Comic Book Pencils: MARVEL COMICS / DC COMICS / VALIANT COMICS / PENNY-FARTHING PRESS / WHITE WOLF PUBLISHING

I've primarily been an inker in my comic book career.  But on occasion, I have done comic book pencils. 

Below is a limited selection of some of my comics penciling work throughout the years, some inked by myself or inked by others.  

Some are simply in pencil form, before an inker gets to do any embellishment at all. 

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE: 

Interior double-page spread (above) from Team Titans Annual #1 for DC Comics.  

Pencils & inks by Arthur Nichols. 

Cover (above left) from Night Thrasher #15 for Marvel Comics.  

Cover (above right) from Night Thrasher #16 for Marvel Comics.  

Pencils & inks by Arthur Nichols. 

Cover (above left) from Sleepwalker #24 for Marvel Comics.  

Pencils & inks by Arthur Nichols. 

Cover (above right) from Sleepwalker #27 for Marvel Comics.  

Pencils by Arthur Nichols, inks by Klaus Janson & Al Vey.     

Cover (above left) from Sleepwalker #32 for Marvel Comics.  

Pencils by Arthur Nichols, inks by Dick Giordano.

Cover (above right) from Team Titans Annual #1 for DC Comics.  

Pencils & inks by Arthur Nichols.  

As you can see on the 2 covers directly above, I went through a phase where I signed my name as 'RT5¢'.

I'm not kidding.  

An editor at DC Comics decided to nickname me 'Artie Fivecents' (get it?), and for a brief time, I tried to make it into a fun way to sign my work.  Sadly, I just felt like a pretentious dork.  So I stopped that practice right away.

Covers (above) from Magnus Robot Fighter #1-#4 for Valiant Comics.

Pencils by Arthur Nichols, inks by Bob Layton, colors by JayJay Jackson.

Cover (above left) from Magnus Robot Fighter #5 for Valiant Comics.

Pencils & inks by Arthur Nichols, colors by JayJay Jackson.

Interior page (above right) to Magnus Robot Fighter #2 for Valiant Comics.

Pencils by Arthur Nichols, inks by Bob Layton. 

Preliminary illustration (above) for Magnus Robot Fighter: Steel Nation collected edition reprint for Valiant Comics.

Pencils & inks by Arthur Nichols.

Commission illustration (above) of Magnus Robot Fighter, Solar Man of the Atom & Turok Dinosaur Hunter from the 1990s Valiant Comics.

Pencils & inks by Arthur Nichols.

Interior page (above left) from Night Thrasher #17 for Marvel Comics.

Pencils by Arthur Nichols, inks by Steve Leialoha. 

Cover (above right) from The 'NAM #63 for Marvel Comics.  

Pencils by Arthur Nichols, inks by Josef Rubinstein. 

Interior pages (above) from Archer & Armstrong #9 for Valiant Comics.

Pencils by Arthur Nichols, inks by Bob Wiacek. 

Self portrait of me (above left) dealing with deadlines in my art studio back in 1985.

Pencils by Arthur Nichols.

Portfolio illustration (above right) of characters from the role-playing game Vampire Masquerade.

Pencils by Arthur Nichols.

Pencils submission for (above) The Victorian comic book to Penny-Farthing Press.

Pencils by Arthur Nichols.

Interior page (above left) from Team Titans Annual #1 for DC Comics.

Pencils & inks by Arthur Nichols.

Submission pencils (above right) to Marvel Comics.

Pencils by Arthur Nichols.

 Cover (above left) to Justice League Europe #9 for DC Comics.

Pencils by Arthur Nichols, inks by Bart Sears.

Interior page (above right) to Night Thrasher #18 for Marvel Comics.

Pencils by Arthur Nichols, inks by Josef Rubinstein.

Submission pencils (above) to Marvel Comics.

Pencils by Arthur Nichols. 

Entry (above) from Who's Who in the DC Universe for DC Comics.

