Long John

Ghost Rider has always been an intriguing design despite never having really read any of his books. Until recently, the only Ghost Rider I had read was in the two issues of X-Men he guest-starred in (issues 8 & 9 of the then-new adjectiveless series). More recently, I read the opening arc of All-New Ghost Rider which brought in Robbie Reyes as the new Ghost Rider and found it fun (this version appeared on the ABC show, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD and he was incredible).

While I was not inspired to pick up a Ghost Rider book during my prime comic book reading teenage years (and, in hindsight, the stories don’t seem particularly intriguing), his look has always been so damned cool.

What actually inspired me to sit down and draw this was an amazing and somber portrait of the character drawn by my friend and local comicking colleague, John Cottrell. So, with some time in the evenings after grading, I sat down with my iPad and sketched out an approach to the character I had in my head for awhile.

Seeing as how he’s a character whose head is on fire, and tends to do his crime-fighting in the evening, I like the high-contrast potential of the character’s design: a bright flaming head against a dark background (and dark clothing). So, with that in mind, I tried to think of the work of artists who play in that high contrast space regularly. Lately, I think of Chris Samnee, more than anybody, whose work is deceptively simple and always striking. While I didn’t directly reference any of Samnee’s work, his constant presence on my various social media timelines always keeps his work at the top of the mind.

That being said, I like how it turned out. I should probably read a proper Ghost Rider run at some point.