Day 3 - Lionel

Day 2 - Junie

Day 1 - Sned

I've decided to do a post-apocalyptic character every day (at least on weekdays) for a year. let's see how long I adhere to this whim. I hope I do. It would be a good exercise. Fast, spontaneous; some mutated, some not. Whichever way the irradiated wind blows on that given day.

Working on the Cover

Here's a shot of the cover in progress. Will post final art soon.

Big News on the Comics Front!

I am thrilled to announce the upcoming publication of Maximum Minimum Wage, a massive 9 X 12 hardcover incorporating Beg the Question, plus the original 72-page “pilot” graphic novel, Minimum Wage: Book One and the first chapter of its serial run (”Realty Gap”), which wasn’t included in BTQ (for stylistic reasons). All that, plus a color section featuring the cover art from the comic books, sketches and a gallery section of pinups, including all-new ones by Guy Davis, Dave Johnson, Peter Bagge, Dean Haspiel and classic pinups by Mike Mignola, Kevin Nowlan, Dave Cooper, Jill Thompson and more. It will also include surprise bonus material (the “DVD extras,” if you will) to be announced later). This will be THE definitive edition, boasting many newly redrawn panels (and some whole pages), bringing the art up to my current standards. Some of the dialogue has been tweaked, too (as I think I have improved as a writer in the intervening years). It will be released early Spring 2013, from Image Comics, under the aegis of longtime MW fan, friend and comics bigwig, Robert (The Walking Dead) Kirkman. The whole package will weigh in at approximately 372 pages! I am currently working on designing the cover. Here’s a tease. Stay tuned!

Twily

The third lead in my post-apocalyptic YA series. Hope it finds a home soon.

Stony

The lead character's boyfriend.

Bumper

This is a design for the lead character of a series of post-apocalyptic YA novels I am working on. The first volume is done of a proposed trilogy. Let's hope some smart publisher snaps it up.

Xmas List Quickie....

Adri Cowan asked me to do a drawing for her Twelve days of Christmas dealie on Comics Alliance. She assigned me the ninth day of Christmas, only instead of what the real song has for that day (nine ladies dancing, for anyone who cares), I was to do what I'd like my true love to give to me. Here's what I dashed off.

THEY LIVE

My friend Karl Heitmueller (Pops Gustav, to those who follow his blogs), is curating an art show at Maxwell's in Hoboken. The show, "One-Sheet Redux", invites the contributors to do their takes on movie posters. I was debating which to do, but then I got inspired by Jonathan Lethem's new treatise on John Carpenter's paranoiac classic sci-fi flick They Live. I love that movie (I dig lots of Carpenter's movies), and between acne-scarred, tough guy/baby faced, ruddy "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and super cool Keith David, I found my huckleberry.

Young Zombies in Love

I just heard about this new book by Amelia Beamer, called The Loving Dead. In honor of that, here's an old, unpublished drawing I did for fun, way back in 1987. You're seeing it here first.

Man, those hands are big. Jeez.

Caustic Cover Critic

I am thrilled to be featured, along with ace cover designer, Peter Lutjen, on James Morrison's fantastic blog, Caustic Cover Critic. I've long featured a link here (and hopefully some of you have taken a gander). It's a wonderful site filled with great and terrible cover art, exhaustively detailed. It's great. Check out the interview with Peter and me.

Another Day in Hell

DOTD

DOTD: Drawing of the day. Quickie.

The So-Called "Queen of Mean"

Just finished this illustration for the forthcoming issue of Royal Flush. For those of you unfamiliar with the subject, it's Lisa Lampanelli, comedy's "Queen of Mean." Thing is, she isn't. She slings insult jokes and ethnic and gay slurs around freely, but unlike Don Rickles, she projects a warm, "it's all in fun" vibe. So, I figured she has her cake and eats it, too. Or ginger bread men. Rude, politically-incorrect, gingerbread men.

Tiny thumbnail sketch to get the idea down.

Final art. Duh.

Demon with Dong-cudgel

Another quickie. Thinking, again, of demons for my Hell novel.

Girl and Critters.

Just for fun. Quick drawing. Don't ask. Going to try to do drawings most days. Maybe I'll post. At least the ones I like. The oval is a bit Bob Ross, but is that a bad thing?

Futzing with Hell

So, I've started working on my book The Hell of It (working title) as a straight prose novel, having basically abandoned the notion of it being a graphic novel. With Pariah due to hit the shelves (and internet outlets) on August 3rd, 2010 (so order yours now, in either spiffy trade paperback or spiffier hardcover!), I'm just feeling more and more that prose is the way to go. I enjoy writing novels enormously and I think I'm good at it. That said, I am doing some more prep art for The Hell of It, just to get me in that headspace; to help picture it. Here's a couple of quickies I just did. I'll post more later.

SKINNY-MAN

Like many budding kid cartoonists of my generation I was enamored of "Mad's Maddest Artist," Don Martin. I loved his work in the magazine, but what really set my mind ablaze were his paperback originals. These were maybe my first taste of graphic novels, and none so enthralled me as The MAD Adventures of Captain Klutz. Skinny-Man was my stab at "funny superhero" comics. The villains, "Super Cool Man" (who really looks more like Super Pimp) in particular, are pretty special. Same vintage as the others posted here (1975).

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Neurotic

This quasi-autobiographical strip is same vintage as Gerry's Comix and Super-Cat. The "hang-up" (what a knowingly loaded double meaning for something done in the '70s) in the back is oddly self-pitying. I think this one might predate the others. The art isn't as good. It's from '75, again, though. The Jaws reference was very topical.

BTW, I'm posting all this old stuff, 1) because I find it interesting, and 2) I don't have any new stuff at the moment to share.










This quasi-autobiographical strip is same vintage as Gerry's Comix and Super-Cat. The "hang-up" (what a knowingly loaded double meaning for something done in the '70s) in the back is oddly self-pitying. I think this one might predate the others. The art isn't as good. It's from '75, again, though. The Jaws reference was very topical.

BTW, I'm posting all this old stuff, 1) because I find it interesting, and 2) I don't have any new stuff at the moment to share.