Adam Geen's Pipeline

Adam Geen

About

Adam Geen got his start illustrating and colouring the book SHUDDERTOWN for Image Comics under its Shadowline imprint. Still a newcomer to the comics scene he's constantly hard at work on various pitches and other personal creator-owned books. He's been known to perform as a cover artist and colourist as well. He currently resides in Ontario, Canada with his wife and their Pug, Vincent. More can be seen at: www.adamgeen.com view portfolio see more

Latest message from Adam GeenLatest Message on 3/14/2011 at 9:57 AM

Don't forget to stop by the Comics Pipeline booth at c2e2! Lots of creators will be on hand. ... view all creator comments see more

Sketches/Inks

Dollie - This was my cat, Dollie. RIP 12-03-2010

Weird demon guy - A sketch done circa 2000. Very Hogarth influenced. A lot of my early work was known to be done in pencil with shading. 12-04-2010

Black man - Just a random dude at this point. Maybe he'll be useful down the road. 12-05-2010

? - This thing is so old now I barely remember what it was for. I vaguely recall WHO it was for but I can't remember much past that. I'm assuming it was for some sort of comic as it's got 2 panels. I do recall thinking it odd that the script called for 2 panels with one being so large. He was supposed to be locked in some sort of room. Not very good obviously but it is what it is. Very old work. 12-07-2010

Gasmask - I don't know what it is but I love doing gasmask art. I have quite a few already but this one is just a random thing not many people have ever seen. 12-09-2010

Character sheets - Project X - Some character shots I've been working on for something current. I'll just call it Project X. He's gonna be a mean sonofabitch. Enforcer type. I'm thinkin of colouring him lighter colours. His suit I mean. That way it becomes a kind of ying and yang thing with him and the other character that I'll be posting later in the month. Light and dark. 12-13-2010

Self portrait - One of many self portraits I've done over the years. This one in particular was back in high school. Circa 2000. 12-15-2010

Tattoo? - A little hard to make out I think but I'm assuming this must have been some sort of tattoo design I was working on for someone. 12-17-2010

Sketch - Just a simple anatomy sketch. Didn't get very far... 12-19-2010

Prince - I can admit... I was a fan of Pat Lee's Warlands when it first started. This is one of his vampire guys. Prince Aalok I think? 12-26-2010

Character sheets - Project X - Some character shots for a new project I've been working on. The writer and I went back and forth on this bandaged character. We were concerned originally that he'd be compared to other bandaged characters. (Especially in a crime setting.) But in the end, we decided we just didn't care. Comics ALWAYS get compared to other properties or other comics. The bandages play a role in the character's motivations and origin so they kinda need to be there. Next month I'll post an early version of him where we tried limiting the amount of bandages to make him less comparable to those other characters. 12-28-2010

Tyr - A pinup that I created for someone's lead character. 01-02-2011

Ditto - Gonna upload a slew of really old stuff. Some of this stuff is gonna vary as far as quality goes in file size etc. I apologize for that but we'll chock it up to being naive way back when about some things. This one is from a project called Engine. It was a project many many years in the making but not much ever came from it aside from lots of promo pieces, 5 or 6 pages and a slew of pinups. This is Ditto. He had split personalities and was even gonna dress up as a woman. Ha. 01-04-2011

King Renly - I once started a fantasy project way back when. Even thumbnailed out the whole first issue. 01-04-2011

Plant - A plant study from back in my high school days. 01-04-2011

Angel - Another one of those pencil rendered type pieces. 01-06-2011

Angel colours - The beginning stage of some colours. This must have been one of the first times I tried colouring my own stuff. 01-06-2011

Woman - Woman portrait. I see a little experimentation here with different mediums. Probably some conte. More early work. 01-09-2011

Project X Teaser Pencils - The pencils to a teaser for a new project. 01-17-2011

Project X Teaser Inks - The final inks. A coloured version will probably be forthcoming as well. But, not today. 01-17-2011

Project X Teaser - Colours - The final colours to the teaser I posted earlier in the week. So far, this project has very specific design treatment to it. The way the colours work, the design elements, the placement of things. Hopefully it all comes together in the end. 01-21-2011

