I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve been a fan of the Oz books since I was a kid. Since Aunt Hortense could travel anywhere going to Oz at least once was inevitable.
Author Archives: skook
1995 Calendar: January
Most of the illustrations in the 1995 calendar featured characters from Misspent Youths. At the time I was thinking of reviving the series as a self published comic that I intended to call Bonecage Graffiti. Aunt Hortense and the Lizards were going to be part of the ensemble cast of the comic.
But in 1995 Nizzibet and I began our plans for world domination and Bonecage Graffiti became one of the serials in the first version of Glyph.
The human characters on the page are Black Molly (in black), Lili Veracruz (in plaid) and Sequoia St. Jude O’Hare (in the hat).
1995 Calendar Front Cover
From 1988 to 1995 I did a series of calendars. The calendars featured original illustrations each month. The first calendar in 1988 featured a different “classic” monster each month – vampire, witch, werewolf, etc. Every calendar (but one) after that featured the Lizards. I’ve never really worried too much about what the Lizards actually were. They had the ability to create doors in reality so they could have adventures pretty anywhere. They had an Aunt Hortense, who was constantly smoking something, but otherwise their relationships are undefined. I couldn’t tell you if they were siblings or cousins or friends. I’m not even sure that Hortense is really anyone’s Aunt.
The last calendar in that series was done in 1994 for the coming year of 1995. The theme of this issue was “Through Time and Space with Aunt Hortense” so basically it was an excuse for me to draw whatever I wanted.
The art was done on duoshade boards, an artboard with a pattern imprinted on it that can brought out by painting a chemical on it. One chemical brought out a hatch pattern. A second chemical brought out a crosshatch. Duoshade doesn’t scan as well as I’d like. It tends to show a moire pattern.
Briefer Frankenstein (Color)
I went with green when I colorized this fellow more because it seemed like fun than for any other reason. Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein was “flesh colored” in the comics.
Briefer Frankenstein (Black and White)
This final creature is inspired by the version Dick Briefer drew in his Frankenstein comics.
Kiwi Frankenstein (Color)
Once again I stuck with a corpse inspired color scheme. In all the photos I’ve seen of this creature he looks like he’s pretty pale.
Kiwi Frankenstein (Black and White)
This version of a Frankenstein monster is inspired by photos of the creature in Evil of Frankenstein played by Kiwi Kingston.
I’ve only seen two of the Hammer Frankenstein series; The Curse of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Created Woman. Once of these days I’ll have to catch up on the other films.
Christopher Lee(ish) Frankenstein (Color)
I didn’t add much color to the image after the initial colorization. This creature seemed like he should be pale and corpselike in hue.
Christopher Lee(ish) Frankenstein (Black and White)
This second Frankenstein creature is inspired by the monster played by Christopher Lee in The Curse of Frankenstein, the first of the Hammer Frankenstein series.
Not Really Teenage Frankenstein (Color)
Colorizing was done by –
A. Scanning the original art into Photoshop
B. Duplicating the original art a couple of times onto a couple of different layers. One layer would stay untouched in case I needed an undamaged version of the original image.
C. The original scan is duplicated again and then colorized.
D. The colorized layer is duplicated and then given a gaussian blur.
E. The three active layers (original, colorized and blurred) and then set to multiply.
F. I then erased out the parts of the original layer where I only wanted color to appear in the image (rather than color with a grey undertone).
G. I adjusted the contrast of what’s left of the original layer so that I get solid blacks and the greys are lighter.
H. I added another layer set to multiply and then added color for skin and the background.
I. On additional layers I added highlights or undertones of color.
I’m fairly happy with how it turned out. I’m especially happy with how little time I spent in Photoshop.
