THE NOWHERE-MEN™ ART 2

Here is a brand-new character also featured in The Nowhere-Men™. Hour Father™ is an enigmatic time-traveler who summons a time vortex with his pocket watch. HF has a habit of showing up at critical moments in the time stream, uttering his catch phrase, "It's about time." and disappearing. His motives are thus far unknown. For this illustration, I stuck mainly with traditional flat colors, which I tend to prefer with crisp line work, eschewing the airbrushed tonalities I used in the Joe Comet™ piece. For some reason, to me it looks like an old Charlton Comics cover, which suits me fine! My comic art style influences are mainly from the '60's and '70's, with stalwarts like Ditko, Colan, Kirby, Buscema, Heck, and Kubert high on the list. This is Hour Father's web debut, by the way. You saw it here first!

And of course, you can click on the image for a larger version of the art.

THE NOWHERE-MEN™ ART 1

Behold the mysterious being known only as Joe Comet™! Joe is one of my characters from The NoWhere-Men™ (see www.thenowhere-men.com). This cover concept was rendered in pen, brush & ink, scanned and digitally colored in Photoshop. I pulled out all the stops on this one, using lots of airbrush and other effects to enhance the eerie mood of this scene from Joe's origin story. The first NoWhere-Men story, featuring Joe and the entire cast of heroes, is scripted and in thumbnail form. I hope to serialize it online in 2010. The NoWhere-Men project is a continuing work-in-progress. Some of the "Cataclysmic Cosmic Comet Comics™" characters created by both me and my cohort Dave LeBlanc go back to our teen years (long ago!). Joe Comet and a few others are more recent creations from the last decade or so. Click on the image for a larger version of the art.

BUY AMERICAN!

In addition to my other artistic pursuits, I've worked in educational publishing for many years. Recently, I've encountered a disturbing trend. Some publishers and studios are now outsourcing to other countries for illustrations. In many cases, though not always, the art being outsourced is secondary to the more critical pieces; but the reason is simply that overseas artists are willing and able to work for as little as 25% of what American illustrators expect. What's wrong with this picture? Lots! I have seen some of this art, in some cases when the foreign art was poorly drawn and I was asked to then produce new illustrations, which were far more professionally rendered. Now, besides the obvious advantages of going to an experienced, accomplished artist and receiving a superior product, there is another reason to employ us Americans: Illustrators are consumers, too! It's good for our struggling economy to employ Americans. That's why Uncle Sam wants you to stop outsourcing your art jobs. Get better results and feel a warm, patriotic glow at the same time!

Full Moon Revue Cover Illustration

Recently, my friend Mal Shaw asked me to create a cover illustration for his band Full Moon Revue's new CD. Mal's a terrific drummer whom I know from his numerous appearances with The Dave Foley Band. FMR is a studio band comprised of several excellent musicians. The illustration depicts them in a style reminiscent of some of my early work. Influences include Jack Davis and Mort Drucker among many others.