If there’s one thing artists want to do is get a chance to redeem themselves from their dreaded early work. In 1993 I was having the time of my life inking Jim Starlin’s Warlock that I idolized as a kid and working over the powerful pencils of Angel Medina. The problem was that when deadlines got out of hand Angel would not have the time to render his work as tightly and leave things in a sketchy and looser state. And in my second year of inking I was still too wet behind the ears to be prepared to finish the work properly. So, as seen in the second file, my inks on the cover of Warlock and the Infinity Watch#20 in 1993 simply SUCKED.
Turn the clocks ahead to 2009 Pittsburgh Comicon and I am approached by a Jason Hickock who shows me a prelim that Angel had done for this cover back in ’93 but had only partially penciled (Pip the troll)leaving the rest to his blueline pencil layouts. The first offer from this client, he asks me to recreate the cover. I’m both intimidated and giddy at the same time. So I took it home and commenced with completing the pencil art while referring to the original cover copies. While staying faithful to what Angel had initially done, I further elaborate, adding my touches of detail so as to prepare for the ink finishes.
The work was on an 11X17 nondescript 2-ply board with some tooth or texture so while inking it I ran into some problems. While use of my brush went smoothly, there was bleeding with use of my Hunt 102 for the flash lines so I had to revert to markers for those but it was even tricky getting clean marker lines. All in all, my first Medina commission was still a very fun experience and I’m very pleased with the results which were met on October 1, 2009. REDEMPTION!!!

http://www.angelmedinaart.com/

Inks by Bob Almond (2009)

Original pencil art by Angel Medina (1993)

Prelim pencils/layouts by Angel Medina (1993)

Completed pencils by Bob Almond (2009)