Author Archives: skook

A Lingering Scent of Gasoline and Buttered Popcorn – B&W

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creaturefeaturebw

And we’re back to our regular schedule – a black and white illustration posting on Sunday with a color version posting the following Wednesday.

This one is a more refined version of an image I did for the Drawloween/Inktober challenge last year. The prompt for that image was “Drive-In Creature Feature”.

I don’t have any real nostalgia for drive-ins. They weren’t a significant part of either my childhood or my adolescence. If I had a choice I’d have rather seen a film in a theatre building rather than a drive-in. I know people often used the drive-in for activities other than watching movies but I’ve got a one track mind. I go to the movies to watch the movie. I only remember going once, to see a double bill of Godzilla vs. Megalon and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger. I’m sure that I have more than that but none of the films have stuck in my memory.

I do have sympathy for ghosts and creatures who have outlasted their original era. Most of us become the latter and, eventually, all of us become the former.

To Walk the Night

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Back in 2014, Edward Morris contacted me to ask me about using the illustration for “If Company Should Come” in a collection of his short stories. I said yes and offered to illustrate another story of his choice. Below is the illustration for that story – “To Walk the Night”.

Both stories (and illustrations) were included in the ebook edition of CARCOSA TENEMENT BLUES. The book, unfortunately, seems to be out of print – a weird thing since it’s an ebook. It was never “printed” as such. It did get a glowing review on Amazon.

Hopefully it will see actual print someday. Mr. Morris’s writing deserves to be widely read and appreciated. walkfinal

If Company Should Come

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Back in 2011 I illustrated two stories for THE AKLONOMICON, an anthology of Lovecraftian stories and poems. The print run of the book was very limited and it has long since sold out. Sadly (for me) I only have a PDF of the book, not a print version. PDFs and ebooks may be the way most things get published (now and) in the future but I can’t put them on my shelves so they just don’t seem real.

Below is my illustration for “If Company Should Come” by Edward Morris. I don’t think the story has seen print yet anywhere else. That’s unfortunate. Ed is fine fellow and his way with words makes me very very jealous. 417944_10151426470637695_1856986539_n

Preview Sketches

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Here are some of the sketches I plan to turn into colored illustrations over the next few months. No doubt I will get distracted and work up new sketches before all of these get completed. I’ve also started work on a graphic novel commission that I expect will take up most of the time that isn’t currently filled by my day job. This week I’m just posting these previews and a few other, older illustrations that haven’t made it to this site yet. There may be some weeks where I don’t post. Hopefully not but … minisketches2017001 minisketches2017002 minisketches2017003 minisketches2017004

The Girl in the Middle – Color

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The woman standing behind Nurri Kala is a Silurian. In the pulp serial, Morgo the Mighty, the Silurians are described as scaled men not man-like lizards or lizard-like men so I’ve assumed that they are a type of human and therefore mammals.

This illustration is the last piece from the batch I sketched up in late 2015. Every sketch from that batch (along with a number of others that I sketched up during 2016) has now been inked and colored. I think some of them turned out really well. I learned something even from the ones that I was … less than satisfied with. There are more illustrations coming. I’m continuing the black and white to color project until the end of this year.

I’m hoping to have a themed illustration project ready for 2018 but, at the moment, I can’t promise that I will succeed. One day at time.

The Girl in the Middle – Black and White

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nurrikalabwNurri Kala, the heroine of the pulp serial Morgo the Mighty, has a dilemma.She is desired by three men: Zorimi, the evil despot who raised her from childhood; Jerry McRory, the dashing pilot from the upper world; and Morgo, the mighty young cave warrior. Who will she choose?

Not Zorimi. He’s evil.

McRory? He offers her a return to a world that she has forgotten.

Morgo? He is a fellow cavern dweller.

Choices, choices.