SCARY MONSTERS #82: Marvin!

Another wraparound Scary Monsters magazine cover illustration done.  This all digital creation features Chicago horror host "Marvin" and his ghastly "Shock Theatre" crew. You'll also see a Zanti Misfit (and a "Sam-ti" Misfit!) and several creepy crawly arm/hand creatures!  Points to those who can identify all three appendages. 

Since the subject matter dates to the late '50s, I went for a retro color approach -- cribbing a palette from a vintage Marx Lone Ranger toy box and using comic book-style "big dot" color.  I've included a detail shot of Marvin so you can see the color technique.  As always, click on the pics for a bigger view.  Double click to the SIDE of the pics to see them outside of the slideshow format.

For info on Scary Monsters subscriptions and back issues, check out the official website.

Scary Monsters #80! The Monster Mag that wouldn't DIE!

Scary Monsters magazine celebrates 20 years of publication with its 80th issue. I've been with the magazine a little shy of that 20 -- but it's still quite a long run! Here's the latest cover. Thanks to Richard Sala for helping with the reference!

Scary Monsters: Big in Kenosha! Plus: MN to MO!

Scary Monsters makes the news in Kenosha! Thanks to Dave Fuentes for bringing this to my attention.

Followers of this blog will note a lack of activity lately. That's due to life keeping me a little busier than usual. My family and I are leaving Minneapolis and moving to the Kansas City area. The past month has been a flurry of sorting, selling, packing -- and, since we're buying a house -- filling out forms, signing agreements, faxing, scanning, emailing, transferring, hoping, praying, crossing fingers, etc.

We close on the new place today and move early next week. The contents of my studio are now (mostly) packed into boxes -- and my, oh my -- do I own a LOT of books! Once we're moved in and I get Humpty Dumpty put back together again, I'll share some pics of my new work space here.

In the meantime, things are likely to be slow blog-wise. But I promise new and interesting stuff once we get settled. I have some new projects planned and will be sharing info on those as soon as I can.

I will say that I've loved living in Minneapolis, and am going to miss all my amazing friends here. But I already have some pals in KC, and it appears to have a thriving rockabilly scene -- and a big comics community. And the BBQ. Oh, the BBQ! I think I'll fit in just fine.

Pins and Pinups: Memory Lanes in Minneapolis Sat. March 26

I'll be one of the artist guests for this event this Saturday night at Minneapolis' Memory Lanes. There will be burlesque performances, rockabilly music, bowling, beer and lots of art and comics from me. Admission is free -- though the bowling, art, comics and beer will cost you.

I put together a collection of prints of pin-up and pulp themed prints of my work to sell at the show -- you can see some previews below. All will be signed and available in limited numbers at the show. I may be offering them elsewhere later, so if you can't attend, you can still have a shot at getting them.

Some of the prints are digitally enhanced pieces based on pencil drawings of live models -- some of them the very burlesque performers you might be seeing at this show. Some of these, I can't show here, as they are a little too revealing.

Others are illustration work, taken directly from the original drawings and paintings -- these include the Johnny Dynamite pencil prelim for the tpb cover painting, the cover illo for the Mickey Spillane anthology, Tomorrow We Kill and the cover of the Ms. Tree novel, Deadly Beloved.

I'm also considering doing a similarly themed sketchbook, which would feature some of the same images -- though in black and white, not the color of these hi-res prints.

I'll have copies of the Bela Lugosi's Tales from the Grave comic book, Scary Monsters magazine and Batman comics, all featuring my work -- as well as a small selection of original art. If you're in the Twin Cities area, please come by. This should be a wonderfully entertaining evening!

Doors at 9PM, show at 10PM. 21+ For more info: http://www.memorylanesmpls.com/

SCARY MONSTERS #78

It's time for another Scary Monsters magazine cover. I just delivered this image for the wraparound cover of #78. This is the first cover I've done that is entirely digital. The drawing was done with the pen tools in Manga Studio and the color added in Photoshop. That's all for now!

