Fan mail funnies!

Sorting through my own art files, I've stumbled across a few pieces by others, and thought this one was worth sharing. One of the cool things about being a comic book artist is that you sometimes get fan mail -- and sometimes that mail includes a nifty drawing, like this one of Ms. Tree by Jim Benton. We published this in black and white in the gallery section of Ms. Tree #50 -- but this is the first time anyone outside of my studio will be able to see it it color.

No apologies needed, Jim!

Sample art and a letter from Dick Giordano

In 1980 I prepared several sample superhero pages in an attempt at getting work from DC Comics. The Batman page below is one of them. I also drew a Superman and a Wonder Woman page, but haven't seen them lately. The inking is better than the drawing here, and the storytelling is a little clumsy. Details in the background of the second panel came from my parents' living room! I still kind of like the Robbins-influenced Batman in the first panel and the extreme Joker close-up in the middle of the page (gun is too small, though).

I'm not surprised this didn't get me work -- but I did get a nice hand-written letter from the late Dick Giordano in response. The positive tone of it was encouraging, and while I didn't send more samples to DC right away, I plugged away at my own projects -- notably my collaboration with Max Allan Collins, Ms. Tree.

A few years later, thanks to Batman editor Denny O'Neil taking notice of Ms. Tree (and me taking the time to introduce myself to him at a DC sponsored party at the San Diego Con), I was invited to pencil something for an anniversary issue of Detective. Dick Giordano inked my pencils. I was thrilled with the results.
Ms. Tree eventually ended up at DC as well, for a ten-issue quarterly run. When that ended, I drew some more superhero samples, since I'd been drawing crime comics for over a decade, and wanted editors to know I could do more. The Superman sample below was part of a promo package I put together -- I did an inked version as well. Like my first samples, it didn't get me any more work from DC, and I spent a few years working for Warp Graphics, Tekno-Comix and others. DC would later invite me back, but that's another story.
The Spider-Man page below is one of two I did for the promo package (pencils and inks -- this is scanned from a photocopy of the pencils prior to inks) -- there was an Avengers/Iron Man page, too. It also, got me nowhere with Marvel (my total output for them, in my three decades in comics, is one spot illustration and five pages of inks) -- but resulted in a very nice phone call from John Romita, Sr. -- who told me he wished they could publish comics that looked like this. At the time, the "Image look" was all the rage, and I was bucking the trend by being too traditional, I suppose.
I'm still sorting through my original art and photocopies -- I'll be posting more items "from the vault." Keep watching this space!

Self Portrait (with friends) in pencil

Here's another piece from my art sale sorting (already sold!) -- a pencil self portrait from a few years back. The glasses, facial hair and haircut have all changed since then! I know I did an inked version of this, too -- but haven't stumbled across it yet. I think I did this for the cover of a sample book of my art. An inked version of the Creature head was used as an entry hand stamp at a convention (Wonderfest maybe?) one year. I still have the rubber stamp someplace....

Anyhow -- that's me -- or a previous version of me -- with some of my favorite characters.

400 faces!

I've been sorting through my original art files, finding pieces to list for sale on my website, and thought it'd be fun to show some of what I'm sorting through here, and tell the story behind them -- some that I'm listing for sale, and some that I'm not. Early in my career, I was a regular contributor to Alan Light's The Buyer's Guide for Comic Fandom, a weekly tabloid format fanzine, which consisted mostly of buy/sell/trade ads for comics and related collectibles -- but it did have regular columns (I wrote one for a while), articles, interviews and cover illustrations.

Most of the cover art was contributed by fans looking to get some exposure -- with a pro cartoonist cover in the mix once in a while (even Milt Caniff got involved). But the weekly schedule left Alan needing more cover art than he was getting for free -- so I was hired as the semi-regular cover artist. As far as I know, I'm the only artist who was ever paid to draw covers for TBG. I used the opportunity to pay tribute to cartoonists I admired -- and to experiment a bit (we did a 3-D cover!) -- and to just plain have fun -- which is what I was doing here.

This is TBG #400, from July of 1981. To celebrate reaching the 400 mark, I decided to challenge myself to draw 400 characters on the cover. I marked off a grid of 400 squares and started with comic strip characters, then moved on to Golden and Silver Age super heroes and on through the underground comix and ended up with my own characters (and me!) -- with some faces from the movies, TV and the music scene thrown in for good measure.

If you can name them ALL, you are a true pop culture fiend! Click on the image to see it bigger.

SCARY MONSTERS #75

SpringCon is done and I'm back to the drawing board. We're on a tight deadline for finishing Unemployed Man -- but had to make room on my schedule for the wraparound cover of the upcoming 75th issue of Scary Monsters! This is ink on paper with digital color. Can you name all the movies referenced here?

MCBA SpringCon!

I've been chained to the drawing board lately -- working on Return to Perdition (180 page graphic novel), Bela Lugosi's Tales from the Grave (8 page story), Unemployed Man (inks on Rick Veitch and Ramona Fradon) and inking what is most likely my last issue of Batman: The Brave and the Bold. There's been little time for posting to my blog, but I'm turning out a lot of work that I hope you all will want to check out when it's published.

If you're in the Twin Cities area -- please consider attending SpringCon, the local comic book convention next weekend (May 15 and 16) at the fairgrounds in St. Paul. Admission is $11.00 ($1.00 off with a canned food shelf donation). I'll be there with original art and back issues of some of my comics -- stop by and say hello!

The Return of Dr. Sketchy's!

So I've been a little busy. I'm currently juggling three comics projects (it had been four!), and that's left little time to add anything to this blog. My apologies for going so long between posts. I'll do my best not to let that happen again. I appreciate all of you who stop here to see my art and the other "cool stuff" that I post, so I don't want to leave you with nothing new for such a long time.

Today I took a break from work and attended the local Dr. Sketchy's session. I hadn't gone for months, so it was a real treat to be an "art monkey" once again! I wasn't the only pro in the crowd -- Steve Fastner was there, too. I didn't get to see any of his sketches -- but I'd bet they were sweet! For those of you unfamiliar with the work of Fastner and Larson, check out their website HERE.

Our model today was the lovely Ophelia Flame -- she gave us some great poses and was a joy to draw. Below are some of my drawings from the session.

First up are a series of four two minute figures. That's just enough time to get a quick, rough pose down on paper -- no details, just the basic structure. We did several five minute poses -- but I didn't care for the results, so I'm passing on posting those here.

Fifteen minutes gives me enough time to get a near finished drawing done -- though it's a race to the finish, and I feel the pressure to "get it right" as the clock ticks. I especially like the legs in this one.
For this pose, we got thirty minutes total -- with a very short break at fifteen. At the break, I had a black and white drawing mostly done -- so I spent the next fifteen adding color. I'd have liked a little more time to refine this -- but am fairly pleased with it. It did win me a bag of art supplies from Sketchy's sponsor Dick Blick -- so I guess I did something right.

And for those concerned about such things -- she is wearing "pasties" -- so all "naughty bits" are covered -- OK?

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