Generally, I’m an easygoing, laid-back kinda guy, but I tend to keep a pretty hectic schedule. I work full-time at a faith-based, international university, I create ADDANAC CITY comic strips five days a week with classic reprint comics posting on weekends, I design freelance art projects for folks from all over the nation, I make regular guest comics for a lot of my fellow webcomic cartoonists, and now….I’m illustrating comic stories for well-established comic book companies.

sample panel from my story

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with Nik Caesar on his horror-anthology graphic novels, Filthy Cake and The Pit and The Compendium. As much as I love working on things that premiere on the internet, it was particularly nice to have my work printed in actual book form that I can hold in my hands and smell the paper and ink!

Through my interactions with Nik Caesar, I had the opportunity to hook up with Mike Schneider. Mike wrote one of the stories I illustrated for The Pit and The Compendium. We got along pretty well and our styles meshed quite nicely in my opinion.

When Mike informed me that he was spearheading a comic anthology collection of steampunk-based stories, I was eager to get on board to see what I could contribute. Bear in mind, at the time I knew little of what encompassed the genre of ‘steampunk’. My closest knowledge of the subject came from the comics and movie “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”.

However, I learned an immense amount about steampunk while working on my 3-page story which was written by talented author Clara Batton-Smith. According to group-leader, Mike Schneider, this is the basic premise of steampunk:

“It’s an alternative reality, where steam power and Victorian culture were never replaced by electricity and 20th century culture.”

It was nice to have the freedom to illustrate someone else’s story. It granted me the chance to stretch my wings artistically and make myself draw scenes and objects that I would not have ordinarily have attempted.

I’m usually prone to take a shortcut or two when it comes to art. Working on this story taught me a bit about discipline and it reinvigorated my passion for drawing which, at the time, was slowly diminishing under my constant grind.

Below is the cover of the anthology. It was recently published in early December by well-known publishing company Arcana Comics.

Cover of Steampunk Originals Volume 1. Cover art by Matt Wiley

Many writers and artists, all possessing diverse styles, participated into the creation of this graphic novel. The anthology has already received favorable reviews. One website, Steampunk Canada, had this to say about Steampunk Originals Volume 1:

“I absolutely love the diversity of ideas, the pace, and the artwork. The artwork alone is so diverse that you have to literally switch gears with each new story. But it is well worth it. It is like attending a multi artist gallery opening.”

If you would like to read a small preview of the book, click here. If you’re interested in purchasing a copy (or two) for yourself, you can order directly from Arcana Comics right here.

Below is a sample of page 1 of the story Clara Batton-Smith and I collaborated on. To get the whole story, you’re gonna have to order the anthology.

Black & white and finished sample of page 1 of the story I worked on

I enjoyed working in an art style that I don’t get to use while creating a gag-a-day comic strip. I hope folks enjoy the drastic differences.

Currently, I’ve just completed the artwork for Steampunk Originals Volume 2. Yeah, Arcana liked the first issue so well that they gave the greenlight for a second book. This story is called “Caught In A Jam”. It’s written by horror-master Monstermatt Patterson and drawn & colored by yours truly. Hopefully, this second volume will be released Summer 2013. Look for it!