news


///-- Wednesday 05.05.19 --////////////////////////////

ASTONISHING SPIDER-MAN/WOLVERINE #1 hits comic shops today (preview at CBR). Though I only worked on the cover with Adam Kubert (background pencils and inks), you should still go out and buy this beast immediately. I've read the outline for the whole mini and Jason Aaron is going to just blow your minds with all kinds of awesome (listen to a brief clip of Jason talking about ASW on Marvel Hotline). Not only are Jason and Adam bringing their "A-game", but you've got Mark Morales on inks, and Justin Ponsor on colors. That's one of the best pound-for-pound creative teams comics has ever seen!

And check out the sweet promo banner Marvel had at their C2E2 booth. Biggest any of my artwork (just the buildings) has ever been printed.

Updates have been pretty light lately as I've been working on overhauling the site. Hope to have some new improvements and lots of new artwork up in the next few weeks.





///-- Sunday 11.15.09 --///////////////////////////////

The DARK REIGN: THE LIST - AMAZING SPIDER-MAN one shot I did with Adam Kubert goes on sale this Wednesday, November 18th.


Here's four different sneak peak previews of it:

- Tom Brevoort's Blog
- IGN Preview
- Newsarama Preview 1
- Newsarama Preview 2

And here's the solicitation copy: The violent tension between Spider-Man and Norman has grown for years and has been building to a boil for the last few months after Osborn’s last defeat at Spidey’s hands at the end of America Son. Norman can no longer put off what needs to be done. Plus, the story from Pulse #5 outing Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin to the world.
One-Shot/Rated A …$3.99





///-- Sunday 10.25.09 --///////////////////////////////

Been slackin' on the website updates lately. Let's get you caught up on what I've been up to over the last few months.

First, I went on a vacation with my parents, sisters and their families up to Wisconsin. Had a great time on the trip and it was especially fun to hang out with all my nieces and nephews.

Second, as many of you know, I've been teaching at my Alma Mater, The Joe Kubert School, for the last several years.

Over the summer, the school asked me to take on a larger role there and help them develop and implement new programs and projects. I couldn't be more excited about the idea and we're hard at work on a lot of new initiatives to give our students there a better educational experience.

Lastly, I spent the last couple months working with Adam Kubert on Dark Reign: The List - Amazing Spider-Man one shot for Marvel. As usual, we had an all-star cast of talent on the book. Dan Slott, one of the best Spider-Man writers of the last fifteen years, wrote the script (though it was more of a plot than script in some ways as no final dialogue was indicated, just a general idea of what was being said). Superstar and super-talented (not to mention recent Harvey Award winner) Mark Morales on inks. Mark spends the rest of his time inking Olivier Coipel, Leinil Yu and Jimmy Cheung--I told you he was a superstar. John Romita Jr's go to colorist on Spider-Man: "New Ways to Die" and Kick-Ass, Dean White, came on board to bring the whole thing together.

Adam and I worked oversized on these Spider-Man pages--inspired by Adam seeing his father, Joe, illustrating the Sgt. Rock story they did together for DC's Wednesday Comics (Adam wrote it, Joe did the art). So instead of the typical 10" x 15" image area, I think they were more like 13" x 19". I didn't feel like it really took any more time to work on, but it certainly provided some new challenges--like busting out 4' long t-squares to pull off some of the more complicated perspective shots. Adam and I were both really happy with how the whole thing came out.

It's funny when I think back three or fours years ago to when Adam was leaving Marvel to go to DC. He told me whenever he came back to Marvel (no definitive date or schedule) he really wanted to work on Spider-man, as that was one of the few characters he hadn't work on during his initial run with Marvel. Now, here he is back at Marvel, working on Spider-Man--both in Wolverine #73-74 and this new one-shot. It's funny how things work out.

Be sure and pick up Dark Reign: The List - Amazing Spider-Man in comic shops on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009.


///-- Monday 6.08.09 --///////////////////////////////

Another week where I remind you to go out there and buy my comics! Wolverine #74 comes out this Wednesday, June 10th from Marvel. It concludes the "A Mile In My Moccasins" story started in issue #73.

Written by Jason Aaron (I loooovvvvee me some Jason Aaron scripts - Super fun to work from). Inks by Mark Farmer and colors by Edgar Delgado, Morry Hollowell and Paul Mounts (triple tag-teamed by 3 of the absolute best colorists in the business!) What's the cherry on top?

You've still got the second half of issue #74 by Daniel Way and Tommy Lee Edwards (did that just blow your minds? Yeah. I thought it would). Still not sold? Then checkout a preview of both stories at CBR.

New Penguin sketch up in the gallery. Another one for the students.



///-- Monday 5.18.09 --///////////////////////////////

Good news! Wolverine #73 sold out and is going to a second printing with a new variant cover (taken from interior artwork by Adam Kubert). I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is the first time any book I've worked on has gone back for a second printing. Pretty cool.

