New Stuff - LSOH #23

So...for nearly 20 years now I've been doing illos for my old buddy,Dick Klemensen's Hammer Films fanzine Little Shoppe of Horrors.

It has been a complete and utter joy to do so as I adore the original films-also,since then I've made several friends thru the fanzine who are very good artists in their own right- Adrian Salmon,Bruce Timm,Dan Gallagher Jr.,Frank Dietz,Jeff Preston,Mark Maddox,Shane Oakley and others.

Many of these gents are what I consider "complete artists"- in other words they can pretty much do anything-including beautiful color work-I however am primarily a B & W artist...which leads us to today's post.

For the upcoming 23rd ish of LSOH,Dick asked Ade and I to contribute inside back and front covers in color-no great challenge to Ade as he is an amazing colorist-but i have only done a handful of projects in color in my entire career (one of which is the background of my blog's title above) and feel much more at home with my blacks,whites and greys.

The subject of my piece is from the film THE MUMMY'S SHROUD-directed by John Gilling (a featured writer/director in the new ish.) I originally chose an action scene,showing the mummy throttling members of the cast...






I then thought it might be fun to show the scene where the heroine uses the shroud of the title to destroy the creature-causing it to crumble to dust...





After careful consideration of the need to show the lady in a gratuitous shot from behind,accenting her ass-sets...ahem...I decided to concentrate on the mummy's decaying form instead...sorry lads...;o)





Tho I thought it might be fun to include a panel of her with the shroud (above) I realized the point of the piece was the mummy crumbling to dust.

I placed tracing paper over the pencils and did an inkline to have a solid base for whatever colors i might add-I also added some "splatter" FX via my trusty toothbrush (an old used one of course ;o)



I then scanned the art and played around with some filters in Photoshop-i wanted an interesting effect-something that evoked decay-after a few hours of experimenting this is what i ended up with...




Then I spent several days,on and off,frustratingly trying different color styles-i wanted some of that "Hammer color" that they did so well-but my coloring abilities were found wanting.

I tried color pencils,water colors and some wash (done on a lightbox over the inkline)...








It occured to me that i could scan these various color trials and combine them in Photoshop,then overlay them with the inkline-the reason that I didn't start with that plan is that I prefer to use the computer as little as possible in my work-I'm old fashioned that way-but this problem was too frustrating and I thought why not?

So I combined the various color pieces with the filtered art (there were MANY different variations) until i settled on this...




I printed this out and added more bits of color with water colors and pencils and some solid black in the BG...





I scanned that and played around a little more with color hue saturation and contrast-what finally caught my eye was far from what I thought I was going to do at the start,but it seemed to work-I added a little title for the piece and then sent it off to Dick for approval...




...amazingly he loved it (what was truly funny is that Dick and his lovely wifey,Nancy,wanted to buy the original from me-the long winded explanation that there wasn't actually an original that looked like the final work was amusing to say the least-lol) and I was able to finally go back to my B & W work in peace!

New Stuff: Dr Phibes commission

GAUNTLET

The 1st story I had published in comic book form was a 9 page sample that my inking buddy,Rich Rankin and i sent out to several companies back in '83.

The short story was called GAUNTLET and featured a character we created running thru a -yes-gauntlet.

Our premise was that this was a sort of Jon Carter on Mars situation-Earth man transported to an alien universe and becomes a hero to the locals.

Using that basic idea we did a story that really had no start or finish-it felt more like the middle of a story-but we were just showing our storytelling abilities-such as they were.

Comico Comics placed our non story in their new talent showcase COMIC PRIMER-and from that humble beginning my career was born.

Recently,Gerry Giovinco and Bill Cucinotta-two of the original publishers from Comico started a new website- CO2 Comics - to showcase talents old and new-some of the material is from those golden days-and they asked if they could use our story.

Please forgive the virtually amateur level artwork and scripting,my friends as i direct you to the...
GAUNTLET!

New Stuff: commission-Brides of Dracula

THE BLACK FOREST: Behind the Scenes

The infamous BLACK FOREST documentary (by Jeremy Carr) is now on You Tube (click image above)

Featuring Robert Tinnell,Todd Livingston,Mike Oeming,Mark Wheatley and yours truly-showing the step by step (well,edited down to 9 minutes) process.

New Stuff...

Another set of sketch cards for a commission- plus an old con sketch...

David Carridine R.I.P.

