Matt Kindt - Super Spy

San Diego Comic Con Schedule

2009-07-14T09:13:00.000-07:00

Just finished the second 8-page Giant Man short story for Dark Horse today. Here's the first panel/half-page. This should be appearing on their site in August.

Only a week until San Diego Comic Con 2009! I'm going to be there every day and I can't wait. I'll be taking commissions from now up until Saturday at noon so if you have a request let me know via email or talk to me at the show. Look forward to seeing a bunch of familiar faces!

Here's my schedule:

Wednesday: Top Shelf Booth

Thursday: Top Shelf Booth

Friday: 1:30-2:30 After the First 1,000 Pages - Panel discussion with Gene Colan, Becky Cloonan, Zander Cannon, Roger Langridge and myself.

After that I'll be at the Top Shelf booth again.

Saturday: Dark Horse Booth 3-4pm signing a preview comic with excerpts from 3 Story in it as well as limited edition Giant Man prints.

After that I'll be at the Top Shelf booth again.

Stay tuned for more updates -- I'm also on a Vertigo panel but I'm not sure what time/place that will be yet...

Strange Tales

2009-07-12T10:35:00.000-07:00

I finished my next book this week (the book AFTER 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man) which I still can't talk about -- but it will be announced at San Diego Comic Con so after that I'll be blabbing non-stop about it. In the meantime, here's a panel from an 8-page Black Widow story I just finished for Marvel. That series comes out in September. Here's a link to more info about it. I'm going to be in issue #2 -- keep an eye out for it!

Giant Man. Short Story.

2009-06-25T13:01:00.001-07:00

Dark Horse is really getting behind my new book and as a result for July and August they are premiering two new short stories that tie in to my new book 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man. The best part is they are free on-line. You can read the first one here.

Also, I was lucky enough to be picked for the St. Louis Magazine A-List 2009. Click on the photo here to read it...! If you look closely at the photo you'll be able to pick out a few 3 Story spoiler images...

I'm also 15 page from finishing my next graphic novel which I just found out will be announced at San Diego Comic Con in a few weeks. Can't wait to start talking about it since I've been working on it for the last 4 months.

Heroes Con this weekend!

2009-06-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be at Heroes Con this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. There's a really nice crowd and a lot of creators that I'm a fan of will be there so it's doubly good. Also I'll be doing a LOT of commissions, so the time is going to fly by. If you are at the show, make sure you go to my panel on sunday at 1:30 for a discussion of Historical Comics and comics with a little history stuck in 'em. Jason Lutes and several others will also be talking. I can't wait.

Here is a scan of one of my commissions I'm doing in advance for Heroes Con. Classic Aquaman. I'm going to watercolor this today and I'll post the color version when it's done. Aquaman was one of my favorite costumes and probably the best set of under-oos I had as a kid because the green shorts and orange shirt actually felt like his costume. Spider-Man and some of the others didn't quite pull off the same effect but Aquaman was designed like a real costume.

Distinguished Competition

2009-05-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

I've been inking a TON of pages the last couple of weeks -- breaking any kind of record I ever had before by inking 30 pages this week for a new book that will be out sometime in 2010. I can't announce the title or publisher or anything about it until they tell me I can. But it can't hurt to show one crazy page out of context for a story I'm not describing!

Also -- 3 Story: The Secret History of Giant Man is available now for pre-order HERE.

In addition to the full length graphic novel I'm doing two short stories that will appear in July and August on Dark Horse's myspace comics page. I've already written them both and inked the first one and started to paint it. Here are a few panels from the first story...this is what my original art looks like before I letter it and clean it up or add the background old-papery effects that I used on Super Spy and parts of 3 Story.

And finally...I did a short comic strip for a friend of mine that does a weekly strip called SubCulture. You can read my contribution here.

