fresh off the scanner

This is about 1/3 of a page from my latest project. No details to speak of just yet.

Nightmare World: Frozen

Ok, it's been way too long between posts. I've recently started a rather demanding project that is eating up much of my reserve brain power. Anyway, I wanted to finish up with my NIGHTMARE WORLD art.

With NIGHTMARE WORLD VOL 3: Demon Days Dirk Manning gave me the opportunity to have TWO stories in the collection. He had already committed "Paranoid" to the volume (see last blog post) and approached me to "re-master" a story that had previously appeared on the web. That story was/is, FROZEN.

This was easily the most fun to draw. Who wouldn't want to draw barbarians chasing down mad wizards on top of a mountain?

You may notice I drew in the speech balloons right on the art. I had started doing this because computer lettering (specifically speech balloons) look so jarringly separate from the rest of the art. Some people are fine with this, but I think everything should look harmonious. If most of the art is drawn by hand, the balloons naturally should too.

Here are the two pieces colored:

If you want to read the whole thing, please pick up a copy of Nightmare World at the link above.

Nightmare World Week(s): Paranoid

My next NIGHTMARE WORLD story was Paranoid. It took awhile for Dirk to convince me to do this story. The premise basically being a meeting between Bigfoot and the Lochness Monster. It sounded ridiculous and I guess that's the point. It was a humor story more than horror, so I had fun with it.

Many people have said my work is "cartoony" which I find a somewhat derogatory term when used in certain contexts. I think people are responding to my "exaggerations" which are used to help convey the emotions of the story or scene. With comedy, I tend to exaggerate features, anatomy, etc more for effect. Anyway here are some of the inkwash images I started with...

Dirk and I had many conversations about the color of this story. There are two scenes. One in the distant past, the other (concerning Bigfoot and his large companion) in the "present". Since Bigfoot and Nessie are fairly comical, my first instinct was to use a very colorful approach, and make the past scenes, more neutral. Dirk convinced me to switch the idea, since the "present day" is really after a holocaust of sorts. Here are some color versions along with the "cover" which is one of my favorite pieces I've done.

Please remember to purchase NIGHTMARE WORLD: DEMON DAYS, where you can read PARANOID in it's entirety.