BUON NATALE

And to celebrate, here are scans of pages from an old Christmas card I'd written and drawn!

My very sincerest wishes to all who read this for a New Year of Peace and Good Will. 

Merry Christmas, Stephen DeStefano

GO TEAM VENTURE!!!

A few random storyboard pages and panels from the upcoming VENTURE BROTHERS, Season 3. 

I CONFESS

It was me. I was the one who redesigned Black Canary's costume in the mid-eighties. I did away with the fishnet stockings. I gave her the godawful headband and the cowl neck. I'm not proud of it. But you've got to understand--this was Post-CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS DC. Everything was going to be new, and whatever wasn't new, would soon have to be. Or so it seemed. I was still a teenager back then, lurking the halls of DC, trying to get my first regular series, 'MAZING MAN off the ground. And I originally got my job at DC by designing characters. Len Wein said that Black Canary was going to have to be redesigned anyhow. And I didn't see why, because I always thought her costume was so nifty. But, I figured, hell, if it HAS to be redesigned, let me be the one to do it. My original sketch was different, all grey and black, no blue. No headband, but a feathered head piece. Bad ass feathered head piece, not a pansy one. Len and Marv Wolfman asked me to change it. And then they bought it. And then Brian Bolland burned it.

Also around that time, I redesigned Elongated Man. This one seems to have faired a little better with the fans as well as the pros. Brian Bolland never burned this costume. Carmine Infantino drew it once or twice. Bruce Timm and his designers and producers even used it for their JUSTICE LEAGUE series (surprise Bruce! I work for you even when you don't know I work for you!). It's even been used on Mattel toys. I'm kind of proud of that. I should get money for that.

Sometime, remind me to tell you the story of how I redesigned the FLASH for Len and Marv.

An all new Flash, not a speedster, but like a laser-guy, for the Post-Crisis Universe. It never got off the ground. 

TOM BAYNE IS A GENIUS

VENTURE BROTHERS film editor Tom Bayne is a genius. Check out this kookie film he created in a weekend while he was a student at SVA. It slays me.

POLLY AND HER PALS DAILY

No, I don't own a Cliff Sterrett original (don't I wish)! This piece from my collection is by Paul Fung, one of my favorite of the classic comics ghost artists. Fung went on to draw BLONDIE comic books for years, quite beautifully I think. Yet another piece of inexhaustible inspiration, for me.

I DRAW CAPTAIN CARROT

Yeah. I digitally painted Captain Carrot. So what?
It's my time. And the character's making something of a comeback at DC these days.
And I like to draw funny animals. I've drawn all sorts of funny stuff at DC, but
never Captain Carrot. Or his Zoo Crew.
I felt like taking a couple of hours to draw in Photoshop.
So?
And my girlfriend's not here.
So?

ED WHEELAN

Gosh, but I like his stuff.
Bits and pieces of a scan of an original I own.
Very corny, but very inspiring.

FINAL PAGE OF SCANDAL

WOTTA GREAT MAGAZINE COVER

The sculpture featured on the cover is credited to 1950's marionette master Bill Baird.
So peachy keen, it makes you want to sock someone in the mush.

ONE MORE "OTHER PEOPLE'S CHARACTERS"

A photocopy, but still, I like this drawing, done within the last 10 years, of several Flintstones characters off to fight a fire.

OTHER PEOPLE'S CHARACTERS

A very Floyd Gottfredson MR. MXYZPTLK (this is how I orignally wanted to draw him for DC's BIZARRO, several years back), some Woody, Barney and one of Bud Blake's characters (drawn during a particularly dull meeting) and POPEYE AND OLIVE, hyperstylized (I haven't posted this before, have I? I don't think I have. No, I'm pretty sure not.)
I just finished watching some of the supplemental stuff on the Popeye DVD set, and enjoyed it immensely. Anyone out there that loves Popeye really should do themselves a favor and get the set, it's quite good.

I WENT TO IRELAND

Like you give a whoop.
But I had a good time, so I give a whoop!
I lounged with a blade of grass in my kisser, went to the bog, hung out with a tipsy scholar (no myth--they exist there!), converted the heathens to the ways of the Merry Marvel Marching Society, and had a wonderful time with the gorgeously sunglassed Shivers Mullen, who took all these photos.

that damned KURTZMAN

This is an original Harvey Kurtzman PLAYBOY sketch, which I purchased many years ago.
While I'm not a huge fan of his post-MAD work (aside from the JUNGLE, which is genius to me), I do marvel at how Harvey always managed to compose kinetic crowd scenes like this one. While it's a little hard to tell what's going on in this sketch, let alone what's up from down, I just love how organically all the figures work together.

INSTANT PIANO FLIER

Robbie Busch and I created this flier to advertise the coming of INSTANT PIANO at the San Diego Convention, way back in '94.
Robbie drew Mark Badger's characters, as well as his own, while I drew and lettered everything else. Evan came up with the Neil Gaiman crack, but I don't get it.

THE SUPER-SONS

This is for Matt (Don't Call Me "Pee-Pee") Peters, VENTURE BROTHERS storyboard artist extraordinaire, and comics fan. Matt's one of the few people I know other than myself who loved the Super-Sons concept from DC's WORLD'S FINEST COMICS of the 1970's. I know this looks like Superman and Batman, but it's really SUPERMAN AND BATMAN JUNIOR. My versions of them anyway. A while ago, I had the idea in my head that I'd pitch this to Cartoon Network.

REN AND STIMPY COLOR KEYS

Some pieces I was lucky enough to collect during my days out west, painted by Bill Wray, Scott Wills and Victoria Jensen.
These paintings are fairly small, so it's cool to see them scanned and digitally published in such a large format.

FRANK MILLER ROCKS!

This is one of my favorite originals from my collection. Cartoon storytelling doesn't get more charming than this.
The strip was called BARNEY BAXTER--the fuzzy guy in panels 3 and 4 a character named Gopher Gus, and indeed, the creator of this strip was a fellow named "Frank Miller". I much prefer his work to that of the more famous cartoonist toting that name around today (Although, I do own a piece of HIS art as well....)

MORE SCANDAL!

Page two from that Paradox Press story I'd blogged a couple months ago.
I'm proud of the Flintstones panel, as well as the Greek Tragedy I drew....