TCAF and Jeff Lemire

2009-05-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

Just got back from TCAF (Toronto) on Tuesday and had a great time. Met a lot of people. Thanks to everyone that came up and talked to me at the show! Also a BIG thanks to my good friend Jeff Lemire and his wife for letting me stay at their house. I was up against some big deadlines on monday so Jeff and I hit the Beguiling to get some comics and then spent the rest of the day inking pages and filling in blacks. We also did a couple fun experiments -- with me penciling and him inking and me inking his pencils. The images here are my pencils with Jeff's inks. The color images are Jeff's inks and my watercolor. For more of our crazy comics jam definitely check out his blog HERE to see his pencils that I inked...always a fun experiment -- not quite him or me but a crazy mash-up of both of our styles.

TCAF and the Spirit

2009-05-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited about going to Toronto this week -- my good buddy Jeff Lemire is going to be there and show me the sites and then I've heard nothing but great stuff about TCAF. If you're up that way, stop by the Top Shelf booth and say 'hey'!

Another busy couple of weeks but I've been throwing things in a folder to add to the ol' blog. I just finished all of the last of the production on 3 Story, finished the back cover art and all of that. Also finished the inks and tones on the first 15 pages of my new-new book that I still can't announce yet so that's been taking up most of my time.

Also -- did an illustration for a French magazine that is doing a tribute to Will Eisner's Spirit (the picture above). First time I've drawn the Spirit -- and still feel like I haven't drawn him. Oh well -- it was fun drawing P'Gell anyway! Oh yeah -- see if you can spot the hidden 'Spirit' in the drawing...

Emerald City Wrap-Up

2009-04-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of fun in Emerald City -- toured the Dark Horse offices and Oni Press and talked to a lot of people. Also sang 'Goldfinger' at the Dark Horse party. I was also interviewd by iFanboy at the con which you can watch here.

I also did several commissions at the con -- one was for a boy and a red umbrella, a Batman, and a Punisher...

3 Story is done and I'm already two new books -- one is the 'to-be-announced' project I'm waiting for permission to announce and the other is for The Tooth -- a book that I'm working on with my buddy Cullen Bunn which is starting out as an on-line comic in July and will be collected early next year. I'll post some art next time...

3D Postcards in Seattle

2009-04-01T05:52:00.000-07:00

I finished a set of 5 postcards that I'm taking to Seattle to help promote my new '3 Story' book. I know it's early -- the book doesn't come out until September but I wanted to have something new for the show. Thanks to my dad for helping me convert these images into glorious 3D. If you have the red-blue standard 3D glasses they'll work on screen.

I'll be in Seattle -- Emerald City Con!

2009-03-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be at the Emerald City Con in Seattle this weekend -- April 4 and 5. For more info about the convention go here! I'm trying as hard as I can to finish a 32 page giant-man mini-comic for Seattle as well as new sets of 3D Giant Man cards -- but we'll see. It's going to be a hectic week.

Also if you haven't picked up this month's Comic Foundry magazine -- you should! It's the last issue but also has a 3 page feature on 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man with new art, etc.

GQ Super Spy

2009-03-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

This is probably the only way I'll ever get into GQ Magazine -- but if you pick up this month's issue they have a list of the 20 Graphic Novels to read after Watchmen and they stuck Super Spy on the list. Here's a link to the article.

Also -- I've set my calendar with convention appearances and here is where I'll be:

Emerald City Con - March 3-5
FX Con (Florida) - April 17-19
TCAF (Toronto) - May 9-10
MoCCA (New York) - June 5-7
Heroes Con - June - 19-21
San Diego Comic Con - July 23-26
Wizard World Chicago - August 7-9
Windy City Comic Con (Chicago) - September 19
SPX - September 25-27 (3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man Debut)

For the FX show I did a piece that will appear on playing cards -- all for charity with an auction of the original art, etc. Here's what the art for my card looks like -- final size is super small -- 2.75" x 1.5".

SCAD

2009-02-25T05:53:00.001-08:00

I'm off to SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) to talk about comics and walk through my creative process -- so if you're in the area and can hurry up and enroll in the school (if you haven't already), stop on by and say 'hi'!

Part of the process I'll be talking about his design -- so for this week the images here are the steps of creating the Super Spy cover. The two concepts I came up with, and then the original water color cover and then finally the solid colors-cover that I brightened up on the suggestion of Brett Warnock (the publisher) which I totally agreed with after I saw it finished. And then the hardcover 'variant' cover for the limited edition version.

