More commissions!

Though my schedule is crammed full of comic book work, I managed to sneak a few more commissions in this week.  My recent Orion Vs. Darkseid piece must have caught the eye of the client who requested I draw a Jack Kirby-style Orion.  I tried to push the Kirby look a little more this time -- using more of his patented "squiggles."  I wasn't completely happy with the pose in my initial pencil sketch, thinking it a little stiff -- so when I transfered it to bristol, I reworked the legs.

I think this gives the figure a stronger line of motion, and makes for a better drawing -- judge for yourself -- the inked version is shown below, followed by the full color finished piece.

I'd drawn Golden Age comic book hero Doctor Mid-Nite for a previous client -- but this this time I was asked to add a new element.  Doc now has a sidekick based on the original (pre-Barbara Gordon) Bat Girl - dropping the (few) Bat-elements of her costume.  From initial sketch to finished piece, I moved Mid-Nite Girl (?) over a bit, so the figures weren't touching.  I'm quite pleased with Doc's jaunty running pose!

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Darkseid Vs. Orion

I haven't done many commissions lately -- being busy drawing the Return to Perdition graphic novel and inking a special project -- but I couldn't resist this request to draw a Kirby-esque confrontation between Darkseid and Orion.  In this moment, it seems the older generation has the upper hand -- but obviously, there's more to the story....

For those who like to see the process, I've included scans of the (not quite finished) pencils and the inks as well as the final color piece.  The pencils were drawn at a smaller size and then enlarged in Photoshop, then transferred to a larger board for inks and color.

Artists and Models -- 1937

I noticed the other day that TCM had Artists and Models scheduled, and so I set my DVR to record it.  I assumed it was the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis movie of that title -- which is about the comic book business -- and has lots of fun comic book content ("The Bat-Lady!") -- but I was mistaken.  What was shown was the 1937 Jack  Benny vehicle with the same title.  I'd known about this film -- having a piece of sheet music from it in my collection, but had never seen it.  I bought the sheet music, because it featured Benny (one of my favorite comedians) and also artwork by the great cartoonist Russell Patterson. If I had any idea what box it was stored in, I'd dig it out and scan it and include it here, but I'm not in the mood to go tearing through my storage closet right now.  

Anyhow -- turns out that the '37 Artists and Models is not a very good movie -- despite being directed by Raoul Walsh and having such talents as Jack Benny and Ida Lupino in it.  But it is of interest to artists and art fiends, because it features appearances by Russell Patterson, John  LaGatta, Rube Goldberg, McClelland Barclay, Arthur William Brown and the great New Yorker panel cartoonist Peter Arno.  There's also a bizarre musical number featuring puppets designed by Patterson, including "Esky,"  the Esquire magazine mascot. 

So that you don't have to suffer through this lousy movie to see the cool parts, I took some screen shots, and am sharing them here.

The titles have Russell Patterson images throughout.

The artists on stage at the Artists and Models ball.

John LaGatta.

Russell Patterson

Rube Goldberg

Goldberg with Jack Benny

McClelland Barclay

Peter Arno's drawing

Benny and Arno

Arthur William Brown

Benny and Patterson

Benny and LaGatta -- Brown in background

Benny and Barclay

Patterson-designed puppets musical number

Esky!

That's all, folks!

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.

Podcast interview

Kurt Parsons interviewed me for a podcast on his website.  There are also interviews with other cartoonists, including Gene Colan.  Check it out HERE.  That's all!

(Link fixed -- thanks to Jim Keefe!)

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!