Crazy, accident-prone Jon Morris came to me with the idea and then pretty much gave me free reign to do whatever I wanted. And boy, am I SO glad he suggested a giant red witches hat. :)

Read more about all-ages Wanda HERE. And if you have a cool concept, make sure to submit it!

Here’s how all the cards look separated:

I really enjoyed those Young Avengers comics. I’d like to see Marvel bring the title back for some more adventures one day. Or at least do something more with the characters.

ALSO, the Orlando MegaCon is this weekend- which means I’ll be there! In my usual spot: Artist Ally, table white 7. New this year will be some “hot off the press” Cleopatra in Space books as well as some rad new prints. Plus all the usual Cow & Buffalo swag I always have with me.  I might even bring my guitar and sing a song or two. It’s going to be epic.

If you’re unfamiliar with The Suicide Squad, here’s a link to their first story (it’s pretty great). They also appeared briefly in Darwyn Cooke’s The New Frontier. My illo is kind of a blend of these two things.

I also made another one of those color-progress animations for it which you can view HERE (flash required).

MUSIC!

It’s been a while since I’ve mentioned any bands/artists I’m in to. And since there’s a bunch off great stuff out now and on the way, I figure now’s as good a time as any.

Really enjoying the debut by Yukon Blonde. A new group my pal Keath turned me on to. Folky indy rock stuff. Totally my cup of tea.

I just discovered Freelance Whales last week, whom you can stream their whole album (due out in April) right now on Lala. I really dig their sound, both musically and lyrically. Kind of a blend of Postal Service and Sufjan Stevens.

I love love LOVE this new Joanna Newsom song. I haven’t heard the whole [triple!] LP yet but it’s also streaming in its entirety over at NPR so I’ll be giving it a listen soon.

And lastly Gorillaz have a new album, which is mainly great news for the awesome Jamie Hewlett videos that accompany new Gorillaz material. And hey- that album is ALSO streaming in its entirety!

This is the card I drew for Jen for Valentines Day. It’s our two cats, Ash and Misty, being typical Ash and Misty. Jen posted the card she made for me over on her blog.

Here’s a couple of sketches of Khensu I posted over at Cleopatra in Space. Anything Cleo related I’ll prob just post over there, but I might crosspost the occasional drawing or illustration here as well.

And lastly, my sister and bro-in-law had their first baby last week! A healthy, adorable, wrinkly little boy. So here’s a little sketch I did of my new nephew, Desmond S Tally, while I was over at their place seeing him for the first time.

From clockwise left: Psylocke, Buffy, the Spectacular Spider-Ham and Rogue & Gambit. Still having fun with the watercolors! I may have to go out and by some tubes that aren’t over ten years old.

If anyone is interested, these color card commissions currently run about $30 each. Just contact me if’n it’s somthin’ you want.

My pin-up features a character from the first issue which the Houghton brothers are currently putting up for free at ReedGunther.com. And issue 3 is ON SALE NOW! If I were you, I’d lasso up that issue before it sells out. You won’t be disappointed.

Also, don’t forget that Cleo starts up on Monday! Spread the word!

I know it’s been a long wait for you guys, but I’m finally gearing up to begin the weekly adventures of Cleopatra in Spaaace in only two short weeks- starting Monday, January 25th. So make sure to bookmark, rss, follow me on twitter (whatever it is you wacky kids do nowadays to stay updated on important stuff) CleopatraInSpace.com so you won’t miss out on any of the action! For now, here’s a sneak peek at the first few panels from page nine:

I’m so excited to start sharing this comic with all of you!

And here are a few I never posted from last year. A bff Kitty and Nightcrawler:

And Streetfighter’s E Honda and Bison:

For those interested, my current PSC commission prices are $20 b&w, $30 color (plus shipping). You can email me at mike (at) cowshell (dot) com.

Here are my top twenty favorite albums of 2009. Also presented without commentary because this is an ART blog, not a music blog! Even though I do waver from the art posts from time to time to let you all know about music uh… artists you might want to check out. Anyhow, next post I promise I will have some new art. The cartoony sort.

