Rex Steele is Coming to Spain!

That's right, Rex Steele is being published in Spain by Aleta Ediciones and will be available next month! Not only that but myself and Rex's co-creator/writer Matt Peters will be attending FICOMIC, the comics festival in Barcelona May 15th-18th to sign copies of Rex Steele!

To celebrate Rex Steele's arrival in Spain, fan art by the amazing Spanish comic book artist José Luis Ágreda!



Sorry for the long absence from the blog, I've been busy making stuff. Soon the floodgates will open.

Shameless Plugs

Many apologies for the lack of posting lately, I've been busy with a new project that I'll reveal soon. In the meantime a few plugs:

I was recently graced with the honor of writing the quote for the back of the new artbook by the amazing Monsieur Z (site, blog).

Which was a great pleasure as I'm a big fan of his work (you should be too). He even drew a hilarious caricature of me to go with the quote. I'll post it if I can get his permission.

The website DigiBiDi recently added a 17 page preview of Matt Peters and my own Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher book.
You can see it right here:

As far as I can tell DigiBiDi is a site specifically dedicated for previews of Comics, Graphic Novels, Mangas and BD naturally. Or at least that's what I assume, not being able to read french and all.



Lastly I'd like to plug my good friend Robert Smith aka "the Iguana".
Rob and I went to comic book school together and we learned much from each other. He works in the New York animation industry and has inked a bunch of Kids Next Door comics for DC. He's in desperate need of a blog, if you know him try to convince him would you? He does however sell some really cute (and sometimes naughty) girly art on Ebay for way to cheap.

Music to Smash By

Some of you may remember a few years back an animated short made by Alex Woo and myself (mostly Alex, and also Matt Peters and a bunch of other people). Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher, based on the comic of the same name. Well let me tell you, it's got one heck of a rousing musical score composed and conducted by a certain Mr. Ryan Shore, and performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra no less.
I'm very proud to announce the Rex Steele score along with other short film scores by Ryan Shore is now commercially available on CD or MP3 download.



Sound clips and more info HERE.

CD distributed by Screen Archives Entertainment.

Download album in 320kbit mp3 format HERE.

Download album on iTunes HERE.

Smash That Kraut Sour!

I'm updating the blog shop to include the original 2004 English language Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher trade paperback, which was previously available at www.monkeysuit.com. Monkeysuit is officially shutting down, a sad day indeed. Without Monkeysuit Matt Peters and I probably would have never gotten Rex out there. But I'm hopeful the New York based anthology will make it's triumphant return someday.



The book is 132 pages glorious black and white throughout, published by Monkeysuit press in 2004.
Not very many remain of this edition, and it contains some material that will probably never be reprinted.

Here's what's inside:
"Countdown to Annihilation" The original Rex Steele story that was first published in the anthology Monkeysuit vol. 1 in 1999.



"In the Bosom of Terror" The second Rex Steele story first published in the anthology "The Bride of Monkeysuit" in 2000.
This is the story that was adapted for the animated short film by Alex Woo released in 2004.



"Operation Mother's Day" The Third Rex Steele story originally published in "Viva la Monkeysuit" in 2001.



Quite a rarity, "Menace of the Pinheaded Goons". This story is unique to this volume and has never been reprinted (and possibly never will). Written by Matt Peters, plotted by Matt and myself and illustrated by our very talented friend Stephen DeStefano. This is a faux vintage Rex story found in a fictional archive.



Also unique to this volume is an extensive collection of pin ups, other artists interpretations of Rex Steele. Some of the artists include Bill Wray, Kasu Kibuishi, Ricky Nierva, Mike Wieringo, Dice Tsutsumi, Enrico Casarosa, Jackson Publick, Dean Yeagle, Mark Andrews, Mo Willems and Ronnie del Carmen.



And lastly the volume ends with a section devoted to my sketches and developmental drawings which contains some drawings that are in the French volume and some that are not.



I am hoping to reprint the full color French edition (with it's two additional stories) in English eventually, but at the moment there is no guarantee.

Also, this book will ship from a different location than my pin up books, so I'm afraid combination orders with the other books on my blog will be impossible.

Thanks!

Dédicace

I thought I'd share some of the dedication drawings I did while I was in Angoulême. Some in Belle Du Jour, some in Rex Steele.
Thanks to everybody who sent me scans, I appreciate it.



Rex Steele as Santa Claus was a bit of an odd request, but there's something about it that makes a weird kind of sense to me.



If there's anybody else out there that I drew a dedication for who's in a scanning mood, please send it along to me at bill@billpresing.com
I may want to put together a book of convention sketches someday.

Destination: France - Chapter 5

At last! My very own copy of Rex Steele in French! The quality is astounding, I couldn't be happier with it. I've always wanted to be published in France, where the standards in comic book art are truly set well above the rest. It's a joy for me to see it in the French format after all these years. I can only hope that it'll come close to standing up to the real BD on the shelves.


