Friday, February 27, 2009

Uncle Forry SCARY MONSTERS cover

Just finished late last night, this is the wraparound cover for the upcoming 70th issue of SCARY MONSTERS. Click on it to see a larger version.  I've been doing cover illos for this mag for years, usually acrylic on illustration board -- and pasting up logos and copy  on an overlay the old fashioned way -- leaving a lot of the assembly work to the printers.  But this is the second one I've done since buying an 11 x 17 scanner, which is allowing me to scan the whole image, and then, in Photoshop, add background color and cover copy myself, tweaking the colors and such as I like.  The original images were done with colored inks on bristol board.

This is a tribute to the late great Forrest J. Ackerman, whose FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine was a huge influence on me and looms large in my childhood memories.  I was one of "Uncle Forry's" many "nephews" to visit his digs in "Karloffornia," and tour his incredible collection of movie memorabilia.  Every day I wear a reproduction of the Lugosi Dracula ring (pictured here) that was famously part of Forry's collection -- as much in tribute to FJA as to Bela.  I'm pleased to have the opportunity to use my artwork to say thank you to FJA on behalf of "monster kids" everywhere.  

A special thanks to Alan Light for the reference photos of Forry -- taken on his pilgrimage to the "Ackermansion" many moons ago.


1 comment:

Martin Powell said...

It's brilliant, Terry.

Forry would have loved this.