The Russian Bear: Soulless Killing Machine

Pencils & Inks – Jeff Martin

Colours – Conal Pierse

This was drawn as an accompaniment for the article “Redecorating with Iron Curtains” by Victor Vargas, which appeared in the Opinion section of the Gateway on October 2nd, 2007. The art direction I was given was “cold war style”.

Astronaut Fight

Pencils & Inks – Jeff Martin

Colours – Conal Pierse

This piece ran in the October 25th, 2007 edition of the Gateway. It accompanied the article “Break Out the Moonrakers: Space Race II is Coming” by Matt Lisac. The art direction was a Moonraker style space battle with astronauts and maybe some lasers.

Von Blucher and Orc Grenadiers

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

This was drawn in my sketchbook as part of a series of drawings I was doing to flesh out an idea for a future comic project. This one features Prussian general Gebhard Von Blucher (on horseback) with two orc grenadiers circa 1815.

Rent-A-Thug

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

This was done with the idea of using it as the header image for the site but it ended up being much too big. On the plus side it turned out pretty much exactly how I wanted it to. Johnny Mushface’s shotgun is based on an Ithaca Stakeout, referenced from d20 Modern Weapons Locker as well as the Grand Theft Auto IV art book (although in GTA IV they refer to it simply as “pump shotgun”). The car that Dirk the Head and G-Fresh are in was also referenced out of the GTA IV art book. Charlie No-Aim and Captain Impressive were added above the title bar because Charlie is one of the major characters and deserved a spot in the image, but also because I wanted to make sure that I made reference to the superhero trappings of the comic and Charlie No-Aim getting punched in the chops is as good a way to do that as any.

Space Grunts – Calm Before the Storm

Pencils & Inks – Jeff Martin

I drew this one while I was watching Band of Brothers on the History Channel. I was intrigued by the idea of a soldier knowing that the bombardment creeps ever closer as he smokes what may very well be his last cigarette. I’ve been working occassionally on designs for a sci-fi war comic, so Chunk from Space Grunts became the focus for this illustration.

Hockeypocalypse

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

This illustration comes from a comic I’ve been developing for a while now. Ugly Dave (foreground) attempts to ram a loose puck into the net while the four-armed goalie attempts to do his best Ron Hextall impersonation to the back of Dave’s skull. This was drawn while I probably should have been working on other things.

World War I Soldier

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

This was drawn during some downtime in the D&D game I regularly play in. I’d recently seen ads for the film “Passchendaele” and have been reading about Canadian participation in the Great War (WWI) for one of my classes this semester, so this is what I started doodling on the scrap sheet that I use to keep track of my hit points. I liked how it turned out so I inked it the next day. I’ve been compiling notes and concepts for a graphic novel about a Canadian soldier in World War I that at some point I’ll get to work on. Maybe if days get extended to 36 hours.

World War I Soldier Returns Fire

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

A Canadian soldier lays prone at the edge of a trench as he takes aim with his Lee-Enfield rifle. This was drawn after the previous World War I illustration. I was reading the book “Marching to Armageddon: Canadians and the Great War 1914-1919” by Desmond Morton and J.L. Granatstein around the time I drew this and used some of the fantastic trench photos contained in it for inspiration.

Canadian Soldiers Advance Through No Man’s Land

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

Canadian infantrymen in the Great War advance through No Man’s Land, the area between opposing trenches. I had reference from the aforementioned “Marching to Armageddon” so the soldiers’ kit is a bit more detailed, including a gas mask. There are a lot of references to “charges” in accounts of World War I. They were, generally speaking, more of an aggressive walk than a charge. Mostly because it’s really, really hard to run over muddy, crater-filled landscapes while lugging nearly a hundred pounds of crap.

Cover Fire

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

Canadian infantrymen in the Great War provide cover fire from a crater. The fore-most soldier is firing a Lewis gun, which was a weird-looking machine gun that was light enough to be carried by a single person. Gas masks always lend a creepy science fiction vibe to First World War imagery that I quite enjoy, which is why I included them.

Shell-Shocked

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

A dazed Canadian infantryman finds himself in a watery crater after being thrown by an exploding shell. I tried to make it look like he dropped his rifle at some point en route to the crater and it ended up on top of him, although it kinds of looks like it’s just on his back. His nose and ears are bleeding, which were relatively common results of a bombardment (well, one of the best-case scenarios of being exposed to a bombardment, anyway).

