Least Expected

When I realized my first Anything Marvel sketchbook was getting close to an end, I started thinking about what I'd do for the next one. The first time I went to Small Press Expo (SPX) in 2003, I heard a couple of the creators talking about some guy's Krypto the Super-Dog sketchbook and how (I think it was) Josh Neufeld had drawn him lifting his leg on a fire hydrant to urinate and the power of the stream has blown the hydrant away. I thought that was great, and wanted to think of something that would challenge the creators, be fun, and really show the power of their creativity. If you look at Walt Parrish''s Cliff sketches or his Jars sketches (where he pre-stamps the pages with a jar and the creator does what they will with it), you can see how great this can turn out. My initial idea was "The Money Shot", letting creators make what they will of that statement. I figured some'd go the blue route while others would go cinematic, and yet others would show money being tossed up and being shot. However, I was talking to Marc Nathan, who runs the Baltimore Comic-Con, and he was telling me the reason that you never get a Frank Cho girlie sketch is because Frank doesn't do them unless he's doing them by himself. He doesn't like to have an audience while doing those -- I guess they're too intimate for him. It occurred to me that you might get Frank to do a woman sketch if you asked him to do what we'd least expect him to draw. And perhaps get Todd McFarlane to draw Spider-Man or whatever that impossible combination of creator and character might be! And thus was born "Least Expected". It has been an interesting experiment. Some creators have outright refused to do something in it (I asked Howard Chaykin if he wanted to do something in it because the Luna Brothers had my Anything Marvel book and he said he wasn't interested -- so I went and got the Anything Marvel book from the Lunas, and need to get Book 2 to them so they can do something in it!!). Others have defaulted to whatever they normally sketch anyway (Walt Simonson, Jim Starlin), taking the ironic route (or maybe the inattentive route, as the case might have been). But many of the creators have had me wiping away tears I was laughing so much. John K. Snyder III started it off with The Shmoo and I was cracking up immediately. Take a look at Matt Haley's Super Kirk or Andy Runton's Owly With a Gun. See Tony Harris do Spongebob Squarepants and Brandon Peterson draw a Care Bear! As Sean Chen put it upon hearing the theme, "This is a sketchbook that has absolutely zero street-value." And I love it!

There are 63 Pieces of Art In This Gallery.     19 through 36 shown.

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There are 63 Pieces of Art In This Gallery.     19 through 36 shown.

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