This week's pick:


Monday, February 1, 2010

TORPEDO by Declan Shalvey
















I love Alex Toth. I love Jordi Bernet. I love crime comics. So why THE HELL have i not read Torpedo yet!? I'm an idiot; that's why. That new IDW collection will soon be mine though.

Thought i'd go the opposite direction of Mr. Hawthorne and do a very minimalistic drawing and made my signature more Bernet-y as a homage, in case the drawing wasn't homage enough.

14 comments:

Dan McDaid said...

Fuuuuuuuck!

You played a blinder, sir. This is phenomenal.

Nathan Fairbairn said...

NICE. I dig the balance of the composition.

Man, I seriously need to rethink my piece -- we may have already reached our quota for shots of Torpedo menacingly lighting a smoke after just killing someone.

Nathan Fairbairn said...

Oh -- and the halftone on the suit jacket is the tits!

Mitch Gerads said...

The Shalvey goes in blind and comes out with vision!

You captured the mood of the book perfectly, Dec. It's the little things, like the bottom right corner, where it gets a little scratchy. I eat that $h** up!

Mike Hawthorne said...

It takes balls to compose this the way you did. And the chunky blacks, and modeling, are right on. I was too worried I'd over work an inked version, but you managed to balance it well.

Great job!

mike

laura said...

There is so much I love about this - the composition, the lighting, the tones on the jacket, the rest of it! Awesome job!

ANDY KUHN said...

i lurve that huge chunk of black, and the bernaise sauce you threw on your siggy. great work!

Francesco Francavilla said...

He is waiting for an "unlucky" someone :D Great lighting and blacks and that hat is darn near perfect :)

Cheers,
Francesco

Doc Shaner said...

Perfect, Declan. Great lighting, love the white tie.

Declan Shalvey said...

Thanks a lot guys; i really like how ye've all picked out the little specific decisions i made with the drawing.

Mitch; originally it was gonna be all black in the right corner but as i was throwing in the black i just liked how it looked and decided to leave it.

Mike; at first there was only going to be a bit of black, but then i added a bit more, then a bit more then thought f**k it; i'll just fill the rest of the page. Glad you think it took 'balls' as my favourite artists are those who make ballsy decisions. Thanks man.

Nathan; Thanks man. If there's onr thing i like it's ...uh ....tits.

Thanks again guys.

Steve Bryant said...

Wow...so very bold and punchy.

And I agree with everyone else, it's the little subtle details that make the piece really special, like the spatter at the bottom of the figure.

Stephen Mooney said...

Seriously impressive, Dec.
Pure mood and atmosphere.

Mike Exner III said...

I'm sure others have already said it, but there's a really nice sense of balance here. Dark brim on the hat, with the lighting on the face leading into the white tie, balanced by the heavy inks surrounding it. Love it.

Ron Salas said...

This is great! Nice unbalanced design.