Giant Video

2009-02-17T08:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I started penciling my next book this week -- 176 pages graphic novel that I can't officially announce yet but should be able to talk about soon. In the meantime, here is a video of one of the last pages I painted for the Giant Man book. It took me a month to paint 190 pages which is quicker than I thought but now I'm sick of water colors. That usually happens though -- I get sick of inking too but by the time I'm done with all the design and production I've forgotten how much work the rest of it is and I go into the next book just as excited. Short memory is a good thing sometimes.

Giant Advertisement

2009-02-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm about 2 full work days from finishing "3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man". I'm doing the production on the book now along with color correction and a few last minute designs for the interior pages. I'd designed 4 or 5 pages to act as ads that the main character appears in to endorse products. Here's one of the ads. I'm almost there! Click on the thumbnail to read the text...

Next week the book will go to my editor and then I'll be able to cut my hair -- I vowed not to cut my hair until this book was done and I am looking pretty shaggy.

Giant Man Preview Pages

2009-01-24T12:47:00.001-08:00

Haven't had time to post anything lately because I've been spending the last month painting my Giant Man book. I'm nearly done. I've been painting an average of 4 to 5 pages a day so I can finish by the end of the month. It's been fun -- I've been watching/listening to a lot of television this month while I work which keeps it interesting. I should be able to post the cover next week so stay tuned! The colors turned out kind of dark compared to what the final print version will be -- part of what happens when I change them to jpegs.

Also there will be some exclusive preview pages in the new issue of Comic Foundry magazine which hits the stands sometime in February/March and I should have the cover posted here next week. Stay tuned!

Wolverine Commission

2008-12-09T16:45:00.001-08:00

Just finished a Wolverine commission I'd been sitting on for months. I just couldn't think of any image of Wolverine that hadn't been done before a million times. Then I thought it would be cool to have a cross section of Wolverine with little diagram bubbles to explain what was what under his skin -- and then by the time I inked it I dropped the diagram bubbles because they seemed redundant and I thought it would be more interesting if in the 'reality' of the piece Wolverine was posing with his skin cut open for the picture -- and then healed up a few minutes later. That sounds really strange as I type that out...oh well -- that's my thought process for better or worse!

Incidentally, this piece was for Brett of good ol' Top Shelf -- and he has a great blog here -- this week he posted some photos of sketchbook drawings I did at some conventions over the summer as well as a bunch of killer sketches from Jeff Lemire.

The three images are the thumbnail (drawn in bed the morning I thought of the idea), the pencils and the finished color/inks.

I've finished catching up on all my commissions and the last of my freelance jobs for quite a while (a children's book -- 30 pages of full color art) which has slowed me down on Giant Man and my other books. So now it's full steam ahead on graphic novels for the next 3 months.

I'm designing the cover for my Dark Horse book this month so I'll post the thumbnails and art as I go.

Lost Dossiers

2008-11-17T09:22:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm nearing completion on 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man -- and also 20 pages into pencils on another soon-to-be-announced book for a major publisher. I'm waiting on the official word to announce it though and I'm dying to! But until then -- it turns out as busy as I am on these books, the first book to arrive in 2009 will probably be Super Spy: The Lost Dossiers -- it's a few of the short stories that I didn't include in the Super Spy book for various reason -- mostly because they didn't fit the flow of the book and had characters that only appeared one time -- and Super Spy had enough characters floating around in it that I thought taking these out would tighten everything up.

Anyway, those stories are in here but then about 70% of the rest of the book is the Super Spy Treasure Box story -- which I sold as a box set at conventions last year. It took too much time to assemble those but now they're in a book -- for the reader to (hopefully) assemble.

Also there's the pop-gun with directions and a story include as well as a small section of my personal sketchbook that I kept while making Super Spy...and finally -- a section of page by page and panel by panel annotations for Super Spy. I've had this book done for a while but I nearly forgot about it and it had to wait its turn in Top Shelfs publishing queue.