Wrapped up my fourth year teaching at The Joe Kubert School last week. Seems like just yesterday I started teaching there. Can't believe how quick that time has gone by.

Had a great group of students in my second and third year classes this year. Very talented artists and all around good kids (except for some of you bums in 2B. yeah, you know who I'm talking about ; )

Congratulations to all the new graduates. I'll add them to the links, just as soon as their websites go live (wink/nudge).

Also, a new Zangief piece I did for one of my students is up in the sketches section of the gallery.



///-- Tuesday 5.12.09 --///////////////////////////////

Wolverine #73 is on sale this Wednesday, May 13th at comic shops everywhere. I did my usual gig of background pencils over Adam's layouts for this issue. Fun-as-shit script by Jason Aaron, beautiful inks by Mark Farmer and blindingly gorgeous colors by Justin Ponsor. One of the best looking books I've ever worked on. And that's just OUR half of the issue. The second story in issue #73 was drawn by the incomparable Tommy Lee Edwards. I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Issue #74 will feature the conclusion to both stories started in this issue. Issue #74 is scheduled to be in stores June 10th. Don't worry I'll remind ya.

Also, a new Brock Samson piece I did for one of my students is up in the sketches section of the gallery.



///-- Friday 4.10.09 --///////////////////////////////

Wrapped up my work on Wolverine #73 this afternoon. My usual gig of background pencils over Adam Kubert's layouts (see the full details just a couple of posts ago). I had an absolute blast on this project. One of the my favorite comics I've ever been involved with. Should be out in about a month. I'll hype it up a bunch when the time comes.

Also got a new 1-Pager up in the gallery.
Off to Illinois for a week to visit family.



///-- Tuesday 3.16.09 --///////////////////////////////

Last year, I had a mega-talented friend of mine, Sean Murphy, come and talk to my students at The Joe Kubert School.  It was such a great experience for everyone involved that I asked Sean to take a break from the Hellblazer work he's doing for Vertigo and DC Comics and come in again to talk to another crop of students. Sean spent 4 hours talking with our third year graduating class and then stuck around after school for another 3 hours to talk to some of our second and first year students.
Sean is very honest, and calls it like he sees it, which is very refreshing and terrific for our students to hear how freelance life really is. He talked about his years attending SCAD, his freelance experiences, what it's like being under exclusive contract with DC Comics and his personal artistic philosophies. He even did and inking demo for each group of students, showing them his theories, techniques and tricks. After all that, he stuck around to have dinner with a handful of the students and shoot the shit. Sean's a great guy and he really went above and beyond the call of duty spending time with the students and answering any and every question that came his way. Sean's talk left everyone energized to make great comics and we're already looking forward to having him back again next year.

Just a few quick updates to the site today. New 1-pager about my sister added to the gallery (she read it this morning and told me it was 100% accurate). Also some new photos to the about page - few of Sean Murphy's visit to the school, some of Shane Davis, Andy Kubert and a couple new shots of my studio setup.



///-- Sunday 3.01.09 --///////////////////////////////
RSS feed for website should be up and (hopefully) running.  Email me if you have any problems with it.  I know personally, I rarely go to websites without an RSS feed, so I'm hoping this keeps everyone in the loop.



///-- Thursday 2.26.09 --///////////////////////////////
Marvel's May solicitations have announced the return of Adam Kubert to Marvel Comics and I'm along for the ride! Adam's first work is a 2-part story in WOLVERINE #73-74 which sets things up for DARK WOLVERINE in issue #75.

Our story, "A Day In The Life", is written by the amazing Jason Aaron. The story is just so much fun and Adam's layouts take it to a whole new level (and hopefully my backgrounds can do the same). We do 11 pages in issue #73 and 11 pages in issue #74. So who is doing the other half of those issues? Daniel Way and Tommy Lee Edwards! Some of the biggest thrills in my job come for me are appearing in the same book as the artists I worship. Having Simon Bisley do the cover to the issue of Heavy Metal I did. Or having Andrew Robinson do an alternate cover the issue of BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS. And now, splitting an issue with TLE. So far in my comics career, I haven't had too many moments on the job where I just totally geek out, but this Wolverine story, with these other creators is a total nerdgasm.

I'm also working with Josh of Supervillain Design on getting an RSS feed for the site. We should have it incorporated over the next week or so. Check back to add the feed.



///-- Friday 2.13.09 --///////////////////////////////
Newsarama video interview with Adam Kubert about our BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS SPECIAL #1 and his move back to Marvel.  Check out a 5 page preview here.



///-- Thursday 2.12.09 --///////////////////////////////
Just a quick update. BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS SPECIAL #1 came out yesterday.  I'm pretty sure you should all buy 30 copies.  Had a great time at NYCC.   Good to see so many familiar faces.   Got to catch up with a lot of friends and say hi to a few that I hadn't seen in years.   Pretty exhausted and trying to recover.   Got a chance to catch James Jean's show at the Jonathan LeVine gallery.   Humbling stuff.  New Barracuda sketch up in the gallery.   Off to Illinois to visit family next week.