Project X - Main Character - One of the character pieces all inked up. Started playing with brush for the first time on this project too. 01-26-2011

Project X - Pencil roughs - I wanted to do somethin special for the guys over at Image Addiction. They run a podcast/website and had asked for some copies of the Shuddertown HC. Both of them unfortunately were out of work at the time so I wanted to help them as best I could. What better way to help than send them each a copy with some extra goodies?! So I figured I'd give them a sneak peek at my newest project with some original art included with the HC. These were the initial pencil roughs. 01-26-2011

Project X - Main Character 2 - And another inked piece continuing from yesterday's post. 01-27-2011

Vincent (Kids book) - I've started trying out ideas for a kids book of all things. I've kinda always wanted to do one. I'm not sure why but I'm not the sort of person that only wants to create one sort of thing. I'm just a creative type in general. I'm thinking it's gonna revolve around animals. The pug here would be the main character as I own a pug myself. So naturally a lot of his personality traits and characteristics will lend itself to the project quite nicely. Not much has been done so far except for a few sketches though as I've been busy working on two comic submissions. 02-05-2011

Vincent 2 (Kids book) - Another round of pug sketches from my kids book. 02-07-2011

Sneak Peek - Sneak peek at some pencils. Hmm and who pray tell might this be? Find out later next week! (If you can't tell -- I'm not really trying to hide it.) 03-07-2011

Matt Murdock - A quick Matt Murdock coloured in Photoshop. 03-10-2011

Death on Display - Not for anything in particular. Just wanted to experiment and try out some new things. 03-12-2011

Bullseye! - This turned out better than I thought it would! And it's something of a rarity from me -- I don't really do superheroes. I will try and splash some colours on it too so maybe you'll see that soon. 03-14-2011

Covers/Pinups

West of 75 Cover - The lineart for a cover to a crime book, West of Seventy-Five. It ended up being the first actual comics submission I ever completed. In my early days a lot of my comic projects fell by the wayside though for various reasons. Let me know if you'd rather I include the final, finished cover here as well even though it's available to view on my website. Comment away. 12-01-2010

West of Seventy-Five Cover (Final) - Alright, decided to post the final cover as well. I have a feeling I might do this in the future even though they may not be technically "exclusive" to this site. To me it seems a little weird to post some sketches, lineart etc but not show you the finished version. So here and there, I'll put it up too. 12-05-2010

Project Y Cover Part 2 - The second attempt at a cover for a current (?) project. The character design had undergone some changes so a new drawing was needed with the rest staying the same. The empty space was intentional as other design elements were going to be on the cover as well. I'll have to post some of the other pieces related to it shortly. There ended up being 3 versions of this one when all was said and done. 12-11-2010

Shuddertown #4 Cover - Ghosted - Some thoughts on covers. These posts show the evolution of the cover to Shuddertown #4. Shuddertown designer Tim Daniel had an interesting idea once the cover was finalized of "ghosting" the logo on this character. Most of the people really dug it but I felt it made him look like he was wearing some weird t-shirt. We did however end up using the "ghosted" effect on the hardcover collection cover. 12-30-2010

Shuddertown #4 Cover 1 - Some of the beginning stages of the #4 cover's colouring treatment. I loooove playing with textures. I also like happy accidents. Most of colouring stuff actually happens by accident as I don't colour the traditional way really. 12-30-2010

Shuddertown #4 Cover 2 - Even more experimentation of the cover's colouring this time with the mouth being left open to expose the teeth area. 12-30-2010

Bush43 - Cover/pinup type thing for my friend's prose story that he was running online at the time. Freakin hilarious stuff about this guy that runs around wearing a George Bush mask. 01-10-2011

Shuddertown Cover 5 A - What follows is the evolution of what goes into a cover. I have a hard time remembering what one actually came first. I think it was one of the C, D or E's. My editor had then asked for the image of Isaac to become more dominant. I didn't really agree with that as that wasn't the intention of the cover. The writer had asked for each cover to center around a different character. So this was the journalist's turn as #5 was going to center around her. Anyway, have a look. What follows is some of the many changes my editor had asked for. 01-19-2011

