When I decided to start a sketchbook so I could get sketches from my artist friends, I faced the dilemma of who to get to open the book. The strategy is to have a really nice piece open your book which puts pressure on the next artist to equal the effort to avoid being embarrassed. I didn’t want to impose on someone else to put in that “something extra”, so I did it myself. Howard the Duck and Man-Thing are two of my favorite characters and you don’t see them very often, so doing this piece made perfect sense to me.

Here is the second page to my sketchbook and the first page featuring an artist other than me. The incomparable Adam Hughes was the obvious choice to be the first to contribute to my book. Getting on his sketch list was the hard part! I find Adam's humorous work as appealing as his pin-up work. Fortunately, I was able to talk him into combining both in this awesome piece.

After I got my sketchbook back from Adam Hughes at SuperCon I noticed the great Alex Nino sitting by himself in the Artist's Alley. Are you kidding me? I practically ran over to him and asked him to draw something suitably weird (we are talking about Nino, here). He didn't disappoint. Alex is my favorite of the 70's Phillipino invasion artists because of his incredibly unique artistic vision. In fact I love his stuff so much I had him contribute another piece to my book, but you will have to wait to see that one!

Page four of my sketchbook went to one of my favorite guys in the industry, William Stout .I have known Bill since the 1993 Dragon Con. He soon became my mentor for the business side of the comic/fantasy art industry. I don't think I have ever met a more business savvy illustrator. Not to mention his enormous talent. Luckily I was able to trade him sketches for this excellent piece. He seemed happy with the John Carter piece I did for his book and I am certainly pleased with his version of Tars Tarkas.