Hopefully another big announcement soon and some art that I can post on what I'm working on now. In the meantime, here's the cover to The Lost Dossiers...

That Man is Giant!

2008-10-13T07:22:00.001-07:00

I'm about two weeks away from finishing the inks on "3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man" and I did a few sample color tests to work out some of the details. The book is broken down into three eras -- 40s, 50s and 60s so the color will be slightly different for each section. These images are the first pages from each of the three sections. It's been fun to get back into inking. I remember last summer after I finished Super Spy I thought I'd never want to ink another page in my life because I was so burned out. Well, it's fun again. I just needed a little break....

Back from Baltimore...

2008-10-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

The Baltimore Con was a really good show! Seemed about twice as big as last year -- very well attended. I didn't have any cyanide mints left to sell or prints so I just brought original art and did commissions non-stop for 2 days. I say by Jeff Lemire and the time flew by. I stayed with Jose Villarrubia who has got to be one of the nicest and most knowledgeable guys in comics. Back to work on my Giant Man inks this week. In the meantime I took a few blurry photos of some of the commissions I did in Baltimore. I had some fun requests this time. Also -- a photo of fellow Top Shelf compatriot -- Andy Runton (Owly)-- who was busy until the very last minute of the show on convention sketches -- they started breaking down the tables and took his table away so he was drawing on his lap, trying to get that last commission done!

Baltimore Con!

2008-09-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention in the last post that I'll be at the Baltimore Comic Con this Saturday and Sunday, September 27 and 28. If you're in the area it's a fun show and definitely worth checking out! Here's a link to the website:

http://www.comicon.com/baltimore/

I went last year and had a really good time -- and I'm really excited to see Baltimore this year after having watched all 5 seasons of The Wire -- I really want to take a "Wire" walking tour but I doubt they offer one. We'll see!

More Commissions and 3 New Books!

2008-09-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while but I'm trying to adjust to my new schedule of doing comics full time! Which is really exciting but I had a TON of extraneous freelance jobs I had to wrap up so I could get going on comics -- which left no time for blogs or email answering. Anyway, now I'm free -- I've finished the scripts and layouts for two new graphic novels -- Giant Man for Dark Horse and another Super Secret 176 page graphic novel that a Different Publisher won't let me announce yet -- which is driving me crazy to keep secret but I don't want to mess up the marketing, etc. so I'll keep my mouth shut until I'm told to open it. But I'm writing and drawing both of these books. ALSO I'm going to finish up the script for the follow up to Super Spy -- "Super Natural" by the end of the year so I should have that finished for 2009 (from Top Shelf) as well.

That's my work update -- I'm inking Giant Man now and I'm averaging about 4 pages of inked pages a day so I should be done in 4-6 more weeks.

In the meantime -- here are some images from some commissions I did at San Diego Con this summer. San Diego was a blast -- had dinner with editors and writers I've always wanted to meet and talked to TONS of people and did lots of drawings. I'll post more of those in the next few weeks until I have some more finished Giant Man art to preview.

Zatanna!

2008-06-04T18:48:00.001-07:00

I know it's been a while since my last post. I'm literally in the middle of penciling "3 Story: The Secret History of Giant Man" right now. I have about 100 pages of the 200 pages penciled and should be done next month some time. In the meantime, I got a few more commissions -- this one is for someone at MoCCA! MoCCA is this weekend so if you're going, stop by and say 'hi'! I've got my own table on the first floor by the windows near Christine Norrie and crew.

Anyway, Zatanna -- always liked her but never realized how hard it is to draw her without making her look like a total tramp. Well, I tried not too. I also wanted to have a her saying a spell without using a word balloon so I used the background poster to make it look like she sort of has dialogue. Also -- the story is that she's being attacked by the demon in an alley -- the same demon that was supposed to appear in her show (advertised on the poster behind her). Not sure if that comes across, but that's what I was thinking.

Also -- the penciled Zatanna is my preliminary drawing -- which I accidentally started doodling on the back of so some weird brushstrokes bled through...sorry!

That's it this week! I'll post some penciled pages of the Giant Man story soon....