(The book comes complete with the animated short film by Alex Woo as well)







Thank you to all of you who picked up the book in France already, I really appreciate the support. Myself and fellow Pixar story artist Ted Mathot (Rose and Isabel) will be leaving for Paris and Angoulême next week for a book tour, I hope I get a chance to meet you all there.

On Tuesday January 22nd at 4:00 pm Ted and I will be signing our books at Album Bercy (46, Cour Saint-Émilion in PARIS)


Then Wednesday January 23rd at 3:00 pm We'll be at comic shop Bedelire in a place called Tours.


Thursday January 24th we arrive at Angoulême for the BD festival. We'll be at the Akileos table starting at 1:00 pm. We'll be there for the entire festival until Sunday the 27th.


Back to Paris on Tuesday January 29th at 4:00 pm for a signing at Album Comics (67, Boulevard Saint-Germain)


Then back home, hopefully with an in depth post about my trip.

Oh yes, In addition to the Rex Steele book, my book Belle du Jour will also be available on the tour for anyone interested.

Destination: France - Chapter 4

Thought I'd post a few of my favorite pages that Nate Wragg colored for the French Rex Steele edition. (Nate is better known for his 2-D Ratatouille work)





The Book is being published by Akileos, with a release date of December 6th I believe. You can find some more page samples HERE. The book will include a dvd of the animated short as well.

The Eagle Strikes!

This is a spot illustration I whipped up for the Rex Steele French book. I didn't spend much time on it but I'm really happy with the way it came out. I'm trying to get better at loose bold kind of inking and not be so anal about things.

Destination: France - Chapter 3

I'm back.
I've been in New York for a small vacation and a wedding.
I've got a little bit of a backlog of Belle Du Jour orders to fill, so please be patient as I catch up.

Here's the final cover for the Rex Steele french edition. Or at least final as of the moment, I might monkey with it some more before print. The font at the bottom might change and/or be in French eventually. We will see.

Destination: France - Chapter 2

These are a few of the background elements for the French Rex Steele book cover. In the final they'll be partly covered by the foreground elements so I thought I'd show 'em in their entirety.

Destination: France

I'm very happy to announce that Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher is being published en français! In living fascist crunching color! It's being published by the fine folks at Akiléos. My buddy Nate Wragg is coloring most of it, but I'm coloring some too.
Here's the rough for the cover. I'll post more as it developes.

Hero Down.

Mike Wieringo passed away just this past Sunday. I'm quite devastated by it, even though I barely knew him. I've been a huge fan and admirer of his work since I was a student. He was truly one of the greats in my mind, and truly humble. In appreciation I wanted to post this pin up he did for Matt Peters and myself for our Rex Steele book a few years ago. We will miss him.

D-Day

Sorry for the mega post but this is the last chance I'll get till after Con.
So I will be selling my new book "Belle Du Jour" at booth 4800 at the San Diego Comicon from July 25th (preview night) to July 29th. I'll be sharing the booth with my good friends Scott Morse and Jeff Pidgeon.


The book itself measures 8 1/2" x 7" and is 96 pages, full color throughout. Hardcover. It will sell for $25.


I'm also offering a special limited edition that will contain an original piece of artwork attached to the inside front cover as a bookplate (The artwork can be removed without damaging the book or the art with a small amount of effort).
The attached bookplate will look something like this (only signed and numbered)

The special limited edition will sell for $60. The original art book plates will be numbered to 100 (of which I will have 70 with me) Here's the full selection of what will be available.

I'll have a catalog at the table showing all of the available bookplates to choose from. So that you can pick whichever one you like (on a first come first served basis that is).
And lastly, I'll also have the Rex Steele book ($10) and short film dvd ($15) available. Supplies are dwindling however.

Hope to see you in San Diego.

Booby Trap!

Check out this awesome Greta pin-up over on Lauren Monardo's blog.

Heartwarming isn't it?

Fight Rex Fight! Part 4

Roughs!

Satan's Calling Card.

My good friend and associate Ronnie Del Carmen posted a cropped version of this page of Greta studies on his blog. Afterwhich I've been requested to show the whole shebang. It's actually a page from my old portfolio, although most of these drawings were printed in the Rex Steele compilation book.

Fight Rex Fight! Part 3

Once I showed those thumbs to my creative partner Matt, he had some constructive criticism. Too much glowering and posturing. It interrupted the flow and energy. He was totally right, you can't have a knock down drag out knuckle brawl with people lookin' at each other 'tween every punch. So I went back to the drawing board and busted these out:



Great, it's shorter and more to the point. I was in a much better head space now. Did these:



Almost there, did a refining pass and got the balance and composition more tied down.



And after that, onto the roughs!