///-- Sunday 2.01.09 --///////////////////////////////

I'll be at the New York ComicCon February 6-8th.  I'm running the Joe Kubert School booth at 1859, so you can find me there.  Don't know the schedule yet, but Joe, Adam and Andy Kubert will all be attending the show and doing signings at the school's booth on Saturday.  Hope to see some of you there.



///-- Friday 1.30.09 --///////////////////////////////
Joined Twitter yesterday.  You can follow me at twwiter.com/gabebridwell Still boycotting myspace, facebook and deviant art though.  We'll see how long I hold out.



///-- Sunday 1.25.09 --//////////////////////////////
As I mentioned last post, I want to get Absolute Verve Vol 2 (a collection of my comics and art) ready for next year, so I've been doing as many 1-page shorts as I can. I've had a list of funny little stories and moments that I wanted to get tell, but never quite find the time. I've already done four of five of them this year and they've been a blast. Something light and fun, with no pressure. They've been a good way to unwind and have fun on a Sunday afternoon.
The first one up here I added to the gallery is a true story about my friend Donny Ahlberg and myself.

//--//Got a chance to read Enrico Casarosa's Venice Chronicles last weekend. It's equal parts travel sketchbook, romance story, and artistic insecurities exploration, but all done very spontaneous. Enrico's been an artistic inspiration to me for years, having turned me on to travel sketching through his Sketchcrawl drawing marathons (see the travel sketches section of my gallery). I could've done with a little less of the artistic insecurity stuff, but I understand why he put it in there. Overall, it's a fun read, and a very attractive (love the hardcover format for this) and well put together book. I highly recommend checking it out.

//--//Started reading the manga, Bakuman, the other day. It's by the Death Note creators, Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. I've had the first volume of Death Note for like a year, but haven't gotten around to reading it. Do I deserve a beating for that? Bakuman is a manga about kids who want to grow up and become manga artists. Basically a manga about manga. All manga seem to have rivals and this one is no exception. They've teased that the rival will be another manga artist. As a comic artist myself, I think that's a hilariously awesome idea (I wonder who my rival would be?) I've read the first 9 chapters so far (of 22 currently, I think?), and have definitely been enjoying it. The art by Takeshi Obata is fantastic, and since I hadn't bothered to read Death Note, I didn't know what I was missing. Yusuke Murata who draws Eyeshield 21 (currently my favorite comic, manga or otherwise) used to be one of Obata's assistants.

//--//Also, new Burn Notice episodes have started up again. Check it out. It's fun.



///-- Wednesday 1.20.09 --//////////////////////////////
"Throw me the idol and I'll throw you the whip."  

Isn't that awesome?!?  If you're a big Indiana Jones fan, you've probably seen all the different prop replicas that have been popping up over the last few years -- headpiece to the staff of Ra, Grail Diaries, mini Ark of the Covenant, Cross of Coronado, you name it.  Many of them are actually really awesome, but
they're always way more money than I want to spend. This beauty is actually an officially licensed vinyl piggy bank, that only goes for $20! It has instantly become the coolest thing I own.  I wish I had show and tell tomorrow to show off.   

Now if they'll just come up with a cheap headpiece to the staff of Ra, I'll be in heaven.



///-- Saturday 1.10.09 --///////////////////////////////
I always get excited about the new year. I like to reflect on the past year's successes and failures and then dream up all the things I want to accomplish in the new year to come. I love how anything is possible. What thing that I've meaning to get done for you years will I finally achieve? What ideas will I have that will excite the hell out of me? Limitless possibilities.

My two main goals, both personally and professionally are to get Absolute Verve viol. 2 (collection of my sketches and comics) and The Happy Samurais ready for release next year. In the past, I always had trouble focusing on just one project at a time. I'd work on whatever I was excited about that particular day, and that led to 20 different projects stalled after 5 pages. I've been a lot more focused over the last 6 months (though I'm still weak-willed sometimes) and have only been working on them (outside of teaching at the Kubert School and penciling backgrounds for Adam Kubert). I'm really excited to share both of them with everybody and over the next few months, I'll give you little glimpses of them from time to time.

As I mentioned above, I'm working with Adam Kubert again on his next project. I penciled the backgrounds over Adam's layouts for BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS SPECIAL #1. It's 30 pages of story written by Pete Tomasi, with inks by John Dell and colors by Chris Chuckry. It comes out from DC Comics on February 11th. Check out the interview with Pete Tomasi about the book over at Newsarama. It's even got some preview art -- although they attribute it to Andy instead of Adam : )

//--Random things--//

//--//On my drives to visit my family in Illinois (which is 12+ hours each way) over the holidays I caught up on a bunch of podcasts. I generally find them too distracting to listen to while I draw, so I only listen to them while in the car. Favorites included:

