There are very few new comics on shelves today as many shops, distributors, and publishers remain closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. While the absence of new issues may be disappointing, it doesn’t leave comics fans without recourse. Artists from across the energy have continued to work on future projects and many have begun posting sketches and commissions from home.
While quarantine measures remain in effect, ComicBook.Com will be assembling a weekly round up of favorite new pieces posted to social media by comics artist. Each shared sketch will also include a recommendation and links for readers to further explore each artist’s work. We hope this will help fans discover new artists and find some books to order from their local comic book store.
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So without any further ado, here are some of our favorite sketches from the past week along with information and links on where to find more work (available today!) from these incredible comic book artists.
Ian Bertram
Ian Bertram finally appeared on many comics readers’ radar last year with the critical success of Little Bird. This dystopian vision of the future was an artistic showcase delivering violence in grueling detail and awe-inspiring locales splashed across entire pages. While the setting and mood of the story are often bleak, there’s a strong undercurrent of hope that makes it good reading for our current moment.
Ryan Browne
This absurdist take on the Country Bears Jamboree delivers the same sort of energy captured in almost every page of Ryan Browne’s comics. His madcap style and sense of humor is perfectly encapsulated in the pages of God Hates Astronauts—a story that defies definition and focuses on laughter over sense. It’s a delight to read and unlike any other comic book you’ve seen before.
Becky Cloonan
The beautifully designed image above gives readers a sense of how Becky Cloonan approaches comic book storytelling, using focused designs to evoke powerful meanings on the page. Her mythic sensibilities are perfectly showcased by three stories in By Chance or Providence. It remains an easy entry point to the comics medium and a testament to the power of visual storytelling.
Gabriel Hardman
Gabriel Hardman drew the portrait of Toshiro Mifune above to honor the 100th anniversary of the actor’s birth. His attention to “acting” in his artwork is showcased in the quirky and surprisingly subtle comic Kinski—the story of one man’s quest to save a dog, his plans and ideas quickly going awry. Hardman’s skill in developing tension and character here will leave readers eager to seek out more of his work.
Lucy Knisley
The diary entry above is a perfect example of Lucy Knisley’s cartooning in how it distills a busy moment and big idea into a succinct image. Her bibliography is filled with some of the best comics of the 21st century, but I’m often drawn back to Relish—an examination of how food is woven into our lives in manners both obvious and unexpected. It’s a cozy comics read that takes time to digest and leaves you satisfied.
Mike Mignola
Hellboy creator Mike Mignola has been sketching up a storm for the past couple of weeks, moving between daily themes and selling them to benefit World Central Kitchen. If you’re unfamiliar with the character that made Mignola one of comics’ biggest stars, now is a perfect time to catch up on almost 30 years of incredible with Dark Horse’s titanic Hellboy omnibuses. These tales filled with horror and humor have also proven to be timeless.
Justin Peterson
Justin Peterson is an artist and storyteller to watch. He has a knack for caricature as shown in this portrait of the most memorable new character in The Rise of Skywalker: Babu Frik. If you dig this drawing as much as I do, Peterson is currently accepting commissions on his site at an absolute steal of a price.
Paolo Rivera
Paolo Rivera revealed this sketch related to an upcoming 8-page Vision story written and drawn by the artist. It’s exciting news, even without a release date. Any interiors drawn by Rivera are an absolute treat, which makes returning to an event comic like The Valiant such a pleasure. That particular story serves as an excellent introduction to Valiant’s superhero universe and one of the best storytellers working in comics today.
Roosh
There’s a knack for anthropomorphization—providing animals with human emotions and qualities without losing what is essentially non-human—shown here and in the first volume of Kings of Nowhere. It’s a talent for distilling emotion into its essential elements that allows for impactful comics storytelling, and some fun takes on classic Pokemon starters.
Chris Samnee
Whenever Chris Samnee draws a Marvel character, it feels iconic. He captures both the aesthetic and character qualities that make these heroes resonate, like the flaring visor and quiet resolve of Cyclops. While the Black Widow movie may be delayed, Marvel Comics just released a complete collection of Samnee’s 12-issue run on Black Widow—a spy thriller told with impeccable style.
Ryan Stegman
Something about Ryan Stegman’s work embodies the ineffable quality of cool, just take a look at his take on The Mandalorian from this week. Readers looking for adrenaline-fueled superhero comics are bound to enjoy the aggressive thrills in Absolute Carnage. It’s an event that captures the visceral fun of Spider-Man’s many symbiote adventures without many of their excessive subplots and monologues.
Tillie Walden
It’s difficult to summarize what makes Tillie Walden’s comics so appealing, but the image above embodies much of it beautifully—fragile human forms embodying emotions and identities as large as imagination itself. Walden has broken into the book market with some masterful graphic novels, including Spinning and On a Sunbeam, but one of her earlier comics, the love story I Love This Part, is a succinct introduction to one of comics’ most promising talents.
Michael Walsh
Michael Walsh displays an Immonen-esque versatility in drawing comics, adeptly moving between the ludicrous heights of superhero brawls to the most subtle of whispered exchanges. Whether or not you’ve read the reversed run on The Vision written by Tom King, it’s worth pulling out the one issue drawn by Walsh in the middle: The Vision #7. The flashback story is a tragic, self-contained love story that recontextualizes Marvel Comics canon with a more human eye.
Gabriel Walta
It’s worth reading the entirety of The Vision, especially when you consider the contributions of artist Gabriel Walta. His compositions in this series and throughout his work (like in the piece above) are often striking and carry loads of storytelling weight in the sizes, shapes, and perspectives deployed in each panel. Characters rarely need to say what they’re thinking in Walta’s comics because his work makes it clear.
Skottie Young
Skottie Young’s sharp inks provide an edge to his characters that is often matched by the wit of his writing, too. His exaggerated takes on familiar characters, like Tetsuo above, are a delight, but are only an appetizer for the gonzo violence and nonstop humor of something like I Hate Fairyland. The massive hardcover collections of that particular series make for some delightfully distracted (and therefore very welcome) reading right now.