Monster memories 2011

Just turned in this wraparound cover for the upcoming 2011 edition of Monster Memories. Some of the characters on the back cover are from the vintage horror comics filling the shelves on Sam Scare's newsstand -- originally drawn by Jack Cole, Bob Powell and George Evans. The "cycloptopus" and the snakey green guy came from my own fevered mind.

The newsstand is stocked with this past year's issues of Scary Monsters and other mags from Druktenis Publishing. I filled it out with some comics and books that featured my art --- and then added dozens of vintage comics, pulps, paperbacks and collectibles. The characters and newsstand were painted with acrylics on bristol board. That image was scanned and then touched up with Photoshop. All the magazines, comics and other items on the shelves were added in Photoshop as well. There were a LOT of layers!

Click on the image below for a much larger version. Have fun checking out all the "goodies" on the shelves!

Scary Monsters -- Werewolves and Vampires!

Another Scary Monsters cover done and delivered! This time editor/publisher Dennis Druktenis asked me to ape the cover of the vintage monster mag, Werewolves and Vampires. Instead of a generic pair of monsters, we used television horror movie host Wolfman Mac and Jonathan Frid as Dark Shadows' Barnabas Collins. Our back cover features two vampires -- Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Gloria Holden from Dracula's Daughter.

This cover was all digital -- the front cover images painted digitally, using photo reference -- the back cover is digitally manipulated/reworked photos.

Now back to drawing comics!

SCARY MONSTERS A-GO-GO!

Another Scary Monsters wraparound cover illustration done!  This is pencil, ink and Photoshop -- not a bit of paint, this time.  All images are from the ultra low budget flick,Monster A Go-Go!

My "Wolfmen" cover  for Scary Monsters #72 has been nominated for a Rondo Hatton Award -- you can see the ballot HERE.

How MONSTER MEMORIES are made.

For quite a long while now, I've been creating the cover art for SCARY MONSTERS magazine and its annual MONSTER MEMORIES edition.   Over the past two days, I produced the wraparound cover art for the upcoming MONSTER MEMORIES 2010 issue.  I thought it might be fun to follow the process.  

It begins with an email from editor/publisher Dennis Druktenis outlining all the images and copy he'd like on the cover.  As this issue contains a previously unpublished interview with the late Forrest J Ackerman, Dennis sent along multiple photos of Forry in his cluttered office.  For the movie monsters/actors depicted, I searched my collection and the web for appropriate reference photos.  On this cover we have Boris Karloff as the Frankenstein monster, Bela Lugosi as Dracula (from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein), Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Lon Chaneys, Senior and Junior -- and Aurora model kit "Big Frankie."

The next step is a rough pencil layout -- which I neglected to take a pic of -- but it's just a bunch of squiggles anyhow -- you're not missing much.  I then drew all of the cover-featured creatures in pencil -- roughing in the logo and placement for some of the cover copy.

I scanned this image, dropping out the rough logo and copy, and using Photoshop, altered the pencil tones to a light blue.  I then printed this onto bristol board.

Using colored inks, I started working on "Uncle Forry."

Here we are a little further along.

The  Forry portion of the piece was fully colored/painted -- with the messy elements on his desk just suggested, and fading away into white in the corner of the piece.  Using blue inks I added more depth and detail to the "background" monsters/actors. I also printed out a light blue scan of FJA's "Frankenscience Monster" book and with x-acto knife and glue, placed it in Karloff's hand

The next step was to scan this and start playing with contrast, hue and saturation in Photoshop.  I bumped the blue up to a darker purple and tried a greenish background color.

I liked that -- but maybe orange would look better?  Yup.

Next step was to hand draw the logo, scan it and combine it with the already existing illustration. 
More fussing with color -- a deeper reddish orange for the background, and a little more contrast saturation on that purple.   A little "Sam Scare" head was added by the logo, as well as all the cover copy requested by Dennis.  A few minor tweaks, and it's done.  Look for the cover below on your newsstand in the not too distant future!

The SPACE CHILDREN!

