Wonder Woman Day is coming!

New Stuff...

A recently finished commission of the Archie Goodwin/Walt Simonson version of DC's MANHUNTER:




...;o)

WONDER WOMEN DAY 3: update!

As mentioned previously I've done several pieces for the annual Wonder Woman Day charity (see archives for info-I'll also be appearing at the COMIC FUSION store in Flemington, NJ on WWD-October 26th-if you're in the area, drop by!) and i just wanted to show you fine folk the 2nd piece i did this year:




Hope you like it...;o)

Busy in Balty...

Well it was another great show in Baltimore thanks to Marc Nathan and his very friendly,helpful staff (always ready with a howdoyoudo,info,snacks,lunch,etc...) and all the wonderful fans (several EAGLE fans showed up to thank me for the old series-one even said i was a strong influence on him-poor boy- and they also berated me about not putting out new stories!) and my many friends in the biz (I managed to get a few minutes with old pal and legend, Nick Cardy-you couldn't ask for a more kind,generous,talented fella to call friend-he signed my copy of his new book NICK CARDY:BEHIND THE ART-which just so happened to include the pin up of Cotton he did for THE WICKED WEST! ...WOW...i was so frikkin honored-i got all verklempt.) and many more whose names would just make me a name dropper-but i luvs these guys-no bull...;o)

Can't wait till next year!

CRABS' FURY!

CRABS' FURY ...?

An unusual subject line for this blog, i admit, but it got your attention, didn't it?

My good buddy,David Zuzelo has asked me to help promote the rerelease of this highly sought after graphic novel- through Ghostwriter Publications- by infamous-and prolific- writer Guy N. Smith (i readily admit to owning several of his novels myself-oh the shame-the joyous pulpy reading shame ;o)

As this was asked by a friend and collegue (i've mentioned the project Z and i are working on in this blog before) and it is drawn by another old friend and fellow comics artist, Charlie Adlard, i had to mention it here in my humble blog.

Please take a peek at it if only out of curiousity...thanks...;o)

Time for a Quickie...

Much as i wish this referred to something else...ahem...i just wanted to let you know i'll be traveling to the annual Baltimore Comic Con tomorrow.

It's one of my favorite shows and i look forward to meeting up with old friends and new fans-if you're there please drop by my table and say hi!

I'll leave you with a little quick sketch (thus the subject line ;o) done for a fan:

Comics Industry for Obama

View my page on Comics Industry for Obama

I am by nature a very UNpolitical kinda guy- I believe my faith in our leaders severely declined in the 60s-Heck,growing up in the Viet Nam/draft/Watergate/Nixon era was traumatizing for a teeny bopper.

My point is that i usually ignore-best i can- anything to do with politics-but these last 8 years of the Bush Administration has forced me to start paying attention-and these NON STOP ads by Obama and McCain about the OTHER guy being wrong for our country are driving me postal!

I'm sorry to say that it feels like i'm choosing the lesser of two evils (tho McCain is doing his damndest to prove he does NOT belong in the White House) but i had to commit to a side.

So without going into any details about the whys and wherefores of my reasoning i decided to make a stand with some of my fellow Comics Industry peers- i won't be out campaigning or carrying placards at rallies or anything like that-yeesh-but i will put in my two cents on our future President by placing this entry in my blog.

Forgive me for getting all serious in what is essentially a very unserious forum,but i thought i needed to make my feelings known on this subject...for what it's worth.

The Envelope Please...

These pix are all done on envelopes-i have a fan who is a collector of stamps-limited edition type of stuff- he also gets artists like meself to do original drawings on envelopes.

For this most recent batch he asked me to do a Halloween theme with witch babes and monsters-there's even a Jersey Devil in one-enjoy...

Wonder Woman Day 3

Last year i did a couple drawings for the annual Wonder Woman Day event...








I'll be doing a couple more this year-actually one's already done...





...it's a great cause and there will be a lot of great art and merchandise up for auction-check it out,lads n lasses...;o)

http://www.wonderwomanmuseum.com/WWDay3/WWDay3.html

Dracula Returns...to my blog...;o)

Some of you may recall this piece i did awhile ago-it was an exercise to get comfy with doing the wash style i love so much- the reason i picked a drawing by Gene Colan (actually a couple pencil scans i found online that I inked over) was that his older Warren magazine stories (among others like Ditko,Frazetta,Craig and Adams) were some of the inspirations that led to me doing this kind of work myself.

I inked it in a brush style-tho brush is not my natural inclination-i need much more practice-because his pencils were so alive that almost ANY inkline would kill it's power.





What led to this particular post is that recently i was asked-among many others- to contribute something to a charity of sorts to help out the Colan family with their many health bills- i felt it would be the least i could do so i took part of the 1st drawing and redrew/inked it as a separate piece for the donation:




There are many artists who influenced me when growing up and it's only been the last few years where i began to realize how very much these gents meant to me-as a fan and as an artist...;o)

New Stuff...

1st a Vampirella-with the image of the Warren mags' version of Count Dracula in the bg...




