Tuesday, December 29, 2009

THE HELL OF IT

These might be the final sketches of 2009. Maybe not, but they’re probably the final ones I’ll post this year. These are character design sketches for the book I want to do set in Hell. I am hoping to finally find a home for this baby in 2010. I’ve wanted to do this story for many years, though its earlier outlines were quite different. The plot has finally gelled, so let’s hope that I finally set it to paper soon.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

CINEMA SEWER'S "NOIR" ISSUE

I’ve enjoyed the often filthy Canadian movie ‘zine Cinema Sewer for quite some time (especially issue #16, which was devoted in part to post-apocalypse movies). CS is a treasure trove of exploitainment for the cineaste who enjoys some muck in their movie viewing. I was happy to oblige its publisher/writer/creator/cartoonist Robin Bougie with cover art for its “Film Noir” issue (coming sometime in early 2010). Here are some thumbnail sketches I did.

As you can see, I ended up going with a variation on the upper right-hand one.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Oldie but Rushdie

Usually when I look at my old art I don’t like it (kid stuff not included; that, I love). But I was just going through my flat file, purging some stuff, and came across this cover I did for the Village Voice Literary Supplement. It had to do with the Salman Rushdie fracas (it’s from 1989). Anyway, maybe because I did it in a different style it’s like the work of someone else and I can be a little more objective. I think it’s pretty good.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Bookshelves

Not so new quick sketch I did of some of my bookshelves from a couple years back.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

WOTTA CRYBABY

I did this drawing to redress my huge oversight in not including this whining crybaby dipshit in From the Ashes. This drawing wraps up the bonus section to sort of ameliorate my mistake.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Baltimore Comic-Con Cutie Caboose

A couple of weekends ago I was a guest of the Baltimore Comic-Con (thanks, Marc Nathan!). I manned my table and signed, sold and sketched for two days. One of the attendees commissioned me to draw "a big butt girl," and this was the result. I really like the way it came out.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Cover Tease for FTA Collected

In March of next year, all the WFTers (Wait For Trade) will hopefully spring for the book collecting From the Ashes. I hope everyone will buy it, actually. As a creator, I sometimes feel a tingle of guilt when something I do comes out serialized and then I want people who already bought it to buy it again. But as a fan and consumer myself, I say, "Hey, I do it all the time." So, guilt absolved. Anyway, here are a couple of rough thumbs of the cover, which will be a wraparound. I wanted to pay homage to the great "merry chase" posters that Jack Davis did in the Sixties and Seventies.


The Amazon listing has an incorrect page count (it will be longer, because of the nifty bonus section; details to come) and cover art. I guess this is a place-filler until I deliver the real cover art.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

JAZZ AND CT REJECT

I did this drawing for Connective Tissue (which is still highly discounted on Amazon yet nonetheless is languishing, so BUY IT!), but it didn't fit my narrative. I like it, though.

This was done as part of a panel in an American Splendor thing I illustrated. I think it might make a nice print.

Sunday, August 30, 2009

CONNECTIVE TISSUE THUMBNAIL SKETCHES

Most of the interior art in Connective Tissue (if you haven't gotten your copy yet, for crying out loud, do! It's now an insanely cheap 45% off on Amazon!) was done spontaneously on that page without advance thumbnail sketching. There were a few that required a bit of planning, though. Here are some thumbs for them.


Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Zombie

It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with my work that I am a longtime, died-in-the-wool zombie fanatic.

Recently, I sold my second novel, Pariah, to Tor. I am thrilled (and relieved) beyond belief. It's a story that I've yearned to get out there for many, many years. I first conceived of it as a graphic novel (before my ambitions led me to write the regular kind), back in the mid-'90s. Fortunately (though I didn't feel that way at the time), it didn't come to pass in that format. I finally wrote it as a novel and the end result is much better.

The interesting thing is that part of my deal with Tor is to provide the book with some original interior art (I might do the cover, too, but that is pending). My approach is not to do illustrations of any scenes or characters in the book. I prefer to let the readers picture that for themselves. Instead, one of the characters is an artist and he does studies of the undead to pass the time (no more TV or Internet, so one must pass the time doing something). The conceit of the accompanying art will be that these are his drawings. I don't want any of the art to be typical EC-tinged stuff. The approach is to do sensitive, objective drawings. The zombies didn't ask to be this way. They're not evil.

To whet your appetites, here is one of the drawings. I might post some of the rejects here as the months go on, but here's a sample:

Pariah is due out July 2010.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Darla

Another unused Darla drawing from when I was working on Connective Tissue (which you really need to go buy, now).

Friday, May 01, 2009

Recess Pieces Makes Cameo in Horror Movie!