I can't believe it-it doesn't seem possible-and talk of suicide? i hope that's not the case-after all that man went thru (David Carradine's autobiogs are fascinating reading) it seems so out of character...it's a damn shame.

New Stuff...

Sketch cards-fan commission:

999 Challenge: update 5.13.09

I still hope to sit down one day and write reviews for all the entries.
(* = finished - 4 star system)

1. 9 Western films:
1990 -1999

*Dances with Wolves -4 stars
*Quigley Down Under -3 stars
*Maverick -3 stars
*Unforgiven -4 stars
*Tombstone -4 stars
*The Quick and the Dead -4 stars
Bad Girls
*Last of the Mohicans -4 stars
Geronimo: An American Legend
----------------------
2. 9 Horror:
1990-1999

*Exorcist III -3 1/2 stars
*From Dusk Till Dawn -3 1/2 stars
Full Eclipse
House on Haunted Hill
*It -3 stars
*Shadowbuilder -3 stars
*Prophecy -4 stars
*Night of the Living Dead (Savini version) -3 stars
*Innocent Blood -3 stars
-----------------------
3. 9 Comedies:
1990-1999

*Dogma -3 1/2 stars
*My Cousin Vinny -4 stars
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
*Bowfinger -3 stars
*Spy Who Shagged Me -3 1/2 stars
Addams Family
*Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey -2 stars
*The Mask -3 1/2 stars
The Big Lebowski
-----------------------
4. 9 Sci Fi films:
1990-1999

*Soldier -3 1/2 stars
*Virtuosity -3 stars
Deep Blue Sea
*Predator 2-3 stars
*Robocop 2 -2 1/2 stars
*Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace -2 1/2 stars
*Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country-3 stars
Alien 3 (dir. cut)
*Lost World: Jurassic Park 2 -2 1/2 stars
----------------------
5. 9 Martial Arts:
1990-1999

Kickboxer 5
Full Contact
Once Upon a Time in China III
*Above the Law (Yuen Baio) -2 1/2 stars
*Fist of Legend -4 stars
*Police Story 2 -3 1/2 stars
*Rapid Fire -3 stars
*Showdown in Little Tokyo -3 stars
*High Voltage -3 stars
---------------------
6. 9 TV series on dvd (one episode each):
(unfortunately not strictly following the 1990-1999 theme as most of the shows i tend to buy the dvds of aren't in that time frame ;o)

Sapphire and Steel
The Tick
The Persuaders
Millenium
Dr. Who
Buffy
Star Maidens
I,Claudius
The Wild,Wild West
---------------------
7. 9 books:

*A FORTUNATE LIFE (Robert Vaughn's autobiography) -3 1/2 stars
*MY WORD IS MY BOND (Roger Moore's autobiog) -4 stars
*ERNIE (Ernest Borgnine's autobiog) -4 stars
WORST NIGHTMARES by Shane Briant
*UP TILL NOW by William Shatner (autobiog) -3 stars
*MY BORING-ASS LIFE by Kevin Smith -3 1/2 stars
VIDEODROME: Studies in the Horror Film by Tim Lucas
IN SPITE OF MYSELF (Christopher Plummer's autobiog) -3 1/2 stars
*HAMMER FILMS:A LIFE IN PICTURES by Wayne Kinsey (i know this is primarily a photo book,with little text,but i wanted a Hammer related item on the list since it was originally Hammer and Beyond's Holger Hasse's idea) -4 stars
---------------------
8. 9 albums/cds (again i want to try to listen to bands i haven't before-or at least paid little attention to-also between 1990 to 1999)
---------------------
9. 9 chapters of a comic strip- I'm not sure yet-still working out a theme.

That's all...Vokes...;o)

Ditkomania review

Here's a short review of the Ditkomania fanzine i did the cover for a while ago - on the Poopsheet Foundation site...;o)

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

I wish everyone a truly happy Mother's Day today-every mom should appreciate their family and every family should do the same for her!

I never got to know my mom-my dad and her broke up when i was about 4,i think-so i don't even remember what she looked like (and my dad doesn't talk about her) and I haven't heard word one since these last 51 years.

This isn't meant to depress you so much as make you appreciate what you have-some of us wish we could hug our moms today.

...have a great day,Vokes Folks...;o)

EAGLE review

My pal David Zuzelo-of the blog Tomb It May Concern- has done a cool review of my reprint volume of the early Eagle tales-check it out!

Free Comic Book Day '09!