      - Splinecast interviews with Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, 
        Harley Jessup, Mark Andrews, Ted Mathot and I even
        listened to the Brad Bird interview for like the 10th time.
      - Wordballon interviews with Mike Mignola, Howard Chaykin
        and Mark Millar
      - Sidebar interviews with Shane Glines and
         Andrew Robinson
      - Animation Podcast interviews with Andreas Deja and
        Glenn Keane


//--//Anyone that knows me, knows I'm addicted to books. It's mainly art books, but I really can't resist any cool book. Santa was pretty generous this year and brought me lots of cool stuff for me devour. I got a import Giant Robo Art book, John Canemaker's Walt Disney's Nine Old Men, Flamboyant (art of Ugetsu Hakua), Art of Alex Nino, Sonic: Visuals for Music, Enrico Casarosa's Venice Chronicles, Ted Naifeh's The Good Neighbors and Swallow 5. Probably my favorite book was Bill Presing's Book Plate Betties.  It is gorgeous - both the art and the book. It's probably even better than his last book, Belle Du Jour.

//--//Congratulations to my sister Emily and her husband Justin on the birth of my niece, Ali. She's beautiful guys.

//--//Oh, and I saw AC/DC in concert on their current Black Ice tour. It was every bit as fucking spectacular as I thought it would be. Now that I've seen Angus and Malcolm in concert, I only need to see Keith Richards and Chuck Berry and I can die a happy man.



///-- Friday 9.5.08 --///////////////////////////////

//--//New Age of Apocalypse commission is up in the sketches section of the gallery. 

//--//The guys at Sidebar have a new Andrew Robinson interview podcast up.  Andrew is one of my abosolute favorite artists and this is the most in depth interview with him I've come across.

//--//Duncan Rouleau's Metal Men hardover came out from DC Comics a few weeks ago.  Duncan is brilliant and it's a really nice looking book.  Haven't read the story yet, so can't comment on that, but his art and layouts are as dynamic as ever.
//--//Devoured season 2 of Dexter over the Labor Day weekend.  I got so hooked on it, I had to watch the final 7 episodes in a row to find out how things ended. 



///-- Tuesday 8.26.08 --///////////////////////////////
Newsarama has a 4 page preview of the DC Universe: Last Will and Testament one-shot I worked on. Check it out here.



///-- Thursday 8.21.08 --///////////////////////////////
You know how everyone says, "Well, I'm working on this cool new project, but I can't talk about it yet, so I'll fill you in down the road"? And then they forget to actually tell us what that cool project was.

Well the cool project I've been working is DC Universe: Last Will and Testament one-shot by Brad Meltzer and Adam Kubert.

I worked with Adam Kubert on the issue and penciled all the backgrounds for the book based on Adam's layouts. Adam is an amazing artist and an even better guy. I don't think people realize just how good of an artist he is. His storytelling, composition and layouts are just unrivaled (and I don't say that just because I got to work with him). I love working on one of his pages, and getting a chance to just focus on that page and study the choices he made and pick his brain about them. Adam has been one of my favorite artists for years -- from Wolverine, to Uncanny X-Men, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate FF to Action Comics -- so it's been a fanboy dream come true and the most rewarding experience of my career to work with him on this.

The rest of the creative team on the book is just off the charts. A great script by Brad Meltzer (which will have everyone talking after they read it), inks by the incomparable John Dell, and gorgeous colors by Alex Sinclair. Not trying to short-change the letterer on the issue, but I don't actually know who is working on it. This issue even features nine pages inked by Adam's father, the legendary Joe Kubert, so that was an extra special bonus on this book. I was inked by Joe Kubert. It's hard to get any cooler than that. I mean, come on - Brad Meltzer, Adam Kubert, Joe Kubert, John Dell, Alex Sinclair and Gabe Bridwell. That's some pretty impressive company to be in.

I believe the issue will be in comic shops next Wednesday, August 27th.

//--Random things--//

//--//Still no Dreamweaver yet, so updates have been a little sparse. I'll get it resolved next month.

//--//Added the 8 pages I did for the Dynamo 5 Annual to the gallery. Got both the pencils and inks up.

//--//I've been a big fan of Moleskin sketchbooks for a few years. I remember when I got my first one, they were really hard to find and I had to order it from some exotic place online. Now you can't go to a bookstore without tripping over them. The thick paper makes sketching on location great, and I love how the books are bound, as it makes drawing across the binding no problem. I pretty much keep one with me at all times and it can be a life-saver when your flight is delayed, stuck in a traffic jam, or out shopping for shoes with your sister. I uploaded a bunch of stuff drawn from life into a new "Travel Sketchbook" section of the gallery.

//--//Adam Pollina has been doing some stunning work on the current Angel: Revelations miniseries from Marvel. Pollina kinda jumps in and out of comics. You might remember his work on X-Force, the Rise of Apocalypse mini-series or Big Daddy Danger. This Angel: Revelations mini is his first comic work in a few years, and it's some of his best work. Creepy elongated Schiele figures with decorative Klimt patterns here and there. Previews of issue one and two.

