The return of the Mummy ... back by popular demand.

Dark Crystal samples ...with a spot of color

Here are a couple of my Dark Crystal samples colored by LIzzie John:

My Fair Lady

Batman: Winter in Gotham

I am sure that there is something not quite right about drawing Batman inside my book...but it is a sketch...just a fan sketch. The inspiration came from a woodcut I saw of a winter scene done back in the 1890's. I thought the high contrast black/white was a perfect environment for Batman. I could do a whole story like that ;)





Continuing the same train of thought:

Richard Corben and "Odds and Ends"

Here is one of my sketches for the Robotika collection...it kind of got away from me and I kept adding and adding little lines....


So it turns out that Richard Corben has self-published a book this month. I just sort of learned abut it by accident when I went to his website. The book is called "Odds and Ends" and is:

32 pages, 7"X10.5",
includes in black and white the second chapter of FROM THE PIT,
A Corben collection of unpublished or obscurely published comics and art.

Corben Studios Sales Page

I went ahead and ordered the book and just got it last night. I never read the first chapter of "From The Pit", but the second chapter is great. The art is some of the best I have seen (pen and ink with digitally added gray tones...very well thought out) and the story is very much like Edgar Rice Burroughs books about travelling to the center of the Earth. The gallery section has a few CD covers that Corben did and a couple of illustrations for different books Lovecraft, Ashton Smith, Poe (some pen and ink and some digital gray scale). The book is a little bit bigger than a regular comic book, printed on very nice heavy paper...everything in it is awesome. In fact it was so good I was kind of bummed out it was not a bit bigger with more pages...but I am very happy with the purchase.

Rick Hershey did a nice Robotika piece recently:

For more of Rick's work you can visit his blog.

Gearing-up for Wonder-Con 2010

I am starting to get ready for Wonder-Con. I got a couple of copies of the first Robotika collection left and I will be doing sketches on the title page to have a few available for sale at the convention. The drawings on the title pages will be my "one-a-day" posts for a bit:

Gift of the Magi

A tribute to Dark Crystal:


I thought of an interesting thing. This Christmas, IDW published two books, Rocketeer and WinterWorld, drawn by artists that has passed away. The artwork is presented in a bigger and better format and some of it has never been published. It gives a chance to a whole new audience to experience the magic that Stevens and Zaffino were able to create on a comic book page. It is sad that the new fans can not look forward to any new stories from these wonderful artists, but it is an awesome unexpected gift for old fans like me to be able to see these new books.

John Bauer and Brian Froud

A tribute to John Bauer and Brian Froud:

Cody Starbuck by Howard Chaykin

I have loved reading Howard Chaykin's graphic novels for almost 10 years now. I started with "Batman: Dark Alliances" and worked my way back through "Blackhawk", "Shadow", "Mighty Love" (loved Richard Price's "Lush Life" poster in the background!), "City of Tomorrow", "Iron Wolf" (both the 70's and the "Mignola" versions), "Twilight", "American Flagg", "Times Square" (I don't know how to do the math sign), the various Dominic Fortune appearances...the list goes on and on. But one storyline has always vexed me...Cody Starbuck! The Problem is that Cody Starbuck is a series of stand alone stories (in some cases almost re-boots) with gaps of 2-3 years in between. I love the stories...but I wonder if I am missing chunks of it. Here is what I got:

Star*Reach #1 (1974) and #4 (1976)

Cody Starbuck Star*Reach graphic novelette (1978)

Heavy Metal: May, June, July, August, September 1981--- a serialized 46 page graphic novel


1978 Cody Starbuck portfolio by Schanes and Schanes (6 black and white plates)

1980 Cody Starbuck portfolio by SQ. Prod. Pub./ Continuity Comics (4 color plates)



I have also read in an interview with Neal Adams that "Cody Starbuck" was sold by Continuity to some company in Europe and they printed a graphic novel. I have not been able to find any info on that. I am not even sure if it was printed in France or Italy...or if this "European graphic album" is the reprint of material from Heavy Metal.

Can anyone help? Does any one know who I can ask?

Happy New Year!