New Comic Art Work


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New Comic Art Work

This new section will showcase Mark Sparacio's
most recent jobs for various comic book companies and comic industry publications.

Please feel free to contact Mark Sparacio regarding any assignments anytime at:
marksparacio@aol.com

Cover Sketch for Alter Ego Magazine

This is the finished sketch for Roy Thomas' Alter Ego magazine, one of the best periodicals to cover the comic book industry. The sketch is based on an unused, 1941 cover layout for the Human Torch comic book, by Human Torch creator, Carl Burgos. The sketch has been approved and the painting has now been completed. The finished painting will be used for the June 2005 cover, issue number 49. To view a sneak peek of the finished painting please click on the image.

Shaun of the Dead

This is the finished sketch for a pin-up for I.D.W.'s comic book adaptation of the smash hit movie "Shaun of the Dead" . The sketch was done at the usual size of 11x17 inches. The sketch was approved and the painting is nowfinished. The comic book has an expected release date of May or June 2005. To see the finished painting, just click on the sketch.

Cover Sketch for Comics Buyers Guide featuring Green Lantern

This is the finished sketch for the new magazine version of the longest running publication to cover the comic book industry: Comics Buyers Guide. The sketch has been approved and the painting has now been completed. For a sneak peek of the completed painting please click on the image. The release date for this magazine is May or June 2005.

Will Eisner's Gallery of All New Comics,1982

Obviously, by the cover date on this image, this is certainly not a new piece of work. As most of you are aware, the legendary Will Eisner passed away on January 3rd, 2005. Mark Sparacio was recently invited to be part of a special tribute issue of the magazine Comic Book Artist commemorating Eisner's life and achievements in the Comics industry. Will Eisner was a wonderful man and will be profoundly missed. Sparacio will be submitting an article and this image to Comic Book Artist in recognition of his teacher. This is the cover to Will Eisner's Gallery of All New Comics, #9, 1982, a School of Visual Arts' student publication. Gallery was Will Eisner's students year-end final project and was intended for his students to see what their work would look like in print. It was also to be used as a sample piece for each student to try to obtain work in the comics/advertising industry. It was sold on campus for 75 cents. All of the student's characters on this cover were pecilled, inked,and colored by Mark Sparacio with the figure of the Spirit and Ebony inked and washed by Will Eisner, over Sparacio's pencils. Actually, this was the second such collaboration between the legendary Will Eisner and his neophyte student, Mark Sparacio. Sparacio had actually done the pencils for the cover of Will Eisner's Gallery of All New Comics #8, 1981 with each student inking his or her own character and Eisner inking the Spirit. A couple of interesting notes regarding this cover: Sparacio had originally asked his teacher, Will Eisner to sign a copy of Gallery for him back in 1982, but Eisner refused saying he " didn't want to ruin it." But as you probably noticed in the bottom right corner it is signed. Sparacio says, "When I met with Will at the San Diego Comic Con in 2003 to show him my paintings in my attempt to finally break into the comic book industry, I asked him to do what he wouldn't do 21 years ago. And being ever the humble gentleman he said he still didn't want to 'ruin' it. But he finally did sign it. Can you imagine, he thought his signature was going to ruin it." The second interesting thing is, you can see in this very early piece Sparacio was rudimentally trying to model the figures. He was painting it to be more three dimensional and was not just using flat colors. He used watercolors and yes, some colored pencils. And finally Sparacio's character is... well, we'll let you guess. Trust us, he's not that proud of it.

Below are two photos from the San Diego Comic Convention, July, 2003. The first photo is of Will Eisner at the end of one of his lectures and the second photo is of Will and four members of "Eisner's Raider's", as Will himself fondly called his students. From left to right are: Mark Sparacio, Ray Billingsly(?)(creator of the excellent daily comic strip "Curtis"), the legendary Will Eisner, Bo Hampton(Sleepy Hollow) and Alex Saviuk(Web of Spiderman, the Phantom). Careful when you click on these pictures. They open up very large. We are trying to correct the problem. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Cover Sketch for Comics Buyers Guide featuring the Fantastic Four

This is the finished sketch for the new magazine version of the longest running publication to cover the comic book industry: Comics Buyers Guide. The sketch has been approved and the painting has now been finished. To see the finished painting just click on the sketch.

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