//--//Saw one of my favorite bands, Lucero, in New York a couple weeks back. It was on the Rocks Off boat cruise, which is a boat that cruises around Manhattan harbor while the band rocks out. Okay, so basically a booze cruise. Start on the west side, cruise down south by the Statue of Liberty, then head over to the east side by the Brooklyn bridge. The city has the NYC Waterfalls going on, so we pulled up near the one under the Brooklyn bridge for a closer view. It was slightly touristy, but I like that kinda stuff, so it was cool. The boat wasn't overcrowded, so almost everyone had a great view of the band. The band wasn't backed up against a wall, so I actually had a spot directly behind the drummer, Roy Berry. It was pretty cool to see a concert from that backstage/drummers POV.  Put a couple photos from the show up on the about page.

//--//Getting ready to start another year teaching at the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. Still teaching the Layout & Design classes to the second and third years students. Got some great students coming back, so I'm excited to see what they can do. I love teaching at the school. Teaching new ideas and concepts to the students causes me to see things in a whole new way, and I learn just as much as I teach them. It's like art graduate school, only I'm teaching myself. Or something like that.

//--//Just like my old iMac died on me a couple months back, my crappy sprint phone shot craps on me recently. That could mean only one thing -- getting a new iPhone 3G to replace it!!! Is it wrong to admit that you have a crush on your phone? Cause I totally do.

//--//A new AC/DC album and tour has got to be the most awesome thing I've heard in years. Can't wait!



///-- Friday 6.13.08 --///////////////////////////////
Been a busy month for me. We wrapped up the 2008 school year at the Joe Kubert School, I took a trip back home to Illinois to visit family and go to my nephew's birthday party and my faithful iMac special edition (you know, the translucent tv-shaped version with "funtastic" colors) dropped dead on me.

I got almost 8 glorious years out of that thing, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. With only one upgrade to my operating system, it was still getting the job done for me - - all my Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver work. I spent 8 years with 777MHz!! Thankfully now I've upgraded to my beautiful new iMac and yes, I totally have a crush on it.

With my old computer's death, it's taken me a while to get everything up and running again. I'm still missing some programs (including Dreamweaver which I use to update my website) and I haven't got my scanner or printer working yet, but I should be good in a couple weeks. For now, you'll just have to bear with me on the updates.

I did want to give a shout-out and congratulate the JKS class of 2008. They were an awesome bunch of kids, and I think I might actually miss them next year : ) I don't have a website or gallery for all of them yet (email me if you're not listed), but some of the graduates whose work you should check out:

         Helsa Amadi      
         Vimal Bisundial
         George Bough
         Zane DeGaine
         Alex Konat
         Victor Naar
         Barry Verastigue



///-- Monday 5.12.08 --///////////////////////////////
I saw Speed Racer this weekend and it was basically a live action anime film. Like Mario Kart and Marvel vs. Capcom on a double dose of crack. Very stylish directing and cinematography with a hyper-saturated color palette and a really interesting cast (some great European actors I'd never seen before). I thought it was both fun and funny (Spritle had me laughing out loud).

There were a lot of problems with the story. The first third of the movie was very heavy handed. They tried to setup the backstory, how Speed got into Racing, how his brother Rex left home and establish the giant evil conglomerate that controlled racing. It was all setup and crawled along at a glacial pace.

The second third of the movie is where the racing started and consequently where the movie got really fun.  Racing stuff was filled with awesome rival racers (like Vikings!) who try and stop Speed and Racer X, to no avail as Speed bitch slaps them with his "Car Fu". Now, you might not be crazy about the term "Car Fu", but it is a fun idea. Between the racer's driving skills and the gadgets in their cars, they fight, dodge, block and attack each other with their vehicles. I think it's an awesome idea and it was a lot of fun to watch. As Michel Gondry said, "If an idea is any good, it's on the verge of being stupid."

As for comparisons to Iron Man. I guess Iron Man might've been the "better" movie simply because Iron Man's story was handled much better (and I place a HIGH PREMIUM on a good story, well told), but I had a lot more fun at Speed Racer, story problems and all.



///-- Saturday 4.19.08 --///////////////////////////////

The Dynamo 5 Annual got pushed back from a couple of weeks ago to THIS week, May 7th. Grab yourself a copy on Wednesday.

Wanted to give a shoutout to my man, Jared Fletcher, on his Eisner nomination this year. Jared is nominated in the Best Lettering category for his work at DC Comics. Basically, Jared has lettered ALL of the coolest books that have come out from them the last few years - Paul Pope's Batman Year 100, Darwyn Cooke's New Frontier and Spirit, Brian Wood's DMZ and tons of others.

Jared and I went to the Joe Kubert School together and he's good people. If you're a professional, you should head over and vote for him at the Eisner Awards site. I did.

Also a new Rock Lee sketch I did for one of my students is up in the gallery.



///-- Saturday 4.26.08 --///////////////////////////////
Robert Kirkman (of Invincible and Walking Dead fame) recently participated in a feature on Entertainment Weekly's website called "The One That Hooked You" - about the first comic that you read.
Curious about what other people's 'first' was, he asked people to post it on his Image Comics message board.

