Artist Spotlight: Chris Samnee

March 16th, 2009

Artist Spotlight: Chris Samnee

For today’s Monday Masterpieces installment, I want to focus on someone whom I really do consider a modern “master” of comic art, who coincidentally has worked on a number of espionage-related projects…Chris Samnee.

I first discovered Samnee’s art in his collaboration with Greg Rucka on Queen & Country, and met him at the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, NC, where I bought both a commission sketch and a copy of his and Ande Parks’ Capote in Kansas, which I later used in teaching English 102 classes (for these and others, check out the Chris Samnee Amazon listing).

It’s easy to point out the number of things I like about Samnee’s art…his proficiency in chiaroscuro, his realistic proportions, his use of negative space, his skill at drawing clothing, his ability to represent action in static images…but I think what I like most about him is that he seems to like what I like (seriously…who would even think to draw the Greg Sanders / Saunders version of the Vigilante, that classic Prairie Troubadour turned superhero riding a motorcycle straight out of the golden age?). Above all, I think we share the same favorite artist: Alex Toth. And if he’s not Samnee’s favorite, then he was at least an influence.

You can read Samnee’s work in Queen & Country, and again with Rucka in the superhero/spy DC series Checkmate, but what I want to bring you today are some of my favorite sketches from Samnee’s blog, where he regularly updates with new art and behind the scenes glimpses of his process. I’m limiting my choices here to those that are secret agent-related, but the blog contains a plethora of beautiful drawings in numerous genres.

Click on each picture to see the original blog posting from which I took the sketch.

Nick Fury

Zephyr and Casanova

Madmoiselle Marie

Bad Samaritan wardrobe design

Sidney Bristow

Queen & Country cast

Filed Under : Alias, Casanova, Checkmate, Comics, Nick Fury, Queen & Country

About

Mister 8 is a blog about secret agents, spies, international crime-fighters and other characters and tropes of spy fiction, and an occasional comic featuring the titular Mister 8 and his work for DOS. This blog is published as often as the author can muster the energy to do so, and content ranges widely from talk of TV shows and movies, to scans of out-of-print comics, to tabs and chords from the great spy themes.

We welcome any feedback, either via the comments section of each post, or through our contact page!

Field Reports

* Unseen I Spy scripts leaked

Debbie Mazar, better known as “Tatia Loring” on the I Spy forum, recently got her hands on some unproduced scripts written by Ernie Frankel, and, while she can’t share the scripts themselves, is posting her copious notes for the rest of us to peruse! Up first: “The Day They Gave the Bride Away”.

* CBR spotlights Christopher Cool

Greg Hatcher at Comic Book Resources’ Comics Should Be Good blog takes a look at young adult novels today, including a lengthy look at Christopher Cool, a character created by James Bond comic strip writer James Lawrence.

* Saint book out soon

Wes Britton writes: Ian Dickerson’s long- awaited book on The Saint is coming, and you can pre-order an autographed copy with your name listed in it. Dr. Who books are also at: http://www.hirstbooks.com/television.html

About COBRAS

COBRAS stands for Coalition Of Bloggers wRiting About Spies, and was meant to be a one-off blog posting that highlighted some of my other favorite spy blogs. David @ Permission to Kill suggested we formalize it, and created a new blogroll on his page, and so, as the creator of the awful acronym, I thought I should follow suit.

The blogs at right really are the cream of the crop, and I appreciate their efforts to support Mister 8. I encourage you to bookmark them all, or add their feeds to your reader, or whatever it is that you crazy kids do these days.

Discussion (2)¬

Tanner says:

Mon | Mar 16 | 2009 at 4:20 pm

Great images! Thanks for posting them, Armstrong. I loved what Chris did on Q&C (and that’s a fantastic image at the bottom), but didn’t really know much else. I LOVE that Nick Fury! Alias is good too. I’d like to see him do a Bond image.
A.S. says:

Mon | Mar 16 | 2009 at 4:33 pm

He actually did a pretty great Daniel Craig in his latest blog entry:

http://www.chrissamnee.com/uploaded_images/Consolation-sketches3-703301.jpg

Mister 8