I like drawing portraits of my Nizzibet.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
A Quiet Morning with the Damned – Color
The more I think about it, the less likely it seems that these folks would get together protect humanity from … anything. So what are they doing? Wilbur might still be interested in calling his “father” to Earth but I doubt that Frank (I’m just going to call him that – typing “the Frankenstein Monster” every time is tedious) or Helen would think that was great idea. Maybe they are planning a heist?
A Quiet Morning with the Damned – Black and White
I didn’t plan to post this image on Christmas Day. I schedule posts for Sundays and Wednesdays. I finish coloring an image and then put both the black and white version and the color version into the queue. I finished coloring this one on November 7th. The next available slot for posting was today.
Three beings of improbable, one might even say miraculous, birth sharing fellowship. We are all monsters to someone. And we all need a place to call home, if only for moments. So, no, I didn’t plan to post this image on Christmas Day but it seems like an appropriate choice.
Merry Christmas to all you monsters. May you have rest and companionship today. Amen.
For Some Folks, Every Day is Halloween – Color
Sleep tight. There are no monsters under your bed, no boogiemen in your closet. They are running for their lives.
You’re welcome.
For Some Folks, Every Day is Halloween – Black and White
I designed these characters a couple of years ago for a possible graphic novel project. The project didn’t go much beyond the idea stage but I like these designs so here’s a new version of these two. They had names in the project but since someone else was writing that I can’t use those so they are currently (and perhaps permanently) anonymous.
Mighty Morgo versus the Chicken Fiend – Color
Morgo the Mighty was clearly inspired by both Tarzan and At the Earth’s Core. It features a feral white man who is the master of his jungle environment and that jungle environment is located in caverns beneath the earth. There are monstrous creatures that he must battle to survive.
Contrary to online descriptions of the novel (and illustrations that accompanied it when it was serialized in The Popular Magazine) there are no dinosaurs or other prehistoric creatures in Surrilana. The beasts in the caverns are evolved (and often gigantic) rodents, bats, insects and birds. It’s a more realistic scenario than a land somehow populated by dinosaurs. I’m not saying it’s a better scenario. I love dinosaurs.
Birds are the descendants of the dinosaurs. So, perhaps, the chicken fiends of Surrilana can be considered dinosaur stand-ins.
Mighty Morgo versus the Chicken Fiend – Black and White
In Chapter 15 of the pulp serial Morgo the Mighty, Morgo and Nurri Kala must face .. the Chicken Fiends! “The Chicken Fiends” is, in fact, the title of the chapter. Apparently chickens were considered to be more fearful beasts back in 1930. The creatures rule over one of the cavern environments in Surrilana, an underground realm beneath the Himalayas. I know a giant flesh eating chicken would actually be pretty terrifying but, as a city boy here in the 21st century, it’s hard for me to summon up any nervous emotions about chickens.
Morgo kills them dead.
The Armored and the Dead – Color
Most of the time I have an idea of how I’m going to color an illustration. I’ll make adjustments during the actual coloring process but I’ll try to achieve the image I first saw in my mind’s eye. The coloring on this piece is much different than I originally planned. I was going to color the soldier in shiny, high tech armor – maybe a little dirty but otherwise “normal”.
The night after I finished the inks on this piece I dreamed about coloring it – coloring it as if the soldier’s armor camouflaged him, made him transparent. I woke up, wide awake, at 2:30 a.m. and started coloring with the new image in my head. The result, to me, makes him seem like a ghost haunting the site of the battle.
The Armored and the Dead – Black and White
War is cool. Unless you actually fight in one. Then it’s only cool if you lie about it afterward. 
Three Children and It – Color
With the exception of the Heap itself I used most of the colors from the 2013 mock cover to color this illustration. I made the Heap a darker green.