Sigh No More – Mumford & Sons

Church Music – David Crowder*Band

It’s Blitz! – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix – Phoenix

Merriweather Post Pavilion – Animal Collective

Two Sons – Bat for Lashes

There Is No Enemy – Built to Spill

Manners – Passion Pit

Fantasies – Metric

Here Comes Science – They Might Be Giants

Bitte Orca – Dirty Projectors

Everybody – Ingrid Michaelson

Coeur De Pirate – Coeur De Pirate

Alpinisms – School of Seven Bells

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Phrazes For The Young – Julian Casablancas

After The Ending [Deluxe] – Dashboard Confessional

Strict Joy – The Swell Season

Bomb in a Birdcage – A Fine Frenzy

Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeroes – Edward Sharpe & the MZ

Lots of other great ones came out, but those are the one I probably listened to the most. I think this was actually a great year for music—better than last—and great for indy rock in particular. My most anticipated new album of 2010 has got to be the new Arcade Fire, due out in May. Just in time for my birthday. :)

Here are my favorite movies of 2009 (at least the ones I saw). Maybe not the best, but the ones I found the most entertaining, interesting or just hit me on some silly emotional or nostalgic level. Also, presented without commentary because I should be drawing and not making movie lists.

Star Trek

The Fantastic Mr Fox

(500) Days of Summer

Inglorious Bastards

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Avatar

Zombieland

Up

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Ponyo

Drag Me to Hell

Moon

Up in the Air

Sherlock Holmes

The Brothers Bloom

Adventureland

Coraline

The Princess and the Frog

The Hangover

Terminator Salvation

Movies I’m most looking forward to in 2010: Iron Man 2, Scott Pilgrim, Toy Story 3, Robin Hood, and TRON LEGACY!

This was Jen and I’s Christmas card this year. You can click HERE for one of those coloring process vids of it.

Also, if you’re lucky, one might flutter down and give you a present.

It was fun to just draw something for myself again. I’ve drawn SO much stuff I can’t (or don’t want to) post here yet. Most of it is super fun but it can still be draining to only draw stuff you have to. Drawing Batgirls is like cartoonist’s therapy.

With our first decade of the new millennium hightailing it to a close shortly, there have been a lot of lists being posted around the internets of what the greatest albums of these past ten years have been. Not an easy feat! But being unable to resist a list, especially one that involves music, I couldn’t help but figure out what my own top ten was. So without further ado, here are the ten albums that not only made what I think some of the biggest impact on the music industry, but my ears as well:

10. Worlds Apart (And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead) – Rare is the album that is this strong and so precise. There is not a throw-away moment on Worlds Apart and Trail of Dead did it by not sacrificing a sound that is uniquely their own. A bonus is that this album somehow wakes me out of whatever slump I may be in with every listen.

A track to listen to: Let it Dive
 

9. Give Up (The Postal Service) – Many have tried but few have come close to capturing what Gibbard and Tamborello accomplished when they formed The Postal Service. The combination of Gibbard’s romantic storytelling lyrics with Tamborello’s 8-bit melodies made for a delicious meal and, like every commercial and movie trailer for the next two years, I ate it right up.

A track to listen to: Clark Gable
 

8. Let It Come Down (Spiritualized) – Can I just say that this album is amazing and leave it at that? Yes. Yes I can.

A track to listen to: Don’t Just Do Something
 

7. Howl (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) – Sometimes when a band decides to take a detour they only end up getting lost. But with Howl it just felt like BRMC were holding out on us! Taking their already authentic American rock n’ roll and giving us some Americana to enjoy with it seems like a no-brainer now, but it’s only because BRMC did this so effortlessly that it worked and worked as well as it did. As much as I enjoy their past and present albums I still hope the harmonica infused sound of Howl is a road BRMC travel down again.

A track to listen to: Shuffle Your Feet
 

6. Takk… (Sigur Rós) – Really, I could have put any Sigur Rós album on here, but Takk is the one I’ve listened to the most. With each new beautiful offering we get from the Icelandic harmonizers, we seem to get a brighter more energetic album than the one that receded it. It’s a progression I’m more than happy to hear continue since Sigur Ros seems to be one of the few bands out there that get better with every passing year.

