Bits n Pieces: Literary monsters...

Tho I'm a huge fan of the silver screen,i was also raised on books (and both interests did crossover into each other) -my dad always had lotsa books in the house and encouraged my bro and i to read- i was a fan of the more fantastic stuff: horror, sci fi, etc.-but also the classics-as long as there were great villains-Richard the 3rd was my introduction to Shakespeare (an interest my wifey doesn't share but my daughter is learning an appreciation for ) and the memorable Captain Ahab of MOBY DICK is another fave (tho the book is a tough read.)

Which leads us to our entry today.

When i was still in the learning stages of my drawing (actually i still AM learning ;o) i drew LOTS of stuff-mainly story related-but i also got on a literary kick for awhile.

These pieces below represent a short series i had planned of drawing each of my favorite characters in those novels i read growing up.

They aren't particularly good but i thought it might be interesting to see what my older work looked like in comparison-for those who cared...;o)

These were all done from around 1979 to '80-well before my pro career started.

They were primarily done with ball point pen in a kind of cross hatch style-well,the approximation of the style- i didn't know what to do (and not to do) yet (the irony is i now use a ball point pen in a lot of my inkline work-i guess I've come full circle)

I find the process of the learning curve fascinating (and hoped you might) so here ya go...






As you can see lettering would never be a career choice-lol





This one is supposed to be the creature from FRANKENSTEIN but i guess i never added the quotes.




Obviously my dislike of lettering (the world no doubt is grateful ;o) kept me from using quotes on this one either...




I hope you enjoyed that little side trip into literature by way of my past work...;o)

This just in...

Newest commissions finished...

1st up we have the Man With No Name-or Clint Eastwood, as we all know him better.

Westerns are a big love of mine so this was no chore whatsoever...




Then we have a piece that follows a theme for the gent who requested it-Golden Age DC heroes vs Spidey villains-in this case Sandman vs the Vulture-OK, not your usual commission but it proved to be a lot of fun to do.

Here's the thumbnail-one of several-but the one that eventually evolved into the finished piece...




then after a few clean ups and redraws i did the pencils-i haven't finished the backgrounds yet,tho- this scan actually shows me starting on the inkline as well...





here it is with the finished inkline-at this point i usually do the inkwash-then i fill in the blacks...





...until it looks something like this...




There are several other steps in between here and there-most of them include me cursing under my breath-but that's basically the process...;o)

Vampi we hardly knew ye...

My buddy Davey Z asked me to show the Vampirella samples i did way back in '92 for a proposed series i was to do with Kurt Busiek.

Curt Purcell ( http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/ ) has done a very nice entry on Vampirella in his blog so Davey and he were interested in seeing my take.

Here's all i have from then-forgive the quality of the scans but these were copied way back before i ever had my own computer and scanner.

I was introduced to Harris Comics, who had the license to Vampi back then- my agent had shown them my most current work and they were interested in having me draw their upcoming DRACULA WAR storyline-this was to be a sequel of sorts to the old stories at Warren when Vampi fought the infamous Count.

it was to be written by the then pre MARVELS Kurt Busiek-he hadn't yet made his name in the industry and he and i eventually became good friends (i also became friends with their editor at the time,Richard Howell) Both Richard and Kurt were happy with the idea of me drawing the series and i started by doing some designs-a sort of audition.

The first was my own take on Dracula- unfortunately-for me- they wanted it to more closely follow the version done by Jose Gonzalez (i hope to use this take on Drac-one of many i've done thru the years-very soon)





So then i did their Dracula,with Vampi...



I also drew a few shots of our heroine to get used to the character-so far so good...




I then started on the story-i did about 15 pages of layouts-very loose storytelling-and finished pencils on the 2 page title/credits spread-it was inked and lettered (rather quickly i recall) and i continued my layouts...




...then the worm turned- i was informed thru Richard and Kurt that Harris decided my stuff was "too cartoony" for what they had in mind- not the 1st time this has happened-they wanted more of Jose Gonzalez in the style- this was of course AFTER they had approved my work (I've always felt that the inks had "transformed" my style into something different-which does happen-a different inker may have brought about a whole other result)
- Kurt and Richard were rather pissed about this decision and fought for me-to no avail-i was let go and someone else did the artwork.

Looking back on the experience i made two very close friends for life and got a chance to work on a cool iconic character-for a little while anyway- no regrets...;o)

More New Stuff!

As i mentioned in the blog about Shane's artwork we're doing some pieces for Dick Klemensen's LSOH mag-a tribute to Hammer's CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN.

