The Complete MERVIN the MAGNIFICENT!

Here are all ten of my two-page comic strips starring MERVIN THE MAGNIFICENT.

The first nine are shown as they were printed in NICKELODEON MAGAZINE – a wonderful magazine for kids – between the years of 1993 and 1995.  The tenth strip is shown the only way it exists - in the rough form I submitted it to the Nickelodeon editors.  It was rejected and -- well -- that was the end of the strip.

I was really happy to be a part of that magazine for the time I was in it, doing occasional illustrations along with the Mervin comics, and sad when it came to an end.  I felt I was just beginning to hit my stride with the strip when it ended.  The reason it ended - what the editor at the time told me  - was that a focus group made up of kids between the ages of 8 and 12 had been polled about comics in the magazine.  And according to the results, the older (12 year olds) liked Mervin, but the others, not so much, I guess.

So -- they needed strips that would appeal more to those younger readers.  The editor didn’t appear to be shutting the door completely, suggesting that I consider submitting ideas aimed at a younger audience.  But – I had really grown fond of writing the (admittedly silly and corny) Mervin strips, so it was hard to see beyond the rejection.

At that time, it was one of the busier periods in my life and career and I already had plenty of other thing to work on and to keep me busy.  If it had been during one of my “valleys” rather than one of my “peaks” I would have gladly submitted some new ideas. In fact, I think I always intended to. But time passed quickly, new editors took over at the magazine and it just never happened  Looking back, although I would have loved to continue doing the strip for the rest of my life, I’m just grateful now that they let me do as many as I did.

Anyway, as I said, I was fond of this strip.  It was intentionally silly and (as some of my cartoonist colleagues delighted in pointing out) old-fashioned.  And I didn’t really do that thing that all the books about “how to write for children” tell you to do: I didn’t first think about the age of my audience.  I didn’t do it for anybody but myself, really.  I just wrote the kind of stories I would have liked when I was a kid.  I hope at least a few kids out there enjoyed reading the Mervin strips as much as I enjoyed making them!

Thanks for looking (and for, hopefully, reading them!)  I'll post some of the original artwork for these soon.

What Big Teeth You Have, Grandma!

"What Big Teeth You Have, Grandma!" (2012)  

11" x 14" Brand new watercolor & ink artwork.  I'm working on a series of drawings inspired by Folk Tales in anticipation of my book DELPHINE which is going to be released later this year.  


Comic Art Collective

THE HIDDEN ~ Another new (short but sweet) review

THE HIDDEN

Leap Into March Art Sale ~

Art lovers and loyal readers may be familiar with the Comic Art Collective, where original artwork by yours truly is available for purchase.  I'm still in the process of cleaning house, so I decided to have a modest sale on the art there.  Some are reduced a little, some are reduced a lot.  I've also added several new pieces (including, appropriately, The Connoisseur, above) - among them are two of my "signature pieces" -- the art for my two most enduring (i.e. the ones that got me the most work) promotional postcards, both used for years during the 1990s and the 2000s.  (See below) ~

Please check it out here:

COMIC ART COLLECTIVE ~ Recent Additions & Art on sale

In addition, if you purchase two portraits from the UNMASKED series, you will get a third one for free.  Just click on the three you want and when the information comes to me, you'll only be charged for two.  So you get three portraits for $100.


Here is an alphabetical listing of my art for sale, to make it easier to look through the UNMASKED series, for those of you interested: 


Alphabetical listing of art for sale.


As always, thanks for looking -- I hope you find something you like!  Feel free to ask any questions you may have.  Until next time ~ RS


UPDATE:  Thanks very much to those you who made purchases!  Please note that I will occasionally be adding a few new pieces of art as this early March sale continues.  Thanks again to all my loyal readers!

Another Revised EVIL EYE Cover

Here was how I originally planned the front and back covers of Evil Eye #4 to look.  I had a lot of fun drawing the two recurring "stars" of the book, Peculia and Judy Drood, surrounded by movie monsters from the pages of old issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland.  But - as often happens - I changed my mind.  So -- I used the paintings for back covers instead, as you can see in the proofs below for issues #4 and #5.  

The reason the rejected cover above is numbered 7 is because, in order to show what the finished version might have looked like, I used photoshop to cut & paste the logo and text from the cover of issue #7 (which has a red background that matches that of the rejected cover; I just blended it it in so you can see how the logo and text would have fit).

Attention Art Lovers, Ephemera Collectors & Comic Book Historians ~

EVIL EYE COVER PROOFS ~

Yes, as the title of this post says -- this is a special note to art lovers, ephemera collectors and comic book historians.  (You know who you are!)


Here is a rare collection of one-of-a-kind items.  Pictured are the actual, original - and only - cover proofs for the comic book series EVIL EYE, each of which shows both the front and back covers (or inside covers), published by Fantagraphics Books.

These are the four color separation proofs (sometimes called "3-M"s by the old-timers in the biz).  They are provided by the printer to show the editor and art director how a piece will look when it's printed.  Each one was sent to me for my final approval.


Each of these proofs consist of four layers of acetate:  four different acetate sheets, each printed with a single color - black, yellow, magenta and cyan - that when displayed together, magically result in the full color art and form the final cover image that will be published. 

The top sheet is the black layer, which, when viewed separately, looks like a copy of the main line art. Below that is the blue layer (cyan). Underneath that is the red layer (magenta). The final layer is the yellow sheet. Each sheet is of a plastic-type quality, similar to an animation cel acetate.  The four sheets are securely and sturdily bound together by heavy tape, in order to keep them together for precise registration.

Each proof measures 11 1/2" x 14".  They are produced to show the size of the final printed front and back covers -- but the proofs show the uncropped edges.  When the cover is printed, it is trimmed on all four sides.

These are not mass-produced prints. Each is one-of-a-kind, created during the production process for the comic, and used internally by the comic company -- very cool and rare pieces of comic production art.  These are often simply thrown away when the comic is published, but these particular ones were so lovely (and I was so fond of my comic book series) that I had to keep them.  

They still look new, with no signs of age - all are shiny and bright.  A couple do have bumped or creased corners - from when they were mailed to me.  

If anyone is interested in purchasing one of these, I'm putting them up for sale individually on the Comic Art Collective.  Each will be neatly signed in the white area – and would look great framed (in my humble opinion!).  I would love to keep them myself, but I am in the process of "cleaning house" after a long career and many years of collecting ephemera myself.  Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions at all.

Note about the images shown here:  these are not scans but photos of the proofs taken with a digital camera.  They may look a bit blurry -- but the actual proofs are not! They may also show a glare from the flash and may look a little darker than they actually are, and the colors may look slightly off.  But each proof is actually colorful and bright, with color identical to the final printed covers.

Thanks for joining me on this behind-the-scenes tour!  Interested parties may view and/or purchase one or more of the proofs here:


Comic Art Collective ~ Richard Sala



With any purchase, I will also provide a signed note, verifying that the proof is a one-of-a-kind item from my private collection.  I will also consider discounts for buyers interested in more than one proof.  Thanks again to all my loyal readers.

The Chuckling Whatsit ~ The chapter headings and recaps

CHUCKLING WHATSIT


From 1995 to 1997 my story The Chuckling Whatsit was serialized in the anthology Zero Zero.  Here are the splash pages/chapter headings/recaps of the 17 chapters as they originally appeared.   (I have no idea why my scan of chapter 17 has no recap, but it was probably because I often wrote and added those at the last minute and just hadn’t had time to add it yet when I made that scan of the art).  The book version was published in 1997.