(1999-2002) Prior to being printed, the coloring of covers can go through various stages. I’ve included in this gallery color guides, variant/unseen proofs, as well as the printed color jobs without copy obscuring the images. In many cases I inked the work shown but, in some cases, I included others’ work for your viewing pleasure (I’d hate to lose these files as Tom Smith who colored many lost them when his computer crashed). In THOSE cases I will list the ink artist (as well as the color artist). All pencils (minus #24) by Sal Velluto.

The 17 complete and unpublished Captain Gravity #1 pages of art by Mike Lilly and Bob Almond

I was hired by Penny-Farthing Press to ink the 6-issue series CAPTAIN GRAVITY & THE POWER OF THE VRIL in the beginning of November 2003 over pencil artist Mike Lilly. Between November & January I received 17 pages to ink from issue #1 which I completed. Due to circumstances a subsequent creative change was made and my pal Sal Velluto made the cut as the new pencil artist with me retained to ink my oft-partner.

Unfortunately, these originally rendered pages will most-likely not see print since it wasn’t included in the trade collection. This disappointed me since, outside of commissions, as much as I cherish our working relationship and the quality of work that we achieve as a team I don’t often get to sink my ink into artists outside of Sal and when I do it’s always a challenge but fun to delve into different creative territory.

And I ultimately felt that these inked pages rocked! I used much more drybrush effects than I tend to among other cool textural tricks. By the way, the reason that Mike drew so many 2-page spreads was because PFP puts their ads in the backs of their books so Mike figured that he’d take advantage of the uninterrupted space in laying out the story and giving it a different feel. So now that the series has debuted I can reveal what was to be and you, the reader/fan, can compare these pages to the incredible pages that Sal drew and I inked in the published (and sold out) comic book.

5/9/2004 – As mentioned in my site’s NEWS/PREVIEWS (archives) for 9/19/2003, Sal Velluto was among a handful of artists asked to submit sample art to Dark Horse Comics by Conan scribe Kurt Busiek and editorial. Sal submitted a pin-up image and two pages of sequential art from a Kurt sample script. There was an emphasis not to copy the popular Marvel Comics version of the character and Kurt & Sal discussed the idea of rendering Conan as sinewy and panther-like since creator Robert E. Howard had described his hero in such a fashion in the source material.

This was interesting since Sal had recently ended his run on Marvel’s BLACK PANTHER. Ultimately, another pencil artist was chosen for the position. Had Sal been hired I would have almost certainly been the Hyborean inker. After numerous requests I decided to post this unpublished art here in my SPECIAL FEATURES section with consent from my pal Sal.

Speaking of Sal’s BLACK PANTHER, here are four unpublished pages from issue #17. Priest had accidentally submitted an earlier draft of the script to Sal and by the time he’d realized it Sal had done this deleted sequence and it was sitting on my table ready to be inked. Sal & I were perplexed initially by the sequence but we didn’t question it since non-linear and flashback sequences was the norm for CJP. Incidentally, Panther-philes may notice that page 21 and most of page 22 was used from this sequence but in issue #22 instead.