Shuddertown Cover 5 B - Journalist in center. 01-19-2011

Shuddertown Cover 5 C - White top. 01-19-2011

Shuddertown Cover 5 D - White top but Isaac shaded differently. 01-19-2011

Shuddertown Cover 5 E - I think I like this one best. 01-19-2011

Shuddertown Cover 5 (Final) - What ended up being the final cover. Basic but yet striking. I did warm up to it. But still, I would have liked to go forward with the original intention. 01-19-2011

Towerland Cover - Lineart - The lineart to a cover for a project called Towerland. It's conceived by my Shuddertown designer, Tim Daniel and writer Josh Wagner. Originally they had asked me to do covers for the mini but it's lookin more and more that I'll probably be doing more. The following is the first cover attempt I ever did for Towerland. There ended up being 2 more versions after this. Tim was very specific in what he wanted the cover to be and how the character looked. 01-23-2011

Towerland Cover - Extras - Here's some additional art I provided for the cover which will make more sense once you see the finished cover. 01-23-2011

Towerland Cover - Colours - Some colours applied to the lineart. 01-23-2011

Towerland Cover - Final - And the final mockup all stitched together by Tim. He always wanted the cover to be kind of like a magazine cover. I think it turned out pretty good. Sometime later this month I'll post the "final final" cover #1 to Towerland. 01-23-2011

Teaser - Never did hear much about this project after I did some stuff for it so I guess I could post this one. It was a teaser I whipped up real quick for a dark book. Very intriguing book too. 02-27-2011

COMICS!

Kid Soldiers Pg 1 - A page from an old, abandoned project. It was to be a spinoff of sorts for another project. Hopefully I can get back to it some day. There is one other version as well that's seen more completion as the entire page was meant to be seen through a scope on a gun. 12-18-2010

Shuddertown #5 Spread - A double-page spread that was meant to be for Shuddertown #5. It was one of only 2 pages I ended up doing for #5. The other I managed to turn into a pinup featured in the hardcover collection. 12-21-2010

Engine Spread - A double-page spread from a project near and dear to my heart. It was meant to be my first foray into comics but alas, nothing much came to be. At least on paper and script that is. It was all ideas. Grand ideas. I remember this one taking a heck of a long time to finish. As it turned out, this page was one of my first colouring attempts as well and I did it while being a little --- inebriated. I'm still quite happy with it too. (Coloured version can be seen on my site.) 12-23-2010

Shuddertown #2 Page 1 - Lineart for Shuddertown #2, Page 1. I won't lie, I suck at drawing kids. There's always something that artists prefer not to do. Mignola and Liefeld with feet for instance. Me? I'm not very good at portraying kids. I don't have kids of my own and I don't have kids around me or anything either so I struggle a bit. This one turned out pretty good though. Everyone seemed to love it. 01-02-2011

Project X Thumbnails - Some thumbnails for the first incarnation of Project X. Back then the writer and I were toying with the idea of doing it as a webcomic, that's why they're all done in a landscape format. Hard for me to say how old this stuff is now but seein as Project X has changed probably 3 or 4 times by now.... it's old. This was version 1.0 heh. Here you can see how basic my thumbnails always are -- panel shapes, page composition, balloon placements. Sometimes it's just scribbles because no one else usually sees this except me. 01-12-2011

Project X Thumbnails pt. 2 - On page 3 there I was gonna go for a kind of Jonathan Hickman inspired thing with arrows and such. 01-12-2011

Towerland - 2 - Pencils - Pencilled version. Sometimes they can be rough or looser. It depends on what I feel like on that given day. Typically I like to play with the ink and do most of my "drawing" at that stage though. 01-14-2011

Towerland - Inks - The final finished inks. 01-14-2011

Towerland - Thumbnail. This is how it starts. I usually don't go into very big detail. It probably measures oh... 4x5 or so. I'm mostly concerned with the flow of the page, the panel shapes and sizes and word balloons if there are any. I got lucky with this one, nailed it first time out. 01-14-2011

Pastmortem Thumbnails - A look at my thumbnail process for pages. The project didn't get very far -- it was a cop/serial killer thing. As you can see, the thumbs are usually pretty basic. I'm looking for panel shapes and sizes and most of the time balloon placement but I don't see any of that here. It IS very early work though so I've learned quite a bit since then. 01-30-2011

