URBAN LEGENDS and SHOCK STORIES artist proof cards.

After drawing my Vampirella artist proof cards, I remembered that I'd never gotten around to drawing my AP cards for the Monsterwax Urban Legends and Shock Stories card sets. So, with little else on my schedule at the moment, I dug out the blanks and drew this creepy batch of full color images. All are up for grabs on eBay -- and the card sets are still available (in boxed form) from Monsterwax. I really enjoy drawing this weird horror and sci-fi stuff and hope to do more things in this vein in the future.

VAMPIRELLA artist proof cards

I recently drew a batch of twenty-five sketch cards for Breygent's new Vampirella card set. That means I also got to do four "artist proof" cards to sell myself. Here are progressive shots of the cards as I drew them -- from pencils to inks to color. All four are up for grabs on eBay -- under the seller ID "beattylee."

I'm now drawing the artist proof cards for the Urban Legends and Shock Stories card set from Monsterwax -- and will soon be doing the same for Breygent's Project Superpowers.

Green Lantern in styrene

We're fairly well settled into our new digs in the Kansas City area, and I'm back to work after finally getting my studio re-assembled. I'll eventually post some pics of the new workspace and my various collections on display there -- but for now, here's one of my latest projects.

This soon-to-be-released Green Lantern model kit from Moebius was designed by me, and I did the box illustration as well. The kit prototype was sculpted by Joe Laudati from my drawing. I'm thrilled with the end result -- as I wasn't even sure this pose was possible!

As this was intended to be the Silver Age Green Lantern, I leaned on Gil Kane's original design as much as possible -- the robot on the base is even a Kane-style 'bot. The box art was meant to invoke the Aurora kits of the '60s -- and I hope it'll fit in well on kit collectors' shelves next to Wonder Woman, Superboy and the others.

This is a kit that I've wanted since I was a kid -- so it was a special treat to be involved in ins creation. My thanks to Frank at Moebius for inviting me to contribute to the process.

Now that the craziness of the move has settled down, I hope to be back to posting regularly here. Please check back often to see new posts -- thanks!

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.

SCARY MONSTERS #79 -- a whole lot of vampires!

Here's an advance look at the just-finished cover for Scary Monsters #79. Created with a combo of Manga Studio and Photoshop. Get out your garlic, mirrors and crucifixes, folks -- that's a LOT of vampires!

Facebook Fan Page

Hey everyone -- my regular Facebook page was getting out of hand -- too many friends I didn't actually know -- but fans of my work, nonetheless. So I've started a fan page there, and will be making my original page more of a private thing for family, friends and fellow artists. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you should join up. Please check it out HERE.

I'm still plugging away at drawing the last section of Return to Perdition -- 20 pages to go -- so probably won't be blogging much until I'm done -- but keep checking back, I might surprise you.....

Is the end of "The Road" ahead?

If you've been wondering why this blog hasn't been terribly active lately, it's because I'm busy finishing up the art for the last section of Return to Perdition. This is a 180 page graphic novel from Vertigo Crime, written by Max Collins -- chronologically, the last story in the Road to Perdition saga.

As of this writing I still have a hefty chunk of pages to finish -- but the book is now available for pre-order and has an August publication date. Amazon has it listed with the black and white mock-up cover shown below. This is not the actual cover -- but as a promo piece, I think it looks pretty cool -- and does use some of my interior art from the book.

The actual cover is the color piece shown at the bottom of this page -- a wonderful illustration by Lee Bermejo that harkens back to the origins of the Perdition tale. Our story brings the action up to the 1970s, and brings a new generation into play.

I don't want to turn this into a commercial -- but I am rather proud of what Max and I are doing with this project and think it'll be well worth your time if you're at all a fan of our previous work. I'm drawing in a different style than usual -- meant to reflect the edgy nature of the story -- and doing a lot of the drawing digitally. At the pre-order price, it's a heck of a bargain.

And now if you'll excuse me for a while -- I have to finish the thing!