The 1st scan here is of some of the various "1st thoughts" i jotted down while thinking about the subject-in this case the aforementioned COF film,a pic of actor Shane Briant and something on director Peter Sasdy's work.

i eventually dropped the Sasdy piece (which i was gonna do as a montage-see last scan in this entry) as overkill (there will be so much art in the ish by other cool artists,my 4 were perhaps too much already ;o)





I'm sure after seeing part of the sketches i did on Sasdy's COUNTESS DRACULA some of you may be disappointed tho-lol

Well the next series of pix are the two major steps of each of the final four i chose to do.

First we have Baron Frankenstein preparing to restore life to the creature he made...







Then a pic of actor Shane Briant as a young medical fan of the infamous Baron from FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL...








Here is a portrait of the late Hazel Court as Elizabeth, fiancee to the Baron from COF...








Then the Baron has a close encounter with his newborn creature that nearly cuts his monster making career short...







Lastly is the Sasdy montage i spoke of- i got as far as the pencils before i decided to shelve it for another day- the subjects were TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA, HAND OF THE RIPPER, COUNTESS DRACULA and DOOMWATCH...



Until next we chat...That's All, Vokes!

Shane Oakley

Shane Oakley has a blog you should check out-if only to see his artwork-my Brit bro Adrian Salmon and i have been fans since stumbling over his blog when we saw his Oliver Reed werewolf piece:



I'm very happy to say that he's also going to be in the next ish of my buddy Dick Klemensen's lovingly produced Hammer Films magazine, Little Shoppe of Horrors which is going to be devoted to Hammer's CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN:


Please go over there and see the cool art and more!

New Stuff!

The 1st is a cover sketch of THE SKULL ('65-Amicus Films) for the PETER CUSHING ASSOCIATION JOURNAL's 2nd ish.

The fanzine is put out by Chris Gullo, old friend and author of the very cool book, IN ALL SINCERITY, PETER CUSHING (which has some nice little illos by some Volks guy ;o)





The 2nd is for the back cover of the VAN HELSING JOURNAL (formerly THE CUSHING CONFIDENTIAL - once published by Mr. Gullo) published by Harry Long (also one of the fellas behind the new mag SCARLET -formerly SCARLET STREET-which i am also doing a few pieces for)

yup-mine is a small world...;o)

Phil Lasorda R.I.P.

My first email of the day-July 4th 2008-was word from an old friend, Bill Cucinotta, that our other old friend and Comico publisher, Phil Lasorda died.

I then found this at Heidi MacDonald's blog:

"We’ve received word that former Comico publisher, Phil Lasorda, passed away yesterday. In addition to running the company which published such titles as MAGE and THE ELEMENTALS, Lasorda was a creator himself, with the book AZ. No further details are available at this time."

I'm very sad to hear this news-the few of you who read this blog know of my professional past at Comico Comics-Phil was a very important part of my professional life in comics- if not for him taking a chance on my still amateurish work back in '83 I may never have gotten into this biz-a job which has become a huge part of my life these past 25 years-I can never thank him enough.

Phil and I never became close friends but we did work together on 3 issues of his book AZ-they were changing their books over from B & W to color and Phil chose myself and my partner Rich Rankin to draw his series-those three 30 page issues never saw the light of day (thank goodness ;o) but they were a great training ground for me-i needed that time to hone my art and learn the discipline of monthly comic books-that time with Phil led to our doing the ROBOTECH MASTERS series for Comico.

I will never ever forget his generosity to a guy who just wanted to draw comics.

Farewell, Phil.

Mike Wieringo-tribute sketch

This happy fella is Mike Wieringo-last year fate took Mike away from us,leaving the comic art world-for that matter,the world as a whole- a sadder place.

In honor of his memory a bunch of his peers and friends-which i'm proud to say i was one-are compiling a sketchbook of art-led by his close pal,Todd Dezago-for sale at the Heroes Comic Con in No. Carolina this year (in a couple weeks) the proceeds are to go to Mike's personal favorite charity, the ASPCA.

The reason i brought this up is that i was asked last year to donate a piece for a planned book of art in Mike's memory-i did a series of sketches for the project-some of which you can see below...




the 1st was an idea someone suggested to pit Mike's characters from his book, TELLOS,against my BLACK FOREST characters-i quickly dropped that concept when it felt too much like self promotion and not enough about Mike.