Pastmortem Page 1 - The finished page. (I wasn't colouring back then.) 01-30-2011

Page 2 - Digital Rough - Here's something that's a first. I was talking to the writer online thru gmail and wanted to work out the details of the following page. It was a weird page, something that is supposed to be read a certain way. So you could describe it as a difficult page I suppose. So I did a quick digital rough in Photoshop for him so he could see what I was thinking. Even made scribbly notes on the sides so he could see what things were "supposed" to be. He ended up digging the idea so I went to work on it. And just for clarity's sake I'll say the main character is drunk as well. 02-02-2011

Project X - Digital Rough - Sometimes to illustrate a point to a writer or just to let the writer know in general I'll do a quickie digital rough of a page. Here is one such page. "Usually" it's clear enough that anyone can follow along but maybe not always. 02-25-2011

Shuddertown #2 Pages 16-17 Spread - Panel borders - Here it is with the panel borders and small design elements added. 03-16-2011

Shuddertown #2 Pages 16-17 Spread - Craziness - And lastly here is it with some craziness added to it. The whole idea behind this spread was to show a timeline of events taking place but also that there was a certain feeling behind it. A feeling of nausea and energy due to the drug use and wild sex. ;) This was the last step before I went onto colouring. 03-16-2011

Shuddertown #2 Pages 16-17 Spread - Lineart - Here's the original lineart to a doublepage spread of Shuddertown #2. Quite the difference, eh? 03-16-2011

Shuddertown #4 Page 4 - Lineart - A page of lineart from Shuddertown #4. Writer Nick Spencer got me to draw lots and lots of cars in Shuddertown. I eventually got pretty good at them heh. Although I can't draw them all small-like. That's why if you look closely at panel 2, the car seems like it's bleeding into the rest of the art -- that's due to me drawing it larger then shrinking it down and placing it onto the art. (Setting that layer to multiply as well in Photoshop.) When the colour is applied it pops out and doesn't appear the same way. 03-19-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - Alright, here we go -- the Ultimate Step by Step to a coloured page of Shuddertown! This could potentially open some of your eyes. It doesn't always have to be so hard to complete something really cool. All it takes is a little experimentation. And that's another reason why I've learned to trust my gut most of the time. So step 1, lineart. PS: I apologize now cuz I realize this is gonna take you a while to look at, but --- you know, you don't HAVE to. This is for the process junkies! 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - Step 2, I like to start with a nice colour overlay/background. A dominant colour I want to play with on the page in question. 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - Flats on the character. 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - And from here on out, it's experimenting with texture pictures. Find something that works. I need somethin mystical, spiritual, supernatural looking. So that's where I'm going to gravitate to. All I'm doing is overlaying the textures over top of my background. (Usually I keep them off the figures, sometimes not though.) 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - Same 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - Wow, that's quite the difference, eh? 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - Getting there.... 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - Getting there... 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - And here comes the lightning! 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - And now I'm focusing on the hoodie character since he's the one that's supposed to be causing what's happening.... 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - These next few steps are all done with brushes in Photoshop. They're smears, streaks, swirls, spray paint, all kinds of stuff. 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - These next few steps are all done with brushes in Photoshop. They're smears, streaks, swirls, spray paint, all kinds of stuff. 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - These next few steps are all done with brushes in Photoshop. They're smears, streaks, swirls, spray paint, all kinds of stuff. 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - These next few steps are all done with brushes in Photoshop. They're smears, streaks, swirls, spray paint, all kinds of stuff. 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - These next few steps are all done with brushes in Photoshop. They're smears, streaks, swirls, spray paint, all kinds of stuff. 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - These next few steps are all done with brushes in Photoshop. They're smears, streaks, swirls, spray paint, all kinds of stuff. 03-21-2011

Shuddertown Spread - Step by Step Colours - Ta-da! A little zing added for a big finish. 03-21-2011

Shuddertown #3 Page 5 - The infamous page that one reviewer remarked that I suddenly drew one of the characters with a handlebar mustache. Haha. (Which obviously wasn't my intention.) It was simply meant to be shadow since his head was underwater and you know, since all the bubbles from his breathing would be coming in and out, etc. Oh well, win some, lose some. 03-23-2011

