The above is a character/concept sketch for an idea Alan Moore and I were toying with back in 1998. We were still doing SUPREME, but it was obvious that the publisher was on the verge of collapse. Alan and I had been so happy doing our Jack Kirby tribute, “NEW JACK CITY”, that we started playing with a new, possibly creator-owned, series pitch based on my faux-Kirby style.

I don’t think we had a title, but the high concept was to imagine the galaxy as Jack might of if he’d been around to read some of Alan’s favorite futurist thinkers (who’s names escape me ten years after the fact). Historically, this up-to-now unseen work fits in between Alan’s work for Awesome and America’s Best Comics.

I’ll be running more of these sketches in the upcoming days. This fellow is THE STEERSMAN AT THE HELM. Pencil on board, 1998.

Marker in sketchbook, 1996.

Sorry it took so long to get to the punch line of Wednesday’s post! To recap: Ric Estrada’s first assignment to us Kubert School students back in ’76 was to make two drawings. The first would depict how we saw ourselves at the time and the second what we envisioned ourselves becoming in the future.

After doing the self portrait posted below, I flipped the page in the sketchbook and, using a light box, imagined myself as an old man in the drawing you see above. My rationale when I showed the class was that the best one could hope for was to be alive into old age. Everyone, including Ric, got a big kick out of me being bald. (For the record, I’ve since cut my long locks and have at least a bit more left on top.)

Bulletin: I’ve just received word that NYMAG.com’s Culture Vulture blog is now running the complete 6 page NEIGHBORS story I drew from Harvey Pekar’s script!

I’ve recently been in touch with Ric Estrada, world class cartoonist and one of my favorite teachers back at Kubert School. Digging through my notebooks from that period I found what I think are notes from his very first “Business Of Art” class. Ric’s first assignment was to execute two drawings: one panel showing how we saw ourselves at the time and a second panel showing what we expected to be.

Here’s my first, a self portrait from life, standing in front of a mirror. Pencil in sketchbook, 1976.

Tomorrow: What 25 year old Rick expected to become!

Here’s a cover I did for TOMORROW STORIES #10 that never got used. That’s the sapphire femme fatale, LAPIS LAZULI, reposing in GREYSHIRT’s shadow.

Marker in sketchbook, 1997.

I’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback from the covers to ARMY@LOVE: THE ART OF WAR miniseries. Here are the pencils to the Nighthawks parody on #2. You can see the fully inked and colored version here.

And don’t forget: the second issue of ARMY@LOVE: THE ART OF WAR is solicited in this month’s PREVIEWS.

Here’s one of my favorite pages from SWAMP THING. It’s from #37, the issue in which ABBY and ALEC first meet JOHN CONSTANTINE. For that whole issue, SWAMP THING is pretty much a head of cabbage, growing out of the ground. On this page, writer Alan Moore was looking for a way to show SWAMPY existing both in the reality of the forest and the mystical realm of The Green and this layout was my solution.

Inker John Totleben knocked my pencils out of the park, of course, with his insanely detailed and truly creepy organic textures. If I remember correctly, there was supposed to be even more Totleben detail added with a color surprint which for some reason didn’t make it into the final book. But it still came out pretty darn good. Script, Alan Moore. Pencils, Rick Veitch. Inks, John Totleben. Lettering, John Costanza. Color by Tatjana Wood. Editor, Karen Berger. 1985.

Happy Fourth everyone!