Gay Interest

2008-05-06T16:25:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since my last post -- I just finished 32 pages of a comic art for a kids book that I'll announce later this summer closer to the time of it's release. But it took up all of March and some of April. But I'm back on track. I finished the script for my Dark Horse book "Giant Man" and it's been approved by the editor so I'm starting on pencils for that this week. But in the meantime, I had two really fun commissions this month that I squeezed in, in time to take to the Emerald City Con in Seattle this weekend. Princess Bride -- this was a pretty open request for anything Princess Bride so I did my favorite scene -- probably one of the best sword fight scenes ever. And what is now probably my favorite Justice League cover ever -- I hadn't seen it before this commission request and now I just love it. Batman and Superman holding hands AND the Justice Society. Doesn't get any better!

Spider-Man Annual!

2008-03-18T19:54:00.000-07:00

The last post was super dry and black and white, so here's a recent commission I did (actually last month). A Spider-Man annual homage and the hardest commission yet only because there were so many freaking characters. A couple firsts though -- never drawn Mysterio or Sandman or Elektro before so kinda fun.

Giant Man Script

2008-03-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

I'm working on two graphic novels simultaneously so I'll be switching posts back and forth -- from Super Natural (for Top Shelf) to Giant Man (for Dark Horse). This week I finally finished the script and thumbnails for the entire book -- it clocked in at around 160 pages not including a section of annotations at the end written in the voice of one of the characters. I'm posting the thumbnails for the first nine pages and the working script below. Usually the script is hand-written as well -- and usually I only write dialogue if there is any, but in this case, working with my favorite Dark Horse editor ever, I wanted to make sure everything was clear and easy to understand so I fleshed out and detailed the script a little more than normal. Working for Top Shelf, I usually just pencil everything and send them the scans to look over and in the case of Super Spy, I just finished the whole thing and then they proofed it. But, with a new editor and publisher I was a little nervous and didn't want to take any chances. Once the book is finished, I'll post the entire thing but for now I don't want to blow any of the plot turns, etc.

Here's the script:

Three Story: The History of the Giant Man

Working Script, March 2008

Page 1
Marge is old, staring at flowered wallpaper and last panel is of fingers playing trumpet.

Marge VO: The Louis Armstrong song on the radio starts to bring it all back and for a minute or a second, helps to dull the pain.

He loved Louis. I didn’t care for him but I could see why Craig did – something rough and kind about him all at the same time.

Page 2
Young Marge and Craig embrace – his face is dark and then comes into focus – they speak but the words are fuzzy from memory

Marge VO:Funny now how I can’t imagine his face exactly. And his voice – I can remember the rhythm of it but not HIS voice. More just the things he said.

Page 3
1. Marge’s feet in kitchen
2. Marge walking to kitchen table
3. Marge sitting at kitchen table

Page 4
1. Close up of Craig’s army trunk
2. Empty living room with glass trinkets on shelves.
3. Marge in kitchen alone with letter on table.

Page 5
1. Craig proposing to Marge.
2. Embracing.
3. Closeup of black and white photo.
4. Long shot of wedding black and white photo.

Marge VO: I try to think -- no -- try not to. I wasn’t here just to bring Craig Jr. into the world. But who would know? There’s nothing left of me or him. Not really.

Page 6
Marge VO: A dozen roses. He sent them from who-know-where in France. Amazing to me really how a world away – he could do that. It almost seemed like magic.
1. Roses on kitchen counter.
2. Craig in burned out WW2 city.
3. Craig walking through burned out city.

Page 7
1. Door inside burned out building.
2. Craig kicking door in
3. Craig getting shot at by hiding german soldier
4. Craig shooting the german soldier
5. Walking up stairs of building.
6. Walking up to roof of building

Page 8
1. Roof of building
2. Craig and Other Guy walking onto roof
3. Craig and Other Guy looking around for more soldiers and sniper

Page 9
1. Other Guy in foreground – Craig behind yells “sniper!”
2. Other Guy: Where? Craig: There!
3. Bullet plunks off of Other Guy’s helmet
4. Craig takes a shot at the sniper