This was for a fan who enjoyed my stint on FRIGHT NIGHT, the comic series.

I was a huge fan of the film-still am- and it was my pleasure to return to the characters i drew in the comic (which started out with a bang and ended with a whimper-long story) well, actually i never got to do the central vamp from the film, Jerry Dandrige or hero Charley Brewster's girlfriend Amy, save for a panel or two-this was to be primarily a new storyline starring Charley and horror host/vampire killer, Peter Vincent-tho the infamous Evil Ed was still flapping his leathery wings about in several issues.

But anyway,here's the piece...




This commission started as a single piece with Peter Parker/Spider-Man changing into his web slingin' self in a Daily Bugle storeroom.

Then the fan who ordered it decided they wanted to expand it into a kind of story so it became 3 pieces.

The 1st is of the Bugle's editor, J. Jonah Jameson,screaming for his secretary, Betty Brant-she's missing and Peter sees a note on her desk giving him her whereabouts:




Then Petey heads to the always empty storeroom (Clark Kent and Peter visited those storerooms a lot in the old days-i guess because no one ever used them ;o) where we get an iconic hero changing outfits shot-a classic pose:




Lastly we have our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man crashing into the waxworks lab of the evil Parafino who is about to add Betty to his collection.





For those of you Spidey fans who don't recognize Parafino that's because he was a villain from the '60s cartoon show-what's more he looks nothing like my version-he was a rather drab looking baddie who made wax figures or something-so we decided to change him into a more dramatic horror filmish villain-i used the idea of a HOUSE OF WAX / PHANTOM type of character with a disfigured face who wears a mask-with a touch of theatricality in his outfit and the extra masks.

I am Dracula-Enter freely ...(updated 8.18.16)

I have always loved the character of Count Dracula-in books,movies,toys,etc.-so needless to say,as an aspiring artist I've been drawing this guy since i could first draw.

Thanks in part to the literary stuff i recently shared and a brand new project I'm doing with best pal writer Bob Tinnell , which will feature the vampire lord (that's all i can tell you for now-but suffice to say,if you dug THE BLACK FOREST you'll dig this ;o) i thought it would be fun to showcase all the various versions of Dracula I've drawn since that 1st illo from 1980 (in actual fact,i've drawn him before that but have little in the way of copies of that early work)

So here's some of the many Counts that have emerged from my fevered brow in the last 30 odd years (including a few i forgot when i first did this post) ...beginning with those that i did based on the film and comic versions...


1st we have a commission which featured the major Universal Studios versions: Lugosi, Chaney Jr., Carradine and Langella (i was asked to do it in pencil for the fella to ink himself-i hope to do an inked version soon myself):




The next is the very 1st art i ever had published-it was 1976 and i sent in a "fan drawing" to a horror film fanzine called CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT-they put it in their 3rd issue-I was in heaven-i also sent in artwork to several other zines and fan club newsletters (mainly for Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing's clubs) a humble beginning but an important one...





Next we have a true rarity-a painting (i did maybe 2 or 3 paintings like this in my lifetime-not counting a couple murals) i did of Christopher Lee as the Stoker's novel describes the Count-well,at least the mustache is from Stoker anyway...





Then another film related piece, DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE-this was of Paul Naschy, better known as the werewolf star of a series of Spanish horror classics (the art was in the fanzine VIDEOOZE, published by another good friend, Bob Sargent):

The cover for a independent comic company's adaptation of the novel-i didn't get to do the interiors tho i begged to-it's based on the story's visual of the character:





I am a huge fan of Marvel's TOMB OF DRACULA series with Gene Colan doing the art chores-classic storytelling at it's best-and when i found some copies of his pencils of the Count i took it upon myself to do an inkwash from it-this is the result-i felt i captured his ethereal style rather well...he humbly brags...




And here's another take on the Marvel Drac-a fan gets artists to do "minute later" drawings-usually what happens right after a scene on a cover-in this case a TOMB OF DRACULA cover costarring the WEREWOLF BY NIGHT:






Now this next batch of Counts are all the many variations I've come up with thru the years for single illos or stories I've done both before and after becoming a pro-my versions of Dracula-usually based on the novel or inspired by the films.

This is another from the era of those literary pieces-1980-mainly done with marker,it looks like:




this was a "promo" i did for one of MANY stories i drew in the old amateur days-i drew lotsa comic stories back then-usually monster rallies (i got to do a real comic book years later that brought me full circle: THE BLACK FOREST) starring all my favorites (this piece also showed Van Helsing,a werewolf and a mummy) ,but ALWAYS featuring Dracula:





Below is a panel from my early pro days at Comico Comics-my 1st story ever was published in their new talent showcase, PRIMER- soon after i plotted a short tale that would begin a proposed series that was basically a variation on my pre pro days' work (and own design of Drac stayed the same) -i drew it and GRENDAL creator Matt Wagner did the dialog and inks.

To show you how "clever" i was the title of the story was AND ETERNITY SHALL BECKON...

...if the laughter has died down we can continue...

