This is a bit off the beaten path for my BALLS! toons. It’s a special birthday card for my favorite groupie, Elizabeth Hartley.

Unfortunately, my stupid scanner was acting up so I wasn’t able to upload these images until just a few minutes ago. Oh well. There are still a couple of hours until midnight. It still counts!.

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Hope you had yourself one hell of a nice day, Liz!

(PS - and I should have your sketchbook back to you next week.)

Last weekend, I attended the three day Toronto Comicon Fan Appreciation Event. I had a lot of fun and met up with some old friends. Attendance was not as great as hoped but it wasn’t too bad, at least not for me. I managed to sell some sketches and pages…. and then proceeded to blow almost every cent I made on comics and stuff during the last day of the show. The only downside was getting there. Normally, a drive from my house to downtown Toronto takes about 80 to 90 minutes. Even with heavy traffic, I usually make it in under two hours. Last friday?? OVER TWO AND A HALF GODDAM MONKEY HUMPIN’ HOURS!! Of course, I should be used to this. If I’m just driving up to Toronto to do a little shopping or to goof off or maybe stop at the Ikea in Etobicoke, I never have to worry. But as soon as I have to be somewhere at a specific time…. It doesn’t matter how bloody early I leave. I always arrive late!!

Oh well. At least the show was kind enough to cover my hotel and I managed to get a room with a jacuzzi. Unfortunately, the room was only one door away from the end of the building. It was literally five feet from being the farthest you could go from the convention center without actually leaving the hotel. On Saturday morning, it took me over twenty minutes to walk to the show. Fortunately, after checking out of the hotel on Sunday morning, I was able to park inside the convention center and arrive 15 minutes early.

Anyway, enough of that boring crappola. I managed to get a ridiculous amount of sketches done over the weekend, mainly because I forgot to bring some other work with me and had nothing else to do in my hotel room other than twiddle my thumbs and watch back-to-back episodes of TLC’s What Not To Wear. So, some of the stuff I’m showing here wasn’t actually sold at the show and will be posted for sale on another website in the near future.

So, without further adieu, here are the damn sketches. Just click on each thumbnail to see the entire image. Some of the skethces were scanned, others were shot with my digital camera so the quality of the images will vary.

I started off with these two. For some reason, these were the only two sketches I did with a Sharpie. The rest (aside from a couple of sketches done in pencil) were finished with a Faber-Castell PITT brush pen. Don’t be too terribly impressed by the name. These are well made but fairly inexpensive disposeable pens that can be found at most art supply stores.

These next two were contributions to “jam” pieces. The Doctor Strange sketch was done in pencil, along with the rest of the sketches on that page. Unfortunately, the flash washed part of the page out. The Steel headshot came out gigantic when I uploaded it. The actual size of the sketch was about 3″ x 4″. There were a couple of other jam piece images I did but I forgot to snap pictures of them. Oops!

These two were done for professionals at the show. The Rogue sketch was done for the manager of Francis Manupal, former artist on Witchblade. The She-Hulk sketch was done for Dan Slott, writer of the She-Hulk series.

Here are some trading card sized sketches. Again, the crazy things came out gigantic on the computer. Actually, I kind of like this. I usually crank out these freebie sketches in about 5 minutes. It’s funny seeing them in such detail.

This one is another freebie but a little larger than the last.

The little girl who asked for the Storm card sketch had never attended a comic con before. I found out that she was a Supergirl fan so, for the heck of it, I gave her this sketch for free.

Someone at the con described these as “golden-age” looking. I guess that fits.

Yeah, this one is a repeat of the Emma Frost sketch. I included it because, while I didn’t notice at the time I shot the picture, you can see part of the pencil rough for the next sketch right under the card.

I have NO idea why the heck this guy wanted a huge sketch (11″x 17″) of Hawkman pinned to a wall with arrows. But, dammit, he had money! And like a back alley, Bangkok lady-boy, I just couldn’t say, “no”.

A few readily recognizable Marvel heroes.

And, in the grand tradition of saving the best for last, we wrap up with more of the ladies.

HOLY CRAP!! I told you I got a lot of sketches done that weekend.

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PS - Oh, and in case any of you were wondering, the sketches available for sale later, will be found at The Artist’s Choice website.

….when I finally get around to sending them in.

Here is the final inked and colored version of the Avengers cover that I posted a couple of weeks ago. Just click on the image to see the whole thing.

Just a little something new and stupid.

We now have a revisit with my atomic powered, rabid, zombie, cyborg bunny of death whom you first met OVER HERE last September.

Not much more really needs to be said.

Enjoy!

HOLY CRAPAROONIE!! I forgot to add this sucker!!

This is the “bunnyBALLS” sketch that I did for Sharis Van Sciver (aka Sharis the Bunny) at the ComicExpo in Toronto this past summer. I wasn’t able to post it right away because, dopey me, I forgot to take a picture of it at the show. So I had to wait until Sharis could send me a scan but she had to wait a while as her sketchbook made the rounds through the hands of a few other artists.

So, anyway, here it is.

I have absolutely NO idea where the hell this picture came from. All I remember was Sharis asking me if I could do a sketch involving bunnies and BALLS….. and I SWEAR, IN THE NAME OF MY DREAD LORD SATAN, that THIS was the first image that popped in my head!!

Between the time Sharis gave me her request and the time I finished the sketch, less than twelve minutes had elapsed!!

Damn.

….and this is the kind of shit that runs through my brain when I’m SOBER!!

Here’s the cover to what should be issue #15 of Marvel Adventures: The Avengers. …..unless Marvel desides to change the schedule once more.

In which case, my head will explode again….. which would really suck as I just finished taping my skull shut.

GAAAAHHHHH!!!!

…..’nuff said.

Yes, that’s right, I finally decided to get a MySpace account.

You can find it over here —-> http://www.myspace.com/leonardkirk

I haven’t had a lot of time to do anything really decent with my page yet. I’ve had a crapload of work to get done over the weekend. So, for now, all I’ve done is add some general interest nonsense that should hold everyone’s attention for about three minutes.

ENJOY!!

PS - Don’t worry, you will still be able to find both me and my BALLS right here! I wouldn’t think of depriving any of my loyal followers of something so precious.”

At least he isn’t over in MARVEL ADVENTURES: THE AVENGERS.

For all you folks who are feeling so down in the dumps over the loss of everyone’s favorite patriot, I just thought I’d remind you that Captain America is alive and well in the Marvel Adventures line of all-ages comics. This week I will start drawing my third of four issues of the MA Avengers series that I’m lined up for.

And, as you can see, Cap is still as NOT DEAD as ever!

Yeah, I know. Seeing him sitting in the quinjet next to Wolverine doesn’t really prove he’s alive. But trust me!! This isn’t some kind of Weekend at Bernie’s stunt! He’s alive!! I SWEAR!!

So, for those of you who have said, “I won’t buy any more Marvel comics now that Cap is dead!” Well now you have no excuse!

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PS - By the way, I just noticed that the info for Marvel Adventures: The Avengers #13 is now up on the Marvel website and you can find it by clicking right here.

And, in case you’re curious, here’s the cover.