Canadian indie-cinema horror auteur Brian Clement has featured my book, Recess Pieces, as set dressing in his Lovecraftian mind-fuck flick Dark Paradox. Clement plays an author who needs to get away from the city (where strange things are beginning to happen) to finish a manuscript for his publisher. But when he reaches his bucolic getaway to type in peace, well... the best laid plans of mice and men and so on.

It's an enjoyable movie. Check it out.

Recess Pieces makes itself comfortable on the main character's desk:
Auteur/star Clement having a "WTF" moment:

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Connective Tissue Thumbs

Some thumbnail sketches for the book (which hits the shelves on or about May 13th!


Thursday, April 23, 2009

Updates Imminent!

With Connective Tissue hitting the shelves in a couple of weeks, I'll be uploading some of the prep work for it and some more images I cut from the final product. Please buy this book! It's really sweet.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Connective Tissue Video

Fantagraphics has been making these great little videos of paging through their books (all are on Flickr). I think they're a nifty way to get an idea of the book, especially if you're going to order online and not be able to see it in person at a store. Check it out (then order it!).



Video store clerk Darla Vogel is fed up — fed up with her job, fed up with her wake-and-bake roommate, fed up with everything. But when one of the customers at Kwok's Video offers her some of his meat-flavored candies, Darla takes a plunge down the rabbit hole into a surreal world of throbbing, veinous buildings, compulsory public nudity, weird creatures, and more. If William Burroughs, Lewis Carroll, H.P. Lovecraft, and Harvey Kurtzman ever collaborated, the result might resemble Bob Fingerman's bold confection of words and pictures — the copiously illustrated prose novel Connective Tissue.

"This is a genuinely monstrous book that made me laugh until something burst and now I think I might be dying. You really need to buy one of these." – Warren Ellis, author of Crooked Little Vein and Transmetropolitan

"Fingerman does it again! He disturbs, entertains, amuses and charms with his unholy Fingermanian mixture of perversion, humor, and pathos." – Jonathan Ames, author of The Alcoholic and Wake Up, Sir!

134-page duotone 7.25" x 8.25" hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-60699-143-5

In stock: April 2009
In stores: May 2009

Monday, April 13, 2009

Mysterioso

Color for a page of a project I just wrapped up. I think I'll leave it at that.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Not Everything Makes the Cut...

Self-rejected drawing of Byron (from From the Ashes).

Thursday, March 05, 2009

BOOKPLATE FEVER

Yes, folks, there's not one, but two exclusive signed bookplates I've done for the upcoming (it's at the printer!) Connective Tissue. One is for the publisher, Fantagraphics Books, the other for retailer Panel To Panel. If you want one of these bookplates to come with the book, order the one you prefer from Fantagraphics or Panel To Panel directly.



Friday, February 27, 2009

FROM THE ASHES!

Though I still don't have an exact street date (May 2009 is as close as I can get for the time being), here is the cover for the first issue of my forthcoming series for IDW.


Also, check out the new dedicated From the Ashes blog!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Graphic NYC Takes on Yours Truly

Ace photographer Seth Kushner and journalist Chris Irving are posting sections of their work in progress, Graphic NYC, a book about the New York-based comics community. They just posted my profile. Take a gander. Here's Seth's portrait of me. I think it's pretty sweet.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Bugs & Daffy à la Bergman

A while back I did a two-page segment for the Looney Tunes comic that my friend Joey Cavalieri scripted. The sequence was a parody of Ingmar "Chuckles" Bergman's The Seventh Seal, starring Bugs as Death and Daffy as Antonius Block (AKA Max Von Whythelongface). I went to town and with filters made it look like aged film. It was fun. Here are a couple of panels which (as they all were) ran cropped and covered with dialogue balloons.

Monday, February 09, 2009

¡Salario Mínimo está aquí!

Got my copies of Salario Mínimo today from Dolmen Editorial and am very pleased to report it came out great. If you're in Spain be sure to pick up a copy.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Daily Crosshatch Interview

Brian Heater recently interviewed me on his very fine comics blog The Daily Crosshatch. I was a little less guarded than perhaps I should have been (it was more a conversation than the typical Q&A), so I think I come off a bit sourer than I feel these days, but read it and judge for yourselves. All three parts are now up.

Guy Smiley

Okay, not the Muppet. Just a picture of Yours Truly (for From the Ashes).

Thursday, January 15, 2009

CONNECTIVE TISSUE FINAL COVER

So here's the final version of the cover of Connective Tissue, as put together by ace designer Jacob Covey.


Now available to order from Amazon with a sweet 32% discount! Let's make this one a hit.