The first comics that got me hooked were the Marvel Comics RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK movie adaptation and Uncanny X-Men #175.

I think Marvel Comics did a four-issue adaptation of Raiders, which they later collected into one super-sized magazine. I picked it up in 1981, when I was 6 years old. It was written by Walt Simonson, penciled by John Buscema and had an awesome Howard Chaykin painted cover. Not a bad bunch of creators to introduce you to comics. I don't remember if I loved it because it was a comic, or because it was related to the movie. I just know I read it a million times.

Two years later, in 1983, I picked up Uncanny X-Men #175. My Grandpa Bridwell owned a grocery store and whenever we would visit, he'd let me pick out something to keep. He didn't have a huge selection of comics, but when I saw that X-Men issue, I knew what I wanted.

It was drawn by Paul Smith and featured the wedding of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor. The wedding stuff was tacked onto the end, but the entire beginning had to do with Mastermind tricking the X-Men into thinking that Phoenix had returned. Basically Cyclops fought against the other X-Men in all kinds of cool environments in the Danger Room. Perfect first issue for a kid as all of the X-Men were using their powers and kicking ass.  After I read that X-men issue, every time we'd go back to my Grandpa's store, I'd pick a cool Marvel comic to take home.

Those were the ones that hooked me.



///-- Saturday 4.19.08 --///////////////////////////////

My Dynamo 5 Annual from Image Comics finally hits comic shops this week. Pickup your copy this Wednesday at your local comic shop!

It's that time of year where my students at the Joe Kubert School ask me to do something for their sketchbooks. I try and hook them up with something cool. The first couple are up in the gallery now.

The New York Comic Con is going on this weekend and with that hundreds of comic book creators descend on New York for a week or two. We can usually get some cool guests to come out and speak to the students at the Joe Kubert School in the days before and after the convention. This year we had Darwyn Cooke and Jimmy Palmiotti.

Darwyn and Jimmy just did a Q & A, answering whatever questions the students and instructors threw at them. Both of them had strong opinions and great insight into every aspect of being professional creators (keep in mind both of them write as well as draw). Darwyn's observation of mass market fans vs direct market fans was really interesting. Using The Family Guy as an example, Darwyn said that Mass Market fans don't really care about draftsmanship, composition or craft. They care about the character, the ideas and the situation. While Direct Market fans care about the craft and the ideas equally. At one point in the Q & A, Darwyn mentioned that he's done a storytelling workshop in the past (which immediately made me envious of anyone who got the chance to attend it ). It was a great experience for everyone at JKS and we're extremely appreciative to Darwyn and Jimmy for their time.



///-- Sunday 4.13.08 --///////////////////////////////
Few things of note this week.  First, I'll be at the New York Comicon this coming week.  I'll be at or around the Joe Kubert School booth on both Friday and Saturday. Not bringing anything to sell this year, but you can still stop by and say "what up".

Second, it's been years in the making, but my roommate and former JKS classmate, Andrew Krahnke, finally has his website up and running! Josh Hehn of Supervillain Design, who did my site, built Andy's too.  Behold Andy's awesomeness.

Finally it's a big week for Jay Faerber's Noble Causes.  The pseudo "relaunch" starts this week with issue #32 (which takes place 5 years after issue #31).   And just to get everyone caught up on what's happened in the past, The Noble Causes Archives Vol. 1 also hits selves this week.   This collects NOBLE CAUSES FIRST IMPRESSIONS, NOBLE CAUSES #1-4, NOBLE CAUSES: FAMILY SECRETS #1-4, NOBLE CAUSES: DISTANT RELATIVES #1-4, and the NOBLE CAUSES ongoing series #1-12.  My fill-in issue on the regular series, #7 is also collected in there.  I think Jay will be at the NYCC too.



///-- Tuesday 4.8.08 --///////////////////////////////
Went to Illinois to visit family a couple weeks back and entertained myself on the 12 hour drive by listening to some comic-related podcasts. Paul Pope (of my man-crush fame) and Chris Staros (co-publisher of Top Shelf Productions) interviews from Comic Geek Speak. Cool Jason Pearson one from SideBar. And a phenomenal one with Brad Bird at Splinecast. I don't know about you, but I could listen to Brad Bird talk for days. I've seen him speak live at comic conventions, listened to podcasts and commentaries, and I am always just enthralled by what he has to say - from his history at Disney with Milt Kahl to his time at CalArts, to all his film projects, it's just endlessly fascinating.

After listening to Chris Staros talk, I felt compelled to order all the Jeffrey Brown comics from Top Shelf that I've had on my list of things to get. I'd only read AEIOU and enjoyed it, so I picked up almost his entire catalog - Clumsy, Unlikely, Feeble Attempts, Miniature Sulk and EGITEOTWFM. Pretty much read them all in one sitting. Good stuff.

Sam Mooney, my old roommate and classmate from the Joe Kubert School, has a new blog up. Sam moved to Japan four years again to teach english and devour manga and he's blogging some of his experiences and new work.  Check it out.

In work related news, I just finished up a monster two and half year long comic project. Wow, it was epic. Proud as hell of the books and of the work I did on it. By far the best stuff I've ever done. It's all background work for another artist, so I don't know when the day will come that I can talk about it or share it with anyone, so for now that's all I can say about it.

To treat myself, I bought Call of Duty 4 for the PS3. Most fun I've had playing video games in years. Hit me up with your PSN id if you want to hook up online : )



///-- Monday 3.10.08 --///////////////////////////////

A final sneak peek of a panel from my story in Jay Faerber's Dynamo 5 annual.  Awesome colors by Ron Riley.  Don't know exactly when the book will ship, but look for it from Image Comics sometime within the next month or so.



///-- Tuesday 2.12.08 --///////////////////////////////
Shocking news today as we learned that artist Stephane Peru has passed away of a heart attack at 26. Stephane was my friend and I feel proud and privileged to be able to say that. I met Stephane a couple years ago at the San Diego convention. He and his brother Olivier were visiting from France and sharing a studio in Montreal with my friends Serge LaPointe and Yanick Paquette.

You meet a lot of new people at any convention you go to and some are memorable, and some you forget instantly. Stephane and Olivier were so cool and down to earth that we immediately hit it off. Even though we came from different parts of the world and spoke different languages, I felt like I'd known them forever. We were all artists, extremely passionate about our craft. Hanging out with Stephane, Olivier and all my friends from Montreal was by far the my favorite memory from that convention. They were such great guys they made a huge impression on me.

Now, I wasn't best friends with Stephane or Olivier. I haven't seen them since San Diego, but I always knew the moment I ran into them again, that they'd greet me like a great friend they hadn't seen in years. I'm saddened to know that day will never come with Stephane.

It's not often you can say only spent a handful of days with someone, but that you'll remember them the rest of your life. I'm thankful I could call Stephane a friend.

Thoughts and prayers to Stephane's family, his brother Olivier and to his close friends in Montreal.



///-- Tuesday 1.29.08 --///////////////////////////////
Another panel from my story in the Dynamo 5 annual.

Also added a link to my fellow Kubert School classmate and all around bad ass Ed Herrera's blog.



///-- Monday 1.21.08 --///////////////////////////////
I want to thank Sean Murphy for being such an awesome guy. Last week, Sean came in to talk to my third year students at the Joe Kubert School. Sean didn't just come in and show his portfolio and answer a couple questions, he basically taught my class for the afternoon.


He went over some important basic drawing skills he thought were often overlooked, talked about composition and how he lays out pages, went over some of the books on writing he recommended, gave a ton of business advice, and did an inking demo where he basically took requests - "How do you do that dry brush technique? How about stubble/beards? What about those one trees you draw? How did you do the jeeps in Off Road so cool?" Oh, and he showed his amazing portfolio (pages from a possible upcoming Vertigo project, some from his OGN "Punk Rock Jesus", and some from an upcoming Star Trek issue - you can see a lot of that stuff here).

After all that, Sean stuck around after school to review portfolios from the students and even have dinner with a few of them. It was a amazing experience for the students (and me too) - almost a "Make-A-Wish Foundation" type of dream (meet, spend the day with, get taught by, a portfolio review from and have dinner with one of your favorite artists). Everyone felt energized and inspired by the whole thing.

Sean came in and was just real. Thanks Sean. Thanks for being awesome.

[The Image above is another sneak peek from my upcoming story in Jay Faerber's Dynamo 5 Annual. ]



///-- Monday 1.14.08 --///////////////////////////////
Hope everyone had a Happy Holiday season. I worked like a dog, but still found lots of time to spend with my family. Lots of good things happening this year.

I'm penciling and inking a short 10 page story for Jay Faerber's Dynamo 5 Annual. It's a Captain Dynamo story that's related to the Noble Causes #7 fill-in issue I did a couple years back. I get to draw a giant monster fighting dozens of heroes and wrecking a city, so you know it's cool. The book comes out in March from Image Comics.

DYNAMO 5 ANNUAL #1
Written by Jay Faerber
Art by Fran Bueno, Gabe Bridwell, Jack Lawrence and Matthew Humphreys
Cover by Mahmud A. Asrar and Ron Riley
The first Dynamo 5 annual features a collection of pivotal "untold tales" from Dynamo 5's past! See Dynamo 5's first adventure as a team! See what happens when a reporter tries to reveal Dynamo 5's connection to Captain Dynamo! See Captain Dynamo team up with other Image heroes for a gigantic slugfest! Plus a pin-up gallery, and a reprinting of Captain Dynamo's first appearance, from the rarely-seen Noble Causes: Extended Family #2.
56 pages, $5.99, in stores on March 12.


//--Random things--//

//-//The brilliant Massimo Carnevale has a blog you really need to check out. I was massively inspired after looking over his post's for the last year. Staggering talent.