The Trenches, page 1 pencils

Words & Pencils: Jeff Martin

This is the first penciled page of a First World War book that I’m working on. The book begins with the first German gas attack, which targeted Canadian and French Algerian troops. There are a lot of differences between the details of this page and the previous World War One drawings on this page, most of which are for historical reasons. The 1st Canadian Division was equipped with Ross rifles and rather goofy looking peaked caps and would not adopt the superior Lee-Enfield rifles and steel helmets used by British troops until 1916 (mostly because it wasn’t until then that there were enough spare Enfields and helmets to outfit the Canadians as well as the Brits). Because it was the first gas attack, nobody had considered equipping troops with gas masks. As a result, most soldiers attempted to counter the chlorine gas by wrapping wet (usually urine-soaked) rags over their nose and mouth. The usefulness of this tactic was questionable.

The Trenches page 1, complete

Words, Pencils, Inks: Jeff Martin

This is the completed version of the pencilled page, above.

The Trenches, page 2

Words, Pencils, Inks: Jeff Martin

The second page of “The Trenches”.

Exhausted Canadian Soldier

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

I did this one for more practice drawing the 1915 Canadian uniforms for The Trenches. The ripped puttee  (ankle-wrap thingy) on his left leg and the piss-rag around his neck point out that it’s the same guy from the story pages.

Oil Boys Club

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

This drawing was done for The Gateway as a visual complement to the article “Living in the past keeping the Oil’s boys club from present success” by Conal Pierse. The art direction I was given was “the state of the Oilers and how they suck so much”. Sports Editor Nick Frost was quoted as saying “I think my section just got a whole lot sexier” twice upon seeing it, apparently, which is super rad. Thanks, Nick!

Norm vs. Stretch

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

I did this one in my sketchbook a while ago, which is why the inks are a little shaky. I based this one on a photo in the newspaper of Olli Jokinen of the Calgary Flames scoring on Philadelphia Flyers goalie Antero Niitymaki, which I only mention because I love saying those names. Norm (#11) and Stretch (the goalie) are characters in my Hockeypocalypse comic.

Leatherheads

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

I drew this a couple of days after watching the movie Leatherheads on TV. It’s a George Clooney movie about professional football in 1925. I recommend it, it was delightful and not really anything like any of the other football movies I’ve ever seen.

The Unknown Soldier

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

Shortly after I wrote about The Unknown Soldier in my blog I drew this. This drawing is of Moses toward the end of the Haunted House arc, when he starts to kick some ass. I had to try a new scanning trick since I used greyscale on Moses’ skin. I still haven’t been able to find a greyscale mode that leaves the nice, deep blacks that I like intact.

Guerillas

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

This was inspired by the Image miniseries Guerillas by Brahm Revel. It’s about gorilla commandos fighting in the Vietnam war, and manages to simultaneously be completely ridiculous and full of grit and gravity. In the second issue there was a pin-up gallery of guest art, some of which featured monkeys in other wars. I’ve been working on a WWI comic, so naturally I decided on a chimp screaming bloody murder and charging with a bayonet.

The Trenches, page 1 revised

Words, Pencils, Inks: Jeff Martin

I recently finished some projects, which left me some spare time to revise the script for The Trenches, and to draw the new first page. The original script started with the gas attack on April 24th, 1915 during the Second Battle of Ypres, then cut back and forth between the battle and recruitment/training process. After a whole bunch more research I decided to start at the beginning instead. My favourite part of his page was actually kind of a throw-away when I was laying out the page: the portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm II. That was a lot of fun to draw.

1812 – George Morton and John Pink

Pencils & Inks: Jeff Martin

I started writing a comic about the War of 1812. George Morton (left) and John Pink are the protagonists, militiamen from Upper Canada called to defend their country from some hilariously incompetent American attempts to conquer it. Unless you’re reading histories written by Americans, in which the British are the devil. Not sure how they spin Fort Detroit, though.

1812 page 1

Words, Pencils, Inks: Jeff Martin

This is the first page of a comic about the War of 1812. Instead of explaining a lot of the historical backstory, I decided to jump in with things already under way. By the time this page takes place, the American general Hull has entered Upper Canada and Isaac Brock is leading his troops to do something about it. This results in a lot of marching, and in this case, a discussion about syphilis.