A quick look at artist Chris Samnee's concept art for the book
The great thing about comic books are the pictures. Well, that isn't the only great thing about them, but it certainly is one aspect I really love. Sometimes, the art on a book is really truly fantastic and will leave you wondering how the artist was able to so beautifully create such incredible scenes. Perhaps it is because I myself am not exactly the greatest artist, so when I see someone really talented put pen to paper and develop gorgeous images, I am left really impressed. Chris Samnee is one of those artists that I can say I really enjoy. He uses a lot of quick lines and really emphasizes emotion the images and expressions of his characters. When I stumbled upon some of his concept art over at Marvel for SIEGE: EMBEDDED (which was released today), I got really excited. I love it when artists give a narrative of their own work, giving the reader a chance to get inside their brain and really see what they were thinking when they drew the image. Check out some of Samnee's work below.
Urich has had the same basic look in all of his appearances in the Marvel Universe. Since I'm not one to mess with a good thing, I stuck with his classic khaki pants, tie and trenchcoat look. I've updated his glasses slightly and really just tried to stick as close to [David] Mazzucchelli's interpretation as possible.
I've drawn Hawkeye dozens of times in the past but always as Clint Barton. This sketch was my first crack at trying to show Bullseye's face behind the mask.
John Romita's Norman can't be topped. I tried to make him a bit older...maybe a bit darker, but at the end of the day Romita's version is what I think of when I picture Osborn.
Both of these Venom sketches were an attempt to figure out my take on Venom's size and texture. His overall design has pretty much stood the test of time but, since my last doodles of Venom were stored in a Trapper Keeper back in high school, I figured it'd be best to come at him from a couple different directions before tackling him on the page.
This is almost exactly as he appears in the series. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do him justice when I heard that he'd be in the book, but he's been a surprisingly fun character to draw. Whenever I read Brian Reed's script. Volstagg's voice in my head sounds like John Dimaggio's Aquaman from the "Batman: Brave and the Bold" cartoon.
If you picked up the issue at your local shop, you may notice that the inks for the interior art for the comic are a lot thicker. The lines are a lot bolder and the images are somewhat less clear when you compare them to the uncolored versions above. If I had to choose which images I preferred, I think I would probably go with Samnees concept art, even though I do feel that the colors on the interior panels of SIEGE: EMBEDDED did do a great job playing with shadows, giving some scenes an almost "noire-sque" feel. What do you think? Have you read the issue? Comparing the images above to the preview images below, which do you prefer?