Pencils by Arthur Nichols, inks by Al Vey.

Comic Book Pencils: DC COMICS & MARVEL COMICS - Commision Works In Progress

Sometimes I create way more work for myself than I should.  I did this with two commissions I'm working on for a couple of people.

The first is a DC Comics commission, of which approximately 25 characters were requested that I draw.  I decided to use a 23"x29" piece of plate-finish bristol board to work on.  When I started drawing all the characters, I decided to put more and more characters in, until I literally ended up with 100 characters jumping and flying around.  To add more crazy to the mix, I ended up drawing the city of Metropolis down below, just so I could fit in The Daily Planet globe!

I'm currently just about halfway through inking this piece.  The above picture of the Batman figure is of the beginning of the inking process.  I've since redrawn Superman several times, along with the Shazam! family.  The Spectre (top center) is going to be a very huge challenge, as I'm going to attempt a gray-toned cross-hatching effect that will hopefully blend into the starry sky.  We'll see how that turns out.

This was how I worked out the composition.  I did 3 rough designs on an 8.5"x11" piece of paper, and my client picked the one he liked best, which I went with. 

The second commission I'm working on is a Captain America piece, commemorating the various big events in Captain America's timeline.  This is another piece where I could have just drawn Captain America with a bunch of other Marvel heroes & villains he's interacted with, but I had this idea of doing panel frames.  This idea had me ending up placing about 80 characters into the commission piece, where about 20 would have sufficed.

This piece is 17"x29", this time on 3-ply plate-finish bristol paper.  I actually worked the preliminary piece full size, instead of on small thumbnails, like with the DC piece.  You see in the above picture I took a while ago that I've started inking this already.  I'm about halfway through inking this, even though I started the DC piece much sooner.  I basically go back and forth from the DC to the Marvel piece, working on a figure here, several figures there.

Working on these large boards is a logistical pain in the butt, as I'm 5'6" tall.  My reach isn't the longest, being a short guy.  I'm wrestling with the big size paper, while always avoiding creasing the paper by leaning into it against the edge of the table.  It slows everything down significantly.

I'll post updates of these pieces when I can.  When these are all finished, I plan on spending the ridiculous amount of money to get full-sized scans of these pieces.  Until then, everything's going to be presented to you with digital pictures.

Previsualization / Concept Art / Environment Design / Comic Book Pencil Art: FUTURISTIC CITY

In this post and this post also, I wrote about illustrating samples for a supposed video game company that ultimately expected the work I did to be done on 'spec'.  This is the last of the designs I had done to try to get the job that turned out not to be the kind of job you get paid for.

At the time of the job posting I saw, I didn't have anything formal in my portfolio that would serve to demonstrate my abilities for designing environments.  So when I saw this ad, I illustrated these pieces as fast as I could, but I was afraid I had taken too long and missed any opportunity for this 'job'.  I contacted this 'client' to let him know I was completing things for him, and I then sent him what I had already done.

In the description of this 'job' ad, the 'client' was looking for a futuristic city to be designed, along with roller coasters and an armored warrior woman.  I had continued my theme of placing all of these designs in the form of a comic book page (or in this case, a double-page spread).  

After I sent the initial pieces I finished, that is when I got a very positive reaction from the 'client' who asked me to send the piece you see above, even though it wasn't finished.  When I sent this to him, the 'client' slathered me with compliments, and told me all about his project, and then that's when he told me he wanted me to work for 'back-end' pay.

It's such a sucker-punch when you do all the hard work you can to get a job, only to get the carpet yanked out from under you.  It's an education on what is real, and when you should develop a sense of when it isn't.

One day, I'm going to carve out time and take this piece to finish.  I'd love to see how the roller coasters will turn out.

Previs Concept / Environment Design / Character Design / Comic Book Pencil Art

Back in this post, I talked about doing design work for a video game company that when I showed my design work, I was told that the company expected me to do work on 'spec' for them.