For the last 7 years-since the 1st SPIDER-MAN film,i think it was-comic shops across the country have been celebrating Free Comic Book Day.

Since the 1st FCBD,I have been a guest at the Captain Blue Hen shop in Newark,DE, thanks to my very cool and extremely generous hosts,Joe,Dani and Aeryn Murray.

This year-on Saturday,May 2nd-I'll be back in their most excellent store,signing books and doing free sketches,from about 12 to 5pm (i shall also have copies of my new book,EAGLE:THE ORIGINAL ADVENTURES) along with other luminaries of the comics world such as Mike Manley, Rich Faber and Jamar Nicholas.

Every year Joe has me do a piece that he makes copies of so that fans can have it signed-i usually do a shot of the character that the recent film was about-last year it was IRON MAN and this year of course it's of everybody's favorite short tempered X-Man, Wolverine (X-MEN ORIGINS:WOLVERINE opens on May 1st)

So here's the step by step of said piece-including an inkwash finish i did over the original which will be a door prize at the store...;o)













...That's All, Vokes...;o)

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New Stuff: Holmes Horror

I posted this work in progress commission recently (a request for a central figure of Sherlock Holmes surrounded by Hammeresque fiends) to be inked like the Ditkomania cover i did a short time ago.

Here's the 1st two steps with the final piece-hope you like it...

Image via Wikipedia

EAGLE:THE ORIGINAL ADVENTURES has arrived!

The copies of EAGLE have arrived at my doorstep!

All in all they look pretty good- i will have to tweak a couple things in a 2nd edition tho-so grab these up,Vokes Folks-they'll become collectors editions-lol

New Stuff: in progress...

A new commission that I'm in the middle of inking-it's a request for a central figure of Sherlock Holmes surrounded by Hammeresque fiends-inked like the Ditkomania cover i did recently.

Here's the pencils,followed by the inkline:

EAGLE:the original adventures

Well,i finally got around to publishing the 1st volume of Eagle reprints.

My buddy Davey Z suggested lulu.com as a potential outlet-i could design my own book and only have to pay per each copy i printed-or in bulk if i choose to-the same goes for whomever decides to order this 1st edition (i fully expect to revise it soon to tweak any rough spots)

Take a look at the preview (or even order a copy) and let me know what you think,Vokes Folks-i value your input!

Frank Springer: R.I.P.

Frank Springer

Veteran comic book and strip artist Frank Springer died last Thursday at the age of 79. The cause is being reported as prostate cancer.

Born December 6, 1929 in Queens, New York, Springer graduated Syracuse University with a degree in art in 1952 and promptly went into the army, where he did mostly illustration work at Fort Dix. Upon his discharge in '54, he began assisting George Wunder on the comic strip, Terry and the Pirates, a post he held until 1960 and returned to on occasion when Mr. Wunder was behind and needed help. In later years, Springer also occasionally worked on other strips including several years of Rex Morgan, M.D., plus ghosting on The Heart of Juliet Jones, On Stage, Friday Foster, The Phantom and many others. He also did strips he originated like The Virtue of Vera Valiant, written by Stan Lee.

His comic book career began in '60 and he later recalled Brain Boy, a Dell comic, as his first assignment. He drew many books for Dell including Charlie Chan, Ghost Stories and Toka, Jungle King. He also began drawing for DC and later, Marvel. Fans recall his byline on the DC series, The Secret Six, and for a time on Marvel's Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD and later on many Spider-Man titles and Dazzler. He also did a lot of uncredited work, including a few Batman tales under the "Bob Kane" signature.

In the late sixties, he teamed with writer Michael O'Donoghue and produced several adult comic features for Evergreen Review, the most notable being The Adventures of Phoebe Zeit-Geist, the episodes of which were collected into a best-selling book. When O'Donoghue became an editor for National Lampoon, he brought Frank in and soon Springer was drawing many of their comic book parodies to great acclaim.

Frank was admired and loved by his peers, and the National Cartoonists Society three times awarded him its trophy as Best Comic Book Artist of the year and once elected him its president. He was a guest of honor at the 2004 Comic-Con International in San Diego where I had the privilege of interviewing him twice before his many fans. On one of those panels, he said of his career, "There were some raggedy times, but I always had work, raised five kids, bought some houses, bought some cars...I've been lucky." Personally, I think skill and dedication had a lot to do with that.

He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Barbara, as well as four children and seven grandchildren.

---Mark Evanier