It's  Scary Monsters time again!  Here's the wraparound cover for the seventy-third issue.  Considering the subject matter was '50s space kids, I couldn't resist going all retro-comic booky this time.  I worked the magazine's mascot, Sam Scare into the crowd of frightened kids on the back cover -- though he doesn't exactly seem scared.  I loved drawing that big globby space brain/amoeba thing!  The various elements were drawn in ink and/or pencil, and combined and colored in Photoshop. 

Now on to several commissions, more Return to Perdition pages, and packing up some artwork I've sold to collectors....

Wolfmen!

I've just finished the wraparound cover illustration for the 72nd issue of Scary Monsters magazine.  For those who've wondered why this blog is "Scary Terry's World," -- this is why -- for more than a decade, I've been providing art for this mag, and since Scary and Terry conveniently rhyme, the nickname was inevitable! 

After years of painting these covers in acrylics on illustration board, pasting up copy on an overlay and shipping it all to the publisher in a big bulky cardboard box, I'm now experimenting with new ways to work, and making the final cover in Photoshop -- delivering the piece electronically.  Yes -- I know it's a shock to some, but I'm digging this 21st century technology.  

For this werewolf themed cover, I searched the web for images of Oliver Reed in the Hammer Studios movie, Curse of the Werewolf, and used a flopped version of a frame from the film for my preliminary drawing -- also referencing other stills and promotional photos for details.  The Lon Chaney Jr. Wolfman images came from still-frame screen images.

I started with pencil drawings on vellum -- shown here in their original black and white state.  The next step was scanning them and playing with color and contrast in Photoshop.  For Lon's Wolfman, I gave the linework a rich brown treatment, with a pale yellow in the highlights.  For the Oliver Reed Werewolf, I went with a deep blue, and then using the airbrush tools, added pinks, purples, reds and yellows under the linework.

The final step was to combine the images and add copy, logo and plug in the mag's mascot, Sam Scare.  

Click on the images for a larger view!

Next on the drawing board -- finishing up a few commissions, drawing a band gig poster and starting a major new project that'll keep me occupied for six months at least....

Scary Monsters 2009 yearbook cover

Here is an advance look at my wraparound cover illustration for the upcoming 2009 Scary Monsters yearbook.  Unlike previous covers, which were mostly acrylic on illustration board, this one is a combo of pencil, Dr. Martin's dyes and Photoshop.  The first pic shows the initial pencil stage.

I have a stack of commissions on my drawing board -- I should have some finished to post quite soon.

Karloff "Mummy" illo wins "Rondo" Award

My cover illustration for SCARY MONSTERS magazine #64 has just won a monster/horror fan "Rondo" Award.  For more information, take a look here: www.rondoaward.com

Monster Memories '08

Just finished -- the cover illustration for Scary Monsters' "Monster Memories 2008" annual. This time around, we're featuring the creatures from "Monster Squad" (finally available on DVD!) and our mascot Sam Scare and his pal Scarysaurus having some fun with "Dark Shadows" memorabilia and some Don Post monster masks. My digital camera wouldn't shoot this without picking up some glare -- so it's a little washed out on one side -- sorry 'bout that. I've also posted some close-up detail shots of some of the characters for those who'd like a closer look.

RONDO AWARD nomination!

Once again, one of my SCARY MONSTERS cover illustrations (issue #64, Boris Karloff in " The Mummy") has been nominated for a Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award. This is the sixth annual round of awards -- and while I've been nominated before, I've yet to win one of those spiffy li'l Rondo busts. Maybe this year?

If you are a fan of classic horror films (and if you're not, what's wrong with ya?) PLEASE Go to www.rondoaward.com and cast your votes today! There are many categories, including best movie, book, magazine, etc.

All you have to do is copy the ballot, paste it into an email, and place an x beside your choices. Then email it to the address provided, taraco@aol.com - It's that simple.

And if you are a certified monster maniac and not yet a member of the Universal Monster Army -- please join us at: www.universalmonsterarmy.com

New SCARY MONSTERS cover

Here's a preview of my next wraparound cover painting for SCARY MONSTERS magazine. This montage of images from William Castle's fright flick, HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, features portraits of Vincent Price and Elisha Cook Jr.  Acrylic on illustration board.