A number of designs I had decided to put into a comic book page format, which included character design, the futuristic city environment design & robot design.  Again, I had a very positive response from the supposed client, right before they told me that I would be working for free.

I declined.

Previsualization / Concept Art / Environment Design / Comic Book Pencil Art: DOME CITY

I was scouring through ads looking for work back in 2002, and came upon an ad looking for a Concept Designer.  In this ad, it specifically asked for designs for a number of things, including a domed city in a desert.  I spent several days working on these various environment concept designs, and sent them out to this company.

I got a call back from the person in charge, who told me how much he really liked what I did, and would absolutely want me as a part of the development team for whatever video game that was being produced at that time.

One catch: all my work was going to have to be on 'spec', and I would be paid on the 'back end'.  To be clear, when someone asks you about this, this PLAINLY means that they want you to work for FREE.

They have no money to pay anyone.  More likely they have money, but they just want free work from you so they can lay claim to ownership of the designs you did (because you "worked" for them on their project).  They also have no business model with which they can demonstrate to you that if you do the concept design work for them, once they sell 'X'-amount of units of said product, you would then get 'X'-amount of dollars for it.

These are hard lessons to learn...

Orthographic Turnarounds For 3D Modeling: WILLIAM JOYCE'S DINOSAUR BOB

Sometimes you get to be near giants.  You either get to work with them, work for them, or just witness them as they walk past you as you stand there in awe of them.

William Joyce is one of those people.  As I paraphrase and lift directly from wikipedia, I can tell you he's written and illustrated so many wonderful books like George Shrinks, Santa Calls, Dinosaur Bob and his Adventures with the Family Lazardo, and Rolie Polie Olie. 

He did conceptual characters for Pixar's Toy Story, A Bug's Life, and Robots (for which he was both producer and production designer).  He's currently working with Blue Sky Studios on a feature based on his award winning book, The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs.  Joyce is writer, producer and production designer on the film.

In 2007, Disney released Meet the Robinsons, a movie based on his book A Day with Wilbur Robinson, and he designed the opening title sequence for Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.  He is currently in agreement with DreamWorks Animation to provide the source material for a 2012 film called The Guardians of Childhood, based on an upcoming series of picture books.

Joyce is also currently co-founding a Shreveport, LA animation and visual effects studio with Reel FX Creative Studios co-founder, Brandon Oldenburg, called MOONBOT Studios.

When I was working at Reel FX, I got the opportunity to produce thorough orthographic turnarounds of Joyce's character Dinosaur Bob for 3D modeling.  Reel FX and William Joyce had been in a long-standing collaboration to develop entertainment properties.  Tests were being made for how Dinosaur Bob would look in 3D.  I was asked to not only do turnarounds of the exterior of the character, but to literally build him from within.  So I did passes on his exterior, the muscles that overlaid the bones, and then the bones themselves.  

I purposely drew these turnarounds with lines, and not graytones, because the specific directions of the linework gave the 3D modeler Ramahan Faulk precise direction on the dimensions of the character's face & features.  Brandon Oldenburg was originally worried that I wasn't working in a 'painterly' fashion in my orthographic turnarounds, but Ramahan told Brandon that those lines gave him exactly what he needed to build an accurate 3D model, because my linework was a great guide for his 3D sculpting.  The direction of the linework demonstrated very well the shape and contour of the character.

If I were given more time, I would have done some gray-tone modeling in Photoshop.

Before I began all the under-layers, I did a front-and-side pass on the exterior as accurately as I could, which was then sent to William Joyce for approval.  He sent back his size and proportion correction notes on top of what I had drawn, which allowed me to proceed to the finished pieces.

One day I'll tell you about how I got to storyboard an animated short film for William Joyce called The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, which is currently being completed over at MOONBOT Studios in Louisiana.

I may never rise to the giant level of William Joyce.  But I got to stand near him several times, which has made me a whole lot better at what I do.  I'm just happy he didn't step on me... =P