Ultimately the story never saw print-maybe one day-when I'm feeling rather masochistic-I'll publish it here...maybe... (see update below ...:o)

It starred a bounty hunter i created named Josef Talon Falconer-he tracks down a group of men who get taken by a cult who wants to raise Drac from the dead-a kind of sequel to the novel.

Years later i incorporated Falconer into my EAGLE series-never let a good character die:





The next place my version of Drac appeared was in a series called BLOOD OF DRACULA-this was a series i began with writers Mark Wheatley and Ricky Shanklin- i pencilled the 1st 6 issues with Mark's inks-i then laid out the next 6 with a young up and coming artist on finishes: Adam Hughes.

The greatest treat for me was that i got to design the Count-and yes i used the version i had been using for the last few years in my own amateur stories- it wasn't credited to me until many issues later when i put up a stink about it-hey,after all those crappy comics i drew-mainly for my own amusement-i wanted the world to know i did this-lol

This is also the only cover i did for the series-actually i penciled it and another artist did a painting based on the pencils:






Then there was FRIGHT NIGHT!

I was asked by Now Comics to do SPEED RACER-mainly because of my time on ROBOTECH a few years before-which i really had no interest in drawing- i finally agreed to do one issue if they would allow me to do the new FRIGHT NIGHT comic,based on the film-a favorite of mine-it turned out to be a mixed blessing for many reasons but at least i got it outta my system.

A few issues before i quit the book (for those aforementioned reasons) i was able to convince the powers that be to let me do a Dracula story-instead of using the actual Count we composed a tale (i actually got a co-plotted by credit for the 1st time-not always granted in this biz,i'm sad to say) about an actor well known for playing the role on screen, Boris Christopher (whom i based on Christopher Lee the way they based Fright Night host Peter Vincent on Peter Cushing)

The twist would be that he gets attacked by Evil Ed and becomes ,in effect,Count Dracula-at least in his delusional,recently vampirized mind anyway-it was a fun story and my virtual swan song to a series i had high hopes for.

So allow me to add this version of Dracula to my LONG list:




This you may recognize as the Dracula i designed for my aborted VAMPIRELLA comic (see archives):



I was then asked to follow Jose Gonzalez' Drac for the book- this here is a layout page from the series-as far as i got before being dumped (it was done on graph paper-thus the lines):





This is the cover to one of my three X rated Draculas...yup...X rated-hey, I'm all for a little naughty fun on the comics page-this actually only used Drac in a cameo role-the "star" character was a rather nude young vamp who was modeled on Spanish Eurotrash star Lina Romay:





...this next one was an adaptation of the novel, but with much naughtiness added-i only got to do the opening chapter of the series, tho-sad to say-because i thought-even given the erotic take on the novel-i did some of my best artwork for this-below is a direct scene from the novel:



There was a third comic i did starring Dracula but it was a story about how he became a vampire-basically an X rated version of Vlad Tepes before the fangs-it was called DRACULA IN HELL and I'd rather not share the art here-it was a touch TOO extreme for me...;o)


This is yet another redesign of him for another series i was going to do with my characters from the old Primer comic story-it never got beyond this one piece:




Here's another variation done for a commission:





Here is the character of Graf Orlok from my BLACK FOREST book-i included him because he was, at least originally in the silent film NOSFERATU our Dracula- but under another name:





Another take on the Count for a "chapbook" cover, which to date hasn't appeared-but i like the piece and felt it needed to be seen:





a more recent design-not used-for a comic i was going to do with Bob called ONLY AT NIGHT-we didn't do it-it's a long story I'll tell someday (and who knows,i may still get around to drawing it-no,it's not the mysterious Dracula comic i referred to at the beginning):






The most recent attempt at a comic starring my favorite vamp was going to be a dual feature with BARON FRANKENSTEIN, done by Bob and Adrian Salmon-the conceit was a comic "adaptation" of two of director Terry Sharp's most famous classic films (he of course was a fictional character created by Bob and Ade for their book TERRY SHARP-he was a horror film director by day and an adventurer by night-great book-look for it) -we still plan on doing this someday...time will tell...





Our last-and certainly not least-i hope-design is for the new project we're working on called FLESH & BLOOD-it is based on the wonderful Hammer Films movies Bob and I love- we took their approach at the classic horror monsters and built our own story from there-their films are kind of our inspiration,more than source material-I'm hoping to finish the 4th ish...someday....

Then there are the many commissions I've done featuring Dracula...

 And how about the numerous illos I've done for my buddy Richard Klemensen's mag Little Shoppe Of Horrors...

I've recently done a new version of my old unpublished Comico Primer Falconer story for a new book called Dark Tales From The Vokesverse bringing the Count into the Eagle universe...

...which brings us to the most recent Dracula drawing-a cover image from a young readers novel which features Dracula battling a...uhm...I can't say yet...you'll see...soon...;o)

                                                                 DRACULA

An obsession of mine that has produced some very cool work (and some not so cool,i guess) thru the last 32 years...

...and i suspect for the next 32...assuming i can still hold a pencil...;o)


That's All,Vokes!