Fan Art Friday: The Secret History of D.B. Cooper

Today's Fan Art Friday picture is inspired by one of my favourite comics of 2012: The Secret History of D.B. Cooper by Brian Churilla, published by Oni Press.

So, who is D.B. Cooper? I was unfamiliar with this particular chapter in US history before I started reading the book, but a quick Wikipedia search later, and I was intrigued by the story of the only unsolved air piracy case in US aviation history:

On November 24 1971, a man using the alias D.B. Cooper hijacked a Boeing 747 aircraft between Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington. On the ground in Seattle, he demanded $200,000 in ransom and two parachutes. When his demands were met, he ordered the plane to take off, and somewhere over the Washington widlerness he parachuted out of the plane. Over forty years later, D.B. Cooper has never been located and is still on the FBI's most-wanted list.

Churilla's comic finally reveals the truth about D.B. Cooper's history and the events surrounding the hijacking, a psychedelic adventure involving a fringe group within the C.I.A., psychic assassinations, and a red teddy bear called Lee. The Secret History of D.B. Cooper is one of my favourite comics of 2012, and continually keeps you guessing about where it's all heading, before finally coming together in a truly satisfying conclusion.

Here's my drawing of D.B. Cooper and Lee facing off against one of the monsters within "The Glut", the psychic battleground within the human mind...

The fifth and final issue of The Secret History of D.B. Cooper was released on the 18 July.

Fan Art Friday: Saga

So I've decided to resurrect Fan Art Friday, which was a very short-lived series of posts I started a few years ago, featuring drawings inspired by some of my favourite comics, movies, video games etc. and posted on a Friday.

Today's drawing is inspired by a comic book that I'm really enjoying at the moment, called Saga. It's an ongoing series written by Brian K. Vaughan (who also wrote the equally amazing Y: The Last Man and Runaways) with incredible art by Fiona Staples, and published by Image Comics.

The book is a sci-fi/fantasy epic which follows new parents Marco and Alana, lovers from different planets whose people are at war with one another, struggling to survive with their newborn daughter Hazel amid a galactic war. People who like to compare things to other things in order to make them easily digestible have likened Saga to Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Lord Of The Rings and Romeo And Juliet, but it's a lot more unique and original than that makes it sound.

Fiona Staples has created a cast of weird and wonderful characters, but my favourite so far is Izabel, a ghost from the planet Cleaves who ends up being Hazel's first "babysitter"...

Saga #5 is out on the 18 July.

Fan Art Friday 2: Super Mario

A quick drawing for today's Fan Art Friday entry, in honour of the fact that Super Mario Galaxy 2 is released on the Wii today. No real meaning behind this drawing, it just made me smile...

Fan Art Friday 1: Scott Pilgrim

Okay, so I can now bring you the first in what I hope will be a semi-regular series of posts featuring my own drawings of some of my favourite characters from movies, television, comics and videogames, which I've cleverly decided to call Fan Art Friday!

I'm kicking things off with a homage to Bryan Lee O'Malley's awesome comic book series, Scott Pilgrim...



Scott Pilgrim seemed a suitable choice for this first installment as there's been quite a buzz online this week about the release of the latest trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation, directed by Edgar Wright (Shawn Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz).

But while I'm excited about seeing the film when it comes out in August, I'm possibly even more excited about the release of the final book in the series coming out in July. Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour is the sixth book in Bryan Lee O'Malley's excellent series of graphic novels. It's been among my favourite comics since I read the first volume in May 2004, and subsequent volumes have only made me love the series even more!

Finally, I should also mention that my drawing was loosely based on Jack Kirby's cover to Marvel's Fantastic Four #4.