Four Variations on Two Sisters piece.

The original.

The anime variations.

Bonze & scribbled pen version. 

Okay, i know Sara and Julie aren't exactly sisters . . .

Early Maxx Doodles

More Underground / Heavy Metal version. 

The Super Heroic version later.

Outback Bonsai

Nod to the amazing Wally Wood.

Outback flower: Reversal .. and Original

Alien's again...

.. not the big headed Mars Attacks 'big-headed' kind.

Well, these have big heads too, but you know what i mean.

Both,

A critic of my art once wrote: "i can never decide if i love or loathe Sam Kieth's style."

Oddly enough, i know just how he feels, i feel the same way.  

Variations on Lo's Face..

I've posted this Lo face from the Sketchbook cover before,

but here's a slightly different version worth checking out.

Album Cover Art

Artwork i did for a cool dude names Aaron John Gregory and his band Giant Squid. 

Maxx stuff

Bats, City & Pearls

Panel i did, humbly playing off Miller's classic imagery,

pearls snapping,

the loss of his mother.

Another day...

What's up with my Maxx-Sized BIG-FEET-With-Bolts-&-Organic-Texture stuff i keep drawing?

I do it with Legs too.

But at least i gave the Magic Twout ... tiny feet.

Nola mutations

 I've struggled with this one for over a decade.

It's morphed into so many incarnations, combination written word novel, then a wordless comic book, then a stage-play with a few panels decorating the dialogue. But what's cool thing about where i am in my professional life, is i have pretty much total creative freedom (aka: just enough creative rope to hang myself)..

But, outside the risk of pretentiousness or indulgence, this project has the freedom to become Any, or All of these formats.

Maybe it's not 'creative freedom' so much as the publisher's know something this non mainstream probably won't make a nickel.

Which is itself, a very freeing thing. 

Someday John and I will give everybody a heart attack and actually...

... *finish* this sucker.

When he's not wearing his blue cape...

Uncle Artie often wore yellow.

Unfinished hand

early artwork.

dunno why i stopped at the hand. 

The Missing Nose.

Oops, missed yesterdays' post.

In order to make up for it, here's a goofy little behind-the-scene story:

Feeling rather abstract and artsy, i left off the Eleanor detective's nose in the B&W art.

When Ronda colored it ( below), i noticed she lightly "suggested" the nose shape in color, which makes sense. 

But for some reason, i didn't like it, so I asked Ronda to lighten the face over-all, and leave his nose blank.

Then, when i looked the uncolored nose, i showed to to my wife, who said:

"Looks great, but where is his nose?"

So, i boldly went back to Ronda, asking her to re-color the nose again (probably driving her crazy), but asked her to make it even *more* detailed this time around, which she graciously did, to my great relief.  

There's no right or wrong here, I still like the missing nose in the b&w original, but it's funny what  sometimes works in b&w, can look weirdly unfinished in color.  Below is the finished page.

Which do you like better? 

Nola, talking with a friend.

budget crabbit.

Bird in the hand..

You know, the detective in my Eleanor comic looks a lot like Mr Gone, doesn't he?

Also, Sara (from Maxx) looks a lot like like Dana ... and Eleanor, which speaks  to my inability to draw more than a handful of female characters.

Luckily Maxx is original... the only thing he looks like,

is a lamp shade.

Bats & Gordon...

in the snow.

MCP Cover

Dr. Strange and Ghost Rider, obviously. 

Not as many people saw the Marvel Presents back covers online, because Mile High tends to only post the front covers to MCP.

So, in case you missed it.

Art for a friend.

Alex Pardee introduced me to video game creator Edmund McMillen (a very cool guy),

whom i did some ISAAC artwork for.

This, is that.

Just for fun, here's the black and white version too:

Nemesis Cover

Another Creature..

.. from the outback. 

Unfinished Maxx Panel

 Half-finished "Sara's Outback" panel. 

Weird Fact: Anyone else ever make "tunnels" out of quilts and blankets thrown over lawn furniture as a kid?

Well . . . maybe that was just me then. 

Painted Panels

When I first broke into comics,  most comics had to be black and white pages, which were later colored by a colorist.

I begged to add a few painted panels in between, yet Editors  discouraged having it.

Comics had to be 1) black and white, then colored, or 2) the whole book be a fully painted. Nothing in between. 

By the time i created Maxx, i could do whatever i wanted.  Fans seem to dig it too. 

I dunno why more artists don't try it.

Maxx Animated back ground art.

Here's the other painted background, done for the old MTV series.

I think they added a little movement to the creature.

Ahh, the 90s.