Monday, February 22, 2010

The Domino Lady


It will probably come as no surprise to anyone that I am a big fan of pulp novels from the 1930’s and ’40’s. Although I do enjoy the occasional Lovecraftian pulp horror story, the detective pulps, with their mysterious masked avengers The Spider, The Shadow and The Phantom Detective, have always been—by far—my favorites.

One of the lesser-known pulp heroes… or heroines, I should say… was the lovely Ellen Patrick, also known as The Domino Lady. When her father, incorruptible California politician Owen Patrick was assassinated by the corrupt political machine who had failed to bribe him, young Ellen donned the black silk mask, cape and form-fitting gown of the Domino Lady in order to avenge him.

The Domino Lady’s adventures were more light-hearted than most of the other detective pulps. While The Shadow and The Spider fought demented scientists, cold-blooded criminal masterminds and unstoppable zombie hordes, the Domino Lady’s foes were mainly low-level jewel thieves, blackmailers, gangsters and people who looked like this. She was an expert shot with a pistol, but would only use her weapon to wound or fend off attackers; unlike her male counterparts, she wasn’t a killer. In fact, the Domino Lady spent more time undressing, taking baths and lounging around in skimpy nightgowns than she did actually fighting crime, which very well may explain the success of the stories among male readers.

A few years ago I was fortunate enough to stumble across a copy of Vanguard Productions’ The Domino Lady: The Complete Collection with cover art and chapter illustrations by the great Jim Steranko. If you’re a pulp fan, I can’t encourage you enough to track down a copy.

Anyway, here are a few drawings of The Domino Lady and her “kissable shoulders” (as author Lars Anderson often described them)…

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Werewolves (3)

Here's one last werewolf sketch for the road:

Stay tuned, I've got something a little different planned for tomorrow...

Friday, February 19, 2010

Etsy store (now open)!


Just a quick note to let you know my Etsy store is officially up and running, for those of you who are interested in buying original drawings and stuff. To purchase anything in the store you'll need to create an Etsy account first, but it's a fast, painless operation. Honest.

Feel free to check the store out from time to time, as I'll be adding new items (comics, limited edition prints, drawings from the blog and other illustrations) regularly. Thanks for looking!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Paranormal (by Jon Morris)

The other day the mailman brought me this amazing drawing :

The above illustration was drawn by talented Seattle-based cartoonist and friend Calamity Jon Morris, whose art has already graced this blog. Those of you who have read my Paranormal comic book trilogy will recognize The Ogre, Rat Face, The Silencer, The Snake and Agent Olivares, among others. It’s always really fun for me to see how another artist interprets my characters, and Jon’s versions are among my favorites. Go do your eyeballs a favor and go check out his work here.

As soon as I can find a worthy frame, this baby is going on my wall. Thanks Jon !

In other news, if anyone out there is interested in purchasing original art from me, I’ll be opening an Etsy store later this week. There you’ll find most of the art that has appeared on this blog, including the drawings from the Superhero Alphabet series that I did last summer. I’ll let you know as soon as it goes online.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Werewolves (2)

A few more werewolf sketches :

Professor Remus Lupin (my favorite character from the Harry Potter novels)

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Werewolves (1)

I went to go see The Wolfman movie yesterday, and came home with an itch to draw me some werewolves:



I’m a sucker for a good werewolf story, and have been fortunate to come across quite a few of them over the years. For anyone who cares, here are a few of my favorites : There Shall Be No Darkness (James Blish), The Wolf (Guy de Maupassant), Gabriel-Ernest (Saki), The Were-Wolf (Clemence Housman) and It’s Only The End of the World Again (Neil Gaiman & Troy Nixey). Guy Endore’s The Werewolf of Paris and Stephen King’s Cycle of the Werewolf (the version with all the Bernie Wrightson paintings) were a fun read, too.

I haven’t drawn any werewolf stories since I finished Red Hands, my first comic book, but I sure am itching to now…

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Sketches, etc.

No official news to report in regards to my fencing/noir story, but I did have a really productive and busy week. In addition to drawing thumbnails/layouts for chapter three, I finished inks on a page that was giving me some trouble, and even found some time to fill up a few pages in my new sketchbook. Here are some sketches:




Also, the week ended on a high note, as I discovered two cool websites that feature links to my blog.

The first is Tim Miner’s excellent and irreverent Marvel Smartass! site, where he single-handedly (well, okay, sometimes he has help) Mercilessly Mocks Marvel… coMics. (sorry, couldn’t find a synonym for “comics” that started with the letter “M”) Tim has a great fondness for (and vast knowledge of) Marvel comics and it shows. Go check it out!

The second is writer Chris Roberson's site. Chris is the talented author of several novels, including End of the Century and Iron Jaw & Hummingbird, as well as the Vertigo comics I, Zombie and Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love. More information can be found on his blog.

Thanks to both Tim and Chris for supporting my work & adding links to my blog, and I encourage alla youse to stop by and take a look at theirs!