Peace…

He left Uncanny X-Men in 1997 to work on his own series Battle Chasers for Wildstorm Comics’ creator-owned Cliffhanger imprint. Joe then went on to work in the video game industry. Starting with the start-up company Tri-Lunar, he created concept art on a game called Dragonkind which was canceled when Tri-Lunar went out of business. He then went to work for Realm Interactive, another start-up company, on Trade Wars: Dark Millennium. When Realm Interactive was acquired by NCsoft, he continued to contribute to the game as it evolved into Exarch, and was eventually released as Dungeon Runners. During this time, he would occasionally contribute cover artwork for gaming magazines and comic books.

Madureira returned to the comic book industry as the artist on Marvel’s The Ultimates 3, with writer Jeph Loeb. After leaving NCsoft, Madureira founded Vigil Games with several other ex-NCsoft employees. Vigil was acquired by THQ in March 2006. Madureira was dubbed one of the ten most influential comic artists of all time in the May 2002 issue of Wizard magazine. His inclusion was instantly contested by many comic book readers, as this list did not include many artists who are considered to have had a far more profound influence on the comics industry over a much longer period of time. Dreamwave Productions founder Pat Lee claimed of Madureira, “When people think of the late ’90s in comics, they will think of Joe Madureira.”

Madureira remarked his early style was heavily influenced by Arthur Adams in an interview with Wizard Magazine, but his style evolved into one more influenced by manga and anime. In interviews, Madureira has mentioned that series such as Ghost in the Shell and Bastard!! are among his favorites. His run on X-Men helped fuel interest in the United States towards Japanese entertainment during the late 1990s.

Check out his breathtaking and stylized work at a comic shop near you!

Now this may come as a shock to some of you, but I haven’t really spent a lot of time on the site Deviant Art. However after finding today’s AYSK, I can see that I need to spend some more time there.

Reinaldo Quintero Arturo Torrealba – or “Reiq” (thank god he shortened that to Reiq) is a Venezuelan born digital artist living in the UK.  According to his bio on his personal site;

Reinaldo showed great abilities and a passion for art.  In the beginning his art was inspired by simple things, from comics to ordinary objects.  Later whilst studying at school he had the chance to watch Dragon Ball, an innocent opening into the world of Manga and Anime.  His inspiration was born from an intense curiosity for Anime and passion for researching artists and styles.  Artists like Carlos Pacheco and Joe Madureria are responsible for his love of comics, and artists like Satoshi Urushihara, Jun Tskasa and Shishizaru are his biggest influence in Manga.

Reiq has an extensive resume including work for companies including Lenovo, Western Union, AutoDesk and Microsoft.  Not only that but he has also taught at the CentroArt Institute in Venezuela.

Now I was looking at another site for all things Halo and I happened upon Reiq’s drawing of Cortana. After looking at his version of her, I thought to myself that this guy’s style is pretty bad-ass.  The site that I was on had a link to his deviantArt page, then after checking out some of his other work, it didn’t take me long to realize that Reiq needed to be featured here.

Check out this small sample of his work then head on over to his site to see more.

Steve Rude (born December 31, 1956) is an American comic book artist. He was born in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1982, Rude became widely known in the comics world when he and writer Mike Baron created Nexus, an independent science fiction comic book with a large supporting cast.

For the Nexus series, Rude designed a dozen or so distinctive alien races, including the Thunes, the Amphibs, the Quattros, the Giz, the Demons, and others. The stories were complex and thought-provoking because of their treatment of difficult themes related to justice, guilt and addiction.

Rude has won four Eisner Awards and one Kirby Award, as well as a Russ Manning Award. Rude more recently penciled and wrote The Moth in 2004, while continuing to teach art classes and do commissioned work. Rude’s style is a mixture of 1960s smooth lines and square jaws (reminiscent of Jack Kirby) and more modern work with thick lines and complex compositions. He is also a master of page design, many of his comic book panels changing and merging with each other into new shapes allowing for panel progression that often has a strong sense of the passage of time. Here is but a sample of the beautiful work from a master in the field….

check out more of Steve Rude’s work here…

http://www.steverude.com/store

Todd Schorr (born January 9, 1954) is an American artist and one the most prominent of the group that has been dubbed “Lowbrow (art movement)” or pop surrealism.

A Pirate’s Treasure Dream

Fantastic imagery, cartoon characters, and other pop culture icons rendered with an exacting technique and colorful palette defines the signature style of Schorr’s artwork.Todd Schorr is one of the most “successful”/most expensive living artists in the Lowbrow (art movement) scene.

