the latest issues of the Spider-Verse cross-over, and Miracleman.

Here’s a link to the Italian fan-site for Gabriele Dell’Otto, if you’d like to browse more of his great artwork.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates

If Paul Pope and Brendan McCarthy had a love child it would be Nathan Fox. Rarely have I seen an illustrator who produces work that is equally as impressive in ink/brush mode, as it is in full colored/painted mode; each being perfectly realized pieces of art. After a short stint of focusing his career on editorial illustration, Fox moved onto comics in the early 2000’s, and further expanded his skill-set at The School of Visual Arts(New York), in the Illustration As Visual Essay Graduate Program.

Nathan Fox’s career in comics has been an eclectic one, including work on mainstream books like Harley Quinn, The Haunt, and Batman: Gotham Knights, along with indy projects such as Pigeons from Hell, Blue Estate, and Dogs of War. Currently, Fox is providing cover art for the DC/Vertigo series Federal Bureau of Physics AKA FBP(which was recently optioned for a film), drew a story in Vertigo Quarterly: CMYK, and is part of an impressive collection of artists reviving Jack Kirby’s Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers for Dynamite Entertainment.

Nathan Fox has also done illustration work for Wired Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Mad Magazine, and Entertainment Weekly, just to name a few. His work has been featured in art galleries across the U.S. and he teaches Visual Narrative at The School of Visual Arts in New York City.

You can get the latest news, and explore more of Nathan’s work at his website here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates

DC/Vertigo’s long running title Fables has been a showcase for some of the top illustrators working in comics, today. One of the shining stars to contribute covers to the series(as well as a recent interior story) is artist Nimit Malavia. His dynamic yet delicate illustrations portray a strong sense of mood/color existing in a deep field of depth. While looking at them, you literally feel like you could fall into the page(or screen, if you prefer digital)!

Nimit’s work graces the walls of Shopify’s offices(as pictured above), and he’s done commercial work for high profile clients like 20th Century Fox, DC, and Marvel Comics, just to name a few.

Iam8bit in Los Angeles, CA is currently featuring Nimit’s art, along with 39 other artists, for a show called Sequel, where artists create movie poster art for imaginary sequels(Cowboy Bebop:The Movie was Nimit’s contribution).

You can explore more of Nimit Malavia’s art, and keep up with the latest news on his website here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates

Change can take a long time to happen. The mainstream comics market is no exception, but there have been some recent encouraging signs. Case in point, the newly redesigned, Doc Marten/iPhone sporting Batgirl by forward thinking creator Cameron Stewart, who co-writes, and sketches story breakdowns for the series. Stewart, a Canadian native, has been drawing comics for over a decade, and has worked with some of the most celebrated comics writers out there, including Grant Morrison, Ed Brubaker, and Jason Aaron.

In addition to the monthly Batgirl, he’s currently working on a comics sequel to Fight Club with writer Chuck Palahniuk, which he’s described as a dream project to be a part of.

Cameron Stewart won both an Eisner(2010) & Shuster(2009) award for his web comic Sin Titulo. You can find a lot more artwork to drool over at his website here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates

John Totleben happens to be one of the finest illustrators to ever work in comics. His first published work was in the popular science fiction/fantasy magazine Heavy Metal in the late 70’s. He first became well known for his collaboration with artist Stephen R. Bissette, and writer Alan Moore on their ground breaking run on Swamp Thing for DC Comics in the early/mid 80’s. Their run also included the introduction of popular character John Constantine AKA Hellblazer. Totleben continued to impress with his distinct, ultra-detailed inks, and lush painted covers with his work on Eclipse Comics’ Miracleman. After many years in legal limbo, Marvel Comics secured the rights to re-publish issues of Miracleman, which is once again shining a light on Totleben’s timeless art.

Sadly, John Totleben has suffered from the eye disease retinitis pigmentosa for years now, so he’s had to slow down his output as an artist. Yet, he’s still capable of rendering some of the most beautiful scenes you can imagine albeit at a much slower rate.

John Totleben has won numerous Kirby & Inkpot awards throughout his career, and was the co-founder/editor of the famed Taboo horror anthology.

You can learn more about John Totleben’s life & career here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates

If I was creating a new super-hero team, or relaunching an old super-hero comic book, the person I’d first think of to design/re-design my character’s costumes would be the great British artist Jamie McKelvie! He’s the one behind the excellent new costume designs of Captain Marvel, AKA Carol Danvers, and the wildly popular new version of Ms. Marvel, AKA Kamala Khan. You can see the design sheets posted above. McKelvie has been steadily producing some of the best conceived cover designs/art for many of Marvel Comics’ recent titles, including Ms. Marvel, Nightcrawler, and the recent(much too short-lived) Young Avengers re-launch.

Jamie McKelvie, and his frequent collaborator, Kieron Gillen, have recently launched a new, creator-owned series for Image Comics called The Wicked + The Devine. Their unique new-Mod take on super powered folks is a fresh addition to the usual, over-saturated fare.

You can see more art and follow Jamie McKelvie on his Twitter page here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates

I was introduced to Jae Lee’s artwork when he took over on Marvel’s Namor back in the early 90’s. He was one of the talented young artists that joined Image Comics in the mid 90’s, working on such titles as WildC.A.T.S. Trilogy and Youngblood Strikefile, before launching his creator-owned comic, Hellshock. Jae Lee returned to Marvel in 1998, when he collaborated with writer Paul Jenkins on a new 12 issue Inhumans series. His work on the Inhumans ushered in a new level of depth, and maturity to his work that would only grow, and grow into the next decade.

Other notable works are Stephen King’s Dark Tower comics adaptation, Fantastic Four 1234 with Grant Morrison, and The Sentry for Marvel. In addition to that, Jae Lee has become a highly sought after, and prolific cover artist; notably his recent string of covers for DC’s  New 52 Batman/Superman series, and the Jason Aaron Wolverine relaunch a few years ago.

Jae Lee was born in South Korea in 1972 and immigrated to the United States with his parents in 1977. He started his professional comics career at the age of 19, drawing short stories for Marvel’s anthology Marvel Comics Presents.

Jae Lee won an Eisner in 1999 for his work on the Inhumans, and was nominated for Best Cover Artist in 2002.

You can catch up with the latest news, and see more of Jae Lee’s art on this website.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates