Some recommended reading and a few sketches.

I just finished reading "Hellspawn: The Ashley Wood" collection and I felt compelled to say a little something about it, perhaps turn a few people on to it, very few indeed judging by how many actually see this blog.

This book was one of the best trade paperbacks I have read in a while. To begin with, the book is well written. Brian Bendis and Steve Niles plotted and scripted portions of it, not sure who did what, but it's good stuff. The dialogue flows nicely and the pacing works. This trade only collects the early issues of a longer series so the collection ends with a ton of loose ends and the plot is not self-contained. This is perhaps a weakness, but every other element of the work is so nice the lack of self-containment didn't bother me.

Then there is Ashley Wood, reason enough to pick up the book and my personal reason for doing so. Wood is an amazing artist with a diverse style which manages to simultaneously reveal all of his influences and achieve utter originality. Wood's work is loaded with mood and he just plain draws and paints masterfully. His storytelling can be unclear at times, but not enough to take away from the overall quality of the work. I am glad an artist of Wood's calibur chooses to work in comics. Wood's work on Hellspawn is great, but he has grown a lot since then, check out more work at www.ashleywoodartist.com

The sketches I've posted are collected from my last few days at the drawing board. Just doodles I thought I'd share rather than throw away.