The (Intelligent Bloodsucking Lumbering) Thing from Another World

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Here is another of the original illustrations I did to build up my gallery at Epilogue.net. This one is a new interpretation of the alien from The Thing from Another World. Since the creature is a mobile sentient vegetable I wanted him (it) to look, well, look like a sentient mobile vegetable. As I wrote elsewhere at the time –

My reworking here was fairly easy. The original monster looks a lot like the Universal Frankenstein monster and it’s supposed to be a kind of ambulatory plant. The biggest thing I had to think about was why a plant would wear clothes. And what would they be made of?

Alien spider silk. With the spiders still in residence. They even repair the outfit when it tears – take a look at the group working on The Thing’s right arm.

And it wears the silk to retain moisture during its travels.

I’m a fan of both versions of The Thing. I don’t really consider the 1980s version a remake. It’s actually a more faithful adaptation of John Campbell’s original story Who Goes There?. Both films use the story’s idea of a thawed alien menacing an isolated base but the 1950’s version chances the nature of the alien and therefore the nature of the story. The final illustration can be found here.

It! Terror from Beyond Space. Or Maybe Just from Mars.

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In 2003 I set up a gallery at Epilogue.net. Of course, a gallery isn’t much good unless it’s got art in it so I got to work creating new illustrations to post. At the time I didn’t have much work that I thought would fit. I had a lot of sketchbooks but most of my finished work was either comics or Labor of Love designs or so old that I didn’t want to post it.

This is a scan of the original art for A Hot Dry Hunger, one of the illustrations in my B-Movie Re-Imagination Project series. BRIP is my occasional foray into redesigning the monsters of old, usually low budget, movies. I try to retain as much of the original design of the creature as possible while letting the design evolve in ways it couldn’t originally because the original costume had to be created cheaply and fit on a human actor.

How Many Mistakes Can You Find?

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This illustration is from an environmental education project that Labor of Love put together in 1999 for a major mining company. I have no idea how much of the project was actually implemented. The budget we were given to work with was pretty darned small. We did a series of posters and handouts designed to educate and remind employees of safe practices in handling hazardous wastes. I think this illustration was part of a test packet. Testees were to circle all the negligent practices or trouble spots they could find.

Shaved Heads

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I’m not sure of the vintage of this piece. Like most of the sketches I turned up it’s undated. I’m guessing it was done in 2003 when I was thinking of doing a site of regularly posted illustrations set in the Sentient 39 “universe”. I’m guessing that more because of the size of the illustration than the subject matter. I don’t know what’s going on here.

Up and Running

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Moving may be a pain but there’s at least one thing that I can appreciate about this one – I now have access to a bunch of my old art that was stuck in boxes. That were buried under other boxes.

One of the other tricks about living in a new place (and working at a new job) is rebuilding habits. I forget how much I rely on my habits to get things done until I have to come up with new ones. Posting here is one of my habits so I’m glad to finally be able to be doing it on a regular basis.

This sketch is undated but I’m guessing it’s from 2000 or so. This fellow looks like a character from the early incarnation of King Roach – a military operative assigned to capture KR.

Goodbye to 2009

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We’re in the new apartment. We’re done with the old apartment. I’ve got wireless hooked up on my computer. Most of the books are still in boxes and probably will be for months. There’s all kinds of recycling that needs to be gotten rid of as well as a table and a dresser that died in the truck on the way over from the old apartment.

The business for which I’ve had a day job for the last few years was officially sold today. I’ll be helping the new owners figure out how things work throughout January but mostly I’ll be doing my new job. Which is a lot like the old job only more chaotic. I’ll probably go into it a bit as time goes on and I get more organized.

I also got a cover done for Sixtystone Press. It was a rush job that turned out much better than I expected. I’ll post that tomorrow. Over Christmas Nizzibet mentioned to someone that I would have 3 books coming out next year. There will be at least that. I expect to be pretty busy at the drawing board.

And, sooner or later, I’ll start posting here again regularly.

See you all in 2010!

Dropping in to Say, “HI!”

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It seems terrible to have nothing new posted so here’s a Frankenstein Creature to keep you company for awhile.

He’s much friendlier than he looks. He doesn’t know his own strength so be careful what sort of games you play together.

Updates

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There will probably be no artwork to post for most, if not all, of the rest of the month. Nizzibet and I are moving from our overstuffed apartment to a larger one across town. We’re expecting the new place to be just stuffed rather than crammed. But to get to that stage we’ve first got to put everything here into boxes and bags and schlep it there. And then, for Christmas, we’ll get to unwrap our old stuff! Yay!

Of course that means another couple of commissions showed up in email today. One is a new RPG book for Sixtystone Press. Cover and interior illustrations. The other is work I’ve already done, years ago, that looks like it may see print in an Oz related publication. The art has been packed away since the last time we moved so it’s going to stay packed until we get to the new place.

All of this needs to be fit around the work I’m doing on Oz Squad. Uh. Yeah. Seems like I’m destined to do that series. I’ve no idea when it will see print. I’ve got 12 out of 48 pages of the first issue finished. Assuming that it sees publication as a print comic. But maybe it will end up on the web first. Or we’ll collect the first story arc in a trade paper back. But that all happens when the art is done.

I hope you’ll all having fun. Feel free to drop by now and then. Just because I don’t expect to have anything to show off doesn’t mean I won’t end up surprising myself.

Whosever Knows Fear …

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… Burns at the Man-Thing’s Touch!

That’s such a great tagline.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m fond of the Man-Thing. He’s got a great design. He’s big and shaggy and mossy and he has a face that looks like no other creature out there. One of the reasons I’ll probably never get around to seeing the movie is that they changed his look. (The general consensus that the movie is lousy wouldn’t stop me if the design had been correct.) It’s unsettling more than terrifying. You don’t worry that he’ll eat you. He hasn’t got a mouth. How could he? But if he’s not going to eat you what the hell will he do?

Man-Thing is one of those Marvel comics characters that has never managed to sustain his own series for very long. The reason is pretty obvious. He has no personality. He’s mindless. While he was originally a human being that human is so far gone as to be superfluous. Man-Thing doesn’t change back to his original human form. And as the Man-Thing he doesn’t think or plan or hunger. He doesn’t want anything, not even to be left alone. That would be too abstract of a thought. He’s an empathic creature and reacts to strong emotions. Some emotions rile him up. Rage and anger cause him pain and he’ll strike out. And fear? He really doesn’t like fear.