I realized that it needed to be something that honored him AND what we'll remember him best for: his work-so i combined a group of comic book characters he'd become most associated with thru his short career with a caricature of him at his table-a tried and true image of the artist at work (i recall a great shot of Kirby at his table with all the characters coming out of it-so this idea goes way back ;o)




So i concentrated on a select group of characters,including Impulse,Spidey,the FF and the TELLOS crew.

My buddy Bob Tinnell suggested some kind of Mount Rushmore like shot of Ringo (as we affectionately called him) instead of the drawing board- so after many more development sketches i arrived at the image below in pencil.




Then time passed and we were slowly approaching the 2008 con season and no book was getting done-i suspect it was becoming a huge chore to organize as i knew of at LEAST 150 artists who wanted to contribute art to the project-so my pencilled piece sat on the shelf.

Then in Seattle this year i bumped into Todd Dezago at the Emerald City Con and showed him a copy of the piece-he seemed happy with it and-i think-it helped rekindle the spark of getting something out in Mike's memory in time for the Heroes con this year-so i went ahead and inked it and added a grey tone/wash finish and sent it along to Todd-the result is below:




I only wish Mike was still here to see how much he was loved and respected by friends and fans alike.

Best wishes in that studio in the sky,buddy!

Vokes & Zuzelo together again...for the 1st time!

COMING SOON!


"The Tastiest Snack...About to Kick Some Zombie Ass!"


OK-in point of fact the above image (on a promotional teaser postcard you'll be seeing soon at my upcoming shows) isn't SPECIFICALLY from my new project with Mr. David Zuzelo-it's actually a commission i did for a fan at the Pittsburgh Comic Con this year (it's based on an old pulp novel's contents page illo) and i added the little blurb at the bottom for the cards.

However, it DOES represent a certain tone-atmosphere-style-that WILL be in our book-and i promise you that a variation of the scene itself will most certainly be used in some capacity within the stories we're working on-I just dig the vibe,man...;o)


The young lady above is one of our main characters- I don't wish to get into any specifics yet-i wanna keep some mystery-but I WILL be showcasing various character designs,layouts,etc in here as we progress-such as this:



What's this book about?

Good question!

It's kinda hard to describe in one of those Hollywood high concept ways that are so common nowadays-we wanted it to have a mix of elements we both enjoy in films and comics.

How about an adventure/fantasy/horror...and other stuff series that has bits and pieces of ROAD WARRIOR, YOR, HERCULES UNCHAINED, PLANET OF THE APES, THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN, THE NEW GODS (among other Jack Kirby influences) and-we hope-enough original stuff of our own as well.

Who's publishing this tome?

Good question!

We don't know for sure yet-We're of the mind to self publish-which in this day and age is a little easier than it used to be-but having a company logo on the cover is not out of the realm of possibility,either-we'll see...;o)

When will this book be out?

Great question!

Our best guess is the summer of '09.

We are still in the early stages of design,story and so on-We CAN tell you that we are having a lot of fun with this.

We want to put out an entertaining "adventure/fantasy/horror/and other stuff" series that knocks your socks off (who really needs socks on while reading a comic?) and if you can catch just a little of the passion we have for this from reading it,then we've succeeded.

To Be Continued...

Seattle/ETP trip: Emerald City Con

The other reason i was in Seattle was for the annual Emerald City Comic Convention- it was my 1st time there as a guest of the show and i had a wonderful time.



I got to spend a few precious moments with old friends like writer Kurt Busiek whom I see far too little of...



The bonus for me was that my birthday also fell on that weekend-this meant i got to spend it with both my ETP friends and my comic book buddies.

My lil bro, Mike Oeming (see Mikey with his cuter half, Taki below) even threw me a surprise birthday party at a local public house.



As you can see I was pleasantly surprised.




I got to hang with a roomful of writers and artists who were all young enough to be my kids-lol-but it was a great night filled with drinking,laughter and more drinking...yeesh...I ain't as young as I used to be...;o)

I hope to return someday to the show-and Seattle-it was a gas!

Seattle/ETP trip: Dante style...

Here are a few more pix of the various adventures of our motley crew in the great Northwest:

























Below is our "last supper" in Seattle.

for purposes of identification,starting on the left and moving clockwise:

yours truly (I'm either asleep or laughing at something witty someone said)
Mark
Dan
Rick
a friend of John's whose name i forget but he did recommend the Thai restaurant we're eating in so he's A-OK with us
John
Bob (Wolfy-our fearless leader)
Bruce
and our host with the most in Seattle, Bryan




Hope you enjoyed the pix!