A track to listen to: Sæglópur
 

5. A Rush of Blood to the Head (Coldplay) – When I first heard Politik on the television before the album’s release, I got excited. See, I like it when bands evolve, for better or worse. And here was a band who was showing us that they weren’t going to disappear into the vastness of one-hit-wonder music space as a group known primarily in America for one yellow song. ROBTTH was a bigger sounding, more ambitious album than Parachutes and it WORKED. It’s what I call a “perfect” album when musically, lyrically, and structurally everything aligns in all all the right places and you’re left with something you’ll continually be listening to for years to come—regardless of where the band eventually ends up.

A track to listen to:  A Rush Of Blood to the Head
 

4. Funeral (Arcade Fire) – I’ll be the first to admit, I was new to Arcade Fire when everyone was already enjoying the (almost) equally amazing Neon Bible. With Funeral, it was like when you meet someone for the first time but deep down there’s this sense that you’ve already been good friends for a while now. What I love most about Funeral though is the way the album just builds and builds and builds to more and more and more awesomeness. But the truly amazing thing? IT STARTS OFF ALREADY AWESOME.

A track to listen to: Wake Up
 

3. Illinois (Sufjan Stevens) – Jen can attest to this. This album did not leave my car for almost a month once I first got it. I just kept it on constant repeat and it is all I listened to while driving back forth from work and wherever. This is a rare thing for me since I’m normally always rotating music and impatiently inserting the next new thing. But with Illinois I was content. And that’s probably the best word to describe Sufjan’s fifth album and his amazing banjo playing self. 74 minutes of pure indy-folk-pop contentment.

A track to listen to: The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
 

2. Kid A (Radiohead) – To be honest, I wasn’t even a fan of Kid A when, 4 years after OK Computer, it finally filled our “we  need new Radiohead!” music void. I wouldn’t say it wasn’t what I expected from Radiohead—at this point fully embracing the new technology that is now a staple in well, ALL of music. I just missed that Bends style that made me love Radiohead in the first place. Over time though (which likely was only a year) Kid A started creeping into me, to a point where it became and still is my favorite Radiohead album. And a lot, I’ll admit, has to do with a certain season that it evokes. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that you couldn’t ask for a better way to to start a whole new millennium of new music.

A track to listen to: How to Disappear Completely
 

1. A Collision (or 3+4=7) (David Crowder*Band) – What  more can I say about my favorite album by my favorite band? It is the album that not only introduced me to DC*B but also gave me a new appreciation for praise music. More importantly, the aptly named A Collision—more than any other album—successfully blended my three favorite genres of music (evident on this entire list): rock, electronic and folk. It’s structurally perfect, unique in sound and the awesome doesn’t just build- it bombards and surrounds you during it’s third triumphant act.  In truth, it’s an album that encompasses all the things I’ve mentioned about every other great album on this list. Which is why it ends up at #1.

A track to listen to: A Beautiful Collision
Another track to listen to: I Saw The Light
 

I actually figured out my top ten 90’s albums while compiling this. Maybe I’ll post that list someday too. Lots of great stuff came out back then!

For those unaware, Agnes Quill is a young private detective living in um… well not this century. She can also talk to ghosts. I wish i could have thought of something more creative than a magnifying glass to give her, but I’m afraid that’s about the extent of my detective possession knowledge. Anyhoo, I had fun drawing this, especially all those skulls. I highly recommend Agnes’ first batch of adventures which is still available on Amazon!

and you know? i’m okay with this. i mean, i see a million gazillion problems with this drawing (as i do with almost all of my work) but i still think it looks alright. it’s funny to look back on your past work and see what works and what doesn’t and compare those things to your current work to see what you have worked out or should still be working on (sorry- lots of work right now!).

and i know you kids like your desktop sizes so here’s a larger image for those who want it. :)

if you’re not already, make sure you’re following me on the twitter too. i’m still tweeting lots of sketches and stuff. there may even be some more animals down the road. :)