Shuddertown #2 Page 21 - Lineart - Some lineart to a page of Shuddertown #2. Those of you that have the issue at home, you should compare them. The colours and textures really changed this one. 03-26-2011

Miscellaneous

Beetlejuice Criterion - Somethin that came about on the Bendis board. Just for fun. 02-09-2011

Goonies Criterion - Somethin that came about on the Bendis board. Just for fun. 02-10-2011

Chapter 1 - Since I'll probably never get around to publishing this book of my art -- I figured I'd start posting some of the work I had done for it. Some of it is quite old now. Over the next week you'll see some really experimental stuff from me. It was kind of the beginning of a certain stage for me. Hope you enjoy it! 02-14-2011

Chapter 2 - Since I'll probably never get around to publishing this book of my art -- I figured I'd start posting some of the work I had done for it. Some of it is quite old now. Over the next week you'll see some really experimental stuff from me. It was kind of the beginning of a certain stage for me. Hope you enjoy it! 02-15-2011

Chapter 3 - Since I'll probably never get around to publishing this book of my art -- I figured I'd start posting some of the work I had done for it. Some of it is quite old now. Over the next week you'll see some really experimental stuff from me. It was kind of the beginning of a certain stage for me. Hope you enjoy it! 02-16-2011

Chapter 4 - Since I'll probably never get around to publishing this book of my art -- I figured I'd start posting some of the work I had done for it. Some of it is quite old now. Over the next week you'll see some really experimental stuff from me. It was kind of the beginning of a certain stage for me. Hope you enjoy it! 02-17-2011

Chapter 5 - Since I'll probably never get around to publishing this book of my art -- I figured I'd start posting some of the work I had done for it. Some of it is quite old now. Over the next week you'll see some really experimental stuff from me. It was kind of the beginning of a certain stage for me. Hope you enjoy it! 02-18-2011

Cheap Vodka - Art book cover - And finally, this was to be the cover for it. There'd be some more text for the back including what the book would be about, include, etc but I've turned that off for here. I still quite like this actually. Simple in its design. 02-21-2011

Existence 2.0 Logo - Way back when I jumped at the opportunity to do a logo for Nick Spencer's first book, Existence 2.0. (I believe the whole thing came about on the Bendis board.) I'm not a logo guy but I gave it a shot. As it turned out I lost to Tim Daniel, who I later worked with on Shuddertown and soon many other projects. I also consider him a close friend. Funny how that works. 02-22-2011

Kiss & Chase

Kiss & Chase - An all new, all exclusive webcomic starting right here on Comics Pipeline! Kiss & Chase is written by Mike Black with art by Adam Geen and letters by Thomas Mauer. Stay tuned for more details! 03-29-2011

Pipeline Comments

04/22/2011 02:20 PM

Daniele Serra

Great!

01/03/2011 11:49 PM

FlipGirl

Hey, like the art work!

01/03/2011 09:53 PM

Adam Geen

Anyone have any interest in seeing black and white lineart for my series Shuddertown?

12/21/2010 07:48 PM

Adam Geen

Hey, thanks abyss! Yeah, the writer had asked for it to look like a broken picture frame. I think it came out pretty nice as well!

12/21/2010 05:12 PM

abyss

hi Adam! this is my first time seeing your work, and i'm impressed. that shuddertown spread is really powerful. there's a lot going on in that image! i like the shatter effect over the expressive line art. can't wait to see more!

12/15/2010 10:41 AM

Humedex

really dig that character design sheet man.

12/07/2010 10:07 AM

nevertooOLD

The old one, the one with no name (?) - I can't stop thinking about the room the guy is in. Great job sticking the image in my head. It's like a tune that you can't stop whistling. Now I walk around all day wondering what that room was all about. And if he ever got out. See what you did?

12/05/2010 04:52 PM

Adam

Thanks! You'll see what's coming next for me right here later this month.

12/03/2010 01:12 PM

epalicki

I adore your style, Adam. I enjoyed the heck out of Shuddertown and I look forward to seeing what comes next.

12/02/2010 01:01 PM

Kris

Your lineart is very distinct! I enjoyed reading about what that first piece of art was from. Can't wait to see more! :)

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