Behind That Curtain

Someday, eventually, hopefully, maybe, one day I will put together a little book of all the extra Peculia art I've done, outside of her two books. I have a bunch by this point (mostly in the form of scans since I've sold most of original art over the years). Basically, I was having so much fun back when I had my comic book series Evil Eye, that I made scores of cover sketches or thumbnail ideas -- enough for, like, a 100 issues. (I mean, I wasn't so naive that I thought the series might actually last more than a dozen issues or so - I just enjoyed drawing the character confronting all sorts of creeps, monsters & various bothersome pests). So - anyway - now and then, just to please myself if no one else, I like to get out my old notebooks and bring one or more of those sketches to "life" in a finished drawing. A couple showed up not long ago in the Coniglio Editore edition of PECULIA from Italy, in an extra gallery section. Here's a fairly recent example I did while waiting for some other artwork to dry (I find I can start to go crazy waiting for paint to dry, so I need to work on something else to keep my hands busy & distract myself!)... It's Peculia meeting a professor of Lycanthropic studies, who presumably fancies her as a test subject. Naturally, she's not crazy about the idea. I've made my scans, so the original art is now available over at the Comic Art Collective, for anyone who may be interested.

I've added the following pieces to the CAC as well. I'm putting up for sale the only two uncut versions of the Halloween Hang-Ups 3-color silkscreens in existence. The others were all cut out, packaged and sold as sets at a gallery show way back in 1994. These two are uncut and were professionally mounted, measuring 14" x 18" and signed as part of another show several years later. Each one of these two remaining silk-screens is one of a kind, there are no others like these. They are personal favorites of mine, but with Halloween coming soon, it's a perfect time for them to find a new home.

There is also this large ink drawing called "Home From The War" which appeared in an issue of NOZONE in the early 1990s. Yes, we were in a war back then, too, and politicians, corporations and fat cats were getting rich off it then, too. It's nothing new, it's an old, old story and doesn't seem it will ever change. "When will they ever learn?" indeed...

As always - thanks very much for joining me in my little gallery on the 'net, listening to my stories and looking at my pictures. It means a lot to be able to share them with you.

Comic Art Collective - Art by Richard Sala - Original comic art from top artists

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Coming in December...

Here is my cover for the latest edition of GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens, published by Penguin as part of their deluxe Graphic Classics series, which encourages the illustrator/cartoonist to use comic book devices like panels & word balloons over a straightforward cover illustration. It was a lot of fun (especially since it's a favorite book of mine), not to mention an honor to be included with such a great group of fellow cartoonists.

Go to designer Paul Buckley's flickr page (which is where I grabbed the above scan) to see all of the book covers in the series:

penguin graphic classics - a set on Flickr

A FEAST FOR THE EYES by Nick Tosches

Illustrated border and hand-lettering I did for a limited edition print of this atmospheric piece by the great Nick Tosches. It was later republished (I think) in one of the WFMU compilations of articles and art. (Apologies, but I must note: Intended for Mature Audiences) (Also, if you notice a little blue spot -- that's just some paint I carelessly splattered on one of my only copies!)

FIENDS!

Here's a selection of drawings from my book THE GHASTLY ONES...

The Big Score

PULSE was the name of the house magazine for the late, lamented Tower Records. It was free to customers and filled with news and articles about the latest releases in CDs and home video. For nearly ten years, the last page of every issue featured work by a different cartoonist who had been assigned by editor Marc Weidenbaum to submit a strip having something (anything) to do with music. It was a great showcase for cartoonists, especially since it was printed in full-color.

At the time I was listening to a lot of movie soundtracks, particularly the cool, atmospheric soundtracks of thrillers and spy movies, which I found to be inspiring background music to play while I wrote. So that's what I did my strip "about," and fortunately Marc didn't think it was TOO obscure, although, in fact, it probably made sense to only a couple of dozen Pulse readers (maybe less). That was definitely a concern - and I remember being pleasantly surprised when I eventually got on the internet and found that there were actually quite a few people who liked these soundtracks as much as I did.

After "The Big Score" appeared, I thought about doing two more - one featuring Spaghetti Western soundtracks and one featuring music from horror movies, but I never got around to submitting those (maybe for the best, who knows?). For more information about Pulse and the cartoonists who did work for it, be sure to visit Marc's page about it here:

Disquiet » The Index of Pulse! Magazine Comics