TO THE FUTURE AND BEYOND!!

If you're looking for something to look forward to in the coming year (and who isn't?), here's a sneak peak at some additions coming to The NoWhere-Men.com.  The above image features The Phantom Aardvark™ in pitched battle with The Maniacal Mister Bones™.  Although the pair eventually become fast friends and allies as members of The NoWhere-Men™, they were not always as such and at one time were fierce rivals.  I drew the pen, brush, and ink version of this image back in the early 1980's, and colored it years later in Photoshop, in 2001.  Two decades later, I'm posting it here online for the first time!  When this image is uploaded to The NoWhere-Men.com, the two logos will be fully animated GIF images.  Those animations exist already and are very cool, if I do say so myself.  And if I don't, who will?!  Updates to  The NoWhere-Men™ website have been in the works for some time, but 2022 promises to be the year of their unveiling.  Among the other additions, which include new full-color art, there will be a page featuring sketches of the characters.  The image below is possibly the very first sketch of The Maniacal Mister Bones™.  I believe this dates to 1975.  Apparently, I was into some serious dramatic foreshortening back then!  The creation of several of The NoWhere-Men™ predates even the Wacky Mr. B, by more than a few years.  The Phantom Aardvark™ was created by my NoWhere-Men collaborator and co-creator Dave LeBlanc in the early 1970's, as was The Electron™, and Norbo The Vampire™.  A few of my creations go back to 1969-'71 and we co-created a bunch more over the years.

But enough about the old days, here's to the future!  May it be one of hope and peace.  And maybe a little fun, too.  Stay tuned for more updates, and, as always, you can click on the above images to see the full-size, awesome art!

LOGOS, WE GOT LOGOS!

About half a lifetime ago, in addition to being a freelance illustrator, I "daylighted" as an art director for a couple of ad agencies and one TV station (Assistant A/D there, to be precise. I was right out of college.). As such, I often wore many hats. Among other things, I did layouts ("marker comps" in those days), art directed photo-shoots, sometimes did the photography myself, did type specs and paste-up (in the pre-digital days of galleys, Xacto-knives and rubber cement), was a sound engineer and occasional voice actor for radio spots and audio-visual productions, provided in-house illustrations, and once in a while designed logos for a host of clients. All that lasted about 10 years, and then I went strictly freelance and have remained as such ever since. The bulk of my work has consisted of illustrations in the ensuing decades, but there has occasionally been some graphic design to be done. See here for some examples of characters, cover design and logos for Nestle Corporation. I've also created several logos for my own projects such as The Nowhere-Men™, and these comic covers for Joe Comet™, and Hour Father™.

So, when nearly a decade ago, Comicopia, the local comic book store where I had shopped since it opened up (now over 30 years ago!), sponsored a contest for a new logo design for their store, I decided I was uniquely qualified to give it a go. My entry is posted above. I took a very ad agency approach to the project. The design is deceptively complex. The letter forms are all reminiscent of various comic book logos, some, like the two "C's," have roots in Artie Simek's Marvel Comics logos such as "Thor" and "The Fantastic Four." The "I" recalls horror comics of the 1950's. Others are more in the style of funny animal comics. The panels behind the lettering separate each syllable as each depicts a specific genre of comics, to wit: Humor, Superhero, Mystery, Science Fiction, and Manga. Comicopia specializes in Manga, so that was essential to the mix. I did my research and synthesized a couple of characters in a typical Manga style. You can see echoes (but not strict copies) of Disney, Archie, and even R Crumb in Panel 1. I downplayed the superheroes a bit, only showing a fist, a cape and a boot in Panel 2. The others are pretty much all from my imagination, though that fedora-sporting fellow might be related to The Phantom Stranger, The Spirit, The Shadow, or even Steve Ditko's The Mysterious Traveler!  And for the record, the lettering (and the rest of the line art) was all done the old-fashioned way, by hand with pens on paper.

Well, long story short, I was the front runner until the last day of the contest when a quirky little treatment caught the eyes of the staff, and I became the runner-up. Their current logo is far less specific and literal, and they've done well with it. Nevertheless, I am very proud of my design, and thought it was about time the general public had a chance to see it. And there you go!  Click on the image for the big picture.

IS THERE A SUPERHERO IN THE NEXT CUBICLE??

Earlier this year, I was contacted by Patricia Bacall, the multi-talented head of Bacall:Creative, to design a series of superheroic images for a marketing campaign for Crucial.com.  The concept was a very clever and original one: First, find the person in your office whom everyone turns to when computer malfunctions erupt, causing widespread chaos and panic, who is uniquely capable of solving the problem.  Then, nominate him/her online for an award: "The Official Unofficial Office Computer Go-To Superstar" Award, to be precise.  The competition seems to be over now, and the website down, but you can read all about the competition and Crucial.com, plus scan some other interesting data here.  Crucial.com's announcement about the contest is available here.

I created six images for the campaign, seen in the above image and the enlarged single hero illustration below.  Click on the pictures for larger views.  Each character was a pastiche of an ordinary office worker and a superhero.  Special thanks to Patricia for finding me and handing me the illustration reins for this very entertaining project!