Futility in the Face of a Hostile World

Schorr studied Illustration and graduated from the Philadelphia College of Art. His art and illustrations have been included in Time, New York Times, and Juxtapoz Magazine, to name a few. He is married to fellow Lowbrow artist, Kathy Staico Schorr. Both live and work in Beverly Hills, California.

Clash of the Holidays

H.P. Lovecraft’s Seafood Cart

Octopus

So while looking around on myspace the other day, I happened upon Ms. Chen’s profile listed on another one that showcases creative profile designs. After looking at some of the art that she’s done it was cool to learn the identity behind some kick-ass artwork that I’d seen around before, but wasn’t aware of who the artist was.

By way of wikipedia:

Jo Chen is a comic book artist.

Chen was born in Taipei, Taiwan and emigrated to the United States in late 1994. Working professionally in the Asian comic book industry since age fourteen, she burst suddenly onto the U.S. comic book scene with her art work for the Racer X mini-series, part of the Speed Racer series published by Wildstorm/D.C. Comics in 2000.

She quickly established herself producing interiors and covers for titles including Darkminds Macropolis, Battle of the Planets, Robotech, Fight For Tomorrow, Taskmaster, The Demon, Thor, and (Batman &) Robin. Currently she is most well known to American comic readers as the cover artist of Runaways.

Check out some of her artwork in the gallery, then stop on by her page to see more.

Tim Bradstreet, born in 1967 in Cheverly, Maryland, is an artist and illustrator best known for his work on comic books, book covers, movie posters, roleplaying games, and trading cards. Working in the art world since graduating from High School in 1985, he is for the most part a self-taught artist but did receive some tutelage from illustrator Steve Venters of Fantasmagraphics in the early part of his career.

He has done work for White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade roleplaying game, Star Wars, Marvel Comics’ The Punisher and Blade, Vertigo Comics’ Hellblazer, and many others. He currently lives in San Diego, California.

Check out this man’s fantastic work at a comic shop near you or on his website:

Tim Bradstreet’s Gallery

Gerald Brom (born March 9, 1965 in Albany, Georgia) is an American painter and illustrator who specializes in gothic fantasy. He signs all his work as Brom. At 20, he was working full time as a commercial illustrator doing work for Coca-Cola, IBM, Columbia Pictures and CNN.

TSR, Inc. hired Brom at 24 years old for art for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and the card-playing game, Magic: The Gathering. In 1994, he returned to freelance work producing images for comics and computer games. He currently lives in the Seattle, Washington area.

Brom’s gallery

Andrew Bawidamann is a graphic artist who makes contemporary “cheesecake” pin-up art. Born in 1976 in Dayton, Ohio just 3 miles from Wright Patterson Air Force Base, as a child he would gaze in wonderment upon the pin-up girl art that adorned the vintage aircraft on the base.

He is now carrying on the tradition of the art form that immortalized the image of Rosie the Riveter from World War II propaganda art. If you like these images you should check out his sight where you can purchase the art in prints as well as t-shirts and stickers.

Bawidamann.com

Myron Klinefelter’s Revenge

Thomas Scott Kuebler was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1960 to a ceramics teacher and a photo engraver. Having innate artistic tendencies coupled with learning disabilities, Tom was encouraged to develop his creative skills.

His childhood media ranged from paint to clay to broken toys and whatever he could find in the trash or junk drawer. His first love was sculpting which lead him to major in Art at Kent State University. After college, he worked as a toy designer for American Greetings while in his leisure time building life-size sculptures for galleries. Through gallery exposure, his work was recognized by Good Displays, a Toledo trade show firm, and he was recruited for the purpose of creating Disney-like robotic characters. Eventually, a colleague bought out their division of the company and started an animatronics company.

As the primary Artist and Art Director for this company, Tom’s projects ranged from creating unique robotic characters, corporate mascots and historical figures to animals (realistic and otherwise), space aliens, gnomes and boogeymen. He had the pleasure of working with famous anthropologists to accurately recreate our prehistoric ancestors, with restauranteurs to develop entertaining characters, and even with a pediatric dentist to create comforting creatures to ease apprehensive children. The list goes on and on. Tom Kuebler’s sculptures have sold both nationally and internationally. His work has been collected by Anne Rice, Howard Metzenbaum, Michael Jackson, and Gene Simmons, among many others.

After more than a decade in the robotics animation industry, he chose to pursue creative independence. Tom Kuebler currently makes his living as a freelance artist and resides in North Carolina with his wife Kara.