//--//Hans Bacher's Dream World's book came out in December. Hans is an amazing animation production designer. He's had a dozen blogs over the last couple years [which all seem to be down now] where he's shared his keen observations on a host of topics from design, creativity, inspiration, staging and composition. I've learned more from him the last few years than you can imagine. Hell, I even made a .pdf of his thoughts on composition and keep it next to my drawing table at all times. This book is fantastic. You need to go buy it NOW.

//--//Lettering is among the classes I'm teaching this year at the Joe Kubert School, so as you can imagine, I've spent a considerable amount of time studying Todd Klein's work. I was lucky enough to get one of the "Alphabets of Desire" prints by Todd Klein & Alan Moore prints. These were offered by Todd on his terrific blog which you should really be checking out (be sure and go thru the archives and checkout his analysis of 100s of comic book logos throughout the years).

//--//Speaking of lettering, I saw the Helvetica documentary over the Holidays. Thought it was great. Even made my students at the Kubert School watch it.

//--//Rockband is awesome.




///-- Sunday 10.07.07 --///////////////////////////////
Just sharing a couple things on my drawing table at the moment. The Giant Robo piece is a cleaned up lightbox version of a something I did in one of my students sketchbooks a while back. In the process of inking it now. The other piece is loose pencils for a birthday present for my roommate Andrew Krahnke. It's Sam Totman from Dragonforce riding on a great white shark of course. Finished pieces later.



///-- Monday 10.01.07 --///////////////////////////////
Just going over my calendar for this month and noticed how many amazing shows are going on in New York right now:

The American Illustrator's Gallery has a J.C. Leyendecker exhibition up that features 48 works. On display through November 2007.

The Met just opened "The Age of Rembrandt" a couple weeks back. It features 200+ Dutch paintings, and 20 by Rembrandt himself.

The Society of Illustrators has "Maestros of the Silver Age" - 'Featuring a survey of American Illustration as it existed just after it's Golden Age. This was a time (roughly the 30s through the 50s) that was rife with story magazine like the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Redbook and McCall's. . .'   Hurry this ends on October 13th!

As if their permanent collection featuring Howard Pyle, Jessie Wilcox Smith, Maxfield Parrish, Harvey Dunn, and the Wyeth Family wasn't enough to get you to the Brandywine River Museum, they also are currently showing "Flights Into Fantasy". This collection features work by Arthur Rackham and Kay Nielsen! I just recently learned of Danish artist, Kay Nielsen, on the ASIFA - Hollywood Animation Archive and was absolutely blown away. The images from two of his books - East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Twelve Dancing Princesses will rock your world. So I'm super excited to get down to the Brandywine and see Kay's work in person.

On a side note, the Animation Archives is something you should definitely dive into and check out. They have all kinds of amazing stuff - from Erich Sokol's Playboy Cartoons to Guides on Compositions and everything in between.

And the Neue Galerie will soon open a Gustav Klimt Exhibtion - October 18 - June 30 2008.

I haven't seen any of these shows yet, but I'll be checking them all out in the coming weeks. Should be an amazing month!!


///-- Monday 08.13.07 --///////////////////////////////
I was stunned to hear the news that comic book artist, Mike Wieringo, passed away yesterday at age 44. Mike was a phenomenal talent, and one of the absolute nicest guys I've ever met in my life. His comics were among the work that inspired me to become a comic book artist in the first place. I'm really at a loss for words. The comic book industry and really, the world is a worse place without Mike in it.



///-- Wednesday 08.08.07 --////////////////////////////
One of the reasons I threw up photos of my studio on the site, is because I love to see where other artists work. I find it fascinating to see what they surround themselves with and how they have everything laid out. It's usually an interesting look into both their creative process and their personal taste. Guillotine has a cool look inside Tara McPherson's studio up now.



///-- Sunday 07.29.07 --///////////////////////////////
Welcome to the all-new, superbad GabeBridwell.com! Take a whiff, 'cause right now this place still has that new-car smell. It's been forever since my last update to my old site (April '06 - yikes) and well, that's because I've been working with Josh Hehn of Supervillain Design on this new site since then. It's been a long time in the making, but I couldn't be happier with how it's turned out. Josh and I still have much bigger plans for the site, but we wanted to get this thing up and running, so we'll add other features in on the fly. Take the site for a spin and checkout all the new content. I'll be doing my best to keep this thing updated as often as possible (but hell, that's what everyone says).

So where've I been and what've I been up to?

Well, 2006-07 saw me complete my first full-year of teaching at the Joe Kubert School out here in New Jersey. I taught at the tail end of the '06 school year, but that was a totally different experience than a full-year. I teach the Layout and Design class for the 2nd and 3rd year students, which is basically Photoshop and Illustrator work. I've really enjoyed teaching there. Meeting all the young artists and sharing ideas with them. It almost makes me feel like I'm back in school again, and that I never left. If you know me, you know I love to talk shop, so you can imagine how excited I am to get started in the fall again.